IRE Chapter 0

As I watched the ending credits appear on the screen, I took off my headphones and slumped into my chair, as if burying myself in it.

Although I had seen this scene countless times to the point of being sick of it, this moment never got old no matter how many times I watched it.

It’s been almost 5 years since this game was released. Tomorrow marks the 5th anniversary, which means it will also be 5 years since I started playing this game.

In that time, I’ve seen the ending a total of 5 times, which roughly equates to encountering the ending once a year.

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

A laugh mixed with both the anticipation that there are still many stories left in this game and the sense of futility at the overwhelming amount of content remaining despite having seen the ending 5 times already escapes my lips.

It’s incredible. Ever since I started playing 5 years ago, all I can say is that it’s been incredible – a game of immense scale.

Near-infinite freedom, artificial intelligence that seems like real people, a vast world-building, and endless storytelling.

And all those stories drastically change each playthrough depending on which race you start as and how you begin.

Even if the player plays the same character in the same way, at some point the story gets turned on its head due to the influence of the AIs.

It’s a mind-bogglingly insane level of freedom.

It’s truly a devil’s game that captivates players around the world.

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

As the ending credits finished, rather than turning off the game, I found myself already clicking on the new character creation screen.

Originally, I was thinking of playing as a werewolf, but since the playstyle overlaps with the barbarian I played last time, I’m planning to play as an elf first as a warm-up.

I’ll skip the starting location since I haven’t decided yet.

As for potential stats… should I set them to the highest this time?

The previous playthrough was too difficult and really took a toll on my mental, so I want to play it easy this time.

It’s just a warm-up playthrough anyways.

Since elves have a long lifespan, the playtime will probably be long as well, but I’ll likely die before then anyway so it doesn’t matter.

One of the things that boosted this game’s notoriety to the max is that if you die, it’s game over.

So if you really think about it, the number of endings I’ve seen isn’t 5, but easily over several thousand.

It’s just that there are separate criteria for what counts as an ending set by the users in the game.

In fact, if the character doesn’t die, the game naturally ends when those conditions are met, so it’s probably what the game company intended as well.

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

The last step is choosing the birthplace.

The reason you have to choose a birthplace is simple yet annoying.

The unique thing about this game is that you have to play from childhood, and based on your childhood play, job options are generated for your character on the day of your coming-of-age ceremony.

Until then, you can’t get any help from the system, including the status window, and it only opens up after the coming-of-age ceremony. If you don’t play properly until then, you end up with absurd job options.

For example, if you only farm in the countryside, you might end up as a heavenly farmer character.

Because of this system, when I played as a human with a rural hero setting, I wasted 2 weeks before giving up and recreating the character in the empire to go down the knight route.

I think I rage-quit and committed in-game suicide about 4 times back then.

What’s the point of raising strength by chopping wood and stamina by plowing fields in the countryside? The only skills you get are woodcutting or farming.

Even if you manage to get a sword and train swordsmanship, without a proper instructor, the swordsmanship skill doesn’t develop properly.

To raise swordsmanship, you have to learn through real battles, but can a kid in his early teens last even a minute against wolves or monsters in the mountains?

No matter how high you set your potential stats, a kid is still just a kid.

That’s how if you don’t properly choose your birthplace, you end up as a useless character that can’t do anything…

“If I’m born in a human city, I might be born as a half-elf or something…”

But in this game’s worldview, there’s nothing to gain even if you become a half-elf.

If you’re born as a half-elf, you live your life being discriminated against and looked down upon by the humans around you, and your race-specific talents are inferior to those of pure-bloods.

Like archery or spirit affinity.

To begin with, even if you’re born in another race’s village, can a childhood character endure the oppression from those races?

No matter how hard the player tries to raise them, the game’s worldview is centered around racism due to its setting.

What that means is that the civilization level of the game world is extremely low.

Forget about racial equality, this game is set in the very beginning of civilization, so there’s barely any development of such enlightened ideas.

If you compare it to Earth, it would be the era before Anno Domini. It feels like ancient Greece or Gojoseon^[1].

As a result, anyone not of your own race is treated as either a slave or trash, so if you’re born in another race’s village, you’re destined for the slave route or a path of being killed due to discrimination and oppression.

