Chapter 21: Rewind

Looking at the moon in the sky and the girl who was still alive and kicking right in front of him.

Duya rubbed his eyes, unable to process what had just happened.

What in the world was going on?

Had he… gone back in time?

As this thought crossed his mind, he opened the system interface.

The tasks had returned to normal, still displaying that cold, singular line of text.

And below the system interface, there was a notification.

“Player 001, you have returned via save file. Have a pleasant game.”

Have a pleasant game, my foot!

It was no exaggeration to say that after experiencing death as if it were real, an average person would have likely gone insane by now!

Fortunately, his mental resistance was not that fragile.

After a moment of absentmindedness, he rubbed his temples.

He kept hypnotizing himself into believing this was just a game.

No matter how realistic it felt, it was still just a game.

And the girl in front of him was nothing more than an NPC within that game.

With that suggestion repeated over and over, he steadied his mind and slowly let out a breath.

Regardless of anything else, he absolutely could not go to Bulanni’s house.

He had thought that since she stayed there for so long, the monster wouldn’t lay a hand on its own granddaughter.

But looking at it now, that was just his own wishful thinking.

“As expected, a monster is still a monster…”

“Big Brother, what are you talking about?”

“No… it’s nothing.”

“But your face looks a little pale.”

Although Bulanni was young, her ability to read a room was not weak.

She had noticed at a glance that Duya seemed to be troubled.

“I’m fine.”

Experience is the best teacher.

Having arrived in this game world, Duya felt he had been far too careless.

If this were truly reality, he would not have been granted the chance to reload a save.

But then again… did such terrifying places exist in reality?

“So, Big Brother, are you going to stay at my house for the night?”

Upon hearing Bulanni’s words, Duya checked the current time.

If he hurried to Fuyeli’s house now to stay the night, he should still have enough time.

It would be far safer than staying at Bulanni’s.

In any case… survival was the priority.

“I have a friend. Let me take you to her place to stay for the night.”

“Have you been to Crescent Town before, Big Brother?”

Bulanni’s innocent smile reminded Duya of the scene before he reloaded the save, causing his lower abdomen to cramp with a wave of nausea.

He suppressed the discomfort and smiled.

“I have been here once. My friend is named Fuyeli. Do you know her?”

“Of course!”

Bulanni looked extremely happy to hear a familiar name.

“She is a kind person. Every time I go to the guild, she gives me candy.”

“That sounds nice.”

Seeing Bulanni’s unreserved praise for Fuyeli, Duya became even more determined to cooperate with her.

The two walked through the streets, heading toward Fuyeli’s house.

Since it was not yet deep into the night, the streets were merely eerie but lacked the bizarre occurrences he had seen before.

The journey was uneventful, and they soon arrived at Fuyeli’s home.

“Whew…”

For some reason, Duya suddenly felt a bit nervous.

He reached out and knocked gently on the door.

A moment later, the lock clicked.

A small, flying pixie stood behind the door, showing no surprise at all to see Duya and Bulanni.

“You’re finally here. Come inside.”

Duya was stunned by her words.

Why did Fuyeli seem to know he was coming?

Fuyeli looked at Duya’s expression, her tone calm and gentle.

“Because I am the system pixie. Of course I would know about you reloading your save.”

“…”

Indeed, from the very first time they met, Fuyeli had said she was a system pixie and would not be affected by the ability to reload saves… or was that right?

Duya felt that something was not quite right, but he could not put his finger on it.

“Come in and we can talk.”

“Alright.”

At Fuyeli’s invitation, Duya entered the house.

The layout was no different from before.

Fuyeli landed on the table and spoke to the bewildered Bulanni nearby.

“Little Bulanni, go upstairs and get some sleep. It’s getting late.”

“Okay!”

Children generally do not want to interfere in adult conversations, nor did she have any interest in doing so, so she simply headed upstairs.

As soon as she left, Duya’s expression shifted, becoming extremely grave.

He clasped his hands together in thought.

“Fuyeli, you weren’t affected by the save reload, right?”

“When have you ever seen a game’s reload affect the entire system?”

Fuyeli countered his question directly, and Duya understood her meaning, so he continued.

“Fuyeli, I need your intelligence. What on earth is inside Bulanni’s house? And what is going on with this town?”

The missing task details and the incompleteness of the system were likely linked to Fuyeli’s departure.

Duya had not forgotten the words the system spoke when he was forced to log out the first time.

“Strive to allow the player to progress through the game normally, even without the help of a system pixie.”

But the problem was that the current task summary was far too ambiguous to understand.

It even seemed that the reward system was entirely gone.

The entire game system was in a state of complete paralysis.

How could anyone play like this?

“I know you want me to be your system pixie…”

Fuyeli sighed, a hint of helplessness on her face.

“But there’s nothing I can do. The permissions on your end seem to be locked by something. I cannot interact with you, and naturally, I cannot bind to you.”

Upon hearing this, the corner of Duya’s mouth twitched.

Locked by something… did he even need to ask?

It had to be that damn bastard, Bubble Shadow!

Based on the voice he heard before reloading, she must be hiding somewhere in this town.

She might even be the mastermind behind the anomalies of this town.

Since that was the case, he would have to peel back the layers and investigate from the source.

“Fuyeli, do you know where the anomalies in this town first appeared?”

To Duya’s question, Fuyeli gave a very concise answer.

“The inn.”

Duya was surprised by this response.

He glanced at the main quest on his system.

“Escape the inn.”

Four simple words, which left him deep in thought.

The problem was that he was not currently in the inn, so a task telling him to escape it seemed problematic.

Was there a possibility…

That the person described in the system as escaping the inn was not actually him.

But someone else entirely.

Which meant he had to take that person out of the inn.