Chapter 122

“Newlyweds?”

Mo Yeonhoo couldn’t believe his ears. He stared at Kwon Mieon, eyes wide with disbelief, but Kwon’s expression was so calm it was almost cold.

“Yes. Newlyweds.”

“No, why would you and I suddenly pretend to be newlyweds...?”

Besides, I’m a guy. You’re a guy too.

The protest rose all the way to his throat.

“Yeonhoo, have you never heard of a cover identity? When you do undercover investigations like this, you’re supposed to establish a solid identity before you go in.”

“Why? We can just say we’re friends.”

“If we’re just friends, there’ll be limits to how much we can stay together. But if we’re a couple—and newlyweds, at that—no one’s going to think it’s weird if we’re together twenty-four hours a day. It eliminates suspicion from the start.”

No matter how long Yeonhoo listened, it still sounded like complete bullshit....

“I don’t think so.”

Two men pretending to be newlyweds? And there was no reason they had to stick together twenty-four hours a day in the first place. When Yeonhoo rejected the idea with obvious disgust, Kwon stared at him for a moment before nodding.

“Okaaay. If you say so.”

He looked openly disappointed, but Yeonhoo had been so firm that he seemed to back down.

“Anyway, let’s just play. Oh, but I’ve got a question. Can’t we just spend money on skip tickets and level up first? If our levels are high, they’ll raise our ranks faster too, right?”

“No. You see the skills they’re making us train? Cart movement speed, building facilities, stuff like that. Paid skip tickets won’t raise those at all.”

“Right. Buying skip tickets doesn’t raise your Farming or gathering levels either....”

“Exactly.”

In other words, if they wanted to enter the Inner Area, the heart of this alliance, they had no choice but to endure those mind-numbing repetitive quests without any shortcuts.

“Then let’s level the skills as fast as possible and get inside.”

“I agree, but I think we should act like beginners while we grind the skill EXP.”

“Why? Isn’t it better if we’re just good and finish faster?”

“If you watch the chat, there are alliance members keeping an eye on the new recruits. If we’re too good, we might actually stand out and put them on guard.”

At that, Yeonhoo scrolled through the chat window.

(Alliance) JumJom: wow BbIn ur seriously good at the facilities stuff haha ive never seen anyone load the cannon without messing up even onceㅎㅎ have u played games before?

(Alliance) BbIn: uh..no... i just pressed it and it worked

(Alliance) JumJom: oh haha maybe ur talented

(Alliance) JumJom: ur seriously really good haha

It wasn’t certain, but just as Kwon had guessed, some alliance members did seem to approach beginners for no real reason, pretending to help while casually asking them questions.

“You’re right. We should be careful.”

“Yeah... anyway, let’s do our best.”

Kwon nodded and started moving his character toward the quest area. Watching his back, Yeonhoo parted his lips, unable to stop thinking about something he had wanted to ask for a while.

What happened to Opening?

On the last day he had logged into the game as 0momo0, he had noticed Opening behaving strangely and warned Kwon about it. Naturally, he was curious what Kwon had done afterward, but....

“Yeonhoo? Did you want to say something?”

“Huh? No. This is the cart area, right?”

“Yeah. Everyone’s bringing carts over from there.”

After denying with everything he had that he was 0momo0, there was no way he could bring that up now.

Damn. If only I still had my phone.

If his phone had been intact, he could at least have secretly checked the community boards, but his new phone wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow, so for now he had no other way.

...Wait. Couldn’t I at least see the alliance member list?

If it wasn’t his own alliance, detailed information would probably be restricted, but he suddenly realized the member list itself might still be visible.

“There’s a guide here. It says the way to level the cart skill is....”

Right on cue, Kwon began explaining while looking toward a sign. Deciding this was his chance, Yeonhoo quickly opened the alliance search window.

47, 47, 47... Oh, it works.

Fortunately, although they were on different servers, he could still access alliance <47>’s information on Server X-1211 through the rankings page.

Opening... let’s see....

He scrolled endlessly through the list. <47> didn’t have many members, so Opening should have been easy to find.

Except—

...They’re not here.

Opening’s name was nowhere on the list.

Almost as if they had been kicked out.

No matter how many times he checked, every other alliance member was still there. Only Opening’s nickname had vanished.

Wow. Thank God. That was seriously bothering me.

He could still vividly remember Opening walking around measuring distances. Of course, Yeonhoo might have misunderstood what they were doing, but there had been something unsettling about watching them roam around alone in the dead of night. The thought of Opening still being in <47> had never sat well with him.

Still, they seemed like an old member. Did he really kick them out just because I said something?

