Chapter 75

“......is.”

“What?”

“...I said.”

“What did you say?”

Kwon Mieon was so serious—far too serious—that it was embarrassing to tell him the truth outright. Mo Yeonhoo hesitated, looking a little ashamed, then finally confessed.

“I said it’s someone from the game......”

“The game?”

Kwon Mieon stopped short, then asked again.

“Someone who plays a game called you at this hour?”

Seeing that utterly incomprehending look on his face, Mo Yeonhoo hurriedly added an explanation.

“Look. For some people, a game is their second life.”

“.......”

“It’s true....”

Under Kwon Mieon’s gaze, as though he were looking at some bizarre person, Mo Yeonhoo kept making excuses without even realizing it.

“Anyway, it’s important... so I need to turn the game on now. I have to do today’s quota. There’s a lot I was asked to handle.”

Kwon Mieon seemed to lose his words for a moment, but then his expression crumpled.

“Even if it’s a game... at this hour? Just because you agreed to help, that doesn’t mean you obey them unconditionally like this. Don’t you have a life of your own? That person is seriously weird.”

Even after hearing it was a game, Kwon Mieon kept grumbling as though he found it absurd.

“Yeah, okay. Okay.”

But Mo Yeonhoo could no longer hear him.

“I’m just going to turn on my computer first.”

His chest was already burning with anxiety. Mo Yeonhoo slipped into the computer room and immediately turned on the computer. Of course, Kwon Mieon followed him in.

“So it was because of this game that you’ve been too busy to answer my calls lately? No, you have your own life, and more importantly, you’ve lost weight like this and it’s affecting your health. I don’t know what kind of game it is, but what if you quit?”

Kwon Mieon kept chattering without pause until the very moment the game launched. Of course, Mo Yeonhoo did not hear a single word properly.

Does Miu not know yet?

As if to greet him while he anxiously looked back and forth between his phone screen and the computer, Zombie Village’s welcome message finally appeared.

Welcome back, Survivor!

“...Zombie Village?”

Kwon Mieon murmured from behind him.

Right, he’s Miyoung’s cousin. Maybe he knows it?

When Mo Yeonhoo glanced sideways, Kwon Mieon’s eyes were fixed on the screen.

No way Kwon Mieon plays this game too, right? He’s not going to find out who I am, is he?

Then again, since he was family with Miyoung, wasn’t it possible that Kwon Mieon played the same game? Mo Yeonhoo glanced up at him to check his reaction, then blinked.

“......Kwon Mieon?”

Why had he gone so pale?

Mo Yeonhoo had never seen Kwon Mieon’s face like that before. He had gone beyond white as a sheet; he looked as if he might collapse at any moment.

“Kwon Mieon?”

Even when Yeonhoo called him again, he did not answer. Then he slowly looked toward Mo Yeonhoo.

“You... play this?”

He pointed at the screen where Zombie Village was running.

Sensing that his attitude had suddenly turned strange, Mo Yeonhoo tilted his head.

“Yeah. Zombie Village. Do you know it?”

“No. I don’t know it at all.”

He cut the question off so sharply and firmly that Mo Yeonhoo felt awkward for no reason. So that was not it after all.

He said before that he liked games, and he seemed close to Miyoung, so I thought maybe he might play the same game too. Guess not. Thank goodness.

In another way, he felt relieved. If Kwon Mieon knew nothing about Zombie Village, then he could play the game comfortably or talk about it without worrying that Miyoung would find out.

But he must really like games. He’s staring so hard.

Kwon Mieon was staring fixedly at a screen that had nothing special on it.

“......Is that your character?”

At the end of his gaze stood 0momo0, Mo Yeonhoo’s character, wearing a robe.

“Yeah!”

“Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why... are you.......”

“Why? What do you mean?”

Mo Yeonhoo blinked at Kwon Mieon, who kept muttering only “why” as though dazed. Then Kwon Mieon flinched as if he had belatedly come back to his senses and said,

“Ah... no. I meant it’s cute.”

“Really? Want me to show you?!”

Anyone who plays games feels extremely pleased when someone takes interest in their character! Mo Yeonhoo broke into a bright smile and, failing to notice Kwon Mieon’s stiff face, began chattering away.

“This is me, and my class is (Necromancer).”

Ta-da. Mo Yeonhoo moved his character.

“This is my Skeleton. The skeleton I control.”

He even showed him the Skeleton spinning around and sticking right beside him.

“It really... is.”

“Isn’t it super cute? At first it was kind of creepy, but after seeing it for a while, I got attached.”

Since Kwon Mieon seemed interested in his Skeleton, Mo Yeonhoo showed him its interactions too. Tickling it, for example, or patting its head.

