There are days when you can be totally unlucky—like when bird poop travels two streets through the air just to land on your favorite merch t-shirt.
There are days that might be horrific, like GTA 6 finally getting released but a zombie virus breaks out the same day.
And then there are days when you can be utterly pathetic, like accidentally tripping in front of your neighbor's ring camera (which is being broadcasted LIVE) and becoming a national meme.
For Inso? Today was all of the above.
While the chat was going absolutely insane about Devi being some hidden party member, all Inso wanted were answers and just enough willpower to drag himself back to his room and shut his eyes to this nightmare.
Everything felt so overwhelming for Inso, that he let out a long, exhausted sigh that seemed to carry the weight of his entire existence.
"Noona..." His voice cracked slightly. "I want an explanation. Not a show-off." For the first time in his life, Inso found himself glaring at Devi—the person who had been his anchor in this chaotic world.
Devi took a deep breath.
"Inso... Listen carefully." Her voice was steady but gentle, "We're inside a game, and you are an NPC in it."
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
Silence surrounded them, thick and suffocating. Even the rain seemed to pause, as if the universe itself was holding its breath.
There were three long pauses before Inso tilted his head, his expression a mixture of disbelief and exhaustion.
"Noona, don't you see the word 'SERIOUS' written all over my face?" His voice was flat, devoid of any patience since he assumed that these were jokes.
"I don't," Devi replied with the same blunt honesty that had always been part of her character. "But I'm telling you the truth"
Inso was about to grind his teeth into powder when Devi placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Her touch was warm—real—and somehow that made everything worse.
"I know this is all too sudden for you," she said, her voice softer now, carrying years of hidden pain. "But this is a hard truth you need to digest now, Inso. Since you're a player now too"
The sincerity in her voice hit him like a physical blow. Inso searched her eyes desperately, looking for any sign that this could be a prank, but all he found was honesty—raw, painful honesty that he'd never seen before.
His heart began to race as frustration slowly took roots.
"So you're telling me..." His voice was barely a whisper, "that all the shit I've endured for the past 20 years isn't real?"
The question came out more broken than angry, like a child asking why their pet had to die.
Devi shook her head, and for a moment, relief flooded through him before her next words shattered that hope.
"I don't say what you're living isn't real. You're real, Inso. Your feelings, your pain, your memories—they're all real." She paused, choosing her words carefully. "But you weren't a player until now. And now... you can't expect a life like everyone else's."
The words swirled in Inso's mind like a tornado, destroying every assumption he'd ever made about his existence. Player? NPC? What does any of this mean?
"Even I was like you once," Devi began, her voice taking on a distant quality. "A long time ago."
She reached into her shirt and pulled out the pendant he'd seen her touch earlier. In the dim light, it seemed to pulse with its own inner glow.
"The system screen suddenly sought me out and gave me this pendant when I was 13." Her fingers traced its surface with familiarity. "It said I had potential. I was just a kid at the time and felt like I was a hero who was going to save the world. I felt special"
A bitter smile crossed her face—one that aged her beyond her years.
"But I didn't know the meaning of 'Hero' could be so deep that it could sink your sanity altogether."
Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper as she looked up at the sky. The sadness in her eyes was so real that Inso felt his breath catch in his throat. This was an expression he'd never seen on her face—raw, vulnerable, haunted.
What happened to her? The thought screamed in his mind. What did they make her do?
But just as quickly as the vulnerability appeared, Devi shrugged it off like discarding a heavy coat, though the weight in her eyes remained.
"Anyways, I've grown and changed a lot. After all, maintaining my streak was really important for our world." She said it so casually, but Inso caught the tremor in her voice.
"Important for our world?" Inso's brows furrowed as a new wave of dread washed over him.
Rex stepped in, "If she's not among the top 100, then your world would slowly start to perish."
The words hit Inso like a physical blow. His legs nearly gave out beneath him.
"What do you mean?" His voice was barely audible.
Rex's expression was grim, like a soldier delivering news from a battlefield. "In the game, there are more than 300 solar systems. In each solar system, there's a planet with living species, like your earth. The system recruits a player from each planet and makes them dive into the task pool."
Each word felt like another nail in a coffin Inso didn't even know he was already in.
