Hero Academy (3-4)
The moment Seong Sua stepped into her dorm room, she started tearing off her clothes in a frantic rush.
The garments that had so neatly covered her skin went flying in every direction, scattering across the once-spotless floor.
Gone was the Seong Sua who always came home, sat quietly at the table, and calmly sorted through the events of her day.
All that remained was a single, overwhelming urge — to jack into the VR device as fast as humanly possible.
Water sprayed from the showerhead, cascading through her hair, tracing the line of her spine, and streaming down her pale legs.
If Sung Su-ho had been standing beside her now, he would have taken her without a second thought for friendship or propriety.
The sight of Seong Sua in the shower was beautiful enough to shatter any man's self-control.
She herself, however, felt not the slightest interest in her own body; She simply washed.
"Hmm-hmm~"
Finished with her shower, Seong Sua left the bathroom humming a cheerful little tune.
Her eyes fell on the clothes and underwear strewn across the room, and she carefully looked away.
"…I-I'll clean it up later."
The same woman who had always treated tidying her room as the absolute top priority had lately begun putting it off.
The Seong Sua who once couldn't stand a single speck of dust drifting through her space now narrowed her field of vision and pretended not to see the mess.
"…I can just clean on the weekend. I've got plenty of spare clothes anyway."
Rationalizing everything away like that, she pulled on a set of mint-colored pajamas and dove onto the bed.
'Bounce.'
Her chest swayed heavily. And there, within easy reach, was the VR headgear.
"Hmm-hmm~"
A contented smile spread across Seong Sua's face as she turned the VR headgear over in her hands, examining it from every angle.
The device was what her eyes were seeing — but what filled her mind was someone else entirely.
"Instructor Sung Su-ho must have looked just like that as a kid, right? Should I ask him to show me some pictures later?"
She was curious about Sung Su-ho's childhood. But alongside that curiosity, a quiet worry began to surface.
"Come to think of it… it's strange. Can a massage you get inside VR really be this effective?"
After receiving Sung Su-ho's massages, she had been waking up every morning feeling wonderfully refreshed.
It wasn't just a simple feeling of freshness.
The kind of waking that made her body practically radiate happiness
And above all, those massages happened inside VR.
Despite the fact that he wasn't actually touching her physical body, her muscles were loosening as if she were receiving the highest quality massage in reality.
"…What would it feel like in real life?"
Anticipation swelled inside her — and she immediately shook her head, muttering under her breath.
"That's ridiculous…. It would be so rude to Instructor Sung Su-ho. But… what if he already dislikes it?"
Lately, a low thrum of anxiety had started to make itself known.
It was because, while playing the game with Seong Su-ho, she felt she was forcing too much upon him, even while knowing that some of their actions were things they shouldn't be doing.
No matter how young his avatar looked, the person behind it was an adult man.
Treating that man like a child, hugging him, sleeping beside him, letting him massage her…
when she woke up the next morning, the refreshing feeling was always accompanied by a creeping sense of unease.
Yet, she found herself repeating the same actions day after day.
"Haa… It's not like I can just ask him outright, either…. I'll just log in for now."
The anxiety and guilt flickering inside her like a candle flame — she slipped on the VR headgear and blew them out with a soft breath across her lips.
But beyond that snuffed candle, a fire of kindling was already roaring to life.
Thank you for playing the Animal Village trial version!
If you would like to continue playing, please purchase the full release.
"…Huh?"
"Ah… so you won't be able to play this week, then?"
"No…."
Seong Sua's deflated voice came through the call, aching with disappointment.
Just one word, and yet her mood reached me completely.
"I don't know much about VR devices, but is it impossible to buy it online?"
In the world I had come from, digital downloads — buying a game over the internet without a physical disc or package — were pretty common.
I myself had always been a physical-edition purist, though, so I'd always bought the real thing.
Was Seong Sua a package fanatic too?
Once I heard her explanation, I understood why an immediate purchase was out of the question.
"With VR, the software itself isn't cheap. On top of that, if they sold the software online, too many people would try to steal VR units — so you have to go to an authorized dealer in person, get verified, and buy it there."
"…That's pretty complicated."
A machine worth five hundred million won.
Naturally, not many people could afford something that cost as much as a house.
Someone with bad intentions steals a unit first, then just buys the software?
There would be no end of people lining up to rob someone else's VR gear.
Steal one and you've got yourself a house — or you could just fence it.
"Apparently incidents like that were common when the devices first launched. In your case, Instructor Sung Su-ho, everything's already built in, so you should be fine."
"The problem would be if I ever needed to buy something later."
"That'll be okay too. Since I transferred ownership to you from the start, purchasing later shouldn't be an issue."
In my case, she had told me that the genuine version was already installed when I received it from her.
The problem was that Seong Sua rented hers from the Academy, so of course it didn't come loaded with every title.
"Haa… To buy this game I have to go outside no matter what. The problem is I just don't have a chance to leave during the weekdays."
"I see… That's really too bad. Nothing we can do, I guess. We'll have to wait until next week."
"…."
I directed my disappointment at the silent Seong Sua on the other end.
"I really liked ending the day with you, Instructor Seong Sua. It's a shame."
"I-is that so."
"Ah… Come to think of it, you've only been playing along because of me. There's no need to go buy the game just for my sake…."
"Come on! It's fine…. I… like ending the day with you too, Instructor Sung Su-ho."
Whether it was my real self she liked or the child version of me, I couldn't quite tell — but a reaction like that wasn't a bad sign.
Seong Sua was quiet for a while, then said goodbye in a dejected little voice.
