With a heavy thud.
The final boss of the current story, Gomilla, had one knee buckle.
As a scene no one had ever seen before unfolded, the chat window erupted in excitement.
I shrugged while looking at the chat.
My character’s HP was barely hanging on in the red, and fatigue had piled up.
But as a gamer, none of that mattered when clearing a boss for the first time.
“Of course it’s the first. There’s no one better than me.”
The reactions were good.
If I finished it like this, the 분위기 would stay perfect and I could end on a high note.
‘That was a bit close though.’
[Overload: 98%]
The character I’m currently playing, ‘Raon Rigbelto’.
A mage who can’t even use mana properly, and even has a debuff that can cause him to go berserk and die.
In this run, the fact that I didn’t explode on my own already meant I was incredibly lucky.
Of course, it was still insanely close.
“Alright. Let’s finish this.”
But this is the end now.
Once I kill it, that’s all that matters.
‘Next time I’ll take a more efficient route….’
I approached the boss to finish it.
Gomilla, with only 1% HP left, looked at me and slowly opened its eyes.
As if trying to leave a final line.
Its gorilla-like mouth trembled.
[What a… splendid mage… You are… the first to defeat me…]
I twisted my face in annoyance.
Do they think I don’t use magic because I don’t want to?
I can’t use it.
“Shut up and stop talking. Just die already.”
[But… carelessness… always invites disaster…]
“…What?”
A bad feeling hit me, and I hurriedly swung my chain.
Ting!
The chain bounced off an invisible glass wall.
Something that wasn’t mana or holy power.
‘System!’
[Entering Phase 3.]
You’ve got to be kidding me…!
[I… will not fall like this…!]
Darkness engulfed Gomilla’s body that had been on the verge of death.
A pillar slammed down from the hollow ceiling.
Black light spread from it, dyeing the world in darkness.
For a brief moment.
The image of “space” appeared.
And when the system forcibly cut and restored my vision.
[ROOOOAAAAAR!!!]
A gorilla, as if the entire universe was contained within its body, roared.
Phase 3.
A stage no one had ever reached.
But.
[The surrounding atmosphere is changing!]
[The mana within your body is affected by the surrounding atmosphere!]
[Uncontrolled mana begins to awaken!]
[Current ‘Raon Rigbelto’ has extremely low mana control. Uncontrolled mana is going berserk!]
[Controllable value: 110]
[Current control value: 1]
Instead of excitement as a gamer, I just felt irritated.
“…What a trash character.”
RUMBLEEEEE!
CRACK!
As my body twisted and mana burst out from within.
Realizing my fate, I let out a bitter curse.
“…f*ck.”
[Mana is going berserk.]
…………BOOOOOOOOM!!!
The mana inside me exploded, and my vision went black.
[YOU DIED!]
[The boss has died due to the explosion caused by mana overload.]
[Clear Conditions:
Boss defeated (1/1)
Player survived (0/1)]
[Clear failed. Returning to save point.]
&
“FUUUUUUCK!!!”
Bang!
I kicked the door open and stormed out, my face burning red with anger.
My friend and stream manager, Lee Chan-hyuk, who had been waiting, spoke to me.
“Are you okay?”
“No!”
“I saw everything. Yeah… that was worth getting mad over.”
“f*ck, I’m going to bulldoze the developers’ house with an excavator!!”
As I looked like I was about to breathe fire, Chan-hyuk calmly handed me a tablet.
“Hey, hey. Calm down. Look at this.”
“What! What is it!”
“Something that’ll make you even angrier. If you’re gonna get mad, do it all at once.”
“Crazy bastard.”
Still, those words calmed me down a bit.
What could it be?
Fine. Let’s see it.
[“Pour seawater into an overflowing river! Gush gush!”]
[Recently, the story has been progressing too quickly due to a certain character. This is too harsh for other characters. Therefore, we have adjusted the stats to further reduce the stability of ‘Raon Rigbelto’!]
