When I approached Jung Da-hoon, he placed a hand on his forehead.
“Jung Da-hoon.”
“Pro, what exactly are you doing right now?”
“I came to see you.”
“At least take your tail off before you say that…”
“It’s a bit late for that now. Besides, today’s the day I made up with Kessler, so I have to wear it for at least one day. If I try to hide it and get caught, it’ll just cause more problems.”
From Kessler’s point of view, this tail is a symbol of our couple status. If I take it off to meet someone else? That’s basically like a husband taking off his wedding ring before going out to play.
“Let’s sit.”
“Could you sit somewhere else?”
“Ah… next to you? Sure, I can do that.”
Jung Da-hoon, clearly conscious of his surroundings, suggested we sit on different benches.
He’s trying so hard to pretend otherwise… but anyone can see we came together.
Still, if that helped ease Jung Da-hoon’s nerves, I didn’t mind.
“Pro, I think I’ve officially been marked by Kessler.”
“Yeah. But you explained things really well back there. I added a few things too. I said I hired you for six months, so let’s keep the story straight.”
“There’s actually a reason I explained it as a contractual employment relationship. That’s why I need to say this… Player, no matter how I think about it, this isn’t something that can be explained away.”
Jung Da-hoon took a quiet deep breath and looked around. Now that I really looked at him, he wasn’t checking for just random users—he seemed wary of someone specific.
“Since I couldn’t reach you last night, I’m reporting this now. While you were gone, Kessler took every single photo we’d taken together.”
“What?”
“Yes. …So I couldn’t update Instagram.”
Seriously…? That explains why Kessler had calmed down so quickly at the chapel after hearing Da-hoon’s explanation.
He’d seen the actual trail of activity. He must have misunderstood it as some surprise 50-day anniversary event…
“But the thing is, Pro, I’m wondering—this doesn’t feel like Kessler just being possessive of a pet.”
…Jung Da-hoon had hit the nail on the head. Was it time to finally tell him everything?
“I thought about how this situation might’ve come about.”
“…Yeah?”
“Kessler’s attachment to you is excessively intense.”
“…Hold on. I need water.”
I walked over to a nearby fountain, took a drink, and came back.
“Jung Da-hoon, listen to me carefully from here on out.”
“Yes, Pro.”
“To be frank, I slept with Kessler.”
“What? If you mean you slept with him…”
“We had sex. The door locked like in some ‘No Sex, No Exit’ game, and we couldn’t leave until we did it…”
Rather than beating around the bush, I decided to lay it all out, raw and uncensored. Given the situation, clarity was more important than tact.
Jung Da-hoon looked visibly shocked at my bluntness.
“Ah… I see.”
“Also, you and Bori are on the Relationship Panel, right? I have one with Kessler too.”
“I didn’t realize you two were that deep into it.”
It was confusing, but the puzzle pieces must’ve finally clicked into place. Why Kessler targeted him, why he resented him.
“Did you become that close to Kessler as part of a strategy? It could be a smart one.”
Jung Da-hoon, appearing deep in thought, offered a new suggestion.
“Just in case something happens, I’ll transfer everything over to Bori.”
“I’m against that. That can wait until you’re dead. You two talk in real life too, don’t you?”
“Yeah… we meet up now and then. Bori is someone you can trust, Player.”
“Trustworthy and being capable of supporting me are two different things.”
Bori noona had, in truth, already done all she could. Reporting things to the police, letting people in the real world know what was happening to him. But now that Jung Da-hoon was fully on board and ready to act, that no longer mattered.
“Aren’t your parents worried about you?”
“Ah, I meant to tell you about that too. Turns out the rumors about Yeo Woo-rim going overseas came from your family. Apparently, your parents are currently on an overseas pilgrimage…”
“Oh right, it’s pilgrimage season. They’ll be busy for at least another two months.”
My parents usually spent about four months of the year abroad. They even run a travel YouTube channel where they strap a GoPro onto a camper and cross continents.
“Honestly, it’s probably better they don’t know. For now, we need to do some campaigning of our own.”
