This crazy bastard? Now that he's been found out, is he just going to confidently play as CottonCandyFox?
Where Yu-chae's character had disappeared, CottonCandyFox popped in like a replacement. As soon as he appeared and dashed toward me, the guild members freaked out.
[Party] ManaO-RingGuy: Ah fck, that startled me
[Party] Haerun: Huh? CottonCandyFox??
[Party] ParkSeungjin99: Ah lolololololol
[Party] RerererekCoughing: lmaooooooo
[Party] ParkSeungjin99: I think I'm losing my mind lmao
[Party] MochaBread: This is fcking hilarious ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[All] DrinkSomeWater: ;;
[All] DrinkSomeWater: What the hell are you doing, you bastard?
[All] CottonCandyFox: Open the party window
After DrinkSomeWater opened the party window, CottonCandyFox clicked to join and immediately started acting all cutesy with me like he'd been waiting for it.
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Hyung~ so like
[Party] CottonCandyFox: I'm a buffer too, so you're gonna take me into the team, right?
[Party] CottonCandyFox: I'm really good at buffing!! hehe~
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Let's party! Come on, let's party!! T.T
"Ha…"
I let out a hollow laugh and lowered my head. This is driving me nuts.
[Party] TheHunter: Hold up
[Party] TheHunter: Honestly? This might actually balance things out???
[Party] CrazyAboutHunting: Then let's put Guild Master and Sleepyhead on one team
[Party] CrazyAboutHunting: And throw Dorahee on the opposite team, should be good
[Party] Haerun: But CottonCandyFox isn't max level, is that fine?
[Party] Hwasoun: His insides are still the Guild Master, so he won't be easy to kill
[Party] Hwasoun: And since he's a buffer, the DPS players will protect him too
[Party] TheHunter: Yeah yeah
[Party] TheHunter: His buff rate is probably lower than Dorahee's
[Party] TheHunter: So if we give that team a strong DPS, it should even out
[Party] RerererekCoughing: Oh yeah, that makes sense?
Since CottonCandyFox was a buffer of all things, everyone ended up welcoming him.
'F*ck.'
I never imagined things would end up like this. I clutched my throbbing head.
＊＊＊
The preliminaries were just three days away. Starting tomorrow at 7 PM, the guild chat was fired up with talk about the upcoming matches.
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: Here's the schedule
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: I posted it in the group chat notice, check it
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: We'll be playing defensively by default
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: If you're not busy, please try to participate
[Guild] Haerun: Roger that
[Guild] MochaBread: Got it
[Guild] ParkSeungjin99: Okie
[Guild] DrinkSomeWater: Let's do one final check-up on Sunday
I checked the schedule image posted in the group chat. Each day had a different guild listed. A few names looked familiar.
'Wait. Even OneHeartOneMind signed up.'
It was the guild Kim Daeseok was in—the one I had briefly joined. OneHeartOneMind was set to attack on Monday. The second-ranked guild, Restraint, would attack on Sunday.
And the most important one, Favor, was scheduled for Wednesday. Yu-chae had said Favor would attack a few days into the preliminaries, and she was right.
The matchups were based on guild EXP, meaning you wouldn't necessarily face just any guild you applied to attack.
Since EarlyEvening was the undisputed number-one guild, their opponents were sure to be mostly high-level players.
'This should be fun.'
A brawl with a bunch of skilled players gathered together? Just the thought of it was exciting. Especially since Yu-chae acknowledged Restraint as a skilled guild—I was looking forward to it even more.
[Whisper] Yu-chae: Hyung
[Whisper] Yu-chae: Can we skip practice today?
[Whisper] Sleepyhead: Yeah, sure
Thanks to the past week of intense practice with the guild in the arena, I'd gotten fairly used to my skill combos.
Plus, with Yu-chae's help, I'd geared up decently too. I was mostly ready for the preliminaries starting tomorrow.
[Whisper] Yu-chae: Then...
[Whisper] Yu-chae: What are you doing tonight?**
"What am I doing tonight?"
Good question. I don't really have anything in particular planned. There weren't many people in the guild today either.
As I absentmindedly fiddled with my piercing, I gave a vague reply.
[Whisper] Sleepyhead: Gonna do some personal farm quests
Personal farm quests weren't really related to combat or progression—they were one of the healing-life features in the game.
You can't just skip over the healing content, the so-called "flower of RPGs."
In Xenoris, once you hit max level, you get a quest prompting you to build a personal farm.
I had built mine and left it alone, so at this point it was basically just a barren plot with a couple rocks rolling around.
I didn't have anything better to do, so might as well start decorating my farm.
Plus, if you raise your farm to level 20, it gives bonus buffs, so it wasn't a bad decision at all.
'This might actually be more fun than I thought?'
Even though I'd just thrown out the idea randomly, I suddenly felt a burst of motivation.
On a whim, I headed to my personal farm and was greeted by a field completely overgrown with weeds.
A desolate wasteland.
Well, it was only level 1, so no surprise there.
I dug through my quest log and found the farm quest buried in the corner.
What did I need to do first again? Plow the field?
I pulled out the hoe I got back when I first built the farm, and just as I was about to get started, Yu-chae messaged me, unable to resist chiming in.
[Whisper] Yu-chae: Hyung, hyung
[Whisper] Yu-chae: I wanna watch too
[Whisper] Sleepyhead: Watch what?
[Whisper] Yu-chae: Your personal farm stuff! ㅇㅅㅇ
What's there to watch about this?
This guy seriously must have nothing to do.
[Whisper] Sleepyhead: Sure
It hadn't even been 10 seconds since I replied before Yu-chae showed up.
