As one Magical Girl worried about her night’s sleep,
another Magical Girl boarded a taxi with high hopes.
A journey alone, without Mari, for Siyeon.
“Please take me to the comprehensive bus terminal!”
Sitting in the taxi, she repeated the destination name that Mari always said.
Every time, Mari would calculate the taxi fare, and every time, it was Mari who looked at the map alone.
This time, she had to handle everything from start to finish.
With a mix of excitement and nervousness, she bought a ticket at the terminal and hopped onto the bus.
She had visited once during her elementary school years, but Mari had mostly taken care of everything.
Moreover, unlike that peaceful time, the bus was packed with people.
Could it be that everyone here is going to play games?
‘Ugh, this is uncomfortable…’
Looking at the assigned seat number, she found herself at the back of the bus.
She had just gone to an empty seat during the ticket collection, and oddly enough, it was a corner at the very back.
With someone she didn’t know already seated beside her, she hugged her bag tight and huddled down.
Unlike the car driven by uncles, she didn’t even think about getting off at the rest stop.
Worrying about her bag and feeling like if she went to the restroom, the bus would leave without her, she sat dazedly playing with her smartphone.
After two hours of fiddling with her phone, the battery was already at 62%.
A classmate who was in Sokcho in the chatroom wasn’t someone she was that close with, so it felt a bit awkward to reach out.
“Hey? It’s working!”
At that moment, the bus suddenly became noisy.
What element could possibly warrant the word ‘working’ in this situation? she wondered…
There could only be one obvious answer.
Hurriedly pressing the home button to exit the chatroom, she tapped on the game app labeled EW.
Before long, a map unfolded centered around her character.
Characters that hadn’t appeared at home started popping up one by one around her.
‘It’s working! Ah…’
But that was just for a moment.
As the bus accelerated when it started moving, the characters around her quickly vanished.
After about ten more minutes, the bus came to a stop at Sokcho terminal, bringing back the faint scenery of that day.
What had changed since then was the number of people.
Everywhere, heads were bowed as people stared at their smartphones.
Some were idly standing in the middle of the street, intensely swiping and tapping on their screens, while others would stop after a few steps and whirl their screen back and forth.
“Oh, I caught it!”
“Hey, why did only you catch it?”
“Mom, look at this!”
“Oh, well done! Where do we go next?”
“There!”
It seemed many were there with friends or parents to play games, as conversation after conversation about gaming floated around.
The bustling streets of Sokcho.
I too bowed my head, staring at my smartphone while walking, and began capturing characters one by one when they appeared around me.
After a while of capturing characters, I looked around.
With a creeping sense of unease, I kept checking to see if anyone I knew was nearby.
I didn’t quite understand the items like growth stones or fruits in the game, but I used what I had and wandered around the streets for a good while.
Lost in the game, I wandered the streets until…
[Battery remaining 15%]
‘Huh?’
Suddenly, a notification about the battery life dropped down from the top of the screen.
Why was it showing low battery even though I had my power bank plugged in?
…Let me check the power bank—ah, it’s out of juice too.
Looking around, I saw fewer people still fiddling with their phones, though a decent number remained.
Only then did I become aware of my surroundings and was filled with the urgency to find a place to stay.
After scanning the map for nearby accommodations, I had walked there but…
“What? No rooms available.”
“It’ll be hard to find available rooms during peak season.”
“Gee, if you haven’t found a room until now, you probably won’t.”
My smartphone’s battery dropped to 14%, then 13%…
With the decreasing numbers came growing anxiety.
I was breathing quickly, and with only the thought of needing to do something before my phone died stuck in my head,
I quickly called Mari, pressing the hot phone to my ear.
Ringing, ringing.
The connection tone felt painfully long that day.
“Hello?”
“Mariiiiii…”
Hearing that familiar voice on the other end, Siyeon began to choke up.
At that moment, Sun, flying above Gunpo City, was wondering if she had arrived at her lodging.
Without thinking too much, she picked up the phone, but the whiny voice on the other end made her freeze in midair.
“What’s wrong, Siyeon? Are you lost?”
“It’s not that…”
“Mari, can we talk after we finish with the monster…”
The Gomteng cut into the conversation without any sense of priority.
It seemed to mean it wasn’t too late to talk after finishing with the monster, but regardless, my friend’s plight was infinitely more important than some garbage monster I had to deal with on the road.
With a quick finger press over the phone’s mic, I shot two simple, concise words at the Gomteng.
“Shut up.”
Removing my finger from the mic, I pressed my ear back to the phone and spat out my words.
“What? Don’t cry, just speak slowly.”
“I’m at the lodging, but there are no available rooms…”
In that instant, I felt a tremendous wave of urgency, only to find out she called about lodging.
Holding onto my heart that was ready to drop, I took a deep breath and calmly continued to speak.
“Have you checked other places?”
“Yeah…three places.”
Siyeon had been to three different lodgings, an impressive feat.
Considering that an issue had even made it onto the news in our country, known for being notoriously conservative about games, this certainly wasn’t a small matter…
If the news had picked it up, it was probably a peak season for lodgings.
Finishing my quick thoughts, I displayed my willingness to help find her a place and asked where she was.
“Where are you now?”
“At Sokcho Terminal…”
“Got it, hang up and wait a sec.”
Click, Siyeon hung up first.
How anxious must she have been to call me while on her trip? I hurriedly opened the map app and pulled up accommodations near Sokcho Bus Terminal.
As I paused in the sky over Gunpo City, tapping away at my smartphone,
I felt an unspoken pressure from the Gomteng, who was stamping its feet up in the air alongside me, worrying for Siyeon.
About 500 meters from the terminal, I found an adequate lodging even if it was a bit far and called the number listed.
A warm voice of an elderly aunty came through my smartphone.
“Hello.”
“Hi, is this X Motel?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Do you have any available rooms?”
“It’s a bit pricey during peak season—16,000 won for a night.”
The aunty bluntly quoted a normal motel room at a steep 160,000 won.
With summer vacation and news about some game everyone was playing, it seemed they were doubling the prices like ghosts.
‘Wow, these robbers.’
Honestly, with the Olympics and World Cup, it’s like they’re trying to rip off customers!
Swallowing the urge to curse that tried to bubble up, I kept my voice calm.
“I’d like to reserve a currently available room. A student named Siyeon will be going, and please leave the bank and account number for me.”
I hung up after the call, transferred the payment through the details that arrived in a text, then called Siyeon again.
She must’ve been staring blankly at the black smartphone screen, as I heard her voice before I even got a ring.
“Hello…”
“Hey, Siyeon. If you search for X Motel on the map app, there’s a place 500 meters nearby. Just head that way, and they’ll tell you which floor once you mention the name.”
“Uh…my battery is dead, so I’ll call after I get there…”
“Okay, call me later—”
Click—thus ended the tense conversation that lasted a couple of minutes.
Like Siyeon, the Gomteng, whose heart was racing, was directed to guide me.
Arriving at the scene of the monstrous appearance in the city,
“Eekkkkk!”
As soon as the monster saw me, it screamed in a shrill voice as if it had seen something it shouldn’t.
‘Uh, sorry about that.’
Scratching my head, I wore a slightly awkward expression.
With the wand swirling in the air, the monster’s eyes rolled around, too.
Come to think of it… last time I met this monster, it said fighting was just an excuse, and it felt more like visiting a celebrity?
From the monster’s perspective, it must’ve felt as if it came to watch a celebrity, only to encounter a chainsaw-wielding maniac.
I came to slay monsters while on a Magical Girl adventure; it couldn’t be helped.
“Just think of it as getting hit by a car…”
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