Chapter 1: The Protagonist Escaped

[Last Felix Gallery]

[Author: Flame Joa Saha Joa]

[Title: Honestly, this guy <<< If he’s the GOAT, upvote lol]

Even Pixiv has more NSFW fanart of the shop owner lol.

We’re nothing but slaves who grind gold or cash to offer to the Almighty Shop Owner daily…

[Upvotes: 173 / Downvotes: 12]

– What NSFW fanart of the shop owner? We don’t even know their gender lol.

– I’ve seen it—there’s big boobs under that hood.

– I checked, it’s big equipment.

– Checked? What the heck are you on, you lunatic?

God King Supreme

Protagonist << This guy always ends up broke no matter what, runs some autoplay sweep for 10 minutes, then logs off—truly the Bonsai Master JOAT lol.

Today, I sent yet another worthy post to the hall of fame.

But my mood wasn’t great.

“Ugh, another reroll disaster.”

My voice echoed hollowly in the room.

On the monitor.

The gallery was open alongside four split screens.

Displayed on one of them were 9 white tickets and 1 golden ticket.

White, white, white, white, white, white, white, white, white, gold.

The reroll macro beeped mechanically.

[Upon resetting your account, all progress will be lost.]

[■ I have read and agreed to the above.]

[Account Reset]

[Y ■ / N ⏮]

[Deleting data………..]

My CPU and graphics card were taking a beating.

“Ugh.”

I sighed and took a sip of cola.

Rerolling.

A desperate endeavor in mobile games to assemble strong characters and start on the right foot.

Of course, Last Calix had been out for over six months by now.

And I already had a main account that I’d poured half a year of my life and bank account into.

Originally, I’d resolved to enjoy the game without feeling FOMO, no matter what new characters were released.

[oo / Still without the new character? Loser lololol (3)]

[Nureong / Damn, fire deck got wrecked in PvP. What now? (7)]

[oo / I rolled for Saha but got Erthe. Is it good? 😭 (2)]

“You little—!”

I couldn’t let the last post slide.

[Flame Joa Saha Joa: Want to burn to death?]

[Flame Joa Saha Joa: Where’s the mod? Why isn’t he managing these idiot trolls?]

Staring into the abyss inevitably draws you in.

The gallery was swarming with trolls bragging about their single pulls or ten-pull luck, making me seethe.

“Ugh, I’m an idiot for even looking at this crap.”

The words escaped my lips.

Why had my life come to this?

My main account ran a so-called “Fire Deck”—a team centered around fire attribute characters.

But the devs must’ve lost their minds, releasing a blatantly OP new character—a counter to fire decks, no less.

An ice attribute damage dealer.

Fire decks were doomed.

In PvP, I got crushed by attribute matchups.

In PvE, players with lower combat power but better stability and firepower in ice decks were clearing higher stages effortlessly.

How could I not be pissed?

[Permafrost / Brokies mad they didn’t pull Erthe lol (0)]

“Ugh.”

Yeah, I’m mad.

I’m extremely salty…!

But I couldn’t afford to spend more on my main account.

If I had money to hit the pity ceiling and max out every character, I wouldn’t be stuck with just a fire deck—

I’d have every deck and every character fully upgraded.

So, I had one remaining outlet for my salt.

Starting over.

Sure, it was a shame to throw away all the resources and characters I’d accumulated, but that’s the fate of free-to-play players.

At least you can clear most content with 3-star characters.

Just need to pull the new ice SSR and a couple of 5-stars to complete the deck, and I’m good to go.

Finding happiness through rerolling.

It was my last refuge in Last Calix and in life.

“Ugh, nothing again.”

9 whites, 1 gold.

8 whites, 2 golds.

9 whites, 1 gold.

Even with three instances running, my reroll results were bleak.

Machines can’t be trusted.

No choice.

I had to step in myself.

Manual rerolling—on a smartphone, no less—was rumored to yield better results.

I logged out of my main account on my phone, deleted the data, and redownloaded the game.

Agree to terms.

Enable night push notifications.

Log in as a guest.

[Your name, Seer. Please create one.]

[Input aaa]

[Check]

[Confirm]

[NOW LOADING………….]

[1%]

No matter how long I waited, the loading wouldn’t go past 1%.

“Agh. The potato server’s down again.”

Despite raking in tons of cash, Smile Door was still just shy of being a major company.

For some reason, their games were overly popular, and their servers would often crash like this.

But today, something felt off.

Was it the smartphone?

Even when I tried to restart the game, my phone remained unresponsive.

Completely unresponsive.

Still, the loading progressed. 5%, 10%.

It kept climbing.

“Sheesh.”

If I just waited patiently…

[NOW LOADING…….]

[100%]

The moment the loading finished, it was time for the familiar game’s prologue to appear.

[Welcome to Last Felix.]

[Achievement unlocked!] 

Hidden

[You’ve achieved 1,000 account resets and re-registrations.]

[A special bonus has been granted.]

Unfamiliar messages scrolled down the screen.

And then, at that moment, a blinding light so intense it was hard to keep my eyes open poured out of the smartphone.

…..

…..

“What the…?”

The instant the light faded completely, I found myself sitting in the middle of a cozy wooden building that I had never seen before.

Not my room, but an unfamiliar place that felt oddly familiar.

