Chapter 2
I felt sick to my stomach.
I had returned to the starting point again. Dead. Again.
I laughed bitterly.
What? If I die seven more times, I’ll be trapped in this game forever?
Damn the developers. Do they have no conscience at all?
At least lower the difficulty or something. What kind of nonsense is this?
Sren’s programmed intelligence was ridiculously unfair.
Who would have thought he’d silently wait just to see if I tried to escape?
More than that, my own helplessness made me sigh. I needed to be smarter than this, but I wasn’t.
I was just an ordinary person.
Not especially smart. Not good at games. Not good at quick thinking either.
So this situation was nothing but despair for me.
The day I got dragged into this game started when my younger brother, a horror game YouTuber, was streaming. True to its reputation as a hell-difficulty game, he couldn’t even clear the early part. Frustrated, he ended the stream and went out drinking with his friends to cool off.
Our parents were also out that night, attending a reunion.
I was home alone, lying on my bed reading a popular romance fantasy novel.
It was exactly midnight.
That’s when I heard noises coming from my brother’s room.
I assumed he had come back, so I ignored it. But the sound of the door opening and closing kept repeating, like someone was searching for something.
Annoyed, I went to scold him for messing around.
But when I opened the door, the living room was dark and empty.
Only my brother’s room door was slightly open.
At the time, I thought he was just playing a prank.
So I opened the door—
And suddenly, the monitor that had been off turned on.
On the screen was a game title.
An empty chair with loosened ropes. A basement soaked in blood.
It was the horror game my brother had been playing earlier.
Hallucination of Tracker.
“What the hell? He didn’t even shut his computer down properly? Damn it, you scared me.”
I grabbed the mouse and clicked Exit.
But something was wrong.
It clicked, but the game didn’t close.
“Huh? What’s going on? Did it crash? This screen is creepy enough already—why didn’t he turn it off?”
Feeling uneasy, I tried to turn off the monitor instead.
But—
“What? Why won’t it turn off?”
No matter how many times I pressed the power button, nothing changed.
Then the mouse cursor started moving on its own.
And it clicked the Start Game button.
Chills ran through my entire body.
I panicked, hitting the monitor and pressing the power button on the computer tower.
Nothing worked.
Then I heard it.
Quiet, eerie background music filled the room.
As the tension-building sound took over, my heart felt like it stopped.
The room was dark except for the glow of the monitor.
I was alone. Completely alone.
Terrified, I jumped up and tried to turn on the lights.
They wouldn’t turn on.
Only then did I realize something was very wrong.
I tried to leave the room—
Bang!
The door slammed shut, as if it had anticipated my move.
I tried desperately to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.
Then, near my ear, I heard a strange laugh and a low, damp voice.
—Rachel. If you get caught already, what will you do?
I told you to hide well.
“Eek…!”
I couldn’t breathe.
The voice was ice-cold.
Then he spoke again.
—Shaking like that won’t make me go easy on you.
This round is my win.
Now, next game… you’re the seeker.
What?
That wasn’t meant for me, right?
—I’ll wait. Until you find me.
I felt like someone was watching me.
If I didn’t get out of this room, something terrible would happen.
I desperately twisted the doorknob.
—When I count to three, we’ll start again.
His voice didn’t stop.
The more I struggled, the closer it felt.
—Close your eyes. Cover your ears. Shut your mouth…
Before I hear your breathing.
Then—
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Three sharp sounds, like a heart monitor.
My vision turned blood-red.
A faint smell of blood filled the air.
I couldn’t even scream.
And then, everything went black.
When I woke up again, I was inside the world of the game.
After that, I tried everything to escape.
The result was three deaths.
Darkness fell again.
Dong. Dong. Dong.
The clock tower bell rang.
By now, I automatically counted in my head.
Right on cue, footsteps approached.
I can’t keep waiting anymore.
Seven more deaths, and I’ll be trapped here forever.
It still didn’t feel real.
Nothing about this made sense in the first place.
But I couldn’t even imagine what would happen if I ignored the warning.
Being trapped in a horror game forever—
How terrifying was that?
If it were another genre, maybe I wouldn’t struggle this hard.
I might’ve even enjoyed it.
But horror?
I just wanted to live.
I didn’t dream of wealth or glory.
I just wanted an ordinary life, like everyone else.
To do that, I had to escape this game.
I still had seven lives left.
It was time to actually move the story forward.
Whenever I tried to escape, Sren went berserk.
So… what if I did the opposite?
The moment the idea came to me, I loosened the rope.
Before he entered, I removed the blindfold and gag myself.
Then I ran to the door and waited for him to open it.
Click.
The doorknob turned.
The moment he stepped inside, I threw myself at him like a madwoman, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“Good morning, Sren!”
I even lifted my feet off the ground to put my full weight on him.
Damn you.
This is revenge for killing me three times.
“…!”
Sren flinched in shock.
I laughed brightly and bit his earlobe.
“Sren, I missed you!”
“R-Ra… Rachel.”
The man who killed me like a lunatic now flushed red when I came at him first.
“I wanted to surprise you. Why did you come so late? Didn’t you miss me?”
“That’s not—”
“Oh? Did you find a toy more fun than me?”
My voice turned cold.
I was just doing exactly what he had done to me.
For once, Sren looked flustered.
But soon, he smiled calmly again.
“There’s only you for me, Rachel.”
He gently stroked my hair and whispered.
“You know that, right?
You’re the only one who drives me crazy.”
He wasn’t easy at all.
The air between us felt like a tight rope pulled to its limit.
I didn’t want him to notice my tension, but his presence made my insides burn.
I swallowed without thinking.
His pastel-red eyes curved beautifully.
And then—
“Ah…!”
In an instant, he slammed me against the wall.
I couldn’t even resist before I was trapped in his arms.
He leaned in, so close it felt like he would kiss me, and whispered.
“Rachel.”
“…Mm?”
“Why has your heart been beating so fast since earlier?”
“…!”
“Like you’re lying to me.”
The smile on his lips slowly disappeared.
My body stiffened.
When I met his gaze in panic, he suddenly buried his face in my neck.
I felt his tongue brush against my skin.
I couldn’t breathe.
My heart raced even faster.
I clutched his clothes tightly.
Then—
Pain spread through my body, and my legs gave out.
“Ugh…!”
He had bitten my neck.
As he chewed into my flesh, tears burned in my eyes.
I could only let out weak sounds.
If I pushed him away, he might kill me again.
What is he?
Is he actually a vampire?
I never imagined he’d drink my blood like this.
While my thoughts spiraled, Sren whispered in a lower, wetter voice.
“You’ll be punished.”
“…!”
“For even thinking about escaping me.”
So even thinking about it was forbidden.
My mind went completely blank.
What should I do?
Was this attempt wrong too?
As I shut my lips tightly in despair, Sren slowly lifted his head.
His red lips, stained with my blood, looked even more terrifying.
Then he smiled playfully.
“But this time was pretty fresh.
I almost fell for it, Rachel.”
The more fear filled my eyes, the happier he looked.
He tightened his grip on my thigh and whispered.
“Should I just mark you as mine like this?”
