Astrea: Seven Sins.
A gacha game that sold attractive characters—that was Kylen's impression of it, and honestly, it wasn't entirely wrong.
The game was made for female audience, and Kylen didn't even know it existed until his girlfriend forced him to stream it.
And his first reaction was "This game is actually very fun."
And his viewers agreed. What started as a simple request turned into a long-running series on his channel.
He kept playing. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and before he realized it, seven years had passed.
He even earned a title that perfectly suited his image at the time: "The Only Guy Who Loves ASS," and he embraced it wholeheartedly.
Until one day...
"What's this?"
—————[Email]—————
Link - P - Just Now
To me ↓
To sir Kylen Noor. Aka 4m0n.
We are pleased to inform you that you have accomplished a feat no other player has achieved.
[100% Good Ending To All Characters]
Thus you have been given the opportunity to play as a beta tester to the new update for Astrea Seven Sins.
As a reward a new character will be made as a tribute for all of the support you have given towards the game.
We know how much you love the main villainess Iliana Vexana von Helena, and as a result your character will become her most trusted butler.
And his name will be [Kylen Noor] as a massive sign of tribute for you.
As of now, the character will not be tied to the story as the story has entered its final stage, but we would like for you to join our last ride towards the end of the story.
And with that we will give our last thank you for all of this, we couldn't achieve this without your help.
On behalf of studio Link - P:
Story writer of Astrea — Barbados
———————————————
"Wow... This is... I can't believe it." Kylen's eyes became teary as he read through the email.
This is not the first time that a game has made a character, cameo, or easter egg based off him, but this game by no means meant a lot for him.
He had spent seven years of his life playing this game, even a small tribute, such as an item, would have been enough and yet the game chose to make a character instead.
"Still, hate that they find me overly liking Iliana tho." He said as he wipes the tear of his face.
He quickly wrote a reply, one he invested in seriously. All his love, all his feelings, were poured into it.
And after finishing the reply, he had written an entire 10,000-word essay about his feeling, and then he sent the reply.
He stood up from his desk and walked toward his bed, still feeling tired—but for some reason he couldn't explain.
"I think I will have a good dream tonight."
◆◆◆
"You've woken up you sleepy head?" A navy-haired girl asked, looking at Kylen, who was still bound after being captured by Byul-A.
He sighed as he saw the girl's face the very first time he wake up. Because it becomes an evidence that what he saw moment ago was just a dream, or perhaps a reminder of who he is five years ago.
So what did he do about it?
"Can't you use a more proper teleport spell?" he asked as he tried to break free from the bindings.
Obviously he will complain like he always does.
With a flick of her finger, she tore through the spell. Kylen stood up as he stretched his body trying to relax the soreness from the bind.
"We are on an exam and you thought I could cast an expert level spell without any proper preparation? You really dream big, Kylen"
"Well sorry for expecting the best possible treatment."
Kylen brushed the dust off his uniform and looked around. Kylen found himself and the girl inside the makeshift base camp they had set up inside of the cave.
"Lynda, where's young lady?"
Lynda Carter, a stupid yet somehow strong mage. Is the image Kylen had for her, and to some extent he speak the truth.
"Collecting more points, we need much more if we want to enter S class as a group."
Kylen look at the entrance with a somewhat irritated look.
If you choose to fight by yourself why do you even bother sending me to scout around the place.
He walked towards the entrance, peeking his head out first before actually stepping outside, Lynda follow him close behind.
"So what did you find on your way?"
"A sea of monsters corpses, and... Oh yeah, I was captured by another student, thank God you teleport me at the right time." He bowed slightly.
"Praise me more."
"You're the greatest mage there is."
"Hehehe..."
While both of them just casually talking, from the east side of the cave the sounds of rustling can be heard. Both of them turned their head over, Lynda prepared her stance and Kylen hide behind her.
A figure appeared, hidden behind the shadows of the forest. As she stepped outside of the bushes can her figure finally be revealed.
She had long, flowing red hair, one that shows her pride, she stands proud with a sack full of unknown stuff on her shoulder.
In her left hand, she held a spear, one made of gold, showing that she came from a very high ranking. And yet she was covered in sweat and dirt, clearly just got out of a fight.
Indeed she is the young lady Kylen serves, Iliana Vexana von Helena. The main villainess of the story.
