Chapter 4: Against All Warnings

“Okay~ Sorry to keep you all waiting!”

Exitra smiled as he greeted the audience.

“To thank everyone for waiting, I’ll be doing my best today too!”

—[What Are We Playing Today? has donated 1,000 won.]

<[Today’s Game?]>

“Ah~ Thank you for the donation! Today, I’m going to play this game.”

With a flick of his finger, the logo of the pre-set game appeared.

—[Ah, that game…]

—[Wait, didn’t this come out a few months ago??]

—[Ohhh! I love this game!]

—[I saw another streamer play it. The story and direction are insane.]

“Yes, it’s really hot right now! The game is called Heir of a Fallen House. You’ve probably heard of it, right?”

The premise of Heir of a Fallen House was simple.

Just like the title suggests, the player takes on the role of the heir to a ruined noble house.

The goal is to inherit the title and estate and restore the family to its former glory.

The game was seriously impressive.

Thanks to its expansive story, excellent direction, and incredible freedom, it had gained huge popularity.

It felt like a single-player game that compressed the experience of a full-scale, live-service VR MMO.

—[OO]

—[Is this okay though? I heard the game’s brutal if you’ve got bad mechanics.]

—[Yeah, it’s a mechanical skill hellfest, and RNG-heavy too. Luck-based pain game!]

—[FYI: Neighbor streamer couldn’t even clear the tutorial after 10 tries.]

[Grim Reaper has donated 2,000 won.]

<5252, that’s a road to hell. You can’t handle this with your reflexes. Come back.>

“Hahaha, thank you for the donation, Grim Reaper~ But don’t worry. My mechanics may be a little lacking, but hey—everything’s an experience, right?”

Exitra grinned.

He had long been aware that his physical skill wasn’t his strong point.

But he was confident.

After all, he had something that could make up for that lack of skill: strategies.

—[You really need to eat it to know if it’s poop or bean paste, huh…]

—[This is a hard bail angle.]

—[Total cringe arc incoming.]

—[LOL RIP in advance.]

The viewers voiced their concern.

Heir of a Fallen House was a game that demanded strong mechanical skills.

And Exitra simply didn’t have the kind of reflexes needed to handle a game like that.

“Hahaha, I know exactly what you’re all worried about. But it’s okay! This isn’t my first time taking on something like this.”

—[Ox]

—[You have to eat it to know if it’s poop or not level take…]

—[It always starts with confidence. And ends with… moment of silence]

—[kkkkkkkkk]

“Alright then~ Let’s jump right into the game!”

***

[Launching Heir of a Fallen House.]

Wooong—

As the game started, the virtual space around Exitra began to transform.

With a flash of brilliant light, flames spread out from under his feet, and then the screen changed.

He now stood inside the audience hall of a royal palace.

A red carpet stretched out in the center, flanked by nobles in ornate garments and knights in thick armor standing solemnly, watching him closely.

“Raise your head, Duke Laedus Brain.”

Laedus Brain.

A handsome middle-aged man with black hair and dark eyes.

He was the father of the protagonist in Heir of a Fallen House.

“Your Majesty…”

Duke Brain raised his head.

In front of him were five steps, and at the top of those steps sat the throne.

Seated on the throne was a man draped in a crimson cloak and wearing a crown adorned with jewels.

He was King Raident Abel, the monarch of the game’s world.

King Abel looked down arrogantly and disdainfully at Duke Brain.

“You know full well what you’ve done wrong, don’t you?”

“Your Majesty, accusing me of treason makes no sense. Surely you know how deeply I love this kingdom…”

“I do. That’s why this is so painful. I never thought you would do something like this…”

“Your Majesty, I would never. The idea that I tried to poison the prince—it’s unthinkable.”

“Yes, I believed that too. But the evidence is overwhelming.”

Duke Brain clenched his jaw.

The so-called evidence had been fabricated by the other nobles.

But proving it was fake… was impossible, at least in this moment.

There was simply no time.

“Your Majesty…”

“I’m sorry it’s come to this. But your family has undeniably done great service for the kingdom. Normally, treason would be punished by immediate execution—but in light of your contributions, I will instead strip you of your title, demoting you to Viscount, and reclaim your lands.”

“Your Majesty, you can’t!”

Duke Brain protested the injustice.

The Laedus family had been loyal to the kingdom for hundreds of years.

And now they were being framed.

Shouldn’t the priority be to uncover the truth behind the false charges?

But King Abel didn’t seem interested in doing that.

In fact, he appeared to be pushing things forward as quickly as possible.

The reason was obvious.

‘He must’ve heard something from the nobles beside him… The growing power of the Laedus family was starting to become a threat. Those in power are always sensitive to anything that might endanger their position.’

“Regardless, this is the final decision. Appeals will not be accepted.”

Duke Brain fell silent, as though resigned to his fate.

He slowly turned his head and looked toward another man.

A fellow Duke.

Duke Beltro Albert.

It was clear that he had orchestrated everything.

No investigation was needed.

‘Damn it…’

“I’ve walked straight into a trap.”

It was checkmate.

An inescapable situation.

There was nothing he could do but accept it.

Baron Brain—no, now Viscount Brain—lowered his head and grit his teeth as he answered,
“I accept your command…”

That was the end of the event scene.

And then, a message popped up.