“Should I just pick any of the elven forests?”

The problem is that elves are one of the races with the lowest chance of survival in the race war, which is one of the main episodes of this game.

Since their habitat is limited to forests abundant with nature’s energy, they are vulnerable to fire and easily destroyed.

They have the power of spirits, but they can’t withstand the onslaught of flames unleashed by mages.

Unless it’s land directly protected by the World Tree, elves living in small numbers scattered in other forests are literally massacred.

Some constantly flee as refugees or live as slaves, but that’s not really living so it doesn’t count.

Moreover, even if you survive through that war, there’s a high probability the character will die soon after due to extreme stress and depression from the massacre of their family and kin.

Well, I did set the potential stats to the highest. If I quickly become strong and prepare for the war in advance, there’s a possibility I could somehow endure it.

But war is war. The limits of an individual’s power are clear.

Above all, this game has no difficulty settings and every playthrough is realism.

If you get hurt, you have to take time to recover until the wound heals or get help from magic spells, and as I mentioned, if you die once, the character gets deleted.

The potential stat setting is meant to overcome that, but even this is useless if you don’t properly go through childhood – you either die before the coming-of-age ceremony, or even if you do the ceremony, your stats are bad or your job options are limited.

There are reasons why it takes a long time to see a real ending despite the game’s notoriety.

And yet, the game you can’t quit despite that notoriety is none other than the devil’s game:

‘Omega World’.

“Whatever, let’s just try it first.”

It’s my first time starting anyway, so I’ll probably get used to it after dying a few times.

And I’m just playing it briefly as a warm-up, so if I die a few times and get pissed off, I’ll quit and play as a werewolf or something.

“As for the birthplace… even with everything, the World Tree’s forest seems hard to escape from. I’ll pick a forest somewhere near there.”

After all, the easiest way to survive the race war is to run away.

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

Anyway, that completes the character creation.

I got this far riding the momentum of seeing the ending, but now I’m in the state of post-clarity.

I should postpone actually playing until tomorrow.

It was the moment I clicked the complete character creation button.

-Congratulations, player! You have been selected for the upcoming 5th anniversary event! Would you like to designate this created character as the event character?

“Oh?”

A 5th anniversary event, this is the first time I’ve seen ‘Omega World’ doing an event.

There was no mention of an event on the game’s official website, so it seems to be a surprise event secretly held for a few selected users.

A 5th anniversary event held without the users’ knowledge, really.

I don’t know whether to say this is typical ‘Omega World’ style.

Just how far are they trying to boost their notoriety?

Anyway, I started feeling excited at encountering an event for the first time while playing ‘Omega World’.

Above all, the fact that they picked only a few users made it feel like I was chosen, making it feel even more special.

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

-Caution. Once you create an event character, it is absolutely irreversible. Absolutely. Do you accept?

The excitement I felt instantly cooled down.

Why is the wording so ominous?

Isn’t this an event?

No, but they don’t even explain what kind of event it is.

Where are the manners?

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

I checked the game’s homepage and even googled, but no information came up about a 5th anniversary event held by ‘Omega World’.

There were only events independently held by players, organizations that benchmarked ‘Omega World’, or some companies.

It really is a hidden camera event picking only a few people separately.

“What the. What is this, so shady?”

What kind of event are they conducting in such a dubious way?

It’s the first time a game event has made me feel icky.

Despite feeling icky, I moved the mouse without hesitation.

The mouse cursor headed toward accept.

“Whatever, I’ll take the gamble.”

Of course, until now, I didn’t think much of it.

Even if it’s icky, it’s just a game after all.

If it goes wrong, I can delete the character and remake it.

I just accepted it as a surprise gift given to a few randomly selected users, without any official announcement from the game company itself.

That’s why, even while feeling dubious, I accepted the event message and completed the character creation.

The creation process of a game character that I didn’t attach any special meaning to.

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

And thus, the first ever event character in ‘Omega World’ was born.

It was also the day I was newly born.

1. Gojoseon is an ancient Korean kingdom that existed from around 2333 BC to 108 BC.[↩]