Chapter 120

He must’ve been so good it gave him away.

It was a perfectly reasonable question, really. No matter how naturally gifted someone was at games, it wasn’t exactly common for a support who had literally just started playing to take down a high-level player in PVP—much less a tank.

(Group) oTyudakTyudako: omg even supports can’t be in two alliances?

(Group) oTyudakTyudako: we’re ALWAYS short on supports :( weren’t we kinda letting dual-alliance membership slide for them??

(Group) Mexibokku: too many trolls lately so the alliance leader said it was time to trim the roster

(Group) oTyudakTyudako: ah...;

(Group) Mexibokku: anyway if they’ve got an alliance on their main we’ll probably have to discuss it?

(Group) Mexibokku: so what’s your main?

What do we do?

Yeonhoo bit his lip and glanced at Kwon.

With skills like that, claiming he didn’t have a main account would obviously be a lie.

He’s not crazy enough to say Miu here... right?

If these people really were VITA, the moment the name Miu came up, their chances of joining this alliance were as good as dead.

Yet unlike the increasingly anxious Yeonhoo, Kwon himself looked perfectly calm. He gazed lazily at his monitor and typed a reply.

(Group) NotMiyoung: Orpheus server, LeeMinchoS2

A completely unfamiliar server.

And a nickname Yeonhoo had never heard in his life.

There’s an Orpheus server? And what’s with that cutesy heart-looking nickname?

It looked so obviously made up on the spot that Yeonhoo nearly had a heart attack.

“Hey! You can’t just make something up! What if they search it?”

“It’s fine.”

Kwon remained completely unbothered.

Yeonhoo, pale as a sheet, watched the other player’s response with trembling eyes.

It was nothing like what he expected.

(Group) Mexibokku: hold up gonna search

(Group) Mexibokku: oh you used to play Sniper then quit?

(Group) NotMiyoung: Want me to send login verification too?

(Group) Mexibokku: nah nah. if you dug up an ID this ancient you’re prob legit lol

What?

(Group) oTyudakTyudako: wow Orpheus server?? you’re a fossil lol;

(Group) oTyudakTyudako: didn’t that place only thrive ages ago and then basically die because of that one weird alliance??

(Group) NotMiyoung: Yeah. I quit back then because I couldn’t stand them.

(Group) Mexibokku: ah yeah fair enough okay okay

(Group) oTyudakTyudako: yeah; that whole incident was huge.. damn you had it rough

LeeMinchoS2 was a real character?

Apparently one from an ancient server, no less.

Yeonhoo couldn’t keep up with how the conversation had taken this turn, and by the time he was still mentally sputtering, the whole issue was already wrapping itself up.

Everyone seemed to understand the situation and move on.

If anything, they were looking at Kwon with sympathy!

“You seriously had another character this whole time?!”

When had he even made an account like that?

And LeeMinchoS2?

That cute little nickname suited Kwon so badly it was almost absurd.

“It’s not mine. It belongs to someone who talked me into playing Zombie Village a long time ago.”

Sure enough, the account hadn’t been his.

“You can just use someone else’s account like that? Isn’t that rude?”

“Lee Seoyeon? She gave me the account when she quit the game, so... it doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, if she already quit, then that’s fi—wait....”

Yeonhoo stopped mid-sentence.

Lee Seoyeon?

Wasn’t that obviously a woman’s name?

And since her surname wasn’t Kang or Kwon, she probably wasn’t a cousin like Miyoung, either.

And she played Sniper too?

Kwon was a Sniper.

This Lee Seoyeon woman had been a Sniper.

They were close enough for her to give him her account.

And that wasn’t all. Kwon knew she’d quit the game, remembered her account, and casually referred to her like they were close....

...Wait. Could she be that person?

Yeonhoo suddenly remembered the day Kwon had shown up at his apartment out of nowhere and demanded to know whether love could change.

Had the person Kwon had been talking about back then been Lee Seoyeon?

His curiosity about her suddenly flared.

Lee Seoyeon.

For some reason, even the name sounded pretty.

He probably treated her really well, right?

They had played games together, and he still remembered her account, so they must have been fairly close.

More than anything, knowing how Kwon normally treated him, Yeonhoo found himself imagining that Kwon must have treated her incredibly well too—

Then he froze.

