Before we begin, I want to make one thing clear.
Although I am reincarnated or transmigrated (I'm not half sure myself), I have no idea whatsoever on how to incorporate half the things I know on earth into reality.
I can't make a killing by mining for oil since I don't know how car engines work.
Crop rotation, the shuttler, factories and all those other inventions invented during the Industrial Revolution are useless since either they exist or magic acts as a substitute.
Right now, all I have is the mixed mentality of a fantasy person and some random schmuck from Earth.
I'm not sure how I died or who I even am in my last life.
All I know is from my bedroom's appearance and my clothing I'm not in any major financial trouble.
On the surface at least. Not sure if the family I belong to is in any debt or not.
What's clear is that I need to figure out where and when I am in the game.
Wait? Game?
How do I know I'm in a game?
Shouldn't my first thought be I might've been Isekai-ed or reincarnated in a fantasy world? Or maybe transmigrated into a novel I wrote a scathing review about?
I force myself to think.
Nothing, guess my poor memory passed was carried from earth.
Since I don't know the setting, might as well check my character.
I check myself in a nearby full-body mirror sitting int the corner.
Straight greyish silver hair sitting in the short to medium-length range with charcoal black eyes.
Straight nose, unblemished skin that'll make my mid-teens old self green with envy.
Tall and lean, but with a natural proud posture.
I roll back one of my sleeves on both my arms and legs.
Not bad. It seems whoever I am works out a fair bit.
Just to double-check, I left up my shirt to see if my dishwasher was equally impressive as the guns I've got tightly holstered.
I let out a low whistle.
After checking out my bod, I look at my reflection and smile.
Damn, this guy's a real lady killer. Without putting in any effort, I look like a top tier model with just a clean shirt and pair of pants.
Seems I hit the jackpot in the design department.
Looks like I avoided the typical self-insert, average-looking, dense MC art choice.
I plop on my bed.
Dunno why, but my bones and muscles are somewhat sore. Was I exercising a while ago? Or should I say the owner of this body was exercising?
It's strange, I'm not getting a sudden surge of memories like most transmigrators or reincarnators do.
I take a moment to unwind on my mattress. Just lying there, thinking.
...
Hmm, somewhat firm, but very comfortable.
Reminds me of those removable mats plastered to the walls in gym classes on Earth.
Hmm, did I always prefer firm beds? Or is it just Ethan's preference?
Wait... Ethan?
Hmm, guess that's my name. Ethan Halagad.
Not a bad name, but why do I have this sinking feeling in my stomach.
Before I can give more thought to this ominous gut feeling, I hear a knock on the door.
"Young master, your father has requested your presence."
Ah, Bertrand, good old worrywart Bertrand.
I get up and open the door, in front of me is a elderly mustachioed man with combed back hair with a face full of wrinkles.
If this man could take a break once in a while,
Then again, there's barely any servants in the household, so he probably
Eh? Why do I know these things?
Gosh dangit, my mind feels like a chunky, mixed, strawberry banana smoothie.
And the chunky bits are all the memories that haven't been blended into this body.
Let's distract ourselves by gathering clues of the whatever world we're in.
I should be discreet, people will no doubt find .
I'll ask the year, better to ask the time than the name of the world I'm in lest I get dragged before the Inquisition and accused of being possessed by a evil spirit or some other BS.
"Hey Bertrand, this might be a bit weird of me to ask, but what's the year right now?"
The elderly servant raises a brow, "It's the year 497 of the New Continental Era."
New Continental Era.
I search through my memories.
I got it! I'm in that popular RPG, Legend Maker 3!
Alright what do I remember?
"Three years more, eh?"
"Indeed, seven years more until the 500th year milestone of our glorious era." Bertrand nods, "You must've trained too hard on the field today, suddenly asking about the year like that."
I let out a sigh of relief.
Looks like I have some time to prepare for the main events of the story.
I wonder what I should do.
Live a quiet life? Become friends with some of the most iconic key characters?
