Chapter 25
“????”
As Wonyoung stood there bewildered, Taerim smiled coldly and turned around.
“Then I’ll see you next week. If you’re late, there will be no mercy.”
Then he left just like that. Only then did Wonyoung let out an incredulous “huh” and exhale in disbelief.
‘He really is annoying…’
Wonyoung was worried about having to work right next to him as his secretary.
* * *
Kyung Taerim
020/999
Ki Siyeon
023/999
Baek Heegang
025/999
On a rare holiday, Wonyoung looked over the character favorability ratings and sighed deeply. Not even one person had reached 30 yet. At this rate, when would he ever fill all 999?
‘Why isn’t it going up? How long are they planning to keep me trapped in this game?’
At this rate, it would take at least 2 years. He didn’t want to be unable to go home for 2 years. Some kind of drastic measure seemed necessary.
And this was exactly when he needed to call the system.
“System-ssi, I have something I’d like to ask.”
For once keeping its promise, the system quietly appeared. For the first time, Wonyoung felt glad to see the system.
“What is it, Player-nim?”
“Are there any tips for raising favorability?”
“Tips!”
Then, as if it had been waiting for this moment, the glowing orb spun around excitedly.
“✴Tip: To raise favorability, appropriate choices, atmosphere, and proactive actions are important. In short: choices, atmosphere, actions.”
“…”
Wonyoung waved his fist threateningly.
“Not that kind of tip, are there any practical tips?”
“Uh… those kinds of things…”
“Isn’t the favorability rising too slowly? Are you telling me to attack them or not?”
The system, troubled by Wonyoung’s menacing atmosphere, said:
“That’s exactly the problem… You’re not fully utilizing your abilities, Player-nim.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Character personality is important! Additional favorability is attached based on that!”
“So what exactly is this character personality? Isn’t Narae just a pushover idiot pervert?”
“You need to combine all of that to become Abangsu. The game title even includes Abangsu, how could you not know this? Tsk tsk.”
“What?”
Now that he thought about it, though he hadn’t paid attention to it at all, this game’s title was ‘Is Being Abangsu Also a Sin?’ Abangsu? Something that becomes waterproof… material? Or is it an abbreviation for something? Ah, did you just come back from swimming? That’s not it. What the hell does ‘abanghada’ mean?
“What is Abangsu… where did it go now?”
After much deliberation, Wonyoung decided to swallow his pride temporarily and ask the system what Abangsu meant. But when Wonyoung looked up, the system had already disappeared without a trace.
‘Really unhelpful.’
Wonyoung had never lived as a pushover, never lived stupidly, and never lived as a pervert. But now he was told to combine all of that.
‘I need to find out what Abangsu means first.’
With the internet, the treasure trove of knowledge, there was nothing in the world he couldn’t find out. As Wonyoung picked up his phone, a mission window popped up with a “ding” notification sound.
[※Mission Alert※]
Objective: Read chapter 12 of the web novel [That Office Worker’s Secret Affair] on Reading Books and understand the full story.
Reward: New Connection
Upon Failure: Level 2 Penalty Imposed
A new mission notification arrived for Wonyoung.
“What is this?”
Checking the notification, Wonyoung tilted his head at the mission content that appeared before his eyes. The mission content was sudden, but the reward was also unexpected. A new connection. Could there be more attack characters?
‘But in the prologue, only three appeared, so that probably isn’t it?’
Anyway, since a Level 2 penalty would be imposed upon failure, he had to do what the game told him to do for now. Wonyoung went to the web novel site where he had bought BL books a few times and searched for ‘That Office Worker’s Secret Affair.’ Of course, it was 19+.
‘Damn 19+…’
At first, he had come to the site to research BL, and how shocked he had been by the countless 19+ tags that appeared on the screen. After age verification, the covers were all flesh-colored, flesh-colored, and more flesh-colored, so he couldn’t find anywhere to look.
As a player who aimed for all-ages content, he hadn’t really visited since then.
Wonyoung read through the synopsis of the web novel.
“Let’s see. Elite office worker Yeongwon has a secret that he likes BL. Then one day, due to some incident, three men find out his secret, and they each use it to seduce Yeongwon in their own ways. After much deliberation, Yeongwon gets involved with all three of them and gradually falls into pleasure…”
Wonyoung stopped here for a moment and took a deep breath. Then he went straight to chapter 12. It seemed better to just look quickly.
Sure enough, from the start, Wonyoung squeezed his eyes shut at the attack of intense breathing sounds and explicit descriptions. I won’t do it, I won’t do that kind of thing.
Only after comforting himself several times could Wonyoung focus on the novel again.