Did that mean Kwon had trusted him more than Opening, even though Yeonhoo had only just joined?

Something warm and soft swelled strangely in one corner of his chest.

Miu had always acted utterly fed up with him in the game, but underneath that had apparently been an unwavering trust in 0momo0....

“Yeonhoo, what are you looking at?”

“Uh—huh?!”

Click!

Realizing Kwon had come over without him noticing, Yeonhoo hurriedly closed the search window. Fortunately, he moved fast enough that Kwon didn’t seem to have seen it.

Yeonhoo gave him an awkward smile.

“...Uh, well, I—I didn’t really get it even after you explained it, so I was going to look at the guide myself! Hold on! I think we’re supposed to do this one first. The, uh....”

“‘Get Friendly with the Forest’ quest.”

“Yeah, that one!”

“You deliver alliance resources to different places throughout the forest. Every time you repeat it, you earn Porter Skill points.”

“I’ll pick it up. Did you already?”

“Yeah. Shall we go?”

...Holy shit. That was close.

Having barely escaped disaster, Yeonhoo and Kwon collected their carts and headed out through the alliance gates.

Look at all these people.

The area outside the gate was already packed with users pulling carts. Honestly, if you ignored the suspicious parts of <SystemError>, it was practically a volunteer organization. All you had to do was run back and forth filling skill points, and they even gave you skip tickets and gold for it.

And they said we get equipment later too. Gems, wasn’t it?

Who wouldn’t do this?

Yeonhoo certainly would.

“How far are we going today?”

“How about we take it easy and aim for L7?”

“...Do you not know what ‘take it easy’ means?”

Kwon’s goal was absurdly high.

They were L10 right now. How many skills were they supposed to max out just to reach L7?!

“How are we supposed to do all that today? No. We’ll do a little today, then continue tomorrow—”

“Oh. Yeonhoo, is that what this is?”

Kwon suddenly gave a knowing little laugh.

“You’re holding back because you want to play with me longer? Do a little today so you can see me again tomorrow, then the day after that, and keep seeing me....”

“Move. Right now. Let’s finish this fast. Piece of cake.”

As if he had never objected in the first place, Yeonhoo pressed his lips into a firm line and started pushing the cart.

Kwon smiled faintly at him.

Then a soft vibration sounded, and his gaze flicked toward the phone lying beside his mouse.

<img alt="zom.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302050641/epub/images/Images/zom.png"/>v Zombie Village Now

(Warning) Alliance attack alert

<img alt="zom.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302050641/epub/images/Images/zom.png"/> Zombie Village Now

(Notification) Your alliance is currently under attack!

<img alt="zom.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302050641/epub/images/Images/zom.png"/> Zombie Village Now

(Group) GoodLuck: Like you said, every night they’ve been mapping the terrain... (More)

<img alt="zom.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302050641/epub/images/Images/zom.png"/> Zombie Village Now

(Group) ShinJadu: Alliance Leader, we got attacked yesterday too but... (More)

Urgent updates about <47>’s situation were flooding the entire screen in real time, but Kwon simply turned back toward his monitor as though nothing were happening.

In stark contrast to the phone vibrating like mad, the game screen was peaceful.

Kwon silently watched the users bustling around and the supplies spilling from the carts in heaps.

Then he spoke.

“Yeonhoo, what do you think their objective is?”

“...Huh? Whose?”

The question had come out of nowhere.

Yeonhoo looked at him in confusion, but Kwon merely shrugged as though it were nothing.

“Never mind. Let’s go. Hurry.”

❮Kwon Mieon⠇

Text Message—SMS

XX/XX 12:45 PM

I’m parked. Come out.

Okay!

Text Message—SMS

XX/XX 11:32 AM

Yeonhoo, now.

Yeah gimme a sec im looking for something

Okay

I’ll come right out!!

Text Message—SMS

XX/XX 10:01 AM

Did you eat breakfast? I brought some.

Perfect perfect, I’m coming down now

Text Message—SMS

(Today) 09:20 AM

Yeonhoo, I—

I’m already here

lol okay

And just like that, time flew by.

At first, Yeonhoo had slept in and not logged into the game until around lunchtime. But at some point, even that started to feel like wasted time. They kept moving their start time earlier and earlier until having breakfast with Kwon while they played became an utterly familiar part of his daily routine.

And thanks to that, we made it this far.

Yeonhoo looked proudly at the screen.

Did you know what it took to get good at a game?

Gold mattered, of course, but in a way, the most important resource of all was....

“Whoa, we’re almost L4! This is insane!”

...time, and the ability to keep your ass planted in a chair.