Chapter 2

Giselle felt her head spin. She let go of the grip of her pistol, feeling a bit dizzy. The pain in her head worsened.

"What absurd story are you talking about?" she said, moving her hand away from her forehead that she had been massaging due to the pain.

The officer let a smirk form at the corner of his mouth, then took a deep breath, crossing his arms and legs as he leaned against the door of the police car.

"I received a message from the System, didn't you?" he replied, sounding obvious.

Ian let a chuckle escape. The sound of his voice was sweet and deep, but it seemed overly conceited. From what Giselle knew, Charon was the only one to reach level 9 in the game. The Game had 12 levels, and it was extremely difficult to reach the higher numbers without the difficulty increasing and the player facing bigger problems.

Reaching that level before everyone else should have led Charon to the abyss of arrogance.

"My symbiote is full of glitches," Giselle also crossed her arms. "I don't receive messages from the System."

"I didn't know about that," Ian tilted his head. "Well, if it informs you, the message was about the rules regarding our marriage."

"Rules?" Giselle furrowed her brow.

"Rules," he maintained a smug smile on his face, while Giselle felt her eyes narrow with suspicion.

"We are bound by a marriage contract," the lieutenant explained. "Made by the System, registered in the government's official registries. And it says that if we don't fulfill the obligations of a couple, we will die."

He pointed to his own head.

"A stroke caused by the self-destruction of the symbiote chip near our brains," he continued, his expression now changing. "You know what happens to those who don't obey the System."

Giselle knew, she had witnessed a player die right in front of her when she found herself in the midst of an Event. She hated being reminded of that and shuddered, as she had been trying to forget that dark episode for months, in which she participated in an attempt to level up.

"Whatever," Giselle huffed. "What do you mean by 'obligations'?"

Ian returned to that irritating smirk at the corner of his mouth.

"Do you want me to explain?" he asked, but he seemed to be enjoying himself.

"We're players in a game that changes its rules every month," Giselle wrinkled her nose. "A marriage managed by this crap surely has some catch."

Upon hearing that, Ian burst into laughter.

"It's funny because you're right," he managed to say amidst his laughter. "First of all, there are the benefits: we can share our acquired assets in the game, freely view each other's status window, have our inventories merged, and..."

"Let's get straight to the 'however'," Giselle interrupted him, impatiently.

"We have to fulfill the necessary duties of a marriage," he said, looking at her. "The System is an artificial intelligence that has enslaved us in this deadly game. And it wants to continue doing so as if it enjoys playing with us. The new rule of the game is a scheme for us to have babies for the next generation of players."

Giselle felt her mind spin. She and Ian stared at each other for a moment. Then, they couldn't help but laugh together. One nervously, the other seemingly with disdain.

"So," Giselle stopped laughing, feeling trapped in a trap. "You mean we need to perform the duties of a normal couple just to bring babies to… fill The Game?"

Giselle sighed as the lieutenant quickly nodded.

"Bruno and Tomas were speculating," Ian said, finding comfort in where he stood. "They believe that the System realized that bringing in new players wasn't enough because there is still too much death. That's why it created this new rule so that it can cultivate humans and play with their lives however it wants. And we thought it was just something full of benefits, but there was a catch right in the middle of it..."

A deep disgust settled in Giselle's stomach.

"Simple: just don't have children," she said, although she knew that nothing in that Game was simple. It was far beyond 1 and 0, the binary numbers she studied during her Systems Analysis course.

"It's not that simple," Ian pressed his lips together, reaffirming her thoughts. "As I mentioned, the System is not detecting you, but it is detecting me. I will die if we don't fulfill our duties as a married couple."

"Then we get a divorce."

"Divorce within two years is punishable by death."

"Two years?"

Giselle wondered what the hell was in those rules. She felt completely dizzy. This couldn't be happening... What the hell had she agreed to? She was the only safe person, with no experience points to offer to opponents... She had to step right into that trap, just out of curiosity about the reasons her system was glitching?

"The way you talk, it sounds like I have some kind of contagious disease," Ian chuckled, observing the girl's silence. "I think we can deal with all of this..."

"We can?" She was indignant at that perspective. "You know that movie where humanity was trapped in a simulation? Bringing babies into the world through this marriage is pretty close to that. I won't be responsible for condemning the next generation to that despair."

Taking a deep breath, she raised a finger in the air.

"Besides, I have trouble getting pregnant," she revealed, feeling heat rise to her face. "I have polycystic ovary syndrome, which makes natural conception difficult."

Upon hearing that, Ian dropped the facade of amusement. Suddenly, she was shocked by the deep emotion she saw on his face. The expression was pained, anguished, different from his amusement just seconds ago.

