Because I Possessed the Final Boss, I Commit Suicide
Games are life.
Some people might sneer that a life spent in front of a monitor is nothing but wasted time, but for me, at least, that was never true.
In the tens of thousands of worlds beyond that screen, I had been a god, a savior, and sometimes an absolute ruler.
Total Steam playtime: 98,301 hours.
Games owned: 9,999.
Games cleared: 9,999.
At last, the ten-thousandth was right in front of me.
I slowly rolled the mouse wheel.
Choosing that final, ten-thousandth game. For me, this was something close to a sacred rite.
Which masterpiece would I crown with the glorious title of my 10,000th clear? An action RPG? A hardcore roguelike? Or an extreme strategy simulation that would wring my brain dry?
I was lost in that pleasant dilemma when it happened.
Bang—
"Mom says to eat while you play."
The door flew open and my sister barged in.
My flow broken, I turned around with an irritated look.
"Knock first."
Of course, this woman never cared about things like that.
She strode straight up to the monitor.
"Hmm."
She snorted as she glanced over the countless 100% clear marks.
"What."
"This guy only clears the easy ones. The ones that don't need a brain."
......In that instant, my hand clenched hard around the mouse.
That my brainpower was lacking. That I was a pure physical one-trick pony.
A cheap provocation that struck my noble gamer pride head-on.
"You think you know what hell-difficulty roguelikes taste like?"
"Isn't that all just physical games anyway? You can't beat the really hard ones. Your brain doesn't work."
"You done talking?"
"There's this one women's otome game I know that's insanely hard. It's been out for a while, but no one's seen the true ending yet. Wanna try it?"
A women's otome game.
How hard could a dating sim possibly be?
The fact that I calmly nodded along to that petty provocation was the root of all evil.
"Deal."
I never imagined that short answer would shove me into this hellfire.
"Do you truly not regret it?"
The man asked as he coughed up a surge of crimson blood.
"I am asking if you will not regret having stabbed me, the Crown Prince of the Empire."
Blood was flowing from his mouth, and the blade had pierced clean through his chest. And yet the man still looked serene.
The woman simply gritted her teeth and twisted the sword again, as if carving into his heart.
She knew better than anyone just how overwhelming, tenacious, and powerful her opponent was.
Gush—
Dark crimson blood poured from the man's mouth like a waterfall.
Joy lit the woman's face.
At last!
At last, this wretched entanglement, this damned fate, was finally over.
That was what she thought in that moment.
"So this is the first time I've seen your smile."
Why? Why could he wear such a peaceful expression even while coughing up blood?
The man twisted his lips into a grotesque smile.
"Do you truly believe that what you just stabbed was me?"
"......What?"
In that instant.
Clang—!
With a sound like something shattering, the illusion magic that had covered the woman's vision broke into pieces and scattered.
The truth was revealed.
What hung limp and gasping on the tip of the blue blade gripped in the woman's hand was......
"Sister...... Snap out of it, sister."
The only blood relative she would have given her life to protect.
"Ah...... Aah......?"
The woman's pupils shook helplessly.
And as her expression—once so steely and unyielding—collapsed without mercy, the real Crown Prince leisurely watched from his throne, chin propped on his hand.
The pathetic spectacle of destroying with one's own hands the thing one held most dear.
"Ah."
The Crown Prince smiled with genuine rapture. It was the face of a man savoring the greatest amusement of his life.
"Of all the faces I have seen, you are most beautiful as you are now."
The woman fell to her knees right there and screamed like a beast.
The screen slowly, mercilessly faded to black with her scream.
Red letters appeared.
You have been deceived by the Final Boss's Illusion Magic.
The player's mental fortitude has collapsed.
The player, falling into despair, commits suicide.
BAD END
The blood-soaked red text grotesquely stained the monitor.
"Ha...... Haha."
A hollow laugh burst out of me.
Leaning back against the chair, I clenched the mouse so hard the veins stood out on my hand.
Those crimson eyes looking at me from beyond the screen, covered in red blood.
This game's true final boss, Riftan von Astel.
Grit—
The sight of his sneeringly upturned lips made my teeth grind of their own accord.
"How the hell am I supposed to clear this shit!!!!!"
Playthrough number 99.
The time I'd sunk into this single goddamn game alone was a full 1,698 hours.
And still, this damned game showed no sign of being clearable.
There was only one reason.
