On Shark TV, a streamer named Shin was livestreaming.
Naturally, the content of his stream was Dark Souls.
He bought the game as soon as it came out.
At first, just like most regular players, he was overwhelmed by all the tricky traps and the high difficulty settings in the game.
Compared to most streamers, though, he was clearly among the more skilled ones.
He was in the first batch of players to finish Dark Souls.
Aside from streaming, he also made related walkthrough videos for video-sharing sites.
In his own words, the purpose of walkthrough videos was to help all regular players beat the game.
His walkthroughs gave very detailed explanations for Dark Souls, covering how to deal with bosses, elite enemies, and map stages, so they had high view counts online.
But after a while, they suddenly stopped.
"I'm not slacking, I'm not slacking. I'm not that kind of person. I'm working on it, I'm working on it. You'll see the new walkthrough episode soon." Shin said as he entered the Dark Souls game menu.
"You know, walkthroughs are mainly to help new players understand Dark Souls better, and also to help less skilled players clear the game smoothly. That's the real point of a walkthrough. But since Dark Souls is a pretty complex game to cover, walkthrough videos take a bit longer to make. All I can say is, it'll be soon." Shin spoke while opening Dark Souls.
Since random mode and normal mode can't exist together, he had to start a new save.
Shin quickly created a new save and glanced at the creation screen.
It wasn't much different from before — still choosing the character, origin, and burial gift.
After thinking about it, he picked Knight as the starting class, so no matter his luck, he'd at least have a set of usable gear.
Of course, choosing Deprived also had its benefits — balanced stats that could quickly make use of whatever items you find early on.
If luck's on your side, Deprived might actually be the best class for this mode.
As for the burial gift, Shin decided on the Fire Gem.
At least that would guarantee a minimum safety margin.
As for something like the Life Ring...
If you're meant to die, you'll still die.
He quickly made a face for his character, then entered the game and skipped the opening cutscene.
After all, he had seen it countless times.
But instead of the usual game interface, a few options appeared before him.
[Only random items] [Only random bosses] [Random all enemies] [Only random items and bosses] [Everything random]
"If we're going random, then let's go all the way!" Without much hesitation, Shin picked "Everything random."
Not long after he made the choice, a knight climbed out of the coffin.
But at this moment, Shin noticed something — the soul count in the bottom right wasn't the original game's 0.
It showed he started with 30,000 souls, enough to level up 15 times.
Along with the update he saw earlier, leveling didn't need to be done at the Fire Keeper anymore. You could now level up directly at bonfires.
Clearly, this was meant to give players more room for error at the start.
"These souls… they feel like a burden now!"
Shin, who had just woken up in the Cemetery of Ash, didn't move forward right away, looking a bit speechless.
The livestream chat was full of excitement.
On the right ahead, where there was originally just a hollow for players to practice attacking, now stood a mighty Black Knight.
And the hollow in front of the fountain statue, the one that normally gave the Estus Flask before it "pulsed," had been replaced by a chubby Winged Knight.
If it was a 1v1, Shin figured with his skill — plus the knight's starting damage — he could definitely win.
The problem was, it wouldn't be a stand-and-fight battle; he'd need some room to move around.
Now? These two were so close together, and unlike the hollows in the original, they weren't asleep. Attacking one would definitely aggro the other.
Starting the game with a 1v2, against a Winged Knight and a Black Knight with a greatsword — who could handle that?
Moving forward, Shin lured the Black Knight away in a loop, rolled to create some distance, and dashed into the small path to the right of the starting point.
In that dead end, in the base game, there was an item worth 200 souls, "Soul of a Deserted Corpse."
Since all items were random now, key story items like the Estus Flask would still be the same, but this soul could be anything.
"Come on, give me a weapon! An Exile Greatsword, a Dark Sword, a Black Knight Greatsword, or at least a decent straight sword!" With the Black Knight right behind him, Shin didn't have time for prayer poses or anything fancy — he just rolled once on the ground.
Item obtained: Broken Straight Sword!
"What is this!?" Shin was dumbfounded.
First item and it's this? Playable?
The chat exploded with laughter: "Haha, didn't you ask for a straight sword?"
"It's a weapon! And it's exactly the straight sword you wanted, nothing wrong with that!"
"That's what you get for not praying before rolling!"
Shin's mouth twitched at the comments: "It's fine, there'll be more chances. The Cemetery of Ash has quite a few items to collect."
Saying that, he rolled past the Black Knight a few more times and kept moving forward.
As for the Winged Knight's Estus Flask, he didn't bother grabbing it.
Continuing onward, with random enemies on, the Cemetery of Ash was now filled with all sorts of monsters.
Jailers from the Irithyll Dungeon, mimics standing upright, Lothric Knights, and even regular sewer rats.
Most of them weren't to be messed with.
Sticking to his "avoid fighting if possible" strategy, Shin ran toward the Crystal Lizard's cave.
On a first playthrough, there was still a soul to pick up there.
If he ran into a weak enemy, he'd let them have a closer look at his handsomeness.
Ignoring the "Turn Back" message on the ground, Shin went through the path into the Crystal Lizard's cave.
Inside the usually spacious cave, a massive creature was crouched motionless.
The Stray Demon from the broken bridge at the top of Farron Keep.
"Forget it!"
He glanced at the terrain, then at the glowing white item, and decisively turned back.
