*
The third day ended with the excavator raising the flying squirrels’ prestige to boundless heights.
That evening, the squirrels treated Geuru with the utmost hospitality.
After indulging decadently in the strawberry juice Cheche had offered him, Geuru fell asleep hugging Mephisto tightly.
And then came the fourth day.
“Vroom vroom, beep beep, little square bus~ Even when the rain comes down, there’s never any problemmm~”
Creak-creak— creak-creak— creak-creak—
Geuru was on his way to the river, pushing his bicycle along to draw water from the stream.
Now that he had planted the acorns, he had to water them. As he hummed cheerfully, he spotted a trickling stream of water.
‘Here it is!’
Screech!
Kicking up a cloud of dust, Geuru made a magnificent stop and got off his bicycle.
‘Geuru, supreme master of driving.’
Dressed carefully in overalls with boots pulled up over the cuffs, Geuru picked up a bucket with his swaying tail.
The squirrels had said that because Geuru was still young, his beastman transformation was incomplete, which was why his ears and tail were showing. Once he got older, he would be able to hide them perfectly.
‘But my tail is convenient.’
It felt like having three hands.
At times like this, Geuru found himself thinking that living as a flying squirrel wasn’t all that bad, but then he shook his head hard.
To think it could make him lose his humanity like this. RP dungeons really were terrifying places.
Even if he was a king praised by the squirrels, and even if, as king, he could decadently enjoy strawberry juice and acorn cookies every day, Geuru had a goal he could never forget.
‘I have to go find the snow leopard tribe so I can beat up Ham Honggi!’
Helping the squirrel tribe was only temporary. As Geuru reaffirmed that to himself while drawing water, something entered his field of vision.
Something was floating down from upstream.
“Uung?”
Something pitch-black, large, and long was drifting slowly with the current. Looking closely, it was something wrapped round and round in wet cloth.
“Wha’s that?”
Geuru took a duck grabber out of his inventory, stretched out his arm, and poked at it.
Splash!
Then it flopped over, revealing a face.
“Kyaaaaak!”
He was so startled that his ears and tail shot straight up.
“It’s a person!”
Why was a person floating down the river?! Geuru grabbed him by the shoulders and arms and, with much huffing and puffing, dragged him onto dry land.
It was a boy wearing a long black hood.
“Huff, huff.”
After barely managing to pull the boy out, Geuru was panting for breath when—
‘Ah!’
It was a face he knew.
Geuru pushed the boy’s black hood back.
Soft-looking brown hair and fine, delicate features.
‘I can’t see his eyes.’
Grunting, Geuru frowned and forced his eyelids open to check the color of his irises.
The left was gold, the right was blue.
As expected, it was him.
‘The cat big brother from the auction house!’
And for some reason… on the cat big brother’s head were triangular ears, white with black spots.
*
Warm sunlight seeped through a gap in the window and slowly heated his eyelids.
Feeling the sunlight, Serhi’s eyelids fluttered.
Where was this? Who was he? What was his last memory? He desperately tried to recall.
‘I am Serhi.’
His last memory was opening the RP dungeon with Irina…
To obtain the dungeon’s core, he had infiltrated the Brom Guild Alliance and entered the dungeon with them.
The “core” was a kind of storage device that held the dungeon’s information.
It was something bosses created in order to maintain their dungeons, and while it was normally useless to humans, it was necessary for Irina’s next plan.
And, anticipating a large-scale battle, he had made and stationed combat-type mannequins…
Serhi slowly opened his eyes and frowned.
“You’re awake?”
“Chwi-chu?” (Are you awake?)
The sense of reality grew even weaker when he saw the two faces suddenly leaning into his view.
A baby squirrel human, and one squirrel… a squirrel…?
“Why am I seeing a squirrel in front of me?”
“Because he’s a flying sqwirrel!”
“Chwi-ching-chwi-chu!” (Because he is Lord Flying Squirrel!)
In despair, Serhi covered his eyes with both hands.
