Meanwhile, Haein had logged into Erha Online before Yeonjun and was clearing the daily quests Yeonjun normally ignored, feeling far more excited than usual.
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: Middle-Aged Hunter-nim]
[Whisper/Middle-Aged Hunter: Yes?]
The moment Suyeong came out of the daily-quest raid, he received a whisper from PleaseScoldMe.
What the hell does this bastard suddenly want to talk about now?
He narrowed his eyes with a sense of foreboding.
Fortunately, perhaps, what followed was the sort of thing that did not particularly affect Suyeong.
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: Guild master today]
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: why does he look so happy?]
At PleaseScoldMe’s words, Suyeong tilted his head.
Does he…… look happy?
He did not seem to be saying anything unusual.
Perhaps because Suyeong and Haein did not usually play positions that required much cooperation, when both of them were simply doing their own jobs properly, there was not much reason for them to clash or interact.
[Whisper/Middle-Aged Hunter: Dunno]
[Whisper/Middle-Aged Hunter: I can’t really tell]
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: nope]
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: he’s in a ♡♡ good mood right now]
When Suyeong expressed his doubtful disagreement, PleaseScoldMe forcefully argued his case.
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: Earlier I]
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: accidentally missed the finishing hit]
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: and he didn’t shove me onto the grill alone]
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: that’s the proof]
Ah.
Suyeong briefly searched his memory and reviewed the small mistake that had occurred around the middle of phase two.
It was a mechanic where the eight players paired off into groups of two and stepped onto floor markers to deactivate armed bombs. Once one person entered the circle, another player had to join them within five seconds or the bomb would simply explode, resulting in an instant kill.
Whenever PleaseScoldMe made some minor mistake, his paired DPS, Haein, was also known either to refuse to enter at all or to wait until only 0.5 seconds remained before stepping in.
[Whisper/Middle-Aged Hunter: Hmm…]
[Whisper/Middle-Aged Hunter: Now that you mention it, that is kinda unusual]
Now that PleaseScoldMe pointed it out, maybe Haein really did seem to be in a good mood.
Of course, this was not a current raid and did not count toward the rankings, so that probably gave him more room to relax.
Still, Suyeong suddenly remembered something else. Near the end, aggro had reset and briefly jumped to Haesal, who had been standing closest, yet Haesal had simply let it go without saying anything.
The monstrous bird had suddenly started pecking at him and demolished his HP in an instant, yet Baesuk Heuin, the main tank responsible, still had his head firmly attached.
[Party/Baesuk Heuin: holy shit]
[Party/Baesuk Heuin: sry sry]
Haesal’s response to Baesuk Heuin’s half-hearted apology had been as follows.
[Party/DoHaesal: yeah]
No, you just lost around seventy percent of your HP from that one hit.
Even after being reduced to near death in an instant, Haesal had looked perfectly unbothered.
Of course, unlike PleaseScoldMe, Baesuk Heuin was like Suyeong. Under normal circumstances, he did not have many opportunities to clash directly with Haesal, so he had never really gotten on Haesal’s bad side.
Still, perhaps because he had let his guard down, guild members were making mistakes they normally would not, one after another.
And Haesal had not complained once.
Whatever the reason, it definitely looked as though he was in a better mood than usual.
[Whisper/Middle-Aged Hunter: Thinking about it]
[Whisper/Middle-Aged Hunter: he was like that with Sukhyeon-nim earlier too]
[Whisper/Middle-Aged Hunter: just let it go without saying anything]
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: yeah]
[Whisper/PleaseScoldMe: told you I was right]
Had something good happened today?
Everyone wondered, but none of them could easily figure out what it might have been.
Usually, whenever their guild master was that happy, it had something to do with Ignis-nim……
But yesterday, for some reason, Ignis-nim had skipped logging in altogether and had not contacted anyone either.
Then again, Ignis-nim was basically an extra member who was not even in the guild’s private group chat, so it would not be especially strange for him to disappear for a day or two without saying anything.
What was a little unusual was that sometime after seven, Haesal had abruptly logged off as well, vanished for the entire night, and had not crawled back online until the following afternoon.
Did Ignis-nim contact that Haesal bastard separately to tell him he couldn’t log in?
Suyeong wondered about it briefly, but he was not interested enough to ask such a direct question.
Anyway, there was nothing bad about Haesal being in a good mood.
Whatever had happened, Suyeong hoped it would make that pathetic, miserable one-sided crush of his a little more interesting.
He crunched down on one of the snacks he had left on his desk and stopped caring.
Meanwhile, Haein had reached a state of mind where, thanks to the joy of finally meeting Ignis-nim in real life, he could view everything in the world with benevolence and generosity.
Even if Hon-nim made a stupid mistake in something as easy as a daily-quest raid, ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.
