Repaying the Kindness
Even after he made it back to his seat, the part-timer sat there hollow-eyed, his mind somewhere else entirely.
The fight he had stolen a glance at over her shoulder kept rewinding and playing itself again. How did anyone play like that? The more coldly he went back over it, the more there was nothing to do but marvel. However he turned it, she outclassed most of the Heavenly Realm players he had watched on YouTube—and it was not only her. Both of them did.
By tier, Grandmaster at the bare minimum. Personally, he was starting to suspect they might even be Rankers.
Of course, a Ranker was only one of the top hundred on a single server. Korea's Eternal Battle player base had to be half a million at the least, which, by his rough math, came out to 0.0002 percent. And as he had already figured, anyone at that level was bound to be known by name. A woman Ranker? It would be strange if she were not the talk of the whole community.
So there was no satisfying way to learn who she really was.
The part-timer let out a long, quiet sigh. He was not hoping to get close to her. He only wanted to see her face. But today had been her first visit, and she had looked as if she almost never set foot in a PC bang at all. If that was the case, tonight was nothing but a whim, and the odds were high she would never come back.
The moment he thought it, the strength drained out of him.
"Excuse me."
Huh? That odd flicker of déjà vu...
He turned, and there she was again, standing at the counter just as before. He flinched, startled.
Calm down. Don't panic.
She had her coat on. Was she leaving?
"What can I do for you, ma'am?"
Good. This time he got it out without tripping over his tongue.
"What's that?"
He followed the line of her pointing finger. A poster was stuck to one wall of the PC bang. He stared at it for a moment, then his face lit up and the words came pouring out.
"Oh! That's the notice for the Eternal Battle tournament we're holding here tomorrow!"
"A tournament?"
"Yes! Take first place and there's a prize of a whole million won! It's tomorrow, and you can enter if you'd like. Should I get you a sign-up form?"
If she really did enter, the win was as good as hers. But that hardly mattered. All that mattered was that if she entered, he would get to see her face again tomorrow.
She studied the poster in silence. For some reason the moment felt taut. The part-timer swallowed and waited for whatever answer would follow.
"No. I'm good."
"Ah..."
There was not a crack of room in it. She did not seem to have the slightest interest; the moment that indifferent reply left her, she walked straight out of the PC bang.
"Take care."
"...Right. Come again."
This time it was not a courtesy. He meant it. She did not react at all. She only turned her back.
Was this really goodbye for good, with a woman whose name he did not even know? A hollow ache settled in his chest, and with it a single scene rose in his mind. The instant it did, he caught her without thinking as she left.
"H-hey, just a second!"
"...Yes?"
She turned, puzzled. He hesitated, then found the nerve to ask.
"That match just now...! Who won!?"
She tipped her head at the strange question, plainly bewildered. Even that was beautiful, but right now the fight from earlier refused to leave his head. He had to know. If he did not hear who had won that duel, he was certain he would not sleep tonight.
She gave a small shrug.
"It was a draw."
A user could only read it roughly, but HP had a precise number behind it. Level, health, armor, set bonuses—all of it made that number shift. In a battle royale where only one person walked out alive, the precision barely mattered. In the Duel Arena, where a time limit existed, it was theoretically possible for both sides to finish on the exact same HP and force a draw.
Theory, and nothing more. The odds of it happening in a real match were vanishingly small. And yet that vanishing chance had just come true.
Looking at the bars, I had thought our HP was close. I never imagined we would actually tie. If I had won, I would have celebrated the way I always did. If I had lost, nothing but rage and irritation would have surged up, and I would have felt wretched. A fight this fierce ending with no winner and no loser—that was a feeling I had never had in my life. Too dark to call simple joy, too bright to call anger. A feeling that would not fit inside a single word, and at the end of it, one thought.
I want to fight again.
I had never expected to meet an opponent like this in a game, of all places, and not in the real world.
They had left the moment the match ended, so I never got to send a friend request, but I burned that name into my memory so I would never forget it.
