Chapter 1
“Ah, this fucking garbage game.”
There was this fucking garbage game.
Flashy character designs, a solid story, and a textbook setting.
A game with every element needed to become a hit.
And yet, there was a reason it had been branded a piece of shit...
“Why are there so many bugs?”
Bug.
An error that occurs in the process of running a program.
It was a phenomenon found fairly often in other games, too.
The types were varied, of course.
Clipping through walls, item duplication, levitation, stage skipping, and so on...
You could say there were more bugs than games in the world.
Bugs were something that could not help but exist as long as games were running.
So what was the problem?
‘Lanne & Grandia Academy: The Märchen.’
In short, Neugeume.
This game had far, far too many bugs.
Enough that every stage had a dozen or more lying around by default.
Despite all the advantages mentioned above, that was why I called Neugeume a fucking garbage game.
“But... maybe this is a charm now.”
A good, old-fashioned stink of shit.
Bugs were scattered everywhere, but none of them actually harmed the player.
Most were things with the unpleasantness removed—funny, or helpful to the user.
In a word, it had gone beyond the mountain of sheer hilarity.
This aspect went viral in the community, and the game shot to popularity in an instant.
The funny thing was, the developers seemed to know this too; declaring that they would preserve the game's original spirit, they announced they would not fix any of the bugs at all.
‘It’s just a crazy game.’
I had been a gamer for many years myself, but it was the first time I had seen a developer so brazenly announce they were going to cash in.
‘Well... that was four years ago now.’
Four years since Neugeume was released.
The game had settled into its place, and I too had played it consistently for four years.
I was something of a celebrity.
Not because I was simply good at the game or had reached number one across all servers.
Because I was the person who enjoyed this game in the strangest way possible.
[Username:PlayGamesToFindBugs]
[Total Playtime:14,032 hours]
I deliberately went around looking for bugs.
I found the bugs in the game, mastered them perfectly, and even incorporated them into my gameplay.
Perhaps because of my unusual playstyle, word of me spread in all sorts of ways.
[What is this guy's deal? How does he find stuff like this every time??]
[Whoa, he used the wall-clipping bug to skip an entire stage]
[He's so seasoned he's rotten, seriously lol]
[This guy's just the god of bugs lmao]
[If the old-generation bug master Fabre existed, then the new generation has BugFinderGame...]
The strategy guides I posted directly to the community received fervent attention.
Perhaps because of that, I was often invited to appear by famous streamers.
[Breaking) YesKyung's channel declares it will invite BugFinderGame master as a guest ㄷㄷ]
[For real? Is that the channel with three million subscribers?]
[Will he finally show his face in real life this time?]
[Probably not. Car-Camping Guy failed after doing the same thing]
[Same with Dabin, anyway, lots of people have had their offers rejected]
Of course, I turned down every offer to appear on a stream.
I just wanted to enjoy the game leisurely.
It wasn't really my thing to have things getting noisy all over the place.
Anyway, I was proficient in hundreds of bugs.
Starting with the wall-clipping bug I mentioned earlier, there was teleportation to specific coordinates, invulnerability in specific states, attacks that never missed, damage manipulation, and so on...
“At this point, I have to be a living legend.”
An idle mutter to myself.
Today, too, I booted up the game to upload a strategy guide.
‘Come to think of it, was this run my 1,000th exactly?’
The number of runs had reached 1,000 before I knew it.
I had repeated this routine for a full 14,000 hours.
Not normal gameplay, either, but gameplay dedicated to finding bugs.
“Neugeume...”
(Meaning ‘Lanne & Grandia Academy: The Märchen’)
It was a moment of overwhelming emotion and utter emptiness.
Even though I briefly came back to my senses, my hands kept clicking away.
I set up the play configuration.
[Difficulty:Impossible]
-Challenge the highest difficulty.
[Additional Option:Path of Hell (地獄道)]
-All spawned monsters remain in a berserk state.
-The difficulty of appearing hostile factions increases by 300%.
-All of the player's base stats are fixed at Grade E.
[Stories to Play:All]
-You must clear every character's story to see the ending.
-Story ‘Alice's Nightmare’ is applied.
-Story ‘Carmilla's Night’ is applied.
-Story ‘Don Quixote's Reverie’ is applied.
-Story ‘Javert's Iron and Justice’ is applied.
Setup complete.
Let's freaking go.
Just as I was about to move the mouse.
Ding-!
[Hidden Achievement Unlocked!]
[You have achieved the first 1,000th run since the game's release!]
[You are ranked first at present, and a perk will be awarded accordingly.]
A message appeared on the screen.
A quick read suggested it was giving me a perk to commemorate my 1,000th run.
My interest was piqued.
‘A perk... Maybe it'll give me some in-game currency? Or a multi-run package?’
What seasoned player wouldn't get excited by content they had never seen before?
After taking a screenshot of the achievement, I moved the mouse again.
A selection then appeared.
[Would you like to claim the perk?]
Yes/No
Why was it asking me this?
Of course I was going to accept it.
Click-.
Without giving it much thought, I clicked the button labeled [Yes].
And then, the next moment.
