Surviving Every Worldview

Chapter 5: Playing the Main Character (3)

“Playing hero?”

“Listen.”

There’s no way Seol Do-yeon can’t understand what I’m about to say.

She’s been watching anime, webtoons, and playing mobile games since she was a kid.

“No one knows what happened yet, right?”

“Yeah.”

“But I know what needs to be done. Can you help me?”

Do-yeon’s brow narrowed slightly.

It wasn’t as if she was doubting my words.

“…You mean I’m literally going to play the main character?”

“I told you to play the main character.”

It was literal.

My purpose is to maximize the information I’ve gained from my interactions with Dreams.

Only then will I be able to see the man responsible for this again.

“It’s good for you, too. If you’re in a fantasy world and you have powers, you should use them.”

“I suppose so.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back.”

“…I hear you.”

Actually, there’s a good chance you won’t.

At the end of the game I played, there was no sign of returning to the original world.

I didn’t know what would happen in real life…but I wasn’t sure it would be any different.

“So, do you want to try it?”

“Mmm…….”

“I’ll get a few more people, and I won’t have you do anything that takes up a lot of your time, so you won’t be too busy to do your real job.”

Do-yeon looked away and seemed to be thinking.

It was obvious that she had finished organizing her thoughts long before the conversation, and was fighting with herself in her head.

“But… there are so many famous games and comics in the world, so I wonder what we, as community users who are well-known, can do……?”

“Isn’t that why I’m asking for help?”

“Hmmmm…….”

It was a reasonable point, of course, but it’s also just an excuse to justify my own distress.

It’s annoying, but it seems fun, so should I accept it?

It looks fun, but it’s annoying, so why don’t I decline?

In fact, there are only two options in Seol Do-yeon’s mind.

Those words and facial expressions were meant to make her look serious.

The reason for this conviction was simple.

To be honest, she and I have similar personalities.

I would have done the same thing if we were in opposite positions.

“But-”

I added one more word to drive a wedge.

“You don’t have to put too much pressure on yourself. I have plenty of people to ask.”

“…A lot?”

“Uh, I’m sure one would be fine, but you don’t have to be the one to do it. Take your pick.”

As I said that and drank my coffee nonchalantly, Do-yeon looked at me.

It caught me off guard.

“I’ll do…….”

“Really?”

“…If you don’t want to.”

“No! I’ll do it, thanks.”

This corner illustrator had a huge ego.

Even when she was having drinks with me, a guy she didn’t see very often, she wanted to get ahead of me by one drink.

I guess it came with the territory, even if I just scratched my head and told her I didn’t need it.

Actually, if she thought about it a bit, she could have realized that I was desperate and had no one else to ask, but…….

I didn’t want her to know.

“So, what are we working on now?”

“Well, first I need to find out what your story is and write it.”

“Here?”

I shook my head.

I’m supposed to have a status window open, and there’s no way I’m doing that in the open.

“Is there a good place around here…….?”

I can’t let her use her powers in public, so we need somewhere private.

It would also be helpful if there was a computer nearby.

A place that meets all of these conditions…is expensive.

At this point, I have no choice but to convince Do-yeon.

“It’s just around the corner from your place. Let’s stop by.”

“My, my house?”

Do-yeon looked at me as if she hadn’t expected that answer.

“I don’t usually clean up, so it must be dirty.”

“Then we’ll stay in the living room, so bring your laptop. You still have it, right?”

“Oh, sure…….”

As I finished the rest of my drink, Do-yeon got up from her seat.

She had emptied her glass earlier and was still waiting for me.

“Are we done talking? Let’s go.”

“What, already?”

Do-yeon said, pulling her hood back down.

“It’s hard to stay outside like this…….”

“Ah.”

Good thing I suggested we go home.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

We didn’t have anything to talk about for long anyway.

We got up and headed to Do-yeon’s house as soon as we finished talking.

* * *

Seol Do-yeon’s house was closer than I thought.

Her apartment is a few minutes’ walk after crossing the crosswalk that you can see as soon as you leave the cafe.

Luckily, it was the middle of the day on a weekday, so no one was home.

