Chapter 1: He is Han Taewon
Not a single patch of blue remains in the sky.
It's pitch black all over.
The sea turned red long ago.
All the towering buildings have crumbled.
The surface of the earth had long since been melting away, scorched by hellfire.
The corpses of people and the corpses of monsters lay tangled together.
Nothing but the stench of sulfur and the reek of blood.
A battlefield where every last living thing had perished.
Traces of the brilliant civilization mankind had built were long gone.
And there, two last surviving superhumans stood in silence.
"As brutal as it gets, even for a game."
—lol, agreed.
—Yeah, it's brutal. After all that effort.
Watching the monster wave surge closer,
Han Tae-won murmured.
It's over.
Han Tae-won turned his head and looked at Yoon Se-ah.
Her sword and face were plastered with clumps of ice crystals.
—T_T_T_T_T. Se-ah's been through so much.
—Se-ah's the real one, for sure.
—No way. Mael's the real one.
—Nope. The one still alive is Yoon Se-ah.
—Ugh, disgusting. Se-ah stans.
"Hey, hey, don't fight. It's already hard enough fighting those things over there—why are you guys at it again."
Though she had been staring calmly ahead, unbothered even in the face of imminent death,
she scrunched up her face and turned to look at Han Tae-won.
Isn't this exactly what you wanted?
Han Tae-won snapped back at that.
This isn't what I wanted. I mean, think about it logically……
Yeah! Think about it logically! You! At the very least you! ……
She shut her mouth.
A brief silence fell between them.
Before they knew it, the monster wave had crept ever closer.
The sense that a true end was fast approaching grew only more concrete.
Han Tae-won said nothing, only watching Yoon Se-ah.
Then he set his jaw, his expression hardening as though he had resolved himself to something.
Soon, a golden, glowing clock appeared in his hand.
Just once.
A unique-tier artifact capable of rewinding time—the Golden Age Clock.
Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have hesitated to use this clock.
But I paused for a moment to think.
Quietly, on the other side of the monitor.
Rubbing my jaw with my hand.
The game I'm playing right now is 'New World: Chronicles of the Superhuman.'
A game that received tremendous acclaim for its incredible freedom and incredible graphics.
But a game that received criticism surpassing that acclaim—for its even more incredible difficulty.
I've been challenging it countless times now, trying to see its true ending.
The 999+ run count floating in the corner of the system window was proof of my efforts.
The difficulty was already insane,
but the conditions for the true ending were well and truly unhinged.
Start with the protagonist's trait set to E-rank or below.
It's hard enough starting with an EX-rank trait.
But E-rank.
Absolutely insane.
Taking the standard superhuman route has its limits.
So, I went down the villain route.
I'd managed to drag it to the late game somehow.
But in all my 999+ playthroughs,
this was the first time I'd kept another character alive and dragged them this far.
With this game's incredible degree of freedom,
"Guys. Wouldn't it be possible to hand the clock over to Yoon Se-ah?"
—Oh! That might work.
—Yeah. With how insane the freedom in this game is, it just might.
—Tae-tae-won-won-ah. You think you're finally gonna pull it off?
The chat's reaction wasn't bad.
I didn't deliberate long.
I pressed the interact key right away.
……If you go back.
Yoon Se-ah tilted her head, looking at Han Tae-won.
If you go back, can you stop it?
What?
I'm asking if you can stop it.
That kind of thing doesn't matter. You can't go back……! Don't tell me you……
That's right. That 'don't tell me.'
I stood up on my own and applauded.
"Whoa! This actually worked. All this time I've been……. Whoa. I'm speechless. This game is just god-tier?"
—lmao god-tier my ass
—I'll grant it god-tier garbage. lol
—Kyaa~ Even so, the freedom in this thing is genuinely insane. I can't believe you can actually hand that over.
—Han-ssi. Are you seriously going to see the true ending this time?
"Don't jinx it!"
That's what I said, but already countless flags were being planted inside my head.
'Hehehehe.'
Laughter keeps slipping out.
I actually feel like I can clear it.
Han Tae-won pressed the clock into Yoon Se-ah's hand.
She looked flustered, her eyes darting back and forth between Han Tae-won and the clock.
—Ding!
A blue window appeared, accompanied by a cheerful chime.
Buy time for Yoon Se-ah to regress.
Objective: Survive for 5 minutes.
