CH 1

While watching the ending credits that appeared on the prologue screen, I took off my headphones and slumped on the chair.

Although I had seen this scene many times before and had grown tired of it, at this moment, I didn’t feel bored no matter how many times I watched it.

It’s been almost five years since this game was released.

Tomorrow is the 5th anniversary, which means it has been five years since I started playing this game.

Having watched the ending a total of five times, it means I encountered the ending approximately once a year.

“Wow, when will I see all the endings?”

I still have high expectations that there are many stories left in this game, and the overwhelming amount of content remaining after five endings makes me feel a mixture of emptiness and laughter.

It’s amazing.

After playing this game for five years, I can’t help but be amazed at the tremendous scale of this game from the beginning to now.

It has an almost infinite level of freedom, AI that feels like real people, a vast world, and unending storytelling.

Moreover, all the stories flow differently depending on which race you start in each playthrough.

Even if the player uses the same character to play, at some point, the story is flipped due to the influence of the AI.

Truly insane freedom.

It’s truly a devil’s game that captivates players worldwide.

“Wow, seriously. I can’t stop playing this game.”

When the ending credits finished, I found myself not turning off the game but instead pressing the button to create a new character.

I was originally thinking of playing as a werewolf, but since it seems to overlap with the style of the savage I played in the previous round, I decided to try playing as an elf first.

I haven’t decided on the creation location yet, so I’ll skip that part.

As for the potentialpotential ability stats… I think I’ll set them to the highest this time.

After all, it’s just a preparatory play.

Considering the long lifespan of the elf, the playtime will probably be long, but it doesn’t matter since I’ll die before that anyway.

Dying is one of the factors that contribute to the game’s notorious reputation as an “ending”.

Due to this, if you look closely, I’ve seen more than five endings, probably well over a thousand.

The endings are simply based on the criteria set by the players in the game.

In reality, if the character doesn’t die and satisfies the conditions, the game naturally ends, so maybe the game company intended it that way.

Anyway, I finished customizing and set the potential ability stats to the highest.

Now, all that’s left is to choose the birthplace.

The reason for choosing the birthplace is simple yet frustrating.

In this game, the peculiar thing is that you have to play from childhood, and once you reach adulthood, job options for the character are created.

Until then, you won’t receive any help from the system, including the status window. It’s only after the coming-of-age ceremony that the system opens up. However, if you didn’t play properly at that time, the job options that appear later on during adulthood could be completely outrageous.

For instance, if you only did farming in the countryside, you could end up becoming a immortal farmer character.

Because of this system, when I played as a human, I struggled for two weeks with a rural-born warrior setup, eventually giving up and recreating character in the empire to take the knight path, which was a bitter experience.

Back then, I think I attempted suicide using the character around four times.

What’s the point of chopping wood and cultivating strength while farming in the countryside?

The available skills are limited to logging or farming.

Even if I get a sword and try to train in swordsmanship, without a proper master, my sword skills won’t grow properly.

To truly improve swordsmanship, I need to learn through real combat, but can a young teenager last even a minute against mountain wolves or monsters?

No matter how high I set the potential ability stats, a child is just a child.

If I don’t choose the birthplace properly, I’ll end up as a useless character…

“If I’m born in a human city, I might become a half-elf…”

Considering the game’s world, being a half-elf would gain me nothing.

As a half-elf, I would face discrimination from the surrounding humans, and my racial specialization would be inferior even to those of pure bloodlines, such as archery or affinity with spirits.

Even if I were born in another race’s village, I doubt my character from childhood could withstand the persecution by that race.

No matter how hard the player tries to nurture the character, the game world is still what it is, and the world is heavily focused on racial beliefs.

What I mean is that the level of civilization in this game world is very low.

There’s little advancement in enlightened ideologies like racial equality and such, as the game is set in a world resembling ancient Greece or prehistoric Korea.

As a result, those who don’t belong to one’s own race are treated as either slaves or trash, and if born in another race’s village, the character is destined for either slavery or persecution leading to death.

“I guess I’ll just choose randomly from among the elven forests.”

