The Third Playthrough Begins
My eyes opened to a familiar scene. The subway station near my house. My personal hell, etched into my memory with nightmares I could never forget even in death.
"..."
I couldn't grasp what had happened to me. Was this reality? What the hell was going on?
The last thing I remembered was a new ending popping up because I'd gone missing. Then it said I was moving on to the next playthrough. And after that... what happened after that...? The memory of it was rapidly fading away, as if it were condensing into tiny crystals inside my head only to be swept away by the wind in an instant.
I stood there blankly and muttered the status window.
"The playthrough... advanced."
Third playthrough. The playthrough had moved forward. I hadn't regressed—I'd been sent to the next playthrough instead.
Just what reason could there be for the playthrough to advance instead of regressing?
"Jamtree... why...?"
Why would Jamtree do something like that to me...? And what was that strange flute sound coming from the headphones?
No. More than that—the sense of betrayal. The betrayal that had seeped into my chest spread throughout my entire body, making my head spin. My stomach churned and my vision distorted.
"Why!"
I trusted her! She did that to me!
"Aaaaaagh!"
There was nothing I could do but scream. Jamtree had always made coffee for me. She'd been a kind senior who looked after her juniors...! And yet she betrayed me!
While I was consumed by that sense of betrayal—
"Come here, dear."
A familiar voice pierced my ears. Secrem. The vampire's voice.
"Ah."
The familiar sensation of my body being overtaken by hypnosis. The moment I felt it, everything became clear.
That's right. I'd crossed into the next playthrough and returned to the moment I first encountered the vampire in the subway. Just what kind of "missing" incident was it that triggered an ending and sent me to the next playthrough?
Jamtree's betrayal wasn't ordinary. She hadn't simply killed me—she'd eliminated me through some far more special means. The reason... probably lay in the last thing she'd said. That I'd gotten too close to the truth about the Bureau. That's why Jamtree, acting on orders from the Bureau's upper echelon, had removed me. Not by ordinary means, but through something beyond imagination.
Then what happened to Jaaldi and Spandal? Were they eliminated too?
—Drip.
Tears fell. The fact that the playthrough had advanced meant that every connection I'd made with everyone up until now had been reset. Spandal and Jaaldi were no longer people I knew.
This was what regression and playthroughs were. In the end, I couldn't share this pain with anyone...
"I know you're there."
Guided by the vampire's voice, I walked.
—Step. Step.
The quiet late-night subway. Only the sound of footsteps on the tiled floor echoed. Countless memories brushed past me. More precisely... memories from the second playthrough. At the same time, I reflected on the memories of the first playthrough that I'd obtained in the second.
Secrem... So we meet again like this after all.
"Hello?"
Beyond the shutter, a woman in red with long golden hair waved at me. Her figure was beautiful, her voice sweet. It overlapped with the desperate sight of her reaching out to me, asking me to join her.
"Hey, you see, I'm trapped in here. Could you open this for me?"
Secrem held out the key. Now I knew. If I obediently opened the door here, Secrem would bite me and turn me into a ghoul. Eventually I'd become a vampire, earn her recognition, destroy the world, and ascend as a Vampire Angel. And then the playthrough would advance, just like now after being betrayed by the Bureau.
But right now, what if I tried to win Secrem over? What if I revealed a few truths, guided her the way I wanted, and formed some kind of alliance? Could I uncover this massive secret while working with Secrem? Could I learn the truth about my own ability?
"Here, this is the key. You can open it with this."
I looked at the key resting on her pale hand. I reached out.
"Hurry... hurry and let me—"
But. As expected. I hated vampires.
"Spit!"
While pointing accusingly at Secrem, I unleashed the faith within me. The materialized divine power, refined into a liquid form of garlic, shot forward and engulfed the evil red demon.
"Kyaaaaaaaagh!"
—Sizzle!
Secrem screamed with her face melting. A pitiful expression overlapped with it, but that was... just something from the past.
"How dare you, how dare youuu!"
The disfigured vampire thrashed about. I glared at her until the very end.
—Thud.
I pointed again.
"W-wait—"
"Spit!"
"You'll regret this!"
Before the second burst of faith could erupt, the vampire vanished into black smoke. With that, I was left alone in the subway. In this desolate space where there was no one.
"Aah... It's so damn lonely."
What was I supposed to do now? Everything felt hollow. Regression, playthroughs—everything felt like meaningless, fleeting illusions. Would this repeat infinitely? If I wanted to break the cycle, how?
—Step. Step.
