The Karma of a Second Life

My tour-guide boyfriend begged me to rescue him from an accident, while I calmly played games as the attraction’s security officer. In my previous life, he led a group into a mine and got lost. I patiently guided him remotely, and that was the only reason he and the tourists made it safely out. But when I burst into tears of joy and hugged him, he shoved me away in fury. “Why did you deliberately guide us into the restricted section of the mine? What do you get out of all of us dying?” The tourists shoved and cursed me. My best friend and assistant guide, Vanessa, pretended to defend me. “She was just confused for a moment. Hit her a couple of times and let it go.” In the end, the crazed tourists beat me to death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Ethan entered the mine. “There are two dangerous mine entrances that were just sealed off. Don’t let your tour group wander in there!” As usual, I carefully explained the mine’s conditions to Ethan from the attraction’s control center. He laughed softly over the phone. “Claire, once this trip goes smoothly, let’s get married.” He used to joke that the mine was practically wild territory. If anything happened to him before he married the woman he loved, I’d end up a widow before I even became a wife. That was why, every time Ethan entered the mine, I planned his route in advance and warned him about every possible emergency. But now, hearing the false tenderness in his voice only made me feel sick. I answered perfunctorily, “Then come back safely first.” As security officers for the entire mine attraction, my coworkers and I took shifts monitoring the tours twenty-four hours a day. We had to make sure every visitor stayed safe. In my previous life, Ethan neglected his duties and wandered into a sealed-off section of the mine. When he got lost, he desperately called me for help. I had been terrified. I immediately pulled up their live camera feed, analyzed the terrain, and found them a shortcut. With my patient instructions, he and the tourists finally made it out safely. The tourists surrounded Ethan and Vanessa, praising them. “If not for the perfect teamwork between Ethan and Vanessa today, we would have been left to die in that mine! They gave us a second chance at life. We should report this to Ethan’s supervisors and get him a promotion and a raise!” I rushed into the crowd, crying tears of joy as I hugged him. “Ethan, thank God you’re okay! I was terrified when I heard what happened to you in there!” Ethan frowned deeply and shoved me hard enough to knock me to the ground. In front of everyone, he started screaming at me. “How dare you come looking for me? There was a dangerous sealed-off section, and you didn’t warn me about it. Worse, you deliberately guided us into it! What would you have gained if we had died in there?” Confused, I asked, “Ethan, did you forget? I clearly warned you about the closure before you left. And when you were trapped and couldn’t move forward, I was the one who guided you to the exit. What’s wrong with you?” He didn’t even listen. “Enough! What’s the point of making up stories now? The tourists can see perfectly well who really helped them and who tried to hurt them!” Vanessa, who had been silent until then, finally couldn’t hold herself back. She said excitedly, “Claire, you and I have been friends for years, but I have to be fair this time. Ethan may be your only competition for the manager position, but he’s always loved you. How could you hurt your own boyfriend just to get promoted? How could you disregard all of our lives?” The enraged tourists rushed over and began shoving and cursing me. Vanessa stepped far away and pretended to defend me. “She was just confused for a moment. Hit her a couple of times and let it go.” While Ethan and Vanessa stood by and watched, the crazed tourists beat me to death. Now I was back at the moment Ethan entered the mine, and his crisis was about to happen all over again. I leisurely opened a game on my phone…By the time Ethan led the tourists out of the mine, I had already been waiting outside for quite some time. The moment he saw me, his chest heaved with rage. “Claire, what the hell is wrong with you?” I put on an innocent expression. “What? Didn’t I help you escape the sealed-off section?” He raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face. “Why did you give me the wrong route and leave us wandering around in circles?” Ethan looked furious. He turned to the tourists behind him and loudly accused me. “If she hadn’t hidden the closure from me and given me the wrong directions, I wouldn’t have left everyone trapped in there for so long!” The tourists had only just escaped, but after hearing his accusations, resentment instantly filled their eyes. One person pointed at my face and started shouting. “If you’re too stupid to keep people safe, quit pretending to be a security officer! Go home and live off scraps!” “Don’t let someone this malicious off the hook! Why should we pay for her mistake after suffering in that mine? We need to report her to management and the police! She should be punished until she begs for mercy!” I let out a cold laugh and stared at Ethan, who had stirred up the crowd. “I’ve worked at this attraction for years and have never made a mistake. How did I suddenly become a malicious criminal in your story?” “Besides, we were practically engaged. What reason would I have to hurt you? All I ever wanted was for you to come back safely.” The tourists finally understood the relationship between us and froze, unsure what to make of the situation. Vanessa took a deep breath and summoned the courage to step in front of me. “Claire, I’m your friend and coworker, but what you did this time was completely unforgivable!” “These tourists traveled thousands of miles to visit the natural wonders of our mine attraction. Every employee here is responsible for their safety. A decent person has compassion and respects human life. But you? What do you have?” The tourists began to understand what she was implying. Several of them anxiously asked, “Is she the one who caused all of this?” Vanessa nodded helplessly. “She wants to become the attraction’s manager. If she could get rid of Ethan in an accident, who couldn’t she replace him with after getting promoted?” “Fortunately, Ethan pulled us back from the edge of death at the last moment. Otherwise, we would have walked right into someone’s trap.” Her meaning was obvious. The