IPBT 01

Chapter 1

[Are these bastards out of their minds?]

[At this point, I should ask for a refund.]

[I’m just going to uninstall it.]

When I finally checked my phone after more than ten hours, it was flooded with messages from my gaming friends.

“What happened this time?”

Today was the day the final chapter update for Grand Theft Run! was released. It was a mobile game that everyone in this open chatroom, myself included, was obsessed with despite constantly cursing it out.

For the people in this chatroom, who complained about the game even on normal days, an update was simply an event that gave them more things to complain about.

I casually ignored the messages and updated the game. Then, as I trudged along, I thought to myself,

It’s ten o’clock. I have to get up at five tomorrow, so… how many hours can I play?

I’d taken on too many part-time shifts because of something that would happen soon, leaving me barely enough time to sleep, but I couldn’t give up gaming.

Besides, this update brought the story to its conclusion.

In other words, it was the perfect time for a player like me, who had only ever enjoyed character customization, to finally start playing the story mode seriously.

Ah. The update’s finished.

Just as I hurriedly logged into the game, it happened.

VROOOOM!

I raised my head at the sudden, violent roar of an engine and saw a car charging straight toward me at full speed.

“……?!”

I needed to run, but my body had gone rigid. I couldn’t even scream.

Fuck. So this is how I die!

I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself for the pain that was about to come. But strangely enough, the deafening engine noise abruptly stopped.

The unnatural silence, as though I’d been cut off from reality itself, brought me back to my senses.

……What?

I couldn’t see clearly because of the headlights shining directly at me, but the car had come to a complete stop in the exact position it had been charging toward me from.

It hadn’t hit the brakes. It was as if time itself had stopped.

I tried to hurry away while I still had the chance, but for some reason, my legs wouldn’t obey me.

I rolled my eyes, the only part of my body I could still move, and my gaze immediately landed on the phone in my right hand.

Something burst through the screen, which was flashing brightly in a world where everything else had come to a standstill.

—Boing!

That’s…

It was the mascot of Grand Theft Run!—a chibi thief wearing black clothes and a black mask.

More precisely, it was the character the game developers had desperately promoted as an adorable mascot, but it was awkwardly ugly enough that nobody actually wanted it. The one who explained the tutorial.

—HEY! Is that really what you want to point out right now?!

The mascot flew closer, furiously widening the holes in its mask as though they were eyes and a mouth.

—Ahem. That’s not the point. You’re going to die if you stay like this. Want me to help you? All you have to do is agree.

Agree?

I didn’t understand a single thing.

Why had time stopped? How had that mascot appeared? And what exactly was I supposed to agree to?

But whatever the explanation, it was offering to help me escape this situation, wasn’t it?

……I’ll do it.

—HUUH?! What? That quickly?!

The mascot looked taken aback by my response, despite being the one who had made the offer.

Well, normally, someone would ask a whole bunch of questions about what was going on.

But right now, the only thing that mattered to me was avoiding the accident.

As long as I didn’t get hit by that car, I’d do anything.

And just to be clear, this absolutely wasn’t PTSD.

I’d ridden in cars plenty of times, and I’d had no problem watching traffic accidents in movies or other media.

This feeling was more like… an aversion.

A stubborn conviction that I absolutely couldn’t die like this. Not this way.

—You’re not going to change your mind, are you? You really mean it?

Yeah. I agree. Whatever it is.

As soon as I confirmed my answer again, a strange board suddenly appeared in front of me.

[Grand Theft Run! Terms of Service]

“……The terms of service?”

—SHWOOOOOSH!

“Ugh! What the hell? All of a sudden…!”

Tiny letters streamed across an unbearably white background, filling my entire field of vision until my eyes hurt.

[Agree □]

The checkbox at the very bottom of the terms of service was ticked.

And then—

“……Huh?”

I found myself dropped into a completely unfamiliar place.

Everything felt out of place: a small studio apartment, a wooden bed, a wardrobe, and all sorts of other things.

—Congratulations! You’ve been transmigrated into the greatest game of the twenty-first century, Grand Theft Run!!

……This was a development I hadn’t anticipated at all.

I grabbed the mascot, which was bouncing up and down in excitement, and pulled it right up to my face.

—AAAH! Let go of me!

“Transmigrated?”

—That’s right! I transmigrated you into this world and saved your life!

I immediately checked the full-length mirror in the corner.

“What the hell…?”

Unrealistically blue hair and limited-edition aquamarine eyes.

It was the character I’d spent the entire first month obsessively customizing.

The person staring back at me looked exactly like the character I’d gazed at on my phone every day. I was even wearing the same black jumpsuit as the mascot.

It was the default outfit provided when you first started the game.

That settled it. I’d transmigrated into my own game character.

“……”

I released the struggling mascot and plopped down onto the bed.

Then what happened to my real body? What about my life?

—Does that really matter~? You’re alive, aren’t you?!

“……”

It wasn’t as though I had absolutely no attachment to life.

But I wasn’t so attached to my original life that I believed living was meaningless if it wasn’t the same one.

I reached a conclusion almost immediately.

