Vol 6 Chapter 53

"Director Nam! Welcome."

"Are Yun-mi-ssi, Sang-wook-ssi, and Ji-hyun-ssi on monitoring duty for our team today?"

While it didn't matter if operators did most of the simple monitoring of how users spent their time in the game, this hologram monitor's real important task was to continuously upload users' coordinates and data in real-time logs to check if anyone was experiencing difficulties due to program issues in the game.

However, since they usually only checked properly when contacted, they typically had a few people take turns on duty doing light monitoring like this.

In other words, it could be said this was work created to give them something to do when they came out, in case they got tired of working only inside the game.

"No. Until just now, Cheon-woo-ssi was also here hanging out with us, but he disappeared saying he was going to the bathroom."

"Ah, Kwon Cheon-woo from Team 1."

Mugeon nodded as he recalled Kwon Cheon-woo's face. Though he had heard Cheon-woo wasn't hired as a regular employee, he was a promising talent whose promotion to full-time status was almost certain due to his unexpectedly good skills. It was obvious enough that Team 1's Director Hong Min-woo, famous for never smiling and being strict, already liked him.

Being young and good-looking, he was very popular among female employees, and Mugeon particularly remembered how he seemed to enjoy this, appropriately showing off his playboy tendencies.

'But... come to think of it, he seems like a decent guy, so why haven't I talked much with him until now?'

"I'm back. I bought bread, would everyone like some?"

"Wow, Cheon-woo-ssi, how thoughtful!"

Just then, Kwon Cheon-woo came in with his arms full of bread bags. The other employees who couldn't properly have lunch due to being on duty raised a commotion with cheers. While they were making a fuss about making space, Cheon-woo greeted Mugeon with a grinning face.

"Hello, Director Nam Mugeon. It's been a while. Would you like some bread too, if you don't mind?"

The moment he saw that smile, Mugeon hesitated, feeling something uncomfortable nagging at a corner of his mind.

'What is this?'

"Ah, well, if you're offering, I'll gratefully accept."

As Mugeon sat down awkwardly, the employees pushed forward the widely opened bread bags and made various recommendations.

"Director, this one, this one's delicious. The 'Warrior's Body Bread'!"

"That one's too dry. How about the 'Crumpled Pizza Bread'? It's a popular item at the store, and Cheon-woo-ssi managed to get some. It even has sweet potato on top."

"Haha... thank you."

Mugeon picked up the Warrior's Body Bread with an awkward smile and unwrapped it, and the others started picking and eating what they liked. Even while eating the bread, Mugeon couldn't take his eyes off Cheon-woo.

The red hair, handsome features, and that constantly smiling, smooth expression - things that hadn't particularly caught his attention until now kept nagging at him, as if he should remember something, ever since he had that strange feeling just now.

'What is it? Looking at that guy keeps making me feel like I'm about to remember something... but I can't tell what it is.'

"Ah, speaking of earlier."

Just then, an employee who had been occasionally glancing at the monitor while eating brought up a topic as if remembering something.

"You know how I was here alone while you all went down to eat late because I ate first? I saw something strange on the monitor then."

"What? What kind of strange thing?"

"Well..."

When another employee asked with a puzzled face, that employee lowered their voice ominously, casting shadows as if telling a ghost story.

"You know how our assigned area is mostly centered around eastern Torelit? When the data logs of users in the Orgen Mountains area were coming up, one user's data suddenly disappeared in the middle! But when I rubbed my eyes thinking I might have seen wrong, the data was uploading normally again."

At those words, Mugeon automatically turned his gaze to the hologram monitor. He could see many users' data consisting of English and numbers streaming upward in regular patterns.

When Mugeon first saw it, he had thought it was just meaningless codes scrolling up chaotically, but after hearing the explanation from Yoon Seok-ho, who had boasted about making significant contributions to perfecting the monitoring program's security, he learned that those letters contained simpler yet deeper rules than expected.

Though it might look like garbage to unfamiliar eyes, to those who had received proper employee training, those letters were no different from each individual movement of users living inside the game. And that suddenly disappeared in the middle?

That was exactly the same as saying a user's entire body was erased and disappeared in the game before reappearing.

"How could that happen? You must have seen wrong because your eyes were tired."

"No. I kept watching until everyone came because it took a while, and it disappeared and reappeared once more about 20 minutes later."

"Wow, can such things really happen? I don't know which user it was, but if it's true, that's strange."

While listening to others commenting one by one, Mugeon nodded feeling similarly. If true, it would indeed be amazing. But it was probably either that employee's mistake, or something that happened due to delayed program recognition.

"Yun-mi-ssi. Do you remember exactly which area of the Orgen Mountains you saw this in?"

Just then, Cheon-woo joined the conversation with a smile. The employee called by name responded with a startled "Yes?" before slightly blushing and making an expression of trying to remember.

"Um... Ah. Wasn't there that high-level village valley formed recently near the Orgen Mountains?"

"Ah~ De Gorka?"

"Yes. That's right. I think it was around there."

At those words, Cheon-woo nodded as if fascinated, like novice employees who had just joined Saturn and heard about monitoring work for the first time.