I Snatched The Duke

Chapter 1. Mask

I’m finally going back to school tomorrow.

It was a stretch to say that it was a Seoul* university , but it was still technically a university in Seoul. College was precious for Eun-chae. Although her grandmother’s lifelong wish was for her to graduate from a university in Seoul, it was also Eun-chae’s dream.

[T/N: Seoul is where a lot of the top universities in Korea are located. She’s saying that while it’s not one of those prestigious universities, it was still a university in Seoul.]

After resigning from her two-year part time job in order to go back to school,  Eun-chae was now on her way home.

‘What’s that? A skin care mask?’

As she was making her way across the park, which was a shortcut, she saw something out of the blue. It was a smooth metal mask.

‘Strange. It’s not something that should be found in a place like this.’

Eun-chae bent down and picked up the object that had fallen beside a bench. The monotonous white design resembled the LED masks advertised by large companies.

“…..”

The sun had set and it was already dark. She looked around, but there was no one there, so she couldn’t tell who dropped it.

‘It’s troublesome to bring it to the police station now.’

The distance was too far for her to go back the way she came just to drop off the item she found at the police station.

‘I heard that it does wonders for your makeup if you use something like this… Should I try it just once today and drop it off on my way out tomorrow morning?’

They say seeing is wanting, so she became a little greedy. Since she only attended one semester then took a two-year break, she wanted to look a little younger with simple makeup as she would be stuck among freshmen.

***

Eun-chae quickly returned to her house, washed her face, then lay down on the bed and turned the mask on.

[Beep – Welcome to Dreamcatcher (Beta version 2).]

When she pressed the small button on the side of the mask, Eun-chae’s ears were greeted by the AI’s announcement along with a light mechanical sound.

‘Huh? Dreamcatcher? It wasn’t a skin care product? Maybe, it’s a new VR? It must be a machine that makes you have good dreams.’

[This is your first time connecting. Please tell me which world you want to sync with.]

“Huh? A world to sync with?”

[Huh, A World To Sync With. Starting search.]

‘The heck, that startled me! What is this?’

[No search result found. Please provide another world.]

She felt like she shouldn’t say anything. Eun-chae kept her mouth shut but the AI’s voice continued to ring.

‘Is it asking about a world I want to dream about? Hmm… I guess something that has my type at least, right? Like a movie or a novel?’

Eun-chae mulled it over for a while. She’ll be bringing it to the police station tomorrow anyway. If it’s just a good dream for one night, she’ll have to make a good choice.

“A Broken Clockwork Doll.”

Eun-chae said after pondering for a while. That was the title of the novel that has been firmly holding the top spot for three weeks now in the weekly ranking of a free novel website.

‘The prince who appears there is totally my type.’

[A Broken Clockwork Doll. Starting search.]

[Search result found. Sync possible]

[Searching for synchronizable characters. Please wait a moment.]

‘I wish I can choose the character. I guess it’s random. Too bad…’

Ddu. Ddu. Hearing the mechanical sound ringing next to her ears, Eun-chae fell into anticipation.

‘If possible, the female lead, the most beautiful woman in the world view. Oh no, I don’t want to be the female lead because there are too many things to do. As long as I can see the prince’s face up close, I can be a maid in his palace.’

[Search complete. Eliana Aclera. Available to sync now. Starting synchronization.]

‘Eliana Aclera? I don’t know her.’

[Sync in progress. 1%, 2%, 3%…]

‘Maybe because it’s an unfinished novel. Is it a character that hasn’t appeared yet? Yawn, I feel sleepy all of a sudden… I hope I have a really good dream…’

Eun-chae fell into a deep sleep as the percentage and the mechanical sound increased.

.

.

.

[Sync completed.]

Eun-chae was woken up by the AI’s voice that was delivered directly to her head.

“Ugh, my throat hurts so much…”

Eun-chae was surprised as soon as she came to her senses. The pain was so vivid that it felt like a knife was scraping down her throat.

“Miss! Miss, are you awake?”

Her head throbbed at the sound of the loud voice close by.

“I, wa…water.”

A hoarse voice came out from her difficult to open mouth.

‘Why does my throat hurt so much? Isn’t this too realistic for VR?’

The way it felt so real was more than she expected. It didn’t just feel like accessing a VR game, but it was like she had become the person herself.

“My lady, here’s the water.”

Eun-chae struggled as she sat with her back against the headboard, enduring the pain. After taking a sip of the water that was handed to her, she was able to look around.

“Amy?”

Is this what it meant by syncing? Eun-chae could naturally come up with the name of the girl about eighteen years of age who was looking at her with concern. She is Amy, the personal maid who had been taking care of her body since she was around fifteen.

“Yes, lady, hic, I’m so glad you woke up. I was so worried that the miss is in serious trouble.”

Behind the teary-eyed Amy’s back, she could see an old fireplace and wood-paneled walls.

“Amy, where am I?”

