Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can - Chapter 80.2
“The lies are way too elaborate…. Am I not supposed to try to beat it?”
The pupils of the Jangsanbeom I had just looked at were dilated. Every time I died, those pupils had grown wider. The pupils of a predator excited by the sight of prey. At first, they had looked like narrow vertical lines, but now they were completely black, and I could see my own reflection in them like glass marbles.
“The rule of the game is to escape the forest, not fight the Jangsanbeom… so maybe trying to confront it was the mistake.”
How was I supposed to escape the forest? And how was I supposed to avoid being deceived by the Jangsanbeom?
“…Maybe I should do nothing?”
The more I moved and the more information I gathered, the more tangled everything became in my head, and I couldn’t even make use of it. What if all the information I had gathered was useless from the start?
To begin with, every person I had met so far had been the Jangsanbeom, so blindly believing the information they gave me was stupid.
“Still, I don’t think it gave me no hints at all….”
I looked down at the ground beneath my feet.
And at the things every auditory hallucination had said.
‘Stay here.’
‘Back to where we started.’
‘Over here.’
‘Go back.’
“They were all pointing to the starting point.”
The moment I woke up, I cleared away the fallen leaves directly beneath where I stood. They formed a thick layer, but once I moved them with my hands, they scattered easily.
‘Maybe it sank into the ground.’
‘It was lying on the ground.’
I kept clearing away the leaves until I reached the ground. Eventually, a door appeared, the kind you might see in an old hanok. Its frame was wooden, and the panels were covered in traditional paper.
I grabbed the metal ring on the door.
“Don’t.”
A voice came from behind me. This one was fairly familiar too. It sounded like someone around high school age.
“It’s too hard and lonely over there.”
Was it the Jangsanbeom again? Had it changed tactics this time? The voice was clearly worried about me, but suspicion came first. Even so.
“But I can’t stay here forever.”
I wanted to talk to this voice.
I didn’t know why. I didn’t want to let it slip away.
I want to turn around.
“Don’t turn around.”
I already know where the exit is. Can’t I just look at your face?
“You know. If you look into its eyes, you die. Don’t die.”
I’m already used to it.
“Don’t get used to it.”
This place made me like this.
“…I’m sorry.”
I heard the owner of the voice sobbing. My heart pounded hard enough to hurt, making it difficult even to swallow. I wanted to wipe away their tears and hug them. I didn’t know why the voice filled me with such aching affection and longing.
“If you’re going to die, then go.”
The Jangsanbeom’s paw appeared from behind me and pulled on the door handle.
“Go and live.”
Light burst out from inside the door.
The brilliance swallowed me whole.
The noise of the city reached my ears.
(?∇?)b
Please select one of the following.
1 Penalty Removal Ticket / Erotic Sexy Costume
I was riding my bicycle across the bridge over the Han River. The cold December wind off the river brushed against my cheeks. Heat lingered in the muscles working to push the pedals.
“Ugh….”
Maybe because I had just come out of the game, or because I had taken too much wind on the bridge, a headache came over me. For some reason, I had the feeling that I shouldn’t stay here.
I moved my legs quickly and got off the bridge over the Han River. I hadn’t thought anything of it before riding up, but once I was actually on it, the feeling was far too strange.
“Erotic Sexy Costume….”
I pointlessly looked at the system window to clear my head. But just as expected, I immediately regretted looking. It felt as though even my head, which wasn’t being used to pedal, was heating up.
“What?! Erotic? Sexy? Costume? Is this for real?!”
It felt like I was going beyond heating up and outright blasting steam. I was probably hotter than an iron at a dry cleaner.
1 Penalty Removal Ticket / Erotic Sexy Costume
“No matter how many times I look at it, I can’t believe it….”
It brought back faint memories of the Snow White costume. This system wasn’t some immature high school kid, so why was it giving me stuff like this?
Does it even know how old Baek Hanrim is right now?
“If I save it and give it to Kim Jihwan once he’s an adult….”
Smack!
I raised my own hand and slapped myself across the face. As if that made any sense. That item was so insane that I lost my mind for a second.
“No, but I am curious.”
Isn’t there some kind of preview?
Smack!
I had hit my right cheek before, and this time I slapped the left. Did I learn nothing after getting burned so badly by the Affection Coupon? And what about that Cupid’s Arrow I still had shoved in a corner because it felt ominous?
“I really am curious about everything.”
One penalty will be removed.
Affection 41% (Slowdown Penalty x2)
Karma –358,799 (Acceleration Penalty x2)
I flinched and went stiff when I saw how ridiculously high the Karma value had climbed.
“Ah, did it count when I deliberately let the Jangsanbeom kill me too?”
When the Jangsanbeom made the sound of a cat during the game. I had deliberately looked at it and died because I wanted proof that I hadn’t gone insane. I realized that might have counted as suicide.
“I have money now, so should I lower my Karma by donating from now on?”
International relief organizations or support for vulnerable groups in Korea would probably be reliable. Those would count as good deeds too.
As I organized my thoughts, I turned the bicycle back toward the café.
“Baek Hanrim, what the hell did you do in the bathroom to end up looking like that?”
Kim Jihwan snapped at me when I returned to the café.
My hair was disheveled from riding a bicycle through the winter wind, and my cheeks were red from slapping myself.
No matter who looked at me, I clearly didn’t look like someone who had simply gone to the bathroom.
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