No, I'm getting ahead of myself.
What I need to do is to accrue power.
Power to ensure I can follow through with any plan I want.
"Is something troubling the young master?"
I must've let my thoughts slip across my face, "Oh, it's nothing Bertrand."
"Mmm, alright. Anyways, I knocked because Sir Halagad wishes to see you."
I nod, "Alright, lead the way."
As we walk through the plain but clean halls, I take some time to collect the information I have so far.
From Bertrand's remark about me training on the field, it seems I'm from a military household.
Add that with the state of the bedroom, the hallway and the clothes me and Bertrand are wearing, we're most likely a knight family.
Although not rich or affluent, a knight family is relatively stable, they get to own land, have a pension, access to education and plenty of other benefits in exchange for volunteering during wartimes.
Ugh, why do I suddenly get a queasy feeling.
"Is something the matter, young master?"
"Oh, nothing, I'm feeling a bit sore, that's all." I wave away his concerns.
"Ah! I see. Do take care of your body more, you're the only child of the household."
Bertrand turns around and continues to lead the way, leaving me back with my own thoughts.
Thankfully the memories I have now aren't jumbled with my personality.
I still have a hard time adapting to my identity.
Whether my personality is dominantly my earth persona or game's, I can't differentiate.
However, why does the name sound familiar?
It's definitely not one of the main cast members or meta companions.
Might be a meme character.
But why does my spine fill with chills.
Let me try to piece things together with the information I have on hand.
Knight family on the verge of collapse.
Meme character.
Possibly meets a bad end.
Ah, s***!
I'm a Doomed character!
Not just any Doomed character, I'm the Doomed character who has the worst fate in the entire game!
So, let's pause here for a sec.
Let me give a bit of a broad explanation of what LM 3 and Doomed characters are.
Legend Maker 3 is a bit complicated. For dummies and non-nerds like myself, it's a sandbox fantasy RPG game with 500+ GB that contains lots of convoluted combat, exploration, economic, social, etc. mechanics that's best left to enthusiasts and not to some wagon hopper who played cuz it was all the rave.
Whole Game puts the most immersive DND and open world campaigns to shame.
Oh, and don't get me started on the DLCs that can bump up the storage space requirement even higher. Adding even more endings, playstyles, classes characters and places to explore.
I'm getting off topic.
Most important thing for me is there are characters that die or meet a miserable in just about every playthrough if left unchecked.
They are the Doomed characters.
Attempting to save Doomed characters was quite the popular challenge in the Legend Maker player base. I'm not sure who started this trend, I just happened to click on a million+ views video about the topic. However, the gist is Doomed characters can be separated into roughly two categories.
Savable and Unsavable.
These two characterizations are exactly what they sound like.
Savable Doomed characters can be saved.
Unsavable Doomed characters are slightly more broad in definition.
When someone calls a Legend Maker 3 character 'Unsavable Doomed,' or 'Unsoomed' as some lame-o's call it. It usually refers to a character whose survival method hasn't been discovered.
The studio (can't remember the name) behind LM 3 is the kind that encourages players to explore things on their own.
However, there are instances where certain characters where no matter what the players do, even if they call down a Divine Miracle. These characters always die or suffer a fate worse than death.
These are the called the True Doomed characters.
And I just happened to be the True Doomed character whom everyone on the forum agrees is a bastard and has the worst fate in the game.
To put things simply with the memories I can clearly remember, there is a powerful late-boss, Princess Ophielle.
A rather cute girl that always came top ten in the LM 3 waifu polls.
Unfortunately, the cute little blueberry has a split personality disorder.
One is the adorable sky-haired and eyed princess in a snow white dress.
The other is the Mistress of Evil, clothed in darkest silk with yellow eyes that'll turn any predator into a vegetarian.
Okay, I might be simplifying things way too much when I say she's got a split personality.
There's some deep lore which I honestly never paid much attention to, gist is, the adorable personality is the default while the evil, sadistic, murderous tyrant is her dormant side.
