-Boom!

As my eyes flickered open, a deluge of bricks tumbled down before me with a resounding crash.

“Huh?”

This puzzled exclamation slipped out as a figure from behind propelled me forcefully onto my stomach.

“What the hell...!”

I attempted to swivel my head to identify my assailant, but...

-Boom!

Before I managed, another explosion, trailed by a massive tremor, engulfed me. It felt as though a bomb had detonated just inches from my face. Startled, I flattened myself even more against the ground.

Soon, the tremors dwindled and the ringing in my ears began to abate. I gingerly raised my head to examine my surroundings. What was going on?

Before me stretched a colossal brick fortification. Fires raged sporadically with plumes of smoke billowing out, cries and screams echoing all around.

The fortification wall adjacent to me was dissolving, as if liquefied by intense heat. Evidently, something akin to a bomb had gone off.

“What on earth is happening...?”

With a fearful mutter, I scanned the scene.

Individuals, donned in blood-drenched armor, scurried in all directions.

Cannons mounted on the fortification walls spewed fire in repetitive salvos, while people frantically brandished swords and loosed arrows over the walls.

What threat lay beyond those walls warranting such desperate retaliation? Hesitantly, I craned my neck to see.

And beyond the walls were,

“...!”

Monsters.

Skreee-!

Beasts resembling gargantuan spiders, significantly larger than humans, swarmed over the fortifications in a relentless wave, their chilling cries reverberating in the air.

There had to be hundreds, no, thousands of them.

Incredulous, I stood frozen.

What on earth is this?

“Is this some sort of dream? Or a hallucination triggered by something I ate...?”

“You can deny the reality all you want, but isn’t that a bit cliché, Your Highness?”

A grumbling voice emerged from behind me. It must’ve belonged to the person who had pushed me to the ground. I spun around, dazed.

There he was, a familiar young man.

"...Hmm?"

A remarkably handsome face looming close to mine in the midst of this horrifying battlefield only added to my disorientation.

The proximity was too overwhelming. I wished he’d give me some breathing room.

Beneath his shimmering blond hair, his bright blue eyes sparkled. His muscular frame was evident beneath his leather armor.

He bore an uncanny resemblance to a protagonist. Yes, just like a protagonist, but...

Hold on.

"...Lucas?"

Unconsciously, I found myself pointing at the striking man.

The resemblance was uncanny. He looked exactly like Lucas, the protagonist of ;Protect the Empire, the game I had been engrossed in just a little while ago.

The blond young man looked taken aback.

"So, you finally remembered my name. And here I thought you’d forgotten me, despite my faithful service as your knight escort.”

“Uh... what?”

Really, Lucas?

Wait a moment, if that’s true... Does this mean I’m in...

-Boom!

Once more, something careened in, causing a section of the fortification to crumble. I let out a scream and rolled on the ground. Somebody, please save me!

My screams of agony echoed in the air as I writhed on the ground. Please, someone, save me!

Lucas, his teeth clenched, rushed over and hoisted me up with force.

"Since you’ve likely forgotten again, let me remind you! We’re up against the ’Black Spider Legion’! Two hundred heavily armored siege units and nine hundred close-combat assault units! Our forward base is on the brink of collapse!"

"Uh-uh, uhhhhhh."

I was so overwhelmed I could barely articulate a response.

The Black Spider Legion was a breed of monster from "Defend the Empire". They were notorious for ruthlessly tormenting players from mid-game onwards.

Lucas issued a growl as his gaze swept over the fortress wall.

"But these damn creatures don’t function at sunset! The sun will set in about 30 minutes! How many times have I told you to remain inside the base buildings then...!"

It dawned on me then that the bombardment we were enduring was the siege attack from the Black Spider Legion.

-Boom!

-Crash!

Sparks flew in every direction, walls melted away, and the soldiers on the ramparts fell one after another, blood spraying everywhere.

"Damn it, this way!"

Lucas practically hoisted me up and dragged me into the base.

Despite the scorched and crumbling buildings within the base, it was a stark improvement from the nightmare outside.

