episode_0169

While I was eating, I checked the information that came in on my phone.

A few images and a few short lines of text.

I checked the image first.

There were blurry and oddly distorted parts, as if the file was broken due to being extracted in a hurry.

But one thing is certain: there is a museum in every photo.

I flipped through the images while chewing on the pork cutlet in my mouth.

The crispy, delicious batter melted away, and the delicious meat inside gently wrapped around my tongue.

“Jeff. Is it good?”

“Yeah.”

Even while answering Shine’s questions, he doesn’t take his eyes off his phone.

The images were blurry and I couldn’t see much of the surrounding area, but most of them were taken from similar angles.

I let out a small sigh.

“Let’s go to the museum first…”

As I muttered weakly, Rain handed me his large pork cutlet.

I was very touched by her consideration.

“This is…”

“You look tired, Jeff likes tonkatsu.”

“Thank you!”

I quickly put the pork cutlet that Rain handed me into my mouth.

As I was munching on food and munching on food, I felt a strong gaze from the person sitting right next to me.

I turned my head slightly and saw Shine looking at me with her large pork cutlet on her fork.

“Jeff.”

“Um…”

The fork in Shine’s hand is thrust into my mouth.

The pork cutlet shakes slowly as if telling you to eat it.

I swallowed the pork cutlet remaining in my mouth in a hurry and opened my mouth.

Then, Shine’s pork cutlet entered my mouth in an instant.

It’s too big.

The pork cutlet that filled my mouth to the brim made my mouth open as wide as it could, making my jaw hurt.

“Ugh- bro…”

But I couldn’t spit it out.

Because I couldn’t disappoint Shine, who looked satisfied with the sight of me eating well.

I swallowed all the pork cutlet with difficulty.

After a satisfying meal, we took the bus straight home.

I was tapping away at my phone the whole way back on the bus.

A few lines of text escaped with the image.

I have absolutely no idea what the letters in the alphabet and numbers mean.

I searched the Internet but nothing came up.

In the end, I didn’t get any proper information.

We got off the bus with a sigh of regret and headed straight home.

“Victor?”

“Hey, did you come back from playing?”

Victor was sitting on the sofa in the living room on the first floor.

I quickly checked the time.

A little after 2 o’clock in the afternoon.

At this hour, Victor should be sleeping.

“I came back from playing. I came back to gather information.”

Victor let out a small laugh at the answer.

“Yeah. Did you work hard?”

I proudly replied to Victor’s answer.

“Of course! I’ve collected a ton of information.”

I immediately took out my phone and showed him the image files I had obtained from the publisher.

Victor frowned as he looked at the photo.

“What is this? What kind of picture is this?”

“This is a photo of the museum.”

“You really are bad at taking pictures.”

“Huh?”

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t even speak properly and just opened my mouth.

So now, does Victor think that I took the pictures he showed him?

Hey, what kind of person takes pictures like this?

I frowned and said to Victor.

“I didn’t take the picture, did I?”

“Yeah. So did Rain take the picture?”

This time, the arrow flew towards Lane.

When Lane returned home, he immediately lay down on the long sofa, but when his name was called, he raised his head and perked up his ears.

“Me?”

Victor shook his head at the sight.

“Are you uncomfortable?”

Victor’s sudden question.

I tilted my head in puzzlement at his unexpected question.

“Is something uncomfortable? Suddenly?”

“That’s right, you guys have never lived in a place like this before, so I was wondering if there was anything inconvenient.”

He said so and turned his head slightly.

He avoided eye contact, as if he was embarrassed by what he had said.

“There’s nothing particularly inconvenient. Except for the fact that I get to spend less time with Amy.”

“If that’s the case, then that’s great. If there’s anything that’s uncomfortable, tell me or Amy.”

“Yes.”

Bam-

Victor’s large hand is placed on his head.

When I looked up at him in surprise, his hand quickly fell away.

“Big, going to sleep.”

Victor jumped up from his seat and headed straight up to his room.

As I was blankly following his footsteps, Shine came up to me and caressed my head.

Shine’s sudden actions.

When I turned my head and asked her, she smiled and answered.

“What are you doing?”

“Erasing traces.”

Erasing traces? That was an incomprehensible statement.

I nodded roughly, took my laptop, and sat down on the sofa.

I lean back on the soft sofa, put my bag on my legs, and place my laptop on top of it.

“I’m going to work now.”

I looked at Shine with the intention of saying, “I’m busy, so don’t bother me,” and she nodded silently.

Shine comes and sits next to me.

I took my eyes off her and started focusing on my laptop.

The first thing I checked was the terrain near the museum.

Use the website’s view feature to explore the area around the museum.

I loaded a photo from my phone and moved the screen to the same composition.

The images I got from the publisher didn’t show much beyond the museum, but when I looked at them from the same angle as the photo, the surrounding area was revealed.

