Vol 1 Ch 20

“Hey.”

 

His voice was deep, but it was definitely slurred from drinking. If he was going to pass out, why did he bother logging in and doing this…

 

I wondered how he knew my location, and then I realized how foolish I was. I had only canceled our partnership, not left the guild. As the guild master, it was natural for him to know my location. And the fact that he couldn’t kill me, a fellow guild member.

 

The one who killed me back then was a monster in the lake, not ShutUp. The thought that he couldn’t kill me gave me courage I didn’t have before.

 

“Disturbing low-level players like this is childish. Your personality is trash.”

 

ShutUp crossed his arms and raised one eyebrow as if daring me to continue.

 

ShutUp’s eyes and hair color were both blue, unlike his real appearance. However, he bore a striking resemblance to Seomun Jun, whom I usually encountered. His authoritative gaze, straight eyebrows, self-centered features, and his mouth.

 

I especially remembered that annoying look he gave me when he first threw away his cigarette butt and looked down at me. And his tone earlier, when he taunted me, asking if I was running away, made me want to lecture him.

 

“Why do you always do whatever you want?”

 

“What’s wrong with me doing what I want?”

 

“You’re doing whatever you feel like without asking for anyone else’s opinion.”

 

“Because I feel like it. So what?”

 

I felt like talking to a village NPC would be more productive. It was suffocating, as if I were talking to the real Seomun Jun, not ShutUp. Well, this guy is that guy.

 

“You have a terrible personality and are annoying in real life too, aren’t you?”

 

“No. I’m likable.”

 

At his answer, I inwardly thought that the real estate agents nearby, the Hardware Store Owner next door, Hyesun, and Namgung Bin all disliked him, so what kind of lie was he telling? Most of all, I disliked his arrogant tone.

 

“Your way of speaking is completely over the top.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“…I give up.”

 

Not wanting to continue this face-to-face conversation, I raised my hand to take out a return scroll. I needed to leave this place quickly so Kim Taepung and Cold-Blooded Swordsman could reconnect more easily.

 

As if sensing my intention, ShutUp grabbed my wrist and stopped me.

 

“I’ll give you a chance.”

 

“No. It’s fine. I’m comfortable now.”

 

“I’m going to kill everyone who chases you and parties with you. Then who will want to hunt with you?”

 

“Then I’ll just leave the guild.”

 

As I opened my inventory, I opened the guild window and pressed the leave button. A warning message appeared.

 

<<You cannot leave the guild during wartime. However, it is possible by the Guild Master’s authority.>>

 

“…Wartime?”

 

ShutUp had been wearing an displeased expression until now, but seeing my bewildered face, he smiled. This war was clearly intentional.

 

“I declared war on the <Haeundae> guild.”

 

“No, why?”

 

“Because those bastards were messing around.”

 

“When?”

 

“Yesterday.”

 

Guilds at war cannot party with each other, and the number of items dropped when PK-ing differs. In severe cases, all equipment can be lost, so few people declare war in the already precarious game environment. Yet, the fact that the <Haeundae> guild accepted the declaration of war suggests they likely held a long-standing grudge against ShutUp.

 

But that’s beside the point. I was just an innocent user, unaware of this, and was leisurely hunting. If I had encountered a member of the Haeundae guild in the hunting ground, I could have lost multiple pieces of equipment and armor, even if they were just for shop use.

 

“Hey! You should have told me if you were going to do something like that!”

 

“Why should I? We broke up as partners.”

 

“Even if you’re not a partner, you’re a guild member. No, like Sunshine Angel yesterday, you should be making out with someone who likes you!”

 

“He’s not my type.”

 

Sigh… really.

 

I remembered the phrase shown when logging into old RPG games: <The character in the game is another me>, and it said to behave. But that wasn’t a good saying. ShutUp was talking about preferences, just like Seomun Jun in reality. If you live so rigidly in reality, shouldn’t you live a little differently in the game?

 

And, when it comes to preferences, all the game characters are handsome. It’s just the hair color, eye shape, face shape, only those details are different, so why are you talking about your preferences?

 

Even if you just go to the town, there’s a handsome guy, a handsome guy next to him, a pretty girl next to him, and a pretty girl across the street with just a different hair color. They all looked similar. Their races were all mixed like elves or humans, so even if you picked a random appearance, it was attractive.

 

‘Tired, so tired.’

 

I shuddered and tried to pull my arm out of ShutUp’s grasp. But it wouldn’t come out easily.

 

“Fine. Find someone who’s your type, and then let me go.”

 

“You’re exactly my type.”

 

“What? Me? I’m just plain and boring.”

 

My hair color is black, and my eyes are black. I might look somewhat handsome, but I’m don’t have a good-looking face. Because I made it randomly, my eyes were generated small.

 

I thought it was ordinary when I made it, but later I saw my appearance was so plain it didn’t even reach ordinary. Most characters had flashy hair and colorful eyes. I had only seen black hair once when I went to the storage, and his eyes, glimpsed briefly, were blood-red like a vampire’s.

 

“You have a really unique taste.”

