Actually this is the first one where I can see it actually working. Like what if bada had like a super sad real life and his group was recruited for the game and like those are the guys from the videos -his first group- and like the game only allows a single winner and everyone has to stay dead so Bada choose to stay to stop anyone else from dying but failed when Dohas team got ahold of the game.
So then technically Bada is a NPC but also was/is still real. But like doesn’t have his “first” cassette with his real memories.
Honestly the best ending I legit see is them just staying in the game like what’s so bad about it?

Ik it’s a lame prediction but I have a different story about bada’s backstory I think he already won the game once before with a different group and in the end there must have been some kind of reward he chose to stay inside the game and be an NPC since he already lost his group so there must be a different of those csts the one that shows how he started bcs i certainly don’t believe Doha he already has a key to escape without a doubt