Euijin’s trembling didn’t fully subside until a little more time had passed.
He slowly let go of me. Where a mix of emotions had lingered on his face just moments before, there was now a warmth almost too soft to bear.
“…Can you tell me? How you’ve been since the Special Supply Station was destroyed, and why you were here.”
“I was going to tell you anyway.”
It was Euijin, of all people.
We’d built two years’ worth of closeness, and I’d confirmed that he was genuinely well-disposed toward me.
If there was anyone among the Players I’d met so far that I had to trust, I couldn’t think of anyone other than Euijin standing right in front of me.
And above all else, Euijin was the highest-level Player in Zone 2 — and the true power behind Eclipse, a large-scale faction.
This could actually be……
My mind began spinning rapidly, calculating Euijin’s usefulness and how safe he was to rely on.
Before long, a bright smile spread across my face.
“Why don’t we eat breakfast first?”
I held up the metal bracelet on my wrist. The ‘Special Supply Station, Zone 2 Warehouse Key’ dangling from it swayed conspicuously.
You always start with a bribe, after all.
***
Less than an hour later, the two of us were seated across from each other at the table, facing a rather generous spread.
Since I’d decided to go all in on the bribe, I set out a truly impressive meal. He was someone who always ate nothing but convenient rations like energy bars, so I figured this was a good chance to treat him to a meal extravagant enough to actually move him.
It didn’t take long to fill the table.
What’s the best thing about convenience store food? That it’s fast and easy.
There happened to be a microwave inside the Special Supply Station warehouse, so the prep work was done with an ease almost too simple to even call cooking.
Just opening bags, pulling off lids, and pressing buttons — and the table filled with remarkable speed.
Salads and desserts didn’t even need to be heated, so just unwrapping the packaging and transferring everything to plates was enough to complete what looked like a rather decent feast.
For the record, the tableware used at this time was the Special Supply Station’s ‘Sparkling Ceramic Dish Set.’
As a side note, the microwave was a surprisingly practical item — swap out the batteries and it ran perfectly fine even without electricity. The room had almost no furniture and the kitchen was bare and empty, so I decided to leave it there as a gift while I was at it. The sight of Euijin nearly jumping out of his skin when he saw me walk out of the warehouse carrying the microwave, then practically snatching it from my hands, was quite the impression.
After that, steaming hot soup dishes, freshly heated rice, and gleaming seasoned side dishes took their places one by one — and Euijin looked back and forth between me and the food with wide, surprised eyes.
Then he broke into a soft smile.
“It’s a relief to know I’ll be able to feed you well every day.”
Shouldn’t that be ‘eat well,’ not ‘feed you’?
I wasn’t sure why he was nodding to himself while staring straight at me, but either way, we carried on eating together.
“This is truly delicious. You’re a good cook too, Lee Jaea.”
“I just reheated everything.”
“If I had done it, the microwave would have exploded or produced a terrible smell.”
“How would you even manage to do that?”
“There isn’t enough time to explain step by step. My track record is a bit… colorful.”
I thought he was joking, but Euijin’s face was completely serious.
“Then before I leave, I’ll write out how to use the microwave and a list of things you should never put in it.”
“My memory is quite poor — couldn’t you just help me with it every day instead?”
“Don’t lie. You were just about to rattle off everything from the moment we first met two years ago.”
“…The rice turned out really well. The meat is cooked perfectly too.”
“Hey.”
Look at him sneaking his eyes away like that.
We traded pointless small talk for a while before naturally finding our way into the real subject.
I’d heard that the briefing was at ten in the morning, so we still had two full hours to spare.
I didn’t rush. I calmly told him my story, one thing at a time.
As Euijin had wanted, I gave him an abridged account of everything from when I left the Special Supply Station up until I arrived here. Including the fact that I’d been able to generate quests — possibly because of my NPC setting.
I also disclosed that I had the title Chaos Friendly, and because of it, any monster would instinctively regard me with excessive goodwill. That way, he’d be able to make sense of why I had disguised myself as a Player with the Monster Tamer setting.
And finally, I told him my real reason for coming to Eclipse.
“…I see. If you’re disguised as a Monster Tamer, it wouldn’t seem strange for you to receive goodwill from monsters.”
