One of the greatest nightmares for a perfectionist is sitting for long stretches at a character creation screen when a new, highly detailed game is released. Games that allow even the smallest details to be adjusted can sometimes be genuinely exhausting. And there are games where it is not just the character's appearance that can be customized, but also their class, abilities, personality, background, race, and countless other elements.
BloodBanner, released in 2050, raised the bar to an extreme in this regard.
The game had two versions: online and story-driven. While the online portion appealed more to fans of the MMORPG genre, the story mode was praised by everyone for months. However, to access the online mode, players first had to complete the story mode, because the online experience was actually a continuation of it. At the end of the story mode, players began online play with the characters and items they had collected.
And now, a young man who had been unemployed for months sat down at his computer to play the story mode for the fifth time.
Beyond simply being a game, and beyond the fact that every decision affected the narrative, it was considered one of the best games ever made in terms of replayability, thanks to its dozens of classes.
In short, this game was a rare blessing, especially for those with plenty of free time.
The young man launched the game and, after a fairly long introductory cinematic, entered the character creation screen. This time, he chose a dragon-hybrid race and began shaping his character.
First, to better shape the face, he made the character completely bald, then he made the genitalia the largest version possible, even though it had little effect in the game. This detail was absolutely important to him.
There were so many tiny details that he could have spent hours adjusting them, and he fully intended to do exactly that. This time, he was going to play the game with a complete grasp of the story and the characters. He wanted to make the correct choices and finish the game by making his character overwhelmingly powerful. In a few months, his money would run out, and he would have to attend job interviews.
Before returning to his dull, colorless life, he wanted to play this perfect game one last time, properly and without compromise.
After spending hours on the character creation screen, the young man finally entered the game. He chose the Mage class and selected Leader as his personality trait. For his background, he picked Child of a Fallen God, an option available only to players who had purchased the Deluxe Edition and completed the game one time.
He had never chosen this background before because it had felt somewhat arrogant. Yet for some reason, this time he wanted to try it. He had also heard that characters with this background could form relationships with all female characters simultaneously, and he wanted to give that a chance. This time, he intended to consume every piece of content the game had to offer, and this background was perfect for that purpose.
Finally, there was one last thing to choose: a name. He was not particularly creative when it came to naming, but this time he wanted something good. A name worthy of the character. But he wanted to create a name with his imagination, not one that existed in this world.
Areth Dom Othalnmalkor
After a short and creative naming process, this was the name he settled on.
[-Start the Adventure-]
When he saw this option, he opened his soda first and then clicked it without hesitation. After another special cinematic related to the character's past, the game officially began.
Aside from meeting his basic needs, he played the game continuously for days, weeks, and almost two full months. He consumed every piece of content, from side quests to simple mini-games. He reloaded previous saves more than a thousand times to choose the optimal path, perfected his relationships with every character, and left nothing to chance.
He added all female characters to his harem and maxed out every relationship to one hundred percent.
What was normally a simple campsite used for resting, he rebuilt as his own personal flying island, something extremely difficult to achieve in the game. Beyond the fifty playable characters, he also brought story-only side characters he liked, mostly women, onto his island. This was a game feature, and each non-playable character provided unique buffs.
In a game that normally took around a hundred hours, he had pushed past nearly a thousand. On a sleepless night, he finally reached the end. One last time, he looked over the characters he had gathered and the flying island he had built. He had done everything. There was only one thing left.
The Final Boss.
The Final Boss was the god of the story itself, and there were dozens of ways to clear this section. Among them, the hardest path was killing the god outright. Naturally, the young man chose that route. Despite completing every side quest and over-optimizing his character, it still took him hours to defeat the multi-phase boss fight.
Very few players had accomplished this. He might even have been the fastest to do so.
[Achievement Unlocked]
[BloodBanner]
[The Last Banner Still Stands]
[Rare Achievement]
This was the notification that appeared after completing all the game's content.
The young man smiled as he looked at the achievement. He had enjoyed every moment and would have continued if he could. Now, he would have to return to his dull routine. He opened his bank account and realized he had just enough money left to cover a few days of basic needs.
"Damn it… I wish I wasn't in this world."
At that moment, the young man was staring at BloodBanner's beautiful, unique landscape.
"I wish," he continued sincerely and from the depths of his heart, "I wish I were there… I wish I belonged to that world."
With a deep sigh, he stood up from his chair. Tomorrow, he would look for a job, and for that he needed to wake up early. He was so exhausted that he forgot to turn off the computer, and the moment his head hit the pillow, he passed out like a toy whose batteries had been removed. The last thing he thought about was whether he had set the alarm correctly.
At that very moment, something began to stir on the still-bright screen. Notifications appeared and vanished. The screen flashed as if it were about to burst, illuminating the entire room. None of it was enough to wake the young man, who was already deep asleep.
The final thing to appear on the monitor was a notification window that had never been seen before.
[The World is Being Created...]
[Save Data Integrity: Perfect]
[World Compatibility: 100%]
[User Status: Offline]
It did not last even a second. The screen went dark and shut down completely.
At the same time, the young man's chest rose gently, then fell.
Then… it did not rise again.