HH Chapter 3

“……Mercenary group?”

The ‘Red Lion Mercenary Group’ was the group the player belonged to before the original story began. Although it wasn’t mentioned often in the game except for the beginning, I played the early parts so many times that I remember the name clearly.

[Join the mercenary group!]

And the fact that I have to join them means….

‘Player?’

It seems like I’ve been possessed by the player of this game.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to join our mercenary group?”

Huh? No?

I tried to answer immediately, but my mouth only opened and closed without any sound coming out.

‘What, suddenly…?

Then a translucent window warned me.

[The curse <Domination of the World> is activated. It is impossible for a transmigrator to deviate from the role they have been assigned.]

Impossible, my ass. I just won’t do it, then? 

I tried to jump out of bed, but my body wouldn’t move as I wished.

[It is impossible to deviate from the role.]

Ugh, let go of me. Ugh….

“Does he not understand us?”

“That doesn’t seem to be the case.”

I want to get out of here!

[It is impossible to deviate from the role.]

[Join the mercenary group.]

This Red Lion Mercenary Group is like a detective agency that takes on and solves people’s requests. And in the player’s flashback scenes, it was described as a place where they suffered all sorts of hardships!

‘No way, not even if I die.’

[Join the mercenary group.]

The white window flickered, pressuring me.

‘Nope, not doing it.’

I stubbornly kept my mouth shut. Then the white window that was threatening me changed its message.

[‘Guidebook’ is a lifespan depletion system for those who died an early death. If you arbitrarily deviate from the given role, the transmigrator will be repeatedly re-possessed by other bodies until your remaining lifespan is completely depleted.]

‘What, re-possession? That sounds good.’

Obsessed with the idea that anywhere but here was fine, I continued reading the rest of the message.

[Next Possession Location: <Infinite Regression High School Senior Hero>]

“……!”

I froze upon seeing the newly displayed window. Don’t tell me….

‘Are all the possession targets from games I’ve played?!’

<Infinite Regression High School Senior Hero> was a 19+ horror game. It depicts the epic journey of a loser protagonist who endlessly repeats his senior year of high school to achieve a perfect score on the CSAT, fulfilling his deceased parents’ wish….

However, it wasn’t just any hardcore genre. The main keyword of that game was ‘revenge.’

It turns out the protagonist was severely bullied at school and died on the day of the CSAT due to bullying, then regressed back in time. The protagonist could only see the clear screen window after physically eliminating all obstacles in his life.

‘That’s too much….’

I got goosebumps for a moment. No matter which character I’m possessed by in that game, it’s a no-win situation. If I’m the protagonist, I’ll suffer endlessly, and if I’m a side character, I’m one of the villains who bullied the protagonist.

They have their limbs cut off, thrown into a washing machine, and their skin is peeled off with a hammer by the vengeful protagonist. How shocked was I as a child, seeing the unfiltered, bright red bloody game scenes….

I recalled the games I played in middle school one by one. 

<Death Day>, <That Island>, <Hide and Seek Alone>….

‘Why did I only play those kinds of games?!’

I should have played some wholesome games suitable for my age…. I regretted it too late, beating my chest.

Back then, it was a trend at school to brag about who played the most hardcore and violent games. It was a kind of showing off, something like that.

<Haunted House> was relatively a tame game compared to those.

‘At least this game is rated 15+….’

While it’s true that it has an abnormally high number of death endings, the gore is relatively less compared to other games, and it’s not swarming with crazy people like the other games.

The other horror games featured everything from chainsaw-wielding serial killers to cannibals, people who taxidermied and collected body parts, eight-foot Japanese ghosts…. The basic gore elements were on a completely different level from <Haunted House>.

Once I realized I had to avoid the worst-case scenario, the current situation felt relatively manageable.

‘If I had acted rashly, things could have gotten worse, right?’

I have to do as I’m told. I broke out in a cold sweat, realizing the reality of my situation.

The red-haired man shoved a crumpled flyer in front of me. The paper read, “Red Lion is recruiting members,” along with a drawing of a lion with eyes wide open.

“This is the flyer you were holding before you passed out. It was absurd that you showed up in that state and suddenly asked to join, and then you completely fainted. Do you not remember?”

“Oh, no. I remember! I, I did that….”

