[We’ve stockpiled enough chapters for a trial. Chapters 181-182 are 9 ATC each. Depending on the results, we will swap our unlock method to 9 ATC per chapter and do a mass upload on Wed.]
52. Cosmic Romance (2)
Cracks made their way from the top of the egg to its bottom until it burst with a popping sound. Debris scattered all over, and its fragments sparkled like jewels.
A little fairy holding her hands together now sat where the egg used to be.
The Two-Handed Swordsman looked at her with a blank expression. Wrapped in a halo of light, she looked quite divine.
With her eyes closed, she got up from her seat and pressed the switch on the incubator, causing its light to disappear.
“We need to save electricity.”
“… Huh?”
“You shouldn’t just leave it on forever.”
With a flap of her wings, she began to soar and wander around his home, turning off the lights in all the rooms he wasn’t using. Afterward, he pulled the curtains and window open, allowing bright sunlight to enter the house as she put all the clothes lying on the floor into the washing machine.
He was half out of his mind. A little fairy the size of his palm was flying around, doing housework.
After a while, she approached him, looking a little angry.
“You have to wash the dishes right away. Do you understand?”
“Huh? Ah…”
“Why are you eating only ramen?”
“That’s… because I’m lazy. I don’t feel comfortable about this.”
She looked up at him, then sighed, gesturing for him to reach out his hand.
Indulging her, he stretched out his palm. She climbed on top of it and bit his finger.
“Ugh!”
“You’re exaggerating.”
She nodded as she plopped down.
“Your nutritional status is in dire condition.”
“Really?”
“Yes! You’re like a living zombie! I bet you’re going to become one soon!”
When she threatened him with a scary face and both hands raised, the man laughed bitterly, finding her ridiculous. However, he soon sat down on the bed due to his aching back.
His health was so poor he was already eligible for medical treatment, but he hadn’t been in a hospital in so long, causing his recovery to turn into deterioration instead.
“Are you taking any medications?”
“Ah… I’m too lazy for that…”
“Do you want to die? Shall I make it easy for you and kill you, then?”
“Uh, uh…”
The Two-Handed Swordsman gently avoided her gaze. With her fists clenched, she flew to his face.
Puck puck!
She began hitting him.
“Oh, it hurts! It hurts!”
“That’s why I’m doing it.”
“Agh! Alright, alright! I’ll go drink it!”
By the time she returned with his medicine, she already looked satisfied. The fairy opened a bottle of water and poured its contents into a cup. The Two-Handed Swordsman could only watch her in silence.
“Hey… What should I call you?”
“Me? I don’t have a specific name. Ah! Give me one.”
“Well… Fist Fairy?”
“Are you kidding?”
She brought a dictionary with her and started looking for a suitable name, allowing the two to brainstorm seriously together. After much deliberation, they decided on the name Windy.
She found out the Two-Handed Swordsman’s true name was Kim Han-son.
“Where did your nickname come from?”
Han-son couldn’t answer.
Manipulating the incubator, Windy pulled out small devices from it, which she then installed in his bedroom and living room.
As she entered it, it emitted light.
“Ta-da!”
“Did you just become bigger?”
“Isn’t it amazing? G&P’s technology is the best in the universe.”
Grown Windy mesmerized Han-son. Retaining her femininity, she became a human!
Taking a closer look, she realized she was holographic.
Kim Han-son reached out and pressed her arm.
“Huh?”
However, as soon as he felt her skin, he panicked. Windy wiggled her fingers and grinned.
“I can do this, too!”
“Ahhh!”
She clung and tickled him, forcing him to laugh in the end.
The two started living together. After logging in to New World and waiting, Windy appeared in it as well. Since there were quite a few testers like him, they occasionally saw players accompanied by fairies.
“Why are you taking your clothes off, Han-son?”
“… Uhm.”
“Green underwear… Pervert.”
He couldn’t make excuses. Instead, he thought about what he had been doing so far as he watched other people spend time with their fairies. Windy’s personality was completely different from cute fairies.
