When Possessing Someone, Being a Wreck Is Standard
Possessing a Scoundrel Is the Standard
[Recruiting DLC beta testers.]
A game company that hadn't released an update or announced a new title in years suddenly sent me an email.
Click it and you fall into another world—a thoroughly clichéd situation.
I should have sensed something was off.
But maybe I'd been possessed by something that day, or maybe it was the confidence that if I'd sunk over ten thousand hours into a game, I could survive falling into its world.
I clicked the email, downloaded the file without hesitation, and ran it.
"And this is the result."
When I opened my eyes, I saw a luxurious ceiling with a splendid chandelier.
Huh?
This wasn't the scenery I'd expected.
I closed my eyes.
After waiting long enough for a loading screen to finish, I opened them again.
The ceiling was still luxurious.
"What is this? Why is it so fancy?"
The setting of Potion Forest was, as the title said, a forest.
The main story's protagonist was also a country boy living in a village near the forest.
Had the DLC's setting changed?
The reason I could stay calm even after suddenly possessing a game character was that I was that confident in the game.
I knew even the NPC dialogue by heart, so I was sure I'd adapt quickly.
But before my eyes stretched lavish interior decor I'd never even seen in an expensive furniture store.
The room was big enough to fit two of the semi-basement studio apartments I'd lived in.
Even the wealthiest noble's mansion in the village hadn't been this extravagant.
"Who the hell did I possess? A noble? I'm screwed."
Nobles barely appeared in the main story.
Which meant I had zero information about them.
But... that.
Might not be so bad?
At first I'd been discouraged because this place was so far removed from the main story's setting, but the more I thought about it, the less bad it seemed.
Wasn't a noble obviously better than a country boy?
Living in a luxurious house like this was way better than living in a shack more rundown than a semi-basement.
"Actually, this is great!"
I decided to enjoy the current situation.
Wearing soft silk pajamas and squirming around on a fluffy bed, I couldn't even remember my life before the possession.
Who was I? A rich young master.
"Looks like the Potion Forest DLC genre is romance fantasy. Starting in a fancy house like this—maybe the protagonist's a prince or something? Puhaha."
-Ta-daaa!
A cheerful fanfare rang in my ears as if I were wearing earphones.
Startled, I watched as a faded parchment-style UI window appeared before me.
[New Content: NEW Protagonist]
{The DLC protagonist is an imperial prince}
{Enjoy the DLC amid new environments and new characters}
[Perk: Status Window]
"So I'm not just some ordinary rich young master?"
I was the emperor's son—a prince.
I, who'd been mocked for not even having a spoon, let alone a dirt spoon, had possessed a diamond spoon beyond a gold spoon.
"Holy shit, is this real?"
At least judging by this room, the empire didn't seem to be falling apart,
and since the setting was a potion management game, there was no demon king or world-ending catastrophe.
I could just enjoy the prince life without a care.
"It's a shame I can't use my knowledge of the main story, though."
I took pride in having memorized everything about the game.
Enough that if Potion Forest had been just a little more famous, I'd have bragged about it somewhere.
But as I'd seen when the content was introduced earlier, what awaited me was a new environment and new characters.
"Wait, the potion recipes are the same, right?"
Only the stage had changed; the background was the same.
"In the main story you sold potions to beastfolk, so the DLC must be about selling to humans."
That was even better.
Potion Forest had good gameplay, but the "fur" divided opinions.
What if I'd possessed the main story?
'Fur would've been flying around the room so thick you couldn't breathe.'
They were cute as SD sprites, but if I actually faced beastfolk in person,
a line like 'Bears tear people apart.' might slip out of my mouth on its own.
The fact that I wasn't a fur-lover was a plus here.
Because I wouldn't need to raise beastfolk Affection.
"Wait, that's not right either."
I'd been so happy I'd briefly forgotten—potion recipes required beastfolk byproducts.
Fur, claws, scales, blood, etc.
Nobody knew what beastfolk byproducts were good for, so even merchants didn't handle them.
The protagonist was the only alchemist who used them as potion ingredients, so he had to build Affection and obtain them personally.
Instead of a neighbor saying, "The harvest went well last month, so take a sack of rice,"
it was a place where a neighbor said, "Grooming went well last month, so take a sack of fur."
That was Potion Forest.
"To progress the game, you had to build Affection with beastfolk even if you hated them, so a lot of people dropped out at that point."
But I wasn't going to do quests.
I was a prince, so I had plenty of money even without working.
And since I was an orphan, I had no desire to return to my original world.
Yep~ I was just going to enjoy the prince life in this world.
"Ah~ beautiful world. Shall I take in a breath of this fresh fantasy-world air?"
A clear sky I'd rarely seen from my semi-basement stretched beyond the window.
I pushed aside the soft blanket that brushed my fingertips as if reluctant to let go, and the fluffy bed that clung to my body like a swamp, then set my feet on the floor to approach the window.
"Ugh—!!!"
Pain like dozens of spears stabbing through my feet made my eyes fly open.
Agony so severe I couldn't even scream properly.
