“Hey, Limousine! Mousine! Jin Yimoo!”
She said not to use real names, and now she’s doing it herself. I should just go back to mining the red spider lily. While indifferently searching for the teleport point, a flurry of party invites from Americano suddenly hit like a storm.
< ‘Americano’-nim has requested to form a party with you. >
< ‘Americano’-nim has requested to form a party with you. >
< ‘Americano’-nim has requested to form a party with you. >
“What kind of bullshit is this now?”
“Please, I’m being party-invite spammed by World Map right now.”
‘You’re literally doing the same thing to me.’ Limousine’s expression said just that, but Americano didn’t flinch. With the face of a pitiful little bunny, she pleaded with him, calling it an act of mercy.
The idea was to exploit the system where being in a party automatically rejects any other party invites. Americano’s desperate appeal didn’t exactly move Limousine, but rejecting this would mean risking a grudge—and she was notorious for holding grudges. He shouldn’t have come when she called. Fuck. Cursing his own late regret, Limousine hit ‘Accept.’
< You have accepted the party invitation! >
The party UI popped up along with party icons above Limousine and Americano’s heads. At the same time, World Map’s invite must have been auto-declined, because Americano’s face brightened noticeably.
“Master! I will serve you forever!”
“Mokha, shut the fuck up. Don’t make this any more embarrassing.”
Limousine replied through gritted teeth with a forced smile, but Americano didn’t care. Practically kneeling on the ground, she showered him with praise. ‘You’re truly the best clan leader! Please treat me like your slave. I swear my loyalty.’ The string of cringeworthy RP lines, impossible to endure in a public field, left him momentarily dazed—so much so that he didn’t notice World Map walking up until his voice was close enough to hear.
World Map looked surprisingly normal. He was even slightly taller than Americano’s tall male character. His outfit was neat, and his tone seemed calm. Hearing it was an online fling, Limousine had expected some psycho simp. But…… well, it’s the cyber world. You can’t judge by first impressions. Honestly, aside from the niche weirdos, most game characters did look decent.
“Americano. Long time no see. Who’s this?”
With that, Limousine once again found himself dragged into Americano’s romantic drama. He sighed and turned to stare at the landscape, signaling: Handle it yourself.
Had he looked at Americano’s expression even once before turning away, Limousine would never have made that choice.
“Uh, uh… Master…”
The fuck?
Limousine whipped his head around so fast it nearly broke his neck. Americano looked like she had no clue what she’d just said, completely spaced out. Limousine alternated glaring between her trembling pupils and fidgeting fingers, then quickly opened his mouth to salvage the situation. World Map’s expression was already shifting to one of suspicion and disdain.
“Are you insane? I’m her clan leader. Childhood friend.”
“I thought Americano didn’t have balls.”
“Does that even matter?”
If this guy’s making offhand comments like that on first meeting, he’s not normal either. Just let me go home. Limousine, now exhausted, started spouting whatever came to mind.
“I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but if you’re gonna date, don’t cause a mess for everyone else.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
World Map replied politely. His expression didn’t match the tone, but since Limousine hadn’t been polite either, he didn’t call him out for giving the ‘you can leave now’ face.
[Party] Limousine: All this over a damn conversation, what the actual fuck
[Party] Limousine: I’m out, take care
[Party] Americano: W-Wait
[Party] Americano: Wait please, just save me a bit
[Party] Limousine: If you try to stop me again, I’ll be the one who kills you
[Party] Americano: Ah
[Party] Americano: Then please just keep the party ㅠ
[Party] Limousine: Why the party
[Party] Americano: I’m scared alone
[Party] Limousine: Ffs fine you brat
[Party] Americano: thx ㅠㅠ
Limousine immediately used teleport to return to the main quest area.
Gotta walk again, again. Fuck. Walking’s eating up all my time. He trudged along. Quite a bit of time had passed just from walking, and since there hadn’t been any messages in the party chat or the clan chat, it looked like Americano was having a peaceful conversation with World Map. Or peacefully engaged in a PK. Whatever it was, they’d handle it.
Forget them, I’m the one who should be worried. What if I don’t make any progress today? Am I gonna fall behind? Limousine gloomily switched to a different hoe, when suddenly, a pink light shimmered around him. He ignored it, assuming it was a temporary background effect, but a fine, deep pink thread hovered persistently around him and wouldn’t go away.
