[Title: Is this game fun?]
Content: (Bayonet-Wielding Frogcone)
Answer
ㄴ: ♚♚Academy Great☆War♚♚upon purchase$$all hero units☜☜100% bonus※ ♜Hello, nice to meet you♜free greetings bonus￥ special conditions §§Battle with the Evil God§§★Battle with humanity's strongest★duel opportunity@@ instant move https://novelpia.com/novel/387092
ㄴ: It's a god game
ㄴ: What are you talking about, it's a shit game
ㄴ: Whether you praise or bash it, you gotta admit it's well-made, but it's a game you wish would be split in half. Yep
────────────────────
* * *
I opened my eyes.
The ascent of consciousness, awakening, a new birth.
A change so clear that no matter which description you attached to it, there would be no problem.
‘………’
But I wanted to deny all of that and close my eyes again immediately.
Because life is suffering, and a new birth meant new suffering.
The point was,
"My head... hurts..."
The headache was too severe.
‘Where is this? What am I?’
Perhaps due to the pain, it was difficult to think.
My memories were hazy, and my senses were scattered in all directions like something dissolved in water.
I was only barely aware that terrible pain was ransacking my entire body.
"What on earth... is..."
"The Young Master has opened his eyes!"
An unfamiliar voice rang in my ears.
The only thing I barely understood was that the "Young Master" he spoke of probably referred to me.
‘Young Master... me?’
Blurry vision and a head full of static made it difficult to continue thinking normally.
"Are you alright? Can you see in front of you?"
"I feel like I'm going to vomit..."
"I'll call the doctor. The Patriarch will arrive soon, so please stay conscious."
Amidst the static, one word entered my ears.
"Patriarch... Dad?"
That seemed to be the switch.
From the word Patriarch, like dominoes spreading out, other words were automatically associated.
Patriarch, Dad, Son, Family, Me, Innate Ability, and Spirit Descent.
When my mind was captivated by the chain-reacting keywords, I heard a voice.
"Yes, I speak of your father, Lord Heliont Hellisboot."
"Heliont."
Heliont Hellisboot, the head of an Imperial Count's family.
Age 41, with three children (two sons, one daughter).
No concubines; his hobbies are gastronomy and magic.
His Innate Ability is...
"Ah..."
"Young Master?"
"It came back to me. Yes, it was Father."
As I recalled things about him, the static and nausea in my head began to subside.
As my memories surfaced, I could feel my self-awareness and ego that had been drifting like duckweed gradually being fulfilled.
And as my ego became clearer, things about me also began to surface.
"I am Helio... Hellisboot."
"...That's correct. It seems fortunately there is no problem with your memory."
"Eight years old, male, youngest son of a Count's family."
"...Young Master?"
"The protagonist of Academy Great War?"
I shook off the hands holding me.
The chain of surfacing knowledge and memories helped me grasp the current situation.
I looked around.
‘Awkward.’
The knowledge in my head told me many things.
It told me the grade and origin of the wood used for the desk, the artisan of the fabric on the floor, and the cloth used for the bedsheets of the bed I was lying on.
Yet, even so, awkwardness was felt.
Knowledge is something accumulated through long observation, after all.
‘Of course, it's because where I am is not a 3-pyeong room but a space that feels antique.’
Everything was far removed from someone living in modern-day Korea.
"Ah, I see. So that's it."
"Young Master?"
In the end, the alien memory provided the answer.
I had possessed a game right now.
* * *
"Hahaha, did you hear that, my dear? This fellow, would you believe it, said we are characters in a game!"
"Huhu, Nora and Rad did the same. Please don't tease him too much."
"...So this isn't possession."
It was all a misunderstanding.
I hung my head low at my parents'—especially my father's—enthusiastic mockery.
The embarrassment of a middle school syndrome patient who has come to his senses and is confronting his past came rushing in.
* * *
Academy Great War.
A god game of the era with very high gameplay value, but unfortunately, it was a game whose evaluations were divided in many ways.
As the saying goes, if you split it in half, it would be a perfect game.
Did the developers not think this was strange?
Going back and forth between GOAT and JOAT, and so on.
It was the superstar of the gaming world that year, having countless nicknames and derogatory names created for it.
Thanks to that, even people who didn't play it directly knew of it—so to speak, it was famous for being famous.
What more needs to be said?
That was the game I had mistakenly thought I possessed.
"Sigh, so, heh, our son. Are you feeling better now?"
"...Yes, I am."
My father barely stopped laughing.
Of course, embarrassment at having done something shameful and irritation at 'aren't you laughing too much?' arose, but neither lasted long.
‘He said he ran here immediately when he heard I collapsed.’
From faint memories, he had been greeting quite an important guest.
Having left that to rush out in the middle, as his son, I should endure at least this much.
"You must have been quite an aged soul. Until yesterday, you were cute, clinging to me and calling 'Daddy~'."
"My memory blurred once, so now you're fabricating things..."
"Yes, you didn't cling. Though you did call me Dad."
"..."
That was true, so I had nothing to say.
However, that simple statement implied that the aftermath of the ability was more than a simple fainting spell.
"So, who was it that you were influenced so deeply by?"
Among the detailed settings of the game, there was something called Innate Ability.
From simple and light things like ignition to top-tier abilities like regression, there existed such a diverse range of abilities that the name 'Innate Ability' was rendered meaningless.
However, rather than being a type of skill, it was a setting closer to a character concept.
Because from broad job classes to minute functions, characteristics, and ultimate moves, it was a keyword that imparted a certain directional flow.
Now that it had become reality, it had changed a little—or perhaps it had originally been in that form.
The term Innate Ability became a power inherited through bloodline.
An inborn talent that makes nobles noble.
