Ch.357352 – Favorite Character

If I follow the road straight from my house along Samsung-ro, I’ll reach Cheongdam-dong.

The coordinates Lee Bo-reum gave us led to an apartment near the Han River.

“How does it take 30 minutes to travel just 6km? Ugh!”

Adella stretched her flexible body with a big yawn.

“I think the main entrance is over there. Let’s go around.”

“I was wondering why she lives in such an old neighborhood, but there’s actually a nice apartment hidden here. Wait, doesn’t the manager’s sister attend Cephiron Academy? Does she commute from here?”

“No, she said everyone lives separately during school breaks. The sister in Daechi-dong, the older sister in Cheongdam-dong, and the father in Seongbuk-dong.”

“Wow… that’s a dysfunctional family in a different way.”

It really is a dysfunctional family.

But with gold dust sprinkled on top.

“Even though the buildings here look a bit old, this is still a wealthy neighborhood. That house over there probably costs over 5 billion won.”

“5 billion? No way, that’s impossible.”

Adella didn’t believe what I said.

She finally looked it up online herself and her eyes widened.

“Wait, the manager’s place is 400 million won per pyeong? Hold on, 1 pyeong is 3.3 square meters…”

She drew a circle around herself to estimate the size.

“So humans willingly pay 400 million won for just this much land? They’re completely insane. The world has gone mad.”

Adella jumped up and down on a circle with a radius of about one meter.

I made a frame with my fingers, capturing her image in my mind.

“I know, right? This much land costs 400 million won, yet somehow I poured 200 billion won into this 165cm, 50kg protein mass.”

“Huh? What’s 200 billion… Oh, sis!”

“Della, don’t you think it’s a bit contradictory for you to be talking about cost-effectiveness?”

“Hmph, not my fault magic is ridiculously expensive.”

“Anyway, be nice to our manager Bo-reum. People who lend money without asking questions are extremely rare.”

I wonder what Bo-reum thinks about my promise to show her Adella in real life.

She might have assumed I meant a hologram, or at best, a bio-robot.

By the way, even Professor Cheon said he suspected I was pulling a prank for a whole week.

“Ugh, why am I nervous? But is it really okay to reveal her identity so easily?”

“In my experience, keeping secrets too tightly isn’t good either. You need at least one person who knows the truth.”

Three people insisting can create a cat.

Not three people make a tiger, but three people make a cat.

We passed through the main entrance, took the elevator, and got off at the 10th floor.

Before we could even ring the bell, the intercom activated.

[NoName, you’re here! But who’s that with you…?]

It was clearly Bo-reum’s voice.

I nudged Adella in the side, and she cleared her throat before speaking.

“Ahem. Hello, Manager. I’m Dawn’s Cat Adella, a virtual streamer on Twissy. It’s nice to meet you!”

After a brief pause, Bo-reum’s cheerful voice came through.

[Wow, even the voice sounds identical! It’s almost exactly like Adella! Wait a moment, I’ll come down and open the door for you!]

With that, the intercom cut off.

Adella pointed at herself with a confused look.

“But I am Adella?”

“I don’t know, we’ll figure something out. Maybe change your hair back to its original color.”

“Ah, but how did I arrange the rune words for the hair dye spell?”

“Kneel down, I’ll do it for you.”

[Cast: Coloration]

Adella’s brown-dyed hair returned to its original silver.

The door opened carefully, and a woman with pink hair rollers in her bangs greeted us.

Since she was at home, Bo-reum was wearing a loose white t-shirt with stretched-out neck and black dolphin pants.

Personally, I preferred this simple look to her usual heavily made-up appearance.

“Welcome to my house!”

“Hi, Bo-reum. You seem to be in a good mood today.”

“Yes, yes! Hikikomori are strongest on their home turf! Name, who did you bring? I was really surprised because they look 99% identical!”

“Let me introduce you. Bo-reum, this is Adella with not 99% but 100% Adella content – the real Adella.”

Adella, who had been crouching behind the front door, peeked out her head.

“Are you the… manager?”

“Wow, how can you look so similar… Oh, I’m sorry! I’m Lee Bo-reum! I started as a manager last year and became the general manager this year. May I ask your name?”

“It’s Adella…”

“Excuse me, what did you say?”

“Adella, or you can call me Cheon Saet-byeol.”

“Ah, Cheon Saet-byeol! What a beautiful name! Please come in, and Name, welcome to my home too!”

Bo-reum hummed a tune as she went inside first.

Adella and I looked at each other.

“She definitely doesn’t believe us.”

“I know, do we not look similar enough?”

From what I can see, there’s hardly any difference in appearance between the game and reality.

* * *

Bo-reum rushed to the second-floor master bedroom and started searching for something she had stashed away in a corner.

