[The Last Catalogue: Legend of Everfall: Edition IX - V5.0:{On The Practice Of Mercy }]
A fantasy-based game, first launched by a no-name corporation Halcyra Interactive, where the game was officially designed as a computer game at first.
The game had many older versions that were said to foreshadow the current V5.0 in the last ten years, with fans speculating on social media platforms and praising the developers ability to create such as a so-called 'masterpiece of heaven', but to be honest, I wouldn't give a shit.
The only reason I played this game was at the request of a close friend.
Of course, I hated spending a single penny on unnecessary goods, and it took a few months for my friend to convince me, albeit barely, to purchase it with a discount of around 85% on winter eve, after he had went on his knees, begging me to give it a try.
He even invited me to a meal and a cup of coffee, and tried to invest me in the game all he could as if his life depended on it. I mean, at this point, why couldn't he just purchase the game for me?
It's been exactly a year and 3 days since I've purchased the game off the gaming platform after my friend had made me an account, and disinterested, I had scrolled down the reviews, hoping to find anything helpful that could guide me through playing my game.
Truly, motivational in my own way, I must say.
But all I found were complaints from players to my surprise, and many of them were either boasting their achievements or criticizing the game's mechanics and difficulty level, with just around less than 0.02% to get a happy ending, out of thousands of horrible endings.
It was mentioned that the only way to pass successfully and see the good ending was to purchase a DLC that was horribly expensive, and even so, many of those that had purchased it were unable to get it.
What a hell hole.
They had stated that unlike older games the corporation had launched, apparently this game was made almost as if it was rigged.
... Huh ...
[The Last Catalogue: Legend of Everfall: Edition IX - V5.0:{On The Practice Of Mercy }]
With collaboration between Halcyra Interactive and Ebonreach Studios, the game went into development for exactly 7 years. Millions were invested in the game, as it had started off as a small game, and its hit of success was predicted to have a probability of only around 12% in the market, despite the money poured in and the effort taken.
However, when released, the game reached a high count of players of ~1.5 billion players worldwide in just 2 months. That was the birth of the game known as '[The Last Catalogue: Legend of Everfall: Edition IX - V5.0:{On The Practice Of Mercy }]'
Seeing the oil rig that they had hit, the corporation decided to add some mods that improved the graphics, and later on even adapted the game to a web novel. They further went into work as the workaholics and money-grubbing corporations they were, and submerged for another 3 years, before the current version of the game was released.
Throwing my cigarette that had shrunken to the filter, the size of half a pinkie's worth off the skyscraper, I continued, observing the lively city, the lights hung on the streets looking like little dots of light from where I was.
People walked and talked, laughing, all sorts of emotions displayed on their faces.
They all looked like ants under the tall skyscraper.
A role-playing game that seemed to be a mixture of the typical Korean-like academy fantasy games, yet an odd mix of noble hierarchies, dating sim, continent-spanning empires, demon invasions, and secret organizations.
The newest edition of the game had just released a new patch, but sadly, not many people could be seen playing the game anymore.
Despite the high-quality eroge content, stunning visuals, detailed stories, and political issues, the game's rating had dropped to 2 stars by around 900 million world players globally.
I was one of the few that decided to continue playing the game. In fact, its difficulty was what pulled me towards it in the first place.
Waiting for my phone to load, I rummaged my pocket with my other hand as I leaned on the rails, searching for any cigarettes I may have dropped, but sighed when I couldn't find any.
Something small and white fell from the sky, landing on my phone's screen before melting. And then another. And another.
My gaze flickered towards the sky as I watched the small white-cute particles moving down slowly to earth. The snow continued drifting, a light breeze pushing a few strands of my hair to my forehead and covering my face.
Shaking my head to clear my vision, I heard the door behind me slowly open, as a dazzling woman who looked in her thirties with black, silky hair made into a ponytail walked out of the door.
The woman had small, yet suggestive dark violet lips that had been carefully painted, her dark ocean-like blue eyes boredly stared into me for a moment before she strolled to the rail beside me and leaned on the railing similar to me, looking down at the city.
I stared at her for a few seconds before looking back to my phone that buzzed, marking that the screen had finally loaded. My brows formed a frown, however, as I realized that I did not have an internet connection, and did not have the money either to buy a data package.
