The Heavenly Demon Plays a Shit Game (3)
As I subtly shifted my gaze to the side, I caught Enri’s face beaming with pure childlike delight. Heh. You little brat. Were you really enjoying the sight of me struggling that much? It seemed the lessons I’d given her yesterday had left more than a few grudges simmering in her heart. If that was the case, she should have put in a bit more thought and come up with a proper way to tease me. There was no way something like this could possibly rattle me.
I won’t deny that I’m clumsy with modern conveniences. It’s the truth, after all. But what did that have to do with this situation? All I was doing was moving a character on the screen by moving a mouse. A mouse? She thought I couldn’t handle a mouse? It wasn’t as if she was looking at some primitive caveman. In the end, this was simply a matter of wielding the tool known as a mouse to achieve a result. For someone like me who could command ten thousand weapons, this task was as easy as breathing.
I realized this after moving the mouse a few times and experimenting with the character at the start. Once I understood how the character needed to move to follow my will, I asked Enri, “So I just have to keep going up?”
I had my doubts. There was no way the thing Enri had brought to tease me would be something this simple. Yet Enri betrayed my expectations. She nodded with an incredibly confident expression on her face.
“Yes! That’s exactly it!”
Really? That was all? Just what part of this game was supposed to put me in a difficult position? How was this any different from clicking a mouse to drag a file? Worried it might just be Enri’s own delusion, I checked the chat window, but the atmosphere there was no different from her reaction.
The viewers genuinely believed I would struggle because of something like this. It was bewildering. This wasn’t the first time I had experienced such a thing. How many people in the world had ever wished for my failure? I had received curses equal to the number of raindrops falling from the sky. But those had always stemmed from pure malice. These people were different. They held goodwill toward me yet still wanted to see me in trouble. Just as I had found joy in watching Enri scream inside a horror game, they were hoping to see me cornered and turned into a laughingstock.
If this had come from malice, I would have simply shattered their expectations. But this… haa. What was I supposed to do about this? The gaze Enri was shooting from the side was too intense to ignore. She had probably put some real thought into choosing this prank. If I crushed the joke now, wouldn’t she be disappointed?
Long ago—before I had become the Heavenly Demon’s daughter—I once played tag with a child. I had lost rock-paper-scissors and become the one who was it. The moment I said I would count to ten, the child dashed off somewhere. After counting to twenty, I thought the child must have hidden by then and turned around. I spotted the child immediately. They were hiding behind a curtain. The moment I saw those little feet poking out from beneath it, I agonized over what to do.
It felt similar now. I could find them if I wanted to. All I had to do was walk forward and pull the curtain aside. But if I did that, the child would surely be disappointed. They might even cry. Since I had no confidence in comforting a crying child, I quietly turned my head and pretended to search somewhere else. Even now, after so much time had passed, I was still better at making others cry than at comforting them.
Enri probably wouldn’t cry just because I cleared this game without difficulty. But she would be disappointed. She might even make a sullen face. I had no confidence in lifting her spirits if that happened. So I chose to become the clown.
“Is there oil on the hammer or something?”
The moment I deliberately faked a mistake and fell, both the chat window and Enri beside me burst into laughter. So this was what you were hoping for? In that case, did I have to keep repeating this nonsense until the game was over? This was difficult. So difficult. Enri. I don’t know if this was your intention, but you have definitely succeeded in putting me in a tight spot. You may take pride in that. Even if I searched the entire murim, there weren’t many people who could make me feel this way.
I was extremely troubled right now. I let out a sigh that came straight from the heart and moved the mouse again. Glancing at the chat window that kept scrolling upward, I also pondered where I should pretend to fail next. The silver lining was that both Enri and the viewers had assumed from the start that I would be better than an average person. So even when I gradually revealed a little more skill midway through, they only expressed admiration and never once suspected I was hiding my true ability.
After about two and a half hours had passed, the naked bald man who had been trapped in the bathtub flew off into deep space.
“It’s over.”
Feeling mentally and physically drained, I slumped back against the chair. I had thought there would be no need for a long pipe in this era, but it seemed I was wrong. I should prepare one. Who could guarantee something like this wouldn’t happen again?
“I knew you would do well, but I didn’t expect it to be this good.”
Completely unaware of my inner thoughts, Enri was staring at the screen with a disappointed expression. Did you know, Enri? In this game, if I had wanted to, I could have finished it in less than ten minutes from the start. Instead, I deliberately dragged it out for two and a half hours. Two and a half hours! So please, be satisfied with that.
“What are you so disappointed about?”
“I couldn’t use this.”
Enri manipulated her smartphone, and my own voice flowed out from it.
‘Would I get angry over something like this? It’s just a game.’
I had said that too. Don’t tell me she recorded it just to tease me later?
“Enri. You really are a vicious person.”
Haa. This kid. Her head worked surprisingly well at times like this. That statement had also been my true feelings. Think about it. If I had genuinely been annoyed, would the mouse or the desk have remained intact?
