1. Preparations for Running Away (1)
-You have become the first user of the God Game. Save the continent of Osria from destruction.
-As a beta tester perk, you are synchronized to Jaiden Leonhardt at roughly eight years old.
-Leonhardt’s innate bloodline ability manifests incompletely.
-The Main Quest ‘Become the Head of the Family’ has been granted. Clear the Main Quest and take one step closer to preventing the continent’s destruction.
I Jeong-hu, who had entered the body of young Jaiden alongside several notification tones, had fallen into a state of panic for a while.
Having heard the shocking revelation that everything he had done until now had been a beta test of a game created by a god, he spent roughly two days staring blankly at nothing but the ceiling.
A maid he had seen in his childhood brought him food with a worried expression, but Jaiden, who had been holed up in blankness, picking at his food, barely came to his senses and calmly organized his current situation.
Even one of the empire’s greatest ducal houses had eventually collapsed.
The North would fall.
The empire, too, was only a matter of time before it eventually fell.
Unlike the beta test, more people might come here, but even so, they wouldn’t be able to stop the destruction.
Having thought this far, Jaiden could think of only one thing.
Surviving until the age of thirty-five.
Rather than preventing the continent’s destruction, he had no choice but to first devise a strategy for survival.
“I’ll have to abandon the Main Quest.”
Having experienced being completely ruined while moving to clear the Main Quest during the beta test, he immediately concluded to abandon it and then racked his brain to survive.
The ball of light that had come to him in the real world when death was imminent from a traffic accident.
The other beta testers besides him probably each had their own circumstances.
Even though such people had moved desperately hoping for rewards, in the end, far from stopping it, they were swept away by the current.
“Since I died at thirty-one….”
He had to endure four years longer than during the beta test.
If things flowed exactly like the beta test, even if he lived lying low in the imperial capital, he would die without lasting two years.
Even if he moved to another continent early on, it was questionable whether he could really endure four more years.
Because the Gate of the Void opening in the North would be the same there, too.
“I won’t be able to endure it.”
Jaiden let out a deep sigh and abandoned the idea of hiding in a safe place and trying to endure.
Despite having struggled so desperately to stop the swarming monsters after becoming the head of the family, the time he endured wasn’t even two years.
Even the imperial capital would be fortunate to stop the monster waves swarming like packs of dogs for another one or two years.
He had heard rumors that other continents would last a bit longer, but even so, it would only be a slight difference.
“Then that means I’ll have to flee to the southern regions of the empire….”
To do that, this continent of Osria had to endure to some extent first.
Only then could he try enduring until thirty-five even if he moved to the South.
Then, a prerequisite was needed: that the northern front of the empire, where the Gate of the Void was, and the barbarians living in the barbarian lands would hold out.
‘They mustn’t be swept away all at once like last time.’
Having thought this far, Jaiden naturally thought of the family that reigned as the strongest in the North.
Created following the ancient divine beast, the White Lion, this family was a place that moved extremely instinctively, befitting a family that worshipped the lion.
This savage family, which worshipped only cruelty and strength, had cheat-like abilities.
Born as the eldest son in such a place, Jaiden possessed extremely ordinary talent, perhaps because the bloodline hadn’t been passed down properly, and since his real-world self had also been ordinary, it was hard to survive.
Such a self, in order to survive here and become the family head, had involved the Imperial Palace and eventually became the head.
“Though I ruined it right away….”
Jaiden recalled the past with a bitter smile.
His father, the current family head, died on the battlefield, and though he had become the head by borrowing the Imperial Palace’s power, he couldn’t even endure two years and ruined the family.
He had thought clearing the Main Quests one by one would change something, but nothing of the sort happened.
There were no rewards, and his unchanging talent inevitably became the root cause that led to the family’s ruin.
They called it a God Game, but while it was called a game, with neither a status window nor skills, just pushing through with one’s body, this was no different from just another reality.
Since unique abilities were also power derived from bloodlines, titles were practically the only means to borrow the game’s power, yet obtaining one was tremendously difficult.
In other words, there were no game-like elements whatsoever aside from titles.
To survive in such a place, he had no choice but to build up his own strength through effort.
“My talent is rock-bottom, so I’ll have no choice but to rely on my younger brothers’ help, but….”
For the Leonhardt family to function properly, eventually one of the younger brothers had to become the head, but if these brats became the head, they would unconditionally try to kill him, who was less than a pest.
But he couldn’t become the family head again either.
Because the family had to operate normally first for him to endure even a little longer in the future.
“Is running away the answer?”
To run away and avoid his younger brothers, running away from home at a young age was the best option.
But he couldn’t think of a way to escape while avoiding the family’s gaze.
Then, he suddenly thought of the North’s unique characteristic.
A place that raised special forces, training them into killing machines from a young age to stop countless monsters.
A place that somehow nurtured any talent in swordsmanship, magic, strategy, and so on.
The Northern Army Training Center.
It was a place that taught how to swing a sword and how to kill when others were learning numbers, letters, and basic academics at a preparatory academy at the age of nine.
But it was also a place that didn’t discriminate by status and only valued talent.
It was an opportunity for revival for commoners and noble houses on the verge of destruction, and likewise for the sons of ordinary noble houses who failed to become the family head.
Nevertheless, the number of applicants was low.
Because the application requirements were demanding.
First, one who would serve for at least twenty years upon applying.
