GBAS 4

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Whatever, anyway.

The guild members, scattered all around, returned to the center one by one. Among them, Noritkeepgoing was the first to run and stand in front of Frost, scratching the admirable giant dog’s head and making babyish sounds.

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Coochie coochie coo~

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: My puppyㅠㅠㅠ

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Did you see it save me when I almost died?

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Did you see?

Jinyoungkoon, whose eyes met Noritkeepgoing’s, nodded and joined the conversation.

[Party] Jinyoungkoon: No, really.

[Party] Jinyoungkoon: It feels like it’s doing the work of three people by itself, right??

[Party] Jujumeeting: Real OP.

[Party] Jujumeeting: But it’s our team, so let’s move on ^____^

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Coochie coochie coo~

While Frost sat proudly with his chest puffed out, receiving affection from the guild members, Hyunwoo, standing a few steps away, brushed the dirt off his clothes and straightened his attire.

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Pretty, prettyㅋ

Meanwhile, Noritkeepgoing, who had given Frost a large bone, clicked his tongue and approached Hyunwoo. Jujumeeting, shaking his head, was also with him.

[Party] Jujumeeting: Jeon, where have you been losing your mind lately?

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Seriously.

[Party] Jujumeeting: Like just now, you’ve been spacing out often lately.

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Not focusing, not focusing???

[Party] Jujumeeting: Is the game a joke to you?

There was no way to win when the two of them teamed up. Hyunwoo, glancing alternately at the two of them as they nagged him from under his chin, sighed deeply.

[Party] NationalSlaveshow: Stop nagging;

[Party] NationalSlaveshow: Do you think I want to not focus?

[Party] Jujumeeting: Then why are you doing it?

At Jujumeeting’s question, the eyes of the guild members, standing far away, focused on one spot. Hyunwoo deliberately ignored the stares piercing his face and shook his head.

[Party] NationalSlaveshow: Forget it.

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: You’ve been really weird lately.

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: You used to poke around everywhere looking for something fun, but now you’ve suddenly become so calm.

[Party] Jujumeeting: Did you eat something wrong?

Frost, who had quickly finished his large bone, found his owner surrounded by people and hurried over to stand behind Hyunwoo.

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: I’m telling you, it’s really strange.

Noritkeepgoing’s eyes narrowed as he watched Hyunwoo, who somehow managed to stand his ground even as Frost, who adored his owner, licked his head this way and that.

Jeon Hyunwoo had definitely been acting strange lately. There was an incident that came to mind, but…

Just as Noritkeepgoing was about to reminisce about the past, messages popped up in the chat window.

[Party] Jinyoungkoon: But wasn’t it roughly after the meetup?

[Party] Camellia: What was?

[Party] Jinyoungkoon: About Noja being strange.

[Party] Jujumeeting: Oh? Did you do something wrong after drinking?

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Nope, I put him to bed safely then?

[Party] Jujumeeting: Hmm, then what is it?

Hyunwoo glanced at the guild members beginning to gather around him and sighed again.

[Party] NationalSlaveshow: I said forget it.

[Party] NationalSlaveshow: It’s really nothing, lol.

It wasn’t nothing, but he couldn’t just blabber about his worries to everyone. This was especially true since that incident had occurred due to his own mistake.

Hyunwoo’s face, as he recalled the events of that day once more, began to turn pale.

[Party] Jinyoungkoon: But Noja, don’t be so down.

[Party] Jinyoungkoon: Can’t people make mistakes sometimes?

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Totally agree.

[Party] Camellia: And so many surprising things happened that day, haha.

[Party] Jujumeeting: That’s true.

[Party] Camellia: Everyone drank a lot too,

[Party] Camellia: No one will remember?

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: It’s okay, it’s okay~

Okay, my ass.

Hyunwoo’s dampened mind was full of other thoughts.

“Haah.”

He couldn’t be more disturbed.

[Party] Jujumeeting: So what are we going to do?

[Party] Jujumeeting: We agreed to disband if we couldn’t find it by 8 o’clock.

It had already been four hours since they started searching for the Ribe Castle of the Blue Land, and it was time to get tired.

Jujumeeting, who had slung the bow he was holding onto his back, looked up at Camellia and asked, and Camellia looked around at the other guild members and asked.

[Party] Camellia: Does anyone have anything they need to do?

[Party] Jinyoungkoon: I don’t really have anything, lol.

[Party] BlueSticker: Me neither.

[Party] Noritkeepgoing: Then shouldn’t we go somewhere? Haha.

[Party] BlueSticker: Oh, then do you want to go to a dungeon?

[Party] BlueSticker: I just got the Becca dungeon coordinates from a friend—

[Party] Jujumeeting: Hey, dudeㅡㅡ

[Party] BlueSticker: Yes;;??

[Party] Jujumeeting: Why are you saying that now;

[Party] Jujumeeting: Perfect timing, haha.

