Chapter 133

Is this a confession?

Kato Mikane is confessing to me?

It was so completely unexpected that, for this moment, even I found it hard to control my expression.

“So, when you say you want my life…”

“It’s exactly what you think. Or what, did you think I was asking you to die for me?”

“No, it’s just that this is a bit flustering…”

“I can see how it would be from your perspective. But think about it carefully. This is an incredibly good opportunity.”

“A good… opportunity?”

“Of course. What great fortune it is to live your whole life with me, the star of everyone’s dreams.”

“……”

Sure, there were plenty of men who would welcome Kato Mikane with open arms if she said she liked them.

But for that person to be me was a bit of a problem.

I already had friends who had confessed their feelings for me.

Two of them, even!

I couldn’t even handle two, so I had no desire for Kato to join the fray.

And so, I was about to say, ‘I’m truly sorry, but let’s pretend today never happened,’ when Kato beat me to the punch.

“Ah! And for the record, you don’t have the right to refuse.”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, things like ‘I’ve already promised my future to someone,’ or ‘I can’t because of Seo Dami’? If you’re going to say something that obvious, don’t even bother.”

“Hey, how is that an obvious thing to say?”

“You admit I saved your life, right?”

I didn’t want to admit it in this situation, but it was undeniably the truth, so I had no choice but to give a pained nod.

“Then just think of it as paying back a debt.”

“Who repays a debt like this!”

“Why not? Besides, you’re the one who benefits from living with me.”

After boasting that a woman as pretty, rich, and capable as her was rare, Kato added, as if she’d almost forgotten something truly important.

“And our daughter is incredibly beautiful. You’ll probably be shocked when you see her. That child is like an angel.”

“……?”

The conversation had now completely transcended my understanding, and I was at a loss for words.

How on earth did the words ‘our daughter’ come up between me and Kato?

“Our… what?”

“Daughter. The first child is a daughter. To be honest, it’s not very desirable for a diviner to tell their own fortune, so I couldn’t see in more detail.”

She told a fortune?

Does that mean it’s a foregone conclusion that I’ll have a child with this woman? And that the child is a daughter?

Just when I thought my dizzy head couldn’t take any more.

Kato said she would be heading back.

“I’ll be busy from now on, so let’s meet again next winter. I have to win the World Championship I missed because of someone, and I also need to scout some new recruits to protect the team while I’m gone.”

“……”

“Well then, take care until then. Ah, this is a gift for your parents. Don’t forget to give it to them.”

With that, Kato left a light kiss on my nearly frozen cheek and vanished back the way she came.

Staring at the path Kato had taken, I stood there blankly in the falling snow for a good ten minutes.

It was a truly shocking end to December.

“Hyung! Congratulations on coming back!”

“Congratulations on your discharge from the hospital.”

January.

I had finally returned to my hometown after a long journey.

By hometown, I didn’t mean my family’s house, but the Magnus team house.

Ah, the team house I missed.

Everything was the same.

Even the crosswalk in front of the team house where the accident had happened.

To be honest, I did flinch a little when passing the accident site, but anyway, seeing the familiar faces back at the team house made me feel like everything was back in its proper place.

“Have you all been well?”

“How could we have been well?”

Only two of my Hubae from my active days were left on the team.

And one of them had been a trainee back then.

It was inevitable. After I was gone, the Magnus team had plummeted, their performance hitting rock bottom.

They had barely avoided Relegation, but after three seasons of that, the team started cutting players’ Annual Salaries to save money.

Getting a pay cut was the lucky outcome; some players were cut from the team altogether.

The two players remaining now were the ones who had endured those hard years and managed to hold on until I came back.

“Anyway, what are you going to do now that I’m back, Sucheol?”

When I threw out a playful joke, Kim Sucheol, who was a trainee at the time, made a strange face.

Kim Sucheol’s position was Attacker.

The same position as me.

When I had my accident, Magnus had hastily put Kim Sucheol, then a team trainee, on the Entry to fill my spot.

Of course, the results weren’t great.

If Sucheol had been skilled enough to Cover for me in the first place, he wouldn’t have been a trainee.

No matter how much the Meta changed, UA was ultimately a battle of Attackers.

After my accident, Magnus had failed to reinforce the Attacker position and had been on a steady decline ever since.

Now they were at the very bottom, with nowhere lower to go.

In any case, with my return, it was practically confirmed that Kim Sucheol would go back to the reserve Entry.

Unless, of course, Sucheol’s skills were better than mine right now.

It was then.

Kim Sucheol, who had been quietly contemplating his future, shouted.

