Chapter 57 – The Second Coming of Inevitability

If I was the protagonist of a manhwa, this wouldn’t have happened. I would’ve been able to eke out a victory by the skin of my teeth, with maybe a silver of health left, by using all the tricks in my arsenal as well as having the universe bend itself in a way that would create a favorable outcome for me. After all, the best equipment for any protagonist wasn’t made of the toughest metal, or the greatest enchantments. The best equipment was made from the very fabric of the plot itself.

But no, I’m not the protagonist in some kind of story. I’m just a regular guy, with a regular job, forging my way through all aspects of life in a sometimes cruel world through my own power and machinations, taking the brunt of the consequences from my actions through my own often-good, but sometimes not-so-great decision making.

That decision making was what led me to my current state. A bloody corpse on the floor, missing several large chunks of flesh from my shoulder and torso.

The first bite dealt more than half of my health.

The second bite overkilled me, leaving me with -172 health.

I guess one advantage I had in the grand scheme of life was an above average head on my shoulders, but other than that I had no real superhuman advantages in any situation. There was no god watching over me, carefully sweeping aside my potential misfortunates right before I succumbed to them.

I had to face real consequences for every step I took, every decision I made. There was a degree of finality to it that just wasn’t present in a manhwa or light novel.

And just like that, with one mis-step, I died. Twice in quick succession, in fact. Despite Rosalia’s best efforts to get off a reraise right as I died, reviving did nothing to change the situation that caused my death in the first place. I was stuck in a one-on-one duel with a treasure chest mimic probably three times my level or something ridiculous like that. Sure, with the help of a few cheap shots from Bjorn and Rosalia, we did manage to get it down to about five-eighths hp, but in the end inevitability was an obsessive lover that would stop at nothing to get what it wanted.

And just like the mimic, or should I say Mistress Inevitability manifested in treasure chest form, bit my entire head off the first time and feasted on my marrow and brain matter without much regard for anything, I could see it now slowly chowing down on my body from my ghostly perspective. This time it started with my torso, as Rosalia and Bjorn watched in horror from the safety of the space behind the crack in the wall where that puzzle mural once hung.

Thank god this was just a game, though. Sometimes it felt all too real…

I would hate to be faced with these kinds of consequences in real life. It was easy to take a higher expected value trade with a chance of failure when that failure was only virtual.

But what if those high stakes situations revealed themselves in real life?

I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to cope with that kind of intensity. When my parents died, it took a while for me to fully recover from the initial shock. They might not have been the most responsible parents, actually it was hard to even say that they were good people, but they were still that last pillar of both financial and mental support that held me up. Without them, life was really hard. Really, really hard.

I was this close to hitting rock bottom poverty, as our family was never that well off in the first place, well before their deaths. But through perseverance and the sheer luck of being born more intelligent than normal, I was able to pull through the remainder of college after my parents’ deaths on a special considerations scholarship, ending with good marks and job offers from several good companies. Eventually I ended up in my current job at a prestigious company, which paid decently well and allowed me to put some money aside to pay off my late father’s machining shop debt, as well as my own debts. Hell, I even got to eat out more often than not.

But even now, I was viscerally aware that this house of cards could come tumbling down with just a single gust of wind.

[Because you have died in a high penalty zone, a special penalty rule set is in place.]

[You will not lose any levels.]

[You will be unable to log in for 29 days 23 hours 58 minutes 13 seconds.]

I read the notifications without much reaction.

I started out my Eclipse Online journey both as a means of escapism, and as a way to earn some money to pay off my debts. A setback like this wasn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things, but it still stung quite a bit, because staying alive in the high penalty zone proved to be rather lucrative.

At least I managed to take home a reasonable amount of money in the last few weeks since the beginning of the dwarven expedition.

Oh well. Moping about it wasn’t going to make things any better.

I exited out of the program and got up, stretching. Even though I was acting all relaxed right now, my tremoring hands betrayed the intense pain and anxiety I felt during the happenings in game that lead up to my death. A throbbing headache just made things worse.

Reaching for my phone, I picked it up and opened up the calendar function. Today was Wednesday, which meant that in the evening, Euphemia would come over to do housework chores.

I checked the time. It was 5:02 AM, still early in the morning. I plopped myself onto my bed and closed my eyes, slowly falling back asleep despite my headache. Overall, I felt just a bit sick, both mentally and physically.

Zzz…

Beep beep. Beep beep.

My alarm sounded at 6:20 AM, prompting me to lay there for just a bit, listening to the thing blare into my ear until I got sick of it and reached over to turn it off.

Time for work.

If I didn’t work, I didn’t get to eat.

If I didn’t work, I didn’t get to sleep in this nice one bedroom apartment much longer.

I got out of bed with a bit of effort, and walked over to my closet. Taking out a light blue dress shirt and slacks, I put on my clothes with practiced deftness. I slipped a suit over my shoulders after I did my tie, and headed to the kitchen, taking out a green bean ice cream bar from the freezer. This ice cream bar was going to have to make do for breakfast today.

