BOPE 03

Chapter 03 …

“Let’s open it.”

Standing in front of the door, Donghee carefully entered the four-digit code of her birthday—a date no one else ever remembered.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

With each mechanical beep, her heartbeat grew louder. Her fingertips trembled nervously, as though she were sneaking around doing something bad.

And finally—

Beep-click!

With the familiar unlocking sound, all the tension in her body suddenly melted away.

“It opened!”

Thrilled beyond reason, Donghee yanked the front door open and stepped inside without a backward glance. There was nothing glamorous about this place, but it was still better than being stuck in some dream.

“Phew, thank god!”

The worn-out mat, the damp, musty smell of the semi-basement—it was all familiar. Maybe too vivid and detailed for a dream, but that didn’t matter.

Washed over by a wave of relief, Donghee collapsed onto the mat. But the tickling sensation of hair brushing against her cheek made her sit up abruptly.

A lock of silky, chestnut-brown hair slid down in front of her eyes.

“What the—?”

She had returned to her apartment, but her usual black bob haircut was gone. Even the clothes she was wearing hadn’t changed.

She examined her hands, flipping them over, confused.

Instead of her rough, callused hands from part-time jobs, she now had the slender, porcelain-like hands of a girl—a girl who once had servants to bathe her and had been named Chloe Grace.

Still dazed, Donghee walked over to the mirror on the wall.

She raised her arm. The girl in the mirror did the same—wearing a long, flowing shower gown.

“What the hell is going on?”

First things first, she needed to get changed and go outside to figure things out.

When she took off the heavy gown, her reflection revealed pale, flawless skin.

“Wow, this body!”

Her confusion was momentarily replaced with awe at how beautiful her new body was.

After admiring it for a second too long and feeling like a bit of a pervert, she quickly slipped into underwear, jeans, and a T-shirt.

Her usual jeans and shirt hung loosely on her now, which surprisingly felt great.

“I really hope this isn’t a dream.”

She managed to wedge on her socks, but her sneakers were way too big. She tightened the laces as much as possible to make them wearable.

She was just wondering what excuse to give her boss when she grabbed the doorknob to head out—

–This is a deactivated area. Complete a quest to activate it.

The same blue status window from earlier suddenly floated in front of her eyes. But now, it felt strangely threatening.

A high-pitched beep beep! warning echoed in her head.

“What is this?!”

Is this not a dream?

She frantically unlocked her phone to check the date.

“What the hell?!”

She threw the phone as if she’d been electrocuted.

On the screen was a completely impossible set of numbers:

[9999 Month 9999 Day 999999 Hour]

She had never seen a date or time like that in her life. Her hair stood on end.

Grimacing as if she’d touched a cockroach, Donghee quickly retrieved her phone.

Her fingers trembled as she tapped the browser app, hoping to check the internet.

But instead of the usual home screen, the status window took over the entire display.

–This is a deactivated screen. Complete a quest to activate it.

“This is freaking nuts!”

No matter how many times she checked, nothing changed.

Donghee carefully placed the phone on the bed and pulled her knees up to her chest.

She buried her face between her legs, wide-eyed. Her fingers clenched her hair in panic.

Could it be… the world ended?

It wasn’t like she had family she missed or close friends to cry over. But the idea of being erased from existence was terrifying.

Was she the only one left in the world?

Her head felt like it was about to explode.

She’d yanked her hair so hard that her scalp hurt.

“Lady! Lady! Where did you go again?!”

It was the voice of the nanny she’d met in that other world.

She sounded exhausted, like a mother searching for her disobedient son.

This place, frozen in time with bizarre numbers, and the world beyond the door where people were clearly alive and moving…

Donghee wandered around in confusion and eventually yanked open the fridge.

What if everything inside had gone bad? But thankfully, it was still cold.

Staring into the fridge with sunken eyes, she pulled out a bottle of orange juice. She hesitated for a moment over the expiration date, then just opened it.

“Maybe drinking something cold will help me wake up.”

Donghee chugged the icy juice straight from the bottle.

Her throat felt like it was freezing.

“Gahhh!”

After finishing the bottle, her headache only worsened.

She clutched her aching head and winced in pain—and then, once again, the status window appeared.

This time, it chimed annoyingly, floating stubbornly into her view.

–Revive Your Destitute Territory!
Easy-Peasy Quest!
Explore your dirt-poor estate!
Chloe Grace, please take a look around the estate assigned to you and see just how dirt-poor it really is. ㅎㅎㅎ

“…Did it just laugh?”

–Nothing to worry about. Please ignore that. Would you like to explore your dirt-poor estate?
Completing the quest will unlock more accessible areas!

The fact that the status window was responding to her was shocking. But what shocked her even more was that last sentence.

“Unlock? Then… I’ll be able to open that door?”

Her eyes slowly moved from the text to the sealed front door.

She had felt utterly hopeless when she thought she was trapped—but now, she had hope.

–Bingo! Hurry and explore the dirt-poor estate!

Donghee pictured the luxurious room beyond the wall.

It had the nanny who took such good care of her and the maids who bathed her.

“Isn’t that place rich, though?”

She tilted her head, comparing that world to her dingy semi-basement apartment.

Right now, she couldn’t open the apartment door. There was no one here, and people existed in the other world. Donghee’s body was gone, and only Chloe Grace remained.

That meant she didn’t really have a choice.

Without hesitation, Donghee stood and opened her closet.

It was almost empty. She pulled out her largest bag from the bottom—a square, waterproof one she’d gotten as a leftover freebie from her old part-time job at a supermarket. The material was like a picnic mat and could hold quite a lot.

As she looked around for things to pack, the status window popped up again.

–Would you like to designate “Bag 1” as “Inventory (Level 1)”?
Benefits of inventory: Allows transfer of items from active areas to desired locations.
–Level 1 Storage: (0/50)

So only the items in this bag could be transferred to that other world?

“And it’s called an inventory? So 50 is the base capacity?”

She tossed in a juice bottle and a lighter to test it out.

But the items bounced out as if there was an invisible barrier.

–Only designated inventory can store items.

Guess she needed to officially assign the bag.

“Okay, designate Bag 1 as Inventory 1.”

–‘Bag 1’ has been designated as Inventory (Level 1) for user Chloe Grace.

After confirming the update, Donghee placed the items back inside.

This time, they stayed in.

And the storage counter changed accordingly.

–Level 1 Storage: (2/50)

So it really was a count of items.

“If there’s an Inventory 1, does that mean I can add Inventory 2 or 3 later?”

–Your current level does not permit upgrades.

“So that means I can later.”

She filled the bag with food from the fridge, the lighter, a paring knife, and her self-defense gas gun. She’d bought the gas gun secondhand after a loan shark barged into her home—it made her feel a little safer.

It felt like she was running away in the night. The 50 slots filled up quickly.

“Alright, let’s see just how dirt-poor this place is. Bet it’s better than my life!”

Shouldering the bag, Donghee took a deep breath and grabbed the door handle.

The damp air from her semi-basement room seemed to pull at her from behind.

As soon as her foot stepped onto a different surface, her bag vanished.

“Wait—where did it go? I thought I could bring it! Didn’t they say it was usable?!”

The moment she said “inventory,” the bag appeared in midair like the status window.

It was a translucent screen with 50 neat square slots, each containing the items she’d packed.

“Whoa!”

She tapped the square with the leftover juice. The bottle fell from the screen right into her hand.

“Insane!”

As she gawked in amazement, the nanny’s voice rang out again.