 

“I’m a bit like that. Rather than guys who are flashy and handsome, I like someone who looks plain like you, as they consistently stimulate me.”

 

ShutUp now had a soft aura around him, not the fierce look he had when he struck lightning earlier.

 

He came so close that our chests touched. His breath touched my forehead, and I thought if it were real, I would have smelled alcohol. Like it did at the convenience store earlier.

 

As I took a step back, he wrapped his arm around my waist, blocking me.

 

“What do you want me to do? How can I do it so you won’t be uncomfortable?”

 

The more I played this game, the more I couldn’t help but admire how well it was made. Because ShutUp’s expression was moving exactly like Seomun Jun’s. It even perfectly replicated how he usually twitched one eyebrow.

 

He doesn’t normally act like a screw loose like this. He just acted on his whims, so this appearance felt even more unfamiliar. Unlike his forceful demeanor, seeing him like this made a weak thought of perhaps giving him a chance surface.

 

“Tell me what you want. I’ll fix it.”

 

“You don’t have to. Just let me go…”

 

“You saw it earlier, right? I’ll keep doing it. I’ll kill them all.”

 

He asked with the tone of someone saying, ‘I eat well, don’t I?’ about his threat to kill.

 

Leaving his threat aside, I thought rationally. Hunting with similar levels today, I saw that levels didn’t increase easily. It took an hour for our schedules to align, and even then, as soon as one person left, we had to find someone else immediately.

 

We had to find someone with the right attributes for each hunting ground, and thinking about how many people weren’t going to the low-level hunting grounds in Velvet Town earlier, I didn’t know why ShutUp’s current proposal sounded like such a sweet temptation.

 

Although I provoked him, ShutUp himself had canceled the partnership and was now trying to lure me back into one.

 

“You’ll do whatever I want?”

 

“Let’s hear it.”

 

“Then… I won’t have sex.”

 

“That’s a no. I’m partnering with you to do that.”

 

“So you just want sex, plain and simple. You don’t need a guide.”

 

“It’s both.”

 

I could clearly see why ShutUp wanted to partner. It wasn’t a major physical contact, but with our lower bodies pressed together, he asked as if he wouldn’t let go unless I agreed. He said he’d fix things, yet he was arbitrarily refusing.

 

“What? Then you’re not changing anything.”

 

“Say something else, not that. How can you talk about a link without sex? That’s everything.”

 

“Holding hands or kissing is enough.”

 

“Does that make sense logically? Think about it. There’s a million won lying in front of you. Would you take just ten thousand won?”

 

“Picking up someone else’s money is embezzlement, so you can’t just—”

 

“Then, think of it as an item, not money. If there are 100 potions, would you pick up just one?”

 

“No. I’d pick them all up.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

ShutUp nodded, as if my answer was finally correct. He smiled with satisfaction, looking relieved that he had explained his situation. It was like he gave a terrible analogy, and I gave a perfect answer.

 

“So, if you’re linking, you should have sex too. That’s the system for it.”

 

Holding hands or kissing would have been enough, so why did he keep wanting a deeper relationship? A sigh escaped me, and for a moment, the thought that I would be free once he filled up the 4% flashed through my mind.

 

<<‘ShutUp’ has sent a trade request. [Accept / Decline]>>

 

Just then, he suddenly sent a trade request. I was surprised by the item in the trade window. It was a Relax scroll.

 

“You said you needed 3 million won back then. Use this to cover it. But how did you log in? Yesterday too…”

 

“M-my friend lent it to me! They said they wouldn’t use it for a while.”

 

“If you sell this, you’ll have enough money to buy a login device, so just buy one. And if you hunt with me, you’ll get high-value items like this often. Still don’t want to?”

 

“……”

 

Honestly, the sex I had with ShutUp was satisfying. I never thought I was sexually frustrated, but why had I lived without feeling this before? I doubted if I had lived as an asexual person.

 

It was definitely twice, no, more than twice as good as self-pleasure. No matter how much I weighed it in my head, there was no reason to refuse the partnership offer.

 

The only thing I worried about was him constantly asking me to find him in reality… Well, if he wanted to find me, wouldn’t he have done so already? It was clear he had no way to find me.

 

Ah, whatever.

 

“…Okay. But if you fill up the GG and make me faint, I’ll break off the partnership without hesitation then.”

 

“I can agree to that. Since we’re talking about it, let’s do it. My PG went up a lot from casting lightning earlier.”

 

His arm tightened around my waist even more, but ShutUp’s face couldn’t come within 10 centimeters. This was also a safety measure for the guide. A device preventing Psychics from carelessly linking to guides.

 

I don’t know if this is the right thing to do. Considering how much I’ve suffered, wouldn’t giving him this much of an item be acceptable?

 

Even if I wanted to hunt normally, this crazy guy would probably chase me wherever I hunted and cause trouble. I had no other choice, but I figured it would be okay if ShutUp just kept to the boundaries.

 

After much deliberation, I made my decision.

 

<<‘ShutUp’ has sent a partnership request. [Accept / Decline]>>

 

I pressed accept, and that day, a banner was hung in the town again.

 

The 91 percent couple was reunited that way.