About 12 years after the release of a game, the community of players was bound to become bored to the point of accumulating some level of brain rot.
At that time, due to the lack of new content, players began engaging in different behaviors, such as wearing only low rank artifacts and clearing dungeons in the shortest time possible. Some even resorted to replaying the existing content over and over again until they had sucked it dry.
Among those players, there were those who even dared to go for the so-called 'shit-tier characters' that no one else would touch...
And I was one such person.
The game was called 'Nexus World'. It was released as a dating simulation game marketed towards women, but thanks to its flashy combat style, infinite content, and myriad of playable characters, this unique game had surprisingly attracted more male players.
Some of the characters were easy to play yet boasted the best performance, while others were completely garbage, with a level of difficulty so extreme that not even 10-year veteran players dared to touch them.
That's right.
And I was one if the person who had been playing the character 'Kael Virel', the one with an atrocious level of difficulty, worst performance, and more weaknesses than advantages, for a whole 12 years now. To be honest, I couldn't even comprehend why i created such character in the first place.
In the fantasy world of Nexus, where everything revolved around magic and everyone could wield it, Kael Virel was the only one who couldn't. Thus, the character had no popularity whatsoever and he was treated like an extra with almost no presence.
Of course, it did not mean that Kael Virel couldn't use any magic at all.
He could use only one magical skill called 'Shift.'
Shift was a skill that could be learned by anyone as long as they were a mage, but due to its long cooldown, excessive mana consumption, and a recoil after use, very few people used it.
Was that all?
No.
Basically, 'Shift' teleported one 'randomly' to a distance ranging between three meters to ten meters, and even the direction of teleportation was 'random'.
If one were really unlucky, he could end up crashing into the ground or even shooting through the ceiling or walls, leading to instant death.
In other words, Kael Virel was a character who couldn't use any magic except for the trash skill 'Shift' that no one ever learned or used.
Of course, there were some advantages. The character, Kael Virel. His Shift was at the highest level. He could adjust the direction of movement and move within a fixed range, while eliminating the skill recoil. Additionally, since Kael Virel didn't have any mana stat from the beginning, there was no need to worry about mana consumption.
But that was it.
In conclusion, the fact that he could slightly improve the trash skill 'Shift' was the end of it.
'Shift' was essentially a skill that allowed for extremely fast movement, so fast that if one smashed against a wall after failing to adjust the distance, they would die instantly due to the tremendous impact.
As such, when fighting in narrow spaces with many enemies in the vicinity, Kael Virel usually turned into a helpless half-wit.
For that reason, being able to control the range of the 'Shift' was almost essential, while also being extremely difficult. So naturally it wasn't very popular. After all, who would raise a trash character with no magic skill other than 'Shift' in a game where other characters could easily and efficiently use magical skills?
Numerous hardcore players took on the challenge, but they all gave up in the end.
While everyone else quit, I continued practicing 'Shift' over and over again, and in the end, I was able to completely master it. Why because i was the developer of the character
After coming to the realization that the characteristic of 'Shift' allowed for rapid advancement, I learned how to cancel the skill in the middle, which allowed me to perform 'distance control'.
"That was easy to say, but in fact, 'Shift' happened in less than a blink — so fast that no one could realistically control it."
I became deeply immersed in playing this single skill character, and unlike other mage characters, I relied solely on precise control to overcome everything. I dedicated most of my time to PvP battles against other player-controlled mage characters.
After 12 years of that.
[You've defeated the final boss, The Evil Demonic Dragon, Darkest Night of the Evil Moon.]
"Eh?"
I ended up killing the final boss I didn't even know existed. Because after creating Kael Virel and some sences i was hospitalized.
"What?"
I was just performing a sudden quest to find the 'missing character' who had suddenly disappeared. Why did a evil dragon with such an imposing name appear out of nowhere?
"What is this final boss?"
Wait, was there even such a thing as a final boss in a Romance game? Wasn't it supposed to end with the main character ending up with a female lead and getting married?
"Wait did they change it without consulting me first".
"It's my first time playing a game like this, in a while so I don't know."
