Chapter 9: A Leveling Machine and a Lopsided Marriage

[That account is already logged in.]

“Ban-ye must be playing…”

Since that day, Ban-ye consistently logged into my account. And my account was growing at a terrifying rate.

Every time I logged in, I was surprised by the changes, to the point where I wondered, ‘Is this really… me?’ Just a few weeks ago, I was paying for carries in dungeons I could now clear with a two-person party.

However, since Ban-ye was using my account as if it were their own, I had to log in with Ban-ye’s alt account again.

I logged in with the now-familiar Ban-yeStorage account.

[Guild][Ban-yeStorage] Hello

[Guild][Ah-ang] Hey

Ban-ye responded immediately to my greeting.

I wanted to chat, but Ban-ye bombarded me with questions first.

[Guild][Ah-ang] Why haven’t you done any of the main story quests?

[Guild][Ah-ang] And the collection log is empty.

[Guild][Ban-yeStorage] Heh

I had nothing to say to Ban-ye’s accusations.

Since I wasn’t the type to seriously try and make my account as strong as possible like Ban-ye… it was only natural that I hadn’t progressed in any of the challenging content.

“How can anyone do those tedious things…”

I grumbled but asked politely,

[Guild][Ban-yeStorage] Did you complete the collection log and everything?

[Guild][Ah-ang] Of course.

[Guild][Ban-yeStorage] Whoa…

[Guild][HeyYam] You have to do it if you want to be strong. ㅇㅅㅇ

[Guild][Male3] Almost everyone in our guild has done it lol

[Guild][Male3] I can’t believe there’s someone who hasn’t done any of it…

That meant Ban-ye was doing the same thing twice. Seeing how diligent they were, I understood why they didn’t want to level up an account that wasn’t already max level.

But…

[Guild][Ban-yeStorage] It’s not like I haven’t done any main story quests.

[Guild][Ban-yeStorage] I’ve completed a few entries in the collection log…

I hadn’t done nothing! I tried to defend myself, albeit weakly.

Of course, it fell on deaf ears.

[Guild][HugMeRaiseMe] Then you probably haven’t done any achievements either.

[Guild][Ban-yeStorage] Achievements?

[Guild][ImSoCute] Question mark lol

[Guild][Ban-yeStorage] ㅠㅠ;; I was a crafting character!

[Guild][HugMeRaiseMe] Whatever you say, pilot.

[Guild][Ah-ang] ㅡㅡ

Ban-ye, perhaps annoyed by me and the teasing guild members, quietly focused on grinding without saying another word.

I could watch Ban-ye grinding through the Discord screen share.

Grinding meant diligently completing tedious and time-consuming quests. For example, after [Hunt 100 Northern Rabbits], there would be another quest like [Bring 100 Northern Rabbit Pelts]. It was mind-numbingly boring.

Watching them complete those quests endlessly made me yawn.

I yawned loudly in the voice chat.

“Haaam…”

Ban-ye immediately chimed in.

“If you’re sleepy, go to bed.”

Rubbing my eyes, I said,

[Ban-yeStorage] I’m going to play when you’re done, Ban-ye.

[Ah-ang] Not logging out.

[Ban-yeStorage] Aww ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Despite saying that, I ended up falling asleep before an hour had passed. Even for Ban-ye, grinding was just too boring.

As I dozed off at my desk, I thought I heard someone trying to wake me up, but I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes.

“…Huh?”

I woke up in the middle of the night with a stiff body. I saw that Ban-ye had tried to talk to me in the voice chat before logging out.

It seemed they were the one who tried to wake me up.

[Hwang Hyun-joong] Are you asleep?

[Hwang Hyun-joong] Are you seriously sleeping?

[Hwang Hyun-joong] Lol I can hear you snoring.

Reading the chat, I hurriedly wiped my drool and muttered,

“When did I snore?!”

[Hwang Hyun-joong] They’re not waking up.

[Hwang Hyun-joong] Hey, wake up and go sleep in your bed.

[HugMeRaiseMe] LOL They’re really snoring.

[HugMeRaiseMe] I can hear it if I listen closely lol

[Hwang Hyun-joong] Unbelievable.

[ImSoCute] LOL

[HeyYam] Sleep ASMR.

Other guild members had apparently joined the voice channel and heard me sleeping.

Embarrassed to be alone in the voice channel, I quickly left. I sent Ban-ye a private message.

[Ah-ang] Why didn’t you wake me up? ㅠ

[Ah-ang] You could have yelled or something.

I sent my message of complaint, not expecting a reply at this hour, but surprisingly, Ban-ye, who seemed to be awake, replied immediately.

[Hwang Hyun-joong] You’re awake now?

[Ah-ang] Yeah.

[Hwang Hyun-joong] I called you, but your snoring drowned me out.

