The Elusive Mother

Even now, with civilization in decline and humanity on the brink of extinction, having a child was still a blessing.

Even in Maetan, where you weren't treated like a human unless you were an employee, the birth of a child was celebrated with bonuses, parental leave, and childcare supplies.

But that was strictly in the real world.

Pregnancy on the internet, in virtual reality?

I had never heard of such a thing.

"Hup—!!!"

Seok Hayeon glared, letting out a silent, forceful breath.

In an instant, I felt the stagnant air begin to move rapidly.

I quickly shoved Kim Hun aside and dodged, but the range of Seok Hayeon's skill far exceeded my expectations.

My left arm, which had been gripping Kim Hun's collar, stretched out long and twisted into a spiral.

There was no pain.

But the elongated arm wouldn't move, hanging limply like a snapped rubber band.

Kim Hun, whom I had been holding onto just moments ago, was in a much worse state.

"Argh...!"

Kim Hun's lower body was stretched out long and spinning.

He couldn't even stand anymore and crawled on the ground.

Beyond CC's message window, I saw Seok Hayeon slipping out of the alley.

In that case, there was no need to rush after her. I could just follow the trail of the computation logs.

I approached Kim Hun, who was sprawled on the ground, and asked,

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, it looks gruesome, but... there's no pain. Though my face still hurts from where you punched me..."

"I won't apologize."

"It was a perfectly logical decision, so I understand. But if you rely too much on common sense on the internet, you'll die in no time."

"Will it recover?"

I asked, lifting my limp arm.

"It'll return to normal naturally after a few hours. Or you can use an item that cures status ailments... or just log out and come back."

No matter how severely an avatar was damaged, logging out and logging back in would restore it to its original state. This was because the system loaded the avatar's default specifications upon connecting to the internet.

"What on earth is going on?"

"Before that... you're not an Intra-Asan player, are you? Where are you from?"

"Intra-Maetan."

"Is that so? Well, you've already seen it, so there's no helping it... but could you keep quiet about what you just saw?"

His tone was friendly, but his eyes were cold.

Even now, unable to move his lower body, he possessed an aura that suggested he could eliminate me in an instant if he wished.

"I have no intention of spreading it around."

"Thanks. You asked what happened? It's simple. The baby in my wife's belly... is mine."

"Are you sure?"

"Are you questioning my wife's fidelity right now?"

"...That's not what I meant."

"Haha, just a joke. We were surprised too. Who would've thought pregnancy was possible even inside the internet?"

Kim Hun chuckled, his face pressed against the ground.

"I mean, I knew there were OB-GYNs in this world and that the residents of the internet give birth and raise kids every day, but I never imagined it would be possible for us."

Just then, footsteps echoed from the end of the alley.

Kang Seongbeom was running toward us.

"Looks like my wife contacted him."

"After fighting like you were going to kill each other?"

"Isn't that just how married couples fight?"

Kang Seongbeom looked at the sprawled Kim Hun and let out a sigh, as if he was used to this.

"Master! ...You got beaten again today."

"Anyone hearing that would think I get beaten every single day."

"You're 0 for 12. We're running out of time."

"I know. Let's get back to Intra-Asan quickly. My butt itches, but I can't even tell where my butt is."

Kang Seongbeom said as he rolled up Kim Hun's elongated lower body.

"Only your left arm got ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hit? You're lucky it ended with just that."

"This guy once stood next to us while we were fighting and had his entire body stretched out."

"You don't need to mention things like that. Are you coming with us to Intra-Asan? We'll fix your left hand."

I looked down at my left hand, which was dragging limply on the ground.

It was my primary striking hand. I nodded.

"Alright. Follow me. We need to head to the main road and catch a bus."

"Is the gate far?"

"Not too far. We just need to transfer between the bus and subway three times."

"Let's take a taxi. My treat."

I didn't want to waste time transferring and wandering around.

I heard Kim Hun, piggybacked on Kang Seongbeom, whisper.

"...Is your friend rich by any chance?"

