#Side Story, After That. 2

"Kar. You need to give us your number too."

Kion-hyung, who had just gotten Kran's number, finally turned towards Kapros. However, Kapros remained still, immersed in the slight shock caused by Palton's words.

Here. There was reality outside of MIST. Kapros knew best why this simple and obvious fact was hammering at his head so much.

In truth, he had been afraid all along.

He didn't want to face others. He didn't want to be involved. With these two reasons, he had pushed away people who approached him, and this hadn't changed even in MIST. That's why he hadn't asked anything when Kion-hyung left, and why he never talked about each other's reality even while traveling with Yu-wan or Kran. But because of this, he had now lost Yu-wan.

To be honest, during the week he had been bedridden, the most painful realization was that he had completely lost any means of contact with Yu-wan, as even the connection through the quest would have been severed.

Two conflicting thoughts were floating in his mind. One was to accept and bury the parting with Yu-wan as he had done until now. The other was the anxiety about how he would handle potentially losing other people in the future if he gave up and accepted things this way.

Perhaps Yu-wan was just the beginning. Kran could die, Kion-hyung or Palton could die at any time. Even Kapros himself could die at any moment if he wasn't careful.

Currently, MIST had no communication system between users except for letters written directly in-game or carrier pigeons. Saturn's explanation was that they had intentionally not implemented such features. Even so, more users accepted this positively, saying it allowed for more realistic immersion, so there hadn't been much backlash yet. The fun of MIST was too great to be overshadowed by this.

But now, it was very irritating. If all such functions had been implemented, Kapros might have felt less resistance to connecting with them than he did now.

'But there's no use thinking about this now.'

While Kapros was quietly lost in thought, Kion-hyung waited patiently without further urging. The same was true for Kran and Palton. Seeing these people, who would normally have urged him several times due to their impatient personalities, waiting patiently, Kapros let out a light sigh.

Let's think about it simply. He was now regretting what happened with Yu-wan. Now that he knew that even the other people here could suddenly lose contact at any time, how did Kapros feel about that?

Think about it honestly.

The answer was...

'The answer was...'

He didn't like it.

He was sick of that kind of thing now.

'And if possible...'

He wanted to know a little more about those he had met in MIST.

He wanted to know... Having thought that far, Kapros was startled and his expression hardened.

'I want to know...? Did I really think I want to know?'

"Ha..."

"Kar?"

When Kapros, who had been narrowing his eyes, suddenly burst into laughter like a sigh, everyone's eyes widened.

Yes. That was the answer. Putting aside all the aversion and resistance to his real-world self, if he purely considered his feelings for those in front of him, he wanted to stay with them longer. He wanted to know them better, and... if he had been a normal person, he would have met them without hesitation.

If he had been normal... Wasn't that enough?

"Kap, if you're going to be like that, you don't have to give us your contact info... sn... s... Sniff, damn it. I want to know!"

"...Damn it. Me too!"

"Oh. It's the first time I've seen you so eagerly waiting for a man's contact information."

"Just because you have a big mouth doesn't mean everything you say makes sense!"

"Well. I'm handsome, aren't I? Hahaha!"

"Shit..."

There was no need to push people away out of fear of being rejected with these people. Kapros smiled and spoke softly.

"03B-348-S267KA."

"You bas...! ...Huh?"

"Kap?!"

"What?"

"03B-348-S267KA. My number."

His contact information, which flowed out joyfully, actually sounded quite unfamiliar even as Kapros said it, but he supposed he'd have to get used to it from now on.

"03B-348-S267KA! I memorized it! I memorized it all!"

"Kar. ...You brat!"

Kran was overjoyed, Kion-hyung vigorously messed up Kapros's hair, and Palton wore a smile that somehow suggested trouble ahead. Seeing all three of them so happy, Kapros didn't regret his decision. He only made one thing clear to the three who were like a festival cauldron.

"Just... don't be surprised later."

"Hm? What did you say? Hehehe!"

"Poor Black Swordsman... He died without seeing this. Hehehe."

"..."

Kapros wasn't sure if they had heard him properly... but he had said it, so it should be fine.

After the guild war with unexpected events in Zagreb, THE MIST's official homepage began to heat up due to the protagonists of those events.

