novelapdf Bonus: The Single-Player Story (Darkness)
Bonus: The Single-Player Story (Darkness)
The silence in the Vance mansion was not like the one at the academy; there, the silence felt heavy, weighed down by an opulence that failed to stifle the echo of a broken heart."Lyra... what matter did you wish to discuss with me?"
After returning from that disastrous encounter in the classroom, Elara was in her bedroom—a vast space submerged in a soft penumbra, where the moonlight barely managed to outline the king-sized bed. There, with her eyes slightly misted and the glint of confusion still burning in her pupils, she sought refuge in the only place where she felt safe: her maid's lap.
(Knock... knock... knock...)
In response, Lyra, whose age was almost identical to Elara's, gently stroked her lady's head. Her gaze remained expressionless—a porcelain mask hiding a bond forged over more than a decade.
"..."
They did not share blood, but in the fabric of their souls, they were like sisters. Lyra’s history was one of shadows and rescue. Elara’s father, before tragedy claimed him, had been the pillar of an orphanage on the outskirts of Central City. There, Lyra had been a "motionless doll," a girl so apathetic and exhausted by the lack of affection that the other children ridiculed her; her existence was a constant "it doesn't matter," a passive wait for the end of the game.
(Fuuuuuuuu...)
But the Vances did not give up.
(I told you over and over again that I didn't need love. After all, it is something you cannot let go of once you know it... And yet, it is so easy to snatch away and destroy.)
Elara, in particular, treated her like family even in the darkest moments of her own life.
"Lyra... smile..."
That memory drove the handmaid. If Elara was the sun, Lyra was the protective shadow that swore to remain by her side, regardless of the distance or the pain. Such was Lyra: an absolute loyalty born from the ashes of apathy.
"────I... I hurt Kaelen..."
But in that moment, Elara's voice cracked, breaking Lyra's trance.
"Even though he honestly told me he loved me... I couldn't respond properly... Everything was a disaster."
At that moment, the young woman was confused and disoriented...
"What do you really think of him, young lady?"
Thus, understanding the situation, Lyra's question was direct and cold as surgical steel.
"I care for him... but he said he loves me as a boyfriend... and then I got scared. I was afraid that our connection, what we built in the games, would be broken forever... and then he got like that... so violent... Uf..."
Hearing those words, internally, Lyra felt a pang of contempt.
(What is wrong with that stalker?)
From her analytical perspective, Kaelen had approached with ulterior motives, camouflaging his desire under the mask of a playmate, and upon being rejected, his system collapsed into rage.
(No matter how you look at it, that boy is finished.)
However, hiding her true feelings and slight jealousy as best as she could, Lyra maintained her icy expression like a perfect mask.
"You don't have to go to such extremes of blaming yourself, My Lady."
And immediately after, she proceeded to comfort the young woman.
"I am sorry. But... if it still worries you... I believe attempting a reconciliation is the right thing to do. He probably feels miserable right now too... in the end, it's just a matter of who takes the first step. You know... like in those romance stories you read in secret, when the protagonists confess and their lines overlap dramatically..."
To do this, she suddenly coughed exaggeratedly and, with a comical rigidity, began to act out a scene with a flat voice.
"What?! You feel the same way too?"
Secretly, Lyra harbored forbidden feelings for her young lady...
"Yes... if that's the case, then we had no reason to have fought so much."
... That was why she kept those feelings at bay and her true desires in check, all in pursuit of a single goal.
"Hey... let me say it again... let me try to look cool today... I like you... please accept my feelings... This is embarrassing!"
Thus, Lyra, imitating a hit against an imaginary wall with such absurd seriousness that the air in the room seemed to lighten, tried to cheer her up.
"I think my heart stopped for a moment..."
What she desired most to protect was simply...
"But Kaelen isn't that kind of person, Lyra."
The happiness of the young woman who had given her back her light.
"So you're the type of person who reads that kind of thing, Lyra? I can't believe it."
And thanks to her efforts, Elara couldn't help but laugh at her stoic maid's unexpected hobby.
