Chapter 38

The following is the translated text:

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I found my wallet and phone without much trouble in what seemed to be my room, where I woke up alongside Seo-ra. Come to think of it, the reason I didn’t go searching in a different room on the first day was because I didn’t want to recklessly invade or disturb the place where the parents of this body might be, or once were. But there was absolutely no reason not to search the room designated as “my room.”

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Using the phone I found, I immediately checked the balance in my bank account.

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The cash in my wallet amounted to a mere 100,000 won, which is a decent amount for a student but far too little to live on alone.

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If there wasn’t more money on the card, living would be difficult. Since I could check the account balance through my phone, I opened it with half-tension and half-curiosity.

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The password for the bank app was unknown to me, but fortunately, it could be accessed through fingerprint verification.

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And the result was… astonishing:

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“Three… three hundred million?”

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There was slightly over 300 million won in the account.

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Curious as to what this might mean, I checked the transaction history and found that my older sister had been sending me 3 million won every month.

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Given that there seemed to be no separate rent deduction, this 3 million could be considered as allowance.

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Considering the accumulated amount, it appeared she had been earning and saving for several years, leading to the total of 300 million won.

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Judging by this, I could estimate that it had been about ten years since the parents of this body had passed away.

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It seemed that starting from around that time, my sister began sending money every month.

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Of course, since it’s possible she only started earning money then, I shouldn’t fully trust these assumptions, but it doesn’t matter much.

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The exact timing of the parents’ passing rarely plays a major role in romantic visual novels, so it’s unlikely this will be relevant.

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After confirming the account details on my phone, I happily threw myself onto the bed.

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“I suddenly have no desire to go out…!”

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As long as I don’t encounter any purity-related issues, I’d like to stay in this world.

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A sum like 300 million doesn’t come easily, so even though it’s a small amount compared to a lottery jackpot, it feels like winning one.

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Winning the lottery—I can’t believe I actually won something as rare as a lifetime lottery.

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I felt a bit excited but ended up laughing bitterly.

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However, just the day before, if I hadn’t discovered a way to use my abilities in a flash, I might have been in the hands of a dreadful doll owner or possibly the Student Council President.

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And if the Student Council President had suffered, I would have been haunted by nightmares every day.

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I am someone who feels guilt easily and quite strongly, after all.

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While it’s easy to disregard causing harm to actors whose faces don’t appear properly, seeing someone who shows unconditional kindness captured without resistance would make it difficult not to feel guilty.

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So, even though the money here significantly surpasses the amount I could have in real life, staying here indefinitely would expose me to more guilt-inducing situations. If I get an opportunity to leave, I won’t miss it.

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Since I have no idea what thoughts the original person behind this body had regarding the money they accumulated from their sister, I shouldn’t recklessly spend it.

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I’ll limit spending to essential things like food and stress-relieving desserts.

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I turned off the phone, which only brought bad thoughts and derailed my motivation, and returned to the bed.

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Instead of a stark white ceiling that felt like it might induce psychosis, this room had wallpaper painted blue, adorned with occasional clouds. Though the room seemed better suited for a boy than a girl, it was preferable to being all white.

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“If I could keep staring at this ceiling forever, that would be ideal.”

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But I have something to take care of first before indulging in lying around aimlessly on the computer or doing other things. I left the room and went upstairs.

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To where I mistakenly thought was my room. Upon arriving, instead of entering, I leaned against the door and slumped down.

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“It’s just a hypothesis, so just hear me out. This is your room, sister.”

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Perhaps because I wasn’t directly facing the sister, the word “sister” came out relatively easily.

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In truth, I can call her sister all I want when talking to myself. It’s just that when I have to call her sister in front of someone younger than me, it triggers an unusual sense of shame.

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Satisfied with no response from the room, I felt somewhat relieved.

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“If this isn’t my room, then it must belong to someone else. But if it’s someone else’s, there can only be one person here—Inna. The CCTV installed here must have been allowed by Inna. The reason why CCTV would be needed here must be because the owner of this room considers themselves dangerous.”

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I thought she was Inna and assumed this was truly my room due to confusion with her, but if this room doesn’t belong to me, another reason comes to mind.

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If the purpose of installing CCTV was due to the danger from this room’s occupant, then real-time monitoring would be necessary.

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In other words, the owner of this room must be dangerous. Since the phone revealed a screen connected to this location’s CCTV, the original reason for its installation likely aligned with this purpose.

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“I don’t know why you thought this, or why you painted the room white. This is a pure question—does this room have any significance?”

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If CCTV was installed because it’s dangerous, why did I wake up in this room?

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Could it be out of loneliness that the owner sought even someone who doesn’t get along well? Or is it because of some unique ability this person possesses?

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The sister’s ability I couldn’t confirm at that point. This body’s system, which is supposed to identify the abilities of people not genuinely loved, is terribly inefficient.

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Of course, at first, the system that reveals names, abilities, and roles seemed quite uninteresting, but after experiencing it, I’m starting to understand.

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The function that allows me to detect extras, seen as black shadows with their mental states and favorability, also lets me recognize even those who change appearances like queens.

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However, when I tried to confirm the sister’s identity, the system temporarily froze due to an attack by an inexplicable hero character, so I couldn’t verify her properly.

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Will the things I didn’t confirm back then come back to haunt me later?

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As there was no response, I didn’t wait long and went downstairs.

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I was talking aloud merely to organize my thoughts, despite thinking there wouldn’t be anyone in the room.

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Ignoring the impulse to turn back and open the door, I returned to my room.

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A dark night,

Someone stopped and grabbed a drunkard swaying as if drunk with liquor.

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“Hey, are you alright?”

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The drunkard could not properly see the face of the person helping him, but he heard the voice clearly.

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That voice, which seemed to encompass everything with compassion, left the drunkard no choice but to pour out his heart: there was no one left for him; he’d been fired from his job.

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Even as the voice soothingly patted the drunkard’s shoulder, it whispered something mysterious:

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“Go home. The family you think you’ve lost may still be there. But if they vanish forever, come here. God is watching over you.”

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“May you be happy.”

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A business card slipped into the drunkard’s pocket, and with that, stability akin to returning home overcame the person, who slumped right onto the ground.

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The woman, who dusted off the stains left by the drunkard as if they were dirty filth, looked down at the fallen man and thought of a certain girl.

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“You have to figure it out.”

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With the cold eyes that didn’t even recognize her as a living being and the overconfidence that goes with it.

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She’d have to develop her strength no matter what, through all sorts of means, to break that overconfidence.

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Stepping out from the confines of school into the vast ocean of the city would eventually allow her to reach that girl.—

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“Did you say you’d make her regret?”

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The unconscious drunkard’s tear-streaked face overlapped, in the woman’s mind, with a certain white-haired girl’s face.

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Beginning and, subsequently, ending.

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Did the main scenario start due to this woman’s obsession with Erica?

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Or did the system predict and anticipate that obsession?

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None of this mattered to the woman who knew nothing of the system.

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Including the drunkard, 122 people so far.

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Though still a minor number, the end would certainly be grand.

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Thus, the seeds for Erica’s bad ending progressed through helping others, moving into the darkness.

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Unbeknownst to Erica, somewhere, someone’s obsession for her was growing.

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And the moon, silently watching over it all, remained still.

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