I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 0

“I did it-!” I shouted, stretching both arms high above my head. On the computer monitor in front of me, the word ‘CLEAR’ was displayed in large letters. I had just cleared the final stage of this game. “Damn it! I cleared it! I cleared it! I cleared this goddamn game!” Sniffle, I was so moved that I even shed a few tears. Thinking about the half-year of hardship I endured to clear this made my nose tingle even more. , a tower defense & dungeon offense RPG. It’s a classic game that’s been out for over 10 years already. The game involves recruiting and training heroes to defend the city and clear the dungeons in front of it, and it is a turn-based strategy RPG. You place characters on the map and control them one by one. It was also known for its hardcore difficulty, as there was no way to revive a hero you had painstakingly raised if they died by mistake. It was quite popular worldwide at the time, but now it’s an old game that has become a classic. The reason why I’m clearing it now is. First, because no one had ever cleared it on the highest difficulty. The highest difficulty, ‘Hell’. And the ‘Ironman’ mode, where the game progress is forcibly saved. It’s commonly shortened to ‘Hell Ironman’. This game saves all user clear data on the server and ranks them. But no one had ever cleared ‘Hell Ironman’. There were people who cleared it in Ironman mode on the Legend difficulty, which is one level below Hell, and there were people who cleared it on Hell difficulty without Ironman mode, but there were no successful players in Hell Ironman yet. But now, 10 years after the game was released, a successful player has finally appeared. Yes, that’s me! Isn’t it human nature to challenge uncharted territory? Like climbing to overcome an unconquered mountain. So I challenged it. And the second reason. – Wow, this old-school otaku uncle cleared it – SSS!! – lol, this old-school guy’s tenacity is really something – World first, congrats – You’ve worked hard for half a year, GG On the other monitor next to the one running the game, the chat window for the broadcast was flooded with messages. I smiled contentedly as I looked at the chat logs. “I told you all, didn’t I? No matter how difficult it is! Games exist to be cleared!” I am a game streamer, and among them, I am a streamer who only plays hardcore classic games. My ID is ‘OldSchoolOtaku’. If you ask if I have a lot of viewers, it’s surprisingly quite a lot. Nostalgia is always a popular content. Suffering from high difficulty is also always popular content. The average number of viewers is about 3,000, but when I reached the final stage, it exceeded 10,000, and more viewers were flocking in as the news of the clear spread. [‘MissionFairy’ has donated 100,000 won!] – I’ll acknowledge your bragging today. I’m donating as promised Fixed viewers who had set up missions saying they would donate if I cleared it started sending donations one by one. [‘TrashGameSommelier’ has donated 50,000 won!] – No, I was supposed to watch you for another half a year, what do I do if you clear it? [‘BlackBox’ has donated 10,000 won!] – I bought this; I thought it was a safe asset, but I got tricked;; [‘DogThatBarksAtBoringStreams’ has donated 30,000 won!] – I can’t bark today, lol “Oh my~ Thank you for the donations. I will continue to work hard!” Donations poured in, I responded with thanks, and the viewers were excited and chattering. The chat was in a festive mood. World first clear of a difficulty that no one had cleared for 10 years. What greater achievement could there be as a gamer? The viewers who had been with me through this process were as happy as if it were their own achievement. – But the Saintess dying in the final battle was so sad ㅠ She was an R-rank character but she carried us all this time – It couldn’t be helped… If the second party hadn’t drawn aggro, we wouldn’t have been able to approach the boss – I screamed out loud when the third party was wiped out; it was the strongest party with only SSR heroes, but they died – The first party was also on edge because everyone except the main character Lucas was wiped out; The viewers seemed to have developed some affection for the game characters over the past half year, and they were saddened as they talked about the characters who died in the final battle. This game is a system where you ‘draw’ and raise heroes with in-game currency. It’s random and tiered, so you select and train heroes classified as SSR-SR-R-N rank. Viewers had different favorite characters, and they watched the broadcast with empathy for their favorite characters. From strong and cool SSR-rank characters to characters who showed outstanding performance despite being N-rank. ‘But they all died in the end….’ I smiled bitterly. This crazy difficult game was structured so that you couldn’t move forward without sacrifice. I tried my best to cherish and keep them alive until the final stage, but in the boss battle, everyone except the main character died in the end. Well, my goal wasn’t to keep everyone alive, but to reach the ending…. – Hey! It’s okay if you cleared it! You protected the empire! – Here’s the link to the scene where our main character Lucas survives alone and delivers the final blow to the boss >>here<< – OMG, so cool... This is YouTube material – That's what a main character is I also turned on the linked video and watched it again with the viewers. The main character, Lucas, with his golden hair flying, struck the boss with his sword, and the final boss, ‘The Sleepless Lake Princess,’ who seemed like she would never fall, finally died. When I turned off the video and returned to the game, Lucas was still standing there. [LAST STAGE – CLEAR!] [STAGE MVP – Lucas (SSR)] Behind the stage clear result window that unfolded. In front of the boss monster he had defeated, on top of the mountains of corpses of allies and enemies, endlessly…. “…….” Why is that? Even though he's just a game character, his back looked a little lonely. [Achievement Achieved!] [Cleared in Hell Difficulty & Ironman Mode – ‘Hell Ironman’] [Perks will be awarded for achieving the achievement!] [Calculating clear ranking…….] [Clear ranking updated!] [World Ranking 1st – Player Name ‘OldSchoolOtaku’] The ranking was updated, and as expected, I became the world's number one. The viewers congratulated me once again. I quietly took a screenshot. Click! After that, the ending cutscene came out, and the staff roll flowed. I didn't bother to skip it. I wanted to enjoy this afterglow. – Shouldn't the developers give OldSchoolOtaku some kind of award? About halfway through the staff roll, one of the viewers said. – They should give him something for proving that he could clear the difficulty that they were being criticized for making it impossible to clear; – Ah, that's true lol – If it wasn't for OldSchoolOtaku, no one would have ever cleared it~ – Is the developer still in business? Someone send them an email I chuckled quietly. “Hey, what kind of award would the developers give? It's not necessary. It's enough that I had fun with you all for half a year.” – You say that, but OldSchoolOtaku's eyes are sparkling with desire – lol, you'd be happy to receive it if they actually gave it to you – Hey, but it seems like they're out of business? The company website is gone... Did they really go bankrupt? – Seeing that there hasn't been a sequel for 10 years, it seems like they really went bankrupt – Then who's managing the clear data server? While the viewers were talking about that topic, I was looking at the staff roll that had almost reached the end, filled with emotion. A sense of accomplishment unique to clearing a game and a dull sense of emptiness filled my stomach. That's when it happened. – Hello, OldSchoolOtaku. I am the director of . Suddenly, this message appeared in the chat. The chat window instantly became chaotic. – What what, is it real??? – Of course it's a fake lol, you naive people, do you believe that? – That nickname has been a viewer for half a year? Is that really the director of ? – Director, please release 2 so OldSchoolOtaku can suffer more!!! Surprised, I checked the previous chat logs of the ID that sent the message. It was someone who had started watching the broadcast half a year ago, when I started playing . But they had never chatted even once in half a year. Such a person had spoken to me as if they had been waiting for me to clear the Hell Ironman difficulty. – First of all, thank you. Honestly, I had given up. I didn't think anyone would succeed. The self-proclaimed director continued to chat. – But I was truly relieved that you succeeded like this. Thank you so much. “No, well... You don't have to thank me….” I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. Whether this person was the real director or not, I felt good. To hear words of gratitude just for clearing a game. – It's a relief that there's still hope left for us. “……?” I blinked my eyes in confusion. Hope? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Oh right, they said the company went bankrupt. So they had given up, but they gained hope after seeing me playing the game hard, is that what they mean? – You have proven your qualifications and abilities. Please come here and help us. “Uh, um…….” Are they developing a sequel or something? Is that what they mean by asking me to help with the beta test? And that's why they're asking me to come to the company? The moment I opened my mouth to ask that person, who was saying things I couldn't understand, ‘Huh?’ The surroundings spun around. Did I get dizzy from playing the game for too long? Come to think of it, I didn't eat or drink anything when I reached the final stage. It must have taken me at least a few hours to clear it. The light from the dual monitors scattered. The surroundings spun around and even started to rotate rapidly. The letters in the chat window and the black screen of the ending staff roll mixed together. I guess I overdid it. I even fainted while playing a game. But if I fall, the viewers will report it to 119 for me, right? I fell down with such a carefree thought. Before losing consciousness, the last thing I saw was. – Thank you for playing. – Thank you for playing . That phrase was written at the very end of the ending staff roll. And my consciousness was dyed black.