Chapter 114

Ugh, this nickname is seriously awful!

Mo Yeonhoo glared at the screen, fighting the urge to hit the delete-account button right then and there. Meanwhile, Kwon Mieon was practically humming as he picked a server.

“Let’s go with Eden.”

Eden? He’d heard that somewhere before....

Oh. I think I saw someone on YouTube say it was a good server for beginners.

Apparently Kwon Mieon had decided to commit fully to pretending he was a newbie.

“You haven’t picked a server yet?”

When Yeonhoo stayed still, lost in thought, Kwon edged closer and peered at his screen.

“Oh, you wanted to go to that server.”

There was something pointed in his voice.

Yeonhoo stared blankly at the screen—then froze.

X-1211

“You could’ve just said so. Want to go there?”

He’d almost clicked Server X out of habit again—the server where his main character, 0momo0, belonged.

“I clicked the wrong thing!”

Recoiling in horror, he hurriedly dragged the cursor over to Eden.

“Wow. You misclicked there without even thinking? Must feel like home.”

“I said it doesn’t!”

He’s doing this on purpose again!

They bickered all the way through the process until, finally, both characters were transported into town.

Welcome, Survivor!

Tutorial prompts and quest notifications flooded the screen for the newly created characters.

Do we seriously have to do all of this? It’s going to take forever.

Yeonhoo wanted to skip the main quest with a skip ticket, but with Kwon sitting right there, he kept his mouth shut. Claiming to be a first-time player while somehow knowing skip tickets existed would be suspicious as hell.

“So... what do we do now?”

The problem was, Yeonhoo had never actually progressed through the main quest properly before.

The first time around, he’d wasted ages flailing through side quests before eventually buying a skip ticket.

“See that character over there who looks like a homeless guy?”

“Vegas?”

“Yeah. Him. Go talk to him.”

At Kwon’s explanation, Yeonhoo looked over.

On one side of the village, in front of a hastily assembled barricade of wooden planks and scrap metal, an NPC named Vegas was waving at him.

Vegas: Hey, don’t just stand there! Give us a hand! Please... will you help us defend even this sorry excuse for a fortress?

As Yeonhoo approached, a quest list appeared in the upper-right corner.

📜 Main Quest: Improvised Defense Line

Overnight, the village has descended into chaos! The neighbors who greeted you only yesterday now come charging at you, drenched in blood. People have begun calling these grotesque beings the infected, the sick—or “zombies”....

Everything is still in confusion, but if you want to survive, you must first deal with the threat directly in front of you. Help the villagers repair the walls and search for clues that may reveal the truth behind this tragedy!

Objectives

Repair the Collapsed Wall (0/5): Use the materials Vegas provided to seal the gaps in the outer barrier.

Eliminate Approaching Enemies (0/15): Defeat the low-level infected drawn in by the noise.

Reward

Worn Work Boots (Effect: Movement Speed +5%)

Oh. So this is the story behind Zombie Village.

The plot actually sounded more interesting than he’d expected.

Until now, he’d been too busy getting hazed on Server X to ever seriously work through the story.

“Should we get going, then?”

But how fun could it really be?

Yeonhoo tried to get a grip on himself.

His goal, after all, was to play with Kwon Mieon until the man naturally forgot all the things Yeonhoo had done—or somehow erase the evidence that 0momo0 was him.

So no matter how fun the game looked, he was....

“Yeonhoo, are you having fun?”

He was...!

“N-No.”

“You’re smiling.”

“You’re seeing things.”

What the hell?

Why was this so fun?

For one thing, the story was surprisingly detailed. Even kind of moving.

But more than anything—

Mechanic was way more fun than he’d expected.

The class itself was incredibly straightforward. Use the basic gun mounted on the character’s arm, fire off skills to fill the energy bar, and then transform into a hulking form covered in massive guns and machinery.

The transformation looked cool, sure.

But more importantly—

It’s strong!

How could one character put out this much damage?!

It was on a completely different level from Necromancer. With Necromancer, he’d had to juggle a dozen skill keys just to squeeze out decent damage. Mechanic, meanwhile, blasted through enemies with clean, satisfying hits.

Yeonhoo’s eyes lit up before he even realized he’d forgotten everything else.