Sighing, I closed the app and opened the webnovel of the game that I had downloaded for free off a pirated website, as the novel cost around 15$, which I did not want to spend.
The novel consisted of around 34 thousand pages and a total of 4,765 chapters, and I had stopped at chapter 679, my eyes lingering on the title of the chapter for a moment before I began reading.
Wait, w... wait.
Damn it, my phone just died. I mean it was at 13%, how the hell did my phone die so fast? Karma?
Damn it.
I silently put my phone back in my pocket in ire, my gaze flickering to the woman for a moment who was gazing at the city, before I followed her lead.
The sky had begun to darken considerably, the buildings lighting up in the distance.
She stood beside me quietly for a few minutes, the silence between us not heavy, but still. Almost like snow resting on a rooftop in serenity.
Oh, well.
Just as I was about to turn around, pondering on which street to sleep tonight, the edge of my eyes caught the woman pulling out a silver box from her pocket, flicking it open. She placed a blue-paper colored cigarette on her lips, before she took a second one and closed the box.
Placing it onto her official suit's pocket, her eyes met me impassively before she offered me the cigarette. Me, as the ever-being gentleman, did not turn her down and took it from between her fingers, observing the cigarette for a moment of lingering surprise.
The Advokita '58 was quite the expensive type. The paper was smooth. Precious. Not like the ones I bought by the dozen in off-brand convenience stores after an ID verification because of how young I looked, like a handsome young man.
I put my hands in my pocket to take out my lighter, only to remember I had smashed it earlier on a pedestrian that had tried to cuss me. It really wasn't my fault.
Yeah, I was on the run, did ... I forget to mention that? Well, its not like its that important.
Back ... to the current situation.
"... You seem quite rich for a lady," I remarked, not judging her appearance. She didn't look like someone who had a sugar daddy.
She didn't respond and stared at me for a moment. Pointing to my cigarette, I went on gesturing to her.
"Mind lighting it?"
The woman smirked in a way that made me frown, but she first lit her cigarette after a few tries and ultimately threw me the lighter that I caught. I placed the cigarette on my lips and tried lighting the lighter.
One, twice, thrice.
I kept trying, my thumb having a small smudge, but it seemed that the lighter had reached the netherland early.
I blinked twice in succession, still observing the woman's haughty expression of victory, making me raise an eyebrow in turn.
"Sigh..." Hearing my sigh, the woman giggled playfully, before she slowly walked to me, her face inches from my face, yet my eyelids did not do as much as twitch in reaction to her mischievous behavior.
I blankly stared at her, wondering if I'd get charged for sexual assault for no reason, my thought wandering to an old memory long, long ago.
She tilted her head cutely, her face even closer as I felt her warm breath on my face, her smell intoxicating.
Her cigarette, already lit and smoldering faintly on her lips, touched mine on my lips, lighting as the familiar orange color appeared at the edge. She walked back a few steps, still looking at me.
"Did your heart skip a beat right now? You know, I could snap my fingers and... pop!"
Puckering he lips while snapping her fingers at the same time, she gave him a sly smile.
"You'd be behind bars… but where's the fun in that?" She snickered mischievously, however, her eyes carrying a hint of arrogance in them.
'She looks like she's got more than a few screws loose'
The fragrant taste of juniper berries and rich tobacco filled my mouth, as I inhaled the taste and savored it passively.
Hm... not bad. I should try to treat myself to this if I ever get rich.
I ignored her, and sat down on the cold flooring that had a light coating of snow.
"You don't talk much," she said eventually, exhaling a stream of smoke that seemed to spell out the words.
"... What about it?" I asked neutrally.
The woman chuckled at my blunt response.
She smirked at my odd response.
The silence between us soon returned for a few moments, before it was broken by a sudden sound.
Click.
I heard the metallic slide of a gun being drawn as the door slammed open. The poor door wouldn't last to see tomorrow probably.
"....You're late, around..." I muttered to no one in particular as I looked at my cheap watch I got from a dollar store right around the street.
They had given a 50% offer on all of their products since holidays were just around the corner, and I had spotted this watch in an opened box near some LED lightings in perfect condition.
An ideal watch for an ideal man.
".... 31 seconds."
I muttered, my eyes not flinching from the door.
And true, my words, became.