Chapter 4 – Chatroom #3

Outboxer009.

A legend in Heroic Saga 2 who had held the number one server rank for a whopping 36 months, and a veteran among veterans.

His nickname: Aboki.

Those who didn’t know him marveled at Aboki’s vast knowledge and transcendent PvP skills, but Cowabunga knew his true nature.

He was completely and utterly obsessed with Heroic Saga 2.

A total maniac who would do anything just to tease Yellow Storm, the second-ranked player.

Having watched Aboki for the past few years, Cowabunga could say with certainty:

The only reason Aboki was number one was because Nopoki was number two.

If Nopoki were ranked 100th, Aboki would have been 99th. If Nopoki were 10,000th, Aboki would have been 9,999th.

‘Definitely a psycho.’

Even now, if he closed his eyes, Cowabunga could vividly recall the image of Aboki pulling down his pants and doing a butt dance just to mess with Nopoki.

And the countless, truly “gem-like” childish jokes that came out of Aboki’s mouth…

He was a complete man-child.

And yet, that same Aboki was a super-duper alpha male.

Okay, he could somehow understand that much.

He could even accept it as one of the world’s absurdities.

After all, looking back, when it wasn’t about Nopoki, Aboki was more than just normal; he was an incredibly dependable guy.

But—

‘What the? What the hell was that?’

The information that flooded his mind the moment he shook Aboki’s hand.

Because his psychometry had activated reflexively, the information he read lacked any purpose or coherence.

Gunshots.

Thick smoke.

Screams and explosions.

Faced with this utterly unfamiliar information, Cowabunga unconsciously strengthened his psychometry, and a clearer set of information—a memory—surfaced.

It was night.

He was in a jungle, his entire body sticky with blood and sweat.

But his breathing was calm.

His senses were sharpened to a razor’s edge, as if he could read the very flow of the atmosphere.

Tadadat!

Gunfire erupted.

But he didn’t move. He held his breath, waiting for the right moment. Then, at a certain point, he slid into motion, moving with astonishing speed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

His opponent, struck in the head and chest by shots as precise as a machine honed by hundreds, thousands of training sessions, collapsed.

And the gunfire continued.

He killed two more, and when his gun ran out of bullets, he gripped a knife instead.

He held his breath and read the air.

Amidst the thick smell of gunpowder, he picked out a familiar scent. He exhaled slowly and rose to his feet.

“Jino.”

A blonde, blue-eyed woman, her face drenched in blood and sweat just like ‘his’ own, offered a weary smile.

“Natasha.”

That was it.

When Cowabunga blinked his eyes open, he saw Aboki—Kang Jin-ho—frowning at him with a worried expression.

“Hey, are you okay?”

The voice came from his side.

AAA.

Yoo Ga-young.

But Cowabunga couldn’t react right away.

He hadn’t fully emerged from the memory he’d received through his psychometry.

“Cowabunga?”

Kang Jin-ho let go of his hand as he asked, and only then was Cowabunga able to snap out of it.

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

“Are you really okay? You’re sweating bullets.”

At the question from Namman Cat—Kim Hye-eun—Cowabunga wiped his forehead and was startled.

Just as Kim Hye-eun had said, he was drenched in sweat.

“Ah, well, uh. It just hit me all of a sudden. I’m fine.”

Cowabunga forced a smile and sat down. Kim Hye-eun and Yoo Ga-young tilted their heads, their faces a mixture of concern and suspicion, but they didn’t press the matter.

Kang Jin-ho also simply took a seat next to Hong Yu-hee without asking anything further.

‘What was that? What did I just see?’

It wasn’t a memory from a movie or game he’d been impressed by.

It was Kang Jin-ho’s own experience.

Something that had actually happened to Kang Jin-ho.

‘A s-soldier? A mercenary or something?’

Come to think of it, the blonde, blue-eyed woman had been wearing something like a tattered military uniform.

And the shooting.

A firefight.

“Hey, are you really okay?”

“Yeah, I am, yes.”