[Raon Rigbelto stat adjustment
Mana amount 110 → 115
Mana control 1 → 0.95]
……
[Comments]
“……”
My body trembled with rage.
As my manager stepped back slightly, I finally exploded.
“You sons of bitches!!!!!!!!”
Even if I did the balance patch myself, I’d do a better job!!
How do you make a trash character even worse?!
“It already can’t control mana and you increase mana while lowering control?!!”
A character that dies whether it uses magic or not!!
I couldn’t hold back my anger and threw the strategy guides piled up beside me.
“AAAAAAAH!!”
Crash! Bang!
Books scattered, chairs fell over, chaos erupted.
Chan-hyuk shook his head as if he expected this.
“What’s going on?”
Another friend, editor Ha Hyun-woo, peeked in through the door.
Seeing the situation, he looked unsurprised.
“Is this your first time seeing him like this? After the patch, they really ruined the character.”
“I told you to play another character.”
Crack!
I grabbed a discarded guidebook and glared at them.
“Get out?!”
“Hey, hey. The mad dog’s going wild again. Run.”
“We’ll take the coffee!”
The two quickly ran out.
Only then did I take in the mess in the room.
…Now I have to clean all this up again.
But that’s separate.
My anger still hadn’t subsided.
“Ha…”
‘Gate of Heroes.’
A VR RPG, currently ranked #1 and running for over 10 years.
Great art, gameplay, and competitive results.
But terrible balance patches.
Especially for my character.
Raon Rigbelto.
A mage designed since the early development stage.
But maybe the developer got dumped while making it, because it’s absolute garbage.
How bad is it?
You just saw.
A mage who can’t use magic.
That alone defines the character.
And not just that.
[Mana is going berserk.]
[You have died.]
It dies even without using mana!
That’s why it constantly reacts to nearby mana and must always equip mana-absorbing items.
And yet, instead of giving control, the devs just keep increasing mana!
“So you want to keep doing this? Fine. I’ll show you what madness is.”
Grinding my teeth, I opened customer support.
You GMs who made this patch.
Just wait.
I’ll tear you apart.
[Inquiry sent]
[Inquiry sent]
[Inquiry sent]
[Inquiry sent]……
I’ll flood them with tickets.
Of course, I know this won’t fix anything.
This is just the “foundation.”
“Editor!”
“What now?”
“Prepare for recording!”
“Stop uploading already! The viewers hate it!”
“They enjoy it when I go crazy, so it’s fine!”
“…Yeah. You do know yourself well. Fine, boss. This Dobby will prepare it right away.”
I finished preparing for recording with manic intensity.
Call it madness if you want.
As long as this character survives.
‘The community must be in chaos right now too. Double the effect.’
Just when I was about to enter Phase 3 of a boss no one had reached—
I exploded.
If I upload now, it’ll go viral.
Just as I was about to press record.
Ding!
A ‘1’ appeared in my mail.
What? Another ad inquiry?
I opened it expecting sponsorship.
But what I saw was even more shocking.
“!!!”
[Inquiry Response: GM TS]
Already?!
So you also thought the patch was too much!
Fine, just roll it back with a hotfix!
I eagerly clicked.
[Hello, this is GM TS. We have carefully read your valuable feedback.]
[Regarding your inquiry.]
[This patch was decided through a meeting between developers and GMs. Especially for Raon Rigbelto, all of us agreed on these adjustments. So please do not feel dissatisfied and continue playing…]
Bang!!
I slammed the desk again in rage.
“What kind of bullshit is this! I know better than you!!”
I’ve played this character for 10 years.
Since the game launched!
No way they understand it better than me.
And this is “better”?
“f*ck, it already fails magic 10 out of 10 times…!”
Now it’ll be 11.
I cursed the GM.
So this is how it is?
I took a screenshot of the mail.
“I’ll spread this everywhere.”
You’ll pay for talking back to me.
As I was about to close it, I noticed more text below.
“Huh? There’s more?”
