Year 4 of the Gregorian Calendar, Kingdom of Avendale
Capital City, Tessalon
As expected from a fantasy world of swords and magic, the Royal Capital of Avendale was just as beautiful as Sagan once imagined.
The main roads were paved with large square-cut stones, neatly arranged without gaps. Old European-style houses stood in tidy rows, two stories tall with smooth walls and wooden-framed glass windows polished to a shine.
The closer one walked toward the city center, the more extravagant the buildings became.
Rooftops shaped like pointed towers, balconies decorated with colorful flowers, and the royal banners fluttering proudly at their peaks.
A passing breeze carried the scent of warm wheat bread and heated metal.
Just this atmosphere alone was enough to tell Sagan that he was truly in another world.
The clanging of steel echoed from adventurers weaving through the streets with weapons and armor strapped to their bodies.
Shouts from merchants at roadside stalls mixed with calls offering services: mages selling charms, blacksmiths promoting sword repairs.
Large horse-drawn carriages struggled to push through the crowds, but no one complained. People moved aside with an oddly disciplined manner.
Some wore full metal armor, others long and worn mage robes, and some even donned bright, unfamiliar outfits that Sagan couldn't comprehend.
A chaotic mixture… like a fantasy character market dumped straight into reality.
For the past two days, the capital had been overflowing with people from all over Arvendale. No wonder the streets felt like they were boiling with excitement.
Yet in the middle of that vibrant crowd, there was one person who wasn't enjoying any of it.
Sagan.
The white shirt and leather trousers he wore didn't stand out among the adventurers and merchants filling the streets.
But unlike the enthusiastic faces around him, his eyes were blank, his expression tense.
In his chest, fear outweighed the fresh air of the capital.
"Am I really inside a game world…?"
Sagan had been thrown into this world without warning, He panicked, confused, and with no one to ask for help.
But after gathering information from his surroundings, he finally understood his situation.
This world… was the world of the game he once played.
Oblivion Gate.
A brutal RPG with absurd difficulty, filled with despair and tragic storytelling.
That was Sagan's impression of Oblivion Gate.
And most likely, this was the world of Oblivion Gate—or more precisely, an alternate version that closely resembled it.
Because of that, Sagan panicked.
Sure, it was the typical RPG setup where a Demon King from another world descends to bring ruin and suffering to all living beings.
But!
There was a massive difference between playing the game from behind a screen and actually living inside it.
The only thing giving Sagan a shred of peace was the fact that he had arrived here four years before the game's story began.
How was he so sure about the timeline?
Because of the Kingdom Tournament!
An NPC who would later become the strongest knight of the kingdom, Gareth, won this tournament and was granted the title of "Strongest Knight."
Sagan knew this from a quest issued by Gareth!
And today was the final match between the future "Stongest Knight" Gareth and the "The Barber" Serik.
This event captivated adventurers and commoners across the entire kingdom, which explained the overwhelming crowd.
Despite being an ordinary man before being isekai'd, reading too many novels had its perks; at the very least, he calmed down quickly.
After hearing about Gareth, Serik, and the Kingdom Tournament, Sagan finally confirmed the world and timeline he had been dropped into.
"Four years before the New Calendar" this was not a system used by this world, but Sagan's own method of keeping track of time based on the original story.
After all, according to the plot, the Gurath Goat Govenant, the Demon King, would eventually conquer the world, so calculating by the "New Calendar" felt appropriate.
As for understanding the language of this world?
Based on the game's lore, this world had some kind of universal translation law. People from different countries and even different races could understand one another.
As if the entire world had eaten a magical translation fruit. Of course, while spoken language was shared, written characters remained unfamiliar.
What a cliché way to get isekai'd, Sagan thought, feeling both amused and self-critical.
Still, the crowd worked in his favor.
The clothes he wore upon arrival didn't stand out too much among the strange attires, though they were certainly out of place.
Once he understood the world and calmed himself, Sagan did the one thing that could keep him alive:
He sold various accessories he had brought with him—bracelets, rings, and necklaces.
He received three gold coins.
All the items were made of gold as well.
For a game world focused on exploration and combat, Oblivion Gate had a simple currency system.
Gold coins.
But this world's economy was more complex:
1 gold coin = 13 silver coins = 13 copper coins.
And above gold, there was even a platinum coin.
The shopkeeper paid a high price not for the gold itself, but for the modern enamel engravings, something impossible to craft in a world reliant on magic rather than technology.
Sagan knew the price wasn't fair and he was likely scammed, but he had no knowledge of market values.
With the money, he bought:
Cheap clothes — 5 copper coins
Used short sword — 1 silver coin
Food (hard wheat bread) — 5 copper coins
He was left with around 2 gold coins, 11 silver coins, and 3 copper coins the funds he needed to manage for survival.
"Four years, huh…"
In the town square, Sagan sat on a bench facing a large fountain.
The more he understood his situation, the emptier his eyes became.
To him, whether it was four years or tomorrow made no difference.
In four years, the fate of this kingdom, humanity, every living creature, and this entire world had already been decided.
If the Gurath Goat Govenant and the Nine Gates of Helldusk descended into this world, everything would collapse.
There was no safe choice.
Either he died before that happened,
or survived to become one of the very few left.
He looked up.
Sagan wasn't being pessimistic, this was just what would inevitably occur in this world.
Oblivion Gate had no Happy Ending.
No matter what choices the player made, the ending remained the same—death and despair.
In short, it was a cursed game where the developers didn't even bother giving players the basic satisfaction of saving the world or living happily ever after.
Sigh.
Sagan let out a heavy breath, wondering how, out of all the games he played, he ended up inside this one.
He probably spent more time playing eroge than this stupid game!
Looking up again, he saw the massive white stone castle standing proudly atop a distant hill and his anxiety only grew stronger.