I cooked ramen, set it on the coffee table in front of the sofa, and turned on the TV. A cable channel was once again holding a heated debate about Blood Planet. At the top of the screen, the face of some idol singer was displayed.
[The problem with this incident is that a fan offered their body to allow physical contact with a celebrity under the pretense of a “tribute.” How is this any different from sexual bribery in society?]
[That’s a bit extreme. At most, they’re just holding hands. Even at regular fan sign events, idols hold hands with fans. It’s unfair to automatically label that as obscene and look at it through a prejudiced lens.]
[How do you know it’s only hands they’re holding? What if they’re grabbing other places?]
[Watch your broadcast language! Just because you can talk doesn’t mean you should!]
[If your own kid did that with a celebrity, could you really understand it? Huh?!]
They went on to add that some celebrities were secretly meeting inside Blood Planet to carry out hidden relationships. The more controversy erupted, the more the game seemed to thrive. Since the topic had come up, I sipped the ramen broth and opened my laptop.
When I searched for Relax on the message boards, there were plenty of people looking to buy, but hardly anyone selling. I called Han-woo to get some advice. His voice sounded like he’d just woken up, probably after drinking hard at last night’s get-together.
“Are you not opening on Saturday?”
[I take one Saturday off a month. But hey, do you know the going price for Relax? Around 3 million won sounds about right, yeah?]
[Relax? You got one? How?]
“Well… ShutUp gave it to me. We became partners again.”
[Hey… Isn’t he the guy in the building across from yours? Why’d you accept that? What if you get tangled up with him?]
“It’s not like I’m in a position to refuse anything right now. And I was basically threatened. He said he’d kill anyone who parties with me. He actually did it yesterday.”
[…If it’s ShutUp, that tracks. He’s always been like that.]
Han-woo said he’d check around to see if anyone nearby wanted to buy it. The moment I hung up, I shouted in excitement. In front of him I’d kept it cool—“Ah, really? I see, I see,” all polite—but inside, I felt like I’d just won the lottery.
The market price of Relax had risen even higher than when Han-woo sold his. But then a question suddenly occurred to me—how had ShutUp gotten it? As far as I knew, he hadn’t been in the low-level zone where Relax even dropped…
For now, I decided to find a buyer in-game. I’d already eaten a late lunch, and there was nothing much to do on a lazy afternoon except play. I settled comfortably onto the sofa and turned on my access device. I did feel a bit sorry for turning ShutUp into a slime yesterday, but there hadn’t been much choice.
<<Welcome to Blood Planet.>>
As soon as I logged in, a message reading <<Updating>> appeared, and the login screen took a while to load.
When the update finished, I found myself staring at the door where ShutUp and I had rolled around together yesterday. The memory of what had happened beyond that door flashed through my mind, and I quickly shook my head to snap out of it.
<<Moving to ‘Velvet Town.’>>
I used a Return Scroll to teleport to the Velvet Town waypoint. Then I headed to the storage NPC and carefully deposited the Relax magic scroll ShutUp had given me. After that, I sold off various small junk items to the shop and listed a few things at the auction house.
If I had a lot of free time, I could’ve opened a personal shop in town, but that was usually reserved for expensive items to avoid auction fees.
I could’ve sold Relax through a personal shop too, but if I sold it for in-game currency, converting that into cash would be a hassle. I’d have to list it on a trade site and split the game money into smaller portions to sell. Too troublesome. A direct cash transaction was cleaner and simpler.
[GentleTouch: Selling Relax. Cash trade.]
[BT920720: How much?]
[GentleTouch: 3 million.]
[BT920720: Gold possible?]
[GentleTouch: No.]
“No? Why not gold?”
An agitated voice suddenly rang out from beside me. Apparently they were nearby—actually, there was more than one of them.
“I need cash. I’m going to cash out anyway.”
The person who spoke wasn’t the one who’d whispered me. Soon, their party surrounded me. They claimed they were just starting out in society and asked if I could sell it cheaper. They said they were buying it out of a charitable spirit, so couldn’t I give them a discount?
“How much are you thinking?”
When I reluctantly asked, they answered in unison—1.5 million won. Half price. Even merchants wouldn’t try to buy it that low, so I refused. Looking at their names, many of them were variations of “Mu-yul.” Were they some kind of fan club?
“Sorry, but I can’t sell it for that.”
“Ah, come on, just sell it.”
I tried giving them a stern look, but it was useless. Their characters were customized so beautifully that when a bunch of gorgeous women grabbed my arms and shook them, it was hard to stay firm.
“Don’t do that, girls.”
Then, a soft voice drifted over like a breeze. Everyone froze mid-motion and turned toward the source.
Standing there was someone so dazzling it was hard to believe he was just another game character. His name was [CathedralOppa]. With customization that flawless, I doubted a more perfect face could exist.
“Oppa!”
“Mu-yul!”
So CathedralOppa must’ve been him. When he raised his hand, they all clasped hands and squealed with delight. CathedralOppa apologized to me on their behalf.
“Um… are you a celebrity?”
Before CathedralOppa could answer, the girls standing in front of him responded for him. Their overlapping voices made it hard to catch everything, but I gathered that he was an idol trainee under a major agency. So, essentially, he was as good as a celebrity.
