Chapter 36: The Price of a Dream

“Black, thick eyebrows, a sharply defined nose, and deep-set eyes—he looked like a statue of David sculpted by the gods themselves. That perfect creation was looking at me, smiling as sweetly as melting cotton candy. The beautiful face of the boy once called an ‘angel’ overlapped faintly with the more defined lines of the man before me.

Na Eun-hyeok’s hand gently brushed the back of my head. I flinched like a mouse caught in a trap, yet I couldn’t bring myself to run.

“You’re pretty, our Eonha.”

“I…!”

My words failed me.

His face drew closer. His long eyelashes, his ink-black pupils, and the reflection of my own dazed face within them—everything became agonizingly close. The hand pressing against the back of my head tightened, and I watched, as if in slow motion, as Na Eun-hyeok’s eyelids slowly closed.

Something soft touched my lips.

That soft… Na Eun-hyeok’s…

…

SKIP! SKIP! SKIP!!!

“Hah, haah….”

I mashed the event skip button like a maniac. I would have felt less guilt committing sacrilege than I did at that moment.

My vision flickered, and I was slammed back into the hidden dungeon. Even the mysteriously glowing pearl failed to register in my mind. I was short of breath. My heart was racing faster than if I had just finished a hundred-meter dash. Even without a mirror, I knew my face was scorched a bright, deep red.

“Are you okay?”

Seong-jin’s voice came from behind. Only then did I realize the event was truly over. My legs gave out, and I sank to the floor.

Sephiroth tilted his head askew and asked, “What, did you kiss someone you like or something?”

“……!”

“I guess you did.”

“N-no, I didn’t!”

“Sure. Whatever you say.”

I snapped back at his sarcastic tone, but he clearly didn’t believe me. Damn it, why won’t he believe me? Then again, with my face glowing like a ripe tomato, I couldn’t exactly blame him. Stupid event. Who knew it would show something like that? As I clutched my head in despair, Gyu-tae—who had been quiet all day—patted my shoulder.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to count a kiss in a game event as your first kiss.”

“Please just go die.”

Net-kama, go to hell.

“A personal event through brainwave measurement is fresh. I’ve never seen this format before.”

“I know, right? I wonder if they plan to use this for future events.”

While Seong-jin and AngelA chatted, Han Gyu-tae began to snicker next to me. His female avatar, with its sharp eyes and sly expression, was leering at me in a way that made me want to look away.

“So, what was it really? A kiss? With a girl? That’s the only thing that would fluster our Eonha this much.”

“Shut up, you Net-kama.”

“Aing~ honey. It makes me sad when you talk like that.”

This bastard Gyu-tae—he’d been quiet earlier while walking on eggshells around AngelA, but now that AngelA’s attention was elsewhere, he was back to his old self. When he started patting my shoulders with both fists, my patience finally snapped.

“Um, Angel-nim.”

“Ah.”

As soon as I called out to AngelA, Gyu-tae went silent. He really was just asking for it.

AngelA pulled Gyu-tae into the conversation with Seong-jin. Well, since Gyu-tae had basically returned to his vow of silence, it was hard to call it “joining.” The female character who had just been acting smug was now standing with hands folded politely in front of her, head bowed. Serves him right. I glared at him one last time before looking away.

This is exhausting.

I hadn’t felt this tired when we were chaotically clearing the dungeon, but this cursed event felt like it had drained half the mental energy I was supposed to use for the rest of my life. My head was thumping, so I pressed my fingers against the bridge of my nose, only to see a shadow fall over me.

What now? I looked up.

The halo of light bleeding around the edges of the massive black armor made him look like a solar eclipse. Instead of the moon, it was Sephiroth staring down at me. I peered at his unreadable helmet before asking bluntly:

“……What are you doing?”

“Did you kiss?”

“Can I punch you?”

Why is he like this too?

What was so interesting about it that everyone was rushing in to ask such ridiculous questions? Setting aside the fact that the “ridiculous” question was actually the closest to the truth, a burning desire to crack the heads of everyone saying words like “kiss” or “peck” began to rise within me.

Still, looking at Sephiroth actually helped cool my racing emotions. Thinking back, it was laughable that I had mistaken Na Eun-hyeok’s voice in the illusion for Sephiroth’s.

