By Zephyria 
Kwon Mi-eon couldn’t take his eyes off Mo Yeon-hu’s face for a moment. Then, he whipped his head away and let out a heavy sigh.
In truth, the suggestion to play the game together was merely a clumsy excuse. Kwon Mi-eon knew all too well that Mo Yeon-hu was like an eel, capable of slipping away skillfully. That was why he had tried to design a situation that would be impossible to refuse.
“I’ll take responsibility even if you’re not great at it. Got it?”
Ironically, he was acting completely naive, unaware of his own inner motives.
“Hyung, you really love taking responsibility, don’t you?”
Watching Mo Yeon-hu chatter away, fully immersed in the game, Kwon Mi-eon let out a hollow laugh as if he found the situation absurd.
“Huh? What?”
“Nothing. Let’s just catch this thing quickly.”
That word—responsibility. Kwon Mi-eon’s expression darkened for a moment, as if recalling a scene from the past, but he soon applied a buff as if nothing had happened.
‘What did he say?’
Mo Yeon-hu wanted to ask what he had muttered to himself, but since he didn’t seem to want to talk about it, he let it go.
‘But is Kwon Mi-eon… actually having fun?’
Despite being the one who begged to play, he was moving his character with a dry, mechanical indifference. Mo Yeon-hu once again scanned the striking profile of the man sitting beside him.
‘Anyway, to think that Kwon Mi-eon is Miu.’
It still didn’t feel real. Looking at his face, one would think he had never encountered a game in his life.
‘It really doesn’t suit him…’
Kwon Mi-eon and gaming—could there be a more incongruous combination? Kwon Mi-eon was far too flashy. Even that conspicuously dyed hair color was overshadowed by his vivid features. It felt like a national loss to let a face like that rot inside a house.
‘If I had that face, I would have worked as a model without a break. I would’ve taken so many photos.’
Not just photos. He surely would have appeared in all sorts of media every day, dragging a crowd of fans behind him.
‘But he said he doesn’t do modeling, right? Why did he quit? Come to think of it, if I search his name, it’ll probably pop up right…’
“Why do you keep looking at me, Hyung?”
“…Me? Huh? Uh, uh?”
The chain of thoughts was abruptly snapped by the sudden voice, leaving Mo Yeon-hu startled and flustered.
Kwon Mi-eon, still staring at the monitor, merely tilted his head slightly to face Mo Yeon-hu. He had been caught red-handed while stealing a glance.
“No, it’s just that you kept looking at me. Am I wrong?”
“What are you talking about? I wasn’t looking at you. Why would I look at you?”
Mo Yeon-hu practically jumped in his seat, whipping his head back to bury his nose in the screen. At the indignant reaction, Kwon Mi-eon shrugged and replied lightly.
“If not, then whatever. Why are you getting so serious?”
“…I’m not being serious! Just hurry up and catch the spreaders.”
At the timid shout, refusing to lose even a single word, Kwon Mi-eon finally answered as if giving in.
“Yes, yes. I’ll work hard.”
Mo Yeon-hu softened at the tone that had suddenly become gentle. Feeling a bit sorry for responding so irritably, he added in a shrinking voice while glancing at Kwon Mi-eon.
“Yeah. But don’t work… too hard. You shouldn’t exhaust yourself…”
Kwon Mi-eon chuckled at the sudden shift to such a pathetic voice. Not seeing that smiling face, Mo Yeon-hu proceeded with the quest. The quest they were doing involved hunting monsters in the field.
[Kill the plague spreaders guarding the Source of Contamination!]
Current Progress: 7%
Reward: Researcher Lily’s Journal (This journal seems to contain secrets about the zombie outbreak. It might be a good idea to check…?)
Defeating the plague spreaders guarding the contamination source in the field didn’t seem difficult.
‘I think I’ve caught about 30, but it’s still only 7%?’
However, in practice, scouring the forest to catch the spreaders was more tedious than expected. They had to eliminate far more monsters than he had anticipated.
“Ah, it got stolen again!”
The respawn rate of the spreader mobs was too slow, while the number of users doing the quest was far too high.
