Nymphs Love the Storm of Space-Time! # 3
"This Coris also wishes to play a game together with her nymph sisters…!"
"This Oinoi is also terribly looking forward to it…!"
The game console sitting in our yard was the Machine Snail 3.
It used to be a Machine Snail 2, but we'd upgraded it to a 3.
Of course, the machine going from a 2 to a 3 didn't mean a two-player game became a three-player one. The nymphs who came to play in our yard numbered three, which meant one of them was inevitably stuck watching from behind.
The nymphs found this tremendously regrettable.
Their decision for all three to play together?
The PC room, of course.
"I'm not sure if this is a good idea."
It was my first time taking the nymphs to a PC room.
While we were at it, I also used one of the membership coupons Lee Jina had given me.
"Looking after the nymphs by myself would be too much. You need to help out, Jina."
Lee Jina normally took care of Coris at home anyway.
Which meant she'd come in handy no matter what nonsense the nymphs got up to.
Still, Jina raised one eyebrow and gave me a mild scolding.
"You're really burning a membership coupon on something this trivial? Not that I'm not taking it."
Swoosh—.
Jina slipped the ticket into her pocket.
Anyway, with that settled, we all piled into the rickety old truck and rumbled off toward downtown.
Which PC room should we go to?
I'd been agonizing over it for a while when Jina cut in with, "I know a place," and led us wherever she pleased.
The PC room we arrived at was pitch-dark and tucked away in a quiet corner.
It brought back the old nightmare of getting my lunch money shaken out of me by delinquent upperclassmen.
This was exactly the sort of place where fearsome thugs would be lurking in the shadows.
"It's quiet here, and that's what I like about it. No ID checks even past ten o'clock. Nice, right?"
Jina added this testimony with a little too much vivid detail for my comfort.
But it really was quiet, and nearly every seat was empty. These days the PC room market was all about gleaming top-spec machines and trendy food-and-café concepts, so a place this dim, quiet, and unassuming was a rare find indeed.
Pop, pop—.
At the counter, a part-timer chewed bubblegum with her feet propped up squarely on the register. She'd cut her hair into a tidy bob, but the upturned corners of her eyes made her look a little scary.
If I were a middle schooler, I'd have gotten my money taken by someone like her.
See, I had a sixth sense for detecting potential extortionists who might shake me down.
"Ohh—, Jina. What brings you here?"
The part-timer feigned recognition at the sight of Lee Jina.
"And you've got a whole crowd of kids with you. First time since the graduation ceremony? Running away from home again today?"
"What are you talking about? Do you have any idea how old I am? Who runs away from home at my age?"
Apparently, this girl wasn't just a part-timer—her name was Lee Myeongji, a friend of Jina's and the owner's daughter of this establishment. Well, no wonder she had the authority to put her feet on the counter. That's daughter-of-the-boss power for you!
Swoosh—.
Myeongji's sharp, piercing eyes turned on me.
Then, letting out a small "Oooh—," she grabbed Jina by the side and said,
"This is your boyfriend, isn't he? Lucky you. Jina's been a magnet for hot guys since way back, but she's never once given any of them a chance. I always wondered what she was staying so faithful for—turns out she was saving herself for someone."
This was Lee Myeongji, Jina's friend, snickering a hehehehe— as she spoke.
Jina gave her friend a firm thump on the side with her hand.
"Cut the commentary. We're heading inside."
Cascade—.
The three nymphs poured into the room.
Myeongji's eyes lit up in as many different ways as the nymphs' varied hair colors.
Their appearance had clearly caught her off guard.
Oinoi, apparently favoring the very front seat, plopped herself down.
"This Oinoi learned how to turn on a computer from the master of the house…! It is clear that one must press the large button here…!"
Vrrmmm—.
The computer whirred to life, and Oinoi rose from her seat, chest puffed out in high spirits.
"No nymph anywhere could possibly power on a computer as skillfully as this Oinoi…! This Oinoi is, without question, the master nymph of turning on computers…!"
"Oinoi, turn on this Coris's computer too, that is what she asks…!"
Swoosh—.
Oinoi and Coris sat side by side.
Watching the scene, Myeongji, the owner's daughter, exclaimed in admiration.
"They're adorable. Those are nymphs, right? I saw that Animal Farm episode. It was genuinely hilarious."
As Myeongji snickered her hehehe, Illinoi also took her seat.
Soon, Illinoi declared:
"This Illinoi finds that computer the most appealing of all…! This Illinoi shall choose it…! It comes equipped with a cash register, and inside it there is all sorts of money…!"
Illinoi had picked the counter PC.
She apparently liked that the counter computer came bundled with a cash register. The register was stuffed with bills and coins—so it was, admittedly, a rather shrewd selection.
Unfortunately, nobody was allowed to sit at the counter PC.
"Why is this Illinoi being robbed of her rights…? This is a violation of the Nymph Bill of Rights, which this Illinoi signed and sealed together with George of Washington…! Kindly summon a lawyer at once…!"
And so, with that, the nymphs slid into their seats.
Jina and I sat flanking them on either side.
To explain the seating arrangement, it looked like this:
Ha Ildo–Oinoi–Coris–Illinoi–Lee Jina.
So, what should we do now?
I pondered what games to set the nymphs up with.
"Want to play the kart game? It's a car racing game. Easy and fun."
Racing games were simple enough for even little kids to pick up.
They were also great for group play.
But Oinoi seemed to already have a game in mind.
"This Oinoi wishes to play the game called Chios…! Chios…! There was an island called Chios in the Aegean Sea near where this Oinoi once lived…!"
Chios Island.
I looked it up, and sure enough, it really did exist near Greece.
So it had been there near where Oinoi used to live, too.
