Episode 124
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 124
Elysia squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, muttering just loud enough for Cain not to hear.
“Fucking hell… I’ve seen some shit in my life, but this… is certainly new.”
Cain stared at her pitifully trembling eyelashes, then twirled the small potion bottle between his fingers. He glanced up as if in disgust, then looked back down and sneered.
“Target Initialization…”
He had definitely just read the item's name. Elysia, frozen like a statue, barely managed to move and stretched out her arm.
“Give it here, you crazy bastard.”
As if to spite her, the man clenched his fist around the bottle. His pale hand trembled with enough force to shatter the glass at any moment.
“What a ridiculous bunch. In a cycle of over a hundred repetitions, when I desperately sought oblivion, they left me alone…”
“…”
“And now that I no longer want it, they try to gift it to me. Do they think simply erasing my memories is enough?”
Grinding his teeth, Cain's face twisted in terrible rage. As he took a step toward Elysia, system messages demanding she use the potion flickered in and out of existence.
The critical error of this game waved a hand, dismissing them all, and looked down at her.
“They're even trying to use the hands of the one they imprisoned to dispose of me. What do you think will happen to you if you follow their orders? You'll be eliminated just the same, or trapped in an endless cycle, just like I was.”
Elysia snatched his wrist—the one holding the potion—and slammed it onto the table, prying the bottle from his grasp. Cain didn't bother to stop her.
Her heart pounded. With a hollow thump, the system issued another command.
TARGET;FATAL ERROR FOUND! You must use the item! Terminating Errorcheck_Program. ###
As if fleeing from something she couldn't bear to see, Elysia hastily shoved the potion into her inventory. In that moment, a question flashed through her mind.
“Why did you hand this over to me?”
“Why?”
“I could shove this down your throat right now.”
The man, understanding her question's intent, tilted his head. The way he acted like an ordinary person who didn't understand sent a chill down her spine. Cain smiled with a pleasant face and declared.
“Well, could you? You can't abandon me.”
“What?”
The corners of his mouth lifted like a shy boy's. His lips parted, and he murmured as if confessing his love.
“Because you and I are the same.”
Elysia, who had been raising her pistol to put some distance between them, froze and stared up at him blankly. Seizing the opening, the man closed the distance until he was right in front of her nose, and smiled.
“Besides, aren't we in a sort of symbiotic relationship? I thought we'd get along quite... well.”
He naturally took hold of the wide-eyed woman's arms, pressing close to her after his unhinged, shy confession. Elysia was speechless, blinking her eyes. It was the natural reaction to encountering a madman of this magnitude.
“I really didn't want to have to ask this, but… are you high?”
“A few times?”
“Right. That kind of delusion couldn't come from a healthy mind.”
Elysia scoffed, her face grim as she continued.
“You're just a fucking criminal. And what? You think we'd get along?”
“A criminal, you say. How interesting. Are you going to arrest me?”
“You think I can't?”
“And what will you be arresting me for, Detective?”
A fire sparked in the woman's eyes. Cain looked down with amusement at Elysia, who was now halfway in his arms. She seemed so furious that she'd forgotten how close they were.
His eyes gleaming, he listened intently for her answer.
“If you're going to be stupid, at least shut your mouth. You just confessed to everything, and now you're asking what I'll arrest you for?”
“So, why don't you list them for me? My charges.”
Elysia yanked her arms free and ran a hand through her hair, shouting.
“Murder, arson, illegal drug trafficking! Are you a fucking lunatic? You're asking because you don't know?”
“Elysia, let's think this through properly.”
“Don't say my name, you piece of trash.”
“Murder... you say. What is the definition of murder? Isn't it the act of killing a person?”
Cain, smiling with a gentleness unbelievable for a murderer, bent down slightly to meet her eyes.
With a beautifully sculpted finger, he pointed to the flickering data inside the bookshelf and asked.
“But are 'those things'... people?”
The struggles to escape his grasp ceased abruptly. Cain looked down at her fractured expression with a satisfied face. And gently, he whispered once more.
“Elysia, you tell me. Are 'those' people, hmm?”
A face drained of color looked up at him. Noticing that her always-steady gray eyes were wavering, he caressed her cheek as if pitying her. Elysia froze, not even thinking to push his hand away.
Watching the woman on the verge of collapse sent a thrill through a corner of his heart. If only I, and no one else, could see her like this.
“For the crime of murder to apply, the victim has to be human. Elysia, I didn't commit murder... I was just playing with my toys.”
“Shut up.”