For the villainess personality to be triggered, she needs to suffer.
Doesn't matter what it is, bullying, emotional trauma, torture, etc. Any event that elicits a negative emotion from her will build up what players jokingly call 'the Switch Bar.'
Hence, players tend to spend quite a bit of time socializing and helping her as not to trigger an early 'Game Over.'
In every playthrough of the game, she almost always turns evil due to three reasons.
Two of them happen to be related to each other.
1. Court politics, Ophielle is the second princess of the Alzer Kingdom, the starting country of the game where most of the tutorial takes place. (Yes, an entire country is made to be the equivalent of a starting village. No questions please.)
However, she isn't the daughter of the current reigning Queen.
The King has, or rather had two wives. Ophielle was born to the second wife.
If anyone's watched War of Crowns, read a Three Kingdoms novel, or paid attention during history class, royal children born of different mothers almost always leads to conflict.
2. Some wacko cult has plans to use Ophielle as the vessel for the descent of an evil deity. The root cause of her evil villain form and why I inappropriately joke about her split personality.
This event will almost always happen in the game. It's a matter of how much time we it by.
3. Nobles that are a part of the Queen's faction or under her influence, always make her life miserable.
I have absolutely no idea why they even do this.
Seriously, why trample on a poor innocent girl whose chances of succession are practically zero when compared to her siblings.
This last point is extremely important, because for some goddamn reason, I just so happen to be one of her bullies.
Not just any bully.
I was her personal bodyguard.
So whenever I, or rather, Ethan should be defending her, he instead adds salt into her wounds and joins in on the fun with her abusers.
Yeah, I don't blame Evil Ophielle for getting pissed for wanting to rip my guts out.
Despite being closely tied to her, I have no idea what his appearance looked like until now. He was almost always an afterthought. A sort of plot-driver to be discarded later on.
Guess they spent all their artwork budget on fanservice. Typical eastern game maneuver.
Wait, if I remember correctly. There's a fourth triggering factor for her descent into darkness.
I think it had something to do with her only close friend, a maid, dying from an assassination.
Hmm, I wonder, should I try to prevent her from going full genocidal.
Since I already possess Ethan, one of the key figures in her misery. All I have to do is not be a d***head and save her maid from getting killed from the nobles or the cultists.
Unfortunately, maids are pretty common. If they have even a single shred of awareness and self-preservation. I doubt any single one of them would openly say their the personal servant of the child the queen hates.
'Sigh...'
If only I had some sort of lead to her identity.
But the game doesn't even bother to give her a name goddamnit! If I start asking for the whereabouts of a maid, it'll start rumors and tarnish my household's reputation!
Next best way to learn the identity of this maid is to become her knight like in the original game.
However, it's risky. Even with half the trigger events out of the way. The remaining two factors still have a great impact on her psyche.
Asides from Ethan, before I took control/meshed with his body, there are countless others who harass her and push her delicate soul to the brink of the edge.
One of the key people involved in her tragedy is her stepmother, the current queen, an influential princess from the Empire who keeps a leash on more than a third of the nobles in the Kingdom.
Then there's also the shenanigans of that elusive cult.
If by any chance Ophielle were to blow her circuits. Things would be brutal, anyone caught in the crossfire of her rampage is better off dead than captured.
Even if I did nothing to antagonize her, her Villain alt mode will rip out my innards and feed it to the dogs, turn my skin into a lampshade, and use my skeleton as part of her bed frame!
I shudder to imagine what she'll do to her actual enemies.
Hang on, speaking of doing nothin, I don't recall having committed any grievances toward Ophielle.
Good, I never made contact with her, yet.
However, this raises an important question.
If I never made contact with her, why would I attempt to make her highness' life miserable?
It's not adding up.
Whatever the case. As long as I deviate from the script. Things might turn out differently.
As my thoughts jump around from place to place like a kid with sugar rush, Bernard announces the end of our destination, "Young Master, please enter, your father is waiting."