Chapter 129

“Y-you... What the hell are you doing...? Are you insane?”

Mo Yeonhoo shook his head furiously, his face gone white as though he’d just seen something utterly revolting.

“Sweetheart?”

“Don’t.”

“Sweetheart, you’re going to hurt my feelings.”

“What feelings are there to hurt?! And why the hell are you calling me sweetheart?!”

“Because we’re newlyweds.”

Unlike Mo Yeonhoo, who was practically shrieking himself into a fit, Kwon Mieon remained perfectly relaxed.

“What newlyweds?! We agreed we weren’t doing that!”

“Oh... really?”

“Oh, really?!”

He was going to explode.

“Hey, you can’t do this right now. Look at the chat. I bet they’re all freaking out because—”

(Alliance) OsoneDosan: Oh; so you and IOnly are dating?

(Alliance) heyua: ah he was already taken

(Alliance) MidIsBest: d-damn 😭😭😭 jealous of IOnly 😭😭

Yeonhoo turned back to the screen and froze.

“They’re jealous of us.”

He’d been sure his teammates would be shocked.

Instead, they merely seemed envious that Yeonhoo had a support partner of his own.

Because this isn’t <47>!

Of course. This was a new place. The members of <47>, who knew Miu’s usual personality and way of speaking, would have been horrified, but these people had no way of knowing any of that!

I miss them....

For some reason, Yeonhoo suddenly found himself missing the members of <47>.

Meanwhile, Kwon Mieon had already moved his character right up against Yeonhoo’s, who had been standing some distance away. He started the bandaging animation and began healing him.

Yeonhoo stared in disbelief.

“My HP is full....”

“Oh, is it?”

“I’m telling you, I don’t need healing.”

“Okay... and?”

He wasn’t injured. His HP was completely full.

“You’re my sweetheart. Of course I have to take care of you.”

This lunatic Kwon Mieon simply refused to give up. He kept calling him “sweetheart” over and over while repeatedly trying to heal him...!

“Since when am I your sweetheart?! N-no. I hate it. Get lost!”

Utterly fed up, Yeonhoo moved his character and scampered up the watchtower as if fleeing for his life.

But there was no way Kwon Mieon would simply stand there and watch. He stared at IOnly’s avatar rapidly climbing the watchtower and escaping his reach....

Tap-tap-tap-tap!

“Why are you following me?!”

Then he suddenly tore up the stairs after him at a terrifying speed!

It looked like something straight out of a horror movie. Yeonhoo recoiled in disgust, and Kwon abruptly stopped.

“....”

“....”

Yeonhoo looked down.

Kwon looked up.

They stood one floor apart.

Then Kwon spoke.

“Yeonhoo, why aren’t you taking me with you?”

His voice sounded terribly dejected, like a puppy left out in the rain.

“I belong to you, remember.”

He dropped the words without the slightest warning.

“Why the hell do you belong to me?!”

“You’re the one who said it first.”

“When did I ever say that?!”

“You did, though.”

Kwon chuckled softly.

“You told me not to heal those other bastards and to take care of you first because you and I are in love. And you told me not to forget that we’d fallen in love, to stay true to my role, and only take care of you....”

That fucking Kwon Mieon...!

Yeonhoo finally tore his gaze away from the screen as though he couldn’t take another second of this.

This time, he was going to give Kwon a serious warning. Enough with the weird shit. Focus on the game. One more ridiculous comment and he was going to—

“Wow.”

Yeonhoo froze.

Kwon was smiling brightly, the corners of his mouth lifting as though he’d been waiting for this exact moment. His clear eyes were fixed directly on Yeonhoo.

“You finally looked at me.”

They had been sitting side by side this whole time.

Yet Kwon smiled at him with such delight that it was as though he’d been waiting forever.

The instant Yeonhoo saw that expression, his heart seemed to drop straight through his chest.

No.

More accurately, it dropped, shot back up, then started thrashing wildly from side to side....

Right. My phobia.

He’d gotten so absorbed in the game that he’d forgotten.

He had Kwon Mieon phobia.

A Kwon Mieon allergy.

Yeonhoo violently tore his gaze away from that stupidly handsome face, still beaming at him, and heard Kwon begin grumbling in disappointment.