"Well then… see you tomorrow…."
"Yes. I'll see you tomorrow."
And with that, the call with Seong Sua ended.
I stayed in the VR gear and grumbled to myself.
'Damn it… Should I just log into the game alone and do something?'
[I'm not sure there's anything worth enjoying by yourself.]
'…Yeah. Honestly, without Seong Sua, there's no real reason to play this game.'
It might seem smart to get a head start on something, but given the nature of the game, building the village together was far better for strengthening a relationship.
If I did things ahead of time, I would only be consuming the content we could do together more quickly.
'Should I just turn in early tonight? Hm?'
The moment I reached up to take off the headgear, a red light blinked on in the corner of my vision — over by the friends window.
'Wait… had it been blinking this whole time?'
Wondering what it was, I opened the friends window.
A message rolled out informing me that someone had sent me a friend request.
And I knew exactly who it was.
'…Cho Seo-hyun?'
Cho Seo-hyun stood in a pitch-dark space, shifting from foot to foot as she stared intently at the window floating in front of her.
The friend request she had sent to Sung Su-ho.
After agonizing over it for what felt like forever, she had finally managed to hit send.
The problem now was whether he would accept.
"Haa… Is he not logged in right now? I can't even tell if he's online until the friend registration goes through…."
Truthfully, Cho Seo-hyun didn't need to go about this in such an awkward way.
She could have just messaged him directly on her smartwatch.
But it was already past 8 PM.
Moreover, it wasn't easy to tell someone she had just shared contact info with.
Saying something like "Are you in VR right now? Accept my friend request" to someone she'd barely started talking to wasn't exactly easy.
"…It's not like accepting means we can even play together anyway. I'll just hang out alone… Wait— huh!?"
After staring at the friends window for so long, the list finally updated — Sung Su-ho's name had been added.
And right then, a man's voice drifted out of the empty air.
"Uh… is this Instructor Cho Seo-hyun?"
"Y-yes! I-I honestly didn't think you would actually accept! Hahaha…."
Flustered, Cho Seo-hyun started babbling — she had just tried adding him on a whim, actually it was an accident, and so on.
As the conversation stumbled along, she scratched her head and opened her mouth again, almost whispering.
"Um… if you're bored… want to play a game together?"
"…."
Sung Su-ho went silent.
At his silence, Cho Seo-hyun berated herself and sighed inwardly.
'Of course… He wouldn't want to do anything with me in the first place.'
Thinking that, Cho Seo-hyun opened her mouth to take back what she had just said.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to bother you…."
"That's perfect, actually. I was just getting bored myself."
"Huh? You're okay with it?"
"Of course. No reason to turn you down."
A smile tugged at Cho Seo-hyun's lips before she even realized it.
Beaming, she launched into an explanation of the game she wanted to play.
…
…
Once she had finished explaining, she moved on to the most important check.
"So, did you buy the software?"
"It was already installed when I received this VR unit, so I can jump right in."
"…."
Cho Seo-hyun remembered what Sung Su-ho had said earlier — that he had been given a VR device worth five hundred million won as a gift. She was genuinely curious who could have done that.
'No. Prying into something like that never ends well. He might even feel like I'm treating him like a thief.'
Deciding the question would be rude, she quietly let her suspicions go and moved on.
"If it's your first time, let's start with a simple tutorial."
"Alright."
"Hold on. I'll link through friends and log us in together."
"Understood."
Hearing his answer, Cho Seo-hyun initiated the game connection. A wash of blue light flooded her vision — and when it faded, her surroundings had transformed into a battlefield dressed up like a forest.
The moment she was in, she looked for Sung Su-ho.
"You in?"
"Yes, I'm in."
Sung Su-ho answered from behind her, dressed in the default starter outfit as he looked her way.
Cho Seo-hyun's eyes caught on the nickname floating above his head.
Plunderer.
"Plunderer… Now that's a pretty middle-school nickname."
"And you have a truly magnificent nickname yourself, Instructor Cho Seo-hyun."
"Urgh! W-wait—!"
She had been so distracted by Sung Su-ho that she had completely forgotten about her own nickname.
Four characters floated above her head in bright pink.
TinyHeroine.
It was the one thing she had sworn she would never show anyone, no matter how close they became.
Now it was on full, unfiltered display for Sung Su-ho to see — TinyHeroine, written out in shameless pink letters.
"A truly… magnificent… nickname…."
"Urghhh…."
Once he'd seen it, there was no taking it back.
Mortified to the point of tears, Cho Seo-hyun whipped around.
"Tutorial first!"
"Yes, ma'am."
Standing with her back to him, Cho Seo-hyun frantically worked the hologram controls. Once everything was set, assorted objects materialized around them, each lined with rows of explanatory text.
Looking over the objects, she asked Sung Su-ho,
"So, what position do you want to play?"
"Position?"
"Dealer, tank, healer… that sort of thing. Actually, better to just pick a character you like. Open the character window and choose whatever you want."
"Ah…."
Sung Su-ho stared hard at a hologram she couldn't see.
'Well, this is just for learning the commands. I can always switch later…'
As a beginner, it didn't matter which character he picked — he could change it whenever he wanted. After studying the options for a while, he tapped the hologram.
His outfit shifted into something sleek and agile, and a large bow materialized in his left hand. Anyone could see he was an archer.
Looking thoroughly pleased, Sung Su-ho smiled brightly and asked,
"How do I look?"
"…."
Cho Seo-hyun took one look at him and let out a long sigh.
"Of all the characters you could have picked… it had to be that one."