The Offline Meetup
"Arang. I'll make you look pretty."
"...Okay."
Anna was changing my clothes. Today was the day of my offline meetup with Pink Berry.
I'd hit max level and tossed out the idea of meeting offline without really thinking about it. Pink Berry had gone blank for a second, but she'd nodded and said yes, and just like that it was settled.
Out in the real world I was getting a little better, if you could call it that. I'd evolved from a doll into a doll that could talk a little. The words still refused to come out the way I wanted them to.
Wait. If I met Pink Berry like this, I wouldn't even be able to hold a conversation. I'd have to log in through the connector and meet her from in there after all. What was the point of seeing someone I played with if we couldn't talk about the game?
Man. I'd been to plenty of offline meetups in my time, but I'd never heard of one held in a hospital. And the person who'd set it up would be sitting in a virtual world the whole time. An offline meetup that wasn't offline at all. Pink Berry was going to take one look at me and not know what to do with herself.
"All done! You're pretty, Arang!"
At Anna's words I ducked my head and looked myself over. A pure-white short-sleeve tee, and shorts cut like dolphin shorts. I could tell the clothes were pretty. On me, with no arms and no legs, they didn't look pretty at all. The sleeves hung loose and empty, and my cut-off legs dangled out of the shorts. I looked like nothing.
This is completely... hmm. No. Don't think about it.
With Anna's help I lay back on the bed, put the connector on, and switched on the ward screen. There I was, lying in the bed wedged between the enormous room, the thicket of medical machines, and the connector itself. Thanks to Anna, I at least looked like a living person. A minute ago, in a hospital gown, I'd looked like a corpse.
Good. Now all I needed was Pink Berry. How long had it been since my last offline meetup? And this one was with Pink Berry, the person I was having the most fun with in all of Legacy of Raid. I was already looking forward to it.
The moment I stepped into Seoul Asan Hospital, the size of the place shrank me a little. Crowds hurried past in every direction. I made for the information desk first.
"Excuse me..."
"Would you take a number and come back?"
The receptionist flicked a glance at me, sighed, and said it.
"No, that's not—"
"Take a number—"
She was already irritated.
"I'm here to see Arang!"
I rushed the name out the way Arang's email had told me to, if I wanted anyone to understand who I was looking for.
"Oh—you mean Arang?"
"Ah, y-yes!"
"One moment!!!"
The scowl vanished. She shot up from her chair and hurried off somewhere.
Wh-what?
Then it came back to me. There were only five MDB connectors like the one Arang used in the entire world. Why only five?
And that costume Arang wears... they give it away free once you hit ten million mileage. Ten million mileage is... a hundred million won... oh.
I was still turning that over when the receptionist came panting back.
"Hah... hah... Follow the doctor here and she'll take you."
"Hello. I'm Kim Hyeseon, Arang's attending physician."
"Oh—hello."
She's... beautiful...
"Please come with me."
The woman who'd just introduced herself as Arang's doctor looked like a celebrity. I followed her down the hall, and she asked whether I was a friend of Arang's.
"Ah, yes. I'm Arang's friend."
"Really? I'm so glad to hear Arang has a friend."
"Is she admitted here right now?"
"Yes... It's been three years since I became her doctor."
"Th-three years...?"
"Yes. It's been three years since Arang came here because of her illness."
"Illness..."
I'd expected as much. If Arang was on an MDB, I hadn't imagined she was using it for no reason. Hearing it from her own doctor felt different anyway.
We walked for a while and stopped in front of a small building.
"This is where Arang stays."
"This is a hospital building too? Somewhere this small...?"
"Ah—this building exists only for Arang. She's the only patient admitted here."
"...What?"
I'd thought it was small for a building full of patients. If Arang was the only one in it, it was enormous.
A hospital using a whole building for a single patient... Wh-who is Arang, exactly?
The doctor stopped the moment we reached the door.
"From here on, you'll need to follow my instructions carefully."
