The game: Nexus Of The Future Heir.
It was released about eight years ago. Originally, it was a dating sim targeted at a male audience with its beautiful female characters—but ironically, it ended up being more popular with women thanks to its ridiculously attractive male cast.
The game allowed players across the world to choose from a massive roster of characters. Some were the main cast tied to the central story, others were additional characters with unique side plots. The difficulty curve was wild—ranging from easy to brutally unfair.
One of those "brutally unfair" picks was an additional background character they'd tossed into the roster. He had terrible starting stats that made clearing both side quests and the main story ten times harder. He wasn't even that good-looking compared to the other male characters, and worst of all? He had no magic at all. In a fantasy setting where everyone else had spells and flashy skills, that was basically a death sentence.
Most players dropped him in under an hour. Some flamed the devs in reviews, some questioned why a non-magic character even existed in the game. Nobody liked him.
Well… nobody except me, Wallace Pierce.
Despite all the valid criticism, I couldn't help but play as this character—not because I was some masochist who loved torture difficulty, or because I thought he looked cool. No. It was because he had one unique skill no other character in the entire game possessed: [Evade].
It was exactly what it sounded like. A dodge. On a thirty-minute cooldown. Ridiculous, right? But that single skill didn't just avoid sword swings. It could dodge spells, curses, and even some broken abilities from the strongest characters. Of course, it required grinding. A lot of grinding. You had to level it up over and over, and because this character—Dean Mayfest—gained EXP slower than anyone else, it was a nightmare.
But I liked that. The struggle, the uphill climb, the thrill of fighting against the meta. Sure, it was hell fighting other players with maxed-out builds. Sure, it was torture clearing all thirty chapters with Dean while everyone else sped through. But it also gave me something no other character did—time to actually explore the world of Nexus.
I'd been playing Dean Mayfest for five years.
—-
That night, after dragging myself home from my retail job, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Probably spam, or maybe an email from my manager. But when I checked, it was a notification on Reddit.
A post about Nexus of the Future Heir.
Apparently, the devs had just added a new field-type boss monster—and it was absolutely broken. People were raging about how impossible it was to beat.
Someone wrote that it was a behemoth dragon named Helmut, and that it resisted nearly every kind of magic. Another player complained its attack patterns shifted every time you managed to chip away a bar of health. Six bars total.
But the post that caught my eye was from a top-ranking player. They claimed Helmut was a joke—a deliberate slap in the face from the devs. According to them, the dragon had 70% resistance to magic, 50% resistance to critical hits, and 90% resistance against curses, hexes, and divine attacks. They ended their rant by saying they were taking a break from the game, calling the boss "stupidly bugged."
I stared at the thread for a long while.
A field boss with resistances that absurd? Not even the most OP characters could beat it? Terrible design, sure. But also… intriguing.
Booting up my laptop, I opened the NOTFH wiki. Right there, front page:
[Helmut The Veil Lore].
A calamity sealed away for a millennium by the First Hero and Seven Apostles. Revived by a dark cult known as Ethris, who believed unleashing Helmut would bring about a "new era."
To open the Dimensional Crack and free him, they began creating "Gates"—portals to other dimensions. These gates dragged innocent people inside, forcing them to endure twisted "Scenarios" to survive.
It was one of the major recurring plot points of the game.
But what really caught my attention was the update log. According to the dev notes, 70% of the Nexus world had already been destroyed in-game. A massive Gate had opened due to Helmut's arrival, swallowing everything. Players were dying to Helmut left and right—and every time you died, you got locked out of your account for 24 hours. Which meant only a handful of active players remained to stop him.
I sat back in my chair. Should I log in?
On one hand, I'd risk losing my account progress for a full day if I failed. Years of grinding. My precious items. Everything.
On the other hand… what happens if Helmut and the Gate completely consume the world of Nexus? Would the game reset? Would everyone's data be gone?
I sighed. Screw it. If thr eorld's ending anyway, I might as well go out swinging.
