Chapter 1
In the darkness, a man in a hooded robe rises to his feet.
Before him, a white-haired woman was stabbing her party members in the stomach with a dagger, wearing a broken smile.
She was beautiful.
Her white hair was soaked in blood and dyed scarlet, and even though madness had twisted her face, her beauty had not faded. That much was proof.
With the sound of a blade piercing flesh, the woman murmured through her tears.
“I told you not to look at me. If only you hadn’t looked at me. You said you trusted me…”
The woman murmured in a flat, broken voice as she plunged her knife into the cold corpse of someone already dead,
“...Heehee...”
Then she laughed like an innocent child, and her neck turned a hundred and eighty degrees.
With a crack, her body made a sound no human body should make, but she twirled her head around and around as if she didn’t care at all.
Her gaze fell on the man, and he drew his sword.
Soon, blood burst forth as a horrifying monster sprang from beneath her skin—
[GAME OVER]
[You have obtained Ending No. 92 – Too Much Understanding Breeds Poison]
[NEW RECORD!]
[You made it about 75% of the way to an ending!]
“...Ha.”
What a fucking piece-of-shit game. I’m not even angry anymore.
I slowly lowered my headset, and the familiar title logo appeared before my eyes.
<Dark Fantasy Saga>
Dark Fantasy Saga.
A story about setting out on a journey to restore a ruined world.
A game with perfectly rendered heroine illustrations and a superb story.
A game with an exquisite balance between academy life and combat.
With its gorgeous graphics, stunning illustrations, and even flawless interactivity, the game earned endless praise. People said it was like bringing a well-made TRPG to life as a video game.
Its only flaws were a godawful difficulty that seemed designed to screw you over, and a hopeless, joyless story that felt like it was written by someone who’d only ever read literary fiction.
A heroine? Dead. A character with a beautiful illustration? Dead within thirty minutes of showing up. You could feel the developers’ determination to kill absolutely everyone.
And if you died, your save file was erased. What an absurd difficulty level.
Thanks to that, even ten days after its release, not a single person had seen the true ending of Dark Fantasy Saga.
First off, the game is so well-made that even if I do nothing, everything goes to shit.
As if to reflect the fact that a person only has one body, whenever I solve one problem, all the other problems I leave alone erupt as if on cue.
And as if to let you savor that joy, there are dozens of bad endings alone.
That’s not all.
True to its dark fantasy label, every character starts off with a negative trait and an ability.
The idea is that powerful abilities bring about negative traits.
“...How am I supposed to know when a negative trait is going to flare up?”
If a negative trait flares up badly, the character turns into a monster.
What was it again? Something about great power coming with great drawbacks, according to the setting.
Basically, powerful abilities bring about negative traits.
For a straightforward example, one of my companions can breathe fire, but their negative trait is pyromania.
And this friend who just blew up my latest save has a beautiful face, but goes berserk and kills everyone if anyone looks at her.
I slept without looking at her. If my character didn’t look, shouldn’t that be the end of it? How am I supposed to control my companions too? Seriously.
If someone has a pretty face, isn’t it only natural to look?
Anyway, thanks to the amazing graphics and lifelike characters, the game was overwhelmingly well-received at first. Then people got a taste of its bitterness and reviewed it, and now it’s only rated positive.
Of course, thanks to that, a lot of people—including me—have suffered, shared information on the community board, and gone through hell trying to see an ending.
Still, I should be proud of what I’ve accomplished.
<75% complete. No questions.>
<Nickname: ShittyGame>
[Attachment: 75% progress]
ㄴHow'd you do that?;
ㄴThis guy’s seriously possessed... The bastard posts about the game at two in the morning and two in the afternoon...
ㄴWhat a masochist... But he’s the fastest one to figure out the walkthrough...
ㄴWhat build are you using?
ㄴBro plz help me, I got stuck at 24%.
ㄴㄴNoob
I stared at the community board.
75%.
I could say this with confidence: of everyone playing Dark Fantasy Saga, I’d made the most progress.
The highest percentage I’d seen lately was around 56%.
Right. I should at least share the information.
As I thought that and put my hands on the keyboard, I noticed a new message window on the title screen.
<You have collected 50 endings. A bonus has been granted.> A bonus?
I knew this game had an ending collection feature, but I didn’t know there was a bonus.
Actually, now that I think about it, it makes sense.