“Come in. Have a seat.”

I did as I was told and sat down on the living room couch to wait.

Do-yeon roughly threw the padding on the floor, went into her room, and returned with a thin laptop in her arms.

Her hair glistened in the light as she pulled down her hood.

I wasn’t sure if she hadn’t tidied it up or if she’d done it on purpose, but it didn’t seem as annoying now.

“Why don’t you put your bag down? It looks heavy.”

“It’s okay.”

Seol Do-yeon sat down across from me and opened her laptop.

The wallpaper of a collectible mobile game caught my eye.

She’s still doing that…….

“I brought my laptop. What are we doing now?”

“Now, can you show me what story you’ve awakened?”

“Show you……? How, just write down whatever pops into my head in a notebook?”

Do-yeon asked, unable to use the status bar.

Unlike me, she didn’t awaken by making a game, but I had different ways of checking her abilities.

“It should work when I’m next to you. Just think about what you want to show me and your status window will appear instead.”

“Mmm…….”

Seol Do-yeon concentrated, and the status window opened in front of me.

She didn’t have to pull out her notebook and write down her story.

“Oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Then if you shout out ‘status window’ with your voice, it will come out?”

“……Shut up.”

I sidestepped the conversation and read Seol Do-yeon’s story.

—

[TBA]

#cyberpunk

Awareness Rating: B

Skill level: Lv. 1

Traits: [Undecided]

This story does not yet have a name.

It provides support for general actions that fit the Cyberpunk universe, but does not specialize in any one action.

* Story Completeness: 0

—

What is story completeness?

I’ve never seen this before.

“Uh, what do you think, did it come out good?”

Do-yeon is waiting for my reaction with an expectant look, so I’ll think about it later.

The information was strangely short despite having a higher awareness rating than me.

This is partly because my information is unusually long, but also because of Seol Do-yeon’s problem.

I point to the word ‘undecided’ with my hand.

“Do you see this?”

“Yes.”

“This is a trait you get when the direction of the story isn’t yet firmly established. It’s like not changing jobs in old online games.”

Or you don’t have a solid worldview.

Or, there may not be a work that people can recognize that would make them say, ‘This person is associated with this work.’

“Undecided” is a trait that allows people in that state to be active.

—

[Undecided].

You may distribute your stats arbitrarily at any time.

You cannot obtain a unique trait while holding that trait, but the trait will disappear the moment the story’s title is determined.

—

You can redistribute your stats whenever you want, so you can do anything right now.

But since she doesn’t yet have a talent that specializes in one thing, she’s kind of stuck.

Right now, Do-Yeon’s abilities can be summarized as follows.

“Oh, I reached the max level without changing jobs on my own.”

“That’s not good.”

“It’s a trait of a romantic who chooses romance over efficiency……!”

I said no.

I can see what she’s thinking, though.

“That’s a pretty common trait, and it means you don’t have a story of your own that you truly love.”

“…Really?”

Do-yeon looked up at me, the corner of her mouth twitching downward.

“Yeah. I bet more than half of us start out undecided.”

“Oh, no.”

Disappointed, Do-yeon’s body sagged on the table.

Her cheeks were pressed together, making her face look weird, but she didn’t seem to care.

Expecting on her own terms and being disappointing on her own terms.

What are you doing?

“I think it’s better for you to be undecided right now, though. If you need to talk, I can help you.”

“Really?”

In fact, it’s probably better to be undecided at this point, as you can adjust the stats to fit the situation.

Awareness is a B, which is about as high as it gets in the general population.

She can do whatever I ask her to do.

“Seriously, a bus ride?”

“I asked you to help me, so you should do it. …….”

Again, Do-Yeon’s face lit up.

“But it must be really important for you to be so nice to a girl like me.”

“…Forget it, give me the laptop.”

I took the laptop and logged onto the site where Do-yeon posted her artwork.

Most of them are set in colorful cyberpunk cities or back alleys.

I scrolled down through them, pulled up the one I was looking for, and showed it to her.

It was a geek in a glow-in-the-dark trench coat wielding a baton that was electrified with red electricity.

