[Setanta has left the party.]
Of all the games in the world, could there possibly be a more ridiculous reason for a game over?
We were right before the final chapter.
And our main damage dealer had gone off to join an independence movement.
[Setanta sides with the Ailant Independence Army.]
[Enraged by the Empire’s tyranny, Setanta draws the Demonic Spear Gáe Bolg!]
‘This is insane……?’
He had even begun shouting for the Empire’s downfall and pointed his spear at his former allies.
[Combat begins.]
[……returns to the Goddess’s embrace.]
[……returns to the Goddess’s embrace.]
…….
[All party members have died.]
Red pixels were scattered across the blue-green field.
The characters I had painstakingly raised with so much affection lay strewn across the field, their limbs torn apart.
[GAME OVER]
Eight letters announcing the end of a world appeared on the screen.
It was an absurdly difficult roguelike game that I had been playing whenever I had spare time after work for a little over a month.
My Hell Mode save file, filled with all my effort and affection, had just been destroyed.
* * *
“This…… makes no sense. It ends like this? What the hell-.”
BANG!
I slammed my fist against the innocent desk, but nothing changed.
‘Force quit…… I should try forcing it to close. Just in case…….’
With sweat-slick fingers, I pressed the power button.
The desktop eventually began booting up again.
BEEP-.
An eternity seemed to pass.
‘Please, please take me back to before the game over……!’
I did not care if it shortened the computer’s lifespan.
As long as I could recover the save file containing an entire month of effort and devotion!
[This world has already ended. It cannot be played.]
But no miracle occurred.
No matter how many times I clicked it, the same message appeared.
[This world has already ended. It cannot be played.]
[This world has already ended. It cannot be played.]
…….
One slot in the save list had turned gray.
It looked almost like a gravestone erected over a dead world.
‘……Damn it.’
Had only been unlocked after collecting more than a hundred endings.
I had approached every single decision with painstaking caution and finally managed to reach the point just before the final chapter.
「Warning!」
「In Hell Mode, heroes behave and think as complex individuals.」
「……Just like living people!」
An ally betraying the party at the very end and joining the enemy.
It was the kind of infuriating cliché one might expect from an old RPG.
‘How does this make any sense?’
I instinctively went back over every possible problem with my playthrough.
Trust management, morality values, route progression for each branch…… I had not made a single mistake in any of them.
If anything, my playthrough had been nearly flawless.
Then why?
I had been playing this game for years. How could something like this happen?
‘……Could Setanta be guaranteed to betray the Empire in Hell Mode? Because he’s a hero from one of its colonies?’
It was so absurd that I could only stare blankly at the monitor.
Setanta had been the only character in Hell Mode capable of dealing worthwhile damage with his ridiculous burst output, so I had poured every available resource into raising him.
……And that had come back to poison me instead.
‘This is driving me insane. I really thought I’d finally see the true ending today.’
All the time and effort I had spent on the game flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern.
Trying the massacre route by killing every major NPC.
Reaching an ending without using a single potion.
Setting Intelligence to 1 and playing like an uneducated beast…….
‘But I never once got an ending that actually felt like a true ending.’
The protagonist regressed into an infant, the world I was supposed to save was destroyed, the companions I had painstakingly raised all turned into monsters……
Every ending I found was another bitter bad ending.
Eventually, stubbornness took over.
Determined to reach the true ending somehow, I repeatedly played through increasingly bizarre challenge runs in completely different ways.
Then, one day, after the number of endings I had collected reached three digits.
[Hidden conditions have been fulfilled. is now unlocked!]
I became the first person in the world to unlock Hell Mode.
-Hell Mode was first unlocked by someone from our country? Gamers really are something else.
└You collected every Normal ending and unlocked Hell Mode? Is that even possible? Are you insane?
└Did you do nothing but play games all day? Hahaha.
The forums treated me like a madman.
-Give me one month. I’ll come back after seeing the true ending. (Proof)
└???????? What? Is that really him???
└It is! He actually appeared!!!
The moment I got home from work, I immediately began my Hell Mode playthrough.
As expected, the difficulty was completely absurd.
Since dying meant starting over from the very beginning, I had no idea how cautious I had been throughout that entire month.
