Virtual Reality (1)
Thump-thump.
At the news that Eunha was coming, Ye-eun's heart began to hammer in her chest.
Love? It wasn't that.
More like... fan feelings, maybe?
She knew it wasn't quite the real thing, but she couldn't find another word for whatever this was.
"You like Unnie more than I thought, Ye-eun."
"I-I don't particularly like her, okay? It's just—yeah! Like looking at a pet! That's all it is!"
"I see. Well, Eunha Unnie does have a bit of a baby kitten vibe."
"..."
If you want a baby kitten, Eunseo, I can be one too. Meow~ and everything.
Burning with jealousy toward Eunha, Ye-eun turned her gaze toward the front entrance.
When is this girl even getting here?
Was her place far away? Had Ye-eun been too pushy about calling her over?
A full hour had already passed, and still no doorbell.
She wouldn't say she was coming and then just not show, right?
No. Impossible.
Eunha had said she was Eunseo's fan. Would a fan like that refuse a request from Eunseo?
Unthinkable. Exhibit A: Ye-eun herself hadn't been able to refuse Eunseo either.
I was trying not to text her so I wouldn't seem pushy, but...
After Eunseo's call with Eunha ended, Ye-eun had gotten Eunha's number. If she had something to say now, she could just contact her directly.
Without hesitation, Ye-eun opened her contacts and hit call.
Rrrring— rrrring—
"H-hello...?"
"Hey, where are you? Is something wrong? It's been an hour—why are you this late?"
Her tone came out a little sharp, but the concern underneath was genuine.
"...I'm standing right outside your house? I rang the doorbell and nobody came out."
"What?"
She rang the doorbell?
It never went off.
Even if her mind had been elsewhere, Ye-eun wasn't some ordinary civilian—she was an Awakened. An A-Rank hunter, no less. There was no way she wouldn't hear her own doorbell.
"Did you go to the wrong address? The doorbell never rang."
"Isn't this XX-dong, XXX-gil 24? I definitely pressed it."
...The address is right, though.
A flicker of unease pulled her to her feet. Eunseo, sitting beside her, tilted her head with a look that asked what was going on.
"I'll be right back."
"Okay."
Leaving a nodding Eunseo behind, Ye-eun headed for the front door. She stared at the firmly shut entrance and swallowed dryly.
What if she's actually out there?
For a moment she pictured the scene—Eunha crouched in front of the door with a pouty, miserable face. It was a surprisingly decent mental image, though if she really looked that pitiful, Ye-eun might feel a little bad.
Well. She'd gone to the trouble of inviting her. Time to let her in.
With that thought, she opened the door.
Whoosh—
"...Huh?"
But there was no one outside. Nothing but silence.
Did she seriously not come?
No. That couldn't be it.
Refusing to accept that Eunha hadn't shown up, Ye-eun scanned the surroundings—maybe she was standing in front of the wrong unit.
"There's just... nobody here..."
It was enough to make a ghost weep. Rubbing her arms, Ye-eun lifted her phone again.
Rrrring—
"Are you sure you found the right place? There's no one at the door."
"I really did find it... Isn't it the blue-roofed house? Brown front door?"
"...Yeah, that's right."
Enough to make a ghost weep, indeed. Eunha was supposedly standing right outside—and yet she was nowhere to be seen. Something was wrong.
"You're not actually in some kind of trouble, are you?"
Pure, unfiltered worry. But no matter how long she waited, no answer came from the other end of the line.
"...What the hell."
I'm right outside. Open the door. It's evening and it's cold out here.
Looking like a rain-soaked cat, I crouched down on the spot.
So this is how she gets her revenge...
Petty little brat. Kim Ye-eun, I will never forgive you. How dare you force me to sharpen the blade of vengeance in my heart.
"I should just go ba— wait...?"
The moment I sighed and stood up, something caught my eye. A crackle of static, like noise on a bad signal. I squinted, thinking I'd imagined it—and the noise melted away as if it knew it had been caught.
What even was that?
Don't tell me...
A sensation like a blow to the back of the skull hit me, and I hastily activated my ability.
"Urgh..."
A carnival of zeros and ones flooded my vision. The sudden deluge of information made me gag and collapse onto the ground.
What on earth is going on?
Is this place... virtual reality?
