Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Back in high school, I'd even skip class to hit the PC bang and grind out some insane gaming skills. Useless crap like that had no place to be used unless you were gonna become a pro gamer.
And that's how it really was.
Unless you got lucky and blew up overnight, there were plenty of skilled people streaming out there. But as a host—especially when dealing with a client as unique as Seonwoo Ye-rang—it was more than worth its value.
[Remaining players: 4]
"Including us, that's two. Might be one team, or maybe a 1v1v2."
"Probably a 2v2, right? I heard gunshots coming from the 175 direction earlier, and it went quiet right after that. Honestly, that's a good spot to hide, and if they stayed quiet after hearing shots, they're either fucking terrible or that one team survived intact."
"That makes sense."
Ye-rang had even forgotten to curse, her face practically buried in the monitor as she focused intensely. A massive amount of sweat was pouring down her forehead.
It dripped off her chin and pooled in her cleavage.
But even in that state, Ye-rang's nerves were completely sold out to the game called [Space Ground] on the monitor.
This was exactly why Ye-rang loved this game.
She was a person whose thoughts moved dozens of times faster than others. But when playing games—especially this tense battle royale—she could focus every bit of her attention on it.
At times like this, she could forget about the shitty reality, the crypto, everything.
'But what the hell does she have to be stressed about?'
Even from what I'd casually heard, Ye-rang's money was in the hundreds of billions to trillions. Would someone with that kind of wealth have anything to stress about in Korea?
Even as I wondered, I also cranked my focus up to max on the game in front of me.
'We've made it to the final round, the final team.'
We absolutely had to win.
Each round was precious.
"Sigh... Whoosh..."
Neither of us even made small talk.
Because we both knew that, as a characteristic of FPS games in the battle royale genre, if one person goes down first, the situation becomes unreasonably disadvantageous.
[The play zone is shrinking.]
'That's weird.'
By now, I should have been able to see their face from my side. There's no way they could endure the penalty outside the zone at this point.
But the fact that I didn't see any sign from my side...
Probably...
"Kyah! Fuck!"
[Your ally has been eliminated.]
...I knew it.
"Ah, fuck! I did land a few hits though. They were healing right away, ah... ah, I'm so fucking sorry. Ah, sorry. They must have just crawled over here quietly from the start while prone."
Hearing Ye-rang's rare apology, I quietly pressed my index finger to her lips.
"I'll handle it."
"Uh..."
A sweet-sounding reply came back, but I didn't have the leisure to pay attention to that either.
I had to focus, and focus again.
'At least I know their position now.'
I didn't get nothing out of Ye-rang's death. I know where the enemy is. And the enemy doesn't know where I am.
There was still plenty of possibility.
'They'll definitely maintain a distance where they can cover each other at any time, pinpoint where I might be, and slowly close in.'
「Click!」
Instead of the most stable and popular assault rifle in this game, I picked up a sniper weapon—the kind usually used for fun or when making crazy montage videos.
'I have to do it.'
The average time per round in this game, when reaching the final round, was 25 to 30 minutes.
I couldn't just throw away that long stretch of time.
"Gulp."
Just as Ye-rang swallowed next to me.
I urgently turned my mouse to find the enemy's position, then fired with what even I thought was an insane flick shot.
「BAM!」
With a sniper rifle, the recoil and gunshot sound were enormous, so those bastards definitely knew my location instantly.
[You have knocked out 1 enemy!]
Got it, fuck!
My bullet hit the enemy's head.
I'd at least set the first button right. By sniping, I'd knocked one out before it turned into a 2v1.
"Hey! Revive!"
"I know!"
Even before the call to revive came out, both Ye-rang and I shouted at the same time.
It was at a distance.
Even if I immediately put my gun away and ran over, the enemy had clearly judged that reviving would be faster and was already saving their knocked teammate.
「Click!」
Now for a little psychological warfare.
I deliberately threw the grenade late, and precisely a bit behind the position of the enemy I'd knocked out.
"I revived them!"
"I let you save them on purpose!"
Even pros sometimes make this mistake—when you need to abandon a teammate, you really should.
When the revive was almost complete, people tended to unconsciously hesitate and not take their hands off the keyboard out of lingering regret. And no matter how well a teammate revived you, when you came back from being knocked, your HP was 1.
Then...!
[You have knocked out 1 enemy!]
"Nice! Fuck, that was insane! That bastard's caught in the blast too, right? Their HP's shredded!"
I was already running.
And I predicted that the bastard, hearing my footsteps, would decide to shoot me rather than heal, so I already had my crosshair aimed at where they'd have to pop out.
Right then, the bastard peeked their head out.
「Rat-a-tat-tat!」
Didn't even need to shoot much.
I was sure their HP was already below half, so a three-tap.
Three shots to the head and the enemy dies.
[Victory!]
[Yay, let's go eat some chicken today!]
"Whoosh..."
Exactly as calculated, I also felt a bit of catharsis and let out the breath I'd been holding.
And as I was about to wipe the sweat dripping from my own forehead and Ye-rang's...
"Mph!"