The first video uploaded showed Caesar, the Pale Knights guild master who was secretly recognized as a fearsome high-level user in Zagreb, chasing some users. Surprisingly, those being chased not only didn't fall behind him at all, but one of them even unleashed an unbelievable large-scale magic that pulled out a huge pillar from the ground, attracting users' fervent interest.

It wasn't long before it was revealed that the magic used by the mage user in the video was undoubtedly the 5th circle Stone Edge, and as soon as it became known that the game's first 5th circle implementation had occurred, numerous posts seeking to uncover the identities of him and his companions followed in succession. The reaction was truly like a wildfire.

Their figures could be partially seen in various screenshots and videos from the guild war that were being uploaded one after another. Besides the black-hooded mage user who first attracted users' attention, the two swordsman users who stood as if guarding him also became the focus of attention. It was natural, as one of them was confirmed to be wielding an aura sword almost identical to Caesar's advanced aura, which had been thought to be unparalleled until now.

While many people racked their brains to discover the identities of the three who had perfectly captured attention with just a brief appearance in the chaotic melee of many users, there were hardly any properly known facts amidst the rampant speculation. Even if it was impossible to identify the mage user because he had covered his face with a hood from the start, the fact that there were no close-up videos or screenshots of even the other two was enough to leave their faces shrouded in mystery.

Some opinions suggested that they might be similar to the characters in the Torelit handsome swordsmen's duel video that had been uploaded before and received positive responses from many female users, which caused another sensation among some users. However, this too was only accepted as a direction that stimulated imagination.

Another point of question was that although they first revealed themselves at the guild war, they actually didn't belong to any guild, which led to numerous speculations about their identities once again.

However, the truth could remain unrevealed because the Giant guild master, one of the few people who knew them, maintained silence through strict control of information, small guilds like Magictopia were ignored by people from the beginning, and Caesar, the Pale Knights guild master who had chased them during the melee, also disappeared like those three afterward.

After that, quite a few people among MIST users came to admire those three users, and they became famous enough to earn nicknames, but many were disappointed that the actual protagonists didn't show themselves.

"The three who became a hot topic this time are members of the H-Zero, Heroes Zero quest."

Yoon Seok-ho, the head of THE MIST's Korean branch, continued speaking in a relaxed manner while standing in front of a man. The man, who looked slightly older than Yoon Seok-ho, was examining with sharp eyes the controversial video that had been uploaded on THE MIST's homepage and was receiving an enormous number of replies. Next to that screen, the magic casting scene of the HR-02 user that Yoon Seok-ho had brought before was playing as a comparison video.

The gaze of the man, who seemed likely to be quite popular due to his sharp eyes, flicked back and forth between the two videos.

"...Looking at it like this, I can see clearly. Is this person the last L-10 user of the ReL project?"

"And also HR-02 of the H-Z quest."

"Hmm."

The man nodded lightly in agreement.

"Because of that video, he's being called FM among users. I heard it stands for First Five Magic Master... Isn't it interesting? It's not even a radio channel. The protagonist would probably have found it quite ridiculous if he heard it."

Yoon Seok-ho continued speaking playfully and shrugged with a light smile. However, the man, without any change in atmosphere, finished watching the comparison video and then turned off the screen with the remote, spinning his chair around. The room suddenly became chillingly quiet.

From that position, the man opened his mouth as if spitting out words, looking at the still-smiling Yoon Seok-ho with a frowning face.

"It was wise to roughly block information about them on our side as well. But don't forget that what's most important to us is ReL rather than H-Zero. I heard that L-10 caused a brief problem during the HS-04 quest after this, and if something similar happens again, it could be a big deal."

Yoon Seok-ho didn't say anything, but the man continued speaking without minding.

"L-10 has more variable factors than any other experimental group. Originally, it would be appropriate to cancel H-Zero from him, but because he's a special case showing such ability while overlapping two, we're watching a bit more. Since he's a person you brought in on your whim in the first place, you need to handle it thoroughly."

After watching the man's expression, Yoon Seok-ho soon bowed his head lightly.

"Yes. I'll be careful, Director Jang Myung-jin."