"What are you guys doing?" She asked as she readjust the sack.
"Oh lady you've came back." Lynda happily waving.
With a few quick step Kylen walk towards Iliana, with face that is clearly irritated by his situation.
"How many times do I have to tell you, not to fight so brutally!" Kylen grumbles as he quickly clean off all sort of dirty stuff from Iliana.
In a few seconds she basically became the magnet for a fight, as he kept grumbling on how he hates her recklessness and dirty appearance.
Lynda on the other hand chuckles as he sees Kylen tiptoeing to clean off Iliana's hair, Iliana was taller than him by a full ten centimeters, which made the whole situation far more awkward than it should have been.
Iliana smiles slightly, her mouth curved so little that her expressionless face didn't change at You'd need a microscope to notice the difference.
"Thanks." She said it casually, as if this was a reoccurring things.
She is indeed the main villainess of the story, and Kylen never forget the fact. But he didn't overlook the fact that because of her way of growing up, she had a very big problem of expressing her emotion.
But those things is the reason Kylen is reminded by the reality, that the graceful and prideful character on the game was just an awkward young lady that needs to be watch 24/7.
And all of those love and glazing now had turned into worries and the reason of his insomnia.
"Now that I'm done, let's retrace our step." Kylen said as he put the handkerchief back to his pocket.
The three of them entered the cave once more, telling everything they know and had done.
This is the class placement exam, a separate exam from the entrance exam, where in this exam student will show their performance through battle.
They would earn points and those points will determine the student's class placement. There were three ways to earn them:
1. Killing monster — easy and quick — the amount of points will be determined by how difficult the monster is.
2. Killing other students — Very Tiring — because the exam takes place in the "story" world any sort of damage or death is safe and the amount of point collected will be determined by how many points does the student. The victor would receive 45% of the defeated student's points.
3. Fighting a teacher — Hard — teacher will have a set amount of points if a student can defeat them.
Student can team up or fight alone, there's no restrictions on the amount of students teaming up either.
— Then what if all student just teaming up? The reaction Kylen gave the moment the headmistress explain the rules.
But the question just stuck in his head, sitting without a proper answer.
After retracing back their step it finally reach Kylen's turn to explain the results of his scouting, and so he tell them everything he had seen and gone trough down to the useless fact.
"Wait you met with Byul-A?" Lynda cut in.
"You know her?"
"Know her? Kylen didn't I tell you that she had saved me?"
"No..."
She clearly tried to tell at Kylen, but before she could deliver her lines she was remembered a crucial thing "Oh yeah I forgot to tell you." as she scratch the back of her head.
God, can I just hit her.
Kylen consider the action deeply before coming to a conclusion.
Nah... I better not, she can literally make a hole trough my stomach.
In the end he just sigh as he continues explaining his encounter, and finally after he ended the long storytelling, it's now Iliana's turn to speak.
"So my lady, what did you brought?"
"A sack worth 2700 points." She said casually.
Kylen and Lynda's jaws dropped as she said it.
Student needs at least 2000 points to enter S class, collecting that many points is by no means an impossibile feat and Iliana had done it by herself.
And combined by the points they already gathered, the number ended up to 5400 points.
What kind of Eldritch God did she fight? Kylen thought as he imagine Iliana killing off Cthulhu with one punch.
That face... He must be imagining something rude again. Iliana thought.
"I worked hard." She said trying to convince Kylen.
"But we still need 600 more." Kylen said scratching his chin, skipping Iliana's defense.
"Well...we can search for more can't we? Oh, I mean I can search for myself, I'll give these 4,000 points to you two." Iliana said, her expression stayed the same.
Kylen pulled out a watch from his pocket, two hours left. The duration of the exam is three hours, which was equivalent to fifteen hours in this world.
If the lady decided to fight again, it will not only takes a while but it would also weakened her. I couldn't risk her dying here.
"No, rather we will collect it for you." Kylen said grabbing Lynda's shoulder.
Dumbfounded, Lynda turn her head repeatedly as she said. "No, no dont add me to your mess."
"What do you mean my mess? You guys are the one who make them in the first place, and it's not like I wouldn't get attacked either!"
"That's easy for you to say, you're basically invisible."
They kept bickering as Iliana chuckle silently in the background.
To be continued.