Chapter 128
Chapter 128
Standing in front of the PC bang kiosk, Baek Gyeonwoo asked.
"How many hours do you want to play?"
"Isn't one hour enough?"
Looking at me with an incredulous expression, Baek Gyeonwoo soon paid for two seats for 100 minutes without consulting me.
And we went and sat at seats right in the middle.
I had wanted to go for a corner seat if possible, but it wasn't a situation where I could choose freely. The place was so packed that just finding two empty seats was lucky.
I said as I sat down.
"It's a holiday but there are so many people."
"It's a holiday, so of course there are many."
"Really...?"
'In my common sense, holidays and PC bangs seemed kind of at odds with each other. That's unexpected.'
While I pressed the computer power button and waited for it to boot up, Baek Gyeonwoo spoke.
"What do you want to play?"
"Whatever you're playing."
"I haven't played in a long time either."
As he said that, Baek Gyeonwoo, who had been frowning at the brightly lit computer screen, clicked on a game icon a moment later.
'Oh, that's...'
It was a game I knew well.
It was the holiday special broadcast <Dollimpic 20XX>. Since it was one of the e-sports events, I had often watched it.
It was a survival-type game where only the last one standing remains, and because there were many types of weapons, I often saw fans pairing weapons with their idols.
'That'd be worthwhile.'
I'd have to learn hard and aim to compete at Chuseok.
The longer I survived, the longer I'd be visible in front of fans, so I'd take it seriously.
"Just sign up quickly."
"Ah, okay."
As Baek Gyeonwoo said, I clicked the icon to sign up for the game site.
Suddenly, two cups were thrust between us.
"It's on the house."
On the house?
As I turned my head and met the employee's eyes, Baek Gyeonwoo casually accepted the drink and gave a slight bow.
I also hastily accepted the drink and bowed.
"Thank you."
After the employee left, I leaned toward Baek Gyeonwoo.
"Do PC bangs normally give out free service drinks?"
"It happens pretty often."
That's interesting. I wasn't going to drink it anyway, but...
Anyway, I successfully completed the sign-up.
At last, I pressed the activated game start button, and a loading screen appeared in the center of the screen.
After a short wait, the game finally launched.
[Enter your nickname: (2-12 characters)]
'Hmm.'
I typed in the ID I mostly used whenever I signed up for a site.
[cha1225]
"What are you, an old man?"
"What about it?"
I'd been using this since elementary school.
I checked the nickname of the younger-generation Baek Gyeonwoo, who had sneered at my ID.
[nickname1111]
"......."
It was so half-hearted it left me speechless.
Following Baek Gyeonwoo's instructions, I clicked a few times, and soon cha1225 and nickname1111 were standing side by side in the same online space.
Something popped up saying it was a tutorial, but I figured Baek Gyeonwoo would teach me anyway, so I skipped it without a second thought.
And Baek Gyeonwoo...
"What are you doing?"
"You just hit like this."
Far from teaching me the controls, he just roamed around energetically on his own, then soon came back in front of my character and started swinging his arm.
He was holding a frying pan in one hand.
"......."
Looking at cha1225 getting beaten up...
Somehow it felt oddly strange. Even though it wasn't me getting hit.
I clicked the left mouse button, and cha1225 extended a bare fist right in front of nickname1111's face.
"Why am I bare-handed? What about a weapon?"
"Go pick one up."
Hearing that, I recalled a Dollimpic I had once seen.
I seemed to remember an explanation that the core winning strategy of this game was picking up items from the field, then continuously upgrading them to make top-tier weapons.
'Hmm...'
The games I knew were supposed to be played for fun.
Is this really... fun? It just looks like labor.
Anyway, for the sake of the future e-sports competitor and the still-being-beaten-up cha1225, I set out on a treasure hunt.
As I exited the building where we were with nickname1111, Baek Gyeonwoo said, as if proud.
"Oh, you even know how to use the movement keys."
Of course I could do that much.
The outside was a desolate city with buildings sparsely placed.
The place we had been in, when checked from outside, turned out to be a rather cozy-looking house.
