The chicken I had planned to eat alone disappeared quickly once the two of us started eating it together. Thinking this guy might show up again whenever I ordered from here, I decided I shouldn’t get chicken from this place anymore and wiped my hands with the wet wipes that came with the delivery.
“Ah, that was good. Since you treated me to chicken, I’ll give you a lot of extra service.”
“Sure.”
Now that we’d finished eating, there shouldn’t have been anything left to talk about, but Roban didn’t go back to his place. Instead, he sat on the couch like a live-in roommate. I pulled the laptop I’d set under the coffee table earlier back onto the table. Logging into the game site, I clicked the icon showing items currently for sale.
“You’re still not leaving?”
“I don’t really have anything else to do.”
Maybe he’d leave once he got bored. Sighing, I stared at the laptop screen. I clicked around checking everything, but strangely, there was no record of any deposit anywhere. My sale listing was still there too.
“Huh? That’s weird. Why isn’t it showing up?”
As I scratched my head and muttered to myself, Roban, who had been holding the remote, slid off the couch and sat beside me.
“What is it?”
“Oh. I sold an item.”
“What? A BP item?”
“Yeah. I sold it on ItemByeBye, and I even got a deposit message, but it says there’s no item currently in transaction.”
“Let me see.”
Roban turned the laptop toward himself and followed the exact steps I’d clicked earlier. Then he tilted his head.
“Hm? This post saying you’re selling a Relax Scroll… this one, right?”
“Yeah. I got three million won deposited earlier.”
“No, you didn’t. There’s no deposit here.”
A chill crawled over my entire body.
What was he talking about? Maybe the page just hadn’t refreshed? I hammered the F5 key repeatedly. But the screen stayed exactly the same. As I froze, staring blankly at the monitor, Roban leaned closer and pressed further.
“You said you got a text message on your phone?”
“Y-yeah… here.”
With trembling hands, I showed him the phone screen. Roban looked back and forth between it and the laptop, then scoffed.
“You didn’t seriously hand over the item just because you got a text, right?”
“…….”
“Is this your first time trading items? You have to confirm on the website. The money doesn’t go straight into your bank account.”
“…But the message said it was from ItemByeBye… and the person who got it used the skill right in front of me…”
“Used what?”
“That skill… they used it in front of me…”
Roban laughed in disbelief, saying he couldn’t believe people still fell for scams like this. I’d assumed the money had been deposited on the site because of the message… that’s why I handed it over.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell. I called Kang Chung-man, the person I’d messaged earlier. The number didn’t exist. I tried again—same result. He must’ve used a second number like I did. All just to scam someone!
Earlier, while watching TV, I’d scoffed at people falling for voice phishing scams… and now here I was.
That person was me.
Grabbing my hair, I searched things like item scam, how to catch a scammer, and whether I should go to the cybercrime unit, but frustration surged again and I slammed the laptop shut. Then I buried my head in my hands and groaned.
“Ugh… I’m an idiot. A complete moron.”
Roban picked up my phone again and slowly read through the messages. While I sat there blaming myself, he suddenly said something unexpected.
“Yoo Du-seon is… GentleTouch?”
“….”
A different kind of chill ran down my spine. Thinking back, I remembered telling Kang Chung-man my character name in those messages—when he’d asked if he could pass the item to Goddess.
I slowly lifted my head and gauged his reaction. Roban—no, Moment—kept glancing between the phone screen and me. It was too late to deny anything now.
“Huh? You really are GentleTouch?”
“…I didn’t lie on purpose.”
“Ha, seriously. Hey! Isn’t this fate? Like destiny?”
He clearly had the meanings of destiny and bad fate completely reversed. Saying he was happy to see me, Roban tried to wrap me in a hug, but I grabbed both his wrists to stop him from closing his arms around me.
“How is this even possible?”
“I should be the one asking. I don’t even know what’s coming next in my own life.”
“Still, we’ve even kissed before, so at least let me hug you?”
“I’m not in the mood for that right now.”
Roban grabbed my shoulders and shook me, scanning me up and down as if amazed at how similar my real-life vibe was to my in-game character.
Still excited, he cupped my cheeks with both hands and tried to peck me, but I pressed my palm against his forehead and resisted as much as I could. Only when his head snapped back did he finally give up.
“You’re cold.”
“Don’t mix up the game and reality. Even if I’m a Guide there, I’m just an ordinary guy here.”
“I know you’re a guy. But honestly, I still feel kind of drawn to you even outside the game. In-game it was because of your CH stat, though.”
“Are you gay?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m strictly gay, but I don’t really limit who I’m interested in.”
Even as he said that, Roban smiled in satisfaction. Maybe because he had a solid build like ShutUp, when he leaned close and pressed against me, I felt ridiculously small.
Still, since we were both just men here, I could push him away physically, so it didn’t feel as overwhelming as in the game. Inside the game, ShutUp and Moment’s stats were so high that even when I pushed with all my strength, they didn’t budge.
But the Moment in front of me now was just a guy in a blue tracksuit. There was no reason to feel intimidated. After the noisy reunion settled down, we returned to the main topic. Roban set my phone back on the table and asked more seriously.
