The Ten-Thousand-Hour Expert
Do you know the theory called the ten-thousand-hour rule? It was once incredibly famous, a concept that spread like wildfire among people. The principle states that becoming an expert in any field requires investing at least ten thousand hours. Popularized by an overseas psychologist’s paper and book, the rule is now known to almost everyone. What truly captured people’s attention was how it placed no restrictions on what could qualify as a field of expertise. For example, someone who spent over ten thousand hours shaping pottery would be a master potter. A barista who had brewed coffee for ten thousand hours would be hailed as an expert. Even a housewife who had performed housework for over ten thousand hours could be called a master or specialist of domestic affairs. Likewise, if a gamer had steadily poured more than ten thousand hours into a single game, that gamer could proudly claim to be an expert in it… or so the logic went.
The voice echoed softly, thick with emotion. Hoarse, as if tears had risen all the way to her throat, it desperately pretended at indifference while forcing its way out dry and flat.
The choked voice grew icy cold. On the screen, the woman’s body slowly became wrapped in a dark crimson aura, black energy seeping into her red eyes. At the same time, an oppressive voice exploded outward.
BOOM!
The Owner of Noble Blood, Beatrice, is Falling.
Forced event established.
Entering battle with the boss, Owner of Noble Blood.
“This damn trash game really…”
I had seen that message countless times before. I let out a deep sigh, irritably closed the game, and stared at the black screen for a moment before throwing myself onto the bed right behind me.
“Seriously, is it really impossible?”
I rolled around on the bed, but my mind kept circling back to the game I had just been playing—Divia. More precisely, I couldn’t stop thinking about the Fall of the Owner of Noble Blood, Beatrice, which had just forced me into a boss fight.
“I’m sure it can be changed.”
Divia was a dark fantasy open-world game, but it had one feature that set it apart from others: the ability to prevent certain characters from becoming bosses. The term Fall referred to a character’s corruption and transformation into a boss monster. If you could stop that Fall, the character would neither turn into a boss nor become your enemy.
Having branching paths like that in a multiple-playthrough game was a huge temptation for hardcore players. The idea of recruiting a boss who had been your enemy in a previous run was especially enticing.
“That’s exactly why I got so hooked.”
Honestly, who could resist turning former enemies into party members? At least, I never could. And as if to stoke that competitive spirit, the developers had created one particular achievement.
It was an achievement that required preventing the Fall of every single boss character who had a branching path. Even after clearing every other achievement across more than ten thousand hours of playtime, I had never managed to unlock this one. The reason was simple.
“I’m certain Beatrice’s Fall can be stopped too.”
The Owner of Noble Blood, Beatrice. True to her title, she possessed True Blood—the remnant of noble lineage—and was one of the strongest beings in the entire world. Yet her real value lay in her connections to the other bosses.
The exact lore hadn’t been fully revealed, but based on the clues from her dialogue, players had deduced that Beatrice once had children who traveled with her. The fact that she kept mentioning those children from the moment the boss fight began suggested some kind of ‘incident’ had occurred. Most of the children died in that event, and Beatrice herself had begun showing signs of the Fall because of it.
However, a few of the children had survived that incident alongside her. Every single one of them had eventually undergone the Fall and become bosses within the Divia universe. Just from what I and other players had confirmed, there were already more than three. Her story threads had never been completely unraveled.
One thing was certain, though.
“The shortest route to preventing every boss’s Fall definitely runs through Beatrice.”
She was connected to the majority of bosses who had branching paths. If her Fall could be stopped, the fastest route to saving the others would open up as well. Yet no matter what I tried, Beatrice’s Fall seemed impossible to prevent. She was a boss whose branching path was so uncertain that many players didn’t even believe it existed. Originally, the very idea of intervening had never been considered. Only recently, while hunting for achievement clues, had players discovered hints and begun attempting it. I had poured hundreds of hours into stopping her Fall, but nothing worked.
“If only I could pull the timeline forward a little more…”
Before the boss fight began, Beatrice would always lament the same thing.
She claimed it was already too late to stop her own Fall. In other words, if the timeline could be moved forward, preventing her Fall might not be impossible after all.
