Only an hour ago, Lemigas had been a god.
Back then, his name was Ken, popularly known as Killjoy, the undisputed King of Asturias.
It started after the launch of the tide-changing game, Towers of Asturias, which flipped the gaming world upside down. It became the most difficult game ever created, with every floor of each Tower matching the difficulty in final boss fights of most games.
Many top gamers abandoned hopes of conquering all the Towers. Except Killjoy.
Ken made it his life's purpose to clear every floor across all five Towers, determined to mock the developers who dared believe they could really create an unbeatable game.
Today was supposed to be the day that he reached that goal.
Ken sat in an ergonomic chair, surrounded by three monitors that bathed his nerdy face with a glow of determination.
"Chat, are you seeing this? We're making history right now."
On his screen, the viewer count had surged past 500,000. The entire gaming world was watching; no one wanted to miss Killjoy's legendary run.
So far, he had achieved the impossible. He had cleared the Tower of Rot, the Tower of Echoes, the Tower of Iron, and the Tower of Genesis.
His party was optimized to perfection: Two 10-Star Golds and Three 10-Star Diamonds, all clad with Legendary gear and an S-Rank Team Synergy.
Now, he was standing at the threshold of the final floor of the last tower: The Tower of True Desolation.
"One boss left, guys," Ken had whispered into his microphone, his heart racing. "We clear this, and we've officially conquered this game! Units! Let's move."
He deployed his Heroes into the final floor.
But whatever hopes they had before entering completely vanished in a dwindling second.
What happened was barely a battle. It was a massacre.
⸢ Fear has taken over your units! Their stats have reduced by 30%! ⸥
Ken stared at the screen. 'But there isn't any threat ye—'
His eyes suddenly widened.
A glitching entity appeared in a blink of an eye and slaughtered all his Heroes in that same timeframe.
"Retreat! Retreat!" Ken barked orders, but lifeless bodies couldn't hear talk more of move.
His elite Heroes, victors of every prior Tower, were now dead.
The entity that killed them, glitched away, vanishing like it was never even there, leaving the silent open space of the final floor.
⸢ Your Heroes are all DEAD. ⸥
⸢ YOU FAILED ⸥
The screen turned grey, putting an end to Ken's months of grinding. His long anticipated Tower Run was gone. Just like that.
BAM!
Ken slammed his fist onto the desk, knocking over his energy drink. "Are you kidding me?!" he screamed. "What kind of obviously scripted shit is this?! Was that a boss? Where the hell was the health bar?! What kind of boss was that?!"
He had crashed out completely, veins bulging in his neck as he ranted to the millions watching. "The devs are complete frauds! They're not even hiding it at this point. They're so desperate to keep their game unbeatable that they wiped out my units on the last floor!"
After all he did! After endless months of hard work, strategizing and spending to build an invincible party, only to get wiped by a phantom boss.
Comments rolled in, sharing his anger and frustration. They had all just watched their favorite streamer get fucked over by cheating devs.
One of the comments caught Ken's attention.
UnknownWatcher: You're talking real tough for a guy who knows nothing about making games.
Ken's anger tripled and he stabbed his keys in response. 'Shut up! I can tell that you work for the devs. Tell them that they are criminals! In fact, invite me to your headquarters. Let me tell them myself!'
UnknownWatcher: Hmm. You really want to confront the devs face to face?
Ken read the reply with rage in his eyes. 'Heck yeah, I do!' he responded. 'Let me come there and I will teach you guys a lesson! I'll even stream it to make sure everyone sees what pathetic hacks you all are!'
Once he clicked send, he waited for a response with his blood boiling. Moments later, it came.
UnknownWatcher: Okay.
Ken narrowed his eyes. Was that it?
He moved to type another response, but suddenly, a bright light blasted on his face and before he could react, he was sucked into a vortex, leaving his viewers in a state of confusion.
The next thing he saw was that black voidspace around him and the floating notification:
⸢ Input your name ⸥
His very first thought was: 'Let me guess, I might be dreaming, right?'
⸢ Lemigasimabedremirite is too long ⸥
⸢ Name shortened to Lemigas ⸥
'Wait what?'
⸢ You have been summoned by an Architect to challenge the Towers. Prepare yourself! ⸥
Ken's heart thumped with terror. 'What the hell is happening???!!'
The next thing he knew, he was standing with the other summoned challengers and now—
"Woah!" Lemigas threw himself backward, landing hard in the mud.
—He was fighting goblins.
The goblin that had attacked him screeched, drool dripping from its yellow fangs as it raised its weapon for a finishing blow.
'It's a Level 1 Goblin Scavenger,' Lemigas thought, analyzing the creature instantly. 'Their attack pattern is usually an overhead swing, followed by a clumsy bite. They have a 1.5-second recovery frame.'
He knew the attack pattern of every single beast in the game offhand, but the problem was knowledge could only get him so far inside this world.
Strength was more important. And Lemigas certainly didn't have that.
His body felt heavy. Weak. His arms were thin, and his stamina was pathetic.
All he could do was use his knowledge to the best of his ability. He knew that as the goblin swung, blocking would be deadly because his strength was too low.
So, he stepped into the guard, exactly where the hitbox of the weapon ended, and drove his iron shortsword into the creature's throat.
⸢ Critical Hit! ⸥
The goblin gurgled and dissipated into game particles
Lemigas fell to his knees, gasping for air. "I... I killed it..."
But that was just him. For the rest of the competitors, they weren't fairing too well.
He staggered to his feet and looked around the wet field. The Tutorial Floor had been turned into a slaughterhouse.
The burly man who had slapped the trader was lying face down in a pool of his own blood, three goblins feasting on his back.
The trader's head was smashed in, and others laid in small rivers of crimson oozing out of their lifeless bodies.
Of the ten people who entered the Gate to challenge the Tutorial Floor, seven were already dead.