Blackout, an RPG that had enjoyed a brief spell of popularity ten years ago, held a great many memories for Lee Jeong-jun.
Back then, he had been busy preparing for the college entrance exam.
Playing for an hour or two each day had been a great comfort to him amid the pressure of studying for the exam.
Unfortunately, however, the company behind the game eventually collapsed under financial difficulties, and Blackout disappeared into the realm of memories forever.
And yet—
“Remake crowdfunding…….”
Blackout was apparently coming back to life, this time through crowdfunding from its players.
“And these are only the development-stage graphics?”
The footage playing across his monitor boasted graphics so polished that it was hard to believe they had been made with current technology.
“How am I supposed to resist spending money on this?”
Now that he was a fully fledged working adult, spending money on a hobby was hardly difficult for him.
“How much should I put in? Wait, the rewards depend on the amount…….”
Usually, crowdfunding rewards amounted to things such as slipping the donors' names into the game as Easter eggs.
The developers of Blackout, however, had prepared something rather unusual.
“If I contribute at least 100,000 won, they'll unlock part of a DLC feature they're planning to develop later?”
That was more than enough incentive to pique Lee Jeong-jun's interest.
He was willing to invest 100,000 won without feeling that it was a waste.
“Fine. I might as well back it.”
As a veteran player of the original game, Lee Jeong-jun contributed without hesitation, and his name became the very first to appear on the crowdfunding page.
Time seemed to pass faster the older one became.
Before he knew it, two years had passed, and after successfully completing its crowdfunding campaign, the company behind Blackout launched the remake as promised.
Lee Jeong-jun sat before his computer with his heart pounding, only to fall into deep contemplation at the character creation screen.
“What kind of character should I build this time?”
During his school days, he had never had enough time.
Because of that, the Lee Jeong-jun of those days had pursued maximum efficiency in every playthrough, and most of the characters he had raised had ended up remarkably powerful.
‘But playing that way isn't much fun.’
It was almost as though he were simply walking down a predetermined road.
Back in school, merely getting to play a game at all had been enough to make him happy, but that was no longer the case.
Now that he spent every day doing the same work at the office, he wanted a new experience.
“How about a mage?”
A mage.
A class that wielded mysterious powers and boasted the most overwhelming firepower of any class in Blackout.
‘Watching other players use mages always looked like so much fun.’
There was, however, one fatal flaw with the Mage class.
Its progression was structured in such a way that a new player could scarcely raise one at all.
“It was already a class that devoured the scarce resources you had in the early game.”
For one thing, mage equipment was expensive.
Due to the setting of Blackout, magical items known as ‘Artifacts’ commanded exorbitant prices, and the problem was that a mage's primary equipment consisted of those very Artifacts.
Was that all?
Mages constantly burned through expensive Mana Potions in the early game, and they also had to purchase ‘Spellbooks,’ which were separate from ordinary ‘Skill Books.’
Naturally, those Spellbooks were outrageously expensive as well.
They also had to read books constantly to raise their Knowledge, and if they wanted to improve their Magic Proficiency, they had to conduct research……
‘And every last one of those things costs money.’
Naturally, gathering all those resources on a first playthrough was impossible.
Lee Jeong-jun had overlooked that fact in the past and tried raising a mage without any support, only to learn a bitter lesson.
‘I forced myself to spend everything on Spellbooks and ended up without enough money to buy potions.’
And what happened then?
His character kept collapsing in dungeons, causing his Reputation to plummet, and companion NPCs became reluctant to join his party.
He had effectively been forced into solo play.
And Blackout was a game in which solo play was fundamentally impossible.
‘There are mechanics you simply can't get past without companion NPCs.’
Eventually, his progression had reached a complete dead end, and Lee Jeong-jun had been forced to abandon the character and raise another one instead.
“Still, I think I could make it work this time if I do it properly…….”
He had no desire to start with an easy class and repeat multiple playthroughs as he had ten years ago.
As an office worker, his free time was limited.
Even if he could play for only an hour, he wanted that hour to feel worthwhile and enjoyable.
“Well, I might as well try. There's no reason it can't work.”
If the character build ended in failure, that would be a valuable experience in its own right.
Having made up his mind, Lee Jeong-jun moved the cursor and clicked the button to create a Mage character.