Annoyed by the visual clutter, he glanced around. What the hell is this? Did I end up in a different map? But no matter how hard he looked, it was still that same cursed map where he’d gotten stuck, unable to find any red spider lily, doomed to linger like a ghost.
Startled, Limousine hesitated—and the thread followed him. Upon closer look, it wasn’t just the thread. A round glowing effect floated near him as well. What the…… is this thing showing up on me? Some kind of hidden quest? But the color was way too suspicious. Having recently been forced into a soul bond, Limousine had grown hypersensitive to anything that remotely suggested romance, and now he paced anxiously, confused.
At that moment, the thread grew thicker, and a pink aura began to radiate from Limousine’s character. The floating round effect got bigger too, and it finally dawned on Limousine what exactly that circular glow was.
‘……The fuck—A heart?’
This is actually a soul bond effect? Why the hell is it suddenly showing up now out of nowhere? What the hell—gotta do something about it. Even knowing it wouldn’t help, he reflexively tried to swipe the glowing effect off his body, skin crawling. But then, out of nowhere, someone grabbed his shoulder.
“Fuck, I’m already pissed off—what the—!”
Without hesitation, Limousine pulled out his staff and swung. It was the most powerful move in the staff class’s arsenal that could be instantly triggered from standby—deadly enough to one-shot most people if they were caught off-guard.
But the opponent must’ve seen it coming, because the sound of a perfect damage-nullifying block rang out. The dull thud of a blocked attack only made Limousine more irritated. If it had landed and killed someone, at least that would’ve helped blow off some steam.
Limousine smoothly followed up with another skill and, out of habit, glanced over the combat log. Sure enough, a new message popped up, explaining that earlier nullification.
< You cannot attack your bonded partner. >
What?
Limousine froze, stunned. In that instant where his motion input faltered, Jaheun seized the moment, grabbing his other shoulder with a firm grip and growling low.
“Turn off the effect in your soul bond settings. Now, you idiot.”
💔
– □ Display special effect when near bonded partner
“……”
Limousine glared endlessly at the line ‘Display special effect when near bonded partner,’ clearly visible in the soul bond menu window he hadn’t opened once since first checking it. Given that other players couldn’t see someone else’s UI windows in the game system, he must’ve looked a bit eerie, staring so intensely at thin air—but Jaheun remained silent. He seemed to be thinking about something, but Limousine couldn’t care less.
What the fuck…… Is the dev team trying to mess with me? Are they subtly telling me to quit the game? Is that it? That can’t happen. I contributed to building at least one of the maps in this damn game!
Clutching his face in despair, Limousine felt Jaheun glance sideways at him. That bastard turned it off ages ago—why the hell didn’t he tell me sooner? As long as he’s fine, nothing else matters, huh? Limousine’s thoughts began to spiral, and just as he was about to glare up at Jaheun—
“You’re looking for red spider lily for the main quest, right?”
His voice was drenched in fatigue. Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Limousine faltered slightly, his glare losing strength. He responded reluctantly, ‘Yeah, and?’ Jaheun let out a sigh.
“Same quest. Let’s do it together.”
“……What?”
Even with the same quest, things like handing it in to the NPC had to be done individually. Even if it was a main quest, no one could tell when the story branches would split, and once they did, you could pretty much consider them different quests. Because of that, unless you were close friends, no one really waited around to do someone else’s quest together. Limousine, being all about efficiency, had obviously never done that even once. And this wasn’t even some ‘kill 300 monsters’ type quest—it was about finding a single red spider lily. What help could that possibly be……?
He stared suspiciously, and Jaheun, wearing the most world-weary expression ever, explained.
“I spent the entire past week combing through this whole map while you were offline.”
And you still logged in the next day? Prioritizing mental breakdown over shame? Goddamn, you’re a real addict. Limousine internally admired him despite being in the exact same situation for the sake of the main story. Jaheun continued.
“There’s no way it’s going to appear normally. I’ve checked every time of day, every spot on the map.”
It was borderline madness.
“The red spider lily only ever showed up on corpses. No way it’s gonna just bloom by the side of the road. I think there’s a special condition.”
“Do you know the condition?”
“If you ask me……”
Jaheun’s eyes gleamed strangely. Given that only his eyes were visible through the mask, the effect was even more intense.
“You’re the one who might be able to figure it out.”