“Seriously! Psychics don’t give a damn about Guides!”
Maybe he heard my shout—Moment turned his head. Then he flew over in an instant, flames bursting across the ground beneath him, and threw two fireballs at the wall beside where I stood. The flat surface caved inward, forming a hole big enough for one person.
“Stay in there. You’ll be able to avoid the falling rocks.”
Moment’s eyes had turned red, making him look like a demon straight out of hell, yet his tone was as gentle as when we first met. I blinked twice, and he was already floating back in front of Eligor.
Without wasting time, I climbed into the hole. The moment I crouched down, the ground shook violently. Where I had been standing earlier, a boulder the size of an elephant crashed down with a heavy thud.
Since it felt wrong to just stand there doing nothing while being carried, I cast the Relax skill ShutUp had given me yesterday. I saw Moment’s hand pause as he circled around Eligor, hurling flaming orbs.
“Our Gentle is doing something cute.”
Moment’s relaxed voice echoed in my ears. Being kind was nice, but unlike ShutUp, he felt overly cheesy. If the two of them were mixed half and half, that’d be perfect. ShutUp and Moment were complete opposites.
Moment enlarged the ring in his hand as much as possible. It floated above Eligor like an angel’s halo. The flame-wrapped ring began rotating at multiple angles.
From afar, it looked like a burning circle forming. The rapidly spinning ring descended right above Eligor’s position. Maybe because a binding skill had been used, Eligor couldn’t move and only screamed, while the ring spun faster, devouring its head.
The loud slicing sound resembled meat being cut at a butcher shop. Pieces of Eligor’s flesh splattered everywhere, slamming into the canyon walls with dull thuds. Even in front of me, far away, a chunk of flesh—maybe one of Eligor’s ears—dropped with a soft plop. Since it had touched flames, a faint burnt smell lingered.
Moment’s ring swallowed the head in an instant, and once it was gone, the limp body was shredded without resistance. Even more chunks burst outward in all directions. When about half the body had been ground apart, the remaining torso collapsed onto the ground like soggy cotton.
<<You have defeated ‘Eligor.’>>
Just like ShutUp had done before, Moment tapped something in midair. When I slowly stepped out of the hole, all the scattered flesh was already fading away. The burnt smell and the sour poisonous scent vanished completely too—as if nothing had ever happened in this canyon.
I saw Moment approaching happily.
“Gentle! Thanks to you, I cast [Desperado]! Damn, it’s been forever. I didn’t have a partner, you know.”
Then he wrapped me in a tight hug. His body, which had been engulfed in flames earlier, had returned to normal.
Maybe because we defeated a boss, my body flashed several times. Looking at the level bar below, I had reached level 42.
ShutUp’s skills were massive and powerful, but the skill Moment just used looked even more brutal. He opened a trade window and handed over the loot from the boss.
“You don’t have to give me all of it.”
“Nah, I’ve got plenty. Gentle, you take it all.”
I thanked Moment and closed the trade window. When I checked the party window, his PG had risen to 80 percent.
“Now, link with me.”
Moment spoke cheerfully as he began removing his armor piece by piece.
“No, no. You don’t have to take everything off.”
Despite my attempts to stop him, Moment grabbed my shoulders and pushed me down. His strength was so overwhelming that for a moment I wondered, Is his level actually really high?
One of my legs buckled under the force, and as I sat, Moment moved closer right in front of me.
“……”
Before I knew it, his erect cock was right in front of my eyes. I looked up in disbelief, and Moment licked his lips.
“Suck it. Hurry.”
“…What?”
Moment pressed his lower body even closer to me. I hurriedly grabbed his hips and tried to push him away, but he didn’t budge at all.
“W-wait. Isn’t it supposed to be holding hands or kissing or something?”
“Getting caressed like this works better.”
“N-no. Still, this is too much!”
When I turned my head as far away as possible in refusal, he muttered, “Hmm, is that so? Maybe this is too one-sided,” and nodded.
Ha…….
At least he was someone you could reason with—that was a relief. Soon, he gently held my hand and pulled me up, so I thought we were just going to link while holding hands.
But—
“Then a kiss is okay, right?”
The moment he said that, Moment pressed his lips against mine.
But what was this strange sense of dissonance…? Unlike with ShutUp, I couldn’t focus on the kiss. All I could think was So this is linking, and I just counted the seconds in my head, waiting for it to end.
When I barely managed to open my eyes and check the party window, Moment’s PG was dropping from 80 to 50, while my GG shot up to 60 in an instant.
Why are the numbers like this? It’s filling way faster than with ShutUp.
At this rate, I felt like I’d faint again, so I pounded on Moment’s chest.
“My gauge! Gauge!!”
“Huh? Oh, you’re right.”
Moment pulled his lips away, checked the numbers, and nodded. I tried to step back, but he gripped my hand tightly, not letting go.
