Ch.1Fall (1)

I have no parents.

It wasn’t just now; it had been that way even before I ended up like this.

Of course, I wasn’t born this way. I’m not some monster or an adult who appeared out of nowhere—I must have had parents who gave birth to me.

But in my memories, there are no faces of parents, no sound of their voices.

No scenes of being welcomed home, and likewise, no memories of what people commonly call a warm family.

And for someone like me who believes memories make a person, parents were essentially nonexistent beings.

For me, the word “home” was closer to an empty, silent place.

Lonely, barren, desolate, and a space that would be dyed the same color as the setting sun before darkening into twilight.

Still, I was fortunate in a way.

“Ah!”

When the word “home” came to mind, what followed was night, and night meant it was time for my sister to return.

“You didn’t eat again, did you? I told you to eat properly.”

Her voice remains vivid even now. The words she spoke while unwrapping the scarf neatly tied around her neck were scolding, but I could feel the affection in them.

For me, nagging and affection were indistinguishable words.

For an orphan like me, the word “family” meant only my sister.

So, if I had to put it into words, home and night were synonymous to me. My sister, returning from work, was always only there at night, and during the day, she was away working.

“Sis, what do you like so much about that game that you play it so hard?”

We always ate together. After eating and clearing the table, when I’d return from washing the dishes, my sister would be sitting cross-legged in front of the computer, continuously playing the same game.

It was a dark fantasy game called “Grim Darker.”

She said it was a trilogy with excellently crafted companions and a superb story.

My sister particularly loved that game.

“Just. Because it’s fun.”

My sister would say with a grin. At first, she gave me all sorts of reasons as I watched her with my chin resting on my hand, but later she just answered like that.

It was only after she suddenly disappeared that I thought about playing that game.

At first, I filed a missing person report. I distributed flyers everywhere. Fortunately, I had many good friends, so it wasn’t difficult at first.

But it was shameless to keep using friends for such personal matters. Later, even I stopped putting up flyers.

Because I wasn’t a shameless person.

After all, if she had decided to give up taking care of me and live her own life, there was no way I could find her.

But I was curious about why she abandoned me.

I wanted to understand and know what she had been thinking while living her life.

Fortunately, my sister’s computer was still at home.

My sister didn’t have a blog or use social media, so tracking her thoughts was no easy task.

Naturally, I turned to games. The dark fantasy game my sister loved. The game that had gained fame with successful sequels and was visible everywhere.

I started with the characters my sister had played.

I looked at how she had progressed the story with those characters.

Since it wasn’t a game with a separate quest list, I had to see it through to the ending, but my sister’s choices were clear.

My sister didn’t distinguish between evil and good deeds. Perhaps because she had played a lot, she had been making choices to achieve the best possible outcome.

Sometimes, as if caught in moral dilemmas, her choices differed between saves, but later on, most of her choices were similar.

At most, the protagonist’s race and profession varied slightly. It was clear she had been immersed in this game.

The name was always the same. The appearance was almost identical too.

Even when the race changed, which usually meant a significant change in appearance, the characters my sister created mostly looked similar.

Since progress carried over between games, her actions were similar in the sequels as well.

She would lie for reliable companions and dirty her hands for those who shuddered at their fate.

She mostly did good deeds, but she would also punish villains so thoroughly that it was pitiful to watch.

Two years had passed since my sister’s disappearance.

I too eventually came to like the game called Grim Darker. Was it because we were siblings?

But unlike my sister, I didn’t immerse myself in that world.

What I particularly liked was a fixed style of play.

In this unique real-time pause RPG, I preferred powerful characters who could kill all enemies on their own with minimal input from me.

The character I perfected through various trials and errors didn’t change much despite different choices each time.

A warrior who stubbornly pushed forward, breaking all obstacles and tearing apart enemies.

That was my favorite build.

Even with improvements and adjustments, that basic framework never changed.

A race with excellent physical abilities but no magic to use skills.

Similarly, a build with almost no skills but one that benefited greatly from raw stats in a simple, straightforward way.

It was the same when I heard about the new DLC.

A being only mentioned as the mastermind throughout the series like a MacGuffin, and they say we’ll meet the three clans in a newly discovered unknown land, the New Continent.

I took pride in my build, and because of that, I chose my race without hesitation.

I can still see that moment clearly.

The moment when I skipped through the already familiar descriptions and quickly selected my race and pressed start.

If I had known it would turn out like this, I wouldn’t have done it.

When I opened my eyes, a vast expanse greeted me.

Even if I stretched out my hand, nothing could be touched, and I felt nothing would ever be within reach—it was that immense.

This was the world.

Nothing constrained me.

Below was a forest covered in white, and above was just the majestic flowing clouds and blue sky.

Under such a sky, I was falling.

There was no parachute. This wasn’t a world where such things existed.

Magic existed, but I had no power to wield it.

