Chapter 3
<3rd Episode>
"Is that you?" Are you Ruby?”
Meow?
Even dogs don't bother you when you're eating. The cat tilted its head in confusion, startled by the sudden personal question while it was eating.
No?
A disappointed sigh escaped me.
“Ruby, you promised you’d come back.”
My hand habitually fumbled beneath my neck. I acted as if I were touching a collar, but there was nothing there.
‘Maybe Ruby isn’t coming back because I lost her collar.’
A ginger tabby with green eyes.
Ruby was my cat, my princess, and my only family.
No one is born without parents. No one is born without parents.
But there are those born without family.
I was abandoned and raised in an orphanage. When I turned 18, I was kicked out and lost my home. All I had was the 5 million won the government gave me as a settlement fund for self-reliance.
It was barely enough to cover the rent for a decent studio apartment.
I couldn’t even dream of college and immediately jumped into the part-time job circuit. I worked two or three jobs at once, saving money relentlessly, and in just one year, I escaped the cramped confines of a goshiwon.
Around the time I moved into the semi-basement studio I finally secured, I met Ruby, as if by fate.
“Oh, that darn stray cat!”
It was a skinny ginger tabby cat, hissing as the owner of the corner store grabbed it by the scruff of its neck.
“Someone put her in a box and abandoned her by that utility pole a few months ago. She’s so tenacious, she won’t die, and she keeps tearing open the trash bags, which is a real nuisance.”
“Please, give her to me. I’ll raise her.”
Ignoring the voice of reason that asked what business I had with a cat when I’d never raised one and my finances were tight, I made the decision with my heart alone.
Because I saw myself in the cat.
An orphan, abandoned on the streets just like me.
Her situation, scavenging for food from trash, was like mine when I used to collect discarded items by that utility pole to make a living.
I also felt a connection because her wary nature, so easily hurt and mistreated by people, resembled my own personality.
“Ruby.”
Hiss.
At first, Ruby was wary of me too, but…
“Ruby.”
Meow.
As time passed, she became a cuddly lap cat, only for me.
So, the small heart-shaped dot in Ruby’s emerald eyes was a secret only I knew, a sign that I could get close to her.
When I came home from work, someone was there to greet me at the door, demanding to know why I was so late.
Someone was there to cater to Ruby’s picky palate and nurse her through the night when she was sick.
Thus, we finally had something called family.
But perhaps happiness was a suit that didn’t fit me. Just five years into our life together, Ruby departed for cat heaven one winter.
I went to the vet carrying a heavy cat and returned home with only a light urn of ashes. That day, I cried, hugging the teddy bear Ruby loved.
I thought about all the things I did clumsily because it was my first time, how I couldn’t be home often enough due to my part-time jobs, what I couldn’t buy her, what I couldn’t do for her.
Why did she have to get sick and leave so early just because I brought her home?
That day, I fell asleep consumed by regret.
But that night, I woke up with a strange feeling.
“Gasp… What happened?”
Does misfortune have the power to bring about more misfortune? That night, the water pipes burst in the apartment upstairs. By the time I woke up, water had flooded our semi-basement home up to the floor.
“My Ruby! No!”
The urn containing Ruby’s ashes was almost submerged.
Losing the last trace of Ruby was more terrifying and heartbreaking than losing the furniture I had bought with my meager savings.
I, who didn’t even have a proper home, what was the point of holding onto it? The next day, I let Ruby go.
“Goodbye, Ruby. Thank you.”
As I scattered her ashes to let her play freely, I noticed the forest of high-rise apartments surrounding the area.
A cat living in a place like that must be better off than me.
“Ruby, in your next life, be born in a home like that.”
Don’t come to a poor person like me and only live in a semi-basement where the sun barely shines.
“I… I will never again…”
I will never raise a cat again.
A life of being alone from the start is easy to accept. Humans don’t miss what they haven’t experienced.
