Chapter 108 - Operation Gamer 3

"If you speak out loud or someone complains about you, you will be expelled. Only one person per machine is allowed. No outside drink or food is allowed." Those were the rules she heard when asking the doorman to enter the world of colored and psychedelic lights dominated by the Oneirics.

Entering, Eun Ha found out she had to pass other two thugs: huge, mean-looking men who seemed to hate the job they were doing. Without the blue monocle, what the fairy saw was a dark place that didn't smell good: there was a nasty mixture of smells of food, sweat and dirt and even human waste, cloaked with cleaning products. The place was chilly, and most of the light came from the screens in the stalls. Near the entrance, there was a sort of mini convenience store, with refrigerators and shelves. The person responsible for renting the machines, or Room Manager, was behind the counter. 

At a glance, Eun Ha thought the room had at least a hundred stalls, in rows. The hum of the machines and the frantic chatter were the dominant sounds in the room. She didn't see the Hunter, but that was to be expected. Her Professor was probably already on one of the machines, as part of his cover.

With the monocle, however, the view was completely different.

Colorful lights dominated the room. Eun Ha saw humans sitting in their cubicles, and from the computer screen, very thin and opalescent chords clinging to people's faces. She could see the chords pulsing rhythmically. Some people also seemed to have fluorescent blue spots spreading from the face to the rest of the body, in varying amounts. They looked like sparkling spores, which also pulsed and exuded a little of a purulent and suspicious-looking substance. To Eun Ha's understanding, they somehow looked to be open wounds caused by some kind of magical leeches.

In any case, none of the people she observed would be able to look anywhere but at the screen. They were connected to them by the faces. Eun Ha couldn't even see their faces with the monocle. That tangle of pulsating chords must have been the Oneirics' feeding method. Eun Ha wondered if she would really like to see the entire and actual appearance of one of them, concluding that, definitely, not.

It was grotesque and terrifying to assume that these people, mostly young students, were being consumed mentally by those seductive creatures and their bright lights. Eun Ha also felt that all the magic of the environment had already been absorbed by the Oneirics. She also understood there that they were, the fairies and them, rival species. The distinction is that the Oneirics really vampirized humans in search of energy, and fed on it. She feared if, in this case, a fairy was not a plump and stuffed delicacy for an oneiric. Eun Ha really hoped that her tutor had not suppressed this information from her, but the fairy felt that she was starting to sweat cold. 

She started up her acting,

" Ajuhssiii, my boyfriend just arrived. He's gorgeous and has a jacket and plaid shirt…" 

The Hunter could call that expression 'sneezing rabbit', but the disgusting attendant pointed to a row and typed something, placing a numbered magnetic card on the counter.

Eun Ha bowed to thank him, knowing that, unlike Hunter Shin, other men found her aegyo way very cute. She reached out for the card. Unexpectedly the strangely repellent salon manager asked for a credit card or cash deposit to give it to her.

'Aishhh what a heartless person!' she thought, opening her wallet to get some bills. Moving to the designated place, Eun Ha discovered herself forcing each of her steps to make at the end of the corridor between the rows. The lack of magic and humanity was evident and chilly. Everything was sucked into computers. The screens flashed with colorful characters and explosions and movement, but aside from the players' frantic fingers, they were essentially immobile and engrossed. Captured and mesmerized.

'The Hunter needs to do something about it!' she shuddered in disgust, seeing his head pop up behind a cubicle wall. 

Hunter Shin motioned for her to come over soon, and Eun Ha thanked the heavens for seeing him. The young fairy felt more secure, even though she still wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Eun Ha sat in the stall next to the young version of Professor Shin, and with her magnetic card, she activated the computer. It welcomed her and next, offered several options for games. Judging only the price tag of the game sessions in the menu, Eun Ha soon learned that the most popular MMORPG there was Lords of Runedrake. It should be Lee Yo Sub's game. Turning to the Hunter, she whispered,

"When do I do it?"

"Ten minutes from now," was her Professor's reply.

"Are these things going to eat me if I join the game?" Again she whispered.

He shook his head, reassuring his apprentice, and made a sign of silence. However, Eun Ha chose another game and started typing randomly, just in case.