After gently setting me down indoors, Lucas bellowed.

"Stay here until sunset! Don’t you dare step outside! Understood?"

"Uh-uh, yeah..."

I somehow managed a response.

"Thanks, Lucas..."

"...?"Lucas shot me a puzzled glance before darting back toward the wall.

What was with him? Was a simple thank you really that strange? What exactly was our relationship?

"Hmm."

I brushed off the dirt from my waist, a result of all the rolling, and looked around. I needed to understand the situation at hand.

"Ugh..."

"It hurts, it hurts so much..."

The base buildings were teeming with injured soldiers.

Their bodies were tightly bound with blood-soaked bandages, and their groans of pain filled the air. Each time the monsters’ cries echoed from outside, they squirmed in terror.

But something seemed to instill greater fear in the soldiers than the monsters.

"Yikes?!"

"Your, Your Highness?!"

...It was me.

As I approached the wounded soldiers, they recoiled in unison, laying flat on the ground.

"We’re sorry! We’re sorry! We have nothing to say!"

"We’re despicable for resting with such minor injuries! We’ll return to the battlefield, please spare us the execution!"

Execution?

What on earth were they talking about? I frantically waved my hands.

"No, you all seem hurt, I just wanted to help..."

"Do you intend to end our suffering by killing us?!"

"These injuries are nothing! We’ll return to the frontlines immediately! Ahhhhh!"

Before I could utter a response, the injured soldiers made their way toward the fortress walls.

"..."

Dumbfounded, I stood there, surveying the suddenly vacant building.

"...What the hell?"

First thing’s first, stay calm. Whether this is a dream or reality, I need to maintain composure.

The vacant room housed a lone chair. Without much thought, I flopped into it, massaging my throbbing forehead. I needed to organize my thoughts.

’Firstly, as preposterous as it may sound.’

I was trapped within the world of ’Protect the Empire’.

Yes, the very same game that I had recently conquered on the most challenging level.

The existence of the protagonist, Lucas, and the signature monsters, the Black Spider Legion, left no room for doubt.

I had no inkling of how I wound up here, but that was the current reality.

’So then, who am ’I’ in this place?’

I wasn’t the RetroAddict who earned a living by live streaming games in the real world. That detail seemed irrelevant now.

"Are you feeling any better, Your Highness?"

The people here addressed me as such.

Lucas, who had poked his head into the building from outside, asked me. I offered a weak nod.

"Uh, I think I’m okay..."

"The sunset has started. The Black Spider Legion is beginning to withdraw. They’ll likely set up a blockade soon."

Lucas, wiping the blood smeared on his cheek, let out a sigh.

"Somehow, we’ve survived yet another day. Who can predict what tomorrow brings..."

My eyes settled on Lucas’ face.

Observing him in the flesh, as opposed to the pixelated figure on my computer screen, felt both astounding and peculiar.

But there were matters of greater importance than scrutinizing a man’s face. I slowly rose from the chair.

"Lucas, what about the wounded?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, the wounded soldiers who were in this room. They all scattered when I walked in. Where are they now?"

"They all ran out at your entrance, so they’re stationed at the wall now."

The color drained from Lucas’ face.

"Your Highness. Did the soldiers offend you in some way?"

"No, it’s not that."

"Please pardon them. Any soldier capable of wielding a weapon is invaluable right now. We can only maintain morale by executing soldiers up to a certain extent..."

"No, I said I won’t execute them! I won’t take their lives! Why does everyone perceive me as a murderous tyrant who slays people as easily as swatting flies?!"

At my outburst, Lucas’ eyes bulged as though he had just experienced an epiphany.

Cold sweat trickled down my back. Was it really true? Was I that type of person? The kind who guillotines subordinates for amusement?

"Listen, I won’t harm them... Let them rest here."

Lucas looked at me, confusion etched on his face.

"Huh?"magic

"Sunset is nearing. It will get cold soon. Light the stove and let the injured rest here. They need to recuperate if they are to fight tomorrow."

"Uh...okay..."

"And you, we need to talk."

As I stepped outside, Lucas’ voice trembled as he spoke to me.

