Chapter 103

❮myYoung❤⠇

I’m taking a break from the game today too.

Let’s play together next time.

Get some rest.

I was about to log in, though.

Miu, are you really not playing today??ㅠㅠ

What about at least running the event map together?

Miu???

Are you asleep...?

But apparently, that had been his last message. No matter how many times Yeonhoo called for him, Miu did not respond. Yeonhoo stared blankly at the screen, blinking slowly.

[myYoung♥]

What exactly do you like about me?

You don’t even know what kind of person I am.

The message Miu had sent earlier kept circling through his mind.

But I do know. I really do....

He should have replied immediately that he knew exactly what kind of person Miu was, and that what Miu had said was wrong.

Yet for some reason, he had hesitated.

Yeonhoo glared at his fingers, which seemed unusually sluggish today, then let out a deep sigh.

I don’t know. I’ll just go to sleep.

What was there to think so hard about? The two of them were the same person anyway. Agonizing over it would only give him a headache.

As though fleeing from the problem, Yeonhoo buried his head in the bed.

A few hours later, he would regret not examining the source of that strange sense of dissonance more closely.

He would regret ignoring his instincts.

But by then, it was already—

(Whisper) Opening: im only saying this because ur seriously so fucking pitiful

(Whisper) Opening: but Miu isnt actually a womanㅇㅇeveryone but u knows

—too late to take it back.

What the hell is this time?

Yeonhoo woke up, checked his phone, and recoiled in shock.

It was already past five in the morning.

Did I seriously sleep for fourteen hours straight?

The last time he had checked the clock, it had been around three in the afternoon. He had practically gotten two days’ worth of sleep in one stretch.

Mouth hanging open, Yeonhoo slowly climbed out of bed.

God... I’m hungry.

Someone seemed to have stopped by while he was asleep. Side dishes and soup had been neatly arranged on the dining table, but he could not be bothered to eat a proper meal.

He grabbed a few things to snack on and was about to sit down in front of the computer out of habit when he stopped.

Why is this on?

Even Zombie Village was still open on the screen.

Oh, right. I was playing when Kwon Mieon came over. Then I went straight to sleep.

Yeonhoo moved to close the game so he could watch a movie, but then wondered whether anyone else might be online in the alliance.

It was 5:13 a.m. on a weekday.

Naturally, there was no one in the alliance territory besides him. The chat window was silent as well.

Looks like Miu hasn’t logged back in since he left.

Yeonhoo glanced at his phone, which still showed no new messages.

He forcibly dragged his gaze away from the screen and crunched on the cereal he had brought with him.

I’ve got nothing else to do. Maybe I should roam around nearby and hunt some zombies by myself for the first time in a while.

Completely forgetting his plan to watch a movie, Yeonhoo settled properly into his chair.

I haven’t done quests in a while, either, so the rewards should have piled up quite a bit.

He had been neglecting zombie quests lately. Alliance quests had accumulated too, so quietly hunting while no one else was around did not sound like a bad idea.

Yeonhoo headed toward the outer wall at C7.

—Clank, thud!

A massive gate with “47” written across it stood before him.

People truly were creatures of habit. When he first saw it, the gate had seemed overwhelmingly huge, but now he had grown so accustomed to it that he passed through without a second thought.

I’ll make a loop through C7, C8, and D8 while hunting, then come back in through Sector D.

The alliance territory was far too large to circle in its entirety.

Yeonhoo exited through Sector C7 and loaded his Necromancer gun. Just as he was about to enter the forest—

—Rustle!

The bushes shook violently.

The sound was distinct enough that Yeonhoo assumed it might be a special zombie. He slipped into cover and prepared to hunt, only for his eyes to widen.

What emerged was a female avatar with an incredibly elaborate appearance. She had even customized the character so that flower petals scattered around her whenever she moved, making her impossible to miss.

Opening?

Wow. Someone was actually here at this hour.

Seeing another alliance member in the dead stillness of early morning filled Yeonhoo with relief and delight. Opening had probably not appeared on the login list because she had been outside the alliance territory.

Opening, hello!! What are you doing he22.gif

Yeonhoo was about to greet her cheerfully when he noticed the strange way she was moving and stopped.

What is she doing?

Instead of immediately entering through the Sector C outer-wall gate Yeonhoo had just used, Opening kept circling the same spot. Then she paced back and forth with perfectly even strides.

What is that?

Yeonhoo narrowed his eyes.

Opening. MouseTrap.

Those were the two names that had been mentioned alongside his own when he had been suspected of being a spy.

Should I follow her?

When Opening finally approached the Sector C outer-wall gate, Yeonhoo quietly followed and opened his status window.

0momo0 Current Status: Online

Inside the alliance territory, it was impossible to hide your online status. Even if you set yourself to offline, you would always appear online while inside.

0momo0 Current Status: AFK

Setting yourself to AFK, however, was possible.

I’ve been marked AFK for a while anyway. She won’t think it’s strange.

(Notification) Stealth item effect has been removed.

The moment he entered the alliance territory, his stealth was dispelled.

Yeonhoo immediately hid behind part of the terrain and watched Opening.

She stood still for a moment, then started moving again.

What?

Yeonhoo tilted his head as he followed.

As soon as Opening entered through the Sector C outer-wall gate, she stopped in front of the warehouse building. She remained there for quite some time, then headed toward the Sector D outer wall.

Once there, she repeated the exact same behavior.

Why does she keep going back and forth like that?

The same walking pattern. The same exit through the outer wall, followed by the same return.

Her route was strange, and her actions were even stranger.

But she isn’t looking for the core.

She did not appear to be searching for the core, which made it difficult to decide whether she was truly a spy.

Opening simply kept circling outside the outer wall, coming back in, and stopping in front of specific buildings.

She keeps repeating the same thing, like some kind of ritual....

She had done it at the Sector C outer wall, then D, and now E.

Every time, she went outside and walked back to the front of a building.

She did not use a mount.

And every step was the same length.

...The same stride?

Yeonhoo froze.

The Siege War suddenly flashed through his mind.

—How did they get all the way in there? Factory, give us a briefing.

—Whoa, the outer wall around that exact spot collapsed perfectly! What the hell is this? That’s practically the shortest route, and they’re moving faster than I am!

—On my way!

—They were really that fast...? Something’s weird. Just keep fighting for now.

During the raid, EYE TO EYE had infiltrated toward the core at an abnormally high speed.

[(Alliance) Miu: D8 is the shortest route to the core]

Miu had said that the spot EYE TO EYE attacked was the shortest route from D8 to the core.

...The warehouse. The generator station.

Every place where Opening had stopped was one of the alliance’s critical facilities.

—The rockets have a limited range, so they can’t hit that place from here. But whoever’s over there is calculating the distance surprisingly well, huh?

“...Is she measuring the distance?”

A rocket’s range could only be estimated after it had been deployed.

But what if Opening was moving her character manually to measure the distance and record the exact coordinates from which an outside attack could reach its target?

Then, after bringing down the outer wall, they could use rockets to strike the alliance territory’s critical facilities all at once.

Yeonhoo quickly pulled out his phone.

❮myYoung❤⠇

Text Message—SMS

(Now)

Miuㅈ

Opening is acting strange right now

she keeps doing something around here

I’ll send you screenshots so please look and checkㅇ

please

After rapidly sending the messages, Yeonhoo looked up, intending to continue watching Opening.

Instead, he froze.

He could not move a single finger.

(Whisper) Opening: what

Opening’s face, framed by her extravagant costume, filled the entire screen.

(Whisper) Opening: Momo why are u here? Lol

It was as though she were staring straight through the monitor at Yeonhoo on the other side.