Naturally, he immediately tried to pretend they hadn’t.

He really is having fun.

Kwon, meanwhile, was watching every last reaction.

At the beginning, Yeonhoo had looked sullen. Anyone could have seen he’d been dragged there against his will and was constantly looking for an excuse to quit the game and run.

Not anymore.

“Whoa, look at this!”

His eyes were sparkling so brightly that he seemed incapable of taking his hand off the mouse.

“We’re really fast, aren’t we? We’re already this far!”

And he wasn’t wrong.

The two of them were ripping through quests and dungeons at an absurd pace.

“I think I’m actually pretty strong. Right?”

From the outside, it looked as though Yeonhoo was doing everything himself.

After all, Yeonhoo was the damage dealer, while Kwon was playing support.

“I one-shot it again! Did you see?!”

Every shot seemed to land, and bosses kept keeling over on the spot.

Yeonhoo practically bounced in his chair with delight.

Kwon let out a quiet laugh.

“Yeah. You’re ridiculously strong.”

“Right? I think we could do Hard Mode next.”

“Want to go right now?”

Yeonhoo immediately started squirming with anticipation.

He could not have looked more eager, but for no apparent reason, he cleared his throat and tried to play hard to get.

“...Seriously? But can I actually handle it?”

Every inch of him screamed that he wanted to leave immediately, yet he still made a show of hesitating.

Kwon smiled.

“Of course.”

“Mmm... but I’m a first-timer....”

“You’re ridiculously strong, though.”

“W-Well... I guess I am.”

The corners of Yeonhoo’s mouth twitched.

Kwon had to press his cheek hard to keep himself from laughing again.

Did Yeonhoo have any idea?

That Kwon spent more time looking at Yeonhoo’s chattering profile than he did looking at the game?

And there was something else Yeonhoo had no idea about....

(Notification) NotMiyoung fired <Bullet of Mercy> at IOnly. The target recovers health and takes reduced damage.

(Notification) NotMiyoung activated <Prelude: Pulse of the Scales>. Party attack power increased by 10%.

(Notification) NotMiyoung designated IOnly as a protection target. Natural regeneration speed increased by 15%.

Kwon Mieon had been showering Yeonhoo with heals and buffs the entire time.

His buff management was flawless.

Judicator had an enormous number of skills, many with finicky activation conditions, so Kwon had stumbled a little at first.

It hadn’t even taken him an hour to adjust.

Before long, he was timing every single buff on Yeonhoo perfectly, without a single mistake.

Yeonhoo never had so much as a moment of downtime.

“We already cleared it. Holy shit.”

The result was that even when Yeonhoo’s shooting was sloppy, monsters dropped dead from a single hit.

Hard Mode had gone down just as easily.

Of course, Yeonhoo had no idea.

His support-buff notifications were disabled.

Which, naturally, was exactly what Kwon had intended.

“Wow, Yeonhoo. That was amazing. This dungeon actually has a lot of monsters, and they’re kind of annoying too. I didn’t think we’d finish this fast.”

Yeonhoo was painfully weak to praise.

So Kwon handed him all the credit.

“You’re so good that this game is ridiculously easy for me. Why is Zombie Village this fun? Is it because you’re carrying me?”

“...Ahem. I didn’t do anything that impressive.”

He turned his head slightly, apparently thinking that would hide his expression.

It did not hide the way his puffed-out cheeks kept twitching.

“I-I mean, I guess I was a little good. Just a little.”

And then there was the way he kept pressing the corners of his mouth down with his fingertips to keep himself from grinning, while his eyes had already melted into a delighted crescent....

“But... I guess I really did dodge everything. My health barely went down. And I must’ve been landing my shots pretty well too, since everything died in one hit. Ahem. So, Kwon Mieon, just trust me. I’ll protect you.”

“....”

Completely unaware that he was comfortably firing away from inside a safe little nest someone else had built for him.

Telling Kwon to trust him.

Telling him he’d take care of him.

“Kwon Mieon, hurry up. Let’s do the next quest too. Okay? What are you doing?”

“....”

“Why are you crossing your legs? That’s bad for your back. Kwon Mieon? Hm? Aren’t we playing?”

How long could he keep sitting there quietly and just watching him....