‘A bug?’
I was deep in a sweet sleep when a tickling sensation on the tip of my nose stirred me into a light doze.
Half-asleep, I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and buried my face back into the dry grass.
Normally, with the kids around, even mosquitoes or tiny bugs wouldn’t dare approach, so I found it strange.
Yet the tickling sensation returned.
I turned over to the other side, again pressing my face into the dry grass, but it wasn’t long before the tickling resumed at my nose.
Still half-asleep, I scratched my nose again and this time used my arm to cover it.
Bugs often react to carbon dioxide exhaled by mammals, drawing them straight to the nose.
So, to escape bugs, you’d have to stop breathing—but that wasn’t an option. Covering the nose was the next best thing.
The nose is so sensitive that even the slightest touch can wake you, while other parts of the body are generally fine.
But still, the tickling at the tip of my nose persisted.
Something was clinging tenaciously to it.
I swatted with my hand multiple times, even smacked my face a few times, but the thing stuck around my nose wouldn’t go away.
“Damn it!”
Finally, unable to take it anymore, I snapped and sat up with a jolt.
And right there in front of me—smiling with a blade of grass in her hand—was a face I absolutely should not be seeing.
“H-Hwa-eun?”
“Hehe.”
It was Tang Hwa-eun, grinning mischievously after playing a prank on me, her face beaming like a cheeky child. As I glanced around, I realized the surroundings had brightened.
“Is it morning already? No—wait, that’s not the issue. Hwa-eun, how on earth did you get here?”
It hadn’t been long since I fell asleep, but it seemed like morning had come. Maybe I was just exhausted.
You know that feeling—when you’re so tired that you blink once, and it’s suddenly morning?
But on closer inspection, it wasn’t that the sun had risen—the environment had changed entirely.
Our group had been camping out in a cave near a collapsed area in the limestone region.
We planned to spend the day there before heading to the Ten Thousand Great Mountains tomorrow.
But the place I woke up in was not that cave—it was a sunny hill.
Sunlight warmly bathing everything around me.
The kids who had been sleeping beside me—Cho, Hyang, and the rest—were all gone.
It was immediately clear what had happened.
“Oh, this is a dream. God, how much do I like her? She even shows up in my dreams.”
I had feigned a signal problem earlier to dodge her nagging, but still—if she’s even showing up in my dreams, it meant I liked her a lot.
Maybe being apart from her for the last few days had taken more of a toll on me than I realized.
After all, dreams are supposed to be projections of your unconscious, right?
Clearly, I had unconsciously longed for Hwa-eun so deeply that she manifested in my dreams.
I figured I might as well embrace it—literally—so I pulled Hwa-eun into a tight hug.
Then, a satisfied voice asked me:
“Hwa-eun...”
“Did you miss me?”
“Of course. Ah, the warmth of your embrace... Wait, I should check if my chest is still intact.”
Satisfied with my face buried in her chest, I reached under Hwa-eun’s clothes to make sure my own chest—long separated from her—was still accounted for.
At that, she startled and yelped in a flustered, embarrassed voice.
“So-ryong!”
Her face flushed bright red in an instant.
I thought, wow—even in dreams she gets shy. This was some high-definition realism.
“You’re still so bashful, even in dreams. Don’t you think it’s time you got used to it?”
Then she grabbed both my cheeks and pulled my gaze to meet hers. With a stern expression, she shook her head.
“So-ryong, this isn’t a dream.”
“Huh?”
She wouldn’t react like that if it were just a dream.
Suddenly, a realization struck me.
“Wait—this is... a mental projection?”
“That’s right.”
Somehow, Hwa-eun had entered my mindscape.
Or was it that I had entered hers?
“What in the world happened?”
Still disoriented, I looked around and asked. Blushing still, Hwa-eun answered:
“I told you last time, remember? I thought it might be possible to enter a mindscape using the Soul-Linking Art.”
“D-Don’t tell me...”
