Max Talent Player

What happened next was nothing big, but baffling to Senia.

Choi Sung-gu held a glass of beer towards her. A human was giving her beer. To Senia, it was a somewhat shocking event—in angel society, only your very closest friends offered you alcohol.

“Come, come! Don’t be shy, Miss Senia. Have a drink.”

“...”

Senia had never drunk alcohol before. She was 332 years old. Something she had never drunk before was given to her by Choi Sung-gu.

‘What insolence.’

Senia was, in both heart and body, an Intermediate Administrator. She might be in a partnership with Kim Hyukjin and very tolerant in many respects when it came to Kim Hyukjin, but she still harbored slight contempt for Players. It wasn’t Senia’s fault. Most Intermediate Administrators were like that. After all, most Players were merely beginners.

“Come, hurry and take it.”

Choi Sung-gu’s face was a little flushed. He seemed to be a little tipsy. Senia’s wings fluttered.

“How disrespectful.”

Senia was always expressionless, but today’s expressionlessness was more severe than usual, like a tundra bristling with bitter-cold, piercing wind. Actually, it was more accurate to say that Senia was nervous rather than displeased. That was because she had never drunk alcohol before.

Hic.

Sung-gu snapped back to his senses.

“Ah, um.”

His cheeky mouth would be the death of him. It was the alcohol. Sung-gu looked to Kim Hyukjin with a silent cry for help. Hyukjin sighed, thinking that if he didn’t step in to mediate, Senia might give Sung-gu a slight punishment.

“But just for today, I will accept your proffered drink.”

“...”

Sung-gu’s hand lost all strength, and the glass he was holding fell to the ground. Right before it hit the ground, Darongi jumped forward like a ninja and grabbed it.

[!!!]

The squirrel wobbled under the weight of the glass, and Yeonseo picked it up.

“Iyaa, Darongi. You’re so fast.”

[♪♪]

Darongi straightened his shoulders in pride and brandished his stomach, which Sunhwa scratched with her index finger.

The chicken store was as peaceful as ever, but Hyukjin found Senia’s response a little odd. It was common knowledge that angels rarely drank. What’s more, an Intermediate Administrator deigning to hang out with Players? Was she streaming right now?

‘Guardians fundamentally don’t like to see Intermediate Administrators get excessively involved in a Play.’

This little party at a chicken restaurant was hardly a main scenario. At most, it could only be called a break, not real Playing.

‘And yet, if she’s streaming right now… it means a Guardian who likes slice-of-life content intervened.’

Senia took the seat next to Kim Hyukjin.

“How does one drink this liquid?”

“You can just drink it.”

“My observation of Players has shown that they typically turn aside or drink it with both hands in something called ‘drinking etiquette’.”

“Senia.”

Hyukjin stared at the angel. Senia’s wings trembled.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’re streaming right now, right?”

“Yes, I am. I am here because I am streaming.”

It was almost like she was saying that there was no way she would be in a place like this if she wasn’t streaming.

“Okay, I get that you’re streaming. But why are you showing yourself and hanging out with us?”

“I received a mission.”

“A mission?”

When Intermediate Administrators were given quests, it was typically called a ‘mission’. They weren’t as common as quests, but they weren’t completely unheard of.

“Yes, I am sitting here learning drinking etiquette because of a mission.” Senia’s gaze moved to Choi Sung-gu, who was still hiccuping. “To that end, I’ve even decided to forgive his disrespectful attitude. Because this can’t be helped.”

“Heheh… thank you.”

The future Flame Lord Choi Sung-gu dipped his head at Senia before grabbing a piece of chicken, internally promising himself not to drink any more beer tonight.

Hyukjin snorted.

“Can’t be helped?”

“Yes. This is an inevitable situation.”

“What kind of mission did you get?”

“Is that something I’m required to tell you?”

“No, you’re not required to. It would just be nice if you did. There’s no need for secrets between you and me, right?”

“That’s true.”

For some reason, Senia seemed a touch pricklier today. Her defensiveness made it seem like he was prying. After a moment of deliberation, Senia spoke.

“It’s a mission given by the ---- ----.”

“Ah, really?”

The last part was bleeped out. It was either System or Guardian interference.