The Empire's Crown Prince, Riftan von Astel.
The sole blemish staining my perfect history of 9,999 victories.
"This crazy bug of a Crown Prince bastard."
In the process of clearing 9,999 games, I had toppled countless final bosses.
But this bastard was on another level.
Insane specs that claimed he'd beaten his swordsmanship instructor with a blade in hand from the age of ten.
Genius intellect, and overwhelming talent in swordsmanship, magic, and politics—every field.
On top of that, a broken unique authority that completely dominated others.
"Does this make any sense?"
He was pure, absolute evil itself, molded by a developer who had packed him full of nothing but pure malice.
But what truly drove me insane wasn't that guy's stats.
That sadistic personality that perfectly saw through an opponent's emotions yet deliberately designed the most horrific moment of despair to break them.
That fucking perfectionism twisted into arrogance by the affection deficit of a childhood spent imprisoned by his parents.
Riftan's gaze from the monitor felt as if he were staring straight at me outside the screen and mocking me.
As if asking whether the likes of me could ever dare defeat him.
As if telling me to thrash forever in this cycle of despair and suffer.
"Aaah, that gets under my skin."
The feeling of being violated by a piece of shit data scrap.
A blazing red fury boiled up inside me.
My ten-thousandth clear. The offering that would adorn the most sacred and glorious record of my gamer life was daring to grab the predator by the leash and shake it.
Ah, I want to kill him.
I want to reach my hand into the monitor right now, grab that arrogant blond hair, and tear it out.
I want to see that leisurely, arrogant face twist in miserable agony and collapse for certain.
— Hiss, crack.
Unconsciously, I groped across the desk and cracked open another can of Monster Energy.
I forced down the lukewarm, thick liquid as if it were that bastard's blood.
"Just one more run...... Just one more."
No matter what it takes, I will drive a blade into that crazy Crown Prince bastard's gut with my own hands.
My glorious 10,000th trophy must be that Riftan bastard's head.
"Let's go."
Just as I was about to hit the play button, the door opened behind me and my sister came in.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"......"
"You...... How many cans is this? Your under-eyes are pitch black. Are you crazy?"
My sister's voice was tinged with panic, but it didn't reach my ears.
"Don't know. Shut up and get out."
"No, seriously, you're going to die like this! You've been up for days. You need to sleep!"
"What are you talking about. The word 'give up' isn't in my dictionary."
Clearing the final thousandth game. This time for sure, I'd take that Crown Prince bastard's head.
Muttering that, the moment I dumped the energy drink into my mouth—
"Uh......?"
My head spun.
My heart pounded, thump, thump, abnormally, and the light of the monitor before my eyes warped.
My vision twisted and went dark.
When I opened my eyes, what I saw was an unfamiliar white ceiling.
And a luxurious fragrance pricking my nose.
The feel of the highest-grade silk bedding against my back.
"......Huh?"
I sat up.
The dizziness had vanished as if it had been a lie, and instead, the best condition I'd never experienced in my life was circulating through my entire body.
This familiar pattern.
Is this the possession you see to death in web novels?
Then I must have entered the heroine's body right now?
That tragic character who was mercilessly crushed by the Crown Prince in the original?
"Finally!"
I clenched my fist tight.
At last, I can clear this damned game with my own hands!
If I move the protagonist myself, that crazy Crown Prince bastard will......!
With a fluttering heart, I got down from the bed and approached the enormous full-length mirror in the corner of the room.
If it was the heroine's appearance, she would surely have pink hair and green eyes.
A slender, frail build, but with my veteran control added......
But.
"......Huh?"
Standing before the mirror, I froze solid.
My mouth, which had been slowly opening, dropped wide.
Only the sound of air escaping flowed from my wide-open mouth.
Because what was reflected in the mirror was not a girl.
Perfect blond hair, and coolly blazing crimson eyes as if filled with blood.
The unchanging face of a psychopath, full of attitude.
Arrogance that could be felt even at an age that looked about ten.
I had become this goddamn game's final boss, the psychopath Crown Prince.
.
.
.
And—
The moment I grasped that despairing proposition.
The one true ending strategy I'd obtained by pouring thousands of hours into my head flashed through my mind.
Without a single hesitation, I picked up the silver fruit knife that had been lying on the table.
"Your Highness—!"
Whether the servant's urgent voice reached me or not.
I drove the knife deep into my own throat.