What more nonsense is this?
I scrolled down.
[However, we know you have played Raon Rigbelto for a long time and created guides.]
[So as a special project, we’d like to offer you a chance to adjust the character yourself. What do you think?]
“!!!!”
Directly participating in balance patches?
My anger melted instantly.
So you do have some conscience!
“…Yes! This is how it should be!”
Without hesitation, I pressed “Yes.”
Another mail arrived.
“Are they sending me the company location?”
Good. I’ll fix everything—
[Then, good luck.]
“Huh?”
What good luck? Nothing even—
Whoosh!
Suddenly, my vision spun.
A ringing filled my ears, my legs gave out, and I collapsed into the chair.
“Uh…”
What is this…
My eyelids grew heavy.
Heavier than after gaming for three days straight.
“I need to fix the character…”
I can finally be happy…
Before losing consciousness, I stared at the mail.
I need to remember the GM’s name—
[GM TLS]
Wait… why is the name different…
[Starting character adjustment.]
As the words filled the screen.
I lost consciousness.
&
“You’re lucky. Who would’ve thought the young master would be alone in a place like this?”
“And even chained himself! Hehe. We’re gonna make a fortune.”
Two men kicked my foot as they passed.
A foul smell and worn-out shoes unlike anything modern.
I wanted to lift my head.
But I couldn’t.
A heavy chain wrapped around my neck, connecting to my hands.
Clank, clank.
‘…f*ck.’
After days of denial, I finally accepted reality.
I had transmigrated into the game.
And into Raon Rigbelto’s body.
The reason was simple.
[You have possessed ‘Raon Rigbelto’.]
A message floating before my eyes.
Unrealistic?
Waking up tied somewhere strange is already unrealistic enough.
‘If you were going to possess me, at least do it at a normal time!’
Being possessed is already bad enough!
Still, at least I had an idea why.
‘That last message.’
[Would you like to directly adjust the character?]
Pressing YES caused this.
But how was I supposed to resist?!
The ones doing this are insane!
“Ha…”
I took a deep breath and calmed down.
Right now, what mattered wasn’t complaining.
It was understanding the situation and escaping.
‘This is the first event when playing Raon Rigbelto.’
The prison break event.
At first, it makes you think:
“Did he commit a crime with mana?”
But the truth is ridiculous.
Footsteps approached.
They looked at me and grinned.
“Tied up nicely. Didn’t resist?”
“Nope. Probably knows he’s guilty.”
“Right? What kind of criminal walks around with chains?”
“Hey, hey. The boss said he might not be a criminal.”
“Then why would a mage wear a mana-absorbing artifact? What kind of idiot mage does that?”
‘I do, you bastard.’
That’s exactly it.
This event starts when Raon, born with excessive mana, secretly goes outside due to frustration and gets mistaken for a criminal.
I sighed and recalled the chain info.
[Chain of Greed]
Absorbs mana from everything it touches.
Absorption depends on mana quality.
Current absorption: 70%
[Mana decreased by 30.]
It sucks mana like a leech and is heavy as hell.
No wonder he went outside.
‘But still, you should’ve endured!’
Then I wouldn’t be here!
“Finished your food again.”
“A criminal still wants to eat.”
“Hope he sells for a good price.”
“Even just that artifact will fetch a lot.”
…And now I’m about to be sold.
I opened the status window.
[Raon Rigbelto]
Strength: 47 (sealed)
Agility: 42 (sealed)
Stamina: 48 (sealed)
Mana: 115 (-30) (unusable)
Mana Control: 0.95
Holy Power: 0
[Note: Extremely low mana control.]
[All stats restricted due to chain.]
[Mana reduced (-30)]
[60% until berserk]
Even looking at it made me sigh.
But still.
‘…I’ll do it no matter what.’
This is a character I’ve played for years.
A character I tried so hard to save.
Since I’ve ended up here anyway—
‘I’ll save it somehow.’
This trash character.
And my own life.
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