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Chapter 91. Reality (6)
The chatter that started at the cafe continued without stopping.
Even though we talked only about our recent situations, we laughed and chatted with each other so much that we couldn't see the end of it. And finally, one of the main guys decided to show up.
“Woah, shit~ Have y’all been waiting well?”
Cheol appeared with a thick padded jacket, showing up with a characteristic smile on his face.
JiWon jumped up from his seat and pushed forward his fist, and Cheol bumped his fist against it, exchanging greetings with each other. This was a form of greeting we did back in high school.
And of course, it was my turn to do the greeting after Jiwon.
Especially since this was something KwonCheol and I made up back in highschool.
“I called KiHo and he was already getting ready and shit.”
“Guess he outdid ya, Cheol.”
SeongHoon replied with a comeback as Cheol grabbed my shoulders and shook me from the back.
And as Cheol joined our seat, WonKi’s phone started ringing, and he headed outside to answer the phone.
When he came back,
“WooHyuk says he can’t come.”
He said in an apathetic tone.
And the rest of us let out a huge sigh.
“He went to power level his boss, I guess.”
“Well, it can’t be helped. It’s not like he didn’t want to come, right?”
Already knowing his circumstances, we quickly went over to a new topic to talk about.
“By the way, anyone here managed to get a girlfriend?”
As soon as JiWon finished speaking, WonKi replied.
“A moment of silence for our dear friends.”
“Looks like this meet-up will become a wizard’s conference.”
[TL Note: Urban myth in Korea/Japan that you will become a wizard after keeping your virginity for a very long time after your adulthood. (Usually at 30)]
SeongHoon replied with a joke.
***
Reaper Scans
[Translator - Dawn]
[Proofreader - Karane]
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***
In the midst of everyone starting to laugh out loud, WonKi took a sip of his americano from his cup.
“I do, you losers~”
He said out loud.
My friends and I stood up from our seats and surrounded him
“Wait, shit! Stop!”
He took a light punch from each of us in a blink of an eye, enough to make him desperately try to stop us.
“You’ve gotta be kidding, right?”
“I thought KiHo or Cheol would be the first ones to get a girlfriend!”
Said Jiwon in a playful tone as he looked at us.
“Yeah, considering the looks, I think they’d be the first ones to get a girlfriend. You’re not supposed to get one before them~!”
Before SeongHoon could even finish his words, WonKi started to chuckle.
“Okay, c’mon now. Despite my looks, I do have some skills when it comes to getting girls, alright?”
“Looks like he’s hurt in the head.”
Despite SeongHoon’s jokes, WonKi started to boast about his girlfriend.
“I’m dating a foreigner right now~”
“Right.”
“I call bullshit.”
“Looks like you’ve become a wizard of bullshit, my friend.”
Interrupted by others’ distrust and suspicions, WonKi started to tell his story as if he was trying to calm us down.
“Alright, fine. My girlfriend is from Circuit.”
“What?”
“Wow. You made a girlfriend in Circuit?”
Since was also the hottest topic to talk about among us, many of my friends seemed to be surprised fractions.
WonKi pulled out his phone with a face full of confidence.
On the screen, there was a picture of a beautiful woman with platinum blonde hair.
“What the, she’s pre hot.”
“Did you get this picture from the internet?”
While the friends were staring into the phone, WonKi quickly pulled his phone back to himself.
“Alright, you’ve seen enough.”
“Wow, I wanna date a woman like that in Circuit too.”
“You have to be lying, This cannot be true!”
“You got this pic from the internet, right? Where did you get it from?”
Having received the envy of his friends, WonKi couldn’t control his happiness and began to blush and laugh.
I’ve seen a case like this one before too.
Since I knew that Guile was also in a relationship with a female elf in , what WonKi said came to me as something very believable.
“How did you guys end up together? Tell us some stories, c’mon.”
I asked WonKi, attracting all others’ attention.
“Alright, I’ll tell you some. Now take a seat!”
As WonKi was about to open his lips to speak,
“This would be a great story to listen to with some meat and alcohol, right~?”
SeongHoon came in at an amazing timing. Everyone, including myself, couldn’t control the burst of laughter and we got up from our seats.
“Alright. Let’s head out since we’ve caused a nuisance here too!”
We headed out of the cafe trying to be as quiet as possible.
Realizing how quiet and peaceful the cafe became after we left, all of us felt a little embarrassed about it.
As we went inside the restaurant, we noticed that a few seats were already taken before we came.
I pulled out my phone to check the time, wondering why people were already starting to show up at the restaurant when it wasn’t even dinner time.
But, boy was I wrong. It was already 6 pm.
We’ve been chatting out of our minds for so long.
The time went by faster since it had been such a long while since we gathered up like this.
We hurriedly sat down at a seat and ordered 12 servings of meat. All of us knew how much we ate so we started off with the big order.
“Alright, so how did you two meet?”
SeongHo asked WonKi right away.
WonKi started to open up his mouth to speak.
“So I’m level 51 right now.”
“Right, you were pretty high level.”
“I was also surprised at how fast I leveled up, since all I did was wander around by myself.”
The level revealed by WonKi himself was considered a pretty high level, to my surprise.
Even I knew only a few players who were over level 50.
“I was level 24 when I first met her.”
