I was walking home with a friend, the two of us chatting away as we went.
“Hey, hey. What was that game you played again? That... Dark something.”
“Dark Souls 3?”
“Yeah. That one.”
“Why?”
“If you were thrown into that world, do you think you could actually clear it?”
My friend had suddenly asked something bizarre, and naturally, I took it as a challenge.
“Of course I could. I’m not far from max level, you know. I’ve memorized every single boss pattern.”
“Haha, I was just asking. Why are you taking it so seriously? What, are you some kind of hardcore freak...?”
Thwack!
“Hey! You kicked me just for that? Get over here, you bastard!”
“Idiot. Who told you to say such useless crap?”
I chased my friend for a bit, eventually went home, and fell asleep.
“What the hell?”
When I woke up, I was in the Cemetery of Ash. What the actual hell. The only silver lining was that it seemed I had possessed my own game character.
“Hah. Calm down... like hell I can calm down. What is this?”
I had no idea what had caused this. I had simply gone to sleep and woken up in the Cemetery of Ash; that was it. Was this even real?
“For now... let’s just move forward.”
I had no other choice but to keep going. And the first trash mob I encountered—after fighting it just once...
“Aaaagh!!!”
The pain was unbelievably vivid. I managed to kill the thing somehow, but the sensation was so visceral that I writhed on the ground for a moment before forcing myself back up to move on.
Damn it. I’m clearing this no matter what. I am not giving in to this shitty situation.
Even before this happened, people always told me I was stubborn as hell. I already felt like crap, and there was no way I was going to surrender to a nightmare like this.
Time passed, and before I knew it, I was standing before the final boss.
Crackle!
After coating my refined Mercenary Twinblades with a Lightning Blade, the battle against that filthy boss began.
“Damn it! Human triumph!!!!”
After defeating the final boss and basking in the joy of victory for a moment, I finally saw the ending credits.
“Heh heh heh.”
I could only laugh at the fact that I could finally go home. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again...
“No way! This is bullshit!!!”
God damn it, I was back in the Cemetery of Ash. Why couldn't I go back? To figure out the reason, I didn't move immediately this time. I sat there and thought it over.
Ah. Wait, could it be that?
Suddenly, I remembered the conversation I'd had with my friend.
“If you were thrown into that world, do you think you could actually clear it?”
“Of course I could. I’m not far from max level, you know.”
Max level. Could that be the key? I checked my remaining levels. Ten. Just enough to do Yoel runs twice.
“Fine. If this doesn't work, I'm just giving up.”
With that, I climbed to my feet and began one last-ditch effort.
“Aaaah!!!! I cleared it!!! I cleared it at max level!!!”
After barely scraping together the experience to reach max level, I witnessed the third ending.
Crack! Clink!
Then, I heard the sound of glass shattering. Come to think of it, I felt like I'd heard that same sound right before I first got possessed.
Finally! Damn it, finally I’m going home! I’m coming, my sweet home!
Overjoyed, I closed my eyes. Soon, I felt my body floating, and not long after, my feet touched solid ground. When I opened my eyes to the unmistakable feel of earth beneath me...
“Haha. Damn it, where the hell is this?”
To my shock, I was inside a pit in the middle of some forest. It was a pit dug around me with a radius of about twenty meters. Clearly, this was not my house.
“Yeah. Let’s just die.”
I decided to just end it. I pulled a +10 longsword from my inventory and was about to slit my own throat when...
“Oh. I can’t die, can I?”
Come to think of it, this cursed body was no longer capable of permanent death. A body that revived no matter how many times it fell. That was the Ashen One, and that was who I was now.
“Calm. Calm. Stay calm.”
To clear my head as much as possible, I kept muttering the word “calm” over and over.
Thud.
Then, I flopped backward right where I stood and lay there spread-eagle.
“Huuup.”
I took one deep, shuddering breath.
“Damn it! This isn’t right!!! Send me home!!! I want to go back!!! Fucking send me home!!!”
Tbh, the Mc's struggles in clearing the dark souls 3 should be expounded because it is worth a story.