The person who took the photo appeared to have taken it from above the road with cars passing by.

The direction of the road leading to the museum’s warehouse.

A small, wire-framed fence appears on the screen, blocking the entry of nearby vehicles.

I started looking around there.

Is this where the museum exhibits come from?

Looking at the neatly maintained appearance, it meant that even now, something was occasionally entering the museum through here.

I wrote down everything I found out this time in a notebook.

I have to show it to Amy when she comes.

First of all, I figured out everything that could be identified from the photos.

Although I was disappointed with the damaged parts, I couldn’t recover the files myself, so this was my limit.

All that’s left is this unidentified number.

■■■ 77995

Finding something using just the last digit was nearly impossible because the first three digits of the word were broken.

I stroked my chin and sat lost in thought.

Should I just bring in any number in front?

Even when I searched for randomly selected words, nothing came up.

It was really frustrating.

“Hoo-.”

He let out a long sigh and moved his hand again.

Little fingers move quickly and type on the keyboard.

Tata-tata-tata – The noise that rings in my ears is familiar.

I felt a strange sense of foreboding in this situation.

“Jeff. It’s almost field boss time.”

“Huh? Already?”

Shine spoke to me while I was lost in thought with a strange feeling.

I immediately checked the time at her words and jumped up from my seat.

3pm.

The field boss respawn time in an online game was approaching.

Although I didn’t play as passionately as Shine, I also reached the max level of a character with the nickname [Shine].

As I followed Shine’s lead and continued to pay, my character’s specs also increased considerably, and the two of us were strong enough to wipe out two or three normal parties at once.

We followed Shine, who was pulling my hand, up to this floor and immediately turned on the computer and logged into the game.

Shine began to understand the game a little.

It was a strange direction, but unlike last time, I didn’t get so upset about my character dying randomly.

Instead, she immediately used her resurrection power like water.

It was the same now.

Shine, who turned almost every guild within the server into enemies.

I, who was hanging out with her, also wasn’t on good terms with other guilds.

When I went out to hunt the field boss, I was attacked first by other users.

She started to single-handedly sweep away enemies, using all the potions sold in the cash shop.

In the space where the field boss pops up, you had to use a special resurrection ticket, but it was so expensive that most users could only use it once or twice a month.

But, that didn’t apply to Shine and me.

As Shine and my area-of-effect skills poured into the field, numerous chats began to appear.

All kinds of swear words filled the chat window.

But Shine ignored all the chatter and poured out her skills.

Shine, pushed forward with overwhelming specs.

My character assists her from the side.

However, the weak archer and wizard characters could not last long.

Repeatedly using a skill once or twice and dying.

I continued to use my skills spammingly, taking advantage of the 2 second invincibility period that comes with using the Resurrection Ticket.

In the end, the maximum contribution value of the field boss ended up going to me and Shine, and we also ended up taking the most expensive item dropped by that monster.

As a large alarm appeared on the server message, more messages than before started pouring in.

Shine smiled with satisfaction at the sight.

***

Shine and I played the game until it got dark, and we headed to the first floor just in time for Amy to get off work.

Our time was accurate as we had been repeating it for the past week.

Me, Shine, and Rain stood in front of the door that Amy would open and come in, waiting for her.

One, two, three.

Knock, knock.

As I was counting in my head, I heard Amy’s shoes clicking just outside the door.

Then the footsteps stopped and the door opened.

“Amy!”

I ran straight to Amy.

Then Amy, as if she already knew, smiled brightly and hugged me.

Amy lifts me up and spins me around.

I laughed out loud and hugged her.

“Welcome back.”

“Yeah. Are you all having fun?”

“You were playing. I was working.”

“Really?”

A short conversation with Amy.

She put me down and gave Rain and Shine a hug like she had given me.

Rain was really happy.

The smile on her face showed no signs of disappearing.

“Rain. Were you watching the kids well today?”

“Then. How quiet were you? I heard you even went out to eat pork cutlet today.”

“Donkas?”

“Yeah. Jeff likes it. You gave Jeff some of my share too?”

Rain speaking as if he was bragging.

She nodded to Amy as if asking for her compliment.

Quickly, quickly, her blue eyes urged Amy.

Amy smiled slightly at Lane’s appearance and stroked his hair.

“Shall I play with you tomorrow?”

Amy’s unexpected words.

I blinked at her words and asked back.

“Tomorrow isn’t the weekend?”

“I decided to take the day off tomorrow.”

“Suddenly?”

“What happened? Maybe Victor is resting too?”

Amy’s words made me think of Victor.

He was awake even at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, which was unusual for his usual behavior.

Only then did I understand and nodded.

“Like!”

I couldn’t wait to spend the whole day playing with Amy tomorrow.