NOVEL NEXT 09.
09.
For a moment, I was at a loss, but when I pressed enter as Nyang-nyang had taught me, the cursor blinked in the chat window.
[General/Angryy: Fighting]
Nothing changed.
[General/Angryy: Cheer up]
[General/Philibuster: Chaos and Disaster party]
[General/MyBananaCar: Anyone want to go to the cemetery together~]
[General/DishwasherAtMom’s: 321 Mixed party looking for members]
[General/NotEnoughMana: Buying mana potions, whisper @NotEnoughMana@]
[General/Angryy: You can do it]
[General/Philibuster: 4 channels Chaos and Disaster]
[General/Iman: No]
[General/Iman: Who’s been spreading emotion in the general chat]
[General/MiniChoco: Someone’s not living up to their name]
[General/BroBro: I almost cried ㅜ]
Is this not it? Should I comfort him with a longer message? But it’s hard to type long sentences…
[General/Angryy: Mino cheer up you can do it]
I typed a longer message with great effort, but still, nothing changed.
[General/Iman: Mino cheer up…? Could it be,,???]
[General/MiniChoco: No way]
[General/Various: No way….]
[General/ImRealJajangmyeon: Mino quest??? Are you saying you’re a newbie?]
[General/MinoIsMine: There are quite a few newbies who make such mistakes during the Mino quest]
[General/Arigato: No way they’re a real newbie, just ignore it]
[General/Gchang: Here’s another veteran pretending to be a newbie lolㅇㅅㅇ]
[General/Gchang: Where was the Mino quest location again?]
The chat window suddenly filled with messages mentioning Mino. I didn’t read them to avoid confusion.
I tried a few more comforting phrases like “You’ll do well,” “The instructor will give you candy,” “You won’t get scolded,” but to no avail.
Ah, this is frustrating.
Why is this kid so difficult?
Memories of annoying times when I had to forcibly comfort people at work started to surface. Can’t I just kill monsters instead? I’m wasting time trying to console this immature brat without even being able to fight.
Feeling like I want to give up on everything, I zoomed in on Mino. A boy with messy brown hair and blue eyes was crying his eyes out.
What’s there to be so sad about?
I’m the one who’s more miserable, you little shit. I… lost my parents and my younger sibling died. No, I mean Angryy… is an orphan. But then it occurred to me that Mino might be an orphan too.
Because this world is right after a war. Only 5 years have passed since the war ended.
Thinking of a lonely boy without a family crying because he doesn’t want to train in swordsmanship suddenly made me feel sorry for this child.
At the same time, I was incredibly angry.
Do they really have to force him to train in swordsmanship? If the kid hates it this much, they should suggest other paths. Like farming or commerce…
[Whisper/Beombiga: Angryy-nim]
Just then, a message in a different color appeared in the noisy chat window. It was specifically mentioning my character’s name, so it was hard to ignore.
[Whisper/Beombiga: Hello.]
[General/Angryy: What]
[General/MiniChoco: ??]
[General/Iman: What???>?]
[Whisper/Beombiga: Press the tab key on your keyboard to switch to whisper mode (purple text) before speaking]
[General/Angryy: Are you talking to me?]
[General/Iman: ㅠㅠWe; didn’t say anything;;]
[General/ImRealJajangmyeon: It’s because you’re cute]
[Whisper/Beombiga: Yes. I’m talking to Angryy-nim]
[General/Various: This is scary]
I didn’t know who it was, but I did as instructed.
When I pressed tab, five options appeared: General, System, Party, Guild, and Whisper. But isn’t “whisper” a bit too cheesy…
[Whisper/Beombiga: When you get used to it later, you can just type / whisper and my name. Don’t put a space between / and whisper]
[Whisper/To Beombiga: Who are you?]
[Whisper/Beombiga: If you’re currently doing the Mino comfort quest, go in front of Mino]
[Whisper/Beombiga: There should be a blue circle in front]
[Whisper/Beombiga: Type /comfort there without a space between / and comfort]
[Whisper/Beombiga: This is called the motion function and you’ll use it often in the future]
This person types incredibly fast.
I did as he said. Then my character patted Mino’s head.
Ah, so this is how you comfort.
“Mino (Apprentice Trainee)
Adventurer Angryy, thank you. Your comfort has given me courage.
Training is painful and hard, but it’s nothing compared to the horrors of war.
I’ll train hard again!”
Mino ran off to the training grounds.
It’s shallow that he genuinely gains courage from just a pat on the head. This game’s story is indeed superficial.
And I’m not comfortable sending a young child back to the training grounds.
What’s even more uncomfortable is the game company that readily makes a child an orphan just to teach this motion function.
