How are you spending the time when an online game service ends?
Are you spending it alone, quietly waiting for the final moment? Or perhaps exploring a place full of memories? Maybe chatting and sharing old stories with friends?
I think each person has a different way of welcoming the end of a game. Perhaps there are some people who retired a while back, only to find that the service has already ended without them.
In my case, it was a war. Or rather, I was the one causing it.
Until the very moment the service ended, it was an end game battle that spared no time to sleep.
My favorite online grand strategy game, Isekai Conqueror, was ending its service today.
Isekai Conqueror is a game in which a player reincarnates into a fantasy world as the ruler of a nation, developing a civilization from the ground up while managing internal affairs, diplomacy, and warfare. It was the kind of game that struck a deep chord with me, a grand strategy lover. I had been playing every single day for three years since the service launched, from the time I entered high school until now, the year I graduated.
Before I knew it, I had become one of the oldest active players on the server.
It was nostalgic. I had spent most of my money on this game. I had not spent a single day doing anything other than playing it.
And now the game was finally over.
Was I sad? Not even slightly. Mostly because there was no time to be sad.
"HAHAHA! No enemy can defeat me! That is because I focused entirely on defending my island, with layers of defense stretching from the sea all the way to outer space! I, Julius Borealis, Emperor of the Solar Empire, will win this end game war through sheer endurance! HAHAHA!"
I had been playing for seven days straight without sleeping. My concentration was fraying at the edges, my senses were going numb, and I had completely lost track of what day it was.
But I could not stop yet.
It was about a month ago that the management announced the service termination. The players were confused by the sudden news, but eventually accepted that all things must end. In the spirit of going out properly, we decided to hold one final festival in online mode.
That festival was the End Game War. A final battle in which all nations would continue fighting until every last one of them burned to the ground.
In Isekai Conqueror, countless player nations normally competed through diplomacy, internal politics, trade, and careful strategic maneuvering. An all-out war between major powers was rare under normal circumstances, and for good reason. If you lost, you would suffer a blow so devastating that recovery was impossible. If you won, a third nation would attack you while you were exhausted. Knowing when not to fight was as important as knowing how to fight.
But this time was different.
Since the service was ending anyway, every player on the server wanted to go all out at least once. No consequences. No tomorrow to worry about.
The server I played on, known among the community as the Radical Server because only the oldest, most dangerous, and most ruthless players had survived long enough to remain, erupted with excitement at the idea. Preparations for the final war began almost immediately.
The Final War Committee was formed on Discord. It was an obviously unhinged organization, and I was a permanent member.
I had a reputation among the other players. "Defense Maniac." "Sci-Fi Otaku." "Death Merchant." Those were the polite ones. When players discovered that my entire national strategy was built around passive defense and occasional plundering raids with absolutely no interest in conventional conquest, the nicknames got worse. "Chicken Emperor" was the most common. "Space Barbarian" was the one that stuck.
I want to be clear that I was not cruel to my enemies. Unlike Genghis Khan, I did not burn cities to the ground, build pyramids out of my enemies' skulls, or raze entire civilizations just to make a point. I simply took their resources and left. Efficiently. Repeatedly. Without warning. And occasionally a second time if they had managed to rebuild. That is called strategy, not cruelty. There is a meaningful difference and I stand by it.
Anyway.
For the final week before the service ended, the End Game War ran continuously without pause. A full battle royale with no alliances, no diplomacy, and no mercy.
And at this particular moment, I was doing very well.
"Hmm. This is strange. Why is everyone attacking my bases at the same time? Whatever. Let them exhaust themselves on my defenses."
Every other major nation on the server had been bleeding resources for a week. Without resources, you could not recruit soldiers. Without soldiers, your nation collapsed. Mine was still standing.
The Solar Empire was the strongest science-oriented nation on the server. Built on an isolated island in the middle of the ocean, it was designed from day one to specialize in defense and advanced technological research rather than conventional land warfare. While other nations poured everything into building land armies to fight their neighbors, I was quietly developing science fiction level technology behind multiple layers of naval and aerial defense.
One fourth of the entire world's naval power belonged to the Solar Navy, though the navy itself was rarely used for direct combat. The Solar Empire's preferred method of offensive action was the Mark.I-TPMC, a teleportation machine capable of deploying strike teams directly into enemy territory without warning. These raids, which targeted resource stockpiles and infrastructure rather than soldiers, had been given a name by the other players: Solar Pandemic. It was not a compliment. I took it as one anyway.
Even during the End Game War, the Solar Empire's defensive strength had proven itself completely. Not a single enemy had managed to land on the mainland. The waves of attackers simply broke apart on the outer defense lines and sank.
The problem was that pure defense was slow.
"Hah. At this rate I will burn through too many resources just maintaining the perimeter. I have no choice. I will have to use the Solar ICBM launched from the prototype spaceship to strike all remaining enemy capitals simultaneously and force a mass surrender."
My technology level was considered the most advanced on the entire server. Using it at full capacity meant one thing: I could end the world. Or at least the parts of it that were still fighting back.
I began preparing the launch sequence.
How many resources had gone into developing this technology? Counting production costs, research investment, and the full technological development chain, the total had consumed roughly ninety percent of the Solar Empire's entire expenditure over three years. I preferred not to think about that number too carefully.
The last enemy fleet appeared on the radar. Satellite positioning confirmed their coordinates.
Ten nations remained. None of them had a warship that could threaten my outer defense line.
The ICBM launch sequence began...
Ten... Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One...
On the monitor, missiles began falling from the sky across every remaining enemy capital simultaneously. I had used the entire missile stockpile.
The general chat reacted immediately.
"I accepted the challenge. Twenty warships and ten landing battalions. We managed to breach the second defense layer. Then we were wiped out completely. The Solar Empire is not exhausted at all."
"This was supposed to be a world war. If we had cooperated properly, we might have had a chance."
"That was never going to happen. We were all fighting each other everywhere else. Does anyone have any resources left? Even one ton of gold would help."
"Nothing. I am completely wiped out."
"Wait. Did anyone else see something falling from the sky on their monitor just now?"
"AAAAAAHHHH! MY CAPITAL IS DESTROYED!"
"Curse you, Space Barbarian! You destroyed our capital!"
One minute remained until the service ended.
I scanned the chat. There did not appear to be a single surviving enemy nation besides my own.
I had done it. I had conquered the world.
The moment I confirmed my victory, a wave of drowsiness hit me so hard it felt physical. That made sense. I had been fighting for seven days without sleeping.
I saved the game out of habit, even though there would be no server to log back into.
Good night...