‘Giving a mission for something so insignificant?’

That narrowed down the suspects. The vast majority of Guardians wouldn’t go as far as to give a mission for slice-of-life content like this.

‘Must be the Arrow-Shooting Cupid.’

The Guardian had seemed awfully quiet after the notice that he was paying attention to Senia’s stream, but he was rearing his ugly head again with another weird mission.

‘He’s definitely going to try pushing some sort of influence on Senia.’

The Arrow-Shooting Cupid wasn’t a very desirable Guardian. There were more than a few people who were brought to ruin because they were unlucky and caught the Arrow-Shooting Cupid’s eye. The Guardian was pretty much evil.

‘From the looks of it…’

It didn’t look like the Arrow-Shooting Cupid gave Senia a big mission or anything. It seemed like she just had to participate in this little party.

‘That’s how it starts, at first.’

But later down the line—

‘He’ll try to get her tangled up with one of us.’

That was the Arrow-Shooting Cupid’s strategy. He had no qualms about injecting people with strange preferences, influencing Players with whatever means possible.

‘There was that one crazy guy who made a fuss about marrying his own mom.’

That Player was a victim of the Arrow-Shooting Cupid. Hyukjin didn’t remember their names, but several Players suddenly revealed that they were gay, resulting in overnight breakdowns of their perfectly fine families. The opposite also happened, where a certain actor who was famous for being gay suddenly betrayed their fiancé, and the fiancé ended up killing themselves.

‘In any case, there’s nothing good about getting involved with him.’

The Guardian was responsible for a lot of other crazy shit, things too horrible to describe. That was why some people called the Arrow-Shooting Cupid a paraphiliac.

‘Though I don’t know who he’s trying to pair Senia with.’

Anyone here could become the target. Who would be the strangest person here for Senia to fall for?

‘Sunhwa?’

Sunhwa would be the weirdest.

‘In the super, super worst case scenario…’

Hyukjin glanced at Kim Darong, who had [♪♪] marks over his head.

‘She still has an angel’s willpower, so it shouldn’t be that bad.’

“What are you thinking about so intently?” asked Senia.

“No, it’s nothing.”

Jeez. He already had protecting Sunhwa from the casper on his mind, but it seemed he had to worry about Senia, too.

The party went on. Senia drank alcohol for the first time, and she learned for the first time that she was an extreme lightweight.

“I’m just carrying out a mission. Don’t misunderstand anything.”

She repeated the same line a dozen times before suddenly going transparent and disappearing. Her speech had grown so slurred by the end that it was hard to understand what she was saying.

* * *

* * *

Hyukjin went back to his room.

‘Hah, to think she got that drunk after just two sips of beer.’

It was absurd. Was it her first time in 332 years drinking alcohol or something?

“But… what’s going on now?”

A Pause authority suddenly took effect, and Senia appeared before him, her face still flushed. Even her originally white wings had turned pink, a possible sign that she was even more inebriated than before.

“Player Kim Hyukjin.”

“You must be loaded these days, to just randomly use a Pause authority.”

He wasn’t even Playing right now.

“Yes, I’m the most successful Intermediate Administrator in the whole server right now. I’m getting the most sponsorships, and I’ve long since escaped the depths of poverty. I’ve become a wealthy person who can afford to use a measly authority like this anytime.”

Her pronunciation was a little off, and she was slurring.

“You aren’t streaming right now, are you?”

“I’m not.”

“If you were, I would have lodged a formal complaint.”

Business had to be carried out professionally. Very few Guardians liked to see Intermediate Administrators being this out of it. Most Guardians liked Plays streamed by Intermediate Administrators thinking straight. It was serious enough to be a point of contention for Hyukjin, her contracted Player.

“Do you only have business in your head?”

“...”

“Streaming, streaming, streaming, streaming. Is that the only word you know?”

Hyukjin stopped short, getting a bad feeling.

‘The one the Arrow-Shooting Cupid is gunning for…’

It couldn’t be.

‘...is me?’

It was undeniable. Senia’s attitude right now said it all. She was drunk, and that opened her up to the Arrow-Shooting Cupid’s manipulation.

‘Shit, this is damn unlucky.’

There was absolutely nothing good about becoming that Guardian’s target.

