Vol 3 Chapter 68

"Not necessary."

"..."

Kapros thought that if Kran, who had been quite pleased when told about meeting Yu-wan in Bala despite pretending otherwise, saw this reaction, he would probably be furious and explode with anger. However, Kapros decided to just keep quiet.

Afterwards, they entered a fairly large VT game center nearby. As they went in, the lighting changed to blue, and in the darkened space, they saw numerous people enjoying games in front of holographic arcade machines. It gave Kapros a strange feeling, reminding him of the times he had come to such places with friends during middle and high school, but he quickly pushed the thought away due to Je-hwan's overly attentive demeanor.

After making their way through the noisy sounds coming from lifelike bike racing games and shooting game machines, Je-hwan unexpectedly stopped in front of a three-dimensional cube floating in mid-air.

'A cube?'

Je-hwan turned to look at the puzzled Kapros and spoke.

"I thought this would be the best."

Perhaps because of the loud sound effects around them, Je-hwan's voice also came out quite forcefully.

"I'm not sure about this."

As Kapros sat down on the chair behind, Je-hwan gave a faint smile.

"It's simple. I'll show you."

The method of playing the game itself seemed simple enough. After inserting money and putting on black gloves that recognized movements, one had to solve the cube mixed with various colors and patterns. However, the fact that you had to move your hands as if turning the cube without actually holding it required quite delicate control.

After moving his hands a few times to manipulate the cube in the air, Je-hwan soon pressed the start button and began turning the cube at a speed that seemed almost invisible. Despite his very light hand movements, the cube in the air kept clicking into place and spinning, gradually finding its proper arrangement by pattern and color.

[ Click Ping![★] Click Ping![★] Click Ping![★] Ping! Ping! Ping![☆☆☆] PingPingPingPingPingPing! ]

[ double combo !! ]

[ Bang! Perfect !! ]

The sight of the huge hologram cube, glowing with fluorescent colors in the blue light, being solved faster and faster as if dancing was almost dizzying to watch. As Je-hwan perfectly matched the last piece amidst a small crowd of onlookers, cheers erupted from the game machine.

"Wow... There are people who can actually solve that!"

"This is much more impressive than showing off with trivial things."

As even the surrounding people watched cheerfully and applauded, Je-hwan turned towards Kapros.

However, seeing Je-hwan's expression that subtly seemed to expect something more, Kapros scratched the back of his head and stood up.

"Well... That's impressive, but I can't do it."

Wasn't this kind of game difficult from the start for someone not familiar with cubes? Did he perhaps want to show off what he was good at? Thinking this, Kapros turned around to see Je-hwan quickly taking off his gloves and coldly brushing off people asking how he was so good, before approaching him.

Seeing Je-hwan's somewhat apologetic expression, it seemed he felt bad for playing alone. To show him there was no need for that, Kapros looked around and then approached a game machine he used to enjoy. The overly smooth floor made it difficult to walk with his cane.

Finally reaching the machine, he felt a sense of nostalgia seeing it after so long.

"Mu-heon..."

Just as Kapros sat down, pulling a chair closer, Je-hwan approached and was about to say something when Kapros grinned.

"You're good at that, but I can't do it, so I'm going to try this instead."

"That's..."

Je-hwan showed a surprised look after examining what kind of machine it was.

Kapros ran his hand over the keyboard part of the machine he hadn't seen in a long time. It was a type of rhythm game played with all fingers, where you had to match holographic 3D notes coming down in the video according to the music. He had liked that it required three things to match difficult note arrangements: dynamic visual acuity, finger reflexes, and practice, and he used to often compete with Seung-jo...

However, since it had been a very long time since he had played this game, today he would have to rely solely on his dynamic visual acuity and reflexes.

After inserting money, difficulty levels appeared next to various song titles lined up chaotically.

'Let's see... I think I used to play up to difficulty level 10 before.'

After scrolling up and down, he selected and pressed one with a difficulty of about 9. Intense drum beats rang out as lights flashed on and off repeatedly on the screen.

Before the game started in earnest, Kapros lightly pressed and moved his ten fingers placed on the keyboard to test their movement, and the chaotic keyboard sounds seemed to welcome him back after a long time. With a strange feeling, he started the game.

"Phew..."

They must have spent more time than expected at the game center, as the clock showed 5:30 when they came out. Although his shoulders were a bit stiff, Kapros didn't regret it, feeling refreshed after playing for the first time in a long while. Looking at Je-hwan, he too seemed comfortable.

"...Somehow, I feel refreshed inside."

Kapros nodded at Je-hwan's quiet words.

"Me too."

The feeling of his mind being completely cleared was very pleasant. The cool breeze on his sweaty body made it feel even more so. Just then, as Kapros stumbled slightly when his cane hit a broken sidewalk block, Je-hwan quickly reached out to catch him.

"Careful."

"Ah. Thanks."

After walking a bit more, Je-hwan quietly spoke up.

"The last game was a bit disappointing."

Je-hwan shrugged, seemingly remembering losing the final competitive game after a close match.

"Skill is... more about intuition than you'd think."

It was clear that Kapros had also loosened up considerably. Otherwise, he wouldn't have made such a joke.

"Is that so..."

However, seeing Je-hwan seriously agreeing with his joke, it seemed it hadn't come across as much of a joke.

"I was joking."