'It reminds me of the Director.'
Games are said to be a comprehensive art. True to that, you could tell that meticulous care had been put into the aesthetics of each and every building, road, and sign.
I moved the mouse around, sightseeing inside the game...
But within a few seconds, I immediately went back into the building where nickname1111 was waiting.
After safely parking my character, I turned my head and made eye contact with Baek Gyeonwoo, who had been watching my screen while sipping his free drink.
Baek Gyeonwoo asked.
"What?"
"I just saw someone."
"Of course there are. There are 17 people."
"It wasn't just the two of us?"
Baek Gyeonwoo said, as if it was absurd.
"What would we do if it were just the two of us? Kill each other?"
......Is that not allowed?
It was a twist: I had thought it was just practice, but it was a real match.
I had stopped because of an unwarranted surge of tension, and seeing me like that, Baek Gyeonwoo grabbed his own mouse.
A moment later, nickname1111 approached my character.
"Take this stuff with you."
Soon, items plopped down at cha1225's feet.
A baseball bat, a bandage, water...
I stared at Baek Gyeonwoo.
Baek Gyeonwoo raised his eyebrows and asked.
"What?"
"I don't know how to pick them up."
"F...."
True to his word, I pressed 'F', and one by one, icons filled the four empty slots at the bottom center of the screen.
'This is the inventory.'
I had at least picked up that term somewhere.
Though it was just a picture, looking at the somehow reassuring inventory window, I once again headed outside the building.
"Then guard the house well. I'll be back."
"What do you mean you'll be back? This area's about to close and disappear soon."
"Ah...."
Right. The system was that after a set time, the outer zones closed one by one, and the play area gradually shrank.
I knew this, of course, from watching Dollimpic broadcasts.
I had no choice but to leave the beloved house together with Baek Gyeonwoo.
But our adventure didn't last long.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, the screen went dark, and red text appeared.
"What, why... Oh, it says I'm dead."
"......."
Baek Gyeonwoo, who had already swiftly evacuated his own character into the bushes, explained.
"Must've been a sniper. Looks like you took a headshot."
Then he added, as if puzzled.
"Still, it's hard to get one-shotted this early."
Then he nodded to himself as if he'd figured it out.
"Ah, you were at half HP."
"Half HP?"
"I beat you up too much earlier."
"What?"
"There's something like that. Switch to spectator mode and watch."
After saying that, Baek Gyeonwoo focused back on the game.
I stared blankly at my screen, which had turned gray.
'......'
Is this really fun?
This isn't working. I should just stick to the track events for <Dollimpic>...
It was just as I was giving up on that one dream.
A small chat window flickered at the bottom right of the screen.
[(Whisper) COVO: ♡♡]
[(Whisper) COVO: ㅠㅠ]
"......."
Who was sending me these meaningless whispers?
They probably sent it to the wrong person. Thinking nothing of it, I looked at Baek Gyeonwoo's computer screen, but soon grew bored and grabbed my mouse.
I was planning to minimize the game window, go on NeoTube, and check the comment reactions on our 'ISLAND' MV.
As I moved my gaze, I suddenly noticed a line of text above the chat window.
'Wait, that nickname.'
I raised my eyes upward.
[You were killed by COVO...]
"Gyeon-woo."
"What?"
"Seems like the person who killed me feels sorry."
"Isn't he just messing with you?"
No, he sent a heart.
Leaving Baek Gyeonwoo, who was still not taking his eyes off the game screen, I tapped on the keyboard to type a reply.
[cha1225: Not at all]
I was about to follow it up with 'It's fine.'
However, because of the difference in typing speed, a reply came back before my words reached them.
[(Whisper) COVO: ♡♡]
[(Whisper) COVO: ^^]
"Hmm...."
[cha1225: Thank you]
[(Whisper) COVO: ♡♡]
No, I just couldn't communicate at all.
'Ah, no way.'
Was this one of those situations where two people can't figure out who should end the conversation, so they endlessly exchange parting words?