God, my head hurt so bad… I really wanted to just walk back to my bedroom, throw my clothes off and take a nap.

No. That wasn’t an option.

I took an umbrella from the stand and headed to the subway station near my apartment, which was actually pretty close to the restaurant Rose waitressed in. The subway wasn’t too crowded today, thankfully. Before long, I was at my station.

“Morning.” I said to the female receptionist with a pained smile. My head was hurting a lot today. Maybe I should’ve gone to see the doctor instead of coming in for work.

“Good morning Mr. Kim Taek-yong,” the receptionist replied with a beautiful smile.

I stepped through the building security and headed to the elevator. Our building was a conglomerate headquarters, so there was a set of three elevators that corresponded to every ten floors. I headed to the 20th to 29th floor elevators, where my coworker Yura was already waiting. If I didn’t know who she was, I would be wondering why a model was waiting for the elevator here. The way she was brushing her hair back behind her ear, revealing her glowing, cutely round face with flawless skin, while tapping on her phone, I felt like I was intruding on a photo shoot of some kind. She was extremely pretty by all standards, even with just light makeup.

“Hey,” I greeted her casually, trying not to get too distracted by her pretty face like usual.

“Oh, hi~” she responded energetically. “Did you hear the news about our new engagement?”

“Not yet,” I replied.

“One of our partners got in contact with Eclipse Corporation. If things go well, we’ll land the audit for their healthcare subsidiary Unihealth.”

“Oh, really?” I vaguely remembered hearing about Eclipse Corporation’s healthcare subsidiary.

It was on the news the last time Euphemia came over, when the company was under fire for a supposed link to a player’s hospitalization. Some of the hospital staff also ended up suffering illness shortly after tending to the patient. Later, a government investigation found that the seizures were caused by a nearby chemical leak, but the company’s health care subsidiary Unihealth took a blow simply because of the negative association with the incident.

“Why do they need an audit? I thought Unihealth decided not to file for an IPO after the incident?” I asked her.

“That’s where it gets interesting,” Yura continued. “I heard from someone that the government required us to do this audit. Can you imagine that? A government ordered audit on an Eclipse related company?”

I frowned. “That’s… really fishy. Why the hell would the government be so interested in Unihealth when their own investigation debunked the link between Eclipse and the player’s seizure?”

“I’m not sure,” Yura replied. She paused for a moment, and then she beamed at me and started shaking her shoulders and arms in happiness. “But I didn’t tell you the best part yet. We’re all getting a huge cash bonus from the government for this engagement! A huuuu~ge bonus!”

My eyes widened. “Now that’s some good news, hah…” I felt my headache subside just a bit at that.

“Yeah~ yeah~ yeah~” Yura said happily while dancing in place.

Ding.

The elevator reached the lobby floor. I stepped into the elevator with Yura and pressed the button for the twenty second floor.

The elevator door closed with a clunk, and I watched as the number indicating the floor we were on begin ascending.

1st floor… 2nd floor… 3rd floor…

7th floor… 8th floor...

“Hey, Taek-yong, are you okay?” Yura asked me politely.

I blinked and looked at her. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

She stared at me with concern, her big eyes sparkling with a caring expression. “You’re sweating really badly.” She placed her hand on my forehead. “Your forehead is hot,” she said.

I just noticed that she was right. I was sweating really profusely. Several beads of salty moisture were rolling down my face, and a thin film of stickiness was forming across my body. I felt my body shivering in a cold sweat.

What the hell was going on? I was starting to feel really dizzy as well.

Wobble.

My legs began to buckle for some reason, as black dots began to cloud my vision.

Once in my life I had experienced something similar to this before. When I was in middle school, there was a period of economic downturn where our family really struggled financially, and my dad’s mechanic shop didn’t have much business. I tried to do what I could to save money by skipping out on school lunches.

But I was a growing boy who was really tall, so it was hard to go hungry. One day, I caved in on my stomach’s cravings and decided to get lunch. While I was standing in line for food, my vision began to go black just like right now. Black dots like a swarm of mosquitos entered my vision, and I blacked out from a combination of low blood sugar and low blood pressure.

This felt a bit different, however. A numbness began to spread from my fingertips to my arms, and I felt my right leg jerk back uncontrollably. In front of me, I saw Yura’s face turn from an expression of modest concern to outright shouting as she watched me collapse to the ground.

This situation felt oddly familiar. As if I saw this exact sequence of events be described in great detail on tv... from the numbness to the body jerking…

When did I see it again?

Ah. It was during coverage of the Eclipse-Unihealth seizure scandal we were just talking about, where that thirty year old…

Huh? What was I just thinking about?

…

I felt confused.

Confused and scared.

I felt as if I no longer had control of my body.

I felt my vision slowly fading… my thoughts becoming more jumbled and chaotic…

And just like that, I felt myself falling, and everything went to black as my head hit the floor with a resounding crack.