Ch.240Chapter 240 – The Return of Isaac Adler

After a long time, a meeting with an old friend naturally led to drinking.

Though I’m terribly weak with alcohol and didn’t want to drink, my friend insisted so much after seeing my wretched state that I couldn’t refuse.

“So… I’m not lying, it’s really true!”

Naturally, after just one shot of soju, I was completely drunk and started spilling my drunken confessions.

“I’m telling you, I really spent a year in the game world I was developing…”

I was so intoxicated that my memory is hazy, but my friend’s expression after hearing this was more composed than I expected.

Normally, when someone hears something like this, they’d worry about your mental state or look at you like you’re crazy.

Well, we were close friends, so maybe he was just hiding his reaction.

“I even had relationships there… even had a child… haha…”

“……..”

“In the end… I came back here…”

Maybe that’s why, even for drunken confessions, I ended up sharing such heavy stories?

“The truth is… the truth is I wanted to stay there…”

I don’t remember well because I was so drunk, but I imagine my expression at that time must have been quite a sight.

“…They appear in my dreams every day, falling apart…”

“…….”

“I don’t even know if it’s a dream anymore… maybe that’s reality and living here is the dream…”

Perhaps I was rambling like that and even crying.

“I want to go back…”

How much time passed like that?

“What? Leaving already?”

My friend, who had been silently drinking several bottles while listening to me, suddenly stood up, so I asked with unfocused eyes.

“…I need to make a call.”

“Ah…”

The next moment, my consciousness, which had been barely hanging on, finally snapped.

“Hello? I wanted to ask a favor…”

“…I see.”

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After that brief meeting with an old friend, time continued to flow.

In my bleak situation without any support, I thought about crashing at his place, but surprisingly, my friend who had been missing was now married to a foreign woman.

I couldn’t intrude and cause trouble in that situation, so naturally, our contact gradually decreased.

“Haah…..”

So I naturally became alone again, lying listlessly in bed like any other day.

– Flutter…!

“……?”

Suddenly, I heard the sound of something flapping its wings from the balcony.

“What is it…”

Wondering if a pigeon had flown in, I tilted my head and got up for the first time in a while, then headed toward the balcony.

“Huh.”

I tilted my head to the side with a puzzled expression.

– Chirp…♪

“…What is this?”

A sparrow? A tit? Anyway, there was a silver-feathered bird flapping its wings on the balcony floor.

“Are you hurt somewhere?”

Even when I carefully extended my foot to threaten it, it only moved slightly to the side without trying to fly away, suggesting it wasn’t in a normal state.

“Hmm…”

– Chirp…♪

“…Oh.”

While I was wondering what to do, it suddenly hopped onto my foot and started tilting its head from side to side.

“……”

Somehow, its behavior reminded me of my professor who used to tilt his head constantly.

“…Well, I was feeling lonely anyway.”

Perhaps because of that, I decided to keep it.

If it had been an ugly bird, I might have thought differently, but this one was small and gentle-looking, quite adorable.

– Chirp chirp…!

“…Hm?”

As I picked it up to bring it inside, I suddenly looked out the window and tilted my head with a puzzled expression.

‘What was that…?’

It felt like someone was outside the window just now, but was it my imagination?

This isn’t the first floor, it’s the top floor?

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Time passed again, about 6 months later.

“…Aaack!!”

As usual, I woke up screaming from a nightmare, feeling cold sweat all over my body as I quietly bowed my head.

“Now I wake up even after taking medication…”

I was developing a tolerance to sleeping pills and taking several despite the doctor’s advice, but even that seemed to have reached its limit.

Then is the only option left to live soaked in alcohol?

‘I’m going to die at this rate…’

That thought crossed my mind for a moment, but I immediately smiled wryly and tried to ignore it.

Well, honestly, even if that really happened, I wouldn’t care anymore.

If I die, maybe I could return to that world—that faint hope makes it seem like the better option.

– Slide…

Thinking that, I reached for a bottle of alcohol rolling on the floor, but it was empty.

For someone who gets drunk after just one glass, I wonder how much I’ve been overdrinking.

“I wonder if there’s any alcohol left in the refrigerator…”

Anyway, I was about to walk toward the refrigerator to calm my mind after the nightmare when it happened.

“You wanted to go back so badly, I was curious how you were living.”

“…….!?”

“It’s quite a mess, isn’t it?”

Suddenly, a woman’s sarcastic voice rang out from beside me.

“What? Never seen a talking bird before?”

“Wh-what…!?”

“Oh right. This world doesn’t have magic, I forgot.”

