CH 124

박건12-15 minutes 24.09.2022

“Dang it. I wanted to try expanding my entire cycle of internal energy to output four-hundred and eighty years of internal energy, someday.”

“Did you really think that could be possible? If you were capable of such a cheat move, you’d be able to blast away a dragon with a single attack. At least, you would if you struck it squarely.”

Merlin nodded. In truth, he had expected as much, and he had overextended his internal energy output to test whether his expectations were correct.

“It seems that I need to contain the output of internal energy to my limit of one cycle.”

To output more internal energy, Merlin had to increase his internal energy capacity, but for whatever reason, his gold core was stabilizing at one cycle with no signs of increasing.

“Can you walk?”

Merlin shook his head.

“… It doesn’t look likely at the moment.”

“Eh! It’s that bad?”

“I’ll be fine soon. If you’re concerned about getting to our lodging, there are other ways.”

Merlin’s body rose and hovered ten centimeters from the ground. The two spirits that always surrounded him, Younghwi and Shining, were lifting him up.

“Let’s go.”

“Hmm.”

Miho made a concerned face, but Merlin didn’t care. No user should have been concerned that their in-game character might become sick, right? Regardless, Miho was worried.

‘It was a powerful attack. No matter how powerful he is, he couldn’t be fine after such a tremendous output of energy. Will his body be okay? All this because of my pride…’

Though she was concerned, Miho hid her inner feelings and asked, “What was the skill that you used just now? It didn’t look like an illusion-based magic spell.”

“Obviously, it was martial arts… Eh? Wait, you don’t know martial arts?”

Merlin was taken aback for a moment, until he remembered that the monsters in the south didn’t use martial arts. Instead, they reinforced their bodies, used some form of magic, or employed a monster-qi specific ability. The variance in their power levels were based solely on how well they could control their specific ability.

“Martial arts? Ah, I think I’ve heard of it before. The Jin species use that skill. Are you a Jin?”

“The Jin?”

“Oh, right, you’re not a Jin, you’re a passenger.”

Not paying any mind to Merlin’s question, Miho continued mumbling to herself. Though this behavior wasn’t normal for Miho, the relatively insensitive Merlin didn’t feel that anything was off.

“Did I ever mention to you that I was a passenger?”

Before Merlin could finish his thought, they entered the front door to their lodging. From the outside, the building looked like a small, single room structure, but it looked much more spacious from within.

Whir!

“What was that?”

“It’s the building’s system recognizing and registering us as guests. It’ll be maintained until we leave.”

“How interesting. I couldn’t sense any magic being used.”

The lodging space was clean. To be frank, it was barebones. The only furniture was two single beds and one table. Though the room had minimal furnishings, what was there looked of high quality.

“Do you want something to eat?” Miho asked.

“Oh, I brought a lot of food with me.”

Since Merlin traveled often, eating was always a high priority. In terms of food, clothing, and shelter, he had his magic-infused clothing and mobile-card housing, but he always needed to restock on food wherever he went. Since he had to always be mindful about his stock of food, he had fully stocked his housing and inventory space with food at Starting before he left. As an ability user, Merlin didn’t require that much food. Based on his current stockpile, he’d be able to sustain himself for about a year.

“Hey, try this.”

“Hmm? What’s that?”

“It’s called a hamburger. You don’t know what bread is, do you?”

“Bread?”

Looking at her golden eyes staring back at him, Merlin couldn’t help but find Miho cute.

“It’s made from flour… uhm… anyway, there’s something called flour. It’s a processed type of food.”

“Ooh.”

Muttering in amazement at all the different types of food Merlin had, Miho took a hamburger and ate it. Having opened her eyes to the wonder of new foods, her resistance to trying new food seemed to diminish by the second.

“Chomp. Chomp.”

With her small mouth, she got to work on the hamburger. Her expression of satisfaction was like a sharp dagger; a dagger that was piercing Merlin’s heart.

“Ugh!!”

“Eh? What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing. I’m fine.”

Merlin waved his hand as if to signal that it was nothing, but Miho had seen Merlin anguish in pain from his injuries just ten minutes ago, so she couldn’t help but feel concerned.

“You look like you’re in a lot of pain… does it still hurt?”

Merlin gave an awkward laugh.

‘Ugh. She’s so gosh darn cute.’

Even though he was a person who considered young people, who hadn’t gone through the rigors of social life, equal to animals, Merlin couldn’t help but be enamored by Miho. However, he couldn’t just hug her and roll around on the ground with her like he did when she was in her fox form.

“Hey, Miho. Can’t you revert to your normal look as a fox?”

“What? You don’t like how I look now?”

Surprised at Miho’s sensitive reaction, Merlin suddenly waved his hands.

“N-no, no, it’s nothing like that. I just thought it would be more comfortable for you.”

“Hmpf! I’m not going to change back into a fox until I’m done with this travel assignment.”

Miho snapped her body around after saying this and threw herself onto her bed.

‘… Why’s she acting like that?’

Not understanding Miho’s attitude, Merlin scratched the back of his head, took off his wide-brimmed hat, put it on the table, and laid down on his bed. He thought about taking off his robe to sleep comfortably, but he didn’t think this was necessary since he’d just be setting himself to sleep-mode before logging out. He wasn’t really going to sleep.

‘I probably can’t just log off, right?’

When one logged out, the location that one would be placed after logging in would be based on the spatial coordinates where the user was last located. So if Merlin logged out while on a moving object, as he was now, he would reappear in the location where the moving object was before he logged out. In this situation, Merlin would probably reappear in the sky and fall straight down into the sea. However, if he used sleep-mode before logging off, his character’s body would still be present in DIO, and he would be able to avoid logging back on mid-air.

“Hey, Miho.”

“What.”

