[g / virtualMMORPG!au / fluff]

“System-nim!”

Kyungsoo looked up from his screen and a set of pearly whites and starry eyes greeted him from the centre of the room.

“Are you serious…” Kyungsoo mumbled and placed a hand over his forehead, half shielding his eyes from the other’s innocent smile.  

“Hello again, system-nim!” the smiley man greeted enthusiastically with blood dripping down the side of his face, ignorant of Kyungsoo judging glare, “I’m here again, hehe.” Clumsily, he scratched his head while laughing shyly like a boy in front of his first crush in kindergarten.

“What is it this time?” Kyungsoo questioned coldly, turning his attention back to the screen in front that displayed the injured man’s information, “Wait, let me guess. You were already trampled by migrating wilderbeast in the Miner’s Valley, obliterated by the witch in the Sunken Oak Forest, and you even died from ‘accidentally’ consuming a poisonous berry having mistaken it for a HP berry. So this time it must be drowning in the Asianic Sea? Or did you die from getting struck by lightning in the Cactus Field?”

“Actually, I slipped down the slope in Diamond Gorge and hit my head… haha...” Chanyeol replied sheepishly while pointing to the huge, bleeding wound on the side of his head. Still glaring, Kyungsoo waved his hand and all traces of blood disappeared from Chanyeol’s face and attires.

It was year 2178.

Video games were long ago replaced by the many virtual MMORPG and SecuVita was one of them. Kyungsoo was the system operator of SecuVita in Korea and whenever a player dies, he processes their profile and revives them again. Generally, the mortality rate of players was around 1 per 10,000 per month, but there were always outliers, like player Park Chanyeol.

This was the fourth time Kyungsoo had met Chanyeol in the revival chamber in the past week.

“How do you manage to die even from slipping down a slope??” Kyungsoo exasperated as he punched in the codes into the screen in front of him, updating the player’s profile once again.

Chanyeol laughed heartily, not feeling an ounce of embarrassment for his lack of survival skills. This earned him another sharp look from the system operator and Kyungsoo eyed the tall boy in front of him suspiciously. Judging from Chanyeol’s physical profile, he should be able to level up quite quickly and do just fine in the game. Yet over and over again, he dies from the stupidest things (aside from his first death, which really was just bad luck of him to be at the wrong place at the wrong time). Then shamelessly, he’d appear in front of Kyungsoo at the revive chamber with the largest and happiest grin. ‘Is he a hacker or a virus planter?’ the young system operator thought cautiously and made a mental note to report to his superior after sending Chanyeol back into the game.

“System-nim, don’t you wonder why I die so often? I’m not a hacker or virus planter though.” Chanyeol sudden spoke as if having read the other’s mind. Kyungsoo halted abruptly from his task. Eyes sparkling with excitement, the dead player regarded the stoic operator with a huge smile on his face. Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes at the set of pearly whites that were blinding him again.

“… Why?”

“It’s because I want to see System-nim!” Chanyeol answered cheerfully, unabashed, “Aside from dying, I don’t know any other way to see you again.”

Kyungsoo blinked dumbly at the happy man in front of him. That was not the answer he was expecting.

“I know it’s kind of stupid and my friends all laugh at me for doing this, but I really don’t know what else I can do!” Chanyeol scratched the back of his head again and his toothy grin was placed with a sheepish smile, “I really like you system-nim, since the first time I saw you. I think it’s love at first sight, hehe… Can, um, can you tell me your name and contact information?”

Hearing the other’s bold confession, Kyungsoo’s face flushed a deep shade of red. Stunned, he stared at Chanyeol with his mouth slightly agape, as if trying to say something but no sound came out at all. Kyungsoo cannot deny that he found Chanyeol to be quite handsome, and despite having thought the tall player was an idiot because of how frequently he died in the game, the system operator did not dislike him; rather he had enjoyed seeing Chanyeol so often. Being a system operator sometimes was a little lonely.

“System-nim?” Chanyeol called out tentatively after a few seconds, feeling slightly awkward having received no response. Kyungsoo was still staring at him with a flushed face and frozen like a statue. Finally, the system operator came to his senses again and cutely, he hid his face behind his hands.

“… Kyungsoo,” he mumbled quietly and when Chanyeol said he could not hear him, the blushing operator repeated himself in a louder voice, “I said it’s Kyungsoo… that’s my name…”

“Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol called out loudly with a huge, idiotic grin on his handsome face again, “Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo!”

“What!” Kyungsoo snapped, peaking through his fingers.

“Nothing, hehe… I just wanted to say your name.”

Part of Kyungsoo really wanted to smack the grin off of the other’s face, but the other part of him kind of liked having his name being called out by Chanyeol’s deep voice; it made his heart beat a little faster and his face feel a little warmer.

“Anyways, you’re good to go.” Kyungsoo said, quickly switching the topic of conversation. With another wave of his hand, Chanyeol’s body glowed a light blue and the restart loading bar in front of the player’s chest filled up rapidly.

“Wait, what about your contact information! I haven’t gotten that!” Chanyeol screamed in a panic as the loading bar was almost full.

“I guess you’ll have to find out the next time,” Kyungsoo smiled sweetly, his eyes squinting into crescents like a sneaky fox, “You have a knack for dying anyway.”

“Yeah, but! Kyung-“ Before he could finish his sentence, Chanyeol’s body disappeared from the revival chamber and he was transported back into the game.

Looking down at Chanyeol’s profile on his screen, Kyungsoo softly touched the other’s profile picture and smiled wider as his cheeks warmed with a blush.

“See you soon, player Park Chanyeol.”

don't you think system-nim is such a moe title??? SYSTEM-NIM!!! kekekekeke