On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

Second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me. Author: White Critical Strike

Summary:

Liao Ji has had many exes.

However, these exes were all two-dimensional characters in a certain post-apocalyptic simulation game.

As someone who prioritizes strength, whenever a character I've developed becomes obsolete, Liao Ji strips them of all their equipment and resources, then puts them in the back as storage, giving the better ones to new, powerful characters.

Of course, Liao Ji always insisted that these were only temporary, and that they were for the purpose of completing the game and saving this precarious wasteland world!

Unfortunately...

These "paper dolls" don't seem to think so?

After Liao Ji, relying on his superior strength and meticulous planning, completed his mission as the "savior," ended the source of pollution in the wasteland, and became the first person to achieve a "perfect clear."

He unexpectedly traveled into the second playthrough of the game.

Liao Ji thought he could take off and live a carefree life, but he found that things were not quite as he had imagined.

Chapter 1 The Ash Emperor

"Thanks for playing!"

Looking at the screen, at the congratulatory message that read "Congratulations on completing the game!" and the ending celebration, Liao Ji, sitting in his chair, let out a long sigh.

The game he's playing now is called "Fall".

It is a simulation game set in a wasteland.

Players take on the role of a survivor leader in a wasteland, recruiting companions, training characters, building their own organization and shelter base, fighting against various natural disasters, and creating a haven in a wasteland filled with mutated monsters and "turbidity".

The game boasts an extremely high degree of freedom, with the entire storyline unfolding in real-time based on the player's various decisions. Moreover, the graphics are exquisite and the character models are meticulously crafted, making it virtually flawless in every aspect.

Alone

It's just too damn hard!

Extremely scarce resources for character development, lurking monsters in the wilderness, and ever-present scavengers—these are just the initial challenges, yet they are enough to give players a real hard time.

In addition, the game's extremely random nature, with natural disasters and man-made calamities occurring frequently, means that there is no such thing as being able to complete the game by simply following a walkthrough step by step. Everyone's world is completely different, making it extremely difficult to copy someone else's strategy.

It is said that the official number of people who have cleared customs worldwide is less than one thousand.

The number of people who have achieved a "perfect playthrough" with all achievements, all collections, and all explorations has always been zero.

Oh no.

The number should now be "1".

At the end of the game, there is a bonus "family portrait" CG image that summarizes the five strongest "Evil Ones" of each class that you have nurtured in the game.

"The calamity" is a proper noun in "The Fall".

Specifically refers to those who have mutated and temporarily retained their sanity in the "turbid" pollution of the wasteland, and are divided into five different professions based on the abilities that have arisen from their mutations.

For players to establish themselves in the wasteland, recruiting and training powerful Evil Ones is absolutely crucial and is also the core gameplay of this game.

As a typical straight man, Liao Ji naturally only supports his wife and strives for a diverse family life.

Therefore, the five female "Evil Ones" in the CG illustrations are all very different in style and come from different races.

Sthimitia, a priestess.

The succubus with supernatural abilities, "Rena"

Guardian-type Dragon Girl "Tang Jiuyou"

Zero, the archer-type robot maid.

And finally, there's Anno, the guardian-type elf knight who Liao Ji often yells "Mom, save me!"

Among them are alluring and seductive yet flat-chested, and others pure and innocent yet dazzlingly beautiful; some are proud and aloof, while others are gentle and reserved.

But what they all have in common is that their looks are top-notch!

but.

For Liao Ji, physical beauty fades after seeing it so many times. What truly leaves an emotional mark on her heart is the memories that these women represent.

Back then, each of them held a pivotal position in their respective gaming eras.

She was the kind of person who, at the time, wished she could give "her" the best of everything.

however.

As the game environment and time periods changed, Liao Ji's different needs for "Evil Ones" led to them being "laid off" and unemployed one after another.

Just like St. Siuthia, the "nanny" who brought Liao Ji back from the brink of death countless times during the pioneering period.

But once he had established himself and reached the mid-game, and his power began to expand, this kind of pure support role eventually became less and less useful, until Liao Ji completely put him aside.

Instead, they are replaced by a more aggressive and powerful physical damage dealer capable of securing territory for Liao Ji—Guardian Tang Jiuyou, and Marksman Zero.

But gradually, while the two could easily kill lightly armored enemies like the "Scavengers," the difficulty of Liao Ji's enemies increased as they became "Base Guardians" with superior weaponry and high defense and offense.

The two physical damage dealers who were once able to dominate the battlefield have now become incredibly weak.

Liao Ji had no choice but to strip them of all their resources and put them all into new roles: the succubus Reina and the elf Anno.

The former's powerful abilities could easily deal with the enemy's heavy armor, while the latter's natural magic and shields provided Liao Ji with the most solid defense and offensive space to withstand the enemy's terrifying firepower.

