Chapter 1: Bride of the White Face

The world spun as if I were drunk. After barely getting a grip and rubbing my eyes, an unfamiliar place came into view.

I was sure I had been about to play a game when a bright light suddenly burst from the monitor, and then I lost consciousness.  If that’s the case, I should have collapsed in my room.

But this wasn’t my room.

“Where the hell am I….”

A small room where the lights wouldn’t turn on even when I pressed the switch, as if the bulb was out.

The window was covered with layers of newspaper, blocking the outside world. I could see old, broken furniture and a yellowed, stained mattress. And judging by the rusty kitchen knife lying on the floor and the black stains that looked like dried blood, something bad must have happened here.

‘No way…’

The more I looked, the more familiar it seemed. I think I’m starting to figure out where this is.

If my guess is correct, this must be the abandoned motel from the early tutorial area. The very same motel I saw in the game. The place you go to during the tutorial, the place you always start in when you begin a new game.

‘Sh*t.’

As soon as I figured out where I was, a translucent window popped up in front of my eyes.

[‘Crybaby Modpack for Utter Cowards’ has been successfully downloaded.]

[Would you like to activate Easy Mode?]
-YES
-NO

Activate Easy Mode? It’s asking the obvious!

“Yes. Absolutely yes. Give me Easy Mode. Please.”

I immediately pressed YES. No, I smashed it like crazy.

[Easy Mode has been successfully applied.]

[Stats will be applied at 10x.]
[Item drop rate will be increased.]

Yes, this is it. How am I supposed to survive in this insane world without Easy Mode?

‘If my guess is right, this place is…’

The world of ‘World of Doom,’ the roguelike open-world horror game.

The moment “roguelike” is attached, it means this game wasn’t made to be beaten. And I have to move myself, not with a keyboard and mouse? I can never beat it. I’ll definitely need to play on Easy Mode to see the ending.

Easy Mode is no longer just an element to make the game easier; it’s in the realm of survival.

‘Status Window.’

As soon as Easy Mode was applied, I opened the status window. I need to check my own status before proceeding with anything.

_________________________________________________________________________________

{Status Window}

[Name: Lee Dohyun]
[Level: 1]
[Stats]
[Health: 190]
[Sanity: 210]
[Strength: 50] [Agility: 50]
[Perception: 50] [Intelligence: 50]
[Charisma: 50] [Luck: 70]

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Yes. This is it.”

As expected, the mod was applied properly.
All my stats have increased by a whopping 10 times.

The Fixer, being a jack-of-all-trades, starts with all stats at 5.

Only Luck was 7, and now it’s 70. What’s even more amazing are the Health and Sanity stats, which can be considered HP.

“190 Health and 210 Sanity?”

The maximum Health and Sanity you could get in the game were probably 50 each, but since all my stats were multiplied by 10, I ended up with absurdly high Health and Sanity.

I remember losing at most 5 to 7 HP when fighting an anomaly, so with 190 and 210, aren’t I basically immortal? I could probably win even if I took every hit without dodging.

Staring directly at an Outer God without any special means would drain 90 Sanity and trigger an instant death event.
With my current Sanity, I wouldn’t die even if I faced an Outer God.

“This is insane.”

I’m like a living, breathing human tank. Who could possibly beat a thug with 50 Strength? A single punch would probably shatter not just walls, but most anomalies too.

‘The maximum for a normal stat was 20. This has far surpassed the stat cap.’

At this point, I’m beyond being the strongest in the world; I’ve become a great disaster myself. If I seriously decided to destroy a city, the Hunters would probably come after me first, not the anomalies.

These are stats that could take down an ancient god if it revived, and I spawned in the tutorial area like this?

In that case, this is no longer a terrifying abandoned motel. It’s become a super sweet farming spot.

“The tutorial quest is…”

First, let’s check the quest I need to clear now. When I swiped the status window aside, the quest window naturally appeared. As expected of an open-world game, I could have multiple quests at once, and a quest was already accepted at the start of the game.

[Survive the Bride of the White Face.]

The Bride of the White Face is a virgin ghost that wanders this motel. She’s the first stage anomaly that you have to quietly hide and avoid. If you get caught, you’re dragged away and see an ending where your face gets ripped off.

I think it was said she’s an anomaly created from the accumulated grudges of women who died unjustly on this land. The ways to deal with her are to either beat her directly or create a doll for a spirit marriage, force her into the wedding, and help her pass on.

Gulp.

