I Became an NPC That Rankers Are Obsessed Over

My hands and feet were completely bound to the cold operating table.

A light so bright it hurt my eyes shone over my entire body.

Beyond that light, I heard a familiar voice.

It was a researcher from the facility.

「Subject name: Anna Danilova. 17 years old.」

「Facility performance: Potential S-grade.」

They had been observing me frequently.

Even when I fought life-and-death battles with other survivors.

Even when I endured hellish training alone.

As a result of their observation, it seemed they had finally obtained the answer they wanted.

That I was superior to others and worthy of being used as their experimental subject.

I had long known this would happen to me.

Rumors had it that subjects with good performance in the facility were used for experiments.

But despite those rumors, we couldn’t help but work hard to achieve good results.

Otherwise, we would’ve died before even being used for experiments.

It was simply my turn now.

It would be one of two things.

Either the syringe held by the man approaching me now—

If I took that green syringe and went berserk, I would be disposed of.

Or if my body somehow endured it, I would be transferred to another place.

In the past, I would have quietly accepted the syringe and resigned myself to my fate.

But now, there was someone I couldn’t stop thinking about.

Someone who always smiled and waved at me first.

Who gave me a part of her own food.

The one who gifted me with what I could call memories in this hellish place.

Sun-ye.

Would I be able to remember her even after taking this syringe?

The blinding light that shone over me disappeared.

Before long, a man with stitch marks on his head appeared.

His protruding eyes scanned my body unpleasantly.

From my toes to the crown of my head, he devoured me with his gaze and then twisted his lips into a smirk.

“Truly… beautiful. If this specimen can withstand my sample…”

He twisted his body grotesquely.

“A truly perfect masterpiece will be born!”

His yellow teeth gleamed.

Before injecting the syringe, the man stared intently at my face.

Then, as if he had seen something completely unexpected, his brows furrowed.

“Wait…”

“Something’s strange.”

“I heard her emotional state was almost nonexistent?”

With crackling hands, he grabbed my face.

Then, as if he couldn’t believe it, his protruding eyes glared at me.

“What is this fearful expression—!!”

The man shouted into the void.

He began cursing at the researchers who were watching me from somewhere.

“I… I told you… This is an S-grade subject, and it needs to be handled carefully!”

The man was the head researcher.

A scientist who had administered his new drugs to countless humans and killed them here.

He seemed to consider me his finest subject.

The sight of him panicking made the corners of my mouth curl up.

His flustered face was utterly amusing.

The head researcher’s cheek twitched.

He ravenously bolted out of the operating room.

And before long, he returned with a gray syringe in hand.

「Director, administering drugs simultaneously to the subject is dangerous.」

The researchers watching from outside urgently spoke.

But the assistants, having already lost trust in the mad scientist, couldn’t be heard.

“It’s because of you… because of you, this beautiful child has developed something as trashy as emotions!”

“I’ve been waiting for this day all along. To combine the best human genes with the most exceptional woman…”

“And yet… yet you failed to manage things properly and ruined it?”

He panted and approached me.

Then, trembling at the corners of his mouth, he forced a smile at me.

“Then what should I do? I should remove it, right?”

Remove it?

My emotions?

My calm heart began to pound wildly.

The emotions I had barely regained thanks to Sun-ye would all be lost in one injection.

That was unthinkable.

“You’re trembling… how pitiful!”

As if he had read my mind, the director looked down at me with a concerned expression.

Then, shoving his grotesque face close to mine, he whispered.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make you perfect.”

The sharp needle, gleaming under the reflected light, aimed for my neck.

“Even those filthy emotions tormenting you now will soon disappear.”

No…

The needle slowly pressed into my flesh.

I twisted my bound body this way and that.

But the tightly secured operating table didn’t budge.

Finally, the sharp needle pierced my skin.

I felt the cold liquid being injected into my neck.

That sensation soon climbed up the back of my head and spread through my entire brain.

And then, I felt it.

The icy sensation of my head freezing over.

As if every fold of my brain was paralyzed, I couldn’t think of anything.

I could only let out a feeble groan, my mouth hanging open.

The researcher seemed satisfied with that groan, his face glowing with ecstasy.

“Yes, those eyes… deep and lifeless.”

The director trembled as he immediately pulled out the prepared new drug.

The green syringe.

Please, stop…

Without hesitation, he grabbed my wrist.

With his long fingers, he elegantly held the green syringe.

“How do you like this color? Isn’t it beautiful? Like an emerald. Soon, it will become one with your body.”

Like flaunting a jewel, he showed me the syringe.

But I couldn’t see such things now.

My body had twisted into a complete arch, my spine feeling like it was about to snap.

The director, as if soothing a baby, softly requested something to the void.

“Music.”

With his words, a faint piano sound began to play.

The violin joined in delicately, filling the operating room with a beautiful classical melody.

The director, like a conductor of that melody, gracefully waved the syringe.

And just before the music reached its climax, he plunged the needle into my artery.

“You’ll be satisfied too. Stronger than a man, and more beautiful than a woman.”

After administering the injection, he stroked my cheek.

The moment the syringe was administered, it felt as though each muscle in my body was being ripped apart.

Soon, that pain spread through my entire body like poison.

“Rachmaninoff, who wrote this piece, said that humans are beautiful because they have emotions.”

The director furrowed his brows as if disagreeing with the composer’s words.

I couldn’t remember Rachmaninoff.

Although he was a composer from my homeland, my mind was now blank.

It was only agony, as if centipedes were crawling through the folds of my brain.