With the last wasteland faction defeated and surrendered, Liao Jicai truly achieved the unification of the entire wasteland.

Ash Empire

It was from this moment that it was officially established.

Incidentally, "Ashes" is the ID Liao Ji gave himself in the game.

Later, after integrating the forces of various races, Liao Ji, as the "Emperor of Ashes," led his army step by step to reclaim the territories occupied by monsters and began to declare war on the source of the wasteland and the culprit of the disaster, the "Abyss of Turbid Calamity."

but.

Despite being many times stronger and having more resources than he could handle, far surpassing the difficult survival he faced at the beginning of the game, Liao Ji no longer felt the joy he had at the start. His interactions with the mutated creatures he had raised also decreased dramatically.

Firstly, after the war turned into a full-scale war against the wasteland monsters, the role of the army became more important than individual strength. Secondly, as Liao Ji, as the "protagonist," grew stronger and more versatile, he no longer needed to rely on the "Evil Ones" in battle.

Instead, keeping them in the rear as warehouse managers, utilizing their "infrastructure" capabilities to improve the overall production efficiency of the empire and cities, is the optimal choice.

For example, Styutia:

【Dark Light (increases with level): Placing "Shutia" in a "Church" type building grants the city +15% resistance to mental pollution and reduces the berserk rate of Evil Ones by 10%】

[Holy Healer (increases with level): When "Shutia" is in the back row (outside of the combat formation), the disease and plague incidence rate for the entire faction is reduced by 30%]

Therefore, his warehouse management does not mean that he has completely given up.

Even if they can't go to the battlefield, the powerful "infrastructure" capabilities of the five Evil Ones are enough for me to continue feeding them dog food, keeping them at the level of the main first echelon at all times.

"."

puff.

Liao Ji laughed at himself when he thought about this.

It sounds nice, but in reality it's just about squeezing out their remaining value. Even though we're not including them, we still make them work day and night in the "factory" behind the scenes. Aren't they just pure tools?

shook his head.

At that moment, a thick stack of notebooks next to the computer desk caught Liao Ji's attention out of the corner of his eye.

Once opened, it was filled with pages of densely packed small characters, all handwritten by him. These were used to calculate various development benefits, the cost-effectiveness of each dungeon, plans for subsequent decisions, and the drop locations and distribution of various rare materials and equipment.

All these records combined make for a complete gaming guide for a hardcore gamer.

Liao Ji plans to organize and summarize these experiences after the game ends, and then post them online. He hopes that these lessons learned from his tens of thousands of hours of experience can help newcomers avoid some detours and save the game's precarious sales.

However, after staring at these manuals he had meticulously recorded stroke by stroke for a while, Liao Ji sighed.

He began to reflect.

Am I focusing too much on intensity?

Because of his long-term "warehouse management" of them, many of them lost a lot of favorability. Strangely, in the game, the character's favorability seemed to be useless, like a useless attribute, so Liao Ji never paid attention to it.

It wasn't until now, when the CG screenshots showed it, that Liao Ji realized it was one of his biggest regrets after completing the game.

Of course, there are exceptions, and Styutia is one of them.

Even those who were the first to be stored away by me, who were always silently used as tools in the rear, and who were the first to have their equipment stripped off and given to other women.

Just like the gentle nature of Sthiuthia as a priestess in the setting, she will never be dissatisfied with herself, and her favorability rating has never changed since it reached 100%.

In reality, it might be the kind of situation where even if the husband is away on a "business trip" for a long time and hasn't come home, the wife would still lay out the tablecloth, set out the tableware, and prepare meals for two every day, just in the hope that one day, when the husband remembers the family and comes back, he can smile and say, "Go wash your hands."

call!

Liao Ji let out a long sigh and shook his head. He chuckled to himself, wondering if he had gone a little crazy, adding so much drama to a two-dimensional character written by a program.

However, Liao Ji still decided that when he publishes a guide in the future, he must add a sentence at the beginning for all newlyweds.

[The intensity is only temporary, but the wives I support are for life!]

almost

It's time to end this.

Liao Ji's parents left him when he was very young, but fortunately they left behind a large inheritance, which ensured that he had no worries about food and drink and made a living, but it also fostered Liao Ji's reclusive personality.

Perhaps the creation of "games" was to provide a safe haven for people like Liao Ji.

Looking at the record at the very bottom of the CG image, my total playtime in "The Fall" has unknowingly reached over ten thousand hours.

Despite his deep reluctance, Liao Ji ultimately accepted the situation calmly, as if bidding farewell to an old friend, and moved the mouse to press the "End Game" button.

However, to his surprise...

[Congratulations! We have detected that you have met the requirements to unlock "New Game Plus". Do you wish to proceed?]

Liao Ji: "!?"