Late-Night Archery Practice
The moment the match ended, BugKiller bolted for the lobby like a man fleeing a crime scene.
And the second he arrived, the cursing started.
"I'm going to fucking kill that bastard!!"
"Oppa… calm down. It's just a game."
The player beside him — username Saint Blue — patted his arm and tried to soothe him.
But Saint Blue's appearance was nothing like the skull avatar from earlier.
Soft eyes, a gentle smile, and a neat beauty mark under the left eye — anyone looking would have called her a beauty.
Even the dark, ominous cape draped over her character only made that bright loveliness stand out more.
While SaintBlue continued to pat and comfort BugKiller for a long while, he began to mutter through gritted teeth.
"I can't let this go…. If I don't stomp that bastard into the dirt a few dozen times, I'm never going to feel better."
"Oppa… it's late. And you said you have an important mission starting tomorrow. You should stop for today."
"Fuck…."
BugKiller spat the word, scowling, talking mostly to himself.
"This week is a wash…. Once the mission's over, I'm hunting him down."
"…."
Saint Blue knew perfectly well how ridiculous that sounded.
'It's not like you can just decide to meet someone again…. Even running into him three times in a row earlier was pure coincidence…'.
Given how the game worked, targeting a specific player for a match was impossible.
To play together at all, you needed to be friends first.
'He's just stressed from work lately. Once he cools off a little…'.
Saint Blue tried to let the whole thing die in silence.
Then BugKiller made an unexpected request.
"Jia… you were chatting pretty friendly with that guy earlier, right?"
"Uh… just about how we were going to fight, mostly?"
Saint Blue's real name was Yoon Jia.
She was the soft, approachable type with anyone she gamed with.
Even though her face looked like a skull to everyone else, she never really cared.
She hadn't picked up Watch of Legends out of any real passion for it in the first place.
'I've been playing along because he seemed so worn down by missions lately…. But it's not even fun…'.
Her boyfriend, BugKiller, always wanted her in the party
And whenever they queued together, he logged into a near-zero-record smurf account, farmed kills, and strutted around like a god.
Today, a player named Plunderer had ruined all of it.
"Jia. Send that bastard a friend invite."
"What? Why?"
"Once we're friends, I can track when he queues and snipe him."
"…."
"He didn't attack you earlier. Looked to me like some pity-case who figured out you were a girl and was trying to look good."
Yoon Jia wondered if she should really grant this absurd request, but she agreed immediately.
"Okay…."
Feeling faintly embarrassed, she sent Plunderer a friend request.
'If I say no, he'll just get mad again and it'll mess with the mission. Just do it…. It's not like he has to accept….'
Not long after, Plunderer's acceptance arrived.
Saint Blue has requested to add Plunderer as a friend.
'Huh? What's this? A friend invite?'
Honestly, it was strange.
We had a friendly conversation earlier, but I didn't expect a friend request from someone who had just punched a dozen holes into her boyfriend's body.
Eh… what's the harm?.
I hit accept without much thought and went right back to talking with Cho Seo-hyun.
"Whoa! How are you that good?"
"Haha… thank you."
"I'm not just saying it — you actually seem talented."
Cho Seo-hyun had been gushing about my play nonstop.
When I had simply outclassed the beginners, she figured I was decent but the moment I started toying with BugKiller, she had taken over the excitement for both of us.
Watching her beam, I smiled with quiet satisfaction.
"You really love this game, don't you, Instructor Cho?"
"Ah… well… honestly, I don't."
"…?"
I got the sense she was forcing herself a little, but I hadn't expected her to say it so bluntly.
Cho Seo-hyun glanced at my face, gave a short laugh, and went on.
"You can't live on real combat forever. This doesn't exactly count as training, but… I figured it might help a little."
"…."
"Mental training? Something like that."
She looked at me with a bitter smile.
"I actually want to use a bow, but this place is almost as unforgiving as reality."
"A bow?"
"Yeah. Believe it or not, I used to dream of being an archer."
She admitted she was envious of how well I shot.
In the end, nothing about her trauma came up, which was only natural.
Cho Seo-hyun's trauma wasn't the kind of thing you casually unpacked with a colleague.
That kind of honesty only happened between people who were truly close.
Looking at her, something occurred to me.
"Is there a practice space here besides the tutorial? Somewhere to work on your character?"
"There is. A training ground for skill practice, I think."
It existed, she said, but she'd never set foot in it herself, and most people barely used it. The majority preferred learning through AI matches — real combat, even if simulated.
"Instructor Cho Seo-hyun."
"Yes?"
She looked up, waiting. I answered with an easy smile.
"Want to practice archery?"
I walked into the training ground with Cho Seo-hyun and looked around with a hollow voice.
"Wow… even for a place nobody uses, this is pathetic."
"Now I get why everyone just does AI matches."
The training ground was bare essentials and nothing more.
Scarecrows.
Moving scarecrows.
Scarecrows flying through the air….
Just scarecrows.
And unlike the lobby, there was no environmental theme system — just a hologram room with scarecrows wandering around.
