Chapter 135: Title Promotion (1)

In conclusion, Ian's quest finished successfully.

At the risky last moment, the naval forces of Luspel Empire that were stationed at Isreun came out to meet Ian's ship.

The navy of Kaimon, who persistently chased after Ian, chose to turn the bow of their ship for now, and immediately, Ian, who was worried that a full-scale war would occur, was able to let out a sigh of relief.

The reason that Ian was relieved was not because of the dangers that occurred through a full-scale war.

'Whew, if a full-scale war happened right away, how many more hours would I have had to game from now on?'

Ian's continuous game time was already passing 38 hours.

Even now, because of the surging fatigue he felt throughout his whole body, his eyes were half-closed.

More than anything else, Ian wanted to close his eyes for a bit after quickly returning to the Capital and completing the quest.

Swaah-.

With the galleon ship that Ian was on as the head, the fleet of Luspel Empire was able to safely arrive at the harbour of Isreun.

Clunk-.

The anchor of the ship, which docked at the harbour, went down, and Ian led his heavy body and walked out of it.

Paulean, who had gotten off first, wore a satisfied smile as he pulled Ian's hand.

"Good work, Baron. You've truly done a great job."

At Paulean's words, Ian weakly nodded his head as he replied.

"Whew, great work as well, Paulean. We still somehow managed to return."

At Ian's drooping words, Kaizar, who got off behind him, smirked.

"What, how much did you fight to have absolutely no energy, when I was that age, I was still lively even if I fought without resting for a couple days and nights."

At Kaizar's scolding, Ian wore a dumbfounded expression.

'No, how big of an age difference do we have for him to say that?'

This was because, from the outside, Kaizar only looked to be in his early 30s at most.

At their first encounter, he couldn't guess his age because of his shaggy, tangled white hair, but right now, where he even had on proper attire, he looked to only be about the same age as Ian.

As even his white hair was straightened up well, rather even a mysterious aura was being displayed.

"Then, how old are you, retainer? It looks like you don't have that much of a difference with me...'

At Ian's grumbling, Kaizar replied with a poker-face.

"I'm 120 years old."

"...?"

As Ian stared at Kaizar with an expression of disbelief, he smirked as he continued his words.

"Ah, there might be a 5-year margin of error. It's already been over several decades since I've roughly counted my age."

Ian couldn't help but accept it with a bitter expression.

"I, I see..."

And he mumbled internally.

'Sure, well, it's a game, so it's possible...'

Catching a glimpse of his retainer, who was monster-like in many ways(?), Ian shook his head.

"Take good care of your retainer from now on, Lord guy."

"..."

Paulean, who watched the two people bicker for a moment, laughed as he opened his mouth.

"Alright, either way, let's go to the Capital right away. His Majesty is probably waiting."

At Paulean's words, the two people nodded and moved their feet.

"Yes, alright."

"We'll do that."

* * *

The Capital of Luspel Empire.

And in the very centre was the office of King Celias.

Celias greeted Ian, who returned, incredibly warmly.

"Oh! Good work, Sir Ian. I heard that you've carried out the duty brilliantly."

"That's right, Your Majesty. We've rescued all of the prisoners of Pascal and returned."

It was the same as last time, but when it was time to report the results of an Empire Quest, Ian's body moved on its own regardless of his will.

Chak- Cha-chak-!

While staring at his body that showed courteousness towards the King with disciplined actions, Ian, barely grasping onto his tired mind, waited for the quest to be completed.

'Why is this imperial family's etiquette so complicated? There's no reason for such realism...'

When Ian played a game, he looked more at the general planning ability rather than the fine details.

Because of that, to him, small details like this were even to the point of being bothersome.

"In our plan to rescue the prisoners of Pascal Prison this time..."

He even began to report the content of the quest on his own now!

Ian was a little dumbfounded, but it seemed as his mind was blank, he couldn't even think of anything.

'Still, since everything is being done for me, it is comfortable...'

However, it was something that wasn't much of a merit to just Ian, but to be honest, there were a lot of users that were enthusiastic about Kailan's perfect detail that was perverted-like.

"Remarkable, remarkable indeed. Good work. You've done much better than I expected. As expected of you, Sir Ian."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Celias, who heard all of Ian's report content, smiled brightly, and a notification alerting Ian of the completion of the quest popped up in front of his two eyes.

Ring-.

• You have completed the 'Rescue the War Prisoners (2)' Quest.

• You have succeeded all connected quests.

• Clear Rank - S

• You have obtained 5000 Specialty Points.

• You have obtained 42,349,000 EXP.

• You have obtained 25,000 Fame.

• You have leveled up. You have reached lv 126.

• You have successfully carried out your first connected Empire Quest.

• Your contributions towards the imperial family of Luspel Empire have increased by 1000.

Even for the two eyes of Ian, which were saturated with exhaustion, causing them to be sunken in, life returned to them whenever the reward list popped up.

'It was tiring, but to have leveled up like crazy in the 120 level-range... If it's this much, I think it's worth doing.'

A satisfied smile hung from his lips.

However, the two eyes of Ian, who had checked that everything including the quest reward came in, slowly started to close.

The fatigue that was being suppressed with his mental strength swarmed in an instant the moment he saw the words 'quest completed'.

'Ah... I need to go lie down in my bed...'

However, regardless of Ian's will, Ian slowly began to lose his hold on his mind.

