Episode 5
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 5
“Damn it, shit! What shitty luck!”
I was lost. Where the hell was I supposed to go…?
Cursing under her breath, Elysia looked around frantically, only to stop with a look of dismay at the clearing that had suddenly appeared before her.
She had been walking aimlessly and somehow ended up in the center of the school building, where a massive greenhouse stood, large enough to be called a botanical garden.
A glass ceiling, supported by enormous white marble pillars, poured down enough sunlight to make the air feel hot.
Elysia paid no mind to the lush palm leaves and cacti, marching straight ahead. She cocked an eyebrow, noticing that the temperature was actually getting cooler the closer she got to the center of the greenhouse.
What kind of dumbass designed this place?
The question was answered soon enough. She saw that a circular window in the center of the ceiling was open, likely to ventilate the space now that the weather was warming up for spring.
“...What’s that now?”
Spotting a group of male students, Elysia instinctively ducked behind a hydrangea bush. A moment later, she wondered why she was hiding when she hadn't even committed a crime. It was all a bad habit from that damn crime game.
Annoyed, Elysia ruffled her hair and was about to walk away when one of the students whispered furtively.
“Did you bring… it?”
‘It’? She hastily lifted her foot, which had almost made a rustling sound, and tilted her head. Her former detective's intuition was screaming. Something was off.
Back in the day, this was the kind of situation where I would've just beaten the info out of them. But… was there any need to act the same way in a world where behavior like mine was considered abnormal?
After a moment of deliberation, she decided to trust the game’s genre over her own beast-like instincts, which were always right. She was about to move on.
“Ha, it was a pain to get. Alma raised the price, so I almost couldn't buy it. Alright, so what'll it be? ‘Crea’? Or ‘Voluet’? It's 6,088 Gold per bag.”
…If only it hadn’t been for those names.
Hearing the all-too-familiar terms, Elysia froze on the spot.
A well-ventilated space, filled with the scent of flowers, perfect for masking a specific smell. A group of men, gathered as if to do something together. And crucially, Crea and Voluet.
Click, clack, ding.
The scattered pieces in her mind clicked together, fitting perfectly into place. A searing heat boiled in her head. Are these bastards out of their goddamn minds…!
She kicked the stump next to the hydrangea bush a few times to knock the grass off the soles of her shoes, then stepped out into the open.
“Wh-What the!!!”
The male students stumbled back in shock, their hands holding rolled-up paper, pipes, and a white powder. A glitching system window flickered into view, putting an end to all her suspicions.
`SYSTEM: Congratulations. You have witnessed a crime scene! Apprehending a drug buyer will grant 200 Experience Points, and apprehending a drug dealer will grant 700 Experience Points!`
Elysia stood in silence for a moment, faced with a group of junkies in the middle of a dating simulation.
What is this? Uhh, what the hell is this? Her silence was brief. She rolled her eyes in disbelief and shouted.
“You… you, you crazy sons of bitches!!!”
“...What is that?”
“You, you, and you. Aha, five of them? Even if they're all just buyers, that's 1,000 experience points… I hit the jackpot.”
The male students, who had been frozen by the woman’s intense, sparking gaze, stared dumbly as the pipes were snatched from their hands.
She snatched the rolled-up paper, stomped on it with her foot, and let out a dry laugh before grabbing one of the students by the ear and yanking him up.
They were by no means small men, but compared to the opponents she had spent the last few years beating to a pulp, they were nothing but puppies. As a result, she felt more irritation than fear.
“Well, look at you. You little shits are so green you could probably use the blood from your busted heads as ink for your notes! Are you insane?!”
Smack. A scream erupted as her palm connected with the back of his head. Disgusted by his pathetic state, she smacked him on the back again.
“Hey! Where did you guys buy this? I’m asking who sold it to you!”
“Ah, aaack!!! It hurts!!! It hurts!”
Crea and Voluet. Of course, I knew them. The problem was I knew them all too well.
She pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead. Crea and Voluet were two of the many drugs distributed in <Panic in the City>. She had once tracked their distribution route and dismantled an entire organization.
Why? For one, she had been bored to death. And what hardcore gamer just skips a quest? Thanks to that, she knew not only their names but also their effects, manufacturing process, and even their approximate market price.
How in the world do drugs from another game exist in this world, being distributed under the exact same names?
It was unlikely that a smuggler existed who could cross between games. It was more plausible that when she got trapped in the game, the <Panic in the City> project was indefinitely postponed, and some of its assets were repurposed for this game, DECP CORP’s subsequent project.
In any case, now that these junkie bastards have fallen into my lap, I can't just let them go. Elysia let go of the boy's reddened ear as if tossing it aside, grabbed him by the collar, and growled.
“I asked where you got it!!!”
One against five. A woman against men.