I'd clearly logged out. And more than that—this was supposed to be Kim Ye-eun's house. Kim Ye-eun's house wasn't sitting inside a simulation.
Unless—
"...Digitization of the brain."
The thought landed, and only then did I remember. Why I'd decided to try the Trial of the Tower in the first place.
People had fallen into comas inside the Trial of the Tower. I was going to check whether that was real or fake.
Looking at the current situation, it seemed pretty damn real. Whatever the virtual reality of the Trial of the Tower was designed for, it was dangerous.
No—one thing was certain. This game was extracting brain data from people.
"I don't know who you bastards are, but..."
Messing with a sacred game? Absolutely unforgivable. The blade of vengeance swung away from Kim Ye-eun and toward a pack of arrogant nobodies whose names and faces I didn't even know.
Crackle, crackle, crackle—
Whoever you are, you made the wrong choice.
Thinking you could trap me in this virtual reality. If you did it on purpose, you were stupid. If you didn't know, you were incompetent.
No wonder shouting "Equip" wouldn't put clothes on me, and my MoneyIsPower nickname wasn't showing up. My ability must have collided with the virtual reality and thrown up a bug.
"For nooow... yeah. That'll do."
I left the messages for Uncle Ha-seong and closed my eyes again.
Focus. Focus. Go where I want to go. If this place isn't real, I can go anywhere.
"I want to go where the people who lost consciousness are."
Beginning guidance.
A voice that always answered when I wished for something hard enough. It seemed connected to my ability, but I had no idea what it actually was, so I'd been ignoring it as much as possible.
...The voice sounds clearer than usual today.
It was different from the crackling, unpleasant tone I normally heard—cleaner. Where it used to feel mechanical and grating, now it almost sounded human.
Crackle— crackle—
"I'll ask you later, so just wait."
I sighed as I stared at the hole opening in front of me—a portal... or a Gate? Time to go meet them. The people who'd lost consciousness.
The moment I stepped through, the scenery changed. Not the dense cityscape, but a seashore with the horizon stretching far into the distance.
You have arrived at your destination.
So this is where the people in comas in the real world are, huh?
Whoever they were, their luck was rotten. Falling into a coma while playing a game, of all things. Maybe the data in their brain had just been that tempting.
Crunch— crunch— crunch—
I walked along the shoreline, planning to keep going until I found someone.
Come to think of it, it's been a long time since I last saw the ocean.
When had that been? Somewhere near a Gate in Busan, I was pretty sure. I remembered struggling against deep-sea monsters crawling up out of the water. Especially the stench—so foul that a fish market couldn't even compare.
"A beach without monsters is actually pretty..."
A shoreline with no open Gate was utterly still. Following the hush of the waves, I eventually spotted a figure in the distance—someone crouched down, watching the sunset beyond the horizon.
"Hello...?"
"...You're the first."
"Pardon?"
"The first other person to come here. You."
The woman kept her gaze fixed on the sunset as she spoke in a flat, dry voice. A dryness similar to Eunseo's, and yet completely different—the voice of someone who had lost all hope.
"How much time has passed? Is Titan Impact over?"
Titan Impact. The massive Gate that had appeared near Pyongyang, North Korea. A place overrun by giants—the world's first S-rank Gate.
"It's over. Humanity won."
"I see. I've been trapped here since then."
That meant a full five years. Five years of staring at nothing but this sunset, over and over.
"At first I thought this place was real. Meeting friends, talking about happiness with my family..."
But all of it had been fake.
"One day, I suddenly realized. It felt like more than a year had passed, but I wasn't aging. My family never grew old. Every single day started to feel like a boring rerun of something I'd already lived through."
"So you've been waiting here ever since. For someone who could help you."
"..."
The woman didn't answer. The air around her wanted to deny it, but she couldn't quite manage the denial—which told me she desperately wanted out of this place.
"Looks like I came to the right spot. This kind of thing is my specialty."
I sat down beside her as I said it, and she turned her head toward me. Sunset-colored eyes. The moment my reflection settled in them, the sunset doubled in size. The loneliness that had been packed so densely inside washed out with the tide, as a bonus.
I don't know what happened to you, but...
I will save you. Rescuing civilians swept up by Gates—that was the thing I was most confident in, right after gathering information.