"My hobbies are irrelevant to my service. The most important thing is that you decide whether you want to reconcile with him or not. If you remain in this state of uncertainty, you will continue to be tormented by these contradictory emotions. It is a logical error you must resolve."
Thanks to her, light seemed to resurface once again.
"I want to do it! I really do, but... I don't think he'll allow me to be just his friend. His eyes... they were scary at the end."
However, both were unaware of an unfortunate reality...
"I should mention that if you wish to do nothing and let time erase his trail, that is also a valid option."
... That world was exceedingly cruel.
"...Lyra is being mean to me right now..."
The gears of fate had already turned toward an unfortunate destination.
"Is that so? I am simply stating the facts, My Lady..."
Yet, still unaware of such a thing, the warmth of the moment and Lyra’s determination seemed to ignite a spark in Elara.
(Zas!)
Her expression changed; doubt evaporated under the moonlight, and she rose abruptly from her friend's lap, tightly squeezing the maid's hands.
"I will tell him how I really feel... without beating around the bush. And if after that it still doesn't work... then... to be honest, I don't know if I'll be able to accept it immediately... but I'm thinking of giving up with dignity. I don't want the memory of our games to be something bitter."
That decision would be the one to change not only the young woman's destiny...
"I understand... I sincerely support you, young lady."
But still unaware of it, Lyra, acting unexpectedly, forcé a small smile that, though not perfect—being a somewhat rigid grimace—was nonetheless the most sincere thing she had shown in years.
"And... if something happens and that boy becomes a problem again... I will always keep a special place in my lap for you to come back and cry."
Thus Elara accepted the gesture without hesitation, returning a radiant smile that seemed to illuminate the darkest corners of the mansion.
"Damn it... Damn it! Damn it...!!"
However, on the other hand, in stark contrast...
(Bam! Crash!)
Alone in his room, Kaelen Thorne was beside himself. Lying on his bed, he flailed his arms and legs with erratic violence, pounding the sheets while shouting insults that lost themselves against the walls of his room.
(Ba-dum... ba-dum...)
What boiled inside him was a toxic cocktail.
(I know I’m wrong.)
On one side, a burning rage against himself for his despicable behavior in the classroom: for losing his cool and fleeing like a coward without saying a word.
(I was the one who decided to take the risk.)
But beneath that layer of self-loathing, a much darker and sharper feeling was beginning to crystallize into resentment toward Elara Vance.
(She has done absolutely nothing wrong... she is pure, she is kind.)
Yet, the question ate at him.
"But then... why...?"
Why, despite her kindness, did it feel as if she had executed him in cold blood? That feeling of rejection was eclipsing any trace of logic in his system.
(Click...!)
Therefore, seeking an escape route for the pressure he felt in his chest, Kaelen suddenly sat up and, in a mechanical motion, flipped open his laptop on the bed, where the glow of the LED screen illuminated his haggard face as he began to browse shopping websites with feverish urgency.
(Fwip... fwip... fwip...)
He wasn't looking for anything useful. For Kaelen, consumption was a form of quick dopamine, a patch for his stress. Thanks to his family's affluent position and the blind—almost negligent—trust of his parents, he had access to funds that someone in his mental state shouldn't possess.
"Just one click... and the void is filled for a second."
To cope with his pain, he sometimes ordered luxury items just to feel the power of the transaction, only to return them later claiming "errors" that his parents accepted without question.
"...."
It was an excessive overprotection that Kaelen used as an exploit in his own life.
(This is...)
In that way, his dark eyes scanned hundreds of products without really seeing them. But as he scrolled down and saw jewelry, latest-generation hardware, designer clothes... he understood more and more how none of it helped.
(Scroll... scroll...!)
The stress, instead of diminishing, began to mutate into something heavier as, while he scrolled down through the results, the algorithms started showing items that bordered on the absurd—things that had never appeared in his history before.
(A... scam?)
Cracked ceramics from twenty years ago, solid gold dumbbells... objects that seemed taken from the deepest and most forgotten corners of the web.