The problem is that among the main episodes in this game, Elf is one of the races with the lowest chances of survival during the racial war.

Their habitat is limited to a forest rich in natural energy, making them vulnerable to fire and easily facing destruction.

Although they possess the power of spirits, they couldn’t withstand the fiery onslaught from the wizards.

Unless they reside on lands directly protected by the World Tree, the elves living in smaller forests are literally wiped out.

Some constantly seek refuge and live as fugitives or slaves, but those cases are not truly living, so they’re not worth mentioning.

Above all, even if they manage to survive amidst the war, the tremendous stress and depression caused by the extermination of their families and kin increase the probability of their characters dying prematurely.

Anyway, I set the potential ability stats to the highest.

Becoming stronger quickly and preparing for the war in advance might provide a chance of survival, but war is still war.

There are clear limits to an individual’s strength.

Moreover, in this game, there’s no difficulty setting; everything is realistic.

When injured, they need to rest or use healing spells until the wounds are healed. As mentioned before, if they die once, their character is deleted.

The potential ability stats are meant to overcome this, but if they don’t properly go through their childhood, they might die before the coming-of-age ceremony, or even after the ceremony, their stats might not be good, and they won’t be free to choose a job.

There are reasons why it takes a long time to reach the true ending.

Despite its notorious reputation, it’s an irresistible devil’s game.

It’s ‘Omega World’.

“Well, let’s give it a try.”

Since it’s my first time starting, I’ll get used to it after dying a few times.

And it’s just a preparatory play; if I get frustrated and die a few times, I can switch to playing as a werewolf or something.

“For the birthplace… Even if it’s the World Tree’s forest, it might be hard to escape. How about choosing a forest nearby?”

The easiest way to survive the racial war is to escape.

Well, if I really die from stress, I’ll just quit.

Anyway, character creation is done.

Although I’ve come this far with the momentum of seeing the ending, I’m in a contemplative state now.

I’ll postpone playing until tomorrow.

As soon as I pressed the character creation completion button, it happened.

[Congratulations, player! You’ve been selected for the 5th anniversary event! Would you like to use this created character as your event character?]

“Huh?”

A 5th anniversary event for ‘Omega World’? I’ve never seen any mention of an event on the official game site. It seems like a surprise event for only a few selected users.

A secret 5th anniversary event for users, how characteristic of ‘Omega World.’

They’re really going all out to enhance their notorious reputation.

Regardless, I started to feel excited about encountering my first event while playing ‘Omega World.’

Especially because it’s for selected users, it felt like I was chosen, making it even more special.

Without hesitation, I pressed the accept button, and a new window appeared.

[Caution. Once you create an event character, you can never undo it. Never. Are you sure you want to accept?]

The excitement I felt suddenly faded away.

Why is the language so harsh?

Isn’t this an event?

No, but they didn’t even explain what kind of event it is. Show some manners.

Feeling suspicious, I pressed Alt+Tab to browse the internet.

I tried accessing the game’s website and even searched on Google, but I couldn’t find any information about ‘Omega World’ hosting a 5th anniversary event.

There were only some events organized by players or organizations and companies that benchmark ‘Omega World’.

Is this some sort of secret event where they select only a few people?

“What is this? Why does it feel so suspicious?”

Why are they conducting a game event in such an ambiguous way?

This is the first time I’ve felt uneasy about a game event in my life.

Despite the unease, I moved the mouse without hesitation.

The mouse cursor pointed towards acceptance.

“Well, even if it’s a trap, I’ll bear it.”

Until now, I naturally didn’t think much of it.

What’s the point of feeling uneasy? After all, it’s just a game.

If things go wrong, I can just delete the character and start over.

There was no official announcement from the game company either; I simply accepted it as a surprise gift for a randomly selected few users.

That’s why, with mixed feelings, I accepted the event message and completed the character creation.

It was a process with no special meaning, just creating a game character as usual.

As always, I created a character to play the game.

Finally, the first-ever event character of ‘Omega World’ was born.

It was also the day of my new birth.