"I don't really know. And he's not my friend. This is only the second time I've met him. But... he does seem to have some deep pockets."

"Really? ...I wonder if he'd be friends with me."

We took a taxi toward the Olympic Bridge.

"Here it is."

The gate to Intra-Asan was located in a restroom beneath the Jamsil Railway Bridge.

As we passed through the restroom door, a pure white space revealed itself.

Behind me stood a black Monolith Gate, just like the one in Intra-Maetan.

"Is this... a hospital?"

"Yes. Our Intra-Asan uses the hospital's intranet as its server."

"Mr. Kim Hun!"

The people guarding the Monolith Gate ran over and took Kim Hun from Kang Seongbeom.

"Oh dear, you got hit again."

"It was a close call this time! But someone interrupted us in the middle..."

"Yes, yes. We'll take you to the lobby, so please just log out quickly."

As Kim Hun was carried away while waving his hand, Kang Seongbeom led the way and said,

"Follow me. Let's get your arm treated."

The atmosphere of Intra-Asan was completely different from Maetan.

While Maetan was like a theme park gathering spaces of various themes, including the city and the Goblin's Forest, Intra-Asan was like a massive hospital consisting solely of endlessly stretching corridors and hospital rooms on both sides.

"Is it just a hospital here?"

"Not all intranets have large servers like Maetan. The only space Intra-Asan renders is the hospital. We're lucky we at least have a courtyard and a parking lot."

Looking out the window Kang Seongbeom pointed to, I could see residents enjoying the sunlight in the courtyard.

"Instead, because it was originally a hospital server, medical technology is highly advanced here. That goes for both reality and the intranet. This way."

Kang Seongbeom entered a room labeled 'Preparation Room 3'.

It was lined with unidentified medicines, and beyond a sealed glass room, a person in protective gear and a gas mask was boiling something.

Kang Seongbeom tapped on the glass and said,

"We have a patient."

After a moment, a woman wearing a white lab coat walked out from beyond the sealed glass room.

She looked exhausted, with deep dark circles under her eyes.

"You look perfectly fine...?"

"It's not me. Hey, show her your arm."

When I lifted my left arm, the woman's face filled with surprise.

"You met Seok Hayeon...? You're lucky it ended with just this..."

"I was just watching them fight."

"Her skill has a wide range... Usually, just watching isn't enough to escape unscathed... Log out and log back in. That should fix it."

"He's from Intra-Maetan. To log out, he has to go all the way back to his own server."

"Ah... really? Come to think of it, I haven't seen your face before... A goblin?"

The woman, finally looking at my face, spoke in a languid voice.

"Yoon Juhyuk."

"Ho... a goblin... quite a unique taste...? Nice to meet you. I'm Yang Yul-hee. I act as a doctor of sorts here. Just a moment... let's see..."

The woman moved sluggishly, bringing over a syringe and some medicine.

As she injected the medicine into the tentacle-like fingertips, I felt my muscles tighten, and the elongated hand slowly began to shrink.

"...It should return to normal in a bit..."

As if waiting for the treatment to finish, Kang Seongbeom spoke up.

"He saw Master Hayeon's belly."

"Did he...? Isn't it fascinating?"

Yang Yul-hee smiled faintly.

"Is that true? Is the avatar really pregnant?"

"We won't know for sure until she gives birth... But when she was examined at an OB-GYN on the internet, they said a fetus was definitely detected in her womb."

"The reason those two are fighting like cats and dogs is because of that baby."

There was a hint of dissatisfaction in Kang Seongbeom's voice.

"...Player Kim Hun seemed confident it was his child, though?"

"Of course it is! They fight all the time, but no one doubts their relationship."

"Seongbeom is basically Hayeon's disciple..."

While players in Intra-Maetan were grouped into guilds, many players in Intra-Asan had master-disciple relationships. This was because their player population was much smaller compared to Maetan.

"The baby in her belly is definitely their child. That much is certain."

"Then why are they fighting?"

"...Because Master Hayeon is refusing to return to Intra-Asan."