“Ahaha. Still, it was fun. You got lost sometimes too, Ara.”
So my acted confusion had been satisfying? That was a relief. It seemed my suffering hadn’t been completely in vain. I quietly glanced toward the chat window. They were sincerely congratulating me on clearing the game. Watching the messages scroll up as fast as they had when Enri achieved victory yesterday, I finally felt a sense of relief.
Haa. The clown act was finally over. Everything had gone well, so why did I feel so exhausted? I needed somewhere to vent this irritation. Apis. Let’s go to Apis.
“Enri. Can I try the capsule VR right away?”
“Huh? Aren’t you tired?”
“I want to vent a little.”
When I said that, Enri let out a small smile. She probably thought I was angry because of the trouble I had gone through in the bathtub game. This was exactly why spotless goodwill could be so troublesome. How could I possibly destroy that smiling face?
“Everyone, it’s okay to watch Hwaryeong play Apis live, right?”
“Then I’ll end this broadcast for now and turn it back on from inside VR. See you in a bit!”
After the broadcast ended, I stood up and stretched. Maybe it was because I had deliberately pretended to struggle, but my whole body felt stiff.
“Ara, that looked really tiring.”
“It was.”
That was my honest feeling. Did she have any idea how much torment I had gone through just to act out the image they all wanted to see?!
“Ahaha. But it was a bet you made yourself, Ara. Think of it as karma.”
“…Yeah. It really is karma.”
Even so, I had never imagined that this kind of trouble would come looking for me. I would rather have endured humiliation than willingly walk into it with my own two feet! Leaving the laughing Enri behind, I opened the door of the VR capsule and stepped inside.
“Is there anything I need to attach separately?”
The inside of the VR capsule was cozy. It was so cozy that I thought if I closed my eyes, I could simply make this place my home and fall asleep. “The capsule scans you automatically, so there’s nothing you need to do.”
After Enri left to find another VR device, I closed my eyes and connected to VR. Normally I would have felt dizzy by now, but the capsule had none of that. My consciousness flickered for a moment, and then the usual VR landscape unfolded before me.
Ooh. Expensive things really were worth their price. To think the dizziness that always bothered me when using VR would disappear. I should ask Enri how much this cost later. If possible, I wanted to buy one quickly even if it meant spending a fortune.
Before long, an invitation flew in from Enri.
“How is it? The VR capsule?”
“It’s excellent. I like that the dizziness I used to feel every time the screen moved is gone.”
“What about anything else? Doesn’t the reaction speed feel faster?”
“Hmm. Let me check for a moment.”
I gently moved my fingers.
“It has gotten a little faster.”
If I had to guess, the difference was about 0.01 to 0.02 seconds.
“You can feel that?”
“Of course.”
In a fight between skilled martial artists, a difference of 0.01 seconds could decide victory or defeat. Recognizing or failing to recognize that margin was an extremely important matter.
“There really is a difference.”
“You will naturally come to understand it once your skill improves later.”
“How many times will I have to roll around until then?”
“Hmm.”
It was hard to say for certain, but it would probably take at least years. Enri let out a dry laugh at my answer. It must have sounded like a distant story. As soon as the broadcast turned on, donations started pouring in.
“I was just here a moment ago.”
“Does it feel that different?”
“It feels really different. Even I get surprised every time I see it.”
After some light chatter, we logged into Apis.
“Are you going straight into ranked games?”
“That’s for later. There’s something else I want to do first.”
“Something else?”
I said nothing more and changed the waiting room into the ruins located in the middle of a desert. It was the same place where Enri had fought the Shadow Hunter last time. A location with no people and only dilapidated buildings everywhere. It was the perfect spot for venting frustration.
“Why did we come here?”
“I told you. I need to vent.”
I stood in front of a nearby building, stamped my foot, and threw a punch. That was enough. Even though my fist never touched it, the building couldn’t withstand the aftershock of my strike and collapsed completely. Dust rose along with the debris.
“Wait about twenty minutes for me.”
“Uh. Yes. Yessir.”
Enri couldn’t hide her astonishment as she watched the city collapse with every punch. Even though she had experienced countless shocking moments while living with Ara, she still couldn’t get used to Ara’s overwhelming martial prowess.
“She must be really angry.”
“Does that mean the main character being Hwaryeong implies she’s the disaster?”
Enri read the chat and sympathized. Whenever she saw people venting their resentment in the community about getting crushed by Hwaryeong, Enri had never understood them. Meeting a strong player in Apis and losing wasn’t that unusual. But seeing this scene now, she could understand their feelings at least a little.
“Hwaryeong didn’t hold back for other players in ranked games either, right?”
Enri once again realized just how much Ara had held back while teaching her. She really hadn’t used even a fraction of her true power. Next time she felt like teasing Ara, she would have to read the room carefully. If Ara got truly angry, it would be impossible to handle.