Resistance

Chapter 4

『Park Se-eun's route has changed.』

The message confirmed what I'd suspected.

Se-eun's problems began with our family. And perhaps I could do something about them.

When I showed her the listening device, she went rigid with shock.

"!"

Ha-rin's schemes reached into every corner of our lives.

She had assigned Se-eun to watch me and apparently monitored us herself through hacked devices. Her obsession left no room for privacy.

Worst of all was—

'The bug sewn into my clothes.'

I felt the tiny object through the fabric of my uniform and could hardly believe it was real.

'She actually planted a listening device on me. Seriously? And the old Si-hyun just pretended not to notice? How did he stand it?'

In the game, Si-hyun sometimes ignored devices he discovered. I wasn't about to follow his example.

The alley had no CCTV cameras. For once, we were beyond Ha-rin's surveillance. I had no idea when I'd get another chance to speak to Se-eun privately.

I caught her wrist. Her hand stiffened in mine.

"...Let go."

She tried to sound defiant, but I ignored the protest and traced words across her palm.

'Bug. In my clothes. Ha-rin planted it. Stay quiet.'

A shiver ran through her.

"......."

Se-eun stared at me, speechless.

'Nod if you understand.'

She studied the words forming against her skin. Her expression hardened, though her eyes still betrayed confusion.

'We don't have much time.'

At last, she gave a reluctant nod.

I let go of her jaw and wrist. Her legs trembled faintly beneath her.

Fear filled her eyes. She was probably thinking about Ha-rin.

We weren't close enough for me to comfort her.

From a brother she'd long since stopped trusting, sympathy might only make matters worse.

After a moment, she took her phone from her skirt pocket.

Without speaking, she mouthed, *Is that true? What about this?*

I pointed to the phone and drew a circle in the air: yes.

"!"

Her eyes widened, but she still looked unconvinced.

'Fair enough. I wouldn't trust me either.'

Ha-rin was our sister. Accusing her of spying on her own family sounded absurd—especially coming from the pathetic brother Se-eun despised.

Of course she doubted me.

'But it's true.'

As a bare minimum safeguard, Park Ha-rin planted a bug in Park Se-eun's smartphone. She was on guard, worried that Park Se-eun might, by any chance, be charmed by my looks and develop a crush on me.

Ha-rin paid ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠far less attention to Se-eun than she did to me. Her sister barely registered except as someone who might interfere. A bugged phone was apparently all the effort Ha-rin thought she warranted.

I wanted to explain without making Se-eun feel even less important, but she still looked at me with distrust.

'Words aren't going to convince her.'

Proof would. I took a box cutter from my bag and carefully slit the seam of my sleeve.

Another tiny listening device lay hidden inside.

"!"

Se-eun laughed once, without humor, and pressed a shaking hand to her forehead.

Then her face reddened with anger.

Perhaps she'd always suspected Ha-rin was capable of something like this. Seeing the device had made suspicion into certainty.

When I explained that Ha-rin could see even the messages she typed and deleted, Se-eun tightened her grip on the phone until her knuckles whitened.

Neither of us had ever been outside Ha-rin's reach.

For a middle schooler who'd never had much freedom to begin with, it was a devastating realization.

But Park Ha-rin is mentally ill, and that has damaged her brain. In a way, it might even be a relief that, even in a situation like this, she is holding back her signature violence as much as possible and keeping things at this level.

Because in <The Tower>, Park Ha-rin was a deranged lunatic.

'I'm going to ridiculous ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lengths just to stay alive.'

Still, she needed to know the truth, however much it hurt.

『Protagonist Death Statistics, 3rd Place ─ Park Se-eun 8%』

One day, according to the game, Se-eun would become strong enough to kill me herself.

─You've never once been my family. ...Park Ha-rin, that bitch too.

But maybe that wasn't my only reason. I didn't want to see her pushed any further into resenting her own family.

In the game, Se-eun trusted almost nobody, and she hated Si-hyun most of all. I still didn't know exactly why.

'If I'd ever managed to escape Ha-rin long enough to explore the other routes, perhaps I'd understand.'

But Se-eun was my younger sister. I'd never seriously wanted to pursue her route, and our encounters in the game usually ended in fights anyway.

—I'm no longer your younger sister.

If I let the next three years pass unchanged, Si-hyun's accumulated failures would turn us into enemies.

I wanted to avoid that future. I also wanted to avoid spending the years before the Tower appeared locked away by Ha-rin.

'So...'

I had to rebuild my relationship with Se-eun. Until a moment ago, I hadn't known how.

Then a familiar game mechanic occurred to me.

The standard dating-sim solution.

'Raise her affection.'

Se-eun was still young. She couldn't ask Ha-rin for help, and there was almost no one she could tell about what happened at home.

Under that cold, capable exterior, she must have been lonely.

Her family—the people who should have supported her—had shut her out.

Even her time and privacy weren't her own.

Among the family, Park Se-eun was always left out, a mere accessory for keeping a forbidden relationship going, after all.

Little by little, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she must have given up the things she once wanted.

'No wonder she's so bitter.'

Three years from now, it might be too late. But right now, before she'd abandoned all hope, we could still change things.

'And maybe she'll help me get away from Ha-rin in return.'

That was what I'd hoped to accomplish by speaking to her on the way to school.

'Although seriously, why did the developers put someone you can't romance in the heroine roster? What were they thinking?'

I swallowed my irritation. This wasn't the time.

Then—

Se-eun met my gaze and flinched. She looked like someone who'd spent years expecting every kindness to have a hidden cost.

I took her restless hand ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠again.

She looked startled, but she didn't pull away.

Slowly, I wrote a message on her palm.

'Don't worry. You can trust me.'