Fwoooosh-!
“Ugh...?”
Pure white light burst from the screen.
***
The price of that careless click came back cold and merciless.
“······.”
An unfamiliar sky.
I muttered without thinking.
“Fuck.”
I had let my guard down.
Who would have thought this was the buildup to possession?
***
“Phew... it's already been a month since then.”
I exhaled a sigh.
It had already been a month since I fell into the world of Neugeume.
“You really do see everything in this world.”
Tap tap-.
I tapped the air.
Immediately afterward, a blue window appeared before my eyes.
It looked exactly like the game's UI.
Ding-!
[Difficulty:Impossible]
-Challenge the highest difficulty.
[Additional Option:Path of Hell (地獄道)]
-All spawned monsters remain in a berserk state.
-The difficulty of appearing hostile factions increases by 300%.
-All of the player's base stats are fixed at Grade E.
The status window was displayed exactly as I had configured it.
I had been so flustered at first.
Ding-!
[Basic Stat Information]
-Strength:E
-Vitality:E
-Agility:E
-Mana Affinity:E
On top of that, having all my base stats fixed at Grade E had caused me trouble in all sorts of ways.
I recalled the short but eventful month.
“Well... somehow, I did survive until today.”
What was special about today?
It was the point when the original story began.
The day the main character and the other central characters entered the academy.
Only after enduring a long month had this day finally arrived.
‘Though this is only where it starts.’
I fidgeted with the academy recommendation letter in my breast pocket.
Yes, the real game began now.
[Difficulty:Impossible]
-Challenge the highest difficulty.
The difficulty of this world was Impossible.
As its name suggested, it was an atrociously brutal hard mode.
A mode where even the slightest mistake sent the world straight into destruction.
‘I have to stop it.’
On Impossible difficulty, clearing the game was absolutely impossible without knowing the strategy.
In other words, the world would be destroyed if I did not intervene.
Forget helping anyone else; I had to stop it simply to stay alive.
That's why I was planning to enroll in the academy, too.
‘First...’
There was somewhere I had to stop by.
A road I had to take before the academy entrance exam.
“The road is kind of creepy.”
A lonely road stretching onward.
It was the place where the player spawned upon starting their first run.
It was also where the prologue took place.
‘I need to find Lanne quickly.’
Lanne, the protagonist of this game.
On her way to the academy to take the entrance exam, she discovers people in danger.
A carriage attacked by cultists.
The righteous protagonist steps forward without hesitation to save them.
-And that was the prologue.
“Why can't I see them? Don't tell me they went off in another direction?”
A dense forest. There was nothing around but thick undergrowth.
There was only one road, wide enough for a carriage to travel.
Perhaps because the fog was so heavy, it was difficult to see clearly.
A thoroughly eerie landscape.
“Tch, if I don't find them, I'm screwed.”
I walked along the road.
Just as I was grumbling and scanning my surroundings.
“Oh.”
I found them.
I spotted silhouettes wavering in the distance.
An overturned carriage, with people standing beside it.
And something with a body three times the size of the carriage.
A girl was standing in front of the writhing monstrosity, blocking its path.
“Bingo.”
I approached.
As the silhouettes grew clearer, a sound began to ring in my ears.
-Everyone, run! I'll deal with things here somehow!
Lanne Kihano.
The protagonist of this world, known by the epithet ‘Don Quixote.’
As befitted an aspiring knight, her body was covered in plate armor.
‘She looks exactly like the illustration.’
Golden hair and softly gleaming violet eyes.
She was a beautiful girl who instantly seized the eye.
If there was a flaw, it was that she was frowning deeply.
Well, it couldn't be helped. Anyone would make a similar face with something like that standing in front of them.
‘So that's the prologue boss.’
The gatekeeper assigned to the prologue.
In an ordinary game, slimes or goblins would show up, but Impossible Mode was different.
-Grrrrrrr...
A bizarre cry. Hundreds of hands writhed.
Each of the horribly creepy hands held a grimoire.
Its one and only head was covered by a robe.
Its grotesque appearance inspired terror.
‘That's one vicious-looking bastard.’
On top of that, it was easily ten meters tall.
Its body was larger than three carriages put together.
Ding-!
[Name:The Reader]
-Species:Ghost
-Description:An enemy you cannot defeat. You should probably run.
The creature's name was ‘The Reader.’
A ghost that devoured lives and transcribed living things.
Users called it Jangbungi.
It was among the highest-ranking monsters in the Ghost category.
-Ghk, haa...!
Even before such a creature, Lanne did not retreat at all.
How many times had she already clashed with it?
Her pauldron was broken, and dirt covered her body, leaving her a mess.
Yet the protagonist's back remained turned toward the weak.
‘Now that's a hero's spirit.’
It was exactly the same cutscene I had seen so many times in the prologue.
The protagonist boldly pointing her spear before the trembling people.
Truly righteous.
‘Well... she can't win, though.’
At this point, Lanne could never defeat Jangbungi.
It wasn't a one-dimensional matter of weakness or strength.
It had been designed to make victory impossible from the outset.
‘A gimmick boss.’
You know the kind.