Replying awkwardly once more to AAA’s question, Cowabunga swallowed dryly and looked straight ahead.

Kang Jin-ho was talking with Hong Yu-hee.

Aboki, the complete man-child who lived to tease Nopoki.

That Aboki was a mercenary who had actually risked his life? Who had killed people?

It was at that very moment.

“Hnngh?”

Startled by the sudden vibration of his phone, Cowabunga reflexively turned it on and saw a message from AAA.

[AAA: Hey, hey, Aboki’s a real surprise, isn’t he?]

[Cowabunga: Yeah.]

There was likely a considerable gap between the “surprise” AAA was talking about and the “surprise” Cowabunga was thinking of, but it was definitely a surprise.

‘He’s not a k-killer, is he?’

Like, something out of John Wick.

An organization’s hitman or something.

As delusions began to run wild in his head, Cowabunga glanced nervously at Kang Jin-ho again and swallowed.

‘If I could just touch him one more time, I think I’d know.’

Just what kind of person—no, what kind of man was he?

His thoughts turning polite without him even realizing it, Cowabunga sipped his coffee and stared at Kang Jin-ho’s hand. Watching him with Invisibility magic cast was Cordelia, who tapped the arm of Yuder, sitting beside her.

[Yuder, Yuder.]

[Yes, Cordelia.]

[Don’t you think Cowabunga has fallen for Kang Jin-ho?]

[…On what grounds?]

[Well, I mean. After he held hands with Kang Jin-ho, his heart rate? or something sped up, his face got all red, and even now he keeps staring at Kang Jin-ho’s hand like he wants to hold it again.]

Individually, each point was true, but the conclusion drawn from combining them all was truly bizarre.

[I don’t think that’s it.]

If anything, he looked completely terrified.

Why, though?

Could it be that Cowabunga’s superpower was some kind of information-gathering ability?

[Then what about AAA, Yuder? I never imagined AAA would be that kind of woman.]

He’d expected a portly man who enjoyed dad jokes, but she turned out to be a pretty, tough-looking woman.

Her fashion sense was unusual. What did she do for a living?

Was she in fashion?

Or maybe the vocalist of a band?

As Cordelia spoke, clasping her hands as if her heart was pounding, Yuder suddenly lowered his voice and sent a telepathic message in a whisper.

[AAA—Yoo Ga-young is an agent of Barrier.]

[Barrier?]

[It’s a supranational intelligence organization that doesn’t belong to any country. They mostly stick their noses into matters related to supernatural abilities. A lot of their members are psychics, too.]

At Yuder’s explanation, Cordelia blinked, then looked at Yoo Ga-young again and sent a message.

[S-so, is it like S.H.I.E.L.D.? Like the Avengers?]

[Something like that. Yoo Ga-young is an agent in Barrier’s East Asia branch. Her main mission is to monitor Cowabunga, who is an A-rank psychic by this world’s standards.]

Cordelia was flabbergasted by Yuder’s continued explanation, but at the same time, she felt a strange sense of understanding and excitement.

It was a pretty plausible story.

[R-really? So AAA joined our chatroom because of Cowabunga?]

[That’s right.]

[Wow… come to think of it, that makes sense!]

Recalling her first meeting with AAA, Cordelia clapped her hands softly as if a mystery had finally been solved.

Watching her, Yuder said.

[Cordelia.]

[Yes, Yuder.]

[I’m kidding.]

[Huh?]

[I said, I’m kidding.]

At Yuder’s words, Cordelia blinked as if her brain had short-circuited. Yuder burst out laughing at the sight.

Cordelia, with her expression like a broken puppy, was just too cute and lovable.

[Hey!]

Realizing she’d been completely fooled, Cordelia started hitting Yuder with her adorable fists, but they were, quite literally, just adorable.

Yuder smiled mischievously, taking Cordelia’s tantrum(?) before his laughter subsided and he said.

[AAA is the owner of an online adult toy store.]

[Huh?]

[An adult toy store. You know… the things. Adult toys?]

