Supporting Characters in the Game are Obsessed – Chapter 1

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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The elf doctor, living in the cyberpunk world, told me,

“It’s depression.”

“Huh?”

The elf doctor, as if accustomed to my reaction, continued without even looking at me.

“Statistically, over 75% of citizens living in Neon City have experienced feelings of depression. So, you don’t need to be too surprised.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Of course, if you are actually diagnosed with depression, your Socialization Score will decrease, which can lead to disadvantages.”

Well, then what am I supposed to do?

I frowned at the doctor’s ambiguous way of speaking.

If your Socialization Score drops, you’ll face disadvantages across the entire societal system, like the censorship system of a certain communist country in my past life.

This wasn’t something I could just ignore.

A green light flickered mechanically in the doctor’s irises, perhaps from an ocular implant surgery.

“First detailed question. Since when have you thought you were depressed?”

“I haven’t.”

I’ve never been depressed, so what’s all this?

Of course, for the sake of my precious Socialization Score, I had to never have been depressed.

In truth, any normal citizen living in Neon City, overflowing with extreme capitalism and indiscriminate transhumanism, would have given the same answer as me.

A plummeting Socialization Score?

Absolutely got to prevent that.

For example, even if the interest rate on my loan suddenly quintuples…

‘That’s not much of an increase, is it?’

…is the kind of congratulatory response I’d receive.

Whether the doctor knew my feelings or not (they probably did), they continued speaking in a businesslike manner.

“It’s okay to think back to your childhood. You don’t need to overthink it.”

“…No, it’s not that…”

It’s not the question that’s difficult, it’s this situation, where my Socialization Score could be shattered, that’s difficult.

My earlier statement that I wasn’t depressed was neatly ignored.

“……Sigh.”

This is a headache.

It seems this isn’t a situation I can simply overlook.

My childhood, huh…

Thinking back, it has been quite a while.

Since I started living in this game world.

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It was summer.

“…Ahh, I beat it.”

The ending credits were rolling on the monitor screen in front of me.

The names of the countless people who contributed to making the game scrolled by.

But ending credits?

I didn’t have the luxury to appreciate those.

I stretched and leaned back in my chair.

Crack.

Along with the sound, my clouded mind cleared a little.

“……What time is it? Whoa, morning already?”

Sunlight streamed in through the gap in the curtains.

So, the time that’s passed…

Roughly 20 hours.

…I really did play like crazy.

Now all I had left was…

A wrecked physical condition, a reversed sleep cycle, the regret of wasting my weekend, and a lost grip on reality.

Hmm.

A very satisfying weekend.

Though I played for about 20 hours straight, my actual playtime was longer than that.

Because I had been doing nothing but playing this game for about a month, sacrificing my weekends.

The game’s genre is cyberpunk…, well, it’s a long story.

It was a little unorthodox.

A cyberpunk world with different races like orcs and elves?

Well, I found that part more interesting, but still.

And it wasn’t quite arcane-punk since there was almost no magic.

Of course, the biggest reason I started playing was the 50% discount.

Anyway, because I’d been so focused on the game for a month, my already narrow social circle had shrunk even further.

But I had no regrets.

Thanks to that, I was now facing the ending credits.

I tried to convince myself it was a win.

While I was spacing out, new text appeared on the monitor.

The scrolling ending credits had already ended.

Only a single English sentence remained, thanking me for playing.

I didn’t know why it was “AND” instead of “END”.

Yeah, it was fun, that’s why I played for 20 hours straight.

But I was too tired to savor the afterglow of clearing the game.

Ugh, my eyes hurt.

Gently rubbing my eyelids, which had become bloodshot and started stinging a while ago, I hammered the enter key on the keyboard with my other hand.

“I’m going to sleep no matter what.”

“I’ll just check this and then sleep.”

Well, this couldn’t be helped.

A second playthrough mode that only unlocks after clearing the game?

The gamer spirit within me urged me to at least check out the new mode before going to sleep.

Well, I was planning on a second playthrough anyway.

I could think of it as checking the new mode at the same time.

Of course, I’m sleepy, so…

I wasn’t going to play right now.

I’d just create a new character and sleep.

The character’s gender should obviously be female, it’s the golden rule, but since I played as a female character in my first playthrough, I decided to go with a male character this time.

Since I decided on a male character, there was no need to meticulously customize the appearance.

I quickly went with the default settings.

Let’s see.

“Is this it?”

The ‘Scenario’ setting, which determined the character’s background and starting location in the game.

Among them, a choice I hadn’t seen at the start caught my eye.

Yep. Skip.

I felt bad for the planner who worked hard on the game’s setting, but I wasn’t curious about the background story right now.

If I got curious, I could just look it up on the wiki tomorrow before playing again.

At this very sleepy moment, it was physically too much to delve into the lore.

I quickly checked the ‘Traits’ section, which was already determined by the scenario and had the greatest impact on gameplay.

“Frail, Feeble, Animal Hostility, Susceptible to Drugs, Weak Stomach…. Ugh.”

They made the character completely useless.

Besides the negative traits I mentioned, there were even more bad ones.

