Chapter 149: Insane Difficulty

"Oh, there's a new weapon."

As he continued exploring, Miyazaki soon arrived at the first fork in the road. The first thing that caught his eye was what was clearly an iron sword resting on a small platform.

"Haha! Upgrading from a dagger to a shortsword. Three more attack points. I'm unstoppable now."

The joy of optimizing equipment for the highest possible stats instantly reminded him of Fire Emblem. What impressed him even more was that after changing weapons, the character's attack animations changed as well.

Now that was incredible. After switching to the shortsword, he could clearly feel that his attack range had increased considerably.

Before Miyazaki could finish celebrating, he immediately noticed another piece of equipment on the upper path of the fork. It was a cloak.

Well, there was nothing left to think about, he had to get it.

Two minutes later...

"Calm down... Calm down. I just don't have enough running distance. I was obviously only a tiny bit short that last time."

Miyazaki took a deep breath, fixed his eyes on the edge of the platform, then pushed the stick forward once more and made his character sprint.

The instant the character was almost halfway off the platform, he reacted with lightning-fast reflexes and slammed the jump button.

He had already wasted a long time at this fork. Unfortunately, this attempt was destined to fail as well. His character once again missed the ledge by the tiniest possible margin.

"..."

"Fine, fine. I'll take the other route first. I'll come back and deal with you later."

This time, Miyazaki truly admitted defeat. He even wanted to take back all the praise he'd given GAMENOVA just moments ago.

Why would anyone design a platforming jump with such an absurd level of precision? Wasn't this just pure torture?

However, what Miyazaki would probably never realize was that the real torture had yet to begin.

The moment he passed through what looked like an ordinary door, a gigantic skeleton monster nearly twice his character's height appeared at the far end of the screen.

Miyazaki instinctively turned around to retreat, as no matter how he looked at it, now was definitely not the time to fight a boss like this.

However desperately he pressed against the door he'd entered through, it remained tightly shut, showing absolutely no intention of letting him leave.

"Come on, man! I don't want to fight the boss! Let me out!"

Who on earth would design such an awful mechanic where you couldn't leave once a boss battle started?

What a monster!

Fortunately, he'd just learned a new ability called Dodge. With a press of the button, his character could quickly dash backward during a few invincibility frames.

With that skill, maybe defeating this boss wasn't impossible after all. Miyazaki then took a deep breath and charged toward the giant skeleton.

"No point in rushing in blindly. First, I need to understand how it attacks, and once I know that, I can figure out how to deal with it."

He cautiously approached the skeleton and tested the waters with two quick slashes. Naturally, the skeleton wasn't about to stand there and let itself get beaten.

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The moment Miyazaki drew close, it began moving as well. It raised the massive bone club in its hands high into the air, clearly preparing to smash it down.

"Damn! They actually gave it a wind-up animation! That's so fair!"

Well then, what was there to hesitate over? Miyazaki immediately hit the dodge button, rolling backward two body lengths to create a safe distance. The bone club crashed down with a thunderous boom, sending broken stones flying everywhere.

If that thing had hit him just now, the consequences would've been unimaginable. But Miyazaki, who had yet to experience the true cruelty of the world, never imagined this damned skeleton had other tricks up its sleeve.

Just as he was preparing to keep the boss at a safe distance and study its attack patterns, the creature suddenly opened its mouth. A moment later, a fireball shot out, streaking straight toward him.

Boom!

-69

A huge chunk of his health bar vanished in an instant.

"???"

"Wait, it can breathe fire as well?"

"Fine... Fine! It's just one more attack to watch out for…"

But the longer the fight dragged on, the stranger things felt.

This boss… Why did it seem… kind of smart?

No, not kind of smart. It was way too smart!

Every single time he used Dodge, it would perfectly capitalize on the brief recovery animation afterward and spit out a fireball. Even a tiny delay made it impossible to avoid.

And if he tried jumping over the fireballs instead, the boss would immediately begin charging another club smash. If he failed to adjust his position in midair by even the slightest amount, he'd be hammered straight into the ground.

It was almost as if it could read his mind, and to make matters worse, his character's capabilities weren't even remotely comparable to the boss's. That made this boss fight unbelievably unforgiving.

The boss could make mistake after mistake without consequence, but he couldn't afford to make even a single one. How was that supposed to be fair?

Having grown accustomed to the leisurely pace and strategic planning of turn-based games like Fire Emblem, Miyazaki was experiencing a real-time combat game like this for the very first time.

The immense pressure forced him to remain completely focused. He couldn't afford even the slightest lapse in concentration, because every dodge and every jump had to be timed and executed with absolute precision.

He had to constantly observe the boss's movements, never overlooking even the smallest action that appeared completely ordinary.

Boom!

In the end, Miyazaki was just a fraction too slow. The bone club came crashing down on his head and smashed him flat into the ground.

[Game Over]

"Phew... At least I've figured out the boss's patterns. One more try should do it."

Miyazaki scratched his head and pressed the A button to continue. Instead, the game returned directly to the title screen.

"...?"

Looking at the completely empty save file list, Miyazaki suddenly felt like crying. This was way too cruel!

Permanent death?

Then what was all the effort he'd spent exploring earlier worth? Did he really have to do the entire thing all over again?

Even a game as difficult as Fire Emblem gave you a save file for each chapter!

Miyazaki sat blankly in front of the television, suddenly wondering why fate seemed so determined to make his life miserable.

"Are all GAMENOVA games this difficult?"

Thinking back to Fire Emblem, with its countless traps and designs where a single mistake could ruin everything, Miyazaki couldn't help but suspect that GAMENOVA specialized in making games whose sole purpose was tormenting players.

"Sigh... Well, what else can I do? Guess I'll keep playing."

Compared to that ridiculously overpowered boss, everything he'd gone through just to reach it didn't seem like such a big deal anymore.

Level Up!

On his fourth attempt, Miyazaki finally managed to take down the damn thing.

The moment his character leveled up, the screen froze on a close-up shot, while the glowing orb instantly restored both his health and mana to full.

At that moment, he finally felt the tension drain from his body. Only then did he realize how tightly he'd been curling his toes, nearly digging holes into the tatami beneath him. Even his fingers were sore from being clenched for so long.

But when he looked at the open path revealed behind the fallen boss, he suddenly felt that everything had been worth it. The feeling brought him back to the day he'd successfully completed the first chapter of Fire Emblem with every unit surviving.

"YES!!!"

That's it!

This was exactly the feeling!

"Come on! Give me more! Hit me harder! This isn't enough, it's never enough!"

Miyazaki felt as though he would never be able to live without this feeling again. Caught up in the excitement, he threw one arm into the air, only to accidentally hit the Select button on his controller.

The next moment, a map window suddenly appeared on the screen. The areas he'd already explored were fully revealed, while every unexplored region remained covered in a solid color.

Then his eyes landed on the upper-right corner. His entire body went cold, and his expression stiffened.

[2.1%]

That… was the map completion percentage.

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