Silas was taken aback by how immediate the question was. He turned to face the door for a moment, as if to make sure it was properly closed. A sigh left his lips as he returned his focus to the wary woman in front of him. “Yes. I’m not Silas, and you’re not Ruelle, either.”
“What is this? Double transmigration?” Ruelle threw her hands in the air dramatically. Her words confirmed that she was at least from the same modern era as him. “…Wait a second.”
“What?” Silas raised an eyebrow.
”Dungeon Regime’s characters are one of a kind…so if you know how my character’s supposed to act, then…”
Then it clicked.
”REZ?”
“CROW?”
“Be quiet!” Crow warned in a hushed shout. Her eyes briefly landed on the door, and fortunately, none of the servants outside rushed in. “Anyway, this is great news…at least none of us are alone in this.”
“Yes, yes,” Rez let out a long sigh. He could feel his heart crashing against his chest. The possibility that he could’ve been placed in Dungeon Regime’s environment all alone with no one to turn to brought a new sense of fear to mind. Crow was right, at least none of them had to suffer by themselves. “Especially you, what would you have done if Silas was still the same mad garbage character?”
Ruelle chuckled. “Well, maybe killing him and running to the countryside would be a great plan.” There was a moment of silence. “But now I don’t have to! I don’t think I have it in me to get rid of that face.”
Silas’ expression soured. “…You’re still on about that?”
“What?” Ruelle scoffed with a shrug. “Silas is completely my type. Blonde hair…blue eyes…he has a cute look contrary to his personality, like a cat, and I LOVE cats.”
Ever since they had to play co-op in order to progress through their characters, the two of them weren’t always on good terms. Crow liked Silas Salvador’s character design, so Rez had to read dozens of fangirl messages from her all the time. Their fights mostly revolve around Crow wanting to choose the Romance Route while Rez just wanted a Good End Route. It wasn’t a surprise that their dialog options kept contradicting each other. The result of their bickering meant very little progress was made through the game.
”…We should discuss our future plans,” Silas sighed as he placed a palm on his forehead. “Dungeon Regime might have given us many clues about the future…but since we’ve only managed to get through 31%—“
“It was actually 21.” Ruelle crossed her arms.
”…Same difference. We didn’t even make it a quarter way through the storyline. Let’s brainstorm some ideas on what we should do next.”
Crowfest nodded. “Alright, to be honest, since our characters' stories are supposed to be hellishly difficult, I suggest we just try and find a way to survive. What did Silas’ character description said?”
Before the player confirms their choice on a character, the game tells them everything about said character’s basic information, including their backgrounds and other necessary info. This information can still be found by playing through the game, but knowing them can be a huge advantage in choosing the optimal options. The players can even view the description on a character’s routes too.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
RetiZn gave Crowfest a smile, and instantly her expression darkened. “Rez…you didn’t read the character description, did you?”
“Haha,” Rez found her cold gaze too prickling to look at. “Yeah~I didn’t read jack shit.”
It seemed that Ruelle was suppressing the urge to get up from her seat. She took a deep breath and shook her head. Even Silas was surprised at how fast she calmed down. “Well, it’s not the end of the world…But now this severely limits our options.”
”And why is that?”
“Okay, hear me out,” Her words did not bring any comfort to Rez at all. Crowfest always says that when she’s about to suggest a plan that he doesn’t like. “Ruelle and Silas are connected by their lores. So, to limit any possible variables, we should follow through the Romance Route—WAIT!” Crowfest held out her hands way before Rez could move his lips one more inch from their resting position. “It’s much safer than our other routes. They focus on just that singular character, but then it would mean we have to play both routes at the same time, as opposed to going down only one route.”
Rez knew that it would be just like in the game. The Romance Route was an option for both Silas and Ruelle, but they’re endings that require the cooperation of the two players. Since he had played through so many characters, Rez had deliberately chosen romance for their routes too, but the reason why he didn’t want to do it with the character Silas was…
”It was embarrassing!”
Crowfest didn’t need to know that though, and he planned on taking his secret to the grave. No way could he tell her that he didn’t want to choose the Romance Route for a fictional character because he would be doing it with someone else.
”…” What she said was convincing, and ultimately the proper strategy moving forward. But… “Since this is technically reality now, then what’s the need for following routes?”
“You’re right,” She answered instantly, as if she’d already anticipated it. “I’m basically just trying to say that we should stay engaged, since the other routes I read for Ruelle ended up with her canceling the engagement with Silas and in the end becoming independent. We don’t know the true nature of this world yet, so just to be safe, we shouldn’t try to derive from the original plot too much and create variables.”
Rez was genuinely surprised. It was a well thought-out presentation. If he was a CEO of a company, he wouldn’t hesitate to hire her. Forget the embarrassment, what she gave him was a sound, logical plan. “Okay, fine,” he nodded. “I agree…it seems like you win in our route choice in the end.”
Crow gave him a bitter smile. “But we’re the characters now…it’s different.” She suddenly clapped, and her expression brightened a short second later. “Okay! Now that that’s settled…what do you remember about our 21% progress?”
“It was a huge mess, will the information even be useful?” Silas frowned.
”It might not help much, but at the very least we should build our characters to be combat-ready,” Crowfest held up a finger as if listing her groceries. “That way, we can be ready for any situation thrown our way, no? Not to mention there’s also the central plot of Dungeon Regime.”
Dungeon Regime was set in the medieval fantasy world where the natural order had been destroyed by a sudden burst of energy from an unknown source, canonically called The Mana Bloom event.
The incident led to an imparity in space-time which created the portals that lead into dungeons. Excess energy that leaked from these mystical gates eventually terraformed the space of the world, ruining many kingdoms and turning lands that once were occupied by humans into strongholds for other creatures.
Oriens Empire was one of the only human kingdoms that’d managed to withstand the effects of the Mana Bloom, along with only a few other kingdoms that were allied with Oriens prior to the event. It’s been a hundred years since then, and humans have already adapted to the changes in their world.
Dungeons still continue to appear randomly just like in the past, along with some unclosable portals that lingered around even through the passage of time. Aspiring adventurers wanting to test their strengths invade these dungeons, and in return for their efforts, their prowess may grow to the point beyond what was thought possible through regular means.
But only selected individuals may enter these dungeons, which are the “playable characters'' that the game creates. Dungeon Regime’s main storyline is still incomplete, but every player who’s not living under a rock knows that it has something to do with the mysteries behind the worlds beyond the portals; the dungeons themselves.
RetiZn knew what Crowfest was attempting to convey. “…Since this world is real, we can’t just ignore the main storyline like we could in the game.”
Ruelle nodded. “We don’t know what’s going to happen at the end of this plot, or what it’s got to do with dungeons, but we still have to solve this puzzle.”
Silas took another deep breath. Now he wasn’t sure if the headache was from the hangover or their future problems. He decided to pour them both a cup of tea, but by then, it had gotten cold. “…Of course, we’ll check up on the main plot, but right now I think we need to solve our immediate problems first.”
Ruelle took the tea. It seemed like she was willing to eat the food there now. “One such thing is your horrible reputation, but I also have a suggestion that can kill two birds with one stone.”
Silas raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
Having gained his full attention, Crowfest’s grin went wide. “Lord Silas, how about we go on a date?”