Success: Yoon Se-ah successfully regresses.
Failure: Game Over.
What on earth would happen.
If Yoon Se-ah regresses.
What would happen to my character.
I couldn't even imagine.
My character's inner monologue appeared.
No matter how I thought about it, I had no confidence I could stop this calamity.
Because I'm a lost cause.
But Yoon Se-ah is different.
She is a magnificent superhuman who serves as a model for others.
A brilliant human being who is my complete opposite.
If it's her.
She can stop this damned destruction.
Han Tae-won's body shot forward at speed.
After that, it was nothing special.
I—who had sunk so deep into this game —
"Aaagh! No, that's so cheap!"
poured out every item I had.
"I would've died if I hadn't stocked that potion……"
analyzed and dodged and attacked every pattern to the absolute limit of the limit.
"I already know them all. The overhead smash followed by the spinning kick, righ……. Potion! Potion!"
Somehow, I held on for 5 minutes.
Of course, my game character looked wretched.
Both arms and legs had been torn clean off.
A gaping hole had been punched straight through the heart.
But my energy was higher than it had ever been.
It had been thousands of times repeating the same ending.
Finally, a change.
"Hmm……. That was pretty close. But who am I? I am Han Tae-won, that's who!"
—lmao he really is the best New World player in the world.
—Ugh. The smell of a no-lifer.
—I mean, is there really some idiot who has sunk 20,000+ hours into a trash game like this? lol
The monitor was now showing Yoon Se-ah.
The image of Yoon Se-ah enveloped in golden light.
And then the game froze.
Literally froze.
"Huh? What. Why is it doing this!"
No matter how much I moved the mouse, no matter how many times I pressed Alt-Tab,
the screen did not budge.
As if time itself had stopped.
Just in case, I checked the chat window.
But the chat window itself had gone dark.
No, the stream had crashed.
"Ah, why is this happening."
I frantically tried everything I could to fix it on my own.
But the computer was completely unresponsive.
"Tsk. Should I force reboot it……"
Just as I was mulling that over.
No, no. You can't die right now. That was the deal, wasn't it?
A voice I'd never heard before reached my ears.
"Hm? What is that?"
Immediately after, a blinding light burst from the monitor.
I threw my hand up to block it—you could see the bones through it, that's how bright it was.
It wasn't only light that came pouring out of the monitor.
A woman came tumbling out.
From that point on, my thoughts stopped.
The first thing that came to mind the moment I laid eyes on the woman was.
That she looked like the night sky.
Hmm~. Have you forgotten.
She placed her hand once on my forehead, and smiled faintly.
There's still a lot left for you to do for me. So, you can't die here.
The woman soon grabbed my hair.
And dragged me straight into the monitor.
"Wh, whoooa! My hair! My hair!"
A flash of brilliant light.
And then, darkness.
.
.
.
.
"Congratulations on your enrollment in Arion Academy."
At those words, I came to my senses.
I was sure I had been inside my room.
Since when had my room gotten this big?
No matter which way I turned my head, there were people seated beside me.
Not packed tightly together, but spaced out with room to breathe,
making it feel almost the size of a football field.
"As superhumans, for the sake of humanity……"
Those words that man kept saying—they sounded far too familiar.
The banner hanging up front as well.
Arion Academy.
Right, this is, in other words, the opening scene of New World.
"……Is this a dream?"
Right, I must have overdone things a bit lately.
Seems I was exhausted.
Enough to pass out mid-stream.
I'll wake up from this soon enough.
"Next, we will have the oath of Cadet Yoon Se-ah, representative of the incoming class."
Yoon Se-ah slowly made her way up onto the stage.
And then surveyed the crowd once……?
What's going on? This seems a bit different from the opening I know.
And then her gaze landed directly on mine.
What is this.
What is this, really?
"Oath!"
"Oath!"
I raised my right hand a beat late.
"We swear to protect ordinary citizens……"
The oath was over quickly.
No, the enrollment ceremony itself blew past.
When on earth was I going to wake up.
So I quietly pinched the back of my hand.
It hurt. It really hurt.
I'd pinched as hard as I could because I was sure it was a dream.
But it wasn't.
"Ah, no way."
The students had gathered in small groups, chatting away.
Right, if this is that game —
No, if it's that awful game, there's one way to check.
I walked up to the nearest group and asked.
"Excuse me, would you happen to……"
"Sorry, but which family do you belong to?"
