The System's Last Words
After the party ended, Lee Hae-won and Na Jae-hyun returned home.
The two had come and gone quickly. Still, the snacks and ice cream they had bought from the convenience store remained.
“Don’t put it in the freezer.”
“No, why is the freezer so small? Is that all the space there is for freezing?”
Won Ji-an stuffed the ice cream into the freezer and sighed.
“……The house is a mess.”
Empty soda cans rolled across the semi-basement floor. Traces of the party. It was called a party, but since they were still minors, they had only drunk soda and cola.
“You’re not going home?”
Won Ji-an lay on the floor as if drunk, even though he hadn’t touched alcohol.
“This is my house, where else would I go.”
Won Ji-an, hearing my words, rolled around with his arms spread out.
“……This is my house.”
“No. Strictly speaking, since this body is now mine, this house can be said to be mine too.”
It wasn’t wrong.
This was Do Won-woo’s house. Won Ji-an was now the perfect image of Do Won-woo.
Thinking about how to claim ownership while in a swapped body… It was complicated. Just thought about saying it.
“Just go to your own house.”
“Why are you trying to send me away?”
“So, are you going to sleep here in this dirty basement today?”
Won Ji-an muttered.
“You don’t like me being here?”
“No. There are a lot of bugs here. Sometimes cockroaches come out, and centipedes too.”
Won Ji-an, who had been lazily rolling around, startled at that sound and sat up.
He was so afraid of bugs, but I wonder how he got rid of the millworms that the sasaeng left last time.
“It’s fine. It’s okay anyway.”
“……It’s okay?”
“Anyway, you’ll be leaving this basement soon, right?”
He nodded.
“It’s over now.”
Leaning against the wall, he looked at the familiar scenery. Since he had debuted, he needed to send this dreary basement away and prepare to move to a new house.
I was starting to feel sleepy, and without realizing it, a yawn came out.
“Meow.”
At the sound from somewhere, the drowsiness that had been pushing in was suddenly gone.
“Meow?”
A black cat was sitting beyond the iron bars outside the window.
What, it’s just a cat. I was about to dismiss it casually.
“Congratulations on your debut.”
The moment I heard that voice, I immediately knew who the owner was.
A creepy, wet, low voice. The System’s voice.
“……System.”
Why wasn’t it coming out. It wasn’t the type to quietly pass by.
I approached the iron bars. The yellow eyes were sparkling with a sinister light.
“You finally debuted. You saved yourself and your friends.”
I turned around. Won Ji-an was quietly sleeping, as if he had fallen asleep at some point.
At that moment, the System’s voice came again.
“Wonderful story. How does it feel to be the protagonist of a novel?”
“I told you. I had no intention of becoming a protagonist or anything like that.”
The System, in the form of a cat beyond the iron bars, shook its tail and said.
“Honestly, I knew you could do it.”
The System’s mouth, which had finished speaking, stretched long as if touching the ear.
“Hahaha!”
“……”
“You could do it! Hahaha!”
The grotesque laughter in front of me was so disgusting that I didn’t want to look, but I faced it straight without avoiding it.
It didn’t look like it was laughing. The guy was almost going crazy.
“Hey, do you know how systems, geojik, systems are made in this world?”
An unpleasant noise started to mix with the System’s continuing voice.
“Systems aren’t gods. They’re not beings that can move the world at will either.”
I nodded.
Of course, I had expected it. This guy didn’t seem normal at all.
“Then, what exactly is your true identity?”
The System, receiving my question, started laughing madly again.
“I don’t know either. Hahaha!”
The strange laughter echoed. But it didn’t last long. The System suddenly hid its laughter and continued in a low voice.
“I was human once too. I had a body like you. I experienced the same thing as you at first. I died and became a reincarnator, falling into another world.”
Wait a minute, that means.
“Did this guy also experience being human like me?”
It took a moment to process the information all at once.
Because the guy’s identity was in a completely unexpected direction. It was unbelievable, but it didn’t seem like a lie.
“Then, you must have met the System existence like me too.”
“……Yeah. I met it.”
The System’s words continued.
“I also heard the story that if I don’t debut, I’ll die, like you.”
For a moment, my head froze at the situation and development that was exactly the same, giving me chills.