tourists who had been unsure which side to take immediately understood everything. They surrounded me and began screaming. “You little bitch! Pay with your life!” Just as everyone assumed I was about to be beaten senseless, a group of reporters carrying cameras appeared. Someone in the crowd shouted, “Reporters! Come over here! There’s a major accident story!” As soon as the reporters approached, the tourists surrounding me parted to let them through. An elderly woman with silver hair took the lead. “I want to report this attraction’s security officer! She tried to get us killed in the restricted section of the mine for her own benefit! Take pictures of her ugly face and make sure the police arrest her!” The other tourists joined in. “Film her! Put her on a crime show! Someone this evil belongs behind bars!” Ethan and Vanessa were so frightened that they stood there dumbfounded. They never would have imagined that reporters would suddenly show up. One reporter looked me up and down. “You’re the attraction’s security officer. Are these accusations true?” I shook my head firmly. “I will never admit to something I didn’t do, even if it kills me. They’re all framing me!” The old woman grew furious. She rushed to the reporter and exaggerated the entire story from beginning to end. The reporter turned the microphone toward Ethan. “Was there no warning sign around the sealed-off section?” Ethan hesitated. “Maybe… I don’t think there was. Claire is the security officer, but she never warned me in advance.” He continued blaming me and pushed all responsibility onto my shoulders.The reporter asked carefully, “Isn’t it the tour guide’s job to plan the route ahead of time and keep track of conditions inside the mine? You’re responsible for the attraction’s security, but does that mean you have to plan every single tour for them?” Ethan hurriedly replied, “But her negligence caused us to get lost in the restricted section. I called her for emergency assistance, but she deliberately gave us the wrong directions and left us trapped.” In my previous life, I had been the one who got Ethan his job as a tour guide. Every route he took had been planned by me. If he had possessed even a little ability, he wouldn’t have spent all these years failing to become a manager. This time, if I hadn’t insisted that he follow my route, he never would have wandered around in circles inside the mine. I had worked myself to the bone to save them. How could they turn around and throw me into hell the moment they reached safety? I cut him off. “I’ll say it again. I warned everyone that the section was sealed off. I could see everything happening through the control room cameras. If he hadn’t recklessly entered the restricted area, how could he have gotten trapped in the first place?” Vanessa was no longer willing to stay quiet. She attacked me directly. “Claire, you should know when to stop. There were so many people watching. Do you really think we didn’t see what happened? Ethan only went the wrong way because of your instructions. If he had kept listening to you, we would all be dead!” The tourists also began describing the panic they had felt. “We really thought we would never get out. We thought we would starve or die of thirst in there. It was pitch-black, and even someone with nerves of steel couldn’t handle it. It was terrifying!” They all spoke at once, trying to drown me out with their accusations. Just then, the attraction’s owner hurried over. “Let me see who’s causing a disturbance!” Ethan and Vanessa’s faces went pale the moment they saw him. The owner apologized to the reporters. “Sorry you had to witness this. We invited you here today to film the scenery and help promote our attraction. Since this unusual situation has occurred, I promise I’ll handle it fairly.” I glanced at Ethan without saying anything. He and Vanessa clearly hadn’t expected the owner to get involved. Both of them looked terrified. The owner turned sternly toward Ethan. “You’re saying the security officer gave you the wrong directions and left you and the tourists trapped in the mine?” Ethan glanced sideways at Vanessa, then nodded helplessly. Vanessa stammered, “Y-Yes… It really was Claire’s fault! We… we all saw it!” The owner exchanged an awkward smile with the woman standing behind him. I stood in the corner with my arms crossed, content to watch the show. The rumors about Ethan and me competing for the manager’s position were only partly true. The manager position was real. Everything else was a lie. The woman standing behind the owner was my cousin, Sarah. She had once been one of the most highly regarded tour guides and managers in the industry. Rumor had it that our owner had paid an enormous amount of money to lure her away from another company and hire her as our new manager. In my previous life, Sarah had planned to bring reporters to the attraction that weekend to film an interview. Since our owner didn’t work weekends, I had politely talked her out of it. But this time, to protect myself from Ethan and Vanessa’s schemes, I arranged for Sarah to come early. After watching Ethan lead the tourists into the mine, I pretended to have a headache and hid in the break room to play games. The person who had actually stayed in the control center was Sarah, doing her job as security officer. The reporters had been there filming her the entire time. Ethan glared at me, completely unaware of what had happened. “When I called you for emergency assistance, you didn’t help us. Instead, you deliberately guided us into the restricted area! How could you be so vicious? Was a manager’s position really worth all that?” The tourists had already decided Ethan was their hero. They began appealing to the owner. “Ethan was an angel sent from heaven to save us! If he hadn’t stood his ground, we would have fallen right into that security officer’s trap!” “Give Ethan a promotion and a raise! Someone this talented shouldn’t be overlooked or betrayed by the company!” Vanessa looked at Ethan with admiration and added, “I think Ethan deserves to become the attraction’s manager after saving so many tourists today!” Ethan arrogantly waved his hands, signaling for them to quiet down. “Thank you all for recognizing my hard work! Since the owner is here today, if he really promotes me to manager, I’ll respect everyone’s wishes. I’ll make sure this security officer, who gave us such reckless instructions, is blacklisted throughout the industry and sent to prison!”