Chapter 17: 2.01 ARTIFICIAL LOVE: Oasis

warning: suicide, manipulation, toxic power dynamics

these warnings will remain for the entirety of world 2, so beware

i will do my best to remind you guys but consider this before moving forward.

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[ World ########'s FATE has been concluded. ]

[ Calculating anomalies… … … stability : 88% ]

Ouros: Tch. This is hardly impressive work but…the results are acceptable.

Ouros: Congratulations, you waste of space. Your hard work has accumulated 214 Red Karma Points and 867 Black Karma points.

Ouros: Allow me to bring up the skills shop. Do use it wisely, we haven't all day.

|| RED KARMA SHOP || Balance: 214 RKP

- [ Vermilion Halo ] level one : 200 points

- [ Crimson Coin ] level one : 175 points

- [ Rose Sword ] level one : 150 points

- [ Ruby Shield ] level one : 200 points

Ouros: You seek an explanation? Pathetic. I haven't the time for such things.

Ouros: Hurry up, else I shall make the decision for you!

"…"

// [ Vermilion Halo ( level one ) ] has been successfully purchased! Thank you for your patronage. Remaining Balance : 14 RKP //

Ouros: Finally. That took you long enough. Now for your Black Karma Points. Chop, chop.

|| BLACK KARMA SHOP || Balance: 867 BKP

- [ Third Eye ] level one : 666

- [ Venom Blood ] level one : 666

- [ Ebony Bones ] level one : 666

- [ Soul Echo ] level one : //LOCKED//

- [ CONVERT ]

// No Skills have been purchased! Remaining Balance : 867 BKP //

Ouros: You imbecile! What did I say about taking too long? The fabrics of time are tearing once more again. Off you go to the next world. Do try not to mess up.

[ World ########'s FATE parameters are loading … ]

[ Karma Points multipliers set to 1.2 ]

[ Vermilion Halo ( level one ) ] is now activate: moderate increase in CHARISMA, minor increase in the LIKELIHOOD of White Fate Scenarios. ]

———————————————

At age 18, Lee Beomseok finds himself homeless.

The car that he stole from his mom is parked on the side of the mountain road and he might just be a smidge intoxicated from that bottle of something that he 'borrowed' from his dad's liquor cabinet.

Drunk driving's bad, kids. Don't do it.

Lee Beomseok smirks at the thought and takes another swig. The devil's liquor burns through his esophagus and stomach. He coughs and sputters, eyes dotting with tears.

It's dark, a sea of stars twinkle overhead that stands to contrast the dark farmlands and mountains that stretch out before him. It's the perfect setting for a low-budget drama and Lee Beomseok's the star. The rail that's meant to keep people away from the cliff edge is broken, so he takes the opportunity to sit with his feet dangling off the ledge. It's black beneath him; dark tree canopies and steep rocky mountainside stretch out below.

Beomseok takes another gulp of that fire water and pretends like it's actually fun. He chokes, bile crawls up his throat so he takes another sip to wash it down.

Yeah, that doesn't really help.

Lee Beomseok pulls an ugly face, lets go of the bottle and watches it smash against the side of the cliff before it shatters, shards of glass tumble down into the abyss.

He considers jumping after it, not only because his life sucks (it does) but Beomseok realizes belatedly there's still half the bottle that he didn't drink.

He sniffles, shedding a tear for his great loss because all that's left are a few beer cans. Not only do they taste like piss-water but they're not nearly as effective against depression as hard liquor.

Damn. He done goofed.

After taking a moment to wallow in self-deprecation, Beomseok suddenly recalls his ultimate weapon against any life setback. Excited by the rare show of brilliance, he pulls out his phone.

There's only 5% battery left but desperate times calls for desperate needs so he clicks the power button and sighs dreamily.

A beautiful, gorgeous, handsome, perfectly photoshopped man stares back at him. Soo Jeonghoon is the lead singer in the idol group PRI5M and Beomseok is a stan.

"Jeonghoonie-hyung," Beomseok whines at his phone, his thumb loving caresses Jeonghoon's whitewashed cheek. Jeonghoon has his head slightly tilted back, the line of a tantalizing throat exposed. His eyes are dark and smoky and oozes sex. On a normal day, Beomseok would be reduced to drooling after 3 seconds of exposure to such powerful visuals but he's currently too occupied with depression.

"Jeonghoonie-hyung, you might not know me but," he pauses to draw in a breath. The air's damn chilled and pricks his lungs and fingertips. "You're the only person that I can trust…"

And, yeah, Beomseok gets it, he sounds like a melodramatic bitch and maybe he is, sue him. The truth however, still stands.

