How to Survive as the Horror Game Villain's Fake Fiancée - Chapter 2
‘Coffin of the White Rose.’
The story of this game, with its cliché-sounding name, was exceedingly simple.
The protagonist, who is invited by chance to a noble’s party, ends up trapped in the mansion. The entire plot consists of collecting hints with the help of companions, evading the pursuit of the mastermind and other enemies, and escaping. To be honest, it was a game where it was unreasonable to expect any sort of deep narrative.
However, while the story itself was straightforward, among those known for really liking games, its notoriety was considerable. For one, the conditions for clearing the game were excessively difficult, the traps were irregular, and it was hard to even find the hints.
Above all, despite being a pixel graphic game, it was also infamous for its realistic and gory death scenes. The sight of the protagonist and companions being sliced, ground up, or torn apart by the various vicious traps set by the mastermind became the main draw for those who liked more provocative content.
Thanks to this, ‘Coffin of the White Rose’ enjoyed a surge in popularity for a while. But before long, a major issue was discovered.
Near the end, at the scene right before escaping the mansion, the screen would suddenly go dark and the game would simply shut off—this was the bug that was found.
The game company didn’t rush to fix the bug. In fact, they left it neglected. Because of this, ‘Coffin of the White Rose’ slowly lost its popularity, and before anyone knew it, it faded from memory entirely.
Then, one day, an update was released without warning.
It was said that various bugs—including the ending bug—were fixed, and the difficulty of finding traps and hints, which had been a challenge until now, was drastically lowered. The developer, who posted this message on the game forum, also began recruiting beta testers. Cynthia immediately sent in an application email.
She didn’t have any particular reason. It was simply because she liked games.
Shin Sia, the only daughter of the Shin family, was a very ordinary office worker—despite having a name unusual enough for anyone to ask her to repeat it at least once. She was the type of person who could only relieve the stress of her day by playing all sorts of stimulating games.
(T/N: Shin Sia is pronounced as ‘Shin-shiah’ in a Korean accent, and it can be interpreted or misheard as ‘Cynthia’)
Moreover, since she’d had less time for games after getting a job, she had to make the most of whatever spare moments she could find. She had no choice but to be even more serious about picking games than before. If she made a bad choice, she’d end up with some knockoff similar to the last thing she played, or a trash game. In the worst case, it would be another bug ending.
These days, there weren’t any decent games to play. Everything felt the same, and with work being so exhausting, she would often just collapse and fall asleep as soon as she got home.
It had been a long time since she’d played a game at all. And ‘Coffin of the White Rose’ was something she remembered enjoying a lot in the past. Though, she’d never managed to see the ending.
Excited with anticipation, Cynthia saw the confirmation message that her email had gone through and wrapped up her day feeling satisfied.
Not long after, she came home late from work, turned on her laptop in her studio apartment, and saw an email from the game company had arrived.
“Oh, looks like I got in?”
Without even touching the beer and cup noodles she’d bought at the convenience store, Cynthia rushed to sit in front of her laptop and opened her inbox. Attached was the test version of the game, along with the message that she had been chosen as a beta tester.
As soon as she launched the game, ominous sound effects played and the main screen appeared.
A massive, gloomy mansion stood tall against a pitch-black background. In front of it, a handsome man with long silver hair, looking as if he carried some secret burden, stared straight ahead.
“Doesn’t seem like much has changed, when you look at it like this. Or maybe I’m wrong?”
Narrowing her eyes, Cynthia hovered her mouse over [ New Game ].
Then, the silver-haired man who had been staring straight ahead smiled. It was a beautiful smile by any standard, but Cynthia frowned deeply. Just seeing that guy made old nightmares start to resurface.
The true identity of that silver-haired man was the game’s mastermind and final boss.
A monster who lured the protagonist and other characters to the mansion to kill them, and the main reason why more than half of players gave up on the game before even getting close to the ending.
Jump scares were a given, not to mention the terrifyingly fast-paced chase sequences, and the various death scenes that appeared each time with changing patterns whenever you got caught.
Regardless of the beautiful, semi-realistic illustrations of the handsome man’s face, he was truly worthy of the title ‘villain.’