The user who had just snatched the monster Mo Yeon-hu was targeting immediately dashed toward the next one. To finish the quest, one had to roam the field aggressively like that, but Mo Yeon-hu’s movements were sluggish.
‘I really feel bad.’
Mo Yeon-hu glanced sideways for no reason. Since Kwon Mi-eon was in a supporter position, he didn’t actively engage in combat. Hunting the monsters was solely the task of Mo Yeon-hu, the dealer, and he felt guilty that he was dragging things out because he wasn’t agile enough.
“Hyung, what is it? Do you need something?”
“Huh? No.”
Seriously, his intuition was like a ghost. Because he asked without missing even a fleeting glance, Mo Yeon-hu awkwardly turned his head back to the screen.
‘There’s one right there!’
Then, luckily, a spreader spawned right in front of him. When a monster respawns, it remains invincible for a few seconds. Mo Yeon-hu prepared to swing his weapon the moment the invincibility wore off.
‘Uh, that person is running over again.’
However, the user who had stolen Mo Yeon-hu’s mob earlier was sprinting this way. But since he had already claimed the spot, he was at a significant advantage.
(Notification) Kill the plague spreaders guarding the Source of Contamination!
Current Progress: 8%
“Wow, raising it by 1% is seriously hard…”
The gauge finally rose from 7% to 8%.
‘Anyway, it’s so peaceful.’
This server was definitely different from X-1211, where he had been. Even though it was a field where PVP was possible, people seemed to be considerate of one another while questing. Though there was a bit of competition to catch monsters.
If the same situation had occurred on the X server…
‘Wouldn’t it be a bloodbath?’
A hellscape of people lying dead everywhere automatically painted itself in his mind. Not only that, they would have been stripped of every single item, down to the last bit of gold, weeping uncontrollably.
‘I really made a strange choice…’
Eden and the X server were worlds apart. Mo Yeon-hu smiled bitterly, recalling the past where he had been shaken down countless times without realizing it.
(General) BirthDateAndTime: ?
(General) BirthDateAndTime: what u doin
Suddenly, the user who had just stolen a monster from Yeon-hu, ‘BirthDateAndTime,’ sent a chat. Of course, this was quickly pushed up by other users’ chats, and Mo Yeon-hu naturally didn’t realize it was directed at him at first. He was simply trying to move to a spot where the next mob was likely to appear.
‘…Huh?’
BirthDateAndTime blocked his path. Thinking their movement routes had overlapped, Mo Yeon-hu tried to move around, but the other party stubbornly blocked him.
Eventually, when Mo Yeon-hu came to a stop, Kwon Mi-eon, who was beside him, also stopped and stared ahead.
(General) BirthDateAndTime: ???
(General) BirthDateAndTime: Hey, Ojik.
(General) BirthDateAndTime: You??
‘Who is Ojik… Ah, that’s me.’
Perhaps because he was still much more used to being called Momo, the nickname ‘Na Ojik’ felt incredibly awkward. Regardless, Mo Yeon-hu tapped the keyboard with a bewildered expression.
(General) Na Ojik: Yes? Me??
(General) BirthDateAndTime: Look. I’ve been holding back and wanting to say this for a while.
(General) BirthDateAndTime: Why do u keep stealing??
(General) Na Ojik: Stealing..?
By stealing, did they mean he had stolen an item?
(General) Na Ojik: I didn’t steal anything..ㅠㅠ
As Mo Yeon-hu typed in confusion, BirthDateAndTime suddenly fired off a barrage of messages.
(General) BirthDateAndTime: u keep stealing my mobs
(General) BirthDateAndTime: dont u know this spot is taken?
(General) BirthDateAndTime: why u keep cutting in and stealing?
(General) BirthDateAndTime: pls stop the bad manners;
‘Spot?’
Mo Yeon-hu tilted his head, wondering what on earth that meant.
‘Are there designated seats for every spot where monsters appear, and I broke that rule?’
Then, had he really behaved with bad manners? Mo Yeon-hu wondered what Kwon Mi-eon, a veteran player of Zombie Village, would think. So he stole a glance at him, but…
‘Uh, no reaction. I guess I really did something wrong.’
He was simply looking at the screen without saying a word, showing no particular reaction.