Seeing the empty wasteland of my farm, he looked visibly shook.
[All] Yu-chae: Gasp
[All] Yu-chae: Hyung… you're really poor
[All] Sleepyhead: ??
[All] Yu-chae: You don't even have a house…
[All] Yu-chae: Do you sleep on the dirt at night? T_T
What the hell is this kid saying.
[All] Sleepyhead: Get lost
[All] Yu-chae: lololol
[All] Yu-chae: Just kidding heh~
Ignoring his nonsense, I started plowing.
Each time my character swung the hoe, the dry, rocky dirt began to gradually transform into a rich, dark soil.
[All] Yu-chae: Hyung…
[All] Yu-chae: Do you want this?
Yu-chae, who had been watching me plow the field, suddenly opened a trade.
Curious, I accepted.
What popped up in the window was… a straw hat.
'This little punk…'
Here I am working hard, and he throws me a gimmicky item like this?
I was about to reject it when I noticed something in the description:
[All] Sleepyhead: Lol, thanks
[All] Yu-chae: kekeke
He grinned as I took the item without complaint.
Looks like he's starting to figure out what kind of stuff I'll accept.
Should I be impressed?
[All] Yu-chae: You look so cute! >ㅡ<
After putting on the straw hat, Yu-chae started hopping around excitedly.
Hmm. I spun my character around.
It… actually looked pretty good.
With the buff from the straw hat, I quickly finished plowing the rest of the field.
As I completed the task, a cheerful ding sound rang out and the farm leveled up to level 2, unlocking a new quest.
This time, I had to plant tomato seeds and grow tomatoes.
[All] Yu-chae: Hyung
[All] Yu-chae: Take this too
Yu-chae, who had been standing there silently, opened another trade.
More buff items?
Heart pounding a bit, I accepted.
And then… item after item began flooding into the trade window:
Beautiful Romantic House, Couples' Swing, Fragrant Tea Time Table, Flowering Spring, 100 Blooming Sunflower Seeds...
'What the hell?'
Instead of buffs, it was a deluge of farm decor items, completely filling the trade window.
Just looking at it gave me a headache, and I rubbed my forehead.
I thought he'd figured out what kind of items I liked—but I guess not.
He even tossed in cash shop items.
Why the hell would anyone spend real money on this crap?
[All] Yu-chae: Hyung, hyung!
[All] Yu-chae: Use these to decorate your farm!! Hehe~
"..."
I was about to hit 'decline' with a sigh, but then I paused as more of Yu-chae's excited messages popped up.
Seeing how hyped he was, like this was his farm, it was kinda hard to reject him outright.
[All] Sleepyhead: The plot's small
[All] Sleepyhead: I don't think I can place all this stuff
[All] Yu-chae: Just shrink the field to like two plots
[All] Yu-chae: Then you can install everything!
[All] Yu-chae: The field's just for XP anyway, so it doesn't matter
Sensing that I was hesitating, Yu-chae quickly added an explanation.
[All] Yu-chae: You're level 2 now, right?
[All] Yu-chae: Once you harvest the tomatoes, you'll hit level 3, and then you get a free expansion ticket
[All] Yu-chae: Use that and you'll be able to place everything!
Oh. In that case, it might actually be worth accepting.
But I didn't want to give in too easily, so I played coy.
[All] Sleepyhead: I suck at decorating
[All] Sleepyhead: No interest lol
[All] Yu-chae: That's not true T_T
[All] Yu-chae: Decorating's easy!
[All] Yu-chae: If you don't take these, they'll just go to waste…
[All] Yu-chae: I can't even resell them T.T
[All] Sleepyhead: LMAO
In the end, I accepted all the items. Following Yu-chae's suggestion, I left just two fields for XP farming and converted the rest of the land into general space for decorations.
[All] Yu-chae: Hyung, your house goes here!
[All] Yu-chae: Place the house here and put the swing right out front!
Yu-chae ran all around the farm, barking out instructions like an overexcited puppy.
Alright, alright. I placed each item exactly where he told me.
After harvesting the tomatoes and using the expansion ticket to increase the land size, I installed all the remaining items.
The once-empty farm had transformed beyond recognition.
A pristine two-story white house blooming with roses, a tea table with chairs, bright yellow sunflowers, and a swing nestled between them.
It looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.
[All] Yu-chae: Pretty, right???
[All] Sleepyhead: Yeah
Just like he said, decorating the place made it much nicer to look at—and it even put me in a good mood.
I suddenly remembered Yu-chae's farm from before.
It was at least twice the size of mine, filled with vibrant flowers and trees.
Seeing him today, it was clear—he really had a knack for this.
As he wandered around my farm, inspecting his handiwork, Yu-chae suddenly sprinted over to my side and sent a shy emote.
[All] Yu-chae: I'm so happy
[All] Yu-chae: This is our newlywed house, hyung ♥
[All] Sleepyhead: Cut the BS lol
[All] Yu-chae: What do you mean BS T_T
I paused for a moment, then decided to add something.
[All] Sleepyhead: Still...
[All] Sleepyhead: Thanks to you, I won't have to sleep on the ground anymore lol
[All] Sleepyhead: Thanks
As I thanked him for buying me all those items and even helping decorate, Yu-chae's character, who had been fluttering around me, suddenly froze like it had glitched.
It took a while before he finally responded.
[All] Yu-chae: If I don't take care of you, who will?
[All] Yu-chae: Should I go buy a bed for inside the house too?
[All] Sleepyhead: N~ that's enough now~
[All] Yu-chae: LOL
[All] Yu-chae: Okaaay~ hehehe~
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : http://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]