Even if Baesuk Heuin was late grabbing aggro and a monstrous bird started eating Haein’s head, ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.
Going even further, even if SH’s paper-thin HP were torn to shreds and SH ended up incapacitated, Haein probably would not have gotten particularly angry.
The source of that extraordinary generosity was, of course, what had happened the previous night.
As soon as he got home, Haein had carefully released the contents of the bag Yeonjun had given him into a small aquarium he had bought at a nearby supermarket.
For about an hour afterward, all he did was stare at his phone, reading search results for things like [Raising Cherry Shrimp], [Cherry Shrimp Food], and [Cherry Shrimp Marimo].
For now, he only had a couple of shrimp and the aquarium itself was small, so as long as he handled the water changes properly, he did not need much additional equipment.
But if he planned to raise them seriously, an endless stream of information appeared that he would need to learn.
He spent so long looking up everything Ignis-nim had placed in his hands and watching the shrimp bustling around the simply arranged aquarium that evening arrived before he even realized where the time had gone.
I need to finish my daily quests before hyung logs in.
Haein quickly logged into Erha and began clearing them, but throughout the entire process, the aquarium kept lingering at the edge of his vision.
Aquatic plants were densely planted in the special soil settled neatly along the bottom, with one round marimo beside them.
And the shrimp diligently swimming around everything made such a pleasing combination that every time Haein looked over, he found himself grinning.
Hyung was cute for handing all of it over and then not remembering a thing.
But hyung grumbling while still eating everything put in front of him had been pretty great too.
Haein had already liked Ignis-nim when he had been nothing more than someone beyond a screen whose face he did not know.
But after meeting the real Seong Yeonjun face-to-face, he liked him so much more that giving up had become even more impossible.
At the same time, he felt jealous.
How amazing would it have been if he could have played with hyung back when Yeonjun had completely dominated Erha Online during its early days?
The fact that Haein himself had only been around ten years old at the time was not especially important.
There were so many raids he wanted to take Yeonjun into with difficulty sync still enabled, yet Yeonjun insisted that unless it was a one-on-one match, he was not interested.
Come on, even the current Heroic-difficulty raids are honestly easier than fighting rankers one-on-one!
Haein had plenty he wanted to say.
Still, maintaining enough distance that hyung would not run away took priority, so Haein obediently kept his mouth shut.
What can I do? I’m the one who wants this, so I have to endure it.
Haein glanced toward the aquarium where the shrimp were swimming around and smiled to himself.
And while he sat there enjoying his lovestruck-girl mode, blushing all by himself, a system message appeared announcing the event scheduled to update the following day.
[System: Starting tomorrow, “2022 Love Motion! Grand Festival of Passion” begins! Enjoy a sweet festival together with your lover!]
The Grand Festival of Passion was a couples event held in July, when, according to the game’s world setting, the days were at their longest.
In Erha Online’s mythology, the goddess of the sun also served as the goddess of love, and so the holiday event had been created around her.
Why anyone would invent a romantic event during such a random time of year instead of simply using Valentine’s Day or White Day was a mystery no player had ever understood.
Only Erha Online’s original development team knew the truth.
“Oh, that? It’s the first department head’s wedding anniversary.”
Yeonjun’s bewilderment when he had joined the company and learned this truth, passed down from generation to generation within the department, had been indescribable.
It was not something known outside the company.
A man had added an annual event to the game he directed just to commemorate his wedding anniversary with his wife…
To everyone else, it might have looked like some serious “what kind of nerd shit is this?” behavior, but if the person involved liked it, then that was probably good enough.
In any case, it was not bad for the players either.
The limited cosmetic costume provided every year during the Grand Festival of Passion came with a time-limited bonus.
[- While equipped, movement speed ×1.2 effect applied]
There was an extremely annoying prerequisite that required clearing a two-person party quest, but receiving a movement-speed buff even if only for the duration of the event was a considerable advantage.
For PvP players, it was practically mandatory just to survive.
PvE players also wore the Grand Festival of Passion outfit so they could temporarily shorten their clear times.
And the members of Yeonhwa were no exception.
Unfortunately, Haein’s partner during last year’s festival had been Hon-nim.
Naturally, Hon-nim had not wanted that arrangement either.
Neither one of them had wanted to be the other’s partner, but they still needed the costume reward, so they had no choice but to clear the quest.
What had last year’s event been again?
They had been trapped inside an event zone and had to kill event monsters spawning from every direction to collect ingredients, then complete a dish and submit it within the time limit.
Haein still vividly remembered glaring at the screen with an expression that said, Do you want to die? because Hon-nim kept trying to throw nuisance monsters that were not supposed to be ingredients into the food.
This time……
Haein clenched his fist tightly and congratulated himself for laying the groundwork that morning.
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