Come to think of it, during their fight, I had heard them bickering about running away from home and whether she would return.

"Why is that? No matter how S-class she is, there must be a limit to long-term connection. Won't she return once her brain is on the verge of boiling?"

"She passed that limit a long time ago. The problem is she still won't come back."

Anxiety spread across Kang Seongbeom's face.

"How long has she been connected?"

"Two hundred days."

"Two hundred..."

For someone like me with a computation grade of E, the maximum time I could maintain a connection without CC was four hours at best.

Even for an S-class player, staying connected for days on end was a massive burden.

A week at most, perhaps. If someone in the real world provided cooling measures, they might stay connected longer.

But two hundred days?

That was an unheard-of duration. Under normal circumstances, her brain would have cooked long ago, turning into a lump of boiled meat wrapped in black pudding.

"That's impossible."

"Our Asan made it possible. We mobilized every cooling method we could. But even that has reached its limit now. Honestly, if she doesn't log out immediately, she's in danger. They're even discussing a forced disconnection as a last resort."

"No, setting aside the impossibility, why does she need to maintain the connection for so long?"

Kang Seongbeom and Yang Yul-hee exchanged glances before slowly speaking.

"Because of the baby in her belly."

"The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠baby?"

"As you know... if an avatar undergoes a physical alteration... logging out and logging back in restores it to normal... Most wounds are healed just by doing that... Even severed limbs..."

"This isn't Master Hayeon's first pregnancy. She actually got pregnant once before during a long-term mission."

"But... it was erased as if it never happened..."

The two stopped there and fell silent.

After a long pause, Kang Seongbeom spoke.

"When she returned to Intra-Asan, logged out, and reconnected the next day, Master Hayeon's avatar had been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠restored to its default state. The fetus in her belly was nowhere to be found."

"Hayeon's state back then was too painful to watch..."

Upon reconnection, an avatar's state is initialized. At this time, any wounds or abnormalities suffered by the avatar are completely restored.

The system had recognized the 'fetus' carried by Seok Hayeon's avatar as an 'abnormality' of the avatar.

As a result, the very fact of her pregnancy was completely erased.

"Master Hayeon resolved that this time, she would protect the child in her belly, and vowed never to log out until she gave birth."

"...I suppose that's understandable."

"But Master's physical body... her real-world body is currently in critical condition."

"Maintaining the online state any longer is impossible... She needs to be moved to the intensive care unit as soon as possible..."

That was where Kim Hun and Seok Hayeon clashed.

Kim Hun, who cherished his wife, wanted Seok Hayeon to log out and receive treatment.

But Seok Hayeon, refusing to lose her child a second time, rejected logging out and was currently running away through the internet.

"If it's that dangerous, why not just go as a group and bring her back?"

"It's not that simple..."

"Master Hayeon is one of the few players in Intra-Asan with an S-class computation grade. On top of that, her skill is space-manipulation, so it's impossible to block. The only option is to sense the boundary of her invisible power and dodge it."

It was indeed a threatening skill. Even though I had sensed the danger and dodged, I hadn't been able to completely escape its range.

Kang Seongbeom said with a complicated expression.

"Direct attackers like me would turn into long noodles before we could even get close. Even Master Kim Hun, who boasts the fastest speed in Intra-Asan, can barely dodge it."

"So, why are you telling me all this?"

I understood the situation.

It was a fascinating story, but there was no real reason to share it with me.

There had to be a reason they were telling me this.

Kang Seongbeom spoke.

"I heard. You defeated Kang Sihyeon."

Kang Sihyeon, the man who had been the number one S-class player in Intra-Maetan.

"As someone who has fought you, it's hard to believe, but..."

"Kang Seongbeom."

Yang Yul-hee, who had been speaking sluggishly until now, raised her voice.

"You talk too much for someone asking for a favor..."

At Yang Yul-hee's scolding, Kang Seongbeom grimaced and said,

"I'm offering you a quest."

A message window popped up in front of my eyes.

It was a mission request message sent by Kang Seongbeom.

The content was simple.