“I bought all these gems and clothes for it, okay? When I do this, it takes out a staff too. Isn’t that hilarious? It has a sword too. But when it uses a skill, it grows huge, and then it gets seriously cool!”

Mo Yeonhoo, completely absorbed in showing off his Skeleton, failed to notice.

“It’s... cool.”

Kwon Mieon’s face was turning more ashen every time he answered.

“......When did you start playing this game?”

“Oh, not long ago. I ended up starting by chance.”

“By chance?”

“I juust started because I was bored. They were advertising it a lot.”

No matter how little Kwon Mieon knew about Zombie Village, Mo Yeonhoo could hardly tell him that he had secretly started playing because he had a crush on his cousin Miyoung. So he brushed it off roughly.

“Yeonhoo. Then where is the person who called you?”

“The person who called me? Ah! The one you said was rude and mean for calling me at this hour!”

Kwon Mieon flinched slightly.

“I didn’t say they were mean.”

“Right, right. A worthless human being old enough to know better but incapable of doing anything on their own!”

Kwon Mieon opened his mouth and closed it again repeatedly every time Mo Yeonhoo, who remembered every bit of the criticism he had poured out, smiled brightly and spoke without thinking.

“I needed to check anyway. Hold on.”

It seemed like he had not logged in yet, but first Mo Yeonhoo opened his friend list. Since his only friend was Miu, naturally only one name appeared.

Friend List

Miu (Offline)

“Ah, he still isn’t online.”

And the moment Kwon Mieon saw it, he went so deathly pale it was as if all the color had been bleached out of him.

“Thank goodness. That really could’ve been a disaster.”

Mo Yeonhoo did not notice that either and was too busy babbling away. Kwon Mieon asked him in a voice stiffer than usual.

“Why would it be a disaster?”

“Oh, because if I don’t log in, I’m sure that person [N O V E L I G H T] will kill me.”

“Kill... you? But it’s a game. How would he do that? Maybe he was just trying to scare you.”

“No. No way. You haven’t seen how terrifying he is.”

“What kind of person is he?”

“Well... Ah, this isn’t the time. I’ll talk while I move to the coordinates. Just a second.”

It was his first time explaining the game to someone in such detail. As he moved his character, Mo Yeonhoo spoke with flushed excitement.

Because he still had alcohol in his system, he forgot for a moment that the person beside him was Miyoung’s cousin and began explaining enthusiastically.

“That person is incredibly good at the game! When he shoots like this, everything he aims at gets hit. He’s insanely cool, and his leadership is no joke. He’s the leader of the alliance I joined!”

As Mo Yeonhoo looked at him, asking whether that was not amazing, Kwon Mieon’s expression turned strange.

“He’s cool?”

“Yeah. Very. That’s why I fell for him and started following him around.”

What was this? Kwon Mieon suddenly began coughing harshly, as if he had choked.

Mo Yeonhoo wondered if he should get him another glass of water, but he had already left the alliance territory and was on his way to the coordinates, so it was not convenient.

“Do you want more water?”

“I’m fine, cough, I’m okay.... But what do you mean you follow him around?”

Even while coughing, Kwon Mieon stubbornly tried to keep the conversation going. Since he said he was fine, Mo Yeonhoo felt awkward pressing any further, so he continued driving the bike.

“Yeah. At the café... no.”

Kwon Mieon was a better listener than expected. Because he kept carrying the conversation so naturally, Mo Yeonhoo, who was already terrible at lying, nearly mentioned Kang Miyoung again and again.

“Café?”

“A field with a nice atmosphere, like a café. That’s where we first met.”

“It had a nice atmosphere?”

“Yeah.”

Having cleverly diverted the subject, Mo Yeonhoo described that day.

“I was getting shaken down, and he showed up all cool and saved me. If he hadn’t saved me, I would’ve just died on the street, you know? Actually, the game felt so weird back then that I was about to quit.”

“You were going to quit?”

“Yeah. It was too hard, so I was going to quit, but after seeing Mi...u, I wanted to keep playing.”

He had almost said “Miyoung.” Thankfully, when he stole a glance at Kwon Mieon, he did not seem to have noticed anything.

“...The way you talk about him, he must have been incredibly cool.”

“Yeah. Completely.”

Even thinking back on it now, he really had been cool then.

Now Mo Yeonhoo knew that revive items used in the field did not cost much, but at the time, he had known nothing. Miu had stopped him from being robbed blind of several million won right in front of his eyes.

“I’m telling you, in my entire life, I’d never seen anyone that good at a game. He plays it so cool.”

Mo Yeonhoo had been lost in reminiscence, thinking back to Miu’s feats. Curious about Kwon Mieon’s reaction, he turned his head, then stopped short.

“But why is your face so red?”