I booted up NOTFH, selected Dean Mayfest, and geared him to the teeth with everything I'd worked for—stats in the sextuple digits, rare stamina items, and a custom-forged magic blade I'd spent two years grinding mats for.
Ash-brown messy hair, Carolina-blue eyes, a shabby knight's uniform. That was Dean. Average-looking, according to the reviews. I muttered under my breath that Dean was better looking than most real people.
I Clicked. And logged in.
—-
The Imperial Nebula Kingdom's far east gate was already in flames when I arrived. NPCs were dying left and right as Helmut rampaged, spewing violet fire hot enough to melt the ground into slag.
Two health bars left.
From what I've read from the posts abo ur Helmut. A lot of players died managing to chip away at four of the heslth bars of Helmut.
"Thanks, guys," I whispered to the nameless players who'd chipped away the other four. "I'll finish it."
Helmut's gaze snapped toward me the moment Dean stepped closer. The dragon roared, whipping its scaled tail straight at me. I clicked fast—[Evade] activated. Dean blurred past the strike and landed on a rooftop.
I grinned. Game on.
The fight raged. Evade, slash, parry. I learned quickly that Helmut wasn't just a stat wall—it was learning. It closed its eye before I could strike it. It adapted mid-fight. The AI was scary, almost alive. And I loved it. My heart was racing, my hands sweaty, my mouse breaking from clicks.
Slash after slash. Bit by bit, I wore it down. When I finally landed a crit across its neck, the second health bar vanished.
One left.
But bosses in NOTFH had a cruel trick—[Enraged].
Helmut's body pulsed with burning red light, its speed doubled, its power skyrocketed. I barely kept up, hammering keys, dodging tail swipes, burning through stamina. This was it.
Finally. An opening.
I made Dean block, parry the monster's claw—something no sane player would ever attempt. It staggered. I surged forward, climbing its massive frame, and unleashed everything.
One slash. Two slashes. Three. Four. Five!
Helmut roared, body shattering into light as its HP hit zero.
[Congratulations! You have defeated the field boss 'Helmut The Veil'. The destruction of the Imperial Nebula Kingdom has been averted.]
I leaned back, laughing shakily. I'd actually done it. Solo. With Dean Mayfest of all characters.
I tabbed out, ready to flex on Reddit with my screenshot.
And then—
My head split with pain. The screen flashed. A system prompt appeared, blazing red:
[Due to 70% of players failing to defeat 'Helmut The Veil' in time, the Gate has expanded and engulfed the world of Nexus.]
[The Worst Ending has been reached. The Nexus World will be destroyed.]
[The Worst Ending has been reached. The Nexus World will be destroyed.]
[The Worst Ending has been reached. The Nexus World will be destroyed.]
I clutched my head as the sound grew unbearable. Then, all at once, silence.
Another message appeared—this one gold, radiant, almost pleading:
[Please reach the 'True Ending' of the world of Nexus. I Beg Of You.]
"…What?" I croaked—before everything blurred to white.
——
I floated in nothing. Water? A void? I couldn't feel my body. Was I dead?
All I remembered was beating Helmut, the red warning, and that last desperate plea.
When sensation returned, I felt wood beneath my back. Cold, hard. A floor.
I gasped in air—so I was alive. Slowly, I opened my eyes. Above me was a broken ceiling, open to the sky.
This wasn't my apartment.
Sitting up, I saw a decaying hut around me,
"This place is barely standing," my voice cracked when I muttered, and it sounded… different. Higher. Younger.
My body felt lighter too. Wrong. Looking down, my clothes were ragged—a tattered coat, worn shirt, boots. But what made me freeze were my hands. Small. Pale. My old scars and calluses were gone.
Over in the corner of the room, a bucket filled with water.
Panicking, I stumbled to the bucket of water in the corner. I stared at the reflection.
Messy ash-brown hair. Carolina-blue eyes.
Desn Mayfest.
The "trash extra" I'd played for years.
I laughed weakly, muttering under my breath:
"…Shit."