I thought I’d more or less resolved my concerns about the ring. With a lightened heart, I was working at the office when, as lunchtime for office workers approached, I got a call from Han-woo.
The moment I pressed the call button, Han-woo’s laughter rang sharply in my ears. After waiting for him to calm down a bit, the first thing he asked was whether I’d seen the official homepage.
“Why the homepage?”
Since I was already in front of my PC, I went into the game’s homepage from my bookmarks. A banner that never normally appeared was now sitting smack in the middle of the screen. I was about to check the box to hide it for seven days when my hand froze after reading the contents.
It was a congratulatory announcement celebrating the birth of the first-ever 91 percent partner pair on the entire server. In giant letters were ShutUp’s name and my character’s name. And just like that, we’d been taxidermied not only on this server, but on all the others too.
“Can they just out us like this? What about my character’s human rights?”
[Well then, why’d you go and match with a guy? Heh.]
Han-woo hung up while laughing, and my mood immediately plummeted.
Right. It’s a game that guarantees anonymity anyway—what does it matter who matches with whom? But once a male×male pairing hit number one, the boards were suddenly flooded with posts asking if this was the real answer, urging people to form same-sex partners instead of male×female ones.
“…Pointless. So pointless.”
I closed the browser window and went back to work.
***
The day passed quietly without anything special happening. That landlord bastard didn’t make me run any errands or anything either.
I closed the office at 7 p.m. and went home. While eating dinner, the TV I had on was criticizing Blood Planet, asking if it was a game that even encouraged homosexuality.
But interestingly enough, no matter how many same-sex pairs matched up, they couldn’t even reach 60 percent—let alone 70. After casually drinking a beer, I logged in.
<<Welcome to Blood Planet.>>
<<Moving to your last logout location.>>
Since I had logged out after leaving the guild room, I was in Adventurer’s Village.
“Ha… there it is.”
Seeing the banner hanging boldly in the center of the village in person was even more absurd. A giant heart sat between ShutUp’s and my photos.
No wonder people are calling us a gay couple. Tsk.
At the top of the screen, my partner status was set to [ON]. Even though I whispered him, ShutUp didn’t respond. All I could see was his current location—where he was and where he was moving.
“If you’re going to be like this, why even become partners?”
Grumbling, I started selling off the junk items I’d picked up that day to the shop NPC one by one. That’s when I noticed the experience bar at the bottom slowly rising.
“Huh? Oh! Whoa.”
Before I could finish marveling, my body flashed twice. That meant I’d leveled up two times. When I checked my status window, I saw that I’d been level 1 when I logged out, but now I was level 14.
What happened? Do you level up even when you’re offline?
That guess turned out to be correct. Once you formed a partner bond, it functioned like a sort of contract—if either the Guide or the Psychic hunted, experience would be distributed appropriately based on level. I received far less experience than ShutUp, but maybe because I was such a lowbie, my leveling speed was insanely fast.
I opened my partner’s status window.
Wow.
ShutUp was level 86. At a time when no one had even broken level 90 yet, 86 was ridiculously high. And considering that after level 50 there were so many hellish sections where leveling slowed to a crawl, even if I worked my ass off from now on, catching up to ShutUp would be nearly impossible.
Before going hunting, I needed to sort out my items. I sold junk to make some money and was about to split up my potions because of weight limits.
“Hand it over.”
A voice suddenly came from behind me.
When I turned my head, I saw ShutUp looking worn out, as if he’d just finished hunting.
“What?”
“Ring of the Noble Elf’s Breath.”
I should’ve returned it right after we matched that day, but he’d logged out before I could.
After storming off in a huff himself.
I told him to wait a moment and walked to the warehouse. As soon as I took out the ring, he sent a trade request.
But handing over such an expensive ring so easily felt like a waste. I didn’t even know how long he’d keep me as his partner.
“Don’t break the partnership until I reach A-rank.”
“Fine.”
Even after hearing his answer, I still didn’t put the ring up.
“Why aren’t you placing it?”
“If I just hand it over, it feels off. Reveal your personal info. Then I’ll return it.”
“You want my contact info?”
“Yeah.”
“…Ha. You’ve got to be kidding.”
ShutUp let out a scoff. His expression clearly said, What kind of bastard is this?
Human had at least been decent. He’d called me hyung, at least. But this guy seriously acted like the world revolved around game levels. Forget formal speech—he’d been looking down on me from start to finish.
But then, those lips that looked like they’d never part slowly opened.
“010-7662-8……”
“Home address.”
“You’ve got the guts to actually come find me?”
“Stop dragging it out.”
“24, Jamun-ro 54-gil. Unit 701.”
As ShutUp spoke, I pulled up the in-game memo pad and wrote everything down. I even took screenshots when I opened the trade window, leaving behind all sorts of evidence. They said he wasn’t the type to lie, so this should be enough.
“Now that you’ve done that, give it to me already! Do you have any idea how embarrassing this has been for me because of you!?”
His voice wasn’t loud, but his volume was powerful. The moment he barked at me, I flinched. Since it came through in his real voice, I could feel his anger vividly.
“W-wait a second. Okay.”
I took a slow breath. Goodbye, ring of my lifetime. Slowly, I placed the Ring of the Noble Elf’s Breath into the trade window. The moment I pressed confirm, the window closed in an instant.
As soon as ShutUp equipped it, massive angel wings unfurled behind his back. They were angel wings, but to me they looked like a demon’s.
Then suddenly, he Warped and disappeared right in front of me.
“Huh? D-did he just loot and run? Hey!”
I immediately sent a whisper.
