("Once upon a time, a young girl-)
To hell with that young girl! This is not the right time for flashbacks; the crazy woman is chasing me. Stupid flashback, I don't care.
I was trying to escape the crazy woman, Alice, but my screen changed and flashed back to a young girl born from a demon and a human. She has a demon father and a human mother, thus making her a half-demon.
In the middle of the story, she can't hide her feelings when she is a teenager and knows about this world. Every time she feels, she always expresses it. She is very outspoken with people, which earned her the nickname "Honest Woman". When she was happy, she would say it—and when she was sad, she would say it. Whatever she was feeling, she would never hide it.
At the end of the story, she confused herself. Whenever she felt sad, those feelings would come out with her anger—and at that moment, her other self would emerge. She realized that she couldn't be hurt, her heart couldn't be hurt, so she decided to stay away from the crowd instead of her other self showing up and hurting others. She decided to live in a village not far from her former home in the capital to not hurt anyone because of her feelings.
But in the end, her honesty always makes those around her restless. Some are not happy with her honest feelings, and some are happy to see her so honest like that. Some of the villagers liked it very much, but some of the other villagers didn't like it very much. Since those who disliked her were more than those who liked her, namely 51% versus 49%, they decided to isolate her and told her to stay away from the villagers' settlements.
She finally...
(To be continued!)
"..."
On my screen, it says, "To be continued". I can only watch it without a single word. Even as I ran to escape, I covered my mouth and continued to stare blankly at the words.
(Press to end this!)
A dialog pops up, and another text on my screen tells me to press that. I pressed it with my index finger, and my screen returned to normal.
I can see. There's no flashback there anymore, but... somehow, I'm at the edge of the abyss. If I stepped forward now, I would fall into that abyss and end up in the river.
It's maybe because I was too excited to run to escape from her, so I ended up here, or it's maybe because my screen shows the flashback, so I'm running aimlessly. Yeah, they both make sense to me now. Also, I don't believe it's my fault for getting here. So that means this game system has got me into trouble.
System... to hell with that.
She is still chasing me and getting closer, but I have no idea to escape here. Behind me, there was a very high abyss, perhaps 30 meters—and in front of me, the mad woman was running towards me and was already 20 meters away from me. There's no choice for me unless I know if jumping there will make me respawn in a different place or not. If fighting her with my level, level 1, then it would be like committing suicide, so it's like jumping into the abyss.
Honestly, I wonder what level she has. If I figure that out, I might be able to figure out how to beat her. But this game, the damn game, doesn't show her data. She displayed the figure of herself running towards me with her anger showing through her face, legs, arms, whole body, and eyes that were getting darker red. It made me not know the level. If only this were like an FPS-type game with the same level but different gold, I could think of a way to escape it. But in reality, this is a VRMMORPG. No chance for me.
This is too difficult, considering I'm a new player with only level 1. What's with this game? I'm just getting started but already have to fight the crazy woman. This is crazy, and this doesn't make sense. THIS IS CRAZY.
She ran fast, and I couldn't help but look around, hoping something would help me out of this situation. But in the end, when she was five meters away from me, and when I knew no help would save me, I chose the most dangerous way in the world: I chose to use my mouth to talk to her.
"Wait! Wait! Wait a moment! Let me talk! I'll jump there if you don't let me talk to you. Besides, I'll respawn and not see you again in here if I jump there."
She paused as I spoke quickly. She stopped exactly two meters before me, almost hitting me with her body.
"Grrr..."
She exhaled, and it blew smoke between her mouth, or she was shivering from the cold. Anyway, she looks like she wants to grab me with her long nails. Her dark red eyes, hair that was getting messy because of the wind, her white legs that were without a single foundation, her pale white face, and her dark aura seemed to want to hurt me now. If I step forward, left, right, or backward, making me fall into the abyss, then she will hurt me.
I tried to stare at her for a few seconds to see her data, but it didn't work. I've also tried estimating the level but couldn't find it. What I did still has the same result; I don't know about the data herself. All I need to do now is make peace with her. That's what I thought.
"Peace, we are friends now. You can call me whatever you want, and I can call you whatever I want. How that?"
I said and held nervousness all over my body. Honestly, I'm even scared to talk to her right now. It felt like I was standing before an angel of death who wanted to take my life.
"Okay, okay, okay, I got that. How about we exchange emails? Fun, isn't it? You can annoy me any time, and I won't be mad at you. It's a golden deal."
"Grrr..."
Seriously, she let out smoke in her breath again? She was still in an angry state. How about this?
After thinking for a long time, in just 5 seconds and looking at her feet, I came up with a new idea so she wouldn't be mad at me.
"Okay."
I slide my finger across my screen, open the Main Menu, and enter the Bag Menu. After that, I removed the shoe item and looked for the barter button on the item.
"You don't have shoes, do you? How about I give this to you? Think of it as I care about your feet, which keep running after me. You know, these shoes were worn by Cristiano-"
"Grrr..."
I panicked when another gasp of her breath was heard. I accidentally exited the Bag Menu and looked up at her, and the shoes I wanted to give her had to be back in my bag.
No chance to deal with her. She always refuses the deals I make. I've tried to do that. Even so, I still have other plans, and my mouth is their main center.
"You're Alice, aren't you? All right, Alice, please listen to me."
Honestly, I feel sorry for the way she survives. The flashback of her story shows she has feelings that can't be hidden, and she can't lie to anyone, including herself. A lot of people didn't like her as a result of that, but some liked her because she was an honest woman.
Like it or not, it was their choice, but what made Alice happy or sad impacted their choice. Alice is just a woman who wants to be like other women and live peacefully in society, but in the end, because she has honest feelings, the life she dreams of is never felt. Honestly, it's very painful and has advantages and disadvantages that play with her feelings.
Living in a society, she can't get that as long as her feelings are honest. People will continue to hate her as long as that feeling continues in her.
"Your life may be a mess because you are so honest with your feelings, but believe me, there are still people who like your honesty. Even if you scream you don't like someone, there will be someone else standing up for you. The person will explain why you don't like him and scream like that. And the person you hate, he will realize what he did to you. One, two, three, or five thousand six hundred and thirty-three people you hate, they will mean nothing as long as you have one person who can explain your condition. One person can change you more than you have five thousand six hundred and thirty-three friends. So... don't cry when someone doesn't like you because you have honest feelings. Don't be angry just because the person didn't apologize to you. Be happy because you have people who like you."
I finally found out about that feeling. It was thanks to a farmer who explained that to me. If he hadn't explained that, I wouldn't have known what made her like this, why she was mad at me and just left. The one person she owned, a farmer who explained her condition to me, meant more than anything to her. As long as that person is around, she will find someone who cares about her and even wants to explain her condition.
"Mr. Colvin! Daddy! Mama!"
She seemed to remember the peoples who cared about her. She cried and lowered her head. Her tears flowed out along with her sobs. She is like a little girl now. And at that moment, I approached her and tapped her shoulder.
"Believe me. They will always be there for you."
After saying something cool, I ran away since this was my chance.
However, my hand that I just let go of her shoulder, she grabbed it, thus preventing me from escaping.
At the same time, my screen displays a message notification that I have completed the quest. It wasn't the right time because I was in danger right now.
"I won't let you off the hook. You stepped on my foot. I still remember that."
"But you're the one who started first. You're the one who stepped on my feet first."
"Even if I were to step on your toes first, I still won't let you off the hook."
"U-Ugh... Really?"