TGMND 94

“Oh no…”

It was the first time a pet design had struck his heart so directly! Yeo-woon’s heart truly started pounding.

[Guild] neutaaaa: I’ll quit the game if I can’t get that rabbit…

[Guild] Ji9star: Huh???

[Guild] neutaaaa: For real

[Guild] ParkRoach: Lol goodbye then

[Guild] CatMeowMeowMeow: Lolol it’s a 0.38% chance, farewell in advance

[Guild] Halloween Eggplant: Isn’t the Ice Fox cuter than the muscular rabbit? Lol

Illusion had plenty of cute pets. How many times had they just rehashed old designs with different colors? It had been exactly one year since Yeo-woon started playing Illusion, and for the first time, he found a pet design that truly captured his heart.

[Muscular Snow Rabbit: If it drops, I’ll give you a punch for 10 Bells each!]

The ‘Muscular Snow Rabbit’ was a pet that normally looked like an ordinary white rabbit, but when hunting assist mode was turned on, it would bulk up into a muscular rabbit. While users overwhelmingly preferred the cute Ice Fox, Yeo-woon decided not to follow the mainstream. After all, there were plenty of ordinarily cute pets already.

[Guild] neutaaaa: How many draws does it usually take to get it?

[Guild] Captain Poseidon: You’re lucky if you get it within 50.

[Guild] Halloween Eggplant: Lolol maybe you could draw the Ice Fox and trade it for the rabbit?

[Guild] Captain Poseidon: It might be easier on your mind to just buy it from someone who drew it.

[Guild] neutaaaa: If anyone draws the muscular snow rabbit later, please sell it to me ㅜㅜ

[Guild] CatMeowMeowMeow: Neu-nim, do you even have money?

[Guild] neutaaaa: Lol I probably have more than you, Cat?

[Guild] Halloween Eggplant: Neutaaaa… Cat’s been grinding dungeons lately and is now the second-richest after Ji9star lol

[Guild] CatMeowMeowMeow: Ahem

“…What?”

A sense of betrayal washed over him. When did that happen? No wonder it had been hard to catch Cat online lately.

Yeo-woon wasn’t particularly lucky with draws. So if he couldn’t get it from this draw, he’d have to buy the adoption rights. He thought he should save up a lot of money to get the rabbit.

[Guild] Ji9star: Come on lol You’re quitting over not getting one pet? Lol

[Guild] CatMeowMeowMeow: Didn’t you say you were quitting yesterday when your weapon broke? Lol Why didn’t you quit?

[Guild] Ji9star: I came back;;

[Guild] CatMeowMeowMeow: Lololololol tsk tsk

[Guild] Wandu Wandya: Lololololol

[Guild] ParkRoach: Lololololol

[Guild] Ji9star: Anyway, don’t quit the gameㅡㅡ

[Guild] neutaaaa: Ok, if I get the rabbit!^^

After that, they were so busy talking about expectations for the update that Yeo-woon didn’t even remember what Ji9star had said, but late that night, Ji9star sent an unexpected message.

「Earth: (External link)」

「Earth: It’s my personal chat!」

「Earth: Because the Holblue server seems a bit unstable? Hehe」

“…Huh?”

Holblue rarely had voice cuts or message delays. Yeo-woon didn’t feel any server instability when talking to Earth Star.

「Earth: But hey lol You’re not seriously quitting Illusion over because of the rabbit, right? Seriously?」

「Yeah, I’m serious….」

Actually, it wasn’t completely serious, maybe only about half serious. Yeo-woon clicked on the link Earth Star sent. Like the guild chat room, it was an open channel where you could set a separate profile and nickname to avoid exposing personal information.

Yeo-woon often logged into the game at the same time as Earth Star. Of course, not having a personal contact channel wouldn’t be that inconvenient, but it might feel a bit empty if it disappeared after having it. After thinking for a moment, Yeo-woon set his nickname as ‘neutaaaa’ and joined the chat room.

