Chapter 2

‘An orphan who was adopted by a nobleman. ,’

It sounded romantic, not to mention that the adopted orphan was a girl.

If it was in a novel or a Korean drama, it would be a protagonist like Cinderella, right?

But reality is very different from both.

After my mother passed away, I was bullied and harassed by my two half-brothers until the end of my life.

They ignored my existence and insulted me.

Pranks on my food and shelter became their daily routine. They made me the number one target for bullying in school, and thus my school life became miserable.

Since the number two asshole wasn’t much older than me, I spent a year of school with him.

Even after he graduated, the only thing that changed was that the bullying became more excessive and nothing went in a good direction.

My father’s wife died of an illness, which made the atmosphere in our home even more depressing. But that was all before I was born.

Despite this, these two lunatics bullied the young me as if I was the murderer who killed their mother.

They treated me so badly that I sometimes wondered.

Maybe I was the one who caused their mother’s illness, I thought.

As a child in this family, I lived worse than a beggar.

I used to be far happier in my scorpion house with my mother.

I was losing weight visibly, and the wounds, scars and healings continued to gain as if to replace the weight I had lost.

The one who brought me into this house-a so-called ‘father’-didn’t care.

“If you’re going to treat me like that, why did you bring me here? Might as well put me in an orphanage.”

But my complaints & anger meant nothing to anyone.

For someone like me, living in a poor single-parent family, the best option was to give up the struggle.

They treated me worse than an animal, and if I begged them for love, I thought I would regret it later.

I didn’t have half a penny and no place to live. So I studied hard until I graduated.

I got into a prestigious university.

Not so that those two assholes and the so-called ‘father’ would recognize me, but to escape from that home that was like hell.

The day I was accepted was the first time in my life that I ran to my father with me his smile.

“Father! Look! I got in the exam! I got accepted!”

“So what? Tell me the reason you came to me.”

He said nothing about my happy expression, not even a simple congratulations.

I actually didn’t care, because I hadn’t come to him for that.

“Please allow me to live alone from now on! I want to live near the university so I can live the life I’m looking forward to. You can at least do that for me, right?”

The request, which took him by surprise, made him frown.

But wouldn’t that be a good thing for them?

How could the annoying kid himself offer to leave on his own not make them clap?

“Alright, I’ll make the arrangements.”

The escape plan was going all right.

But my father made the stupid decision to leave the company and pass on the leadership position to the number one asshole as his successor.

As a result, I had to live in a basement filled with dust and withdrawing bacteria. But none of that meant anything to me.

All it took was to get out of that home, and all it did was make me feel happy and joyful.

I got over my depressing middle and high school years and made many friends.

Thanks to my friends, I was fortunate enough to know about that game.

“Duke’s daughter’s love strategy plan? What the hell? It sounds so childish.”

The game was a huge hit among my friends.

The illustrations that put me to shame and the name of the game were enough for me to envision what kind of game it was.

I actually didn’t develop much interest in the game, but everyone at school was talking about it.

In order to fit into the conversation, I tried to download it while I was on vacation from my volunteer activities for a few days.

This game was divided into two modes, normal and hard.

“Normal.”

I chose Normal mode without hesitation, planning to play through the first few chapters of the plot and go to bed.

With the prologue clip introducing all the characters one by one, the game began.

[The youngest daughter, who was stranded due to an unfortunate accident, returns to the Duke’s house and regains the status that belongs to her young lady.]

The story begins with a naive and innocent heroine, who appears in the center of a brightly lit stage, with bright and cheerful music playing in the background.

If you ignore the high quality and beautiful illustrations, I don’t think this game is anything special.

Please capture the hearts of your raid targets and increase their favorability towards you.

As you play the game, you will build up your wealth and reputation by punishing the evil servants who get in your way.

At the end of the game, you’ll receive a confession of love from the first of your targets to reach 100% favorability.

Wow, that sounds like fun.”

The game had a shameful and childish name, but it actually played pretty well. The carefully planned plot of the game was intricate. Different options evolve into many gameplay options, and the very advanced gameplay system keeps the player from getting bored and uninterested.

On top of that, I was also captivated by the illustrations that the artist put his heart and soul into.

Plus, the game’s background setting even resembles my personal experience, which made me even more curious and expectant.

Among the objects of the raid, two characters are the main character’s brothers.

The main story takes place in the Duke’s mansion. These two older brothers are not welcoming to their sister who suddenly appears, only annoyed.

“It’s like reading my story ……”

Having said that, the heroine and I were treated worlds apart.

These two brothers felt guilty about ever harassing their sister. After their hearts were captured bit by bit by the heroine, the game was able to continue in a deeper direction.

