Chapter 1. Adrias Cromwell (1)

[Quest: The End of Baal!]

[Free to play from now on].

[New Character Unlocked!]

I released the mouse, looking away from the words I’d already seen ten times.

Ouch.

When I stretched it with all my might, my whole body screamed.

I checked the time: 11:00 AM.

I’ve been up all night.

Thud. Thud.

Thud.

“Hello?”

-Kim Jin-hwan! How are you?

“Uh, is it lunchtime?”

-Yes. I took a moment to call you. What were you doing?

“Playing a game.”

-Were you still playing?

I looked away and saw the game filling my computer screen.

“Ugh.”

-I found it difficult and stopped playing a while ago. Is it that much fun?

“Uh, it’s fun.”

-Hey Shaky, look at the way you’re talking, what’s wrong with you?

Yongho’s voice on the other end of the receiver finally made me laugh dryly.

“Thanks for the game, big brother.”

-Ugh. Chicken. I was wrong. Don’t ever say that again.

Yong-ho, who had been mumbling for a while, suddenly brought up an old story.

-You’ve been in society for four years now, right?

“…….”

-The hard times are over. You should go out and meet some girls.

“I’ll try.”

-Yep. I know it’s not what you want, but our motto was to make the impossible possible.

It’s been four years.

Due to unexpected events, the military unit I was a part of was disbanded.

It was a good thing, of course.

I should have rejoiced.

But it was so sudden that I was still at a loss.

“I thought unification with North Korea would only happen in a novel.”

Of course, only my unit was disbanded, while others remained active.

There was nothing good that could come of it, so I disappeared in a hurry.

I took a moment to collect my thoughts and opened the fridge to fill my stomach.

“Maybe we should meet up sometime.”

-Oh, great! Let’s do it this weekend. I’ll write.

I ended the call and threw my cell phone lightly on the bed.

Yong-ho, who was on the phone right now, was also in the same unit.

He was discharged earlier than me due to an accident, but he’s now working at a company.

I stared at the freezer for a while and finally took out a frozen meal.

When I was in the military, even my diet was controlled, and I never thought I’d be able to eat something like this again.

It was a highly controlled and managed unit, so the sudden discharge had strong repercussions.

I was thrown out into society and couldn’t adjust.

Of course, I had plenty of money from the salary I had saved and the compensation I received for my forced discharge.

As a rich misfit, I was bouncing from place to place, but with the help of brother Yongho, I was in a much better state.

Ding!

The frozen dumplings steamed up quickly.

I placed the dumplings on my desk and sat back down.

PECCATA.

That’s the name of the game playing on my screen.

Right after I was discharged from the army, I was in such a bad state that even Yongho couldn’t help me.

I tried various things for two years to cleanse the army, but something always went wrong.

“I owe you a lot.

One day, Yongho happened to bring me a game CD.

He told me to take it easy and clear my head first, so I gave it a try.

The graphics were ugly, but the high degree of freedom, numerous branching paths, and variety of playable characters made me instantly fall in love with the game.

I had never played a game before in my life, so I was clueless.

But I kept at it and eventually got my first clear in over a year.

The feeling that this was the end was quickly dispelled.

The list of playable characters kept growing.

The more I beat the game, the more playable characters were unlocked.

And each unlocked character started out in a much worse position than the last.

[Tarman (Fencer)]

The guy I just beat was on the hardest difficulty ever.

Even I, with more than 10 clears under my belt, had a hard time counting the number of times I died.

Sometimes, if I like a character I’ve cleared, I’ll play with it a bit more, but this guy was a pass.

I took a bite of my dumpling and tried to check my newly unlocked character.

Tsk. Tsk, tsk.

“Who’s that?

The phone keeps ringing today.

I can’t think of anyone who would want to call me.

I check the number and see a caller ID.

A shiver runs down my spine, and I debate whether to answer or not.

The unit I was a part of, although now disbanded, was a top-secret and dangerous unit.

Honestly, I’m surprised the government let us go.

Should I be grateful that they didn’t kill us to silence us?

That said, I can’t help but get nervous when I see a caller ID like this.

Ding.

Disconnected.

A sigh escaped my lips.

Tsk. Tsk.

As if to mock my sigh, the phone started ringing again.

I knew I had to answer it, so I pressed the call button.

“Hello.”

-Ah, ah. Can you hear me?

“Who is this?”

-Can you hear me?

“I can hear you. Who is it?”

The voice was playful, but it was hard to tell the gender.

It sounded like a modulated voice.

-Ah! I’m the developer of peccata.

Peccata?

I wondered what he was talking about, but then the word developer reminded me of the game I was playing.

“Peccata?”

-Yes, that’s right.

He chuckled and smiled mischievously, then continued.

-By the way, now that I checked, you’ve got a whopping 12 clearances on your record, Jin-hwan, and I’d like to thank and congratulate you for enjoying our game so much.

The moment my name came out of his mouth, my breath stopped.

It’s a game, but how does he know my name?

It was Yongho who brought the game CD.

