Chapter 15 : Proposal(1)

A few days after waking up from a long sleep, I was able to hear the doctor’s opinion that ‘there is nothing wrong with my body’.

As soon as I heard the news, I started the discharge procedure with Yejin’s help.

“Oppa, the hospital director is calling for you.”

After packing all my luggage and tidying up the bed, Yejin suddenly came and said.

“Huh? Why?”

“How would I know? Go and see. I’ll clean up the room.”

With her hand forcefully taking the blanket I was holding and pushing my back, I frowned and grumbled.

“Hey hey, I get it, don’t push me.”

After taking her hand off my body, I lightly tapped Yejin’s shoulder and opened my mouth.

“By the way, you’ve been speaking informally lately?”

“It’s about time, isn’t it? How long have we known each other?”

“I guess so.”

It’s been almost several years since we’ve known each other in the game.

It was surprising that we had been using honorifics until now.

“Okay, just hurry up and come back. We’re supposed to have a celebratory dinner for Yerim and Oppa’s discharge. There’s not much time left for the reservation.”

“What time is it now?”

I looked at the part of the wallpaper where the clock used to hang.

Instead of a normal clock, there was a strange hole in its place.

It was a trace left by Yejin and Yerim practicing their skills over the past few days.

-Wow! I succeeded for the first time! Oppa! Did you see? I made that hole! – Ugh!

I still remember the scene of Yerim, the culprit who punched the hole with a fist enhanced with the fighter’s attack skill [Fist Strike], hitting Yerim’s head.

Thanks to that incident, the clock in the room was completely broken, and we felt guilty about asking to change rooms again, so we decided to stay in this hospital room without saying anything.

Thanks to that, every time I wanted to check the time, I had to turn on my phone or ask Yerim or Yejin to check it for me.

“What time is it now? Just a moment…”

Yejin, who was holding the blanket in her arms, checked her phone and answered my question.

“6:10. By the way, the restaurant reservation is at 7:00. If you don’t come quickly, we’ll leave first, so do whatever you want.”

“Okay, you guys go ahead and order some food. I can just use some movement skills to get there.”

“…I’m so jealous. Other people have to use skills and run, but wizards can just use a few movement skills to get there…”

“If you were so jealous, you should have chosen a magician instead of a melee class. How dare you walkers try to match up with the noble mages.”

I teased Yejin by poking her chubby cheeks, and her face quickly turned red.

I remembered Yerim’s face crying after being hit by Yejin’s fist, so I decided to stop teasing her and run away.

“Then, see you later! Go ahead!”

Teleport, a skill that instantly teleports you to a pre-designated location within a 300km radius.

I had been using this magic usefully by installing it in various places in the hospital.

For example, if I designate spots in places like the doctor’s office or the bathroom where I have to get up and walk, I can teleport to the desired location with just one use of the teleport skill without having to move my legs!

“As expected, magic is great! Mages are the best!”

Just as I was muttering to fill the self-esteem that had been reduced by the various humiliations, I suddenly heard someone’s voice from behind.

“Winter Yang?”

“Hot! It’s nothing!”

I had forgotten that the place I had designated as the teleport location was inside the director’s office.

I had said such things in front of someone I had never met before, and I couldn’t bear to raise my face in embarrassment.

“I’m sorry. You were surprised because I suddenly appeared, right?”

“No, well… Winter Yang’s elusiveness is already famous in the hospital. I heard that you’ve been seen teleporting around in an instant? Among the nurses and patients, you’re already considered the mascot of our hospital…”

“…A mascot?”

No wonder, the young child patients have been following me so well lately, so that’s what was going on!

I frowned, remembering everyone’s happy expressions when they saw me playing with the children.

I’m not a hospital mascot.

I just played with the kids with magic because they were cute, not because I wanted to be treated like a mascot.

As I grumbled inwardly and wandered around the office, the director pointed to a table in the corner of the office and said.

“Please sit down. I’ve prepared tea.”

“Ah, thank you.”

I sat on a comfortable one-person sofa following his guidance.

As expected, the chair in the large hospital office was of good quality.

I could clearly feel that the sofa’s seat that wrapped around my whole body was luxurious.

“The tea smells nice. It’s a scent I’ve smelled somewhere before.”

“I’m glad I took the time to choose it carefully. I’m glad you like it.”

