[ Joonghyuk sees Akira and plans to approach him. Niah goes first, though he accidentally pads a bit of glass. Fortunately, the wolf isn't hurt, but... A memory starts playing.
Your name is Yoo Joonghyuk. You are twenty-eight, a professional Esports player, and you're on your way to pick up your younger sister, Yoo Mia. It is busy on the subway, as it always is in Seoul. You're used to it and keep your eyes on your smartphone... Looking up the report the private investigator you hired has finally sent you. It is then the subway abruptly stops. It's then when the world changes. A white fluffy goblin shows up and tells you the stage is ready for the upcoming apocalypse.
A blue system message pops up to every person on the train.
< Main Scenario #1 – Proof of Value > Category: Main Difficulty: F Clear Conditions: Kill one or more creatures. Time Limit: 30 minutes Reward: 300 coins Failure: Death
Of course, people protest. They try to ward off the goblin with yells and screams in their panic, but it makes an example of them. Pop pop pop, three heads explode. Participate in the scenario of die the exact same way. Blood splatters onto people and the window panes... You're scared. There's... Only people here. In less than a minute, fights start breaking out around you. No one was spared and eventually everyone chose to kill to survive—elderly, men, women, and children. You, too, choose to take another's life.
More system messages flood.
[ Great Sage, Heaven's Equal has donated 200 coins for your first kill! ] [ Maritime War God has donated 100 coins for your perseverance! ] [ Abyssal Black Flame Dragon demands more carnage! ]
You don't want to die. Mia... Will she be okay? You have to return to her. You have to find her.
But you don't last long. By the time you and the other survivors could get out of your train cart, the dead start rising and snarl. The only thing they know is hunger now, so they swarm their prey: you and the others. Screams ring again in your ears, but they taper out. You can't tell if it's because they've been caught or your senses are fading.
You've taken someone's life to live for how long? Ten more minutes? On the floor, you can feel your blood pool beneath you as human teeth snag onto your neck, eating away at your flesh. You die from blood loss.
Then you wake up again, on that train, and repeat. Again, you must take a life. Again, you have to survive. This time hopefully longer than the last.
Ah, this time you hesitated. You couldn't take the life of a small girl... She reminded you of Mia and you hesitated, so her mother took that chance to kill you instead.
You wake up again, on that train, and repeat. Again you must take a life. Again, you have to survive. This time hopefully longer than the last.
The man that helped you against those that attacked you ended up strangling you when you let your guard down. Those messages keep popping up. You're getting the sense that your life is like a drama to these... Constellations—gods—who tuned into the livestream. White hot disdain swelled inside of you, mixing in with the smell of bile and blood before your eyesight goes.
You wake up again, on that train, and repeat. Again you must take a life. Again, you have to survive. This time...
… It’s a nightmare from my first life, but it was something I went through. I was scarred the first time. [ … ] I didn’t fumble that much on my second try and onward.
[ Imagine just telling someone it got easier to kill people. ]
You can say it was a game to the gods watching.
[ Yet from the memory of a nightmare, it’s so real. ]
[ Akira takes a moment to try to process everything he saw, then shakes his head when it doesn't get any clearer. He flexes his hand and then refocuses. ]
Your second life. [ It doesn't so much as incredulous as him needing to repeat the statement. ]
...I feel like I'm missing a lot, but flashbacks always work like that. You don't need to explain, if you don't want.
Many of the early scenarios pit people against each other and there isn't a lot of time to rest. [ Annoying. ] It isn't uncommon to see children shove their guardians to their death so that they can survive.
If it isn't the scenario, then you have to deal with monsters roaming around.
[ ... He's quiet, kind of pensive over that question. It has always been his goal back then, to pull the gods down from their seat in the sky, but things have changed. ]
[ It's just who he is as a person, privacy comes paramount to everything else and if everyone stayed in their lane life would be so much simpler. But, those are just the thoughts of a teenage recluse who's fed up with too many things at the young age of eighteen.
He nods though, and looks up as thoughts turn in his head. ]
[ Akira is a good boy and that's why Joonghyuk likes him, though he has never voiced it. Joonghyuk understands similar thoughts, but he also understands the desire for companionship... Alongside the struggles of it. ]
... This place is just a detour. This isn't the first time I've been sent to another world to terrorize others.
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w2 tuesday
This again.
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The fuck? Was that a game or—again? [ Akira stares at his right hand for a long moment before looking at Joonghyuk. ]
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[ Imagine just telling someone it got easier to kill people. ]
You can say it was a game to the gods watching.
[ Yet from the memory of a nightmare, it’s so real. ]
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Your second life. [ It doesn't so much as incredulous as him needing to repeat the statement. ]
...I feel like I'm missing a lot, but flashbacks always work like that. You don't need to explain, if you don't want.
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[ And he supposes he's fine with answering Akira's questions. ]
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...how many lives have you lived?
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... 1865 lives.
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...seriously?
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[ Sometimes... You're actually tens of thousands of years old? ]
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I think I'd go crazy. How do you do it?
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[ That's the real answer. ]
I also had no choice. Once I accepted the power to regress, I couldn't give it back if I was tired.
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[ A shake of his head. ]
...is a game like this normal to you, then?
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Many of the early scenarios pit people against each other and there isn't a lot of time to rest. [ Annoying. ] It isn't uncommon to see children shove their guardians to their death so that they can survive.
If it isn't the scenario, then you have to deal with monsters roaming around.
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...have you at least gotten to fight that asshole yet?
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[ So basically, all the Constellations that did this to his world. ]
And I've fought and won against many of them. Mythical grades like Zeus and Poseidon as well. Olympus truly is the worst group.
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That's what I'd do. How many more do you have to go?
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I have a different goal now.
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... I will be when we bring him back home.
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He nods though, and looks up as thoughts turn in his head. ]
Does the same go for this place?
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... This place is just a detour. This isn't the first time I've been sent to another world to terrorize others.
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But we still gotta figure that out first.
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We do and I plan to make it so this won't happen never again.
[ Big words for one person, to be honest. ]
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