Reincarnated into a RoFan with a Glitched Saintess (1)
If a game you spent your entire twenties playing suddenly came to an end, how are you supposed to feel about it?
[Fantasia Island Update Termination Notice]
I stared at the notice posted on the game's official homepage and let out a bitter laugh.
In the world of live-service games, stopping updates and only maintaining the servers is practically a death sentence.
It just means they're keeping it on life support.
"Guys, this notice is real, right? It's not some April Fools' joke, is it?"
I muttered to myself, my eyes scanning the chat window scrolling by in real-time.
My job was a streamer. I made a living primarily by broadcasting Fantasia Island.
As news spread that a game with nearly ten years of service was suddenly halting updates and effectively shutting down, more people than usual flooded into the stream.
Fantasia Island.
Released as a medieval fantasy RPG, the game dealt with the cliché story of a hero fighting the Demon King.
Yet, it had been immensely popular due to its high degree of freedom and abundance of interactive multiplayer content.
Because of that, I had countless memories tied to it.
Gathering people to go on my very first raid, or conversely, helping out struggling newbies—those experiences were incredibly meaningful and precious memories to me.
The developers had downsized the team for Fantasia Island to focus on their new title, Royal Child.
Despite an astronomical budget of trillions of won, Royal Child had performed poorly, peaking at only fifty thousand concurrent users right after launch.
To save this failing new release, they had gone so far as to wash their hands of the long-running Fantasia Island.
"I have to be careful saying this, but since romance fantasy games are geared toward a female audience... I don't think it would suit me."
I bit my lower lip slightly as I watched the chat urge me to play Royal Child.
The game Royal Child was a romance fantasy—meaning you had to raise a female character and woo male characters like the Emperor or the Duke of the North.
Honestly, even romance fantasy games could appeal to the masses.
They could have made it a raising simulator where you raise a princess to see different endings, or added JRPG elements to make the role-playing aspect fun.
But Royal Child lacked both mass appeal and the fun factor of the original Fantasia Island.
Why did the business department make such a decision?
Maybe they were aiming for that one big hit, since famous live-service games rake in astronomical amounts of money.
The corners of my mouth drooped at the thought, which only left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Unlike gamers who value fun and memories, businessmen tend to view customers as mere numbers.
In truth, Fantasia Island was old and difficult to maintain, requiring a lot of effort to add large-scale content like raids every time.
Perhaps pivoting to a casual romance fantasy game to attract new users and secure a cash cow was the right business move.
My eyes widened slightly at the messages in the chat.
Using bugs and glitches to clear games or filming useful guide videos was my main content.
The developers of Fantasia Island were the type to not bother patching bugs or glitches as long as they benefited the players.
Of course, I didn't mean hacks or exploits that harmed other players in PVP.
I meant things like clipping through the map so solo players without friends could grab raid chests and rewards on their own...
...or instant-killing bosses to make flawless dungeon runs (clearing from start to finish without dying) easier.
Actually, I found a few bugs that people could have seriously abused, but I sent emails to the devs to get them patched.
Among the glitches I personally discovered were item duplication and weapon stacking, but I had reported them for the public good.
"If the engine is the same and the bugs are still there, that means the spaghetti code issue hasn't changed at all..."
The root problem had not been fixed.
Was this the fate of a game company that insisted on using its proprietary engine in this day and age, ultimately killing off their own successful game?
Or was it simply the mistake of people who had grown too old and fallen behind the trends?
At the bitter age where my twenties were drawing to a close, I booted up the game with a wry smile.
"Let's see how well they made this thing."
Since they said they would only maintain Fantasia Island without further updates, I had no choice but to play Royal Child if I wanted to keep making a living as a streamer.
I couldn't just sit on my hands until the new ending was released.
Royal Child has been waiting for Park Taeo's arrival.
However,
Thank you for protecting the original Fantasia Island until the very end, Guardian.
As soon as I launched Royal Child, these words appeared on a white background, as if linking data from the previous game.
"What's this? Is it like this for everyone else?"
Feeling a strange sense of unease, I threw the question to the chat.
Even if some games linked save data to their sequels, it was creepy that it knew my real name.
The immediate reactions in the chat were equally chaotic.
It seemed other Fantasia Island streamers hadn't seen this kind of message either.
Why did this text appear only to me?
The moment I realized something was terribly wrong—
We hope you will protect the world of Royal Child as well, Guardian.
The instant I read those words, my consciousness flashed, and I was sucked into the monitor.
"Happy eighteenth birthday, Theodore!"
It had already been eighteen years since I reincarnated into this damn romance fantasy world.
Normally, the game Royal Child was about playing as the female lead, Alice, and seducing all kinds of high-status men.
So why was I born as the youngest son of a family like this?
Theodore Baskerville.
Born as a late-in-life child to a Marquis family renowned for swordsmanship and symbolized by a dog, I lived receiving the love of my entire family.
With two older brothers above me, I was safe even in this harsh and painful romance fantasy world.
But that peaceful and quiet life was about to come to an end.
"Theodore, you're attending your first social gathering today."
"...Honestly, I still don't want to go."
"Come now, you need to meet people from other families and make friends! You're a noble who has had his coming-of-age ceremony!"
My father patted my shoulder and burst into a hearty laugh.
When I was young, I stayed cooped up inside the house, fearing that attending social gatherings too early would cause me to run into the world's female lead, Alice.
I didn't know how a commoner managed to seduce so many men, but I figured it was best to avoid danger as much as possible.
"Even among nobles, I doubt many would show interest in a Marquis family like ours."
I muttered self-deprecatingly as I boarded the carriage.
After all, as the imperial dogs whose only merit was wielding swords well, our family held a rather ambiguous level of status and power.
"Still, building connections with high-ranking individuals is important. Have a safe trip, Theodore."
With my father seeing me off, I headed toward the imperial palace where the social gathering was taking place.
Today's event was hosted by the Crown Prince himself, making it an important gathering where all sorts of people would assemble.
I don't know how a commoner like Alice will show up in a place like this, but I suppose she's resourceful.
She would probably show up as a maid or a cleaner, then seduce the high-born men.
Generally, in the romance fantasy genre, once characters fall in love, they throw away all status and decorum.
...I knew this because I had occasionally encountered the genre through webtoons and games.
But this is a real world now. Will it really play out exactly like the game did?
As that thought crossed my mind, I nodded.
After all, I could still use the wall-clipping bugs caused by the game's unique engine, as well as the weapon-stacking glitches.
Therefore, the laws of this world were highly likely to follow the game's mechanics.
"We have arrived, young master."
Stepping out of the carriage at the coachman's guidance, the dazzling imperial palace lay before me.
Once I walked inside, the protagonist and main cast of the original game would come pouring out.
"...Sigh. I'm finally here."
I sighed in front of the entrance, feeling a headache coming on, when I suddenly sensed someone's presence.
"Brother, would you mind stepping aside for a moment?"
The warm, gentle voice drifted into my ears, yet the source of that slightly low tone had no face.
It wasn't a metaphor—someone with literally no face, wearing only clothes, was speaking to me.
"...Brother?"
Seeing this, I immediately realized something was wrong.
An invisible bug.
It was a rendering glitch that occasionally occurred in games when a character model glitched out, making everything except their equipped items completely transparent.