Wait, Isn't This Supposed to Be a Single-Player Game?!

# Also known as The Thousand Tricks of a Reloading Game, The Speedrunner's Single-Player Game, and A Speedrun Through Repeated Reloads

*

It all began the moment Muye won a gift card for a game.

He had missed the new release festival and hadn't gotten to play the game that had been sitting on his wishlist for ages. But, quite unexpectedly, he discovered that he'd won a giveaway in an official post and would be receiving a copy.

At last, he got to play the single-player game: a Western fantasy adventure of swords and magic, heroes, and a pixel-art wasteland.

The frustrating part was that the game only had one save slot. That was truly its biggest flaw.

Before even making it out of the starting village, he'd already reloaded his save more than 50 times...

Eventually, relying on muscle memory from countless reloads, he defeated the mini-boss, left the starting village, and reached the first town!

And so he began his good-guy player mode.

Hello, do you need help?

Would you like me to help?

Please, let me help you!

Need herbs picked? No problem, leave it to him!

Need an heirloom found? No problem, leave it to him!

Need monsters hunted? No problem, leave it to him!

[Congratulations, player! This route is now unlocked. You can challenge the first stage's final boss.]

Muye kept giving gifts to raise the NPCs' affection until they'd grown sick of receiving them. Even after the game got stuck and his save was lost...

So what? He started a new save and did it all over again!

Wait... how did he end up transmigrating into the game?!

Luckily, Muye was exceptionally good at rolling with the punches. He decided to take a vacation and enjoy an adventure in a full-dive game, while continuing to give gifts to NPCs and raise their affection.

Huh? Wait, why has the opening encounter changed? And why has he unlocked an NPC's hidden backstory?!

What, an NPC needs monster blood to level up? No problem, he'll go kill some!

What, an NPC wants these herbs? No problem, he'll go pick them!

What, an NPC is being bullied? No problem, he'll go beat someone up!

What, an NPC wants his blood? No problem, he can let the NPC bite him!

What, an NPC wants to reclaim his throne? No problem, he'll go fight for it!

What, an NPC wants to be with him? No problem, he'll go... what?!

Muye looked over the game progress. He'd completed everything, fought his way to the ending, and even defeated the final boss.

At last, the game screen displayed an [Exit Game] button. Muye clicked it, completely satisfied.

But then the NPC whose affection he'd been working so hard to raise suddenly appeared, trying to stop Muye from vanishing from this world

*

People have always sought the secret to immortality. The god said that this great power, the power of life, lies within death...

And those who can command death can bring the dead back to the realm of the living.

That god is the God of Decay

The world praised his greatness, and countless people followed him, hoping to receive his blessings.

But abusing the blessings he bestowed came at a price, one he would eventually reclaim...

The civilizations of old were no more. Monsters rose up and threw the continent into turmoil, while nations fell into decline and ruin.

The abandoned God of Nature had long since been forsaken by humankind, fallen, and vanished without a trace.

People begged the God of Nature, longing for him to forgive them, his ignorant followers.

His faithful, hearts full of hope, waited and waited, but their god never answered.

Day after day, year after year...

Then, at last, the people whose hope had long since died encountered a strange, cursed adventurer, a hero.

The cursed stranger, an adventurer who seemed hard to approach, often behaved strangely, yet was a saintly, hopelessly kind fool.

Give him a quest and he would never refuse anyone.

No matter how difficult the task, even if it brought him to the brink of death, he never backed down. He always returned the requested item to its owner in perfect condition.

He was also like an all-knowing encyclopedia. Ask him anything, and he always had an answer.

And for the friends he made, he could always guess what they wanted ahead of time, producing just the right gift as if from a magic bag.

Even when no one hired him, the cursed, strange adventurer would charge off on his own to fight the monsters scattered across the continent, ending the power of the "Decay" curse with the spirit of a hero...

Overconfident and powerful, the cursed, strange adventurer had never lost a battle.

The people he'd saved, whose hopes he'd rekindled, wanted to carve a statue of him, so that people everywhere could remember and sing of his heroic spirit and his great legend.

But he refused them all, one by one.

The cursed, strange adventurer would often say with a straight face that his name was "Mu Gu La Ka Ka Wu La La Duo La Ye." Everyone assumed he simply didn't want to reveal his real name.

The cursed, strange adventurer never asked for so much as a thing in return, yet no one ever learned his name.

Decay was defeated, the monsters vanished from the world, and the continent slowly returned to civilization and prosperity.

But no one ever learned what became of the strange, cursed adventurer...

Rumor one: The strange, cursed adventurer vanished along with the monsters. It was the first and only defeat of this overconfident, powerful hero.

Rumor two: After defeating Decay, the strange, cursed adventurer shed the runes of the curse that covered his body, revealing his true face as a hero. People came to believe that he, or perhaps she, was the continent's third god.

Some doubted him...

Some praised him...

Some waited for him...

A clueless adventurer who charms people without realizing it (bottom) x a pure-looking flower with a wicked heart (top)

Theme: Face hardship head-on