“What are you doing? Not gonna kill me?”
ShutUp tilted his head slightly and looked down at me. Our faces were as close as they could get, but he couldn’t come any nearer. It was impossible to link with a Guide who wasn’t your party member or partner. Even this level of skinship only happened through mutual agreement.
If it had been another Guide, they probably would’ve begged him—offered to link if he’d just spare them. But even if it meant losing levels, I didn’t want to beg this guy.
Ah… I thought he wouldn’t log in today….
I figured he’d be passed out drinking beer with Namgung Bin, so I couldn’t understand why he was playing right now.
“Hey.”
His voice was low and heavy, but the drunken slur was obvious. If he was drunk, shouldn’t he just go to sleep? Why force himself online and act like this…
I wondered how he found my location, then realized how stupid I’d been. I’d only canceled the partner bond—I never left the guild. Of course he could track me as the guild master. And he also knew he couldn’t kill a fellow guild member.
Back then, it wasn’t ShutUp who killed me—it was a monster in the lake. The moment I realized he couldn’t kill me, courage I didn’t even know I had started bubbling up.
“Pathetic. Harassing low-level players while they hunt. Your personality’s trash.”
ShutUp folded his arms, raising one eyebrow like he was daring me to keep going.
His blue eyes and hair were different from his real appearance, but he looked uncannily similar to the Seomun Jun I knew—authoritative gaze, straight brows, and that stubborn mouth that only pushed his own opinions.
Especially that annoying look from when he tossed a cigarette butt and stared down at me for the first time—it came back vividly. And remembering how he’d mocked me earlier, 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 never ask what other people think. You just do whatever you feel like.”
“I feel like it, so I do it. Problem?”
Honestly, talking to a village NPC would’ve been more productive. My chest felt tight, like I wasn’t facing ShutUp anymore but the real-life Seomun Jun. Well… they were the same guy anyway.
“You’re probably a jerk in real life too, aren’t you?”
“Nope. I’m actually pretty likable.”
I scoffed inwardly. The neighboring real estate owners, the hardware store boss, Hyesun, even Namgung Bin—none of them liked him. What kind of lie was that? More than anything, that arrogant tone pissed me off.
“Your way of talking is the final boss form of annoying.”
“Thanks.”
“…I give up.”
I didn’t want to keep standing here talking face-to-face, so I raised my hand to pull out a Return Scroll. If I left quickly, Kim Taepung or ColdBloodedSwordsman could log back in more easily.
Maybe he sensed my intention—ShutUp grabbed my wrist, stopping me.
“I’ll give you a chance.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m comfortable right now.”
“I’m gonna follow you around and kill everyone you party with. Then who’s gonna want to hunt with you?”
“Then I’ll just leave the guild.”
I opened my inventory, switched to the guild window, and pressed the withdrawal button. A warning message popped up.
<<You cannot leave the guild during a war. Only the Guild Master has permission to remove members.>>
“…War?”
ShutUp had looked irritated the whole time, but when he saw my stunned face, he grinned. This war felt very intentional.
“I declared war on the <Haeundae> guild.”
“What? Why?”
“Those ImSorry bastards were acting up.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Guilds at war couldn’t party together, and when they PK’d each other, the number of dropped items increased. In extreme cases, you could lose all your gear, so hardly anyone declared war lightly in this already cutthroat game. The fact that <Haeundae> accepted the declaration probably meant they’d been holding a grudge against ShutUp for a while.
But that was one thing—I was just an innocent player, happily hunting without knowing any of this. If I’d run into a Haeundae member earlier, I might’ve lost several pieces of equipment, even if they were just shop-grade.
“Hey! If you were gonna do something like that, you should’ve told me!”
“Why would I? You already broke the partner bond.”
“Even if we’re not partners, we’re still guildmates! Seriously, go mess around with someone who likes you—like SunlightAngel!”
“He’s not my type.”
Ha… seriously.
I remembered old RPG login screens that said, ‘Your character in the game is another version of yourself.’ They told you to behave with manners. But that wasn’t a comforting thought right now. ShutUp sounded exactly like the real Seomun Jun, going on about “types.” If real life was that rigid, shouldn’t you live a little differently inside a game?
Besides, every character in this game was good-looking. Sure, hair color, eye shape, and face lines differed—but why act like personal taste mattered that much?
Even in town, it was handsome guy next to handsome guy, pretty person next to another pretty person, and across the street someone equally attractive with just a different hair color. Most races looked like mixes of elf and human anyway, so even random appearances turned out appealing.
I’m exhausted… seriously.
I shuddered and tried to pull my arm free from ShutUp’s grip. It didn’t budge.
“Yeah, yeah. Go find someone who fits your taste. Just let me go.”
“You’re exactly my type.”
“What? Me? I’m just plain and dark.”
My hair was black, my eyes were black. Maybe a little delicate-looking, but definitely not handsome. Since I’d created the character randomly, even my eyes came out small.
