KYB Ch 39

Nicknames usually symbolize oneself, so unless someone is an attention seeker, they generally wouldn’t name themselves like that. And even attention seekers don’t tend to use self-deprecating words.

‘Still, it could be something he said toward someone else.’

It’s not like gamers don’t run into hot-tempered people every other day.

It seemed the guild members were assuming the same. But then—

The mood plummeted again.

Haha. There are plenty of people who kill the mood. As a warning, I think a nickname like that is fine t—

Ye Woo-won quietly deleted his half-written message again. At this rate, he might not get even a single line of chat in today…

Even his acquaintance KongKang chimed in.

HealingJjimo looked like his self-esteem had cratered, and his nickname literally meant “pathetic loser.”

Everyone in the guild sensed it.

‘This doesn’t seem like a joke. If we say one wrong thing, the mood will be dead.’

So, no one dared to speak recklessly.

HealingJjimo spoke timidly into the suddenly silent chat. The guild characters on screen were expressionless, but it felt as though he could see their real faces beyond the monitors.

But with HealingJjimo, the person involved, continuing to shrink back and watch everyone’s reactions like that, they couldn’t just stay quiet any longer.

DPSdrop ran forward and threw a thumbs-up. A thumbs-up in this situation? The guild members stared at him in disbelief.

DPSdrop seemed so flustered that he didn’t even know what he was typing. As everyone nervously paid attention to HealingJjimo’s reaction, the healer suddenly replied with a bright emoji.

Bright as ever.

Still bright. Seeing that, the guild members knew exactly what needed to be done.

Racing each other, they all charged forward and threw him thumbs-ups.

Something felt ominous somehow… but still, having a new guild member join when they were starving for healers was good news.

‘It was all because of the Mystic Association.’

Ye Woo-won suddenly remembered the Mystic Association—the reason the Gaesae guild had been suffering from a healer shortage.

‘It seems like I heard there was another incident recently?’

The Mystic Association’s thuggish behavior wasn’t exactly new.

He vaguely recalled some trouble between a guild and a Mystic causing drama lately. From Gaesae’s perspective, though, it was a blessing. Thanks to their distraction, the Mystic Association had stopped bothering Gaesae lately.

‘People seem to be forgetting that matter now, too.’

Maybe it was because quite some time had passed since they ended up on the blacklist, but he’d heard that these days, even when guild members ran parties late at night, people no longer avoided them the way they used to.

‘Well, that’s games for you.’

Games always change fast.

‘Now that we have one more healer, guild raids will get easier.’

After all, running content with guild members was always the most fun.

He typed that, happy to welcome another healer—

—“Hey.”

At the same time, a bored voice chimed into his ear.

—“You not coming to fish?”

Glancing sideways, he saw the Necromancer avatar still resting a fishing rod on his shoulder.

“Ah, yes. Let’s go.”

Fortunately, Kisekki didn’t seem upset by their teasing earlier.

The teasing had gotten noticeably worse lately after seeing the two of them sticking together during Territory Wars, but it wasn’t as if this was anything new. They had been subjected to it so many times that it seemed they had developed immunity.

‘Well, whatever. It’s just a game, and we’re both guys. It’s not like we’re actually married…’

Ye Woo-won’s thoughts trailed off—then froze at the word “married”.

‘…Married?’

Marriage. How had he forgotten about that system?

GoWV had a marriage system where characters could become in-game partners.

‘Didn’t they say it gives some kind of buff during raids too?’

However, Yeowoon was too busy recalling its additional functions, raids aside.

‘Did gathering EXP also increase?’

If you gathered or fished while married, you got more EXP.

‘I’m max level in gathering, but Kisekki-nim…’

He glanced at Kisekki and checked his character info.

‘Partner slot: empty.’

If you get married in-game, a [Lover] field appears when viewing a character’s information — but in Kisekki’s info, nothing showed up. It meant he was unmarried.

Kisekki seemed to notice something when Yewoo-won’s silence dragged on. He typed a single question mark, then spoke.

—“Whatever it is, don’t do it.”

It wasn’t only Ye Woo-won who had become more perceptive. As he learned more about Kisekki, Kisekki inevitably learned more about Yewoo Beomjeol too.

“I haven’t done anything yet.”

—“But you’re going to.”

“How do you know that?”

—“How do I know? You… damn… your eyes already went weird.

Ye Woo-won stared at the screen blankly. His Dragon Knight’s face was calm, and his own face playing the game was calm too.

—“I’ve already warned you—don’t.”

Whatever he saw — or sensed — Kisekki only recoiled like a cat with its fur standing on end, backing away from Yewoo Beomjeol’s avatar. But unfortunately for him, Yewoo Beomjeol was not listening. He was too busy calculating the efficiency of marriage EXP boosts for Kisekki.

‘He was level 2, right.’

At Lv.2, leveling up is easy in the early stages. But once you pass a certain level later on, leveling becomes a bit harder.

‘Because I’m level 140.’

It was rare for a player to have max-level Fishing. Reaching max Fishing was considered something only a crazy person would do, because it required an absurd amount of accumulated fishing time.

‘Even mine took a while to recover.’

He lost one level after quitting for only a few months, and restoring that alone took another month. Higher levels allowed catching better fish, in higher quantities—vastly different from the low-level zones.

After thinking deeply, Ye Woo-won tilted his head slightly and stepped into the shop. There, the [Fated-Bond Ring], which allowed players to use the marriage system, was listed for 10,000 gold. That amount was equivalent to over a hundred thousand won.

“Kisekki-nim.”

—“What.”

“Do you prefer silver or gold?”

—“What?”

Sounding uneasy, Kisekki responded.

—“Tell me what it is first.”

Ye Woo-won blinked. The distrust in the man’s voice was clear. Kisekki clearly sensed Yewoo Beomjeol was plotting something.

‘It’s not even a bad thing…

Ye Woo-won felt a bit wronged. With the marriage system, boosting someone’s experience gain was incredibly easy, so honestly, from Kisekki’s point of view, it was a huge benefit. And on top of that, he was even buying the ring himself to offer it.

‘Well, I was planning to gift him a gifticon^[1] or an in-game item anyway.’

Ye Woo-won hadn’t forgotten how Kisekki had helped him in Territory War. He always meant to repay that favor—this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

‘No one matches me in gathering and fishing.’

After marrying him, if they formed a party and did gathering and fishing together, Kisekki would find leveling up much easier thanks to Ye Woo-won’s high level.

Of course, he might not need it right now. But even if Kisekki is max level at the moment, once they unlock a new section where he can level up again…

“Kisekki-nim.”

He would definitely need crafting materials. Calculations complete. No need to hesitate.

“Wanna get married?”

If he helped raise Kisekki’s fishing level, Kisekki would get better enhancement-material drops. Not just through fishing—through gathering too.

“I can really take good care of you.”

The items obtained through gathering were useful in all kinds of ways. For example, potions used in combat, as well as materials for items used in Territory War or hidden dungeons. In any case, there were many things to craft and many places to use them, so if he married him, it was naturally to Kisekki’s advantage.

—“Cough, hack, cough!!”

A loud coughing fit rang out.