"Truly a nymph-friendly game, that is what it is…! This Coris also absolutely must try this nymph-friendly game…!"
"Chios…? Was that not the name of some fancy restaurant or other…? This Illinoi has been deceived all this time…! She shall press charges of nymph fraud…!"
The nymphs were raring to go in every possible way.
I launched Heroine of Storms.
The nymphs started by creating their accounts, but thanks to the otherworlder-specific codes issued by the government, it wasn't much of a hassle at all.
Anyway, with that, the five of us teamed up to play against the AI, and ten minutes later, Oinoi announced:
"This is terribly boring…! This Oinoi does not understand what twenty-first-century humans find fun about this…!"
"This Coris feels the same, that is what she thinks…!"
"The impact feels worse than the nymphs' wild brawling…! And this shared-experience, shared-level communist-friendly system is utterly disgusting…!"
Really?
I'd found it fun, though.
In fact, I'd played Heroine of Storms every single day since launch. Not since Oinoi came to live with me, of course.
"Muhehehe, the Nymphoster was this Illinoi all along…! This Illinoi has achieved victory once more…! Behold the stealth prowess of this Illinoi, once known long ago as the Mafia…! Truly, sabotage without end…!"
"This Coris does not know what is what, but she has discovered that this thing called a keyboard lets her move these tiny little friends…! It is most wondrous…!"
After any number of twists and turns, our PC room expedition came to an end.
Since we had no idea what the nymphs would enjoy, we tried just about every game at least once, and it turned out the nymphs loved pretty much everything they played.
Oinoi, whose affection for her nymph sisters ran deepest of all, had the best time of anyone.
"It was tremendously fun…! Anything is fun when the nymph sisters are together like this…! This Oinoi hopes we may come again…!"
Who would have thought the nymphs would love a place so utterly familiar to me from my elementary, middle, and high school years?
Maybe I should bring them out here again whenever I had some free time.
With that, we boarded the truck once more and headed home.
It was late afternoon, the sun melting amber-gold beyond the horizon—
Keongkeongi and Kwang-kwangi, who had been dozing lazily in the shade of the apple tree, came out to the yard to greet us.
━Keong-keong…!
━Hio-ong…!
"Yes, yes. You kept the house safe? Next time, we'll take you two to a pet café or something."
I got home safely and turned on the TV.
Nearly every channel was buzzing with the news that the meeting of the S-Rank awakeners had concluded safely and that a major announcement was coming.
What could the announcement be?
"The colossal rift that formed over the Pacific has been officially designated the 'Storm of Space-Time.' The S-Rank awakeners of the world have pledged to cooperate on its exploration and breakthrough. We now connect you to Cha Yura, reporting live from the scene."
"Ahem. As you can see, it is an unimaginably enormous rift—."
A giant rift had formed over the Pacific?
The footage on the news showed clouds and a vortex swirling on a truly staggering scale, everything spiraling inward and being sucked toward the center.
"That's really a rift? How can a waterspout be that massive? That's a natural disaster in its purest form. Is that what's been causing all those freak weather patterns around the world lately…?"
Lee Jina sat down on the sofa, her eyes fixed on the TV screen.
Her expression was deeply troubled—which was understandable, given the possibility that this might be a G-Rank rift, something that transcended even T-Rank.
The one mercy was that this colossal storm had appeared not in the heart of South Korea, but in the distant Pacific.
And that the world's S-Rank awakeners had agreed to cooperate in breaking through it.
"I wonder what's inside it."
I found myself curious about the storm's interior.
The "Storm of Space-Time"—a T-Rank rift larger than any T-Rank ever discovered before.
Part of me even felt a flicker of excitement.
But—
I was still stuck at B-Rank.
The S-Rank awakeners were giving interviews, steeling their resolve for the exploration and the breakthrough, while I had to sit safely in front of a TV. It stung a little.
What on earth was I doing sitting here?!
Pat—.
Just then, Oinoi padded up to the TV.
She stared at the storm on the screen for a long moment, then declared:
"What a magnificent storm…! Usually, a nymph lives inside a storm like this—one nymph per storm…! There is surely a nymph dwelling within this one…!"
"Ahh—, truly, this Coris also thinks it looks like a fine storm for a nymph to live in…!"
"Muhehehe, this Illinoi is in complete agreement…!"
The nymphs looked upon this terrifying storm—a storm that would make anyone's knees buckle just from looking at it—as though it were something splendid and beautiful, and they were thoroughly satisfied.
Was their aesthetic sense just different from ours?
A fearsome, maximum-scale T-Rank rift—
Or, as the nymphs claimed, a storm ideally suited for nymphs to live in—
I couldn't tell one way or the other, but one thing was certain: I couldn't just keep sitting around like this.
"I should head to a rift too. Jina, you're B-Rank, right? Want to hit a B-Rank rift together tomorrow?"
We needed to earn money and build up mana at a B-Rank rift.
With that in mind, I registered us on the awakener app for B-Rank rift party recruitment.
Then an unexpected problem arose.
"……"
Even after plenty of time had passed since posting, not a single person sent a message or an application.
Normally we'd get three to five within an hour.
About two hours later, Jina spoke up.
"Looks like we've been blacklisted. The A-Rank factions must have put out some kind of directive. At this rate, finding a party is going to get rough."
Could it be because Illinoi had rubbed something strange into Han Juryeon's hair?
Whatever the reason, freezing people out like this felt a bit petty to me.
But hey, no big deal.
"A B-Rank we could break through on our own initiative would've been ideal, but nothing to be done. Jina, have you ever been inside a T-Rank rift? It's a bit risky, but all you have to do is stick with the team leader."
B-Rank awakeners could work as support staff for T-Rank rift teams.
And as it happened, Tsubaki was in Korea right now.
I sent a message to Tsubaki on TelTalk.