Chapter 116 - Following the Shadow (3)

Hyun and Louise kept moving.

Hyun had his hands on a map of the vast Symmetrical World, so there was no reason for him to be afraid.

Their destination was as far as he’d thought.

Hyun «Assimilated» onto Louise and ran using the wind.

From time to time, some monsters turned their heads around to look at Louise.

Among them, there were some monsters that Hyun knew.

There was a bat that drank human blood and a monster famous for its ferocity like the dark wolf.

When he first saw them, he was surprised.

He didn't understand why, but those monsters just looked at them from a distance and didn't do anything.

As time passed, Hyun and Louise became immune to monster encounters.

None of those monsters tried to attack them.

Even then, Louise was passing near a group of monsters with sharp thorns.

Hyun wasn't used to seeing monsters who weren't interested in humans.

「It feels like we're in a ghost house.」

「Do ghosts have houses?」

「Yes. You're probably the only one who doesn't have one.」

「Ugh...」

Hyun and Louise were finally able to relax a little bit.

They looked at the scenery that was passing by.

The Symmetrical World was surprisingly similar to the other world.

The red air and black sun looked ominous at first, but because he’d gotten used to them, it reminded him of a sunset.

The monsters... No, how the different life forms formed an ecosystem was very similar to the other world.

'Louise living here... Maybe it isn't nonsense.'

They still had a long way to go, but it wasn't boring.

When Louise's mana plummeted, they enjoyed the scenery around.

After a while, Hyun finally went up the stairs of giant ruins.

The Fog Road…

The road that used to be the First Pope's walking path was a trail that connected Iluna and Asra.

According to the information on the map, the Fog Road seemed to be a long staircase that led to the sky.

'Who built this?'

Hyun began thinking about it while going up the stairs.

The stairs seemed to be built for a being bigger than humans.

It was hard to go up with Louise's size, so he used wind magic.

Was it the road monsters used?

Also, the fact that there was a structure so big in the Symmetrical World meant that there was some sort of existence that had the capability to think.

…Although he didn't know if it was a human or a monster.

They reached their destination after half a day.

According to the information, the place was connected to somewhere in the Holy Kingdom.

'The timing is perfect.'

Before going up the last staircase, Hyun organized his thoughts.

Right now, it’s midnight in the Holy Kingdom.

They were safe from the Sun.

Hyun had also thought of a way to get them out of the Symmetrical World.

According to the information on the Interloop, the way to move between the surface and the Underground is to control the level of consciousness.

It was written that, in the Symmetrical World, some places forcibly raised your consciousness.

The end of the Fog Road was one of those places.

The moment he went up the last stairs, the Symmetrical World ended.

「Once we return to Asra, do you have a place to stay?」Hyun asked before taking the last step.

At the same time, Hyun felt a depressing emotion.

—It was Louise's feelings that he could sense through «Assimilation».

As expected, she had nowhere on Asra to go to.

Louise didn't know anyone, so it was understandable.

Hyun laughed at the struggling emotions and asked,

「Do you want to live with me?」

Louise was surprised at Hyun's question.

「Is this a confession?」

「Don't ask stupid questions... I'm asking if you would join me if I created a guild.」

「Are you going to be the owner of the guild?」

「Yes. If I block access to outsiders, you won't be at risk of being chased anymore... Not only that, but there are many places outside that we can go to at night as long as there isn't the sun.」

Hyun's sight became blurry…

But tears didn't drip.

After going through lots of things, she’d learned how to control her emotions.

But she couldn't hide her feelings from «Assimilation».

Hyun waited for Louise to calm down.

「I'll build a big house so you won't get bored.」

「It's too big a gift...」

「Well, it isn't going to be all fun. I won't let you eat for free!」

「That's okay too!」

While «Assimilated», Hyun and Louise moved. They took the last step toward the top.

Whish-!

The wind began blowing.

Suddenly, they were at the top of a mountain, but the scenery they could see from there did not belong to the Symmetrical World.