The one upside… it was enormous. Calling it a "room" felt wrong; in raw size, it rivaled the ruins map we'd just fought on.
I turned to Cho Seo-hyun, who was surveying the place with half-lidded eyes.
"Want to pick an archer character you like?"
"Hmm… then…."
I had brought her here under the pretext of teaching her archery. Luckily, she seemed comfortable enough with me to accept without hesitation.
She scrolled through the character window, pondering — then suddenly smirked and tapped the screen.
In that instant—
"Huh? Did you… pick the same character as me?"
"How do I look?"
Her face was still her own, but she was wearing a feminized version of my outfit. The Eastern-style garb left one collarbone bare, catching the light — more than enough to hold my gaze.
"…."
"…What? Does it look bad?"
My silence seemed to deflate her a little; she started fidgeting.
I meant every word of what I said next.
"Instructor Cho… how do I put this. You look good in everything."
"H-huh?"
"Honestly, it suits you so well I'm worried that saying anything weird would just offend you."
"Hehe— heh."
She made a few strange little sounds, twisted in place, then snapped in a sharp voice,
"Th-that kind of compliment… w-we came here to practice archery, so let's focus!"
"Yes, ma'am."
Small talk over, we got down to actual bow practice.
Cho Seo-hyun gripped the bow and corrected her posture.
Once she had set her stance, she glanced at me and asked.
"How is it? Is my posture okay?"
In truth, looking at Cho Seo-hyeon's posture, I had absolutely no idea what was wrong or what was right.
It had been the same when I was teaching Song Ara…
But I hadn't brought Cho Seo-hyun here to actually critique her archery, so that was fine.
I stepped in behind her and took hold of her arm as she gripped the string.
"Raise this a little more…"
"Euk! W-wait a second…"
The near-ambush of contact made her voice tremble.
"Y-you don't really need to go that far…"
"Might as well do it properly. And nobody's watching…."
"Th… that's true. Nobody's watching…."
She accepted the logic and let the tension ease out of her body again.
I kept the contact natural — forearm, shoulder, the side of her waist — adjusting her form through touch. After a few rounds of that, we finally arrived at a posture that looked right.
In reality, I hadn't corrected anything myself.
'…This is actually fixed, right?'
Based on Lena's assessment, the form appears acceptable.
Lena had seen her share of combat training before the war, so she has been feeding me advice while I watched Cho Seo-hyun's grip.
Honestly, as a pure talent type myself, I couldn't tell either way….
"For now… holding it like this should work."
"Th-then I'll shoot."
Twang!
The string released with a clean crack of air, and the arrow split the space and buried itself in the scarecrow's solar plexus.
A good start.
Cho Seo-hyun looked quietly pleased that her shot had landed.
Watching her, I offered the praise.
"That dream of becoming an archer… it still looks plenty possible."
"One good shot doesn't mean anything…."
She waved her hands dismissively, but the corners of her mouth kept twitching upward.
The archery lesson, conducted alongside several instances of skinship, finally concluded as dawn approached.
I woke up, stretched, and headed for the cafeteria.
'So sleepy…'.
From now on, I will notify you of bedtime.
'Please do…. Yaaawn…'.
When I played Animal Village with Seong Sua, I usually logged off somewhere between midnight and one.
But Watch of Legends kept a perpetual daytime environment, so you lost all sense of the hour and just kept playing.
As a result, while I was lost in time helping Cho Seo-hyun with her archery, it had suddenly become three in the morning.
'I'm starting to understand why Cho Seo-hyun always ends up sleeping on her desk…'.
Judging by how she looks when she teaches, her stamina appears equally exceptional.
'Stamina… Still, I'm glad today's class is VR training…'
I was already half-dead from sleep deprivation.
If I had to run around babysitting cadet safety on top of that, I would have collapsed from overwork.
I rubbed my eyes and made it to the cafeteria.
Seong Sua was waiting with a dejected look on her face.
During the meal, though, she didn't bring up Animal Village even once. Instead, she kept fretting over my expression.
"Instructor Sung… are you feeling unwell?"
"…No. Just a little tired."
"Ah… you didn't sleep well…. Me neither…."
She seemed to have misunderstood, but I let it go.
She never mentioned Animal Village by name, yet she kept circling the idea that her bed was uncomfortable — a quiet, persistent regret about not being able to play.
After we finished eating, I parted ways with Seong Sua and headed for the Physical Department faculty office.
And in the office, as usual, Cho Seo-hyun had set up a screen and was sleeping, sprawled across her desk.
'…Must be nice. If I tried that, I'd get an earful on the spot.'
…That is certain.
Incredible… Armonia didn't even hedge with "likely." She went straight to "certain."
It meant that even if I slept, I had to at least maintain the appearance of dozing off while sitting in a chair.
Even that would draw serious side-eye….
But right now, I desperately needed that doze.
I mumbled weakly over the comms.
'…Let's do Dream Intrusion.'
….
'Dream Intrusion'
Clinging to the desperate hope of even a few minutes of sleep, I slipped into Cho Seo-hyun's dream.