The Saintess Is Just Plain Starving

"Man, they really went all out on the interaction mechanics for this one."

I let out a dry laugh as I watched the nun squirm at my single click. The sheer detail of the interaction reminded me of a certain collectible mobile game where, if you died, the game would send your characters off to a weekend farm. In that game, too, you could grab the cheeks of the character standing in the main lobby and stretch them, causing them to wince.

Intrigued, I gripped the mouse again. This time, I moved the pointer to the pale cheek of the nun, who was trembling in terror on the screen. I held down the left button and dragged it across.

The nun’s right cheek stretched out as if someone were actually pinching her.

"Ouch!"

She let out a short scream and clutched her cheek. With eyes wide like a startled rabbit, she shouted into the void.

"Outer God who calls yourself the Seven Calamities! I have already told you, I refuse your temptations! I have no intention of becoming your saintess!"

Her voice was trembling slightly. Her eyes were filled with fear and despair, but the way she stubbornly set her jaw was pitiful. "I have no intention of apostatizing my faith to become your puppet!"

It was a heroic declaration, but I could see right through it. Her spirit was already half-broken. Exhausted by extreme hunger and starvation, there was no real conviction behind her words.

She was on the verge of collapse, as precarious as a structure ready to crumble with the slightest touch.

"Wow, the detail is insane. This easily surpasses the petting interactions in those mobile collection games."

I couldn't help but admire it. This game didn't originally have features like this. A full 3D interaction cutscene in what was supposed to be a single-player package game? I wondered if this was a testbed for a sequel or some new DLC.

Regardless, for a shut-in like me, currently under house arrest, this was a delicious piece of bait and a brand-new toy.

I stopped tormenting the nun for a moment and scrolled the mouse wheel to rotate the view. The camera angle freely exited the chapel and smoothly moved to another space connected to the interior of the castle.

When the view entered an old stone building, I frowned. It looked like a ward, and dozens of young boys, girls, and nuns were sprawled out inside.

Everyone was as dried up as a piece of salted fish. Their eyes were sunken, and their limbs looked like thin skin stretched over bone. The children didn't even have the strength to cry; they just lay on their beds, their chests rising and falling weakly.

I turned the screen to search what I assumed were the castle's food storage and armory. The results were devastating. There wasn't a single grain of wheat left in the pantry, and the armory contained nothing but a few rusted, broken spear shafts.

"The starting point is definitely hell. Are they telling me to force them to survive in this state?"

I stroked my chin, recalling my past gaming experiences. I’d seen this before when playing survival games set in an ice age. When coal ran out and food hit rock bottom, I’d legalized child labor to send kids into mines, or even resorted to extreme cannibalism. I’d made every extreme, inhumane choice to keep them alive.

I turned the view back outside the castle walls to look down at the group of Kappa lurking in the murky river. There looked to be well over a hundred of them. If those things crossed the walls right now, those dried-up kids and the nun would be eaten alive without even a chance to resist.

"Well, I've got the lay of the land. Let's go back to her."

I locked the camera view back onto the silver-haired nun in the chapel. She was still huddled in front of the altar, watching the void with caution.

A sudden, wicked curiosity struck me. "I wonder if they implemented this, too? It doesn't seem like an adult-rated game, though."

I slowly moved the mouse pointer downward.

I aligned the pointer with the hem of the nun’s dust-covered white skirt, held down the left button, and yanked it upward.

The skirt flipped over, revealing her white thighs and worn-out undergarments on the screen.

"Eek!"

The nun screamed, her face turning pale, and she collapsed to the floor. She desperately pulled her skirt down with both hands, twisting her legs together. Her face flushed tomato-red with shame as she shouted into the void.

"Th-this! Surely... that guy wouldn't do something like this... Could you be a different Outer God than the Seven Calamities!"

With tears welling up in her eyes, she glared at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the void with venomous intensity.

"Even if you are a different Outer God, I will say it again: I will resist to the end! I will never become your pathetic toy! Rather than become a plaything for those who trampled our world, I would sooner end my own life and go to the side of the God of Light!"

She pulled a rusted dagger from her robes and held it to her white neck. A fleeting moment of despair and shame crossed her trembling fingertips.

"Hmm."

I took my hand off the mouse and crossed my arms. "Guess lifting the skirt was crossing the line. But is this really the right faction for me? No starting resources, and everyone is dying. Should I find another faction and switch?"

This level of extreme difficulty was a bit tiring even for a veteran like me.

Just as I was about to grab the mouse again to look for other terrain or factions, a giant system notification popped up, covering the center of the monitor.

I clicked the parchment-textured quest window that had appeared in the center of the screen. Then, red text began to type itself out one by one over the rusted dagger held to the nun's neck.

I chewed over the typed-out quest content slowly, as if reading a contract carefully before signing. "So, feed them, raise their favorability, and make them my slaves. Typical territory-building tutorial quest."

Supporting a desperate NPC girl with food to gain blind loyalty... I’d scraped the bottom of that barrel so many times in web novels that I could predict the next development even with my brain switched off. It was a cliché of clichés.

Given the nun's attitude just a moment ago—how she’d held a knife to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her throat and threatened to die ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠when I lifted her skirt—I figured raising her favorability would be a real pain, but my pride was slightly piqued.

Without hesitation, I moved the mouse and clicked the [Accept Quest] button.

Click.

[Yes] / [No] buttons appeared on the screen. Naturally, I pressed [Yes]. If this was the tutorial stage, there had to be a starting supply pack provided by the game system. I expected a list of medieval fantasy-style foods like flour, smoked meat, or baked potatoes.

But the moment I saw the pop-up window that followed, I couldn't help but let out a dry laugh.

"What is this?"

An absurd mutter escaped my lips as I stared blankly at the list. No matter how I looked at it, this wasn't a supply list for a medieval fantasy game. Was this a scenario where modern goods were sent to another world? But the state of the list felt strangely familiar.

"Wait a minute."

I stood up, kicking my chair back. Then, I stared intently at the mini-fridge in the corner of my room, and then at the three-tier utility shelf next to it.

"Are you kidding me? This is literally my room's inventory list."

A chill ran down my spine. It was too accurate, even down to the quantities, to dismiss as a mere coincidence. I wondered if I’d been hacked, so I looked at the webcam connected to my monitor, but the lens was meticulously covered with a black shutter.

"What is this? The camera isn't even on, so how did it recognize the stuff in my room? Is it some kind of AR feature? Or has AI technology gone so crazy lately that it analyzed my consumption patterns to create a virtual inventory?"

My head was spinning, but I shook it off quickly. Who cares? It wasn't like I could physically put things into the computer, so it was easier to just assume the game system had set up the starting items with a generic "modern shut-in" concept. And maybe, just maybe, it had gotten lucky, like a blind elephant stepping on a mouse.

"It's a revelation to show them the true taste of modern civilization, I guess."

I sat back down and gripped the mouse. The nun on the screen was still holding the dagger to her neck, holding her breath, not knowing when I might pull another bizarre prank. Her pale lips and sunken cheeks were pitiful. She looked like she could collapse from malnutrition at any moment.

"I have to feed her and keep her alive first, regardless of whether I raise her favorability or not."