Of all the dreams to have, I ended up becoming some boy who probably wouldn’t even make it as an extra in a romance simulation game. If we were going to be in this kind of setting anyway, my subconscious could’ve at least made me a capture target so I could flirt with someone pretty like Yura. My own unconscious mind, and it’s still this cruel.
“Juwoo, are you okay?”
“Yeah, totally fine.”
“You’re acting kind of weird right now……”
I’d been muttering to myself while staring at the window, and the kids around me were looking at me like I’d lost my mind. I didn’t care either way — they were all faces I’d never see again once I woke up, so why bother. Just a few more hours and the dream would be over, right? I could spend until then being the class lunatic, whatever.
“You’re really okay? Should we go to the nurse’s office—”
The student who’d been worrying about me stopped mid-sentence, and when I turned to look at him, I suddenly broke out in goosebumps all over my body, like I’d seen a ghost.
He was frozen — stiff in this strange, unnatural way. And not just him. Every single student in the classroom was the same. The scene was so bizarrely eerie, like time itself had stopped, that my legs gave out from under me and I sank to the floor.
“Haah, what the — what kind of dream is this? Why did the genre suddenly switch to horror?”
I clutched at my startled chest, thrown off by the completely unexpected turn. In a game, a moment like this would’ve prompted a [New Quest Available!] notification or something. But this place had the same backdrop as the game without any of the game’s helpfulness. What a terrible dream.
“Woosu!”
“……Woosu?”
I heard a girl’s voice — familiar in the same way the uniform had been — and at the exact same moment, a semitransparent rectangular window appeared right in front of my eyes.
[ System ]
[“Woosu!”]
“Wh — what is this?”
The words the girl had just said were displayed in the semitransparent window. Like a system window from inside a game.
[ System ]
[“Yeah, Yura.”]
“Woosu? Lee Yura?……Don’t tell me — is that the Choi Woosu and Lee Yura I know?”
Choi Woosu. And Lee Yura. In a world where everything was unfamiliar, the only beings I actually knew for certain had appeared.
I turned my head toward the sound. The male student named ‘Choi Woosu’ was sitting in the last seat by the hallway at the far end of the classroom, and the female student named ‘Lee Yura’ was speaking to him from the other side of the hallway window. My mouth fell open — I’d seen this scene so many times before.
“To think I’d actually get to watch these two move around in real life……”
Seeing the game characters moving right in front of my eyes was when it finally started to feel like a real dream. The way the two of them looked right now was identical to the illustration in the very first tutorial. If you were to make that illustration into live action, this would be exactly it. Maybe it felt even more surreal because I’d never once imagined I’d actually see game characters in person.
[ System ]
[Tutorial-1. The Devoted Sweetheart of the Masses, Choi Woosu]
The text appearing in the window was something I’d seen so many times I was sick of it. The line that signaled the start of the game.
The level of overlap between the game and this dream was astounding. That made it a little frightening, but at the same time there was a giddiness to it too — a feeling like I’d actually stepped inside the game itself.
“Three happy endings later and this is the kind of dream I get.”
I waited for the next message to appear in the system window. Choi Woosu’s line would come up next and a quest would open, right? I was watching the window with bright, eager eyes when an angry emoticon suddenly appeared instead.
[ System ]
[Excuse me, a dream?! This is a REAL game!]
“……Huh?”
[ System ]
[This!]
[Is!]
[NOT a dream!]
[Wake up! The game needs to start!]
[— +]
……That’s strange. This never happened when I played the game. I rubbed my eyes and looked up, wondering if I was seeing things — but the system window was still there, still displaying angry emoticons.
This couldn’t be right. It’s obviously a dream — so why does it keep insisting it’s not? And why was that system window talking to me like a person?
“What on earth is going on here.”
[ System ]
[Exactly what it sounds like! This is a real game!]
“A real game? So this isn’t a dream?”
[ System ]
[Correct!]
“I — I’m inside a game? Actually, for real?”
[ System ]
[Yes!]
[Welcome, Yeon Juwoo, to <Find My Boyfriend!>! ^ㅁ^~♥]
The moment I finally seemed to grasp the reality of the situation, the system window put up a welcome message. It was so utterly beyond reason that accepting it wasn’t easy at all. Obviously, every single bit of this was a dream and had to be a dream. And yet the system window kept arguing back that it wasn’t. Though honestly, the fact that the system window was understanding what I said and attempting to hold a conversation with me was already far too surreal to begin with.
“This isn’t a dream……? I’m really inside a game?”
I slowly stood up and looked at the window again. That same boy from before was still in the same spot. Of course he was. He’d be me in this world. I touched my face, and the reflection in the window touched his face too.
So this body — this wasn’t a dream-version of me. This was my actual body?
“Ha. Haha……”
A hollow laugh slipped out of me.
This place was inside a game. A romance simulation game, at that. I hadn’t died or anything — I’d simply gone to sleep, and when I woke up, I was inside a game? And not just any game — the very game I’d been playing right up until I fell asleep? That something this absurd was even possible — I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even find the words.
“No. No, that can’t be right. There’s no way.”
I tried to deny the reality I didn’t want to believe, taking it out on my poor head — running my hands through it in a mess, pulling at it, even slapping my own cheeks.
Get it together, Juwoo. This is a dream. This has to be a dream.
[ System ]
[Please don’t hit yourself. ㅜㅜ]
The system wasn’t just capable of conversation — it could watch what I was doing and voice its own opinions about it. Something that should’ve been limited to explaining in-game situations was talking to me like a person, and it gave me chills.
“……Can you see me?”
[ System ]
[Of course!]
“Are you a person?”
[ System ]
[No! I’m not a person.]
“Then who told me not to hit myself?”
[ System ]
[That was me, obviously! You looked like you were in pain ㅜㅜ]
“What the hell, this is genuinely creepy……”
I rubbed at the goosebumps rising on my arm. It said it wasn’t, but the system was behaving exactly like a person. What kind of system watches someone slapping their own face and actually thinks to stop them because they look like they’re hurting?
I felt like I finally understood what those characters in movies felt when they were frightened by a robot that had developed emotions. Scientists need to stop building AI immediately. This is seriously unsettling.
[ System ]
[Shall we continue with the game?]
“No!”
