“Look at this! His front paws are so soft! Oh my God, his paw pads are pink!”
Jeong Iseul had spent the entire walk carrying Alt and squealing over him. At last, she pressed her face to his round white belly and blew a raspberry.
Startled, Alt widened his eyes and swung his chubby forepaws at her.
The tiny paws desperately thumped through the air, but Iseul looked far too delighted for the attack to seem threatening. It came across more like an adorable trick.
“Kyow!”
“Even your slaps are brave and adorable!”
“Gyaow! Gya-gyaah!”
“You throw a mean punch too! You’re going to be a great warrior!”
Iseul’s excited voice bounced through the ruined alley.
Judging by the surroundings, this was the kind of street where a monster could leap out at any moment. Yet the space around her somehow felt more like a pet café.
<Alt Lv.1>
Perhaps because he was only Level 1, his punches were remarkably feeble despite his being a dragon.
Then again, that was also proof of how high Iseul’s basic stats were.
“I-Iseul! He’s eating your head!”
“Ahaha! Let him! Children need to eat their fill!”
“Why are you only self-sacrificing at times like this?!”
I let out a small sigh as I watched Alt open his mouth wide and gnaw furiously on Iseul’s head.
Even while attacking her, Alt kept looking over at me.
More precisely, it seemed as though he was punishing Iseul while checking to make sure I was watching.
His eyes sparkled like those of a dog waiting to be praised.
Alt really did seem to regard an NPC like me as his owner.
He made no attempt to hide his hostility toward Iseul or the other members, yet he was constantly fawning over me with the eyes of an adorable puppy.
Since I had never intended to take Alt as my pet, the situation was awkward in more ways than one.
It was not that I disliked him.
Honestly, he was cute.
He was snow-white, round, needlessly proud, and acted as though he had no idea how small he was.
The problem was that cuteness and manageability were entirely separate matters.
Seo Wonil approached from the rear, where he had been keeping watch over our surroundings.
He had been tense the entire time, worried that the monsters observing us from a distance might suddenly charge. Kim Seokju, walking at the front, was doing the same.
Wonil stopped beside me and glanced over.
“Why the long face?”
I looked up at him and sighed again.
“I suppose I’m a little surprised by the unexpected extra mouth.”
“Unexpected? You bought him yourself with coins. What are you talking about?”
I could not explain the whole situation to the puzzled Wonil.
‘I never meant to make him my pet.’
I had planned to find a good Player and arrange for someone else to adopt him.
Alt’s sudden hatching had left my thoughts in disarray.
Because—
‘A pet’s primary food source is the Mana possessed by Players. I’m an NPC. I don’t have any Mana.’
Pets could eat ordinary human food, but that was little more than dessert.
Their main source of nourishment was the Mana supplied by their Player owner.
How was I supposed to feed Alt when I did not even possess a Mana stat?
This was not merely an issue of expensive food or troublesome childcare.
I did not even know whether the System would allow me to fulfill the role of Alt’s owner properly.
A Player could simply channel Mana into him, but I was an NPC.
My status window did not contain a Mana stat at all, and there was no way to force power out of a value that did not exist.
I could ask someone else to provide Mana, but Alt did not seem willing to follow anyone except me. I did not even know whether a pet could be fed by a Player who was not its owner.
‘He isn’t going to die after only a few days, is he?’
I had never heard of a pet choosing an NPC as its owner.
I had no idea what I was supposed to do next.
Wonil appeared to misunderstand the reason for my concern.
“You should stay close to us at all times.”
“What?”
I pulled myself from my thoughts and looked at him.
He nodded toward Alt, who was smacking Iseul’s head with the pads of his feet.
“I had my suspicions when you casually emptied your supplies to cook fermented-cabbage stew. But seeing you recklessly buy a pet that expensive really drives it home.”
He looked at me.
“You’re loaded.”
Apparently, he thought I had so many coins that I had bought a pet on a whim.
