Pop!
Tzzzt
Tzzztzt
"Whew, that was fun. How often in a lifetime do you get to become the emperor of insects?"
The looks on everyone's faces back then...
That was seriously entertaining.
Gilyoung's eyes were shining, Dokja had veins popping in her forehead, and Jihye and Heewon were staring at me like I'd lost my mind.
I hope I get another chance like that next time.
"Haa, how many more floors do we have to go up like this?"
"Yoo Joonghyuk probably cleared some of them already, so it should be faster than you think."
She'd probably torn through them like a beast.
Our gorilla.
"Do only movies with intact posters get screened here?"
"Looks like it. I think this one got ripped because we cleared it."
Then let's take a look around.
At the posters that had been shredded to pieces.
Maybe Yoo Joonghyuk really did all of this, but ever since I learned about those Prophets, I couldn't be sure.
"It does look like Yoo Joonghyuk cleared all of them, but I can't say for certain."
"Because of those Prophet bastards?"
"Yeah."
There was no telling how many people those Prophets had sold information to.
The Star Stream only told us we weren't the first ones here. It never said exactly how many had entered before us, which made it even worse.
I hoped those guys who died earlier were the first and last of them.
"Even so, if they came in and had the bad luck to run into Yoo Joonghyuk, they probably died anyway."
She'd left Jihye behind in the first place because she wanted to monopolize the items for herself.
If someone like that ran into people trying to steal her loot...
I'll leave the rest to your imagination.
If you ask me, she probably split them in half with that precious sword of hers.
"That's enough Yoo Joonghyuk slander. Let's hurry. We don't know how many movies are left ahead of us."
Right. We came here to save Yoo Joonghyuk, not stand around chatting.
"Wow, I wanted to watch this one."
"?"
"?"
"You wanted to watch this movie too?"
"You too, mister?"
Why hadn't she seen it?
She was a student. She should've had plenty of time.
"Why didn't you watch it?"
"I'm a second-year in high school. I was busy seriously preparing for my grades."
"What about you, mister?"
"I'm poor. I barely have enough time to make money, so if I spend it on stuff like movies, things get hard later."
I hate movies.
More precisely, it was hard to find any reason to like them.
Sure, they were probably fun.
But with the kind of life we had, was I really in a position to sit back and eat popcorn in peace while watching a movie?
Ever since I took Dokja and left that relative's house where all we got was contempt, life had always been tight.
In that kind of situation, movies were a luxury among luxuries.
The closest thing I'd had was donating blood and getting a ticket so only Dokja could watch one.
After living like that, how could I have liked them...?
"If you couldn't even watch movies, what did you live for? Weren't you bored?"
If you told a person from the Middle Ages, "It must be inconvenient not being able to use modern stuff," would they agree?
You only know something is inconvenient after you've used it.
And what does that have to do with me right now?
"You'd have to watch movies first to know whether they're fun or not."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah."
For a high school girl, she had absolutely no tact.
I'm not exactly the most perceptive person either, but Lee Jihye felt even worse somehow.
"Man, Yoo Joonghyuk is relentless. How much did she loot?"
I didn't know whether to call it fortunate or get annoyed that we couldn't pick up any items.
Every poster on the second and third floors had been torn apart.
From [InXception] to [Fighting DeathXnation].
Every single one we passed was ripped up.
Even if those had been cleared by Prophets or people who bought information from them, I felt like applauding.
They all looked like difficult movies.
Still, Koreans were the people of hurry-hurry.
I thought getting to the fourth floor this quickly was a good sign.
.
.
.
Getting to the fourth floor this quickly was not a good sign.
"Ugh."
"Uuugh!"
"Bleeergh~"
"Gwaaaargh~"
Today was the first time I learned I got terrible seasickness.
The one throwing up next to me was Lee Jihye.
"...Jihye, are you oka—! Ugh!"
"Bleeergh~!"
"Mister, don't talk—! Uurk!"
"Bleeerghhh~!"
"If you're both fine, then just throw up."
Today was also the first time I'd ever been on a ship, so naturally it was the first time I'd learned my seasickness was this bad.
"I... get seasick..."
"I only found out today that I get seasick—!"
"Bleeergh!!!"
Fine, maybe I was like this, but what was her excuse? She was supposed to be a general's descendant. What kind of seasickness was that?
Ugh, no.
We're both suffering here. I should comfort her instead.
"I seriously don't know how you got chosen by the General..."
"Me neither.... Even if I did, I don't have the strength to say it."
It felt like more than my stomach was turning over. Like all my guts were about to spill out too.
[Constellations of the Absolute Evil alignment are delighted by your suffering.]
[The Constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is worried about you.]
[The Constellation 'Goddess of Love and Beauty' is worried about you.]
"Thanks, everyo—ugh!"
This wasn't going to work.
If this movie was going to end whenever and however it pleased, then I'd do things my way.
