After what felt like over five hours in the darkness, Minju then found herself in the position the MC was in at the beginning of the game.
"Huh?!" She exclaimed before rushing in front of the mirror to see herself as the MC.
"No no no no no no no no no no no no," she started panicking, holding her head with both hands in anxiety while stomping around her room in a rush.
"This must be a dream, please, this is just a dream. Calm down, it's just a dream-" She was calming herself down when a hologram boy appeared beside her.
"Welcome to TBZ 007!" He greeted her in enthusiasm, triggering Minju's anxiety and making her fall on her butt.
"What the heck are you?!" She queried in confusion.
The hologram boy blinked at her in astonishment before kneeling down beside her, "Okay, just take a breather for now, hm? Everything is fine."
Minju stared at him, still disturbed but decided to take a deep breath and exhale a couple of times for several minutes.
She was still trembling from the sudden attack but she eventually had the guts to speak up, "Why am I in here? Who are you? Why are you holographic? Is this a dream? Am I going to die in here?"
The boy released a breath, "I'm here to clear your doubts but I can't answer those all at once," he spoke before answering her first question, "You're here because you got access to a particular ending that wasn't supposed to be seen by anyone. Plus, your gameplay skills caught the developers' attention so they took you in here to use you as the MC for trial runs for the time being."
"I am Ji Changmin, commonly called the hologram boy or info boy because I know almost everything about this game, so feel free to ask me questions when you want to."
"I am holographic because...I don't have time to actually come and talk to you in person inside the game."
"And no to the last two questions."
Minju stared at him before asking, "So, you're real?"
"No, not at all," he laughed.
Minju looked around her surroundings while recalling his answers, "How come? How is it possible for users to actually enter the game?"
"Well, that's thanks to the wise and intelligent developers of TBZ 007!"
"The unknown developers?"
"Yes, keep in mind that no other questions about them will be answered."
Minju stared at him before asking another question, "Have anyone else entered? Like, in the past?"
He nodded, "There are currently ten users who got into the game excluding you right now. You'll get the chance to meet them once you start the game."
"Start the game?"
"Right. I forgot to say this in the beginning," he cleared his throat before continuing, "You'll be going through the game exactly like how you went through it before you came in here."
"From the beginning?"
"Obviously. So, although that might sound easy to you since you already went through the game without much effort, there's this one problem every user struggles with every time they come in here," he paused to look at Minju in the eyes.
"That is?"
"If you fail even one mission, or mess up in any way, you'll be trapped in here like the current users who are here."
"Trapped?"
"Yeah, you will not have the chance to retry anything. You'll become one of the side characters in this game for the rest of your life unless some other user comes in to complete the game without any mission fails to set you all free."
Minju's jaw dropped at his words, thinking how horrendous a person could be to trap people in a game with little probability of winning without any mistakes.
"Has anyone won the game?"
"No. You know, this game was released only this year," he spoke.
"Well, frick," Minju sighed.
"But you can be the first one to win the game. That's how we normally motivate the users here. Besides, it depends on you if you want me to retain your gameplay info of the game and such so that I can remind you what is about to happen and what you have to do to make it easier for you. Unless you want to depend on your own memory," he grinned.
Minju vigorously nodded, "Yes, please-"
There was a knock on the door, interrupting Minju and Changmin. Minju stared at the door in silence while Changmin looked at Minju in confusion.
"You should be answering that, you know?" Changmin spoke.
"Right-" Minju fumbled up from the floor and walked to the door nervously. She hastily opened the door and MC's butler, who Minju remembered as Chanhee, appeared behind the door.
"Are you okay? You've been inside here for hours now," Chanhee instantly asked while walking around her room and browsed around if anything was going on.
Minju turned to Changmin, who simply gave her a thumbs up and faded away.
"Hm?" Chanhee turned back to Minju in comfusion after being unanswered for more than three seconds.
"Oh, uhm...I was just...sitting," Minju spoke.
Chanhee stared at her for a few seconds before walking closer to her, "Princess Minju."
Minju was rather surprised to hear him say her name, "What...?"
Chanhee snickered and shook his head before turning away to the window, "Prince Younghoon is outside, waiting for you."
"That- okay," Minju nodded, hiding how scared and nervous she was because she knew exactly what Prince Younghoon was like.
Chanhee stole a last glance at Minju before leaving her room, quite disturbed.
Minju then felt her heart pacing up, her anxiety rising. Prince Younghoon, he was the childhood friend who got extremely possessive, wasn't he?
She released a heavy breath before pulling herself together and leaving her room to meet with the prince.
Younghoon stared at the sky with a gentle smile on his face just as Minju was about to walk up to him.
Minju abruptly stopped when she saw an information bubble popping up beside Younghoon's head.
Kim Younghoon : Prince,
Love interest, 27 years old,
Childhood best friend.
You're about to have a conversation
with him involving another prince.
Be careful with your words, don't
make him too upset on the spot.
© 2022 -bbimagination
