Chapter 1: GAME CLEAR

Chapter 1: GAME CLEAR

“I cleared it!”

I shouted as I stretched out my arms upwards.

The word ‘CLEAR’ appeared, written in a sizable font on the computer monitor in front of me. I had just cleared the final stage of this game.

“Fuck yeah! I did it! I finally beat this damn game!”

Sob. 

I even let out a little tear of joy. Thinking that it took me half a year to complete the game definitely helped bring out the tear.

Tower Defense & Dungeon Attack RPG, <Empire Defense>.

The game was released 10 years ago. One could call this game a classic at this point.

It was a turn-based RPG where the player had to pick and train the heroes in order to protect the city. The player’s task was to clear the dungeons spawned outside the city by placing the characters on the map and piloting each and every one of them.

However, the game was infamous for its extremely hard difficulty, because reviving a dead hero was not an option.

The game had been globally popular at the time of its release, but it was now just another one of those old classics.

One might wonder why I decided to play the game at this time.

First of all, nobody in the world had been able to clear the game’s highest difficulty.

The hardest difficulty was called ‘Hell’. And on top of it, there was a game mode called ‘ironman’ which force-saved and overwrote the saved data. Combining both of these brought you the ‘Ironmanhell’ difficulty.

This game saved every single user’s clear data on the server and ranked them according to their records. However, there was nobody who had ever beaten the ‘Ironmanhell’ difficulty.

There were some people who had cleared the ‘Legend’ difficulty, which was right below the Hell difficulty. There was even a person who cleared the Hell difficulty without the ironman mode, but nobody had ever cleared it in Ironman mode.

But now, 10 years after its release, there finally appeared a person who successfully cleared the Hell difficulty in Ironman mode—and that person was me!

It is a basic human instinct to conquer the unknown. I’d challenged myself to climb the unconquered mountain.

And for the second reason,

– Wow, that’s crazy. Mr. Classic Nerd actually did it.

– Congrats!

– Seriously, I have to commend CN for his spirit lol

– First in the world, gz

– You’ve done well for the past half year.

There was another monitor beside the one that had the game playing. The chat window on the monitor beside the first, which was for streaming, exploded with words of commemoration. I smiled as I read through the chat.

“I told you all, didn’t I? A game exists to be cleared, no matter how difficult it may be!”

I am a gaming streamer—one that only plays the most difficult classic games— Even my ID is ‘Classic Nerd’.

If you asked me whether I had a lot of viewers, my answer would be ‘quite’. Because nostalgia was great content that people enjoyed, and watching someone get tortured by the game’s difficulty was entertaining.

Usually, I’d average around 3k viewers, but today, when I had reached the final stage of the game, I peaked at more than 10k viewers. And after people heard the news of the clear, the stream was met with even more eyes.

[‘Mission Fairy’ just donated $100!]

– Alright, today’s your day man. Here’s what I promised before.

The concrete viewers of my stream who had promised donations if I cleared the game started sending them in one by one.

[‘Garbage game enjoyer’ just donated $50!]

– Wait, you were supposed to play the game for at least half a year more! You can’t clear this already!

[‘BlackBox’ just donated $10]

– You actually did it. I honestly gave out the mission thinking you were never gonna do it. You got me.

[‘A dog that barks whenever it sees a boring stream’ just donated $30!]

– Can’t bark today. Here you go.

“Goodness~ Thank you all for your support! I’ll continue to work harder!”

More donations came in, and I responded to each one showing my appreciation. The viewers continued to talk about the clear, and the atmosphere of the chat was akin to a festival’s.

Being the first one to clear a game that hadn’t been cleared for the past 10 years—As a gamer, there was nothing greater than this achievement. The viewers who watched me venture through this journey celebrated and congratulated me.

– It’s so sad that the saintess died in the final battle :’(
For an R-rank character, she carried a lot…

– It couldn’t be helped… If the 2nd party didn’t buy the aggro then reaching the boss would’ve been impossible in the first place.

– I actually shouted out loud when the 3rd party got wiped… It was a party filled with SSR-rank heroes and they all died.

– Even the 1st party got wiped, except for the main character, Lucas. It really had me on edge as I watched.

The viewers started talking about those who had died in the final battle, as they had grown quite attached to the characters they watched for the past half year.

In this game, the player had to roll for the characters with the in-game currency and train them. The result was completely random, so the player had to choose which heroes to train according to their ranks, which were the SSR, SR, R, and N-rank.

The viewers had different favorites, and they watched the stream as they empathized with them. From cool—and strong SSR-rank characters to characters who had shown a great performance despite being ranked N.

‘In the end, they all died…’

I smiled bitterly. The game’s crazy difficulty had a structure that coerced sacrifice in order to proceed.

I did try my best to keep the units alive for as long as possible, but everyone except for the main character died in the final battle against the boss.

Well, it doesn’t matter since my goal was to see the ending, not get a perfect run.

