Chapter 9
Dark red letters floated above the translucent window.
‘What is this?’
Before she could be bewildered by the irrationality of the situation unfolding before her eyes, her eyes quickly scanned the letters.
[Nice to meet you, Miss Carolyn August. I am the AI system of the game .]
“Game?”
[Yes, that is correct. It must be an unfamiliar concept to Miss Carolyn August, right? I will explain to help you understand.]
Above the window that introduced itself as a system, people’s hands and unknown objects were revealed. The overlaid window looked as if a play had been magically recorded. Carolyn watched people move on the translucent window and touch small rectangular machines in front of their eyes.
[A game refers to people outside the world creating secondary avatars, their alter egos, to explore the inside of the world.]
“Outside the world…?”
[This place where Miss Carolyn August lives is the worldview of a story created by someone. And outside this world, people are enjoying a game using this worldview.]
The window changed, and the guests in the mansion Carolyn had seen so far were revealed one by one. All seven people, including the woman in the blue dress, the red-haired woman, and the blonde-haired woman.
“Those people…”
[It seems you felt suspicious upon meeting them. It makes sense, as those seven women were not people of this worldview like Miss Carolyn, but beings from outside the world. Those who insert their alter egos and traverse the world to achieve what they want are called ‘players’.]
“What did those people come to achieve?”
[They wish to achieve rewards that bring money or satisfaction. And the people here, including Miss Carolyn, are ‘NPCs’ or ‘capture targets’ that exist to help the ‘players’ progress in the game. Fundamentally, they do not possess an ‘ego’.]
Beings for the players, possessing no ego. Carolyn felt displeasure before confusion at the system’s words.
[Miss Carolyn, do you remember since when you started loving the actor Aiden Darebell?]
‘That is, of course.’
“It was after seeing his performance, led by my parents’ hands, on the day I received a diagnosis that I could die at this rate.”
[Then, do you remember who the doctor was that gave the diagnosis?]
Due to a slight sense of rebellion, Carolyn, who intended to answer as soon as she read the system’s letters, could not open her mouth and remained silent for a long time. She couldn’t remember. Let alone the doctor’s face, what their gender was, or what their speaking voice sounded like, she couldn’t recall anything. In the first place, what exact sentence was that diagnosis? Only then did Carolyn realize she was imagining, not reminiscing. There was nothing she could remember. Because she had never heard such a diagnosis in the first place.
[Miss Carolyn August has never heard such a diagnosis. You probably don’t have memories of being nursed by your family while lying sick in bed either. Because Miss Carolyn has never actually experienced such things.]
“Then why am I thinking that way? If such a thing never happened, why do I…”
The system said it wasn’t that she was remembering incorrectly. It was merely a setting assigned to the character named Carolyn. In this world, Carolyn had taken on the role of one of the audience members watching Aiden Darebell’s performance.
“I don’t understand. Try explaining it so I can comprehend.”
[Miss Carolyn, please think of this world as a single stage. In the midst of it, Miss Carolyn is a single extra. A minor extra who wouldn’t even interact with the players.]
While reading the system’s window, the world was dyed white. And thunder struck. In the momentarily brightened window, Carolyn projected the Oyster Man who had glared at her in the darkness. A ferocious man with the appearance of Aiden Darebell.
“Then what about Aiden Darebell? What is he here?”
[He is a kind of supporting actor. Since he is a capture target of a stage that players pass through.]
Afterward, Carolyn gave up trying to absorb all the system’s drawn-out, lengthy words. She barely understood the explanation that gathering information and wealth to carry out a mission was what a ‘capture’ meant.
[Aiden Darebell and this mansion were an extremely small part of the epic saga the players partake in, corresponding to just one chapter. The players were supposed to escape the mansion after successfully capturing Aiden here. However, compared to the immense effort required, neither the fun nor the rewards were great, so it was an episode the game company side intended to delete.]
Fun, rewards, deletion. At the last word, Carolyn’s face turned pale.
“Then.”
Carolyn barely parted her lips, which she had bitten so hard she could taste blood.
“When you say deletion, does everything disappear? From where to where…”
[Aiden Darebell and his settings, his performances, this mansion and the places he performed, the audience including you… all these things will disappear. As if they never existed from the beginning.]
“Liar.”
How could that be possible? Carolyn August is right here, in this place right now. She has been watching Aiden Darebell for years. The moment Carolyn turned her head with a scoffing laugh, she froze just like that. The room disappeared, and all that was visible to her eyes was an entirely white space.
[I do not tell lies, Miss Carolyn.]
Ah.
“How… is this…”
As she spoke in a trembling voice, the white space whose boundaries and limits could not even be known changed back into Carolyn’s room. So naturally and easily, like flipping a piece of paper.
‘My whole body is trembling.’
What was there until just a moment ago instantly disappeared and then reappeared. What just happened surely wouldn’t be limited simply to her room.
‘I, and this world, really could disappear.’
Her whole body felt heavy as if weights were hung on it. It also felt as if something on the floor was pulling her down. It felt like the system window before her eyes, the inside of this room, and the entirety of this space called the mansion were all pressuring Carolyn.
“…Let’s go back to our previous conversation. You said they intended to delete the episode centered around Aiden. To intend to do so means they’ve decided not to do it for now.”
[That is correct, Miss Carolyn August. Amidst considering the deletion of the episode for the efficient operation of the game servers, we discovered you. You, who broke away from your original role and received Aiden’s invitation, standing with the same qualifications as the players in the episode.]
Only then could Carolyn understand the things that had happened to her. Aiden, who firmly believed there were seven guests despite there being eight people sitting down. The servants who did not provide tableware only for her.
[I do not know the reason, but regardless of my intentions, Miss Carolyn, who was invited, possesses an ego and is able to act freely in accordance with the episode. Right now, because all the players have failed or terminated their capture of the episode, only Miss Carolyn is left.] [If there are no players to clear this episode, the story will come to an end. What money would they make by operating it when there are no users? However, Miss Carolyn, can you accept this decision?]
“No.”
People outside this world, the players. Or how the system viewed Carolyn and the beings here didn’t matter. However, to her, this world was her incredibly precious home.
“This is my world. No matter how much I am just an extra, and even if I am a being given a role, my love for this place remains unchanged. Do not ruin the home I live in.”
[But Miss Carolyn, is that so even knowing all the people here are fake? Do you love Aiden Darebell even knowing the fact that he is a mechanical being without an ego, merely performing the role of an actor within the game?]
Carolyn fell into thought.
‘Why did I start liking him? No, don’t look for the beginning. Why do I love him?’
A dark space flashed through Carolyn’s mind.
