7 a.m.
The sky outside was still gray. Inside, only the blue glow of my monitor, the soft hum of OBS settings, and my pixelated avatar eyes half-closed, expression calm and monastic. LazyDeity.
No background music. No social media announcement. I just started the stream with a single line in the title:
"No armor. No buffs. Just a sword."
For a few long seconds, no one joined. As expected. No alerts had gone out yet. Only the main menu of Ashen Regalia, breathing quietly, waiting to be challenged.
And then, someone appeared.
[CorvoSonolento]: yo... someone new?
"Good morning," I murmured low and slow, perfectly synced to my avatar's lips. "I'm testing something. Feel free to watch."
No over-the-top energy. Just the start of a new game.
No magic classes. No broken passives. Stats untouched. I grabbed the default short sword and kept the light cloth outfit from the tutorial.
That's how I wanted to play.
Not out of pride. But because if I truly wanted to be tested, I needed to be vulnerable. I needed to evolve not to beat a game, but to become the best version of myself.
I started in the Vale of Marked Graves, a zone barely anyone picked. Brutal enemies. Uneven terrain. Little room for mistakes.
The first creature emerged from the trees an aberration with arms too long, eyes sewn shut, a trembling scythe in its hands. Smart. Vicious.
It approached slowly, testing my range. I stood still, holding the blade one-handed.
Vertical slash. Short dodge. I repositioned. Didn't counter.
It waited.
Another lunge a double swing, shifting left, then right, pause feint, sideways strike. An evolving pattern. I knew it. Because I had coded that behavior.
The AI was analyzing me.
"So you still remember me," I whispered.
I struck back with a single blow, aiming to stagger. No spam. No rush. Almost meditative.
The creature blocked.
[CorvoSonolento]: wait… that enemy blocks in NG1? is that new?
"Depends on who you are," I answered.
The AI system I designed adapted not just to efficiency, but intent. If a player repeated tactics, it would predict. If they played passively, it would force mistakes. If they were aggressive, it would swarm with synergy.
But this mode... this was made for me.
A mode no one else knew existed: Flow Predator.
With every successful dodge, the AI recalculated future paths. It didn't just react it projected my next move. Every second, it knew me better.
The fight lasted over two minutes. A calculated duel. In the end, I lured the creature toward a fallen tree and finished it with a precise thrust to the heart.
Silence.
Then a new message:
[Sleepy crow]: alright... I'm sharing this now. you're insane
Not long after, more names started appearing in chat.
[BleachDancer]: wait, why is he naked with just a sword?
[MetaPigeon]: looks like a mod... but it's not
[GhoulReplay]: is this guy reading the AI?
I kept walking.
An ambush. Three beasts from the bushes. Coordinated assault — the kind that only happens if the player shows strong field awareness. They knew I was playing above average. They knew… because they were learning.
I circled one, stepped back, let the others try to form a triangle block.
Tactical Visualization activated.
Behind the avatar's closed eyes, paths opened. I saw the route to escape, the exact spot where one would stumble during a spin. Pure combat visualization. The chat went wild.
[ComboSplicer]: HE'S PLAYING CHESS WITH THE MONSTERS
[ZeroFrame]: this isn't skill… this is divine foresight
[w3bgremlin]: someone clip this. NOW
Over 300 viewers. Then 600.
I kept a steady pace. Beat mini-bosses using only movement reading and spatial control. No spells. No upgrades.
Chat was on fire.
[DreamInRust]: if this guy beats the game like this... it'll be LEGENDARY
[UltraRamen]: I swear this has to be a hidden dev
[DeadJoke]: he IS. don't you see? the game's trying to kill its creator
The funniest part?
No one was wrong.
After one last fight — dodging five consecutive attacks, regaining posture, and finishing with a double feint (something even beta testers never discovered) — I reached the first checkpoint.
But I didn't save.
"No rest today," I said. "Tomorrow, we continue."
And with that, I ended the stream.
Started with one viewer.
Ended with over 2,300.
The name LazyDeity was already beginning to spread like a quiet legend.
But this...
This was still just the tutorial.
---
POV – Sleepy crow
Crumbs from last night's snacks were still in my keyboard. Twitch tab already open, as usual. Ashen Regalia the most punishing game on the platform was top of my auto-search.
I didn't play it.
Hell no.
I tried once. Two hours in, and a bone horse in the first village crushed me. The AI surrounded me, predicted my dodge, and killed me with an attack I didn't even know it had. I never went back.
But I watched.
Because this game... was a cursed addiction.
No one's beaten it. No one.
A few came close, sure but they all fell in the final zones. The game didn't just adapt. It studied you. Learned your patterns. Turned them against you. Like fighting a smarter, faster reflection of yourself.
And it was beautiful.
I clicked on a stream with a dramatic title.
"Just a sword. No armor. Base stats."
I laughed. This guy would last five minutes.
I clicked in.
And then… I couldn't look away.
This guy LazyDeity walked through the Cracked Sanctuary ruins with eerie calm. Monsters lurked in the dark. Things I knew were brutal. Each with personalized AI. Evolving. Hungry for player blood.
But with him...
They were more than intelligent.
They were anticipating the impossible.
One moved before he even pressed a key. Another dodged an attack he almost made but canceled last second. And still, he adapted. Like he knew the game knew.
It was a mind duel. A recursive loop:
The AI predicted him.
He predicted the AI.
The AI predicted him predicting.
And he laughed, predicting that too.
His fingers moved across the keyboard like it was part of him. No margin for error. One wrong dodge and it was over. But he didn't miss. No bugs. No exploits. Pure skill.
[CorvoSonolento]: is this vanilla? the game's literally reading his moves
He replied like he heard me:
"I taught the game to hate me."
Poetic. Insane. Self-inflicted madness.
Chat was still tiny. Seven people. Then someone else shared the link, hyped:
[Mordekai_J]: dude's fighting the Mist Colossus and didn't take a hit. I'm serious.
Views started climbing.
10.
11.
12.
13...
The boss showed up: a spectral guardian with blades made from corrupted memory. A glitch made conscious. Usually, it tested combos. Against Haruki… it set traps.
The boss anticipated future moves.
And Haruki anticipated that anticipation.
A clash of broken futures.
Five-dimensional chess, where every frame was life or death.
Chat went wild.
[NoSkillSam]: HOW is he not getting hit?!
[AkumaTech]: this game isn't even fun like this
[DryBlade98]: this isn't a speedrun, it's like... a philosophical run
[Sleepy crow]: if he finishes this... the game's legacy changes forever
And I knew.
We were witnessing a legend being born.
LazyDeity wasn't trying to prove anything to us.
He was trying to transcend himself.