– Hey! It’s fine, he cleared the game! The empire is saved!

– Link to our main character Lucas getting the last hit on the boss >>Here<<

– That scene was so damn cool… It’s going on youtube for sure.

– Now THAT’s a main character.

I clicked the link and watched that scene with my viewers one more time.

The main character, Lucas, delivered the last strike with his hair fluttering in the air. The seemingly undefeatable final boss, ‘The Lake Princess who Can’t Sleep’, finally fell.

When I came back to the game after finishing the video, Lucas remained frozen in that position.

* * *

[Translator: Dawn ]

[Proofreader: Alissa ]

Join our discord for release updates!

* * *

[LAST STAGE – CLEAR!]

[STAGE MVP – Lucas (SSR)]

Behind the result window that covered the screen for clearing the stage.

You are reading story I became the Tyrant of a Defense Game at novel35.com

In front of the boss monster that he had slain, atop the mountain of allied and enemy corpses, he stood forevermore…

“……”

I wondered why.

His back seemed a little sad, even though he was just a fictional character in a video game.

[Achievement unlocked!]

[Cleared the game in Hell difficulty & Ironman mode – ‘Ironman of Hell’]

[You will be rewarded with perks for unlocking the achievement!]

[Calculating the clear ranking…]

[Clear ranking updated!]

[Global Ranking 1st – Player Name: ‘Classic Nerd’]

The ranking was updated, and as expected, I was ranked first in the world. The viewers once again congratulated me.

I quietly took a screenshot. Snap!

The ending credits started playing afterward as the list of the staff rolled down, but I didn’t skip it. I wanted to enjoy the aftertaste of the clear.

– Shouldn’t the developers give CN something for clearing the game?

One of the viewers said halfway through the ending credits.

– After getting so much backlash for making the game unbeatable, CN proved that the game could be beaten, so he deserves something.

– Agreed lol

– If it weren’t for him, nobody would’ve been able to see the game get cleared in that difficulty.

– I wonder if the developers are still working on this? Someone send ’em an email or something.

I laughed softly.

“Nah, I don’t need a prize from the developers. It’s good enough that this lasted six months for me and you guys to enjoy.”

– Look at the greed in his eyes.

– I bet he’d joyously take the prize if they gave him something.

– Yo, I think they actually went broke. The website for the company doesn’t exist anymore… Did they actually go out of business?

– They didn’t release any sequels after that, so they might have.

– Then who’s taking care of the clear-data server?

As the viewers were discussing that topic, I was emotionally staring at the ending credits that were almost done.

The feeling of both fulfillment and emptiness that came to find me, especially after clearing a game, was filling my stomach.

It was at that moment…

– Hello, Mr. Classic Nerd. I am the director of [Empire Defense].

That this message suddenly appeared on the chat.

The chat was instantly filled with confusion.

– Is he real???

– Obviously fake lol. Why would you believe that?

– I’ve been seeing that username since half a year ago. Is that really the director of ED?

– Mr. Director! Please come out with ED2 so he can get tortured even more!!!

Caught in surprise, I quickly checked the past chat logs of that username.

 

That person had started watching me half a year ago, right when I’d started playing <Empire Defense>. However, he had never said anything in the chat until now.

And he started talking to me as soon as I cleared the ironmanhell difficulty, as if he had been waiting for that moment.

– First, I’d like to thank you. I had given up, thinking that no one would be able to succeed.

The self-proclaimed director continued.

– But seeing how you succeeded, I was really relieved. Thank you once again.

“No, well… There’s no need to thank me…”

I scratched the back of my head in awkwardness.

Whether this person was the actual director or not, it felt great to be thanked for clearing a game.

– I’m glad we still have hope remaining.

“……?”

I blinked in confusion.

‘Hope’? What the hell was he even talking about?

Right, the company had gone out of business. Was he saying that he’d gained hope from me trying so hard to clear the game?

– You’ve proven your ability and your worth. Please come here and help us.”

“Uhm…”

Like are they currently developing the next game for <Empire Defense> or something? And he’s asking for my help in testing the beta—so he’s inviting me to the company building?

As I opened my mouth to ask, unable to comprehend what he was talking about—

“Huh?”

I suddenly found myself extremely dizzy.

Maybe I was feeling this dizziness from playing the game for way too long. It was true that I didn’t drink or eat anything after starting the final stage. I think it took at least a few hours to clear that stage.

The light from the dual monitor started to scatter in my vision. My surroundings started to spin around even more intensely. The letters in the chat window and the black screen from the ending credits started to blend together.

I guess I tried a little too hard. I never thought I could actually pass out from playing the game too much.

My viewers would at least call an ambulance for me though, right? I collapsed to the floor with such carefree thoughts in mind.

The last thing I saw before losing consciousness was…

– Thank you for playing.

– Thank you so much for playing <Empire Defense>.

The phrases written at the very end of the ending credits.

I completely blacked out after that.

____

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