chapter 01

New Game Start

[At last, the Tower is freed from its ancient curse.]

The moment she saw the ending message appear on the screen, she shot both hands into the air.

“Woooo! I beat it!”

The name of the game she was playing was The Darkness Tower.

Usually shortened to Dark Tower.

It was a CRPG where you became the lord of a city built around a mysterious “Tower” that sealed away an ancient evil. You managed the territory while also conquering the Tower itself.

As the ending credits rolled, she thought to herself:

There really isn’t another game like this.

Beautiful graphics that still rivaled modern titles.

Countless companion characters.

Almost limitless character customization.

An absurd amount of content that practically never ended.

The game had been out for well over six years, and even though she played it nearly every day, she still never got tired of it.

Why doesn’t everyone play this masterpiece?

Of course, Dark Tower did have a few… “minor” flaws.

A hopelessly grim dark fantasy setting with a catastrophically depressing storyline to match.

Quests so cryptic that clearing them without a guide was practically impossible.

A combat system with absolutely zero convenience features like speed-up or battle skip.

Ridiculously long playtimes that showed no mercy toward modern people with limited free time.

And difficulty levels that became increasingly insane every time a new DLC released.

And… and…

Actually, let’s stop there.

Still, despite all those little issues, Dark Tower was an incredible game.

Maybe not for everyone, but for her, nothing else even came close.

That was why, six years after release, she had accumulated over 30,000 hours of playtime and evolved beyond a mere veteran player into something closer to crude oil itself.

Even for her, though, solo-clearing the final boss on Hardcore Mode—where death meant permanent game over—hadn’t been easy.

But I did it.

[Lonely Legend]
Lift the Tower’s curse alone on Hardcore difficulty. (Completed)

Only 0.0001% of players have achieved this accomplishment.

Originally, the achievement completion rate had been 0%.

Now it was 0.0001%.

Meaning she was the very first person in the world to clear it.

This is it. This is why gaming exists.

Smiling proudly at the achievement window, she immediately clicked New Game.

Why start another playthrough right after finishing the ending and getting 100% achievements?

Because that was simply what hardcore veterans did.
(Nod.)

What should I try this time?

She had spent forever grinding seriously for achievements, so maybe it was time for a more relaxed “fun” run.

Maybe I should make an overpowered character with all the New Game bonuses for once?

She’d already grown sick of solo Tower runs, so this time she wanted to take it easy and just mess around with companion characters.

Opening the saved appearance presets, she loaded the prettiest female character she had ever customized—using even paid CC items.

Soft violet eyes sparkling like opals.

Long lashes blooming like butterfly wings around them.

Delicate, sculpted features framed by flowing purple hair cascading in elegant waves.

A graceful body line crafted with obsessive care, adjusting sliders by increments of 0.01.

In the actual game world, the flashy appearance would stand out absurdly in the grim dark fantasy setting, but she didn’t care.

To the proud leader of the “If my character isn’t pretty, I quit the game” faction, aesthetics mattered more than genre consistency.

Now that appearance was done, it was time to choose a class.

Sorcerer. Obviously.

Sorcerers—basically fantasy-world psychics—could use high-tier spells starting from level one.

Skills like Intense Fascination, Domination, and Irresistible Impulse.

Essential abilities for romance routes.

Why were brainwashing-type spells necessary for companion romance?

Because this was dark fantasy.
(Nod.)

Next: stat distribution.

She adjusted the default stat spread of ten points each to fit the class.

Health (6)
Strength (4)
Dexterity (4)
Intelligence (10)
Wisdom (10)
Charisma (16)

Stats above 11 required double investment, so she had burned through all her bonus points and brutally gutted several other stats.

No regrets, though.

Her Charisma—the Sorcerer’s primary stat—was now absolutely monstrous.

Race: Nephilim.

As descendants of angels, Nephilim received a whopping +2 bonus to Charisma.

That brought the total to 18.

And then—

[Mind Sorcerer has been unlocked.]

A special class unlocked through repeated Sorcerer playthroughs.