So, the System wasn’t originally a System being. It was human at some point, selected as a reincarnator type like me, and heard that if it doesn’t debut on the first day it comes to the world, it will die.
“It’s exactly the same.”
The situation was not much different from mine. But there was something else...
“But I didn’t debut.”
The System in front of me was laughing, but somehow it looked pitiful.
“I was full of hope. I believed I could debut. I thought I was a human chosen by myself.”
“……”
“Getting a second life, getting a System, being able to use amazing abilities.”
The System continuing to speak shouted.
“But I didn’t debut, I died, and when I opened my eyes, I was a System! When I came to my senses, my body was taken by that guy!”
“That guy?”
The System shouted.
“The System. That damned System that pretended to help me and controlled my body while I was in it and took it over!”
A scream-like sound followed.
“From the beginning, that guy’s purpose was this. Pretending to help, controlling my body’s stats while I was in the body, and eventually interfering so I couldn’t debut and taking over the body...!”
A sound that tore at the ears made me involuntarily step back.
“And, to get my body back, I had no choice but to become that System and do the same thing to that guy.”
I calmly organized my thoughts.
Now I understood. How it was. The System’s actions until now had made sense.
Sometimes it would act like it was helping me, but at critical moments, it would push me to the edge...
Was that all because of that reason.
“Won Ji-an, if it weren’t for that crazy guy, your body would have been mine.”
The System shouted as if howling.
“Does that make sense? Is it reasonable to risk your own life and take someone else’s misfortune instead?!”
Soon the gaze turned to Won Ji-an.
When I turned around, Won Ji-an was standing up, having woken from sleep.
“When did you wake up?”
“A while ago. I woke up and listened the whole time.”
Won Ji-an, saying that, had eyes that were more determined and firm than ever.
Even though he was wearing my appearance now, the gaze was the same.
“You said it doesn’t make sense.”
Won Ji-an took a step forward and said.
“Why doesn’t it make sense?”
The System glared at Won Ji-an approaching it as if to kill it.
“You know that too. There are many people in the world, and they are all different, and can never be the same.”
Won Ji-an, standing close, continued right in front of the System’s nose.
“There are people in the world who think others’ lives are as insignificant as flies’ lives, and conversely, people who value others’ lives so much that they risk their own lives to protect them. You see it all in the news, right?”
Won Ji-an gave a bitter smile.
“Of course, I’m not the latter. I didn’t want to sacrifice; I just wanted to die because my life was boring.”
“……”
“But I wanted to live. Seeing my friends who wanted to save me.”
At the last words, the System looked completely mentally collapsed.
“……Why only you.”
The System repeated the same words like a crazy AI.
“Why only you, why only you, why only you, why only you, why only you, why only you, why only you!”
It was a bit pitiful to see that appearance. Of course, I didn’t want to feel sympathy.
“I wanted to debut too! Geojik, I wanted a body too! I wanted to be loved, cheered on, to be a proud existence, geojik, but why only you, why only you guys!”
The System was rampaging wildly, almost in madness.
The System’s goal of pretending to help and stealing my body had failed, and the predetermined words were obvious.
As if making a final desperate effort, the System raised its voice. However, the guy’s body was already being erased.
“Is this the end?”
The System shouted desperately.
“You, even if you debut, geojik, you won’t be happy. You forgot the bet we made? Geojik, if you don’t get first place, geojik, you’ll get a huge misfortune.”
At those words, Won Ji-an’s gaze looking at me became strange.
“You will soon have a huge, geojik, misfortune, come to you.”
The System’s voice was like a broken radio, not intact.
It was in a state almost like it was about to be completely destroyed.
“And…… there is a being that wants to destroy you. That being is…… geojik, geojik.”
Before the last words, the System’s voice was full of unpleasant noise.
“You will completely, completely destroy you, and take away your happiness…… ya.”
At that moment, watching that appearance blankly, Won Ji-an rushed forward and grabbed the iron bars in front of him with both hands and shook them.
“Who is it!”
Won Ji-an shouted while shaking the iron bars madly.
“Who, what is that!”
This was the first time. Won Ji-an, who was always quiet, had shouted at someone in such an angry manner.
“You…… can never imagine……”
And the System disappeared.
Cleanly, without a trace.
Like it had never existed from the beginning.