"You're lucky to have a party from the start. We all started solo and leveled up by ourselves." Rex's voice carried the weight of hard-earned experience. "If we fail to keep our ranking, then our sun would slowly prepare to explode and the planets surrounding it will collapse. Your friend has climbed to the top 10 somehow. She's 4th now."
The revelation hit Inso harder than any bomb attack could have. This wasn't about some space game—this was about survival. About the lives of everyone he'd ever known or cared about resting on the shoulders of the girl who used to care for him like a sister.
What sort of tasks did she have to complete? The thought made his stomach churn. What did they make a 13-year-old girl do to save an entire world? The pressure would've made her mind blank. Yet she still managed to keep her composure and took care of me too.
Looking at Devi now—calm, collected, but with those haunted eyes—Inso felt a rage building inside him that he didn't know he was capable of.
"Who the fuck made this system anyway?" The words exploded out of him, raw and furious.
Rex's expression darkened, his fists clenching involuntarily. "We don't know." His voice was barely controlled. "Only the first rank could know that. But for the past three decades, nobody could defeat him or even find his whereabouts. The system keeps the details of the top 10 confidential."
The injustice of it all crashed over Inso like a tidal wave. Some unknown puppetmaster was playing with entire civilizations like they were toys, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
But then another thought struck him—one that brought everything into sharp focus.
"Then why did you try kill me and take my eyes? Is that a quest?" The question came out casually.
Rex suddenly looked like he'd rather be anywhere else in the universe, beads of sweat forming on his forehead despite the cool rain sensing a sudden heat from his leftside.
Devi's head turned toward Rex with the slow, deliberate movement of a spider slowly reaching the centre of the net where its prey is trapped. The temperature around them seemed to drop several degrees.
"He did what now?" Her voice was deceptively calm, but invisible waves of menace radiated from her like heat from a forge.
[Polarum: HOHOHO, someone's in trouble~ grabs more celestial popcorn]
"Hey, look, I wanted to learn what he's capable of—" Rex's voice actually stuttered, which would have been amusing under different circumstances.
"I heard from Nexus you were just going to have a simple test." Devi's voice had taken on a sinister quality that made even Inso take a step back. "What's this about killing him? Huh? Care to explain?"
[Polarum: BWAHAHAHAHA #revengearc #payback #rexeatsdust]
[Ekkril: 😐]
DING!
[System Notification: D has challenged Rexus for a 'Duel to Death']
[Ayame logged in]
"Shit. Fine. Come at me." Rex took three steps back and started to unleash his aura, purple energy crackling around him.
But before he could even get into a proper fighting stance, Devi moved with the fluid grace of someone who'd done this a thousand times before. In one smooth motion, she produced a needle from her pendant and poked one of the eyes in Rex's earring.
Rex blinked once. "You cheating B1#...."
Before he could finish the sentence, he disappeared into thin air with a digital glitch effect.
[Ayame: Serves you right @$$#@!#]
[Ayame has gifted D with a teleporting spaceship]
[Polarum: Whoa! She gifted her THAT?]
[Lars: ____]
[Ekkril: I really wanted it TT]
Inso's jaw dropped, but he was more concerned than impressed. The casual way Devi had just... eliminated someone was both terrifying and oddly reassuring.
"Space jerk," Devi muttered with a menacing expression before her eyes softened as she turned back to Inso.
The rapid shift in her demeanor sent chills down his spine.
"Hey, stop looking at me like that. I didn't kill him yet," she said with a shrug that was almost convincing.
Inso squinted at her in disbelief.
"He can respawn, okay? I just took one of his lives by poking an eye. He has plenty of them. He'll come back after respawning." She ran a hand through her hair and muttered under her breath,
"Although it costs him several thousand exp." The small, sneaky smirk that crossed her face was so familiar it screamed DEVI.
But normal was a luxury Inso could no longer afford.
As the weight of everything settled on his shoulders, one he had one question, "So....what is my current level?"
....
Meanwhile, somewhere in the vast emptiness of space...
[Rex has lost a life]
[25,000 exp deducted]
[Current level: Rank 3]
"That annoying B!#$#" Rex's scream was swallowed by the vacuum of space, cosmic laws preventing even his frustration from echoing.
Thought of the day: [Ayame: Serves you right @$$#@!#]