The Mind Sorcerer specialized in mental magic. Its direct combat abilities were mediocre, but it could ignore mental resistance rolls and freely charm or brainwash enemies.

Even a character with -100 affection could instantly become your lover with a single brainwashing spell, bypassing every relationship event in the game.

That was why players called it the “Romance Ending Collector.”

But even that wasn’t enough.

Trait combinations are what really matter.

From here on, even she had to think carefully.

She had unlocked countless traits, but could only choose three.

Her mouse kept darting back and forth across the screen.

After nearly an hour of agonizing deliberation, she finally completed the character.

Perfect.

The perfect brainwashing machine—
No, the perfect dangerously charming protagonist.

At this level, I could probably start a love triangle immediately.

Dark Tower had an utterly disastrous romance system where pursuing multiple relationships caused characters to stab each other—or try to kill the player.

Which only made it better.

Because she wanted to see the chaos.

And I’m not stopping at just two-timing.

With this terrifying combination of charm and brainwashing magic, anything was possible.

Breaking up couples and dating both people? Possible.

Destroying lifelong friendships? Obviously possible.

Turning parents and children against each other? Naturally possible.

Now this is what I call a truly relaxing playthrough.

Filled with ambitious plans for her “concept run,” she entered her nickname.

[Camellia]

Then she clicked Create Character.

Her heart pounded with excitement as she stared at the monitor.

The opening sequence began.

Darkness swallowed the screen.

But it wasn’t just the screen.

The room around her became dark too.

Huh?

The instant she thought it felt as though darkness itself were rushing toward her—

Her consciousness cut out.

image2

[Memory transfer failed.]
[Retrying memory transfer.]

[Memory transfer failed.]
[Retrying memory transfer.]

.

.

.

[Complete memory transfer failure.]

[Loss of sealed entity confirmed.]

[The ‘Tower’ seal is being released…….]

A loud buzzing rang inside her head.

Gasping as though she might throw up, she barely managed to open her eyes.

Her entire body was drenched.

Water dripped from her chin and eyelashes.

Why am I soaking wet?

Confused, she looked downward.

The lower half of her body was submerged inside a glass tube filled with some strange liquid.

She wasn’t wearing her familiar pajama pants anymore either.

Instead, she had on a pure white dress.

The floor looked wrong too.

The wooden flooring was gone, replaced by black stone covered in jagged crimson grooves like a child’s messy scribbles.

The scenery was unfamiliar.

Yet strangely recognizable.

Where have I seen this before?

Trying to steady her spinning head, she forced herself upright.

As her field of vision rose, the first thing she saw was a massive stone monument etched with the same crimson grooves.

Then she noticed the corpse nailed to it.

…Huh?

Even after blinking repeatedly, the scenery didn’t change.

The grotesque glass tube.

A circular altar submerged in eerie darkness.

The blood-red monument standing at the altar’s center.

And hanging from it—

the corpse of a woman with a gaping hole through the center of her chest.

This… no way…

While she struggled to process everything, heavy metallic footsteps echoed from somewhere nearby.

Soon, a knight in massive plate armor emerged from the darkness.

He wasn’t wearing a helmet, so she could see his face immediately.

White hair braided neatly to one side.

Skin as pale as his hair.

Sharp blue eyes like finely honed blades.

A face so beautiful he looked more like a nobleman than a knight.

And it was a face she knew extremely well.

The number one knight companion in Dark Tower.

Second place in the game’s popularity poll.

And the very first companion character players obtained—

Lohengrin Eschen.

Lohengrin is standing right in front of me… not on a monitor screen?

Her instincts—and an indescribable sense of dread—told her the truth.

This wasn’t a dream.

Which meant…

I transmigrated into the game?

Not into a dating sim.

Not into a healing farming game.

Not even into a gacha game.

But into this hopeless dark fantasy world?

Dizzy with shock, she squeezed her eyes shut.

At that moment, only one thought filled her mind.

I’m screwed.

Completely and utterly screwed.