How else are you supposed to beat a game like this without a guide?
Of course there should be a bonus.
“...Phew.”
Still, it gives me a little hope.
I opened the internet browser again.
<There’s a bonus for collecting endings.>
<Nickname: ShittyGame>
[Title screen attachment]
I should let people know.
I posted it, then turned my attention back to the game screen.
Right. Let’s try again. I can do this.
When I clicked the <New Game> window, another window appeared—so familiar I never wanted to see it again.
The window asking me to allocate my stats.
[Health: 7]
[Mentality: 7]
[Agility: 7]
[Luck: 7]
[Available points: 10]
“...Oh.”
It really is a bonus.
Normally, the base stats assigned to characters in Dark Fantasy Saga are all 5.
And you only get 5 points to allocate.
In other words, with the bonus applied, you get about 10 extra stat points.
And I put all those extra points into one stat without a second thought.
[Health: 7]
[Mentality: 17]
[Agility: 7]
[Luck: 7]
[Available points: 0]
“I’m never going through that shitty stuff again.”
A low mentality stat means a weak mind.
I could somehow twist my way through combat, but the events caused by low mentality were all enough to send my blood pressure through the roof.
Killing yourself out of grief after seeing your lover’s corpse, killing yourself because your hometown was destroyed, hearing voices and abandoning your companions to run away, and so on.
On top of that, stats barely increase in this game.
Mentality-boosting items are especially rare—you’re lucky if you find one at all.
I realized that I needed to keep my mentality stat high to avoid deadly instant-death events and negative effects.
I finished allocating my stats in just ten seconds and pressed the next button. A new window appeared.
<You may start with either one sword art or one spell learned.> Dark Fantasy Saga has countless spells, sword arts, and skills.
And you can start with one sword art or spell.
Well, I should use my usual build.
As I thought that and scrolled down, an unfamiliar name caught my eye.
“...Cursed Swordsmanship?”
I know this one.
Ah, I remember.
Cursed Swordsmanship.
It was the sword art used by the miniboss I’d just fought. I mean, literally just now.
True to its name, it boasts insane damage, but using it also drains your own health and mentality.
I got hit by this once, and one of my party members died instantly. I had to start all over.
“...”
No, this is an opportunity.
What if I ditch all these shitty companions and clear the game on my own?
I maxed out my mentality, so most mental attacks probably won’t work on me.
Can’t I just learn this sword art and chug potions forever?
I can farm money however I need to, anyway.
“...”
I’ve decided. This is the build I’m going with.
[You have learned Cursed Swordsmanship.]
Good.
I leaned back and checked my character’s stats.
[Health: 7]
[Mentality: 17]
[Agility: 7]
[Luck: 7]
[Available points: 0]
[Trait: Cursed Swordsmanship]
Good.
This time will be different.
I’ll ditch all those shitty companions and live a new life without any negative traits.
If it goes wrong, I can just start over.
I pressed the <GAME START> button.
<Welcome to Dark Fantasy Saga.>
Along with that tediously familiar welcome message,
-Thump.
My body crumpled to the floor as I grew dizzy.
“...?”
What’s going on?
I couldn’t move my body. My vision was blurry.
Wait.
I knew this feeling.
Something I’d only ever seen in novels and manga...!
“No...”
Despite my murmur, my consciousness sank into darkness.
“...Get up.”
“...”
I heard a voice.
“...I said get up.”
“...”
My body felt heavy, and my head hurt.
“I said get up!”
“Khuh!”
A loud voice, followed by sudden pain in my solar plexus.
I felt the cold floor against my cheek.
When I opened my eyes, a hulking boy was standing proudly before me.
“You showed up all cool and I thought you’d be something, but what’s this?”
“...?”
Wait. What’s going on?
I slowly got to my feet.
Sunlight shone through the glass windows. A beautiful medieval-style hallway. And a sword scabbard strapped to my waist.
"..."
I knew this place.
Genua Academy, where the daily-life portion of Dark Fantasy Saga takes place.
And the hulking boy standing before me, staring at me.
I knew this boy too.
Benjamin, the prologue’s villain—the third son of a baron who was on the verge of being disowned by his family because of his behavior.
His end was... No. Now wasn’t the time for that.
My mind raced and came up with an answer.
This was familiar.
That’s right. This was the prologue.
