The Supporting Characters in the Game Have Become Obsessed

Chapter 18

[Translator – Peptobismol]

Chapter 18: The Unpredictable (1)

Different from what I expected.

Nothing major happened to me.

Since hearing that there was a bounty placed on my head, I had prepared thoroughly in my own way.

But for the past few days,

Nothing happened at all.

Apart from Mr. Bill, whose face fills me with anger every time I see him, coming to find me. But that’s beside the point.

Please stop coming now…

It’s become part of my daily life, so that’s not a big deal either.

Yes.

It was just a series of ordinary days.

I wondered if Eve had somehow used some means (usually illegal) to prevent any enemies from coming to me in advance, but…

[Denial. I respond that up to the present time, not a single hostile entity has come near our house.]

“Are you disappointed?”

[Denial.]

It wasn’t that either.

And it’s not like Catherine next door took care of the enemies first.

Her house has been empty for days now.

Usually, in such cases, most people go to handle private commissions.

I didn’t worry much about this part.

“Well… I guess I have to ask someone I know.”

[Affirmative.]

In fact, it was the quickest solution.

It was much better than suffering alone.

I activated the visual interface.

A blue window appeared in front of me.

I can write a rough message…

Recipient: ‘White Rabbit’

– Sorry for suddenly messaging you, but if you have time, could you tell me about the bounty thing you mentioned last time?

– Check and reply (Typing…)

Suddenly, a call came in.

Who is it, Catherine?

Contrary to my expectations, the name displayed was ‘White Rabbit,’ it was Julia.

Was it good timing?

Or did she call right after checking the message?

The speed was indistinguishable.

Anyway, I answered the call.

Julia’s innocent face was rendered through a neat hologram.

Her blue hair fluttered elegantly.

[…Hello.]

“I just sent a message, did you see it?”

[…Yes.]

She could’ve just replied with a message.

But it seemed surprisingly diligent of her to call intentionally.

“Oh, we talked about it when we met last time. There was a bounty on me.”

[…Yes, so about that─.]

As Julia continued her explanation, a painful scream of an unknown man echoed from the other side of the phone.

[Aaaahhh!!]

“?”

What.

[…I’m sorry. I’m just in the middle of something right now…]

“…What are you doing?”

[…Please feel free to speak.]

No, I’m scared.

What on earth are you doing?

[Why the hell is this crazy bitch doing this!!]

[Damn it, I’m running away!]

Clearly, Julia’s face displayed through the hologram was very peaceful and innocent.

But the terrified voices coming from behind were not just one or two.

Maybe my thoughts showed on my face.

Julia continued speaking with a trembling voice, as if making excuses.

[…Um, I’m doing some cleanup to leave the organization this time…]

“Ah, I see”

What I consider cleanup and what she considers cleanup seem to have different meanings.

[…I also need to find a new house now.]

…What.

The part about her turning her (former) colleagues into sashimi had nothing to do with me.

Anyway, they would probably be the same guys who came looking for me at the restaurant last time.

But last time I saw her,

Her direction seemed to be towards my house.

Please, let her be far from my house.

I secretly wished.

* * *

After that, I listened to Julia’s brief explanation.

Naturally, it could only be a brief explanation.

My mental capacity was close to its limit to hold on to the call for so long.

People being sliced, machines being sliced, even chunks of chrome being sliced, the sounds were enough to lengthen the call.

My mental strength wasn’t that strong.

Anyway, now that I found a way, it was time to look into the bounty again.

I used the old monitor and keyboard and logged into the ‘classic game’ that I hadn’t touched since reaching max level.

According to Julia, you can also check the list of bounties placed on someone through this game.

I never thought I would log back into this game.

With the stories Julia told me at the restaurant and the fact that there was absolutely no max level content, I was considering looking for another game.

I don’t know if there are any other similar games in this cyberpunk world that have this kind of trash sensibility.

I rapidly pressed the jump key out of habit.

Let’s see.

She said it was in the corner of the village, right?

I maneuvered the character along the graphically designed village path.

I seemed to understand why I couldn’t find this place when I played the game.

It wasn’t hard to find, but even when I opened the map and looked around, I couldn’t see any icons nearby.

No wonder I didn’t come here.

