Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Episode 10 The Perspective of a Yuri Game Mob Character.
In this world, there are protagonists who receive everyone’s attention.
People often say everyone is the protagonist of their own story, but that’s merely a luxury allowed only to the blessed few who possess confidence and a guaranteed future.
There are unavoidable gaps in this world.
Some people would probably point fingers at me and call me pathetic just for thinking like this.
But this is a truth I personally experienced and realized myself.
In the end, the people destined to succeed will succeed, while those who aren’t can do nothing except crawl at rock bottom.
Politics, society, economics—no matter the field, the ones writing the story are always a small number of main characters, while everyone else is merely spectators dragged along by the story they create, or replaceable side characters and mobs who may as well not exist at all.
Then what kind of person am I?
I couldn’t even become the protagonist of my own life.
I couldn’t even become a mob or spectator.
What meaning did someone like me even have, and was there truly any meaning in continuing to live?
‘In my previous life,’ I had been nothing more than a doll unable to enter any story at all.
Not even a side character or spectator.
I couldn’t even become part of the background.
I spent my meaningless life trapped endlessly inside a closed room, letting time pass by.
I never thought of it as sad.
There was only numbness.
My life hadn’t lacked anything materially, but there was no heat within it, nothing decisive enough to define what “living” truly meant.
In other words, it was an empty shell of a life.
And yet somehow, a second chance was given to someone like me.
【The Pure White Flowers Bloomed by Maidens】.
It had been popular in my previous life, highly recommended online, and even a lot of men played it, so I tried it out of curiosity.
And it truly was a masterpiece.
Graphics and completion quality so incredible it was hard to believe they came from an obscure director, unknown voice actors, and minor artists.
Each heroine had her own unique charm, making the game genuinely enjoyable to look at and play.
Though I never imagined I’d reincarnate into that very world.
The moment I recovered my memories and realized I was reincarnated was exactly one day before school entrance ceremonies began.
Up until then, I’d spent this life just like my previous one—without motivation, without considering my future, wasting each day playing games.
Recovering my past-life memories didn’t dramatically change me or anything.
The game’s main story would start tomorrow.
What could I even do now?
Even if I wanted to prepare something, it was already too late.
‘……Is that really true?’
I questioned myself.
Were you really going to continue drifting through time without doing anything?
Would you once again lock yourself away in a boxed garden where you couldn’t even become part of the background, just like in your previous life?
That life would have neither warmth nor coldness.
You wouldn’t even notice yourself slowly rotting away as all color disappeared and the world faded into gray.
Was returning to that kind of world truly what I wanted?
“No…….”
Like a baby bird crying out for the first time after hatching, trembling sorrow burst from somewhere deep inside me.
Perhaps it was the final dying scream of the passion I’d gained after being reborn—something that hadn’t completely faded even through the years of my previous life.
For the first time across both lives, something stirred inside me.
A desire not to end things without ever doing anything ignited within my chest, creating a tiny spark.
‘Maybe I can change. Maybe I can start over. I don’t want to just let go of everything and repeat the same meaningless life all over again……!’
Where had this stubborn determination hidden inside me all this time?
‘I want to change too! In this life, I want to live more fully. I want success. I want a girlfriend. I want a family. Tons of friends too…….’
Ah.
Only then did I realize just how many regrets I’d carried inside.
‘I don’t want to go back to that.’
Once I realized it, I couldn’t stop anymore.
The deep regret buried inside me, the lingering attachment to life that had hidden beneath unmoving silence, erupted because of this second life and could no longer stay concealed.
Once I made up my mind, there was no point hiding anymore.
Then I’d change things with everything I had.
‘First, I need a plan.’
There was only one day left before school started, but I was still someone who had played the game multiple times.
I knew the heroines’ information.
Using that, I could decide what I should do moving forward.
‘First of all, I’m a mob character.’
My name in this life was Seong Jihyuk.
A completely unfamiliar name.
Even if he appeared in the game at all, he was probably one of those nameless background characters with no face or voice.
To begin with, this was a yuri game.
The protagonist was female, and most surrounding characters were female too.
Among the male characters who had faces and voices, none of them were me.
‘Honestly, I wish I’d reincarnated as Geum Taeyang instead.’
Even if he was trash, Geum Taeyang possessed monstrous physical abilities.
He wasn’t the protagonist’s rival for nothing.
He constantly stood as the greatest obstacle before the growth-type protagonist, and even against the overpowered heroines specialized in their own fields, he could fight them evenly within their specialties.
He was practically a perfect all-rounder.
“That’s why there were so many bad endings in the game.”
If I had reincarnated as Geum Taeyang, maybe I could’ve prevented every bad ending the heroines suffered.
Though I wasn’t deeply attached to 【Yuri Garden】, as someone who preferred happy endings, it still felt disappointing.
More than that, Geum Taeyang’s overwhelming physical abilities were honestly enviable as a man.
With only one day remaining, I used every second possible to plan my future.
First, which heroine should I approach?
Once I realized this world was from a yuri game, there was no way I could simply ignore that information.
Not because of some noble reason, but because I calculated it would be beneficial to understand the current storyline by observing them.
‘In 【Yuri Garden】, all events in the world ultimately revolve around the protagonists and heroines. Their actions practically determine the course of the world itself.’
In that case, I decided I’d stay close enough to them to observe and decide my actions based on the flow of events.
‘Found the protagonist.’
Finding the protagonist wasn’t difficult.