While they were making plans and clapping amongst themselves, Hyunwoo, lost in his thoughts, let out his one hundred and sixty-eighth sigh with a mournful face.

“Haah….”

[Whisper] Jujumeeting: You’re going to rest, right?

Jujumeeting, poking Hyunwoo in the side, asked in a voice devoid of expectation. He thought Hyunwoo wouldn’t go, since he didn’t seem to be in good condition, but,

[Whisper] NationalSlaveshow: You’re going to a dungeon?

[Whisper] Jujumeeting: Yeah, a new one opened.

[Whisper] NationalSlaveshow: I’m in.

Hyunwoo gave an unexpected answer.

[Whisper] Jujumeeting: ???

[Whisper] NationalSlaveshow: I’m going.

[Whisper] Jujumeeting: Really?

[Whisper] NationalSlaveshow: Yes.

It definitely didn’t seem normal that he was tagging along with a look of utter boredom on his face. Even in the midst of all this, Hyunwoo let out his one hundred and sixty-ninth sigh. What on earth was going on…?

[Whisper] Jujumeeting: What’s with this guy?

[Whisper] NationalSlaveshow: What?

[Whisper] Jujumeeting: Anyway, he’s super weird.

Jujumeeting’s worry for Hyunwoo deepened.

[Party] Jujumeeting: Mellya, Jeon says he’s coming too.

[Party] Camellia: Oh, good, good.

[Party] Camellia: Then could someone who has time go to the guild room?

[Party] Camellia: I need to get potions and team buff items.

[Party] Camellia: I started crafting here, lol.

Camellia looked at each guild member as she asked, but the situation was similar for everyone. Two couldn’t move due to item repairs, and two said they had to go to the pier to receive quests related to the Becca dungeon.

Then the remaining one was…

Camellia’s gaze landed on Hyunwoo.

👾🎮

Born a true outdoorsman who preferred running around and playing rather than sitting still, Hyunwoo loved playing soccer on the field from the moment he could walk until right after he entered college.

The only games he’d ever played in his life were a few rounds of Galaga at the arcade his uncle took him to. He never dreamed that his first game would be a virtual reality game, especially not a PC game.

<The Frontier>, a virtual reality MMORPG that had never lost its number one spot in market share since its release. He started playing this game because of the strong recommendation of his two-year older friend and college classmate, Han Jiwoo, also known as Jujumeeting.

‘What? Virtual reality? Isn’t it super lame because it’s new? Who plays games like that?’

Hyunwoo, who had been dragged to a capsule PC room an hour away from school, complained the whole time. He was stuck in a capsule with a long face, but he made a flamboyant comeback less than four days later.

‘Hello. I’m Noo!^^!’

As they say, a new broom sweeps clean. Hyunwoo, who even took a semester off to focus on the game, soon far surpassed Jiwoo’s playtime. The fact that he got dumped by his girlfriend because of it was a pretty famous incident at school.

Hyunwoo, reminiscing about the time he first started playing the game, was captivated by the shining summon icon.

“Sigh.”

The reason Hyunwoo continued to log into the game was partly because the game was fun, but 80% of the reason was this guy.

[Your summon ‘Frost (Frost Wolf)’ is complaining of hunger.]

Hyunwoo, a summoner, a support class categorized as Bishop, Bard, or Summoner, had a Frost Wolf named Frost as his partner.

Frost, who appeared in the summoner class introduction video and became the goal of many, was, as befitting a poster child, very difficult to acquire. The process was also incredibly tedious, so much so that by the third month of repeating the same tasks, there were hardly any other people besides Hyunwoo trying to get him.

The taming success rate was so low that Hyunwoo had also considered giving up, but since he had already decided to become a summoner, there was no other option than the Frost Wolf for Hyunwoo.

The most important thing to Hyunwoo was the summon’s appearance. A pretty trash item is useless, but an ugly trash item is even more useless. The dignified Frost Wolf was the perfect partner for the ‘all style, no substance’ Jeon Hyunwoo.

After devoting himself to taming day and night, Hyunwoo finally obtained the Frost Wolf, but his time of suffering didn’t end there.

As difficult as it was to obtain, the Frost Wolf was very demanding of its owner. Maintaining its large size and shiny fur required a considerable amount of effort. Not only did it need to be fed regularly, but it also needed to be taken for a walk or on a hunt twice a day.

On top of that, it was difficult to break the contract with this damn summon.

Hyunwoo had no choice but to accept his fate and decided to think of it as raising a puppy in real life, and after that, he quickly got used to it.

Eventually, he became truly attached to it. So much so that whenever he wanted to quit the game because of some shitty patch nerfs, he couldn’t bring himself to do it because he kept thinking about it.

Anyway, this damn attachment was the problem.

“I should have quit this game a long time ago…”