I watched Advent of the Hero die the way it was always meant to: with the Demon King standing in the last city, and every name wiped from the raid party. When the server went black, a prompt offered a new cycle, and I accepted it, expecting nothing but a joke.
Only, I woke beneath falling snow at the beginning of the story, and found that there were no menus, no logout, no respawns. Even the [Hero] gift, which belonged to every player, now belonged to me alone.
With the story's ending already set in stone, I grit my teeth, raised my spear and prepared to carve a new one.