After a moment of silence following my question, Yuchae finally responded.
[All] Yuchae: Wow
[All] Yuchae: Hyung… I'm touched
[All] ImSleepy: ?
What kind of random nonsense is this now?
As I stared coldly at the screen, Yuchae displayed an emotion with his cheeks blushing.
[All] Yuchae: You mean…
[All] Yuchae: You wish we had that kind of deep connection too… right??
[All] Yuchae: I feel the same way ♥
"..."
My mind instantly cooled. I slowly moved my mouse and sent him a PVP request. Since we were on a personal farm, not a field, I had to send a formal challenge to attack.
[All] Yuchae: LOL
[All] Yuchae: Just kidding
Yuchae, having declined the PVP request, continued chatting.
[All] Yuchae: Even if it's the first meeting
[All] Yuchae: You can want to get close, right?
[All] ImSleepy: So you're saying
[All] ImSleepy: You're just handing out gear because you want to be friends?
[All] Yuchae: Exactly
That's really the only reason? Just wanting to be friends? What do you even know about me to say that?
'Something about this feels… off.'
[All] ImSleepy: I'll ask one last time
[All] ImSleepy: Are you really not that person?
[All] Yuchae: Yesss
Even though I still felt suspicious, he kept giving the same answer.
'If he says he's not, I can't really press any further…'
I sighed and rubbed my neck.
Fine. Honestly, even if I had met Yuchae before, what difference would it make now?
[All] ImSleepy: Ok, got it
[All] ImSleepy: But from now on
[All] ImSleepy: Don't give me expensive items
[All] Yuchae: ㅜㅡㅜ?
[All] ImSleepy: I get that you didn't mean anything bad
[All] ImSleepy: Just try to keep it reasonable
[All] Yuchae: What's your definition
[All] Yuchae: Of "reasonable"?
[All] ImSleepy: Don't give expensive gear
[All] ImSleepy: Don't say weird stuff
[All] ImSleepy: Don't embarrass me
[All] Yuchae: If I do that…
[All] Yuchae: Will you be nice to me?
Nice to him? I don't have any use for being "nice" to another guy, but for now, saying yes seems like the smartest move.
[All] ImSleepy: Yeah
[All] Yuchae: Got it
[All] Yuchae: I'll try my best!
"Try"...? It's not exactly hard to follow…
Still, I should encourage the effort.
[All] ImSleepy: hwaiting
[All] Yuchae: Hwaiting! ^▽^
＊＊＊
Time flew by, and it had already been a week since I returned to early evening hours. Thanks to running raid dungeons daily with guildmates, I reached level 240.
Yuchae had also improved a lot since that somewhat serious talk at the personal farm.
Of course, he still spammed emojis and acted all cutesy whenever he saw me, but at least he'd stopped secretly gifting expensive items.
[Guild] Yuchae: Hyung, do you want the Blacklight Cloak?
[Guild] Yuchae: Also, this one's called the Fairy's Four-Leaf Clover
[Guild] Yuchae: It boosts luck if you have it >ㅡ
[Guild] Yuchae: Total value, 6,000!
[Guild] ImSleepy: Thx thx
[Guild] LaggerLagger: Huh?
[Guild] LaggerLagger: Is Guild Leader selling that stuff to Sleepy for 6k?
[Guild] Haerun: Nah
[Guild] Haerun: He means he's giving away gear worth 6k
[Guild] LaggerLagger: What the
[Guild] LaggerLagger: Then why mention the price?
[Guild] Haerun: Because he got caught giving Luck+2 gear again
[Guild] Mochabread: Oh, that got exposed?? LOL
[Guild] SpicyCrabLover: Surprised he hid it this long lol
[Guild] Crazy4Hunting: Feels like someone reporting purchases to their boss…
[Guild] ImSleepy: lol
I didn't care if people found out Yuchae gave me gear. Honestly, the whole guild already knew anyway.
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: Guys
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: Selection match announcement is up
Water, who had been AFK for a while, dropped a link in the guild chat. Clicking it opened the Zenoris Guardian Guild Selection Event page.
The selection match opening in two weeks will run three hours per day for one week. Every evening at 7 PM, a message will appear signaling the start of that day's round, and a flag will appear in each city and village. Guilds participating in the event must defend their own flag or capture others'.
[Guild] Hwasoun: Wow, feels like just yesterday we did the selection match last year
[Guild] Hwasoun: Time flies
[Guild] Haerun: fr
[Guild] ParkSeungjin99: We going defense again?
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: Yep
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: We'll defend by default
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: And if we see any easy targets
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: We'll attack based on the situation
[Guild] ManaRunningLow: Sounds good
[Guild] TakeItIt'sFree: Just defending Veritas alone
[Guild] TakeItIt'sFree: Is totally fine for us LOL
During the event, each guild can launch one attack per day by choosing a city or village. Since our guild "Early Evening" is guarding Veritas, there'll be challengers every day—so just defending should be enough.
When I came back from reading the event page more carefully, a whisper from Yuchae popped up.
[Whisper] Yuchae: Once the selection match starts
[Whisper] Yuchae: Feber will probably show up on day 2 or 3
[Whisper] Yuchae: If not
[Whisper] Yuchae: We can split into teams and go ourselves
[Whisper] ImSleepy: Yeah but
[Whisper] ImSleepy: Wouldn't splitting teams make things kinda messy?
