GBAS 18

“Wait-!”

The call ended without giving him a chance to add another word. Staring down at his phone displaying the home screen with a dejected face, Hyunwoo finally leaned his body against the dining table, supporting himself with both hands. In the dark room where he had forgotten to turn on the lights for days, only the white screen of his phone shone.

“……”

His broad shoulders heaved with every breath he took. The sleeves of his pajama top, which he had roughly rolled up, slid down smoothly, covering the back of his hand where veins stood out.

…I’m going crazy.

When he dropped his head, his overgrown bangs swayed at the bridge of his nose. He straightened his leaning body and swept his bangs up a few times with a rough hand, revealing a smooth face beneath the jet-black hair.

As if a mere phone call was a big deal, his tense body relaxed, and his senses gradually became clearer. Thanks to someone who had gifted him stress as soon as he woke up, every part of his body from his shoulders to the top of his head felt numb and stiff.

Hyunwoo double-tapped the phone screen, which had since turned off, to check the time. He pressed his index finger firmly between his eye and eyebrow bone and crossed the living room with his long legs.

The sound of wood clashing was heard as he opened a drawer of the decorative cabinet placed against the opposite window. Silently looking down at the drawer, which was piled high with colorful, elongated boxes, Hyunwoo picked up something that looked like a small memo pad.

Flipping the cover revealed pieces of paper with dotted lines for easy tearing. With a familiar touch, Hyunwoo tore off one of the pieces. After folding the long paper, about two finger joints in length, a few times, he took out a lighter and struck the flint. The edge of the paper caught fire.

“Hoo.”

When he blew on it lightly, only a small ember remained on the paper that looked like it would burst into flames. Hyunwoo placed it on a silver plate that was on top of the cabinet. The white smoke rising from the ember filled the entire living room. The paper that had released its scent turned into white ash and mixed with those already piled up.

Leaning against the armrest of the single sofa next to it, Hyunwoo closed his eyes, deeply inhaled the scent, and muttered.

“There is a difference, after all.”

He had all sorts of stray thoughts in the game, so he thought it wouldn’t be much different from reality, but after spending a long time and coming out, he could definitely feel a difference.

The musty smell of the air mixed with the scent of incense, and the trivial noises he heard even when he didn’t want to were annoying. It felt as if a filter that had filtered out unnecessary things had been removed.

It was the difference between seeing and what is seen, hearing and what is heard.

‘I should try not to stay in for more than two days.’

Making a resolution, Hyunwoo opened his eyes, raised his hand to check the time on his phone, and then dropped his arm listlessly. Then he let out a big sigh, poohoo, puffing his cheeks out roundly.

Five minutes of the given time had already passed.

This is crazy. Slumping into the sofa and properly curling up, Hyunwoo buried his forehead in his knees and wrapped his arms around his head. A whining sound escaped from the large man, who was curled up like a pill bug.

“…Ha, should I just not go.”

Although Han Jiwoo had thrown down the gauntlet, nothing would happen immediately even if he didn’t show up. They would probably just play without him and then nag him later, or something.

Most importantly, if he went now, he would have to stick with Baek Jooin for several hours. Since they were in the same position, they would bump into each other countless times in the rear. Just seeing his face made his head freeze up like an idiot, so it didn’t make sense to tackle a non-clear dungeon tied together.

‘But…’

The point that he might be able to utilize his hard-earned Herbalism Master skill was quite tempting. The fact that everyone seemed to be struggling was even more appealing.

‘If I show up at this point and solve it coolly…’

The gamer’s blood boiled.

Honor and Baek Jooin.

To go, or not to go.

As he was agonizing over the two options, Hyunwoo’s phone screen lit up brightly.

Flipping the screen over to check, he saw a message app pop-up. Attached to the left of the pop-up was Han Jiwoo’s profile. He touched the pop-up and swiped the screen upwards, unlocking it and revealing the message.

Design Han Jiwoo

3 minutes

Left

(staring emoticon) 11:17 PM

He retracted his statement that nothing would happen. Han Jiwoo was more than capable of doing it.

“……”

The thought that it would be better to seal this deep in the crevice of the sofa flashed through his mind. Just then, messages started scrolling up from the bottom of the turned-on screen.

Design Han Jiwoo

I’d let it slide if it were anything else

But today’s dungeon, for real, we need to take the lead

I can’t stand to see that dog-bowl-bastard’s shoulder reach the sky

Can you please cooperate

In return, I’m not asking what happened

Please 11:18 PM

Design Han Jiwoo

Hey

Hey

Hey 11:19 PM

No wonder. He thought it was strange that he was being more persistent than usual.