“But I don’t think so. Emotions make humans ugly. They wrinkle and ruin this pretty face.”

「Director, you need to step back. The subject may go berserk soon.」

But the director ignored them.

He remained pressed close to me, whispering.

“Those foolish ones wouldn’t understand. Just how beautiful you are now.”

My limbs twisted.

No longer just twisting, they began to convulse violently.

My nerves protruded as though they were about to burst through my face.

I screamed madly and shook the operating table.

The bolts securing my wrists rattled.

Then, staff observing from outside the operating room hurriedly rushed in.

“Director… it’s dangerous!”

Dragged by heavily armed staff, he was hauled out.

But even as he left, the director’s eyes remained fixed solely on me.

“…”

I thought to myself.

That face annoys me.

The centipedes clinging to my brain whispered.

Get rid of that face so you don’t have to see it.

The frantic piano keys pounded in my ears.

Matching the sound, I loosened the screws binding my arms and legs.

The startled staff pointed their guns at me all at once.

Their muzzles flared.

I felt the tranquilizer bullets dig into my side.

But it didn’t matter.

I wasn’t sleepy at all.

Instead, my body overflowed with strength.

Following that strength, I moved my legs.

One step instantly turned into ten.

Thanks to that, I quickly closed the distance to the staff who had been far away.

And I tore off one of their arms.

“The tranquilizer for monsters…”

One of the remaining staff muttered while firing.

Annoying, I struck their mouth.

Like twisting a lid, his face twisted around.

“…”

The director looked up at me with a dazed expression.

I approached him.

The closer I got, the more his face bloomed into a smile.

“This is it…! That instinctual appearance. Finally, I’ve perfected…”

I grabbed his noisy neck and twisted it.

But I didn’t kill him immediately.

I wanted to see that face twist in agony for a while.

Starting from one to one hundred, I slowly increased the pressure of my grip.

Then, like a balloon, his face swelled up.

Soon, his facial features began to mash together like clay.

His protruding eyes dangled as if they would completely pop out of his face.

That must have been the ‘beauty’ the director had always raved about to me.

The music reached its climax.

I was about to finish him off in time with the crescendo.

But I couldn’t.

The brightly lit operating room suddenly went completely dark.

The shadow grew larger and completely covered the area where I stood.

“—!”

A gigantic hand surged toward me.

Crushed by that hand, I collapsed to the ground.

The barely surviving director staggered backward.

Then, a heavy voice spoke to him from the figure pressing me down.

“Director Tolkien, didn’t I tell you it was dangerous to use the sample already?”

Crushed against the ground, I rolled my eyes.

And I looked up at the silhouette overwhelming me.

A naked man.

But his entire body was wrapped in black muscle fibers, making him look like he was wearing a suit.

A strange body.

And strong.

So strong that even my drug-enhanced body couldn’t handle him.

“Haha… Who do we have here? Isn’t this our inaugural Ranker? What brings someone destined for TV shows to such a gloomy place?”

The director babbled, pretending to welcome him.

Steam spewed from his tomato-red swollen face.

“Stop dodging the question.”

The Ranker, showing no intention to joke, grabbed my head.

“Did you use another test subject without upper management’s approval? Every time I take my eyes off you…”

“Don’t worry. That child will become my greatest masterpiece. With a bit more training, she’ll be perfect…”

As if tired of hearing it, the man slammed my head into the ground.

It hurt.

“Thanks to you, two innocent staff members died.”

He kept slamming my face into the floor.

Was this man avenging the dead staff?

He wasn’t the one who killed them.

They weren’t even his family, so why was he interfering?

Disgusting.

I wanted to kill him.

But I couldn’t.

He was stronger than me.

Still, I would kill him someday.

As I thought about it, my head was completely smashed into the ground.

The impact knocked me unconscious.

But I didn’t care about the shock.

That wasn’t important right now.

Something filthy was being filled into my body.

And at the same time, something else was leaving me.

I couldn’t define what it was.

“…”

I was returned to the detention facility, beaten to a pulp.

I safely made it back to my room and was laid down on the bed.

But it didn’t seem like my body was okay.

Bruises covered me, and I ached everywhere.

That was all.

I didn’t feel wronged or upset.

Rather, those feelings seemed to belong to Sun-ye, who was looking down at me worriedly.

“Tolkien… Why…”

She collapsed onto her knees and wrapped herself around me as I lay there.

“Anna, say something. You’re okay, right?”

Tears welled up in Sun-ye’s eyes.

But I couldn’t understand it.

So, I asked.

“If it’s my body, it seems fine. But why are you asking?”

Sun-ye’s face turned pale at my question.

With trembling hands, she suddenly pulled me into an embrace.

Her soft skin clung to mine.

The parts of us touching felt warm.

“Why are you asking?”

I kept asking.

But Sun-ye just shook her head.

Her refusal to answer annoyed me.

I even considered pushing my roommate off the bed.

But I changed my mind.

Being close to her was warmer than the shabby blanket.

So, I stayed like that.

How long had we held each other?

Sun-ye fell asleep.

Sleeping together in my bed was the 289th time.

But this felt like the first.

I looked down at Sun-ye.

The short-haired girl lay in my arms, breathing softly like a small animal.

Watching her, I suddenly mimicked the motion of twisting her thin neck.

She would look beautiful, like a deer bitten at the throat.

Why was I feeling such an urge?

I thought about it for a moment.

Then I soon realized why.

The urge stemmed from betrayal.

Because I realized Sun-ye wasn’t just a prisoner.

No other survivors in captivity knew the director’s name.