PP Chapter 3

It had already been three days since he started playing with Won.

Perhaps because it was in a game and not reality, there was no sense of distance, making it easy to get close.

Dohwa, now a respectable candidate for game addiction, clocked in at the PC bang today as soon as school ended.

Perhaps thinking that Dohwa was just going through a rebellious phase, his parents just watched whatever he did.

Knowing exactly what his parents were thinking as they watched him, Dohwa wore a subtle expression as he took his usual seat. It was far from the smoking room and tucked deep in a corner, so people rarely sat there. For Dohwa, who disliked rubbing shoulders with crowds, it was the perfect space.

He would rather play at home, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask his parents to buy him a custom-built computer, afraid it would cause an absolute uproar.

“It’s more comfortable to play at home…”

In fact, he had already asked Sohyun to look into a quote for a custom-built computer.

The money he had saved up so far was enough to readily buy one, so it was better to buy it quietly without his parents knowing.

Having made a plan to buy a computer with his own money, Dohwa logged into Betting Bad with a practiced ease.

He then pulled up the friends list in the corner of the screen and slowly pushed through the main quest alone while waiting for Won to log on.

The main quests of Betting Bad had been simple so far.

In a world where justice had conversely become evil, it was a story where the protagonist and playable character became the greatest evil and good.

Watching his character’s name gradually gain notoriety, Dohwa checked the friends list from time to time.

“When is he coming?”

He was waiting for Won’s nickname, currently grayed out offline, to turn blue.

Won had taught him how to read the map, so he navigated well and progressed swiftly through his quests, but strangely, he kept waiting for Won to show up.

​And Won, whom Dohwa had been waiting for so anxiously, logged in right exactly when a dungeon unlocked.

“He’s here!”

Dohwa, who had shouted in excitement without realizing it, was startled by his own behavior and his eyes went wide.

He glanced around to check his surroundings and quickly sent a whisper.

[Whisper] Peach: Are you here>??

[Whisper] Peach: You’re a bit late today, did something happen?>?

[Whisper] Peach: I mean, of course, I’m not complaining about you being late, I was just curious……

After firing off the messages in a rush and belatedly feeling self-conscious, a reply came from Won.

[Whisper] Won: Did you wait long? I had a few things to do today so I’m later than usual.

​At the nonchalant reply, Dohwa rested his chin in his hand and pouted. At first, Won had been so eager to help him as a newbie, but now it looked like Dohwa was the one clinging to him.

“I guess I’m not worth his time anymore.”

While muttering words that others might misunderstand with his lips pouted, Dohwa’s hands moved honestly.

[Whisper] Peach: I didn’t wait that long! But I did wait. Since the person who’s always here wasn’t around…… But where are you??

[Whisper] Won: Hmm, I’m at the PVP area. I’ll just come to you. You know how to send your location, right?

“Hmph, of course I know. As if I wouldn’t know that.”

Muttering coyly, Dohwa’s fingers tapped lightly across the keyboard.

Not long after he sent the coordinates, a familiar figure appeared. An all-white male character dropped down from the sky.

[Whisper] Won: It looks like you’ve been working hard on the main quest.

[Whisper] Won: You struggled a bit at first, but it’s manageable on your own now, right?

“It’s not fun at all doing it alone. After leaving me, whom you used to serve so graciously, to play all by myself, you have the nerve to say ‘It’s manageable on your own?’ Unbelievable.”

[Whisper] Peach: Yepp.

Contrary to his grumbling mouth, it was an obedient reply. The sheer contrast between his outward actions and inner thoughts was embarrassing even to himself.

The dungeon that had opened this time triggered when the playable character went to gather funds from a pirate ship located underwater. In the guide video he had watched beforehand, it was swarming with gross monsters covered in barnacles.

“I hate gross things……”

Muttering his dissatisfaction quietly, Dohwa accepted the party invitation Won sent and told him which dungeon had opened.

[Party] Peach: The underwater dungeon opened for me.

[Party] Won: You’re already there? You really worked hard. Did you watch a guide video for that place too?

[Party] Peach: Yees

[Party] Won: You don’t really need to watch guide videos for the dungeons that pop up during the story.

[Party] Peach: What if s1meone yells at me

[Party] Won: Then I’ll yell at them back.

“Really?”

Not quite understanding why he was doing so much for him, Dohwa muttered in a half-doubting voice.

As if he had heard that doubt directly, Won added more.

[Party] Won: I’ll really yell at them. I’m good with words.

[Party] Peach: It’s a promiseㅜ If we meet someone who complains, you have to step up and fight them for me!!

[Party] Won: Of course.

With a satisfied smile at the readily given answer, Dohwa followed Won’s instructions and obediently clicked the dungeon entry button.

And then he saw hell.

The dungeons he had encountered so far weren’t even dungeons.

Combined with Betting Bad’s uniquely shitty complex paths and shitty traps, the underwater dungeon was literal hell.

It wasn’t a lie; it was like hell had been introduced to the mortal world. It was to the point where Dohwa briefly thought, ‘Am I being punished for playing around too much by having to clear this insane, spicy-difficulty dungeon?’

‘I don’t think it was this bad when I watched the guide video.’

Dohwa thought to himself, having practically turned into a suicide squad of one by solo-tanking a mechanic where damage was supposed to be shared to hurt less. And at the exact same moment he had that thought, he unconsciously ran for his life to take another share-damage attack all by himself, and died a heroic death.

“Crazy!”

[Party] Peach: I’m srorry

[Party] Won: It’s okay.

[Party] Urrrkkkakkung: it’s fine

[Party] Hero or Villain: We have to take that hit together. When they run like a maniac, just stay still.

[Party] Peach: -kay

Barely managing a reply, Dohwa dodged the monster’s AoE attack with an exhausted face.

It was a good thing the healer was Won, who immediately supported him even when he accidentally took a hit. Had it been anyone else, he would have been harshly criticized and kicked out of the party.

​“…How am I supposed to run dungeons with people I don’t know?”

Should he call Sohyun from now on? After getting a taste of this atrocious dungeon, he never wanted to go alone again.

He could finally understand the feelings of his cat, Myang, who always insisted on going to the vet together with him after experiencing a trip there with his subtly merciless mother.

He felt like he was developing separation anxiety he never had before.

Dohwa thought such things with a dazed face.

It was after he had taken about eight AoE attacks, and Won had healed him all eight times as if saying, ‘Nothing happened, peekaboo!’

“This must be why people say studying is the easiest thing.”

Having achieved this newfound realization, Dohwa finally muttered softly with a completely peaceful expression, like someone who had reached enlightenment..

Saving a world made of polygons inside a game was no easy task. Thinking that playing the hero just didn’t suit his aptitude, Dohwa exited the dungeon completely worn to rags.

The story that began immediately after exiting the dungeon was about Peach easily finding gold and treasures that could be used as funds, causing everyone in the organization she worked with to marvel and begin acknowledging her.

“Easy, my ass.”

It was fucking hard. Muttering in a half-dazed voice, Dohwa soon shook his head slightly to pull himself together.

“Ugh, I’m exhausted. How can anyone stay glued to this all day?”

Dohwa mumbled, thinking of Sohyun, who played the game for so long that whenever asked what he was doing, he’d say Betting Bad, and eventually just ‘B’, and you’d still know he was playing Betting Bad.

While he was dizzy and reeling from the severe beating he took from the spicy-difficulty dungeon, Won, who had followed Dohwa as the story progressed and moved him to another location, spoke up.

[Party] Won: This dungeon is a bit difficult, isn’t it?