Nothing more.

The trembling in her hand gradually eased.

She stared at me as though trying to decide whether she believed it.

And then—

Flinch.

Our eyes met. Se-eun looked away, her cheeks coloring.

"?"

For someone who usually seemed so composed, she was surprisingly flustered.

'What's with that reaction?'

Before I could think about it—

BANG!

A furious burst of piano music shattered the quiet.

!

We both went pale.

Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7, the *War Sonata*.

A notoriously difficult piece, played with ferocious intensity.

And this recording was Ha-rin's own performance.

The ringtone was coming from my pocket. With shaking fingers, I pulled out my phone.

A laugh escaped me, brittle with dread.

"Our Lovely Big Sister♡"

Ha-rin's photograph filled the incoming-call screen. Even her contact name felt like a threat.

* * *

♪♬

The piano raged through the alley.

Every sharp note seemed to echo Ha-rin's violent temperament.

"Our Lovely Big Sister♡"

Only moments had passed since the call began, but the alley had gone unnaturally still.

Even our breathing sounded too loud.

"Our Lovely Big Sister♡"

Neither of us could look away from the screen.

'How did she know? I've been gone less than three minutes. How could she possibly know already?'

'I thought her morning medication would give me a little breathing room...'

Park Ha-rin, who suffers from a complex mental disorder, always takes psychotropic medication.

'She usually gets unpredictable after taking it. I thought I could use that to my advantage.'

The thought vanished when I saw Se-eun staring at the screen. The fear in her face was unmistakable.

She bit her lip. Tears glistened at the corners of her eyes.

I watched her, suddenly unable to think only of myself.

'What has Ha-rin done to make you this afraid of her?'

What had happened between them that I didn't remember?

Had Se-eun seen the part of Ha-rin the rest of the world never saw?

I couldn't know for sure.

But this wasn't just pity. I genuinely wanted to help her.

'Normally we'd never get to speak privately. She wouldn't listen, and even if she did, the house is wired for sound.'

This unmonitored alley was a rare opportunity.

I couldn't waste it.

I needed three years to win Se-eun's trust and avoid the ending where she killed me. I'd also need her cooperation to meet the other heroines without Ha-rin's knowledge.

「My Lovely Big Sister♡」

Yet whenever I looked at Ha-rin's face on the screen, dread flooded back.

I'd watched Si-hyun die in the game more times than I could remember.

『N-Big Sister, I-I'm sorry...』

"......"

Back then, I was outside the screen. The deaths were horrifying, but they weren't mine.

『Your body isn't just yours, is it?』

Meeting Ha-rin in person had changed that.

『Oh? What a shame?』

The madness in those eyes was real. She was perfectly capable of making every one of those endings happen.

And this time, I was the one standing in her path.

Thump. Thump.

My pulse raced. Si-hyun's inherited fear was spreading through me again.

『You only need to think about me.』

Memory and reality blurred together.

For a moment, terror threatened to swallow every thought.

But—

"Hngh..."

Se-eun covered her mouth with a trembling hand. Tears pooled in her eyes.

Her knees buckled, and she caught hold of my arm to steady herself.

Something hot and furious tightened in my chest.

I clenched my teeth.

Her trembling only made me grip the phone harder. I glared at the screen.

Enough.

'Even after the Tower appears, I'm going to live on my own terms. I'm not spending the rest of my life in a cage because of you. And what you've done to Se-eun is unforgivable.'

No child should have to live in this kind of fear.

I wasn't going to look away and pretend nothing was wrong.

My junk is so big that even a Black guy would be startled into fainting, my voice is fantastic, my talent, everything is fantastic. I'm the perfect handsome man I am now.

Do you think someone like me is crazy enough to live out my days screwing a woman this dangerous, incest and all?

Rather, living lovey-dovey with another heroine who puts my mind at ease would be far better.

'The game has pushed me around enough. I'm done being your helpless little pet.'

If I slipped up, she'd put a collar on me or lock me somewhere I could never leave.

I'd seen hundreds of variations of that ending.

Accepting it here would be the same as surrendering my life before it had begun.

And leaving Se-eun shaking beside me would feel just as wrong.

'I'm not doing that.'

I looked at my younger sister and felt my resolve harden.

'You aren't the only one capable of doing something crazy, Park Ha-rin.'

I snatched a brick from beside the wall and shut my eyes for an instant.

'My real name, too...'

I raised the brick like a primitive man discovering his first weapon, then brought it down on the phone with all my strength.

'I'm Park Si-hyun...'

The screen shattered. Sparks burst from the broken casing.

'I AM PARK SI-HYUN!'

The hated contact photo vanished beneath the cracks.

『Protagonist 'Park Si-hyun' Synchronization Rate - 121% → 125%』

Sparks from the ruined phone flashed against the alley walls. At the same moment, a translucent message appeared before me, its letters glowing gold.

『The Synchronization Rate, having surpassed the threshold, has been newly updated!』

『The Synchronization Rate has reached a specific peak!』

And then—

『Passive 'Optimal Progression' acquired!』

The instant the notification appeared, something in the world seemed to shift.

『Effect - Scope Cannot Be Restricted』

『Just as you desire.』

* * *

"Ha... haha..."

A disbelieving laugh escaped me. Of all the moments to gain a skill, it had happened now.

『Passive <Optimal Progression>』

『Grade - Unknown』

『Effect - Scope Cannot Be Restricted』

『Activation Condition - Always Active』

『Completion - 0%』

Golden messages streamed across my vision.

『Just as you desire.』

On the day I resolved to defy Ha-rin, I gained a skill unlike anything I'd ever seen.

『Everything is adjusted to suit you.』

For the first time, I felt like the protagonist of my own story.