I flailed my arms. I spread my legs too, trying somehow to maintain balance, but my body wasn’t powerful enough to resist a world.

Naturally, my body spun. I couldn’t tell the exact direction.

The ground and sky, which I had thought were beautiful scenery, seemed distant and spun around me as if mocking me.

I was falling.

Perhaps the most absurd fall on Earth, maybe even unprecedented in this fucking dark fantasy.

Or should I call it a defenseless free fall?

It doesn’t feel much different, but suddenly I recalled the words of my sister who raised me.

That everything depends on how you think about it.

So I tried to think a bit more positively.

When else would I experience something like this?

Kuguuuuuuuuuu!

That positive energy didn’t last long.

I tried to control my spinning body as I faced the rough and heavy wind that seemed to envelop and beat me.

Despite my efforts, the wind—whether it was blowing toward me or I was crashing into it—was suffocating.

While the ground still seemed distant, one question arose.

Could I really survive from this height?

Generally, the answer would be “no,” but considering my special nature, that wasn’t necessarily true.

I had just pierced through clouds with my body, and even after falling for over a minute, the ground still seemed impossibly far.

Nevertheless, I knew I might survive.

[Name: □]

[Race: Homunculus]

[Class: Warrior – Mourner]

[Reputation: Unknown]

[Strength: 20(+5)][Dexterity: 20(+5)][Constitution: 20(+5)]

[Magic: □][Inspiration: □][Charm: □]

[Play Time: 8,767 hours]

The five characters that appeared in the corner of my vision told me so.

I closed my eyes again.

How did things end up like this?

*

When people greet each other, they often state their position or rank.

I am CEO Kim So-and-so.

I am Captain Lee Such-and-such.

That kind of thing.

In that sense, if I were to introduce myself, the first position that would come up would make listeners question my mental state.

[Name: □]

[Race: Homunculus]

[Class: □]

[Reputation: Blood Bag]

[Strength: 20(+5)][Dexterity: 20(+5)][Constitution: 20(+5)]

[Magic: □][Inspiration: □][Charm: □]

[Play Time: 8,759 hours]

Currently, in this space, my position was Blood Bag.

I was the official prey of vampires and livestock being eaten slowly over the long term.

The unique dagger stuck in my heart, the wide-open wound, and my body that hadn’t died despite it all proved it.

Likewise, the strong chains binding me, capable of restraining even an elephant, proved it too.

But as with people, sometimes there are vampires who show affection to their livestock.

Livestock that receives such affection can be promoted to pets, but…

I just mentioned it because it came to mind, not because it was about me.

Becoming a pet with limbs and tongue cut off, jaw removed, and a leash attached—that was something I’d rather decline.

Though I probably wouldn’t have a say in the matter.

Rather, my situation was somewhat pitiful.

Livestock that no one looked for, generally neglected except for when someone came to draw blood occasionally.

Usually, livestock would either escape or die if neglected, but quite conveniently, I didn’t.

More precisely, all of us who were bound in this unknown space were like that.

Anyway, I was quite convenient livestock.

I don’t die even if I don’t eat.

I don’t lose consciousness even if I don’t drink.

Sleep was necessary, but that was for the brain, not something my body needed.

Truly optimization-ready livestock.

That was the identity of the Homunculus race I had chosen.

[Play Time: 8,760 hours]

It had been a year since I became such livestock.

A year is both a long and short time.

When you have things to do but spend time playing around or dealing with various important matters, it passes in an instant.

But when you’re just hanging there unable to do anything, it’s a terribly long time.

However, it was also enough time to think about and organize thoughts that I couldn’t address because I was too busy living.

Things I couldn’t properly consider when I lost her, or right after becoming livestock.

I recalled it.

My sister had disappeared.

The last character she chose was a Homunculus, the same as what I had chosen.

Moreover, she disappeared without a trace. Even the police couldn’t find any trace of her.

Besides, my sister didn’t have money to flee abroad. Even if she did, there was no record of her leaving the country.

So I thought.

Maybe she’s in this world too.

Of course, at first, I thought she had abandoned me.

My sister was also a person with her own dreams.

But in that situation, she had a much younger brother. A late-blooming brother who couldn’t do anything on his own.

In other words, a burden. She had already fulfilled her duty by taking care of me until I became a high school student.

So, until I tried to find my sister’s actions in the game, I accepted it with terrible depression.

That abandoning me was perfectly natural.

And shamelessly, I even resented her. I resented her until I played the game she had played and ended up in the same situation.

But not anymore. I knew better now.

My sister is a person with a strong sense of responsibility. Someone who desires the best outcome and can endure immediate immorality to achieve it.

She has a broad perspective and desires the best. She abhors abandoning her own people.

She might not have considered me family, but I didn’t think too deeply about it.

I would find out everything when I met her.

I just made a promise.

That I would definitely find my sister and return.

At least, that’s what I thought before I jumped out on my own.