Episode 30. That's Why I Don't Want to Go

"The name that was hidden just showed itself."

The quest had updated, and the window was no longer the same. The giant's true name, once buried under a mosaic, stood in the open, and a clear mark had appeared beside it.

And then there was this.

Some message he couldn't begin to parse hung in the air before his eyes.

"The first time I saw it, I didn't have a spare second to think, so I brushed it off. But the longer I look at it, the stranger it gets."

That it was visible only to him was strange enough. Stranger still was the rest of the quest, every line of it still sealed behind a veil. Whatever the case, he was sure of one thing: this was bound up with his regression.

"Gather the keys and unleash my potential?"

He didn't even know what potential was supposed to mean. He'd obtained a key, or so the window claimed, and yet nothing about him had changed. No item in his hands. Nothing.

"What the..."

He reached for the message without thinking.

A wash of golden light burst across his vision, and the world changed.

"What—?!"

A heartbeat ago he had been standing in Soohyuk's empty room, the one they'd hastily converted into his broadcast studio. Now he was somewhere vast beyond measure, and dark. It wasn't the sensation of logging into the Channel. This was something else entirely.

Clank!

He stumbled back in alarm, and his elbow struck something solid. When he turned, an enormous door filled the space behind him—an iron gate of staggering size, wound tight in tens of thousands of chains and sealed fast by four locks.

Wait. Locks?

The thought struck, and he leaned in at once, studying the locks one by one. Just as he'd expected, a key was seated in the leftmost of them.

The reward for bringing Goegi down. The First Key.

"Aha. So that's the game. Gather every key, just like this."

He understood the shape of it well enough. Collect them all, undo the locks, and whatever waited beyond that door would be set free. He had no idea what that something was.

Whatever it is, I doubt it's going to hurt me.

And if this quest was tied to his regression—and, beyond that, to the beings of the Outside—then he had an obligation to gather every key and see for himself.

"Wait for me," he said, a small smile touching his mouth as he faced the shut gate and set his resolve. "I'll be back before long with the rest."

The moment they stepped into the pork-belly place, Soohyuk poured soju into Jaeha's glass as if he'd been waiting on him.

"You're a little late."

"Had to wash up. I was caked in sweat and dust."

Jaeha popped a piece of meat into his mouth and chewed. The flesh gave softly under his teeth, and the juices burst, hot and rich. Of every cut of meat humanity had ever discovered, pork belly might just be the greatest.

"Haaah—this is why I can never move out of here. No other place does it like this."

Soohyuk tossed back his soju and smiled, thoroughly satisfied.

"Oh, right. About the chat mod. Doing it alone was killing me, so I temporarily handed mod privileges to someone else. Figured I ought to tell you."

Chat was its own kind of work, and it demanded a careful hand. Leave it alone and the window would rot in no time—ad spam, vicious cursing, sexual comments, clique-forming, the whole miserable spread.

"I picked one person for now. By my standards, one of your regulars. And they're actually good at it. I finally got a chance to breathe, man."

"Yeah? Then just leave them on as mod."

The handle Soohyuk showed him was this.

"...Hmm?"

The name was familiar. This HeartFlutter_01—he was sure of it.

Yeah. That was the one. The guy behind those unhinged, fight-me chats.

Jaeha shot his brother a look of quiet disbelief, and the explanation came at once.

"The way they type is a little intense, sure. But they don't curse, and they don't use hate speech. More than that, the second they spot a chat that crosses the line, they report it. In a window moving so fast even I can't keep up."

A reported chat went to the moderator first. The mod reviewed it and decided what penalty the account deserved. In short, this HeartFlutter_01 had been the one sorting out the bad chats and flagging them for Soohyuk more than anyone else.

"Fair call, wouldn't you say?"

"Fair."

So what if they were a little intense? If they did the job, that was enough. For some reason, Jaeha pictured a burly, rough-cut man in the mold of Jo Ikdeok, eyes blazing as he hunted down malicious comments.

"Anyway. That's that."

Soohyuk set his glass down lightly.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"What do you mean, what am I going to do?"

"You're not stopping just because you hit Silver. You said you could do it. Go pro."

He'd only just pinned on Silver. Even so, he needed the shape of a KPL debut in his head from here on out. Joining a pro team wasn't the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sort of thing you stamped in a day and celebrated with a chorus of wow, we're family now.

"I know you've got your own ideas, but... you're not planning to go back to Sky Epic, are you."

"I wouldn't go back there if it killed me."

Even now, the mere thought of that place set his teeth grinding. Even if they offered him a starting spot on the spot, he had no intention of returning. So long as someone like Park Gyubo was on that roster, teamwork couldn't exist. Forget a championship. They'd be lucky not to get relegated.

Baek Huiyeon, at least, has the skill, and she's cooperative in her own way.

