Prologue
Prologue
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[Normal Ending]
Requirement: Save the world from the Demon God
Clear Count: 789
[No-Kill Ending]
Requirement: Reach the ending without killing a single living creature
Clear Count: 5
[Genocide Ending]
Requirement: Become the End yourself and exterminate all life
Clear Count: 1
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These were the endings in the RPG Lactea.
A few more endings did exist, but these three were the only ones officially recognized by Lactea.
Why? Because the rest were all dead endings.
As the requirements suggested, the difficulty gap between endings was extreme.
The Normal Ending only required defeating the Demon God. The No-Kill Ending required preserving peace without defeating the Demon God. The Genocide Ending required wiping out every living creature, the Demon God included.
Genocide and No-Kill.
Thanks to those two endings, Lactea went from an ordinary hard-mode multi-run RPG to a game of insane hell difficulty almost overnight.
Of course, that also made it massively popular and greatly increased the player base.
Why was I bringing this up?
To explain that, I had to start with what happened right before...
***
- Guys. I hear Lactea's getting an update tomorrow.
- Probably just some crappy new items, as usual.
- People still play this? It's a fossil, way over ten years old.
- Lactea's still a solid game. Gets decent views on YouTube.
The community ignited at the news of an update after several years.
Lee Seong-un.
Even he, who had quit the game over four months ago, was getting ready to return, which said plenty about the impact.
He wasn't a famous YouTuber or streamer, but he was pretty well-known among players.
Not under the name Lee Seong-un, but under the username Olivia.
Username Olivia.
The player who first discovered the No-Kill Ending and the Genocide Ending.
And the only player to ever reach the Genocide Ending.
To players starved for content, Olivia was practically a god.
- Olivia's gonna lose her mind over this
- lololololol
- Isn't Olivia just a psycho? How do you even think about killing everything
- Yeah. Killed everyone once. Did No-Kill five times.
- And here come the fanboys
- Olivia, sis. I'm dying over here.
- Stop obsessing over the character so hard. You think Olivia's actually a girl?
- Olivia, bro. I'm dying over here.
- Mad bastard.
Lee Seong-un scrolled down fast. He had zero interest in wasting mental energy on pointless fanboy and anti-fan arguments. How long had passed?
"It's up."
A notice had appeared on the Lactea site. Lee Seong-un clicked it without a moment's hesitation.
[Lactea Update Contents.]
- New ending added.
Shockingly, that was everything. But a smile bloomed on Lee Seong-un's face. The community was the same.
- It's here!
- Is this the comeback? The comeback? The comeback?
- Olivia, bro, please post the guide soon. We'll follow your lead.
- Get to work, Olivia! Get to work, Olivia!
Lee Seong-un launched Lactea without a moment's hesitation.
The update wrapped up sooner than expected.
A moment later, the familiar notification window appeared.
[Update Complete.]
- Load previous file?
Lee Seong-un, about to select [No], paused.
Unlike other multi-run RPGs where you had to start from the beginning after seeing an ending, Lactea let you carry over your growth data from the previous Run.
To put it simply, if you finished Run 1 as an Archmage, you started Run 2 as an Archmage from the beginning.
Of course, doing this locked you out of the No-Kill and Genocide Endings, so the standard approach was to start completely fresh without transferring growth data.
'But this was Lactea.'
The game operators were infamous for enjoying player suffering. Would they really make you clear it the same way?
Didn't think so.
Lee Seong-un came to a swift decision.
'I'm going in like this.'
The loading bar rose slower than before. Probably because the last character's data was so massive.
'The last one was Genocide, right? Then this is going to be brutal as hell.'
When transferring growth data, the favorability you had built up with NPCs transferred as well.
If you had a good relationship in the previous Run, they would show you unwarranted kindness even as strangers and treat you like a close friend.
But the reverse was also true.
Since the last ending he had viewed was Genocide, every living creature in Lactea would harbor unwarranted malice toward Olivia.
'I can't gauge how bad it'll be. Am I gonna get stabbed the second I make eye contact?'
Truly insane difficulty.
No matter how strong you became by transferring growth data, taking on every powerhouse spread across the continent all at once was practically impossible.
But who was he?
"Heh... I'll clear it within a month."
He was the first and last Pioneer, Olivia.
[Loading last save file.]
- Name: Olivia
- Class: Archmage of Bitter Cold and Lightning
- Level: 100(MAX)
- Titles: Imperial Assassin, Exterminator, Witch of the End.
[Are you sure you want to transfer growth data?]
Lee Seong-un clicked yes without hesitation.
[Good luck.]
At the same time, a dazzling light erupted from the screen and enveloped him.
****
"...It looks like I really have been pulled into the game."
The snow-capped mountain soaring up as if to touch the sky, the wyverns flying above the clouds—none of it could possibly be a dream.
And above all.
"Fuck..."
When the silver-haired beauty reflected in the ice made a despairing face, I realized it.
...Olivia had been a female character.