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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Lord Fourth
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…The day it all began.
As usual, I was so engrossed in a single game that I had lost all track of time.
[Eternity Sword Saint Chronicle]
A common battle simulation game where you gather key characters to prevent the world’s destruction.
However, due to its insane difficulty, no one had ever seen the ending of Eternity Sword Saint Chronicle.
A crazy game where if you die in the middle, it’s over, and you never even find out the ending.
The developer’s words made that intention perfectly clear.
─I created a game that no one can beat.
─Of course, there is an ending. It’s just that no one will ever see it. Haha.
It was a game designed to make you rage from the very beginning.
The developer seemed confident that no one would ever seriously commit to such a game.
And it made sense. Everyone has that moment.
*Let’s just clear this part.*
*Just a bit more.*
*Really, just a bit more.*
*I’ll quit after I beat this.*
*Shit, I’m done.*
That thing that keeps a person from going mad: ‘self-control’.
I was a man who lacked such a thing.
My ‘just a bit more’ became a day, then a month, then a year… and so I ran on like a degenerate for two years.
And then.
“SHIIIIIT! I BEAT IIIIIIIT—!”
I threw my mouse and collapsed back into my chair.
Memories of all my past gameplay flashed by, and my achievements filled the screen.
[Play Time: 13,140 hours. 788,400 minutes. 547 days and 12 hours.]
A sense of pride swelled within me at the numbers that represented my faithful days of playing, sleeping less than four hours a day for the past two years.
I, ‘Lee Haesol’, had cleared this insane game that no one else in the world could beat.
“I won, you bastards.”
For a moment, I grinned like a degenerate, thinking of all the family, relatives, and acquaintances who had mocked me for being a shut-in.
“…Ah, I’m so fucking drained. For real.”
Belatedly, the self-loathing reality of having thrown two years into the trash washed over me.
As I stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, an indigo light shone through the half-open window.
*Tick-tock—*
Looking at the wall clock, I saw that 32 hours had passed since I first grabbed the mouse.
“32 hours? I’m a fucking lunatic.”
As I chuckled in disbelief, a wave of drowsiness hit me. The thought of trolling the developer crossed my mind, but.
“*Haaah*, I should sleep first.”
Unable to fight my heavy eyelids, I passed out right then and there. And so, I did not see it.
I did not see the words that appeared on a white background after the ending credits rolled.
[Congratulations. You are the first to clear the tutorial of Eternity Sword Saint Chronicle. From the 2nd playthrough, ‘Reality Mode’ will be activated.]
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[What is Reality Mode?]
The player will be able to directly experience the world of Eternity Sword Saint Chronicle that they encountered through the tutorial.
However, as freedom is guaranteed, the player will not be given any special perks.
*Warning.
─Because the player is an ‘Outsider’, they cannot enjoy the benefits of mana.
─The player cannot leave Eternity mid-game, i.e., you cannot ‘Logout’.
─‘Death’ in Eternity is considered the same as ‘death’ in reality.
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[Do you wish to synchronize with Reality Mode?]
“……”
The conditions were so absurd that no one would ever agree to synchronize, but the one who could have refused had already fallen asleep.
[If no selection is made within 5 minutes, synchronization will begin automatically.]
“……”
[…Beginning synchronization.]
[Welcome. Survive in Eternity, a world where mystery and fantasy coexist.]
.
.
.
*Tick-tock—*
In the room where only the second hand of the clock moved noisily.
The chair, still warm from a person’s presence. The half-eaten cup ramen on the table, the monitor that was never turned off—all of it illuminated the now-empty space.
And so, Lee Haesol, the first person to clear Eternity Sword Saint Chronicle, vanished from the face of the Earth without a trace.
—
…I woke up, and I was inside the game.
It’s a classic, beloved trope in academy stories because it’s convenient and makes it easy to create satisfying moments.
But I never imagined I would experience that trope myself.
“Shit. Does this even make sense?”
I tore at my hair, but that wouldn’t change the cold, hard reality.
Three days.
That’s how much time had passed since I fell into [Eternity Sword Saint Chronicle].
Well, honestly, up to this point, it was fine.
Because I was the only human who had seen the ending of [Eternity Sword Saint Chronicle], the world I had fallen into.
I knew all about the events that were to come, and I had more than enough ways to use that knowledge.
In other words, I was a man prepared to live the easy life.
