Chapter 1
【 Possession in a Game 】
[Proof that I cleared Speculum on Hard Mode.]
After posting that on my favorite gaming community, it didn’t take long for the comments to start flooding in.
[Wow, he actually did it.]
[Fr, how did you even pull that off?]
[I told you, this guy’s not human lol.]
A mix of amazement and disbelief—people either admired me or thought I’d gone insane.
At the same time, there were a few who were genuinely curious.
[But seriously, how did you clear it? From the looks of your character stats, you dumped everything into defense. How do you even deal damage?]
I quickly replied to that one.
[I’ll post a detailed stat breakdown later today.]
After that, I spent a few minutes scrolling through the comments.
Everyone was calling me crazy, but admiring me at the same time—
and, well… I couldn’t say I disliked it.
Honestly, this was exactly why I did these hipster stunts in the first place.
And besides… calling me crazy wasn’t exactly wrong.
Sure, I was a hipster in gaming, but the way I played was straight-up madness.
“Alright then, what should I show in the next post?”
I murmured quietly as I launched the game.
After the Valiant’s Legacy logo passed by,
I logged in, as usual.
“Let’s see… I’ll capture this, and that… the weapon too…”
I took screenshots of my character’s skill window, equipment, and so on—the character I had raised carefully for months.
To be honest, calling it a “detailed stat post” was just an excuse.
It was basically an exhibition— a showcase that said, “Look, there’s someone crazy enough to play like this.”
And I was sure no gamer in their right mind would ever try to copy it.
“Hmm, I’ll explain the ‘Blessing of Water’ rune, include the maxed-out ‘Attack Prediction’ skill, mention that I invested every single stat point into physical damage… Ah, and that I went with a lightning-type weapon skill for versatility…”
The RPG game I’d been playing for years—Valiant’s Legacy.
In it, players attended Lysquare Academy, freely developing their characters, and after graduation, ventured out into the open world.
There were hunts, boss raids, and even a pseudo-dating sim system where you could flirt with your favorite NPCs.
The game was hugely popular, largely because of those dating-sim elements.
But personally…
‘I was drawn to its freedom.’
I fell in love with the limitless possibilities of character customization.
It was true freedom—you could build your character however you wanted.
From class, to weapons, to skill trees— the options were endless.
That was the biggest charm of this game.
So over the past few years, I’d done just about everything possible.
‘The Harem King route, the Rebel King route, the SimCity route, the Underworld King route… yeah, I’ve done it all.’
There was so much to do that I poured an absurd amount of time into it.
Thanks to that, in real life, I was just a rich unemployed guy… but still, I had fun.
Because this game gave me all the experiences I couldn’t have in reality.
“These screenshots should be enough, right?”
I looked through the images I’d just captured—runes, weapons, skills, and equipment, all neatly displayed.
‘This one was actually a fun project, now that I think about it.’
I smirked at the character on the screen.
At first, it was just a silly experiment—
a character I built out of boredom with a weird concept.
The concept: Defensive Swordsman.
There were several defensive sword techniques in the Swordsman skill tree,
and I invested only in those—nothing else.
Literally, I made him just to kill time.
But as I played, I found it surprisingly fun.
Sure, the difficulty skyrocketed, but the challenge itself was thrilling.
For someone like me—already way past “veteran” and bordering on “fossil”—
it felt like a new lease on life.
So for the past few months, I’d done everything I could for my Defensive Swordsman.
‘I farmed all the sacred relic gear, got the runes, even went all the way to the eastern edge of the continent for that weapon…’
He barely had any offensive capabilities,
and even those did pitiful damage.
Raising him had been pure torture—
but, as I said, a very fun kind of torture.
I enjoyed it so much that I even managed to defeat one of the endgame boss monsters—a boss meant for hardcore veterans—and that’s what I’d just posted about.
‘Even after all that, there’s still so much to do.’
I was still far from finishing the endgame content, but instead of feeling overwhelmed, I found myself looking forward to what lay ahead for this character.
“…Huh? Wow, my phone’s really blowing up.”
I checked my phone, which had been buzzing nonstop.
The post I’d made on the community was getting tons of reactions.
I was already pretty well-known there—
a veteran famous for clearing all sorts of routes.
But after showing off my Defensive Swordsman, I’d probably be known as a full-on lunatic.
And honestly, I didn’t mind.
How should I put it… it felt kind of nice being the center of attention.
‘It’s because of reactions like this that I keep doing crazy stuff.’
Smirking, I put my phone on silent.
Originally, I’d planned to write the detailed build post right away, but now that I was logged in… I just wanted to play.
So I pushed the thought of the community aside and started moving my character.
“I’ve beaten the boss, so… let’s finish that quest from yesterday.”
I opened the map and warped to the Isrinbloom Ducal Mansion.
