NOVEL NEXT chapter 133
"That's just the kind of relationship we have. I’ve never felt as close to him as I do with you, Goyoung."
“You’re the best, Goyoung.”
With that childish line, Gang Jaegyung gently slipped his arm around mine, linking it like he was cuddling up. The hold wasn’t strong—if I wanted to shake it off, I easily could’ve.
You little flirt.
I wasn’t the type to push people away when they got affectionate, so I stroked under his chin like I would when petting a puppy.
"Yeah, yeah. I’m your best buddy."
You’d think touching under someone’s chin would annoy them, but Jaegyung just smiled like an idiot and let his head rest against my palm. If he were a bit furrier, he really would’ve passed for an oversized dog.
I was about to tell him to get his head out of my hand, but just then I felt a soft vibration against my palm, and a gentle voice followed.
"Goyoung… do you already have a best friend?"
My brain short-circuited.
After I’d just said “I’m your best friend,” if he wasn’t mine, then…
But stuff like this had to be handled carefully. We hadn’t known each other that long, so saying he was my best friend might sound too casual. But denying it outright would feel too cold. No need to poke a hornet’s nest, right?
"…I like having lots of friends, so I guess I have a few best friends. You could be one of them..."
"It’s fine. I’m not trying to accuse you of anything or say I’m not included or whatever."
Can you really call that “just a passing comment”?
He’s not secretly pouting, is he?
I scratched under his chin again, watching for signs. Sure, we’d gotten closer lately, but… I wasn’t totally sure I’d call him a best friend yet.
“We haven’t known each other that long. I mean, it’d be weird if I already thought we were best friends. Honestly, I’ve been treating you way more casually than I probably should.”
Almost like he’d read my mind, Jaegyung mumbled with his eyes fixed on the floor.
"You’re gonna make other friends too, right? And get a girlfriend?"
He didn’t sound jealous—just calm, like he truly believed that’s how things would go. I had no idea what he was thinking.
After a pause, those subtly colored eyes of his turned back to me.
"I just want to be your friend. Nothing more, nothing less. Is that okay?"
…So basically, he’s just saying he wants to be friends.
"Yeah, yeah, sure! I already thought we were friends, you dummy."
I grumbled a little, and Jaegyung gave a silly little laugh and tilted his head.
Then, maybe by accident, his soft lips brushed my palm for just a second before pulling away.
Looking up at me, eyes crinkled, he smiled like a total idiot.
I didn’t know why he was acting so gooey.
He really… likes me, huh.
The fact that it was Gang Jaegyung of all people made me weirdly pleased.
I secretly grinned and kept stroking under his chin again. "Yeah, yeah."
"…What the hell is this?"
The game had already loaded, and I was greeted by a UI mess—massive letters, jumbled layout. The icons and text had ballooned so much they barely left room for my character on screen.
A glance at Jaegyung’s monitor showed the same thing. He let out a groan.
"Resolution’s low. Looks like Full HD (*1920x1080)."
Oh. Damn.
I hadn’t even considered that the PC bang monitors might be different from mine at home. Now that I thought about it, even the desktop icons looked weirdly off when I first turned the thing on…
Jaegyung moved his mouse, busily reorganizing his UI. He went into settings, shrunk the UI scale, adjusted the chat window, resized things. Meanwhile, I just scratched my head and stared.
He had it easier than me. His chat box, quest tracker, and hotbar were all still onscreen, just oversized. A little annoying, but manageable.
I wasn’t so lucky.
First, the chat window. To move it, you had to click a specific icon—one that was now completely offscreen. Dragging the chat box from any other point didn’t work—it just resized it weirdly. There was no fix in sight.
Then there was my skill bar. Thankfully, the main one with my attack skills and potions was still in place at the bottom of the screen—just massive. But a secondary skill bar, the one I kept on the far right for stuff I rarely used, had vanished completely. Not cut off—just gone.
I mostly had macros for everything else, so it wouldn’t affect combat much. Still, it was ridiculous.
Did nobody at this PC bang use UHD (*3840x2160)? (Though, come to think of it, how many people with UHD setups at home actually bother with PC bangs?)
Why hadn’t anyone reported this? What if I’d had a key skill saved to that bar?
I pulled out my phone and zoomed in on the glitched-out chat box to take a picture. It was honestly absurd. Frustrating. Kinda hilarious.
After snapping a shot, I grabbed my mouse. I needed to fix this mess fast if I wanted to actually play.
First, I dove into settings and shrank the entire UI scale. That let me move things back into familiar positions. I reduced the font size to free up more space and gave up entirely on the chat box, shrinking it down to make room for the skill bars instead.
After some tinkering, the screen looked cleaner. Still felt more cramped than it did at home, but oh well. That was on me for not checking the monitors first. I sighed and finished tidying things up.
Jaegyung had already finished, and while I fussed with the UI, he was attacking a dummy back at the base, adjusting to the smaller field of view.
"It feels weird. The view’s too narrow."
Same here. Even after zooming out with the mouse wheel, the screen felt way tighter than I was used to.
Yeah, we’re not playing Dusk for long.
"Where should we meet?"
Jaegyung’s question pulled me away from the map. It was the weekend—every zone would be packed. I tried to figure out where the least amount of people would be…
I glanced at his screen and watched the faction chat scroll by.
[Faction] Peekin: Is SuGang AFK?
[Faction] ThanksforAlltheHardWork: I heard Honeybread’s online too
[Faction] DungBeetle: Anyone else coming to 45?
[Faction] Bbom: WTF even Honeybread’s online??
[Faction] ChamChamCham: We got LeoRoa at 45, we can win this
[Faction] BuckwheatMukJjiPpa: Send support to cap 45
[Faction] TheUnfallingOctopus: 45 Recruiting
Looked like a full-blown brawl was happening at Base 45.
LeoRoa—that’s the NPC who manages transport there, right? If he was down, it meant ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ the Viajok side was getting pushed hard. Judging from the whispers I’d been getting, they were probably hoping I’d join and help turn the tide. The Jeojajok side likely thought the same.
“…Are you gonna join the zerg at 45?”
Jaegyung asked softly, like he already expected me to drag him into a mass battle. Funny, considering he liked zerging more than I did.
"Not really. Go ahead if you want."
Zerg fights had their appeal, but honestly, I preferred dueling Jaegyung one-on-one.
Not to mention, I had zero chance of beating him in a massive skirmish, so why even bother?
"Play with me."
His face lit up as soon as I said I wasn’t interested in the fight. I gave his chin a couple more strokes and turned back to the map.
"Where should we meet… Maybe somewhere on your side of the field? Since the battle’s at 45."
Base 45 was the busiest central hub right now. If we went somewhere farther from that, we might find a quiet spot. Maybe a low-level zone again, like last time?
I was thinking it over when Jaegyung, who’d also been looking at the map with me, suddenly said, “Here,” and pointed.
His finger was aimed at the edge of the Jeojajok territory—just outside the official map boundaries, in an off-limits stretch of terrain where players could still roam.