01 Prologue "Character Creation."

Her sweet, pleasant voice that clung pleasantly to his ears made Han Jin-seong think that the expense was not the least bit regrettable.

Until just recently, he'd stuck with the default built-in voice out of laziness to change it. But he'd grown sick of it over time, and while flipping through sample voices one by one, he'd impulsively splurged on the one that caught his fancy the most.

Instead of the dry, mechanical tone, what flowed out now was a soft, cute voice laced with just a hint of aegyo. It was familiar somehow, evoking the delicate timbre of an idol, and it was a delight to the ears.

"Han Jin-seong."

"Yeah."

With those words, a massive map projected before his eyes. The entire continent came into view at a glance, with each zone divided by color-coded borders.

"Yeah, explain it."

The map zoomed in, slowly bringing a green-painted region into focus. It was a fairly large zone even by continental standards.

"Hmm... Devades."

The name sounded male. Officially, their known gender was male, and they always appeared as a man at public events. But he knew the truth. That Devades was actually a woman. And in private, away from prying eyes, she stripped everything off and obsessed over showers to a pathological degree.

He'd tried hard to forget after accidentally getting spoiled while skimming guides, but hearing the name brought the memory flooding back unbidden. Her face matched his tastes perfectly, so it was only natural that it stuck with him.

As Han Jin-seong recalled Devades's face, the map shifted to show a red region bordering the green one.

"Skip it. Keep explaining."

The map zoomed out from the red and green borders, revealing a yellow region bordering both below them.

Elves. Han Jin-seong recalled the elves he'd seen in videos and guides. The elves in this game were... quite different from the typical ones elsewhere.

For starters, they weren't soft. Elf granny? Elf loli? If you went in grinning like an idiot expecting that, a hand axe would embed right between your eyes. Conversation? If the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠other party was human, slicing throats came before talking—it was a brutal race where that was daily life.

Yet their figures and looks were breathtakingly beautiful, enough to make your eyes spin. He remembered the advice: if you're going, challenge it in the late game when you're fully geared.

The map shifted again, zooming into a sky-blue zone far from the previous areas.

Han Jin-seong had planned to skip cold areas anyway. He hated the cold enough as it was; no need to volunteer for it. Lowering sync rate could blunt the chill somewhat, but that would dull the real pleasures too, so he wasn't a fan.

From the explanations, it boiled down to two viable options. The green zone ruled by Divinity Epsilon, or the red zone with Eternis and its mercenaries and hunters. The others were possible but... why bother? Besides, he'd already decided on his starting zone in advance, so no hesitation needed.

The rundown was partly to savor his paid voice pack, but also to double-check his prior knowledge.

"Start in the Eternis area. Random location within the Eternis zone."

Several intriguing background options floated up, categorized by type. Han Jin-seong slowly scanned through the one he'd had in mind.

A smile deepened on his face as he read the doppelganger description. He figured no background was better for enjoying this game.

Mimicry let him copy and replicate a target's appearance and some abilities. Ingestion was the doppelganger staple—literally devour the target to absorb memories and essence, enabling mimicry. In short, Mimicry was useless without Ingestion. They were a linked duo.

Han Jin-seong selected doppelganger immediately.

"Doppelganger!"

Next came the stat allocation screen. Normally, you'd distribute a few bonus points and pick some low-rank starting skills. But not for him.

"Of course!"

With that, the setup screen refreshed before Han Jin-seong. He skipped the guide text and jumped straight to allocation. Normal bonus points were 5; his showed 30. A whopping sixfold increase. Selectable skills extended from Rare to Legendary, with upgrade points ballooning from 3 to 30.

"Kuh, this is what money does."

The game he was playing, Deep Atlas, boasted immense freedom and scale... but its bullshit difficulty was infamous among users. He'd ignored it as someone who preferred easy games. But then, the devs swallowed their pride and released a VVVIP Premium DLC Pack dialing difficulty to very very very easy. He screamed "take my money" and bought it on the spot.

It was... insanely expensive. But he'd wanted in after seeing streams so many times, he couldn't resist.

