You Upset the Mad Rabbit

What makes a horror game scary?

More than anything else, I think horror scares me because it's the one time I become a powerless thing. That situation where all you can do, faced with an absolute being, is run. That, I think, is what turns the fear up.

Which is to say—

—the moment a way to fight that absolute being appears, a horror game stops coming at me as horror.

"Heh. Heheh. Heeheehee."

My mood shot straight up.

Gun in hand, I headed somewhere else. None of the fear from a minute ago came with me. I'd picked up an object that handed out psychological stability, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠after all.

And then I met it again.

The apex predator of this world. The rabbit.

"...It's here. That sickening thing."

Ugly enough to startle a ghost, but if the gun in my hands could just—!!!

"Please, please let there be bullets!!!"

I pulled the trigger.

...The rabbit dropped, absurdly easily.

In that instant, the last scrap of fear I'd been holding evaporated.

"Got the gun. I'll clear this in a hurry and walk off with my 2.2 million won!"

Grinning, I pushed forward without a shred of hesitation. A few rabbits did step into my path, but a bullet in the head made them polite immediately.

And then.

"...I was wondering why they'd hand me a gun."

The happiness didn't last.

An English sentence was written on the wall in red paint. No—in a horror game, if it's red, it isn't paint....

Goosebumps ripped up my arms.

I read the sentence on the wall, slowly.

...You made the mad rabbit angry.

I swallowed without meaning to.

"Not scary at all.... They're even nice enough to warn me ahead of time, so why would I be scared.... Put a few rounds in its skull and it's over...."

...Fine. Honestly, I was scared.

That sentence felt like it was telling me the gun could no longer be a way to fight back.

"...I'll farm a little before I go."

Nothing decent around.... An axe? Melee was dangerous, and I wanted to avoid it....

"Just in case, I'll take this too? All right, heading out ag—"

...It was gone.

"...It was definitely written right here."

The English sentence in blood had definitely been on the wall.

It was gone.

...I genuinely wanted to cry.

"...Doesn't it seem a little darker than before?"

To shake the anxiety off, I kept talking to the viewers as I walked the hall. I'd meant to try the doors, but the moment I realized three in a row were locked, I stopped even considering it.

How long was I supposed to walk this corridor? Just as that question started putting on weight, the end of the hall finally came out to greet me.

A door came with it.

"...If I open this, something's definitely jumping out, right?"

Thinking that made me really not want to open it. ...But if I wanted the game to keep going, I had to.

Just in case, I looked behind me once, then looked forward again.

Nothing had changed.

In the end I took the handle and turned it.

The screen went black.

"Eep!"

It's coming.... It's coming.... This one is absolutely, definitely, certainly coming...!

I opened my eyes wide.

Even if some mad rabbit or whatever lunged straight into my face, I poured every scrap of focus I had into being ready to backstep and put a bullet in its skull.

And then.

The lights came on.

Lights scattering a dark crimson glow.

"Y-ya-yah—hyaaa—!!"

I somehow swallowed the scream that tried to come out first, and the curse that nearly burst out right behind it.

I wasn't startled just because the lights had dyed everything crimson.

The background itself had changed.

From an ordinary hallway into a corridor of death, grotesque human corpses hung on the walls like decoration.

Every bit of my attention had been locked on bracing for the mad rabbit, so I hadn't expected a background swap at all—and that made it worse. I was proud of myself for not screaming. That's how bad the jolt was.

I tried to settle my startled heart with a deep breath, but unfortunately that seemed like too much to ask.

I saw it.

Something charging me from the far end.

In that instant my mouse tracked exactly the part I guessed was its head.

The trigger pulled.

Click.

No bullets. Empty.

Before my brain could accept that, instinct hit the key for the axe I'd picked up earlier.

"...Huh?"

It wasn't there.

The axe.

I'd definitely picked it up.

By the time my brain registered that, I had already turned around.

The way back was blocked.

The moment I confirmed that the gun I'd been holding was gone too.

"...Ah."

I clenched my teeth and braced myself to hold the scream in, no matter what.

"...Huh?"

Nothing.

It had definitely been running at me.

...Had it vanished?

Instinctively, unconsciously, I let my guard down. Only a little—but a gap opened.

And the developer did not miss that moment.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAH—HAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Live long enough and you learn a few things whether you want to or not.

That Santa doesn't actually exist. That if a person takes too great a shock, even the tears refuse to come. That there are fewer people than you'd think who put blood before money.

And today, I learned one more.

...That if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a horror game startles you badly enough, the strength can drain straight out of your legs.

Not a joke. I had less life in my body than when I'd done that forty-one-hour no-signoff Kyeonwang.

...This wasn't going to work.

"Not quite bad enough to end the stream.... But the strength just drained right out of me, you know? So I'm gonna eat something sweet and recharge my sugar."

Saying that, I picked up my phone and opened a delivery app.

Let's see, what to order? A croffle, one of those croissant-waffles? A plain waffle? Oh, the waffle's delivery fee is cheaper. Waffle it is.

Huh? They've got honey bread here too—that thick toast drowned in honey butter? Then honey bread and a mango juice.... Okay!

"Now I just have to hold out until the fuel resupply gets here...!"

I set the phone on the desk, leaned back in the chair, and sank into a half-reclined slump.

...I'd originally planned a VR horror game for later, but that plan was getting scrapped. People said VR horror was really, really, really scary.

Not a joke. If something worse than what I'd just been through showed up, I felt like I might have a heart attack mid-game.

"But I died to that mad rabbit and the ending credits rolled. So is that an ending too? Did I see an ending?"

"Oh, so if you clear it by dodging the rabbits the whole way without killing them, there's another ending. ...I'm only saying this just in case, but I am absolutely not watching any other ending. The second I start a second run to see it, tomorrow's forced day off is confirmed. For real."

And if I did a second run, I'd probably keep screaming my head off. That wasn't a great option for my throat, either.

I, Märchen. The one and only student of genius singer-songwriter Loe. Taking care of myself is the bare minimum.

"I called it first and said I'd never do a second run, so the timeline where all of you nag me has been erased. The you in that nagging timeline are probably watching Märchen flip you off right about now."

"No. I ordered honey bread. I personally like honey bread."

Ages ago I'd been watching anime when a food I'd never seen in my life popped up, so I bought some out of curiosity.... It was way better than I expected.

It shows up in anime, and it tastes good? Instant promotion to favorite dessert, right?

I was telling the viewers that behind-the-scenes story when my thoughts drifted a little.

Toward part-two content.

"Since we're already on anime, should part two be an anime-watching stream while I eat dessert, for the first time in a while? ...Or just go full mukbang anime? Huh? This might actually be good?"

And so, watching a food anime and finishing every bite of that sweet honey bread, I surrendered to the appetite-boosting effect of mukbang anime and to my tongue screaming that it wanted something spicy—and ended up eating ramen too.

Then I had to digest before I could sleep, so I went to bed later than usual.

Of course, before bed, I didn't forget to post on the fan cafe.

Raider launch, D-5.

I went to Seoul for my third vocal training session.

And that day, I decided to sign an MCN contract with AY Entertainment.

...I thought my head would split, going back over that contract again and again, reading every line.

Raider launch, D-3.

On stream, I split an uhwang cheongsimhwan—one of those traditional Korean nerve-calming pills—in half and took it.

The effect was instant.

Raider launch, D-1.

On stream, I set out a bowl of water and prayed that Raider would please, please come out a god-tier game.

While I was praying, I also asked them to let me pull off a little Bitik.

And then.

The long-awaited Raider launch D-DAY arrived.