[Whisper/To Beombiga: Thank you for your help]
[Whisper/Beombiga: It’s nothing]
[You have received a friend request from Beombiga.
Do you want to accept?
Accept / Reject ]
I stared at the small window that popped up for a moment, then typed:
[Whisper/To Beombiga: I’ll quit after reaching level 50, so I’m rejecting.]
[Whisper/Beombiga: Okay ㅎㅎ I understand. Keep up the good work then]
[Whisper/Beombiga: Feel free to ask if you have any questions.]
The kind person didn’t message me again.
As I was about to resume playing, Jin came out after finishing his shower.
By then, it was already midnight.
Jin came to my room and adjusted various game settings. He changed the screen size to make it more viewable and modified the shortcut keys to suit my hunt-and-peck typing.
“This is called the interface. You can change it again later if you find something more comfortable. What job are you going to choose later?”
“I haven’t decided yet. I should choose one that’s easy to level up.”
“I see. By the way, did you really eat? The kitchen looked too clean.”
“I told you I ate.”
“When are you going to sleep? You usually sleep by 11 at the latest.”
“Ah.”
“You’re not… becoming a game addict who doesn’t eat or sleep because of the game, are you? You always warned me not to become such a pathetic person. If you become a game addict, I, who respect you, might start gaming to follow your example… Well, I’m going to bed now.”
Jin, who seemed not fully sober yet, went to bed.
I was moving my character but couldn’t resist getting up.
Am I becoming that pathetic person who doesn’t eat or sleep because of gaming? No way. I was about to turn off the game and go to sleep anyway. I just kept playing out of a sense of duty to help with my brother’s assignment, and that’s why it got this late.
I pressed the exit button I had found earlier in the interface without hesitation.
That night, I had a strange dream.
In the dream, I knew it was a dream because I was in Angryy’s perspective from Forest Effect. Angryy dreamed of revenge without leaving the forest. He trained in the cave where his sister died and slept in the clearing where his parents and villagers died. In reality, he stayed in the village, but in the dream, it was like this.
Later, Angryy’s face gradually changed and became a familiar face.
It was me.
No, that’s not right. My younger sibling is alive. I wasn’t as bad off as you. I didn’t experience war, and I never thought about finding and killing the bastard who killed our parents out of revenge like you. And I ended up winning the lottery, so all that’s left for me is to live a happy life. I’m different from you.
As I said this, Angryy’s face changed back to the beautiful fairy face. Then he made a sad and wistful expression that clearly disagreed with what I said.
You and I are the same.
That’s what he seemed to be saying.
2-2. Kwon Je-beom’s side
“Oh, Je-beom. Hi.”
“Kwon Je-beom. Hello.”
“…Hello.”
As Kwon Je-beom sat down behind them, Ha Jin and Ju Da-bin greeted him. Although they were from different departments, he was quite famous, and since he always sat near them, they had become acquaintances who greeted each other when they met. The outgoing Ha Jin and Da-bin were always the ones to greet first.
After exchanging greetings, Ha Jin and Da-bin put their heads together and started whispering. They were talking about Ha-un. Although they spoke quietly between themselves, Kwon Je-beom heard everything.
“How can we get him to go out?”
“Going out isn’t the issue. We need to find him a hobby he can do at home first.”
“That’s true. Since he really dislikes people, it should be a hobby he can do alone. How about making something?”
“They say people should live by balancing production and consumption in the right ratio. If you spend eight hours a day producing, you should spend two hours purely consuming. But oppa has only been producing all his life. Now he needs to focus on consuming.”
“Let’s search on GemTube. Healthy hobbies.”
They found various hobbies and made Ha-un try them, but they all ended in failure. Kwon Je-beom was even more worried than the two of them.
Kwon Je-beom encountered Ha-un surprisingly often. Ha-un always had an expression that seemed to have gathered all the pessimism in the world. At some point, for some reason, Kwon Je-beom also started thinking about ways to alleviate Ha-un’s burnout.
Was it his pro gamer’s instinct to solve problems?
Was it empathy as someone who once disliked people but overcame it?
Or was it because someone kept overlapping with that white face…
He didn’t know the reason, but whenever he saw Ha-un, he was reminded of “that person.”
No matter how much he thought about it, there was only one hobby that came to mind that someone who dislikes people like Ha-un could do.
It had to be that.
One day, as the lecture ended and students were getting up to leave, Ha Jin and Da-bin were also packing their bags and standing up.
“Ha Jin.”
Ha Jin jumped in surprise at the deep voice and turned around. He was even more surprised to see Kwon Je-beom looking at him.
“Oh, did you call me?”
Kwon Je-beom nodded.
Everyone knew how shy Kwon Je-beom was, so when he spoke first, both Ha Jin and Ju Da-bin were very surprised.