Whimsical Clementine
After my family and I are dragged into a roguelike horror simulation, they favor my cousin, Julian Clark, over me.
In a lobby of blood-soaked players, he always manages to stay spotless, earning their praise as someone who has "kept his humanity".
He's unlike me, the brute who willingly throws himself into melee combat and hacks down monsters just to keep everyone else alive.
During one dungeon run, a terrifying entity targets my younger sister, Millie Larsson. I draw my blade and move in for the kill, but Julian stops me with a sorrowful smile.
"Every creature has a soul. Gabriel, if you kill it, you'll only enrage it and burden Millie with the sin of bloodshed."
Millie believes all the nonsense he says and begins resenting me for interfering.
Later, when a veteran player steals Julian's life-saving loot drop, I nearly die reclaiming it for him.
Instead of thanking me, he takes pity on the woman robbing him and hands the item back to her. He condemns me for being too ruthless, claiming I know nothing about showing mercy to women.
Then comes the advanced raid. Cornered by the final boss, I beg Julian to activate the high-tier talisman I've given him, buying me just one second to escape.
He recoils from my bloodstained hand in disgust and turns to my parents instead. "Gabriel provoked the boss himself. He's too violent. I can't risk wiping the whole party just to save him."
In the end, I die in the boss' jaws.
Julian steps over my shattered bones and blood to clear the raid, eventually becoming the server's most celebrated player for being the Untainted Saint.
But fate grants me a second chance. I awaken once more in the game's central lobby, right before everything begins.
This time, I want to see how long their precious humanity lasts in a world overrun by horrors when the blood-soaked blade that always carries their party is no longer there to protect them.