It started with curiosity.
-Title: I found out how to beat this game. Smash that upvote.
A message board now haunted only by ghosts.
A post someone had put up for the first time in ages.
-As you all know, to see this game's ending you have to meet one of two conditions.
I had just failed to reach the ending yet again, and clicking on a post I happened to see was how all of this began.
-No. 1: the Hundred-Duel Journey. Go a hundred duels without losing a single one.
-No. 2: or become the Strongest Under Heaven.
-So there are two. But those in the know already know. The two conditions are practically one and the same.
-Why? Because if you've gone a hundred duels without a single loss, you'll already be the Strongest Under Heaven by then.
-Well, one condition or two, what does it matter? Either way the difficulty is hellish, and you all know it, right?
-That's why nobody has seen the end of this game in 10 years. Even though the developer put up that ridiculous prize of granting a wish to whoever beats it.
-And as far as I know, there's only one person left besides me.
That one person was me. Honestly, until I saw the post, I'd thought everyone but me had quit.
That was why I clicked on it. I wanted to see who else was still stupidly hanging on, like me.
'But how does this person know I'm still around?'
The game was single-player.
In other words, there was no way to know who was playing it. Yet this person knew I was still around.
More than enough reason to be suspicious.
But back then, I let it slide. I don't know why. I guess a post showing up after so long had me intrigued.
-So I came here specially for that one person. That person must want to beat it like crazy, right?
And intrigue aside, it was just as the poster said: I wanted to beat it like crazy. This damned game.
I had been hanging on to this game for 10 years now. And not once had I seen its ending.
Not just me. Nobody had.
That was how hellish the difficulty was. For starters, one death reset everything. Everything you had ever built up.
Of course, if that were all, it wouldn't have been quite so hellish. You would work out your own routine as you played.
But in this game, routines meant nothing.
The moment you remade your character, every early-game route was reset. They got shuffled, in other words.
The NPCs behaved differently from the previous playthrough. And the forks in the road that followed split countless ways.
That was why the game boasted such hellish difficulty. On top of that, the unavoidable frame gap did its part.
Maybe because it was a martial arts game, a single frame decided victory or defeat.
So I had died plenty of times by a hair. And every time, the same thought came to me.
'If only I could actually move for real, I wouldn't have died.'
Anyway, for all these reasons, I was the only user left now. Everyone else had clicked their tongues at the hellish difficulty and quit.
So why didn't I quit, you ask?
That's......
'Because of this damned personality of mine.'
Whatever I started, I couldn't rest easy until I had seen it through to the end.
That was why I couldn't quit.
Right.
It was my personality.
There was no other reason at all that I couldn't quit this damned game.
'It is absolutely not because that punk junior of mine never stops bitching that I still can't beat a boomer game like this.'
Anyway, that was why the me of back then read the post as if possessed, half out of curiosity and half out of a crazed need to beat it.
I prided myself on having tried every method there was over 10 years, and still I wondered whether there might be one I didn't know.
-So now I'll tell you the answer. When you create your character, don't invest a single point in anything.
But the method I actually found there was truly absurd.
'......Don't invest any points?'
This was a game already notorious for its hellish difficulty. Everyone scrambled to squeeze out every extra point they could, and I was supposed to invest nothing at all?
'Isn't that insane?'
-Sure, do this and you won't breeze through an early game that's already brutal. Your lineage, your traits, your stats will all start from 0. I know it's insane too.
Even the poster knew how ridiculous the method was.
Normally, I would have closed the window right then. Reading any further would have felt like a waste of time.
But that day, of all days, I didn't.
-But trust me just this once. Do it this way, and you really can beat it.
That was where the post ended.
"......"
Even after reading all of it, I still thought the method was insane.
Someone might ask.
Why not just try it, and if it flopped, delete the character and make a new one?
Right.
That wasn't wrong.
If this damned game had been an ordinary one, that is.
Unlike other games, this one didn't allow rerolling.
To be exact, you could, but you were better off not doing it.
'A character can only be deleted once 30 days of real time have passed since its creation.'
Of course, you could delete one before then. But force-delete it like that, and you took a penalty the next time you created a character.
Then what about forcing your character to die in the game?
