Chapter 3: Private Mode

When I opened my eyes again, I was still in front of the full moon painting.

I slowly picked myself up off the floor.

My arms and legs ached in places, like I’d hit the ground wrong when I fell.

“Ouch, that hurts…”

I stretched quietly while glancing around.

A tingling sensation spread through my whole body, like it wasn’t quite my own.

I must have been really tired lately…

But I’d never just collapsed out of nowhere before.

I’d been flustered at first, but luckily there was nothing wrong with me beyond a dull soreness.

A passerby glanced at me as I made a face while straightening up.

When our eyes met, they quickly looked away with a blank expression.

…That was still a bit much though.

No matter how cold modern society was, I’d just passed out and gotten back up, and no one even acknowledged me.

“What time is it now?”

I couldn’t tell how long I’d been out.

I pulled out my phone to check the exact time, and plump, colorful hearts came bouncing down the screen with lively movements.

Love in the Moonlight Private Mode

Just like my last memory before losing consciousness, the mobile dating sim game was running on my phone.

[SYSTEM] Welcome to Love in the Moonlight, a space of enchanting fantasy brought to you by the magic of moonlight!

Guest player [Yeon Wooju], congratulations on entering Private Mode, reserved for one person alone, at the invitation of the full moon.

Capture a target character’s heart, complete the album, and clear the game within the given 100 days!

If the host’s earnest wish comes true along with the moonlight, a miracle that happens only once in a lifetime may come to you as well.

I frowned as I read the messages in the system window.

An invitation from the full moon?

What was a guest, and what was a host…?

Not only was it running on its own without my input, it even knew my name.

This game seemed to have a lot of problems.

[SYSTEM] You’ve suddenly fallen into a game and have no idea what to do, right?

Don’t worry! The newbie tutorial video will teach you everything you need to know to play in just 3 minutes.

Watch the tutorial video and prepare yourself to dive into a romantic adventure under the moonlight.

[SYSTEM] [Yeon Wooju], would you like to watch the tutorial video? [Yes/No]

While I grumbled, the game moved to the next screen on its own.

I should report this to the consumer protection agency for personal information leakage.

I tried to go back to the home screen, but the phone’s physical keys didn’t respond at all, so I couldn’t exit the game.

“What is this, installing some weird app on someone’s phone. Jeong Yeonji, seriously!”

I pretended not to be flustered at all and grumbled at my friend for no reason.

I’d have to make her pay for the phone repairs next time we met.

More importantly, I had a mountain of things to do today, and I didn’t have time to stand around here.

I hurried out of the exhibition hall and looked around.

But there was an unexplainable sense of wrongness in the air.

The art museum itself looked exactly as I knew it, yet the atmosphere inside felt strange and unfamiliar.

“No, it’s just my imagination.”

I must be on edge from lack of sleep.

If this was how it was going to go, I should have gone home from the start instead of coming to the museum after finishing my assignment.

My homing instinct kicked in strongly and I quickened my pace.

I’d go home, get a good night’s sleep, and then get my bricked phone fixed.

“Oh, this is insane.”

But the moment I finally stepped outside the museum building, I froze in place.

I blinked several times, unable to believe my eyes, and even went in and out of the museum entrance a few times for no reason.

“Hey, mister! You can’t park your car there.”

“I’m just stopping for a second, just a second. I’m moving it right now~.”

Familiar Korean flowed into my ears, but the streets surrounding the museum were completely unfamiliar.

Did Seoul have a street like this?

At least it wasn’t the neighborhood I knew.

At first glance they looked like ordinary city buildings, but to my eyes, which frequented this area, the details like the signs and building shapes were entirely different.

In the middle of this strange street, only the towering art museum building was exactly as I knew it.

‘Hey, doesn’t this look exactly like the Full Moon Art Museum?’

‘Ah, that’s another special thing about this game. The setting is based on modern Korea, and since the actual buildings are in the game, it feels more realistic, you know?’

At that moment, the conversation I’d had with Yuna yesterday afternoon came to mind.

Along with it, the system window that had spouted weird explanations about invitations from the full moon and guest players, and the game screen I couldn’t close at will.

No way… Was I inside the game world right now?

“Oh, that’s ridiculous~.”

The thought that popped up made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

No, that couldn’t possibly be it.

I guessed I’d just used my imagination in the wrong place.

Maybe I was still dreaming.

Yeah, it was probably something like a lucid dream.

The game I’d seen yesterday must have left a deep mark on my subconscious without me realizing it.

Let’s just take it easy.

In a dream, you naturally wake up when the time comes.

“…So what am I supposed to do now?”

Did I just have to wait endlessly until I woke up?

Even if it was just a dream, that felt a bit irresponsible.

…Then should I try finding my house first?

Even though the streets were utterly unfamiliar, my house might be somewhere here, just like the Full Moon Art Museum was.

Of course, since this was my dream, it might even pop into existence if I wished hard enough.

