God-Tier Enhancement Chapter 318: Episode 318_A Glamorous Trip (4)

Chapter 318: Episode 318_A Glamorous Trip (4)

6.

As Simin strolled along the beach, Yeseul quietly came up beside him and matched his pace.

Seen like this, they really did look like a well-matched couple.

Her long legs gleamed under the soft starlight, her black bikini clearly visible beneath her cover-up. Her slender, toned figure was enough to inspire envy.

Compared to Seolah, she might have been slightly overshadowed, but objectively speaking, Yeseul’s looks and figure were nothing to scoff at.

It was just a difference between mature allure and cuteness.

And seeing her alone like this, even that comparison felt meaningless; Yeseul radiated a mature charm all her own.

Simin, for his part, was nothing special to look at, but he was passable.

The difference was that the man had an obscene amount of money, but from an outsider’s perspective, that didn’t matter. Between the two of them, the power dynamic had flipped, so it was irrelevant.

“The view is amazing. The breeze is so nice too. Right?”

“Yeah. Damn. I really made it. A year and a half ago, I was dreaming about when I’d ever get to see even the waters off Jeju, never mind the Maldives. Now I’m on a private jet, on a private island, walking on the beach alone with a pretty girl.”

“A pretty girl?”

“It would’ve been even better if it were Seolah.”

“Tch.”

He even played hard to get like a pro.

He had not said it with any particular intent, but Yeseul pouted and smacked him on the back.

Just like always, without thinking.

With all her strength.

Her small hand slammed into his back, and the unprepared Simin almost pitched forward onto his face.

“Urk!”

“Oh.”

Yeseul had swung without thinking, and Simin had braced for the smack without thinking.

It wasn’t because he assumed, ’How hard could a little girl’s hand really hit?’

Nor was it because he hadn’t seen it coming.

It was purely a side effect of 『Fantastic World』.

It was a familiar, endlessly repeated pattern.

Simin would tease her, and Yeseul would tremble with indignation, smacking him while voicing her complaints.

You could call it a kind of playful affection.

This time was no different.

It was a natural, comfortable routine.

Up to that point, everything was fine.

He had just briefly forgotten that this was reality, not the game.

The one hitting his back was not a healer who had dumped every stat point into Magic, and the one being hit was not his character, who had achieved his first Magic Awakening.

As a result, he took damage he had not anticipated, and nearly ended up with his nose buried in the sand.

Simin rubbed his back in silence.

Yeseul looked at him, stunned.

An awkward silence fell.

Simin started walking again as if nothing had happened, then looked at Yeseul with eyes full of suspicion.

“Were you a volleyball player before you started gaming or something?”

He had earned himself another beating.

Of course, not wanting to take another hit from that fiery hand, Simin quickly grabbed her incoming arm and slung it over his shoulders.

It was more of a headlock than a sweet lover’s embrace, but there was no real strength in it; it was a friendly kind of physical contact.

“This won’t do. You’re tiny, but your hands are lethal.”

Yeseul remained silent.

Yeseul’s cheeks flushed pink.

’Why is my heart pounding over something like this...’

She ducked her head so he wouldn’t notice.

It was not like she had any reason to be shy after all the times she had thrown herself at him, but in the end, she was still a woman.

The mood turned awkward for a moment.

When teasing led to embarrassment, it was inevitable.

Simin wasn’t an idiot; he couldn’t help but pick up on it.

But he didn’t panic. He simply kept his arm around her shoulders and continued walking.

“What, were you serious?”

“...Hmph. Whatever.”

Yeseul turned her head away but didn’t shake off his arm.

He could not help but chuckle.

Even if he had only ever thought of her as a cute little sister, when a man and a woman were together like this—under this night sky, on this beach, walking alone, pressed close—other feelings were bound to arise.

And for Simin, it wasn’t even like that.

He was always open.

He didn’t date just anyone, but he saw no need to push away a woman who came to him, especially one he had no reason to refuse.

In the game, he had been tangled up with so many women and so focused on playing that he had laughed it all off, but this was reality.

He was twenty-six now.

He hadn’t been actively looking to date, but he had no intention of rejecting any relationship that came his way, either.

And it would be a lie to say he hadn’t been shaken by Yeseul’s constant advances.

He had just never had a chance to confirm it.

Whether it was all a joke, or whether she meant it.

Finding her refusal to answer cute, he used the arm around her shoulders to ruffle her hair.

“Now I get why guys all want to go overseas with women. You’re annoyingly cute, you know that?”

“Oh, come on. Don’t do that. If I really fall for you, my obsession gets seriously bad.”

“Then that won’t do.”

Then, in the next instant, she snapped back to her usual self and boldly wrapped her arms around his waist, and he took a step back in surprise.

Then he asked.

“What do you even like so much about me? The money only came in recently, and it’s not like I’m good-looking, my personality isn’t great, and I’m a shut-in who plays games all day.”

He was just curious.

Honestly curious.

If this were 『Fantastic World』, he probably wouldn’t have asked.

If he had been fully immersed as Dino, he would have understood this kind of reaction perfectly.

At least in 『Fantastic World』, Dino was devoted to his work, had enough influence to turn the world upside down, made a ridiculous amount of money, and possessed talents no one else had.

But this wasn’t the game.

