KYB Ch 40

—“Cough— co… fuck, I knew this would happ— cough!

Ye Woo-won blinked.

“I think you swallowed wrong; maybe you should stop talking for a moment…”

—”You crazy… psycho bastard…! cough!“

“Maybe you should rest.”

—“Shut up, you bas—cough! fuck!”

Even while coughing that violently, Kisekki’s will to curse remained impressively strong.

And maybe it was his imagination, but it felt like every time Ye Woo-won opened his mouth, Kisekki’s suffering got worse. In the end, the only thing Ye Woo-won could do was close his mouth and stop talking.

—“What are you…”

After a moment, Kisekki seemed to calm down. His voice was huskier—clearly from all the coughing.

—“What kind of bullshit are you pulling this time…”

There was a hint of deep resentment in his tone.

“Bullshit? Still, I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

—“…Ha.”

Kisekki let out a disbelieving laugh. Probably no one else on earth would smile brightly and say “Glad you’re okay” after getting cursed at. Except Ye Woo-won. Of course, even as he responded, he was busy. He was focused on browsing ring designs in the shop.

‘It’s about 2,000 gold more expensive, but this silver couple ring looks nice… Sparkle effect?’

He read the description. Couples who moved around together would get a sparkling glow.

He didn’t remember features like this existed back in the day. Game companies really are great at figuring out new ways to make money.

“Anyway, I’ll buy the silver.”

Since Kisekki’s overall wardrobe was black, silver would match far better. That long silver blade of his—pairing a random gold ring with that would look tacky. Thinking that, Ye Woo-won entered the shop and hit the purchase window.

—“What do you mean, ‘buy the silver.’”

“You know.”

Ye Woo-won tilted his head.

“It’s obviously the color of our wedding rings.”

—“…You’re insane.”

“We should hurry and get married.”

—“Huh, so you weren’t joking…”

“Yes. I’m already on the payment screen. Want to go try fishing while I finish buying it?”

Sure, it felt a bit rushed, but if they were going to do it anyway, wasn’t it more efficient to do it before starting serious fishing? It’s just that, in-game, even the time spent making a purchase feels precious. Especially for people like Kisekki and Ye Woo-won, who practically live inside the game.

‘If he’s Lv.2, he probably hasn’t even done the tutorial properly.’

So Ye Woo-won planned to complete the purchase while Kisekki went through the fishing tutorial. But instead of heading to the fishing spot, Kisekki was standing far behind.

“Kisekki-nim?”

He had been walking fine next to him—so why did he suddenly freeze? As Ye Woo-won stared curiously, Kisekki stood silently for a long time, then slowly raised his head.

—“You. I’m asking this seriously.”

His tone had changed—lower, more subdued, like speaking was a little uncomfortable.

What was he trying to say? Before Ye Woo-won could guess, Kisekki finally spoke.

—“Do you like me?”

Ye Woo-won blinked, staring at the screen to confirm he understood correctly.

‘He asked if I like him?’

Maybe it was because the question was so unexpected.

‘Well… I do like him.’

If he looked only at the context of the question, there was nothing to deny. Ye Woo-won did like Kisekki.

Doing Territory War with Kisekki is fun, and teasing him while he grumbled beside him is enjoyable too. Because it’s fun and enjoyable, he naturally intended to say he likes Kisekki. But…

‘But it doesn’t feel like he means simple liking.’

Even someone as slow on social cues as Ye Woo-won sensed that this question wasn’t asking about ordinary good feelings. As he took too long thinking, silence spread between them. And he didn’t realize that silence would be misinterpreted.

—“For real? Ha. I knew it.”

The situation started to take a strange turn. Ye Woo-won belatedly realized his silence made things worse, but it was too late.

—“I already felt that it was weird when you kept following me around, tch.“

He must have misunderstood the marriage system.

‘It’s just called marriage. It’s not like it’s actually marriage.’

Of course, Ye Woo-won had once used the marriage feature with his ex-girlfriend. But the people who used the marriage system in-game weren’t limited to real couples. Among players who enjoyed gathering or fishing, becoming partners was common, so Ye Woo-won never imagined Kisekki would misunderstand it.

