Kill the Player (1)
※This work contains somewhat shocking developments. Those with weak hearts, those who suspect declining vision, please remember that this series is a 'male-oriented' academy novel.
This is an academy novel. For real.
If this novel is BL, I'll put a curse on my hand.
I killed the player.
Because he was a total fucking bastard.
* * * *
Three years ago, I possessed a game character.
As an extra.
[Arhan: Legend of Heroes]
True to the game, it was a large-scale story with tumultuous crises and incidents, even mentioning the end of the world, but that's fine!
Because the protagonist will solve everything!
There was nowhere to run anyway, and leaving the continent didn't mean incidents wouldn't happen, so I figured it would be fine to just let the story flow as intended~
I approached, thinking I'd catch a glimpse of the protagonist Park Sihu, who would soon grasp wealth and honor, but──
"······frustrating... decline... refreshing... I'll live for... efficiency············."
"······."
Hey, you too?
* * * *
Park Sihu was a possessor, just like me.
If there was a difference between him and me, it was that Sihu was the protagonist, the player, and had the 'Status Window', a privilege of player characters.
The unfortunate part was that Sihu had never played this game, but I could cover for that.
Because I'd played this game quite a bit.
<Arhan: Legend of Heroes> A true fan and player of the game, I had the story down pat and had gotten my hands on pretty much every hidden piece.
I'd played through most of the branching routes too, and this information advantage was a tremendous advantage.
However, most things couldn't be obtained without using the player's Status Window and system. So all Sihu had to do was clear this game based on the information I gave him.
In this world's story, without the protagonist, countless people would die and the world would be destroyed.
If this world really was destroyed, and I died then, would I be able to return to Earth?
If it wasn't a game over, but I just departed this life for good?
I helped Sihu with all my heart and strength.
Our shared hometown, our origins as Earthlings, and the sense of solidarity from falling into a game world made us unmatched friends.
It turned out I was a year older by Earth age, so I was treated as his Hyung, and having a younger brother wasn't so bad.
Still, the limits of an extra were clear, but some items obtained through my information were given to me as well, letting me bolster my lacking abilities.
We were a great combo.
If there was anything unfortunate, it was that he never got involved with the heroines of the story at all.
This game had male and female characters in good balance, but part of its charm was the dating simulation aspects involving romanceable characters for the playable character.
Of course, since they were characters who showed affection toward the player, Park Sihu, I treated them with no more than a fan's feelings, but······.
This bastard Park Sihu never got involved with any heroine, only putting them in the party occasionally when needed.
At some point, only male human characters started entering the party, and Park Sihu's party became a gathering of sweaty men, including me.
"Fuck······."
I should have noticed.
When Arisha Aden, the granddaughter of the Sword Emperor and one of the main heroines, didn't appear at the entrance ceremony,
when Marie, who should have been the final boss of Act 1, went missing,
the mysterious disappearances and the flow that diverged from the story I knew.
I shouldn't have just brushed it off with an 'Our Sihu is doing great!'.
I should have doubted, even a little, the way of thinking of a human named Park Sihu, his character, and the overly contrived flow of events...
"What is this?"
It was a familiar staff.
It was definitely... the equipment used by the girl who was the Act 1 final boss.
"Wait, wait······."
Why is this here?
The equipment of a boss character who should have become the Act 1 boss according to the original story.
Sihu and I had waited in advance to try and stop the tragedy, but in the end, we failed to stop it and lost her.
At the time, I'd blamed myself for lacking the strength to change the course of events rashly...... so why is it here?
It wasn't just this. In this secret underground space, not just the staff, but countless items were displayed like 'trophies'.
The mace of Jaeger, the typical delinquent character who picked a fight with the player at the start of the semester.
The spellbook of Rak, who caused the midterm exam leak incident and got expelled.
No way......
I realized the common thread.
The belongings of those who had gotten involved in incidents and 'disappeared', every single one.
Those who were connected to Park Sihu in some form or another...
Jaeger had picked a fight with Park Sihu at the start of the semester and disappeared during field practice,
and Rak, jealous of Park Sihu's smooth sailing, had framed him and gotten expelled.
People who had been connected to Park Sihu in some way, beyond what I knew. And decisively......
This place was Park Sihu's privately owned building.
One of the real estate properties a player could purchase in the game. One that even served as a medium space for the inventory......
I'd followed him, who disappeared somewhere in the middle of the night, never imagining I'd witness such a horrible sight. There were more trophies that would horrify me.
"Wh-why is this here."
A unique single-edged sword displayed like an exhibit. A hidden piece, the Demon-Slaying Sword that Arisha Aden, the Sword Emperor's granddaughter and one of the important heroines in the story, possessed... though she had died before the entrance ceremony.
There was only one condition to obtain this hidden piece in the game.