“Gentle. I think your CH stat is insanely high. Usually when I go this far, people faint. At your level, you definitely should’ve. But you’ve still got GG left… makes me wanna steal you away from ShutUp.”
Lowering his head again, Moment asked how I felt about him as a partner.
To me, ShutUp and this guy didn’t look that different—but unlike when I kissed ShutUp, I didn’t feel much with Moment. Thinking I needed to escape first, I shook free of his grip and quickly opened the keyboard interface. But Moment noticed and grabbed both my wrists, pinning them above my head.
“We’re not done yet. It’d be a problem if you logged out now.”
“I-I’ve only got 20 percent left. If we keep going, I’ll faint!”
“You still have 20 percent? I wonder how much more it’ll take to drain it completely.”
Moment lowered his head again and crashed his lips into mine. Even when I tried to refuse the tongue invading through my teeth, it forced its way in stubbornly, impossible to block.
“Mm, ngh…!”
Because my head was tilted awkwardly, it was hard to keep my mouth closed. Watching me groan while reluctantly accepting his tongue, Moment laughed, saying it turned him on so much. A beeping sound rang out, and my head started spinning. Soon the screen went black, and the character selection window appeared.
<<‘GentleTouch’’s GG is full and has entered Faint Mode. Recharge time: approximately 23 hours.>>
Just like with ShutUp, that message appeared. I sat on the sofa, dazed.
Ding ding ding— ding ding.
The alarm dragged my mind back to reality. With a flushed face, I slowly got up from the couch and staggered to the bathroom on trembling legs. As I brushed my teeth, my senses gradually returned, but the lingering sensation of the long kiss with Moment remained. I spat out the foam and ran my tongue along the inside of my mouth.
“…Ah, this is driving me crazy. Now I get why this game is so addictive.”
It felt like Moment’s tongue—like some living soft-bodied creature—was still writhing inside my mouth. Sitting on the toilet, I buried my face in my hands.
Why do I keep kissing guys…?
I seriously wondered if I should just give the game back to Sang-cheol.
***
After arriving at work in the morning, I called Han-woo.
[There are plenty of female Guides—why the hell am I doing it with a guy? Are you insane?]
When I asked, “Have you ever linked with a guy?” Han-woo reacted in disgust.
Yeah… Why did I only run into lunatics? After waking up at 4 a.m. and going through all that, I’d been spacing out at the office all the way into lunchtime.
Trying to log in at dawn to avoid ShutUp hadn’t been a great idea. And now that I was in Faint Mode, logging in after work was out of the question anyway. I figured I’d just go home early and sleep.
“Han-woo. I learned Relax.”
[Wanna be my Guide?]
“You just cursed me out for asking if you linked with a guy. Did you suddenly get amnesia?”
I couldn’t bring myself to admit that the link had been a kiss. Even between friends, that was way too embarrassing. Every time I mentioned linking, Han-woo snickered nonstop. He’d already lose it laughing at the word link alone—there was no way I could ever mention the kiss. That secret was going to the grave with me.
Anyway, Moment didn’t seem like a high-level ranker, but the flashy skills he used were incredible. I hadn’t tried matching with him properly, so I didn’t know the exact compatibility rate, but we seemed to work pretty well together. Still, judging by how the PG and GG values rose and fell, ShutUp was far more effective.
The feeling was different too.
The kiss felt better with ShutUp too… Maybe even the physical chemistry would be more—
“Ah! Get a grip. Don’t imagine things.”
I scolded myself and took a sip of coffee from my mug.
Since it was lunchtime, the streets were filled with office workers. I used to be like that too, I thought, watching them through the glass wall with a hint of envy.
Working alone had its advantages, but the loneliness was hard to bear. I wanted to hire an affiliated realtor, but I couldn’t even comfortably pay the rent yet, so that was impossible.
Just then, one woman from a group wearing employee ID badges around their necks walked toward my office. I quickly pretended to type something on the PC like I was busy. The search window, opened without purpose, was filled with random nonsense text.
“Um, I came to look for a studio apartment rental.”
“Yes, come on in.”
She looked fresh-faced, like someone just starting her career. Since she seemed to have just finished lunch, I made her a cup of coffee and asked about her budget. Thankfully, it seemed her parents were helping her out—her deposit was quite high.
“If possible, I want a fully furnished place. And preferably a new building.”
“I see. One moment.”
There weren’t many fully furnished places around here, but I found one remaining listing in the transaction network and called the real estate office in charge.
Luckily, it was still available, so I left the office with her. The same pitch-black, gloomy car was still parked in front of my building. As we walked out together, she asked if it was my car.
“No, it belongs to the building across the street.”
The car must’ve looked impressive—people passing by kept glancing at it. Watching them focus only on the car instead of my office made me feel a little disappointed… but yeah, it really did look cool.