‘Where do I even start explaining…’

He had no idea where to begin. Kisekki once thought partying with him made gathering drops automatically appear—that’s how clueless he was about gathering and fishing. He definitely wouldn’t know about the EXP sharing system.

—“It’s not like I have anything against that kind of thing, but…”

The longer the silence dragged on, the more the situation veered in a strange direction. Kisekki spoke as if troubled, and he was even more serious than usual, making Ye Woo-won think he needed to hurry and correct things — but…

—“I can’t accept it. I mean, I don’t even know your face, or what kind of guy you are.”

“What?”

—“But don’t worry. I’m not going to tell the guild or anyone else that you like me.”

“Uh… Kisekki-nim.”

—“Why would you even fall for someone whose face you don’t know? And a guy at that… ha.”

“That’s not… I meant the ga—”

—“I should’ve known something was off when you kept talking about matching outfits and sticking close to me. Jeez…”

“No, I meant the gathering—”

—“Yeah. I should’ve figured it out when you wanted to do that boring-ass gathering stuff together.”

He wasn’t giving him any space to speak. And he was talking faster, sounding oddly flustered, giving no opening to interject.

‘And he’s serious.’

If he were swearing and teasing like usual, Ye Woo-won could push back. But not now. Kisekki was several times more serious than normal.

—“Still, as I said, I can’t do that kind of thing. I don’t know who you are, and at the end of the day, this is just a game…

“1.5 times.”

—“Huh? That playing together makes things 1.5 times more fun? Sure, I know that, but I said—”

“If we get married, we’ll receive 1.5x gathering and fishing EXP.”

—“Yeah, EXP too… wait, what?”

He repeated it as if he was confused about it. That tiny pause was Ye Woo-won’s last chance.

“When you get married in-game, gathering and fishing EXP becomes 1.5x. But that’s not all.”

Ye Woo-won continued quickly. It was probably the most he had ever talked while gaming, and the fastest.

“When you’re lovers, you can more easily check if strange debuffs are on each other during combat. It’s useful in Territory War for status checking. Also, when gathering or fishing, if one partner gets a Lucky-item drop, the other gets a Lucky EXP bonus. There are many other small features. And during raids, if you’re in the same party, there’s supposedly a very slight DPS increase—not significant, but still…”

—“…Hold on.”

Ye Woo-won rammed out the words like a speeding train. Kisekki, who had been silently listening for a while, cut him off.

—“So what you’re saying is…”

“Yes.”

He seemed to finally understand. Ye Woo-won nodded.

“My fishing and gathering levels are almost maxed, extremely high. You helped me a lot with adapting to Territory War, so I wanted to repay you. I want to raise your gathering and fishing levels faster using the marriage system. In other words, I’m offering to power-level you.”

—“…”

“Oh, and of course I’ll pay for the ring.”

—“Is that the issue here? So you’re saying you brought up marriage purely because…”

“That’s right.”

Ye Woo-won nodded.

“It’s extremely efficient.”

There was no power-leveling tool as good as marriage. If he could have pulled up even a PPT to show it, Ye Woo-won would already have filled thirty-two slides to the brim and begun the presentation. That was how passionately he was explaining the Lover system right now.

“This marriage system is amazing, especially in fishing. Fishing takes a long time, and the max-level ceiling is very high. But since I’m already max level, all the fish I catch are top-tier. They give tons of EXP, so leveling you will be easy.”

—“…”

“I’ll handle the ring. I think silver is better. Since your weapon color is—”

—“…”

Ye Woo-won stopped mid-sentence. Kisekki, who earlier didn’t let him get a single word in, was now completely silent.

‘Is he reluctant to get married in-game?’

Well, if he had no experience with it, he might not understand yet. Maybe he needed further explanation.

‘It’s kinda strange, though.’

GoWV is, quite literally, a god-tier game. So if you set up the detailed options, your character will react with expressions when you laugh loudly on voice chat or type things like LOL, haha, or sobbing emoticons. But even though Kisekki didn’t seem to use that feature much…

‘…Why does he feel murderous right now?’

Was it his imagination that the expressionless Necromancer’s face radiated killing intent?