I just wanted to give this game a try, but I’m completely hooked.

Even though it’s my first time playing it, reaching the ending was a no-brainer.

It’s really fun. But the normal mode is just so easy that even a newbie like me can reach it with ease.

All raid targets start at 30% favorability, which makes it more like Easy Mode than Normal Mode.

It only took me three hours to reach the endings for all the characters.

At that moment, a card popped up on the hit screen with the ‘Hidden Ending’ with an uplocked graphic.

“Ten …… hundred thousand won? This is thinking about money like crazy, isn’t it? How can it be so expensive?”

In order to see the hidden ending, one would either have to spend a ridiculously high amount of money or raid all the characters in hard mode.

“Damn …… it’s already the middle of the night.”

I remembered I had an early class. But I didn’t let that deter me for long.

“Ah whatever la! Watch me raid them all!”

I was mad and firmly ensnared by the game. Such a thing had never happened to me before.

I excitedly chose hard mode.

A different prologue kicked off, this time with a grand and grand soundtrack.

“Oooooh, the main character has changed into her.”

I didn’t realize that the main character would change in hard mode.

She was the evil servant in Normal Mode, the fake daughter of the Duke’s family.

This time, the story took place before the protagonist in Normal Mode had entered the mansion, which gave the game a completely different plot and experience.

“Maybe that’s why this game can explode in popularity.”

The main character in hard mode appeared on the screen, and that exquisite stand-up was deep in my heart.

This character is an evil servant to the angelic heroine in normal mode. In hard mode, she then becomes the protagonist who is going to raid the character.

The setting gave me unspeakable excitement and thrill.

Having just completed all the routes in Normal Mode, I had the illusion that Hard Mode was also easy.

Although it was called ‘hard mode’, I thought that the options would just become more difficult to choose from.

However that guess was utterly wrong.

“Ah! How did I die again!”

Difficult mode is simply hard a nonsense.

The character this evil servant was set up to have made raising the favorability of the raid target a struggle.

It’s not just that.

The favorability that I had managed to get would go right back to 0% again because of a mistake, and the game would have to start all over again.

And it’s not just the normal game over, in this mode the main character always ‘dies’ in various disturbing ways.

“Why was it designed to be so extreme?”

Even the illustrations are drawn realistically and brutally.

I couldn’t help but frown when I saw the illustration of the main character’s throat being cut by the crown prince.

“What a crazy game ……”

Out of the options that had me repeatedly stumped, I made the choice of obeying my true heart, which killed me several more times. I was hanging my head in shame at the awful system.

What the hell were the officials thinking making such a difficult mode?

Experiencing too many deaths was starting to stress me out about this game.

“Please let me live just once, please!”

My original purpose was to unlock the ‘hidden ending’, but that purpose has long since been left in the back of my mind.

All I wanted now was to see this poor evil servant survive and live happily ever after with the Raider, whoever it was.

“What makes her a sinner? Seriously, it’s clearly the author who made her a villain!”

It’s not like the main character in the normal mode where everyone loves her no matter what choice I make. Instead, this evil servant was only scorned and abused by countless people, and even if she wagged her tail and begged for help, it didn’t change. It overlapped with the life I once led.

“I’m going to see the end no matter what.”

I couldn’t help but grit my teeth when I died again because of those two asshole brothers in the game.

I can’t even remember how many times I’ve actually died.

I gripped my phone tightly, shaking with anger.

I know I’m starting to get emotional, but I can’t help but tap the restart button.

Once again, I start from the beginning.

This time I chose to slowly gain their favor, thus accumulating fame, charisma, and money to switch on a new route.

“Ah..! Why! Why the hell!?”

I’m still dead.

I’m so angry that I’m starting to consider whether or not I should simply kryptonize to gain goodwill.

If the officials are doing this to get people to kryptonize, I have to say, good job.

Because they made someone like me, who sees money as his life, want to kryptonize for the game!

In the end I still didn’t spend any money, but I was addicted to playing all night just to see Evil Battles get an ending with any of the Raider characters.

Die, start over.

Die again, start again from the beginning.

Death.

Death.

Die again.

I just kept dying until the sun came up.

But I still couldn’t see any hope of having closure with them, not even any of them.

“This shit …… again ……”

I almost hit the reset button again, but I was too tired and groggy to continue.

When I opened my eyes again in sleep.

“Penelope Eckhardt.”

There was a progress bar above the head of the man who voiced it, and the glittering words on it read ‘Favorability 0%’.

“We have decided to temporarily withdraw the surname of Eckhardt bestowed upon you.”

I’ve become an evil servant in this game that I can’t see the end of.