‘Send a message to your chat partner <IHateMuscleBunny>.’

IHateMuscleBunny… What a strange nickname.

From seeing Earth Star’s in-game character, Yeo-woon knew that for a ranker who cared about specs, he surprisingly enjoyed fashion. Whenever new items came out in the fashion shop, he would buy all the color variations and change outfits almost daily.

Earth Star even carried pets that resembled him. The pet he had been carrying recently was a white ghost cat with a sky-blue outline. Being a legendary grade pet, it not only had good unique abilities but also cute idle animations. When the ghost cat opened its mouth wide to yawn, its soul would leak out through its mouth and disperse like mist.

The ghost cat adoption rights were currently the most expensive among pet adoption rights on the server. Yeo-woon vaguely remembered hearing that Earth Star was smitten by the ghost cat’s appearance, had quickly bought the pet at a premium within a day. That’s how much Earth Star was obsessed with cute and adorable things.

It was natural that Earth Star, who had different tastes from Yeo-woon, wouldn’t like the snow rabbit that transformed into a muscular appearance. So Yeo-woon hoped that Earth Star would get the snow rabbit adoption rights and sell the item to him.

But… what should he send?

On Holblue, their conversations were limited to “Where are you?” or “I’m logging in now.” So starting a chat felt awkward. Yeowoon hadn’t expected their interactions to move onto a messenger, making him even more uncertain. Yeo-woon’s fingers twitched over the keyboard.

「I’m here」

…Was that necessary?

「Omg are you Ji9star?」

Pretending not to know when he already knew it was Ji9star seemed a bit…

「Hi」

This didn’t feel right either.

“Ugh, I don’t know.”

Yeo-woon couldn’t understand why he was agonizing over this so much. Yeo-woon repeatedly erased everything he had written with the backspace key before getting tired and exiting to the home screen. He thought he’d come up with something to say later. Then he got distracted by hunger and forgot to send a message.

The next day.

It was the moment when 11:59 AM changed to 12:00 PM. Yeo-woon’s attention was drawn to a pop-up window appearing in the bottom right of the screen.

IHateMuscleBunny: Oh, what the!

IHateMuscleBunny: ㅡㅡ

“…?”

Who’s IHateMuscleBunny? Seeing an unfamiliar chat partner appear on his work computer monitor, Yeo-woon tilted his head for a moment.

IHateMuscleBunny: If you entered the chat, you should say something

IHateMuscleBunny: I didn’t know and

IHateMuscleBunny: Waited for a loooong time and fell asleepㅠ

IHateMuscleBunny: Oh, you read it!

Belatedly remembering that this strange nickname belonged to Earth Star, Yeo-woon couldn’t help but smile at the childish nickname. He had long since turned off notifications for the guild chat room as it kept buzzing at all times and places, but he hadn’t thought to turn off notifications for the chat with Earth Star.

IHateMuscleBunny: (Emoticon)

It was an emoticon of a tabby cat stomping its feet angrily. It looked like he was urging a reply. The time showed 12:01 PM. With a few exceptions, Earth Star always sent messages at this time. Looking at the time, it seemed like Earth Star had just woken up.

Neutaaaa: You just woke up, didn’t you? lol

The ‘1’ next to the message bubble disappeared immediately after Yeo-woon sent the messge. Earth Star was reading the message in real time.

 

IHateMuscleBunny: Wow!!!

IHateMuscleBunny: (Emoticon)

It seemed to be the same type of emoticon as before, with a tabby cat startled and jumping back. Caught red-handed, perhaps?

IHateMuscleBunny: How do you know?

Neutaaaa: You always wake up at this time

IHateMuscleBunny: >_<lolololol

Neutaaaa: Go to bed early

IHateMuscleBunny: Aren’t you paying too much attention to me?