‘And yet one damned SSR hero had to ruin everything right at the end…….’
……Setanta, you bastard.
This time, I am definitely killing you from the start!
Grinding my teeth, I clicked Play.
[Congratulations! Restart now to receive a special bonus!]
‘Huh?’
[Additional Bonus - Bonds with heroes from the previous playthrough are carried over.]
[Additional Bonus - A new hero will appear!]
A new hero?
And the Trust I had built with my existing companions would carry over as well?
[Do you accept this offer?]
[Y/N]
‘……So the second playthrough is where the real game begins?’
Excitement took over, and I guided the mouse cursor almost as though I had been bewitched.
▶ [YES]
Execute immediately!
[The end world is being reconstructed.]
[Activation in progress…… 12%]
[Activation in progress…… 57%]
…….
‘Setanta, you damned bastard. I’m never recruiting you as an ally this time.’
Right.
I should start by hanging him from the guillotine.
[Special Bonus! - The user’s wish is being reflected.]
[Starting Stage : Guillotine]
“Hm?”
At that moment, as though I had stepped straight into a cliché, my mind went blank and my consciousness vanished.
.
.
.
“How much longer do you intend to drag this out? Cut that bastard’s head off at once!”
“Hurry up and kill him! Kill him!”
“Filthy Ailant illegal immigrants! These criminal vermin must be driven out of the Empire!”
I opened my eyes with difficulty.
It was noisy, and my throat felt as though it were burning.
‘My head feels like it’s splitting open……. What is this? Where am I?’
I raised my head and looked ahead.
On a bloodstained platform stood an enormous guillotine.
……I was definitely sitting in front of my computer.
Am I dreaming?
Just as I tried to rise-
CLANK!
I immediately collapsed onto the floor.
“Ugh……!”
Looking down, I saw a heavy iron chain wrapped around my ankle.
‘W-What the hell is this……?’
The cold sensation of metal.
The sharp stench of blood struck my nose.
[Time remaining until possession is complete : 20 seconds]
And then.
A holographic window appeared before my eyes.
‘What is this?’
I had not even had enough time to process my confusion when-
“Kill him! Kill him!”
“Death to the parasites clinging to the Empire!”
Amid the deafening cries assaulting my ears, the chilling blade of the guillotine sliced through the air and plunged downward.
……SHNK!
With a brief flash of reflected light, the head before me was severed.
“Right, next!”
A pair of burly arms immediately seized me and began dragging my body forward.
“Your turn.”
“……What?”
What? What are you talking about?
“H-Hey. Wait a second. Why are you doing this to me-.”
“Shut up, you piece of trash!”
THWACK!
My vision spun.
[Time remaining until possession is complete : 9 seconds]
BANG!
With someone gripping me by the hair, I was slammed facedown onto the guillotine.
The rough wooden board pressed against my throat.
I blinked.
On the wooden floor, stained by layer upon layer of blood, I saw the head of the man who had just been executed.
“Ah…….”
SHING-.
I heard the guillotine blade being raised.
[3…….]
[2…….]
[1…….]
Just as I felt my mind slipping away-
[The will of Cú Chulainn inhabits your body.]
Blue system text appeared before my eyes.
For an instant, I felt as though the blood in my heart surged backward.
[The Unique Myth has been applied. All stats are being readjusted.]
[Vitality 1 → 8]
[Strength 2 → 15]
[Agility 3 → 7]
[Intelligence 4 → 6]
[Wisdom 3 → 7]
[Charisma 2 → 9]
CRACK.
“Huh? What suddenly-.”
“Hey! What are you doing over there? Push his head back down and hold him still.”
“No…… something’s wrong with this bastard! He suddenly became unbelievably strong!”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Wait, doesn’t his build look different too? H-How is that possible?”
“……What?”
I immediately threw off the man who had been pressing down on my head.
Then I twisted my arms outward.
CLANG!
The chains binding my wrists stretched like taffy before dropping helplessly to the floor.
“W-Whaaa……!?”
“……W-What the hell is this bastard?!”
[Your Hero Grade has risen from N to SSR.]
CLATTER, CRUNCH!
I bent down and tore away the chains around my ankles as well. The thick pieces of iron ripped apart like sheets of paper.