The novel had no particular content. It was just full of high-level scenes with a younger man who seemed to be one of the three men Yeongwon was involved with. Thanks to that, Wonyoung became in an ‘Embarrassed (❤´艸｀❤)’ state.
‘Is it starting again… Why does this guy have so much embarrassment?’
As Wonyoung was diligently cooling his bright red cheeks, he briefly stopped his scrolling.
‘Wait a minute.’
The scene he stopped at was where Yeongwon and his partner, the younger man, were having a conversation. Yeongwon, who had sadistic tendencies, made the other man kneel and said:
―You should behave well. Right?
―Yes, hyung.
―Then do some good things. With that body.
“Huh? This…”
Surely, it must be a mistake. It’s probably just similar in nuance. Wonyoung shook his head. However.
―Every time you do one good thing, I’ll erase one thing you did wrong to me. Think of it as a deletion right.
―Hyung… I’ll do well. I’ll behave nicely and prettily. Please order me to do anything…
“What? What is this?”
Wonyoung asked out loud in amazement. Wasn’t this obviously the conversation he and Ki Siyeon had a few days ago? If you asked whether it matched exactly, it didn’t, but as someone who had that conversation, he had a feeling.
“And it wasn’t this kind of atmosphere!”
Definitely not this… this embarrassingly hot adult romance atmosphere. It was just a conversation between friendly younger brother and older brother! But why is this like this…
Of course, he thought it might be a coincidence, but it was given as a mission. He thought there must be a connection.
‘But how did that conversation end up in this novel? It’s not like there was anyone who heard it… ah.’
There was, someone who heard it.
“The neighbor woman. That woman.”
That person whose eyes flashed, who somehow gave him a bad feeling. She must have heard the whole conversation and written it into a novel. Then that woman was likely the author of this novel.
But actually, the woman’s identity was less important than the mission content to ‘understand the full story.’ What exactly were the conditions? He had figured out that the neighbor woman was a BL novelist, but the question was what more he needed to do to achieve completion.
However, there was one thing he could guess.
“I might need to verify it.”
Verification meant, in the end, going to find the woman. If he went and asked ‘Did you write my conversation into a BL novel?’, he might get slapped, but getting a penalty or getting slapped seemed about the same. Personally, Wonyoung disliked the Level 2 penalty more, not knowing what might come out of it.
So Wonyoung immediately went to find the neighbor woman.
At the ‘ding dong’ doorbell sound, the woman peeked her head out. She looked surprised for a moment when she saw Wonyoung.
“Hello, I’m the person who lives next door…”
“Yes, hello. But what brings you here…”
Wonyoung bit his lips in difficulty. He had come, but he couldn’t think of how to bring up the topic. Should he ask why she used his conversation? Or should he start with small talk?
But unexpectedly, the woman who had been reading the situation brought up that very topic first.
“I saw you the other time too… I was a bit surprised then so I couldn’t even greet you.”
“Ah, no. I was very rude that time. Si, Siyeon is my close younger brother, but his joke went too far… If you were offended, I apologize.”
“Ah, ah… so he’s your younger brother. Then those comic books were also your younger brother’s prank…?”
“What?”
Comic books? When Wonyoung tilted his head, the neighbor woman was startled and bowed her head.
“You, you order comic books frequently… Once they were delivered to our house by mistake and I looked at the shipping label thinking it was mine. I’m, I’m really sorry.”
“Uh…”
At the woman’s explanation, Wonyoung’s face turned pale. Now not only Ki Siyeon but even the neighbor knew about his BL comic books. Wonyoung once again wanted to twist the game creator’s wrists.
“Uh, well, that’s…”
As Wonyoung hemmed and hawed, the woman shyly continued.
“Actually, among them, there were some I really liked.”
“What?”
“There aren’t many male readers… so I was wondering. Um, the one with a seme who likes sweets…”
A seme who likes sweets? Seme can’t be ball…?
Anyway, Wonyoung immediately put his brain into full operation to find something among the comic book contents he had bought that matched the woman’s description. Elite Heo Wonyoung’s memory was definitely outstanding.
“Don’t tell me ‘Sweet Honey Choco Latte’?”
“Oh? You know it! But it’s ‘Sweet Honey Chocolatte.'”
“Ah.”
Wonyoung’s cheeks reddened with embarrassment. Narae’s memory was inferior to his own. To think he had entered such an inferior body, Wonyoung was newly saddened by that fact.
The briefly mistitled <Sweet Honey Chocolatte> was a comic book that featured a character most similar to Narae. It was quite surprising as it had a completely different atmosphere from that domination novel from earlier.