[Please configure your skills.]
“Skills, huh.”
Skills were the most important system in the game.
The way a player allocated them determined the character's class.
He had a total of 50P available.
“As for magic…… taking several spells in the early game won't help much anyway. I won't have enough Mana to use them all.”
He searched his memories of the past and considered which skills he should take.
“What matters is how much I can contribute to the party. Earning resources is the most important thing.”
In the past, he had ignored that point and mindlessly spent everything on magic-related skills.
“I can't make the same mistake twice.”
It would mean taking a somewhat roundabout route, but it was a necessary choice if he wanted to enjoy the game for a long time.
[Herbalism -5P]
[Potion Crafting -5P]
[Basic Magic Aptitude -10P]
[Keen Eyes -5P]
[Exceptional Memory -6P]
[Steadfast Will -7P]
[Unwavering Heart -7P]
[Luck -5P]
“I need Herbalism and Potion Crafting if I want to save resources. Keen Eyes is pretty useful for mapping dungeons too.”
The approach Lee Jeong-jun had chosen was a jack-of-all-trades build.
Of course, he had not simply selected random skills without thinking.
Early-game mages had little Mana and little Vitality to begin with.
That might make it seem as though investing in Mana-related skills was the obvious choice.
‘But the truth is, nearly every Mana-related skill is more trouble than it's worth.’
Mana-related skills were particularly expensive in terms of points.
Even after taking them, they did not improve Mana regeneration.
If anything, they merely increased the amount of money he would have to spend on potions.
Did they at least offer a decisive improvement in performance?
‘At best, they only let you cast a few more spells.’
If that was all they offered, he would rather abandon the Mana stat altogether.
“There are plenty of ways to increase Mana in the game itself.”
That was precisely why he had chosen Herbalism and Potion Crafting.
He could produce the expensive potions he needed during the early game himself, saving money, and once he had enough to spare, he could even sell them to earn additional resources.
If he did that, he would establish a foundation strong enough to carry him through the middle and late game.
“Good. This should be enough.”
He would undoubtedly suffer through all manner of hardships, but if enduring them meant that he could eventually enjoy a dazzling spectacle of magic rendered with the remake's upgraded graphics, it would be a small price to pay.
He confirmed his character creation.
[‘Lee Jeong-jun.’ Thank you for participating in the Blackout remake crowdfunding campaign.]
“Ah.”
That reminded him of something he had completely forgotten.
The crowdfunding campaign.
It had been two years ago, so it had slipped his mind.
“They said there would be a special reward, didn't they?”
[This game is scheduled to receive DLC in the future. As a small reward for your participation in the crowdfunding campaign, we will introduce ‘Lee Jeong-jun’ to one of the additional DLC features: the Reincarnation System.]
Lee Jeong-jun tilted his head as he read the message on the monitor.
“Reincarnation? Could it be……?”
He had seen systems like that in other games before.
[The Reincarnation System allows you to select one of the Blackout characters you previously played and transfer one of that character's skills to your current character.]
[Loading characters registered to ‘Lee Jeong-jun's’ account…….]
[Registration complete. Please select the character to which the Reincarnation System will be applied.]
“Holy shit!”
He had never imagined they would include a feature like this.
The unexpected reward made the corners of Lee Jeong-jun's mouth curl upward.
“I can choose one of these?”
Lee Jeong-jun looked over the characters he had raised in the past.
A warrior boasting a mass of bulging muscles.
A sharp-featured hunter equipped with a bow and daggers.
And even a frail mage clad in little more than rags.
“Hmm…….”
Naturally, Lee Jeong-jun found himself faced with a delightful dilemma.
“If I choose the warrior, I can solve one of the mage's chronic weaknesses.”
That weakness was none other than a lack of Vitality.
If he selected [Immortal Body], one of the warrior's highest-ranking skills, he might create the unprecedented combination of a ‘tank mage.’
But that was not an especially appealing option.
“The whole reason I chose a mage was because I was tired of playing a warrior.”
If he wanted to do that, he might as well have pursued another playthrough as a warrior. There would have been no reason to play a mage at all.
“What about the hunter?”
That option was rather tempting.
There was undeniable fun in carving through enemies with the Hunter class's characteristic agility.
