Chapter 1: I Realized My Past Life

Cover Fold

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[Record]

▶ 999th Bad Ending

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Shunk—

I plunged my sword into the Demon King’s heart. Her trembling gaze swept over me.

“H-How.”

Her eyes were filled with endless injustice. Well, she had every right to feel wronged. After all, in the party, I must have looked like a mere porter. For such a porter to suddenly leap out and stab her, the Demon King, in the heart, it was understandable she’d be utterly bewildered.

“An act.”

“…What?”

“It was an act. To deceive you.”

“A-An act?”

“Yes. Was it around the 900th regression? That’s when I discovered it. You have a tendency to look down on porters.”

That was the only weakness of the Demon King I had found.

“B-But they! Didn’t they truly treat you like a porter!”

The Demon King pointed at my party members, as if to say it was unfair.

“Yeah. They also think I’m just a porter.”

“What did you say?”

“I joined the party as a porter from the very beginning.”

The Demon King, with eyes that could pierce the abyss. The play staged to deceive her was now slowly drawing to a close.

“To think you became a porter just to deceive me! Even if you slay me, no one will ever acknowledge you! That’s what humans are like!”

“I don’t care.”

“What?”

“I said I don’t care. As long as I can stop this f*cking regression.”

I’ve poured my life into this. To stop watching my precious characters die over and over. To see the end of this f*cking dark fantasy. Being treated as a porter for one regression?

“That’s nothing.”

Because now I can finally cut you down. At the end of the 999th regression. Finally. I put strength into the wrist holding the sword.

Grind—

As the sword twisted clockwise, the Demon King finally coughed up a gush of black blood. It was at that moment.

“Get away, porter!”

My shoulder was roughly pulled back. A heavy impact shot through my backside, and by the time I came to my senses, I was falling to the ground.

Splash—

I was thrown into the muddy water. The dirty mud that soaked my body also stained the red hair of the woman who had pulled me.

“Tsk…”

She clicked her long tongue. Her long, vertically slit pupils scanned me from within mysterious green eyes.

A tall stature and a heavy presence. The Dragon king, Kiadryss Sol. As the only recruitable Dragonkin in the game, she was one of the characters I had invested the most effort into. Kiadryss looked down at me, thrown on the ground.

“…How. How did a mere porter like you manage to stab the Demon King?”

“Stop talking nonsense and finish the Demon King.”

I didn’t even have the strength to stand up. Gasping for breath, I looked around and saw the astonished heroes.

With brilliant blonde hair as if woven from sunlight and red eyes like jewels forged from blood, Imperial Princess Aira Vermouth was staring at me, not even wiping the blood flowing from her forehead.

The girl with cherry blossom-pink hair that looked fluffy even when disheveled, the genius mage Yudit Belua. She was holding onto her large, constantly slipping staff with trembling hands, her eyes wide.

Roxina, who would normally not even be in sight. The fact that her black hair and long ears, one of the continent’s top assassins, were visible, needed no words to explain how exhausted and surprised she was.

“Everyone, snap out of it.”

A cracked voice came from my throat. It didn’t matter. Tales of Legend. This dark fantasy game, boasting an insane difficulty, doesn’t allow even the slightest lapse in attention. The moment you think you’ve made it, an arm flies off. The moment you think it’s safe to relax a little, a comrade dies.

In such a game, I’m finally on the verge of ending the Demon King’s life.

“Hurry up and end its life.”

The Demon King. The Demon King that I had to regress 999 times to save you all from. Please, just end its life. That is the only ending I’ve longed for. The ending I dreamed of while doing all sorts of chores and providing mental care for the heroes as the party’s porter.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

My heart pounded as I saw the Demon King clutching her chest and vomiting blood. Look at that. Her posture is perfect for it. Just behead her or stab her heart once more.

“Kiadryss. Aira. Yudit. Roxina.”

Let’s see the ending already. The moment I was about to open my mouth to smile at them.