Han-son traveled through space with her. They looted, broke the earthenware of the Holy Union bastards, and explored together. He was having so much fun he didn’t even think of broadcasting it.
When he logged out, she was still there to greet him.
His heart warmed up for the first time. The more time they spent together, the closer they became. Eventually, he reached a point where life without her was practically unimaginable.
Time passed swiftly.
There came a day when he noticed Windy looking out the window.
She was always active, but she had no energy lately.
“Do you want to go out?”
“You need to rest.”
“I’m okay now.”
By taking medication and eating properly, he was able to walk properly again. He was afraid to go outside before since he didn’t want to do it alone, but he was fine now. He had Windy, who was wearing the doll clothes she ordered online.
She entered his shirt pocket.
“I think this is better than a battleship.”
He trembled a little at the thought of going out, but her words gave him strength.
Finally stepping away from his house, which he seldom did unless it was to go to the hospital, Han-son began to walk around the city. The scenery that unfolded before him was so pretty just strolling between buildings put Windy in a good mood.
At some point, he stopped by a coffee shop and ordered coffee in person for the first time in his life. People around them looked at Windy curiously, but since information about fairies had already spread, no one made a fuss.
Wendy ate her cheesecake with both hands.
“This is nice!”
Han-son thought Windy had recovered, which was fortunate. Even so, he still wandered around until nightfall. He even climbed the mountain behind the city and enjoyed the city’s evening view.
The two remained silent for a moment.
“Can you do well without me, Han-son?”
“…”
The Two-Handed Swordsman’s eyes fluttered open. It was something he hadn’t thought of before. He finally found out why Windy had no energy at all.
“Ah…”
“The test period ends in a week…”
“Are you going away?”
“I’m just a test product. Someone better will come, I’m sure…”
Han-son looked at her from the side. She was smiling, but her eyes screamed of sadness.
The duration of the beta test was one month. At the end of it, he heard the fairies would be returned to the company along with their incubators. Since she was just a test product, she didn’t know if they would ever meet again.
Still wearing her smile, she looked at him.
“Han-son! Tomorrow… Let’s go to punish the players of the Holy Union!”
“Okay.”
“And the day after tomorrow…”
The two made plans for the week, ones so absurd others would find it hard to believe they’d push through with them. Nevertheless, they deliberately devised difficult and futile strategies.
They invaded the Holy Union.
They had always been annoying guys anyway.
“They’re crazy!”
“Fairy in sunglasses… and green underwear….”
“It’s the disgusting Two-Handed Swordsman and the insane fairy duo! We’re all going to die!”
“Shut up and run!”
The players of the Holy Union, who escaped from them, despaired when they reached a dead end. Red black smoke blew out, illuminating their dark surroundings.
“Ahh! W-why are you doing this?! What did we do wrong?!”
“You messed up the environment.”
“We just threw out trash where we’re supposed to!”
“You have a major segregation and recycling issue.”
“You’re insane!”
Swoosh!
The player’s head fell as Windy approached him with a bunch of valuables. Han-son raised his thumb at her, to which she replied with the same gesture and a smile.
She even stole expensive battleships.
Since then, they had been wandering around New World’s hot spots, looting or taking in the nice scenery. No one could stop them. Those who attempted it cost them their lives.
They became known for destroying an entire Holy Union city along with several guilds.
They spent time together just as much in reality. They even went to see a movie together, which was the first time Han-son had ever gone to the cinemas. He remembered Windy diving into the popcorn bucket and eating all of it. He couldn’t really remember what the movie was about, though.
A week passed in an instant.
When the time for farewells came, Han-son couldn’t say anything. Windy kissed him on the cheek and entered the incubator.
[Operation has stopped.]
Such a phrase came to mind.
The Two-Handed Swordsman stared at her hatch blankly. After a while, team leader Kim Woon-jong personally retrieved Windy.
Unlike before, the house was clean and smelled fragrant due to its air freshener.
It had always been like this since she came.
Silence fell in his dark room after such a long time.
Han-son looked at her clothes neatly folded on the bed.