“You guessed it. You probably didn’t notice, but Sister Seol and I have been studying the Soul-Linking Art every chance we got. We tried to figure out which part of Beast Mind Technique creates a mental realm, and how the Soul-Linking Art connects to it.
Then today, I couldn’t reach you mentally, so while pondering it, an idea suddenly struck me. I tried it... and it worked. Hehe.”
Damn.
Last time, when she was trying to invent a video call, I’d been floored—so this meant she actually succeeded?
Except this wasn’t just a video call—it was an avatar-level chatroom.
They say inconvenience leads to research, and research leads to invention.
Pretending to have a signal issue yesterday must’ve spurred her studies—she was basically the Edison of the Central Plains now.
‘Why’s my wife the Edison of the Central Plains? Damn, those carefree days are over.’
There was no escaping her gaze now, and that thought instantly deflated me.
Men need their own time and space—but I couldn’t even imagine that luxury anymore.
“So-ryong, why the long face all of a sudden?”
“Long face? Ah, no, not at all. I’m just so happy to see your face again after so long. Didn’t you see how happy I was? I mean—I even grabbed your chest...”
“So-ryong!”
Ahem.
As soon as I brought up the chest again, down came the scolding.
I quickly whistled and gazed off at some distant mountain as if nothing had happened. That’s when Hwa-eun asked:
“Anyway, So-ryong, how much have you dug?”
“Dug? Oh—right. I forgot to tell you.”
I wondered what she meant by digging, then remembered I hadn’t told her about enshrining the general.
She’d been pouting about not seeing me, so I changed the subject and ended the call hastily.
“I dug all the way down and recovered the spirit beast inside.”
“Really? When? What kind of spirit beast? It wasn’t the World-Ender Golden Toad, was it?”
The moment I said I’d retrieved one, the questions poured out.
Smiling, I gave her the good news.
“No, it wasn’t the World-Ender Golden Toad, but it was still an incredible spirit beast.”
“What was it?”
“The Water General spirit beast.”
“Then... you found the Gold General?”
“Yes, Hwa-eun.”
Our general’s spirit beast was called the Gold General.
He was a spirit beast who held the Gold Seat among the Twenty-Four Venoms of Metal, Silver, Water, and Fire.
His color was a bit dull at the moment, probably because he had been in the darkness for too long.
But streaks of gold shimmered along part of his arm—surely he would regain his full pigmentation soon.
With a bright smile, Hwa-eun spoke.
“So that means we don’t have many of the Twenty-Four Venoms left, right?”
“Yes. What’s left now is Jin from (Sun, Moon, Star, Quake), U and Bak from (Cloud, Rain, Snow, Hail), and Silver from the Metal-Silver-Water-Fire group.”
When did I collect this many?
Counting on my fingers, I realized there were only four left.
Two from the Ten Great Venoms, and four from the Twenty-Four Venoms.
That was all that remained in my collection.
So-ryong, you're incredible.
As I silently praised myself, Hwa-eun slipped her arm through mine and murmured softly.
“Thank you, So-ryong. For always doing your best to keep your promise.”
“Thank me? You say that way too often.”
“I say it because I never stop being thankful.”
Smiling as I replied, Hwa-eun rested her head on my shoulder, gazing out toward the distant, open fields.
“So-ryong...”
Her voice came softly, filled with emotion.
I understood what kind of signal it was immediately.
Not the kind of message you could decipher with words—but a tone only newlywed couples would understand.
The meaning of a word changes depending on the tone and inflection, after all.
If the tone leaned toward the nasal, the meaning was elevated.
When she simply says So-ryong, she’s just calling my name. But when it’s So-ryo~ong, with a drawn-out nasal tone—it means something else entirely. Like right now.
It usually meant “right now, take me.”
“Hwa-eun...”
Having met again after days apart, we forgot this was a mental projection and kissed.
—Smack.
Even though this was a mental space, her lips felt moist and warm.
I could feel her body heat—so vivid that it felt no different from reality.
A perfect full-dive VR, huh?