I thought he looked normal at first, but later realized my appearance didn’t even reach average—it was downright unimpressive. Most characters had flashy hair and colorful eyes. The only other black-haired player I’d ever seen was at the warehouse once, and his eyes were bright red like a vampire’s.
“Your taste is… unique.”
“I’m like that. Instead of flashy, overly handsome guys, I prefer someone plain like you. You keep stimulating me steadily.”
The murderous aura he’d shown earlier while calling down lightning was gone; now there was a strangely soft energy around him.
He stepped closer until our chests nearly touched. His breath brushed my forehead—if this were real life, I probably would’ve smelled alcohol, like earlier at the convenience store.
I took a step back, but he wrapped an arm around my waist, blocking me.
“How do you want me to treat you? What would make you not uncomfortable?”
The more I played this game, the more impressed I became with its design. ShutUp’s expression moved exactly like Seomun Jun’s in real life—even the way one eyebrow twitched.
He wasn’t usually this loose or off-kilter. Since he always acted on impulse, seeing him like this felt unfamiliar. Compared to his usual forceful attitude, this side of him almost made me want to cut him some slack.
“Tell me what you want. I’ll fix it.”
“You don’t have to. Just let me go…”
“You saw earlier, right? I’ll keep doing it. I’ll kill them all.”
He said “I’ll kill them” in the same casual tone someone might use to say, “I eat well, you know?”
Setting his threats aside, I tried to think rationally. Hunting with players around my level today showed me how slow leveling really was. Our schedules had to align for an hour, and the moment one person left, we had to find a replacement immediately.
Each hunting ground required the right elemental matchups, and remembering how few people headed to low-level zones from Velvet Town earlier… I didn’t know why ShutUp’s offer suddenly sounded so tempting.
I’d provoked him first, sure—but he was the one who’d broken the partner bond, and now he was trying to lure me back into it.
“Will you really grant everything I ask for?”
“Depends on what it is.”
“Then… no sex.”
“That’s not possible. That’s the whole reason I want you as a partner.”
“So you’re just openly saying you want sex. Not a Guide.”
“Both, actually.”
His reason for wanting a partner couldn’t have been clearer. It wasn’t even major skinship yet, but with his lower body pressed against mine, he asked like he wouldn’t let me go unless I agreed. He said he’d change if I told him what I wanted, yet he was rejecting my request outright.
“What the hell. Then you’re not changing anything.”
“Not that one. Ask for something else. How can you talk about linking without sex? That’s basically the whole point.”
“Holding hands or kissing would be enough.”
“Does that make sense? Think about it. A million won is lying right in front of you—would you only take a ten-thousand-won bill?”
“Picking up someone else’s money counts as misappropriation of lost property, so you shouldn’t just—”
“Then think of it as items. If 100 potions dropped, would you pick up just one?”
“No. I’d take all of them.”
“Exactly.”
ShutUp nodded, satisfied like I’d finally given the right answer. He smiled warmly, looking relieved that he’d explained himself. His example had been awful, but somehow my reply made it work perfectly.
“So if we’re linking anyway, having sex makes sense. That’s what the system’s for.”
Holding hands or kissing felt like enough to me—why did he keep insisting on something deeper? A sigh escaped me, and suddenly the thought crossed my mind: if he just helped me gain four levels, I’d be free.
<<‘ShutUp’ has requested a trade. [Accept / Decline]>>
Then suddenly, he opened a trade window. My eyes widened at the item displayed— a Relax Scroll.
“You said you needed three million won back then. Use this instead. But how did you even log in? Yesterday too…”
“M-my friend lent it to me! Said they won’t use it for a while!”
“If you sell this, you could even buy your own access device. Just get 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’d had with ShutUp was satisfying. I never thought of myself as sexually frustrated, but it made me wonder why I’d never felt anything like that before. I even questioned if I’d been living like someone without desire.
It was definitely twice as good—no, more than twice as good—as taking care of myself alone. No matter how I weighed it in my head, there wasn’t much reason to refuse the partner offer.
The only concern was how he’d kept asking me to let him find me in real life… but if he really wanted to, wouldn’t he have done it already? He probably didn’t have a way to track me down either.
Screw it. Whatever.
“…Fine. But if you fill my GG and knock me into Faint Mode, I’m cutting the partner bond immediately.”
“That’s fair. Since we’re talking about it, let’s do it now. My PG’s already high from throwing lightning earlier.”
His grip around my waist tightened, but his face still couldn’t come closer than ten centimeters. Another safety measure for Guides—the system preventing Psychics from forcing a link.
I wasn’t sure if this was the right decision. Thinking about everything I’d gone through, part of me felt like I could just take the item and run.
Even if I tried to hunt normally, this lunatic would probably chase me to every map and cause chaos. I didn’t really have another choice—but if ShutUp respected boundaries, maybe it’d be okay.
After a long moment of thought, I reached my conclusion.
<<‘ShutUp’ has requested to become partners. [Accept / Decline]>>
I pressed accept, and that day, another banner went up in town.
The 91-percent couple had reunited once again.