“Ugh…”
He felt something warm roll down his cheeks.
He had never cried despite his difficult life, but now he couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. All he could do was collapse on his bed as he let his emotions out.
After she disappeared, he no longer logged in to The New World. Instead, he immersed himself in his memories about her as he retraced his steps back to the streets they strolled through.
Taking out his phone, he looked at the picture he had taken with Windy, then went on the Internet.
[Title: Protest in front of G&P headquarters!
Posted by: Give Them Back
Starting tomorrow, I’ll be holding a protest in front of the G&P headquarters.
I don’t care what the punishments will be, but I can’t just stand by while they take our friends and lovers away from us. If you have time, please do join me.
CEO Lee Jin-woo.
If you are reading this, please…
[With Ramu.jpg]
I want to meet Ramu again.]
Comments: 1,231
Hard Disk: I’ll participate as well.
Give Them Back Please: I’ll join in. They can’t just break me up with Haran like this.
Solidarity: I can’t stop crying.
Han-son reached a decision.
As soon as dawn broke, he took part in the protest. It seemed that almost all the testers had gathered. Half of them were male, and half of them were female.
But all of them were desperate.
However, romance was only ever memorable when they were given a melancholic ending.
* * *
Jin-woo, having a leisurely time, came to the research center and listened to the report.
Prof. Kim Dae-jin and Faro stood side by side.
“The beta test results are amazing! We gained an unprecedented amount of applicants, and some of them have never even played The New World before!”
“At this rate, we’ll be able to collect biometric information smoothly.”
The outcome was so much better than they expected Jin-woo just nodded when he heard the news about a protest.
According to Faro, the subordinates she dispatched also looked depressed. It seemed like they had quite a lot of fun hanging out with humans, causing them to forget their original forms.
“That would be part of evolution.” Faro laughed quietly.
Resetting the project to zero once the testing period was over was Se-yeon’s idea. She implemented it as a contingency for various situations.
With a dark smile on her lips, she put the protest scene on the screen.
“Whew! A very good response! It’s more intense than I expected!”
“Is this okay?”
“Heroines losing their memories is a common plot for romance!”
“Is it?”
“Finding their past together after she lost her memories will ensure they’ll never be able to fall for others again! I call this Operation Tear Bomb.”
Now that he thought about it, it was indeed a very common setting, but the reason why it was so frequently used was that it worked so well.
She had a much longer-term plan in mind than he thought.
It had only been a month since the test, but once it was officially released, the fairies’ memories would reset every two years.
It took about a month to upload the biometric information they acquired. After that, they were free to return or stay in space again. That was the planned setup, at least.
The researchers were very fond of witnessing human suffering.
“As expected of the Great Emperor.”
“Such a vicious plan…”
“After all, the pain of the mind is greater than the pain of the body.”
Did the demons dye Se-yeon, or did Se-yeon dye the demons?
Jin-woo decided to leave what to do in the future to the dispatched fairies. If they had fun together, they were more likely to come back. Otherwise, they’d want to stay away from their previous partner forever.
Hearing his conclusion, Se-yeon nodded.
“That would be fine too! Let’s add a new setting!”
At that moment, she created a setting where their memories could be regained relative to their happiness level!
‘It’s a little different from what I expected, but…’
It seemed a bit off-putting. Still, it posed no problems in achieving their goals, so he decided to let it pass.
People who were deeply involved in the research, like Se-yeon, did not know this fact. Although he had no intention of hiding it, they thoroughly hid the truth, saying that hiding it was more ‘atmospheric.’
‘I have to tell her, though.’
Hiding it from even Yoo-na made him feel strange.
Returning to her sanctuary, he saw Yoo-na and the members of her sorority.
She didn’t seem like she was herself at that moment. Her eyes were slightly red, which surprised Jin-woo.
“… This is sad.”
“What is?”
“I was looking into New World: Romance, and…”
Yoo-na showed him a story hand-written by the Two-Handed Swordsman. It was about the time he spent with his fairy.