• The analysis result of user 'Ian's body signal has been decided as 'Sleeping' state.

• Following the policy of the game service, user 'Ian' will be logged out.

And Ian could faintly hear Celias' voice.

"Listen, Sir Ian! Pull yourself together!"

* * *

The front of Jinsung's studio apartment.

Harin carefully pressed the doorbell.

Ding-dong-!

However, even after quite some time, not even a trace could be felt from Ian's house.

'Where has this dude gone... Is he asleep? There's no reason for him not be home at this time...'

Harin, who heard the word that a bar would open at the virtual reality department for the school festival, went to have fun with her friend.

However, after hearing that Jinsung didn't come to school today, she immediately got up from her spot and had come to Jinsung's house.

'It's only 9 o'clock in the evening right now... Is he already asleep?'

Because it was set-up that even if he was gaming inside the capsule, if the doorbell was pressed, a notification would go in, but the fact that there wasn't an indication of a person's presence meant that Jinsung was actually not home or he was asleep.

As Jinsung was quite a light sleeper, Harin, who made the decision that he had gone out somewhere momentarily, opened the door lock and began to press the passcode[1].

Beep- Bee-beep-

After last time, where they decided to leave the extra capsule at Jinsung's place and have Harin use it, Jinsung told Harin the house passcode as well.

To be honest, she had just pressed the bell once 'out of courtesy'.

"He seems to have gone out for a moment... Should I at least make dinner?"

Harin somehow felt like she had become a wife, and while humming, she entered Jinsung's house.

Bee-reep- Bee-ree-reep-!

As Harin closed the door, the door lock automatically locked, and the sensor lights in the entrance turned on.

"From what I saw last time, for someone who lives alone, he seemed to have bought quite a lot of different things..."

Harin put her bag down off to one side of the room and headed to the kitchen.

However, the blue light of Ian's capsule that was turned on caught her eyes.

'Huh...? That's a light that turns on only if a person is sitting inside that capsule.'

Harin, who wore a slightly flustered expression, slowly approached Ian's capsule.

"It seems that the game is turned off... But why is he like this? Is the new capsule model already malfunctioning?"

Harin mumbled as she pressed the open button of the capsule.

As she did so, the capsule let out a hissing noise as its door tilted open upwards.

And shortly after, Harin swallowed a gulp of air before she even realized.

This was because Jinsung, who was in an unconscious(?) state inside the capsule, had his eyes closed while his body was stretched out.

"What, what the hell? Jinsung, why are you sleeping here like this?"

Harin shook Jinsung's shoulder to try and wake him up.

However, Jinsung didn't even move an inch.

Her large eyes grew even wider.

"Jinsung, are you unwell? Are you sure you haven't gotten sick from gaming for so long?"

As Jinsung didn't wake up no matter how much she shook him, a flustered Harin contemplated whether she needed to at least call the emergency room.

However, the moment she turned on her smartphone and was about to press the number...

Deu-reu-rung- Pheeew-.

Soon, the sound of Jinsung snoring could be heard, and while smirking, Harin put down her smartphone.

"Ha..."

Holding in her laughter, Harin wrapped Jinsung's neck with one of her arms in order to pull him out of the capsule.

"Jinsung, if you sleep here, you'll get an intervertebral disk... Get up! You need to go sleep in your bed."

With a heart of a mom seen when watching the TV who woke up a young, sleeping child that had fallen asleep on the couch, Harin strained to pull Jinsung out of the capsule.

However, there was no way that Harin, a female, would be able to easily pull out Jinsung's body, which was stretched out limply.

'Euh, he's heavier than I thought.'

However, just then.

Jinsung's arm, which was placed on the armrest, wrapped around Harin's waist.

"Uh... Ohh!"

The Harin, who was leaning towards Jinsung, instantly lost her centre of gravity and her body collapsed forward.

Plop-.

Along with the sound of air escaping a cushion, Harin's body slightly lied on top of Jinsung's.

The pale face of a flustered Harin was tinged red like a beet.

'What, what the hell? He wasn't asleep?'

Shortly after slightly turning her bright red face and looking at Jinsung, she couldn't help but smirk at Jinsung's snoring that rang out again.

'No, how long did he game for to sleep like a log?'

Because Harin also saw Jinsung appear on the YTBC channel, she knew that he was doing some sort of large-scale Empire Quest.

She just merely couldn't even assume that he hadn't logged off once for almost about 40 hours.

"Hmm, ahem."

Harin, who cleared her throat lowly at the awkwardness, lifted one of her legs and slightly pushed her body into the capsule.

As she did so, the plush cushions of the capsule opened up and her body slipped in right next to Jinsung, and Harin, who nestled in Jinsung's arms more stably(?) than before, smiled timidly.

"Hehe... Shall I stay here like this for a moment...?"

Harin was about to slightly press her lips to Jinsung's cheek when she paused and turned her head, placing it on top of Jinsung's chest.

She wanted to give Jinsung a chance(?).

'Still, the guy should kiss first.'

Harin, who wore a satisfied smile, slightly closed her eyes.

Because she had already told her family that she would be a little late at it was a festival day, she still had about one hour left.

And...

Jinsung's new model capsule was even just as comfortable as a bed.

[1] In Korea, rather than a key, there are locks with number pads, where you input the passcode to unlock the door.