[GentleTouch: Are you just going alone? Take me with you.]
[ShutUp: Use Partner Warp.]
I couldn’t see where Partner Warp was. Frustrated, I grabbed the nearest passing user. He looked me up and down, then glanced at the banner floating in the distance and snorted.
“Hey, could you stop laughing and just—”
“Ah, sorry. You don’t know Partner Warp? Press Alt.”
Seems like I needed a keyboard. I pulled up the on-screen keyboard I usually used for phone messages.
“Okay. Press Alt?”
“Then press F4.”
“Oh, I see, thanks—”
Suddenly the screen went bright and I was staring at my living room. What the—? Once I grasped the situation, I realized what he’d told me was the force quit key.
Wow. Seriously. They say you can’t trust anyone in this world. Now I was getting tricked and kicked out by some random passerby.
My motivation to play dropped instantly. I took off my helmet and looked at the personal info ShutUp had sent to my phone earlier. I should’ve at least called to verify it was really his before handing over the ring. I added the contact and checked his profile.
“…Hm?”
He looked normal. No—more than normal. Pretty decent, actually. It was a photo of him sitting somewhere. His face was shadowed so I couldn’t see it clearly, but his full body stood out.
But why did he feel strangely familiar? To make sure it was really ShutUp, I sent him a message on my phone. I told him I’d gotten logged out after being tricked into hitting the force quit key while asking about Partner Warp in the village, and that he didn’t need to wait for me.
Not even ten seconds after sending it, I got a reply. Just one word. No—less than a word.
[tsk]
‘“Tsk”… seriously?’
I’d told him so he wouldn’t wait, and this is how he brushed me off? If he’s going to ignore me like that, I won’t tell him anything next time.
What’s so hard about explaining one simple thing like Partner Warp? I was already fed up with real estate work, and now I was getting humiliated in a game too. Anger surged up inside me.
“The moment I hit A-rank, I’m dumping you.”
I vented at ShutUp’s profile photo. Then I got up and grabbed another beer from the fridge.
I’d just cracked it open and taken a few sips when my phone buzzed with a message. It was from ShutUp. I was going to read it and ignore it, but I opened it anyway.
[Double-tap my name.]
Hm…?
Looking at it, that must be how you use Partner Warp.
But going right back in just because he told me how would make me look spineless…
I took a long swig of cold beer and calmed myself down, facing reality.
Right. When a guy like that offers to power-level you, just accept it nicely.
I finished the rest of the beer in one go and put the helmet back on. When I reconnected, I was standing in the exact spot where I’d force quit earlier.
I double-tapped my partner’s name at the top of the screen, and a prompt popped up asking if I wanted to move. When I pressed accept, the screen shifted rapidly like it had when I first logged in.
<<Moving to ‘Amon’s Ruins.’>>
The place I arrived at was a dark castle interior.
A sinister aura washed over my entire body. Giant spiders hung from webs all around me. The graphics were so detailed that the moment our eyes met, one of the spiders started moving toward me.
“Eek! Don’t come near me!”
I swung my staff wildly. All it did was get sticky webbing stuck all over it, so I had no choice but to use a skill.
A panel appeared beside the hand holding my staff, displaying various skill icons. But since I’d barely hunted before, how was I supposed to know what was what?
I just used the first one I saw—[Light Sunset].
The moment I cast it, the surroundings lit up brightly, and dozens of giant spiders hanging from webs all turned toward me at once. Having dozens of eight-eyed creatures stare at me simultaneously was a terror unlike any other.
How many eyeballs is that supposed to be…?!
The spiders scattered everywhere began advancing toward me all at once. I felt like the protagonist in a horror movie. Goosebumps ran over my entire body, and fear made it hard to move.
I slowly backed away, glancing ahead and to both sides. But seeing spiders closing in from all directions, survival instinct kicked in and I spun around and ran.
“Aaaah! So gross!”
As I turned and bolted, bam! I collided with someone. I staggered backward, but the person I ran into didn’t budge at all.
Rubbing my nose, I looked up—and saw a familiar figure.
Without a word, ShutUp extended his hand forward and fired an electric skill at the nearest spider. I’d expected the single bolt to kill only the one in front of him, but instead it shot through the webbing and spread in all directions in an instant.
All the surrounding spiders were electrocuted simultaneously and dropped to the ground with dull thuds. The corpses lay there with their legs curled inward, and I could even smell something burning. It was astonishing how faithfully the game reflected reality.
“Haa…”
I was about to say thank you, but the sigh I heard from behind me made the words vanish.
ShutUp turned and walked ahead, signaling me to follow. The entire castle seemed to be a hunting ground, with quite a lot of spiders scattered everywhere. It was too excessive to call them mere decorations. The moment we made eye contact, they stubbornly chased me down.
When one of the spider legs barely brushed me, my HP dropped slightly. I pointed at it, and above the monster appeared [LV. 30]. For someone who had just hit level 15, it was a seriously dangerous monster.
My reaction was normal—but ShutUp glanced at me like I was pathetic. I didn’t like it, but I stuck close behind him. I hated those spiders more than I disliked him.
“A-ahhh—!”
After following him for a while, I heard another player’s scream. It wasn’t far away. Probably a beginner—his entire body was covered in spiders. The game settings didn’t let you feel pain, but you could feel itchiness. Spiders all over your body… If that happened to me, I’d definitely have nightmares.
I kept walking while staring at ShutUp’s back when he suddenly stopped. In front of a massive stone gate stood several others besides him. The gate was carved with various patterns. At a glance, it looked exactly like the gates of hell.