Euijin, who had listened to my story calmly, nodded as he turned my words over in his mind.
“So once things here are settled, you plan to go to Zone 1 to find your sibling?”
“That’s the plan. I don’t know whether they’re alive or dead, but they’re my only sibling — I at least need to know.”
“In that case, it does seem worth trying to get help from a Player with a movement skill. Heo Yunji should know the roster for each team and the details of each person’s skills, so it wouldn’t be difficult to check whether a Player like that has come. However……”
Euijin trailed off, as though something was nagging at him.
Then he asked carefully.
“What if it fails?”
“Fails?”
At my question, Euijin tapped his fingers lightly on the table and sank briefly into thought. Beside those long fingers sat an empty lunchbox, scraped clean without leaving so much as a single grain of rice.
“If it’s a skill that moves a specifically designated target, I believe the description usually states ‘Player’ explicitly. There are also skills that randomly warp nearby living creatures, but in those cases, I’ve heard that the destination is randomized.”
That was something I hadn’t known.
Players with movement skills had visited the Special Supply Station I’d been at before. I’d encountered two of them — one had a movement skill usable only on themselves, the other had one they could use on a different Player.
Even for similar abilities, the detailed descriptions differed from Player to Player, so I hadn’t given it much thought — but if what Euijin said was true, then designated-location movement skills were limited to ‘Players’ only.
Then I……
I, who am not a Player… their movement skills won’t work on me.
In that case, only one option remained.
“There’s nothing I can do about it. I’d just have to find a Player with a random movement skill.”
“If it fails, you’d be suspected, wouldn’t you?”
“That’s……”
I had nothing to say.
What if I managed to find a Player with a random movement skill, but even that skill excluded NPCs from its targets? What if the skill simply failed to activate?
Others might not notice — but a Player who had repeatedly used that skill on countless living creatures would not be able to easily overlook something that abnormal. Since skills are a critical element directly tied to a Player’s survival, that would create a rather troublesome situation.
That said, there wasn’t another option available either.
For now, the only choice was to rely on a Player’s movement skill and hope for the best.
I was looking downward, quietly steadying the unease settling in my chest, when Euijin gently suggested:
“What if you tried a different method?”
A different method?
Euijin pointed to himself with his index finger.
“You said you became able to grant quests. Use that on me.”
“On you?”
Well, of course — I was the only one Euijin knew to be an NPC, so if I absolutely had to grant a quest to someone, he would be the most fitting candidate. But still……
I tilted my head, and Euijin offered a faint smile.
“Give me a quest to take you to Zone 1. More precisely, something along the lines of: ‘Escort Jaea so that he may reunite with his sibling in Zone 1.'”
“Ah…!”
I couldn’t help but widen my eyes at his words.
One of the quests Players frequently receive from NPCs is the ‘escort’ mission.
You speak to the designated NPC waiting at a specific location, then safely bring them to the destination they want to reach.
Quest NPCs are set so that they cannot move beyond a certain distance from their designated position — and yet, once a Player accepts an escort quest, free movement becomes possible from that point on.
In other words, if I played the role of an NPC granting an escort quest, I might be able to move beyond Zone 2 entirely — somewhere I wouldn’t be able to reach on my own.
That actually makes a lot of sense.
Rather than risking exposure to an unfamiliar Player, it might be better to actively make use of quests, just as Euijin had suggested.
No —
Not might be better. I was starting to think it was simply the right answer.
Euijin, watching my face light up in an instant, asked with a smile:
“The reward is also set by you, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“What’s the scope of the reward?”
“It’s probably drawn from what I have. Items or pets that are completely bound to me wouldn’t be possible — but anything within the range of what I’m able to do for you should work.”
That was generally how quest NPCs set the rewards they offered to Players.
“If there’s anything you want as a reward, say it now. Just keep it to what I can actually do.”
I wasn’t sure what he’d ask for — but Euijin didn’t seem like an unreasonable person, so I figured he’d keep it within the realm of what was actually possible.
Hearing my words, Euijin let his eyes wander for a moment.
Those eyes rolled about in a way I almost found a little endearing before landing back on me.
For some reason, there was a curious gleam in them.
ohhh I wonder what euijin will ask for 👁👁