I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-25

Ch-25. **What Kind of Garbage Game Is This <End of Volume 1>**

—

A rough tremor rippled through Marquis Weiser’s eyes.

Serengeti, who had departed on a grand expedition with 500 knights—
She may have been his daughter, but she was his only child, and a “Transcendent” who had surpassed limits by devouring a star.

How devastated he’d been when that daughter returned tied to a horse, her lower body severed.

He had done everything imaginable to wake her.

The city’s granaries were emptied, and he couldn’t even remember the last time he had slept properly.

And yet, Serengeti did not awaken.

“Ooh… Serengeti…”

His daughter’s eyes regained their focus.

Time, which had stopped, began flowing once again.

Serengeti opened her eyes with the blessing of a star and looked at him.

Marquis Weiser’s eyes grew moist.

He reached out, intending to embrace her fiercely.

He had been such a heartless father all these years.

A foolish father who forced her to swing her sword every day without rest.

Sensing the emotion behind his gaze, Serengeti forced open her dry lips.

“Hudson…!”

…Who?

For a moment, Marquis Weiser wondered if he’d misheard.

Hudson? Who on earth was that?

Shouldn’t she be saying “Father”… or at least “My lord”?

“Serengeti!”

From behind him, a man who had so far possessed no presence whatsoever rushed forward and grabbed Serengeti’s hand tightly.

One of the two who had entered alongside the successor of the Knight King.

Wasn’t he just some attendant?

Serengeti stared with eyes still full of disbelief.

“This isn’t a dream, right? Hudson, how are you standing in front of me…?”

“It’s not a dream. I’m right here. I’m sorry I’m late. I… I thought you might never wake up again… Agh…”

Hudson burst into tears.

Holding Serengeti’s hands in both of his, he trembled.

He had intended to return from the Golden City Arcana as a registered councilman. His goal afterward was to receive formal permission and hold a wedding ceremony.

But then he heard that Serengeti had returned from the expedition a broken shell of herself.

Hudson couldn’t go.

*‘I thought it was enough if she was alive.’*

If she was alive, that was enough.

If he returned as quickly as possible after becoming a city council member, surely the Marquis would acknowledge him.

If she had lost her legs, then he would simply become her legs.

Even if she never woke again, it was fine. As long as she lived, he would care for her forever.

*‘If I had been just a little later…’*

Thinking back, he regretted it.

It had been foolish. He should have come even if it meant overworking himself. Wanting to show up only after he “had everything prepared” — that was nothing but arrogance and greed.

Her once-robust body had grown so thin. She who used to lift him with one hand—
Now he felt like he could lift her.

If he had been any later, she wouldn’t be here.

He would never have seen her again.

The Duke Cyan would have stored her away like a trophy, in a space only he could access.

*‘I closed the casino, obtained a spirit, and returned here. If not for Lord Randolph, I would never have seen her face again.’*

Hudson looked at Randolph.

He felt he could die without regret now, but he could not shake the thought that all of this had been part of Randolph’s plan.

From the very beginning—appearing at the casino, causing chaos, dragging him out—he had seen straight through Hudson’s deepest wish and forced him to cleanly sever himself from that place.

He gained the spirit egg, and with it, confidence.

He had climbed the Spirit Tower and become the master of a spirit!

There was nothing he couldn’t do now. He could accomplish anything he desired, even if it meant hurling himself off a thousand-zhang cliff.

“Twenty million gold. I will pay it.”

Hudson straightened his back and turned around.

Marquis Weiser was staring at him with a bewildered expression.

“Please give Serengeti to me, Father-in-law.”

“F–Father-in-law? What nonsense is this lunatic spewing now?”

“You’re in desperate need of money, aren’t you? Twenty million gold should be enough to extinguish the urgent fires in the city.”

Srrrk!

Marquis Weiser drew his sword himself.

Pointing the blade at Hudson’s neck, he growled:

“And what are you supposed to be?”

“I am…”

What should he even say?

He wasn’t a council member. He had sold the casino.

He was just an ordinary human. A player. He couldn’t possibly say such things here.

Hudson looked at Randolph.

“I am his loyal servant.”

Marquis Weiser’s face twisted like a wrathful demon.

“A mere servant dares to take my daughter?”

Hudson spoke calmly.

“He is one who sees the stars and communicates with them. One revered by nature and the forest. The successor of the Knight King—one who will shine even brighter than the Knight King himself. A person like that… could I possibly remain an ordinary servant?”

“That silver tongue of yours—”

“Stop.”

