DRMB Chapter 2

As if reading her mind, the voice flowing from the screen made her finger hovering over it stop.

‘…Where have I seen this before?’

She stared at the screen silently, slowly racking her alcohol-dulled head.

The memory surfaced only after seeing the phrase “19+ romance simulation game, <In the Name of the Oracle>,” which appeared at the end of the advertisement.

It was an ad that had been appearing repeatedly and annoyingly in front of her for a week as if caught in some algorithmic prank.

‘…Should I try it?’

Staring intently at the screen for a long time, she impulsively tapped it.

Before she knew it, her eyes now reflected the opening screen of the downloaded game.

‘It might at least make me feel a bit better.’

That was the only reason she was interested in an ad she would have otherwise ignored. She needed something to break through her current gloomy mood.

However, it didn’t take long for her to realize that the world still wouldn’t bend to her will.

“I died again!”

The bright red “Dead End” message was clear on the darkened screen. She exploded in frustration at the same ending, which she had seen countless times.

She had used her unfamiliarity with the game as an excuse and rationalization only until the seventh dead end appeared again.

No matter how she changed the capture target or the choices she made, for some reason, she always ended up with the same dead end.

“Is this game broken?”

She couldn’t understand how she could keep getting only dead endings. She even started to wonder if the game was mocking her.

Eventually, her stubbornness kicked in, and she immersed herself in the game without taking a break. With each dead end that came into her view, her frustration only grew, and the beer quickly disappeared.

“Ah.”

How much time had passed? 

She irritably put down her phone at yet another dead end and rubbed her dry eyes.

The beer had run out a long time ago.

“Haa.”

Letting out a deep sigh, she tilted her head back. The cheap mattress creaked with the springs as it dipped slightly under her weight.

‘Reality or in-game…’

Someone who’s unlucky is unlucky everywhere.

Just like how she was left alone at the orphanage when everyone else got adopted, just like how she worked her bones off alone at the company, only to have her achievements stolen and her mistakes thrown back at her.

Even in this kind of game, designed to provide enjoyment through capturing virtual characters, she ended up with the same result.

The game she had bought on impulse reminded her of that bleak reality once again.

“Ah, I don’t want to go to work.”

A complaint escaped her lips like a sigh. The empty echo, with no one to hear it but herself, reverberated around the small studio apartment and returned to her.

A sudden wave of emotion welled up, but her eyes, long dried up, didn’t shed a single tear.

She stared at the ceiling with dry, empty eyes and then picked up her phone again. The screen had returned to the starting stage where she need to choose a capture target.

‘Where was I…’

Recalling her progress, her eyes landed on the last, fifth capture target. It was the crown prince character, with a gentle smile.

He was a capture target whose route she hadn’t played through yet.

‘…No, let’s stop.’

After a moment of contemplation, she lowered her hand from the screen. She no longer had any confidence that a new character would spare her from another dead end.

With that thought, she remembered that she had seen ten dead ends with the fourth capture target she had just been playing.

‘What time is it?’

Tearing her gaze away from the seemingly easiest target, she pulled down the notification bar to check the time.

Hoping she hadn’t foolishly stayed up all night, she checked the time and, surprisingly, only a few hours had passed.

‘I thought more time had gone by?’

Living a hard life where she couldn’t enjoy hobbies like games, she didn’t consider herself good at them. Indeed, she had only seen horrific dead ends.

The unfair part was that she had carefully considered every choice.

Yet, it was still early morning. It was strange, as the process of choosing options, changing capture targets, and choosing again shouldn’t have been that fast.

“Is this a good thing?”

After a moment of thought, she dismissed it as nothing and got up.

No matter what trials the world threw at her, it always went on as usual.

For someone who needed to face another day, she needed as much sleep as possible as she always had.

After clearing away the empty cans and brushing her teeth, she crawled and laid down under the covers she had bought cheaply years ago.

She tossed and turned for a moment, settling into a comfortable position, and closed her eyes.

‘…Should I try just one more time?’

But before long, she picked up her phone again. The gentle smile of the character scraped together what little hope she had left.

‘I’ve already seen it countless times, so what difference does one more dead end make?’

Turning the game back on in the end, she selected the last, fifth capture target.

She mechanically skipped the common episodes, which were boring from having seen them so many times by repeatedly pressing the skip button, and went straight into the gameplay route.

The clock on the opposite table was reflected in a corner of the momentarily darkened phone screen.

The second hand, which had been ticking steadily, suddenly stopped as if it had broken, but she was too engrossed in the brightening screen to notice.

 

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

 

‘I should have just gone to sleep yesterday!’

She rushed out of her messy apartment without even having the time to clean it, hastily changing clothes and grabbing her bag, filled with regret.

She had turned off her phone and gone to sleep as soon as the last attempt ended in a dead end, but she ended up oversleeping.

Roughly combing her hair with her hand, she stopped at the traffic light. Determined to delete the game as soon as she arrived at work, she unlocked her phone to check the bus schedule.

As soon as she did, a majestic background music flowed out from her phone.

The game screen, which she hadn’t turned off in her haste, filled the phone’s display.

In the middle of it all, an envelope icon flickered.

Ignoring it, she tried to swipe up on the screen with her thumb, but as if she had pressed it by mistake, the letter suddenly opened.

「You, who have never succeeded in a single capture, try again with a cheat key.
*Applies immediately upon receipt, if you close the window, you will never receive it again!」

She tried to ignore it again and close the window, but this time, the touch screen was unresponsive.

“This piece of junk phone!”

It was the phone she hadn’t been able to replace for over three years, saving money after leaving the orphanage as an adult.

Determined to finally replace it this time, she frantically pressed the screen.

However, her finger brushed against the ‘Yes’ button on the letter. At that moment, the contents of the letter changed.

「Received.」

“What?”

As she stared at the screen in bewilderment, the traffic light changed, and people on both sides started crossing the road.

She, too, took her eyes off her phone and started walking across.

But as she reached the middle of the crosswalk, a sharp pain suddenly struck her heart.

“Ugh…”

Frozen by the pain, which made it difficult to breathe properly, she clutched her chest.

As her ears, filled with a ringing sound as if the world had stopped, were suddenly pierced by a loud, blaring horn.

Before she could identify the source of the sound, a huge impact struck her entire body.

With the sensation of her body floating, she lost consciousness.

 

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

 

“Hngh…”

When she opened her eyes again, she was in a completely white space.

Waking up with a sharp breath, she froze for a moment as if time had stopped, then abruptly sat up and checked her body.

‘I’m not hurt.’

She had clearly felt a huge impact, enough to send her body flying, before she lost consciousness. The sensation was still vivid, but her body was perfectly fine, without a single scratch.

As confusion filled her, a strange light suddenly appeared before her.

The light soon gathered and transformed into the shape of a tall man.

“What on earth…?”

He was entirely clad in pure white, from head to toe. His bare feet and hands, the clothes covering his arms and legs, the long hair flowing down his back, and the cloth covering his eyes were all white.

Frozen in place, bewildered by the surreal situation, he narrowed the distance between them and bent down.

His long hair flowed forward with his movement, creating a curtain and casting a large shadow over her.

‘…How can he even see?’

Holding her breath in tension, she trembled slightly at the feeling that he was scrutinizing her, even with his eyes covered. Then…

[It’s you.]

The man’s low voice filled the space. He straightened up.

[You’re lucky. It seems you responded to my call before you died.]