“What? Why’d you only look at me for a second? Do you know how long I waited, and you only give me a few seconds?”

“....”

“Yeonhoo. Yeonhoo—”

“....”

“Wow, now you won’t even answer me? That hurts. We’re in love, and you’re leaving me so lonely....”

“Shut up.”

Kwon, who had been teasing him in a singsong voice, paused.

“You... you....”

Yeonhoo still hadn’t taken his eyes off the monitor.

But Kwon could see it.

Yeonhoo’s skin was normally so white it bordered on pale, yet every inch visible beyond his clothes—

“If you say one more word, I’m quitting the game....”

—was bright red.

“So shut up.”

Even the backs of his hands resting on the keyboard were flushed.

As Kwon watched Yeonhoo deliver the warning in a trembling voice, the playfulness slowly drained from his face. His expression grew serious as well.

His gaze clung to every part of Yeonhoo as though he couldn’t bear to miss so much as a single strand of hair, lingering so intently that it seemed as though he might lick the redness from Yeonhoo’s exposed skin at any moment.

(Alliance) nnppcc: @Everyone Announcement

Ding!

A sharp notification suddenly sounded, and a new message appeared.

Both men, whose every sense had been keyed to each other, stopped and looked at the screen. Their teammates, who had been idly chatting, fell silent as well.

(Alliance) nnppcc: @Everyone keep the 1F entrance to your watchtowers unlocked and stand by

“...Unlocked?”

“They mean remove the lock on the first floor.”

“I get that. Why?”

The entrance to the first floor of their watchtower currently had a password set so that anyone outside their team couldn’t enter.

And now they were being told to leave it open.

(Alliance) heyua: isnt that dangerous?

(Alliance) OsoneDosan: fr

(Alliance) MidIsBest: huh?? opened it for now

Their teammates looked confused too, but at their rank, orders were orders.

MidIsBest headed down to the first floor, removed the password, and changed the door setting to “Open.”

At that exact moment, the door flew open.

(Alliance) MidIsBest: WHAJSKDF

Someone had clearly opened it from outside.

Startled, MidIsBest reflexively tried to use a skill, but with no gear and no weapon equipped, there was nothing they could actually wield.

They merely flailed their hands through empty air.

The people who appeared were....

(Alliance) NeunSseop: oops scared you huh ;

(Alliance) ASAV: lol sry

“They’re <System Error> members.”

Two people from the same alliance.

(Alliance) NeunSseop: hey

(Alliance) ASAV: hii

Yeonhoo studied them.

Unlike the unequipped alliance members here, the two newcomers were fully kitted out in gear and even had huge backpacks strapped to their backs....

“They’re L3.”

Their rank was conspicuously high.

L3s came here themselves.

It had been days since Yeonhoo had last encountered users this highly ranked.

Their appearance immediately put both him and Kwon on alert. They studied the pair closely, wondering whether either of them might be someone they knew, but neither face looked familiar.

The two newcomers had to know everyone was staring at them, yet they casually looked around the watchtower, too busy chatting to care.

(Alliance) NeunSseop: aww look at that, guess you future L4s really held out well

(Alliance) ASAV: yep

(Alliance) NeunSseop: no attacks came in either so this spots pretty good

(Alliance) NeunSseop: looks like well have it easy

(Alliance) ASAV: fr

With that, the two strode straight up the stairs.

As they passed Yeonhoo and Kwon, who were standing on the staircase—

Clank, clank.

Yeonhoo’s gaze shifted at the familiar metallic sound.

At the end of his line of sight was an arm made not of human flesh, but metal.

A Mechanic?

...Another Mechanic?

Were Mechanics always this common?

Had the class gotten buffed lately or something? It felt like he’d been running into Mechanics strangely often these days.

The two were headed for the roof of the watchtower.

Yeonhoo and Kwon followed almost without thinking, and their teammates trailed after them as well....

WHOOOOSH!!

The moment they reached the top, they heard something hurtling through the air, followed by the sound of something breaking apart.

Startled, Yeonhoo whipped his head to the right.

A cannon shell had just struck another watchtower some distance away.

“Let’s zoom in.”

“Yeah.”

The two of them swiftly raised their binoculars.

BOOM!!!!

Notes

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