Episode 121
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 121
Something similar to the manual typewriters that had been introduced in the newspapers as a new invention appeared before him.
Cain hesitated before randomly combining some numbers and pressing the ‘Enter’ button. With a beep, the login window flashed red before turning blue again, and a line of text appeared above it.
▶ Please enter a password of 10 or more characters, combining letters, numbers, and special symbols. ###
Of all the combinations of vowels and consonants written in the blue box, ‘decp’ was the only one that didn’t form a proper word.
He entered that first, then began to solve the password step by step. The combination was so ridiculously simple that it took less than an hour for the door to open.
With a click, the door swung open. Cain stepped inside, intrigued to find a spiral staircase leading down.
Down, down… He descended, spiraling so much it made his head spin, until he discovered a vast labyrinth of books before him and forgot how to breathe.
Roots, which he guessed were the bases of the bookshelves above ground, twisted together in a chaotic tangle, forming towering shelves that created the labyrinth.
“…How bizarre.”
After his brief remark, Cain stood at the labyrinth’s entrance. The titles of the books lining the maze walls were legible but difficult to comprehend. He had no intention of stopping in front of any bookshelf.
That was, until he found the one bearing his name.
“What… is this?”
Looking up at his name carved into the shelf, he slowly approached and pulled out a book. He examined the title first, tilting his head in confusion.
He opened the book casually, only to freeze on the spot. It described everything about him—not just his height and weight, but his detailed preferences as well.
Cain flipped to the last page, which detailed his past experiences, and felt as if he’d been struck on the back of the head.
「How to Capture Him: A Tip:
He may seem like he doesn't get attached to people, but he actually wants to be comforted. Why not offer him some warm words to help him overcome his unfortunate past? (っ´∀｀)っ A deeply empathetic attitude is key!」
Slamming the book to the floor, he staggered and collapsed. A memory from long ago had surfaced.
A night when the moonlight bloomed brilliantly. The pensive look on the woman's face as she lay in his arms, gazing up at him as if admiring a work of art. And the words she had muttered as if to herself.
“Senior, you seem so difficult, but you're actually easy.”
Thump, thump. His heart, filled with anxiety, began to race. Clutching his throbbing head, he managed to take one step, then another.
As his staggering steps quickened, the memories grew clearer, tormenting him. The comfort offered in a gentle tone, the outstretched hand, the smiling face that looked so moved…
Was it all a lie?
Finally reaching the center of the labyrinth, he panted, lifting his head to gaze at the vast space. His vision, blurred by a piercing sense of betrayal, watched the blue light that flickered on and off over the densely packed books.
Slowly, Cain walked toward the tallest bookshelf in the center and began pulling out every book he could, reading them indiscriminately.
「Introducing DECP CORP's ambitious new title, <You'll Fall in Love>! The game's core elements are its characters, who utilize AI to act like real humans and learn continuously, and the infinite routes that result. Through free-form interaction, players can raise a character's favorability, unlock various routes, and satisfy their desire for romance…」
「The player will follow the main story, building narratives with several male characters on a campus filled with subtle tension from a war that has lasted over 100 years.」
「Once a route is completed and you reach an ending, you can restart the story…」
The poisonously cold letters squirmed like disgusting insects, gnawing at his sanity. Pale as a sheet, he gasped for breath. A convulsive, empty laugh escaped him.
So, everything, including my nightmarish past, was just a device configured to make me easier to seduce. Brilliant. No, it's downright demonic.
The very idea of twisting a person's life for the sake of a childish romance game was something he had never even imagined. As the woman's voice echoed in his head once more, he growled.
“Senior, you seem so difficult, but you're actually easy.”
“Shut up…”
An indescribably powerful rage surged within him. His mind was a chaotic mess. He tried to recall the face of the woman he had once truly loved, for whom he now felt nothing but hatred, and froze.
He couldn't remember… her face. Only a vague shape and features that looked as if someone had carelessly smudged them came to mind. Her name… what was it? All that came to him was a blank space.
Awareness is the awakening to truth.
He felt sick to his stomach. He retched, breaking out in a cold sweat as he leaned against something for support. It was then that he noticed another closed door.