Before that, Ye-rang lunged at me and bit my lip like she was going to tear it off. Watching this, she really was a wild horse like no other.
If it were an ordinary guy, they'd be so shocked they couldn't react properly, but I wasn't.
Instead, I instantly grabbed the back of Ye-rang's head and pulled her toward me, shoving my tongue so deep I wondered if it was hitting the back of her throat.
"Uuuung, huung! Ureung, tchup...!"
Pummeling her with kiss after kiss using my entire tongue and lips to satisfy her, it was Ye-rang who raised the white flag first.
Seeing her slap my back with a smack, I deliberately waited about three seconds before letting go of the back of her head.
"Phewhaa... I thought I was gonna... die."
"No way."
"I said I thought I was gonna die from pleasure, fuck! Ah, shit, look at it dripping down between my legs. Damn, my panties are soaking wet..."
Saying that, Ye-rang immediately downed a glass of Royal Salute and handed me a glass too.
"Drink up. If you eat some fucking delicious appetizers, you gotta wash it down with alcohol."
"Got it."
"Ah, I was seriously shitting myself just now. No lie, I almost peed my pants right there. Watching your play, no bullshit, there wasn't a single unnecessary move. Out of countless crossroads, you only picked the right choice."
"Because I fucking worked to do that."
"That headshot was insane too."
"The enemy being kind enough to run in a straight line helped too. Made it easy to calculate bullet velocity and drop. But still..."
Honestly, even I thought that play just now was pretty impressive.
"Whoosh... Look at all this sweat. Fuck, every time I play this game, I'm drenched all over. Especially my chest, it's like a pool."
"Should I turn on the AC?"
"Nonono, that's a bit cold. I'm the type that always catches a cold if I sweat and then hit the AC. Well, it's fine. I'll just take it off."
"...Then you'll be naked, you know? You didn't even wear a bra."
"And that's the beauty of it. Usually when I look at coin charts, I sit in the chair completely naked."
Just... isn't she a crazy bitch?
'They say all geniuses are weirdos.'
But even a genius like her wasn't born with the physical gaming skill, which is probably why she likes hosts like me.
"Ha, this is it, this."
As she whipped off the crop top she was wearing, Ye-rang's C-cup breasts bounced into view.
Seeing her nipples fully erect, she must have really gotten excited from that play just now.
A woman who gets turned on while gaming—that was Seonwoo Ye-rang.
The problem was that this game, [Space Ground], had already been out for over four years, so there were almost no new users left, only veterans.
So it was genuinely very difficult to feed her a chicken or carry her like I just did.
No way other hosts could pull that off.
On the contrary, it would have just pissed Ye-rang off.
"If those other bastards were even half as good as you, I'd have bought them a car or something. Fuck, those retards with their useless fingers were more of a burden than help. Pissed me the hell off."
When the game went well, she got excited, but when it went badly, she'd turn ice cold.
Naturally, no man had ever been able to have a satisfying fuck with Ye-rang.
'That would be a shame, though.'
She's even prettier now, but even before she lost weight, Ye-rang was plenty attractive. A young heiress barely 24 years old.
There really was no other woman the hosts wanted to sink their straws into more than her.
Plus, she was a mood-driven person, so if you just played along, you could get Patek Philippes, cars... if you wanted, mountains of luxury goods.
'I honestly don't want to go that far, so I refused most of it.'
People might say, "What's a guy taking money from a woman as a host got to be so picky about?" but I've never liked owing people or getting freebies since way back.
Probably an obsession I developed after getting scammed a few times with real-money transactions in an online RPG called Maple Leaf Story back in middle school. That if some bastard flashes a friendly smile and offers something for free, there's always a dark motive hiding behind it.
"Hoo... I feel like even if I go out five rounds in a row now, I'd be fine. Hey, let's keep the momentum going—ready up."
"Okay, let's go."
"Oh, and let's have another drink while the game loads. You keep trying to avoid alcohol today, so I wanna get you drunker."
Wicked bitch...
Cursing her in my head, I still had to down another glass of Royal Salute.
"Krrr."
The alcohol was starting to hit me a little.
Even for hosts who train themselves by drinking and throwing up repeatedly, the 38-year-old Royal Salute was a whopping 40% alcohol.
Downing it straight like this, no ice, would inevitably get you drunk.
"Whoosh."
I held onto my sanity as best I could and focused back on the game.
As people started joining the lobby one by one, Ye-rang watched me with a playful expression, then pressed her bare chest—no bra—against my head and rubbed it.
"Hnng... Why are you so serious today? Here I am, even flashing my tits right next to you, and you're just working too hard, aren't you? Makes me a little sad, you know?"
"Aish, it's nothing like that. How many women in Korea have tits as attractive as noona's?"
"You wanna leave that badly?"
"I told you it's not like that, haha."
I fucking want to leave right now.
Seriously, I wonder why I'm like this, but I'm going crazy worrying about the little bastard I left alone at home.
[Current Time]
[PM 7:38]
Each round was precious.
Ye-rang said to me.
"Before the game starts, fondle my tits a bit and suck on my nipples. Hurry up."
Fucking bitch.