What are you doing, seriously?

I clicked my tongue softly and stepped between them.

Now that I thought about it, Hudson had been a merchant. Someone who excelled at packaging things nicely.

But now was not the time for that.

“I know everyone’s overwhelmed with emotion, but the Demon King’s curse isn’t fully broken yet.”

“…Then?”

Marquis Weiser sheathed his sword.

As much as he wanted to kill this absurd fool named Hudson right this instant, lifting Serengeti’s curse came first.

“At most, she’ll only be able to stay conscious for a day. To break the curse completely, I must find another ‘star.’”

Star power could be increased only by leveling up or by finding stars.

The five stars shed when Knight King Wilhelm died—

He had recovered one, but four remained.

If they fell into someone else’s hands, the memories within the stars would be damaged.

*‘The secret effect of the Star Successor class—if I can read the memories of the previous star bearer, I must recover the stars as quickly as possible.’*

Before they were harmed or corrupted.

While they still held the intact memories of Knight King Wilhelm.

If someone else became their owner, Wilhelm’s memories and skills would be lost forever.

“So leave. All of you. She has something I need to hear.”

Shooing them away with my hand, I urged them to leave immediately.

Hudson and Marquis Weiser exchanged tangled looks before exiting the room.

The atmosphere felt like a typhoon was about to sweep through, but that wasn’t my concern.

“Who are you…?”

With only the two of us left in the room, Serengeti asked quietly.

“I am the successor of Knight King Wilhelm. I came to hear of his final moments.”

“…He never had a successor.”

But Serengeti was convinced—thus she did not lower her wary gaze.

As expected of my closest aide.

I already knew a flimsy lie like this wouldn’t work on her.

Her star had not yet fallen.

“Isabella. Make sure no one hears.”

Isabella, waiting outside the door, immediately got to work.

She was an assassin. With her guarding the perimeter, not even a rat would approach the room.

Only after the surroundings were completely secured did I look at Serengeti and speak.

“Tell me of my last moments. As the sole witness, you know it better than I do.”

“…!”

She realized I knew she was the final witness.

But that much could still be deduced.

So I drove the final nail.

“I certainly killed the Demon King.”

I absolutely did kill him.

But the one who died was me.

Why?

“I definitely stabbed ‘Light’s Path’ into the monster’s core. But the moment after that, my consciousness vanished, and I died. What happened in between?”

Serengeti’s eyes filled with shock.

*

*

“Whoa—holy shit! I killed him! FINALLY!!!”

I threw my arms up in triumph in front of my computer.

I had killed the Demon King!

I cut off his head and stabbed a sword into his heart. I had no idea how many hours I’d been controlling this character trying to kill him.

My fingers throbbed like hell. My joints felt dislocated.

It felt like half a day had passed.

But I killed him. I had pushed through every boss pattern and phase, and shoved the unique-grade sword *Light’s Path*, which was deadly poison to demons, straight into his core. Not even the Demon King’s grandpa could resurrect from that.

Indeed, the Demon King died and his soul began spilling out from his core.

The way raid bosses looked when they died.

A triumph five years in the making.

They said they would grant a wish if I cleared it.

What should I ask for? Maybe ten billion won?

Though I doubted a shady company running this trash game even had that kind of money.

“Huh…? What? No, no no no. Wait, what—why is there suddenly a blue screen?”

Suddenly the entire screen turned blue.

I smacked the monitor, but nothing changed.

Ten seconds passed.

When the screen finally came back, the Demon King’s laughter filled my speakers, and a very familiar message appeared on the monitor:

**Game Over.**

“What the hell is this?”

I was speechless.

I killed the Demon King, but after the blue screen, I died instead.

—KUHAHAHAHA!

And that laugh coming from my speakers—what was that? Did that mean the Demon King was alive?

*Ah. So they designed it to be unwinnable from the start.*

Even the blue screen felt suspicious. It must have been intentionally coded by the devs so players couldn’t kill the Demon King.

*This absolute piece-of-trash game.*

They must have hated the idea of granting wishes.

I slumped in my chair. Five years of effort, gone.

But what hurt more than that effort disappearing…

…was learning that the game wasn’t beatable at all.

A grand dream. A goal I thought I could finally achieve in my life—taken from me.

*If it wasn’t beatable anyway…*

It was never meant to be cleared.

Damn game company. Of course it ended up like this.

But no matter how much I tried to understand it, I couldn’t stop the words that naturally spilled from my mouth.

“Seriously, what kind of garbage game is this?”

—