Did he tell you? No, that’s not possible.

“How do you know my name?”

-Eh. Let’s get that out of the way and get to the perks.

“I’m asking you how you know my name, answer me.”

-So, first of all, we’re going to give Jin-hwan a chance to play a little bit more realistically, and secondly, we’re going to give him two traits for the next round. One is random as always, and the second is a chance to choose. How’s that sound?

After hearing that, I immediately hung up the phone.

Then I called Yongho’s brother.

-Power is off, beep- After the sound…….

I must have called him a while ago, but I couldn’t get through.

I compulsively opened my closet and packed my things.

An ominous feeling kept piercing through my head.

‘First of all, we need to change the location. Maybe I’m being tracked…… or maybe they know where I am in the first place.

I packed up my things and was about to head out the door when I saw a computer screen that was still on.

“I should probably format my computer, just in case.

After sitting at his desk for a while, he looked at the screen to turn off the game.

[Playable Character: Kim Jin-hwan (Adrias Cromwell)].

What the hell?

Why is my name on the game screen?

Before I could finish my thoughts, the screen gradually turned black and turned into a sticky liquid.

Before I could duck away from the supernatural phenomenon, my mind turned as black as the screen.

* * *

“Adrias!”

With a sharp cry, an empty flask flew at me.

I caught the bottle as it flew towards me, and stood back to look at Silvec.

“I told you to have the <Conflicting Understandings of Nature and Mana> organized and on my desk by today!”

I nodded cautiously.

“Yes.”

“Yes? Yes, then why is there nothing on my desk!”

Even if you put it that way.

‘I don’t even know mana, let alone magic, so how am I supposed to organize it?’

Of course, it never came out of my mouth.

When I didn’t say anything and just stood there, Silvec’s face grew wide and he yelled.

“Get out there and clean it up, now!” he shouted.

I rushed out of his office without looking back.

As I walked out, I felt the stares of many students in the hallway.

“What are you looking at? Did you see that?”

Oh no. My thoughts were out of my mouth.

Apparently, this body has affected my personality.

Luckily, the people who heard me didn’t say anything back, just gave me pathetic looks and went on their way.

I had other priorities than those stares, so I headed to the library.

As I stepped out of the building, I was greeted by expansive grounds and medieval architecture.

But most of all, I saw a tower that seemed to pierce the sky, and three huge moons that filled the sky.

-Thing!

[There is an unselected attribute].

My view of the sky was blocked by the words that were now hard to read.

“Later. I’ll pick later.”

The people here spoke in a language I couldn’t understand.

I sighed heavily.

I’ve been here for a week now.

I must have blacked out while trying to format my computer, but when I woke up, I wasn’t myself.

I was Adrias Cromwell, not Kim Jin-hwan.

I was confused, but I hid my emotions.

I had practiced hiding my emotions in times of crisis.

Fortunately, I had some memories of being Adrias.

I didn’t know the whole of his life, of course, but at least I knew where this place was.

As I recall, this was the world of Great Sins (peccata).

Adrias’s memories were no different than those of the game’s peccata world.

And after a week of acting out Adrias’s memories, it became even more clear.

I was in the game now.

“I’d like to find a book.”

“What kind of book?”

“‘The Conflicting Understandings of Nature and Mana’.”

“The books on magic are in row 9 of the 5th column to row 438 of the 32nd column.”

I can’t find it.

Do you eat your salary raw?

I shook my head.

Lately, my mind has been racing with thoughts I normally wouldn’t have.

Apparently, Adrias’ influence is quite strong.

‘If only…….’

Out of all the characters, this is the one.

I never even raised him in the first place.

He must have been the next one after Tarman, the last fencer I raised.

‘Even so, isn’t that a bit of a leap in difficulty?

Adrias Cromwell was a villain without a doubt.

But what can I say.

To put it bluntly, he was an insignificant character who could be considered an experience point for the player.

The problem is his master.

Or should I say, his teacher?

“Found it.”

Despite the distraction, I finally found the book I was looking for.

Luckily, it was in alphabetical order, so I found it quickly.

As soon as I found it, I opened it up.

“…… A bunch.”

It was different from the game.

I had three mage characters in the game.

Still, the content of the book was a pie in the sky.

In reality, you don’t just learn a skill and start using it like in the game.

Mana had to be manipulated in an elaborate and complicated process to trigger magic, just like in this book.

‘Of course, this is just a theoretical book.’

I sighed once more and packed up the book.

I hadn’t planned to organize this book, but I had to make sure I didn’t raise any suspicions.

As I walked back, I thought about me and Adrias once more.

As a newcomer to the game, I played by taking notes on every aspect, so I was familiar with even unimportant characters like Adrias.

First of all, this guy dies early on in the game.

I don’t think I killed every playable character, but I think I killed him at least eight or nine times out of a dozen.

Why did I have to kill this lowly mage?

This guy’s mage identity is a fake.

He’s actually a black mage.

More specifically, a necromancer who practiced the arts of command and necromancy.

I had become a necromancer, the most taboo class of mage in this world.