Of course, my so-called 'first time playing this game' was already when i was 7 years now i am 19.
Somehow, I had a feeling I'd have to fight this boss for a considerably long time before it died. Despite equipping myself with legendary-grade weapons one by one and maxing out my stats, it was a close call. Fortunately, I won. It would have been a shame to lose the title of super rookie player.
"What the heck was this dragon?"
The Evil Demonic Dragon, Darkest Night of the Moon.
Still, it was the final boss, so I roughly read through its backstory out of curiosity.
The story went like this.
There was this crazy cult-like group called 'Dark Mages' which had infiltrated and hidden themselves in various parts of this fantasy world. Apparently, their ultimate goal was to taint this world with the Underworld, 'Evil Gate'. And finally, when the Dark Mages had completely encompassed the world through the Evil Gate, what appeared was the Evil Demonic Dragon.
I had little interest in the story and was simply enjoying alchemy crafting or whatever the NPCs were doing, so I had no idea that such things were happening in the background.
"Wow. The whole world has gone to ruin."
Looking at the map belatedly, 95% of the continent had been eroded and reduced to ashes by the Evil Gate, and only the background of the game; the 'Stanley Academy,' remained intact. However, it was stained red and the situation appeared grim.
I was busy defeating all my druebd in PvP, so I didn't actually looked at it.
I wondered about the reaction of the community if I took a screenshot of this and uploaded it, so for the first time in a long time I went to the Nexus World Forums.
'What's this?'
The few remaining players' posts were receiving a surge of activity for the first time in a very long time.
[Thread: Ah, this damn trash game, suddenly that Demonic Dragon or whatever appears and all my game data goes to hell.]
[Thread: What the hell is this Black Dragon thing? It shows that my character died and now I can't even log in.]
[Thread: Whoa, I just came back after a long time because my SNS was blowing up, and guess what? My character got deleted. What's up with that?]
The community was full of posts which revealed their grievances after finding that their character had been deleted upon returning after a long time.
"What?"
I guess the final boss hadn't just appeared for me, it appeared simultaneously in all player consoles.
"How weird."
But there was one strange thing.
I scrolled through the lit panels for a while, but there was no post anywhere saying anyone had defeated the Evil Dragon.
No matter how many legend-grade artifacts adorned my character, it was still just a trash character at best. There were far more players who had raised loopholes exploiting characters equal to or stronger than mine.
The Evil Dragon should have been defeated dozens of times already for it to be normal. At that moment, I came across a post by a famous high-ranked player, and my eyes widened in surprise.
[Thread: Wait, guys, wasn't this boss not meant to be defeated in the first place?]
[Content: F*ck, this damn Evil Dragon has a '99% Magic Resistance' passive, no cooldown on 'Magic Absorption,' and keeps endlessly spamming 'Magic Release.' How the hell are we supposed to kill it? Seriously, what kind of bug/monster is this? Gotta ask the devs, for real.]
"Oh right... there was something like that."
Of course, it was a bit unfair to have the ability to nullify magic in a world of magic.
But it was different for me. 'Shift' was just a teleportation skill, so I had no choice but to acquire exceptional combat skills.
As a result, I ended up being the only player in the game who had raised his physical attack power rather than magic attack power, and consequently I was also the only player who had succeeded in hunting the Demonic Dragon.
"Wow. Looks like I'm the only one who has defeated it."
Filled with excitement, I was about to cast a wide-range aggro under the title [Evil Dragon Solo Hunt Achievement.jpg] to my friends.
Beep!
"Huh...?"
Suddenly, along with the appearance of the beeping sound that seemed to echo throughout the world, the strength drained from my body, and the world began to spin.
[Due to reaching the wrong ending, 95% of the Nexus World has been destroyed.]
'Wh... What is this....?'
The ceiling became distant.
My vision blurred.
The world seemed increasingly distant.
[But you are the player closest to the 'True Ending.']
'I.. I caught the Evil Dragon... I should be bragging about it.... '
A bizarre, eerie whisper reached my ears, but it felt strangely distant.
[I sincerely hope you reach the 'True Ending'.]