“Yeah.”
With the final judgment looming ahead, Jung Da-hoon and I began to conspire.
If I ended up back in the top ranks of the user vote and was led to the guillotine again, Kessler would likely use his power to invalidate it. But even if he did, I would just land in prison once more. Surviving through under-the-table deals would only deepen user resentment toward me.
Besides, while Kessler might not stand idly by if I died, he’d gladly welcome Jung Da-hoon’s demise. After all, Kessler had more money than he could ever spend, so he probably thought returning my so-called investment would be no big deal.
Therefore, at its core, we had to shift the users’ sentiments.
“There’s hardly anyone who won’t fold in front of free stuff or money. What happened with the request to Bori? That item that users want most these days?”
“Ah, right. Turns out the most desired item was quite unexpected.”
At that moment, Jung Da-hoon’s expression brightened.
“What is it?”
“A baby fox Polaroid.”
“…Come again?”
“A Polaroid is a single snapshot, right? That makes it rare. On top of that, the recent buzz about Kessler wiping data from fox fan accounts…”
Apparently, older Polaroids taken of me were now carrying immense value.
“So all we need to do is recover the data Kessler took and hand out one photo each to the users in an event.”
“Can you do that?”
“If we can’t, we’ll just take new ones ourselves.”
“I’ve already secured a few.”
“Didn’t you get your data wiped? When did you manage that?”
With a proud expression, Jung Da-hoon shared his data screen with me.
The baby fox yanking at Kessler’s pant leg wide-eyed inside the chapel. The baby fox staring up at the sky, mouth agape. The baby fox staring straight into the camera lens.
“Wait… When did you take all these?”
“Even while trembling in fear of death, I took them out of pure fan devotion.”
What craftsmanship. I was struck once again by how lucky I was to have Jung Da-hoon on my side.
***
In the horror game Last Shadow, only a limited number of people could officially photograph the fox and export those photos outside the game.
First, players who had changed their class to Photographer.
Second, players who possessed a Linked Camera.
Exceptionally, couples could use a Relationship Panel update camera to take pictures of him, but since that wasn’t from the official server, the photos could only be shared within the Relationship Panel.
At the beginning of the game, there had been two or three photographers, but since it was a class poorly suited to survival, most had logged out early on.
There were no users still alive who would go out of their way to change jobs just to photograph the fox, so realistically, Jung Da-hoon—who had found a camera—was the only person capable of distributing fox photos.
The Polaroids Jung Da-hoon had taken could be linked outside the game, so other users who received them could potentially profit from them.
I climbed the stairs to Kessler’s room.
Knock knock.
“You there? I’m coming in for a bit.”
I added a courtesy I normally never bothered with. Though I’d been in this room often, seeing it with calmer eyes and from a different perspective made it feel new.
More colorful, somehow. And… though I hadn’t really noticed before in fox form, it now reminded me of the kids’ play area in a gamjatang restaurant.
‘It definitely feels different from when I first came here.’
Every corner of the furniture was covered. Everything was noticeably lower than in other rooms, and there were little stepping stools for a baby fox placed all around.
At the far end by the window, there was a ball pit in vivid colors, and above it hung a photo of a smiling penguin with glasses.
‘Wait, why the hell is Poror–x here?’
It was an image that had been imported from outside the game.
Beside it were a slide, jungle gym, trampoline, and a rope bridge. The rope bridge, in particular, was an important tool for helping the fox develop a sense of balance.
In the hallway stood a shooting star stroller adorned with plush toy accessories. In the bedroom, a long string of yarn hung in a soft, sentimental way, with my photos pinned along it at regular intervals.
These were the very photos Kessler had confiscated from Jung Da-hoon.
“…”
He’d mistaken it for a surprise 50-day anniversary gift, and had carefully displayed them like this.
Originally, I planned to take them back. But I changed my mind. The data could be replenished. I only needed to sacrifice one day.
“Cute bastard.”
I no longer wanted to take away Kessler’s happiness.
Leaving those behind, I stepped out of the empty room.
To protect his daily life, I would have to get even busier.
