By Zephyria 
‘Jaegang District… It should be over there. If it’s about the flaw.’
As always, Director Gil ended up providing a simple piece of information. However, considering his expression before they left, it didn’t seem like he had cooperated simply because he believed the nonsense being spouted.
Whether it was true or not, it felt like he was just giving in because the other party wanted it, which made me feel vaguely sorry. Before stepping out, I instinctively dusted off and straightened Joo-oh’s hood, which he had worn properly, only to receive a very complicated look in return.
On the contrary, I felt relieved. The matter that Teacher Jung had seen, heard, and misunderstood had not yet been relayed to this side. Thanks to that, Mu-hae was able to leave the electronic store with a much lighter heart.
“We already searched the hideout. Right?”
“It probably means there’s somewhere else left to touch.”
“I knew it. I guess there was a prerequisite like this!”
“Prerequisite, my foot.”
I let out a short laugh while packing my things on Starlight Road.
If one finds a clue after Director Gil gives a hint, Joo-oh’s expression isn’t entirely wrong.
His choice of words was exactly like the guidance voice of an AI manual for operating complex machinery. Come to think of it, the unfamiliar vocabulary Joo-oh used often gave this impression. At first, I dismissed it as a simple patchwork of words, but…
At this point, I’m starting to feel a sense of consistency. Perhaps there is an original source that had a profound influence on his speech habits.
I had suddenly handed a human world TV to an Aberrant who knew nothing, without providing any kind of viewing guidance. It would be believable if this fellow, who is only quick to learn the annoying things, had swallowed and absorbed something whole.
“Quest.”
When I muttered a word I had heard once, Joo-oh, who was rummaging through his bag, widened his eyes.
“System. Event. Mini-game.”
“Huh?”
“Upgrade. Item.”
“Uh, yeah.”
The irises within his red pupils dilated. Perhaps he hadn’t thought I remembered everything he had said so far, as he tilted his head a few times as if doubting his ears.
“What channel is it?”
“Uh, uh-huh.”
“I’m asking what you watched that was so interesting.”
“Uh-huh. Huh?”
Then, he suddenly broke. After jumping around in excitement, he came to a dead stop, staring into empty air.
Only after Mu-hae nudged his shoulder did Joo-oh glance up with wide eyes.
“Late-night TV? I don’t think I saw it during the day.”
“Uh-huh, yeah.”
“Why is your reaction like this? What kind of program is it?”
“Ummm, uh-huh.”
The proportion of white in his eyes increased again. Unless he had secretly watched something scandalous at a time when others were fast asleep, could he possibly have such a guilty expression?
As suspicion filled the gaze directed at him, the fellow rolled his eyes and avoided eye contact.
Eventually, he drooped the ends of his eyebrows and confessed haltingly.
“Game…”
“Game?”
“I saw people playing games.”
A game. If it was through a broadcast, it wouldn’t be the kind of game like slots or roulette that people waste their Deals on in Sakdal.
He probably saw an entertainment simulation. For example, things like crystal mining or city building that are installed even on low-end tablet devices.
For Mu-hae, daily reality was already a tycoon game of cutting and fitting his life to his living expenses, hunting Beasts, avoiding Aberrants, exploring danger zones, and building a mercenary career, so he didn’t go out of his way to play them.
He had tried running one once out of curiosity, but after mining crystals in the game about twelve times in a ridiculous manner and then dying to an Aberrant, he turned it off in absurdity.
Since then, he had lived forgetting that there were similar functions on his pad, but now to think they even broadcast such things on TV.
There must be quite a few humans in the world with too much time on their hands. It was a thought that was both enviable and ridiculous.
“No. It’s not like that.”
“What?”
Did he realize I thought it was pathetic? Just as I was about to brush it off with a hollow laugh, Joo-oh suddenly clenched his fists and protested.
“It’s not like that? Like some weird city construction where you can even put in a sewage treatment plant in Central. And when it overflows, people suddenly float around in sewage water.”
“No. It’s an adventure!”
With a single sneer, the way he gaped with unbelievable eyes was almost at the level of a Holy Mother Church priest who had been blasphemed. Or a reaction as if someone had stubbed out a cigarette on his dinner meat, or perhaps even more.
“Adventure? What kind of adventure.”
“You become a mercenary, catch Aberrants, carry out secret missions, and also…”
“That’s what you do every day.”
“Collect items, go to places you’ve never been…”
“That too.”
Fortunately, the anger of unknown origin subsided completely after a few stupid Zen-like riddles.
The fellow’s face, which had been shifting between the air and Jin Mu-hae, gradually became as gentle as an Icon in a prayer room.
“Is that so…?”
“…”
“I guess so.”
Joo-oh, who had been chewing over the same words several times, dropped his bag. The miscellaneous items inside rolled across the floor.
Before I could ask what the hell he was doing now, he opened his arms and hugged my torso tightly.
“I like it.”
“The game? Or me?”
“Both.”
“Both?”
I raised an eyebrow at the arrogant and ungrateful answer, but the expression I faced looked so happy that I couldn’t bring myself to rain on his parade.