Machines lined the entrance. I disinfected my hands first, and as I passed through the door something went pssh and a mist breathed out over me.
"Don't worry. It's only disinfectant."
We passed through one checkpoint after another and came inside.
"Before you see Arang, a few things. First—please don't talk about her body."
"...Okay."
"Second, Arang is ill, but it isn't contagious, so you don't need to worry about that. And last—when you're with her, treat her like an ordinary child. Not like someone who's sick."
"Yes. I understand. I'll remember."
I took the doctor's words in and stepped into Arang's room. Medical equipment filled my view first. I walked past the machines, and a wide pane of glass waited ahead. Beyond it was the Arang I'd come to see.
"Hup—!"
I clapped both hands over my mouth. Between what the doctor had said and what I knew about the MDB, I'd pictured her, more or less. The reality was far worse, and a tremor ran through me.
Arang, lying in a king-size bed. The sight of her hit like a blow. No arms. No legs. That alone was enough to stop me, and the MDB was just as shocking. The connector built into the bed was nothing like the chokers people ordinarily wore. The MDB was as big as the bed itself, and machines reached out of it to fasten onto her body. Devices sat at her eyes and her throat, and several lines disappeared under her clothes across her torso. Sensors, probably. The kind of medical machinery I'd only ever seen in movies and dramas was reading her condition in real time.
"What is this..."
"Are you Pink Berry?"
"Wh-who are you?"
A woman's voice at my side. I turned and found someone even more beautiful than the doctor, saying my nickname.
"Hello. I'm Lee Anna, Arang's older sister. Thank you so much for coming all this way for her today."
"Hello... I'm Lee Hayan. I go by Pink Berry."
"Welcome, Hayan. Arang has been waiting for you like you wouldn't believe."
"She has...? I hope I'm not being a burden..."
"Not at all. You should hear how much she talks about you. Come in."
"Ah—y-yes!"
The door had barely opened when Arang's voice came ringing through the machines.
On the big screen that filled the room the moment I stepped in, the Arang I always saw in Legacy of Raid was smiling and waving. In the connector's personal space she looked exactly as she did in the game—cute, a bit of a troublemaker. I looked at that Arang, then dropped my eyes, and there was the real one, made one body with the enormous machine.
Did she live like this all the time? The girl on the bed and the bright, lively Arang from Legacy of Raid were perfect opposites.
Oh no. I thought too hard about it...!
Ack...!
Hearing her call me unni, head tipped just a little to the side, was so cute it nearly killed me.
"A-Arang, hi."
"Huh? Lunch? But Arang, you..."
We'd agreed to eat together. Then she'd asked, out of nowhere, what I wanted. Was I even allowed to answer? However I looked at her, she didn't seem able to eat anything at all.
"R-really...? Then how about you pick whatever you want?"
"Th-then..."
Wh-what am I supposed to pick...!?
I ransacked my head for delivery food as fast as I could. Looking at Arang now, nothing that would sit heavy. Fried food was out on principle. Snack-bar food? No. That was packed with seasoning too.
Ugh... wh-which one...!
Then a savior appeared.
"How about bossam? Sliced pork with wraps."
"B-bossam sounds great!"
"Then I'll order bossam."
"Y-yes!"
"Lee Hayan. I'm twenty-five."
I'd been wound tight, turning over every word before I dared say it, and Arang was as bright as if we'd just run into each other inside Legacy of Raid. But I knew. She couldn't hold on if she didn't do it this way.
Arang was only fifteen. At an age when she should have been running through school with her friends, going out to play, she was shut inside a hospital she couldn't leave, living without arms or legs. And that wasn't the end of it. Her body was bad enough that she needed an MDB, and she wasn't even here—she was in a virtual world.
Someone with a perfectly healthy mind would struggle to come through this unwounded. A fifteen-year-old was living it. Arang was enduring. Staying as bright as she could, because if she didn't, she wouldn't last.
And what made me certain of that was what Arang did the instant she came out of the virtual world.