“This is impossible…….”
“W-What……! That lunatic……!”
Shocked gazes converged on me.
I forced my pounding heart to calm down.
Slowly, cautiously…….
I ran a hand over the neck that had nearly been severed.
Ah.
Thankfully, it was still attached.
‘What in the world is happening……?’
I was too stunned to speak.
A dream?
Am I dreaming right now?
“S-Seize that bastard! He’s a traitor-!”
But before I could finish gathering my thoughts, a nearby guard had already strode forward and swung his sword at me.
‘Damn it……!’
The instant the blade cut through the air, my body reacted instinctively.
I stepped inside the sword’s trajectory, closing the distance, and struck aside his wrist with the edge of my hand.
CRACK!
The guard’s right wrist bent at an unnatural angle, dangling limply.
“G-Ghhh……!”
The guard staggered backward, clutching his wrist.
He groaned for quite some time while holding his dangling hand, and unmistakable terror filled his eyes as he stared at me.
‘I barely knocked it aside…… and I completely shattered his wrist?’
“Wait, I wasn’t trying to hurt-.”
“S-Subdue that Ailant bastard immediately!”
SHING-!
Before I could explain myself, gleaming blades began pointing toward me.
“Y-You! You ungrateful parasite living off the Empire! How dare you!”
“He has monstrous strength! We need to attack him all at once!”
“What?”
A dream……?
Am I dreaming?
My thoughts seemed to move sluggishly.
I stared blankly at the dozens of eyes glaring at me.
Then-
BOOOOOOM-!
A deafening explosion shook the earth.
Far in the distance, crimson vapor began surging into the sky.
[The tutorial has begun.]
[Survive those who are trying to kill you!]
* * *
“What was that? Where did that explosion come from……?”
“Wait. Isn’t some kind of blood-red fog coming this way from over there?”
“…….”
My body moved instinctively.
Taking advantage of the confusion, I broke through the encirclement and sprinted away with all my strength.
“Huh? Th-That condemned prisoner is escaping!”
“Catch him! The prisoner is escaping-!”
I ran.
And kept running.
Buildings whose sides seemed to burn beneath the light of the setting sun.
People who stared at me in surprise before gradually shrinking into the distance.
Amid my wildly shaking vision, all I could feel was my breath catching in my lungs and my heart pounding as though it might burst.
“Hah, haaah…….”
How long had I been running?
By the time I could no longer hear the footsteps of my pursuers, I collapsed in the middle of the street, breathing heavily.
‘It has to be a dream, doesn’t it? Right. There’s no way something like this can be real…….’
But if this is a dream, why am I not waking up? Why does everything feel so vivid?
My doubts scattered into fragments beneath the rhythm of my breathing.
Every exhalation made my throat burn.
‘No way…….’
I slowly raised my head.
The sky was turning crimson.
And just as red as the sunset was the scarlet vapor spreading outward and beginning to settle over the ground.
Screams soon erupted from every direction.
“Ah……! Aah, aaaaaagh!”
“My hand…… why is my arm……!”
People who touched the crimson vapor began twisting and mutating into monsters.
It was exactly the same sequence as the tutorial of the game I had played thousands of times.
Suddenly, I turned my head and looked at my reflection in a shop window.
“…….”
My thoughts stopped.
I knew this face.
‘……Why did it have to be him?’
Just as my heart began pounding hard enough to burst-
[The Hero has noticed your existence.]
A holographic window appeared before my eyes.
[The Hero feels intense murderous intent toward you.]
[For the sake of saving the world, the Hero who has returned will do anything.]
At that moment.
A razor-sharp voice sounded from behind me.
“……Setanta.”
“…….”
I turned toward the owner of the voice.
It was a face identical to the illustration I had seen every single day for the past month.
The Hero.
“You traitorous bastard……! Setanta, you destroyed the world!”
SHING-!
The Hero pointed a longsword at me.
“But now that a miracle has come, I’ll correct the future with my own hands.”
“…….”
“For the future of the Empire and the world! I will cut off your head here and now!”
That explosive fury was unmistakably directed at me.
[TIP - Some heroes may vaguely remember events from the previous playthrough.]
[Survive the Hero.]