Chapter 4.2

I lost consciousness with a sharp sound that seemed to signal the start of the game.

“I’m sorry.”

I slowly regained my senses and soon realized that the ringing in my ears were the sound of someone crying. His sweet and childlike innocence made me feel like it was a déjà vu.

“I’m sorry, Curtis.”

Curtis…

When I realized who the voice referred to, I immediately understood the situation. At the same time, a ray of light leaked through my barely opened eyes.

‘I feel like my entire body is broken.’

Contrary to my original plan to force a logout by jumping out the window, Edith Abina’s body seemed to have fully taken the impact of the fall. She wasn’t badly hurt from the fall, but she became terribly sick.

‘I hope I won’t be disabled after this.’

The game just began and I didn’t want to play with a crippled body. As I barely craned my neck and rolled my eyes, I saw a man and woman struggling with the bed I lay on.

“There are people who love Curtis that much, but I can’t make you a knight.”

“Edith Abina isn’t in love with me, Jian.”

“Even so, if I make you a knight, she could try and commit suicide again. I’m sorry, Curtis.”

As expected, the woman who apologized to Curtis and cried as if she was truly sorry was Jian, the main character of the story.

‘It’s a whole new experience to see it from Edith Abina’s POV.’

With neat black hair slightly touching her shoulders, and skin as lively and contrary to Edith’s paleness, she was a beauty worthy of being the protagonist of a romance simulation game.

Unlike Edith Abina or the other target characters, she was a character that the game users directly possessed, so there was a sense that she had been nerfed so as not to cause great discomfort.

‘Seeing that Jian was pushing Curtis away; it must be about the third day of play.’

Curtis was a character with high morals and valued his principles. In order to grow on him, it was important to pretend to be good from the very beginning. The woman hanging around the bedside with a sad face was persuading him with a docile face that fit Curtis’ taste.

“Of course, I want Curtis as my knight,” Jian continued, “But I can’t sacrifice other people’s happiness for mine…”

“If you believe that, then I’ll respect it.”

“Thank you, Curtis,” she sighed, “I’ll try to persuade Lady Edith Abina, so please give me a little more time.”

Jian’s way of persuading Curtis was angelic.

My brows scrunched as I listened to Jian’s lines that were recited according to a choice of suggested lines.

‘So, is she a game user like me?’

The helper mentioned that the game I was trapped in was <Experience!>. it was called <Extreme Work> rather than <Scenes of Life>.

‘Looking at the lines I remember, there must’ve been an error to the beta test game.’

The new game being beta-tested was <Experience! Scenes of Life>, so there was a high chance that the two games used the same map.

‘Due to an error, the two games happened to overlap by chance, and <Experience! Scenes of Life> and I accidentally crossed to another game.’

If so, like me, there was a high possibility that Jian in front of me was a user playing the game in real life.

‘If you’re a real user, I’ll have to somehow tell you about my situation and ask for help.’

<Quest Occurred! Find out who Jian is, an ugly girl trying to take away your Curtis.>

<Essential subquest: Escape Edith Abina’s Action Limits.>

<Success Reward: Reputation 10+, Extreme Work Guidebook, 1 special item random box>

<Penalty in case of failure: Character ‘Helper’s favorability declines.>

<Are you sure you want to accept the quest?>

YES

NO

As if it read my mind, the quest that popped out randomly was to find out the identity of the main character, Jian. I frowned at the penalty item, which was in bold and underlined.

‘The helper’s favorability would decline. Then that meant that I could also build a good impression with the helper.’

In <Experience! Scenes of Life>, the helper was a hidden target character, which could only be targeted after completing special conditions.

‘The condition was to follow the route of world destruction…’

In the game, it was hard to tell that the helper was a potential target from the beginning.

Anyway, I knew I had to accept. I really wanted the Extreme Work guidebook.