Right. It was just an illusion. An illusion so crude that it confused a perfect being like Na Eun-hyeok with this arrogant jerk.

I felt the heat in my cheeks gradually receding. I turned my back on the shadow-casting helmet and began walking away. Sephiroth’s voice followed me.

“Where are you going?”

“We have to find a way out of here, don’t we? This event can’t be the end.”

“Ah. I have a hunch about that.”

“Where?”

His answer came through action. Sephiroth walked toward the pearl I had touched moments ago.

He observed it calmly. My eyes followed his movement as he traced the surface of the pearl. Above the white sphere, a rainbow aura shimmered like complex contour lines. After staring at it for a long time, Sephiroth finally raised his hand and placed it on the pearl. The blue and red mists of light gathered into a single point.

In that instant, my vision rippled again.

“Uh…?”

It felt as though the waves of light from the pearl were crashing over me. I blinked against the iridescent tide. Soon, the light faded, and a new space slowly filled my surroundings.

We were inside a massive pavilion once again. The wooden, Oriental-style structure wasn’t much different from the one where we fought the mobs earlier. However, the term “we” required a footnote: Seong-jin, Gyu-tae, and AngelA were gone. Only Sephiroth and I stood inside the pavilion.

A landscape painting flowed across a large folding screen. In front of it sat a Mermaid in a hanbok, resting on a silk cushion. Her lower body, ending in a massive tail, was mostly hidden by the wide skirt of the hanbok, but it couldn’t hide the scales peeking out from the side.

The Mermaid, adorned with an elaborate hairpiece, raised her head gracefully. Her red lips parted to reveal white teeth.

“Welcome. O Returner. We meet again.”

“……Who are you?”

“……I feel like I’ve seen her before?”

Sephiroth crossed his arms, seemingly deep in thought. Unlike his usual self, he didn’t remember immediately and seemed to be searching his memory quite hard.

We couldn’t keep the Mermaid waiting forever. The scales of her tail tapped rhythmically against the floor. Just as I was about to say something, tired of waiting for Sephiroth to finish his mental search, he spoke up abruptly.

“I remember now.”

“Who is it?”

“The Mermaid who was captured by Doltec.”

No sooner had Sephiroth finished speaking than the Mermaid’s voice rang out.

“Yes. That lawless man captured me and stole my family’s treasure.”

“Treasure?”

“The pearl that helped you arrive here.”

Ah, that massive pearl.

While Sephiroth and I exchanged glances, the Mermaid began a background explanation we hadn’t even asked for.

“Our family’s Great Pearl has the power to manifest a person’s desires. It was a force so powerful it could paralyze a soul, so we stored it in the treasury and sealed its power. That power has been passed down to the eldest daughter of our house for generations.”

“Is that you?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, good guess.”

Sephiroth clapped his hands from the side. He really was a master of being annoying. While I shot him a brief glare, the Mermaid’s melodious voice echoed through the pavilion. It was a clear voice, like jade beads rolling on a tray, but I could feel a cold fury beneath the surface.

“However, Doltec—that man—captured me and brought the Great Pearl here. My power was exploited, and my family’s treasure fell into his hands to be used.”

I see. A veteran player might have had a different reaction, but as someone who had never even seen Doltec’s face, I didn’t have much to say.

“How was it used?”

“…….”

The Mermaid fell silent. Then, with a long sigh, she confessed a painful truth.

“I am already among the dead. I remember the past, the present, and the future. You, who come from the future, should know. What kind of force was raised here.”

“……Did you say the Orcs, Slugs, and Lions gathered here?”

“Yeah. And I killed them all.”

His methods are certainly consistent. I gave the nonchalantly responding Sephiroth a look-over before turning back to the Mermaid.

“Are you talking about those three races organizing a rebel army here?”

“Yes.”

The Mermaid let out a long sigh. Her eyelashes trembled.

“He used the power of the treasure to show them the future they wanted to see. Those dwelling in the dream began to believe that the future they desired was the truth, and so they organized their forces, soaked in that dream.”

To summarize: the reason the Orcs, Slugs, and Scarlet-blossom Lions had plotted a new beginning here was that they were fed false hope through the power of the Mermaid’s pearl.