Episode 12
A second-anniversary event? Has it already been that long? It feels like only yesterday Dusk had just opened, the fields were packed with people, and quest mobs were so wiped out they couldn’t even respawn... Well, the fields are still packed with people now, though.
I looked at the date written in the mail, grabbed my phone, and opened the calendar app. I wasn’t the diligent type who wrote down every appointment, but I did make a point of noting down really, really important ones, so I wanted to check whether I had anything going on that day.
I flipped the June calendar to the right and checked July. It was perfectly clean, without a single thing on it. I immediately sent a reply saying I would participate.
By the way, if it’s between classes that counter each other, then the Divine Knight’s would be... the Medic, wouldn’t it?
― “Huh?”
At that moment, I heard Retake’s voice and turned my head to check the stream. I had no idea when he had logged in, but Retake was in the game, opening his mailbox just like I had. No way, had Retake been invited too?
In Dusk, every class had a counter under the pretext of balancing the classes. Cutting out all the complicated details and getting to the point, it meant that every class had some means of breaking down or nullifying another specific class’s unique traits.
And among them, the Divine Knight’s biggest counter... was none other than Retake’s main class, the Medic.
All of a sudden, my heart began to pound. Was I going to meet Retake? Was I going to meet Retake and face him in the arena? Were we going to have an IRL PvP?
With my heart racing, I focused on the stream. Retake opened one of the mails and quickly read through its contents as if muttering to himself. Aside from the wording being a little different from mine, it was the exact same mail. Retake had also been invited to the demonstration.
― “The offline event is next month? Half the year has already gone by... There hasn’t been an announcement yet, right?”
He’ll come, right? He’ll participate, right? If the Medic’s counter is the Divine Knight, then he’ll definitely come and have an IRL PvP with me, right?
― “‘The Arena is ranking content conducted as a one-on-one duel on a random map. We will be inviting rankers from each class and, as much as possible, matching classes that can counter each other’... Ah! Wait, does this mean Honeybun-nim is coming?”
Yup! I leaned my body toward the sub monitor and waited for Retake’s next words.
― “If it’s the Medic’s counter, then it should be the Divine Knight. ...But everyone, there’s one problem. I’m pretty sure July 16th is a weekend.”
I was brimming with anticipation when Retake suddenly opened the internet, searched up the July calendar, showed it to the viewers, and continued speaking.
― “I don’t have anything that day ‘yet.’ I don’t, but if urgent work comes in, I might have to go out, so I may not be able to attend. I do work sort of like a freelancer, but I’m still tied to a company... Especially on weekends, there are a lot of concerts and all kinds of events, so that’s when I’m busiest.”
As he said that, he crossed his arms as if pondering something and fiddled with his lips—not that I could see it on cam, but probably. It wasn’t like he’d be picking his nose—then let out a thoughtful hum.
He couldn’t come because he was tied to a company? Then just quit! Of course, for someone without much saved-up capital or an inheritance to count on, quitting one’s job was absolutely not something that could be considered lightly, but Retake?
He was different. I could support him. If I just handed him one of my bank accounts, he could spend decades lazing around without a care. He could take this chance to fully switch over to being a streamer and make a living off broadcasting.
In a hurry, I pressed the donation button and shouted at him through the super chat that came with it.
[100,000 won donation - Quit your job]
― “...Qui—wait, what? Quit my job... No, this is Zero-nim? Zero-nim, you were someone who could type in chat?”
Someone who could type in chat? Was he kidding me?
Because of the donation message I’d sent and Retake’s ridiculous remark, the chat window was devastated. Half of them were shocked that I, who had always only donated, had typed in chat and were just throwing question marks, while the other half were spamming “lol” at the line about whether I was someone who could type in chat.
Even if I had never typed a single thing in chat until now and had only made my presence known through donations, wasn’t this too much? Why were they more horrified by the fact that I’d typed in chat than by me telling him to quit his job?
― “Wow, this is my first time seeing Zero-nim type in chat. Isn’t this the first time you’ve chatted on my stream? I should take a screenshot and save it.”
Well, look at him go. Retake really did take a screenshot, paste it into Paint, and save it. I was dumbfounded. See if I ever type in chat again.
Maybe because I had shouted for him to quit, the viewers also began posting chats asking whether he should just quit his job. Most of them were joking, but among them, there were a few that seemed sincere.
