[ It seems like Joonghyuk is trying to figure out a place to stay for curfew, albeit trying to narrow his decision rather early. He's careful not to bump into any strange glass that might be hiding on the steps or the walls, but his daemon is having more trouble with four paws. A memory plays.
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 and taste 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...
He frowns, but at this point he's gotten used to it. Even expects it. ]
[... He's speechless. The look on his face is less of an emotional reaction and more of a prolonged attempt to process such a thing -- it's completely beyond comprehension.]
[ He will let Kim take his time? He knows it's hard to process living and dying that many times. People call it insanity to repeat something over and over, right? ]
When you reach the end of the scenarios, you can try to destroy the system that offers these abilities. Or kill the sponsor that procured it. [ Kind of simple. ] But I accepted the ability to regress and repeat.
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w2 thursday
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God... What in the world was that?
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... A memory of a nightmare. [ To clarify: ] A nightmare of the first "entertaining" event.
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[... He composes himself.]
This was "entertainment," for someone?
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For gods.
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Adding commentary like they're watching a game.
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[He doesn't quite finish, realizing partway through the question that it may be a cruel thing to ask.]
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[ So he does survive longer from there before dying, but. Well. He answered this question enough times already. Another isn't a big deal. ]
1,864 times.
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[ Joonghyuk is logical, at least right now. ]
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[There's no point in arguing how anyone ought to feel, though, so he leaves it there.]
... Was there any way to end it?
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When you reach the end of the scenarios, you can try to destroy the system that offers these abilities. Or kill the sponsor that procured it. [ Kind of simple. ] But I accepted the ability to regress and repeat.
[ It was a choice. ]
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At times, I wanted to give up even though I couldn't, but I am back here again.
[ Naive and foolish, hopeful all the same. ]