It would not even be impossible if he learned [Dragon Hunter], a highest-ranking skill possessed by the hunter just like the warrior's.
And if he later learned equipment-enhancement magic, he might even end up with a versatile ranged character who could use a bow, daggers, and magic alike.
“Hmm…….”
Just as his cursor drifted toward the hunter character, the frail-looking mage suddenly caught his eye.
Was it his imagination?
For some reason, he felt as though the character had met his gaze.
“The mage…… Hmm…….”
That character carried a great many bittersweet memories for Lee Jeong-jun.
Back then, he had seen mage characters posted on the community forums and filled his head with dreams of what they could do.
‘I’m a veteran player. Do I really have to raise a character with the same later-playthrough bonuses those guys are using?’
Driven by that youthful arrogance, he had tried raising the character without any support whatsoever.
There had certainly been satisfaction in overcoming one brutal hardship after another, but eventually, the character had reached a point where further growth became impossible.
“Still, I was ecstatic when I obtained that ‘Legendary’ skill.”
His Reputation had fallen past rock bottom and into the abyss, leaving him unable to recruit companion NPCs and forcing him to play alone.
Desperate to find some way to salvage the character, Lee Jeong-jun had boldly entered a certain dungeon by himself.
“I sold every piece of equipment I owned and went into that temple with nothing but a staff and some potions.”
There, he had stumbled across a hidden secret and acquired a Legendary-grade skill.
The skill was called [Mana Incarnate].
Its name carried the meaning that ‘mana itself is the body.’ It was practically the ultimate skill any mage could dream of acquiring.
It expanded a mage's already limited Mana pool to a game-breaking degree and dramatically increased Mana regeneration as well.
What was more, it was a hidden skill that he had been unable to find even on the community forums. The younger Lee Jeong-jun had felt as though he owned the entire world.
At least, until his character encountered a bizarre bug.
“That was when I first realized a game company could treat its players this badly.”
The instant he acquired [Mana Incarnate], a strange error had appeared, and his character had been afflicted with a curse debuff.
That curse had ruined the character completely.
“A ‘Mana Lock’ curse on a mage? How did that make any sense?”
The curse prevented him from using Mana altogether, and in the end, the young Lee Jeong-jun had no choice but to abandon his mage character for good.
“But that mage still has the Legendary skill, doesn't he?”
The cursor that had been hovering over the hunter moved toward the mage instead.
“Right. I've already decided to play a mage anyway. I might as well go all in.”
Rather than make some half-hearted experiment and end up with a truly unfocused build, it made more sense to acquire [Mana Incarnate], whose effectiveness was beyond question.
“It still makes me angry whenever I think about it.”
He had finally acquired a Legendary skill, only for the character to become unusable before he could even try it.
This was his chance to settle that old regret.
Once he finished selecting the character for the Reincarnation System, a notification finally appeared amid the game's beautiful graphics, announcing that character creation had been completed successfully.
“All right. Time to live the glamorous life of a mage.”
Imagining all the spectacular magic that awaited him, Lee Jeong-jun watched the game's loading screen.
That was the last thing Lee Jeong-jun ever saw as ‘Lee Jeong-jun.’
A full year had already passed since he opened his eyes in the game world.
Swords and shields. Magic and monsters.
The battle cries ringing across the battlefield sent a thrill through his heart unlike anything he had ever felt while watching the world through a screen.
The shouts of his companions.
The countless smells that assaulted his nose through the air.
Experiencing all of it firsthand was something he could never have experienced anywhere else.
And there, in the middle of that battlefield, Lee Jeong-jun imagined.
He imagined his magic erupting among the gathered monsters.
The Mana surging within his heart would draw in the image in his mind, twist reality itself, and manifest before his eyes a scene that had existed only in his imagination.
He imagined overwhelming Mana spreading outward like an ocean stretching beyond the horizon before pouring down upon the monsters……
“Jun, you bastard! What are you doing? Move!”
“That slow bastard!”
“Hey! We're out of healing potions over here! Where the hell is Jun?”
Reality, however, was a cesspit.
Lee Jeong-jun—no, ‘Jun’—lowered his head at the shouting around him.
“Fuck…….”
It had been one year since he entered the game world.
Jun's class was that of a low-rank mercenary mage.