Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Chapter 28 Buster Call

After the guild recruitment event, the coffeehouse had been passing its days as usual, without any particular changes.

If I had to pick out anything unusual, there was the day I had to go into the office unexpectedly for a work meeting, and the day I sent someone to check on Sani because his visits had become infrequent lately.

But today was a little different.

Early Saturday morning.

Normally, I wouldn't even have woken from my sound sleep at this hour, but I opened the coffeehouse early and swept and mopped the floor.

Because today was the day.

【Hero's Path Mobile Game Free Discussion Board】

-Dangsan-ri Coffeehouse: Announcement of the First Hero's Path Offline Gathering [43]

As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot. I had decided that now, when Hero's Path had more players than ever, was the perfect time for a gathering, so I posted the announcement on the board.

The gathering would be held here, at Dangsan-ri Coffeehouse.

There would be no fewer than thirty-two participants, including the shamans who already frequented the coffeehouse and the National Intelligence Service employees who had become somewhat acquainted with them.

I generally preferred to avoid troublesome things whenever possible, but this time I couldn't help it.

After all, one phrase had appeared frequently in the posts Yongman had written while guarding the message board alone: "If I'd known things would turn out like this, maybe I should've gone to one of those gatherings."

Of course, since most of the players were shamans Yongman had already met, it was as though they had been holding gatherings every day. Still, that could hardly compare to an event bearing an official title.

Hanging up a banner together, taking photographs, and accumulating memories like that would surely become pleasant recollections for Yongman, who had such a long life ahead of him.

The only price for those memories was sleeping in late and a modest amount of money for ingredients.

Besides, I hadn't even needed to go shopping for the ingredients separately.

-Vroooom. Screech.

"Express delivery!"

"Yes, I'll be right out!"

"Where should I put everything?"

"Just stack the boxes anywhere near the entrance."

"All right."

The driver got out of his old delivery truck, piled the boxes up as though throwing them onto the ground, and promptly drove away.

Even though I had only been a little late coming out because I was getting him a drink.

"Wow! The boxes are stacked as high as I am! These are green onions, and... coffee and snacks..."

"Merchants really are something else."

The ingredients I had stocked up on when the shamans visited were already almost exhausted.

It went without saying that many of the ingredients used in the coffeehouse were difficult to find in ordinary stores.

Buying them individually online would waste money on delivery fees, while the nearby supermarkets didn't carry them. What saved me from that predicament was a contact number on an old sticker beneath the counter that read "All Coffee Supplies."

(Good heavens, I heard the old lady at Dangsan-ri Coffeehouse sold the place, but I guess it's still running! Now, how much do you need? You're a long way off, so I reckon we'll have to send it by express delivery like before, right?)

It had taken considerable concentration to understand the unfamiliar dialect that the sharp-voiced old woman rattled off like a machine gun, but the result was more than satisfactory.

She sold every one of the coffeehouse ingredients that I had struggled to find even online. Her professionalism in sending an express delivery early on a weekend morning made me feel strangely guilty.

As I worked up a sweat carrying boxes from early morning, I spotted a familiar figure approaching from a distance.

"Oh? It's Fox Grandpa over there!"

"You've come at just the right time. Please help me carry these inside."

"You insolent brat! What sort of greeting is that?"

"Grandpa!"

"Oh, there you are. Lia, you're much better than that fellow."

Thanks to Lia throwing herself straight into his arms, the Elder's displeasure seemed to vanish immediately.

But regardless of his hurt feelings, there was still plenty of preparation left to do.

"You've lost your mind, utterly lost it. The National Intelligence Service was already in an uproar because of you, trying to select the people they would send."

"Yes, yes, it's all my fault. So please finish chopping those green onions. There's still a mountain of vegetables to prepare."

"Didn't you say it starts in the afternoon? The sun has only just risen, so why are you rushing me like this?"

"This is my first time hosting so many guests too. Please take care of these onions as well."

"Bah! Why do these tasks always fall to me?"

Afraid his irritation might be directed at me again, I quickly escaped from the kitchen.

There were basins full of vegetables for the ramen, coffee and tea portioned out in advance, and even sweet potatoes for dessert.

With all the preparations completed, all that remained was to wait.

For the slightly unusual guests who would soon come flocking to the coffeehouse.

____________

And that same day, there was one other person—no, one other monster—preparing for the gathering.

"Yongman, have you lost your mind? Why are you running around the construction site like that?"

"Sorry. I'm in a hurry today."

"Why? Going to meet a girl or something?"

Worker Choi wiggled his little finger with a mischievous expression.

"Well, there will be women there too..."

"W-What'd you say? Are you serious?"

An utterly unexpected answer had come from Yongman, who would normally have scoffed at the suggestion.

"Boss! Boss! Yongman says he's meeting a girl today!"

"Is that true?"

"Yongman's going on a blind date?"

"He's still so young. What blind date? What's that thing called again, a casual date? That's probably it."

"No, I'm not going to meet a girl..."

As Worker Choi's booming voice rang across the construction site, cutting through the noise of the heavy machinery, the workers began gathering one by one.

"Hey, what about your clothes? You didn't have a bag earlier. Are you going home to change first?"

"Clothes? I'm already wearing them."

"This bastard's out of his mind. Where in the world is there an idiot who meets a girl wearing work clothes? Hurry up and finish hauling this stuff so we can knock off early. I'll take you to buy some clothes."

"I'm telling you, it's really fine."

"I said it's not fine!"

Once the misunderstanding that Yongman was meeting a woman had taken hold, not a single word of his protests got through.

The workers going up and down the stairs had loaded their backs with the mortar bags and bricks Yongman was supposed to carry.