"Huh? F, family? I don't have——"
"A lowly one like you, the nerve. Tsk."
The conversation ended there.
The boy who had even bothered to respond to me wrinkled his face as though he'd seen a bug,
and turned his head away just like that.
"……"
I scratched the back of my head and looked around.
This time, quite a familiar face caught my eye.
The young heir of the great Medici Family—a name said to be known by everyone in the world.
And so, without meaning to, the name slipped out of my mouth.
"Lapita Rosena Medici."
She'd been a real help when I was playing the game.
The girl with bright chestnut-brown hair turned to look at me.
"Hm? Me?"
Right, Lapita—who was well known even within the game for being kind.
She'd answer my question warmly.
"Can I ask you something?"
She tilted her head at my words.
"You know me?"
"Oh, uh, yeah, I do."
"Really? Strange……. I have no memory of being acquainted with a vermin like you."
Saying that, Lapita looked me up and down, then turned her head away, feigning disinterest.
"……"
She was definitely supposed to be kind……
"Pfft! What2019s this, you walked up to someone you2019re not even close with?"
"Hey, look at that guy's name tag."
"Whoa, E-rank? E-rank students can actually attend Arion Academy?"
At that, I glanced down at my name tag.
[E Han Tae-won]
……
I trudged to another spot, feeling deflated.
Now that I looked, this auditorium was split cleanly down the middle.
Commoners and nobles.
Divided into these exact two.
From the nobles—that is, the children from families—there radiated ease and refinement.
And each of them carried a unique aura of their own.
But.
The children on the opposite side were the opposite.
They sent looks of yearning and envy toward those who possessed such ease and refinement.
And instinctively, I sensed it.
I'm on that side.
"Depressing."
Tsk.
I slowly moved my feet.
First, there was something I had to ask.
I approached a group of students and asked.
"Do you happen to know what day it is today?"
At my question, the faces of the students hardened in an instant.
Expressions that said, why are you asking something so obvious.
They glanced at my name tag once, then outright scrunched their faces.
Clearly the expression of, ah, having an E-rank talk to you is a bit……
And then they just snapped their heads away entirely.
……Not easy.
And even someone like me, who was used to criticism, still got hurt by looks like that.
"Haah……!"
Just as I let out a sigh and was about to turn away, an answer to my question came.
"It's the day of the enrollment ceremony. According to Standard Pact Time, it's March 4th."
I broke into a wide smile and said.
"Right. Today is a happy day."
—Ding!
A cheerful alarm rang inside my head.
—Hidden Piece: A Happy Day!
—March 4th. The day your story now begins! Today is a very happy day. For the entirety of March 4th, 2036, you will not be broken.
A familiar notification sound and a familiar blue window.
And familiar text.
Oh, hell.
I have, in actual fact, ended up inside this awful game.
I'd grabbed the hidden piece that can only be obtained during the enrollment ceremony.
Who was the kind soul who made it possible for me to grab this hidden piece, and who let me know I'd truly entered the game?
When I turned my head, there stood a girl who smelled of the sea.
This friend, too, is someone whose face feels somewhat familiar.
"Thanks for answering."
She looked at me, then instead of a reply, gave a single nod and walked away.
Well, she was always like that, this one.
And so, as the enrollment ceremony was slowly drawing to a close, someone called out to me.
"Han Tae-won!"
It's Yoon Se-ah's voice.
What is this?
There's no event of Yoon Se-ah calling out to Han Tae-won during the enrollment ceremony.
When I turned my head, Yoon Se-ah was walking toward me.
Right, things had changed.
Changed unmistakably.
The opening that hadn't changed across thousands of playthroughs had changed.
The reason the opening changed was probably……
Because Yoon Se-ah had regressed.
At last, hope that a change might come to that wretched ending is visible.
For some reason, my heart is pounding.
Things like this world being destined for destruction had been wiped from my mind.
All I can see right now is Yoon Se-ah.
Dark chestnut hair and black eyes.
Flawlessly clear, white skin without a single blemish.
Yoon Se-ah, whom I'd only ever seen through a monitor,
had appeared before my actual eyes in reality.
The character I'd tried everything to save……
But somehow she seems a bit threatening?
She came straight up in front of me and swung her palm.
—Smack!
Right, up to this point, fine, that's fair enough.
But.
—Trickle.
Why is she crying, hey?!