“Hey, Tongjang, you’re still there? If you got aggro, you should’ve dodged on your own.”
“Chairman! That’s too much, seriously!”
“Why is the mad dog’s tension so high today?”
“Quiet down and lie down before I cut your pay.”
At 0’s warning, the two fell silent.
In an instant, half the party window grayed out. Only 0 and Won remained.
0 fluttered the Archangel’s Wings and took a long stride right up to Doyeong’s face.
“Hyung. Quiet now, okay?”
The ruthless coldness that had just massacred allies vanished without a trace, replaced by a voice filled only with chilling kindness.
“…You did that on purpose.”
“Of course. There was too much noise for me to hear your voice.”
0 smiled as he circled around Doyeong’s side.
“Now, just the two of us, peacefully. No more troublemakers.”
Doyeong swallowed dryly. To throw his own party members to the monsters for his own goal… He really wasn’t someone to let his guard down around.
That guy was insane.
And quite a delightfully and refreshingly crazy person, at that.
But strangely, that madness didn’t feel hateful. If anything, it was like a weight had lifted, and Doyeong felt strangely relieved.
Maybe because the noise was so loud, I actually feel calmer now.
Thus continued a dizzying private moment with 0. Perhaps because of the distance, or because 0 and Doyeong’s flirtation annoyed them, the voices of the Governor and Tongjang were no longer heard.
Feeling relaxed, Doyeong’s mouth grew bored again. He picked up a lollipop.
Rustle, rustle.
The sound of peeling the plastic wrapping pierced the quiet voice channel with brutal clarity. 0’s high-performance microphone picked up even the faintest friction and amplified it.
Doyeong put a red strawberry-flavored candy in his mouth and bit down hard with his molars.
Crunch, crunch. Snap.
From the sharp sound of the candy breaking between his teeth to the sticky, wet noises of him rolling the pieces with his tongue, all auditory cues blasted straight through 0’s headset directly into the eardrum.
0’s character, who was walking ahead, suddenly paused.
His wing-flapping motion froze, and the six wings seemed to tremble slightly.
“Why aren’t you moving?”
Doyeong mumbled around the candy pieces in his mouth. The slurred pronunciation was muffled.
Instead of answering, 0 opened the chat window.
Ding.
[Whisper] 0: Hyung.
[Whisper] 0: Are you doing that on purpose?
Doyeong tilted his head and typed back.
[Whisper] Won: What?
[Whisper] 0: The noise.
[Whisper] 0: Are you deliberately plugging it into my ear? Trying to drive me crazy?
0’s character slowly turned around in slow motion and stared at Doyeong.
Though the mic was on, he continued whispering as if unwilling to share this secret conversation with the noisy corpses around them.
[Whisper] 0: If you keep making those noises rolling around in your mouth, I’m gonna eat you up.
[Whisper] Won: Candy? You want me to eat?
[Whisper] 0: No. Hyung.
[Whisper] 0: You keep chomping so hard that I want to swallow you. Don’t tease me. It makes me hungry.
A chill ran down Doyeong’s spine. This did not seem like a joke.
You really do drive me crazy in many ways, honestly.
The faint sound of breath beyond the headset tickled Doyeong’s ear. 0’s breathing seemed slightly rougher. Hurried, Doyeong swallowed the remaining candy pieces in his mouth.
Then it happened.
Gurgle-gurgle. Thud.
A loud stomach rumble burst forth from Doyeong: either thunderous or the roar of a starving behemoth.
A candy like that couldn’t really satisfy the underlying hunger.
It was because he had been wrestling with the broken tractor all day, running across the fields without drinking a single sip of water.
Perfect silence.
Even the dungeon BGM seemed to pause in that stillness.
0 abruptly stopped walking.
“……”
He scowled irritably, looking around. His sharpened senses had caught an annoying noise.
“What was that just now? A system warning sound?”
“Ah, no…”
“Or is someone breathing behind me? The sound’s annoying.”
Doyeong’s face turned as red as a ripe tomato. Reflexively clutching his belly, he offered an excuse.
“It’s noisy… I haven’t eaten all day, so my stomach’s on strike.”
0’s gaze locked onto Won’s belly. For a moment, he opened his mouth in disbelief, then immediately set his face sternly and clicked his tongue.
“Sigh… Hyung, are you in your right mind?”
“What, what do you mean?”
“If you don’t manage your player condition, your reaction speed slows. That leads to DPS loss, which drags out the clear time. It’s eating away at my time.”
0 scolded sharply, like a ruthless employer demanding results, even though they were running a dungeon that didn’t even require a clear time.