Elysia was barely holding herself upright. His know-it-all attitude was infuriating, but the fact that he was actually exploiting her weaknesses and backing her into a corner made her blood run cold.
She had heard countless excuses from criminals before. She had heard them all in detail, without exaggeration—how they were abused by their parents, how cruelly they were bullied by their peers as children.
She thought she was hardened to it. She was confident she wouldn't be swayed, no matter what past they dredged up to justify their evil deeds.
But this… Elysia squeezed her eyes shut and gave a bitter smile. What he was saying was her story, too. As if he knew, a soft voice settled in her ear.
“They're just virtual data anyway, so it doesn't matter if you use violence or even kill them... You're the one who taught me that. How long are you going to deny it?”
“Don't you dare spout that nonsense. I never told you anything like that… This is the first time I've even had a proper conversation with you—”
“That stupid bastard might believe whatever you say, but you can't fool me.”
A strong hand seized her jaw. Elysia, having lost the strength to resist, was pulled up by the force of his grip. Even so, the man met her glaring gray eyes and smiled, the corners of his lips curling up.
Their breaths mingled in the air. I know the one thing that will break even that expression. Cain whispered.
“Can you say you were any different?”
“…”
“The records in your blue notebook were strangely rational. It was odd, reading them. How could a woman who was suddenly imprisoned act so calmly? So I looked for other records.”
“Don't.”
I didn't know a face could get any paler than that. He licked his lips and gave a languid smile. He paid no mind to Elysia's desperate attempt to cut him off and continued in a nonchalant tone.
“You act all innocent, but you were the same.”
He had expected tears to well up in her wide gray eyes, but they remained dry.
Elysia shoved the disappointed-looking Cain away with all her strength and caught her breath. Her heart hammered and her vision narrowed. She bit her lip, trying not to lose her composure.
It wasn't on the level of <You'll Fall in Love>, but <Panic in the City> also guaranteed a certain degree of freedom. In that game, when apprehending a criminal, the player had two choices. One was to arrest them. The second was…
“Summary execution. You used to hand those out left and right at first, didn't you?”
Blood seeped from her bitten lip, filling her mouth with a metallic tang. Elysia smiled bitterly.
It was a situation where her family, her friends, and everything she had ever achieved had suddenly turned to nothing. Rage had paralyzed her reason, and not wanting to sink into deep thought, she had recklessly torn through the city of Nightmare in <Panic in the City>.
As if she'd lost her mind, she had walked right into high-crime areas and dealt with all the vicious criminals who picked fights with her…
There had been a time like that.
The man smiled like a viper and pulled her into his arms. Was it because her body was so cold? The embrace of a man who should have offered no comfort at all felt warm. She closed her eyes.
“You and I are the same.”
No.
“Why can't you see that we're no different?”
We're not the same. We're different.
“I'm the only one who can understand you. And you're the only one who can understand me.”
Elysia, barely managing to steady her trembling voice, opened her mouth.
“…I have a responsibility to fix this.”
“What responsibility? Ah… because all these crimes happened because of you? Such a tear-jerking sense of duty. What to do about that.”
The man let out a sweet sigh as if she were hopeless and buried his face in her shoulder. It felt like her mind had frozen. A languid voice fell upon her ear.
“Do you really think a single skill attached to you could affect an entire world? Truly?”
“What do you mean? It's clear… around me, the crime occurrence rate…”
Her heart beat so heavily it felt like it would stop. Elysia recalled the Skill Window she had seen when she first entered this world.
[System: Passive Skill 'Detective's Aptitude' has been activated. Crime occurrence rate within a 1km radius increases by 5%.]
It had been effective in <Panic in the City>, a premise she had naturally accepted because she was used to it. But thinking back on it now, it was strange.
It had been a while since she had become solidified as data from <Panic in the City>, so it was possible that the Skill Window, which had always been with her, had been transferred to this world without being separated.
But whether it could affect an incompatible world… wasn't that an unknown?
Cain, who had been admiring Elysia's expression, opened his mouth.
“Do you think the city of Nightmare, where you were, and Minerva are controlled on the same level?”
“What?”
“This place is a free prison.”
“Speak so I can understand…”
Elysia growled, grabbing Cain by the collar as she panted. Cain staggered, asking the woman who was practically hanging onto his shirt collar.
“It increases by 5%, you said?”
“What about it—”
“If the number of crimes set to occur is zero, then applying a 5% increase still results in zero.”
“What?”
“Crimes don't happen in this world. It was designed that way.”
It felt as if she could hear the premise she had taken for granted shattering into pieces. The man's eyes curved as he smiled.
“It was all me.”