He had always loved worlds of swords and magic.
Since childhood, his gaming library had consisted strictly of fantasy titles. Even when it came to books, he reached only for fantasy novels. He was certain he could immerse himself in a fantasy story for days on end without a wink of sleep.
Ren Shiina was exactly that kind of young man.
Of course, his life didn't revolve entirely around games. He was a fourth-year university student currently navigating the frantic, busy days of job hunting. On top of that, he was dedicated to his part-time job four days a week, purely to fund his gaming lifestyle.
Ren had cleared his schedule for one particular weekend, carving out three days for a highly anticipated new release. He downloaded the game the moment the clock struck midnight on Friday, and he proceeded to play for over half a day.
By that evening, he let out a jubilant shout in front of his television.
"The ending! Yes! I did it!"
The game was a role-playing game with no competitive multiplayer elements. He wasn't racing against anyone else, but the adrenaline from playing straight through until evening hadn't faded. He felt a surge of satisfaction as he posted a screenshot of the ending screen to social media. As a matter of gamer etiquette, he was careful to ensure the post contained no spoilers.
"I wonder... could I be the fastest in the world to clear it?"
As if in response to his murmur, text began to scroll across the ending screen.
System: Congratulations on clearing the game. Would you like to record your clear time on the server? Yes/No.
"Absolutely! Okay... and click!"
Shortly after Ren selected "Yes," a new system message appeared on the screen. It confirmed his suspicions and included a sentence that made his heart skip a beat.
System: As a reward for ranking first in the clear rankings, you have obtained special downloadable content. Would you like to download it? Yes/No.
"Special...? Well, that’s a no-brainer!"
Ren hurriedly selected "Yes." A progress bar appeared in the corner of the screen: 1%... then 2% after a few minutes.
Watching it, Ren was washed over by a wave of superiority. He didn't know what the special DLC entailed, but the message had specified it was a reward for the number one rank. That meant he was receiving data no one else could access. As a gamer, he couldn't help but be thrilled.
"...I need to calm down."
Ren leaned back against the sofa, trying to settle his racing heart. With nothing to do while he waited for the download, he picked up his smartphone and navigated to the official website of the game he had just finished.
Seven Heroes' Legend II.
As the "II" suggested, it was a sequel—part of a globally popular fantasy RPG trilogy announced by the developers. The story followed a fairly traditional path: set several centuries after seven heroes defeated the Demon King, it followed their descendants as they grew and overcame various hardships at an academy.
The protagonist was a boy born to commoners in the countryside. However, after awakening to a hidden power at a young age, he was sent to the Imperial Capital to attend the most prestigious academy in the Empire. There, he met six others said to carry the blood of the Seven Heroes. Together, they fought to stop those plotting the resurrection of the Demon King. The game was massive, even featuring a romance system that allowed the player to bond with their favorite heroine.
In the ending of the first game, it was revealed that the protagonist carried the last, long-lost bloodline of the Seven Heroes. It was a predictable development, but Ren appreciated a well-executed classic trope.
"But man, the second one was even better..."
In the sequel he had just cleared, the story took a dark, unprecedented turn. The protagonist’s best friend murdered a girl known as the Saint and took the life of the Academy Principal—the man hailed as the world's strongest mage. Afterward, the friend vanished.
Following that incident, the Empire fell into chaos. The former friend would appear at various scenes of turmoil to offer cryptic words or even cross blades with the protagonist’s party. However, the game reached its conclusion without ever revealing the friend's true objective or his connection to the cultists. The story ended with the Emperor issuing an order to hunt the friend down, leaving the rest of the mystery for the third installment.
Just thinking about it made Ren's excitement flare up again. Unable to sit still, he put down his phone and picked up his controller.
"Hmm... what now?"
He had been playing since dawn, but he felt surprisingly wired. Since the special DLC was still downloading, he decided to return to the title screen to refresh his mood.
"I want to check out the New Game Plus features. Maybe I’ll start another run."
This game was famous for its depth and replayability.
"What should I do for my next skill build?"
While the protagonist’s appearance was fixed, the skills were incredibly flexible. Furthermore, the options expanded significantly during a second playthrough. Not only could players rename skills to whatever they liked, but they could also combine up to three different skills to create an original one.