Miho responded back with a sulking voice, but Merlin continued, unbothered.

“How long will it take for us to arrive?”

“… Moby Dick will travel around various islands and continents to gather all the representatives, so it’ll probably take another ten hours.”

“Then I’ll have to wake up in at least nine hours.”

Merlin organized his thoughts. The most appropriate logout time while traveling with Miho was twelve hours. Now that DIO’s access time was limited to twelve hours, if Merlin connected for six days (twelve hours in real-time), he wouldn’t be able to login to DIO for another six days.

‘But it’s not possible for me to be logged in for six days and take six days off.’

Optimally, using sleep-mode, Merlin would have to sleep twelve hours a day within DIO. If he used up all his play time in advance by playing continuously, he’d be forcefully logged out at the end of the sixth day without access to the server for another six days.

‘But my schedule here won’t allow me to take twelve hours out of the day to sleep. I need to finish this trip in ten days if possible.’

“Then, I’ll be up in nine hours. If I don’t wake up, shake me until I awake.”

“Hmpf! Don’t worry, I’ll beat you up until you wake up. So don’t worry, okay mister?”

“Huh?”

Finally sensing that something was off, Merlin turned his gaze towards Miho. With his eyes open just a crack, he glanced at her.

“What are you looking at?”

“Hmm… You’re really not going to change back into a fox?”

“Never!”

She looked angry, but Merlin laughed mischievously in response.

“If that’s the case!”

With a whoosh sound, Merlin magically levitated two meters up in the air. With the assistance of his two spirits, he slipped downwards through the air as if he was riding a slide, and landed on Miho. Surprised, Miho flailed her arms and legs, but it was impossible for her to resist Merlin with her physical abilities.

“You’re so cute!! I can’t hold back!”

“Hey, let go of me! Pervert!”

“I don’t care if I’m a pervert! Hahaha!”

“Ack!”

Not having the physical attribute (?) that represented the male gender in DIO, Merlin rolled around on Miho’s bed with Miho in his arms. Suddenly, Miho grabbed his cheeks and touched the tip of her nose to Merlin’s. Merlin, who had somewhat his grip on reality, suddenly felt an overwhelming aura and froze.

“Stay still!!”

With a sharp cry, Miho’s golden eyes turned red. As if it never happened, Merlin immediately stopped rolling around.

“Huh… w-what happened?”

“Hmpf!”

Snorting, Miho slipped away from Merlin’s grasp.

“Get up.” she ordered him.

Merlin shot straight up.

“Huh? What’s going on? Eh?”

Merlin had lost control over his body. His eyes turned red as he began to operate Magic Eye. He was trying to ‘crack’ Miho’s magic power pattern.

“Go outside and raise your hands above your head.”

However, Merlin couldn’t crack it.

“Huh? What? Why can’t I release myself…”

“And shut your mouth.”

“…!!”

With a bewildered look on his face, Merlin dutifully walked out of the room, dropped to his knees, and raised his arms above his head. Magic power swirled around him as he continued to use Magic Eye to crack the spell and break free, but he wasn’t having any luck. If Merlin had more magic power to operate with, he’d be able to shatter the controlling spell with ease, but at present, Merlin was weakened and had less magic power than Miho.

In front of Merlin, Miho made a satisfied expression and laughed.

“Bow down.”

As soon as she gave the order, Merlin bowed down flat against the ground. Gracefully, Miho got on top of Merlin’s back.

“You got too cocky after beating me once. However, remember that I am the Red Monster’s successor. Back then, you took advantage of my surprise when you used a process of Magic Eye that I hadn’t anticipated. But my ability to use Magic Eye far surpasses yours.”

Miho had devoted herself to researching and testing Magic Eye after being shocked by Merlin’s, which he had conceived in programming. Specifically, she had studied how Merlin applied infiltration during his use of cracking. Thereafter, Miho’s progress in the discipline of Magic Eye was tremendous. This was because Merlin’s Magic Eye had inspired her and brought an added effect to her own Magic Eye process.

As a result, Miho had increased her ability to confront other Magic Eye practitioners, raised her proficiency and mastery of Magic Eye, and greatly expanded the range of magic that she could perform while using Magic Eye. In a sense, Merlin was a kind of benefactor to her. Of course, not a single ounce of appreciation could currently be seen in Miho’s eyes.

“Go to sleep like that today.”

“Ugh…”

Merlin was finally able to circulate part of his internal energy, but all he could muster was a whimper. With complete control over him, Miho happily hummed a tune as she laid down on her bed. Soon, Miho’s breathing became regular.

‘Is she asleep?’

Nearly flat to the ground, Merlin was exasperated by Miho’s gentle, regulated breathing. Of course, as an internal energy user with above-average stats in HP, Strength, and Stamina, Merlin didn’t have any issue maintaining his bowed position, even if it went on for a few days, but he couldn’t help but be surprised that Miho could sleep so soundly after leaving him in such an awkward position.

“Hmm. I can’t think of any good ideas. This position is so uncomfortable, it’s making it hard for me to concentrate on anything.”

After pondering his options a bit longer, Merlin decided to just log off.

“Fine. [Log Out, Sleep-Mode].”

/Commencing log off. You will become immobile for the next 10 seconds. You are open to attack during this time, so if you’re not in a safe area, cancel the log off process and take appropriate measures. 10, 9, 8…/ 

There were no imminent threats that prevented his log off process. As long as he didn’t receive any shocks, he’d be able to log off. Of course, if he logged off without sleep-mode, he’d also be freed from his current physical restraints. If he did that, however, he’d also find himself in the middle of the sky when he logged back on.

‘I’ll just take a brief rest.’

As he mumbled to himself, Merlin closed his eyes. Like Miho, Merlin soon started breathing in a regular pattern.