“So then, technically still a civilian—”
“Our oppa is not a civilian.”
“Mu-yul, a civilian? That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard all year.”
I nodded. “Ah. I see.” If they said so, then fine. I told them to take care and tried to leave.
“Um… about the Relax scroll. There’s no celebrity discount?”
CathedralOppa held me back with a hand adorned with rings on all ten fingers. Since you couldn’t actually equip ten rings, he must’ve used cosmetic items. That hand reminded me of a certain movie character who declared himself merciful. Unfortunately, I wasn’t merciful. I firmly stated that even if a real celebrity showed up, the answer would still be no.
“I’m telling you, our oppa really is a celebrity.”
“Yes. I understand.”
I searched for an opening to slip away, but every time I moved, they closed in again. It seemed like CathedralOppa intended to keep me boxed in until I agreed to sell. He simply stared at me in silence.
As CathedralOppa lifted his arm to trade with someone, I caught sight of Kim Taepung—the same one I’d hunted with yesterday—passing by.
“Kim Taepung! Kim Taepung!”
No one around me knew who Kim Taepung was, but at the desperation in my voice, they all turned their heads. He had been about to enter a shop, but instead walked over. Faced with the sudden attention of so many eyes, he visibly flinched.
“Huh? Gentle. What are you… doing in the middle of all that?”
With his arrival, a small gap finally opened, and I slipped out. I didn’t actually have plans to hunt with him, but I just wanted to get out of there. I urged him along until we’d walked far enough that they were no longer visible, then stopped.
“Wow, Gentle, you’re popular. Surrounded by women like that.”
“That’s not why I was surrounded.”
I explained about the flashy CathedralOppa and what had happened. Kim Taepung asked how I’d gotten the Relax scroll. When I honestly said I’d reconciled with ShutUp yesterday and received it, he looked genuinely shocked.
“That guy massacres players on sight… and he gives you something like that? Was he always like that?”
“I don’t know what kind of guy you’re imagining, but he’s not nice. And it wasn’t exactly free.”
I didn’t want to go into detail. If I did, he might ask about the intensity of our link, so I quickly changed the subject.
“Do you know anyone who might buy Relax? Not people who try to lowball like them.”
“I don’t know many Guides, but I’ll ask around. You’re selling at that price, right?”
“Yeah. I might negotiate a bit. If it sells, I’ll give you a finder’s fee.”
“Okay.”
He was just about to suggest we go hunting when a notification from my synced phone popped up at the bottom of the screen.
[Not opening the real estate office today?]
It was Jun. For some reason, a lot of people were nagging me about not opening today.
[Closed. I take one day off a month.]
[Go to the department store and exchange the clothes. The color sucks.]
He must’ve seen my reply, yet he ignored it and went straight to his request. I figured I’d need to have a more in-depth conversation with him, so I told Kim Taepung we’d hunt another time.
When I didn’t respond, a call came through. Normally, only messages synced during gameplay—calls hadn’t been connected before. I’d heard the update had changed a lot of things; maybe this was one of them.
I tapped the phone icon at the bottom, and the call connected immediately. A phone icon appeared above my character’s head, and my voice switched to mute mode.
“Hello.”
[Du-seon, there’s a store on the second floor. I’ll leave the clothes at your door, so exchange them by this evening.]
“I sent you a message saying I’m off today.”
[You’re off, so you can go, can’t you?]
“No, I don’t have any reason to go to your area. I’ll exchange them on Monday.”
[No. I have to wear it tomorrow. Go exchange it.]
“It’s too far today.”
[Too far? Are you serious? It’s all Seoul—what’s far about it?]
It felt like he was getting revenge for me just going home yesterday. Yesterday over meat he’d complained about how far I’d come… and now he was saying what’s so far about it?
I wanted to snap back, You live ten minutes on foot from a department store—why can’t you go yourself? But the whole point of him calling was to get revenge under the guise of sending me on an errand.
I let out a long sigh, and he asked if I’d just cursed. I almost shot back asking if he had tinnitus, but instead muttered that I was just busy with something.
That was when—
In the distance, I saw someone beating down a passing donkey and picking up a potion that dropped to the ground. The sight reminded me of the nonsense ShutUp had spouted yesterday. Something about a hundred potions…
“Fine. Fine, I’ll do it. Just hang up.”
[What do you mean fine? Do you even remember what color I told you to exchange it for? See? You can’t answer.]
“Leave a memo in the shopping bag. Let’s make a habit of leaving notes.”
Ding-dong. Ding-dong—
Just as I was about to hang up, a familiar sound rang out. I looked around, wondering what it was, but there was nowhere nearby that a doorbell could come from. Then a message appeared at the top of the game screen: <<External noise detected.>> The screen turned semi-transparent, revealing my real-life living room. On the intercom display, someone’s face appeared.
<<Do you want to exit the game? [Accept / Decline] (Auto-exit in 20 seconds)>>
Come to think of it, a few days ago the news had reported someone suffocating to death in a house fire while playing Blood Planet. After that incident, they’d added an external detection system.
“I’m hanging up.”
Saying that, I pressed [Accept] and removed the access helmet.
