"Ah, there's nothing left to do now."
I let out a sigh and looked at the monitor.
Reflected on the screen was my character, decked out in gear with flashy effects, alongside the slowly rising ending credits.
Yet I didn't feel much of anything.
I'd already seen this scene plenty of times, after all.
Graniat Saga. It was a single-player game boasting a difficulty so brutal that most players hadn't even properly seen a single ending yet, but by pouring in all three—time, effort, and talent—I had managed to see the endings for every single class.
"There's a lack of content, a real lack of content."
Casually spitting out words that would have horrified anyone else who heard them, I yawned with a bored look on my face.
Then I logged onto the message board to leave a review for watching yet another ending.
-Holy Mage Ending Review (No Spoilers): It was kind of fun at first, but there isn't enough content to enjoy. The difficulty feels a bit low, too. I don't know when the next update is scheduled, but next time...
A review written with a heavy dose of personal opinion. Before long, a notification blinked.
-...I really hope you release a higher difficulty too.
└Lunatic.
└Here he goes again.
└Whoa, damn. You cleared it all already?
Comments rolled in fast. Since my ID itself was proof, nobody doubted that I had cleared it.
They were simply amazed and clicked their tongues in awe.
Of course, since I hadn't written the post expecting anything, I just skimmed through the comments and went to close the window.
-Excuse me, buddy.
Just then, a whisper arrived.
-As a matter of fact, we do have a new patch version ready. Would you like to give it a try?
Who's this now? I smirked and read the blinking whisper chat.
-It's like a Hell Difficulty, and even you would probably have a hard time clearing it. Because this one is the real deal.
"What are they talking about?"
I stared at the incoming chat in disbelief. It was an obvious troll not even worth looking at. Or else a hacking attempt.
From the perspective of a veteran so seasoned I was practically rotting, I wanted a new difficulty mode released, but most players still hadn't even properly seen a single ending yet.
It was safe to say there was zero chance the game company would roll out a new patch just for me alone.
Just as I was about to cleanly ignore it—
-Forget playing normally, you'd probably have a hard time clearing it even if you used a broken cheat like infinite mana.
Words that scratched at a gamer's pride. I let out a dry laugh and placed my hands on the keyboard.
-Wait, who couldn't clear it with an infinite mana cheat?
└Then would you like to try it yourself?
The reply arrived as if they had been waiting for it. I was about to answer back, then shook my head. It felt like I was getting dragged into a troll's bait.
Then the chat kept coming.
-Not confident? Scared?
Ugh.
This was definitely a nasty troll.
-Crazy bastard. Just piss off.
After firing off a short reply, I opened the settings window to turn off the whisper function.
However, what met my eyes was the whisper function already turned off.
"...Huh?"
The thought crossed my mind that this might actually be a GM.
But no more chats arrived. Whether they had logged off completely, the function to send messages from my end wasn't working either.
After staring at the screen for a moment, I soon shook my head.
Well, they wouldn't be petty enough to give me a penalty just for saying one thing, right?
Wasn't the other side the one who came talking to me like a toxic player in the first place?
It was hard to even call this much a fault.
Having reached that natural conclusion, I nodded. And then everything before my eyes went black.
***
"What truly heinous crimes. There is nothing further to look into. Death."
A voice came from up ahead. I opened my closed eyes.
When I raised my head, what I saw were countless spectators and an execution platform. Along with prisoners lined up in a row.
What is this—
"In the name of the Chief God Graniat, we shall begin the execution. The attending priest will recite the closing prayer."
The words continued without leaving me a moment to question it. I blinked.
It was a place I was visiting for the first time in my life. Yet at the same time, it was an all too familiar composition and line of dialogue.
What was unfolding right now was the opening of the game I had been playing until just a moment ago. It was a situation I had already experienced hundreds of times.
Through a screen, of course.
I wasn't dreaming. The sensations I felt in my body right now were vivid enough to give me goosebumps.
"Praying that His glory reaches the Ninety-Nine Islands of the archipelago and all the way to the Sky Mountains—"
The prayer whose contents I had already memorized continued word for word. Letting out a breathless sigh mixed with panic and disbelief, I took stock of the situation.
I really came inside Graniat Saga?
An unbelievable reality.
Fortunately, however, the familiar flow of a situation I had experienced time and again allowed me to maintain a bare minimum of composure.
The situation I was currently in—that is, the start of the game—was classic and simple.
One of several prisoners awaiting execution. And a story that began by escaping from the execution platform.
In other words, escaping from here wasn't all that difficult.
The start of a game was supposed to be easy enough for even people who knew nothing at all to get out of.
'Calm down.'
I took a deep breath and braced my mind.
Even if it was secondhand experience, I had gone through this tutorial stage well over a hundred times now.
Still, the method itself would probably be the same. Letting the prayer, which was gradually nearing its end, go in one ear and out the other, I tensed my hands tied behind my back.
Now the rope, left loose due to the lazy guard's sloppy maintenance, would snap right off...
"...?"
Far from loosening, the sensation tightened even harder around my wrists. I could even faintly hear the clinking sound of iron.
"..."
A flow different from what I expected. Even so, I turned my head without panicking.
I didn't necessarily have to undo the cuffs. The core of the escape was throwing myself into the river below the cliff behind us before the execution could be carried out, after all.
Going to the riverbank with my hands tied would be difficult, but there was no way I could just sit here like this and meet my execution.
Confirming that my feet weren't bound, I shifted my gaze slightly to find a spot to throw myself through.
The lord of this region was a stingy man who rarely spent money on facilities. The low wall behind the execution platform leading to the cliff was old, worn down, and broken in places—
"...?"
Blocking my sight as I turned my head was a tall, solid wall.
One that looked as if it had finished repair work not long ago, at that.
"..."
A new situation that cleanly ignored the tutorial progression I had gone through hundreds of times. Up ahead, the square was packed with crowds gathered to watch the execution ceremony.
They looked almost as if they had come to a festival.
It wasn't a particularly strange sight.
Compared to modern times, this was an era in much closer contact with violence. To peasants who had probably suffered at the hands of bandits or monsters at least once or twice, an execution held in the square would be quite a spectacle worth watching.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
A confusing situation.
Yet even in the midst of it, the answer as to why this had happened flashed through my mind.
-...I really hope you release a higher difficulty too.
-It's like a Hell Difficulty, and even you would probably have a hard time clearing it. Because this one is the real deal.
-Crazy bastard. Just piss off.
Past conversations surfaced in my head.
There was only one cause.
Hell Difficulty.
Both the lazy guard becoming diligent and hardworking, and the greedy lord suddenly investing big money into restoring the facilities.
"Ah."
Oh, fuck.
A sigh burst naturally from my mouth.
In the meantime, the priest's prayer ended, and the executioner stepped forward with a satisfied look on his face.
To hand down a fitting punishment to the sinners who had committed the crime of talking back to a GM... no, the crime of treason.