ch1

“Wow, goddamn… Those Chaos Point bastards are really something!! Save completely reset in achievements, and items exclusively for achievement resets in collectibles??”

Chiiik!!

My mouth felt parched, and my mind was hazy, so I cracked open a can of Coke roughly.

The cool carbonated drink going down my throat helped quite a bit… but as my cleared head roughly calculated the number of playthroughs I had to do and the time it would take, the hand holding the mouse trembled.

“Seriously… seriously, you crazy bastards! What are you hiding so tightly…!!”

There exists a game called Neo Haven. A century-defining space god-game created by the Chaos Point development company, and also a goddamn failure of a game that marked a turning point in gaming history.

You might ask how it can be both a space god-game and a goddamn failure, but the evaluations of game owners and game critics were split exactly in half. The overall community rating was also appropriately “mixed.”

Nickname: GiseuHawado

Rating: Recommended

Playtime: 3,782 hours

Content: I still don’t really know how to play;; I’ll play a bit more and write again ㅇㅇ.

Nickname: AchievementPerfectionist

Rating: Not Recommended

Playtime: 10,335 hours

Content: YOU FUCKING CRAZY BASTARDS!!!!!! I’M GOING TO DIE OF SUFFOCATION AT THIS RATE PLEASE…!!! The overall completion rate won’t budge from 99.97%!!!!

Nickname: DogThatBarksWhenGameDoesntWork

Rating: Not Recommended

Playtime: 14,627 hours

Content: Grrrrrrrrrrrrowl woof woof cough cough cough woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof meow meow meow meow meow purrrrrrrrrrrrk squeak squeak squeak!

Nickname: DestroyerOfFailureGameHaters6974

Rating: Recommended

Playtime: 1,234 hours

Content: Giving a not recommended just because the game is a little difficult lol. I matched the playtime, so I’ll buy Neo Haven 2 when it comes out ㅅㄱ.

Nickname: DestroyerOfFailureGameHaters6974

Rating: Not Recommended

Playtime: 12,345 hours

Content: doal.

……It’s been a while since the game was released, so the negative reviews that were posted around the time of release were from people who got hit with the spicy flavor of hardcore RPGs and left a “Not Recommended.” Now, on the contrary, the more people who poured their lives into it, the more they freaked out.

But? I searched through reviews, discussion boards, and even the Neo Haven community, and then I felt so relieved.

It seemed that I was the only one who had reached the wall of despair, the 99.99% overall completion rate of Neo Haven, and came back down for the final journey.

Click…! Tap tap tap….

I manipulated the mouse and keyboard to activate the cyberware embedded in the character. This crazy game didn’t even provide a basic user interface. If you wanted to pop up the necessary information, you had to install the appropriate cyberware, and to use the cyberware, you had to implant the right implant, and to implant the implant, you had to earn credits, the game’s currency….

Moreover, even though the game’s background was a future world dominated by corporations after a great war, the difficulty of combat varied greatly depending on pure aiming skills if the character’s stats were insufficient.

“Haa…….”

Thinking about it made me feel a little disillusioned and drained. But seeing the blueprint of the structure I had discovered after all sorts of hardships made my heart swell again.

[ Dimensional Rift Interferer ]

[ Materials: Void Mineral (0/10), Carbon Nanotube (0/200), Enama Corp. Modified Human Specimen (0/20), ExaTech Corp. Arithmetic Circuit Board (0/500), ……… ]

I knew very well what was needed. Some of the materials that were a pain in the ass to collect caught my eye, but I could collect them slowly while progressing to the ending. What bothered me now was… my Neo Haven overall completion rate, which had become a tattered mess due to the two resets.

“Let’s see… Mega Corp Star Conquest Ending and Outlaw Ending depending on Karma… and the Great Union Ending….”

It was the grand finale of the devil’s game that had tormented gamers around the world for a full 10 years. The most certain proof was only one thing. 100% all clear.

“Alright…! I can do it!!”

Food? Just looking at 3 boxes of cup ramen made me feel suffocated.

Drinking water? I brought large PET bottles of various types from the convenience store for a variety of options.

Sleep? There’s a bed right behind the chair. It’s really convenient when the room is small like this.

Defecation? Of course, I have to just go to the bathroom….

Having finished all the preparations and before continuing to attack Neo Haven. I finished the current playthrough and returned to the main menu for a moment to create a new character profile.

“Hmm… Honestly, the physical stats that can be maxed out with implants in the late game should be kept to a minimum! Instead, charisma and luck should be raised to the max? And with the laboratory-born trait, intelligence and implant compatibility should be maximized…… Done!”

Charisma, which increases the basic favorability and persuasion rate of all NPCs, and expands the companion pool.

Luck, which gives positive buffs to random encounters, critical hits, and probabilistic events.

To finish it off, I chose several traits to maximize strengths and compensate for weaknesses, so even a hardcore player with a longer playtime than me wouldn’t find fault with it.