This time, my voice came out properly. The pressure of multiple gazes focused on me was uncomfortable.

“That’s unfortunate. I don’t know your circumstances, but we’ve already found a new member.”

“Huh?”

“And we’re not interested in young kids like you.”

…This wasn’t in the game. 

Does this mean there’s a possibility of being rejected even for a quest requirement?

‘Then what happens?’

[If you arbitrarily deviate from the role you have been assigned, you will be repeatedly re-possessed by other bodies until your remaining lifespan is completely depleted.]

I didn’t want to be thrown into a washing machine, and I didn’t want my skin peeled off.

“No! I, I… I don’t want to die.”

The image of a murderer running towards me with a running chainsaw flashed through my mind, and my body trembled with a vague sense of fear. The red-haired man frowned at my words and asked,

“What about your parents?”

“My parents?”

Why is he asking about that in this situation?

“They passed away a while ago.”

“So you’re saying you have no guardian?”

“No, a relative I had lost contact with suddenly showed up……”

The men made strange expressions at my words and started murmuring amongst themselves. I don’t know how the their conversation progressed, but they reached a bizarre conclusion.

“Are you saying your estranged relatives stole your parents’ inheritance and left you in this state?”

“Huh? No, that’s not it.”

I waved my hands, explaining that wasn’t the case. It’s true that I ran errands for my older cousin every day and couldn’t make friends because of my other cousin, but I wasn’t beaten up.

I repeatedly emphasized that my relatives weren’t bad people. They fed and sheltered me, a complete stranger with nowhere to go, for three years, so I’m actually grateful to them. If I were them, I’d probably find it annoying if a rolling stone like me suddenly appeared in my house one day.

“Then who else left you beaten to a pulp if not your relatives… no, who did this to you?”

“This… I messed up the CSAT on my way home….”

I didn’t want to go home because I messed up the CSAT, and so I got hit by a truck and met an unexpected death… so the root cause of everything was the CSAT!

“CSAT?”

“It’s the College Scholastic Ability Test.”

Talking about CSAT made me feel complicated again.

What will the grade cut-offs be? I don’t know about the other subjects, but since all the places I applied for early admission are all engineering schools, I need a level 1 in math. It’s certain it’ll be difficult.

“What’s with the test? You keep saying strange things about dying.”

“Tell us in detail!”

Someone behind me asked sharply. His tone made me shrink back.

‘Even if I explain in detail, They won’t understand .’

After all, this game seems to be set in a fantasy medieval world, so they probably won’t understand anything I say. I carefully explained my school life, excluding words they wouldn’t understand as much as possible. At the same time, I tried to subtly appeal to my diligence.

For the past year, I practically lived confined to school. Probably no one in our school studied harder than me, right?

With the sole determination to get into a good university and become independent, I solved problems every day, and solved them, and solved them again…. That was all.

From morning to evening self-study time, I repeated that, slept, woke up, and repeated it again.

‘Why are they making that expression?’

The man who listened to my story was frowning.

“So, to summarize it, someone locked you up and made you solve problems all day. And there’s someone else who hurt you like this after you messed up the test?”

“…….”

It sounds really trivial when he puts it like that. It’s just a normal high school student’s day. Suddenly, I became someone who complained about trivial matters, and I lost my words.

“How long were you there?”

“A little over 10 years?”

Because the regular education curriculum is exactly 12 years. But the men’s expressions turned strange. Seeing them sighing deeply, I knew they must have seen me as a naive child. I decided to lighten the mood with a joke.

“But the food was good.”

Our school had a reputation as a delinquent school in the neighborhood, but the quality of the school lunches was top-notch. But the men didn’t even acknowledge my words.

They started whispering. I couldn’t hear them clearly, but it was probably gossip about me.

Why is he complaining about something like that? It’s natural for students to study. He’s so weak. Back in my day…. They were probably saying things like that, right?

‘Ah, whatever. It’s all ruined.’

I just want to lie down and cry. What’s with suddenly dying again? Especially when I didn’t even need to die. How bad is my luck?

‘I don’t want to do it either. But they’re telling me to….’

I couldn’t think of anything to say. I don’t even know what a mercenary group does, and I’m still a high school student, so I don’t have any particular experience or skills….

Then, out of the blue, the reward listed below the quest caught my eye.

[*Reward: A Wish Ticket]