At least it was fortunate that traits like ‘Chrome Allergy’ weren’t there.

Is this supposed to encourage a second playthrough?

Or discourage it?

Was this the result of the developer’s inner masochistic tendencies unknowingly seeping into the planning document and manifesting in the final product?

Moreover, even when I tried to remove the attached negative traits by moving the mouse, they wouldn’t disappear.

A concise message appeared: ‘Trait modification is not applicable to this scenario.’

……This isn’t the end, is it?

Surely they wouldn’t just make the character useless.

Of course, there was no rule saying I had to choose this scenario for the second playthrough.

Still, as a scenario given only to those who cleared the first playthrough, I couldn’t just ignore it.

As I scrolled down, yellow text, signifying positive traits, finally appeared alongside the red text of the negative traits.

There were several positive traits, but…

The most eye-catching one was…

“……Exceptional Magical Talent?”

Oh.

This was tempting.

“I can’t resist a concept playthrough.”

So magic was possible in this game.

As I said before, I hardly saw the word magic while playing.

I never knew I’d be able to play as a mage only after clearing the first playthrough.

I’d look up guides tomorrow.

For now, I’d just create the character, and after waking up, I’d play again in the morning.

With that thought, I pressed the game’s start button.

And when I came to…

I was standing in the middle of a landfill.

Moreover, my body had become that of a 10-year-old.

At first, I thought it was a dream, but…

Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Honestly, I was a little excited at first.

Entering the game I was playing, wasn’t that a common trope in novels?

Of course, that excitement didn’t last long.

For about a full day…

I didn’t have a single bite of food, not even a sip of water.

I ran from the corporate killer drones that cleaned up the organic matter in the landfill.

When I finally met someone I could communicate with, I was punched in the gut and rolled down a mountain of garbage for having nothing to offer.

That woke me up.

To this day, I don’t know what sin I committed to deserve this suffering.

Would this not have happened if I had just gone straight to sleep instead of making a second playthrough character?

I pondered over it dozens of times, but the answer didn’t come easily.

Game or not, I had to survive.

That’s how I survived for about 10 years.

The reason the time frame is vague is unavoidable.

I spent several more years rolling around in that landfill.

It wasn’t a situation where I could be mindful of time.

Anyway, in that process…

I tried to leech off the game’s protagonist (there was a separate protagonist).

Thanks to all the hardships I endured, I escaped the landfill and entered Neon City, the center of the game’s story.

Ignoring the surrounding gazes that deemed me incompetent and clueless, I joined the protagonist’s group, benefiting from their overflowing resources.

Finally, I even succeeded in completing the main storyline and saving the city from near destruction.

(Of course, the protagonist did about 95% of the work.)

Now that everything was over…

All that was left was to live a peaceful and happy life.

“Hmm… It seems like you’ll ultimately be diagnosed with Level 3 depression.”

“Oh.”

…Thinking about it carefully…

It wasn’t strange that I’d be depressed.

But regardless, I had to avoid an official diagnosis of depression from a professional doctor.

Even after being declared cured, it would remain permanently on my record, and my lowered Socialization Score wouldn’t be easily restored.

It was something that could interfere with my happy-happy (subjective) Neon City life.
And I had learned a ‘spell’ to resolve this situation a while ago.

Of all the magic I could use…

The most useful and most frequently used magic.

Judging by the elf doctor’s hesitant reaction, fumbling and avoiding uploading the diagnosis results while staring at me, this spell had almost a 100% success rate.

It was…

I took out the magic (a data chip containing credits) I had prepared for this occasion.

I shielded it with my body so it wouldn’t be seen by the sealed surveillance camera as I handed it over.

The Bribery Spell.

The elf doctor, with a completely unchanged expression, as if very familiar with this, placed the electronic document they were holding on top of it.

“Ahem, hmm. I’ll send you the results via message later.”

“Oh, thank you for your hard work.”

There’s a strange rumor going around that elves aren’t susceptible to bribes.

It’s false.

They’re very susceptible.

The elves living in Neon City have already tasted both the bitter and the sweet.

Most of the elves I’ve encountered didn’t fit the typical elf image people have.

Perhaps it was the lower-class citizens living in the slums, harboring fantasies about elves, who spread rumors that created that image.

Still, being an elf and all…

There was a potted plant at the entrance of the hospital, a rare sight in Neon City.

But looking closely, it was a mechanically made decoration.

It even had an air purifier function.

At this point, I realized this doctor was jaded.

I still had a hard time understanding the sensibilities of the people in this city.

“Then I’ll be going now.”

Now that the situation was resolved, there was no need to waste any more time.

The elf doctor probably also wanted me to leave quickly.

So they could check the data chip containing the credits.

The elf doctor, who had already stood up, saw me out. Was this also the effect of the magic?

Being a mage saved me.

“And also…”

“Yes?”

“You seem to be under a lot of stress. In times like these, doing something you want to do without thinking too much can be very helpful.”

“Ah… something I want to do. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Have a pleasant Neon City day.”

Thus concluded my first heart-pounding mental evaluation.

[…So, are you saying you’re going to stay inside and play games for the next week?]

“Yeah.”

[…….]

The doctor told me to.

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