To trigger Arisha Aden's death event in some form or another.
"······Ah."
A chill ran down my spine.
The major premise was collapsing.
The major premise that Park Sihu had never played this game.
"Ah, fuck."
"······!"
It wasn't a sound I made.
"S-Sihu...!"
"······Why is Hyung here."
Sihu, who should have been the master of this horrible sight, was surprisingly calm. He seemed to find this situation bothersome.
"You······."
I should have demanded an explanation, I should have asked what the hell this was, but my lips wouldn't move.
Because I was afraid to hear the answer, because he might confirm it......
"Hyung, calm down."
"Calm down my ass!!"
How could I calm down in this situation? How could I stay calm seeing this sight?
I pointed at the aqua-haired girl 'displayed' in a horrific form. Unlike Arisha Aden's sword displayed like a trophy, she... Marie Dunarev was......
"Y-you... don't tell me... what you said about losing her back then was a lie...!"
As if my inner thoughts had been conveyed, Sihu began to persuade me as if making excuses.
"She's a demon anyway. Huh? Our enemy. I just used her a bit efficiently."
"······Used?"
The bastard smirked and blabbered as if bragging about his achievement.
"She sucked her friend dry too. Then she was sniveling and hiding in the forest? It was hard finding her? Who would've known the vicious bitch would dig a hole in the forest and last a whole month."
—Don't you have to pay for your crimes?
"Used? Used? What do you mean by that!"
"······She's a high-ranking vampire. A one-year-old who just awakened is elder-class, you know. Do you know what you get if you refine elder-class vampire blood? You ate plenty of it too, Hyung."
At those words, I suddenly recalled the potions he'd handed me. Something incomparable to potions sold on the market, rivaling a low-grade elixir——
"U-uwaaaeeek!!"
"Ah, shit... Hyung, are you okay? Wait a sec. I'll clean it up."
Even while spewing such horrendous and repulsive nonsense, his attitude toward me hadn't changed. That was what made my skin crawl so much.
"Why, why on earth......"
"Obviously, to progress the story efficiently."
"The story?"
"If I do things exactly as you told me, it's way too frustrating. You have to take losses trying to save people, and you can't even kill fucking bastards like Jaeger or Rak."
Jaeger had merely picked a fight. He was just a thug you could find anywhere who threw his weight around.
And Rak? He had framed Park Sihu, but it was at most the false accusation of stealing an exam paper. Of course, if things went wrong, he could've been expelled, but still······.
"The other bitches are the same. If you don't raise their affection, you can't use them or equip their exclusive items, and they'd just form parties without me. Using them like this is the most efficient."
"You..., just how many people have you..."
At my words, his pupils darted toward the corner. He had opened the player's system window. Then he answered with a composed smile.
"Who knows? I don't think my kill log has quite reached a hundred thousand yet. Ah, just three more kills and it'll be a hundred thousand."
"You animal bastard!"
I grabbed him by the collar. I couldn't stand to listen to another word from this beast.
"You, you...! People are...!"
"Hyung, get a grip. Why would they be people? They're NPCs. Game characters."
"You...!"
"Haven't you been killing people just fine until now? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?"
"Are these guys the same as the ones trying to destroy the world?!"
The ones I had killed were irredeemable villains. The main antagonists of the story, the villains provided by the story itself.
How are they any different from Park Sihu?
This bastard doesn't see people as people.
Of course,
But does that mean the people living in this world are NPCs too? Is it okay to kill them indiscriminately like game characters?
How do you even judge that? What do you use to separate what's the game from what's reality? Why do you draw that line so easily?
Cut the bullshit.
"Trust me. This is the most efficient way to play. I'm a veteran player of this game."
Sorry I didn't tell you.
Because I couldn't trust you back then.
I was so dumbfounded that I was at a loss for words.
Park Sihu was certain. And his words weren't entirely wrong.
He possessed a status window and used the system to his heart's content. If he had the information advantage like I did, he would naturally use it as efficiently as possible.
He had monopolized the 'Hidden Pieces' that should have been the heroines' exclusive items and cleverly guided the route's branching events to reap the maximum profit.
When the school building collapsed,
When terrorists attacked,
When special-grade monsters appeared.
This bastard had profited in some form no matter what. No, he monopolized the gains to an excessive degree.
He had definitely 'played' this game with the highest efficiency. For three years, I had followed him and resolved many incidents and accidents.
He had magnificently resolved even the incidents that I couldn't follow due to the limits of an extra.
Though it was a world inside a game, Park Sihu had stood tall as a hero, just as the story dictated.
But the Park Sihu before my eyes was not a hero.
He was a demon. The eyes of an inorganic killer that could not be found in any other evil being.
A hundred thousand... The 'victims' that I had passed by without a second thought amidst memories that were bizarrely 'efficient' through countless incidents. And the massacres that must have occurred in places I didn't know.
