Chapter Text
It was five o’clock. I didn’t know why this mattered, but I could just feel it. Something had changed. A small body suddenly appeared, which looked like a furry animal, making me and Vivi jump. We were both obviously on edge but stayed calm. It had little golden horns poking out of puffy white fur, and large, red eyes, that would’ve been cute, if they weren’t glowing with malice.
‘[#*$-#+ #^+*} +]’ came a noise.
‘What was that?’ Someone said, confused, but I realised it belonged to the creature. ‘[#*+%…translation patch…#+^=&…malfunctioning @$a%i¥? Ah, that’s better.]’
‘What the hell, is this a tv show shooting or something?’ A man behind us yelled.
‘What is go-’
BANG. There was a sound like a gunshot and something dark and sticky was splattered onto my PE uniform. Instinctively, me and Vivi turned our heads slowly, dreading what we would see, and there it was. The corpse, not yet cold, but already completely lifeless, had a crater imbedded in what used to be its face. An eyeball, half destroyed, rolled, and splattered blood onto my previously spotless shoe. I stared at it for a few moments, seeing, but not. Conscious, but not conscious. I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, and Vivi was trembling beside me, and my vision started blurring and turning red…
[APATHY LV.1 HAS AWAKENED]
I was calm. I wasn’t worried. I just glanced one last time at the body and kicked the eyeball, watching it rolls under a seat. The creature was still talking. Something along the lines of:
‘[Ugh, pathetic humankind. This isn’t a joke; does this look like a terrorist attack to you?]’
I didn’t feel angry, just, a faint annoyance at that dokkaebi, like I wanted them to be erased from existence.
Wait, what?
I just thought about the creature as a ‘dokkaebi.’ But I didn’t know what that meant. Wait…
Something itched at the back of my mind and I racked my brains, trying to jog my memory.
Wasn’t that a creature from that book I read when I was young?
But how did I know that creature is a dokkaebi? And why do I feel so certain that it’s true?
My thoughts raced around my head, round and round and round like a carousel.
That’s not important right now.
I felt insolent and dead to the world. Like I was watching one of my beloved tv shows. People who screamed or shouted out had their heads instantly mangled. Just like that first one. I didn’t feel remorse. Only a slight twinge of regretfulness, as I stepped over one of my classmates' bodies. We weren’t that close anyway. To me, dying was just passing away a bit earlier that others, but we would all die in the end. I had always been like this. Even before this ‘apathetic’ skill had appeared. People called me strange, but I didn’t really mind, because as long as I had my friends (and my cat) with me, I would be fine.
Then, the strange creature, no, dokkaebi, smirked, before waving its hands above their head as a blue, holographic screen appeared.
[WORLD 8612. YOUR FREE TRIAL HAS ENDED. IT IS TIME TO PAY YOUR ACCUMULATED DEBT.]
‘[You humans have been left unsupervised for far too long. Wow, you’ve even started destroying the planet before the scenarios arrived! Managers-nim have been putting off the payment for so long (they are ever so busy), but finally! The time has come for you to pay back what you owe.]’
A devious grin spread across the dokkaebi’s face as it laughed at our horrified expressions.
But then, something appeared before me, something like what you would see in a game. An announcement? I clicked on it, and a blue hologram seemed to appear before my eyes. Glancing around, saw that everyone else was looking at something in front of them too, but their screens were invisible to my eyes. It read:
<MAIN SCENARIO #1 – PROOF OF VALUE>
CATEGORY: MAIN
DIFFICULTY: F
CLEAR CONDITIONS: KILL ONE OR MORE LIVING ORGANISMS
TIME LIMIT: 30 MINUTES
REWARD: 300 COINS
PENALTY FOR FAILURE: DEATH
Chaos ensued. A countdown starting from 30:00 appeared in the front of the train carriage. Adults were screaming and praying to the heavens, while children clung to their parents, weeping hopelessly. Everyone was panicked. Except for us, the two high school girls surrounded by all the misery. I turned to Vivi.