“I’ll hold on! How long can you stay active as a player, Hyung? Then I can take over again after that.”

Hearing Kim Sucheol’s words, Park Jeongsu chuckled.

Of the players currently on the team, he was the one I’d known the longest.

Twenty-seven years old.

A friend who wouldn’t be out of place retiring alongside me.

“He has a point. Hyung, you’re already at the age where…”

“Don’t talk about others. You’re next.”

“Hyung. How about we just burn it all down this Season and retire together?”

Park Jeongsu said he had actually been considering retirement.

All the friends he’d played with had retired from the active roster, and the Momentum of the Hubae rising through the ranks was fierce.

“Retirement? Well, it won’t be too late to decide that after seeing how this Season goes.”

“Oh. You sound confident.”

“Let’s start practicing right away. To check each other’s skills.”

“Sounds good.”

And so, the practice to determine this Season’s Starters began.

To watch, everyone from Magnus, including the Front Office staff, the Director, and the Coach, took their places.

Surprisingly, the outcome was decided quickly.

While who was better was important, ultimately the one who performed the worst was fated to become a Bench member, and not long after practice started, Sucheol began to make mistakes.

That damn chicken heart of his.

Kim Sucheol had been terribly timid since his trainee days and suffered from a chronic problem of not being able to overcome the pressure during important matches.

And it was no different even in practice, not just a real match.

A game with this Season’s Starter position on the line.

On top of that, with more people than usual watching with eagle eyes to check his Game Performance, he had become completely tense.

Though no one said it, everyone watching the practice felt that Kim Sucheol would be heading to the Bench this Season.

Now, what remained was the question of who would show a better performance this Season.

Park Jeongsu, who entered a one-on-one Engagement with me, was full of Momentum.

He didn’t say it, but I could tell what he was thinking from his expression and actions.

‘I’m not the same person I was back then. While you were lying in bed, Hyung, I’ve been continuously developing my skills as an active player!’

I won’t lose to a Hyung who was bedridden until just recently.

With that kind of feeling, Park Jeongsu launched a bold Attack.

I decided to receive his Attack without using the Power of the Ley Line for now.

‘I can see it…!’

It was a relief.

It seemed my eyes hadn’t gotten that rusty yet.

I could still follow the speed of Park Jeongsu, who was charging with Acceleration, with my eyes.

Of course, reading with your eyes and countering in response were two different things, but just being able to see the opponent’s movements clearly was a positive sign in itself.

‘Then, the Counterattack…?’

The continuous shots hit my Shield wall, and my Mana began to drain away.

As a weakness appeared in my defense, Jeongsu grinned triumphantly.

‘You’ve gotten old too, Hyung!’

‘Damn it!’

This can’t be.

I could still see the movements with my eyes, but my body wasn’t what it used to be.

Before the accident, I could have blocked it much better, but now it felt like my body wasn’t following my thoughts.

Everything was just a little bit late.

And in UA, this slight difference was fatal.

‘My prime is over…’

I had no choice but to admit it.

My prime as a UA player had ended when I had the accident.

Come to think of it, even back then, I wasn’t the type of player who lived off their Physical.

My physical condition was barely A-rank, which I supplemented with my Judgment to make it S-rank, but now that my Physical ability had declined even further, head-to-head confrontations were not easy.

“Hyung. At this rate, you’ll have to give up your spot to Sucheol.”

The guy chattered on as he saw my Stamina and Mana drop significantly.

I had no choice but to shift gears.

The only means to revive my Physical, which had begun to decline with age.

The Ley Line Boost.

The moment vitality was pumped into my body, the first thing I felt was my body moving according to my thoughts.

No, I should say it went beyond that level.

I immediately drew the Lightsaber from my hip and cut through Park Jeongsu’s Attack.

Swatting away Rifle bullets while brandishing a Lightsaber was nothing short of a spectacle.

At this, everyone watching the practice shot up and shouted.

“What in the world is this…!”

“Unbelievable.”

It was a natural reaction.

I, who had never shown such Physical even during my active days, had come back after sleeping for over two and a half years and was displaying movements on a completely different level.

And the one most surprised by these movements was, of course, Park Jeongsu.

Jeongsu’s face was shocked by my Counterattack, and because of this, his response was completely late.

As I held and fired the Arclight Rifle with one hand, clean shots burst out in succession, and Park Jeongsu’s Health Gauge melted away.

Game over.

It was my overwhelming victory, which no one had expected.

“No, no, no. What is this!”