Numerically and physically, they had the advantage, but they were in such a panic at being discovered that none of them dared to stop her. Besides, her sharp-featured face, flushed with anger, was terrifyingly intimidating.
And when humans are terrified, they lose their reason and make foolish choices. Unfortunately for them, they were all too human.
“Just run for it!!!”
Shoving the woman who was shaking him by the collar, the male students scrambled to their feet and bolted for the exit. As she staggered and crashed onto the floor of intricately laid mosaic tiles, a realization dawned on her, and she muttered with a look of horror.
“I’m so fucked.”
At that moment, a blood-red system window appeared before her eyes.
`SYSTEM: HP -1,000`
`SYSTEM: Remaining HP 0! Entering ‘Faint’ state!`
Flick, flick, flick. As if the lights were going out, the light faded from the edges of her vision, and everything turned dark.
Watching her experience point shuttles—no, her drug offenders—disappear into the distance, Elysia coughed. She blinked once, confirming her screwed-up vision, and screamed internally.
Fucking junkies, fucking system, and the most fucked up of all… is that I'm so damn squishy…
“Ah… please, just let me level up…”
With those last words, she passed out.
*
`SYSTEM: ‘Faint’ state will be lifted in 1 minute.`
`SYSTEM: ‘Faint’ state will be lifted in 30 seconds.`
`SYSTEM: 13 HP has been restored. Waking up from ‘Faint’ state.`
The moment her eyes snapped open, she took out the Band-Aids she had packed from the first-aid kit Adrian had given her and slapped them all over her scraped cheek. Despite the sloppy application, they seemed to be effective.
`SYSTEM: Treatment complete! HP is now full.`
It was a miserable life, having to fuss over scratches she normally wouldn't have even noticed. Elysia looked up at the sky through the wide-open glass ceiling and muttered.
“...How long do I have to live like this?”
She was certain now. She had to level up. She had to. She couldn't go on living like this.
For some reason, even though she had been transported to a different game, she was personally still bound by the system of <Panic in the City>. That meant she had to level up the same way she did in that game.
She shot to her feet and walked toward the remnants left behind by the drug offenders, her XP shuttles.
To survive, I have to catch these guys and gain experience. I have to catch them!
At a glance, they looked like dried purple tea leaves and a white powder. She examined them closely, then dabbed the tip of her index finger in the white powder and sniffed it.
“It’s real?”
The sour, vinegar-like smell… The exact same drug she knew had brazenly appeared in a completely different world. She was confused.
These drugs were really the ones distributed in <Panic in the City>. Why were drugs that existed there being sold here too?
Was it an original element of this game? But they said this was a dating sim, didn't they? In a game that's supposed to be so sickeningly lovey-dovey, why the hell are drugs being dealt?
Voluet was a drug that extremely heightened the five senses. Many used it for pleasure, so she briefly wondered if it was the game company’s insane attempt to provide players with such an experience, but she quickly dismissed the thought.
She remembered hearing that because <Panic in the City> had received an R-rating for its explicit content, they were determined to make its successor, <You'll Fall in Love>, a game for all ages.
So this is… Don't tell me it's because of me? Because my passive skill increases the crime rate within a one-kilometer radius?
Uncertain, she absentmindedly brought the Voluet-dusted tip of her finger to her tongue. At that exact moment, her eyes met with a man who looked as if he had been watching her for a very long time.
“You. Put down what’s in your hand. Now.”
Evan approached with a steady gait, snatched the pipe from her hand, and glared at her with a hardened expression. He looked at her as if she were a common thug, leaving Elysia utterly bewildered.
Huh? Hmm? Uh? What?
In that instant, she took stock of her own appearance.
Band-Aids slapped messily across her cheek as if she’d been rolling on the ground like a lunatic, two types of drugs spread out colorfully before her, a pipe and other paraphernalia she had confiscated from the junkies, and herself, bringing a finger coated in white powder to her lips.
“...Oh, for fuck’s sake. The world can’t do this to me. It just can’t.”
She denied it desperately, but the system window kindly informed her just how fucked she was.
♥ `SYSTEM: Evan Sylvester's Favorability -100` ♥
♥ `SYSTEM: Player! You seem to be in trouble ㅠ0ㅠ`
`To provide you with a capture hint, here is what he currently thinks of you! ^^`♥
♥ `SYSTEM: Evan Sylvester thinks you are a ‘Drug addict’!` ♥
“Are you fucking kidding me?! So what am I supposed to do now?!”
Her jaw dropped, and a stream of curses poured out.
Evan seemed to think she was a hopeless addict, watching her shake her head while staring into empty space. And just like that, Elysia was dragged away by Evan’s hand. No, “dragged away” wasn’t quite right.
“Taken into custody” was more like it.