She was always taciturn, always quiet, and he could never tell what she was thinking. Still, if she heard how far he'd come, wouldn't she be at least a little surprised?

No. She never cared about any of this. She might not know a thing.

Either way, Sky Epic wasn't even under consideration.

"Things have changed a lot since a little while ago. These days, a middling team wouldn't even dare try to bring you in."

"That bad? I know my price went up, but I'm still just Silver."

"Not just Silver. You're the Silver that K1 reached out to first."

K1. They reigned as emperors of the league, and they were famous for a nose held that high and standards to match. It was already common knowledge that a player K1 picked up would be lifting a trophy within three years.

"The fact that K1 made a pass at you was enough to shake every middling team off the board. From that moment on, you were a golden commodity and a problem child at the same time."

"A problem child."

"They don't sign carelessly. But a player they've decided to sign—"

The meat hissed as it hit the grill.

"—they sign. No exceptions."

A fresh cut went down on the iron.

"K1 doesn't let go of prey it's marked. Especially not someone like you right now, with the skill and the buzz."

The pink flesh browned to a deep gold.

"Right now you're meat cooked exactly right to eat. The placement matches put a rank on you, and that'll only make you more famous. And your skill? What you've already shown is more than enough."

Soohyuk lifted a neatly cut piece with his chopsticks.

"They're going to try to eat you now. Before you burn any hotter and char."

He put ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it in his mouth.

"Honestly, even I think K1 is a good choice. Get in there, and inside of three years you'll have a championship on the record, easy."

"True enough. Unless the squad collapses out of nowhere."

"Right. So..."

"So that's why I don't want to go, hyung."

Jaeha set a piece of meat down in front of him.

"Like you said, if I join K1 now, I might win a championship inside three years. But I wouldn't be the one lifting the trophy, would I?"

"Lifting the trophy... isn't that the same thing?"

"K1 as it stands is already complete. It's no exaggeration to call them the strongest team in history."

The best roster in the game, built around Nam Siwoo, the strongest player in the KPL. The current K1 was judged the strongest, most perfect all-around team in the league's entire history—a true hexagon, with no weak side.

Which is another way of saying there's no gap for me to fit into.

"Sure, I could win. As a substitute. A benchwarmer. Maybe down in the second team. No matter what I do, anything past that is going to be rough."

With the goal he had in mind, he couldn't be satisfied with a seat that low. To be selected for the national team—and beyond that, as a representative of this dimension—

I have to be the one they see lifting the trophy myself.

He was someone who had to look farther than what sat in front of him. Dazzled by a prestigious name and the taste of a championship, he would accomplish nothing.

"...Pfft! Yeah. That's so you. I like it."

Soohyuk laughed as if something in him were satisfied, and raised his glass. The modest little party celebrating Silver ended just like that.

Joo Yeonseo stared at the messages that had arrived and could not keep the bewilderment off her face.

"A... a rejection...?!"

She couldn't believe it.

Jung Soohyuk, twenty-eight. Coach of The First, one of the KPL's prestigious clubs—an elite whose ability had been recognized young. She had first heard his name in an interview with Teya. He had streamed with Shin Jaeha, and she had thought she might pry some useful approach out of that. Unfortunately, when it came to anything about Shin Jaeha, he had kept his mouth stubbornly shut. She had, however, happened to catch the name of the manager who had come with him.

Jung Soohyuk had already been someone she was watching closely, so she started digging—and what she turned up was that he had a younger brother he treated like his own, and that the brother's name was Shin Jaeha.

Heh. Shin Jaeha is going to be ours. K1's.

As luck would have it, there was still no word of any other team having made contact. If they reached Shin Jaeha first through Jung Soohyuk, they would lock him down before anyone else. She had taken that for granted.

Until she saw these messages this morning.

"A re-rejection...! And what is this smiley face at the end?! Are you mocking me?!"

Struck dumb, Joo Yeonseo simply froze. A rejection of K1's offer? Had the words K1 and rejection ever been allowed to share a sentence before?

"There has to be some misunderstanding. Something... something... ah!"

At last she arrived at a conclusion.

They're telling me not to handle this by text. They want me to come in person!

Nothing else explained it. And in the same breath, urgency took hold. If Jung Soohyuk was right there beside him, what was to stop the man from talking Shin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Jaeha into The First?

"I have to go... I have to...!"

She would not let him slip away. Joo Yeonseo prepared to leave at once.

Meanwhile, Shin Jaeha sat cross-legged in the center of the training ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠room, sunk in the dilemma of a lifetime.

The task given to a player once the placement matches were over and a rank had been assigned.

"About time I did this."

Class advancement.

A moment that tightened his chest for no good reason. He drew in a long breath.

"Confirm."

He opened the list of classes he could advance into.