Her heart was pounding very hard, and Eun Ha thought she was going to have a heart attack when the Hunter suddenly got up, and by making a sign, showed that he was going somewhere. The young fairy looked at her watch and saw that she would have to spend at least another 7 minutes pretending to play, before putting step two of the plan into practice.

Eun Ha looked again at the screen of her cell phone for the image she was supposed to reproduce. 'Better to memorize it.'

6 minutes.

5 minutes.

The stylist could no longer know where the Hunter was, and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

Suddenly, the lights went out for a brief moment, and the whole room seemed to disappear into the darkness. 

Strangely, it took a while for humans to complain, and that happened when the lights came on, and the computers turned on again.

'But… what was that?! A power outage? And now? Should I follow the plan?' She got up, a little shaky, out of tension. But she went towards the counter, feeling more relieved to be closer to the door with each step.

"Erh, Manager? I can't choose another game, I think my computer crashed," she said the first thing that came to her mind, Eun Ha just wanted to be as close to his computer as possible. The manager didn't seem to hear her, looking at the screen, and she repeated what she said,

"Ah, sit there that someone is going to see this in a moment."

Taking her wand out of her pocket, Eun Ha spoke, drawing his attention. While discreetly pointing the magic object at the computer, and casting the spell.

"AJUHSSIIII! 'I DON'T WANT TO WAIT! CAN'T YOU BE FASTER?!"

The Manager glared at her for Eun Ha speaking so loudly, breaking the rules of the LAN house. But he peered at the magnetic card the woman was waving in front of him, and spoke patiently, "Agassi, sit down at your machine and wait. I'll send someone over there."

Eun Ha pretended to return, but headed for the restroom as planned. However, when the fairy got there, there was a cleaning cart, and a sulky cleaning lady to warn her,

"You won't be able to use the restroom now, I'm cleaning. Someone threw up at all of this."

"Eek!" she tried to peer over the cleaning lady, but the grumpy ajuhmma went in and closed the door pointedly on the client's face. 

'Omo! What to do?' Eun Ha looked this way and that, knowing that it completely changed the plans. 

Then her gaze strayed to two doors ahead, from which two men hurried out and went up the stairs at the end of the room.

A sign on the door said:

'AUTHORIZED PEOPLE ONLY - IT.

This seemed like a great opportunity. Maybe she could finish off that Oneiric barn before she left!

Sneaking around and watching to see if she was not being noticed, Eun Ha came to the door, and found it was locked. Disobeying his Professor's explicit orders, Eun Ha used her wand to jinx the electronic lock, opening the door easily after the disarming beep,

'Mwhahahaha, I could be a great spy!' she celebrated her minor victory mentally.

Upon entering the room, the first thing that caught her attention was the security monitoring screens, as well as the computers monitoring the activities on the rented machines. Eun Ha didn't understand any of that, so she turned to the security camera screens. Some screens showed the public part of the LAN house, where the players were, and the entrances. Others, however, showed several other rooms that Eun Ha did not think existed.

Scanning quickly, she searched for movement, and saw where the IT technicians had gone. They were in a server room, rummaging through the shelves and blinking machines, looking for the defect reproduced in the alarm screen. She also saw, in another room, a man who was eating some delivery food while a woman observed. It was a bit off, but that was not what Eun Ha wanted to see. The fairy girl reached for the keyboard and started trying to spot where the Hunter was.

Wandering through the controls, Eun Ha accessed the cameras on the third floor, and then faced chaos. Men ran after the  Hunter and another young, tall and overweight man. Hunter Shin pushed a cleaning cart toward the kidnappers to buy time. However, it was clear to the spectating fairy that Lee Yo Sub's poor physical form delayed them a lot. The Hunter stayed a little behind, to fight with the security guards. 

He was really good at that! Eun Ha was tiptoeing in anticipation and excitement when she learned that her wonderful Professor of Magic Affairs was an excellent Taekwondo fighter! 'That! Yes! Awn! Much better than any MMA wrestler, how can you be so perfect and manly?!' she wondered with a smile on her face.

"Is it too much fun, Agassi?" Eun Ha heard the mocking voice behind her, and felt the tip of a blade poking her ribs. Looking over her shoulder, the fairy confirmed her bad luck. One of the security guards and the disgusting Room Manager looked at her menacingly.