And when Yongman finished work much earlier than usual, the foreman held out two thick envelopes.

"Here, take this too."

"Why are there two envelopes?"

"This one's from all of us to buy you some clothes. If you go dressed like that, the girl will run away."

"We only collected ten thousand won per person. Just take it."

"But..."

"I said take it! You're going to break the boss's wrist."

Worker Choi forcibly pressed the envelope into Yongman's hesitant hand, but Yongman couldn't quite bring himself to take it and leave.

It was because of the complicated emotions he was experiencing for the first time in a long while.

Ten thousand won was no small amount of money to these people. It was money earned through rough, arduous work, the kind disparagingly called manual labor.

The money inside the envelope, gathered little by little through their efforts, was not merely a collection of ten-thousand-won bills.

But before he could even collect himself, Worker Choi seized Yongman by the shoulder with his rough hands and practically forced him into his old SUV.

"Hey, your big brother may look like this now, but back in the day, when I went to Seomyeon, the girls lined up in rows to see me. I even got business cards from people asking me to be a model. Your face isn't quite as good as mine, but you've got long legs, so you'll look decent if we dress you up. Just trust your big brother."

They were memories that inspired not the slightest confidence. Even Yongman, who had little interest in human appearances, could tell that Worker Choi's facial features and body proportions were hardly the sort that would attract such popularity.

By the time Yongman had heard all about the glorious exploits Choi had supposedly achieved in Seomyeon, Gwangalli, and Haeundae, the two arrived at a secondhand clothing shop in the town near the construction site.

"Wow, look at the quality of this stuff. They've got nothing but top-grade clothes here. Hey, you've hit the jackpot today. Try holding this up too. No, not that one, this one!"

Thanks to Worker Choi's busy hands as he pulled clothes from the racks and held them against Yongman one after another, Yongman was reborn in the blink of an eye.

A bright red Adadas tracksuit top with a little pilling, a black beanie, and bootcut jeans as the centerpiece of the outfit.

He was the perfect reincarnation of a young man from the turn of the millennium.

Having dressed Yongman up to the nines, Worker Choi then ignored his repeated insistence that he would be fine on his own and drove him to the coffeehouse, where they arrived a little later than the appointed time.

'One, two, three, four... Is everyone here already?'

But despite having been thoroughly dressed up(?), Yongman couldn't find the courage to enter the crowded coffeehouse.

It looked completely different from the coffeehouse he usually visited simply because there were people there to talk to about Hero's Path.

Not only was there an elaborate banner hanging outside, but every table was packed with people.

He couldn't bear the thought of all the eyes that would turn toward him if he opened the door and walked in now.

'Damn it. I should've just taken today off and come straight here. Being late has only made it harder to go inside.'

And so Yongman spent quite some time pacing outside the window.

"Mister Imugi, what are you doing?"

"Whoa! You scared me! How long have you been there?"

The person who had been standing behind Yongman, looking into the coffeehouse with him, was none other than Lia.

"I've been here for a while!"

"Why aren't you going inside?"

"Huh? No reason. But what's that you're holding?"

Caught off guard by the question that struck directly at the heart of the matter, Yongman hastily changed the subject to the object in Lia's hands.

"I made it well, didn't I? Hehe."

He wasn't entirely sure, but it was the sort of paper decoration a child her age might make.

She had cut sheets of A4 paper into long strips and connected them like a chain. She had made so much that even though she was holding it in both hands, part of it was dragging along the ground.

"Want some help?"

"Yes!"

"Are you going to decorate this place with it?"

"Mister said there's a party today. But Sani's hibernating for the winter, so he won't be able to come for a while. That's why I'm going to decorate Sani's house too."

"I... see."

Yongman barely managed to agree, concealing the emotion choking his voice at Lia's answer.

The admirable thoughtfulness of a child who knew nothing of her friend's death.

Yongman had no idea that the dog called Sani was actually alive and well, and was in fact a raccoon dog that really did hibernate. As a result, the misunderstanding only continued to grow out of control.

"Don't you have any other friends?"

"Hmm, no! Sani is Lia's only friend."

That wasn't a lie either. She called everyone else Mister or Grandpa, after all.

He had been the same.

Tormented by the loneliness of being left alone, he had even spent the Dragon Pearl he had completed through a thousand years of waiting to preserve the game. All so he could wait for his old comrades, who might return someday.

But this poor child wasn't even allowed that hope of waiting.

All that awaited her was the day when this innocent period of her life would pass and she would have to accept her friend's death.

'Still, the coffeehouse owner is very considerate. Since she calls him Mister, they probably aren't related by blood. Huh? Wait a minute.'

Yongman, who had been absentmindedly stroking Lia's head out of pity, suddenly noticed something strange.

"Mister, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. You decorated it so well."

'She has no soul. She's nothing but an empty shell. He's been raising a child like this all this time? So that's why he needed the Dragon Pearl. That's what it was.'

When something exists for a long time, it naturally comes to embody certain principles. It may gather auspicious energy, and sometimes even a sinister curse capable of harming people.

But just because something comes to embody such principles does not mean that it becomes a living being.

The coffeehouse owner, who was busily carrying food inside, had taken this child in despite knowing that.

He had even gone so far as to seek Yongman out in search of a way to fill her with a soul.

And the child wasn't the only one he had taken under his wing.

'I changed too, staying beside that coffeehouse owner. Even while receiving so much from him...'

"Mister Imugi, are you crying?"

"Who's crying! If you've finished putting everything up, hurry inside. I'll come in a little later."

"Okay!"

After hurriedly wiping away the traces of tears, Yongman had to linger in front of the coffeehouse for quite some time, blowing his nose as it continued to sting.