"Uhhhh..."
Until suddenly, his fingers froze over the phone.
(Bzzzzzt... Scanning...)
A jar with a strange label appeared on the screen. They weren't vitamins or cold relievers. The instructions were in a foreign language, characters that Kaelen didn't immediately recognize.
"Chastity drugs... intelligence reduction... will suppression... servitude drugs..."
Driven by a morbid curiosity, he activated a translation app on his phone.
"What the hell...?"
But the results that appeared artificially on the screen left Kaelen feeling a chill as his hand continued to scroll down.
"Easy to administer... a single dose on the target and they will become a being without will, a devoted servant... instant dissolution in any liquid, no trace, no obstruction... Offer expires today. Decide right now... Hehehe... Hahaha... Hahaha!"
On the contrary, he clicked with an almost electric intensity to read the full description of the item.
(Tick... tock... tick...)
At that moment Kaelen Thorne—the boy who didn't have a high enough level to interact with the "lady"—now stared fixedly at the purchase button, while the light from the screen reflected a colorful shadow that no longer seemed like his own.
"It's ridiculous... simply pathetic."
Kaelen let out a dry, ironic laugh that echoed off the walls of his room. The screen showed a product that defied all scientific logic.
"If something like this were real, the world would have reached its 'Game Over' centuries ago..."
Servitude drugs? For just a few credits? It was, without a doubt, a fraud—a scam for desperate users.
(He... he... he...)
However, despite his skepticism, the absurdity of the item exerted a gravitational force on his mind.
(A slight revenge... just to take her down from her pedestal. It wouldn't do her any real harm...)
The image of Elara Vance—her unreachable radiance, her kindness that he now felt as an insult—returned to his memory, and a perverse thought, a malicious line of code, began to execute in his brain.
(Click!)
And under the influence of that nocturnal and reckless state of mind, where the border between the game and reality fades away, Kaelen pressed the purchase button.
(Zzzzzzt! Bzzzzzt!)
In that precise millisecond, the atmosphere of the room changed.
"What—?!"
The screen froze, and suddenly, the room was flooded with a frantic blinking of blue and red lights bursting from the monitor like warning signals of a critical anomaly.
"What is this?! A virus?! Damn it!"
Kaelen struck the device, unconscious of the transformation his mind was undergoing, plunging the room into absolute darkness and a deathly silence.
"..."
Finally, when everything seemed to end, with trembling hands, he turned his phone back on, noticing to his surprise that he returned to the browser history to track the page, but it was useless.
"Well... I guess it was a network error."
The shopping website seemed to have evaporated from the server; no matter how many filters he used, the page for the "Anomalous Drug" no longer existed, as if it had never been there.
"If it wasn't bought, it doesn't matter... it's not like I actually needed it..."
With those words, Kaelen dropped his phone onto the desk with a mechanical movement.
"Phew..."
Mental exhaustion finally caught up with him.
(Ba-dum... ba-dum...)
He collapsed onto the bed and, almost instantly, sank into a heavy and artificial sleep. But what Kaelen Thorne did not know, as his breathing stabilized in the darkness, was that the "installation" process had already begun.
Until finally, the next morning, the Central City sunlight seemed far too bright for the darkness brewing in Kaelen's room.
"I never thought Miss Elara would agree to come to my house again..."
Against all his predicted odds, she had accepted his invitation.
(Click! Clack!)
Because of that, the perfect opportunity had presented itself; the ideal stage to test the contents of the strange vial that, as if by black magic, had appeared in his mailbox that very morning, without a sender or stamps.
"...."
Kaelen had maneuvered carefully. He knew that Lyra, the maid, was a dangerous obstacle, but he managed to convince Elara that he needed this meeting alone to redeem himself; she, in her infinite and dangerous kindness, reluctantly agreed, leaving her protective shadow waiting outside while his parents, as usual, were absent—leaving the Thorne mansion turned into a private laboratory.
"Regarding what happened... I have regretted it for a long time..."
