– Aaaaargh!
– Die…! You filthy demon─!

[ HP 12/3155 ]
.
.

– Why are you guys here…!
– Did you think you’d get away with that kind of trickery?

[ HP 2/3155 ]
.
.

– Wait…!
– This is the end─!

[ HP 0…

[ Your HP has reached 0. ]
[ The player has died. ]
[ Bad End 34 – Died in the ‘True Dungeon’. ]
[ Calculating data….

“Gyaaah…“

Blink blink.

Holding my head in my hands, I stared at the screen that signaled game-over through the flickering darkness.

My head pulled back as if by a force, my vision floating away.

Savior, a roguelike game by the name, had no such features like ‘save’ or ‘load.’

Once a character dies, it’s over.

‘My, my 100 hours… ends like this?’

The harsh reality made the corners of my eyes tremble. The emotions I could hardly control spread throughout my body.

Unable to contain my fury, I swung my hands through the air and thumped it down on the desk.

“Uhk…“

The sharp pain blurred my vision before it whipped back.

Ah, it hurts…

Physical therapy in the form of jolting pain that abruptly brought back my cloudy mind.

My waist twisted reflexively from the tingling pain in my elbow. After flailing meaninglessly for a while, mid-flail, I was hit with reality check and slumped over in my chair.

Even by my own standards, it was an embarrassing sight.

If someone else had seen, it would have been enough to inflict mental harm for nearly a month.

“Sigh…“

Rubbing my sore elbow, I turned to my monitor.

The monitor still nastily displayed the bad end tag, showing my character now cooling off.

12th iteration character 〈Hybrid Summoner〉

It was a strategy that pushed forward using a sheer numbers advantage, a combination of summoning multiple minions and necromancy from the school of dark magic.

It was an effective strategy. Compared to previous runs, I had been breezing through the main story far more easily. I thought maybe this time I would see a happy ending.

A character nurtured with painstaking care, taking lessons from 12 failures.

While I didn’t consider myself invincible, I certainly expected to breeze through at least a few chapters given its growth…

But it ended miserably. I just walked into a no-strings-attached dungeon and got caught in a trap event, died miserably.

And I died even earlier than the last run.

Was it a mistake to go down the dark magic path?

It did cause all surrounding NPCs to hate me early on, but it wasn’t a big issue. From midway Through each run, it was all about solo play.

That bad karma just struck me.

The main characters joined hands and threw my character into the dungeon. They meticulously lured me in and then in the midst of an overwhelming monster infestation, they cut my throat cleanly.

Incredibly unfair. What did I do wrong?

I just wanted to dabble in a bit black magic, so I consumed an NPC from a poor country. The damage to the main characters was nothing…

Moreover, due to the summoner’s route, the original body was weak and too easily caught off-guard. If I had upgraded my own stats a bit more, it wouldn’t have ended so needlessly.

‘But to raise stats…’

The stats of the character itself?

The 11th iteration 〈Indomitable Warrior〉 did last longer, focusing all on character stats, but in the end, I got beaten and became monster food.

Staring intensely at the bad ending screen, I fell into deep thought.

‘…No, it’s all wrong.’

After a long contemplation, an epiphany flashed through my mind. I could see the answer waving its hands in the distance.

“Summoners, huh? The whole thinking process was flawed from the start.”

To think, a summoner? Just summon a bunch of underlings and watch from behind?

It was cowardly thinking. That’s a rotten mindset that just died in the trap event.

But was the previous 11th iteration 〈Indomitable Warrior〉 route successful? No. This guy also couldn’t react when buried in reverse events and died.

When traditional breakthrough methods prove impossible, you seek alternative variables.

Click-

I closed the bad ending window and clicked on a new game.

There was plenty of game content left to enjoy, but I wanted to experience something more distinctive.

[ Creating character (13th iteration) ]
[ Please enter the player’s name… ]

Click- click-

Scroll down.

Name, traits, origins…

‘There it is.’

[ Restrictions ]

Equivalent exchange or give and take, that’s one way to understand the system.

You give your character one restriction in exchange for a corresponding special advantage.

It’s a common setup in other games and comics I’ve seen before.

Initially, I shied away from touching restrictions because they all seemed weird, and I was an inexperienced newbie.