The prologue where you learn the basics of combat, and get a taste of what kind of game this is.
It felt like the game was telling you, “If you’re going to get a refund, do it now.”
But the biggest problem was,
“...”
I turned to look behind me.
A girl stared at me with big, round eyes.
I knew that girl.
Lydia Straw.
A candidate for sainthood, and one of the bosses in the main story.
And the prologue took place one year before the main story.
“...This is bad.”
“What did you say?”
The boy frowned at my mutter.
I turned to look at the boy, then looked toward the window.
An endlessly clear sky, and the reflection of the boy’s bewildered face.
Black hair and red eyes.
For all that this was a fantasy world, he had a beautiful face.
I knew this face. No, I knew it so well it was familiar.
I’d seen it countless times while restarting the game.
Aiden Starfive.
The protagonist of this game’s prologue.
Wait a second.
If he was the prologue’s protagonist...
Before I could even process the situation, a translucent window appeared before my eyes.
[Your negative trait has manifested!]
[You have been ‘Isolated’!]
[However, your formidable mental fortitude fiercely resists the negative trait!]
[Only part of the negative trait has been applied!]
[Stigma has activated!]
Wait, this is...
Before I could even figure out what was happening,
the air grew heavy.
The atmosphere around me changed.
Even though I was the cause, I could tell something had changed.
It felt as though something grotesque had settled over me.
And I wasn’t the only one who noticed the change.
“...What?”
The boy who’d been looking at me froze.
What was happening? I wanted to know too.
For now, this seemed dangerous, so I should tell him not to come any closer.
I reached out to stop him.
Wait, don’t come any closer.
“Move and I’ll kill you.”
[Stigma is active!]
...Huh?
“...What are you talking about?”
And as if my words had bruised the pride of an adolescent boy, he raised one eyebrow.
The boy came closer to me.
“What was that? You were just getting your ass kicked!”
No, I told you not to come closer.
“Do my words sound like a joke to you? I said I’d kill you.”
No. What is this? I didn’t say that.
The moment he heard me, his face turned bright red, as if he couldn’t hold back his anger.
“You little shit...!”
He threw a punch at me.
I hadn’t thrown a punch since elementary school.
I squeezed my eyes shut and leaned back, instinctively grabbing something and swinging it.
What I grabbed and swung was the sword at my waist.
“Eek!”
With a strange cry, I shut my eyes and swung the scabbard to tell him to stay back,
[You use Cursed Swordsmanship!]
A translucent window appeared before my eyes again.
What people called a status window.
-Whooooosh!!!
The wind rose.
No, a gale erupted.
A violent wind blew as if it were tearing the space apart. Thankfully, my hand slipped, and it just missed the boy before slamming into the hallway wall.
At the same time,
-Crash!!! Bang!!!
The windows shattered with a tremendous noise.
Screams came from far away, and the girl behind me also covered her ears, screamed, and curled up.
Some people sat down on the floor, while others clung to the walls.
After the wind tore everything apart, a refreshing spring breeze blew through the shattered windows and the wrecked hallway.
Only I stood alone in the middle of the hallway.
“...”
I lowered my gaze to the scabbard.
I knew this technique.
The most basic skill in Cursed Swordsmanship: Gale.
...It was the boss’s most frequently used move to keep opponents at bay, but what was this?
When I turned around, the boy was sprawled on the floor.
I’m screwed.
I hurriedly started toward him, but
“...”
A status window appeared before my eyes again.
[Debuff: You have gained Muscle Cramps.]
[You receive a penalty to your action value for some minor actions. It will disappear on its own over time.]
I stopped at the tingling ache in my wrist and clenched and unclenched my fist.
It felt like I’d gotten a slight cramp.
No, this wasn’t the time for that.
I should ask if he’s okay. Is he hurt?
If his negative trait suddenly flared up now, I’d be the one in trouble.
I opened my mouth.
Are you okay?
“You piece of trash.”
I didn’t say that.
The boy looked up at me after hearing my words.
Our gazes met in midair.
I should apologize.
“No wonder your family cast you aside. You idiot. I feel nothing but pity for your parents.”
Benjamin froze at my words.
Of course, I froze too.
“...Eep...”
And behind him, a woman let out a hiccuping cry that sounded almost like a scream.
Could you please stop making this worse?
“Women should shut up.”
“Yes!”
No, I didn’t say it that harshly.