Great game. Not playing it in my next life.

That flame must never go out... no matter what...

He was light, He was warmth, He was the flame itself, the beginning and end of all civilization and wisdom.

Beneath that orange-red flame, the symbol of hope and order, we cast off ignorance, grasped truth, and marched into the age of flame.

He answered our suffering, He answered our cries. He was the torch that lit the night, and we were His kindling.

With our bodies as fuel, may the flame burn eternal...

-Hymn to the Blazing Sun

-Aemon Pierce, Curator of the Great Library

Earth

XX City

"Perfect opening! Parry! Oh, damn it, I used the skill too early!"

The clatter of keystrokes echoed through the room. A young man with bloodshot eyes was completely absorbed in his game.

"Ugh!"

Hornet screamed, and then the screen went black.

The young man fell silent. After watching himself die in this encounter for the fourteenth time, he finally let out an agonized groan.

"Aaaah!!!"

Another five hundred and fifty-eight rosaries lost. Right now, he wanted to beat the hell out of his past self for deciding he didn't need to string his beads just because there was a service fee.

His silk cocoon was inside the encounter area. Hitting it would trigger the fight, and he couldn't clear it.

But if he left and accidentally died somewhere else, those rosaries would be gone for good.

Watching Hornet wake up on the bench yet again, he felt utterly exhausted.

His name was Lin Jin.

Yes, as one of the many lucky players, after waiting six whole years, he had bought Silksong the moment it released and started playing.

Just thinking about finally getting to play Silksong had made Lin Jin hum to himself. Reality, however, had proved him far too optimistic.

He had wanted the unspoiled experience, so he had refused to look at guides.

But he was already in Act Two, and he still couldn't get through this one encounter.

For a moment, the absurd difficulty had even made Lin Jin feel like he was playing a Souls game.

Regular enemies that dealt two damage, traps that dealt two damage, ridiculous treks back to the fight, and weapons that felt no different after an upgrade.

Benches cost money, shortcuts cost money, maps cost money, buying things cost money-but the enemies early on didn't even drop any.

Lin Jin couldn't tell whether he was playing the game or the game was playing him.

I'm not playing the heroine of some porn game, am I? Why am I so fragile, why is my damage so low, and why is the hit reaction so over the top?

"Ugh..." Lin Jin let out a long sigh and decided to take a breather.

He downed another energy drink-he had lost count of how many-and exhaled heavily. He was genuinely worn out.

He could actually understand what Cherry had been thinking.

Since healing restored three times as much health as in the previous game, it also required three times as much soul.

So, to keep players from killing the enemies too quickly and being left unable to heal during combat, they had reduced damage.

The problem was that enemies weren't wooden training dummies. They hit back.

And most dealt two damage, which meant Lin Jin spent pretty much every fight scrambling to heal.

The moment he got hit, he fell into a vicious cycle. He needed to heal, so he attacked enemies. Enemies hit back, so he could easily get killed while trying to recover health.

"This game's great. A fine thoroughbred. But I'm no judge of fine horses-I'm Shang Yang, the guy they tore apart with them."

With a helpless, self-mocking remark, Lin Jin took off his headphones and rubbed his eyes, sore from staring at the screen for so long.

He had been playing this game for... well, he didn't know how long anymore.

All he knew was that, from the moment he touched the keyboard, he hadn't stopped, all the way from the starting Moss Grotto to the Putrified Ducts.

It was bizarre. He had already gotten the first three endings, yet he couldn't beat this encounter no matter what he did.

Unable to stand it any longer, Lin Jin had looked up other players' guides along the way.

Some had even gotten the true ending, collected and unlocked everything, and gathered every bit of text and every variation of the side quests.

The moves in the videos looked like things he could pull off too. But when it was his turn, it became, "Hehe, I'm a dumb*ss."

He had been stuck on this encounter for over three hours now, but leaving it unbeaten felt like a thorn lodged in his mind.

He scrubbed hard at his hair, utterly frustrated. Those maggots alone had killed him at least ten times.

"I refuse to believe this! Time to regroup and try again!"

Feeling adrenaline surge through him, Lin Jin made another frantic run through the platforming section. With only two points of health lost, he challenged the encounter that had tormented him for three hours once more.

"Almost dead, almost dead! Heal-good!"

"Damn it! It summoned maggots!"

"The pendulum's out again! Dodge!"

"Good! Use the tool! Damn it! Missed!!"

Before long, another ten minutes had passed.