I thought this must be what it felt like to fall barefoot from eleven meters onto a field of Legos.
My body curled up on its own like an armadillo from the pain.
"Gah—! What the hell!?"
After the pain subsided a little, I looked at the floor, but the carpeted surface was spotless, without a speck of dust.
When I rubbed it with my palm, the material was soft too.
'Which means the cause is...'
I sat down on the floor, grabbed my ankle, and pulled my perfectly normal-looking sole toward me.
Then I poked it lightly with my index finger.
"Kugh—!"
There was that pain again.
Even though I'd braced myself, pain was pain.
Clenching both fists, I waited for the pain to pass.
"Hah, hah... Now what is this."
I remembered the Status Window I'd received as a perk earlier.
Since it hadn't been in the main story, I didn't know what functions it had, but it should at least tell me my status.
"Live up to your name."
[Status Window]
Name: Leoport Sean
Status: Third Prince
Race: Human
Health: [■■■■■▨▨▨▨▨]
Mana: [▨▨▨▨▨▨▨▨▨▨]
Perk: [Status Window]
The Status Window's layout was the typical design anyone would imagine.
But strangely, half of the health gauge and all of the mana gauge were filled with some gray substance riddled with cracks.
At the very least, this anomaly didn't seem unrelated to the pain in my soles.
"Probably a disease, right? Won't it tell me what kind?"
Even I thought that was asking too much.
This was a game about deducing illnesses from symptoms and brewing the matching treatment potions.
I'd received the privilege of possessing a prince, and now I'd lost all shame.
"I should figure out this much on my own. I've got veteran pride."
Since the Status Window hadn't existed in the main story, I had to speculate.
'Is this new content added in the DLC?'
But no new content notification had appeared for it.
Of course, it could be because it wasn't a perk type, but something kept hovering at the edge of my memory, as if I already knew it.
To grab hold of the clue, I spoke the information from the Status Window aloud one piece at a time.
"Can't use mana, and half my health is blocked. The UI looks like stone... Stone?"
The moment the word "stone" left my mouth, a disease from the game came to mind.
A terminal illness where the body slowly turned to rock starting from the Mana Circuits, ending as a statue.
Petrification Disease.
So much for veteran—I was about to become a dead man.
"Fuck, why is this here from the start of the game!"
There was only one way to contract Petrification Disease.
Inhaling the spores released by a Moonday Flower.
But Moonday Flowers were only accessible in the very late game.
Therefore, the treatment potion could naturally only be made with ingredients that appeared in the late game.
And yet, that disease... was already present from the game's prologue.
To use a hero-story analogy, it was like the Four Heavenly Kings attacking the moment the game started.
A sentence flashed through my mind.
[The Potion Forest DLC is Hell Mode for veterans, and you only have one life.]
"Hahahahahaha. So that's why they said one life? Insane game."
The game company's sentences I'd read with such excitement now felt like daggers lodged in the back of my skull.
-Smack! Smack!
I lightly slapped both cheeks.
My cheeks stung, and my head felt clearer.
"Hoo... Calm down. Time limit? That's what I'm best at."
I recalled all the speedruns I'd done.
I remembered the playtime recorded on Steam.
I reminisced about the love I'd poured into this game.
I could do this.
Ten thousand hours, no less.
That was the time I'd poured into this game.
"Is anyone out there!"
As soon as I steadied myself, I shouted for a servant at the top of my lungs.
It was hard to get up on my own, and I also had something to ask.
"What is the matter? Why are you on the floor? Oh, are you all right?"
"Yeah. I'm fine."
I felt much better.
I wasn't just saying that—seeing her face genuinely made me feel better.
Short golden hair with an orange tint.
The black highlights woven through her flowing hair, together with her sharp eyes, gave her a cold, haughty look.
Even though she was looking at me as if I were pathetic and speaking curtly.
Wearing a maid uniform, she was pressed close to my side, supporting my body.
A luxury I never could have imagined in my previous life.
Shit, if I just cured the Petrification Disease, I'd get to live in comfort surrounded by beautiful maids like her?
Just wait until I'm cured.
I'll become the greatest scoundrel in imperial history.
Looking at her beauty, the Petrification Disease felt like a small trial on the path to great happiness.
Above all, I was a prince.
If I leveraged that name, summoning people to the imperial palace wouldn't be hard.
I could request ingredients without personally raising beastfolk Affection.
'It really might be a small trial.'
After sitting on the bed with her help, I asked directly.
"Thanks for the support. Could I see Lady Ignite right now?"
The key ingredient that could cure Petrification Disease.
Ignite's tail feather.
According to the main story, Ignite was close to the imperial family and frequently visited the imperial palace.
If she happened to be staying at the palace, I might be able to meet her right away.
Asking for a tail feather out of nowhere would draw suspicious looks, but if I used a prince's authority, I'd manage somehow.
Long live the imperial family! Long live status!
But there was something I'd overlooked.
"Surely you're not planning to lead the knights out again to try to eat Lady Ignite's Inner Core?"
The body I'd possessed was already a scoundrel.