Episode 31
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 31
With a frantic expression, Elysia grabbed his hand before she even realized what she was doing. A look of surprise flashed across Evan’s face, but she was in no state to notice. She pulled his arm toward the window and said, “Let’s go.”
“There are people coming from outside the window, too. Probably about three of them.”
His voice was calm, but his expression was also one of dismay.
Elysia’s eyes darted around until her monocle-adorned eye fixed on the strange vent she had opened earlier. A caption reading ‘Calculating…’ flashed before her eyes, and then, with an ominous sound, the analysis appeared.
Depth: 4m
Unidentifiable objects are piled up below.
It didn’t matter whether the chute, which was clearly meant for trash, was dirty or not. There was only one thing to consider.
Will I die if I fall?
<Would you like to analyze the probability of death upon falling? Y | N>
As if reading her mind, the system window for <Panic in the City> popped up. To think that this notification window, which always seemed to be taunting her with HP loss alerts and jeering, ‘You’re gonna die soon, aren’t you?’, could ever be so welcome.
She immediately selected ‘Y’ on the flashing, blood-red system window and clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the exasperated scream that almost escaped.
<Analyzing based on the player’s current HP…>
<Analysis complete. Probability of death is 50.76%.>
“Are you fucking kidding me?!”
She took back her earlier thought. Every time this damn system window appeared, it spat out some variation of ‘You’re about to die.’
It’s only four meters, but the chance of instant death is fifty-fifty? I might break a leg, sure, but die? What kind of ridiculously fragile body is this?
Of course, she didn’t want to die. But getting arrested as a thief wasn’t appealing either. Elysia’s mind raced.
Judging by the sound of multiple footsteps, the guards were planning to search the place with a fine-toothed comb. A clumsy hiding spot would get her discovered for sure. She had to get out. She stared down into the pitch-black hole she had opened.
The passage is narrow, so if I brace myself and control my descent, I probably won’t die.
…Or will I? Maybe I, specifically, could die from this?
Elysia grabbed the well-dressed man’s arm and dragged him in front of the vent without a second thought. He stared at her, his eyes wide as if to ask what she was doing, and she said, “Get in.”
“Right. I don’t know what’s down there, so it’s better if I go first.”
“…You’re not going to ask if I’m crazy? I think I would have.”
“I can’t be sure, but it looks like a trash chute. If so, there should be a lot of things piled up at the bottom to cushion the fall.”
Even in this urgent situation, the man remained calm, offering his own line of reasoning.
Elysia had expected an argument about why he had to go in, so she was surprised to see Evan quickly putting his feet into the opening. He looked thin, but his tall frame had a solid build of bone and muscle, making it difficult for him to squeeze into the narrow space.
As she watched Evan slowly disappear downwards, Elysia noticed the footsteps getting closer.
She bit her lip and prayed.
Please, please, I don’t care which god, just do something. Strike them with lightning, summon a tsunami, just do something!
Her initially desperate and earnest prayer quickly morphed into a menacing threat.
You bastards! You’re not going to help me? Are you?! I’ll give every last scrap of my faith to the first one who helps me, so please, please…!
Thump. The sound of feet landing on something soft came from inside the chute.
“Come down!”
Elysia, who had her eyes squeezed shut, heard Evan’s voice echo from below and immediately shoved her feet into the opening.
The dark chute reeked of musty paint. Bracing her back and legs against the narrow walls, Elysia reached up with trembling arms and pulled the stiff vent door shut. With a clang of metal, the door closed, plunging the space into complete darkness.
Her heart pounded. Through the closed vent, she could hear the guards stomping around and grumbling.
Just as Elysia began to slowly move her arms and legs to descend, she lost her balance, swayed, and fell.
“Ugh!”
Her stomach lurched as her body plunged downwards. In that brief moment, a torrent of curses filled her mind.
Am I going to die? Is this how I die? You sons of bitches! You bastards! What was that about a Developer’s Quest? Like a flashback, the image of the blue potion bottle in her inventory came to mind.
The Target Initialization Key. Did you deliberately send me here to use it, to make me face a threat to my very existence? Is that it? You think you can do whatever you want as long as you pay? You motherfuckers!
Just as she was about to grit her teeth and scream the harsh words aloud, she felt a pair of strong arms catch her. Immediately, they both staggered and fell.
Tangled together, they crashed with a loud clatter onto a pile of discarded wood fragments, clay, and paint.
Elysia stared, dumbfounded, at the person holding her. Evan, who must have gotten scraped during the fall, was smiling awkwardly with a fresh scratch on his cheek.
Looking down at Elysia’s shocked, frozen expression, he muttered sheepishly, “Ouch… that hurts.”
“Are you okay?!”
She didn’t even have time to check her own body for HP loss. It was obvious that he, having cushioned her fall and rolled across the floor, would be more injured.
Elysia scrambled out of his arms, her face crumpling as she saw the beads of blood forming on his right cheek.
A sudden wave of sorrow washed over her. Elysia buried her face in her hands with a deep sigh, then spotted a broken easel and started kicking it furiously, screaming, “This goddamn system! Just because I’ve been letting things slide, you think I’m a doormat?! ARGH!!!”
“…”
“I’ll tear you to shreds and shove you in a pig trough, you crazy developers!!!”
A soft chuckle escaped from nearby. Elysia’s eyes widened in surprise. She found Evan bursting into laughter, looking thoroughly amused, which left her with an expression caught somewhere between crying and laughing. Seeing her state, he started laughing even harder.