“Senia, get it together!”

“I’m thinking perfectly straight.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Not at all. My body doesn’t get drunk.”

Those were big words for someone who was flushed down to her wings.

“So? Why did you suddenly show yourself? You’re not even streaming right now.”

“Can I only show myself when I’m streaming?”

Hyukjin scowled. “Would you be annoyed if a call came from the office after you went home for the day? I’m not even getting overtime pay.”

“Then is Player Kim Hyukjin annoyed right now?”

“Of course.”

Things would become very tiresome if the Arrow-Shooting Cupid fixated on him. He couldn’t show any openings from the start. The right move was to cut things off with a single stroke.

“Listen up. You and I are involved purely for business. Don’t forget we have an exclusive contract between us. If you keep interfering with my rest time in this manner, I’ll treat that as knowingly interfering with my future Playing and formally lodge a complaint.”

“...”

“Do you understand, or not?”

“Do you not like me, Player Kim Hyukjin?”

He did like her. She had grown a lot, and lately, they had great teamwork together. They could produce pretty great scenes for the Guardians even without discussing things ahead of time.

“You said you’re not streaming right now, right?”

“Yes. Streaming, I’m not doing it.”

Senia’s expressionlessness cracked a little. She seemed a bit angry, like she was holding back from retorting about him bringing up streaming again.

“I experienced System interference earlier. When you told me the Guardian who gave you the mission, either the System or the Guardian prevented me from hearing the name.”

“...Is that so?”

“But I think I know who that Guardian is.”

“Guess.”

“The Arrow-Shooting Cupid.”

“...”

“Think about it. Why do you think he concealed his name? Most Guardians are attention seekers who like spreading their names far and wide. And why do you think he gave you a mission like that? Do you not know of the Arrow-Shooting Cupid’s infamy?”

There were other dimensions other than ‘Earth’, a fact humanity would become vaguely aware of in the future. A named Guardian like the Arrow-Shooting Cupid was surely already famous among the Intermediate Administrators, and Hyukjin was exactly right.

“You said it, didn’t you? That you’re the most successful Intermediate Administrator right now.”

“...Yes.”

“Then there must be a lot of people who are jealous of you.”

“...”

“The Guardians don’t like to see you guys being too successful. Because in their point of view, you guys are just intermediaries, lowly tools that provide them amusement.”

Senia couldn’t argue back.

“If the Arrow-Shooting Cupid was truly honorable, do you think he would have gone out of his way to mess with the System?”

“...”

“Snap out of it. You and I still have a long way to go.”

They were only in the beginner period. There was still a long road ahead of them, and they wouldn’t make it far if something like this were to shake them.

“Don’t be shaken by the Guardians.”

“...”

“We just need to focus on what we have to do. They want amusement, and we provide the content.”

“...I have shown you something indecent.”

“You and I need to go far together. This is only the beginner period.”

“Player Kim Hyukjin is correct.”

“I’ll let it slide this time. Get your head in the game.”

Hyukjin took out an item called Miracle from his Inventory. It was one of the items Kim Darong had stolen from Song Junghye.

“Drink this.”

“What is it?”

“With how drunk you are, you’re probably gonna have a huge headache soon.”

“...” Senia frowned for a split second. “Yes, I’m definitely getting a headache.”

“Even potions won’t help with that. It’ll go away if you drink this Miracle.”

Senia took the item, a drink that would become popular as a hangover cure in the future. Her gaze alternated from the small bottle to Hyukjin’s face.

“When did you prepare this?”

“When you were drunk earlier.”

“Why are you giving it to me?”

“You need to make content with me again tomorrow, so it’s a pain if you’ve got a hangover.”

Senia nearly thought he was being kind and considerate, and those words almost unconsciously escaped her before she caught herself.

“I see. I will accept.”

Senia’s expression darkened a little. Finally, her Pause authority ran out, and she was nowhere to be seen. She had disappeared without notice again.

Hyukjin sighed.

‘I’ve put out the fire, for now.’

But there was no knowing what other tricks the Arrow-Shooting Cupid would try. It was best to be careful.

Two days passed. The Italian Master who claimed to be a manly man, Pedro, came to visit Hyukjin, and he was bearing very good news.