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Chapter 4
“Can you see this?”
“See what?”
“The system window.”
“What’s that?”
“A translucent window. You can’t see it?”
Mr. Gye Deokho stared hard at the system window my finger was pointing at, then frowned.
“I can’t see anything.”
So not every transmigrator could see it.
Which meant I was the only one who could.
But why? I wasn’t even the heroine. Was this some kind of special privilege for the helper character?
While I was lost in thought, Mr. Gye Deokho suddenly stomped his foot loudly.
Startled, I flinched.
“You’re saying I have to live in this body forever?”
“Probably.”
[Wrong answer.]
No, tell me the correct answer too!
While I was desperately thinking over the answer, Mr. Gye Deokho stomped his foot again.
“Damn it!”
“Please calm down first.”
“Does this look like a situation where I can calm down? I’m wearing scraps of cloth like this and people keep calling me ‘young lady’ and all that nonsense!”
“Getting angry won’t solve anything.”
At my words, Mr. Gye Deokho cursed for a long while before finally covering his face with both hands.
“That bastard Kwak Beom… I’m definitely going to kill him…”
I didn’t know who Kwak Beom was, but apparently he hated him enough to want him dead.
I gently patted Mr. Gye Deokho on the shoulder and waited for him to calm down.
“But aren’t you bothered by this at all?”
“Me? Um… bothered by what?”
“You transmigrated too.”
“That’s true.”
“Don’t you want to return to your original world?”
“Hmm. Not really.”
At first, I had been confused after transmigrating, but that was all.
Actually, this was better for me.
Back in South Korea, my life had been even more miserable than Renée’s.
“There wasn’t really anything worth missing.”
“What do you mean there wasn’t? What about your family?”
“I cut ties with them long ago. Honestly, it would’ve been better if I never had them in the first place.”
“Friends?”
“I don’t have any.”
“A lover?”
“I was too busy to date.”
“You really had one hell of a life…”
“It was like living in a sewer. That’s probably why I’m pretty satisfied with this life.”
Ham Suyeong had never spent a single day without worrying about money.
Should I survive lunch with convenience store leftovers again today? If I don’t get the scholarship, I’ll have to take a leave of absence next semester. I also need to replace these worn-out shoes…
Every day had felt like mere survival.
I had been afraid of tomorrow coming.
At least Renée was rich.
She had friends. She attended parties.
Compared to my old life, it wasn’t bad at all.
For some reason, Mr. Gye Deokho had stopped causing chaos and was staring at me with a pitiful look in his eyes.
“You’re still young, but you’ve really suffered a lot.”
Seeing him plop down onto the floor, it seemed he had calmed down somewhat.
He also appeared to be accepting the fact that he had transmigrated.
Maybe because the outer shell belonged to the heroine, he looked rather pure and delicate when he stayed quiet.
As expected of a heroine. Pretty, huh.
I was sitting amidst the completely destroyed bedroom when I suddenly realized we had never properly introduced ourselves.
I practically bounced up from the floor.
“Come to think of it, we never properly introduced ourselves.”
I held out my hand toward Mr. Gye Deokho.
“My name is Ham Suyeong. I’m twenty years old. In Korea, I was just an ordinary college student. Oh, and I’m female. What about you, Mr. Gye Deokho?”
Mr. Gye Deokho lazily tilted his head and casually listed his information.
“Name’s Gye Deokho. Fifty-three years old. Male. Executive director at Taejung Construction.”
I had heard of Taejung Construction before.
It was a company supposedly rooted in organized crime and considered comparable to a major corporation.
If he was an executive director there…
“Were you perhaps a gangster?”
“Yeah.”
No wonder the way he twisted Male Lead No. 2’s wrist had looked so skilled.
So he really was a gangster…
Immediately convinced, I plopped down beside him.
Though now that I thought about it, there was a thirty-year age gap between us.
Was it really okay to keep calling him “Mr. Gye Deokho”?
Didn’t it sound a bit rude?
Should I correct myself now?
As I pondered seriously, Gye—
No, Uncle suddenly turned toward me and asked,
“So how did you end up transmigrating?”