“…An archive?”
It was a very small and shabby archive. A small nameplate was attached to the door, which appeared to be the entrance. He traced the engraved letters with his fingertips.
He threw the door open with a bang. Pacing inside the narrow study filled with black books, Cain discovered a blue notebook, pitifully wedged between them, completely out of place.
The title of the book, small enough to fit in one hand, was:
-Elisia.H>
He could see the messy scrawl, written by the notebook's owner to mark it as her own. He rolled the name around in his mouth. Elysia Hemming… With a soft flutter, the cover turned.
The notebook began like this.
「A toast to my fucking life, trapped in this goddamn game. I'm keeping a record so I don't go insane. I guess you could call this the first-ever strategy guide. Since the accident will probably prevent it from being released, maybe it'll be the last one, too. Serves you right, you fuckers.
I'm guessing there's a high probability that the ones reading this are the wonderful developers at decp, right? You sons of bitches, I hope you all die a painful death.
Anyway, let's talk about this game called <Panic in the City>. The setting, Nightmare City, is just a dark city. No hope, no law… fuck, now that I say it, what kind of…」
The black, terrible handwriting on the white paper flickered in the man's red eyes. He was far too intelligent to simply read the contents.
His mind, which had only ever known a controlled world and was ignorant of crime, was now ‘learning’ the violence and offenses Elysia described.
It seemed the notebook was truly just a record. After an introduction filled with emotional, haphazard profanity, the woman had recorded nothing but cold, hard facts.
「Quest 1: Welcome to Nightmare
First quest, pretty low difficulty. The quest starts when a report comes in about a wife found dead at home.
First, you have to observe the body. As expected of an R-rated game, it's pretty brutal, but you have to get used to it to survive, so calm down. The body's been stabbed over twenty times, but the decisive cause of death is a knife through the left carotid artery.
If you look around the house, you can find a bloody kitchen knife buried in the bushes. Put it in your inventory, then go talk to the husband. No special conversational skills needed.
Since it's a pretty low-difficulty quest, you just show him the murder weapon from your inventory, strip his clothes off, and yell at him about the scratch marks on his arms and neck from his wife fighting back. He'll confess on his own.
The motive… it's ridiculous, but he thought she was cheating on him. A classic case of delusional jealousy. He was disrespecting the dead, saying she deserved to die, so I got pissed and beat the shit out of him.
Tip: You get more experience points if you hand the culprit over to the Investigation Bureau Detention Center in one piece. But the guy kept pissing me off, so I stopped the police car midway and beat him up. The reward EXP got docked. Whatever, it's just a game.」
Originally, he did not know murder. He was vaguely aware of its existence, but he didn't know the methods or motives behind it.
This was thanks to the system, which had intentionally glossed over any brutal elements. Cain flipped through the pages quickly. He passed over the diary-like scribbles the woman had scrawled here and there in fits of rage with an indifferent expression.
「Quest 13: Burn the hell down
An arson case. Sadly, it's a quest you can only solve by working your body to the bone. You have to crawl around the scene, which has been reduced to ashes.
If you focus on the areas that are more severely burned than others, you can find the point of ignition. That's where you need to start collecting evidence. I recommend using the ‘Observation’ skill. First, prove that the fire was started using a waste oil container from the kitchen…」
The records of crime that Elysia had written while trapped in <Panic in the City> flowed into Cain's mind.
Before, he had known nothing of this. He had long been familiar with intense anger and hatred, but the idea that he could express those feelings through his own actions had never occurred to him. He had only ever prayed that someone else—a transcendent being, like a god—would punish them.
To kill someone with my own hands… how revolutionary.
Shoving the notebook of a person whose face he didn't know into his pocket, he realized his heart was beating incredibly fast. He let out a savage laugh and muttered.
“I think I know… what I have to do.”
The confusion that had been swirling around him just minutes before, threatening to choke him, was gone. With a composed expression and the graceful gait of a nobleman, Cain exited the strange basement.
Bathed in the sunlight streaming through the library window, he picked up a sharp pair of scissors from the desk.