“Yikes, you remember your first encounter with level?”
“The story’s starting off strong.”
As we added reactions to his story, he seemed to get more excited, getting more active as he told the story.
“I’m working as a knight for the Hosfil family right now.”
WonKi’s class was a knight.
It was one of the classes given after entering a specific institution and receiving education from it, like the wizards of the White Tower, or the priests.
“One time, I had to cross through Toico in order to get to Asparagan. There was a party being hosted in Asparagan, and the family nominated me and I was hired to bodyguard and escort the people of Hosfil family.”
“How much do you earn if you take on jobs like that?”
We started having conversations about Circuit very naturally.
“I think I got around like 53 gold there.”
“Woah. That’s a lot, actually.”
“Sick.”
“Anyways, after passing through Toico, and heading toward Asparagan, we’ve been ambushed by a bunch of rogue mercenary bastards.”
Everyone focused on what WonKi would say as he continued to tell his story with a realistic and serious face and gestures.
“So I had to fight’em. Fortunately, I was an apprentice at that time, and the person who was standing next to me was an NPC at like level 40 at that time. So, we managed to suppress the mercenaries without too many difficulties.”
“And after that?”
“We took them hostage and convoyed them all the way to Aspargan. And that was the first time I met her.”
“What. Your girlfriend is one of the rogue mercenaries?”
“Yup. I tried persuading her into working as a security for the Hosfil family. And holy shit, that was the first time I’ve ever seen so beautiful in my life.”
“Yeah, she was pretty hot.”
“So we had some talks, and she told me why she became a rogue mercenary. And I started to actively help her out of the situation.”
Then WonKi let out embarrassed laughter.
“And after some time, she confessed to me first.”
“What.”
“You even got asked out first?”
Enjoying the gaze filled with envy, WonKi wrapped up his story.
The story WonKi told us was something even I was envious of.
Honestly, I missed that sort of normal everyday life playthrough of the game so many times.
Mose in had opposed the Prince of Rebellion, and because of that, he was encountered with a series of gigantic events, and he was literally in the position to live an unfortunate fate.
But the thing I was most envious of was, of course, the fact that the relationship between WonKi and the rogue mercenary named Alena had developed into that of a lover in a very natural way.
I may be the only person thinking this, but Khea was someone that was a partner to me for now.
I always wanted a deeper relationship with her, but every time that feeling got stronger I restrained myself and reminded myself that I was only her partner, making me keep a certain distance from her.
Objectively speaking,
She was incredibly beautiful since she was a half-elf, and was also brave. She was also very attractive in terms other than just her appearance.
And above all, her personality shined the brightest, even brighter than her appearance.
I wondered why I kept a certain distance from her. Maybe I should just directly ask her when we meet again?
Would she accept me or reject me?
Maybe that would cause our relationship to be more distant than it is now.
The various emotions that I was feeling toward a character in a video game were only a natural outcome.
She smiled at me, let me smell her own scent, and shared her feelings with me.
Because was so full of realism to the point where you could feel all of that.
As I pondered about many thoughts like that, there were over 20 empty bottles of soju on the table, and my friends were having a conversation with whoever was next to them.
“KiHo, how have you been?”
“Me? Well, I’ve just been playing Circuit.”
“Did you make any advancements?”
With a little bit of alcohol in his system, Cheol asked me with a serious face.
At his question,
“Oh, yeah. A lot actually.”
I replied honestly.
Cheol smiled.
“You were going through some shit ‘cause of that. Good to hear that you’ve made some advancements.”
“What’s your thoughts on Circuit?”
Cheol poured all the drink left in his cup and answered me.
“It’s an opportunity, don’t you think? I don’t mean to sound rude, but it is true that we wasted our time back in high school, right?”
“Right.”
I naturally nodded at what Cheol said as I poured more alcohol into his cup.
Cheol also reflexively poured alcohol into my cup.
“But in my opinion, this whole Circuit thing is so damn fair. Obviously, some lucky people make big money real quick, but even if you don’t have that kind of luck, you can still try hard in many perspectives with almost immediate feedback.”
“Of course.”
“Honestly speaking, making money through gaming is for smarter kids a lot younger than us with acrobatic finger movements that become professional gamers and shit, right?’
“True, true.”
“At first, I thought what can people like us do if people like professional gamers start playing Circuit too, y’know? But it turns out it’s not like that.”
“Yeah, turns out not. Though it is true that I’m quite conscious of how people see me still. There is still a bad perception of people who play games and stuff.”
“But that kind of perception disappeared after Circuit was released.”
“Yeah, still there are more people who don’t play Circuit than people who do.”
“Well, yeah that much is true.”
“And you see a lot of news articles about Circuit here and there. I think it is a fact that the game stands at the center of attention. And there are people reported to have negative aftereffects after playing the game too.”
“But still,”
Cheol held out his shot.
Beginning to feel a little lightheaded as I started to spit out words that didn’t go through the filter in my mind along with a strange feeling in my throat, I recklessly bumped my shot into his.
“You can’t just give up after finding a place to keep diggin’, y’know? You might lose a fuckin’ limb or two in the process, but you can’t stop until you hit something.”
Listening to his next words, I couldn’t help but nod my head in agreement with a good mood.