It was only then that I learned how much more painful it is to become alone after having been with someone.
That night, I think I fell asleep crying on the floor, the linoleum rippling beneath me.
Meow.
I opened my eyes at the sound of Ruby’s cry. Ruby, looking healthy, was looking down at me.
“…Ruby?”
“Unnie.”
But Ruby’s meow sounded like words. It was a dream. It had to be.
“You know, I’ve actually lived nine lives.”
I’d heard that cats have nine lives. Someone must have made that up. So, I thought that the moment Ruby said this was also fake.
“I always received hate and was abandoned, never living past a year old. This was the first time I lived happily for a long, long time.”
“…Really?”
“That’s why you are my first and last family.”
Ruby said the words I wanted to hear, which made me believe it was even more of a dream.
“Thanks to the abundant love I received from you, I can now be reborn as I wish. So, I will return to you someday.”
“Really?”
“Yes! Until then, don’t cry and wait. Ruby will leave you a gift.”
What gift?
The moment I tried to ask, a flash of light appeared before my eyes. When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was the empty cat tower standing alone in the dark room.
Still, that dream was a great comfort and strength. Even if I didn’t believe Ruby’s promise, I wanted to be deceived.
‘Then, until Ruby finds me again, I must work hard and become rich. My Ruby should be born into a good home in her next life.’
I started working hard at my part-time jobs again and began preparing for the civil service exam in my spare time.
Then one day, while working the night shift at the convenience store.
“Ah, I’m so sleepy.”
I dozed off and drew three earthworms on my practice problems. There were no customers that day, and no coffee to salvage from the waste.
Maybe I should chase away my sleepiness by watching funny videos online.
I opened my phone and an alert popped up.
[Dear Master! Ruby’s cat tower is broken!]
It was an alert from the cat butler game I started after Ruby passed away.
When I opened the game, the cat ‘Ruby’ was sobbing in front of a broken cat tower. I wanted to fix it quickly, but it required four jewels, and I had zero.
“A poor butler, both in reality and in the game.”
I clicked on ‘Watch Ad’ to get jewels for free, and the reward was exactly four jewels.
‘City of Eden?’
I intended to just kill time while the ad played, but large letters at the bottom read:
[Install City of Eden and clear the first mission to receive 30 jewels!]
“Whoa, a cat wheel!”
30 jewels would be enough to buy a cat wheel. I couldn’t buy one in reality because my place was too small, but I wanted to let the in-game Ruby ride a cat wheel to her heart’s content.
“My Ruby, in your next life, I’ll buy you a real cat wheel.”
I pressed the game installation button and brought the round bead pendant I wore around my neck closer to my eyes, making a promise.
I hadn’t truly let Ruby go. I had kept a small portion of her ashes, intending to take them with me when I eventually left this world. I had them made into jewels.
They said I could have them made in any color, so I chose an emerald green, like Ruby’s eyes.
It wasn’t a pure emerald green; it had white specks mixed in, and one of them was heart-shaped, truly resembling a ruby.
[City of Eden has been installed.]
Touching the notification, the game opened. The retro art style of the title screen, after several company logos, was familiar.
I hadn’t played it, but I had seen it often. Videos of the PC version had been popular on the gaming channels I subscribed to the previous year.
“Now it’s come out in a mobile version.”
It was known as ‘City of Hell’ due to its difficulty, but it was understandable for a super popular game that was selected Game of the Year.
The game’s setting was Eden City, a gloomy, gray city plagued by constant crime.
Skyscrapers, statues of goddesses, and mafiosi wielding Tommy guns while wearing fedoras. It seemed to be modeled after old New York.
[Select your Faction.]
When I pressed start, the screen turned black and a message appeared.
[Followers of Evil]
[Guardians of Good]
In this game, players had to survive enemy sabotage and achieve given missions by becoming either a villain or a hero.
Without hesitation, I chose Followers of Evil.
The reason was simple…
