In a dark room, between the scattered clothes and garbage and the foul smell of mold, you can see a man who appears to be in his late twenties sitting in front of the computer.
[You're dead]
[Better luck next time]
"Damn you! What luck? This is my thousandth time in this damn game."
The man began screaming like a madman, as if possessed, slamming the table in anger while cursing.
"If you can't even conquer one empire, how do they expect you to conquer six empires and unite the world?"
[Unification of Empires] was a global game that appeared five years ago, famous for its high-quality graphics, excellent game mechanics, and expansive world-building, where you must conquer and unite six empires.
In the hero's childhood, a mysterious man foretold the future of the world and saw the end of the world. In order to prevent this end, the man asked the hero to unite all the empires so that all humanity could stand together against the coming danger.
The hero's journey begins from childhood, step by step, from a farmer to an adventurer, then from an adventurer to a student at the academy, and from a student to a knight.
The beginning of the game was good and excellent, but the problem begins when the hero graduates from the academy and starts his path to unite the empires.
Here is where the game started to fall and fail: the first empire that must be conquered is the northern empire, the Tirshtain Empire, where the academy the hero graduated from is located.
This empire is ruled by Orlax Tirshtain, a cold-blooded tyrant emperor — the kind of cliché villain you see a lot in novels and games.
This madman killed all members of his family in one day, all his brothers and sisters, and even his father, the previous emperor, and took the throne while covered in their blood.
When the hero reaches the throne room in the imperial palace, the fight between him and this tyrant begins.
But despite five years passing since the release of this damn game, no one has ever been able to defeat this tyrant, not even once.
Why you ask? Because he's simply a monster!
At the age of twenty three , he was already at the highest level of swordsmanship, and worse, he was the strongest mage in the world.
And to make him even more impossible to defeat, the game developers made him a master in planning, strategies, and tactics.
The hero has never been able to surpass him even once, let alone kill him.
It is very difficult just to reach the throne room, and when you do, he crushes the hero and all his companions like insects — everyone falls with one move, and the hero with two.
The problem is not with the hero, because the hero is strong and very talented, but this monster is simply on a whole other level.
"Hah, I wasted five years playing this damn game."
The man let out a sigh and took a cigarette from the battered box on the table.
Tck! Tck!
He lit the cigarette, took a deep drag, and let his lungs soak in the smoke.
"Phew."
The smoke left his mouth, and he seemed a little more relaxed.
"This is really annoying. They mentioned on the forum that this method might work, but it was another failed attempt."
The man put out the cigarette butt in the ashtray and got up from his chair after turning off the computer.
"I need to clean this place,"
he said, stumbling among the garbage and chaos scattered everywhere.
The man fell onto his bed and began browsing his phone.
"I'll clean up tomorrow. I'm tired now; I'll just go to sleep."
And between his mutterings, his eyelids grew heavy, and he fell asleep, drifting into the world of dreams.
When the man woke up after an unknown amount of time, he found himself floating in a dark place with nothing around him but darkness, which made him feel tense.
"What? Where am I? What's happening?"
He tried to speak but found that no sound came out of his mouth, and he couldn't feel his body at all.
Before panic could take hold of him, he found himself being pulled forcefully.
"Argh! That hurts."
He muttered between breaths as he felt a terrible pain.
After a short while, the pain began to subside, and the man's consciousness gradually returned.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in an entirely unfamiliar place.
His vision cleared bit by bit, and he took a deep breath, looking around.
He found himself standing in a place that resembled a hall, and the sight before him made him want to vomit everything in his stomach.
Corpses — corpses scattered everywhere. The bodies of old men, middle-aged people, and teenagers were all over the place.
The floor was dyed red with their blood, and the metallic smell of blood filled the entire place.
There was no distinction between men and women — all of them seemed to have died in a brutal and cruel manner.
When the man tried to calm himself down, he found himself strangely calm.
'Why am I calm? I felt like vomiting at first, but now it feels normal. That's scary — I feel like I'm a completely different person.'
When the man turned his gaze forward, he saw a sword driven into the heart of someone sitting on a kind of throne. That person still seemed to be alive, though clearly about to die at any moment.
'What the hell is going on? Where am I? And what happened here?'
Although on any normal day he would have been in a terrible state in such a situation, a strange coldness in his body kept him composed.
"Ngkt-chh..hhhng."
The person on the throne spoke incomprehensible words in a choked voice due to the blood gathered in his throat, as if trying to say something.