—They could see the night view of the Holy Kingdom.

Countless lights made Louise's eyes dizzy.

「It's beautiful...」

Bewitched, Louise murmured.

That was probably the first time she’d seen the night view of a city where hundreds of thousands of people lived.

‘Does a king live in that big castle?’

But Louise didn't feel envy, even at the king.

Suddenly, she laughed and cried at the wind she could feel throughout her body.

「Even without the sun, there are many things to see. There's no need to be locked inside a small place.」

「I see...」

She looked up.

There were two moons in the night sky.

One was Gluna, which shone with a golden light.

The other one was where they’d come from, the blue Iluna.

Hyun and Louise kept looking up until their necks hurt.

[You've canceled the main event 'Dark Awakening'!]

[Your soul is resonating with the darkness!]

[Your Empathy has gone up by 32 points!]

* * *

AIN: Hyun, you're amazing? What kind of trick did you use this time?

He talked with Ain through the capsule.

He couldn't explain everything that had happened to him, but he told her the most important things.

Ain was surprised by the fact that you could cross the space by walking.

After promising to tell her more details later, he talked to her about the most urgent thing.

LeeSeoHyun: Once you are reborn, come to the magic country's city of 'Lantern.' I'm planning to create a guild there.

AIN: A guild? Suddenly?

LeeSeoHyun: Having a guild won't harm us.

AIN: Is it because of Louise?

Ain pinpointed the reason correctly.

Hyun didn't deny it.

"Yes, you, me, and her... Oh, and TarrTarr."

"Hmm... I think that just the two of us would be okay..."

Suddenly, Ain's tone of voice changed.

After noticing something from her mumble, Hyun quickly changed the topic.

"But... In three days, we're going to be alone."

"Ah?"

"TarrTarr said he can't come."

Ain took the bait.

The Asrian Festival would happen in the real world in three days.

Ain's voice suddenly got louder.

After they’d arranged to meet in real life, Ain always mentioned that whenever she could.

Hyun thought she was cute because she looked like a kid who couldn't wait for her birthday.

"You remembered!"

"Of course, I already bought the transport ticket."

The festival was going to open that weekend in Busan.

It seemed like NFM had put a lot of effort into the event. According to the main home page, they said that they had a huge announcement to make.

All the Asrian communities worldwide became noisy because of talks related to the event.

It seemed like there were going to be many foreign users who were planning to travel to Korea.

"Anyway, I'm in the magic country. So once you're reborn, come to the guild."

"Is there a duel arena inside the guild?"

"Haha, I'll build you one later on..."

Hyun laughed bitterly.

Hyun thought he might have to duel with Ain for a while.

'I'll finish everything up before the sun rises.'

Since he had many things he still had to do, Hyun began to move quickly.

* * *

After talking with Ain, Hyun teleported with Louise to the magic country's city of ‘Lantern’.

The reason why he had chosen Lantern as the place to set their base was simple:

Just as its name indicated, Lantern was a bright city, even at night.

—It was the best city for nocturnal people to live in.

'The name... Let's call it Shade. I picked it without thinking about it too much, but I kind of like it.'

He decided to call the guild 'Shade.'

It didn't take him long to finish the guild registration.

The next thing was choosing where he would build the guild's base.

A virtual place called a private room was the base of all users.

'I guess the more space we have, the better.'

He had more than enough money—it was the natural result of saving without making big purchases.

Hyun used the huge sum of 30 thousand gold to buy a private room that consisted of a building that even had a garden.

'Should I add an artificial sun?'

Since Louise couldn't see the real one, it could probably mean a lot to her.

It cost something extra, but it wasn't a lot of money.

He also didn't forget to build a duel arena for Ain.

Outside of it, he created an empty space that could be used for another thing.

After finishing the customization, Hyun called Louise.

"It's going to be morning soon, so let's enter."

"Is it safe there...?"

"Yes. Without my permission, not even a Transcendent can enter."

He wasn't wrong.