In fact, the only tea scents I know are green tea or coffee, but I felt a little guilty for saying that out of politeness when he was so happy about it.

The corner of the office was full of tea sets and tea leaves, so I said that…

‘He’s not going to ask me to have tea with him later, is he?’

I hate tea.

Especially the ones that are bitter or astringent.

This tea also seemed to be one of those types that tasted like that when I took a sip.

As I put down the teacup, holding back the expression of disgust, the director made eye contact with me and began to talk about the main topic.

“Well, that’s enough small talk. Winter Yang, no, Winter-ssi. Do you know why I called you here?”

I couldn’t hide my embarrassment at the change in address from Winter Yang to Winter-ssi.

I don’t know how he knows that my gender has changed, but I should raise my guard a little.

“No. I have no idea why the director called me here. At best, a proposal to stay and protect the hospital instead of being discharged?”

However, even if we leave, there are still some users and their parties who are hospitalized in this hospital.

Unless someone is crazy, there will be no one who will choose this hospital as a target.

Above all, there have been news reports that security is recovering, except for the seriously affected areas in the provinces.

That’s why we made a dinner appointment with peace of mind.

As I expected, the director’s business didn’t seem to be a proposal for us to stay and protect this place.

“Of course, I would be grateful if you would do that, but we are going to make a slightly different proposal. Come in.”

At the director’s signal, people in suits poured in through the door behind me.

There were about ten of them, and they all had pistols and batons on their waists.

It seemed like they wanted me to be intimidated by their armed state and solemn atmosphere, but unfortunately, I already knew that they were waiting outside the door.

I didn’t even include them in the list of targets because I realized they weren’t users.

‘Of course, it’s surprising that they even brought guns… but I heard that pistol bullets are blocked by [Mana Shield].’

Most of the extreme user communities were closed or filled with useless hateful posts, but if you keep looking around, you can often get good information related to users’ skills.

For example, the strength of some defensive skills or the range of range-attack skills.

According to extreme community users who claimed to have fought with the military, a magician above lv100 can block pistol bullets with [Mana Shield], and other skills must be accompanied to block rifle bullets.

In fact, even in the game, [Mana Shield], which changes in durability depending on the total amount of mana, was one of the most cost-effective skills that could block almost all basic normal attacks and attack skills without almost any consumption value.

Of course, there were also skills that could destroy or ignore the shield as an alternative to this Mana Shield, but the cost-effectiveness of Mana Shield was still absurd.

I remembered the days when assassin characters swept the pvp rankings in the past.

In those days, I used to keep it activated at all times to prevent being one-shot by assassins.

The situation was the same as then.

The only difference was that what I had to block was not an assassin’s blade, but a bullet.

The information that ‘Mana Shield can block pistol bullets’ was from the community, so it was information that I couldn’t completely trust, but considering that Yerim’s [Sword Energy], which easily penetrated the concrete wall, was also blocked by my [Mana Shield]…

‘A stab with [Sword Energy] should have better penetration than a pistol bullet, so I should be able to block pistol bullets with [Mana Shield] enough.’

At least, a pistol bullet wouldn’t be able to make a hole in a concrete wall with a depth of more than 20cm like Sword Energy could.

Unless they have an RPG inside that bag they brought, there was no way for them to harm me, who always has [Mana Shield] activated except when sleeping.

Therefore, I was able to maintain a relaxed expression without being intimidated at all.

The sight of not being shaken at all even when surrounded by many people, isn’t it cool?

It was a feeling that the self-esteem that had disappeared was being filled again by the image of the male protagonist in a movie that men would have dreamed of at least once.

One of the men in suits, who had been watching my relaxed expression for a while, approached me.

I didn’t show any action and looked at him.

Then, the man took off the sunglasses he was wearing and opened his mouth with a very polite expression.

“Please listen without being surprised. According to our claims, you are the elementalist [HoldingA…] who is 3rd in the server pvp ranking.”

“Wait, stop! No, shut up! Don’t say my nickname out loud in the real world!”

I jumped up from my seat and blocked the man’s mouth with both hands.

I was so surprised by the action that came out without my knowing that I was surprised myself.

The surrounding men, startled by my sudden outburst, took out their pistols.

It seemed that things had gone terribly wrong.