That was a family's Innate Ability.
Naturally, I had one too.
The Hellisboot family's Innate Ability is Spirit Descent.
It was the Innate Ability to draw another's soul and borrow their knowledge and power.
What my father was asking now was about the soul I had invoked.
"Fainting once and having your memory muddled to that extent means it wasn't ordinary."
"Ah, that..."
"Yet seeing you come to your senses right away—truly as expected of my son. Fitting of the greatest genius in 300 years of Hellisboot history."
"Hmm..."
"So it must have been an incredible soul? To see this world as a game, perhaps it was a soul from a higher dimension!"
"...Please stop teasing me."
He giggled at my answer for a moment, then waved his hand.
"Anyway, there is no great strain on your body or soul. The fainting and memory confusion were merely temporary due to shock."
"Should I consider myself fortunate that I wasn't injured?"
"Of course, that is important. It's a relief that there are no aftereffects. Still, usually with a soul that gives this much of a shock, it would normally fail outright, so truly your talent is incredible."
"...Thank you."
I looked at my father sullenly as the tiresome talk of talent continued.
Then, as if sorry, he passed me more snacks and continued speaking.
"Oh my, you're sulking. So really, how did you end up calling such a soul? Who was it?"
"Um... that is..."
The reason I was at a loss for words wasn't simply because I had a cookie in my mouth.
The explanation itself wasn't difficult, but honestly, it was a somewhat embarrassing story to tell others.
The cause was simple.
"It would be nice to know the future, wouldn't it?"
This was the last thing the pure Helio (8) said before fainting.
For a child, it was an incredibly worldly thought.
"Shall I try calling?"
And unlike a child, I had the ability to make that happen.
As a result, I attempted to draw my future self, and something did come.
"Ah, this is..."
The soul of an ordinary man named O Jio (32) living on Earth.
Instead of a regressor (self), a possessor (similar) had arrived, so you could say half succeeded and half failed.
"Guh... hmm..."
Unable to answer this honestly or fabricate a new lie, I hesitated, then soon answered truthfully.
"...I tried to invoke my future self."
"That's very much like a Hellisboot child."
At my answer, my father chuckled and ruffled my hair.
"It's a rite of passage that everyone in our family goes through at least once."
"...I thought I was the only one?"
"Oh my, I seem to have evaluated you too highly. Your brother and sister have already walked this path."
It seems people's thoughts are all similar.
"And to think you believed you were the only one to have such an idea—oh my, I didn't know you evaluated yourself so highly, my son."
"Ah."
Afterward, my father teased me for a long time with the topic of 'Helio, the possessor of absolute intellect who breathes out ideas that others could never conceive.'
"However, refrain from doing so as much as possible from today onward. The Imperial Family dislikes changing the future."
As he said this, my father's expression hardened firmly, making it clear that this was no joke to be taken lightly.
"...Yes."
I meekly nodded.
Because now that I possessed an adult's knowledge, I understood what he was worried about.
"Yes, I'm glad you seem to understand well."
In a society where classes exist, displeasing those above you was an act that endangered not only yourself but your family as well.
Moreover, if they held not just power but also unusual abilities, it was doubly true.
"So while trying to see the future, things went awry and you invoked a soul from another world who sees this world as a game."
Thinking he had finished the warning well, Father returned to the topic of the Spirit Descent.
"...In a sense, you could say it succeeded."
"Well, I have heard that futures seen in that way tend to be accurate."
Father nodded.
"To you it was a game, but there have been records of it being seen in the form of books or plays."
"That's fascinating."
If there are game possessions, there may as well be book possessions.
I nodded, having convinced myself, and Father chuckled while stroking my head again.
"Now you're finally returning to being our son. Seeing how long it took, you must have been more compatible than I thought."
"That's because... the one I invoked was a me from another world."
O Jio (32) was me, existing in a world parallel to this one.
'It's regrettable that being a modern person, his martial arts and magical abilities converge on zero, but.'
Still, there were merits that more than made up for it.
Because O Jio (32) was a user who had played Academy Great War.
Like how Academy Great War was famous for being famous, surprisingly few actually played it, so it was rather lucky that my parallel self had played it.
'Of course, it's a shame he's not a veteran.'
According to O Jio's memories, in situations like this, it's the national rule for memories of having played 10,000 hours to come in, but unfortunately, O Jio wasn't to that extent.
However, that didn't mean he was a light user who clicked once and quit.
Not only had he cleared it six times, but he had also enthusiastically gathered information from related communities.
"Information gained through Spirit Descent does not degrade... so that's what it meant."
"As expected, you have talent. Are you already examining detailed information?"
Father looked at me, surprised and pleased.
His tone was the same teasing one, but pride shone in his eyes.
"Yes, I suppose this is what it feels like to remember even trivial details."
Rather than recalling memories, it was closer to the feeling of searching data.
Unlike something I remembered, I couldn't recall it immediately, but conversely, because it wasn't a memory, I could check every trivial detail that O Jio (32) had seen.
'Story analysis, settings, item acquisition routes, progression, endings, high-score draws... even roughly scanned information remains perfectly clear. Though recalling it at the appropriate time is another matter...'
Anyway, thanks to that, I had succeeded in knowing the future of this world, which had been my original goal.
"...But the future I wanted to check first isn't very good."
"Yes, I suppose you know now."
Father smiled bitterly.
Judging by his reaction, Father seemed to know as well.
Because a game requires incidents to exist.
'Academy Great War...'
In that respect, Academy Great War was notorious.
The early and mid-game pretended to be an academy raising game, full of adorable incidents, but.
'...Of all things, the outbreak of war is a foregone conclusion.'
Because in the latter half, the Great War breaks out and it becomes a strategy game.