'Sadly, that trick doesn't work either.'
That damned rule didn't only apply to deleting a character. It also applied when a character died within 30 days.
It was one of the reasons the game was called hellishly difficult.
Now do you get it?
How insane the poster's method was, and why I couldn't just try it on a whim.
So by rights, I should have ignored it.
But I think the me of back then was a little crazy.
'Should I try it?'
As if possessed, I opened the character creation window and did exactly what the poster said.
[ Invest points in your Stats, Traits, and Lineage. ]
Normally, this was when I would be agonizing over what to pick as I distributed my points.
As it happened, there was a method I had wanted to try this time, too.
'I was going to pick Severed Meridians on purpose, cure them, and then maximize the return.'
But that method could wait.
[ You have not invested points anywhere. Do you really wish to complete Avatar creation as is? ]
When I hit create without investing a single point, a warning popped up at once.
[ Yes / No ]
It was my last chance.
If I pressed 'Yes' here, there would be no turning back.
Which meant I would most likely be throwing away my time. The vacation time I had barely managed to get.
So I hesitated for a moment.
But not for long.
'Let's do it.'
I had already decided to try it.
Might as well man up and go all in.
[ Yes ]
I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed the 'Yes' button.
And then.
[ Conditions met. Heaven's Design is unlocked. ]
Instead of an alert that my Avatar had been created, an unfamiliar alert appeared on the screen.
An alert I had never seen in my life.
"......Heaven's Design is unlocked?"
Was this why the poster had told me to trust them?
[ Heaven's Design Unlock Conditions ]
1. Invest not a single point
2. In the last 5 years, never once delete an Avatar or die within 30 days
3. Reach the final scenario
Even if the poster really had figured this out, how did they know I met every one of these conditions?
'Besides, wasn't it just my last playthrough that reached the final scenario?'
Countless questions swirled in my head.
But back then, I had no time to dig into them.
[ With Heaven's Design unlocked, your Avatar will be created with the following applied. ]
1. Lineage: Imperial Family
2. Authority: Instant Kill
3. Trait: Nine Yang Severed Meridians
4. Stats: Highest
For a moment I thought I had misread, and I rubbed my eyes. Especially at the Lineage entry.
I couldn't help it.
'The Imperial Family?'
The Imperial Family.
I had played this game for over 10 years, and not once, not even in my last playthrough that made it to the final scenario, had the Imperial Family ever appeared.
They existed, but they never moved.
-Why does the Imperial Family even exist? They're supposed to be the Sons of Heaven, right? Shouldn't the so-called children of Heaven be doing something?
-Well, isn't it because they'd wreck the game balance? Going by the records alone, the Imperial Family's power is no joke.
Once upon a time, it had been a hot topic among the users.
And yet.
'You could actually create an Avatar with the Imperial Family as its background?'
It was the first I had heard of it.
So I was stunned.
'This is insane, isn't it?'
I wondered how on earth the poster had found out this existed.
But back then, my eagerness to play in a whole new setting outweighed my doubts.
A hardcore veteran for 10 years.
The fact that there was still something I hadn't tried set my heart racing.
But I shouldn't have.
Not on a thrill like that.
[ Your Avatar has been created. ]
Pressing the 'Yes' button without a shred of doubt.
That was the last memory of my real life.
***
As I said before.
All of this started with curiosity.
Learning that someone else was still around in a game where I'd thought I was the only one left.
Reading the out-of-nowhere post that person left, and doing what they said as if possessed.
It all came from curiosity.
Some might ask why I was so hung up on a mere game. People around me actually did.
And every time, this was my answer.
-Because I want to beat it like crazy.
It was pure stubbornness.
And an attachment I couldn't let go.
To me, this game was no longer just an ordinary game. That was why I couldn't resist my curiosity.
But who could have known?
"......This place—"
That I would become the protagonist inside that game. That I, who thought I had died, would end up inside it.
No one could have known.
***
[ With the final piece in place, the world's causality begins to flow as it should. ]
[ From now on, you are Ju Muk-rin, Third Prince of the Ming Imperial Family. ]
[ O you who have endured countless karmic cycles. ]
[ Overcome the Trials and see this world's ending. ]