‘You must have the ‘apathetic’ skill too, right?’
‘Mhm.’ She nodded, eyes distant.
‘How do you switch it off? It’s strange…’
‘How am I meant to know-’
‘Ah.’
Somehow, I suddenly knew what to do.
Deactivate ‘Apathy lv. 1’. I thought.
And it was gone. Vivi seemed to have figured it out too, and we both looked more content, instead of just cold and icy.
‘That skill will be really useful though…’
Vivi said, thoughtfully, as I nodded in agreement. For some unknown reason, I still felt calm and utterly unbothered by the death and gore around me.
I really should stop reading horror stories, I pondered. It seems I’m a bit immune to this kind of thing now. I always imagined it would be scarier though…
I turned and looked at Vivi, who seemed to be thinking something along those lines too. Then, the dokkaebi spoke again.
‘[Puny humans, you really don’t understand what situation you are in right now, do you?]’
I didn’t know what was going to happen, but again, I had this feeling like a spider was crawling up my spine, slowly and silently...
‘[In some places, people haven’t even been killed! Haha. Let’s speed things up, shall we?]’ the dokkaebi cackled, sending chills down my body.
‘[MAIN SCENARIO UPDATE COMPLETE]’
The new announcement read. Quickly, I checked the Main Scenario, to see that it had indeed changed. Now it said:
<MAIN SCENARIO #1 – PROOF OF VALUE>
CATEGORY: MAIN
DIFFICULTY: F
CLEAR CONDITIONS: KILL ONE OR MORE LIVING ORGANISMS. IF IN MORE THAN 3 MINUTES PASS WITHOUT A DEATH, EVERYONE IN THE AREA WILL DIE.
TIME LIMIT: 10 MINUTES
REWARD: 350 COINS
PENALTY FOR FAILURE: DEATH
Damn it, I thought. We only had 3 minutes until someone had to die. But I forgot one crucial thing. Everyone left in the carriage slowly fixed their gaze on me and Vivi. We all made eye contact. Of course they would come for us, the only two defenceless high school girls, weak and unable to help themselves. Vivi cursed with creative colour under her breath, and I just smiled weakly. There’s no way I would survive a fight with these bloodthirsty adults with full armour and weapons, so I knew there was no chance that we could win with my horrible stamina and weak arms. I was decently fast, but I couldn’t evade their attacks forever. I did have a backup plan, but I didn’t know how affective it would be. Well, I had prepared myself for death since that man died at the beginning, so I just closed my eyes. Until I got another announcement.
[DARK DAGGERS LV. 1 HAS AWAKENED]
My body moved, swiftly kicking a man’s shins and palming his pen knife as he stumbled backwards in surprise. Vivi seemed to also have awakened an attack skill and was already wielding her-
…Umbrella?!
Ok, there would be time to tease her about it later, but it really was ridiculous, watching her disarm a woman, only using the hot pink umbrella that she so disliked. How ironic that it was now her only chance of survival. Instinctively, I ducked, narrowly avoiding a punch that would’ve probably broken my jaw. It was sent by a fit, middle-aged man who was targeting me.
Ok, last resort time, I thought, as I pulled out my secret weapon from my pocket… I may or may not have swiped a bottle of sulphuric acid and a container full of triflic acid from the chemistry labs. Hurriedly, I poured the acids into the same bottle and dipped my penknife into it. Then, with a flick of my wrist, it was sent straight into the middle-aged man’s throat who was charging at me. It dug in deep. He collapsed onto the floor, writhing in pain. The acids I mixed together became the highly corrosive superacid, which was way stronger than your average sulphuric acid. He made a gurgling sound, and the crowd parted, shocked, as I walked towards the convulsing figure on the ground. In one movement, I grabbed the knife, twisted it, and pulled it out, leaving him to bleed out and suffocate in his own blood. I could hear the bubbling of the blood as he tried and failed to breathe, choking on his own blood.
Well, he deserved it, I thought. I didn’t feel any remorse.
If I didn’t kill him, he would’ve killed me. That’s the way this new world works.