Startled, I turned to see the silver bird I had picked up from the balcony about 6 months ago and had been raising well.

“Uh…”

After staring blankly at it for a while in this impossible situation, blinking my eyes.

“…Aha.”

I smiled bitterly and started walking past the bird toward the refrigerator.

“I’ve finally lost my mind.”

I was already worried about my mental state being on the verge of collapse, but I didn’t expect to start having hallucinations.

A bird I’ve been raising for 6 months talking to me—perhaps it’s already too late to return to a normal life?

“Excuse me.”

“……..”

As I walked, thinking this, I thoroughly ignored the bird that kept talking to me while perched on my shoulder—I didn’t want to become a mentally ill person talking to hallucinations, but.

“Mr. Adler. Are you going to keep ignoring me?”

“…..What?”

“That makes me sad.”

When the bird whispered that with a slightly frowning face, I finally had to respond with round eyes.

“You… what are you?”

“What do you mean? I’m Irene.”

“…..!?”

“I can only take this form in this world. This dimension prohibits all ‘unreal’ things.”

Setting aside the fact that a talking bird itself is unreal, did this bird just say it’s Irene?

That ‘System Lady’ who stayed by my side for the past year?

“By the way, you’re really lucky.”

While I was dumbfounded by this unexpected reunion, System Lady flew to my other shoulder and continued chattering.

“Originally, it’s agreed across all dimensions that no interference can be made in this world, but special permission was granted this time. Do you know how exceptional this is?”

“…..???”

“Do you perhaps have connections with the higher-ups? No, that can’t be it?”

After staring blankly at her making incomprehensible statements for a while.

“Well, enough small talk. Let’s get to the main point.”

At her subsequent proposal, I felt my heart warm up for the first time in a long while and shouted loudly.

“I’ve now gathered enough power to transfer you. So, if you could return to that world…”

“I want to go back!!!”

“…I thought you’d say that.”

Then she climbed onto my head, peeked down, and whispered.

“But I can’t send you for free. Do you know how difficult interdimensional transfer is for a novice management system like me?”

“Wh-what do I need to do!?”

When I asked her with a desperate voice, her answer was quite unexpected.

“…Play word chain games with me at least twice a day.”

“Huh?”

“Once is too few.”

As I blinked my eyes at this joke-like proposal, System Lady came down to my shoulder and started arranging her feathers.

“…..Well, since I can’t display windows here, I’ll ask you directly.”

“A-ask what?”

At her sudden formal question, I made a puzzled expression and asked.

“Um… why suddenly a return ticket? Didn’t I already use that?”

“…You never used your return ticket. You fainted when you fell from the waterfall, so you couldn’t use it.”

“Th-then…?”

“I used what little power I had left to return you. I almost ceased to exist because of that.”

She answered my question with an irritated voice, then tilted her head slightly and asked again.

“Anyway, we don’t have time, so I’ll ask again. Would you like to use your return ticket?”

“But… if I use that, won’t I come back here?”

“What? Ahaha…”

Despite my anxious expression, she burst into laughter.

“Do you consider this place your sanctuary?”

“………”

“Or do you consider 19th century London, where many connections remain, your sanctuary?”

The answer to that question was too easy.

“…I’ll use the return ticket.”

“An excellent choice.”

The return to the place where they would be waiting, whom I had only dreamed of, was thus accomplished in a slipshod manner, faithfully adhering to the original work’s documentation.

“Oh, by the way, as a welcome back gift, let me remind you of your situation.”

[Chance of being raped: 100%]

[Chance of being violated: 100%]

[Chance of being forcibly taken: 100%]

[Chance of being gang-raped: 100%]

(omitted)

If System Lady hadn’t shown me the list of situations I was in as a welcome back gift, I might have shed tears of emotion.

“…I think I’ll just stay here.”

“Sorry, but there’s no going back.”

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“Besides, if you think about it, being captured there might be better?”

“What do you mean…..”

“Look at the balcony.”

I understood what System Lady whispered to me as I trembled with a pale face, after I shifted my gaze to the balcony as she suggested.

“Uh…..?”

“You didn’t notice? They’ve been like that for months.”

My old acquaintances, whom I knew well, were untying ropes from their bodies and banging on the balcony door with crazed looks in their eyes.

“Rihan? Hello? Could you open the door?”

“Openthedooropenthedooropenthedoor…..”

“…It’s my turn first today.”

From the looks of it, they must have tied ropes to the roof and rappelled down to my window.

“It-it wasn’t a dream!?”

“…You’re quite consistent.”

Apparently, some of the nightmares I’d been having over the past few months weren’t dreams but reality.