Your Commander-in-Chief – Chapter 185

“Ugh…”

Hayun returned from the bathroom, sitting down with a refreshed expression.

Ellie watched Hayun devour the pizza with a bemused look.

Hayun must be the soft and chewy raccoon, Ellie’s secret friend.

She confirmed it with undeniable evidence through Hayun’s phone screen.

Ellie swallowed hard.

So, what was going on?

Why was Hayun, the Blood Demon King, writing compliments about her rival, Jupiter, in the gallery?

And why had she approached her?

There were too many points that couldn’t just be dismissed as simple coincidences.

“Are you not eating anymore, Ellie?”

“Oh, I should eat.”

At Hayun’s words, Ellie was startled and started munching on the pizza.

Was she feigning ignorance and pretending not to notice?

Ellie racked her brain, starting her own reasonable deductions.

It was Ellie herself who opened the secret chat room and sent the link. Hayun hadn’t approached her first.

But what if that was Hayun’s intention all along?

Ellie rubbed her throbbing forehead and chewed, swallowing the pizza.

She was so focused that she couldn’t fully taste the pizza.

“Hayun.”

“Uh-huh?”

At Ellie’s call, Hayun turned with an innocent expression.

White cheese stretched between her mumbling lips.

Ellie hesitated for a while. She hesitated again and again.

In her entire life, the only kids she had gotten this close to were Sohee and Hayun.

It was a relationship that was a bit ambiguous to call them friends.

That’s why Ellie couldn’t help but hesitate.

“Do you have something to say?”

Hayun said with a refreshing smile.

It was the same smile she always showed as the Blood Demon King.

“Do you, by any chance, want to be friends with me?”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

At Hayun’s surprisingly straightforward nod to the cautious question, Ellie understood everything in that moment.

Now she knew why Hayun came into that chat room, and why she was posting compliments about her in the gallery.

And even the advice she had given in today’s chat room.

All of it.

Ellie recalled Hayun’s age. Same as hers, 16.

Just stepping into high school, right?

Despite her mature appearance, she was undoubtedly a shy girl inside.

She must have wanted to be friends. But her shyness prevented her from revealing her identity.

Right. Hayun had orchestrated things so that Ellie would approach her first without noticing.

Just like a fisherman with a fishing rod.

Ellie’s little head started spinning with various imaginations.

Hayun probably didn’t realize yet that her identity had been discovered.

Ellie nodded. Hayun wanted this—a chance to peek out from her raccoon hole while keeping her identity hidden.

If that’s what she wanted, then she would give it to her.

If that meant they could become friends…

Ellie nodded.

Her secret friend, the soft and chewy raccoon, said, if she wanted to befriend her lunch appointment, she should try some skinship.

Hayun was definitely a shy girl. Hiding behind the mask of the soft and chewy raccoon, wasn’t she asking Ellie to come to her?

Ellie nodded vigorously and started to gently touch Hayun’s arm.

Hayun didn’t strongly resist.

She just glanced once and reached out to continue eating the pizza.

“Hehe…”

Those delicate arms didn’t feel like they had any muscles.

And yet, she swung a massive demon sword and cut down enemies.

Ellie placed her arm against that arm.

The two soft, white, and chewy arms were stretched out side by side.

There wasn’t a huge difference.

“Hmm…”

At that moment, Sohee, who was seated across from them, coughed awkwardly, giving a hint of discomfort.

Ellie understood Sohee’s reaction.

It must have felt as if she was losing a good friend to someone else.

It was a reaction that was entirely understandable.

If Ellie wanted to become close friends with Hayun, she’d have to befriend her friend Sohee too.

Ellie smiled and leaned slightly away.

Sohee’s expression eased a bit.

*

After a fun lunch, we had to part ways.

I stood side by side with Sohee, watching Ellie walk away.

She walked slowly, glancing back wistfully.

I waved my hand each time she looked back.

“Sohee, wave too.”

“I don’t want to; my hand hurts.”

Sohee acted like a sulky child the whole time she was eating with Ellie.

I understood why. She had probably looked forward to having lunch just the two of us.

I had shattered that expectation. It was well within reason for her to be upset.

But I wanted Sohee to grow close to Ellie too.

“Maybe next time we’ll just eat together, huh?”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not going to make me eat that bone soup again, are you?”

“Nope. This time, you can pick whatever you want.”

“What I want to eat…”

Sohee seemed to think of some delicious food at my words, swallowing her saliva.

In the car on the way home.

I smiled as I looked at the shining phone screen.

It seemed like our secret friend’s matchmaking had been successful.

Guide of Light – [So, Soft & Chewy Raccoon, thanks a lot for the advice today.]

