Vol 6 Chapter 28

From the moment he met that man, all meaning in Je-hwan's daily life had changed, and now he could never stop what he was doing.

For the first time in his life, he had put his all into playing a mere game, and found the information hidden within it to make it his weapon. To avoid the Circuit Eye monitoring whether he was meeting and colluding with others, he even deceived Kang Mu-heon, the very person he wanted to protect, maneuvering his body, and with the information gained that way, he deceived Jin Seo-hwan while simultaneously deceiving Saturn.

He didn't think Yoon Seok-ho would turn a blind eye if he knew that the user performing THE MIST's main quest was actually the son of a competing company's president. Therefore, Je-hwan created a new identity to converse with Yoon Seok-ho about the quest video, carefully leaking information for Seo-hwan to notice just a little.

Fortunately, everything had gone smoothly so far. It was by no means easy to walk a tightrope in a precarious place with neither enemies nor allies, trying to grasp information to deal with both sides.

But the reason he came to think of doing this was...

Because he realized that man, Kang Mu-heon, was exposed alone in an extremely dangerous place.

A user of the special capsule, a main quest user of THE MIST, and even the record holder for the fastest growth in magic skills created with the essence of the 'imaging' technology, hailed as THE MIST's most mysterious technology. Not just Mage Soft, but if this information were exposed to any decent VT company right now, he could be kidnapped and sold without a word.

In that sense, it was fortunate that Mu-heon's poor health kept him cooped up at home usually, but Je-hwan didn't think such peace would last forever. Danger would always come without warning, and this was all Je-hwan could prepare for that moment.

If he wondered whether this was hardship, in fact, there was nothing difficult about it at all. All Je-hwan wanted was to prevent him from noticing these risks that might burden him.

To that end, he carefully explored around his house almost daily, and paid the utmost attention not to miss what Saturn or Mage Soft were doing. Thanks to this, he was able to take him to the hospital on the day he returned home injured. It was then that he first realized that even his personality, which he had considered indifferent, had such an aspect.

As emotions he didn't know he had gradually awakened, Je-hwan found himself wanting that man more and more. The man who meant so much to him didn't seem to consider Je-hwan very important yet, but that was fine for now. If he learned more about what Je-hwan was doing, he would undoubtedly feel burdened and try to distance himself.

Although he felt his patience diminishing over time, he still thought he could endure.

Until this very afternoon.

"..."

Je-hwan's eyes, which had just stopped his long train of thought and was catching his breath, suddenly widened in surprise. The face of a man running towards him, alternately illuminated and darkened by the streetlights in the distance, looked like someone he had seen many times before. The man, who had run with his coat tails fluttering, disappeared up the stairs of the villa Je-hwan had been watching, without even looking around.

That face. Although the hair was a soft brown rather than bright blonde, the sleek face that could have made many women cry was all too familiar. The problem was that he was a character he had seen in the game, not in reality.

His name was definitely...

'Kratos.'

Je-hwan's eyes sank so deep that even the light couldn't fathom their depths for a moment. The worry and anxiety had disappeared. A cat passing over the wall, seeing the man lurking in the darkness like a black jaguar about to pounce on its prey, got scared and ran away meowing. Je-hwan's shadow slowly elongated among the flickering lights.

How long had he been staring at that house where the lights hadn't gone out, without even blinking? When the night had deepened and the sounds around had gradually subsided, suddenly muffled voices were heard from inside the villa's entrance.

The man who came out first, jumping in place as if to overcome the cold, wore a kind smile, and the man who followed him had a sickly impression but looked relatively bright.

After exchanging a few words, they slowly walked towards the road. Je-hwan didn't take his eyes off their retreating figures until they disappeared. A strangely boiling emotion filled his dried-up chest with an odd frenzy.

Some time later, only the man with the pale complexion and sickly appearance returned. His heavy dragging of one leg made it possible to tell who he was even from a distance. The slightly long black hair, tall and thin stature, calm expression, and tightly closed lips. All of it was no different from how he had looked earlier in the day.

The man steadily walked, occasionally pausing briefly, until he reached near the entrance of the villa. Each time he exhaled hot breath, white mist spread through the frozen air.

And just as he was about to lift his foot to climb the stairs, the man stiffened his shoulders, flinched, and slowly turned around. Even that expression as he turned was so calm it was almost deflating, with a strange tinge to it.

"...Who's... there?"

The moment Je-hwan saw that face, slightly frowning and looking directly at the dark corner where he stood, he thought he couldn't hold back any longer. He sprang out of the darkness and grabbed the waist of the man whose eyes had widened in sudden surprise, filled with a gloomy, painful feeling. An astonishing anger and jealousy pounded his chest painfully, making his head spin as if drunk. And beyond that, he could no longer maintain a rational state.

'Ah...'

A low groan resembling regret echoed dully in his head. But this was only the beginning.