[Whisper] Yuchae: It's fine
[Whisper] Yuchae: To be honest
[Whisper] Yuchae: Other than Gusok, there's no one we really need to worry about
[Whisper] ImSleepy: Gusok…
[Whisper] ImSleepy: You mean the second-place guild?
[Whisper] Yuchae: Yep
Gusok, huh… I opened the guild rankings to check.
[2. Gusok | Guild Level: Grand | Members: 82 | Guild Master: SwordPrincess]
They have noticeably fewer members than third-ranked Feber but still hold second place. If Yuchae is saying that much, they must be a solid guild.
[Whisper] Yuchae: Their guild master's a Reaper
[Whisper] Yuchae: Pretty skilled too
Reaper—an assassin-type class that uses daggers. Short cooldowns and a unique passive with +3% movement speed, but low durability. Definitely a class that relies heavily on player skill.
[Whisper] ImSleepy: So basically
[Whisper] ImSleepy: As long as we're careful when Gusok attacks
[Whisper] ImSleepy: Everything else should be fine?
[Whisper] ImSleepy: What about Feber?
[Whisper] Yuchae: LOL Feber?
[Whisper] Yuchae: Don't even worry about them
They're ranked 3rd on the server—should we really be this relaxed?
[Whisper] Yuchae: Hyung, you already fought them
[Whisper] Yuchae: Back when they PKed 6 times
[Whisper] Yuchae: The rest of their guys are all about the same
[Whisper] ImSleepy: Hm, okay
[Whisper] ImSleepy: Got it
[Whisper] Yuchae: hehe
He probably knows more than I do, so I'll trust him for now.
"And honestly, if it comes down to guild masters fighting, I feel like Yuchae would win."
I don't know the Feber guild master well, but that's the impression I get. Yuchae doesn't strike me as someone who would lose easily.
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: Whether Gusok shows up this year
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: That's the real question
[Guild] TheHunter: Oh I'm a fan of SwordPrincess
[Guild] TheHunter: Will we get to see her once the match starts?
[Guild] Hwasoun: ?
[Guild] Hwasoun: Didn't you see her last year?
[Guild] TheHunter: I did
[Guild] TheHunter: I sent a friend request and got rejected
[Guild] Hwasoun: LOLOLOL
[Guild] SpicyCrabLover: hahahaha
[Guild] CapitalistMonster: She's scary
[Guild] CapitalistMonster: I once ran into her in the arena
[Guild] CapitalistMonster: Got one-shotted the second I pulled my weapon
[Guild] Haerun: She's seriously skilled
[Guild] ParkSeungjin99: This is…
[Guild] ParkSeungjin99: An. As. Sas. Sin?
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: I don't know about anything else
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: But I did see a video of Feber's guild master getting absolutely wrecked by SwordPrincess LOL
[Guild] ManaRunningLow: LOL ah, poor guy
[Guild] ManaRunningLow: Why's he always getting smacked around~
[Guild] ManaRunningLow: Feels bad lol
[Guild] Mochabread: For real LOL
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: hahaha
As the guild chat filled with excited chatter, I was equipping the gear Yuchae had given me when my phone—tossed in a corner of my desk—started vibrating.
Seeing the familiar name on the screen, I immediately picked up.
"Hey, hyung."
—"Hey, Ji-han. You busy?"
"Nope, totally free."
The caller was Seo Taeyoung. His unexpected yet welcome call made me lean back in my chair and smile faintly.
—"Everything okay with you?"
"Of course. How about you?"
—"I'm doing fine. But seriously, man, you've been MIA lately. Haven't seen you on Hiore either. Still playing RPGs?"
That reminded me of the chat we had in HOL the other day.
"Yeah, I'm still playing, but... lots going on these days."
I answered a little sheepishly, and Taeyoung laughed brightly.
—"RPGs do eat up a lot of time. Still, you should drop by my stream sometime. So, are you done with Hiore for good?"
"For now, yeah. I haven't touched it in months. If I go back, I'll be super rusty."
—"Even rusty, how bad could you be? But I bet your tier dropped a lot."
"Probably dropped to Diamond."
In HOL, if you don't play ranked for two weeks, your tier automatically decreases — a system called inactivity demotion. I hadn't touched it in five months, so my rank must've plummeted.
—"Anyway, I actually called to ask you something."
"What is it?"
—"You remember that offline tournament we joined way back?"
"You mean the one Sehoon-hyung organized?"
That brought back old memories. Kim Sehoon, one of the original HOL pro players, once hosted a huge offline tournament after retiring, with sponsorship backing.
The prize money was pretty sweet.
As I smiled fondly, recalling the cash prize, Taeyoung continued.
—"Sehoon's organizing another one. He asked if you'd be down to join."
"Hmm… probably not this time."
I wasn't interested in joining — there are way too many players better than me now, and I'd need serious practice to compete again after such a long break.
Taeyoung seemed to get where I was coming from and didn't press the issue.
—"Yeah, I figured. I'll let him know you passed. It's been a while since you two talked anyway."
"I'd appreciate that."
—"Ahem… and one more thing…"
He hesitated for quite a while — clearly about to bring up something awkward. What now?
—"I mentioned my wedding's the second week of October, right?"
"Yeah."
—"At the time, he hadn't confirmed, so I didn't say anything…"
"Who?"
—"Gamag. That guy."
I blinked in surprise at the unexpected name.
Gamag? Wait… as in Gamag, the jungler from Team LVS?
—"He said he's coming too. Just wanted to check… would you be okay with that? I mean, you two… might be a little awkward."
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : http://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]