Money aside, he didn’t think a man’s financial power was what attracted Yeseul to him.

Once you started dating, people naturally wanted to see each other more in real life than in-game, and in that sense, Simin was a man with a lot of flaws.

In the game, he effectively had two wives.

He even had a daughter.

So what reason could there be to like him?

That was all he wanted to know. It was that simple.

And Yeseul answered just as simply, without hesitation.

“Just... I like you. At first, I was teasing you because it was fun to mess with you, but I just ended up liking you.”

Simin was speechless.

It was an answer that left him with nothing to say, but it was also the most honest one.

Did there really need to be a special reason?

It wasn’t like they were getting married.

They were in their twenties; there was no reason to hesitate about expressing a crush.

Simin nodded.

“Got it.”

“Got it?”

“Yeah. I understand.”

“...That’s it?”

“What, were you hoping I’d just say, Okay, let’s date, on the spot?”

“No. It’s not that, it’s just...”

’It’s kind of lame, isn’t it? The mood was perfect, she’d been so direct, and that was all he had to say?’

Her lips jutted out again.

Simin reached out and grabbed them.

“Let’s finish the main quest first, then meet up and think about it. I don’t even know if I’m capable of dating right now.”

“Hmph.”

To a third party, it would have looked like he was playing hard to get, like some Kenji-level tycoon.

But Simin didn’t care.

He wasn’t the type to worry about what other people thought in the first place.

Even if he accepted these not-unpleasant feelings as they were, could he really give up money—the driving force that had brought him this far?

Thinking about it coolly, the answer was no.

At best, they would keep meeting in the game like they did now, and most of the time he would be roaming the continent to enhance things, with little time to see her.

On top of that, there were Epia, the Imperial Princess, and a whole crowd of other women tangled up with him.

Problems would arise whether he wanted them to or not.

He wanted to think about it when he had some breathing room.

In a way, it meant his plate was full—too full—for now.

“I’ll have you know, I’ve even been hit on by an actor. You’re making this way too hard.”

“Come on, at least don’t lie.”

“It’s true!”

“Sure, sure. If you say so.”

“Damn. Fine, then at least take me on a date when we get back. You’ve been acting like some big shot this whole time, and if you won’t even do that, I seriously won’t give you any heals.”

“It’s boring if we just do it. Want to make a bet?”

She remained silent.

“If you catch me, I’ll give you an entire day to do whatever you want with me. Anytime. But if you can’t catch me, you owe me a thousand dollars.”

“...Unbelievable.”

He really never changed.

That was exactly the side of him she had liked, so even as she scoffed, she nodded.

Compared to the Han Simin who used to just mess around, this was practically a romance.

She even felt a random surge of gratitude toward Kenji.

’Perhaps the one getting strangely emotional on this trip isn’t Yeseul, but Simin.’

Things had already progressed this far; this much was nothing.

And she was confident.

“Alright, I’m off.”

“Can I go all out trying to catch you?”

He snorted.

“Please. I might play games all day, but I’ve still got a basic level of fitness. I’m not going to get caught by a little brat like you.”

“If you get caught, you’re dead. You’re really going to be my boyfriend for a whole day tomorrow, Simin, okay?”

“If you catch me.”

She didn’t panic when Han Simin suddenly bolted.

Instead, she calmly slipped off her shoes and set them neatly aside.

Her small, dainty feet sank into the soft sand.

Then she took off after him.

A full-power sprint, with all her heart in it.

A romantic nighttime dash, where everything was perfect—except the two of them.

The winner was Kang Yeseul.

He was speechless.

“I was on the track team.”

Han Simin, caught by the scruff of his neck, had nothing to say.

7.

Fantastic World broadcasts had grown so much that people were calling them the “fourth terrestrial work.”

Getting a 10% rating just by airing something was no big deal anymore, and while they did have to craft content that could draw interest, editing together impossible, otherworldly events to boost ratings was not particularly hard work for producers who had spent their entire lives in broadcasting.

However, that only worked for a while. Now that it had been over a year—almost a year and a half—since Fantastic World launched, the era when you could just throw any random content out there and grab people’s attention was over.

Fantastic World broadcasts were now a competitive space.

The streamers who had aggressively courted TV stations in the early days to promote their own streams had since established themselves and come to prefer their personal channels, no longer allowing stations to upload their footage for free. On top of that, the number of game channels was exploding, and competition with overseas channels was intensifying, turning the scene into yet another cutthroat market.

Even in that environment, UGN, the channel that had long held the undisputed top spot in Korean game broadcasting, continued to hold its ground.

The driving force was, of course, adapting to the times.

And overwhelming capital.

They spared no expense in creating content and shows.

If they needed to book someone, they paid enough that no one could complain.

Now, UGN was planning a massive piece of content.

The idea was to host a special, invite all the top rankers, and have them enjoy a fair competition.

It was a fresh concept.

In-game, these famous gamers were always wary of each other, and the continent was so vast that they rarely even ran into one another. UGN would create a separate server, gather them all in one place, and run a broadcast from there.

It was obviously destined to succeed.

The motif was a variety show where they gathered idols and held a sports festival.

They started reaching out to all kinds of big-name streamers and influential rankers.

The appearance fees were generous enough that no one could complain.

And that message reached Han Simin as well.

*