Thankfully, we ended up in the same class, and she looked exactly like the CGs from the game.
Starting in the same class as the protagonist felt like incredible luck.
At first, that’s what I thought.
Something felt strange.
I noticed it quickly.
While secretly observing the protagonist, Na Chaewon, from behind and quietly following her around—
Of course, I hid myself carefully.
If I acted too obviously, I could literally get reported for stalking, so I sweated bullets making sure not to get caught—
I gradually noticed something odd about Na Chaewon’s behavior.
At first glance, everything seemed to be progressing normally according to the game’s story.
But I couldn’t shake off the bizarre sense of discomfort.
Where exactly was this unpleasant feeling coming from?
While I pondered that, the answer appeared almost immediately.
“That scene never existed in the game!?”
The protagonist witnessed the exact scene causing the problem—
Geum Taeyang and In Yuna spending lunchtime together.
And then she screamed before running off somewhere without even deciding on a destination.
I followed after her.
Well, not directly.
If I sprinted after her, weird rumors might start spreading around school, so I slowly walked while tracking her route from a distance until I saw her enter an empty classroom.
“So she really is a reincarnator like me.”
Possession was also possible, but judging from the furious voice coming from inside the classroom, she was probably another reincarnator who had regained memories of her previous life just like me.
Listening to her ramble furiously without realizing someone outside could hear her, I temporarily forgot my complicated thoughts.
‘Then Geum Taeyang must also be a reincarnator.’
Otherwise, his changes made absolutely no sense.
At this point he wasn’t Geum Taeyang anymore.
He was White Taeyang.
This morning, I’d gone jogging for the first time to trigger Jeong Misook’s encounter event, but despite being someone who’d avoided exercise all throughout my previous life, I obviously didn’t suddenly awaken some hidden talent.
I completely failed to pace myself and nearly collapsed from dehydration due to overwork.
At that moment, a dependable hand offered me a thermos.
Like a traveler lost alone in the desert, I greedily drank that heavenly water.
I even forgot to thank him while my cells practically rejoiced at the cool liquid sliding down my throat.
But now, overwhelming disappointment weighed down my shoulders so heavily I felt like collapsing.
“So in the end, successful people are simply born successful.”
A wholesome Geum Taeyang instead of a womanizing villain!?
That’s practically unbeatable.
I felt deeply envious of whoever reincarnated into Geum Taeyang with all the maxed-out stats I’d always dreamed of.
We were both reincarnators, so why did he become Geum Taeyang while I ended up as some useless mob character?
The world truly was unfair.
The people destined to succeed always succeed.
Maybe I’d gotten more excited than I realized.
I’d indulged in the absurd fantasy that reincarnating into a game world would let me start over.
I thought knowing the story meant I could walk the path to success.
Maybe I could even end up with one of the attractive heroines.
Only now did I realize how foolish those fantasies were, and the pain felt like a blade stabbing straight through my heart.
How strange.
Nothing bad had even happened.
Why did realizing the truth hurt this much?
“How pathetic.”
Beyond the classroom door was Na Chaewon, reincarnated as the female protagonist.
And somewhere out there was an unknown reincarnator reborn as Geum Taeyang.
Compared to them, I’d reincarnated as a mob who probably wouldn’t even get a single line in the game.
It almost felt like God was mocking me, saying, “Know your place and don’t get arrogant.”
Why did I only realize it now?
There was no place for me here.
I really am such a free guy.
‘So Kang Yena’s already basically conquered too, huh. Seriously fast work. No, before that—when exactly did Geum Taeyang recover his previous-life memories?’
It was the weekend.
At the café.
I sat quietly in a corner seat, watching the encounter event between Geum Taeyang and Kang Yena unfold.
Inside me, there was no longer the same bitterness as before while watching these entirely different events from the game I once played.
Why would a spectator enjoying what they watched feel pain?
I no longer had any intention of becoming a protagonist beyond my station.
Once I decided to simply watch reality unfold like an audience member observing game events, my heart felt far lighter.
It actually felt comfortable becoming a complete bystander.
‘Still, when exactly did Geum Taeyang awaken his previous-life memories?’
Judging from Kang Yena’s changes, this wasn’t something that happened yesterday or the day before.
He must’ve been influencing the heroines for years already.
At this point, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he completely destroyed the original story and affected every heroine in the game.
Then what exactly was Geum Taeyang’s goal?
‘Is he really aiming for the harem route?’
Seeing even the hardest heroine, In Yuna, and the timid Kang Yena change so drastically, anyone would assume he was targeting multiple heroines simultaneously or aiming for the harem route.
But was that really what Geum Taeyang wanted?
‘What if he doesn’t even know this is a game world? No… impossible. Otherwise none of this makes sense. Could someone completely ignorant of the game reincarnate here, randomly meet heroines, influence them, and change everything by accident?’
What kind of probability would that even be?
Then again, maybe such absurd probabilities really did exist.
‘Reincarnating into a game world is already absurd to begin with. Maybe this world has some unknown force trying to guide the story forward. Web novels always have developments like that.’
If Geum Taeyang really was just some ordinary reincarnator with no knowledge of the story, then things had become tangled in an entirely different way.
If he destroyed the original plot simply by acting according to his heart without knowing anything, then honestly… that was kind of interesting too.
‘Well, it’s not my problem.’
The one suffering right now was the protagonist over there.
Not me.
Once I completely stepped away and chose to become a spectator, none of this burden belonged to me anymore.