The Game That Devoured My Life
The year was 20XX. I was completely obsessed with a single game.
A world blessed by the Star Gods, celestial beings said to watch over humanity.
An RPG where you become the protagonist in an era of upheaval, as humanity and the demon race battle for supremacy across two vast continents.
Players could choose from several different templates—background settings that shaped the story. Each one altered your character's base abilities, areas of expertise, and the events you would encounter.
There was the Unnamed War Ghost, an orphan who never knew his parents and survived the brutal world as a mercenary, relying solely on the weapon in his hand and his own skill.
There was the Heir of Red and Blue Blood, a distant member of the imperial family that ruled the strongest human nation, yet also the last descendant of a royal line destroyed by that very empire.
And there was the Proud Barbarian, a hunter from the northern tribes who roamed the land in a desperate quest to reclaim a stolen tribal treasure.
I had been waiting for this game's release ever since I first heard about it years ago. I bought it about a month after launch and poured every spare moment of my free time and weekends into it. Now, I had just reached the ending of my third template.
『Proud Barbarian』 story cleared.
By clearing three scenarios, 『Hero Convergence』 mode has been unlocked.
In 『Hero Convergence』 mode, characters from templates you did not select will appear as NPCs.
“...So I’ve only cleared half of the six templates? No, realistically it might only be ten percent.”
This was a multi-ending game where the story changed dramatically based on player choices. The sheer number of built-in events and scenarios was staggering, and even within the same template, you could customize gender, appearance, name, and growth direction. The depth was truly endless.
And that wasn’t even counting the expansion pack scheduled for release soon. Ten percent? I had barely dipped my toes in the water.
Well, having so much left to enjoy was a good problem to have.
“Next, I should try the 『Greedy Debauchee』 template. It gets a lot of hate, but it’s important for Hero Convergence mode.”
I had personally cleared the three templates I mentioned, but that didn’t mean I knew nothing about the others. I had gathered plenty of information from other players’ reviews posted online. And after putting it all together, the 『Greedy Debauchee』 was a template with more than a few problems.
The first issue was its terrible combat ability. Unlike the Unnamed War Ghost with its weapon proficiency bonuses or the Heir of Red and Blue Blood with its mana control bonuses, this template offered zero direct combat advantages.
And if you tried to compensate with strong party members, the high starting infamy made recruiting the truly valuable allies extremely difficult.
Of course, it had its strengths. It came with a massive amount of starting capital, and its luck—more specifically, its fortune with wealth—was absurd. Money and rare item drop rates were dramatically higher than with any other template.
In simple terms, it was a farming totem personified.
It had the steepest and most tedious early game, but it was also the template that could ultimately produce the strongest party specs. That was the Greedy Debauchee.
“I’ll just set everything up tonight and start tomorrow.”
After tweaking a few settings and creating the character, I fell asleep.
The next day, I died in a traffic accident without ever making it home.