IM 143

Where on earth did this sudden, random question come from?

“Exchanging starsta IDs? Well, obviously…”

Mo Yeon-hu was about to answer that since he had said he didn’t have a Korean phone number at the time, Kwon Mi-eon had smoothly managed to get his starsta ID—which he barely even used—out of him. But he froze at the words that followed.

—The day you forced a starsta ID out of someone who said they didn’t even have a Korean phone number was that day.

In effect, it was as good as admitting it himself.

—Hyung, you remember the day we first met now, don’t you?

He remembered the events of that day, which he had been pretending to have forgotten until now.

—You remember everything that happened between us, too, right?

How he had become entangled with Kwon Mi-eon that day, and what they had talked about… while not perfectly, he remembered most of it.

—Hyung…

Why was it so hard to admit? As he hesitated, Mo Yeon-hu suddenly felt a puzzle piece he had been wondering about click into place.

He now understood why Kwon Mi-eon hadn’t been surprised even after seeing the family photos that filled the living room to a bizarre degree.

‘So that’s why he didn’t have much of a reaction back then.’

Because on the day they first met, Mo Yeon-hu had poured everything out—from all sorts of stories about unrequited love to his complicated and tumultuous family history.

‘Hyung was so cute when he was little. Do you have more photos from this time? You’re too cute. Is this from when you were a student? Why don’t you age, Hyung?’

Not only was he not surprised, but the fact that he had pretended not to know even though he could have acted on that knowledge was perhaps his way of being considerate.

—Or do you remember at least a little bit? Hyung, say something.

As Mo Yeon-hu blankly chewed over the memory, Kwon Mi-eon pressed him. To be honest, thinking back to that day was embarrassing.

Because he had shared more stories than expected, and more honestly than expected, it was difficult to simply admit that he remembered everything. However…

“Yeah.”

He didn’t intend to keep Kwon Mi-eon waiting any longer.

‘Hey. Right. You’re doing this because of that weird bastard, aren’t you? No wonder he was contacting me like crazy.’

‘Kwon Mi-eon contacted you?’

‘Yeah, fuck. He kept insisting you weren’t Mo Yeon-hu and even ripped out the CCTV, making a fuss and telling me to keep contacting you! Ah, no matter how much I think about it, that bastard was weird from the moment he started hitting on Ye-jin. The crazy fuck followed her around for months asking where you were and searching for you… Hey, Mo Yeon-hu!’

Hadn’t Kwon Mi-eon been searching for him for a long time already?

“I… mostly remember.”

When he honestly admitted it, there was silence from the other side for a while.

‘Why am I nervous over this?’

He had simply said he remembered, but he felt strangely tense.

‘What should I say now? Should I say I’m sorry for losing my memory because I was drunk that day and hit my head on the floor? Or should I just say it’s even nicer to see him now that I remember…?’

Was he always this awkward? Mo Yeon-hu, unable to easily open his mouth while agonizing over how to continue the conversation, finally looked up as if he had made a decision.

Right, let’s go with ‘It’s even nicer to see you now that I remember’ for now!

“Um…”

—U-Um, Hyung.

But as luck would have it, the moment Mo Yeon-hu opened his mouth, Kwon Mi-eon spoke at the same time. Both of them were startled.

“Ah, sorry. You go first—!”

—Hyung first…

What are we doing?

“Ah, really? Then I’ll…”

—Then I’ll… no, Hyung—.

Seriously, what are we doing…

Eventually, Mo Yeon-hu burst into laughter. Kwon Mi-eon did the same. Listening to the low laughter flowing through the speaker, Mo Yeon-hu thought.

‘I miss him.’

…Wait, did I just say that out loud?

—Hyung, can I come see you now?

Mo Yeon-hu flinched at Kwon Mi-eon saying exactly what was on his mind as if by magic. It was absurd and mysterious that everything he wanted to do and say had been stolen.

‘…And heart-fluttering.’

—Ding!

Before he could even answer, a loud notification sound hit his ears. The sound instantly dragged the two—who had been immersed in their own world, leaving the war behind—back into the game.

“Didn’t you hear a warning sound?”

—Hold on.

Their gazes shifted to the game screen they had been ignoring.

‘A messenger pigeon from Operator GM Horror has arrived…?’

What on earth is this notification? Just then, a black crow icon flapping its wings appeared in the center of the screen, and a message window in the form of parchment with a red seal popped up forcibly.

‘Real-time situation? Mechanic? Hidden?’

He was confused by the sudden flood of information, but between the community posts and his experience lying low, it wasn’t beyond his understanding.

“…There really was a mechanic hidden class advancement. Did you know?”

—I found out when the L2 crowd was talking about class advancements in the chat window. I think some information leaked luckily because it’s the final stretch.

“But what is this? Collections?”

Mo Yeon-hu blinked as he clicked the collection list appearing below the progress bar.

When people think of collections, they usually imagine something grand. For example, unique items with special stories or things that are hard to find in this world, like the music box YouGonnaSue had tried so hard to obtain.

‘They just… look like glass crafts.’

They were all different shapes. From simple geometric figures with no distinct features to peculiar shapes… As he examined them carefully, Mo Yeon-hu’s eyes widened at the description that appeared when he hovered the cursor over them.

‘The hidden collection was core crystals.’

It felt as if everything he had suspected fell perfectly into place. VITA, system error, the mechanics—they had been collecting core crystals all along.

His jaw dropped at the endless list of skills.

“But isn’t this too strong? If it updates like this, mechanics will be completely flying, and other classes will be slaughtered…”

The problem was that the performance of the hidden class was too overwhelming. To a degree that couldn’t even be compared with other classes.

As expected, the backlash was fierce, but that didn’t mean the advancement was being given away for free.

—There are conditions below.

As if the game company had anticipated such a reaction, they had added a short proviso in red below the notice.

Notification

If the hidden quest is successful, only the mechanic class group can undergo 3rd class advancement for 5 months.

However, if it fails, the 3rd class advancement will be updated for mechanics after a 3-month penalty.

The penalty for failing the hidden quest was also significant.

‘From a mechanic’s perspective, there’s no choice in the first place.’

However, even considering the quest difficulty or the penalty, it was clear how favorable this situation was for them.

‘People are fighting like crazy.’

Checking the chat window, the rankers were in an uproar, asking how they were supposed to maintain their rankings if such an advancement was given, and some people cursed the game company, saying the developers were making desperate moves because the number of active users had been decreasing lately. Just as it was turning into a complete mess, bright yellow text appeared in the chat window.

It was a chat posted by someone using a megaphone.

Exactly.

“It’s HHH.”

The Alliance leader of system error, and likely the Alliance leader of VITA, HHH.

Though he couldn’t see him, Mo Yeon-hu stared intently at the chat. There was a high probability he had encountered him.

‘He must have been one of those three.’

He felt that the character who had survived until the end and interacted with him in an annoying way was likely HHH.

Unlike the annoying person from back then, the current chat was quite polite and even very formal…

…?