CHAPTER 01
〈Dreambound Mansion〉
~The Hall In The Dream~
Welcome to Dreambound Mansion,
a place filled with beautiful, dreamlike, and strange events.
To start the game, please stare at the “Enter” button for 5 seconds.
〉 Enter 〈
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Welcome!
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Please enter your name.
If left blank, the original character’s name will be set automatically.
┃ Suzy
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Creating a new game.
2 / 29
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Error: 1015×736176652075
Reconfiguring the program.
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Creating a painful game…
11 / 10
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Reconfiguration complete. CODE: 6D6973732075
The game will begin shortly.
Please wait a moment.
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Play Tip
Choose quickly, but carefully.
* * *
Stay calm.
No matter what happens, when you’re thrown into an unexpected situation, the first thing you need to do is stay calm.
If you panic for no reason, even something minor can turn into a disaster.
First, calmly look around.
If you look closely, you’ll surely find a way out.
I was sitting in the back seat of a car driving through heavy rain.
It wasn’t a taxi.
This wasn’t a normal modern car either, but a vintage automobile you’d expect to see in a modern history museum.
The space between the seats was very narrow.
The dashboard was simple.
There was no seatbelt and no headrest.
I lowered my head.
My knees were neatly covered by a long navy skirt.
The hem brushed against my ankles.
Just from that sensation, I knew it.
This is absolutely not something I would ever wear.
Dududududu.
A loud sound battered my ears.
Outside the window, torrential rain poured down like crashing waves.
[Driver: The weather is really bad.]
The driver’s words appeared in front of my eyes like subtitles.
As if someone had laid transparent film over my vision and projected text onto it.
I stared blankly at the glowing white letters, then calmly tried to retrace what had just happened.
I seriously couldn’t understand this situation at all.
I had definitely been heading home after working overtime.
It was past 10 p.m., and the train was empty enough that there was no need to search for a seat.
That’s one of the few advantages of working overtime.
Rush-hour trains are brutal.
Thanks to six months of constant overtime, I could sit comfortably on a quiet train while heading home.
If commuting is hard for you, try working overtime so you can sit comfortably on your way back!
…Anyway, I was definitely sitting on the subway heading home.
My Bluetooth earphones ran out of battery, so I was blankly watching the ads on the monitor that showed the next station.
I dozed off.
And when I opened my eyes again, this was the situation.
[Driver: The weather is really bad.]
The driver repeated the same line again.
Expressionless face.
Empty eyes.
This was already the sixth time.
Looking at this unchanging, unfamiliar situation, I thought quietly to myself.
Did I finally lose my mind from all the overtime?
Maybe I wasn’t going home at all.
Maybe I was still working overtime, driven insane by endless work, dreaming this bizarre dream.
The more I thought about it, the more convincing it sounded.
I hadn’t been sleeping properly lately.
I already had insomnia, and overtime reduced my already pitiful sleep even more.
If you go crazy from lack of sleep at work, does that count as an industrial accident?
I should ask HR later.
[Driver: The weather is really bad.]
While I was applying logic to this ridiculous situation, the driver repeated the same words again.
Same tone.
Same expression.
Same text.
He’s strange, but these words are even stranger.
Every time he spoke, text appeared like variety-show subtitles—except the font was dull and lifeless.
As I stared closely, wondering what this was, the text suddenly changed.
[〈Answer!〉
- It really is.
- Please focus on your driving.
What is this?
I frowned automatically.
The subtitle-like text shimmered and shook irregularly, like dust floating on water.
I calmly read the words again.
Looking closer, one sentence was glowing more brightly.
As if asking, “Are you going to choose me?”
I don’t like either of these.
The first was meaningless small talk.
The second was straight-up picking a fight.
I wanted to ask who he was and where we were, not say either of these.
I tried to ignore the choices and speak to the driver.
“Huh?”
Strangely, my voice wouldn’t come out the way I wanted.
As I struggled to speak, the text glowed even brighter.
It seemed I had no choice but to pick one of these options.
I bit my lip and stared at the choices.
What is this thing anyway? Is there no normal answer?
Especially that second one—why is it so rude?
While I was complaining internally, the second option flashed brightly, and all other choices disappeared.
At the same time, my jaw opened on its own, and my voice—silent until now—clearly spoke.
“Please focus on your driving.”
…Are you kidding me?
[Driver: I’m sorry.]
An awkward silence filled the car.
The driver’s face appeared in the rearview mirror.
The expressionless face that had looked creepy earlier now just looked like a tired office worker.
Guilt welled up from my gut.
“Um, I’m sorry. That came out wrong. I meant to say, “Please drive safely…”
Now my voice worked just fine.
Why didn’t it do that earlier?!
I hurriedly apologized, resenting the vanished text.
That’s when—
Bang!
A loud crash shook the car violently.
“Ah!”
If there had been a seatbelt, I would’ve been fine.
But as I said earlier, this old car didn’t have one.
I was thrown upward, slammed my head into the ceiling, and then smashed my shoulder into the window.
Unlike me, the man gripping the steering wheel was perfectly fine.
Don’t tell me he started driving recklessly because I talked back?
[Driver: Huh? Why is it doing this?
The driver fumbled nervously with the steering wheel and gearshift.
It didn’t seem intentional.
The car itself appeared to be broken.
Thank goodness.
No—wait. That’s not good.
That means the car is broken.
Before I could fully relax, a sharp sense of danger hit me.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but the car felt much slower than before.
It was shaking badly too.
At this rate, what if—
The ominous thought hadn’t even finished when the car suddenly stopped.
The driver tried restarting the engine, but it wouldn’t turn over.
Eventually, he got out and checked the hood.
After fiddling with things, he came back and said—
[Driver: It won’t work. It’s completely broken. You’ll have to walk from here.]
I doubted both my eyes and ears.
“In this rain?”
Outside, rain was pouring down like a waterfall.
Even the driver, who’d only stepped out briefly, was already soaked like he’d been swimming.
[Driver: You’ll have to walk from here.]
The driver stubbornly insisted I get out.
But I couldn’t bring myself to leave the car.
It wasn’t just the rain—I didn’t even know where I was going.
I wanted to go home.
How am I supposed to get home from here?
And the road was pitch-black.
There were no streetlights.
The only light came from the headlights, illuminating nothing but trees and muddy ground.
“Can’t I just stay here? I’ll wait until it’s fixed.”
I asked as politely as possible.
That’s when the text that had unsettled me earlier reappeared.
[〈Act!〉
- Get out of the car.]
The difference this time was that there was only one option.
“I don’t want to get out…!”
But before I could refuse, the text flashed and disappeared, and my body stepped out of the warm car on its own.
* * *
My traitorous body pushed through the rain against my will.
The legs that felt controlled only regained freedom once the broken car’s headlights were no longer visible.
Even then, I kept walking.
The rain slapped my face harder and harder, and it was far too dark.
Every survival instinct screamed at me to leave this place as fast as possible.
But where am I even supposed to go?!
Moving without knowing the destination had its limits.
There were no signposts.
No streetlights.
No people passing by.
I really want to go home.
I want to shower with hot water, cook ramen for a late-night meal, and fall asleep before it digests.
A wet leaf flew from somewhere and slapped against my cheek.
My teeth began to chatter.
Soaked from walking in the rain without an umbrella or raincoat, my body was cooling rapidly.
Will I ever reach anything?
Just when I started to miss even those annoying texts—
“Dear me, what are you doing out here in the rain?”
A gentle voice cut through the sound of heavy rainfall.
At the same time, the rain stopped.
As if by magic.