He'd eyed doppelganger because it evenly distributed stats except Luck. Fine for casual play, but ignored by players seeking standouts... He immediately maxed Vigor.

Points were overflowing anyway. The DLC was basically the devs saying "go wild." He always played male, and with fucking as the main goal, no reason not to max Vigor.

Next, the lowest stat: Luck. Low Luck supposedly made good things go wrong and bad things worse. A heavily felt stat. Annoyingly, you couldn't touch it at creation. Doppelganger's goddess curse set it to 1, explaining its unpopularity.

But VVVIP buyers were different. He hammered points into Luck. The DLC unlocked even that restriction.

15 points left. With his concept set, he allocated the rest instantly.

Monstrous stats surpassing most superhuman named NPCs. Allocation done, he browsed his skills.

"Now for this..."

Han Jin-seong had strong likes and dislikes. Cannibalism or anything similar? Hard pass. Doppelganger's Ingestion fit that bill. He'd been about to look elsewhere when a guide post changed his mind.

Maxing Mimicry to 5 opened a new window: evolutions unlocked at 5 and 10.

He had to drop one, so he boldly ditched Immortality for Perfection. With Stamina at superhuman 10, death wasn't likely anyway.

Maxing to 10 unlocked the final evolution.

He picked 1 without hesitation: Essence of Mimicry. Lacri was tempting for certain playstyles... but next time.

"Good."

Problem: This rendered Ingestion pointless. It was useful on its own—its evolutions were tempting. But he hated it, no choice.

"Now..."

He could remove unneeded starting skills and swap for any of equal rank. DLC perk, naturally.

Ingestion was Rare. Browsing Rares, he smiled at one.

"Mutation."

A skill doppelgangers—shape-changing monsters—could learn.

'Level Mutation later.' Points felt too precious for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Rare. He eyed Legendaries.

Worth the DLC price—killer skill names everywhere. But he had a target. He filtered to Adult category.

"Found it."

He grabbed Lord of Pleasure right away. Deep Atlas's vast freedom meant uncensored play, but pleasure skills were numerous— this Legendary bundled them perfectly for him.

'True value's in evolutions.'

Pumping to 5 unlocked one.

'Man picks Vigor!' Selected, and stats updated instantly.

"Kuh, yeah."

He planned to collect and fuck every woman anyway—Vigor over Stamina. Cap-breaking was rare in-game too. He grinned, maxing to 10.

He picked 1 without reading 2 fully. 'No STD worries, fuck freely—irresistible.'

Deep Atlas had an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠STD system. Rampant indiscriminate banging led to AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea ruining your char quick. Only pricey church priests or elixirs cured it—a dirty trap. He'd seen plenty of complaints, so he'd eyed this skill from the start.

Legendary secured, he checked Uniques.

'So many good Uniques.' Hypnosis, brainwashing, common sense alteration, erotic tattoos—all covered by Lord of Pleasure, lucky.

His eyes lit up at one.

'Elves are the only ones using ancient tech on the continent, right?'

Elves in full ancient gear spammed "know it or die" patterns—infamous scout mobs. Best to run if clueless.

He recalled a named elf from a user video: SF armored suit, shoulder particle cannons blasting, back thrusters for leaps, wrist energy blades bisecting humans.

'Kya, elves hogging that badass tech? No way!'

He smashed points into Ancient Tech Artisan.

'...Cowards?' Fucking hell. He picked 1 instantly. Safety first? Not in his game! Pure macho mindset. 2 just grated.

At 10, final evolution.

"What the fuck."

Devs' trolling made his hands shake. With high-risk 1 already picked, now half-ceiling or no-damage? 'Damage probably drops durability?' He went 1—fit his style better, despite the name.

"Haa..."

Sighing, he confirmed.

PTSD-inducing evolutions. He sighed deeply. 'Whatever... no more mobile gacha for me.'

3 points left—all to Mutation. All points spent.

A hologram of Han Jin-seong appeared.

"Keep as is."

No major insecurities about his looks, he just tweaked height slightly up and hit complete.

"Yeah."

Han Jin-seong's vision went black.