Sitting across from each other at the living room table, Elara broke the silence.
"I have reached the conclusion that the best thing is to tell the truth, word for word, without hiding anything."
Her voice was soft, charged with a sincerity that made Kaelen’s chest tighten.
"Yes... me too... I felt very ashamed afterward. It was my fault... I got angry for no reason and assumed things that weren't true. I was an idiot."
In response, hiding his intentions, Kaelen lowered his gaze toward the corner of the polished wood.
"It's true that I got scared at that moment, but you were confused too, weren't you? I'm sorry I didn't have the tact to realize it."
Then, she fixed her gaze on him—a resolute and pure gaze that seemed to read his soul.
"Let me reiterate, so there are no cracks between us: I reject your proposal for a romantic relationship. But, as friends... receiving you and being received at home is only natural. Please, do not misunderstand it again."
"Does that mean... no matter how much time we spend together, you'll never feel anything more for me?"
In response, he asked with a tone that pretended to be curious but hid a bitter edge.
"I can't say for sure. I don't have much experience in these things... I suppose I need to study more about feelings."
Innocently, she responded instead with naivety.
"I see... that's a shame. But I'm glad you're being sincere."
Thanks to that, after confirming the reality, Kaelen—free of doubt—rose with a mechanical calm.
"As a token of my regret and our reconciliation..."
He went to the kitchen and returned with a cup containing a golden liquid, placing it in front of her with a practiced movement.
"What is this?"
Tilting her head, oblivious to the danger, she asked.
"Apple juice. Homemade... well, I tried. I would have liked to bake something, but you already know that manual controls aren't my thing. I hope you'll try it."
At that moment, Kaelen's thoughts were extremely calm as he served the drink containing both pills he had dissolved—an unnecessary excess according to the instructions, but which he introduced nonetheless, eager to ensure the hit.
(Liar)
In his mind, this was a "small revenge," a harmless trick to satisfy his wounded ego against someone who would never notice the deception.
"Thank you very much... Well, then... excuse me."
Thus Elara raised the cup with her pale hands, dressed in a white sweater that recalled her mother's elegance.
(Gulp... gulp... gulp...)
Her movements radiated that aristocratic grace that Kaelen so envied and wished to corrupt.
The silence in the room was so absolute that the sound of her drinking was amplified, filling Kaelen's ears.
"Mmm... ha... I drank it all in one gulp, how embarrassing... I'm sorry, it was really delicious."
Elara smiled, oblivious to the conceptual poison she had just ingested.
"Oh... I'm glad you liked it."
Kaelen watched her with a mixture of fascination and doubt.
(Tick... tock... tick...)
In this way, Kaelen began to count the seconds.
(... I'm an idiot.)
But as the minutes passed and Elara remained the same Elara—radiant, kind, and desperately unreachable—Kaelen's confidence began to waver.
(I really let myself be fooled by a fraudulent website.)
However, the effect of the drug finally began to take hold.
"Thank you for the meal. I don't want to overstay my welcome, so I'll be going now."
Elara Vance wiped her mouth with a silk handkerchief—an automatic gesture of her refined upbringing—and stood up with an elegance that seemed to defy gravity.
"Yes... See you again."
If everything had ended at that point, perhaps there would still have been a chance for redemption.
"Next time... I'm going to invite you to my house?!?!?"
The sound Elara let out was such that it caused Kaelen to freeze.
"Eh...?"
The sound that had just escaped Elara's lips was not a sentence, but a vulgar groan—a sharp distortion that shattered the room's harmony.
"Huuuuuu... Huuuuuuu... N-nothing... Well, then I'll leave now──GAAA!!!?!? Oooooooooo... that wasn't... a burp..."
Her eyes, once crystalline, clouded for an instant with a haze of confusion and heat.
"... It can't be."
Elara put her hands to her mouth, but her body began to tremble.
"The effects of the medicine..."
The impeccable behavior of the Vance’s firstborn was crumbling like a house of cards before Kaelen's eyes.
"It actually worked."