— Beeeeep

My vision turned pitch black. A sudden ringing filled my ears.

“…What the.”

By the time I realized my own muttering sounded muffled, like an echo underwater. Along with faintly heard screams, a cold.

“I can’t let that happen.”

A chilling voice, like a paper cut on a fingertip, was heard.

“The great Demon King must be eternal.”

My vision went black.

***

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[Record]

▶ Playback of the 999th Bad Ending ‘Betrayal’ has ended.

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Kim Ian, who was checking his past play records, looked away from the monitor with a deep sigh.

“Sigh. What’s the point of watching this again.”

As he casually mashed the back button, the game’s title screen appeared once more.

『Tales of Legend』

TeLe for short.

It was a dark fantasy game with an insane difficulty that was popular about 10 years ago.

The kind of game that seems peaceful on the surface, but then a flood of unbelievably difficult hardships pours down from a certain point.

Its appeal of allowing players to interact with character AIs using a microphone was a huge hit, gaining sensational popularity.

Yes. Strictly in the past tense. Because TeLe went down the drain fast. The crazy difficulty was a problem, but the worst part was something else. The payment system. At first, it was renowned for being a generous, god-tier game.

“From the start, it was designed so you could get heroes with just effort.”

Heroes you’d have to pay real money for in other gacha games could be collected in TeLe with just effort. Developing them was also manageable if you invested a little more time instead of money. Peaceful and enjoyable days continued, making the dark fantasy setting unbelievable. As if this fun and happiness would last forever. …. And then.

[ EP 1. Solar Eclipse ]

Disaster strikes. In the name of the main scenario. Monsters invade, and monstrosities run rampant. People start dying. There are no exceptions. Not even the heroes the player painstakingly raised, even talking to them directly.

[ Would you like to regress to before the start of the main scenario? (1000 Fragments of Memory consumed upon regression) ]

The cash shop window suggests. Asking if you’ll buy the lives of the dead heroes. Asking if you’ll buy back the time you invested and the affection you gave them with that small amount of money.

“…What a trash game.” You curse it, but you still buy. You have to. Otherwise, the images of the dead heroes won’t leave your mind. A deranged payment system that sells trauma. To make you grow attached to characters in a peaceful prologue, and then pour down disaster to kill the characters you worked so hard to raise.

The payment structure, where you had no choice but to spend real money to save the characters, was the worst of the worst. Are characters just a plausible combination of 0s and 1s? Mere digital scraps? What does that matter? When the kids I’ve grown attached to are dying. I spent money and became penniless, like I was possessed. Not only did I blow all my savings, I even worked part-time jobs later just to spend more on the game…

》 Total Currency Purchased: 31,323,000 Won

》 Playtime: 39,312 Hours

(TL: 31,323,000 Won is approximately $23,000 USD)

“If I hadn’t quit, I would’ve really ruined my life.”

I can’t exactly praise my 7-years-ago self’s decisiveness for quitting so boldly after tens of thousands of hours…Because even the reason I quit TeLe, which I had poured my life into, was because of TeLe.

The 999th regression, where I was grandly betrayed right before killing the Demon King. I scraped together every penny I had to start the 1,000th regression and faced reality. The heroes, who, as always, had no memory of the previous regression. And the real-money purchases they demanded.

— ‘Infinite Mage’ Rinea requests an audience.

— “U-Um, Player? For my magic research this time, I need an item called ‘Goddess’s Tear,’ could you… could you sponsor me?”

— System: Open consumable item package containing ‘Goddess’s Tear’? (Acquisition Rate 0.8%, 10,000 Won per 10 attempts)

— “To protect you, I need an even sharper sword.”

— System: Open equipment package containing Radiant King’s Sword (SSS)? (Acquisition Rate 0.1%, 30,000 Won per 10 attempts)

— “For my birthday present this year, I wish to receive this.”

— System: Open special accessory package containing Heinrich’s Earring (SSR)? (Acquisition Rate 0.03%, 50,000 Won per 10 attempts)

Every time I regressed, I had to invest money in the characters, and it became difficult to even secure those funds.

