Chapter 1

Until a few months ago, I was just a run-of-the-mill gamer who liked playing games. I would buy a game that looks fun, play it, but only until a point where I wouldn’t need to spend a lot of money. After I got a job, I had to focus on my work, so I had to give up many games, but I still tried out a few new games once in a while.

But that day was different. That day was so painstaking that I bought some alcohol, even though I couldn’t hold my liquor, on my way home from work. Because I was already drunk, not even a few drinks in, I clicked on some ‘horror game’ reviews by mistake. I usually don’t play games of this genre because I’m too much of a scaredy cat.

“There’s so many new horror games.”

I scrolled down and looked through the game titles that filled the main page. In general, what could be seen were black and red monsters and ghosts that had an ominous atmosphere to them. If I had been sober, I would have closed the window immediately because I’d be scared, but this time, I wasn’t all that frightened. Maybe because I was drunk.

Why do people play horror games anyway?

Unless it was really a hobby, I couldn’t understand the appeal to such things. Even so, I did still have some curiosity about it.

While clicking on a review or looking down at some posts with a lack of sincerity, I eventually stopped scrolling because I noticed a title that’s been repeated for a while now.

‘The House of Paltzgraff’s Murderer.’

“Hmm, isn’t this the game I saw earlier? The new A-Comms game…”

Crushing a can of beer that I just downed and throwing it away somewhere, I began to read the review again more attentively. A-Comms made games that had minor sensitive themes, but the company was famous for their elaborate OSTs, plus their historical backgrounds and stories, so there was always a lot of hype from their fans every time a new game was released.

They released much better work than most mass-produced games that saturated the market, so expectations were always high. Perhaps that’s also why they were hit with a ton of criticism, too.

People anticipated the release for this game and bought it as soon as it came out, but apparently it wasn’t good, it’s buggy, it’s disappointing… The more bad reviews I read, the more curious I became.

How bad of a flop was this game that all the reviews were saying it’s indeed a flop?

No way, it might not really be a total failure. What most game communities on the internet called flops were actually masterpieces. The more cynical bashers there were, the better the game might be and the higher the sales ranking would be.

It’s a strange correlation, but this was reality. Even more so for A-Comms games.

“I’m curious. Should I give it a go…”

Even while saying this, my hand already brought me to the A-Comms website and I’ve already finalized my check-out. It wasn’t too long until the game was fully downloaded and booted up.

As soon as I clicked open, my entire screen became stained with dark red blood. Along with the sound of the classic thunder and lightning through the rain, a magnificent mansion appeared.

It was just like A-Comms, since they were especially particular with artistic details, that the mansion was elegantly designed with a European architectural style that could be seen in any movie. Just this alone made me doubt if I bought this in Korean Won or another currency.

I casually chewed on my leftover snacks as the menu appeared on the right side of the screen.

★ New Game

★ Exit

As I clicked on my selection on the simple menu, the screen turned black once again, and the magnificent yet gloomy orchestral score of the OST began to play, the deep tones of a cello taking precedence of the melody.

And then—

“Ah! What the hell!”

With a terrible scream, a man’s face filled the monitor. I was so surprised that I almost fell out of my seat, but as the face got smaller. I managed to calm down and sit properly again.

The man was so pale that even his veins were visible on his skin. No, wait, he seemed to be a little younger than an older man… The young man looked exactly into my eyes and lifted something. It didn’t take long for me to realize that it was a woman’s head, lopped right off from her body.

She had bloody and tangled hair, and she had the frozen expression of fear she had right before she died, her eyes not yet closed… Because the frame was drawn so realistically, I even thought that it looked like a picture.

Eventually, when he began to chew on the woman’s head, my brows became furrowed.

“What the, what kind of minor sensitive themes… This is just gross.”

At one point, the young man’s actions began to slow down, and words began to appear on the monitor.

There was a brief explanation of the game’s worldbuilding, and the plot roughly went like this—

The devils’ underworld had been reigned over by monarchs for the longest time, and the monarch’s daughter, Lilith, had been dominating the country. It’s said that there were two factions, splitting the devildom in half.

The strongest being in hell, Satan, was the representative of the monarch’s faction and decided to stand against Lilith. The devildom then became divided between those who stood behind Satan and those who stood behind Lilith. And so, the two factions lead a boring war of attrition…

On the day when Lilith was on the verge of becoming completely destroyed with an overwhelming power, she decided to sacrifice her life in order to cast terrible curses upon Satan.

Satan, who lost all his strength, opened his eyes and found that he now had a human body. He was left with no choice but to live like a vampire, killing humans and absorbing their life force.

He’d kill, and he’d kill again.

Until he could regain all his power and become a complete being once more, or perhaps, until he was executed as a murderer.

The game’s player was set to play as the Count household’s young master, Adrian Caesar von der Paltzgraff. If he were to be executed or if he were to violate the rules of the game before gaining his full power, it would be game over.

“This worldbuilding is kinda depressing.”

There was an illustration there of a body being ripped open and eaten… It’s just too grotesque.

I shouldn’t have bought this. I wonder if I should get a refund now.