Interview
Being back in reality really did send Arang's emotions surging. It felt as if I were being dragged down into a bottomless swamp, sinking into a deep sea where no sound could reach, and that sensation took hold of my whole body.
It had happened once before, when I was with my parents and Anna, so I wasn't all that startled.
The doctor approached me carefully.
"Hello. This is the first time we've actually said hello in person, isn't it?"
"...Yeah."
Another doll-like answer. Arang's emotions still hadn't receded, but I was getting used to them, and it felt as though I would be past this before long.
For now, though, I still had to stay in this doll-like reality. The doctor seemed to have come prepared with something, just for me.
"Arang, I brought you a present!"
"...A present?"
"Yes. I brought candy, just for you!"
"...Candy?"
She broke into a bright smile, cleared her throat with a little ahem, and looked at me as if she were waiting for a proper reaction.
"Okay! Close your eyes and hold out your hand, and Unni will give you the can—"
She had come ready to ease the doll-like me into something comfortable, and then she put her foot in her mouth at the very last second.
The request to hold out my hand came so naturally that I wiggled the short stump of an arm still left at my shoulder. The doctor's eyes flew wide.
The look on her face cracked me up. Arang's emotions were still so big that the laugh burst inside me and never made it out, but the doctor, who had no idea, started to shake. Her eyes trembled, and she began glancing at my face.
"I-I'm sorry, A-Arang. I—Unni didn't d-do that on purpose... I mean, it's just—"
"...Hic."
"Ah..."
I felt awful for her. If I had fully gotten past Arang's emotions, I would have told her it was fine, smiled, and turned the mood around. But too much of Arang was still left in me, and tears spilled from my eyes without end, against my will.
"I'm sorry. Unni's sorry. I'm really, really sorry..."
The doctor pulled me in while I cried and patted my back.
The flustered doctor is pretty funny, though.
Somehow today's checkup wrapped up without further incident.
Right now I was logged into the virtual world with the deathbed connector on. Arms and legs that moved exactly as I willed them. The virtual world really was the best.
After that slip of the tongue, the doctor had spoken as slowly and carefully as she could, soothing me the whole time.
Once Arang's emotions finished seeping into me and I got past them, I meant to tell her myself that I was fine.
I was okay. I was perfectly all right, and her flustered face had been funny—but she spent the entire day drowning in guilt over what she had said.
"Nnngh~"
I stretched long and hard, working out the kinks I hadn't been able to earlier, then opened a window with a light flick of my fingers and logged into Legacy of Raid.
My vision flooded black again, and I was back where I had logged out yesterday. The clear sky was gone. Dreary weather was waiting.
Rain pattered down and slowly soaked me through.
"I can even feel this..."
The sensation of rain was so perfect it was impossible to tell from reality. I couldn't begin to imagine how good the technology had to be.
Well. That was that, and play was play.
For now, my goal was to hit max level by tomorrow.
Leveling in Legacy was fun on its own, but the game was especially famous for the combat waiting at the level cap. Raids, PVP, sieges, guild wars—there was a mountain of content ahead, which was exactly why I wanted to get there as fast as I could.
"Let's see. Pink Berry is—oh, she's online!"
Thanks to Pink Berry I was saving on potions and leveling at a clip. She even explained quests when I got confused. An excellent party member.
I still didn't know why she kept partying with me even while she adjusted her level down. She said it was because it was fun, but if your level dropped, that didn't sound fun at all...
"Well, if she says it's fun, that's enough!"
I sent Pink Berry a whisper.
Before long the pure-white healer arrived, but she didn't look right. A little unwell, if I had to put a name to it.
"Pink Berry, did you not sleep? Oh—did I message you too late? Sorry. I forgot I had something today."
"No, it's fine. I woke up late too. But what happened all of a sudden?"
"Mm... it's hard to explain. Just, you know, this and that?"
"That's... this might be rude, but Arang, you're fifteen, right?"
"Right? I'm fifteen now, aren't I? Wait, how did you know? Ah..."
I was marveling at how she knew when I looked down at myself.
Come to think of it, Legacy of Raid was rated fifteen and up, and looking at me now, anyone would have thought I was fifteen.
"So you're a middle schooler. You don't go to school?"
"School? I went to elementary, but I'm not going to middle school."
"Huh? Really?"
"Yeah. I've never been. Not even once."
Arang had fallen ill near the end of elementary school, and not long after, her arms and legs began to rot and had to be amputated. After that, she never took a single step out of the hospital.
But thinking about it now—couldn't I go out? The way I was now, I was in the best health imaginable.
Once I got used to Arang's body and to her emotions, I could put on prosthetic legs and arms, and—oh. Right. Now that I thought about it... hadn't they said the prosthetics were hard to use properly?
As her arms and legs necrotized, the nerves had been damaged, and Arang's memories still held that it was difficult because of that.
But I was healthy now, so maybe I could. No. Why go to the trouble of going outside? I could just stay in the virtual world.
"Isn't middle school compulsory...?"
"Ah, seriously? Come on, who cares about middle school right now! Leveling up is what matters! Let's go!"
I grabbed Pink Berry's hand and took off for the hunting grounds at a run.
A clear chime rang out.
While Pink Berry stepped out for lunch, I hunted at an easy pace and hit level 45.
At 45, new skills unlocked. This time there were a whole three active skills, so I was just about to open the skill window, eager to see what flashy things I'd been given, when the sky suddenly went dark.
"Huh?"
The moment I looked up, a huge man filled my view.
Pomade in his hair, the kind of face that had probably been called handsome more than once, and a one-handed sword at his hip, just like mine.
Less a giant than I was simply that short, so he looked enormous. Probably somewhere around six feet.
"Who are you?"
I got ready to block him on the spot.
Ever since I'd shown up on the Legacy Gallery, weird people kept tracking me down. The official Legacy notice had cleared up the misunderstanding, but I'd gotten famous enough that they still came. Every time, I blocked them all on pure reflex, and I was ready to do it again.
"Hello. My name is Kang Hangil. I stream Legacy of Raid."
He folded into a full ninety-degree bow, and I let my guard down.
"Hello. What brings you to me?"
"First, I came to apologize."
"Apologize?"
"The video that went up on the Legacy Gallery was my fault. It happened because I wasn't careful."
"Ah... so that was you."
I'd wondered who filmed it. So it was him.
From what he said, everyone in the party had been recording for the orc chieftain raid. He'd been marveling at the sight of me taking the chieftain down alone when the footage leaked, and because of that the gallery had suspected me of hacking and torn into me. He had come to apologize.
I accepted the apology from the streamer who had come all this way to give it in person.
"It's fine. Legacy officially cleared up the misunderstanding, and I don't really care anymore."
"Then, if it isn't too much, would an interview be all right?"
"An interview?"
"Yes. A great many people are still interested in the footage of you clearing the orc chieftain alone, and then clearing the Corrupted Arbiter with only one healer. I would like to post an interview with you on my Ryutube."
"Oh... how many subscribers do you have?"
"1.2 million."
"1.2 million!?"
1.2 million Ryutube subscribers was a major among majors. No wonder the video had spread so fast and so many people had seen it. When something like that happened on the broadcast of a 1.2-million-subscriber streamer, of course it blew up.
"All right. I'll do the interview."
"Truly!? Thank you!"
I couldn't even remember when my last interview had been. Back when I got a world first in an RPG as famous in that world as Legacy was in this one, I'd done an interview on a site called Inven.
This time it was an interview with a Ryutuber who had 1.2 million subscribers, and I was honestly looking forward to it.