* * *

Instead of the fresh scent of an air freshener, the musty smell of the countryside.

Instead of a finely crafted motion desk, a rough wooden counter, seemingly made by hacking at solid wood.

The sudden change in environment left me dazed.

Where am I? 

Who am I?

Looking around, I noticed…

Unidentifiable items piled in a display case.

Empty glass bottles with a bit of rust.

Unknown ores and oddities…

Under the counter was a massive chest.

When I opened it,

“Whoa.”

The scene made me gasp.

A pile of glittering gold coins filled the chest.

It was as if I could hear a voice whispering, “Hello? I’m gold coins!”

I bit into one to check if it was real.

“Ow!”

Pure gold.

A dream? 

Even if it was, what a great dream it was, being showered in wealth.

But it didn’t feel like a dream.

My jaw hurt way too much for that.

Might as well…

Slap!

“Argh!”

I hit myself too hard.

It hurts like hell…

If this was a dream, it wouldn’t end so easily.

I needed to figure out what was going on.

Taking another look around the store, it felt oddly familiar.

I’d seen this somewhere before…

Driven by uncertainty, I hopped over the counter and stepped outside the building.

Before my eyes was a cityscape that looked like a medieval movie set.

“Welcome, Savior?”

“Finally, we can start tackling that damned tower. The city will become safer bit by bit.”

Even the passersby were dressed in medieval-style clothing.

A tower…

When I lifted my gaze a bit higher,

I saw a massive tower piercing the heavens, so tall its peak was hidden beyond the horizon.

…No way.

The structure looked incredibly familiar.

Yes.

That tower was definitely…

The “Tower of Wishes,” the central setting of the game Last Felix.

At that moment—

Buzz.

In this surreal scene, there was only one thing that felt real.

A smartphone.

The same model I’d been using.

But its contents were entirely different.

All the mobile games I had painstakingly downloaded were gone.

Everything was replaced by a single, bizarre app.

[LF – Shopkeeper Add-On]

“What the heck is this?”

Feeling like I was in a trance, I opened the app.

A simple interface appeared, along with several menu options:

– Shop Overview

– Quests

 Shop Research

– Savior’s Shop

– Point Shop

I started with the first option, Shop Overview.

[Shop Overview]

[Level: 1]

[Reputation: 10/100 (Very Poor)]

[Accumulated Popularity: 0 (★)]

[Number of Workers: 0]

[Shop EXP: Unused]

Next, I checked the Quests tab.

[Quest]

Core Quest

Make the shop even greater!

※ Achieve a shop reputation of 30 or more.

※ Reward: 1,000 points

Progress: (10/30)

Daily Quest ▶ Serve Customers Kindly!

※ Satisfy 10 customers. (0/10)

※ Reward: 100 points

Daily Quest ▶ Trade Actively!

※ Conduct purchases/sales.

※ Reward: 100 points

Progress: (0/10)

…At this point, I could come to a conclusion.

I must have become the shopkeeper in Last Felix.

“Hmm…”

Sure, I did call the shopkeeper a ‘Godlike Shopkeeper.’

Yes, I wrote that post.

But if I were going to get reincarnated, shouldn’t it have been as the protagonist?

Besides…

Looking back at the building I just exited.

The shop was supposed to grow steadily according to the game’s progression.

Eventually, it was supposed to boast a massive six-story structure.

But now?

It’s just a tiny one-story building the size of a rat’s droppings.

This is real estate fraud.

What the hell.

Give me back my six-story building.

As I felt a bit deflated,

:: The Herald has cleared Zone 3 of Floor 1. ::

Suddenly, a booming voice echoed from the direction of the tower.

“Oh! Zone 3!”

“As expected of the Revelator.”

“Will they clear Floor 1 soon?”

It seemed like everyone around me had heard it too, as passersby stopped to focus on the announcement.

The Revelator.

So, the protagonist must be someone else.

If they’re at Zone 3 of Floor 1, they’re still progressing through the tutorial.

From my memory…

“First gacha pull.”

After clearing Zone 3.

The tutorial gacha.

A free 10-pull.

It’s the moment where success or failure determines the story’s future.

If this is a dream or reality, whether I’m truly the shopkeeper or not,

I had to meet the protagonist.

With that conviction, I began moving.

* * *

“Huff, huff.”

It should have been a simple click to fast travel.

But after wandering a bit, I finally reached my destination.

The Sanctuary of Revelation.

It had a grand name, but in essence, it was just the place to roll the gacha.

As I opened the grand doors and stepped in,

I saw Saint Johanna, the symbolic character of this game’s sanctuary, and the protagonist, Louis.

Ah, the protagonist is definitely someone else.

If the protagonist takes care of everything, I can live an easy life and reap the benefits.

Being the shopkeeper doesn’t sound too bad.

I could enjoy my days in peace.

“Wow, Revelator, congratulations! A golden glow means you got a 4-star hero—”

“Ugh, another failed reset…”

“What came out—? Wait, Revelator?”

…..?

…..?

As soon as I heard the protagonist’s words, a chill ran down my spine.

No way.

Don’t do this to me. 

Please.

Moments later, 

The protagonist vanished like a mirage.

Leaving something behind in their place.

“Revelator…?”

Even Johanna was left dumbfounded, her voice trailing off in disbelief.