“The problem is, I’m not the protagonist, a side character, or anything of the sort.”
I look in the mirror.
It’s me, the human ‘Lee Haesol’, completely unchanged.
In other words, this wasn’t ‘possession’; I had simply fallen in while sleeping.
It might not seem like a big deal, but this is a critical difference.
School ties, regional ties, family ties, a house, wealth. I had no foundation as a human being.
Even an extra has [Mana], but as the human Lee Haesol, I didn’t even have that. To put it simply, it was an ‘entry with absolutely nothing’.
“Damn it.”
Even generic mass-produced fantasy novels give you regression, possession, or reincarnation, but to be dropped in with such little effort.
Suddenly, the developer’s words came to mind.
─I created a game that no one can beat.
“You son of a bitch…”
No wonder it felt easier than I thought (?).
In other words, everything until now was just the tutorial, and the real game starts now.
“Crazy bastard, psycho bastard, maniac bastard…”
I wanted to twist the developer’s neck off, but that was physically impossible due to the distance.
First, I need to calm down… yeah, right.
There was no way I could calm down, but I decided to assess the situation coolly.
The place I was staying was the 4th floor of the [Eternity Academy] annex. I was here under the pretext of being a candidate waiting for the entrance exam.
All I had was the smartphone I was holding before I fell asleep and the body I was in.
No, there was one more thing.
=======Synchronization in progress 76%=======
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The message I had seen when I woke up four days ago was still floating in my vision.
The only difference was that the percentage, which had been 15%, had now climbed to 76%.
“It’s rising so damn slowly.”
*Vvvvving—*
As I was looking at what I assumed to be a status window, my smartphone buzzed loudly.
[Entrance Exam Candidate #386, Lee Haesol. Your exam time is 12:00 PM. Please enter the practical exam hall 10 minutes prior.]
There’s no need to so kindly inform me that I’m screwed…
“Should I go, or not?”
If I had my way, I’d ditch the entrance exam and everything else and run, but unfortunately, I couldn’t choose to give up on admission.
This damn game had the developer-certified ‘unbeatable’ tag on it.
It had a shitty setting where if you left the main characters to their own devices, they would automatically head towards a destruction ending.
If I wasn’t going to just sit back and wait for destruction, I had to get into the academy, one way or another.
‘But how?’
Logically, it was impossible for a human without mana to enter Eternity, a place that gathered only the most elite monsters from around the world.
No, the entrance exam itself isn’t the most important thing right now.
I looked out the window. The streets were bustling with people, even in the morning.
“Hey, you bastard! Aren’t you gonna move?! Are your tires busted!”
A bald man in the car behind was waving a ‘greatsword’ instead of a baton out his window because the car in front wasn’t moving.
“Ah, excuse me, sir. Can’t you see people are trying to get by?”
A young lady, who had bumped into someone while walking with earphones in, was getting angry herself while holding a ‘staff’.
“What’s your problem? If you bump into someone, you should apologize, right?”
And a salaryman, seeing her get angry, immediately took off his watch and started cracking his knuckles.
Besides them, people carrying weapons were a common sight on the streets. I saw enough and closed the window.
“I’m really screwed.”
As you can see, Eternity is a crazy world where no one bats an eye even if you walk around with a weapon in broad daylight.
Wandering around in a world rife with such barbarism without any mana?
The genre would instantly change from a strategy game to a survival game. This was a fate where I had to get into the academy, if only to survive.
A strategy game is at least better than a survival game.
“First, this damn bar has to fill up… huh?”
My eyes widened.
As if it had understood my words, the graph, which had just passed 80%, suddenly began to fill up rapidly.
81% 82% 83% 84%……
[…Synchronization complete.]
[Recognizing player…]
“What, could this be…”
Seeing the newly appeared notification window, I shot up from my seat.
I knew this format well. It was something I had been tinkering with just four days ago.
Familiar windows floated before my eyes. This was the ‘system’ of [Eternity Sword Saint Chronicle].
“Then, what comes after this is…”
My eyes gleamed at the situation that would follow.
Sure enough.
[Recognition complete. Player Lee Haesol.]
[Story Mode unlocked.]
[Beginner’s benefit of 1000 SP is granted.]
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Hi Lord Fourth here!
As always if you find some mistakes or inconsistencies let me know about it on the dedicated channel on discord.
