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Join the ServerMumbling slightly under my breath, I awkwardly shifted the subject.
“Let’s just kill Doltech first. There’s absolutely zero doubt that Doltech is a piece of trash, so I won’t feel a single shred of hesitation when we take him down.”
At my words, Sephiroth turned around to look at me.
“It’s not like you’ve ever hesitated when killing monsters before anyway.”
“Hmm.”
He wasn’t wrong. But that didn’t mean I wanted to be called out on it by him. Pouting, I aggressively shoved my fist into Sephiroth’s shoulder.
“I still hesitate a hell of a lot more than someone who literally committed genocide against three entire races.”
“I fundamentally don’t possess a hesitation mechanic.”
“Oh, what a proud achievement.”
“Isn’t it natural? No matter what the situation is, if your resolve is absolute, there’s zero reason to hesitate.”
That was also a valid point. Left entirely without a comeback, I remained quiet as Sephiroth lightly patted my shoulder.
“Why are you acting like this between two people who are practically identical?”
“Don’t act so close to me.”
“And here I thought we had gotten pretty close by now, Beulli-ya.”
“And stop calling me Beulli……”
“We’re here.”
Cutting off my complaints entirely, Sephiroth pointed toward a three-story stone building standing dead center in the middle of the central plaza. This was our second time visiting Doltech’s office. Walking up to the front desk, the receptionist—who clearly remembered our faces—didn’t offer a single word of suspicion and immediately sent us up to Doltech’s private office.
From that point onward, everything progressed smoothly.
The translucent slime violently thrashed and lunged around in a fit of pure rage upon realizing we had deceived him, but confronted by Sephiroth—who already possessed perfect knowledge of his entire attack pattern—the boss had no choice but to powerlessly drop to his knees. Just as Sephiroth had promised, slicing through the slime provided a deeply satisfying tactile sensation. The feedback of the elastic jelly lightly bouncing my weapon back felt incredibly good. Am I slowly turning into a psycho too? The bizarre thought suddenly crossed my mind as I excitedly plunged my blade repeatedly into the boss, even though my raw damage output wasn’t even registering properly.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think I’m turning into a total psycho?”
“Did you seriously only just realize that now, Beulli-ya?”
I’m an absolute idiot for even asking this guy.
I let out a heavy sigh, watching Sephiroth methodically butcher the already dead corpse of Doltech with his giant axe. Saying he was dismembering it made it sound utterly horrific, but the actual visual in front of me just looked like someone cutting a toy slime into a bunch of tiny pieces—creating a massive, hilariously jarring gap between my perception and the reality.
“I really don’t want to hear that kind of critique from you.”
“Then you shouldn’t have said anything to me in the first place.”
“…….”
That was undeniably true, leaving me with absolutely no room to argue.
Regardless, once Doltech was fully defeated, we successfully obtained the remaining shards of the hidden pearl he had concealed. The moment the fragments fused together, the system generated our next objective:
[ Hidden ] < Seal of the Four Temples >
Break the seals of the Four Temples to awaken the power of the Gods.
Unseal the Temple of Fire (0/1) [ Teleport ]
Unseal the Temple of Water (0/1) [ Teleport ]
Unseal the Temple of Wood (0/1) [ Teleport ]
Unseal the Temple of Lightning (0/1) [ Teleport ]
It was a straightforward quest line. We didn’t even have to suffer through the tedious process of searching for the temples ourselves; pressing the ‘Teleport’ button right next to each objective would automatically warp us directly to the front entrance. The only problem was……
“The recommended party size is a 6-player optimal raid.”
“We should probably call the guild members over, right?”
“Yeah, that would definitely be for the best.”
“You don’t know what kind of gimmicks are inside either?”
“Nope. From here on out, we’ll probably have to run it as a blind progression party.”
Meeting Sephiroth’s gaze, I gave a quiet nod. While the dungeons we had run together so far were simple enough to clear by dodging basic attacks and hitting back, something told me that these four sealing temples wouldn’t be solved by raw mechanics alone. It was around this level bracket that games usually started throwing twisted, mind-boggling gimmicks designed to thoroughly screw over players and scramble their brains. The only reason I wanted to match the 6-player recommendation for this unknown dungeon was out of pure survival instinct.
“Let’s start by dropping a message in the guild chat to recruit a party.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Or should we invite AngelA-nim first? She is a top-tier ranker, after all.”
“Eh, whoever comes, it’ll be about the same. As long as I have you, that’s all that matters, Beulli-ya.”
“You say that like it’s a literal romantic confession.”
“Did your heart skip a beat?”
“I need to just stop talking to you.”
I was slowly but surely becoming completely immune to his shamelessness. Letting out a hollow chuckle, I spun my gears trying to figure out which players would be the best fit for our raid composition.
Meanwhile, because I had simply turned my head away without giving him a loud reaction, it seemed the lunatic was left feeling slightly unsatisfied. Sneaking closer to my side while I was deep in thought, Sephiroth casually slid his arm around my waist, pressing his lips almost entirely against the shell of my ear before exhaling a soft breath.
“Beulli-ya.”
“H-Haah……!”
A wave of intense, ticklish static shot straight down my spine, causing me to sharply gasp as my teeth accidentally clipped my tongue. A thoroughly embarrassing, strangled sound leaked past my lips. A dense layer of goosebumps erupted across my skin, and it felt like every single tiny hair on my neck instantly stood on end. Wait, why the hell is the audio rendering for a soft breath this incredibly realistic?!
Confronted by my explosive reaction, Sephiroth fell entirely silent for a moment. The guy who I fully expected to immediately burst out laughing and tease me was suddenly standing perfectly still, completely frozen in place. Seizing the sudden lapse in his focus, I frantically tried to twist my body out of his grasp, but—
“Beulli-ya?”