Boss monsters included specifically so players wouldn't fight them in the first place.
The ones that absolutely cannot be defeated for the sake of the story's presentation.
They were a fairly common sight in other games, too.
‘No matter what you do, you can't beat it.’
In reality, Jangbungi hadn't suffered even a scratch.
Lanne's spear techniques were blocked every time.
It was the same in the original game.
Evacuate the people and escape alive—that was the standard strategy.
‘Of course, I intend to use a shortcut.’
I stepped forward.
If you asked whether I had the power to defeat that thing, the answer was obviously no.
Go look at my stat window again before you say anything.
[Basic Stat Information]
-Strength:E
-Vitality:E
-Agility:E
-Mana Affinity:E
With stats like these, I could have a decent match with a passing farmer, let alone an academy cadet.
In short, I was a total weakling.
I didn't have the power to take it down.
But I did have a way to take it down.
Because there was a weapon that could transcend the limits of stats.
‘A bug.’
The things I had memorized, memorized, and memorized again in my previous life.
They worked exactly the same way in this world, too.
I picked up a twig from my feet.
-Grrrrr...?
Perhaps it sensed my presence, because Jangbungi looked this way.
Whether it did or not, I fiddled with the twig.
Because there was a bug that worked only on this boss.
‘Long time no see.’
Its armor stats were set to infinity.
It nullified all physical attacks and all magical attacks.
It had a ludicrous build with no such thing as a weakness.
But its base HP was only 1.
Since its defenses couldn't be pierced anyway, they had set its health pool thin.
‘I just have to force my way through.’
The bug I was about to use was an application of this mechanism.
I alternated holding the twig in my left and right hands.
I touched it three times with my left hand, and seven times with my right.
I repeated this process.
-Grrrrrrrr!!
In the meantime, Jangbungi designated me as its attack target.
Because it prioritized enemies with the lowest base stats.
My base stats averaged Grade E.
Meaning I was the weakest creature in this place.
Shrrrck-.
Hundreds of books flipped with a rustling sound.
Gloomy magical energy seethed around us.
“There! R-run...!”
Lanne looked at me with an expression that said, Oh no.
She looked ready to run over with her shield at any moment.
Even so, I remained calm.
“Hmm.”
There was a most basic bug.
A bug that could deal exactly 3 damage to any target, without fail.
It didn't matter if its armor was thick, its attribute mismatched, or it was protected by a blessing.
It applied unconditionally to any creature with a health bar.
‘If the damage is 3... it would take a full hundred hits just to kill a single slime, but.’
So, while it was easy to activate, there weren't many places to use it.
If there was one place where it could at least be useful...
“Hey, Jangbung-kun.”
If I kept gripping and releasing the twig, something strange would soon happen.
A heat haze shimmered along the twig, as if the surroundings were breaking.
The bug had manifested.
-Gaaaaaaaaah!!
Jangbungi let out a thunderous roar.
It looked ready to melt my flesh and bones right then and there.
Just before magical energy poured down over my head, I twitched a finger.
Twitch-.
When I scratched at the air, a swaying leaf stretched out.
The surroundings buckled like a glitching screen.
Crash-!
Cracks appeared as though a mirror had shattered.
The world broke into countless pieces.
Through the cracks splitting open here and there, only the void where nothing existed shimmered beyond.
It was an error born after twisting the laws of nature with a bug.
As space tore and the distance narrowed, the leaf lightly touched the monster's body.
“Got you.”
At that murmur, the shadow shattered into countless fragments.
The twig's heat haze spread like a spark landing in oil.
A single scream.
-Grr, grrrrrrr...!
Its body split into countless fragments.
It broke, and broke, and broke... until it was disassembled to the point that it could no longer be seen with the naked eye.
The concept of nothing devoured its existence, leaving behind only a stark white blank.
As if the graphite in a notebook had been erased with an eraser.
‘Annihilation (消滅).’
The gigantic body vanished without a trace, as though it had never existed.
The foul stench of magical energy and the thick fog both cleared away.
“Hoo...”
My field of vision brightened dramatically.
Sunlight shining through the clouds illuminated the area around me.
An effect that appeared only in special circumstances.
Ding-!
[Impossible Achievement Unlocked.]
-Defeat the prologue boss ‘The Reader’
-Reward:Evil God's Mask×1, Evil God's Robe×1, Grimoire That Should Not Exist×1
A perfect performance.
After briefly basking in my own brilliance, I soon heard a voice from behind.
“What... was that?”
Violet eyes stared blankly in my direction.
Golden hair glittered in the sunlight.
Our protagonist was completely stunned.
“How...?”
Our eyes met.
First impressions were important for things like this.
I smiled so she wouldn't be frightened.
Whooosh-.
A breeze happened to blow, sending my hair fluttering.
“Greetings.”
The remnants of the bug still clung to my fingertips.
A heat haze seethed as though it might buckle the forest.
Even against the backdrop shattering layer by layer, I merely stood there calmly.
The girl's violet eyes trembled as if overwhelmed.
“I'm just a passing traveler.”
It was the most gentlemanly greeting in the world.
A truly profound, hollow moment.