"You are ready for the reward. I am Yami. Lord of Darkness. The only Dark Lord."
The light was gone.
My hands can feel the flat green fields. My eyes don't want to open just yet. My eyes aren't open but the tears rained.
It felt nice to touch grass again. The red rocks leave lots of scars when resting back in that horrid world.
I saw a warrior once sleeping...only for the pebbles around to turn into sharp spikes and killed the sleeping brute.
Should I be happy? I left everyone else to die...
"So you took the first method of winning. Witness the fruits of your strat-"
"No! I shouldn't be alive...I'm weak! It wasn't a strategy!!!"
"You are alive. Accept what fate has given. You are the individual that stood over the bodies of all."
"I didn't use others to win... It's wrong!"
"It's right. Well then. Your mind is not ready for choosing a reward because of your self-pity. I will choose the reward myself. You lost the chance to ask anything."
"No one should be rewarded for surviving that world!"
"Are you saying your Father does not deserve the war medals he's earned?"
I remained silently enraged. I can't talk back. I've seen what happens.
"My father fought men! Demons are different. They are...saddistic. Joyful when others suffer. The rough skin reflects their brutality."
"You just described the gods of this universe! Since you'll keep arguing, I'll have to give you Perfect Courage."
"No!"
"Why refuse? You are heavily burdened with reoccurring events you could have prevented but too weak to prevent"
He's right. I don't want to have my experience in the demon world to be part of my everyday thoughts....
But.
"I'll lose my memories. I'm sure. You mages mess with memories too much."
" 'My experience in the Demon World made me strong'. Is that what you wanted to say?"
He took the words out.
"Also this is for calling me a mere mage."
My body was suddenly forced to kneel on the ground.
I couldn't handle the force pushing me down further. My hands starting digging through the flat ground fully buried. I'm trying to get up but I can't.
The images of the dead and brutalized warriors flashed before me as the pain returned. Each corpse painted in my memories.
"Alright if you don't want your mind to be at peace, I won't cast anything. You will stay that way until the end of my tale. Your reactions will prove to me if you are a player disguised as an NPC by the Game God."
I can't reply anymore. Did the old man take away my voice so that I can't interrupt??
I shouldn't have challenged the old man before. I made a stupid promise.
"Time for the story."
[Yami's perspective speaking to Sam.]
100 years ago I pre-registered for a game. It's either 2030, 2031 or 2029. I've lost a few Earth memories.
You probably won't understand as an NPC. I've heard words though an NPC wouldn't say.
Ah I see now within your soul. Player travelers are very loud. You've remembered their chitchat.
I used to be like that. It was a cool element to chant your specials and spells. I used to be so loud talking to NPCs. I cussed a lot at them because I knew they didn't have feelings and they would just repeat dialogues if you've already activated their special dialogues.
Game God changed that and gave many a "few" feelings.
The next time I cussed at an NPC, I was in the village jail.
The pre-registration bonus was sh**. It was 10,000 coins and I wasted it to buy the best sword possible. A greatsword.
I originally chose Necromancer Class but I bought a sword anyway incase mana ran out.
My first skill was "Summon Dark Slime". It was a skill better than summoning a zombie.
Slimes are not the weakest in this game. In fact, there used to be a strong slime before.
You are probably asking what's the name of the game? What even is a game?
You won't believe it but...the game is called "Endless Possibility". It could be a name for a skill instead. It's a really a bad name for the game.
Lame name. I said the exact same thing over and over to the Game God after we met.
Game God says it's a genius name. The "endless" will capture the attention of players and think about multiple mechanics they've always wanted to see in a game.
When I entered the game it was broken because the "endless" part was just too much.
Very small details were possible though like picking out flowers and every building could be destroyed.
Of course the spawn point of players couldn't be destroyed. Someone attempted to and then got kicked out of the game and banned forever.
I think those who got banned got their life back. They shouldn't spend too much time on a game.
My character, well I don't want to admit I died... My character died about three times on the first day of the game.
It was prompted before to choose 'Villain' or 'Hero' and one of the side quests would be to kill any player opposite to your role.
I made that functionality disappear because the ratio of heroes to villains was unbalanced in favor of the heroes. It is likely you don't understand what a ratio is.
Just think about the number of villains compared to the number of heroes. Too many heroes.
It was hard to grind as a 'Villain' with 'Heroes' around. Many heroes didn't have a single chivalrous value.
There was a male 'Villain' imprisoned in a 'Hero' household. The respawn point for that 'Villain' was set inside the basement of the household.
The skill to set respawn locations is now a forbidden skill. That I have of course. Any player can assume how the 'Villain' was treated. As absolute s***.
It's ridiculous to assume people only have 2 sides and are restricted to choices and actions according to that side.
Game God agreed and showed me scenes of a**hole heroes.
'Heroes' that killed those on their side out of jealousy for mere armor sets. Heroes that took women...forcefully.
Heroes that visit villages with the goal of killing every NPC then loot them. They repeat the same massacre the next time the NPCs respawn.
The NPCs smiled while seeing their "loved ones" die. Their faces used to be static that it fed the saddistic.
Humans enjoy games in different ways...sometimes unnatural ways.
I killed around twenty of these f***ers then I realized they just come back from the dead. They rebuild their character to do the same sins. They are ruthless and restless. Players such as they don't deserve to play this game.
This game is the ultimate dystopia for every villain but instead the heroes cause the dystopia. The number of heroes who became "unheroic" kept increasing. That was further reason to dismantle the villain-hero prompt.
Of course it took me a long time to meet the gods. It took around 5 Earth years so there are some prehistoric game lore I should have started with instead of jumping around my memories.
Let's start with my first full in-game day. You'd understand it as one sunset.