Chapter 96

Huh?

The whisper had come completely out of nowhere, and the message itself was strange.

Did he send it to the wrong person?

Yeonhoo wanted to ask what it meant, but he had no time to dwell on it.

Round One of the <Memoria Locked Ward> dungeon will now begin.

Because the moment Round One began, as far as Mo Yeonhoo was concerned—

How am I supposed to...

(Judicator) YoureGettingSued: 4x

(Cook) BBQ: 11x

(Sniper) Miu: 6x

How am I supposed to do this?!

It was nothing short of hell!

They had already been playing for forty minutes, and this was their fifth time entering a puzzle room. The more puzzles they attempted, the darker Yeonhoo’s expression became.

—Split up into the north, south, east, and west rooms, then tell everyone what your doll looks like!

The puzzle they had drawn most often required the four separated party members to report the location of the doll in their room and whether or not it was dancing.

At a set time, dolls appeared in every direction inside each room. They had to find the dancing doll and make eye contact with it.

Only one of the four rooms contained a dancing doll.

In theory, it sounded incredibly easy.

(Cook) BBQ: must be Momo

(Cook) BBQ: what time Momo?

You never said there would be kids wandering around...!

The gap between a beginner and a veteran was greater than Yeonhoo had imagined. The other three were skilled enough to casually type while dodging the roaming NPCs.

Yeonhoo was not.

(Necromancer) 0momo0: not1

(Necromancer) 0momo0: 12 12oclo[

How was he supposed to predict that the child patient wandering around with a sweet little smile would suddenly shout, “I’m a dinosaur! Raaah!” and charge straight at him?

(Cook) BBQ: oh fuck I’m already hiding behind doll 1

(Notification) BBQ has died!

—Me too...! Oh, crap!

(Notification) YoureGettingSued has died!

(Notification) Miu has died!

(Necromancer) 0momo0: im sorrry im sorry soryr ;____;

(Notification) 0momo0 has died!

Every time, his briefing came a second too late, and the other alliance members died because of it.

Though, to be fair, Yeonhoo had reasons to feel wronged too.

—...It was Momo again. How does this keep happening?

(Cook) BBQ: Seriously how is this even possible??? lmaooo Momo keeps getting the important role in every puzzle room lolol

(Necromancer) 0momo0: ;____;

(Necromancer) 0momo0: Maybe the NPCs know I’m the only first-timer...

Could they tell I was the weakest one?

Somehow, with uncanny precision, the game kept assigning the crucial roles to Mo Yeonhoo, the weakest person in the party. Thanks to that, they had barely made any progress.

(Necromancer) 0momo0: Another restart... because of me again... ;_; I’m sorry...

They returned once more to the Primordial Starter Town waiting screen. BBQ and YoureGettingSued repeatedly told Yeonhoo that it was fine and tried to comfort him.

(Cook) BBQ: Heyyy lmaooo it’s fine it’s fine these puzzles are just mean

(Necromancer) 0momo0: ;_;

—Don’t get discouraged, Momo!

(Cook) BBQ: lol anyway bathroom brb sry sry;

—Okay, see you in a bit!

When the brief break began, Yeonhoo let out a deep sigh.

Normally, he wasn’t the type to get discouraged while gaming. What was he supposed to do about being bad at something? Instead of wasting time feeling sorry for himself, it was better to work a little harder.

We haven’t even reached Round Two yet!

But they hadn’t even met the boss. They just kept wiping pointlessly in puzzle rooms because of him, and his morale was finally beginning to crumble.

Yeonhoo glanced at Miu, who stood beside the encouraging BBQ and YoureGettingSued.

Miu...

From their previous progression raid together, Yeonhoo had learned that Miu fundamentally could not understand the concept of being bad at a game.

He must be mad.

The fact that Miu hadn’t said a single word since they entered the dungeon made it obvious.

—Wait, Momo, do you happen to have a mic?

A mic? Why is she asking about that?

—You can’t type properly because you’re too busy dodging, right? I think it might be easier if you just tell us over the mic and let us handle the rest!

“Oh!”

She was right. Why hadn’t he thought of that?

Explaining things verbally would make it much easier to dodge the NPCs, and it would obviously be much faster than typing.

(Necromancer) 0momo0: one sec!

Didn’t I buy a mic a while back?

The day after the Siege War, Yeonhoo had bought a headset with a built-in microphone because it had seemed essential for battles on that scale.

Oh, here it is!

He found the box shoved into a corner and immediately tore it open. When it came time to connect it, however, he hesitated.

...Miyoung won’t recognize me, will she?

The thought of Miu hearing his voice made him deeply uncomfortable.

There’s no way, right?

Yeonhoo soon shook his head and dismissed the concern. His voice wasn’t particularly distinctive, and he hadn’t spoken to Miyoung very much. She probably wouldn’t recognize him.

(Sniper) Miu: Momo doesn’t have a mic

As Yeonhoo silently connected the headset, Miu—who had remained quiet without saying a word until now—finally appeared in the chat.

—Huh? Really?

(Sniper) Miu: Yes he doesn’t

Uh, I have a headset. I’m connecting it right now.

Yeonhoo blinked at the screen. The other two continued their serious discussion.

—Hmm, then what should we do? Momo’s having such a hard time typing... Isn’t there another way?

(Sniper) Miu: But YoureGettingSued do we really need to use voice chat for this?

(Sniper) Miu: It’s not a particularly difficult dungeon and I think Momo will get good at it after a few more tries

(Sniper) Miu: It hasn’t even been an hour yet... aren’t you being too impatient?

Does he not like hearing people’s voices?

The thought only lasted a moment. A settings window popped up to inform Yeonhoo that the headset had been detected, leaving him busy fiddling with the options.

—It’s because Momo is having such a hard time! Oh! What if I give him my messenger ID and we talk over a call instead?

(Sniper) Miu: A call?

(Sniper) Miu: You must really want to hear Momo’s voice YoureGettingSued?

—What?? Of course not! That isn’t what I...

(Sniper) Miu: If it isn’t then let’s just continue like this

(Sniper) Miu: I really don’t see why you need to hear his voice...

“Ah, ah.”

But Yeonhoo had nearly finished setting up the microphone.

“Can you hear me?”

The computer said it was connected properly, but he couldn’t tell whether his voice was actually coming through.

“Hello?”

—Huh?! Momo?

“Yes, it’s me. You can hear me clearly, right?”

—You did have a mic?

“I didn’t before, but Siege War was so difficult that I bought one afterward and put it aside. Sounds like you can hear me fine. This should work, right?”

—Yes, we can hear you perfectly, but...

Apparently, it was working just fine. Yeonhoo raised the corners of his mouth in satisfaction, only for a whisper to arrive.

(Whisper) Miu: ?

(Whisper) Miu: why the mic

(Whisper) Miu: why’d you trun it on

(Whisper) Miu: why did you turn it on???

He sounded strangely desperate.

Am I not supposed to turn on my mic?

There was something very odd about Miu’s reaction. Just then, BBQ apparently returned from the restroom and typed in chat.

(Cook) BBQ: Oh what lol Momo had a mic?

(Cook) BBQ: first time hearing you... you sound totally different from what I imagined lmao

—Right?! So it wasn’t just me! What a plot twist!

(Cook) BBQ: yeah you have a nice voice

(Cook) BBQ: lmaooo you sound handsome

“Thank you...”

Yeonhoo answered with a shy laugh.