"Did you know that you're the only person who's never betrayed me?" he confesses to the static image and brings the phone close to his face. "I guess you wouldn't know, huh?" If he closes his eyes maybe he can imagine himself sitting there, one-on-one with his beloved idol.

Beomseok rambles, "Honestly, I knew that there was a chance that bitch Kyungmi was going to dump me but I really didn't expect her to ruin my life as well. Why am I so unlucky?"

Jeonghoonie doesn't react and Beomseok frowns. Then realization dawns and he goes, "Ah. You probably don't understand what happened so I'll start from the beginning…

"My one brain cell decided to short-circuit when I started to date Park Kyungmi. I mean, she's really cute, you know? Of course, you're cuter but you're not real and she is—" Beomseok blinks, remembering belatedly that idols are, to some degree, still real humans.

But he shrugs off the thought and continues, "Anyways. So I'm dating her and slowly realizing that she's a two-faced bitch. Did you know she canceled System all because a gay fanfiction of their main rapper got viral on the Internet? Can you believe that? One day, this bitch magically finds out that I'm bisexual and decides to go batshit insane."

He sighs at the memory and closes his eyes. At the time he'd been livid but Beomseok also didn't care in the long run. All she did was throw a few uncreative slurs at him and storm out the door.

Who would have thought the bitch had the guts to tell Beomseok's super homophobic father about his sexuality? She sure got him good, that whore.

And thus cue his current predicament. A few shouting matches, throwing plates and punches through walls later Beomseok is parked now on the side of the mountain road, a few kilometer's out from his shitty little town.

He opens his eyes again and gazes back down at his phone, where Jeonghoon's eternal beauty is plastered across the screen. "Hyung, don't you feel bad for me?"

At that very moment a notification flashes across the screen. Beomseok clicks it by accident and his phone unlocks thanks to face recognition. A news article on Naver loads…

[ Leader Singer Soo Jeonghoon of Popular Boy Group PRI5M found Dead in Hotel Room: Suspected Suicide ]

Beomseok blinks slowly.

He thinks the universe is trolling him big time. He blinks again, rubs his teary eyes and squints.

But the news article doesn't disappear.

"Huh…?" Or maybe he's already accidentally fallen off the ledge and he's actually in hell.

That could explain it too.

Confused, Beomseok fights through the drunken haze and fiddles with his phone. He somehow manages to get himself into Naver and types [ Jeonghoon PRI5M ]. Before he writes more, the first auto-fill search result already ends with [Jeonghoon PRI5M suicide].

His thumb's shaking when he clicks it and—

His phone screen goes black.

"Fuck!"

Beomseok flails in surprise and he looks about as graceful as a penguin attempting to fly.

This is it, he thinks dramatically.

He's going to fling himself off the cliff and say goodbye to this sweet, terrible world because there's only so much trolling he can handle.

But he falls backwards instead of forward and with an 'oof', his body collides with dirt.

It hurts. "This sucks," he grits out but not even Jeonghoonie-hyung is listening to him.

Still confused and extremely disorientated, Beomseok takes a moment to bond with the dirt ground, imagining himself as a tiny weed that might grow there.

Not bad, he thinks, maybe he'd like to be reform as a blade of grass. It seems like a legit plot line, he reasons.

But he's not a blade of grass, nor is he some cute little weed that can sap nutrients out of the earth. After sobriety starts to sink in he finally pulls himself to his feet and hobbles towards the car.

"Hear me out," he says to no one as he wrestles with the car door, "I can still drive myself off the cliff so it's no big deal." Beomseok nods, thinking himself wise when in reality he can't even string logic together correctly.

After plugging his phone into the car, he sits, slouched in the driver's seat.

The radio's on and he closes his eyes. He feels pretty damn tired, maybe a nap before killing himself is the right way to go about things.

A ballad begins to play from the shitty speakers and he laments that it's not Jeonghoonie's sweet voice.

But the voice he hears is low, raspy yet also smooth. It lulls him, and embraces him like a soft blanket. Beomseok feels like he recognizes this voice but he also can't really put his finger on it.

The lyrics are simple, they're nothing special. Yet why is it that they seem to resonate in Beomseok's heart? Like a torch that burns brightly in the dark.

[ I'll be your oasis, when you're in the desert alone and lost ]

[ I'll be your oasis, your guide and your light ]

[ I'll be your oasis, when nothing else is right ]

The melody is slow yet catchy and Beomseok begins mumbling the verses as he falls asleep. Guess suicide will have to wait another day.