【Beast and Human: Mad and cunning beast, you need to meticulously plan a tragic and horrific bloody sacrificial ritual to proclaim the arrival of a great existence to the world; arrogant and rational human, you need to go on a bloody slaughter frenzy alone to prove that you yourself are the symbol of the greatest existence】
【Blood and Flesh: You need to bathe in your own blood and flesh to perform a forbidden sacrifice. Death is the most trivial price to pay, to be reborn in blood amidst endless glory】
Vaguely, a few fragments flashed through his mind.
A damp, dark environment, surrounded by piled-up corpses beyond count.
An extremely pungent stench, which seemed to have coalesced into miasma.
...
“Hahaha, after guidance from the Fallen Mother Goddess, I finally know how to clear Original Sin · Pride!”
“The guy above is tripping.”
“Did the devs balance the stats with their feet?”
“What the hell is this 【Original Sin · King of Pride · Lucifer】 entry? What does it mean by 'targets of the same rank will be directly judged as 'weaklings', and weaklings have zero possibility of victory'? This guy is already a True God, damn it! Is there actually a rank higher than a True God?!”
“That's why I say the devs fed their brains to the dogs.”
Roland smiled as he looked at the official forum.
As a gold-medal producer, 《The Old Ones: The End》 had become an absolute hit as soon as it launched.
It was globally popular, with both its gameplay and exquisite storyline standing up to intense scrutiny.
As for the endless stream of curses on the forum...
No amount of guidance from the Fallen Mother Goddess would help, because from the moment he created this character, he never intended for players to clear it normally. In the chapter 【Original Sin · Pride】—which was also the final chapter of the grand act 【Original Sin】—the final boss of the stage was played by a character no one could have ever expected.
Roland Morningstar Lucifiel.
In the early storyline, aside from a character model attractive enough to charm everyone, he had almost nothing appealing about him: first, he wasn't part of the gacha pool system; second, he had zero involvement in the early-to-mid main story; third, his character background in the early stage was described as utterly unremarkable.
【Eldest son of Duke Lucifiel.】
Aside from players initiating a few lines of dialogue with him in the RPG mode, he only occasionally popped up in passing conversations during daily story scenes with other characters.
In short, within the lore, he was an extremely inconspicuous character.
He was practically no different from a background NPC.
It wasn't until the story reached the mid-to-late stage that the character finally donned a veil of mystery.
By the late stage, his popularity exploded completely as countless threads of karma and plot ties were stacked onto him.
It truly gave off the vibe of "all karmic burdens converge upon me."
All mysteries began to unravel with his appearance.
This character had once led players to believe the dev team was out of ideas and could no longer write a proper story, until the final chapter 【Pride】 of the act 【Original Sin】 came to a close, elevating the plot to legendary status.
After entering the next act, which was also the final act 【The End】...
...the transitional role of this character fully revealed itself.
Players acclaimed him as the villain who felt most like a hero, and the hero who felt most like a villain.
At the same time, he was crowned with numerous titles:
【King of Pride】
【The Real Protagonist】
【Devs' Favorite Son】
【Husband】
【My Husband】
【National Husband】
【Incarnation of the Fallen Mother Goddess】...
Whenever a new boss appeared in subsequent chapters...
...the sheer status and prestige of Roland Morningstar Lucifiel would rise once again.
Wait... What do you mean the protagonist is only a six-star card, while an NPC character is a seven-star card?
Exactly. Starting from that moment, 《The Old Ones: The End》 introduced a brand-new system—the very first seven-star card character. Even by the end of the game, among hundreds of characters, there were only five seven-star cards. Among them, Roland Morningstar Lucifiel stood supreme, maintaining an unshakable, absolute T0 tier position.
In truth, 《The Old Ones: The End》 was a game leaning heavily toward an ensemble cast.
The protagonist's halo was greatly weakened—to the point where they couldn't even truly be called the protagonist.
They were merely a key six-star character used to advance the plot, possessing a special star-up mechanism in the game.
As the main producer of the game, Roland viewed it this way.
“So, how on earth do you beat Pride?”
“Begging the pros to explain!”
“I'm new here. What does 'guidance from the Fallen Mother Goddess' mean?”
“Bookmarked.”
At this moment, countless players were still bickering incessantly on the forum.
In reality, clearing this character required an essential step: collecting the frontispiece pages of the 【Book of Truth】 to unlock the special story line of the 【Pride】 chapter. That way, no combat was needed, and the chapter would automatically be cleared.
On the forum, a hardcore gamer had already cracked it.
“Brothers, as long as you collect all the frontispiece pages of the Book of Truth, you can enter the special story line and automatically clear it. The story shows Roland Morningstar Lucifiel being backfired on by the complete 【Book of Truth】 and then sealed away. The bad news is that frontispiece pages can only be collected during your first clearance of each chapter. In other words, anyone who didn't collect them all will need to start New Game+.”
“?????”
“Screw you, dog dev!”
“The dog dev truly is a total bastard!”
“Attached: Chapters containing all 【Book of Truth】 frontispiece pages and how to obtain them.”
“All hail the master.”
“All hail the master.”
...
Looking at the forum, Roland smiled with satisfaction.
Players would always flame the devs; he had long made peace with that.
At the same time, he didn't expect all players to understand him or the game. Things easily obtained were never cherished, and what wasn't cherished was often most easily forgotten. This design would not cause players to lose interest in playing; on the contrary, it was bound to become a viral topic that people would talk about endlessly later on.
After all, truth often lies in the hands of the few.
Mmh... How arrogant of you, Roland.
He thought cheerfully to himself.
At the same time, as his most painstakingly crafted character, Roland was worth it, and Roland deserved it.
...
Countless memory fragments flashed through his mind.
Like a PowerPoint slideshow.
His head felt as though it had been cracked open, his skull pried apart while thick steel needles viciously stirred his brain. The intense pain jolted Roland awake. His surroundings were blurry and unclear, perhaps because the lights weren't turned on.
He scrambled up, reaching out to feel for the wall sconce.
Empty air.
A pungent odor rushed into his mouth and nose, making him dry-heave.
“What the hell?!”
Roland thought to himself.
Did Hajimi make porridge for Big Dog on the bed?
He clearly chased all the pets out before going to sleep.
The excruciating pain left him no room for further thought. He could only lie sideways on the sticky ground, wrapping his arms around his head and curling up, as if that could alleviate some of the agony. It was unknown how much time passed before the pain slowly receded, and light gradually seeped in, exposing all the darkness and filth.
At the same time, Roland opened his eyes.
He looked at this unfamiliar place.
Before his eyes, pitch-black, writhing script squirmed like worms.
It was not any script he was familiar with.
Yet, somehow, he could understand it perfectly.
【Beast and Human: Mad and cunning beast, you need to meticulously plan a tragic and horrific bloody sacrificial ritual to proclaim the arrival of a great existence to the world; arrogant and rational human, you need to go on a bloody slaughter frenzy alone to prove that you yourself are the symbol of the greatest existence...】
【Blood and Flesh: You need to bathe in your own blood and flesh to perform a forbidden sacrifice. Death is the most trivial price to pay, to be reborn in blood amidst endless glory...】
...
Rate on N.U.