Since things had turned out this way, I decided to treat it like a hidden picture puzzle or a maze escape and enjoy it.

Let’s see, my university should be about 20 minutes away from here.

If I found the big buildings first and searched around them, I’d have a good chance of finding my house.

I trudged on, walking and walking and walking, until all the strength drained from my body.

But I didn’t find my house, and I even failed to find the first checkpoint, the university.

There was a large building complex far from the museum that I guessed might be a school, but it looked nothing like my university.

Besides, even after walking diligently for three or four hours, the lucid dream showed no sign of ending.

Instead, fatigue and muscle pain piled up in my body with every step I took.

The throbbing sensation all over my body was so vivid.

Just like reality.

“Hic!”

A sudden hiccup burst out.

At the same time, an uneasy feeling crept up.

The pocket holding my phone, still stuck on the game screen, felt hot.

The possibility I’d tried to ignore was poking its head out.

What if, just what if, this really was inside a game…

“……”

I swallowed hard and shook my head briefly.

…So what?

Even if it was, couldn’t I just log out of the game and return to reality?

Don’t overthink this, Yeon Wooju.

There’s no reason to be needlessly anxious.

[SYSTEM] [Yeon Wooju], would you like to watch the tutorial video? [Yes/No]

When I took out my phone, the infuriating system window was still floating on the screen.

The physical keys still didn’t work at all.

But surely there was an exit or logout button somewhere in the game…

“Oh, there it is!”

I pressed the gear-shaped settings button, and thankfully a logout menu appeared.

I let out a sigh of relief and clicked the menu.

When it asked if I really wanted to log out, I rapidly hammered the Yes button.

Beep, beep…

The screen immediately flushed red with a loud warning sound.

I gasped, drawing in a short breath.

[SYSTEM] [ERROR] Player logout is disabled in Private Mode.

Logout disabled?

What kind of nonsense was that.

I never wanted to come here in the first place!

A stubborn streak rose in me and I pounded the button again.

The phone, its screen now entirely red, vibrated unsteadily.

Logout was still impossible.

“Then what exactly am I supposed to do…?”

My vision went hazy.

When I muttered dejectedly, as if it had heard me, a new message appeared in the system window.

[SYSTEM] If you successfully clear the game within the time limit, the Private Mode logout function will be activated. The moment the wish granted to the full moon comes true, the player will be free as well!

As if it had been waiting, the system spoke to me in a friendly tone.

But it only felt like it was trying to coax me, and it made me feel even more resistant.

Dragging someone into a strange place out of nowhere, and then telling them to just clear the game like it was no big deal?

Besides, this was an otome mobile game!

“Hey, excuse me!”

I straightened my hunched back and strode over to a couple passing by on the street.

In my urgency, I grabbed the man’s arm without warning, and he looked startled.

“Sorry, but what’s the date today?”

“April 23rd.”

“Oh, right, I see… Um, but this is Seoul, isn’t it?”

“…Yes, of course.”

I could converse with the man in Korean naturally.

The date matched what I remembered, and he said this was Seoul.

Everything was exactly as I knew it, except for the single fact that the space surrounding me was a strange world.

It was like I’d crash-landed in a parallel universe.

“Then how do I look?”

“Huh?”

“I don’t look weird, do I? Like my facial features, do they look off?”

“……”

“Like, maybe I look like a game character or something…”

The couple stared at me with deeply suspicious faces.

But even as I babbled nonsense, I couldn’t help clinging to them.

My desperate struggle to deny reality wasn’t easy to stop.

“Honey, I think that person is a bit strange.”

“I know, what a shame, and with such a normal-looking face. He looks young too.”

“Come on, you’re too soft-hearted. Let’s go.”

The man roughly shook off my hand from his arm.

The couple glanced at me, then hurried away.

Left behind, I stood frozen in place.

It was a strange feeling, like I was the only one disconnected from the everyday scenery.

Before I knew it, the sky was darkening, tinged with a pale orange sunset.

Nature was beautiful here too, wherever you looked.

I plopped down on the grass and stared blankly at the river, the sunset rippling across its surface.

Having rapidly cycled through denial, anger, bargaining, and depression over the past half day, I was now slowly entering the acceptance stage.

Times like this called for thinking realistically.

Avoiding the problem by calling it nonsense wouldn’t solve anything.

The only way forward was to find what I could do in the situation I’d been given.

Even at my most generous, the reality I had to return to wasn’t exactly brilliant.

If anything, it was the opposite, utterly harsh.

But because my dreams were there, the dreams I had to achieve, I needed to get back to reality as soon as possible.

After all the years I’d struggled to hold on, I couldn’t give up like this.

“Ha…”

I rubbed my face and, with a half-enlightened mindset, took out my phone again.

The familiar message window was still floating on the locked screen.

[SYSTEM] [Yeon Wooju], would you like to watch the tutorial video? [Yes/No]

With firm resolve, I clicked the [Yes] button.

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