The lively and joyful company dinner came to an end, and Kessler and I returned home. I quickly punched in the passcode to enter, but the keypad just kept beeping without responding. I figured maybe I was too drunk, so I rubbed my eyes and tried again. And again…
“I think I’m too drunk to do it right. You do it.”
I looked over at Kessler. He hadn’t drunk a drop since he was the designated driver, so he was completely sober.
I stared blankly as Kessler entered the code. And then I realized why the door hadn’t opened.
“When did you change it?”
“Before the finals.”
“What if you’d lost? Huh? That would’ve killed the mood.”
“Hehe.”
The password wasn’t 8111 anymore. It was 1111. Ha… but this…
“Isn’t that way too easy? Anyone in the country could guess it. What are we gonna do?”
I was worried, but I couldn’t stop my lips from curling up…
I sat down on the entryway floor to take off my boots, and Kessler bent down and pulled my foot toward him. Then he started untying the laces for me.
“Our Juwon looks great in that outfit.”
A Poksup hoodie and a bucket hat.
“Of course I look great—whose boyfriend do you think I am? Other foot.”
As I lifted it, the boot slipped right off in Kessler’s hands.
Nngh. I ended up just sitting there blankly in front of the door for a while. The biggest event of the year was over. After the whirlwind, as I finally refocused my eyes from the daze, Kessler was right there in front of me. He placed a hand on my head and gently patted it.
“You did great.”
“Feels like I did.”
“You were seriously amazing.”
“Thanks.”
“I thought you were just my little baby Arctic Fox. But the world adores you.”
“……”
“It’s surreal. And I’m so proud. Seeing someone who flew around so brilliantly now so drained… it makes me feel bad. But also happy that I’m the only one who gets to see you like this.”
“……”
“If there are bad people in the world, there have to be good ones too. I’ve always believed in the law of conservation of good people.”
I rubbed my eyes and looked at Kessler again. I’d heard this before—how he thought that for every bad trait his abandoned parents had, a good person with an equal amount of goodness came into his life to take him in.
“You broke that law completely. You showed up like an angel.”
I’m the one who’s drunk, so why is this guy, who hasn’t had a drop, saying such cheesy stuff with a straight face? It’s kinda cringe, honestly. No—this is what makes you charming. The way you express your feelings without holding back.
“Come here, my Juwon. I live because of you.”
I cupped Kessler’s face. Then pulled him toward me and kissed him.
***
Yeo Jun-hee
Oppa oppa, is your new company sending out reward trips too?
Just like every year, his cousin messaged him again.
[ㅇㅇ Want to go in my place?]
Yeo Jun-hee
OMG can I really go again??
[Sure, pack up.]
Yeo Jun-hee
Waaaahh I seriously love you, oppa
The new company, just like the last, offered an annual family trip as a welfare benefit. But unlike before, it wasn’t a personalized family vacation. This time, they rented an entire plane and the entire company would go together.
“If all the employees go, then that’s not a vacation—that’s just a workshop disguised as one.”
I hated anything that felt like an extension of work. After pouring everything into winning, I was totally burned out—I needed personal time more than a trip. And so… after handing over the travel voucher, I entered full hermit mode.
***
I slept non-stop until two days later, waking up feeling refreshed. The moment I opened my eyes, I logged into Last Shadow for the first time in ages.
My limbs had gone stiff from lying still so long after logging out, so I flexed and stretched as I looked around. I should’ve still been hanging exactly where I left myself… but wait? Where the hell am I?
[SYSTEM]: Current Location – 18th Floor, Mesco Plaza
I wasn’t even hanging from the ceiling anymore. I was lying in the grass beside a sunlit window, surrounded by flowers.
“Oh, what the…”
I even had a flower tucked behind my ear.
I rewound the recorded impact data on my body to check everything that happened while I was logged out.
The first collision. Kessler had gently hugged me as I hung like a bat alone in some remote cave. That must’ve been around the time I left for the group qualifiers.
The second collision—though technically, this might be collision 1.5—was when he kept kissing me over and over again…
The real second collision was when Kessler carried me and climbed back up to Neo City. As explosions flashed across the distance, he barely glanced at the chaos like it was someone else’s fire, then calmly entered the city’s most pristine, state-of-the-art building.
He moved swiftly and selected the royal floor with the best view. After laying me down there, he opened the windows and started cleaning. Well—technically, he didn’t do it himself. He commanded spirits to handle it.
[SYSTEM]: !!! Bat wings have been removed.
While the spirits cleaned, Kessler carefully peeled off the bat blanket wrapped around me, pressed his cheek against mine with a content smile, and even wrapped a fox tail around my neck to keep me warm.
Then came the third impact.
The once-empty space had become lush with grass and blooming flowers growing all around me in protection. A loud noise echoed from the floor below. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but it sounded like a massive explosion.
Just as I closed the body black box and was about to greet my teammates online—
You may now receive the championship reward.
You are an Undertaker who has comforted many spirits.
You have now gained the ability to take responsibility for your own death as well.
“…Huh?”
I rubbed my eyes and looked again. The season still had time left—was it really time for the championship rewards already?
Come to think of it, unlike the recorded footage of the war, the outside world was quiet and peaceful now. So… the rebellion had succeeded?
Sure, I’d done a lot while impersonating Jung Da-hoon. But there were still so many things left undone. The proper waterway hadn’t even been built yet. The City of Gratitude Swamp still needed publicity. There were so many unsettled spirits to guide…
[Kebab]: Woo-rim-nim, you’ve logged in?
[Yeo Woo-rim]: Ah yes, Kebab-nim. I’ve been away for a while—could you give me a summary of the situation? I know you’ve been out doing some mysterious quest after earning your second Master title.
[Kebab]: Yes, yes. The game’s over now.
