Chapter 1
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Prologue
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It all started with a mobile game.
I can't recall the exact genre, but I'm fairly certain it was one of those idle games.
The game itself wasn't anything special.
Tiny, human-like figures would wander around, and all I did was watch them move.
The AI must have been meticulously designed, because each character diligently went about their own business.
Sometimes, they'd even deviate from their routines and do something unexpected.
It felt like keeping ants in a gel farm.
It also reminded me of the tiny sea-monkeys I used to raise in a tank.
Every now and then, I'd poke the little people with my finger, and their health would drop, a "-1" popping up over their heads.
Tapping them a few dozen times would make a character disappear, but my finger would start to ache, so I eventually stopped.
Plus, a resource called "mana" at the bottom of the screen would constantly drain, so I couldn't just tap on them forever.
Besides, just watching the characters was strangely therapeutic.
I'd spend two or three hours a day just like that, watching the little characters.
At least, until one day when an infuriating incident had me coming home completely wasted.
"Seriously, why do they always do this to me"
That night, I was blind drunk, reeling from some relationship drama.
In my drunken stupor, I launched the mobile game I always played.
At first, I just planned to mindlessly stare at the screen.
But then, a wave of irritation washed over me, and I found a target for my anger within the game.
My target was a single, isolated village.
Ignoring the ache in my finger, I tapped the screen until every character in the village was gone.
I kept tapping furiously until all my mana was depleted.
My spent mana recovered, and I burned through it all once more.
By then, I had completely wiped out an entire village and noticed a message pop up on my smartphone.
- Karma has increased by 10.
- You have reached Level 2.
That was the moment I discovered a new feature of the game I never knew existed.