Truly an unpredictable whim. I’ve never heard that Aberrants suffer from mania.
“Me, or the game.”
“Hehe.”
“I asked if it’s me or the game.”
“Pet my head.”
Unless the game was the name of some loafer, it was a question not worth asking. Yet, for some reason, my mood turned sour, and I continued the childish interrogation.
“I won’t.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s a prerequisite for this system too. Pet yourself.”
Instead of getting angry at the mean response, Joo-oh’s eyes and cheeks flushed red. Like someone excited by a great discovery, even his breathing seemed to grow slightly rough.
Joo-oh sniffed the air and began to nibble on the clothes over my chest. When I pushed him away, asking what he was doing, I could even hear the sound of the hair on the back of his neck bristling with a low growl.
“What is it all of a sudden?”
“I like it…”
“Like what, exactly? The system? The prerequisite?”
“The way you talk like that.”
I feel a sense of déjà vu. It seems this crazy fellow heats up in a similar way whenever he discovers a unique taste.
As a result, there are already several pieces of clothing in the study cabinet. While Mu-hae looked troubled, he couldn’t take his eyes off the body clinging to him.
“Tell me more.”
“You lunatic.”
“I like Jin Mu-hae more. Hmm?”
“…You like this kind of idiot way of speaking, like ‘even if the user acts recklessly, it is difficult for an unscheduled event to occur’?”
Kirung—.
I almost collapsed. Before I could feel fear or chills, my knees just gave out on their own.
I grabbed the fellow who was rubbing his cheek with half-closed eyes, looking wounded in his pride. When I tossed him onto the bed, a refreshing laugh finally burst through his reddish lips.
“Say that too. ‘The sky is filthy today’.”
“Why should I.”
“‘I smell blood.’ Or ‘When does it start?’.”
“I’m asking why the hell I should say that.”
As expected of someone with uniquely colored eyes, they sparkled so beautifully that it was impossible to look away. When Joo-oh was excited, his entire face always felt like it was glowing.
“What’s the prerequisite for the event?”
“I don’t want to tell you.”
Tsk. He clicked his tongue, sat up abruptly, and pulled Mu-hae’s shoulder. He lightly kissed the lips of the person forced halfway down, mwah, mwah, and smiled broadly as if to show off.
“Because Jin Mu-hae likes this.”
No, you’re the one who likes it. That’s why I’m doing it. The lips that look like they want to be nibbled by front teeth, the slippery tongue, the panting breath—I’m biting and sucking because you’re the one who likes it.
Clinging to a rationalization that even he wouldn’t believe, Mu-hae mingled his tongue with the breath that approached once more. The fingertips of Joo-oh’s hand, gripping my arm, trembled violently as a piece of flesh suddenly pushed through the gap between my teeth.
“Mmm, hng…”
“Don’t… huu… twist your head.”
“Nng.”
“Yeah. Just like that.”
I firmly grabbed the jaw that had turned, unable to withstand even that much stimulation, and brought it back. After licking the twitching mouth and stroking the earlobe before pulling away, his eyes smiled long, drenched in satisfaction.
To have this expression when I haven’t even properly touched him yet. Could it be that he clung to me just because he wanted to rub lips without any other purpose?
Then again, the meeting with West Wind was only yesterday. He had also just encountered a clue regarding the flaw in the Starpath.
I know all too well that this is not a situation where I can peacefully hold someone in my arms and play around. Yet, missing the warmth that had drifted away, Mu-hae fumbled around the corners of his mouth.
“My stomach got hot because of Jin Mu-hae.”
Moreover, when the fellow sprawled on the bed spouts this kind of nonsense, my mind can’t help but flicker as if a string is being plucked.
Mu-hae felt the area below his neck grow hot. Unfortunately, with the fellow lying right beneath him laughing, the vibration alone made his waist tingle.
A prerequisite… Well. I just blurted out anything to tease Joo-oh. But if such a thing really exists, it seems I’ve more than filled it just now.
“Want me to touch you more?”
“Nng. My head, and my neck, and here…”
“Your requests are too many considering you’ve only moved your mouth a little.”
As soon as the words ended, Joo-oh rolled up the top he was wearing. Skin so smooth and elastic it could be felt without touching. The outline of the ribs slightly revealed, and a waist that clung sleekly.
For something revealed with innocent eyes, it was an excessively erotic sight. When I pressed down on his side, he shuddered once more.
“When does it start?”
“When does it start?”
“I smell blood.”
“I smell you.”
As if giving in, I recited Joo-oh’s lines exactly. His eyes closed slowly and opened, and the skin I gripped gradually grew hot.
Even though I hadn’t messed with the area below, his breath was already rough. When the thumping heartbeat became clear enough to be felt entirely.
“I like it.”
“…”
“I love you.”
“Using your head, are you?”
Unable to withstand the trivial trickery, I stripped off the rest of his clothes. It felt as if a scent so good it made my head spin was tickling my windpipe.
254 – I Became an Anomaly in a Dead Game