[Yeo Woo-rim]: It’s over?
[Kebab]: Yes, our team came in first place. All thanks to you, Woo-rim-nim.
[Yeo Woo-rim]: Ah… that’s great, but I have no idea what’s going on. Could you explain in more detail?
[Kebab]: Ah, well, it’s not like there was an insane amount of stuff that happened…
According to Kebab, it all happened after I logged out. Once the war began, players split into two factions:
Neo City faction vs. the Underworld faction.
Even though a rebellion had started, players who had gained massive merit points by transporting droplets for the noble spirits of Neo City couldn’t easily switch sides.
[Kebab]: They all complained that the Neo City nobles were total jerks, but since they’d earned so many merit points, most of them couldn’t bring themselves to switch.
While the two sides were fighting, some players accidentally discovered the entrance to the Underworld. In an attempt to protect their Neo City merit scores, they triggered a dust explosion to destroy the underground city. Fortunately, right before that explosion, Kessler had relocated Woo-rim to a safe place.
That was the third impact he’d felt.
[Yeo Woo-rim]: So the rebellion ended in victory?
[Kebab]: Not exactly. When the damage got too severe, both sides agreed to a ceasefire.
[Yeo Woo-rim]: Then why…
[Jang Bori]: Oh my gosh, Woo-rim! You’re here?!
Just then, Bori Noona jumped into the chat, having just finished breakfast.
[Jang Bori]: Let me sum it up! Kebab-nim turned a whole pile of rotting scales into his underlings, and then those underlings made their own underlings, and then those made more, and now he’s the ruler of the world.
[Yeo Woo-rim]: For real?
[Kebab]: Yes. I became the “Guide of the Scales.” My personal quest went really well. Thanks to everyone’s support, I was able to expand my activity range.
[Yeo Woo-rim]: That’s your job title?
[Kebab]: That’s right.
[Yeo Woo-rim]: My job’s still Jung Da-hoon.
[Kebab]: Hahaha
[Yeo Woo-rim]: Congratulations. You worked hard.
As we traded light conversation, I recalled a message I’d received earlier.
…The beings of this world are trapped in a cycle, repeatedly breaking and regenerating. Heir, I dare ask of you: sacrifice yourself to expand the world. And free all existence from this chain of bondage.
Hmm… was this related?
[Kebab]: That was just the first expansion. There’s still the final expansion left. Apparently, in the next season, there’ll be a huge increase in the number of starting towns you can choose from.
Last Shadow was categorized as a survival RPG. Saving was only allowed before death. If you died, starting again meant going all the way back to the train station.
In a game where death was the primary resource, the players had been cursed—trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation with no escape. And breaking that cycle appeared to be the true goal of this season.
But the last part of the message stuck with me:
“Sacrifice yourself to expand the world.”
[Yeo Woo-rim]: Was there… anything about sacrificing yourself?
[Kebab]: Ah, wellㅠ
[Kebab]: You know how the game world runs on shadow energy, right? My job revolves around recycling shadows clumped into scales, so for that recycling system to be applied to the world itself… I have to be the sacrifice. But since it’s Squad Mode, the force of death has to be compensated by the whole team. It basically requires the energy equivalent of five Masters.
So it was time to consider reorganizing the team. Rather than promoting all my current teammates to Master, maybe it’d be faster to reshuffle and form a squad with players who’d already reached Master rank…
But… wait. Something felt off. The system pop-up had clearly said: You may now receive the championship reward.
That meant all the requirements had already been met, didn’t it?
[Bori]: That’s why we’ve been waiting!!
[Jung Da-hoon]: Pro!!
[Yeo Woo-rim]: Wait… don’t tell me all of you reached Master already?
[Kebab]: No, but since my scales are the medium for the expansion, it doesn’t matter. As long as I get the team’s consent.
[Yeo Woo-rim]: ??
[Kebab]: What I mean is……
The contribution points I’d racked up in the swamp city were still valid—and better yet, I could convert them into team contribution points. Before the championship, I’d already transferred everything into the team pool.
And this time, since I’d acted under the name Jung Da-hoon, all the massive contributions I’d earned in the new city were credited to him.
So both Jung Da-hoon and I had overflowing contribution points. Meanwhile, Kebab—whose job involved managing all the junior scales—started suffering from energy depletion as their numbers grew.
“I’ll contribute mine.”
Hearing about Kebab’s worsening state, Jung Da-hoon transferred all his and my contribution points to him in one shot.
Ironically, that massive influx of energy caused Kebab’s powers to go out of control.
[Kebab]: Our synergy was just that good. It fulfilled the energy quota equivalent to five Masters.
In short, class compatibility made us the perfect team—like a potion-brewing support matched with a mage.
With that support, Kebab was able to use his Scaled minions to locate Saro, the sacred sanctuary sought by Pilgrim Spirits dreaming of eternal rest. The team far exceeded the win conditions for that season, even fulfilling the Final Achievement—a goal that wasn’t supposed to be revealed until several seasons later.
[Yeo Woo-rim]: So you’ve all been waiting for me to log in, huh? Thank you for your patience—and your hard work. Let’s finish this quickly, then. Let’s meet up. Where is everyone?
After setting a rendezvous point, I waited for the team at the campsite on the edge of the building. From a distance, I saw waves of new players arriving.
Unlike the Swamp Cities, which locked down once quests began, Neo City was so massive that anyone with a ticket could enter at any time—it remained permanently open.
“Hello! What are you doing here? Are we supposed to gather in this spot?”
“Hi there! Ugh, getting here was such a struggle.”
“Whoa… this place is like Wall Street…”
[Relationship Panel]: Kessler has logged in.
Just as I was chatting with the confused new players at the campsite, a notification chimed from the Relationship Panel—Kessler had logged in.
