Prologue: The Hundredth Clear

Another run, cleared without a hitch.

I stretched, a satisfied smile spreading across my face.

Silvering. A game set in a fusion fantasy world where martial arts cleaved the heavens and magic filled the skies. Its greatest strength was also its greatest flaw: a notorious difficulty, and hidden elements that stretched on without end.

But a guy like me never gave up.

I was the owner of a title granted only to the player who set the most miraculous record in Silvering. I was the master of Conqueror — the product of endless, infinite retries.

After the familiar ending credits rolled, a message appeared.

"...What?"

I tilted my head at the unfamiliar phrasing. A heavenly blessing? I'd poured thousands of hours into Silvering, hopping in and out of the rankings as routinely as sitting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠down to a meal, but I had no memory of ever seeing anything like this. Not in the game, and not on a single community forum either.

"Hold on."

I steadied myself and hit the Create New Character button. The familiar UI filled the screen — but something was off amid all that familiarity.

"What... is this?"

The points were all wrong.

Silvering prided itself on freeform character design, letting players sculpt a character however they liked. Normally, you had to work within a hundred points at creation and piece together the most efficient combination you could manage.

But ten million points? And sitting at the very top of the list were Mythic-grade traits you couldn't even select under ordinary circumstances.

"I can actually pick this?"

It shimmered in rainbow light — one glance was enough to tell this thing was a long, long way from ordinary. Either way, this was the kind of sight that made your eyes go wide.

Mythic-grade traits weren't something you could obtain by ordinary means. You could only get them in the extreme late game, and even then only through abysmal odds. And now I could start with one from the very beginning?

These were the traits people called balance-breakers. Having one at the starting line was going to be absurdly overpowered — I could already see it.

I swallowed, then worked the mouse without a shred of hesitation and selected the trait. A satisfied look on my face, I slowly scrolled down the list of available traits.

"Sword God, Genius, Supreme Overlord, Divinity... yeah, I'm stuffing every Mythic-grade trait I can find in here."

Mythic traits that were normally a nightmare to obtain even one of were now so plentiful I was tripping over them. And every last one of them was ridiculously powerful.

A man needs a sword. That's the concept ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— one blade is enough. No need for other weapon traits.

Sword was the only weapon mastery I'd taken, but the other traits would pick up the slack. In the past, the point cost ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would've forced me to hang a bunch of debuff traits off myself like cheap ornaments. Things were different now.

I let my eyes linger over the selected traits, savoring them, then scrolled further down. I'd already picked every worthwhile one. What remained were mostly garbage like Sickly or Puny.

"Nothing left to add."

Even as it stood, the build was already insane enough to short-circuit a person's brain. And yet something felt incomplete. I still didn't know what a "powerful heavenly blessing" was supposed to mean, but I had plenty of points left. Finishing trait selection like this felt like a waste.

"Huh?"

The scroll had reached the very bottom of the trait list. Where you'd normally find traits that wouldn't even be in the running... something unusual caught my eye.

That shimmering rainbow light was anything but ordinary. I'd never seen this trait before, but the grade was unmistakably Mythic.

Was this even in the trait list before?

A trait I'd never seen. I couldn't help but hesitate. The name itself was pretty cryptic — but the system UI wouldn't lie, so I added it to the list without much fuss.

"A new patch, maybe? I'll throw it in."

I finished selecting my traits with a satisfied smile. The class I'd chosen was Swordsman, a vocation dripping with romance. For my starting talent, I'd taken King's Return, the one with the highest ceiling. Everything was dialed in exactly the way I liked it.

The familiar intro began. After the long, tedious world-lore dump, a line of dialogue appeared on the monitor that even I had never seen.

"Huh?"

I'd played Silvering relentlessly. That was why I'd never heard of a line like this existing. And Successor? A second life? What kind of nonsense was that?

A flash of light erupted from the monitor.

"Ugh—!"

I tried to move the mouse in a hurry, but the burst of radiance forced my eyes shut on reflex. My mind grew hazy. My vision went dark.

That was the last thing I remembered.