I’d live this way, at least. I’d avoided the car accident, and that was good enough for me.

—That’s the spirit! Let’s stay positive!

—You’re so grateful that I saved your life, right? You must want to repay me, don’t you?

“Not really—”

—You can repay me. How, you ask? Well, well~

—By clearing Grand Theft Run! all the way to the final chapter!

“You want me to see the game’s ending?”

My jaw dropped in utter disbelief.

The whole concept of this game was that you played as a thief who robbed aristocrats’ mansions!

Clearing the game meant I had to go around stealing things?!

“What if I refuse?”

Instead of answering, the mascot made a board appear in front of me… no, a system window.

[Quest Refusal Penalty: Death]

“Death? What, are you going to send me back to that situation from earlier?”

—Ooh! Thanks for the idea!

“……”

There were endless questions I could ask. Why did it want me to see the ending? Why had it transmigrated me in the first place?

But there was one thing I wanted to ask above all else.

If it had the power to do something like transmigration…

“Don’t tell me you caused that accident earlier. Did you do it so you could transmigrate me into the game and make me clear the ending?”

—Eek! How could you say something so horrible?! I absolutely did not!

I’m not buying it.

While I eyed the mascot suspiciously, it nodded as though whispering to someone. Then it pointed at the system window.

[Coins Earned Will Be Awarded Even If a Quest Is Failed Midway]

“What’s this?”

Since it was presenting something that had already been a feature in the original game as though it were a special benefit, I assumed the coins could be used for something.

—That’s right~!

[Currency Exchange]

[1 Coin → 10,000 Bell]

—You can exchange them for money in this world!

Money. Now, that was nice.

Not that I loved it enough to resort to crime, but money was important.

Judging by the state of the room, my character seemed to be struggling financially, too.

Besides, I had no other options, and now it was dangling this carrot in front of me as well.

“Haah… Fine. I’ll do it.”

—Great! Let me tell you your first quest~

[Quest: Chapter 1 — Ainsworth Mansion]

[Death if Not Attempted Within 1 Hour, 36 Minutes, and 28 Seconds]

“……Hey. Could you at least give me some time to catch my breath?”

—Hmm~? Why would you need that~?

When I arrived at the location for Chapter 1, I hid in the forest in front of the mansion.

It never said I had to break in myself.

—What kind of obvious nonsense is that? What, do you expect to go poof! and teleport inside?

That’s what happened in the game.

The mascot whipped around and shouted at me.

—You haven’t even properly played the game, so stop acting like you know everything! I was originally planning to get your consent and leave, but you know so little that I’ve had to spend the entire day teaching you like it’s a tutorial!

Oh, shut u—

—You’re the only lazy bastard who’s gone over a year without even clearing Chapter 1! This is a running game, so why have you been doing nothing but dressing your character up and stripping them down?!

What’s wrong with that? If you knew so much, why didn’t you transmigrate someone who actually knew how to play?

—AAAAARGH!

Ignoring the mascot’s furious roar, I looked toward the mansion’s main gate.

Perhaps because it was nearly midnight, the gatekeepers were standing there, nodding off on their feet.

Now’s my chance.

Wait. How am I supposed to do this looking like this? At least give me something to cover my face.

The mascot let out a deep, exasperated sigh.

—You hopeless idiot. Just call up the system window, and it’ll show you this. You should be able to figure out something this simple on your own!

[Currency Exchange]

[Wardrobe]

When I selected the wardrobe, a screen identical to the game’s interface appeared.

All the outfits I bought are here, too.

And yet, I had to wear the ugliest one of them all.

With a heavy heart, I put on the thief’s mask, which looked exactly like the mascot’s face.

It must look really ugly, right? Is there a mirror? Let me see it just once.

—Just get going already!

At the mascot’s furious outburst, I quietly made my way over to the mansion wall, climbed up, and slipped over it.

Huh. It actually worked?

I hadn’t been caught. Beginner’s luck, I supposed.

There wasn’t a single person in sight inside the mansion, but I continued walking cautiously, keeping an eye on my surroundings.

Soon, I reached a corridor lined with rooms on both sides.

[Quest: Chapter 1–1 — Ainsworth Mansion, Main Building, First-Floor Corridor]

[How to Play: Complete the Run for Ten Days Without Being Discovered by Anyone]

Huh?

The rules were different from those in the actual game.

—That’s because this version is for transmigrators.

I went over the conditions I had to meet.

1. Don’t get discovered by anyone.
2. For ten days.
3. Complete the run.

The first condition was a basic rule for any thief, so I could let that one pass.

As for completing the run for ten days, it probably didn’t mean I had to keep running around nonstop for ten whole days.

Since it said complete the run, I only had to run through the course once, from beginning to end.

—Oh! Exactly right!

In that case, the quest wasn’t really about completing the run at all. It was about surviving for ten days.

—That’s right~ Now get started already.

You’ve got to be kidding me. Is this difficulty level insane? Where the hell did ten days come from all of a sudden?

—Why do you talk so much~?!

—Take this!

[GAME START]

[RUN!]

YOU BASTARD!