Its a clever ending to this type of isekai. The video game character(our POV MC) and his IRL counterpart swapped places at age 10. This is the system bug. The IRL MC gets out at the start of the story and goes on to see his family again and live his life normally. This is where we catch up with him at the end of the story and he meet cutes the IRL ML. The story we follow for 62ch’s is framed as an unlockable epilogue to the branching story of the in-story video game. When the ML turns back time after the MC uses his ultimate to kill a special boss and himself, in-game time is reset only to the start of the epilogue. After watching his IRL self living on from videogame purgatory, the MC can hear the ticking of the watch the ML gave him and he goes back in time in-game. The ML is the Main Character of the Video Game and only person who remembers each NG+ cycle / loop. The MC wakes up at the start of the epilogue thinking he fell into a video game again, unaware he is back in his place.
I think the scene of the MC seeing his IRL counterpart, the one who spent 10 years as a video game NPC, move on with his life. Is supposed to be happening at the same time as the ML is weighing the pros and cons of time travel, they go back in time in-game at the same time.
Then In the end I think it’s implied the ML knows the gambit payed off because he reset to the start of the epilogue not the start of the game and the MC isn’t a generic pharmacy character and is still “guy who fell into video game” with the potential to remember what happened, this part wasn’t as clear.
8.5/10
To clarify: If this has a novel I haven’t read it, this is what I took away from what I read and a bit of video game know how. Lmao
Its a clever ending to this type of isekai.
The video game character(our POV MC) and his IRL counterpart swapped places at age 10. This is the system bug.
The IRL MC gets out at the start of the story and goes on to see his family again and live his life normally. This is where we catch up with him at the end of the story and he meet cutes the IRL ML.
The story we follow for 62ch’s is framed as an unlockable epilogue to the branching story of the in-story video game.
When the ML turns back time after the MC uses his ultimate to kill a special boss and himself, in-game time is reset only to the start of the epilogue.
After watching his IRL self living on from videogame purgatory, the MC can hear the ticking of the watch the ML gave him and he goes back in time in-game.
The ML is the Main Character of the Video Game and only person who remembers each NG+ cycle / loop. The MC wakes up at the start of the epilogue thinking he fell into a video game again, unaware he is back in his place.
I think the scene of the MC seeing his IRL counterpart, the one who spent 10 years as a video game NPC, move on with his life. Is supposed to be happening at the same time as the ML is weighing the pros and cons of time travel, they go back in time in-game at the same time.
Then In the end I think it’s implied the ML knows the gambit payed off because he reset to the start of the epilogue not the start of the game and the MC isn’t a generic pharmacy character and is still “guy who fell into video game” with the potential to remember what happened, this part wasn’t as clear.
8.5/10
To clarify: If this has a novel I haven’t read it, this is what I took away from what I read and a bit of video game know how. Lmao