Friends and the Countdown
Back when my friends and I had just started high school, I ended up in the same class as Baek Do-hee. Once I became a high schooler, the girls' gazes felt even stickier than before. The kind that practically licked all over you. Their sexual curiosity had clearly grown since middle school. Turns out it wasn't just guys who were obsessed with dirty stuff. Some of the girls were probably even worse.
At first, those persistent stares were almost unbearable. And among them was one gaze that clung especially hard. It was so sticky and obsessive it gave me goosebumps. The owner of that gaze was none other than Baek Do-hee.
She'd come from a different middle school, where she'd reigned as the queen. Pretty much the same position Kang Yu-ri had held at ours. She approached me several times, and we gradually got to know each other. Then, not even a month after the entrance ceremony, she confessed.
I still can't forget what she said.
She licked her lips seductively as she said it, and I genuinely thought she was insane. But even a crazy line like that got a reaction out of me. Couldn't be helped. I was a young guy, after all. And with my testosterone levels being abnormally high, it was even worse.
Baek Do-hee glanced down at the part of me that had reacted against my will and smiled even more suggestively. Obviously, I turned her down cold, reaction or no reaction. I figured that would be the end of it.
But she started clinging to me as if her confession had actually succeeded. Anyone watching would have thought we'd started dating. Kang Yu-ri held it in for a while, but eventually she exploded and the two of them had a massive fight. No actual violence, but it was even more vicious than that.
Even thinking about it now makes my chest swell. It was that brutal. After that, the two of them kept throwing savage disses at each other whenever they got the chance, maintaining their deadly rivalry. Yet somehow, after becoming second-years, those two who had been mortal enemies turned into friends. Maybe after fighting nonstop for a whole year they actually grew fond of each other? They refuse to tell me, saying it's a secret, so I guess no one will ever know.
"What are you thinking about so deeply, baby?"
"...It's nothing. And stop calling me baby."
"But I don't want to, baby?"
"Ugh..."
If this had been first year, Kang Yu-ri would have charged in screaming like it was her personal anti-Baek Do-hee skill. These days she lets this much slide.
"Do-hee, ease up."
"Hehe, got it."
When Baek Do-hee goes too far, a simple warning like that is enough to make her back off.
"Sigh, must be nice having so many people obsessed with you~ How am I supposed to live with this jealousy?"
Jo Kwang-hoon spoke in a clearly sarcastic tone, but honestly it sounded more like humblebragging.
"What are you talking about? You're pretty popular too. You've gotten confessed to a few times."
Ever since this guy started working out, he'd developed a pretty masculine look. The girls definitely noticed.
"Well... honestly, they weren't my type. And compared to you, they're like fireflies in front of the sun."
That's because I inherited the genes of two absolute cheat characters.
"By the way, Gil Young-woong, aren't you interested in girls?"
"Women, you say... This King is searching for a woman worthy of becoming the mistress of the colossal empire This King shall establish."
"Ah, I see."
At Jo Kwang-hoon's question, the Hero King naturally dropped another chuuni line. With a face like his, he could easily be called an alpha male, but because he kept spouting these insane statements, all the girls who'd once been interested had long since given up. I wonder if there even exists a girl who could handle him. If there is, she's probably not normal either, so I'd be scared to meet her.
Anyway, with the sound of Hong Ha-roo vacuuming down food as background music, I asked the question I'd wanted to bring up at today's gathering.
"So what are you guys planning to do from now on?"
"What do you mean, what are we gonna do? In a month we're playing Black Dragon Legend, obviously." Jo Kwang-hoon looked at me like I'd asked something ridiculous.
"No, dumbass. Not that. Are you going to college?"
At that question, everyone's expressions turned slightly serious.
"What about you, Sung-woon?" Kang Yu-ri asked, looking like she already knew the answer.
"I'm not going."
"Then I'm not going either."
She answered instantly, without even a second of hesitation. It was almost impressive.
"Why?"
"For the same reason as you?"
"How do you know what I'm going to do?"
"We're going to play the game together, right?"
"..."
Well, yeah. You guys are all planning to play the Tyche game...
"Wherever my darling goes, I naturally follow. Hehe."
"I'm not going either. I'll just play the game with you. You said we can make money too, right?"
"Before This King's true power returns, establishing my empire in that other world first doesn't sound so bad."
They all decided on their futures without any real hesitation. I was less moved and more dumbfounded.
"Your grades are decent though? You could all get into good universities. Why force yourselves?"
"Dude, you really think we'd do this purely out of loyalty with zero thought behind it?"
"...?"
"Your luck is insane. No matter what you do, I think following you is a hundred times better. My entire life of never beating you proves it. Does it make sense that I can beat other kids but my win rate against you is zero percent?"
