Chapter 3: Played a Horror Game Like a Parenting Sim

The system's voice rang out again. "Son's favorability has increased to 60."

His textbooks and homework were untouched. He clearly hadn't studied at all.

Just as I thought! The stereotype that problem kids were also academic failures was spot on.

I rolled my eyes in disgust, smacked the back of his head a few more times, and forced him to write down his name.

Looking at his crooked handwriting, I learned that his name was Liam.

He was 14 years old and in the eighth grade.

I picked up the duster and stood over him to supervise his homework. Every mistake earned him a hard whack.

Handling rebellious teenagers was my specialty. In the real world, my daughter loved skipping classes and getting into fights during middle school, but under my strict supervision, her grades shot straight up.

A gem couldn't be polished without friction, and I refused to let my child be a slacker, not even in a game. Thanks to my relentless parenting, his favorability toward me climbed to 80.

The clock on the wall approached five o'clock. Liam's face suddenly turned a sickly gray, and a dark mist swirled around his body.

"Mom," he said in a chilling, sinister voice, "aren't you going to pick up my sister from school?"

Oblivious to his transformation, I gasped, "Oh no! I was so busy helping you with homework that I completely forgot. Quick, call your dad and tell him to pick her up on his way home from work!"

Liam snapped back to normal. He picked up his phone and dialed the big boss.

...

While everything went smoothly for me, the other players weren't so lucky.

The moment the five o'clock bell rang, a server-wide system announcement boomed.

"Players remaining: 100. Survivors: 50."

The players who didn't go pick up the daughters were devoured by their furious sons. Those who did leave to get the daughters were swallowed by the black mist before they even made it out of the neighborhood.

Only those who brought their sons along managed to survive. And then there was me—the one who hadn't stepped a foot outside and had simply told my husband to bring the child home.

I didn't understand why so many players were eliminated. "Have none of these people ever been parents before?"

As a housewife, I had to cook and help my son with his homework. The task of picking up our daughter naturally fell to the other parent.

"Isn't it just normal for a husband to pick up his daughter?"

Knowing that the daughter and father would be home soon, I headed into the kitchen to prepare dinner. But when I opened the fridge and saw a mountain of unknown, foul-smelling meat, I fell silent.

"Just how long has this fridge gone without being cleaned?" I frowned, unable to stand it for even one more second.

Outside the kitchen, Liam wore a creepy smile, eager to see what kind of dish his new mom would make.

"Trying to make things difficult for me?" I snorted. "I'll show you what a hardworking mother can do!"

By the time dinner was ready, the front door swung open. A handsome man walked into the living room, holding the hand of a soaking-wet little girl. A kitchen knife was stuck right in the man's stomach.

The three of them fell into a dead silence as they stared at the dining table covered entirely in vegetables. Even more water dripped from the girl's clothes, and her eyes turned crimson.

"Mom," she said in an unsettling voice, "are you seriously only planning to feed us this?"

My husband stared at me ferociously. His body began splitting open and leaking blood. "Honey, why didn't you cook any meat? I wanted fried brains and braised hands. Why didn't you make any?"

Liam watched the scene unfold with mockery in his eyes. But as I stared at my daughter's skirt dripping wet and my husband's blood leaking all over the floor, I completely lost it.

That was the floor I had just scrubbed! It was dirty again!

I glared at my husband, jumped up, and smacked him hard on the head. "What kind of father are you? Can't you do anything right? Is all the housework supposed to fall on me?

Can't you see your daughter is soaked? What kind of ridiculous Halloween cosplay nonsense are you trying to pull in my house?"