His fingers hammered the keyboard, his eyes an alarming shade of blood red.

Lin Jin was utterly wired, breathing fast. Was he finally going to succeed?

Cherry: No chance. It could never be that easy! (Wags finger.)

As the Putrid Muck churned, the boss appeared.

Groal the Great!!!

"Croak?"

The instant Lin Jin saw that thing appear, his brain stopped working.

What kind of game put a long platforming gauntlet before a boss, then a long combat encounter, and even threw two platforming traps into the encounter arena?

After another frantic scramble, Lin Jin died again, to absolutely no one's surprise.

Watching Hornet return to the bench yet again, Lin Jin's eye twitched. He felt as if he had been personally insulted.

"Hmph, hrrgh-aaaah!!! Aaaah!!!"

Lin Jin was furious enough to smash his keyboard, but it was too expensive, so he slammed the desk instead.

"You! You! I! I! Did you balance this game with your feet?"

Lin Jin roared. A veteran Hollow Knight fan like him had died fifteen times in a row on the same stage. What an utter disgrace.

But...

Ah, he really shouldn't have gotten so worked up.

Before Lin Jin could say anything else, his pupils suddenly dilated. His hand went to his chest, and his body, deprived of rest for far too long, began to convulse.

"Ugh... ah... gack..."

The light left his eyes. His hands dropped limply, and he collapsed.

Ah... this time, it really was game over for Lin Jin.

Wilderness

Dilapidated temple

A howling gale swept across the endless plains, carrying grit and dead grass in a chaotic arc between earth and sky.

As far as the eye could see, yellow-brown earth stretched in every direction, like the back of some giant beast, its edges worn smooth by time, lying silently beneath the heavens.

The vast mountain shadows faded into pale blue-green outlines, merging with the lead-gray clouds.

Fallen statues and ruined buildings all testified to the civilization that had once existed here.

Yet however glorious it had been, it had ultimately vanished into the wind and sand, forgotten by all.

Inside a small cave at the foot of a mountain lay the last surviving remnant of those ruins.

Drip.

Drip.

Water trickled down cracks in the stone and fell into a hollow, gradually forming a small pool.

The sound of dripping water slowly woke a slumbering soul, making him realize that he was not part of the ruins.

"Hmm... where am I?"

After a stretch of indescribable chaos, Lin Jin's consciousness gradually returned.

The jumble of fragments in his head finally settled down as well.

But when he came to, what he saw was not his familiar room, but a deserted cave.

He seemed to be in some dilapidated ruins. He had no idea how much time had passed.

Lin Jin looked around. All that surrounded him were fallen stone pillars, wildly spreading moss, and a statue that had long since lost its worshippers, so weathered that its original appearance was impossible to make out.

Outside the cave lay endless windblown sand and a barren wilderness of exposed desert rock.

That was everything he could see. He had appeared somewhere unfamiliar in the blink of an eye, and though he had a bad feeling about it, he remained reasonably calm.

Watching anime regularly did have its uses.

At least Lin Jin quickly accepted that he seemed to have crossed into another world, rather than shouting pointlessly and attracting potential danger.

He hadn't seen anything alive yet, so he couldn't determine what sort of world he had entered.

He was about to get up and check outside when he discovered that he couldn't seem to move.

No-more precisely, he had no body to move at all.

Lin Jin finally noticed the strange sensation that had been bothering him from the start.

"Am I a ghost now?"

Lin Jin couldn't see his body or feel his own weight. Even going without breathing caused no discomfort.

"Well, damn. So I did die after all." Though he no longer had a body, Lin Jin still felt as if his eye were twitching.

Whatever. At least I don't have to worry about survival now. I'm already dead, so I don't need to eat or sleep.

That was how Lin Jin consoled himself.

The wind and sand showed no sign of stopping. Fortunately, the cave he occupied was fairly safe. Lin Jin settled into what felt to him like a sitting position.

What state am I in now?

Why am I here?

What should I do next?

Lin Jin thought calmly. He neither panicked nor complained endlessly about why something so bizarre had happened to him.

I can't go back anymore. The past no longer matters.

After all, a person is the sum of their social relationships. Once I meet more and more people in this world and experience all sorts of things...

After all that, if I get a chance to go back, will I really make that choice without hesitation?

He didn't know.

All in all, Lin Jin wasn't in a hurry-or rather, all he could do was calmly accept it.

What was done was done; there was no undoing it. Since he couldn't go back anyway, he had all the time in the world to think those questions over.