To maintain game balance, the stats and effects were automatically adjusted. There were also restrictions; for example, if a player tried to rename a custom skill "Spirit Arts" when "Nature Magic" was already an existing unique skill used by a descendant of the Seven Heroes, the game would reject it. Essentially, players weren't allowed to copy "Unique Skills"—the powers reserved for special characters.
"Maybe that Magic Swordsman build that’s trending on social media... no, maybe a Paladin..."
In the first game, the protagonist started as a Swordsman, eventually unlocking Advanced Swordsman, while Guardian became available in New Game Plus. In the second game, players could start as a Guardian or experiment with other starting classes and original skills.
The community had researched skill combinations extensively, documenting every synergy and effect. There were even hidden classes to discover, making the mechanical depth staggering.
"Nothing’s really clicking... I want to find a hidden skill myself."
Hidden skills were triggered when a player combined a very specific set of base skills, causing a unique class name to be automatically generated. Ren spent the next hour hunting for a new combination.
He found nothing.
He tried dozens of patterns, then hundreds. Eventually, his exhaustion began to catch up with him. He reached for his phone again to see if anyone else on social media had cleared the game yet.
"Oh?"
A few interesting posts caught his eye.
"That guy is definitely the final boss of the third game."
"The mastermind is definitely him. I bet he's the one trying to bring back the Demon King."
"The way he acted at the end was like the 'Black' member of a sentai team. Honestly, he’s kind of cool."
It seemed a few others had finally reached the ending of the second game. Ren recognized some of the users and sent them a quick message.
"Did any of you find a hidden skill?"
A reply came back in less than a minute. Unfortunately, no one had found anything new. Ren felt a pang of disappointment, but it only hardened his resolve to be the first. He put in some eye drops, blinked his tired eyes, and saw the download progress hit 99%.
"Finally."
The moment he muttered that, the download reached 100%. A message flashed briefly—Download complete!—before vanishing instantly.
"Wait, that's it? Nothing was added to my library..."
Ren slumped. He had been looking forward to it, but seeing no visible changes, he assumed it might be a bug. With a heavy sigh, he turned his attention back to the skill customization screen to resume his search for hidden combinations.
And then—
Further into his experimentation, he stumbled upon something.
"Magic Sword Summoning!?"
The skills he had combined were Swordsman, Black Magic, and Summoner. Ren tilted his head in confusion.
"That’s weird... I’m sure I tried this exact combination already..."
These were all common base skills. There was no way he had missed such an obvious pairing. Perhaps he had just misclicked during one of his hundreds of previous attempts.
"Wait, could this be because of the DLC?"
He didn't have an answer, but a grin spread across his face. Purely delighted to have found a hidden skill, he hit the confirm button.
However...
System: Magic Sword Summoning is a unique skill and cannot be used in Normal Mode.
Ren’s head dropped, his forehead hitting the desk with a dull thud. He wanted to scream that the game was messing with him, but he quickly looked back at the screen as a thought occurred.
"Was there ever a character who used a skill called Magic Sword Summoning?"
He had cleared the game as fast as humanly possible, but he didn't think he was unobservant enough to miss a skill like that. Maybe it belonged to a hidden character or was meant for a secret event?
He stared at the system message, puzzled.
"It can't be used in 'Normal Mode'... what does that mean?"
He had never seen a message worded like that. Usually, if you picked a unique skill, it simply told you it was unavailable. He tried changing the difficulty settings, but the skill remained locked across all standard modes.
Curious, he looked at the description for Magic Sword Summoning.
—Allows the user to summon magic swords. By consuming Mana Stones, the user can increase proficiency to enhance the swords' abilities. Additionally, achieving special conditions will unlock new types of magic swords.
Mana Stones were items found within the bodies of monsters. For physical builds, they were usually just vendor loot for cash, while magic builds used them to restore mana or buff spells. Some of the rarer ones were even used as jewelry by the nobility.
Ren shook his head. He definitely didn't remember any character using a skill like this.
As he sat there frowning at the screen, he noticed text glowing in the bottom corner. It said: Start a Special Story.
Without a second thought, Ren selected "Yes."
"Oh, so there is a special mode!"
A large system message filled the screen.
System: Would you like to start a Special Story with the skill "Magic Sword Summoning"? Yes/No.
Ren pressed "Yes."
Immediately, his vision was swallowed by a blinding white light. His consciousness began to fray at the edges. As he slumped over onto the sofa, he drifted into total darkness.