“Damn, I must have thrown it all away during cleaning! Why am I suddenly having hallucinations now!”

Bo-reum stomped her feet while rummaging through drawers.

The woman Name brought with him had a face that perfectly overlapped with Adella’s.

When she checked through the intercom, the woman’s hair was dark, but when she opened the door, it had instantly become silver.

Bo-reum was terrified that her childhood schizophrenia might be recurring.

Visual hallucinations are among the most severe symptoms of schizophrenia.

‘It can’t be a relapse. I took medication for years even after being cured.’

She seemed to be experiencing auditory hallucinations as well.

The woman clearly said her name was Cheon Saet-byeol, but someone kept whispering “Adella” through her lips.

“Okay, stay calm, Bo-reum. You’re just too nervous. Sometimes these things happen when you’re tense.”

Bo-reum clenched her fists and returned to the living room.

‘Please be brown, brown, brown!’

But Adella’s hair was still silver.

And she was even rudely rummaging through someone else’s refrigerator!

Unless she was the Adella from the game, no one from the “land of courtesy” would behave like this.

“Could even this moment be an illusion?”

Name tilted his head, confused by Bo-reum’s self-questioning.

“What’s wrong?”

“Name, who did you come with?”

“What do you mean? I came with Adella.”

“Is the person next to you really Adella? Let me pronounce it clearly. A-del-la. Is this really Adella?”

“Yes, she’s Adella.”

“You’re not fake too, are you, Name?”

“…? Is there a problem?”

“It’s strange! How can a person have silver hair!”

Bo-reum’s doubt was reasonable.

Adella, who was sprawled on the back of the sofa, raised her upper body.

She surrounded her hand with aura and shook her hair.

Sparkling powder disappeared into the air, and part of her hair returned to brown.

“This is a dye spell that Name used on me. Um… my hair is naturally silver, but I dyed it brown for school, then dyed it silver again right before coming here.”

Name nodded.

Bo-reum couldn’t unfurrow her eyebrows.

She was stuck on the point that the hair was originally silver.

Seeing Adella struggling, Name stepped in to explain.

The 200 billion won mentioned in the news was used to create Adella’s body, and the current Adella is exactly the same person as the virtual reality Adella.

“This isn’t a hidden camera prank, is it? Is she an actress…?”

*shake head*

“Then a bio-robot?”

*shake head*

“Or golem magic?”

*shake head*

“Necromancy?”

“Necromancy?! That’s too harsh!”

Adella shouted angrily.

“Necromancy, hmm, is it similar?”

But Name surprisingly didn’t deny it.

Adella’s consciousness was overlaid on a body based on her previous life.

If something that wasn’t alive to begin with could be considered a corpse, it wasn’t entirely wrong.

“Bo-reum, Adella is just like us, a human. From head to toe, a human who performs all functions.”

“But… how…?”

“There are plenty of mysterious magics in this world that you don’t know about. I discovered one of them and used it. Does that make sense now?”

Bo-reum had no choice but to nod.

When it came to magic, Name was far more knowledgeable than her.

“No need to overthink it! If I could escape from the game, I can also go from virtual reality to reality. Isn’t life easier if you just accept things as they are?”

“Oh, there is one flaw though. She can’t get pregnant. It’s an unavoidable issue for Dragonia Nascientia to function properly.”

“What did you just say, Name? You mean I’ve been enduring this monthly torture in a body that can’t even get pregnant?”

“Why, did you want to?”

“No, but it just feels so unfair! Why do I have to suffer for no reason! I’m going crazy, if that’s the case, just give me a spay surgery instead of periods, aaaaargh!”

“What… spay? Are you insane?”

Listening to Name and Adella’s chaotic conversation, Bo-reum became strongly convinced.

There couldn’t be two people like them anywhere in the world.

Name pinched Adella’s cheek hard and shook her head around.

Adella made a sad face as she was helplessly dragged around by the small girl.

Bo-reum pinched her own cheek hard.

‘It hurts, so this is really happening?’

After finishing Adella’s speech correction, Name approached the manager and asked:

“There’s a definitive way to prove it. Do you have a capsule at home?”

* * *

[Connecting to Void Space.]

[Welcome, User Name: Adella.]

True to her nature of handling everything from home, Bo-reum had seven capsules lined up.

Her principle was to use a different capsule each day of the week.

Adella entered one of them and returned to her virtual reality self.

One account cannot be used simultaneously.

This proved that the real-world Adella and the virtual reality Adella were exactly the same person.

“Should we play a quick game?”

Adella launched World of Arsheria and chose her favorite dual-blade rogue tech tree.

Though she couldn’t display the overwhelming prowess of before, she could still compete equally with the masters of the battlefield.

Bo-reum’s eyes gradually began to show signs of life.