“What are you laughing at?”
There was no answer. After laughing for a long while, Evan wiped the tears from the corners of his still-crinkled eyes with the back of his hand and mumbled with a grin, “It’s just… funny.”
“What is?”
“My head’s been a mess all day, and I was thinking that the one person I didn’t want to see was you, the very cause of it all.”
After their tumble in the filthy junkyard, his white shirt, usually pristine, was now smeared with colorful paints. He lightly shook his disheveled black hair and continued with a gentle smile.
“But now that I’ve actually met you, I haven’t had a moment to dwell on those complicated thoughts, and it’s actually more comforting.”
“…Then you should have backed out when you had the chance,” she grumbled, embarrassed.
He reached out, plucked a green leaf that was dangling from the end of her hair, and said gently, “I’m glad I didn’t. Thanks to you, I’m feeling a little better.”
♥ SYSTEM: Evan Sylvester’s Favorability +30 | Current Favorability 160 | ‘Trusting Person’ Route in progress ♥
Elysia’s eyes wavered, startled by the system window that had suddenly appeared.
Route. As in, a path.
Love wasn’t the only form of positive emotion. There was friendship, and simple affection, too. The ‘Route’ feature was probably a way to inform the player of the specific emotions a Capture Target was feeling.
But… he sees me as a ‘Trusting Person’? Why? Since when?
She snatched his hand as he was about to pull it away from her hair and asked fiercely, “Do you trust me?”
The man’s eyes curved into a gentle smile as he answered readily, “Yes.”
She could feel her fingertips trembling. Elysia knew it was from fear and let out a dry, choked laugh. It’s ridiculous. I’ve taken down murderers and ruthless criminal organizations, and now I’m scared of something like this?
She tried to laugh it off as if it were a joke, but her unstable expression only betrayed her fear. Evan just watched her quietly, his thoughts unreadable.
“What, are you planning to fall for me or something?”
He was silent for a moment. When his reply finally came, Elysia’s heart sank.
“…How could I possibly dislike you?”
I know I’m getting scared over nothing, but I can’t help but doubt. Is this person next to me truly making a choice, or is it something that’s been forced upon him? Is he just another puppet controlled by invisible strings? If so, then I’m still… alone.
Elysia faltered and took a step back. Evan didn’t seem surprised by her reaction and calmly took a step forward. She defensively took two steps back and said, “Do you really think that feeling is your own?”
“I’ve thought about that, too.”
Evan’s demeanor was unshakable. He was so composed it was hard to believe he was the same man who had shown the depths of his emotional turmoil just last night. Now, she was the one who was wavering, not him. Elysia tried to keep her expression indifferent.
“Think about it again. Getting involved in this kind of thing is just a pain in the ass, isn’t it? This is something I can handle on my own. In fact, having someone else around might make me mess up since I’m not used to it, so—”
“Elysia.”
His gentle yet clear voice called her name familiarly. She belatedly realized what a mess her expression must be. She had been rambling, spewing pathetic words.
“I hope you don’t love anyone, Senior. I know it’s selfish, but I wish you never knew that kind of emotion at all. But if, by some chance, you do fall in love, I hope it’s not me. Because I don’t want you to live a life that’s already been decided for you.”
The time she had spent here had been so lonely. Every time she walked among the NPCs who only repeated their programmed actions and recited lines that were clearly dictated by someone else, a sharp, chilling loneliness tore her to pieces.
The rigidly constructed world, and the people who only repeated the same words, seemed to point their fingers at her and laugh.
You really are all alone here.
And in that suffocating solitude, she had met this man.
“You’re real, Senior. Just like me…”
That was why she wanted him to act contrary to the system’s intentions. Because he was a character destined to love the player, she hoped he wouldn’t fall for her. If the system inputted a 1, she wanted him to act as a 0, to prove it to her.
Because it was clear that the moment he submitted to the system, she would be left alone again, to drown in a sea of loneliness.
She roughly wiped her stinging eyes with her sleeve. Tears seeped into the reddened skin, making it smart. It was too dark to see the expression on Evan’s face.
“Don’t like me. If you do, you’re losing to the system. I told you before…”
“El.”
The familiar nickname struck her ears, and she snapped her head up to look at him. He was smiling, as if in understanding. He smoothed down her messy hair and asked, “You told me, didn’t you? To think hard about how I can resist, how I can avoid being swayed.”
What he had thought about while cooped up in his room were the faces of the people who had died for the absurd reason of making him vulnerable and thus easier to fall in love with—but it was also her advice.
Her tear-soaked, silver-gray eyes were looking up at him. In those eyes that resembled the gray city, the deepest color was loneliness.
And it was a color he was familiar with, too.
He spoke carefully, continuing his thought.
“I can’t dislike you. You’re the one who proved that I wasn’t crazy when I thought I was. How could you not be important to me?”
“Still…”
“…But I’ve decided not to be swayed.”
He had thought about it endlessly. He would never act the way they wanted. To protect himself, to keep her from falling into loneliness, and to exist as himself, he would somehow break away from the predetermined path. And he had figured out how.
The man smiled, his eyes curving gently, and moved the lips he had chewed until they bled the night before.
“I will never make the mistake of simply loving you.”
Her eyes, wide as an owl’s, seemed to ask, Really? He gave a faint smile, and as if to remind himself of his own words, he repeated them with conviction.
“I promise. You’re the one person I won’t love.”