“The problem is that I can’t pull the timeline forward…”
No matter how many routes I shaved down, I couldn’t create contact with her any faster. Even when I met her as quickly as possible, her Fall had already begun. All she would say was that it was already too late.
“If I could just move the timeline forward a bit, I could stop it immediately. For real.”
I was grumbling meaningless complaints with the game turned off when suddenly—
A noise-laced voice came from empty air. It was familiar, yet somehow broken. The voice continued to ask questions.
“…Huh?”
The voice poured out without giving me a chance to answer. I looked around in confusion for a moment, but then—
CRACKLE.
With the sound of something tearing apart, my body began to ‘Fall’ somewhere. At the same time, the bright lights above me flickered into darkness. The next moment, when I opened my eyes, I realized I had transmigrated into the very game I had boasted of mastering. Moreover, I had arrived exactly five years earlier than the original storyline—just as I had wished.
A week had passed since I possessed the third son of the Elias Count Family. During that week, I focused entirely on gathering information about the original owner of this body. Fortunately, he wasn’t someone who drew much attention within the count’s household. He stood far from the line of succession and didn’t participate actively in social circles, so there was hardly any reputation to speak of. He was simply the quiet, timid third son. Nothing more. It was the perfect starting point for the kind of activities I wanted to pursue.
“And those activities involve coming to meet me?”
“……Yeah.”
“…Well, what an honor.”
Spit—!
Along with the sarcastic remark, a clump of red blood flew from her mouth. I stared silently at the blood mixing into the puddle formed by the rain, then slowly opened my mouth.
“Looks like I timed my visit perfectly, Beatrice.”
“…Ha.”
I meant it. In the week since transmigrating, I had adapted to this body while simultaneously searching for Beatrice’s location. Since I had possessed the game, my top priority was preventing the Fall of Beatrice—the very thing I had longed to stop. Thankfully, her features were distinctive and she was fairly well-known in the empire’s underworld, so finding her hadn’t taken long. As soon as I received word of her location, I came straight to meet her.
Beatrice let out a hollow laugh, then scowled deeply.
“…You already know my name. With that level of intelligence gathering, this visit can’t possibly be a coincidence.”
“…….”
I looked down at Beatrice as she leaned against the wall. The water flowing beneath her was red. Even excluding the blood she had just spat, she had many wounds. These weren’t mere scrapes or bruises—they were stab and slash marks from bladed weapons. It seemed she had been in a conflict with a nearby organization.
I didn’t know about this part.
The information-gathering power available to the idle third son ended here. It hadn’t been enough to learn that Beatrice would be in the middle of a fight right before meeting me. Therefore, encountering her in this injured state was pure coincidence.
“…So, what do you want from me?”
Still, Beatrice glared at me with a face that said she wouldn’t believe a word of it. I met her gaze for a moment, organizing my thoughts. Whether it was coincidence or not, the fact that she was willing to listen at all was already a good thing. Since the situation had already occurred, there was no reason not to make use of it.
“Subjugation? Threats? Or maybe an assassination request?”
“…….”
“If you’re thinking of asking me to manufacture illegal drugs or conduct human experiments, I’d like to tell you to forget it. I have absolutely no intention of taking on that kind of work personally…”
Beatrice spoke of underworld affairs and crimes with casual ease. She was only about fifteen years old—not even an adult yet. These were not topics a child should be familiar with. Nevertheless, she listed the possibilities as if they were routine, as if she assumed that was what people wanted from her.
Listening to her, I gently closed my eyes. In my mind, I recalled the sorrowful scream she had let out before I fell into this world.
Her words made sense now. At a young age, Beatrice had already stepped into places she should never have entered. Having seen things she should never have witnessed, her life had been worn down to nothing. A life worn that thin had no resistance left; the slightest push would send it tumbling into the Fall. That was the cause of Beatrice becoming a boss.
Once the cause was known, the solution came naturally. If she had been worn down by seeing what she shouldn’t see and doing what she shouldn’t do, then all I had to do was provide an environment where she would no longer have to do those things.
Having reached my conclusion, I opened my eyes and spoke slowly.
“There is only one thing I demand of you.”
“One? Well, as long as it’s not the illegal drugs or human experiments you mentioned earlier, it doesn’t mat—”
“Become my daughter.”
“…What?”