Chapter 6 — Another Joke?
The words still hung in the void."I will give you a chance. A new life."
They didn't fade. They didn't echo. They simply stayed, vibrating in the endless nothingness until Jin wanted to claw at his ears just to shut them out.
He stood there, shoulders tense, breath ragged. Then, slowly, he laughed.
It wasn't joy. It wasn't relief. It was the brittle laugh of a man who had run out of ways to scream.
"A new life, huh?" His voice dripped with venom. "What is this, some cosmic charity? Buy one tragedy, get the next one free? Let me guess — no refunds, no exchanges?"
He spat the words onto the emptiness. They were eaten whole, no sound bouncing back. The void gave him nothing.
The doctor only tilted his head, the mask's blank eyes fixed on him.
Jin barked a sharper laugh and started pacing, boots scraping on nothing. "Tell me, bird mask. What's the scam? You sell new lives like a car dealer? Do I sign a contract in blood? Swear my soul? Get shoved into another shitshow just to entertain you and whatever gods you work for?"
The doctor's voice floated calm and level. "Not as a beast. Not as a slave. A chance, mortal. That is all."
Jin snapped his gaze back to him, sneer deepening. "Oh, how generous. A chance. Vague as hell. You some celestial salesman? You want me to clap and thank you because you're dangling a mystery in front of me? No thanks."
The doctor didn't flinch. "Your distrust is natural."
"Natural?" Jin spat. "No, it's earned. You think I don't smell bullshit? I lived my whole life eating it spoonful after spoonful. An orphanage that forgot I existed. Commanders who sent me to die for land they lost two weeks later. Comrades who got body bags instead of funerals. And a girlfriend who spread her legs for some loser while I was coughing blood in the dirt. You think I hear 'a new life' and fall on my knees in gratitude? Fuck you."
His words cut through the void like blades. He expected anger, expected some reaction. But the plague doctor remained still, the mask unshaken, cloak unmoving.
"Do you not wish to change what you despise?" the doctor asked at last.
Jin let out another jagged laugh. "Change? Don't insult me. Nothing changes. People rot, worlds rot, I rot. You can wrap it in silk and call it 'a new life,' but underneath? It's the same maggot pile."
He prowled closer, eyes narrowed, jaw tight. "So tell me. What's the fine print? Do I wake up as a cripple? A rat in a sewer? Maybe you drop me back in that trash harem game, force me to watch the main bitch steal every man while their exes get torn apart. That's your idea of a gift?"
The mask glinted faintly. "Perhaps."
The word stopped Jin mid-step. His chest burned. "…What?"
The doctor tilted his head again. "A world you already know. One you cursed. One you could alter."
For the first time, Jin's mocking grin cracked. His pulse hammered in his ears. He whispered, low and hoarse: "…You don't mean…"
No answer. Only stillness.
Jin's laugh returned, but it was louder, harsher, edged with something close to hysteria. "Oh, that's rich. That's fucking rich. You're telling me you'd throw me into that dumpster fire of a game? That game?"
He jabbed a finger at the doctor's chest. "The one where some slut MC steals all the men like she's queen of the universe while their exes — good women, real women — get gutted for no reason? The one that made me want to smash my phone into the wall? That's your brilliant idea of 'a chance'? You're a comedian, bird mask. World's shittiest, but still."
The doctor's voice came steady. "You understand its cruelty. You cursed it. You know its script. Would you not wield that knowledge?"
"Wield it?" Jin barked out a laugh sharp enough to hurt his throat. "What, you want me to play babysitter to some pixel ex-girlfriends? Fix the unfairness? Be the noble villain who sacrifices himself for their sake?"
He spat at the void. The spit vanished before hitting anything. "No. That's not me. I don't save. I don't fix. I destroy."
Silence pressed against him. He realized his hands were trembling. He clenched them into fists.
The doctor finally spoke. "Then destroy. Rewrite. Curse the script itself. Make it bleed."
Jin froze. His sneer faltered.
Those words cut different. Not honeyed. Not merciful. They sounded like a challenge. Like permission.
He swallowed, throat tight. "…So you're saying… you'd dump me in that world. As who?"
The mask's empty gaze glimmered faintly. "As one marked to fall. A stepping stone."
Jin's laugh came back, but this one was ragged, bitter. "Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Born cursed, live cursed, die cursed, and now even in another world I'm just a stepping stone."
He dragged a hand over his face and snarled. "Tell me why the hell I should take this deal, huh? Why? So I can entertain you? So I can get gutted again? So I can be another punchline in the cosmic joke?"
The doctor's cloak stirred faintly, though no wind blew. His voice deepened, slow and deliberate.
"You ask why. The answer is simple: because even a stepping stone may choose who steps on them. And whether they live to regret it."
The words rang out, low and heavy, settling into Jin's chest like stones.
He wanted to laugh again, but the sound caught in his throat. His teeth clenched, his jaw ached. His heart was racing, not from rage this time but from something he hated more — curiosity.
Jin spat to the side, forcing his grin back. "You're a sly bastard, you know that? You talk like riddles and chains. And me? I hate chains. I break them."
He stepped closer until he could almost touch the mask. His eyes blazed with defiance. "Alright then. If you're not full of shit, prove it. Tell me exactly what the hell you're offering. Every word. No riddles. No poetry. Lay it all out, bird mask. Or I'll laugh in your face and rot in this void until it swallows me whole."
For the first time, the doctor's mask tilted not in indifference but in what felt disturbingly like a smile hidden beneath.
"Then listen well, mortal," he said, voice like iron scraping against stone. "For the terms are not mine, but the world's you cursed."
And the void trembled.