'This bastard Jo Kwang-hoon... Has he been bringing nothing but terrible luck games this whole time just to test my luck...?'
A chill ran down my spine at Jo Kwang-hoon's scheme. Had he been planning this since freaking kindergarten? Had he been secretly reading self-improvement books while pretending to be dumb all this time?
'What a scary guy...'
"So from now on, I'm just gonna follow you around like a leech. Then even if I roll over in my sleep, I'll wake up to rice cakes falling from the sky."
"Even though it is a virtual world, it is still a world. Testing This King's power there should prove quite entertaining."
"I'm definitely following you, and Do-hee will probably do the same."
"Of course, of course."
It seemed like they'd all decided to live their lives with me. Honestly, two of them looked like they were just full of ulterior motives...
But it felt like someone was missing from the conversation. I looked over at Hong Ha-roo, who was silently devouring a massive two-layer hall cake with a blissful expression.
Everyone's eyes turned to her, but she didn't pay any attention and just kept eating. Her cheeks were puffed out like a hamster's. It was honestly pretty cute.
"Hong Ha-roo?"
Chomp chomp chomp chomp.
She ignored me completely, focusing every ounce of her attention on the cake. Starting to get annoyed, I reached out and poked her puffed-out cheek.
"Uwp...! Pffft!!"
Caught off guard, she ended up spitting out the cake in her mouth.
"Ugh?! What are you doing, Sung-woon!"
"You weren't listening to a single thing I said, were you?"
"But the cake! It's so precious!"
"You're still not listening..."
As cute as she was, this girl's appetite was dangerous enough to bankrupt a household. It seemed to have gotten even worse because Kang Yu-ri kept feeding her. Luckily, with Yu-ri's seemingly infinite capital as the Tyche heiress, she could afford to indulge her. Thanks to that, Ha-roo had been perfectly tamed by Yu-ri. She was basically Yu-ri's adorable human pet.
I looked at Kang Yu-ri without saying anything. She let out a small sigh and called out to Hong Ha-roo.
"Haroo?"
"Yeah?"
She reacted to Yu-ri's voice with incredible speed. Like a pet that could distinguish its owner's voice.
"If you don't pay attention, no dessert for the rest of the day."
"Gasp...!!!!!"
It was the reaction of someone who'd just heard the world was ending. Even someone receiving a terminal diagnosis probably wouldn't make such a devastated face.
"You'll focus now, right?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes!"
She nodded so hard I could almost hear the air whooshing. It was ridiculous but also incredibly cute.
'I can see why Kang Yu-ri is so fond of Hong Ha-roo.'
"I'm focusing! What did you say, Sung-woon!?"
"...Are you going to college... Ah, never mind."
Now that I thought about it, with her grades, getting into any university in Seoul would be a pipe dream. Even the bottom-tier schools would be a stretch.
"Just... you'll keep hanging out with us from now on, right?"
"Yeah! Yeah! Even after graduation we'll stay together! We're friends!"
Even though she said something that touching... her eyes had already drifted back to the cake.
"Yeah, that's... never mind. Just finish your cake."
"Okay!!!"
With more energy than ever, Hong Ha-roo dove back into her battle with the cake. We left her to it and resumed our conversation.
"So there won't be any pay-to-win crap this time?"
"Yeah, that's right. I cooed at my dad a bit and got some info. They figured that if they only let the super-rich whales enjoy themselves, the complaints would get way too loud. So this Black Dragon Legend is going to be a game where money, skill, and luck are all necessary."
"I see... Heh heh heh..."
I couldn't hold back the laughter that spilled from my lips. The one thing I'd been worried about in this game was pay-to-win. In most K-games from my previous life, it had been possible. Whether through skill or luck, if you poured in insane amounts of cash, you could crush everyone. It was basically just a playground for the whales.
But thankfully, Black Dragon Legend required money, skill, and luck all together.
"Hehehehehe...! Hahahaha! Hwa ha ha ha!!"
I could already see the future. The faces of those who would experience the irrational gap in luck and fall into despair. I could hear it. The screams of guys clutching their stomachs in agony. I could feel it. The sweet ecstasy of bitik that would drive them all insane!
"W-what's wrong with you, dude?"
"Sung-woon...?"
"Baby?"
Jo Kwang-hoon, Kang Yu-ri, and Baek Do-hee all stared at me like I was scary. Hong Ha-roo was still busy devouring her cake. And then...
"Aah... Have you finally begun to awaken, Oh Sung-woon? I believed that if it was you who understood This King, you would succeed."
Gil Young-woong was having some weird misunderstanding again.
'I've never understood you, you bastard.'
Thanks to the Hero King, the excitement that had been building up instantly cooled. No matter what, I couldn't stand being lumped together with him.
The countdown had begun.