Kissing in this mindscape reminded me of that full-dive VR tech from my previous life—where users could experience another world as if it were truly real.
It was that realistic—moist, soft, indistinguishable from the real thing.
Just as I was marveling at it, having shared a long kiss with Hwa-eun—
Suddenly, she slid her hand roughly under my robe.
Just like I °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° had done to her earlier.
“Hwa-eun?”
Then she peeled it back with deliberate force and said,
“So-ryong, aren’t you curious what it would be like... here in the mindscape?”
“W-What do you mean?”
“Hehe.”
Instead of answering, Hwa-eun gave me a seductive smile.
And I knew exactly what that smile meant.
It was the kind of smile that preceded a very bold next step.
Holy sht—full-dive sex!?*
She was suggesting we make love in this mental realm.
Overcome with curiosity, I quickly began undressing her.
There was a faint voice in my head saying I might regret this later—but I didn’t know why. So I followed the pull of curiosity.
What’s the worst that could happen?
***
—Squelch. Squelch.
Each time the fabric struck stone, water splashed.
My soaked trousers slapped against the hard rock.
Because I was secretly washing my pants by the water at dawn.
Damn it. There is a worst-case scenario, huh?
“What are you doing, Master?”
“Eek!”
Suddenly, Gun Hye-rin appeared behind me.
Startled, I flinched hard as she walked up, glanced at the thing in my hand, and tilted her head.
“Why are you so surprised? And more importantly, why are you washing your pants at this hour?”
I sighed inwardly.
Damn it. I only realized after the fact why you’re not supposed to do anything naughty in full-dive VR.
That’s why I was washing my pants now.
We’d made love, but in reality, our bodies were apart—so what do you think happened?
Sighing deeply, I mumbled some excuse in response to Gun Hye-rin’s question.
“They were just dirty... and we’re heading to the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, so I figured I’d change clothes.”
—Sploosh.
Damn it. No soap. This isn’t washing out at all.
Grumbling, I scrubbed my pants again.
That’s when Gun Hye-rin rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward, pushing me aside.
“Give it here. I’ll do it.”
“Ah—no, it’s fine. You’ve never done laundry before, right?”
“Even so. I’m the woman—I should be doing this. How could I let a man do laundry?”
Why couldn’t she just leave it alone?
Panicking, I tried to push her back, but she stood firm.
“Master, it’s only laundry. Hand it over.”
“No, I said it’s fine.”
“I’m disappointed, Master. Can’t you even trust me with something so simple? Do you still not trust me?”
“No... It’s not that, it’s just that I have a very specific reason I need to wash this pair myself.”
“What kind of absurd excuse is that?”
“It’s not absurd, I swear!”
I was going to lose my mind.
***
I barely managed to safeguard my clothes and finish washing them.
I told Gun Hye-rin to go prepare breakfast—that finally got her to back off.
After wringing out my pants and setting them to dry, I walked to the cave entrance, where I saw her roasting two rabbits.
“Rabbit today, Master.”
“Smells good.”
As I sat by the campfire and tore into a rabbit leg—
I suddenly heard Hwa-eun’s voice.
『So-ryong, are you awake?』
Her voice had a slightly urgent edge to it.
Had she, too, awoken to something embarrassing this morning?
It sounded like her flustered tone matched the chaos I had faced just before dawn.
But then came her question.
『So-ryong, you said you were heading to the Ten Thousand Great Mountains next, right?』
“Yes, Hwa-eun.”
That was indeed our next destination.
The moment I replied, she spoke quickly.
『Then please hurry back as soon as possible.』
“Hurry? Why?”
I’d recharged plenty last night—what more could she need?
Was there some other reason she wanted me back quickly?
Then came a shocking reply.
『An imperial edict was issued requiring all martial artists stationed at the border to withdraw. That’ll make the frontier even more dangerous—so you need to come back quickly.』
“What?”
『And that’s not all. It hasn’t been formally announced, but word from the palace is that they’re considering pardoning the Blood Cult and Five Venoms Sect.』
What the hell was going on?