Wonil’s gaze shifted toward the monsters watching us from afar.
The moment they met his eyes, every one of them growled and radiated murderous intent. Yet perhaps because I was nearby, none dared approach recklessly.
Did they think Wonil was holding me hostage?
“The monsters avoid you on their own, but Players are different. Once people learn that you’re rich in coins but low-Level, there’ll be plenty of bastards looking for a way to rob you blind.”
He was right.
In a world where Level created an enormous gulf between people, low-Level Players had to be wary not only of monsters, but of humans as well.
“That’s why I decided to join Seokju’s team.”
I looked toward Kim Seokju at the head of the group and smiled faintly.
“We’re perfectly suited to use each other.”
I had gotten a decent grasp of Kim Seokju’s personality the moment I met him.
A kind leader.
A man with enough compassion to treat even useless members like family, and enough resolve to sacrifice himself when circumstances demanded it.
Someone like that would not easily abandon a person once he had accepted them into his circle.
Even if that person had originally been brought in as bait to secure entry into Eclipse.
I would use Kim Seokju and his companions as a shield against other Players.
They would use me to join Eclipse.
That was what mutual benefit looked like.
As though he had read my thoughts, Wonil frowned and spoke seriously.
“It’s true that we agreed to team up because of your skill. But even if joining Eclipse falls through, we’re not planning to tell you to go your own way.”
He held my gaze.
“We’ll still consider you one of us and ask you to stay.”
“Because of my skill?”
“Your skill has nothing to do with it. Once we accept someone as a member, we never turn our backs on them.”
He paused.
“…Although I suppose our former members didn’t feel the same way.”
The bitterness in those final words was unmistakable.
Wonil had watched every conversation that took place before the others abandoned the hideout. He had seen exactly how they left.
It was only natural that he would feel conflicted.
Starting with Seo Wonil, I looked over Woo Jaekyung and Jeong Iseul, then finally at Kim Seokju farther ahead.
I studied each of them in turn.
“Now I understand why all of you let those people treat you like suckers.”
All four of them shared the same attitude.
That was probably why they had been exploited for so long, only to be discarded in the end.
‘Still, I like it.’
At least these people did not seem likely to betray anyone.
I gave Wonil an exaggerated shrug.
“Don’t worry. I’m not planning to flaunt my coins in front of other Players.”
“That creature alone already counts as flaunting them.”
“He was… beyond my control.”
What was I supposed to do?
He had already hatched.
Just looking at him made me sigh, yet Alt remained oblivious to my concerns as he flew eagerly toward me.
The snow-white dragon was now about the size of a medium dog. Watching him flap his palm-sized wings and fly toward me in a Superman pose was, even to me, undeniably cute.
“Gyaow! Gya-gyak!”
Alt fluttered over and landed on top of my head.
Or rather, he clasped his forepaws together, pressed his face against me, and dangled from my head.
His weight pulled backward so suddenly that my neck nearly snapped.
“Gyahuhu! Gyarr!”
Alt rubbed his face vigorously against the crown of my head.
My head flopped helplessly from side to side with every movement.
This was not going to work.
I pulled a weight-reduction potion from my spatial-storage bag and splashed it over Alt’s head.
The potion evaporated the instant it made contact, so none of the liquid ran down onto me.
“Prrr! Pukya!”
Alt shook himself vigorously after being doused.
His movements became lighter almost instantly.
He now weighed about as much as the steel helmet I had worn in the military, which was manageable enough.
Wonil watched me with a strangely twisted expression.
“…That is what most people would call flaunting your wealth.”
“It’s better than breaking my neck.”
Weight-reduction potions were expensive, but protecting my neck left me no choice.
“Besides, I’m done flaunting anything now.”
I looked ahead.
“It seems we’ve arrived.”
Kim Seokju turned toward us and pointed.
A relatively clean villa stood where he indicated. Even at a glance, it looked large enough to house a considerable number of people.
It was Eclipse’s hideout.