“Eat something right now. You’re running low on energy.”
“I’m out of ramen. I have to wash rice too… It’s a hassle, so I’m just holding out. I’ll finish quickly and get out to eat.”
“Just order delivery. Who starves in this day and age?”
Doyeong let out a bitter laugh. That’s why people from Seoul are impossible. No sense of reality, no sense of reality.
“Hey, this isn’t the ‘Nation of Delivery’, it’s the ‘Nation of No Delivery.’ You open any app, all you get is ‘Service Unavailable Area’ pop-ups. To get to town, you have to drive twenty minutes along winding mountain roads.”
“…Are there still places like that in South Korea?”
“Yeah. Even for jjajangmyeon, I have to go grab the pot and bring it back myself.”
Just then, the dead corpses suddenly jumped up.
“Wow! Mister, you’re playing the game hungry? That’s a net loss of muscle!”
It was Governor’s voice.
“Chairman! I’m hungry too! I got crushed by the boss earlier and my stomach shrank up!”
Tongjang joined the whining. The noisy commotion made 0’s eyebrows twitch. Already sleep-deprived and on edge for days, having these two who didn’t care squabble was twisting his insides.
“Ah, shut up. I’m getting a ringing in my ears.”
0 irritably pushed up his glasses.
“Hyung. Turn on your phone. There’s nothing money can’t fix these days.”
“What?”
“There’s this thing called ‘Premium Concierge.’ It links to GPS and can dispatch drones or helicopters even to remote mountain valleys.”
“…Is there such a thing?”
Doyeong’s ears perked. Was he behind the times? He heard the world was improving lately. Drone delivery… that rings a bell from the news.
While Doyeong marveled at modern convenience, a noisy, nervous clacking of a mechanical keyboard came through the headset. It sounded like someone urgently searching or chasing something.
“Waiting on the event page link.”
The typing abruptly stopped, followed by a vastly relaxed but oddly excited voice.
“Looks like the old device wasn’t compatible. I’ll send the direct link through chat, just enter your address in the [Delivery Address Entry] field. I have leftover chicken coupons. They expire today. Would be a waste to throw them away.”
[Whisper] 0: [http://event.gift.chicken/coupon_send]
0 posted a link in the chat window.
“Chicken? Chickens? …Wow, the world really has gotten great.”
Having withdrawn from friends and even civilization, Doyeong didn’t know how to doubt. Actually, he was so hypoglycemic he didn’t have the energy to doubt.
Like in a trance, Doyeong clicked the link. A convincing “Chicken Delivery Information Entry” window popped up.
[Gyeonggi-do, XX City, XX Township, XX Village 345-1, Blue Gate House]
The moment Doyeong pressed the ‘Send’ button,
Ding.
On a monitor in a penthouse in Gangnam, Seoul, a bright red dot appeared clearly on 0’s map program.
[Target Found: Gyeonggi-do, XX City, Blue Gate House]
[Distance: 48km]
0’s lips curled into a smile.
“Coordinates confirmed. Only 48km from Seoul? That’s fifty minutes flat if I floor it.”
This wasn’t simply sending chicken. It was checking the ‘length of the leash.’ The distance he could drive any time and drag him back by the collar into his sight.
0’s eyes, which had been anxiously flickering, finally settled.
“Hyung.”
[Whisper] 0: Got the address.
[Whisper] 0: Chicken might not be the only thing coming, is that okay?
“Huh? What else is coming? Cola?”
“Hmm. Probably cola or cider. If not, cheese balls?”
0 muttered meaningfully. Doyeong had no idea what that meant, just excited about free chicken, and replied.
“Doesn’t matter. If it’s food, that’s all good.”
0 chuckled. Talking about food without realizing his location was pinned.
“Good. Eat up and get fat. Don’t go collapsing somewhere.”
Then the corpses started yelling.
“Hey! Mad dog! Give me some too! I’ll input my address!”
“Chairman! I want pizza! Extra cheese crust!”
0 grimaced with disgust.
Lmao he’s too hungry to think properly about stranger danger. This 0 guy is quite weird though. Getting obsessed over a stranger and wanting his address just because of a game? Also you’d never catch a danmei author nicknaming their ML (one who exclusively tops) ‘Zero’ iykyk
And this is… a tech savvy x not tech savvy couple? But what’s with the engineering department title? Did Doyeong develop some sort of aversion to machines because of his schooling experience, the game, or both?
Also off-topic but the age gap is 8 years (32 x 24 years old) so 7 years ago, when Doyeon was 25 years old, 0 would’ve been only 17. So I don’t think they would’ve overlapped in any area of life.