He raised his head with difficulty, his eyes full of deep hatred toward the man standing before him, which made the man feel strange about the situation.
"Bllgh! You monster… hah! hah! I wish I had killed you when you were a baby."
Those words oozed hatred and spite, and moments later, his breathing slowed, his movements stopped, and he was clearly dead.
Since the standing man couldn't comprehend what was happening, he looked around the hall first, then noticed something strange.
Something shiny caught the corner of his eye.
Even when he turned his head, the thing kept glimmering in his peripheral vision.
When he focused on it, a transparent blue screen suddenly appeared in front of him with several words written on it:
[
Name: Orlax Tirshtain
Age: 18
Level 1 [100/0] exp
Health: 100% (You feel energetic)
Mana: 100%
Stamina: 100%
Strength: 98 (Affects general physical strength)
Speed: 99 (Affects movement speed and reaction speed)
Wisdom: 95 (Affects control over mana and stamina and reaction speed)
Intelligence: 98 (Affects the amount of mana and stamina the user has and general intelligence)
Endurance: 96 (Affects the user's endurance and defense)
Charm: 99 (Affects appearance and the aura around the user)
(These statistics indicate the extent of a person's capabilities, not their actual power)
Stat points: 0
Status: Active, Healthy, Cursed
Personality: [Pride] [Emperor] [Cold-blooded] [Patience] [Loyalty] [Cleanliness] [Genius]
Skills:
[Sword skills: level 7] [Fire magic: level 7] [Earth magic: level 4] [Water magic: level 4] [Control magic: level 6] [Hand combat: level 5] [Cooking: level 7 (max)] [Cleaning: level 2]
[Emperor presence] [Hyper focus] [Loyalty scale]
Skill points: 0
]
"You've got to be kidding me, right?"
A cold, deep voice came out of his mouth, but it was a pleasant voice, enjoyable to listen to.
"I'm Orlax Tirshtain!! The damned tyrant!! The cold-blooded madman!!"
The black-haired man shouted loudly but quickly calmed down as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water on him.
"There's that feeling again — when I get flustered, I calm down quickly."
The black-haired man — or Orlax now — focused on the floating screen in front of him and looked at his stats.
"[Cold-blooded] — I think I calm down quickly because of this trait."
When he thought that, another smaller screen quickly appeared.
[Cold-blooded: This trait activates when the user feels anger or tension. Because of this trait, your body temperature will drop below the normal level.]
"Great, I've basically become some kind of cold-blooded reptile now."
He scoffed quietly and turned his gaze to the rest of the stats, but before he could examine them, he heard a sound from behind him.
The massive throne room door, which had been closed earlier, opened slowly, producing a loud noise because of its size, making him turn his gaze toward it.
Once the door was fully open, several figures appeared, surrounded by an aura of elegance that hinted at their noble status.
But when they saw the scene inside, their faces turned pale, and several of them felt nauseous at the sight before them.
At their forefront was a man with white hair and blue eyes who looked at the scene calmly, showing no sign of tension on his face.
He looked like a man in his mid-forties, with a handsome face and sharp features.
He had a slightly muscular build, indicating training, and was tall, wearing elegant white clothes matching his hair.
'That person is…'
Orlax thought about the man leading the group and recognized him immediately because he had seen him many times in the game.
"Your Majesty! Congratulations on your victory in the royal battle. May we speak somewhere else so we can inform you of the remaining details?"
He looked directly into Orlax's eyes and spoke in a calm, confident tone.
'Seeing him in real life is different from on a screen.'
The man standing before Orlax was the Grand Duke of the Tirshtain Empire, Armanthor Zephyrius, one of the strongest mages in the world, a man whose status was almost equal to the emperor's.
In the game, he was one of the key figures in the hero's growth because Armanthor disapproved of Orlax's cruelty and tyranny, so he collaborated with the hero to overthrow him.
Of course, in the end, they failed, and Armanthor and his entire family were wiped out when Orlax learned of his betrayal.
'Alright, from what I understand so far, this is the day Orlax killed his family and ascended to the throne.'
In the game, nothing was mentioned about a "royal battle" or anything like that. Of course, not just anyone could become emperor by killing the current one — otherwise, the empire would fall into chaos. There had to be some sort of agreement or process like this.
After finishing his thoughts, Orlax descended the steps leading from the throne until he stood before Armanthor.
"Lead the way."
The words came out colder than intended, but Armanthor didn't seem bothered. He gestured for Orlax to follow him and began walking out of the throne room.