As if embarrassed by his own words, Yuder let out a few coughs. Cordelia’s face turned red as well as she fidgeted with her fingers, and Yuder, as always, read her desire.

[Are you… interested?]

Instead of answering, Cordelia gave a tiny nod. Yuder coughed again before handing his phone to her.

It was AAA’s website.

With the same expression she had when receiving a new book from Kaisa, Cordelia gripped the phone with both hands and began scrolling with her fingers. Yuder peeked at both her and the phone screen from the side.

At the same time, Cowabunga, who had been trying to find an angle to make contact with Kang Jin-ho again, finally opted for Plan B.

‘Okay, so he’s probably just a mercenary.’

He would just accept it.

It was a completely unimaginable identity, but he would accept that it could be true.

‘Come to think of it, I’m a psychic, aren’t I?’

A psychic, rarer than a mercenary.

Right, a psychic.

If psychics existed, then why couldn’t a mercenary exist too?

‘Fuck, there’s no way.’

A psychic is a psychic, and a mercenary is a mercenary!

A friend you gamed with was actually a retired mercenary?

Not even a light novel would have a title like that—

“Cowabunga, here.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

Reflexively lifting his head, Cowabunga stared at the hand Hong Yu-hee was holding out—or more precisely, at the object in her hand.

It was merchandise for ‘Tanya Noona,’ a character Cowabunga was personally a fan of.

It seemed she remembered him saying he wanted it before.

“Here, this is what you mentioned, right?”

“Oh, yeah, thanks.”

Come to think of it, should he ask about Tanya Noona?

The person behind Tanya Noona seemed like a genuine foreigner.

Cowabunga extended his hand, thinking of Tanya Noona, and Hong Yu-hee placed a keychain with the character’s picture on it into his palm.

And in that instant—

Cowabunga’s power, already on high alert thanks to Kang Jin-ho, activated once more.

“Eh?”

Hong Yu-hee’s memories.

This time, Cowabunga’s face went completely blank.

*

1. Hong Yu-hee, a successful otaku whose love for Cordelia had exploded, hired a professional cosplayer to cosplay as Cordelia.

2. She even requested the cosplayer to do method acting to recreate a meeting event with Cordelia—

‘There’s no way that happened!’

No matter how he thought about it, the two people in Hong Yu-hee’s memory were Yuder and Cordelia.

The Yuder and Cordelia from Heroic Saga 2.

What was going on?

Why were Yuder and Cordelia here?

Another world?

Entry into an isekai?

Was Heroic Saga 2 not a game but something else entirely?

Could it be something like this?

Pleiades, the setting of Heroic Saga 2, was repeatedly facing crises of destruction. To find a way to overcome these crises, they sent information to another world to create a game—Heroic Saga 2.

And with the help of the game’s most hardcore veterans, Aboki and Nopoki, they overcame the crisis in Pleiades.

Yes, that’s why Yuder and Cordelia came to find them, to express their gratitude.

‘That seems to make sense.’

In a world with psychics and mercenaries, a little isekai could surely exist.

“Hey, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I am, I’m totally fine.”

Cowabunga replied immediately to AAA—Yoo Ga-young’s—worried question and nodded again.

‘Yes, in a world where AAA happens to be my ideal type—a fun, sexy, otaku older sister—Yuder and Cordelia can certainly exist.’

In fact, wasn’t the former far more improbable?

“Uh, well… if you’re okay, then that’s a relief.”

“Right, so let’s have fun.”

Having made up his mind, Cowabunga grabbed Yoo Ga-young’s hand. She seemed startled for a moment, then giggled and nodded.

And ten hours later.

In the dead of night.

“Hey, hey, I’ll give you a ride!”

“Huh? Sounds good!”

Thoroughly drunk, Yoo Ga-young and Cowabunga headed for Cowabunga’s studio apartment in Yoo Ga-young’s car, driven by a designated driver.

That night, a complaint was reportedly filed with the management office of Cowabunga’s building about a broken sprinkler in the underground parking garage.

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Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

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