Like I said earlier, the game also had an affection system—basically, dating sim mechanics tied to each character.
And yesterday, I’d been working on the affection route of the Isrinbloom family’s duchess’ daughter.
‘She was such a pain to raise affection with, though.’
The setting of the game was Lysquare Academy, which was located in the Arium Empire.
The Isrinbloom family was one of the three most prestigious ducal houses of the empire.
And Sara Isrinbloom, the young lady of that family, was… well, let’s just say her personality was notoriously difficult.
Thanks to that, most players who tried her route ended up cursing her name by the end.
‘One wrong choice and she’d instantly turn into a boss fight. The risk was brutal.’
Sara Isrinbloom, especially in one-on-one duels, was an absolute nightmare.
And once she became a boss, players couldn’t progress her story or affection events until they defeated her—
which meant some people went through dozens of deaths trying to beat her.
So naturally, not many players even tried her route.
‘But I did it.’
I smiled as I wandered through the Isrinbloom Mansion.
You couldn’t even enter this place unless you’d built enough affection with Sara.
I’d probably seen her boss form over ten times during the process, but in the end, my persistence paid off.
I could confidently say that fewer than 1% of all players had reached this point.
“If I explore the entire mansion and enter Sara’s bedroom, that should unlock the achievement, right?”
Only a handful of players in the world had ever achieved it.
And in Korea…
I was pretty sure I was the first.
I didn’t get the title of the world’s first,
but being Korea’s first was more than satisfying enough.
Besides, I already had a few achievements that were world-firsts,
so it didn’t really bother me.
‘I’ve been playing since launch day—this much is the least I can do.’
As I wandered around the Isrinbloom Mansion, I took screenshots here and there.
‘I should post these on the community later, too.’
Just imagining the comments calling me insane again made me grin.
But for now, I decided to focus on the game.
‘Let’s see if there’s any loot worth picking up in this place.’
This was actually my first time visiting the Isrinbloom Mansion, so I had no idea what kind of items or hidden clues might be here.
And that made it all the more exciting.
Exploring the unknown—
that was the true thrill of this game.
“Hmm… oh? Didn’t expect to find something like this. And this one too…”
I explored the mansion for nearly thirty minutes, completely absorbed and in high spirits.
But then, something unexpected happened.
“Huh? Is this… a bug?”
In the basement of the mansion—
a restricted area that players weren’t supposed to access—there was no guard or barrier of any kind.
Curious, I snuck down there, and a huge library came into view.
I was wandering around, excited by the discovery, when suddenly, my character slipped through the back of the library wall.
“…So it is a bug.”
A typical case of map clipping.
Still, I wasn’t all that surprised.
I’d played countless games and had seen all kinds of bugs—some were ridiculously convenient exploits, and others were completely pointless glitches that made no sense.
Compared to those, a little map bug like this was nothing.
“Actually, this is great. Stuff like this keeps the game fun.”
I took a screenshot.
I planned to send a bug report to the developers later, and of course, post it on the community.
Normally, I would’ve just played around with the bug for a bit and then moved on.
Yeah—normally, that’s what would’ve happened.
“…Wait, what’s this? Maybe it’s not a bug?”
At first glance, it definitely looked like a map glitch.
But strangely enough, there was an item sitting in the area I’d fallen into.
“If there’s an item here, then maybe it’s not a bug after all…”
If this had been a genuine glitch, there’s no way there’d be an item.
Curious, I picked it up and examined it.
It was an ancient document.
The contents read—
“‘A family sentenced to Record Erasure?’”
A family… sentenced to what?
Even as a long-time veteran who’d been playing since launch day, I’d never heard of anything like that.
Sure, there were all sorts of bizarre punishments mentioned in the game’s lore, but Record Erasure? That was new.
“…Could this be part of some hidden story?”
My heart began to race.
If the devs had gone to the trouble of hiding something like this, there had to be a fascinating secret behind it.
So, filled with anticipation, I tried to keep reading the document.
But then—
“Wha—? Huh? What the—?!”
Suddenly, a blinding light burst out from my monitor.
Before I could react, the light swallowed me whole.
---
“…Ah.”
A moment later, I opened my eyes, blinking against the afterimage.
And instantly, I knew—something was very, very wrong.
I looked around.
This wasn’t my room anymore.
No—this wasn’t even a room you’d find in twenty-first-century Korea.
“…No way.”
With a growing sense of dread, I slowly approached the mirror in front of me.
And when I saw the reflection staring back—
It wasn’t me.
A tall, muscular man with white hair and blue eyes.
Not the face of my real self, nor even the avatar I’d been playing as.
Someone entirely different.
And then—though I didn’t know how—
I understood, instinctively.
“Gideon… Kyrgram.”
Gideon Kyrgram.
That was the man’s name.
No—that was my name.
And somehow, I knew it as naturally as if I’d borne it my whole life.