Despite being completely crushed, Jeongsu didn’t look upset at all.

“Hyung! Did you only play games in your sleep? This is seriously unbelievable.”

Park Jeongsu made a fuss.

And the Coach, who came running over in a hurry, grabbed my hand with a look of deep emotion.

“Welcome back to the team, Han Youngin. This is our first time, uh, working together, right? Let’s do a great job together!”

The Coach, who at a glance looked moved, seemed to see me as a treasure chest.

And why wouldn’t he?

Raising one good Attacker could change the owner of the championship trophy.

Magnus, who finished 10th last year.

The staff already seemed to be anticipating how high Magnus’s ranking would climb this Season.

I took the Coach’s hand and said.

“Yes, Coach. I’ll do my best to win the championship this Season.”

“The championship…!”

The championship.

If Magnus, a team that had been on a downward spiral for three consecutive years, talked about aiming for the championship, everyone would probably laugh.

But at least among those who watched our team’s practice today, no one scoffed at the declaration of victory.

The returned Leader.

I, now perfectly equipped with the skills to compensate for my lacking Physical, was heralding a storm from Magnus this Season.

Why does time flow so fast for a Pro Gamer?

It feels like I just blinked once.

I, who had debuted at seventeen, was now a player on the verge of retirement.

A life that could very well have ended a career without a single title.

That life, by a stroke of luck, had been given a chance to make up for it through a precious connection.

When Magnus finished the First-Half Season.

Our team was racing through the League in sole possession of first place.

A huge gap with second place.

Now, the League Viewers were in a mood where they considered Magnus’s victory almost a certainty.

-Unless Youngin gets into another accident, Magnus winning is the safe bet.

-An accident.

-Don’t mention that kind of bullshit;

-Is he finally escaping his no-title streak?

-I’m sick of no titles! Let’s show them your true worth!

-Let’s win domestically and challenge for the World Championship! Great Youngin!

At first, people said, what would change with an old-timer past his prime coming back?

That Han Youngin being national team level was all in the past.

But as time passed, they quickly changed their tune.

That’s how overwhelming our Game Performance was.

It was a bit rocky at first.

But just as I had taught the kids while at Super Sylph.

I passed on my skills and experience to my teammates.

Thanks to that, Magnus was becoming a better team day by day.

With a little more time, we would become an ideal team where everyone did their part, not a team that relied solely on its Ace.

For me, it was what you could call the most dream-like Season since my debut.

And one day, while enjoying this happy Season.

A slightly unexpected incident occurred.

It started with an article published by an entertainment news outlet during the summer, when we had entered the Season Break Period.

「[Exclusive] This Dating Rumor is Real! Seo Dami’s Hidden Man Revealed!」

The article contained a photo of Dami, wearing a mask, heading to a certain apartment, and stated that the owner of that apartment was the star player of Team A, which plays in the UA men’s League.

And it wasn’t very difficult for people who saw the article to guess who the star player of Team A was.

The article had left a hint that anyone could figure out, stating that the player was one who had recently overcome an accident, returned to the League, and was showing an amazing performance.

-WTF is this.

-Han Youngin you bastard!!! How dare you seduce her!

-Even if you’re the League Ace, this is not okay!

-Not our Dami!

-No, this bastard just came back from sleeping, when did he have time to date?

-FR I don’t get it….

-Aren’t they just spouting nonsense to get clicks?

No matter what, how could a person who had been in the hospital for over two years be dating?

Once the Season starts, a Pro Gamer’s schedule is so busy there’s absolutely no free time.

So, people were not quite believing the article, saying its credibility was low.

However, a follow-up article included statements from hospital staff that Dami had been visiting me at the hospital for over the past year.

It even mentioned that she wasn’t the only female player who came to see Han Youngin often, and the Community reaction absolutely exploded.

-There’s another one besides Seo Dami?

-Who’s that friend?

-Hasn’t been revealed yet;;

-This is absurd….

-Man, I’m so dizzy.

-Two-timing Dami, does that make sense?

-Please tell me it’s all a lie!

-Bigamy OUT. Boo!

-Sorry to the Magnus fans… but can’t we just send Youngin back to the hospital?

-FR;;

-Dog Youngin! Die!!!

Just as the sudden news about Seo Dami was starting to attract attention from overseas.

I got a call on my phone.

It was Dami.

-O-Oppa.

She called me with a flustered voice.

I thought she was going to talk about the article, but that wasn’t it.

Dami, who hesitated as if she didn’t know how to bring it up, finally managed to speak.

-Oppa. My parents want to meet you.