You'd better take it as an honor.
From now on, you're my rival.
Even on the walk home I was busy replaying the match. How could I have fought better? Should I have answered that attack like this? I was so deep in it that the shop was suddenly in front of me.
Wait. What time is it?
Eight.
Sua had been very clear: do not come back before ten. But this was beyond my control. I had just walked out of a fight that left my heart pounding, and going straight into smurfing some rookies to wipe that feeling away would have been nothing short of torture.
"Screw it."
I decided to go in. I could live with a little scolding. I was not about to turn around and leave now.
Up close, the shop lights were off. Sua was not back yet, it seemed. My head spun fast. What if I claimed I had arrived exactly one minute before she did? It probably would not work, but it still had to be better than honestly admitting I had eaten dinner at the PC bang and come straight home.
I opened the door while I was still assembling the best excuse I could manage, and I was so startled I screamed before I could stop myself.
"Agh! Damn. You scared me..."
Sua was sitting at a corner table.
She was inside? Why was she sitting there in the dark like a ghost? I'll admit it—I flinched. A hundred battlefields behind me, and she rattled me in a single instant. So Sua really was not an ordinary girl after all.
I turned on the lights and spoke as casually as I could manage.
"What are you, a child of the dark? Live with a light on once in a while."
Truth was, I was the one who deserved to hear that.
She was usually so bright and full of energy. What was wrong with her today?
Click.
The fluorescent lights came on, and the whole shop brightened with them. So did Sua's face, which I had not been able to see until now.
"...What. Were you crying?"
"Gaeul unni..."
"What is it? What happened?"
Sua was sniffling, her voice thick and nasal. This was seriously not normal. No matter what happened, this kid always just grinned like an idiot, and now she was sniffling like that. I sat down beside her at once, coaxing her as gently as I could, and asked. A long while passed before Sua finally managed to get the words out.
"They said Grandpa's cancer suddenly got worse..."
That was definitely bad. Gramps was already back in the hospital with the cancer returned, and if it was not improving but getting worse, that meant he was truly in danger.
"They said we have to hurry and get the surgery done before it's too late."
"Then we should do it right away."
"But the surgery cost..."
Right. So that was the problem.
I had forgotten, for a little while, just how much money mattered in the modern world. Ironically, on the battlefield money was nothing but useless scraps of paper, but out here it was no exaggeration to say nothing mattered more.
"How much do you need?"
"Five million won by next week..."
"Isn't there insurance?"
Sua answered with a dark look on her face.
"Grandpa already had cancer surgery once, and the policy's packed with exception clauses, so they said we can barely get anything..."
"Unbelievable. So how much is the insurer actually putting up?"
"...About a million won."
So the real amount we had to cover was four million. It had only been three months, but living with Sua, I had a rough sense of how the household stood. As things were, scraping together four million by next week was impossible.
Why did tragedy always land on good people? Or was it only called a tragedy because it landed on someone good?
Sua's eyes were swollen bright red, and she managed a weak smile.
"It's okay. I'll find the money."
"...You're a kid. How are you going to find it?"
"If it really comes to it, I'll have to put the shop up for sale."
I could not believe what I was hearing. I was so thrown that I shot up out of my seat. I knew how much Sua loved that shop. Words like those, coming from her, were almost impossible to imagine.
"...Hey. You. What are you saying? If you sell the shop, what about your dream?"
"If Grandpa dies, what good is the shop?"
Sua put on a brave face and added, forcing the cheer.
"And I changed my dream! Living all snug and happy together, just Grandpa and you and me—that's my dream now!"
No. This was not it. Did she think I was going to sit quietly and watch a story like this play out?
I had exactly two creeds in life. Better to die than to lose. And kindness and grudges both get paid back.
Sua was my close little sister. A benefactor I owed. And my new family.
"Hey. Sell the shop and you're dead."
"...Unni?"
"Four million, you said. By next week, I'll get it somehow."
I flicked the cheeky brat on the forehead as I said it.
"You just make the jjamppong and wait."