"This is that movie, right? The one where the ship sinks."
"Looks like it."
Is that so?
"Hey, theater owner, get out here."
[The theater owner responds to the cast's call.]
"Give me and this kid some fast-acting motion sickness medicine."
[The theater owner says it cannot interfere with the movie.]
"Then sit there and watch me and her throw up for three straight hours."
If the actors playing the characters didn't do their jobs properly—or couldn't—then no matter how good the CG or the scenario was, the movie was bound to get trashed.
Besides, that bastard was addicted to catharsis. There was no way he'd want a frustrating plot dragged out by motion sickness.
[The theater owner gifts fast-acting motion sickness medicine to the Incarnations 'Kim Dokyun' and 'Lee Jihye'.]
"Take it quick."
"...Thanks, mister."
Gulp
Maybe because it was fast-acting, the seasickness vanished right away.
"So do we have to sink the ship?"
"That probably isn't the ending the theater owner wants."
"But... is that lady the heroine?"
Only now did I notice that everyone's clothes had changed.
"Looks like it. That's a pretty dress."
"Then... don't tell me you're the male lead, mister?"
"What, you don't know? There's another guy here."
Our Gilyoung, biologically male.
"What are you even—?"
"Dawson!"
What was that unfamiliar voice?
"Jeb Dawson!"
"...It's really Gilyoung."
"Why is this real?"
.
.
.
"Well, looks like all the main players are here now."
"Then now..."
"Mmph! Mmph mmph!"
"What should we do with this man? We brought him because he seemed to be the villain, but..."
"You brought him because he was the villain?"
"? Then what did you think it was for?"
"I thought you were into that kind of thing."
This one was so famous that all I knew was the title and that it was based on a true story. I knew nothing about the characters.
The only thing I knew was that the ship crashed and the male lead died.
"Oppa doesn't care, does he."
"Right. But kidnapping and confinement aren't getting much of a reaction."
"Then... let's kill him."
"What..."
Jihye might have no tact, but her personality was brutally direct.
She was fierce.
"Mmph...!! Mmph!!"
"The theater owner likes catharsis, right? Then the answer is to kill bastards like this fast."
"I don't think that's entirely wrong."
If we killed the villain, that would be cathartic, and with the role that drove the plot gone, the theater owner would have no choice but to let us pass.
"But... he really looks like a real person."
"Huh?"
"This is a movie. But he looks like a real person."
When Jung Heewon said that, I saw it.
Dokja's eyes shaking.
"Unni, is this really the time to get sentimental? If we don't kill this person, we're the ones who die."
"We're definitely alive, but this person is just a 'character.'"
Dokja's eyes trembled even harder.
So faintly that only I could notice.
"And he's a 'villain' who's going to do bad things. Even if he were a 'real person,' why would there be any reason to hesitate?"
"...Right?"
Stab.
Lee Jihye stabbed him.
The blade sank in without resistance, and blood splashed out.
[The theater owner is moderately satisfied with the changed ending.]
[A passage to the next floor has opened at the stern.]
"See? I did it right. Our master is about to die, so we don't have time to sit around acting miserable!"
[You have reached the second [Ending credit].]
"Quick and clean!"
Snap!
At Jihye's proud expression, I silently gave her a thumbs-up.
[Cast: Kim Dokyun, Kim Dokja, Jung Heewon, Lee Jihye, Lee Gilyoung]
[Each of you has earned 500 Coins as an appearance fee.]
From the moment the words "character" came up, a shadow had fallen over Dokja's face.
She probably needed time to sort out her thoughts.
Tap tap
"Oppa?"
"I know what you're thinking, but don't sink too deep into it. Let's think about it however we want—whatever suits us best."
"Unlike that bastard who only follows the scenario inside the movie, kids like Jihye are special. They're different."
To Lee Jihye, that man had been nothing more than 'Movie Character No. 1.'
And maybe to me, to Dokja, and to the Prophets, someone like Lee Jihye was also just 'Novel Character No. 1.'
Thinking that people like Lee Jihye were real people to us, while the man we killed was just a character, was probably nothing more than us interpreting things in whatever way pleased us.
But so what?
Humans always interpret things however suits them best.
This wasn't any different.
It was the same logic as how hearing that someone far away died in the real world means less to you than hearing that someone you know got hurt.
You just think and act however your heart leads you.
As long as you don't do something you'll regret.
And if you make a mistake, then you learn something from it.
"...Thank you."
.
.
.
[You have entered the reward room on the 5th floor above ground.]
"Huh? A reward room?"
"I guess there isn't a movie here?"
[Reward items are limited to 2 per person.]
"Whoa, are all of these items?"
"Looks like this was a place where they displayed movie props."
"Now I can finally pick a weapon that suits me."
Alright then, let's pick out a weapon to beat the hell out of Yoo Joonghyuk with.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register