I Became an NPC That Rankers Are Obsessed Over

“Do-hyun.”

My eyelids twitched at the familiar voice.

It was a kind and gentle voice, like waking a friend asleep in a movie theater.

Thanks to that, the cold stiffness in my body seemed to fade.

Only then could I notice the sounds around me.

The noisy music, Hyun-soo’s cheerful laughter, Gyu-seon’s chuckling.

Voices I thought I’d never hear again.

Half in fear, half in hope, I barely opened my eyes.

My cheek was stuck to the sticky table.

And across from me, my sister’s cheek was also stuck to the table as she watched me.

For a moment, I nearly bolted upright because of how close she was.

But soon, I found myself mesmerized, drawn into Ji-soo’s enchanting eyes under the light.

“Look at him. He’s dozing off after just three glasses of whiskey?”

She spoke as if I were adorable.

What was going on?

She was right in front of me.

Even more surprising, her face was clean—no blood, no scars.

Her smooth, fair skin was exactly the same, with a light fuzz adorning it.

I barely lifted my heavy head.

My cheek bore the imprint of the table.

“So, do you think you can drink the Victory Cry?”

She grinned brightly and grabbed my shoulder.

The impact made me let out a soft groan.

She seemed to be getting stronger by the day.

Still, thanks to that, I managed to focus enough to glance around and figure out where I was.

Dim lighting, luxurious drinks.

Happy patrons celebrating an unknown occasion.

This was the bar we promised to visit after defeating the Wyvern—Moment.

A man in a pristine dress shirt brought a tray with four glasses.

He placed one glass in front of each of us at the table.

Was this the “Victory Cry”?

The golden creamy hue adorned the tall transparent glass.

“Today was tough, so I’ll let it slide. But you have to drink it all, okay? We came all the way to Sindorim just to drink this because of you.”

Hyun-soo tilted his neck from side to side.

Each time he stretched, a satisfying cracking sound echoed.

“It really was a hard day, though.”

Gyu-seon smirked.

He slurred his words, already a few drinks in.

I stared at the glass in front of me.

Their words lingered faintly in my mind.

“Today was tough.”

Yes.

It truly was.

I didn’t know why, but it had been excruciatingly difficult.

My chest ached.

As if I had just overcome a massive hurdle, all the tension in my body dissipated.

My face flushed, and tears, hot and unstoppable, rolled down my cheeks.

“Oh… Do-hyun’s crying.”

Ji-soo pointed at me drunkenly.

“Why are you crying on such a good day? Did you have a nightmare?”

Hyun-soo frowned.

“No… it’s not that…”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t cry on such a happy day. Let’s drink before it goes flat!”

Ji-soo handed me a glass.

I picked up the “Victory Cry” placed in front of me.

“To the day we become rankers! Cheers to our party!”

With Hyun-soo’s toast, we clinked our glasses together.

A crisp and clear sound echoed, spilling the drink across the table.

But unlike my companions, I didn’t immediately take a sip.

I wanted to admire the cocktail just a little longer.

“Why aren’t you drinking?”

Ji-soo smiled gently as she asked.

“It’s just… the color is beautiful.”

Her gaze resembled the golden hue of the cocktail.

“Try it.”

She watched me with expectant eyes as I took my first sip.

I pressed my lips to the cold glass cautiously.

The smooth liquor flowed over my tongue and down my throat.

A sweet orange aroma filled my mouth.

The bittersweet acidity that followed enriched the flavor.

It was delicious.

Not all alcohol tastes bitter after all.

“How is it? Still think all alcohol tastes the same?”

“No, it’s delicious. Really…”

She tilted her head with a satisfied smile.

Her face was carefree and happy, devoid of any worries or pain.

“Do you still regret joining our party? You said it’s been tough so far.”

Regret.

That word hit me like a hammer.

I paused briefly, then smiled as I replied.

To the person who brought me here.

“No. I don’t regret it anymore.”

It felt like the first time I’d smiled in a while.

With her smile as my companion, I took another sip.

The vivid taste of the drink reminded me that the nightmare I had endured earlier was just a nightmare.

Yes, it was a cruel dream.

I wished this sweet taste would linger in my mouth forever.

If possible, for eternity.

I propped my chin on my hand, savoring this blissful moment.

“At that moment, I swung my sword like this! When I cut the Wyvern’s neck, I just knew. This is going to hit a million views!”

Ji-soo mimicked swinging a sword with her hand.

“Come on, you’re too plain-looking for that.”

Hyun-soo shook his head firmly at her boast.

“No way. If we fail, it’ll be because of you, oppa. People would run away scared after seeing your face. Do-hyun and Gyu-seon should be the ones featured—”

I wiped my nose at Ji-soo’s playful praise.

Sometimes, she made silly jokes like that.

The table was piling up with glasses.

The busy waiters couldn’t keep up with clearing our table overflowing with drinks.

Hyun-soo, who drank the most, and Gyu-seon, who couldn’t handle alcohol, were now passed out with their heads on the table.

Completely silent, as if they were dead.

Yet Ji-soo remained awake, lazily holding her glass.

I was the only one who had paced myself, staying by her side, able to witness her decadent beauty.