"Your Highness, perhaps..."

"Hmm?"

"Will you be executing me instead of the soldiers?"

"No, I won’t kill anyone, I’ve told you already!"Just who on earth had I been?

***

The gusts howling across the city walls were frigid.

They swept across my face, a bone-chilling winter wind.

And the wind of the night. Coldness was expected, but there was an additional element.

"..."

Gradually, I took in my surroundings.

Death.

Death was ubiquitous. Monster carcasses were piled beneath the wall, and human bodies strewn on top.

The aura of death radiated a cold far sharper than the winter or night.

"Lucas, what’s the time now, and where are we?"

I asked, standing at the edge of the wall, struggling to suppress the nausea brought on by the overpowering stench of blood.

Lucas, stationed behind me, appeared confused by my question, but he responded distinctly.

"It is the final day of February in the year 649 of the Empire. We are at the forward base of the fortress city of Crossroad."

"...So tomorrow would be the first day of March, 649."

"That’s correct."

I gritted my teeth.

Year 649 of the Empire, March 1st. Monster frontline base.

A very familiar time and place.

Why wouldn’t it be? Over the last six months, while engrossed in ’Protect the Empire’, I had to play the ’tutorial’ at this time and place hundreds of times.

’So that’s why the situation felt so eerily familiar...’

I had conquered ’Protect the Empire’ on Hell mode with Ironman mode activated.

Ironman mode permitted only a single save slot throughout the game.

And the game automatically overwrote progress onto that slot. This meant that save scumming was out of the question.

But what if the entire game situation became an insurmountable challenge?

You had to abandon the current game and begin anew.

Viewers nicknamed this process of restarting from the beginning a ’new Earth’ or a ’new Empire’. I maintained a tally of the number of restarts.

And the time I completed the game was on the 742nd Earth.

Which meant I had failed 741 times, and replayed the tutorial map 742 times. I couldn’t help but know the tutorial like the back of my hand.

’Tomorrow, the prologue of ’Protect the Empire’, the tutorial stage kicks off.’

The tutorial is straightforward.

It introduces the world and the game’s control system, and...

Everyone except Lucas meets their end.

"..."

I had glossed over the storyline hundreds of times, but recalling it now, I remembered everything.

Simultaneously, I also recognized who ’I’ was.

"So, I am ’Ash’."

"Pardon me?"

"My name. Ash. Ash ’Born Hater’ Everblack." (TL Note: His nickname in Korean is 본헤이터 and in English we just call them haters. Much like Taylor Swift has a song about haters, there’s a Korean song about them too: https://com/watch?v=3s1jaFDrp5M)

Lucas gazed at me as though I was stating something self-evident, but I was deadly serious. I gritted my teeth and tugged at my hair.

"Why did it have to be this despicable character of all people?!"

The Empire’s maniac, the Third Prince.

The most incompetent leader who foolishly dragged the majority of the fortress city’s forces to the forward base, leading to their complete wipeout.

And, the character who endures the most horrifying end in the tutorial.

Ash ’Born Hater’ Everblack.

In the main game, he’s a minor character, a throwaway extra who dies as soon as he appears.

’I was yanked into this game world, and of all people, I have to be this bastard?’

That was the exact moment I grasped the identity of my ’self’.

-Ding!

A familiar, albeit cheap, sound effect echoed, and a transparent window materialized before my eyes.

[STAGE 0]

Objective: Survive the monster onslaught

Reward: ???

It was a system window I had seen countless times before.

Indeed, it was identical to the interface of ’Protect the Empire’, the game I was immersed in just moments ago.

"..."

That’s when it truly hit me.

I had indeed been thrust into the world of the game,

And this game was an absolute piece of shit.

"Uh, Your Highness. Are you okay?"

Lucas gazed at me with concern as I blankly stared into the void.

"...Lucas."

"Yes, Your Highness."

I rigidly turned my head towards Lucas, and I whispered in a hushed tone.

It was a sentence delivered with passion, sincerity, and intensity.

"We’re fucked, fuck."

--TL Notes--

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