For a moment, the jumpscare scene of the Bride of the White Face rushing towards me came to mind, and I got goosebumps. The sight of a grotesquely large woman with gaping eye sockets and thin, twisted limbs rushing from the end of the hallway to rip your face off was pure horror, something that wouldn’t be out of place in a nightmare.

‘But I have Easy Mode installed.’

It should be fine, right? They said most humanoid anomalies were changed into beautiful girls, so hoping she would look decent, I opened the room door.

Creeak.

The hinges screamed as a pitch-black hallway revealed itself. The tutorial room was on the 4th floor, so I just need to go down the stairs to the 1st floor.

On the way down to the 1st floor, if I heard the Bride of the White Face’s sobbing, I could survive by quickly hiding in a room with an open door. I know the tutorial inside and out. It was the place I died the most while playing the game.

“Huuuu…”

F*cking hell.

A woman’s sobs could be heard. It sounds like it’s from the floor below. I carefully reached the room in front of the stairs, trying my best not to be discovered. Of course, I know I won’t die in my current state even if I’m found, but it’s still scary.

What if all the notification windows I’ve seen so far were just my delusions? Or what if the numbers are high, but I have no actual abilities?

The moment the Bride of the White Face finds me, it’s instant death.

“Hic… Husband… where are you… Don’t… leave me behind… Let’s go together…”

The sobbing grew closer. But did the Bride of the White Face have lines like that?

‘I don’t think so.’

The Bride of the White Face only had two reactions: sobbing and screaming. I’ve never once seen those lines in the game. Could it be dialogue added because of Easy Mode?

“Hic… Husband…? Husband. You’re… you’re in there, right…”

Clank.

“…!”

F*ck! The Bride of the White Face started grabbing and turning the doorknob of the room I was hiding in. This is also an event that doesn’t happen in the game. No, I need to stop thinking like it’s a game. This is reality now. In a way, it’s only natural for her to show such an unexpected reaction.

“Husband… Husband..! I’m here… Please… let me in…”

The Bride of the White Face turned the doorknob with incredible strength to open the door, but….

“H-Husband? Could you… open the door…”

The door didn’t open. Because I was holding the doorknob with more strength than the anomaly, the Bride of the White Face seemed flustered and asked me to open the door instead.

From this, I learned three things:-

1. Easy Mode has definitely been applied.
2. The Bride of the White Face is probably a conquerable heroine.
3. I am now strong enough to subdue the Bride of the White Face.

Now, what should I do? Should I keep holding the doorknob and wait for her to leave? Or should I open the door and welcome the Bride of the White Face inside? The correct answer is ‘push the door open and knock the Bride of the White Face down with it.’

KWAANG-!!!

I slammed my body into the door with all my might, and the room’s entrance shattered, sending me flying along with the Bride of the White Face who was standing outside.

“Hiiik…”

A woman with pale white skin, sprawled on the floor, looking up at me with a terrified expression. Lying on the hallway floor was a maiden in a white mourning dress, with fair, jade-like skin and quite a large chest, completely different from her hideous in-game appearance.

No, what the hell. She’s f*cking beautiful. She doesn’t have that grotesque appearance with gaping eye sockets that terrified me. At this point, isn’t she more valuable than a living person?

“H-Husband…”

The Bride of the White Face looked up at me, on the verge of tears. As I stared at her face, surprised by her appearance, information about the anomaly popped up. I think an information window was generated because of Easy Mode…

_________________________________________________________________________________

{Status Window}

[Name: Bride of the White Face]
[Danger Level: Catastrophe]
[Classification: Thought Form, Lingering Spirit, Cursed Ghost]
[Origin: A collective of vengeful spirits of women who died before their weddings.]
[Extermination Method: Perform a spirit marriage or exorcise through physical means.]

_________________________________________________________________________________

So far, it was a normal information window. This was information about the Bride of the White Face that you could naturally obtain while playing the game. The problem was the information written below it.

_________________________________________________________________________________

{Status Window}

[Favorability: 0% → 90%]
[Her favorability towards you is very high.]
[You can perform the wedding ceremony immediately.]

_________________________________________________________________________________

Why did her favorability randomly jump from 0 to 90? Why on earth? All I did was push her over.

[Conquest Method: Display powerful masculinity. Engrave the dignity of a male onto her body.]

It’s probably because of this. This is crazy. Probably because it’s Easy Mode, I’ve managed to make a virgin ghost fall for me right from the start.