Life sometimes throws unavoidable crises your way.
Those crises might be something you can overcome with the skills you've built up over the years, or they could be natural disasters beyond your control.
Unavoidable crises always feel unfair, but in the former case, you could at least call it "better than nothing."
Because at least it's a problem you can tackle with your own hands, making it comparatively better than being helplessly swept away in the latter.
"..."
The reason I'm suddenly spouting this philosophy...
Is because my current situation falls squarely into the latter category.
"This is insane."
A dark semi-basement room that shunned even the faintest light.
I gazed down at the girl lying unconscious on the bed.
Her pink hair, blooming like cherry blossoms, spilled across the white bedsheets like threads of silk.
Though her eyelids hid eyes the color of aquamarine, making their shape impossible to discern, her exquisitely sculpted features suggested they must be jewel-like.
Beyond her visible appearance, I even knew this girl's name and identity.
Han Cheong-ah, 17 years old.
Student in Class 1-A at Cuvette Psi High School.
Not the sharpest mind, but a hard worker who stayed in the middle of the pack academically.
Her speech was always earnest, yet she often pulled off antics bordering on the fourth dimension, revealing an eccentric side that contrasted with her icy beauty—making her endearingly puppy-like despite the cool impression.
The reason I knew all this about Han Cheong-ah like some stalker is simple.
She was the title heroine of the visual novel Red Ark, for which I had handled the original artwork.
I was the one who breathed life into her, planned through text and letters.
Which was why I knew this situation was royally fucked.
[Time is 22:00. Meeting spot is the usual pier. Bring the esper as promised, unharmed.]
The cheap phone on the rickety table lit up.
I didn't respond to the message, just kept staring down at Han Cheong-ah.
In my tangled emotions, I glanced absentmindedly at the mirror.
Instead of my familiar face, it reflected the sleazy extra villain doomed to die in the prologue.
The villain's name was Baek Do-hyun.
A vampire hiding in this massive academy city, fated to get caught transporting the kidnapped Han Cheong-ah, his heart pierced in the end—an extra villain.
Somehow, I'd possessed this soon-to-be-dead vampire.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Red Ark was a game my friend and I made together.
To sum it up briefly: a world where espers, monsters called Dimensional Beasts, and other oddities clashed. A visual novel in the style of early-2000s Japanese light novels, where the protagonist overcomes crises in an academy city called Ark.
As a co-developer of Red Ark, I'd rate it like this:
Edgy middle-school syndrome settings straight out of early-to-mid-2000s light novels, plus three charming heroines who all fall for the protagonist.
The protagonist looks useless but hides his power as a joker, amid a dark unfolding story around him. That's the gist of this mass-produced mystery visual novel.
My friend handled the scenario, directing, graphics, scripts, programming, music—pretty much everything except the character designs and illustrations, which were my domain. So calling myself a co-developer felt a bit iffy.
But with my friend's real name and my handle plastered on the credits, it was fair enough.
Anyway, the reason we made the game? My friend once said, "Let's make a mystery VN in that early-2000s light novel vibe!"
I was just a laid-back illustrator (read: unemployed) posting art on Patreon and Fanbox, so no reason to turn down what sounded fun.
And so, we started development.
My role was the art.
Drawing character CGs for the game and illustrations for power-up scenes.
I'd only ever uploaded sexy girl pics to art sites, so I worried if I could handle all the varied scenes... but...
Luckily, drawing new stuff beyond the ecchi was enjoyable, my friend loved it, and I have fond memories of the process.
The rest of development went smoothly too.
About six months in, my friend and I finished the game.
We'd promised to crack open beers watching it launch tomorrow, so I closed my eyes...
And woke from deep sleep inside Red Ark as a character.
Before me lay the beauty I'd drawn, knocked out—and I was the villain who'd done it.
"..."
It was absurd, unreal... but too much info had sunk in to dismiss as a dream.
My senses—sight, smell, hearing—screamed that this was reality.
So, what now?
Denial wrapped up after thirty minutes of realizing the possession.
Like it or not, I had to decide my next "action," no putting it off.
Current time: 21:30.
As a co-developer of Red Ark who knew the story, I was aware my fate sealed in thirty minutes.
The character I'd possessed, Baek Do-hyun, was an extra from the evil organization "21st Century Secret Society."
He kidnaps the title heroine Han Cheong-ah and heads to the drop-off, only to get spotted by the protagonist, drawing him into the plot—a device to kick off the story, then discarded.
Per canon, in thirty minutes, villain Baek Do-hyun hauls the unconscious Han Cheong-ah to the pier, gets found by protagonist Kim Si-hu, fights him...
Easily overpowers him, boasts his vampire strength, goes to kill... only for heroine Yubyeol-ha to appear and murder him.
Then he vanishes from Red Ark forever—a pathetic end for an extra villain.
"Haa..."
I let out a small sigh.
They say even in a tiger's den, stay sharp and you'll survive.
Since childhood, I'd adapted to situations abnormally fast.
Family bankruptcy, parents' divorce, crashed crypto investments—I never wallowed; I always chose to fix things.
Same now.
Even if this was an uncontrollable disaster, evacuating was on me.
I took a deep breath and clenched my fist.
Alright. Survive somehow.
Extra villain exiting in the prologue? Plenty of ways to dodge that.
So I acted on the first idea that hit me.
Unlike canon Baek Do-hyun, I shook the unconscious Han Cheong-ah's shoulder to wake her.
"..."
Moments later, her eyes fluttered open on the bed.
Clearly baffled, her unfocused gaze scanned the dim semi-basement, then landed on me.
I gave her a reassuring smile and spoke.
"Don't worry. I'm your kidnapper."