But now I had accumulated enough experience. Around 12 iterations should be enough to start understanding the ins and outs, right?

When I started playing, due to personal preference, I tasted the vanilla game before enjoying add-ons like DLC, so restriction was an aspect I pushed to the back.

In fact, ever since I had first seen the element of restriction, I had some ideas in mind.

I scrolled the mouse wheel to find a preconceived restriction.

You can choose up to three restrictions.

▶Restriction (Ⅰ): “Curse of Sensory Seal”
─Permanently seal a chosen sense.
─Choices: Vision, Taste, Smell

Blinded, unable to taste, and cannot smell.

▶Restriction (Ⅱ): “Curse of Short Life”
─You are born with a body destined for an early death.

Dying before living a long life. In other words, a short life.

▶Restriction (Ⅲ): “Curse of Silence”
─Speaking comes with pain.

Even communication, a basic interaction, becomes difficult.

“Hmm.”

A breath-stopping lineup. If it were real life, I wouldn’t be able to live with those conditions.

My happiness comes from YouTube (vision), food (taste), and the smell of grass (smell), but if all that is taken away, it would just be easier to die.

And not much communication, even if I could just bear it, dying of natural causes isn’t far off.

Of course, in the game, it just means a huge drop in sensory stats, decrease in interactions with characters, and reduced life span.

Now come the special advantages.

▷Ability (Ⅰ): “Spatial Perception”
─ You possess overwhelming spatial awareness.

In exchange for losing sight, you maneuver by directly feeling the space around you.

▷Ability (Ⅱ): “Magic Affinity”
─You have a nonstandard affinity for magic.

Whether wielding a sword, thrusting a spear, casting spells, or creating something. In a world where everything demands magic power, you acquire a highly rare magic affinity.

▷Ability (Ⅲ): “Jack of All Trades”
─You possess above-average qualities in various fields.

Aiming for solo play, you go for an all-rounder: high peaks might drop, but the lows across the board rise. With enough proficiency, there’ll be nothing you can’t handle alone.

‘This should be all right.’

I reviewed the restrictions and abilities for a while and nodded my head.

No use getting full on the first spoonful. I shelved the thought of seeing a happy ending on the first try. It’d take a few attempts and re-designs for sure.

But there was no helping the anticipation for the performance of whatever capabilities I’d gain.

The abilities I’d gain as benefits would all be placed in the ‘Unique Abilities’ section.

In the game settings, it’s common law that innate unique abilities are typically limited to one.

But with a restriction tacked on at character creation, a player character is born with three innate unique abilities, instead of the usual one.

Even with the previous iterations, characters started with just one unique ability made decent headway.

〈Indomitable Warrior〉 just by itself reached specs capable of seizing victory in a 3 to 1 against the strongest protagonist of the lore.

So how far can a character with three abilities go?

Feeling the pounding of my eager heart, I move the mouse cursor over to sta… rt… …
…

“Hm…”

What is this feeling? It feels like sweat is running down the back of my neck.

No, it’s not just a feeling.

When I touched my neck, it came back drenched with sweat.

Real sweat is pouring like rain. The creeping sensation made my body quiver.

Something’s ominous. Something’s off.

Barely managing to move the cursor with my trembling hand, that strange feeling faded.

“… What’s this?”

The cursor shakes and quivers as I move it to ‘Start Game,’ but then it returns to normal once I stop.

My whole body? No, it’s as if something instinctive is foaming at the mouth, warning me not to start the game.

“… Should I do it tomorrow?”

There’s no rush, anyway.

And, after all, the selection was a bit too hasty, wasn’t it?

Muttering excuses to no one in particular, I got up from my chair.

Tomorrow’s Monday, but I’m essentially jobless, so there’s no work anyway.

Hastily tidied up the desk and took a quick shower.

I still felt weak, so opting to hit the sack early seemed wise.

I closed the curtains and placed a vanilla-scented diffuser by the bed before sinking into the mattress.

Closing my eyes tightly to escape the unease, the vanilla scent lingered at the tip of my nose, ushering in drowsiness.

Consciousness soon faded away into sleep.

.
.
.
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The next day, I woke up in the world of the game.

But damn it, I can’t see anything.