Changing his posture to sit cross-legged, Hyunwoo placed his phone near his ankle and crossed his arms.

‘If only Baek Jooin wasn’t there, I would’ve gone right away.’

Ah, damn it.

As soon as he thought it, Baek Jooin’s face once again filled his mind. He had to erase it quickly before it flowed into strange thoughts.

Just as he was biting his lip tightly and shaking his head vigorously, the phone resting on his leg began to ring again. The caller was still Han Jiwoo.

Design Han Jiwoo

But seeing as Baek Jooin is fine

It seems pretty clear that you’re the one at fault, so

I’m just saying 11:20 PM

Design Han Jiwoo

If you’re not going to ignore each other forever

Wouldn’t it be better to come in now while people are around and smooth things over?

If you subtly get close to him

He might pretend he can’t win and accept it? 11:21 PM

…Is that so.

His head, which had been shaking wildly just a moment ago, calmly settled down.

Design Han Jiwoo

And more than anything

If you see him separately, can you even talk to him?

Think of it as an opportunity

Or just ignore me 11:23 PM

“Heh.”

There were one or two parts that grated on his nerves, but strangely, the more he mulled over Han Jiwoo’s words, the more they felt right.

While he thought he had to resolve things with Baek Jooin properly somehow, the reality was that he had only been avoiding him because he was strangely scared to see his face. It might not be a bad idea to get tangled up with him at a time like this and figure out what his state was.

Lost in thought, Hyunwoo’s eyes darted around the living room.

👾🎮

As soon as he logged in, he changed the setting he had hidden in logout status back to the default state. The moment he closed the settings window, guild members who received the login alarm began to send messages one by one.

[Guild] Bahahak : hihi yo

[Guild] WaterIsSelfServe : Hiㅋㅋ

[Guild] Jinyoung-kun : Oh!

[Guild] Jinyoung-kun : You’re here?

[Guild] Jeonguk-noye-jarang : hi

Messages continued to scroll up below the short greetings.

[Guild] Camellia : Good good

[Guild] Camellia : We’re almost ready, we’ll enter as soon as you arrive

[Guild] NoRegretKeepGoing : Awesome, you really brought himㅋㅋㅋㅋ I thought he wouldn’t come

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : ^^v

At JuJuGeneralAssembly’s message showing a ‘V’ sign, Hyunwoo clicked his tongue briefly.

He absolutely, absolutely did not fall for Han Jiwoo’s persuasion. He was just going to check out what kind of herbs came out in the Becca Dungeon, for research purposes. For real.

Hyunwoo opened his inventory and looked at the list of equipment he was wearing. After meticulously checking the remaining durability of his gear to see if any items needed repairs, Hyunwoo estimated the materials he should take last and sent a message in the guild chat.

[Guild] Jeonguk-noye-jarang : where

[Guild] Jeonguk-noye-jarang : I’m going to move, so please send me the coordinates via whisper

[Guild] Jeonguk-noye-jarang : I’ll change my gear and go right away

Then, he selected the icon with a house drawing from the line of icons at the bottom of the screen.

[Would you like to move to your housing?

• Yes

• No]

As he tapped the small pop-up that appeared before his eyes, his entire body was enveloped in a white light.

When he briefly closed and opened his eyes, he was standing in a garden with a small cottage. Hyunwoo walked towards the small blacksmith’s workshop attached between the house and the warehouse, unequipping the armor he was wearing piece by piece.

👾🎮

After finishing the repairs and stopping by the warehouse to grab gear for potion crafting and miscellaneous items used as basic materials, Hyunwoo, with the help of Frost, immediately moved to the coordinates he was given upon leaving his housing.

The dungeon, said to be in a rocky area, was surprisingly in the middle of a dense forest.

‘This is why they couldn’t find it.’

Had he passed by trees that grew as tall as a 10-story building for a while? The color of the soil on the ground began to lighten compared to where he had just run from. The spacing between the densely packed trees also started to widen, and soon, a full-fledged rocky area appeared.

In various places on the barren mountain, where all the stones that should have been under the soil were exposed, people were gathered in parties preparing to enter the dungeon.

Where could they be. As he was looking around and observing the people, he saw someone waving their hand high in the distance.

When Hyunwoo tapped the right side of Frost’s neck, the galloping wolf slightly reduced its speed and changed direction.