“Tail… so Adella doesn’t have a tail?”

“Tail? Ah, that’s a bit complicated. Humans have evolved without tails, right? So Adella’s body was adapted accordingly, but her Aura Heart’s belief that she should have a tail and cat ears was very strong. It seems that it can still be manifested through external projection.”

“Ah, with aura. I see. Hmm…”

Bo-reum bit her lower lip slightly.

Adella’s demonstration game ended in defeat.

“Ugh, healer diff! What’s with our healer only healing! A proper healer should be like Name – healing, dealing damage, tanking, taking objectives, planning tactics, and commanding too.”

“That was close. Did the call split at the third objective?”

“Yes! I don’t understand why these idiots split up there. It wasn’t even a fight we were going to lose.”

Adella came out of the capsule and vented her frustration about the match she just lost.

Her aura-created tail slapped the desk repeatedly.

“Anyway, this capsule is really nice, Manager. The response time is fast, so my body feels light like before.”

“Really? Oh, Adella, you can speak comfortably with me.”

“That’s fine with me, hehe. You can speak comfortably too, Manager. You’re a high school senior, right? I’m technically a freshman, but I’m actually eighteen. Somehow I ended up two years behind.”

“Wow… wow, woooow…”

“Why are you suddenly looking scared…?”

Bo-reum very slowly and carefully walked toward Adella.

Adella flinched.

“Friend, may I… may I hug you once?”

Adella froze at the irresistible tone.

Bo-reum, being relatively tall, was about a finger taller than Adella.

There was a strange gleam in her eyes as she looked down at Adella.

“Huh? Well, I don’t mind hugging, we’re not exactly strangers, and girls hug each other all the time in high school…”

“Then I won’t hold back-“

Bo-reum pulled Adella into her arms.

Adella was drawn in somewhat roughly.

“Hmmmm haaa.”

Bo-reum took a deep breath.

Adella shuddered, feeling a chill run down her spine.

“Um, isn’t that enough now?”

“Adella?”

“Yes?”

“Adella, Adella, Adella?”

“What! If you call someone’s name, say something!”

Bo-reum stroked the back of Adella’s head.

As her five fingers ran through the flowing silver hair, a strand or two came away in her hand.

She carefully placed Adella’s hair on the desk.

Bo-reum turned around briefly and called Name.

“Name, I bought some mango sorbet ice cream in the refrigerator downstairs. Would you like some? It’s imported directly from France.”

“Sorbet? Oh, thanks. Should I bring some for you too, Bo-reum?”

“No, I’m good. Eat as much as you want.”

“What about Adella?”

Bo-reum covered Adella’s mouth.

“Mmph! Mmph!”

“I need to talk with Adella for a bit. We’ll come down soon.”

“The manager has good taste. You even know my favorite dessert.”

“That’s just basic knowledge.”

“Mmph mmph! Mmph mmph!”

*click*

The door closed, leaving Adella and Bo-reum alone.

Checking Adella’s backside, the tail that was visible earlier had completely disappeared.

“Eek! What are you trying to do!”

Adella slowly backed away.

“Do you know what it feels like to have your favorite character alive and breathing?”

“Huh?”

“No one in this world would understand. No one. But I’m the first. It’s just… indescribable how touching, overwhelming, and exciting it is.”

“B-Bo-reum, I understand how you feel, but just a little-“

“My favorite character called my name! Kyaaah!”

“You’re not listening!”

Bo-reum grabbed Adella’s hand and interlocked their fingers.

Then she knelt on the floor, now looking up at her from below.

“Tail.”

“Tail?”

“Just once, let me taste, no, lick, no, touch your tail. It’s my lifelong wish, bucket list, or even my last will if you want to call it that.”

“Would you allow that if you were me? And this is a fake tail made with aura, you can’t touch it through normal means!”

“I attended the Academy through middle school, so I know.”

Aura swirled in Bo-reum’s palm.

“They say aura contains all sensations humans can feel. Not just sight, but hearing, touch, smell, and taste too.”

“Eep!”

“I’m going crazy with curiosity. What does it feel like to touch a tail? What sound does it make? I already know the smell from earlier. But I’m so curious about what it tastes like. Is there any way? Hmm? I’ll do anything in return, please, just 10 seconds, no, 5 seconds, lend it to me.”

“Name siiiiiis! This person is craaazy!”

“3 seconds isn’t enough to feel anything! Just close your eyes and I’ll finish quickly like cats mating! Okay?”

Adella’s screams echoed throughout the place.

“Hmm?”

Name, who was eagerly eating sorbet downstairs, looked toward the source of the sound.

“I guess she’s having fun with someone her own age. Adella must be tired of just hearing my nagging all the time. *slurp*”

Name stuck out her short tongue to lick off the sorbet at the corner of her mouth.