— All requests have been declined.

— The characters are greatly disappointed.

They have no memory of my regressions. If I can’t provide for them in the present, their hearts will also leave.

In that moment, a wave of fatigue washed over me. Constantly sponsoring them. Figuring out which one of them is the traitor. And raising the characters again with such suspicions.

It felt like all my efforts, struggling for tens of thousands of hours to save everyone, had become futile in an instant. And so, I quit TeLe.

“What a sucker.”

Looking back now, seven years after quitting, my past self was undoubtedly a fool. No matter how much I empathized with the characters, does it make sense to pour that much time and money into them? Does it? I quit the game, but it felt like a waste to delete it.

— Insufficient storage space remaining on device.

But today, it’s goodbye to even that. To me now, TeLe is just a game that’s needlessly taking up space. On my device, and in my mind.

“…Still, since I’m here, maybe I should check the lobby.” I moved the cursor and went to the lobby. For a game I’d spent 30 million won on, an empty lobby greeted me. A half-open window. A cracked table and chairs, as if their durability had run out. The place where the heroes I raised should have been gathered was conspicuously empty.

Well. It’s been 7 years since I quit the game. If anyone was still here, it wouldn’t be out of loyalty, but because that hero was an idiot. Even my last moments before quitting TeLe were filled with their complaints, so there’s no way they would have stayed.

“What was I expecting.” The corner of my mouth twitched up, but the smile tasted bitter.

[ Are you sure you want to delete? (Y/N) ]

Without hesitation, I pressed Y to pay my respects. The deletion progress bar appeared. Goodbye, TeLe. I had regrets, but it was fun.

… I had barely replayed that beautiful farewell message in my head for a moment.

“…Why isn’t it progressing?” The deletion process was stuck at 0%, not moving at all. Soon after, an illustration appeared in the deletion window.

[ You probably have nothing better to do, so why not play some more? ]

“What?” Confused for a moment, I soon understood. It’s a common pattern. When you try to delete a game, characters pop up and pitifully ask if you’re really going to delete it. But for that, isn’t this too sullen? The next dialogue box appeared after I randomly pressed the Y key.

[ No. It’s just that someone got caught in the dimensional magic. ]

[ R-R… Really? ]

“…?” What is this trash game? They couldn’t even make a proper deletion window? I was briefly baffled by the skit happening beyond the screen. Then, a dialogue box with a drastically changed tone appeared.

[ Ian…? Is that you, Sir Ian? ]

Ian. My name, and my TeLe character’s name. When I pressed the Y key, a seemingly tearful dialogue box responded from beyond.

[ It… It really is you. I’ve been waiting. I’ve been waiting all this time. ]

It’s a rather pity-inducing line.Enough to make me feel like I’d be scum if I deleted the game now. However. I’ve already been hardened. I just mashed the Y key without a second thought. Just delete it already.

[ W-Wait. I waited. For 7 years, without missing a single day. Th-This… I even developed dimensional magic…! ]

Ah. So that’s the concept. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel emotionally invested. There’s no illustration, so I don’t know who it is, and there’s no chance it’s one of the characters I raised. They were the ones who got disappointed and criticized me for not being able to sponsor a small item.

“There’s no way anyone would have stayed.”

That’s why the empty lobby wasn’t disappointing. Let’s delete it quickly.

[ Please, not yet, just a moment. I was wrong… I was wrong, so- ]

Ignoring the increasingly pathetic dialogue box, I pressed and held the confirm key.

— Deletion in progress … 13%

The percentage climbed quickly. Thousands of dollars and tens of thousands of hours disappeared just like that. No. It had to disappear.

***

— Clatter!

Ian Darkest, having rolled off the bed, awakened to his past life. The fact that he, who was being treated like cold rice as an illegitimate son of the family, was actually a modern person and had been transmigrated into a dark fantasy game.

“…What the f*ck.”