If so, I'd be the one to ignore them first. I had been planning to start ignoring them anyway.
But even as I kept an eye on the chat window, new messages kept coming in.
[(Whisper) COVO: ♡♡]
......The internet really is full of weird people.
"What are you doing?"
Baek Gyeonwoo, whose screen had also gone dark as if he had died by now, finally paid attention to me again.
He stared intently at my screen for a moment, then stayed silent.
"Give it here."
He took my keyboard and typed for me.
[cha1225: Let's be quiet and play the game]
And he explained.
"This is an insult."
"What is?"
"An insult. Look."
Baek Gyeonwoo typed 'crazy bastard' into his own chat window.
Then when he pressed the enter key, a chat arrived on my end.
[(Whisper) nickname1111: ♡♡]
"If a sentence contains a swear word, it shows up like this."
Wow...
"You don't even know what filtering is?"
"Ah, filtering."
Now that he said filtering, I understood.
There had been a similar feature in the now-defunct idol live broadcast app a long time ago.
If you sent profanity in the chat, it would get replaced with a cute word like nyangnyang, one of the filter words set by the operators...
'Oh?'
Nyangnyang...
Nyangnyang?
"Gyeon-woo."
"What?"
"Did Hainoeo finishes promotions?"
"Their last broadcast was the same week as ours."
Damn, why are idol promotions so short these days?
Still, if I go through the manager, it should be easy to get in touch. Though it won't be possible right now because of the holiday.
'Filtering...'
It's definitely connected to the System.
That person wouldn't have suddenly sworn at me. And wouldn't it be strange in context in the first place?
If so, it must be a word the System set on its own.
...There's a problem before I can even start deducing.
'I already forgot what conversation we had.'
I only faintly remember that it was something about Kim Sanho.
The aftermath of Mmph-mmph was so huge that I just categorized it as a 'strange conversation,' shoved it into a corner of my mind, and didn't think deeply about it anymore.
I should ask Kim Sanho about it when I get home later...
"Hey."
At that moment, Baek Gyeonwoo grabbed my arm.
"What?"
Baek Gyeonwoo gestured with his eyes toward somewhere.
The direction he's pointing to is... the ceiling.
"Not that, the speaker."
Ah, the speaker.
I had been staring at the speaker on the wall following Baek Gyeonwoo's gaze, but then I realized something and looked at him.
"......."
"......."
The music playing right now...
'It's Island.'
A few minutes later, 'island' finished its turn, and our voices echoing through the store faded out.
The next song selected was.
'Aiming.'
It was the song that appeared as the background in Baek Gyeonwoo's teaser.
"......Since when?"
"I heard it up to MAZE coming on before Island."
Up to MAZE isn't strange. Anyone would get that just by clicking play-all on the Top 100.
But the fact that three of our songs came on in a row... it was clear what was going on.
I got up from my seat and checked the counter far away.
...Our eyes met.
And the employee, startled, ducked down behind the counter.
'Could it be that this free drink was also...'
Seeming to think the same thing as me, Baek Gyeonwoo was rolling his eyes while staring at the drink cup.
"What should we do?"
"......If they'd talk to us first, we'd do something, but..."
I'd had my share of experiences meeting fans outside, but this was the first time someone had only subtly hinted like this. Though it could be that I'd just never noticed before.
In other words, it was also the first time for me to be the one to approach and say, 'Are you our fan?'
No, I hadn't done it yet, so it wasn't even the first time.
'What if I make them feel burdened.'
Baek Gyeonwoo's face also showed that he was flustered by this situation anyone could see was a first for him.
After pondering for a bit, I opened the order window from the desktop.
Watching me, Baek Gyeonwoo asked.
"What are you trying to do?"
"I'm going to buy them something. Hmm, the most expensive thing. Spicy stir-fried pork rice..."
"Ordering something that has to be made just gives them more work. Give it here."
Baek Gyeonwoo took my mouse and went into the snack category.
Then he clicked on every single snack on the menu and added them to the cart.
"That's... excessive."
"......Hmm."
As our worries deepened like that.
A message came from the employee.