Why the hell am I even curious about this?

Only then did he realize how strange his thoughts were.

He had never cared in the slightest whether his friends dated or not.

So why was he sitting here imagining things like that and wondering about them?

“Yeonhoo? Aren’t you going to use the walkie-talkie? Now that we’ve joined, they want us to head to the alliance territory.”

Well.

Maybe he just found it a little surprising that Kwon had once played games with someone else.

Yeah. That’s it. Kwon just has this image like he was born on Server X and spent his whole life playing alone.

Then why did his mouth keep feeling so dry and unpleasant when he hadn’t even eaten anything?

Why did he keep—

“....”

“Yeonhoo?”

“Ah! Right. Yeah. Got it. I’ll turn it on.”

Kwon’s voice finally snapped him out of it.

Yeonhoo shoved his thoughts aside and hurriedly activated the alliance walkie-talkie.

Ding!

With the notification chime, a new Alliance tab appeared, instantly flooding with messages.

(Alliance) LEDO: Hello

(Alliance) ZedIsNeverDie: Woooow~ helloooo~~~

(Alliance) DriedTomato: yooooo yooooo yoooo

(Alliance) WhatIsHealing: Hello!!!

(Alliance) WhatIsDamage: heyyy

(Alliance) ineees: Oh we got new people

(Alliance) 11011011: lol wow more newbies. let’s get along

A staggering number of people were welcoming them.

Startled, Yeonhoo opened the alliance member list and stared.

Holy crap. There have to be almost a hundred people in here.

If <47> had been an alliance of high-level players, <SystemError> was closer to a complete melting pot.

There were a few high-level players scattered among them, but otherwise the place was packed with people from every level range imaginable.

No wonder they were so hard to find.

Kwon had probably been tracking them based on the old information he had on VITA.

But if VITA’s members had changed their nicknames, switched servers, and buried themselves inside a huge, bustling alliance like this, then of course it had been nearly impossible to pick up their trail.

(Alliance) IOnly: Hello!

(Alliance) NotMiyoung: Hello

The instant they greeted everyone, another tidal wave of messages rolled in.

Wow.... There are way too many people.

Yeonhoo couldn’t even begin to answer them all, so he just watched until the party window flashed.

(Group) oTyudakTyudako: first let’s all head to the alliance territory!!

(Group) oTyudakTyudako: there’ll probably be TONS to do once we get there!!

(Group) Mexibokku: lets go

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

Yeonhoo summoned his mount and fell in behind them.

And Kwon....

“Huh? Why are you going behind me?”

Kwon adjusted his mount’s speed and naturally settled in directly behind Yeonhoo.

They could have ridden side by side, so Yeonhoo found the insistence on traveling single file strange enough to ask.

Kwon answered as if it were nothing.

“Apparently people get attacked around here pretty often. I don’t trust those guys either, and beginner servers have a lot of people who don’t know what they’re doing. Sometimes someone just attacks out of nowhere without thinking. I’ll watch our backs.”

The way he smoothly matched Yeonhoo’s speed made it obvious he’d done this more than once.

Yeonhoo watched him for a moment.

And then, before he even realized it, a thought occurred to him.

He said LeeMinchoS2’s owner was the one who talked him into playing, right? Then when they were beginners, did they travel around protecting each other like this?

For some reason, that thought immediately put him in a bad mood.

His lips twitched, and the words came out sharper than he intended.

“Sounds like you’ve had plenty of practice protecting people.”

Meanwhile, all you ever did to me was work me to death.

Yeonhoo, inexplicably sulky, suddenly went rigid.

“Who exactly would I have done this for?”

Wait.

Had he actually said that out loud?

“Yeonhoo?”

“....”

“Yeonhoo?”

Kwon kept questioning him while Yeonhoo stubbornly stared straight ahead and continued riding.

He was persistent enough that Yeonhoo eventually couldn’t pretend not to hear him anymore.

At last, in a voice barely louder than a mosquito’s buzz, Yeonhoo muttered,

“...yeon.”

“I can’t hear you. Who?”

Kwon asked again.

Yeonhoo glanced at him almost warily before repeating himself, so quietly that Kwon would have missed it if he hadn’t been listening closely.

“Lee Seoyeon.”