One who would serve only on the front lines of the North.
These two alone were enough to drive one crazy, but on top of that, even one’s name had to be an alias.
Upon application, regardless of which family one came from, they were given a number and trained, and the moment training ended and they were assigned to their unit, they had to serve in the army under the name given by the military.
In other words, until he was discharged, he would become a person erased from the world.
How many people would welcome becoming a killing machine without honor or anything else?
“I have no other options.”
To run away and avoid those damned talent freaks, he too had to accept a certain level of risk.
The twenty-year service period weighed on his mind, but it couldn’t be helped.
But this alone was insufficient.
At the very least, he needed to have at least one person in the family who was favorable toward him to be safe.
Moreover, the twin brats two years younger than him were scoundrels, so he needed people to keep them in check.
They were brats two years younger than him who were already awakening their mana and going around beating up servants.
To restrain such crazy bastards, setting aside a good nature, they needed to have talent.
The problem was that this was a lion family.
Though everyone would have outstanding talent, the problem was that they were all missing a screw somewhere.
“Ha… I’m going crazy.”
Leonhardt, which particularly worshipped the White Lion among lions, even tried to emulate the traits of the White Lion, one of which was having many children with many wives in a short period.
And the custom was to entrust the family to the most superior among them, and this had continued down to the present.
Befitting a lion family, under his father, who kept as many as seven wives, there were several children of similar age.
He himself was barely eight years old by a few months’ difference; just looking right below him, there were two who were seven, and four who were six.
The reason it had turned out like this was thanks to the current family head’s vow to bear only one child per wife.
Had it not been for that, like other family heads, there would have been over thirty children alone.
One more peculiar thing was that, unlike the children who were all alive, only a mere two wives had survived.
The reason was that while protecting the young bloodline of Leonhardt was a given, wives who came from outside were not subject to it.
Because of this, this body’s mother had also died, and the remaining two wives were also in poor health due to the aftereffects of poisoning.
‘In short, it’s a complete mess.’
The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to leave this hopeless family even a day sooner.
“Ha… If there’s anyone normal, it’s only the youngest….”
There was nothing in particular he remembered about the youngest.
Because he had died before Jayden synchronized.
Even so, he had thought the boy would surely be better than the others. After Jayden synchronized and looked into the youngest, he had remained in the records as a frail figure who had died pitifully after receiving no support.
There was a high chance one of his younger brothers had killed him.
The second had the temperament of a berserker.
The third was a psychopath.
The twins were full of perverse, murderous tastes.
And the sixth was a sinister bastard.
One of those lunatics had undoubtedly killed the youngest.
The records from back then said that rumors had spread that someone had killed the youngest out of jealousy because his talent was too outstanding, so perhaps that had actually been true.
When he had just synchronized with this body and heard the rumors about the youngest, he had honestly felt a chill run down his spine.
Because this body, which had no talent, was still alive.
But it did not take long for him to learn the reason.
The privilege of the eldest son.
No matter how much the Leonhardt family cried that strength reigned supreme, as befitted a noble house, the eldest son’s authority was considerable. With that alone, he had clung to his life until now, and in the end, by borrowing the power of the imperial palace, he had even sat in the seat of family head, if only for a short while.
As his recollection reached that point, Jayden’s eyes reddened for a moment as he remembered all the suffering he had endured, being tossed around here and there during the beta test.
“Phew! Let’s start by confirming whether the rumors about the youngest are true.”
By virtue of being the eldest son, he had learned the Leonhardt family’s secret swordsmanship from a young age, and with his memories of the past, he knew even the sword techniques passed down only to the family head. So if the youngest’s talent was, as rumored, outstanding enough to wipe the floor with those lunatics, Jayden intended to teach him everything.
If possible, it would be better for his own future if someone frail but kind became the family head rather than one of those madmen.
If he put the youngest in his debt, there was a high chance the boy would not come to kill him later.
Moreover, if he became a Master in the future, he would be a great help in defending the North.
“Ah!”
Jayden, who had been about to leave the room, checked the condition of his body.
To confirm his younger brother’s talent, he first needed to possess a certain level of skill himself.
Starting with squat jumps and then stretching, Jayden roughly checked his body’s condition, and his brow furrowed.
“It’s trash.”
He had felt it ever since confirming during the beta test that he had no talent, but setting aside the original owner of this body’s lack of talent, he had clearly lacked even motivation.
Otherwise, it made no sense for his body to have not a single bit of muscle.
“If you have no talent, you should at least put in effort. Tsk! Not enough effort.”
The elders were right about everything they said.
If you had no skill, you put in effort, and if that still wasn’t enough, you put in effooooort.
Of course, even then, you could not keep up with the talent of geniuses, but if you worked hard for ten or twenty years, even an ordinary person could catch up to the area where the gifted played.
The one who had proven that was Jayden himself during the beta test.
“No mana awakening either, and the body is a complete mess.”
Even if his body was a mess, if he had at least awakened mana, there would have been some room to make something of it, but this body was not even at that level right now.
This body’s first mana awakening had been at thirteen.
That was faster than an ordinary person, but when the result of stuffing himself with that many elixirs and receiving that much support was only slightly better than ordinary, that meant he was dull-witted.
“Phew… First, I’ll have to build up this body.”
With a sigh, Jayden began a simple warm-up routine in his room.