A Player’s Despair and a Beast’s Comfort

If even one person among the NPCs still recognizes me as a ‘Player’, or if there’s even one who recognizes me, I will continue to find a way.

I will continue to consider this place the legendary shitty game ‘Legacyth Chronicle’ and look for a way to ‘log out’.
But what if….

“Why don’t you participate too, Shinbi-nim.”

As I paced nervously in front of the Coliseum with a grim face, Loktis, who had approached me at some point, spoke up.

“I’m curious who would win if it were Awakener versus Awakener.”

“You know I’m not an Awakener.”

Thanks to Governor Baalzeph calling me an Awakener from the beginning in Midvalen, everyone calls me that, but the Empire vampires know I’m actually a ‘Defector’.
They just don’t argue because it’s Baalzeph’s decision, and unlike the outside cities, they don’t openly ostracize me due to the Neutral City’s regulations.

“Well, penguins and ostriches can’t fly, but they’re still birds, aren’t they?”

“Thanks for the comfort.”

I smiled bitterly, mirroring Loktis’s shrug.

【30 seconds remaining until the next duel starts.】
【Equipment window will be locked in 30 seconds. You cannot change any equipment or skill trees once you enter.】

I peered into the Coliseum through the shimmering glass barrier like a mirror.
Beyond the wavering wall of another dimension, various nicknames were visible above their heads.

【30 consecutive kills! ‘GanevsMiddleLeg’ is on a rampage!】

The Coliseum is PVE (Player versus Environment).
In other words, it’s content where users face artificial intelligence.
So it’s rare for an NPC or monster to win.

Unless a relatively inexperienced newbie comes during the dawn hours when there are luckily no people, the winner is usually the Awakener, the player.

As expected, the participating player easily defeated Loktis, who had climbed up to the final match, and was provoking him by dusting off his shoulders as if it were too easy.

Seeing as they didn’t even glance at the recovery potion set given as a prize, they all seemed to be veterans who came because they were bored.

Among the countless ‘Players’ coming and going, I suddenly spotted a familiar nickname.

【No one can stop ‘WhiteHairIsEnough (Sharpshooter)’!】

It was a guildmate I used to be close with.

【WhiteHairIsEnough (Sharpshooter): Shinbi-nim, did you perhaps do the Varg hunting quest?】
【WhiteHairIsEnough (Sharpshooter): If you’re not busy, please save this Sniper trash, I’m dying because of bugs (tears)】

Since he was a user I’d been with since the very beginning, I remembered helping him with the Varg quest, and we were close enough to exchange gifticons when there was something to celebrate.

“…WhiteHair-nim!”

So without realizing it, I ran towards the Awakener walking out of the Coliseum entrance.

Looking at his status window with a bored face, he lifted his head.

• Huh? Someone called me.

“WhiteHair-nim, it’s me! Shinbi!”

The man with a sleek build befitting a sniper looked around and paused, seemingly spotting me.
He had an uncertain face, like running into a classmate on the street after a long time.

“You know! The one who insisted on not changing class from Plunderer and made an SL weapon to force her way through hunting!”

• Ah…?

Listening quietly to my rapid-fire words, the man tilted his head.
The ‘Sharpshooter’ title next to his nickname tilted along with him.

• What, ‘Shinbi-jui’? I thought you looked familiar.

‘WhiteHair’, looking at me waving my hand with a suspicious face, frowned and muttered.

• Your customization is exactly the same as Shinbi-nim’s too. Cherry Blossom Soft Pink….

“That’s right! I am that Shinbi!”

Seeing the man’s surprised eyes, thump, thump, my heart started beating fast.

Right, as expected. I knew it.
God Slayers, the Legacyth continent, there’s no way such things really exist.

I’m just a pitiful player struggling in this bug-ridden shitty game.

“WhiteHair-nim, please help me!”

Unable to contain my overwhelming emotions, I approached him closely and shouted.

As welcoming and desperate as when I begged the Observer the day I was first trapped in this world.

“I can’t log out right now….”

• UNKNOWN. This damn bug is still here.

“…Pardon?”

However, the wall of ‘reality’ was cold and high.

• Hey, you rascal, whether you’re an NPC or a monster, where did you steal a user nickname… Shoo, go away!

Darn, this shitty game. I should quit soon too, it’s a bug field, a bug field.

Muttering to himself, ‘WhiteHairIsEnough’ threw himself into the exit portal and disappeared with a shimmer.

“Sob sob sob.”

Returning while crying my eyes out like a woman with a tragic story, Karvan stood up as soon as he saw me.

“What’s wrong.”

Instead of answering, I just hiccuped and rubbed my tears away vigorously, and he turned into mist, swoosh, and appeared in front of me.

‘You’re just openly ignoring the bars now, aren’t you?’

Feeling even more sorrowful, I burst into tears, and he silently lifted my cheek slowly to meet my gaze.