“…Is this squirrel hell? Even in hell, of all places…”
At that, Cheche asked back in an angry voice.
“Chwii?! Chwi-chwi!” (Why hell?! If anything, it should be squirrel heaven!)
But Serhi only blinked blankly.
“What’s it saying?”
“He said, why is it hell and not heaven?”
“There’s no way I’d be in heaven…”
“Eh?”
At his cynical tone, Geuru blinked.
In the meantime, Serhi seemed to come to his senses a bit more. He looked around and then opened his mouth.
“But what is this? Why are you here? And come to think of it, why are you a squirrel! What the hell is going on?!”
Serhi sprang upright and began escalating through stages of shock.
At the sudden movement, Serhi covered his mouth and coughed, a bloody fit bubbling up from his chest.
He didn’t seem to have any major external injuries, but his internal wounds appeared to be severe.
Cheche tried to help, but Serhi sharply slapped the helping hand away.
“First, explain what this is.”
Geuru decided to correct the most important fact first.
“Geuru isn’t just a sqwirrel. He’s a flying sqwirrel. He’s the king of the sqwirrels.”
Serhi stared at Geuru with a dumbfounded expression. Then, as if wondering what he had expected in the first place, he replied without much sincerity.
“…If you’re the king, then you’re an OP character. Congratulations.”
OP? At the unfamiliar term, Geuru tilted his head.
“O-pee character… cucumber pizza cake…?”
*OP character: Short for overpowered, meaning a broken character with powerful abilities.
“So what is this place? A squirrel map? Are you even the real one? You’re not a knockoff, are you?”
Serhi grabbed Geuru’s cheeks and repeatedly stretched and released them.
“Uiiing—!”
But he was the real Geuru!
The one who saved Geuru was Cheche. Sitting with his chair pulled far back, Geuru touched his tingling cheeks and stuck out his lips.
“Thish is the sqwirrel tribe. We grow trees on the farm and collect acorns. And…”
Geuru looked at Serhi’s head.
“What about you, big brother? Are you from the snow leopard tribe?”
At those words, Serhi’s right ear twitched.
“Ah… yeah.”
With that reluctant answer, the two white-furred ears on top of his brown hair folded backward.
It seemed his body was so damaged that his ears couldn’t be hidden and had popped out.
‘If only it hadn’t been a Gnosis hunter.’
To avoid being discovered by the Brom Guild, he had deliberately placed the mannequin army a little farther away, but perhaps that had been the problem—he had ended up being discovered by a Gnosis hunter of all things.
As he recalled that moment, Geuru leaned his face closer and stared intently into his eyes.
“What?”
“Your eyes…”
“Huh?”
Geuru thought about something, then smiled brightly.
“They’re pretty.”
“What?”
Serhi’s brow furrowed.
Why was he suddenly saying his eyes were pretty? Flustered, a blush rose to his cheeks and his ears shot straight up.
It was then.
Outside the window, the squirrels began shrieking as though they were screaming.
“Chwi-chwi-chwi-chwik!” (Master is coming!)
Unable to understand the squirrel language, Serhi could only look puzzled, while Geuru opened his eyes wide and looked at Cheche.
‘Master?!’
He had overheard the squirrels talking.
They said there was an incredibly strong outsider squirrel, and they had decided to call him Master.
‘What a mysterious person. What guild is he from, coming here alone?’ he had thought.
“Chwiiiiik—!” (Kyaaaaak!)
“…?!”
But for some reason, the squirrels’ shrill screams did not seem ordinary.
“Cheche, let’s go down.”
Geuru went down to the first floor with Cheche.
The two pattered quickly down the stairs and flung open the door.
“…!”
“…!”
And at the sight before them, they froze in shock.
The one standing in the middle of the horrified squirrels was dyed scarlet from head to toe.
They were soaked red, as though someone had poured red paint over their head.
…The problem was that anyone could tell it wasn’t red paint, but blood.