Thanks to some godlike rolling, Shin reached the first bonfire.
But instead of leveling up right away, he pressed on.
Because there were still two collectible items left—one was the original firebomb and the other was a titanite shard.
But on the narrow path to the firebomb, seeing a Lothric knight with a spear and a giant axe-wielding serpent, Shin fell silent again.
"It's fine, there's still one last hope."
He ran along the cliff edge, pressed space, and jumped onto a coffin.
That's when Shin noticed there were a bunch of messages on the ground. He hadn't seen them before because the black knight had been chasing him.
"Wait, you can see other players' messages in random mode too?" Shin clicked on them out of curiosity.
[Black Knight Shield] [Wolf Knight Shield] [Exile Greatsword] [Red Tearstone Ring] [Bloodlust] [Soul of the Nameless King]
So many lucky players!?
Looking at the messages left by others, it was obvious they marked the items they'd found.
That made Shin start to look forward to what he might get.
He didn't pick anything up right away. Instead, he walked around in circles, used the "Rest" gesture he'd unlocked at a bonfire, and only then picked up the item on the ground.
A fading soul!
"I'm done! I'd rather you just give me the original titanite shard!" Shin almost cried.
This mode is so cruel to unlucky players. What's even the point of these useless drops?
Looking at the souls count in the bottom right, Shin went straight back to the previous bonfire and spent them all on leveling up.
Then he went to the Stray Demon area to grab the item there.
Soul of Boreal Valley Vordt
Seeing that, Shin finally let out a sigh of relief.
At least it wasn't totally useless junk this time.
Then he went to the firebomb spot for another random item pickup.
Battle Axe +4.
It was the starting weapon for the Warrior class, but already at +4!
"Nice! Big score! Not only did I get an axe, I also basically got a pile of upgrade materials for free! I can feel it—my luck is coming back!"
"Let's go! Time to check out the boss. Just as I thought—bitterness first, then sweetness! I've got a feeling this first boss is going to be super easy. Crystal Sage, Greatwood Tree, Frost Dog—any one of them will do."
Respawning at the bonfire, Shin equipped his newly found +4 battle axe, his gloomy expression completely gone.
But when he pushed open the boss door, he fell silent.
This boss was indeed weak in the original game, but now?
"The Lonely King of the Profaned Capital—Yhorm the Giant."
The UI at the bottom of the screen showed the boss name and health bar.
"Only the storm can fell the great tree!"
"Only the storm can fell the great tree!"
Shin glanced at the livestream chat—messages were flooding in with the same line, the official hint from the original game for this fight.
Because Yhorm the Giant is basically a story boss—just use the special weapon "Storm Ruler" and you can take him down easily. In terms of difficulty, he's right down there with Champion Gundyr for the easiest bosses.
But now, where was he supposed to get the Storm Ruler?
"Will you be a coward for life, or a hero for once—even if it means being shattered to pieces?"
Looking at the endless barrage of comments, Shin went silent again, then took a deep breath and made up his mind.
He didn't quit the game and start a new save like the chat suggested.
Instead, he switched his battle axe to two-handed mode, used the Warcry skill, switched back to one-handed mode, and charged forward with courage.
"Number 33 Pedicure Master Shin, here to serve you!"
One swing did just over 50 damage, and Shin was more focused than ever.
This might be the hardest Dark Souls fight he'd ever had.
But there was at least one thing that reassured him—Yhorm the Giant, despite his insane defense and HP...
In terms of attack power, it's obviously been balanced.
Even after getting hit, it only took away three-quarters of his health.
This gives the fight some room for error—if it was a one-hit kill, it would have been way too hard.
But even so, with only three Estus Flasks, the fight was still extremely tough for him.
Swing after swing, he neatly trimmed Giant Yhorm's toenails.
Ten minutes, twenty minutes…
When Yhorm entered the second phase, his attacks became even more aggressive.
But they were still perfectly dodged with rolls.
Yhorm's health kept going down.
The durability of Shin's battle axe had been cut to almost half.
Victory was right in front of him.
Seeing Yhorm's health bar left with just a sliver, Shin's whole body was filled with excitement.
Even though the weather had already cooled down, his clothes were drenched in sweat as he sat in front of the computer.
"Who else! Who else!"
With a passionate roar, Yhorm the Giant collapsed with a loud thud.
[Lord of Cinder's Ashes]
The quest item, Lord of Cinder's Ashes, was automatically obtained.
But instead of Yhorm's soul going straight into his inventory like in the original game, a white light remained on the ground after Yhorm's body faded away.
With Yhorm defeated, the chat in Shin's livestream exploded.
'Shin is way too strong!'
'Awesome! Even an axe can chop down a big tree!'
'A real man dares to face the giant's bare feet head-on!'
'Wait… you're the real man!?'
Looking at all the praise and gifts flooding his stream, Shin let out a long breath. The intense fight felt like going back to the first time he ever played Dark Souls.
"Only storms can fell big trees? My ass!"
Looking at the white light on the ground, Shin scoffed.
"Now comes the happy, joyful treasure looting part!"
With a big grin, Shin stepped forward to pick up the item.
Dung!
The item popped up on screen.
'Crack!'
It felt like he could hear something shatter in his head.
The giant Yhorm couldn't break him, but this cruel reality finally did.
"I… I'm starting a new save."
(End of The Chapter)