After all, whenever he streamed after work, it was obvious that he was more tired than usual and his energy sagged. Seeing as he worked as a private bodyguard, he probably worked in places where large crowds gathered, like celebrity concerts, so it was only natural that he’d be exhausted.
― “Ahaha, quitting would be a little difficult. Anyway... For that reason, I have to contact the company separately, so I can’t send a reply right now. I do hope I can go, though. Still, my boss dotes on me a lot, so if it isn’t urgent work, I’m sure they’ll let me go to the event.”
Whether that event would be the Dusk offline event or a worksite, I didn’t know.
Retake, who had calmly persuaded the viewers and quickly wrapped up the situation, did not reply to the mail. He only pressed the confirm button and collected all his ranking rewards. Then he opened the character information window and equipped the
Since Retake had reminded me, I also returned to the game screen, claimed my ranking rewards, and equipped the
Retake was good at games, but he was also interested in digging into game story foreshadowing and lore, so during chatting time, he often talked about things like that. In fact, he was fairly famous as an eccentric streamer who would charge in like wildfire to uncover hidden secrets and, in the end, find the answer he wanted.
I was interested in such things too, but not to the point of digging that deeply, so I casually sorted the items I’d received as rewards, turned on the guild buffs that had expired with the passage of time, and listened to Retake’s voice as white noise.
― “On the login standby screen, the character doesn’t stand there with lively motions or poses like in other games, but looks like a dead person, or a doll... And there were those NPC lines that caused a lot of talk before too. I think players in Dusk are dolls. ...Yes, that’s right. The farther you go to villages away from the temple, the more the NPCs avoid us while calling us puppets, don’t they? In other words, players are marionettes, and I think this ‘Completed’ title might be a kind of tag attached to the most outstanding players, calling them finished products for some reason.”
A finished product, huh. Hearing Retake say that made it feel a little unsettling. It didn’t seem all that different from seeing an elite child neatly polished into something pleasing by warped parental expectations and a compensatory mindset.
Of course, that didn’t mean I had any intention of unequipping a title that increased all stats by 2%, that only ten people across the entire server could possess, and that was the same type as Retake’s.
[Guild] Vice Master CeylonTea has logged in.
As soon as the message that Mun Seonhwa had logged in appeared in the guild tab, the CeylonTea character appeared near me in a flash of light with a swoosh sound effect. CeylonTea immediately hurried over to the mailbox where I was and claimed her ranking rewards.
[Guild] Honeybun: hi
[Guild] CeylonTea: hi hi
[Guild] AllTheNicknamesAreTaken: Welcome, everyone hehe
[Guild] CeylonTea: looking for Honeybun or Nickjung to farm with me this week
[Guild] Honeybun: why farm? I’m done
[Guild] AllTheNicknamesAreTaken: I’ll go, I’m gearing up my warrior this time hehe
[Guild] Honeybun: oh tank?
[Guild] AllTheNicknamesAreTaken: I don’t do dungeon tanking;
[Guild] Honeybun: shame
AllTheNicknamesAreTaken, Nickjung for short, was a user who had only raised an archer character known as an assassin destroyer, shortened to ass-dest, or a sniper. They were skilled enough to rank within the top five of their class, but recently they had suddenly gotten hooked on warriors, so they had finished leveling one and were steadily gearing it up.
The two said they would invite each other to a party and asked to wait a moment, then quickly fell quiet. It seemed they had formed a party and moved over to party chat.
I finished sorting out this and that, and lastly stuffed potions, scrolls, game currency, and so on into the guild storage for guild members to take out and use when urgently needed. Maybe because most of the guild members were tanker and dealer players, the health potions had been completely wiped out.
After finishing everything I had to do, I opened the quest window with a light heart. I intended to push through the newly updated main story in advance. I had to finish it now so I wouldn’t forget later and could go straight to the dungeon when it opened next week. Also, after clearing the story, watching the main story videos Retake uploaded and comparing how the story development differed by race and by class was its own kind of small pleasure.
After checking the quest, I opened my inventory and tore a base scroll to go to Ateliena Wisha, the quest’s starting point. While it loaded, I muted Retake’s stream. It was so I could focus on the story.
When the loading finished, I followed the quest directive telling me to find the Divine Knight representative NPC, “Howa Shediana,” and walked to the designated spot. But there wasn’t a single hair of the NPC in sight, only swarms of users. The moment I stood there bewildered, the quest suddenly updated.