“Ngh……”
Refusing to let the opening slip, Sephiroth exhaled another soft, deliberate breath directly against my ear. At the sound of his voice—which dropped into a register that was vastly lower and more dangerously sweet than before—Na Eun-hyeok’s face instantly flashed across my mind. Are you completely insane, Chae Un-ha? How could you possibly think of Na Eun-hyeok in a situation like this? Whether it was because of Na Eun-hyeok or because of the heavy, intoxicating warmth of Sephiroth’s breath ghosting against my ear, I could feel a roaring heat rapidly flooding my entire face.
“Beulli-ya. Your ears are completely bright red.”
“Hey, you…… get the hell off me…… ah.”
“Wow, our Beulli has incredibly sensitive ears, doesn’t he?”
Why isn’t this absolute psychopath letting go of me?!
I was losing my mind. Back when I used to skim through community articles discussing the rising issues regarding inappropriate physical boundaries in virtual reality games, I had simply brushed it off as nonsense. But experiencing this firsthand, I completely understood the gravity of the situation. My logical brain kept screaming that it was just a guy talking directly into my ear and that it shouldn’t be a big deal, but my intensely hyper-sensitized body completely betrayed me—draining all the strength from my limbs and radiating nothing but pure heat, refusing to function properly. Please, just get a grip!
“Hmm? Beulli-ya.”
No, seriously, this is getting dangerous.
A violent shiver traveled straight down my spine, making my head spin. Forcing whatever remaining strength I had into my trembling arms, I frantically shoved Sephiroth back and snapped in pure irritation.
“You absolute lunatic, stop it! It tickles!”
“Is it really just tickling though?”
“What does that have to do with you?!”
Faced with Sephiroth’s completely cool, unbothered tone, I screamed at the top of my lungs. If it really had been just a ticklish sensation, I might have been able to maintain a shred of composure, but because it was undeniably something far deeper than that, a calm response was physically impossible. Cold sweat began to trace down my back. This is seriously messed up. Swallowing back a wave of panic—completely unsure if the warning was meant for myself or for Sephiroth—I blurted out in a rush,
“I’m logging out for a second.”
“Huh?”
“I said I’m logging out! Go build a raid party by your damn self for all I care!”
“Beulli-ya, wait a sec—”
It felt like Sephiroth was reaching out to grab my arm, but I ruthlessly slammed the log-out button without a single shred of hesitation. Practically tumbling out of the capsule, I sprinted straight to the restroom. Slamming the door shut behind me, I let out a massive, ragged exhale.
“……F-f*ck.”
It felt like the phantom warmth of Sephiroth’s breath was still vividly lingering against my skin. I drew in deep, frantic breaths over and over again, but my violently pounding heart showed absolutely zero signs of slowing down.
It felt like I had just uncovered a hidden secret about my own physical anatomy that I absolutely never wanted to know. Did I really need to learn this kind of useless trivia about myself in this lifetime? The fact that I could be brought entirely to my knees just by having someone touch or breathe near my ears?
I was completely stripped of any desire to play the game further. Walking out of the restroom, I bypassed the capsule lounge entirely and headed straight for my apartment. My brain remained completely bleached and scrambled by the unprecedented sensation during the entire walk home. The second I stepped through the front door, I collapsed face-first onto my bed, burying my burning face deep into a pillow.
“I’m going crazy……”
Sephiroth had obviously done it as a joke, but now that the dust had settled, the mere thought of facing him again filled me with pure, paralyzing embarrassment. If I had to describe what just happened without any context, it would literally sound like: ‘I was locked inside Sephiroth’s embrace, completely unable to move while he breathed directly into my ear.’
“……I want to die.”
It was an unmitigated disaster. My mind kept buzzing in a frantic loop. As I squeezed my eyes shut trying to force the thoughts away, a heavy vibration suddenly echoed from my mattress. Bzzzz.
Na Eun-hyeok: [Un-ha-ya] Na Eun-hyeok: [What are you doing right now?]
Of all the people to text me in this exact moment, why does it have to be Na Eun-hyeok? A confusing cocktail of intense joy and sheer panic instantly flooded my chest. I almost tossed the phone face-down onto the sheets to ignore it, but I abruptly froze.
No, Chae Un-ha. Don’t you dare throw away an opportunity like this. It’s exactly because you throw away openings like this that you’re perpetually single!
A fierce, chaotic war broke out inside my head between the side shouting that this was a golden opportunity, the side screaming that the timing was utterly horrific, and the side drowning in confusion as to why Na Eun-hyeok was suddenly initiating contact. Ultimately, the faction advocating to seize the opportunity emerged victorious. Staring intensely at the glowing screen, I forced my trembling fingers to type out a reply.
[Just resting at home.] [What about you?]
Na Eun-hyeok: [I’m just resting at home too. Have you eaten dinner yet?]
Come to think of it, I hadn’t eaten a single thing. Recently, my dinners had consisted of a sketchy rotation of convenience store ramyun or gimbap scarfed down at the capsule lounge, but today I had fled the venue in a total panic before even thinking about food. And since arriving home, I had been too busy drowning in a pool of self-loathing to even consider opening the refrigerator.
[No, I haven’t.]
Na Eun-hyeok: [I haven’t eaten either. Want to grab dinner together?]
The adventure continues! If you loved this chapter, Villainess, You're Supposed to Be Evil, So Stop Oozing Hearts! is a must-read. Click here to start!
Read : Villainess, You're Supposed to Be Evil, So Stop Oozing Hearts!
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