Chapter 3

I stared at them, speechless.

"One of you is my fiancé, the other is my best friend—"

Before I could finish, Marjorie cut in.

"That was before."

Barret picked it up at once.

"Paula, don't you get it yet? The world has already changed."

Their voices were ice-cold. Without meaning to, I took a step back.

"You both said you'd sacrifice yourselves to keep me alive!"

They exchanged a tender look and started to smile coldly.

"You idiot. You still haven't figured it out?"

"We're the real thing. You? You were just our way of climbing higher and grabbing resources!"

My mind went blank.

Watching me stand there dumbfounded, they didn't hold back at all. They kissed, deep and hungry.

"This is perfect. The old order's shattered, money's just wastepaper now. In the apocalypse, powers are the only real strength!"

"The two of us don't have to sneak around behind Paula's back anymore. We can finally be together out in the open!"

It hit me like a bolt of lightning. My eyes went hot and red.

"Marjorie, I always treated you like my best friend."

"Barret, I was ready to go against everyone to marry you. Is this how you repay me?"

They pulled apart, unhurried, and the way they looked at me was pure arrogance.

"What friend? You just had money, so you kept me around as your foil, something to make your fine-lady elegance look better!"

Barret said the rest of what he'd been holding back too.

"If it weren't for marrying you and splitting your fortune down the middle, you think I'd have played nursemaid to your princess complex?"

"Wake up, Paula. The world's different now. From this moment on, you're nothing but a stray dog groveling at our feet!"

I thought of the whole thing being livestreamed, the shame and fury boiling over, and I swung my hand at Barret's face.

The next instant, Marjorie raised her hand and reinforced his protective barrier.

And Barret, without a shred of hesitation, unleashed his lightning at me, splitting the skin of my right hand wide open!

I cried out in pain.

The game ran in full-simulation mode. The damage wouldn't follow me back to the real world, but the pain was completely real.

Watching me scream and twitch, the two of them froze for a second, then burst out laughing.

"Paula, know your place."

"Step out of line again and I won't promise you'll keep your life!"

"We're going out to find other power-users and build a squad. You, you useless thing, stay home and cook and do the laundry. No slacking."

They swept out.

I sat in silence for a moment, then opened the line to the real world.

【Can I end the game early?】

【I'm sorry, Ms. Delgado. The game is only in trial operation. There's no manual exit option yet.】

【To end the game, there are only two ways. Either they protect you and you defeat the zombie king, or you, the game's protagonist, die, and it all ends.】

【Then can I kill myself?】

【I'm very sorry. Suicide would crash the system. You could all be trapped in the game, unable to ever get out...】

I cut the call and sat on the couch, my face dark.

I was still turning it over when Barret and Marjorie came back with a group of power-users.

Seeing nothing on the table, Marjorie slapped me across the face.

"Useless. I told you to cook, and you dared to slack off?"

I lifted my head and looked at that woman with her twisted, snarling face, and the pain went straight through me.

"You dare hit me—"

Before I could finish, Marjorie swung both hands, two more slaps, left and right.

"So what if I hit you?"

"From today, you're the lowest slave in our power squad. Anyone can order you to work!"

I looked at Barret, pleading.

He coldly turned his eyes away.

"Letting you stay and share our resources is already a huge mercy. Don't be ungrateful, Paula."

Seeing I still wouldn't move, Barret let out a cold laugh and dragged in two elderly people from the doorway, both of them soaked in blood.

"Guess who we ran into while we were out searching for supplies?"

One look, and my whole body went rigid. I froze where I stood.