“What is it?”

Noticing my gaze, Ji-soo asked.

Now that we were alone, I asked her the question I had been holding back.

“Noona.”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever regretted being with me?”

Ji-soo squinted her eyes, as if tired of hearing the same question often.

“That question again?”

Her lips, covered in cocktail foam, caught my attention.

Then the lights around me dimmed.

Her crimson lips gently brushed against my cheek.

At that moment, my world stopped.

The soft sensation on my cheek sent shivers through my entire body.

“Never.”

Warm cream brushed against me and slowly dripped down.

Ji-soo wiped my cheek with her fingers.

“Thank you.”

I whispered softly.

The lump in my chest seemed to finally dissolve.

That sense of liberation allowed me to wake up from this sweet dream.

I knew it.

This was all an illusion created by my ability, Angelic Hand.

It must have been a final gesture of mercy prepared for my dying self.

What ran down my cheek wasn’t the cream from her lips.

The shudder coursing through my body wasn’t caused by her kiss either.

The cream was falling rain.

The tremor was shock from a wound piercing my side.

My blurry vision began to return.

My drenched body was still lying in the ruins of the city.

But there was one fantastical truth.

This wasn’t a dream.

Right next to me was a person lying down.

In the pouring rain, someone was looking directly at me.

It was Ji-soo.

Just like in the illusion, she was smiling at me.

But blood was pouring from her body.

Her form, riddled with blackened holes, was too horrifying to look at.

Her pupils had already melted into her sclera.

One eye was bulging slightly, as if it couldn’t withstand the pain she had endured.

“Thank goodness… you’re alive.”

After all that torment, those were the first words she spoke to me.

Hearing her cracked voice made tears, which I thought had dried, flow once again.

The ground bore a long trail of her blood from where she had been stabbed to where we now were.

“I’m… glad you’re okay too.”

I managed to speak, barely clearing the blood foam clogging my throat.

Each word I forced out sent sharp pangs through my chest.

“They kept stabbing, so I held my breath and pretended to be dead. Then they just left.”

She chuckled, even now.

Every time she laughed, blood spurted out, triggering fits of coughing.

“Anyway, the blade was poisoned, so I’ll die soon anyway…”

Why was she laughing?

Was she really unafraid of dying?

“Isn’t it nice? We can be together like this, even in the end.”

“Nice? How could this be nice… Aren’t you angry?”

I asked, my voice trembling.

“Angry about what?”

“You’re dying just because you were with someone like me, despite having such great abilities. If you’d joined a major guild like those guys earlier…”

“Do-hyun.”

Ji-soo interrupted me with a calm voice.

“Let’s just stay like this.”

“…”

I had so much to say.

But seeing her face devoid of its usual cheer and replaced by a resigned smile, the words retreated back into my throat.

Her smile wasn’t one of joy; it was a smile of acceptance.

She already knew all the pathetic truths I wanted to voice.

“—.”

How much time had passed?

Her labored breathing grew fainter.

We both knew our fates.

So, I gathered my courage one last time.

I wanted to ask her one final question.

The same one I’d asked in the illusion.

“Noona…”

“Yes.”

“Do you regret being with me?”

I already knew the answer.

But I wanted to hear it from her again and again.

“That question again?”

Ji-soo’s clouded eyes stared at me.

With her pupils gone, it was impossible to know what she was looking at.

Yet, I felt as though she was looking at me.

I could just feel it.

Eventually, her violet lips moved.

“I regret it.”

The three words pierced the confidence in my chest.

That single sentence tore apart the ending credits of the movie I had painstakingly created.

“If I’d done as you said, I wouldn’t be dying like this.”

Her gray eyeball rolled out of its socket.

It slid down her cheek, mixing with the rainwater as it fell.

“After all the effort I put in…”

“To die like this…”

“It’s the worst…”

With those final words, her lips stopped moving.

The woman who had always tried to show her little brother a bright demeanor, even at just twenty-six years old, passed away.

She was human after all.

A person who was fragile and weak, resentful of the world’s injustices.

My trembling lips quivered as I sat alone.

Was it then?

When my choked voice finally burst out?

My scream echoed across the city.

I cursed myself for being left alone.

I cursed myself for witnessing the death of someone I loved.

And I cursed this rotten ability of mine.

Dragging my torn body, I crawled toward her.

I extended my remaining arm.

“Don’t lie to me…”

The last of my vitality gathered at my fingertips.

A faint, soft glow surrounded my hand.

“Is that really all you have to say to me?”

My trembling hand brushed against her cheek.

My warmth began to seep into her.

Before long, dark red blood flowed from her face instead of tears.

And then, from Ji-soo’s cold body, something climbed up through my fingertips.

I soon realized it was the emotions she had felt before her death.

Fear of dying.

Regret for not joining a major guild.

The pity she felt while looking after someone as useless as me.

Among them, the feeling I yearned for most wasn’t there.

I burned every last ounce of my life force searching for that one emotion.

My legs began to decay.

My limbs shriveled, and my face hollowed out, yet I couldn’t find the answer I sought.

That was my end.

A life as ugly and pitiful as it gets.