To enter a private room, one needed the permission of a guild member.

On the other hand, you needed the permission of an NPC to hire her or just let her stay in the guild.

Hyun first decided to make Louise a 'maid.'

Because the guild was small, he couldn't give her any other job.

"To enter, you need to accept, so accept it quickly."

A system box appeared in front of Louise.

Louise stuttered in surprise while reading the description.

"Hmm? I... I'm a maid?"

At that question, Hyun giggled inside while making a smile that resembled a vicious house owner.

"That's right. Because it's a building that costs 50 thousand gold, you probably won't be able to clean it in a day."

"Ugh, what?!"

"Not only that, but the garden is three times as big as the residence!"

Hyun wanted to make fun of Louise a little bit more, but after seeing that she was really turning pale, he decided to stop.

"I'm kidding. This was done because I can't yet accept NPCs under regular positions... Even if you sleep the whole day, I won't say anything."

"No, I have no intentions of not doing anything… so leave the cleaning to me! Although I've never done it..."

Louise didn't care about little things like that if it meant she had a house where she could stay.

"But the private room gets cleaned by itself..."

There was a place where there were lots of golden portals at Lantern City’s main plaza..

The one that was in the corner was the one that led toward the Shade Guild's private room.

Hyun and Louise entered the portal at the same time.

Louise was surprised the moment she entered the private room.

"That..."

Louise's looked at the sky.

There was a shining sphere illuminating her.

Although light touched her body, it didn't feel painful.

"It's the sun."

Although she looked at the sun directly, she didn't turn her head away.

It was the first time she had seen the sun.

While looking at Louise, who was mesmerized by the sun, Hyun made a satisfied smile.

He thought he had made the correct decision in buying the artificial sun.

"Let's go inside and take some rest."

Hyun pointed with his finger toward the giant building.

"There should be somewhere where you can eat, so go find it and eat what you want."

"Hyun... What about you?"

"I'm going to sleep for a little bit."

[Your tiredness level has reached 100!]

[For the safety of player 'Hyun', the game has been forcibly closed!]

[You won't be able to log in for 12 hours! Take some rest!]

As Hyun answered Louise, messages appeared in front of him.

After completing everything he had to do, Hyun finally felt relieved. He could feel his body getting suddenly heavier.

He was too tired to move to the bed, so Hyun just fell asleep in the capsule.

* * *

Hyun woke up inside the capsule after half a day of sleeping.

He saw the sunlight entering through the window.

He wondered if it was morning, but after looking at the clock, he saw it was already nighttime.

'I... Missed class again. Let's just avoid receiving academic probation.'

After eating, he thought about what had happened the day before.

He had been able to save Louise due to the sheer amount of lucky things that had happened..

He didn't remember very well, but he had dreamt about something related to saving Louise.

A smile was drawn on Hyun's face.

He felt relieved and proud of his accomplishment.

'I never thought I'd be so happy about saving the life of an NPC.'

Except for a few very sensitive people, there weren't many users who gave a deeper meaning to an NPCs death in Asrian.

Hyun had been the same up until recently.

When he’d seen the soldier commit suicide while doing the Duke's Tournament, he was shocked by it, but he hadn’t been vividly touched by his death.

But Louise was different…

Thinking about Louise's death made his feelings shake, so he tried his best to calm down.

When the sun had been getting closer to them on Iluna, he’d had trouble breathing correctly.

Why did he truly care about Louise?

With his head cooled down, Hyun thought of a possibility.

'I don't think that it's because of simple affection.'

Even if Asrian's NPCs had quite realistic expressions, they were a little bit awkward compared to reality.

Even the sensory assimilation was probably about 99%.

Although NPCs looked real, they weren't humans at the end of the day. Users knew the difference between the game and real life.

That was probably why users didn't feel saddened by the death of an NPC.

But Hyun could feel that way. Unlike most NPCs he'd met up until then, he couldn't feel that sense of awkwardness from Louise.

It was as if... She was a real human.

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