“What happened, Bi.”

“Heuk… What do I do….”

“Why.”

“Heuk, sob, WhiteHair, heuk, WhiteHair-nim, told me, sob, that I’m an NPC….”

I felt like even my last remaining hope had been trampled.

• UNKNOWN. This damn bug is still here.

• Hey, you rascal, whether you’re an NPC or a monster, where did you steal a user nickname… Shoo, go away!

“To those people, this is a game, sob, really, heuk, only me….”

He is a ‘Player’, but I am not.
They are inside a ‘game’, but I am not.

Could it be that the Observers stopped chasing me because they now recognize me as a local?

‘If I go back, I’ll have to look at the faces of the Awakener bastards rushing at me all day long. Would I want to go?’

I remembered how the Skollcat, who said he stayed in Midvalen because he didn’t want to deal with Awakeners, didn’t feel much aversion towards me.

“Sob, Karvan. You, try saying log out. Log out….”

“Log out.”

“…Waaaaah.”

As I cried even louder at the words flowing from his expressionless lips, I heard a scoff.

“I guess, hic, I can’t go back, to where I came from, anymore. Sob….”

“Did anyone say they would send you back?”

Rubbing my cheek where tears were falling like a broken faucet, the man spoke bluntly.

“Think of it as ‘a place you couldn’t return to anyway’ and forget it.”

“Heuk, what…?”

I asked back dumbfoundedly, and with an indifferent face, he picked me up, sat me on his lap, and finished wiping my tears.
His unimaginably cold attitude made even my tears dry up.

“You, you, is that, something to say…?”

“I think it’s better than giving useless hope.”

“…You, bad bastard…! Even if you comforted me, it wouldn’t be enough!”

You, you wolf bastard with zero sensitivity!
I pounded his chest in a surge of resentment, but he hugged me without budging.

His forearm, as thick as my waist, wrapped around me like a cage, turning me around to face him.

“You weren’t going to be able to go back the moment you became my mate anyway.”

Hic, sob, grabbing my chin and cheek with one hand as I sobbed sorrowfully, he spoke expressionlessly.

“So, stop now.”

“Sob sob.”

“If you are crying like that because of another male, it’s a waste of tears.”

At the voice falling coldly from above my head, even sternly, I burst into tears again.

Because the hand wiping my ceaselessly flowing tears and the body heat touching me everywhere felt so vivid and hot.

Because it felt like I had truly become a being like him.

“Done crying?”

“…Yeah.”

Crying like that for a long time made me feel relieved inside.

“I don’t know what’s so sorrowful.”

As I sat on the bed with my head hanging down sullenly, the man, who had been staring at me while leaning against the opposite wall, spoke.

“Since you were destined to be by my side anyway.”

“…Hey! Can’t you comfort me in a human way at times like this?”

“Comfort?”

“Like holding me quietly and patting me, or wiping my tears. Or at least guarding my side without a word.”

‘Don’t say such wooden things!’
When I grumbled in a locked voice, the man staring at me moved.

He took my limp arms and wrapped them around his neck, then bent down and hugged me tightly.

Thanks to that, I, with my chin resting on his broad shoulder, just blinked.

“…Are you, comforting me?”

Instead of answering, Karvan picked me up effortlessly and laid me on the bed.
Already exhausted from crying, I lay on my back obediently following his touch without much resistance.

Then, creak, the explicit scream of springs was heard.

“Human-style beds are too narrow and uncomfortable. How did you live in a place like this.”

“It’s just that your body is abnormally large.”

I grumbled, looking at the broad chest filling my vision.
The Midvalen bed, which I had never felt was particularly narrow, felt ridiculously small with Karvan on it.

“…….”

Before I knew it, the man was looking down at me with his arms braced on either side of my head.

Eyes gleaming against the backlight.
Seeing those beast-like pupils with the reins barely holding on, I sighed in resignation.

…A beast’s comfort is obvious.
Just as I squeezed my eyes shut anticipating the merciless grip that would follow.

“Lift your hips.”

But surprisingly, Karvan began to soothe me ‘like a human’.

He moved silently, even though his eyes said he wanted to comfort me in his own way right this instant.

Instead of tearing my clothes like a beast, he pulled a pillow and placed it under my head.
Instead of chewing and swallowing my neck, he lightly bumped his lower lip against mine and lay down beside me at an angle.
That was all.

“Here. I’ll stay by your side.”

After spitting that out indifferently, he lightly wrapped his hand around mine and began to pat it slowly.

“I will comfort you until you fall asleep. As you wished.”

It was a stiff voice as always, but the touching body heat was so warm.
In that soft and pleasant warmth like spring sunshine, I fell asleep as if by magic.

“…Karvan.”

“Yes.”

Even when I called him like sleep-talking, he answered every time, and like that, the man guarded my side all night long.