“Do you think you can make this?”

“Make what’s in the picture? How do I do it?”

“Stretch your hand out like you’re sticking it into the monitor.”

The goal now is to get back to the alley as soon as the appointment is over.

Whatever the man’s story was, I needed a weapon to subdue him and a non-lethal weapon from a futuristic “cyberpunk” world would greatly increase my chances of success.

“You’re not kidding, are you? You’re serious?”

“Yes.”

Do-yeon gently placed her hand on the laptop monitor, constantly suspicious of me, but fooled.

Her hand locked onto the monitor.

At the same time, her hand appeared in a world of her own making.

“Yi, what should I do now?”

“Grab the baton and bring it out.”

It was the same way you create weapons in the game.

Draw a weapon, put your hand in it, and bring it out into reality.

Sometimes, depending on the scene, you’d actually make the weapon like a blacksmith, but this is how it usually looked.

When she pulled her arm out, she found a black, retractable baton in her hand.

—

[Stern Barton]

#weapons #melee #non-lethal #cyberpunk

—

The baton even had a status window that could be read separately.

In a different world, for the first time, an “item” was created that followed new rules.

…In gaming fantasy novels, there’s a bonus for being the first to do something like this.

Judging by her reaction, there’s no such thing.

“Ohhh…….”

Doyeon clenched and unclenched her hands, reliving the experience.

“That’s interesting.”

“…Yeah, I made you do it, but it’s amazing to see.”

“My hand just went inside the painting!”

Do-yeon’s eyes sparkled.

Not metaphorically, they lit up in a crisscrossing pattern, just like in a real animation.

The effect of awakening the story had changed her body.

“You’ll be more surprised when you look in the mirror.”

“…!”

Do-yeon was surprised again when she saw her face on her cell phone camera.

I grabbed the baton and swung it a few times.

[The story is enhanced when you wear a weapon with a ‘non-lethal’ tag].

It unfolded naturally as I swung it.

I pressed hard on the end with the palm of my hand and it folded, then I pressed a button and electricity flowed.

There are similar things in reality, but I’ve never used one like this before.

It’s a weapon made strictly from a story, so its performance would be different.

Even in the original game, if the character I was crafting had a ‘cyberpunk’ story, I would give them a futuristic weapon with great basic performance.

Of course, once you start looking at the performance and combinations of traits, the base performance becomes less important……..

For now, when nothing has started yet, there’s no better weapon.

“Hey, Do-yeon, do you have a few more-”

Hmph.

I turn to call out to Do-yeon, but my words trail off.

Ever since I’d asked her to look in the mirror, she’d been engrossed in examining her body.

“Hey.”

“Uh, huh? You called me?”

She finally turned around.

“I was wondering if you could do me a favor and make me a few more.”

“…….”

“I’ll feel bad if I just leave it to you, so I’ll buy you something. So―”

“Okay.”

The answer came back before I could finish my sentence.

Rather than reacting to the words ‘I’ll buy you something’, it felt more like a belated response to the slap I’d just given her.

Do-yeon’s gaze was already on me.

“I want to do that again.”

“Did you have fun?”

“Yeah!”

I’m glad she’s intrigued.

From now on, none of this is forced.

It’s a consensual, fun thing to do.

“Then, I think it would be good if you could bring out a few more weapons that can be used quietly…….”

“Yes!”

Do-yeon pulled up another illustration and reached into the monitor to pull out another weapon.

A stun gun and several smoke grenades, plus a dagger that glows faintly rainbow and a pistol with graffiti on it.

“I didn’t need the gun and dagger.”

As I shuddered at the sight of items I would never see in real life, Do-Yeon asked.

“Do you want more?”

“I don’t need any more…….”

“…I see.”

Then, she started pulling things out in front of me.

She could only pull out things related to “cyberpunk,” but she didn’t ask for much in return, she was busy creating endlessly.

Sometimes I could hear Do-yeon’s voice exclaiming in admiration.

“……Nice work.”

I sat back down on the couch and waited for her to tire.

Hurrying her wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing.