Prologue

You’ve reached the ending screen.

Congratulations!

You have achieved a through force of arms!

You will go down in the history books as a great conquering warlord, and will be revered for thousands of years!

“Finally… I’m awake… finally….”

A surge of emotion washed over me.

The past journey flashed through my mind like a beacon.

“It’s dark….”

A single tear rolled down my cheek.

You might say I’m overreacting.

But I wasn’t overdoing it.

The game I’m playing is a game where you choose one of 100 Lord characters to manage your own faction and compete with other lords to become the ultimate winner.

The most difficult character was undoubtedly the “Otto de Scuderia” monarch.

[Otto de Scuderia].

Difficulty : ★★★★★★★★★★★★★ (Nearly impossible to complete)

Even the developers who made “Territory Wars” acknowledged that Otto was the hardest character in the game, and it’s true.

His character stats are terrible, his surroundings are full of human trash, and the environment of his estate is a living hell.

That’s why, five years after the game’s launch, no one has ever beaten the game using Otto.

So everyone turned their backs on Otto.

A few old-timers and newbies tried to clear the game with Otto out of curiosity, but they all gave up after a while.

There were plenty of other good Lord characters to choose from, and there was no reason to stress over playing Otto.

But I was different.

‘I’ll break it somehow, I will.’

Obsessed with the aura, I began to research Otto’s character like crazy.

I went through a lot of trial and error along the way.

I lost count of how many times I died and how many times I replayed.

I did this for three years, in all my spare time, until I finally found the optimal build for Otto.

And today.

I finally succeeded in beating the game with Otto.

The first time in the world.

So you can imagine my excitement.

[Reminder: Do you want your achievement listed on the server?]

[Select: Yes / No]

With trembling hands, I pressed the button.

[Notification: Connecting with the server….]

[Notification: Your achievement has been registered!]

[Notification: Congratulations!]

[Notification: You have entered the Hall of Fame!]

The main screen of the official website came up, and the grayed-out portrait of my Otto character activated.

And underneath it, my nickname appeared.

[Otto de Scuderia]

2.

3.

The Hall of Fame is only available to the three highest point scorers among gamers who have completed the game for each character.

For the other characters, there were a lot of people playing and a lot of people who had cleared the game, so the rankings would go back and forth.

But not me.

Unless I released my optimized build, it was “very” likely that no gamer would ever clear the game with Otto.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see my nickname disappearing from the Hall of Fame any time soon.

Unless the game goes out of service.

‘None of you will ever realize that this piece of shit is actually a scam character. Whoo-hoo-hoo.’

Then.

[Notification: Hardcore mode is available!]

[NOTE: To play Hardcore Mode, click the skull on the main screen and hit the Start Game button!]

‘What, there was a hardcore mode, that can’t be right….’

I’ve never heard that “Territory Wars” ever having a hardcore mode.

The game doesn’t even support multiplayer, only a single campaign mode….

Furthermore, while the game did support save functions for resting, it was designed to delete all save files when a character dies.

In other words, there was no need for a hardcore mode.

Click.

Without thinking, I clicked on the skull mark in the center of the game’s start screen.

Boom!

The entire screen erupted in flames and a notification popped up telling me that Hardcore Mode had been activated.

Click!

Without thinking, I pressed the Start button.

[Notification: Hardcore mode has started!]

[Notification: The game is starting!]

[Notification: 3!]

[Notification: 2!]

[Notification: 1!]

And then a familiar scene unfolded before my eyes.