After finishing the stat distribution and character background settings, the appearance setting tab popped up.

Even if I already knew the walkthroughs for all the stories and quests, and how to collect all the collectibles, it was clear that it would be a long journey that would take at least a month. Then I’d be seeing it to the point of being sick of it… If I made the customization amazing at the beginning? There’s no need to change the appearance in the middle of the playthrough? And my motivation will soar, so wouldn’t that be the best…?

……Looks are a very important matter.

“As expected, the male character has a better fit for the exo-skeleton suit…! Mhm!!”

Click!

Having come up with a very rational and only reason to choose a male character, I immediately started customizing the female character of my life.

Implant tattoos and holographic irises that became selectable according to the character’s background were basic. A slightly wild short cut and delicate features, and even slightly reducing the height to receive a little bit of evasion buff instead of the bottom-scraping physical stats… A character that was extremely personally perfect was born.

If I cleared the game with this and even got certified, my taste would be exposed to an unspecified number of people, but… the game industry is dominated by female character simps anyway. I’m not weird at all…!

“The character’s name is… something pretty and meaningful… where… ah.”

In the blinking blank, I put in a somewhat long but famous name.

Anastasia, which means resurrection. My alter ego who will return to the beginning and run towards the end again, even after seeing countless deaths and countless endings.

And so… a life like a Neo Haven 폐인 continued for several weeks.

I made small mistakes in quests and scenarios that I was doing for the first time in a while, and I tried to deduce the true ending by collecting the easter eggs and collectibles that the developers had desperately hidden one by one…. I felt a pang of conscience when I stopped all the heroines’ favorability just before the max with a precarious tightrope walk, and then broke them in a row with save-load skills.

When I overcame the game’s bitter oppression with ridiculously good luck, I applauded enthusiastically even though no one was watching, and in the ending where all the companions were sacrificed… even though I’d seen it about 10 times already, tears welled up.

“As expected… there’s a reason why it’s a life game…!!”

[Would you like to install the Dimensional Rift Interferer? (Y/N)]

The Great Union Ending scenario, in which all the giant corporations rooted in Emerald City are united under the player’s leadership. Even there, the blueprint was activated only after riding the orbital elevator to the space station with the necessary materials.

As I paused the operation for a moment, immersed in emotion, Anastasia, against the backdrop of the vast universe, checked her surroundings and performed a motion to check the operation of the cyberware.

There was no need to hesitate.

Click.

“Y!!”

[Are you sure you want to install the Dimensional Rift Interferer? (Y/N)]

“……Huh?”

Asking me for a choice again when I’m expecting a solemn finale and even running a recording program? It’s just like Chaos Point, the master of global trolling.

Once again. I pressed the keyboard hard, with the meaning of not messing around.

[Are you REALLY sure you want to install the Dimensional Rift Interferer? (Y/N)]

“…Fuck.”

Dada dada dak!!

I just spammed the keyboard buttons. You might criticize me for not showing respect for my life game… but I was so tired because I relaxed when I thought I could see the end. I have to check what it asked me later by watching the recorded video.

• Welcome to Neo Haven Prime, Ms. Anastasia 🙂 –

I thought I saw a word I’d never seen before, but I didn’t have time to pay attention to it.

The code in the inventory and the materials piled up in the station disappeared, and the 3D printer installed in the days when countries and governments remained worked like crazy.

A machine as huge as the materials it ate appeared, filling the entire screen. As if it would show me the ending as it was, the camera, which had arbitrarily deviated from the operation, slowly retreated and captured Anastasia’s appearance looking back at the screen… and then it went completely dark.

“…….”

My consciousness, which was watching the ending credits rising and the 100% completion message that appeared at the bottom as if congratulating me, also went dark.

Damn, I’ve been praising this garbage game and pouring my youth into it…! Of course, it was fun when I was playing it, but if it’s like this, my grand plan to upload the recorded video and fill my leaky living expenses is…!!

• Project Anastasia is being discarded. All researchers at Enama Corporation are to calmly follow the instructions of the dispatched Quick Reaction Operational Force (QROF) to evacuate &*%(%^…… –

In my vague consciousness, a faint panorama was being screened.

The scenery of the pure white laboratory seen from the perspective of a girl in a test tube was not very dynamic, but I was surprised to see people wearing yellow protective suits lining up in the corner according to the orders of the black strike force and being shot as they were.

The appearance of a corporate military unit meant nothing more than wiping out everything that was left, but what were they doing?

“You guys…… will never…!! Be able to recover her!! A failure? An initial defective product?! Even Ground Zero is too good for those who insulted our goddess…!”

One person who had endured the spread biochemical gas with only an air filter in his mouth touched the red panel as if having a seizure, and a dazzling flash swallowed them.

“Ah……?”

I woke up in the ruins of the laboratory, in Anastasia’s body.