“Gentle, you know the name of the person who used Relax, right? Shouldn’t we just track that bastard down?”
“Oh, right. That’s an option.”
I didn’t know exactly who Kang Chung-man was, but I could meet the character called Goddess who used it. With his number gone, that was my only way to reach him.
“Roban, help me. Like you said, help me catch that Kang Chung-man guy through Goddess!”
“Even if you catch him, getting your stuff back is unlikely.”
“I just… I’ll go crazy if I sit here and do nothing. Please, just help me. Anything.”
“Alright! But in return, can I personally teach you how to use Aneros?”
I didn’t even really know what Aneros was, but adult products were probably all similar anyway, so I nodded. At that, Roban licked his lips. Even though he should’ve been full after the chicken, the way he looked for a moment felt like a starving beast.
But I didn’t have the mental energy left to notice subtle emotional shifts like that. Roban sank back into the couch and started tapping on his phone again.
“You said the name was Goddess?”
“Yeah. They must be pretty close. Otherwise, why would he buy such an expensive scroll for her?”
“Is this her?”
On the phone screen was her character. The outfit was different from earlier, but the face and hair color were exactly the same.
“Yeah! Yeah, that’s her.”
“Hm. She’s someone who gets offerings from all over.”
“Offerings?”
“Yeah. People who say she’s pretty in real life keep giving her items.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Apparently she links with people based on who gives her the most offerings.”
When I asked how he knew all this, Roban shoved the phone toward me again. Then he asked if I didn’t use social media, jokingly wondering if I’d just moved here from the mountains. “You do know how to use the internet, right?” he added, then shook his head after glancing at my laptop.
“Honestly, maybe it would’ve been better if you didn’t know how to use the internet. Then you wouldn’t have gotten scammed…”
“I’m going to fall apart at this rate. Stop. And someone once told me social media is a waste of time.”
“That ‘someone’ probably has a personal assistant who looks everything up for them anyway. Seriously, though—Goddess? Looking at you, Gentle, you seem like the type who gets taken advantage of easily. Did you even run snack errands for people back in school?”
“No.”
I didn’t mention that I’d done something like that recently. Even if I did, he wouldn’t know Jun anyway… probably. Since I stayed quiet, Roban didn’t press further.
After scrolling through his phone for a while, Roban stood up, saying he had a rough idea now. Meanwhile, I turned the laptop back on and searched KnowledgeOn for information about online item scams.
There were cases where it had been recognized as fraud, and some people recommended filing a civil lawsuit for unjust enrichment… Should I go after Goddess? Or should I try to catch Kang Chung-man instead…? The most important thing was proof that I’d handed the item over to Goddess.
Ah! Why hadn’t I taken a screenshot when I transferred it? I’d been so careful taking screenshots when returning the Ring of the Noble Elf’s Breath to ShutUp, yet at the most crucial moment, I hadn’t done it. My reason had just vanished because I was excited about the three million won deposit.
As I clutched my head again in despair, Roban suddenly sprang up from the couch.
“I’m heading out now. I’ll contact you tomorrow after work. You know my number, right? If not, check that delivery box.”
“…It’s going to be hard to get it back, isn’t it?”
“Hmm… You’ll have to get something back in another item at least.”
I followed Roban toward the door as he put on his shoes. When he asked if I was seeing him off, I said I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight and would need some soju, sounding like my world had ended.
Even while we rode the elevator down together, Roban looked excited about having a new target to chase. He kept digging through Goddess’s social media, saying he might be able to figure out who Kang Chung-man was by checking the comments.
They say humans love watching fights and fires the most. Now I knew there was another thing to add to that list—watching someone else get scammed and suffer was apparently prime popcorn entertainment.
“Anyway, call me tomorrow!”
Roban gave me a light wave as I headed toward the convenience store, then walked over to the motorcycle parked near the entrance. He set the helmet he’d worn earlier into the front basket and rode off.
I’d never gone to the apartment convenience store twice in one day before, but today was different. Earlier I’d bought a lunchbox; now I walked out with three bottles of soju. I almost grabbed some string cheese as a snack, then thought, What kind of snack suits someone like me right now? and left it behind.
Just drink and be done with it—that was all I could think.
It was a weekday, and tomorrow’s me warned that I shouldn’t drink too much, but today’s me won without a fight. I sat down in front of the couch and started drinking. With no food, one bottle went down fast, and the alcohol hit me quickly.
“Ah… damn it. I should just go die.”
Cursing at myself, I emptied the second bottle, and suddenly something hurt more deeply than getting scammed. Maybe I should’ve just stayed home even if I didn’t get a job. Then I’d still be living comfortably off my severance pay…
By the time I finished the third bottle, I couldn’t think at all anymore. My vision spun wildly, the whole world tilting around me. Getting from the living room to the bedroom felt like crossing a distant mountain range. The floor surged upward and slammed into my forehead.
Since when did this country have such strong earthquakes? At this rate, wasn’t the world ending? My eyes closed as that thought crossed my mind. And as they did, I heard Jun’s voice faintly in my ear.
Hyung….
I was the one who had every right to feel wronged—so why did he sound even sadder than me?