"Medicine? Hmmm... Sniff. What... what are you talking about...? Hmmm... Ha... Ohhh..."
"I mixed a drug into the juice, Elara. Something that releases intelligence and destroys moral values. I thought it was a scam, a small harmless revenge... but seeing you like this, showing this shameful behavior... is proof that it was real."
The betrayal hit Elara harder than the drug itself.
"Whaaaaaat?!... why...? oh nooooo!? I... I wanted to be your friend... oh nooooooo!?!?"
She could not understand why her only friend, the one with whom she shared digital worlds, was subjecting her to this agony.
"I'm sorry, Elara. I didn't believe in this either. But now that things have reached this point... I don't know how to turn back. And to be honest, I guess it's fine this way."
"Muuuuu... What is so good about this? Nghhh...!?"
"I was thinking... maybe I should become your master instead of just your friend. I know I'm a loser, a defective product. But now that the match has started, there's no reset button, right?"
Kaelen approached her step by step.
"W-What are you doing? Hyahhhh!?"
In response, a fearful Elara tried to back away, but a sharp pain in her abdomen forced her to curl up.
"It's incredible... even through the sweater... it must be at least a G-cup, right?"
She collapsed diagonally, and the tension of her black tights against the living room floor projected an image that finally shattered what little sanity Kaelen had left.
"Right there oooooooooo! Please, don't rub it so hard! Nghh! I feel like something is leaking out of my brain... my personality is escaping! KARYAAA!"
Kaelen reached around her from behind, sinking his hands into the forbidden softness of her chest.
"You're moaning too much, Elara. Like a pervert. Do you really never masturbate?"
Elara tried to resist, but every movement of her body translated into a grimace of involuntary pleasure and stomach pain.
"What...?! In no way would a lady of the Vance family do such a thing! Retract that!!"
Kaelen watched her with terminal coldness.
"You say that, but your nipples are erect under my fingers..."
He no longer saw the star student, but a puppet whose code was being rewritten by his hand.
"Hogyogyogyogyo~~~~~~~!?!? It feels too good! My maturity is being squeezed out! It feels so much better than when I use my fingers...!──Ahhhh... What... what is happening to me?"
"You were masturbating? In the end, I guess you're just a hormonal teenager."
"This isn't right... Oh ho ho Mmmph Can't we stop?! Ahh... We can still start over, right?! Mmmph... Oh nooooo!? My moans are coming out on their own... My head is becoming stupid!!"
"It's useless. It was impossible from the beginning. You're too kind, Elara... you probably give that same hope to other men without realizing it. I was doomed since I fell in love with someone like you. I am a defective product, and now that I've accepted it, I realize I'm just like those monsters I used to see on the news."
Elara gave him one final look—a plea for sanity—hoping to find the kind Kaelen Thorne she once knew.
"Often there are people who dismember bodies to destroy evidence, and I have always wondered how they can mutilate corpses without any qualms."
But the boy before her was no longer seeking a connection; he was only seeking total victory over the lady who had rejected him.
"But I was wrong. For them, that act was the most natural thing. It was like waking up in the morning and washing your face. They only perceived it as something strange because no one else did it, but once you tried it, you realized it was as simple as spreading butter on toast."
He had changed...
"The person you pretended to be, the model student, was actually just a despicable being whose instincts trampled over reason. For some reason, I feel no guilt, and I do not cry. That is why I am a defective product. If the effects of the drug had been a lie, I think I would have continued living normally."
However, behind the veil of that scene, the reality was much more sinister.
"So, should I mock you even more?"
To be clear: Kaelen Thorne was not a born psychopath. He was not a monster lurking in the shadows waiting for his chance. The true catalyst was not just his spite, but those flashing red and blue lights that had burst from his phone the night before. That visual frequency was no mere error; it was a pattern designed with diabolical precision to cloud sanity, eroding inhibitions to the extreme.
(Bzzzzzt... Bzzzzzzt...)
And somewhere in that world, the devil who created that software is probably smiling in the midst of his madness, in the deep darkness.