[Legends of the Thronebound Everfall: Edition IX]
A fantasy-based game that was first created by the corporation Halcyra Interactive, where the game was officially launched as a computer game at first.
Of course, I hated spending money on anything at all other than just hoarding it, and it took a few months for my friend to convince me, albeit barely, to purchase it with a discount of around 75% on winter eve.
It's been exactly a year and 3 days since I've bought the game, and disinterested, I had scrolled down the reviews, hoping to find anything helpful that could guide me through playing my game.
But all I found were complaints from players, and many of them were either boasting their achievements or criticizing the game's mechanics and difficulty level, with just around less than 0.2% to get a happy ending, out of thousands of horrible endings.
[Legends of the Thronebound Everfall: Edition IX]
With collaboration between Halcyra Interactive and Ebonreach Studios, the game went into development for exactly 7 years. Millions were invested in the game, as it had started off as a small game, and its hit of success had a probability of only around 12%, despite the money poured in and the effort taken.
However, when released, the game reached a high count of players of ~1.5 billion players worldwide in just 2 months. That was the birth of the game known as 'Legends of the Thronebound Everfall.'
Seeing the oil rig that they had hit, the corporation decided to add some mods, and later on even adapted the game to a web novel. They further went into work as the workaholics and money-grubbing corporations they were, and submerged for another 3 years, before the current version of the game was released.
Throwing my cigarette that had shrunken to the size of half a pinkie's worth off the skyscraper, I continued, observing the lively city, the lights hung on the streets looking like little dots of light from where I was.
People walked and talked, laughing, all sorts of emotions displayed on their faces.
Huh.. they look like ants.
[Legends of the Thronebound Everfall: Edition IX]
A role-playing game that seemed to be a mixture of the typical Korean academy fantasy games, yet an odd mix of noble hierarchies, dating sim, continent-spanning empires, demon invasions, and secret organizations.
The newest edition of the game had just released a new patch, but sadly, not many people could be seen playing the game anymore. The difficulty was on a whole different level, and even paying money wasn't enough to have even a 4% chance of completing the game.
Despite the high-quality eroge content, stunning visuals, detailed stories, and political issues, the game's rating had dropped to 2 stars by around 900 million world players globally.
I was one of the few that decided to continue playing the game. In fact, its difficulty was what pulled me towards it in the first place.
Waiting for my phone to load, I rummaged my pocket with my other hand as I leaned on the rails, searching for any cigarettes I may have dropped, but sighed when I couldn't find any.
Something small and white fell from the sky, landing on my phone's screen before melting. And then another. And another.
My gaze flickered towards the sky as I watched the small white-cute particles moving down slowly to earth. The snow continued drifting, a light breeze pushing a few strands of my hair to my forehead and covering my face.
Shaking my head to clear my vision, I heard the door behind me slowly open, as a dazzling woman who looked in her thirties with black, silky hair made into a ponytail walked out of the door.
The woman had small, yet suggestive red lips, her dark ocean-like blue eyes boredly looking at me for a moment before she walked to the rail beside me, and leaned on the railing similar to me.
I looked at her for a few seconds before looking back to my phone that buzzed, marking that the screen had finally loaded. My brows formed a frown, however, as I realized that I did not have an internet connection, and did not have the money either to buy a data package.
Sighing, I closed the app and opened the webnovel of the game that I had downloaded for free off a pirated website, as the novel cost around 15$, which I did not want to spend.
The novel consisted of around 34 thousand pages and a total of 4,765 chapters, and I had stopped at chapter 679, my eyes lingering on the title of the chapter for a moment before I began reading.
Wait, w-wait!
Damn it, my phone just died. I mean it was at 13%, how the hell did my phone die so fast? Karma?
Whatever.
I silently put my phone back in my pocket, my gaze flickering to the woman for a moment who was gazing at the city, before I followed her lead.
The sky had begun to darken considerably, the buildings lighting up in the distance.
She stood beside me quietly for a few minutes, the silence between us not heavy, but still. Almost like snow resting on a rooftop in serenity.
Oh, well. Just as I was about to turn around, pondering on which street to sleep tonight, the edge of my eyes caught the woman pulling out a silver box from her pocket, flicking it open. She placed a blue-paper colored cigarette on her lips, before she took a second one and closed the box.
Placing it onto her official suit's pocket, her eyes met me impassively before she offered me the cigarette. Me, as the ever-being gentleman, did not turn her down and took it from between her fingers, observing the cigarette for a moment of lingering surprise.
The Advokita '58 was quite the expensive type. The paper was smooth. Precious. Not like the ones I bought by the dozen in off-brand convenience stores.
I put my hands in my pocket to take out my lighter, only to remember I had smashed it earlier on a pedestrian that had tried to cuss me. It really wasn't my fault. Yeah, I was on the run, did I forget to mention that?
"... You seem quite rich for a lady," I remarked, not judging her appearance. She didn't look like someone who had a sugar daddy.
She didn't respond and stared at me for a moment. Pointing to my cigarette, I went on.
"Mind lighting it?"
The woman smirked in a way that made me frown, but she first lit her cigarette after a few tries and ultimately threw me the lighter that I caught. I placed the cigarette on my lips and tried lighting the lighter.
One, twice, thrice.
I kept trying, my thumb having a small smudge, but it seemed that the lighter had reached the netherland early.
I blinked twice in succession, still observing the woman's haughty expression of victory, making me raise an eyebrow in turn.
"Sigh..." Hearing my sigh, the woman giggled playfully, before she slowly walked to me, her face inches from my space. I blankly stared at her, wondering if I'd get charged for sexual assault for no reason.
She tilted her head cutely, her face even closer as I felt her warm breath on my face, her smell intoxicating.
Her cigarette, already lit and smoldering faintly on her lips, touched mine on my lips, lighting as the familiar orange color appeared at the edge. She walked back a few steps, still looking at me.
"Did your heart skip a beat right now? I could totally ruin you right now… but where's the fun in that?" She snickered mischievously, however, her eyes carrying a hint of arrogance in them.
The fragrant taste of juniper berries and rich tobacco filled my mouth, as I inhaled the taste and savored it passively.
Hm... not bad. I should try to treat myself to this if I ever get rich.
I ignored her, and sat down on the cold flooring that had a light coating of snow.
"You don't talk much," she said eventually, exhaling a stream of smoke that seemed to spell out the words.
"... What about it?" I asked neutrally.
The woman chuckled at my blunt response.
"You really don't beat around the bush, do you?" She asked teasingly, as if testing my limits. I was cautious of women, one wrong mistake and you would be behind cells.
It's funny how the word creep for women means 'disliking a guy's face' and legally, it's called stalking. Sigh... such an unjust world, truly.
"I don't like bushes," I replied flatly, dragging the cigarette again. "Too leafy."
She smirked at my odd response. The kind people do when they're bored and pretending not to be.
The silence between us soon returned. The kind that stretches thin, like ice just thick enough to hold you—until it doesn't. But...
Why is she staring at me like that...? I'm not a virgin you know, if you want to ask.
Click.
I heard the metallic slide of a gun being drawn as the door slammed open. Poor door.
"You're late, around..." I muttered to no one in particular as I looked at my cheap watch I got from a dollar store.
"31 seconds."
The woman raised an eyebrow in intrigue, not moving an inch. Almost like she knew. Or probably didn't care.