“We rushed you to the nearest inn. You suddenly collapsed and coughed up blood, so there was no time to find a good place.”

“I see….”

Eun-chae lightly placed a hand on her head as she listened to Amy. Even at this moment, her head pounded as the memories of the body began pouring in at breakneck speed.

“Does your head hurt, Miss?”

“Yes, a little bit.”

“Please lie down and rest for a while. I’ll tell the knights to get a doctor right away.”

“Okay.”

Eun-chae replied bitterly as she lay down again with Amy’s help. She now remembered why this body was coughing up blood and the reason for her collapse.

‘What’s with this character? She has the worst setting.’

Eun-chae organized her thoughts while listening to Amy’s footsteps walking away.

‘Even if this is the middle ages, how can they sell their only daughter to an old man over seventy for money.’

Her fists naturally clenched.

‘She must have been so desperate.’

The reason why this character fainted and vomited blood—she swallowed poison to give up on her life.

‘Now what?’

She organized her current situation based on her increasingly clear memories.

‘At this point, let alone seeing the prince’s face, I’ll become the 8th wife of an old man over seventy.’

Two knights and 30 soldiers. That was the number of escorts and watchmen. For Eliana, she chose ‘su!c!de’ as the only way to escape from them.

‘What kind of dream catcher is this Dreamcatcher? It’s just a complete sh**ty dream. Besides, he’s not just an old man, he’s a pervert, the worst of the worst.’

Was it because she occupied the body? Eun-chae sympathized with the owner of the body who was disgusted and had no choice but to end everything.

“Dreamcatcher! I won’t do this. End the connection!”

In this case, logging out is the best choice! Eun-chae quickly finished assessing the situation.

She thought it best to shut down the system before Amy, who had just left, came back to bother her.

[Ending the Dreamcatcher synchronization. 1%, 2%, 3%, 9%…]

‘Stupid dream. This is a beta version right?’

There was no way that VR, which only came out of sci-fi movies, had already been developed.

‘I shouldn’t have expected anything. VR isn’t perfect yet. I need to take off my clothes and go to bed…’

[Beep! A system error has occurred. Ending sync failed. Failed to close the connection!]

Eun-chae, who was lost in her thoughts for a while while listening to the count recited by the AI, came to her senses.

“Dreamcatcher, terminate the connection!”

[Beep! A system error has occurred. Failed to close the connection!]

Despite Eun-chae’s continuous cries, her consciousness could not escape Eliana Aclera’s body.

“Excuse me? I have to go back to school tomorrow.”

The school fees for her first semester, which she had worked to pay in full while breaking her body, flickered in front of her eyes.

‘No! My 5 million won! I want to go back! I have to go back! Get me out of this world quickly! I wasn’t even hit by a truck…’

Kim Eun-chae, 22 years old. NBSB. Access with a body that should have died in the story. Could not log out.

***

“So pretty.”

While Amy went down to call a doctor, Eun-chae carefully stood up and admired her tall body while looking at the small old mirror hanging in her room.

‘If it were me, with this face, I wouldn’t want to die.’

She was about 160cm tall and had a skinny body.

Although her face was extremely pale due to the aftereffects of the poison, her emerald eyes and well-cared for silver hair shimmered mysteriously even in low light, and her features, which were closely spaced on her small face, were neither big nor small. Her self-review was complete.

She had a mystical appearance, like a fairy in a fairy tale illustration.

“Ah… my legs are already shaking.”

Another peculiarity was that her stamina was definitely low.

“Dreamcatcher! I can’t even close the connection, what on earth can I do in this situation?”

Her legs trembled just from standing for a moment. Eun-chae hurriedly finished appreciating her face.

[The automatic translation function is always in operation. Additional search and navigation functions are available.]

An unexpected AI voice came through her head. The system that she thought was dead reacted.

“Genie? N-No Dreamcatcher?”

[Yes. Please go ahead.]

“Search for ways to disconnect.”

[Beep – A system error has been detected. Your system is corrupted. Proceeding with emergency recovery.]

“When will the recovery be completed? Please do it quickly.”

[Collecting error data. Sending error data to the developer.]

‘Recovery? You’re saying that I can get out someday right?’

Recovery is possible? There’s a little bit of hope.

“Will it take long?”

[The wireless communication signal is weak. Data transmission to the outside world is unstable.]

“Argh! That trash router really doesn’t help.”

Eun-chae was reminded of her Wi-Fi router that’s been having intermittent connections these days. She should have replaced it immediately. Regret poured in.

‘Then it will be recovered, but there is no guarantee when?’

Eun-chae sat on the bed and calmly organized her thoughts.

“Dreamcatcher! If I die here, won’t I be automatically logged out?”

The thought suddenly came to her.

If she died while synced to this character, won’t she wake up?

[When a character dies, it will be replaced with a new character that can be synced with.]

‘I knew it, I should have stopped when I saw ‘beta version’…’