[Ah-ang] ㅡㅡ

[Hwang Hyun-joong] LOL

Ban-ye, rarely laughing, seemed to find my snoring hilarious, then suddenly gave me homework.

[Hwang Hyun-joong] Complete the main story quests while I sleep.

I was wide awake at the thought of having to do those boring, tedious quests.

[Ah-ang] What? Why?

[Hwang Hyun-joong] So you can get stronger.

[Ah-ang] I’m already strong haha

I tried to get out of it… but

[Hwang Hyun-joong] Just do it haha

[Hwang Hyun-joong] I’ll give you a reward if you do well.

[Ah-ang] What?

[Ah-ang] What kind of reward?

[Hwang Hyun-joong] Secret

Leaving me with those infuriating words, they disappeared.

[Ah-ang] Ban-ye?!? What is it?

[Ah-ang] Please tell me…!

[Ah-ang] Argh!

In the end, I had no choice but to diligently complete the quests Ban-ye assigned… all night long.

[Friend][Ban-yeStorage] Ban-ye, I finished all the main story quests up to Chapter 3!

[Friend][Ah-ang] Oh

With eyes red from lack of sleep, I diligently showed Ban-ye my hard work.

[Friend][Ban-yeStorage] What reward are you giving me?

And I asked with great anticipation…

[Friend][Ah-ang] Oh

[Friend][Ah-ang] Okay

[Friend][Ah-ang] What do you want?

Ban-ye seemed to have said it without much thought, as they asked what I wanted.

I felt a little deflated, but I couldn’t miss this opportunity. So, I thought hard.

“If I ask for gold, they’ll flip out. Ban-ye is crazy about money… I don’t really want gold anyway… Ha, what I want is Ban-ye’s fingers… No, I just want Ban-ye… I want to swallow them whole like Kirby…”

Muttering to myself, I remembered the time I asked Ban-ye to marry our characters in-game and got rejected.

Thinking this was it, I said to Ban-ye,

[Friend][Ban-yeStorage] Ban-ye, marry me! In-game marriage!

[Friend][Ah-ang] Ugh

Ban-ye was silent for a long time. Their displeasure was evident.

But I relentlessly pestered them.

[Friend][Ban-yeStorage] Please! It’s my wish.

[Friend][Ban-yeStorage] It’ll be nice to get buffs when you log in.

[Friend][Ban-yeStorage] I can maintain the party buff too!

After my continuous persuasion, Ban-ye seemed to have half-heartedly given in.

[Friend][Ah-ang] Ah-ang is a male character. Ban-yeStorage is also male.

That was their flimsy excuse.

I said cheerfully,

[Friend][Ban-yeStorage] I’ll make Ah-ang female. Lol

[Friend][Ah-ang] Heh

[Friend][Ban-yeStorage] I’ll charge your account. Buy a Gender Change ticket!

And so, I changed Ah-ang to a female character.

The female Lilith was prettier anyway, and for the sake of marrying Ban-ye, what did my character’s gender matter?

Overjoyed, I bragged to the entire guild.

[Guild][Ban-yeStorage] Everyone, haha. I’m getting married.

[Guild][ImSoCute] Whoa, to Ban-ye?

[Guild][Ban-yeStorage] lol no

[Guild][HeyYam] LOL Congrats!

[Guild][Youngmyeong] Hee… Marrying your favorite, huh?

[Guild][HugMeRaiseMe] LOL

Excited and bouncing around, I was in stark contrast to Ban-ye, who was ignoring the teasing guild members. But they still showed up at the wedding venue wearing a veil and a white dress. I was, of course, already waiting.

In Chaos Online, when you got married, you couldn’t see each other’s messages, but you could write a wedding message that the entire server could see. Overwhelmed with emotion, I filled the message box with my feelings for Ban-ye.

[To Ban-ye! I’m finally marrying you ㅠㅠ I’m so happy. Ban-ye is the best ♡ Ban-ye is awesome! I’m so happy today, and I’ll make you happy from now on too ㅠㅠ]

I wondered what Ban-ye wrote.

[Guild][ImSoCute] LOL

[Guild][HeyYam] LOL

[Guild][Neda] What’s with the temperature difference? ㅠㅠ lol

[Guild][Male3] Poor puppy…

[Guild][HugMeRaiseMe] LOL

Just as I was wondering why they were laughing so hard, a screenshot of our wedding messages was uploaded to the guild’s Discord channel.

[Ban-yeStorage’s Wedding Message: To Ban-ye! I’m finally marrying you ㅠㅠ I’m so happy. Ban-ye is the best ♡ Ban-ye is awesome! I’m so happy today, and I’ll make you happy from now on too ㅠㅠ]

[Ah-ang’s Wedding Message: Looking for two DPS for May/June dungeon runs.]

“That’s too much!”

Blushing with embarrassment, I shouted.