"Hold on," his voice now seemed to quiver with nervousness. "The rules said it didn't matter when, but we are obligated to have a baby. Otherwise, we both die. But are you saying you have fertility problems?"

Giselle narrowed her eyes, realizing that he seemed perfectly fine with the idea of cultivating a marriage with a woman he had just met.

"Exactly," she gestured with open hands, shrugging her shoulders.

Ian turned as white as a corpse. His mouth dropped. He stood still and stunned.

After a few seconds, the lieutenant blinked rapidly again, and she noticed his beautiful dark eyes staring at her face. He began to laugh a nervous laugh.

"Unbelievable," he said, running his long fingers over his mouth. "I fell into such a damn trap after being cautious and smart for two years... Two years battling dragon projections or facing PK, but I'm simply going to die because I got married?"

"Believe me, it's an irony I don't understand either," Giselle scoffed.

"Well, they say marriage is the end of the line," Ian scratched his military-style shaved head. "I'm in deep trouble!"

Giselle agreed to marry him because she thought it would be the only way to fix the error in her system. She was having problems with that story too!

Ian rubbed his head again, and Giselle noticed the anguish on her face in that movement. Ian also let out a deep sigh, which made her look at him regaining composure. She wondered if he was accustomed to recovering from shock in order to handle desperate situations without becoming desperate himself.

"What are we going to do?" Giselle got straight to the point, without accusations or showing the fear she felt.

Ian scratched his head again.

"There's not much to do. Just wait," his voice sounded calm. "Wait for us to fall in love with each other."

Giselle felt warmth project onto her cheeks.

"How?" she narrowed her eyes, observing the amusement return to the lieutenant's face.

"I need to go over the rules," he raised a hand, tilting his head. "There's a lot of fine print, but in summary: 1) live together. 2) have at least one child."

He paused to think.

"There were others, I'll print them out and send them to you," he laughed. "I'm terrible at memorization."

"Hold on!" Giselle raised her hands. "We need to live together?"

The lieutenant chuckled, then broke into a wide smile.

"You can't be located, but I can," he replied. "So I guess we should share a house like a conventional couple."

"But..." She showed him her palms, a signal to stop. "We barely know each other, and you want to live with me? What if I'm a psychopath?"

He chuckled again and looked at her. His eyes dared to be more beautiful than a polished onyx stone.

"You're worried if you're a psychopath and not me?" he remarked, laughing.

"What's so funny?" Giselle grew irritated. "Is this like a walk in the park for you? This is a very serious situation here!"

"Oh, it is," Ian held back his laughter. "Well, I don't have a choice, just like you don't. If we get divorced or don't follow the rules, I'll die. You don't want to be responsible for my death, do you?"

She didn't want to. In two years, Giselle hadn't been responsible for any deaths. The only time she entered deadly battles was during a Portal Event, where she survived by hiding like a rabbit in a burrow. When she came out, all the players were dead, and she was the only survivor, but her system still had an error.

Seeing so many people dead in an arena was not something she wanted to repeat. She didn't want to see anyone die because of her.

Giselle pondered for a moment, feeling overwhelmed by the weight of the impending death. It didn't seem like she had many choices other than the binary options of life or death.

The issue was that from this union, a new change would begin in her life. Now, upon further reflection, Giselle wondered if she would still have her sense of security, or if something else could happen to her after getting involved in this marriage.

Ian interrupted her thoughts, speaking in the midst of his own reflection. He raised his hand, patting her shoulder, which she had unknowingly approached during the conversation.

"We've been talking for quite a while without realizing we have to go to work," Ian said. He pushed her towards the car door behind him.

"My anti-rule counter has restarted," the lieutenant stated, "so I have another 72 hours to live until it reaches zero again. That gives you some time to get organized and think."

"Oh, the counter?" Since her system was flawed, she never had an anti-rule counter, the 72-hour time frame that the System gave players to comply with the game's rules. But players always had the anti-rule counter running on their HUD, which extended the time the more they participated in Events. If the countdown expired, individuals were executed as their symbionts self-destructed and fried their brains. Hours were also the currency of the game.

"Yes," Ian spoke quickly. "It seems that being close to you triggers the recounting. So, Giselle, it's in your hands to decide whether we live or die. Nevertheless, I will give you the power of choice. I won't force you into anything you don't want."

"Do I still have to choose?" she asked.

He simply smiled.

Amidst such sensible words, she still felt oppressed by the looming sense of death. It didn't seem like she had many options other than the binary choices of life or death.

The question was, after entering this union, would Giselle continue to have her sense of security, or could something else happen to her?