[Five Years Later]

The background warped once, and before he realized it, he was lying on a luxurious bed.

This was the actual start of the game.

—[Ugh, not the intro again.]

—[This freaking intro…]

—[Hey, if you’re a game developer, shouldn’t you add a skip button? Back in my day, we had that!]

—[Bro really brought out the “back in my day” speech?]

—[Someone confiscate his dentures for two weeks.]

—[Every time you started Heir of a Fallen House, you had to watch the intro.]

—[It was entertaining the first time for new players, but viewers who had seen it repeatedly were sick of it.]

[Let’s gooooooo]

—[Will he even make it past the tutorial…?]

—[I’ll bet my girlfriend he won’t even clear the tutorial.]

—[Uh~ no girlfriend means no stakes, my dude.]

Exitra blinked from where he lay.

Several windows floated in front of his eyes.

[Please select your aptitude. (Swordsman, Mage, Assassin, Merchant, Archer, Priest, Blacksmith…)]

Aptitude selection.

Simply put, an aptitude was your character’s talent.

What you chose would determine how your gameplay progressed—and what direction your domain would develop.

Choosing Swordsman, for example, would trigger quests and events related to swordsmanship.

Choosing Merchant would eventually allow you to develop your domain into a major trading city.

That was the charm of Heir of a Fallen House.

It had an enormous number of endings—over a thousand normal endings, reportedly.

On top of that, there were said to be more than a hundred hidden endings.

‘No one’s reached an ending yet, right?’

It had already been two months since the game’s release, yet no one had finished it.

Considering how quickly Korean gamers typically clear even the hardest games—usually within a week—this was shocking.

That just showed how long the playtime was… and how brutal the difficulty.

“I need to choose an aptitude… but which one?”

—[Obviously Swordsman for your first run!]

—[Swordsman? Are you kidding? With his skills, he’ll die instantly.]

—[Then what about Merchant?]

—[Merchant takes brains. Exitra’s an idiot, so that’s a no-go.]

—[Baptra (Short for “Stupid Exitra”)]

—[Wow, how you gonna drop facts like that? Even a fool has feelings, you know.]

—[You’re worse, man…]

—[Ox]

The chat scrolled rapidly.

No one was recommending a combat class for Exitra.

Everyone knew how bad his reflexes were.

“What? I’m really that bad? I thought I was okay? Remember when I played Black and Sword? I did all right back then!”

—[Wow, the audacity.]

—[What’s the thickness of that faceplate?]

—[Did you drop your conscience somewhere??]

—[Just thinking about that time still gives me indigestion.]

—[God, I wish I could unsee it.]

—[ConscienceWhat? has donated 1,000 won: “Please refer to this video. You and Yudai were besties.”]

***

A video began to play in front of Exitra’s eyes.

It was an old stream from when he played that game.

He was holding a sword and fighting enemies.

The problem?

The video was just a highlight reel of him dying.

Over and over again.

—[That was the day I lost faith in my eyes…]

—[A streamer who dies 20 times in Stage 1? Bruh, what is this, Looney Tunes?]

—[Fun Fact: He rage-quit after dying 30 times in Stage 2.]

—[This isn’t “protect the streamer’s mental health,” this is “protect my eyeballs.”]

Exitra quickly closed the video.

It was his dark past.

“Ahem, I just wasn’t feeling well that day.”

—[What a pathetic excuse!!!]

—[You said you’d be fine! You said you could do it! But look at you now, sniff…]

—[Info: That day, this streamer showed up late even though he’d slept over ten hours.]

—[I imagined him dashing around slicing up enemies. What a joke that was…]

“Why did you clip that?! I asked you not to… It was supposed to stay between us…”

—[If it had been The Grand Bow, maybe I could understand.]

—[Ox]

—[You lacked commitment.]

—[At the very least, a Grand Bow performance should’ve been the baseline~ lololol]

—[lololololol]

“Sigh… Anyway, fine. I’ll choose an aptitude now.”

Before officially starting the game, Exitra made his choice.

He couldn’t go with a common pick.

Too many players had already tried those.

‘I can’t play it safe.’

To succeed, he needed to do something no one else had done.

He needed to find a niche—and hit it big.

So Exitra picked the least chosen aptitude of all.

“Alright! I’ll be a Spirit Summoner!”

—[A… Spirit Summoner?]

—[Is this guy insane…?]

—[Did you eat something weird, bro?]

—[That’s a line you do not cross.]

***

The moment he tried to pick Spirit Summoner, the chat exploded.

“What? Is that bad?”

—[Spirit Summoner is literal trash.]

—[Super boring.]

—[I’m telling you seriously, bro—don’t do it…]

Of course the viewers reacted that way.

Spirit Summoner was one of the worst aptitudes in the game.

They summoned spirits to fight for them.

The problem was…

While their abilities were versatile, they were weaker in magic than Mages and even worse in close combat.

A few streamers had tried using the class, but most couldn’t even get through the tutorial.

Even those who got lucky and cleared it rarely lasted more than a few days.

That’s how garbage the class was.

—[What’s the temperature of the Han River today? Is he trying a new kind of suicide?]

—[He’s trying to piss us off to death.]

—[Just pick something easy, man.]

“A real man doesn’t back down.”

[TrashTruck has donated 1,000 won: “This is non-recyclable trash. Please dispose of properly.”]