[Title: Memories with Windy
Posted by: One-Handed Swordsman
Windy nagged a lot.
The first thing she said when we met was to save electricity. And she was unfairly violent.
[Windy throwing fists.jpg]
But she always cared for me. On days when I couldn’t sleep because of back pain, she always showed up with medicine. If it persisted, she would sleep beside me to comfort me. That didn’t heal my back, but I was able to sleep tightly because of her.
Windy liked sweets.
She hated being bored. So when we went to the cinema, she did nothing but eat caramel popcorn. Her whole body became sticky, but it didn’t make her look any less pretty.
[Windy swimming in a popcorn bucket.jpg]
She also liked to go for walks.
This one time, she caught a flying butterfly and endlessly looked at it with curiosity. She said it didn’t look tasty. She also got terrified by beetles on the same day.
She got used to them eventually, though.
[Windy became friends with a beetle.jpg]
She made me healthy.
She taught me what it meant to be happy.
I’m in front of G&P’s headquarters now.
According to the New World: Romance team leader, there is a high possibility she won’t remember me because she was just using test memory storage. And even if she remembers, he says, her memories might be wiped out every two years since that’s the only way they’d be able to function without problems.
His eyes told me he was just as sad about it.
He went on to say that she might desperately try to keep the really happy moments, though. In fact, such phenomena had apparently been observed in some fairies.
Maybe it’s because she has a soul.
Windy, the fairy, isn’t just a machine.
It’s okay if she says she forgets about me.
We can just create unforgettable happy memories again.
My name is Kim Han-son.
I got into a car accident, paralyzing one of my arms… I wanted to use both hands, so I dubbed myself Two-Handed Swordsman instead.
It’s still a little uncomfortable, but Windy liked my name.
That’s why I’m trying to grow to like it too.
From now on, I am the One-Handed Swordsman.
I will no longer use two-handed swords.]
1,231 comments
Fun: I recommend it.
Ttukbaegi Master: Bro, that was romantic as hell.
Tree Planter: Hmm… this doesn’t sound as nice coming from Mr. Green Underwear.
500 Years Solo: ㅠㅠ I cried. Love always hurts.
Halong: He’s a real man. I’m crying, bro.
Holy Miner: Hey, you motherfucker! Why did you destroy our guild? Don’t be fooled. This kid is just crazy.
└Strong Panties: Oh, please read the room.
He heard the testers wrote similar articles while protesting.
Jin-woo looked at Yoo-na. Staring into her reddened eyes, he felt his heart pierced.
She knew he had created fairies using the Machine Emperor. She also thought of the Dark Star and Faro as one and the same.
‘Who would’ve thought cockroaches can turn into fairies?’
Even Jin-woo couldn’t believe it.
Yoo-na gently wiped her tears away.
“I was surprised by the sudden boost in our progress, but… Why?”
“Uh, um… Since everything’s been so chaotic… I wanted to make the players feel the same way too. and… It’s necessary to consume the power of the Machine Emperor, so… We’re experiencing some technical issues. It will probably get better over time.”
I see. You seem to have done well.”
Jin-woo used an excuse. Luckily, Yoo-na seemed impressed.
Luna shed tears like chicken poop as she looked at him.
“Ughh… This is so depressing… Can’t we fix it, Great Emperor?”
“That’s… That’s right.”
Heo-young and Choi Hee-yeon’s eyes were also swollen. Arcana just quietly closed her eyes and started writing her diary as Arina snapped a photo and The Heavenly Demon Supreme sniffled while washing the dishes.
Unlike them, Zhuge Mi-xian looked ecstatic. Maze, who had just returned from playing, tilted her head as she looked at everyone in confusion.
“What happened? Is it…”
Jin-woo covered her mouth.
She often went to play with Faro, so she knew roughly about it. He brought her to her corner and whispered, “Let’s keep it a secret.”
“Then can I go out to play more often?”
“Sure.”
“Sweet!”
The results were good, and his secret was kept.
That was enough.
All that mattered to him was that it was buried in silence.
Comments