I became certain that he had been involved in the incidents I had dismissed, thinking the story must not flow exactly like the game.
Ah... This bastard never accepted this world as reality.
He only saw people as organic entities programmed by code.
For three years, the world I had adapted to and accepted was nothing more than an illusion to him.
"You... You just chose the easy way out."
"What?"
"Efficiency? Catharsis? Cut the bullshit. If you're such an efficiency freak, why did you take Ariasha Aden's Demon Sword? Why would someone on the Mage Tree take a Knight-class Hidden Piece?!"
"That's because..."
"Fuck! So that's why Runia Aden, her older sister, was obsessively tracking the Demon Sword! You couldn't even draw it! You stupid fuck, you tried to monopolize something you can't even handle, so no wonder you choked on it!"
You sloppy, stupid bastard! A selfish, greedy pig!
Had I really propped up a bastard like this as a hero? A piece of shit like this?
"Elixir? Hey, you fucker, you could have substituted it with other ingredients in your crafting window whenever you wanted."
All you had to do was tap the crafting window a few times, so why did you go out of your way to create such a terrible slaughterhouse? Why did you commit such an inefficient act?
"Efficiency? Cut the bullshit. You just needed sandbags to vent your psycho tendencies. What kind of efficiency freak displays the evidence of his psycho acts in a place like this!!"
"Ah, fuck! Seriously!"
Park Sihu struck my face. Not with the attitude of someone trying to persuade me that he'd had until now, but as if he was genuinely annoyed.
"You're driving me crazy, Hyung. I'm going to go insane!"
"Wha... ugh!"
He grabbed my hair and yanked my head back.
"Hyung shouldn't do this to me. Even if the whole world curses me out, you're the one who shouldn't do this to me!"
"Wha, what...?"
Hey, what's with your lines? Aren't you choosing your words properly?
"Hyung doesn't know why I'm like this? You don't know why I'm going crazy?!"
"S-Sihoo?"
"You act cocky even though you're weak, get beaten up, grin like an idiot in front of those slut bitches..."
He glared at me with a blazing gaze unlike anything before. An extremely burdensome look.
"I won't... hold back anymore."
"Huh?"
That was the moment. He suddenly lunged at my face as if to headbutt me.
"Hick?!"
I instinctively avoided that disgusting snout. Though I managed to protect my chastity by turning my head, I couldn't avoid his blazing gaze.
"Yeah... You never planned to accept me anyway, right?"
"Hey, hey you. Why are you suddenly like this? Huh? The story you and I have been through is episode 199. Why are you suddenly swerving right before episode 200?!"
"I'm going to claim you. Body and soul. Did you think I'd let those vixen bitches take you from me?"
"C-crazy! I've never even dated once, what kind of dog shit is this!"
I got goosebumps for a completely different reason than before. To the point where I desperately needed Mother's Russian-style physical therapy.
"W-wait, don't tell me the reason you only put men in the party..."
"They're just for show. They're not real. The only real one... is you."
"Uwaack...!"
I ran desperately. But something shot out from within my shadow and grabbed my ankle, sending me falling hard. I had fallen for his magic!
"Hyung... can't escape. Because I'm going to lock you up. Forever."
-Chatter chatter chatter!
I was scared. Even when I first discovered this place, I hadn't been this afraid.
Even when he confessed to being a psycho efficiency freak, I hadn't gotten goosebumps like this.
What happens if he catches me?
I could easily predict my future by looking at victims like Mariena Lak and Yegeo.
A cycle of suffering, being healed, and suffering again—a life where you're alive but not truly living.
"You! You...! What about my will?! You bastard, what about my will?! I'm straight! A firm heterosexual!"
At my words, Park Sihu snickered and answered in a voice as smooth as butter.
"Your will doesn't matter. Because you're mine. My only real one in this world that's nothing but fake."
"Gross! You crazy bastard!"
-Swoooosh!
A shadow with a giant maw. Just before my consciousness faded from his magic, Park Sihu formed a twisted smile.
"Everything will be over soon. Once this battle ends, I'll claim you."
"Claim what?! Claim what, you bastard!"
My consciousness ended there. The reason I barely regained my senses was thanks to a voice I heard.
[The Last Stage is opening. The final battle with the Final Boss begins.]
Ah, it started.
After I lost consciousness, Park Sihu began the final battle with the Final Boss.
He had monopolized everything on his own until now, so he would probably defeat the Final Boss too... But if he really defeats even the Final Boss, then what... will happen to me?
It wasn't difficult to imagine a terrible future.
[The player has died. The challenge has failed.]
...Did this bastard lose?
* * * *
This was the time to look back on my past life.
I regressed. To three years ago.
I have to kill him. I have to kill the player.