Neutaaaa: Nope

Neutaaaa: (Emoticon)

Yeo-woon replied with an emoticon of pink peach giggling with its hands over its mouth. By the way, it felt strange to keep seeing “IHateMuscleBunny” pop up on the monitor. Yeo-woon fiddled with the chat settings and changed Earth Star’s saved name to just “Ji9star.”

Ji9star: What are you doing instead of working?

“Ah, shit…!”

Yeo-woon was startled for a moment by the message that appeared right after changing the chat name. Fortunately, some people had already gone out for lunch, and the colleague sitting in the back was also absent, so it seemed no one heard his surprised exclamation.

Neutaaaa: I thought I was really gonna d1e lolololol

Ji9star: Lololol><

Ji9star:Lolololololololol

Ji9star:Lololololololololololololololol

Ji9star: Scared?

Neutaaaa: Yeah

Ji9star: I knew it! You got a little scared, didn’t you? LOL

Neutaaaa: (Emoticon)

Yeo-woon used an emoticon of a duck character with anger management issues throwing a phone at the screen. Earth Star found it hilarious and responded with “lololololololol”

Ji9star: But seriously,

Ji9star: It’s surprising to get such a quick response from you at this time

Ji9star: That’s interesting lol

Neutaaaa: There was nothing interesting about it

Yeo-woon snorted.

Ji9star: I figured you’d ignore my message for hours and only reply late at night when you’re finally free

Neutaaaa: When did I ever ignore you?

Neutaaaa: I can’t install Holblue on my work computer

Ji9star: Playing dumb now?

Ji9star: You always ignore my messages even when you’re not at work

Ji9star: You only reply when you’re bored

Ji9star: It’s really annoying

Well, it was true that he often ignored his messages. In fact, there was so much evidence that he couldn’t refute it. Yeo-woon scratched his cheek and and responded indifferently.

Neutaaaa: I guess it’s just bothersome sometimes

Ji9star: Wow… Am I such a bother to you?

Neutaaaa: But I still replied, didn’t I? ㅠㅠ

Ji9star: Lolololololol That’s ridiculous. So is this when I’m supposed to say thank you?

Neutaaaa: Go ahead

Ji9star: ?

Neutaaaa: You said you would. Aren’t you going to say thanks?

Ji9star: ;;;Uh…Thx;

Neutaaaa: Yeah, sure~

Neutaaaa: From now on, only message me when you’re bored too~

Ji9star: But I’m always bored every day! >_<

Neutaaaa: Yeah, I can see that lolololol

Neutaaaa: Why don’t you try doing something at a regular time every day to not be bored?

Ji9star: Are you calling me a total unemployed bum?

Neutaaaa: Wow, what a bold self-deprecating statement. Impressive

Ji9star: You’re suddenly saying I’m impressive? Lol

Ji9star: (Emoticon)

Earth Star sent an emoticon of a cat blushing and scratching its head. He must’ve known it wasn’t a compliment, so why was he acting embarrassed? The kid had such a unique way of thinking. Earth Star showed the eccentric behavior of saying ten words for every one word Yeo-woon said. Watching the endless stream of chat bubbles, Yeowoon chuckled and replied.

Neutaaaa: 9star is excited, huh?

Ji9star: Oh, seriously

Neutaaaa: Lolololololololol

Ji9star: Don’t call me that

Neutaaaa: I don’t want to

Ji9star: I’m warning you

Neutaaaa: (Emoticon)

Ji9star: But there’s no need to hit your head over it…

More than thirty minutes had already passed with just trivial conversation going back and forth. Yeo-woon closed the messenger window as he started tidying up his desk and getting ready to leave. It seemed like it had been a while since he’d seen Earth Star this excited. He’s not a kid, grumbling just because replies were a bit late between guys… He must have been quite hurt by the many times he saw his messages but didn’t reply promptly.

Yeo-woon decided to pay a little more attention to Earth Star from now on, but as soon as he finished lunch, he completely forgot about her resolution.