Soft & Chewy Raccoon – [Looks like it went well? Did you get pretty close?]

Guide of Light – [Yeah, we got really close. She didn’t refuse any skinship.]

Soft & Chewy Raccoon – [It sounds like your target liked you too. That’s really great.]

Guide of Light – [I was worried that she might think the sudden skinship was rude, but I’m so relieved.]

As I read my secret friend’s messages, I felt a swell of pride.

The person who followed my advice had found love.

Today, I had become Cupid.

The car sped to a stop in front of our house.

Just as I was about to get up from my seat to get out of the car…

“Wait. Hayun, take this.”

“What now…?”

Sohee handed me a bag of Soft & Chewy Cow.

Sohee always gave me these when we hung out.

There must be some hidden meaning behind it, but I still hadn’t figured out under what conditions I’d receive more Soft & Chewy Cow.

“I still have a lot left from Christmas…”

“Haven’t you eaten all of it?”

“If I eat it every day, I get kind of tired of it…”

“Hmm…”

Sohee nodded at my words, rummaging through the giant bag behind her.

What came out was the strawberry version of Soft & Chewy Cow.

“Wow…”

Unlike the sky-blue packaging, the surface was pink.

The fluffy clouds and the silly calf holding a strawberry looked truly adorable.

“What’s this?”

It’s not that I disliked Soft & Chewy Cow. It’s just that I got a bit tired of eating the same flavor all the time.

Strawberry flavor was a welcome change.

I reached out and embraced Sohee’s gift tightly.

“Thanks!”

“I had fun today… But I hope we can meet just the two of us next time.”

“At Deron?”

I tossed the question, hoping for an answer, but she remained silent.

She must prefer to meet in real life rather than in the game.

I awkwardly smiled and waved.

“S-see you next time!”

After saying goodbye to Sohee and returning home, I found Harang sprawled on the living room sofa, watching TV.

It was an astonishing sight for this gaming addict to be watching TV in the living room.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh… You’re back?”

“Yeah, but what’s with the TV?”

“Oh, I’m patching up Deron.”

Just as I suspected, something was about to happen.

I nodded and perched myself next to him.

Harang seemed uncomfortable lying down and began to squirm around.

I checked the gallery and the Deron homepage using my phone.

It seemed there was a small bug that had occurred in the game.

This patch was a short one to fix that.

“The server is closed, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I guess I’ll need to head to the field boss.”

“I already logged out from there. Just log in when the patch is done and I’ll summon you with a summon order.”

When the server closes and then opens again, Deron’s field boss respawn cycle resets.

Others were likely waiting for this perfect opportunity as well.

I nodded and got up from my seat.

According to the announcement on the homepage, the server would open in 30 minutes.

I planned to head there early and wait.

Back in my room, I placed the Soft & Chewy Strawberry Cow I had been holding on my desk.

Then I looked down at the boxes piled up in a corner with a curious gaze.

Four large boxes adorned with pictures of big cows.

There had initially been five, but after handing one over to Harang, I still had four left.

Naturally, those boxes contained Soft & Chewy Cow.

To think I still had this much left from Christmas!

Would I be able to finish them all before the expiration date?

I quickly opened the Soft & Chewy Strawberry Cow packaging and popped it into my mouth.

“Yum…”

The blend of milk and faint strawberry scent filled my mouth.

I leaned back into the capsule, savoring the strawberry-flavored chewy cow.

Even though the game was still under maintenance, I couldn’t log in, but I planned to queue up and browse through various community sites for new information.

New quests, hunting grounds, efficient farming spots, etc.

While skimming through the inventory and the information tab in the gallery, I stumbled upon an intriguing post.

[The most difficult challenge ever, the worst raid: ‘Fallen Moonlight’.]

[Another collaboration event? Invitation from VRS.]

Had a raid party already challenged the raid?

I clicked on the post to check the contents.

Naturally, there weren’t any strategies for the raid mentioned.

Instead, there was just an interview format featuring a conversation with the raid leader attempting the raid.

The raid leader who responded to the interview passionately proclaimed that this raid was indeed the most difficult ever.

Speaking of which, we might need to reorganize our own raid party for Soft & Chewy Cow.

With the start of a new season, a lot had changed, and many people had left Deron.

Of course, people did come in as well, but the empty spaces left by the friends we’d grown attached to felt considerable.

I frowned and clicked on the next post.

It seemed that the collaboration event between Deron and VRS had restarted.

This time, it appeared that the PVP rankers of Deron would go to VRS for an event.

Since they had come here once, it’s only right that we go over there too.

I licked my lips and examined the event details carefully.