The atmosphere in the game, which had always been quiet, was different now.

There were a lot of people who looked like players near here.

I’ve never seen so many people bustling around like this before.

Maybe this game… was it a hit after all?

I put aside the joke that came to mind and moved my character. The direction was an object in the form of an old bulletin board.

Since the system valued anonymity, there was no chance of my identity being revealed.

[Translator – Peptobismol]

Maybe if it had, I would have already received a message from the administrators.

If not, someone would have come to talk to me while I was hunting.

My character walked towards the bulletin board with stiff movements.

By the way, I couldn’t help the stiffness. It was the limit of bad game graphics.

When I clicked on the bulletin board, what appeared on the monitor was a large ‘bulletin board’.

Its form and UI were very similar to the bulletin boards of Net Space communities.

The game design UI was trash, but they put a lot of effort into this.

As a gamer, it made me a little sad.

The categories were systematic, surprisingly well-organized, such as Freedom, Information, Tips, Notices, Bounties, and so on.

Although I was curious about other things, my goal was to check the bounty menu from the beginning.

There wasn’t anything particularly special about the bounty board.

Posts were appearing in the ordinary format, and the content varied from person to person.

First, let’s check the latest ones.

……

Oh.

These guys also have bounties on them.

I saw a few familiar faces.

Considering that most of the people I knew were mercenaries, it was natural.

Scrolling down a few times, I quickly found my name.

“Here it is.”

[What entity dared to post this, I wonder.]

The name of the poster was, of course, private.

【Bounty】 [Shun Lee]

(Picture registered on city ID)

The person claims to be named Shun Lee.

Dead or Alive (DOA)

Upon success, 1,000,000 credits will be provided in any way you wish.

For related information, check the Deep Net address below or leave a private comment.

ㅡ The sole mage appears hahaha

ㅡ Who the hell posted this LOL

ㅡ (Private comment)

ㄴ (Private comment)

ㅡ If you want to die gracefully, I recommend not touching that.

ㅡ These bastards are going to kill all the newbies in the wilderness!! At least it’s not me, so it’s okay haha;

·

·

·

The unusual thing was the reaction in the comments.

…No matter how positively evaluated I am, I’m not that impressive.

Because I’m not as strong as a certain individual (Catherine), nor am I as bold as a certain individual (Catherine).

I felt a little strange.

A million credits.

Thinking in terms of past standards in Korea, it would be about 1 billion won.

A billion for my life.

……

Was that a lot?

I didn’t get it.

While I was at it, I searched to see if there were any other names I knew.

I thought it would definitely be there.

Unexpectedly, there were no bounty posts for Catherine, Andrea, or Drake.

Why did they specifically target me out of this lineup to put a bounty on?

…I really couldn’t predict who did it.

Then, suddenly.

I spotted a character moving outside the bulletin board screen.

Before he disappeared, I hurriedly entered a chat.

[ImARealMage (Warrior): Excuse me! Mr. P2034871140!]

[P2034871140 (Jobless): What is it?]

I felt more trusting because it was such a roughly made ID.

[ImARealMage (Warrior): I saw the bulletin board and was curious. Why isn’t there a bounty on mercenaries like the Shooting Star?]

[P2034871140 (Jobless): 　　 ]

My chat was met with the other person entering an empty message.

This means…

Judging from my extensive net experience, the other person must be very confused right now.

Why?

After a brief silence, the other person typed a chat again.

[P2034871140 (Jobless): Are you a newbie? It’s lucky that there’s no chat log here. Otherwise, you would’ve been dead already.]

[ImARealMage (Warrior): ?]

Why were they suddenly talking about dying?

Is this some kind of horror story where you die if you look at some picture?

In fact, it was a fitting remark if it was directed towards Catherine.

Catherine being a ‘dies-multiple-times’ character… It does sound plausible.

[P2034871140 (Jobless): If you’re a newbie, pay attention. Not having an interest in the Meteor is practically an unwritten rule in this industry.]

Meteor refers to Catherine, like a nickname.

Hmm.

I think I know why such an unwritten rule exists.

Every time I see Catherine, it feels like I’m about to die.

I nodded without realizing it.

[Translator – Peptobismol]