You're a hardcore gamer.
Lately, you've become obsessed with a high-freedom, hardcore historical game about a chaotic age and the struggle for supremacy.
First playthrough. You did whatever you wanted, randomly picked a subordinate, and poured points into his stats. Somehow, the two of you fought your way across the land despite all the bumps along the road. Unfortunately, in the final battle, a plot-mandated death struck you down, and you were pierced by a thousand arrows.
Your subordinate crawled through a mountain of corpses and cradled your face.
You unlocked the bad ending [Live Together, Die Together] and the CG [A Stolen Kiss]...
You: ? Why is there a romance route?
Second playthrough. You started poring over dozens of pages of walkthroughs, recruiting talent and outmaneuvering your rivals in the game. Once your stats were perfect, you tossed the walkthrough aside. But on the eve of the ending, you were told that, to balance the stats, you had to execute several of your most trusted ministers. Furious, you said they were your dearest friends.
That'll cost extra.
In the end, you still couldn't bring yourself to do it. Your plans fell apart, and you died on the first night of the new dynasty.
In the spring of the Yiyi year, you stood before a realm in turmoil and declared that all under heaven would be yours. Your subordinates didn't echo your words; their eyes were fixed on the fires of war across the land.
They followed you.
In the winter of the Yisi year, you told your subordinates to flee for their lives. But some walked into a sea of flames to straighten your clothes and die beside you; some carved out a path to safety for you with their flesh and blood; and some were willing to light a lamp and trade their lives for yours.
They loved you.
You unlocked the bad ending [The Martyr's White Moonlight].
Third playthrough. At last, you steeled yourself and killed several of your most powerful and unreliable ministers. As they died, they looked at you as if their eyes were poisoned.
You unlocked the happy ending [A Legacy for the Ages].
But in the next instant, you closed your eyes and found yourself inside the game.
Before you could even react, the beginner's guide System informed you that every strategist, general, ally, and enemy you met along the way would be reborn.
The System had no idea which playthrough each of them had come back from.
The System wished you a happy game.
But you knew you were probably doomed.
2025.5.10
Theme: Their heroism
