Magical Girl Ai (1)
As soon as we emerged from the rest area, Chae-yeon and Hae-bin were waiting for us. They'd contacted Gabriela first, so there was no need to worry. The area was buzzing since we'd survived and come out, so we quickly slipped away and returned to our Black Tree Guild.
Friss had safely joined Black Tree. I took her to the Facility and introduced her to Sena Party. Friss showed a lot of interest in the Facility and said she wanted to join Sena Party, but Hae-bin, the guild master standing beside her, vehemently opposed it.
"Aww, why nooooot~?" Friss whined, clinging to Hae-bin and acting all cute, but Hae-bin promised to assign her once the guild had more members since they were critically short-staffed right now. Friss finally let go.
Once Friss joined the guild, all eyes were on us. A guild with magical girls and a hunter like me—and I was the only guy. Not to mention, our small crew wielded power rivaling major guilds. We cleared requests at breakneck speed, tackling high-difficulty ones without discrimination.
Before corrupting Magical Girl Ai, though, I had something else to handle: the Facility's energy supply plan. To keep the energy flowing, I needed women. For that, I'd turned Sena Party into loan sharks. With Sang-min hyung's help, they'd gotten permission to operate in the underworld's biggest casino under his wing.
Sena Party now handled guild cleanup and loan sharking. The moment someone signed a body pledge for unpaid debts, the system kidnapped them straight to my Facility. That rounded out the guild's overall structure.
Hae-bin managed the guild as a whole. Chae-yeon handled monster-specialized requests. Na-hyun took on monster human ones. Woo-rim gathered advantageous intel. Friss and Hye-seon crushed high-difficulty requests. Chae-rim studied at Hunter Academy. Mi-seong led the new Sena Party. Ji-ae hunted assassins and debt dodgers. Se-mi provided Sena Party's muscle.
With everyone hustling in their roles, I could focus on targeting Magical Girl Ai worry-free.
==
Magical Girl Ai. Her combat prowess ranked her among the top ten magical girls. That fueled her bratty personality even more.
To conquer Ai, I needed all her weaknesses mapped out. She lost her parents young; her only family was her big sister. Ai was such a shut-in hikikomori that no one even knew she had a sister—she never left the house. Ai adored her sister deeply, which was why she acted like a total brat to get her up and moving.
I planned to exploit that. Truth was, Ai's brattiness came from love and affection. In the future, her sister figured that out and tried harder, but I intended to twist it all wrong.
First, I sat at the computer and installed SaviNogi. Ai's sister never left the house except to play SaviNogi. The goal was to befriend her in-game first.
==
I heard Mi-kyung set down food outside the door. Off she went to cook and work, as always. Pathetic. I wanted to leave this room. But stepping out meant facing our empty house without parents—terrifying.
So I booted up the computer again, escaping reality into the online world. First, daily quests. I logged in, finished them, and while clearing a quest, spotted a noob character fumbling around town.
'Newbie, huh.' Early morning—no other players. The newbie spotted me while looking around and came running.
Polite for an online game. Proper manners, honorifics—seemed like a really nice person.
I calmly helped the newbie, wandering together while sharing game tips. Time flew. The newbie said they had to log off, spamming thanks and emotes before disconnecting.
After that, every morning login, there was that newbie grinding in town. Trying hard but not progressing well. I approached without thinking.
Today, we played together. As evening neared, the newbie said they had to go.
The newbie sent a friend request. Dazed, I accepted. My first friend in the friend list: [Yongjin].
'Real name, maybe?'
After friending Yongjin, we tacitly met mornings to play. With my support, Yongjin leveled fast enough for endgame content. Since Mom and Dad died, this was my first real friend—pure joy.
One day, I confessed my situation to Yongjin. Why? Gloomy mood? Rain? He praised me, called me cool? Dragging reality into the game—he'd find it annoying, right?
But Yongjin listened seriously, comforted and embraced me. Just chat text on screen, yet it moved me deeply.
Mid-deep talk with Yongjin, the front door opened. Mi-kyung home. Oh no—forgot her food while gaming.
"Ha... not eating now? Total lost cause. Useless."
Mi-kyung's voice, extra irritated today. Bad day at work? But my chest hurt. I knew she didn't mean it. Still, that snappy tone scared me. Did she really think that?
==
"Argh! So frustrating!"
Lately, magical girls and female hunters were vanishing. Newbies or low-rank weak ones. Gone like smoke. I was assigned to investigate. No locations, no evidence—even my ability couldn't track them.
Even weak ability users don't get snatched unnoticed. Had to be a massive organization. Came home empty-handed today. Went to tell sis I was back—her door had my cold, lonely food. Rage surged; I snapped at her.
Wasn't why I came. Meant to worry about her not eating. Abduction stress clouded my judgment; I vented on sis. Self-loathing hit—I fled her door.
'Sorry... sis...' Not what I meant.
Morning, I cleared the cold food, left fresh.
"Can't eat on your own? Need feeding now? Pathetic for a big sis. Just eat already."
I wished she'd come out, say something—scold me for picking on her. So lonely now.
==
One tiny doubt tortured me. The spark wouldn't die. Scary. If even Mi-kyung thought that, what then? Thoughts spread like plague.
Yongjin called my nick, worried chat snapping me back.
Trustworthy emote, character motions—Yongjin's chat. I smiled faintly. Lately, all my smiles came from him.
This game was my escape from reality, a world where NPCs wanted me. Now, with Yongjin, it was fun—questing, mapping, dungeons, planning updates. He was my one true comrade.
So I spilled my worries to him. About my little sister.