บท 13: You aren't real.

"Understood."

Mark watched as the maid bowed her head then left to take care of the task he had given to her.

'Damn that was exhausting…' He rubbed his eyes and face, suddenly feeling tired as the thrill of their earlier escape began to fade. 'I really don't want to do it again…'

At the moment, the only thing he wanted to do was lie down and get some sleep. Putting aside the fact that he had slept through the previous day, he still had to find a way out of their predicament before the dragon brought down the entire building on their heads. Sleep could wait until he was safe.

'How the hell am I supposed to do that?…'

Once again Mark found himself thinking about how nonsensical the situation was, but he also understood that he had no choice but to play along with its logic if he wanted to survive.

"That thing was definitely some kind of gate." He looked up at the ceiling, remembering the black stain floating in the air. "A gate, lizardmen, a dragon…"

He began going through the signs one after the other and included one of his characters appearing in the real world. Remembering how she referred to him as 'Master' the entire time, Mark covered his face with both hands as he arrived at the most likely conclusion.

'It's a web novel…' H wanted to scream at the top of his lungs. 'I'm inside a goddamn web novel!'

The realization hit him like a truck, but sadly it wasn't enough for him to wake up in the body of a child. He suddenly jolted up then turned in the SUV's direction.

'Could it be…' His eyes landed on the silver-haired maid and the despair he felt seconds ago vanished into the air. 'Did I just get the harem tag?'

The heroines from Maids VS Apocalypse appeared in his mind one after the other and a grin slowly spread across his face. He recalled all the years he spent in isolation, fearing that people might notice his deteriorating mental state.

After suffering for so long life was finally smiling at him, or so he thought until that smile turned into a deep frown following yet another violent quake.

The prospect of having a harem was indeed something to be overjoyed about, but being a protagonist was different. After all, protagonists existed for the sole purpose of entertaining the people consuming the fictional work they were a part of.

Going through all the hardships and challenges of being a protagonist just to be a meaningless pastime for some consumers wasn't something he wanted for himself, even if it meant getting the maid harem he always dreamed of.

'Why not a slice-of-life romcom!' He cried inwardly. 'Why not a mystery romance!!?'

He hoped that the work would at least have the +18 or Smut tags, but thinking it through filled him with disgust. He didn't want all of his suffering to be nothing more than entertainment, and he certainly didn't want anyone to read about his love life in detail.

Pushing aside the ridiculous thoughts, Mark went back to focusing on the task at hand. He might not want to be the protagonist of a generic fictional work, but for the sake of survival, his only choice was to think of himself as one.

'Let's see… with how things went so far, I guess the genre would be urban fantasy…' he raised his head, staring at the ceiling. 'Then there is a portal and… maybe apocalypse…'

Recalling something he hadn't paid much attention to, he paused for some time then opened his mouth and said one word.

"Status."

A second passed, then another one. A few more followed, and when nothing happened, Mark covered his face once more and screamed internally.

He clearly remembers seeing words appear in his field of vision every time the maid killed one of the monsters. That made him confident he had a System, but when he tried and failed to summon it, the cringe hit him like a wrecking ball, so much so that he fell on his side.

"Master?"

Hearing the emotionless yet charming voice, Mark quickly snapped out of it and pushed himself up. The silver-haired maid had approached him at some point but he didn't even notice. That only added to the embarrassment eating at him faster than he could recover.

"Ah, are you done?" He asked, trying to act normal.

"Yes. The children are fine." She replied. "Their injuries were nothing concerning."

"Good to hear."

As he held her with his gaze, he once again found himself thinking of how unbelievable it was for one of his characters to have come to life.

"Master, are you sure you are well?" The maid couldn't help but ask again.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine." Mark replied sarcastically. "Does it look like I'm not?"

"Well… it appeared like you were having some mood swings…" she said, averting her gaze. "I thought that… maybe the events so far have been… too much…"

Mark could only stare at her, but then he suddenly burst into laughter, his voice echoing through the empty parking lot.

"If I was going to go crazy then it would've happened when I saw you the first time." He replied, barely containing himself. "I mean, I even thought I had lost it for a while."

The maid didn't seem too pleased with his reaction, her thin eyebrows twitching into a slight frown.

"I have been thinking you were acting strangely since the beginning, but…" her eyes narrowed, their light gradually fading. "I do not understand how my appearance led you to that conclusion. Were you not the one who summoned me in the first place?"

Mark paused, trying to recall everything that happened before he woke up earlier that morning. The day before yesterday, he left the university early and went back to his apartment. From there he spent the rest of the day working on his game until late afternoon.

He went to the convenience store to get something to eat and came back to work some more, but then he got that sudden headache and passed out. When he opened his eyes, she was just there.

'Right… the Whispers got much louder all of a sudden…'

Despite having listened to them for years, Mark had no idea what the strange voices were saying. Focusing on the words did little to help him recognize the language, and searching the internet wasn't of much help when he had nothing to work with. Even after they became loud enough to cause him unbearable pain he still couldn't register what was being said.

It was only natural to assume that his mind wasn't in perfect health after experiencing all of that, and having one of the fictional characters he created appear in his room was an obvious way to confirm that he had lost it.

"You… you do realize you aren't real, right?"

His question caused the maid's frown to deepen.

"Again with such nonsense? Are you sure you are doing well, Master?"

Mark shook his head. "That's not what I meant. The maid called Lara Becker is a fictional character I created. She isn't a real person. You are not a real person."

Mark didn't believe for a moment that he had the ability to manifest his creations into real life. Such a broken ability was way too much, even for the protagonist of a generic web novel.

Not to mention, if he really was capable of something like that then Celestia would've been the one standing in front of him now, not Lara.

'Ah, maybe I shouldn't have told her…' His eyes widened slightly as he suddenly realized.

Mark didn't know if it was right for him to reveal that part. It could result in an existential crisis, and he couldn't afford to have her distracted right now. The maid's reaction was different from what he expected.

She began examining herself, running her fingers through her silver hair, then grabbing her uniform and raising the skirt a little.

"So that is the story behind this form." She spoke with amusement in her voice. "You were surprised by its appearance so I suspected you were not the one who prepared it."

"... What?"