I slowly walked up the stairs. When I went outside, the air was cold. In the old days, I'd run home like a madman and spent the day in insanity. But today, there didn't seem to be any need for that.
I looked up at the sky.
"..."
A bright moon illuminated the darkness. For some reason, I felt as if the moon was watching me.
* * *
It had been a while since I'd entered my studio apartment. There was no need to turn this place into a space of madness. The wounded vampire wouldn't be able to pursue me for a while. I thought of my parents, but by the time I could go, she'd have recovered. A phone call might be possible, though.
—Whoosh.
After washing with cold water, I lay down on the bed. My head was a mess. The betrayal that had welled up left me feeling suffocated, and a sense of emptiness close to nihilism filled the remaining space. Negative emotions endlessly amplified. Thoughts that regression or whatever didn't matter anymore surged up.
Would I never see Spandal again? To see her, I'd have to take the same route and enter the Bureau again. There would be things I could uncover in the process. For example, things like the Reality Re-cognition Device. Of course, since I knew Jamtree was a pawn of the Bureau's upper echelon, there might be more I could do with Jaaldi.
But... no. Even if I went back in, there was no guarantee I'd reach that information. And what if something went wrong again and the playthrough advanced?
Goosebumps rose all over my body. Increasing the number of regressions wasn't good. Increasing the playthrough count would be "even" worse. If my approaching the truth about the Bureau was exposed to the upper echelon, the playthrough would advance. I didn't have the confidence to walk that trap route again.
Or there was the option of pretending not to know anything and just living as a Bureau agent without uncovering anything. But... what meaning would that have?
"Haa."
What should I do now? I'd lost all sense of direction. I was no longer Agent Grong. Just a college student, Kim Geun-hong—wait. What? Something was off.
I immediately opened the status window and checked the name.
[Kim Geun-hong]
It said Kim Geun-hong. Not Grong!
"What the—!"
Since when had the name in the status window changed? And I hadn't even noticed that my name had changed...!
"This is insane!"
Entering the Bureau had caused a change in the status window, and I hadn't recognized it? What the hell was this! How could something like this happen?
"What the hell is the Bureau...!"
Overwhelming confusion swallowed my mind. Were the Bureau's Grong and I, Kim Geun-hong, separate existences? No. That couldn't be. I remembered everything I'd done as Grong. I didn't have an agent badge, but I was confident I could do the job if asked right now.
As expected, there was something about the Bureau. The thought boiled up, but soon cooled down again. After all... I'd already known it was a suspicious organization. This was just one more thing added to the list. A name change in the status window was nothing compared to the betrayal I'd experienced.
I thought about what I had to do going forward. Darkness. Only darkness. My eyes closed within the emptiness.
In my dream, I was walking through some kind of maze-like space. Whether it was a manifestation of longing or not, Jaaldi was beside me. Did it mean a past I could never return to?
* * *
Morning. I called my parents for the first time in a while.
-Hey, Red Sun. What's up.
-I just wanted to hear Dad's voice, so I called.
-You fucking voice phishing bastard!!!
-It's really me, Dad.
-How much do you get for doing this shit! Huh! You bastard! So how much do you need!
-Just send me 50,000 won...
-Who the hell needs 50,000 won, you punk! Click!
Dad hung up. A deposit notification came right away. I'd thought he'd send more after saying "who needs 50,000 won," but only 30,000 won arrived. That was the kind of person Dad was.
"Whew."
Hearing his voice made me feel a bit better.
The only thing I had to be careful about right now was the vampire. Regardless of anything else, that woman would eventually come looking for me. She probably couldn't do things like phone tracking, so I'd let that go. As long as I didn't go to my parents' house, it would be fine.
I was a bit worried about the Fake Bureau too... but honestly, they wouldn't come looking if I didn't give myself away, right? If I didn't post on Sejeong-ge or try to investigate, they wouldn't come. That was the kind of organization they were. So there was no need to worry about that.
The problem was still the vampire. That crazy woman would stick to me like a leech. In the end, I'd have to live on the run. Thinking about it, the reason I'd decided to join the Bureau in the previous playthrough was also because of the vampire's pursuit. In many ways, we had a deep connection.
"Life on the run, huh."
In the previous playthrough, after deciding to run away, I'd looked for a suitable job and ended up working as a security guard at Cheongak Mary Hospital. I didn't really want to go there again. Should I just go somewhere else?
"...Yeah."
I'd found something to do. I wanted to skip the hospital, but that wasn't an option. The medicine I'd received there. I'd need that to stop the giant incident.