“Me? I just went to sleep and woke up in this body.”
“Really? Then maybe you died suddenly.”
“You think I died?”
“Well, I died too.”
“How did you die, Uncle?”
“Me? Got stabbed.”
“Ah.”
Apparently, he had a younger subordinate named Kwak Beom whom he treasured dearly, but the guy betrayed him and stabbed him.
That was definitely enough reason to be furious.
Still, if we really came here after dying, then did I actually die suddenly?
I had never really thought about what happened to Ham Suyeong’s original body, but if Uncle was right and I truly died, I became a little curious about who would handle my funeral.
Surely I didn’t end up as an unclaimed corpse?
While I was briefly lost in thought, I suddenly remembered the crimson crack across the sky.
“Ah.”
Right. I still had to solve that problem.
I stood up, pulled aside the tattered curtains, and opened the window wide.
The sudden flood of light made Uncle frown like a vampire exposed to sunlight.
Pointing at the sky, I turned back toward him.
“Uncle, can you see that?”
“What… what is that?”
Thankfully, he could see it.
Pushing himself up with one hand on his knee, Uncle walked toward the window.
He stared at the enormous crimson crack cutting across the sky and frowned again.
“Why is only that part red?”
“I think it’s some kind of crack.”
“A crack? What’s that supposed to mean now?”
Where should I even start explaining?
After thinking for a moment, I pointed toward the system window that only I could see.
“You can’t see it, Uncle, but there’s something here that says—”
[5% until the destruction of the world]
“—like this.”
“The destruction of the world?”
“Yes. This gauge rises whenever the heroine of this novel—that is, you—acts differently from the original story. And when I say ‘original story’…”
I explained everything I knew to him.
Uncle listened while repeatedly frowning and relaxing his expression.
“So to summarize, if I don’t act like the original heroine or whatever, the world gets closer to destruction?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“That’s insane. What kind of nonsense is that?”
Uncle slammed the window frame with his beautiful fist—
Even the heroine’s fists were pretty.
“Anyway, if we don’t want the world destroyed and everyone dying, you need to start acting like the heroine from now on.”
“What exactly does ‘acting like the heroine’ mean?”
“Hmm. Well… smiling kindly at everyone, building romance routes with the male leads, maybe getting bullied a little by the villainess?”
The more I spoke, the uglier Uncle’s expression became.
With a face like that, he looked terrifying despite being the heroine.
“Fuck.”
“You can’t swear anymore starting now. And no scary expressions either. Beatrice has to be lovable, not frightening.”
“Why are there so many things I can’t do?”
“That’s just how heroines are.”
Uncle muttered another curse and grabbed at his hair again.
He seemed seriously shocked.
Well, it made sense.
Waking up as an eighteen-year-old girl overnight was shocking enough, but being told the world would end if he didn’t behave like a proper heroine?
Even I would be shocked.
“I’ll help you from the side. So don’t worry too much.”
After all, Uncle had to adapt properly so I could stop the world from ending and run away with money later.
Holding Uncle’s hand tightly, I tried calming him down again.
If he caused any more chaos and the destruction gauge increased further, we’d be in serious trouble.
Only after taking several deep breaths did Uncle finally calm down enough to look at me.
“How long do I have to keep doing this?”
“I’m not sure… I think it’ll be over once the destruction gauge disappears.”
Maybe it would vanish once we reached the ending?
The moment that thought crossed my mind—
Ding.
[Correct answer.]
Oh.
So even if Uncle returned to South Korea eventually, the world wouldn’t be destroyed, and I could continue living as Renée.
That was truly fortunate.
“I think we need to see this novel’s ending.”
“What’s the ending? If we reach the ending, can I return to my original world? Can I kill that bastard Kwak Beom too?”
“Uh…”
Wait.
In all three IF side stories, Beatrice ended up together with one of the male leads.
Then that meant Uncle and the male leads would…?
[Correct answer.]
Are you kidding me?
The man was already causing chaos just from transmigrating into a romance fantasy novel—
And now I was supposed to tell him he had to end up romantically involved with the male leads too?
