Episode 22
[- Abrea: What on earth is going on? And where is this place, sparkling like this when it’s inside a cave? If I’d been alone, I would’ve thought I’d been bewitched by something.]
[- Abrea: In any case, it seems like we’re supposed to go through that castle gate... But we can’t just move blindly when we don’t even know for sure where we are. Let’s report this to the higher-ups first, investigate this place a little more, and then decide whether to go in or not.]
The script ended, and a quest completion window popped up. When I pressed the completion button, I received a small amount of fame points, and the quest ended.
The “child” Adam had mentioned so casually had to be that tiny, millet-sized angel from earlier. Since it had led us here and then entered the castle gate, whatever the god had tried to hide would probably be revealed in the dungeon beyond that gate.
I was curious what in the world this so-called god was hiding for them to dig up and release even a hidden story, but unfortunately, there was no way to enter the dungeon and watch the story right now. Zero Soft always opened dungeons exactly one week after patching them in, so there was nothing I could do. If I wanted to see the story, I had to sit around sucking my thumb until next week.
I smacked my lips and stopped the video recording I’d been taking. Then a thought occurred to me. What if I sent this video to Jaesugang, that story-obsessed lunatic?
Even on the forums, no one had uncovered the Divine Knight’s hidden story, so they didn’t even know the hidden target went with Abrea. Wouldn’t he like it if I sent him the file with all of it recorded?
I opened File Explorer and rummaged around for the video. I wanted to check how large the file was. It wasn’t like I’d recorded combat scenes, so it shouldn’t be so big that I’d have to split it up to send it. Thinking that, I checked the file size and saw it was 6.68GB. I could probably upload it to Drive and send it.
[Guild] Honeybread: Done farming?
[Guild] NicknamesAreAllTaken: Yep hehe
[Guild] Ceylon Tea: yeah
[Guild] Ceylon Tea: why
Now then, step one to sending Jaesugang the file.
[Guild] Honeybread: Let’s go griefing
Kill Jaesugang and ask if he wanted the video file.
Griefing referred to play where you focused attacks on the opposing race’s territory, occupied it, refused to move, and generally made a nuisance of yourself. If a max-level player griefed in a low-level zone, people could curse them out for having no manners, but griefing in a max-level zone wasn’t bad manners. It was just war.
It was by no means rare; it was one of those everyday occurrences that happened every other day or so. People often griefed in front of the opposing race’s dungeons or at bases with special NPCs and heavy foot traffic, and sometimes they even stormed the main stronghold.
Going after a stronghold instead of a base was the real fun. If you swarmed around the resurrection point, trapped people so they couldn’t move recklessly—if they didn’t move after resurrecting, their invincibility remained—and worked hard to kill players and NPCs, then even succeeded in killing the stronghold’s chief NPC with its absurd HP and attack power, it was as good as our world. Of course, once reinforcements arrived and the NPCs respawned, we’d get slaughtered in reverse without mercy.
Having already tasted that fun, I normally wouldn’t even look at a griefing run unless it was a stronghold run. So when I suddenly suggested going griefing, Mun Seonhwa and Nickjung both showed their surprise.
[Guild] Ceylon Tea: ???
[Guild] NicknamesAreAllTaken: ??
[Guild] Ceylon Tea: You? What’s gotten into you;?
[Guild] Honeybread: Got something to ask Jaesugang
Jaesugang was someone whose movement patterns were always set. Especially on a day like today. My guess was that once Jaesugang finished the main quest, he would pick the story clues as a discussion topic, chat with his viewers, and then move to farm.
So there was no need to wait or wander around wondering when and where Jaesugang would come out. We just had to get ready in front of the farming dungeon in advance.
[Guild] Ceylon Tea: What are you trying to ask that you’re going this far? lolololololol
[Guild] Ceylon Tea: I’m in^^
[Guild] NicknamesAreAllTaken: Would it be okay if I tried going on my warrior?
[Guild] Honeybread: ㄱㄱ
[Guild] NicknamesAreAllTaken: Ba-dump@!
After confirming both their answers, I quickly invited them to a party.
[Party] Ceylon Tea has joined the party.
[Party] NicknamesAreAllTaken has joined the party.
[Guild] Honeybread: I’m putting up recruitment
[Guild] Ceylon Tea: kekeke
I immediately opened the party window and pressed the party recruitment button. I set the minimum item level (*item level; the average level of the items equipped) and rank required to join the party, then pondered what to write before roughly typing something simple and posting it.
[Race] Honeybread: <Party Recruitment> Base 13 griefing ㄱㄱ
[Race] Angel: ?
[Race] Lim Hyojin: ?
[Race] Care: Wao lololol it’s Honeybread
[Race] GoodToSeeYou: Honeybread hyung, you’re going griefing?
[Race] BroWeShouldBreakUp: wtf minimum rank Commander-in-Chief/Supreme Commander, are you insane lolololol
[Race] ByeBye: If it’s Commander-in-Chief/Supreme Commander, we can’t join lololololololololololol
[Race] Honeybread: Commander-in-Chief/Supreme Commander is enough
[Party] Massacre has joined the party.
Oh. It was a familiar nickname.
A top-ranked assassin Slayer I often ran into in the field. He knew me, and he was also close with Mun Seonhwa and Nickjung, who were in the same class group.
[Party] Massacre: hiii
[Party] Ceylon Tea: 55555 Mr. Massacre hi hi hi hi
[Party] Honeybread: hi hi
[Party] NicknamesAreAllTaken: Hello~!
[Party] Massacre: Oh lololol Ceylon-nim and Nickjung-nim are here too, hell yeah b
[Party] Ceylon Tea: Today, let’s have the no. 1 and no. 2 assassin lords wreck Base 13^^b
[Party] Massacre: ^^b
[Party] Massacre: I’ll be learning a lot today
[Race] Angel: Bread-nim, can I make a separate party and join the griefing too??
[Race] Honeybread: yeah lol
[Race] Angel: lololololol thx
[Race] QuitIt: <Party Application> item level 202 Commander DPS going griefing@@@@
[Race] MintChocoPapi: <Party Application> 206 Command Priest griefing support!!!
[Race] Angel: <Raid Recruitment> Base 13 griefing support raid minimum 200, Sergeant@#@@@@@@
In truth, if you recruited a party this noisily, the spies in our race would naturally inform the opposing race, so people usually recruited quietly before going. But my goal was to summon Jaesugang, so going noisily like this was actually better. If a viewer said, “Sugang-nim, I heard Honeybread-nim went to grief Base 13?” wouldn’t that be perfect?
[Party] NicknamesAreAllTaken: We’re 1 tank 2 assassins 1 DPS, so that’s four physicals. What do we do? No mages or healers are coming at all somehow
[Party] Massacre: Hmm
[Party] Massacre: I’ll bring a priest I know, wait wait
[Party] Ceylon Tea: Magic?
[Party] Massacre: yeah, priest destroyer (*Priest Destroyer)
[Party] Ceylon Tea: Koso hyung says he wants to come too, should we take him?
[Party] Ceylon Tea: Full party, easy
[Party] Honeybread: Just Koso-nim? What about Sogo-nim?
[Party] Ceylon Tea: Sogo unnie says she has to go to her part-time job
[Party] Honeybread: ohh
[Party] Ceylon Tea: For now let’s go as a 6-person party. I’ll tell you if anyone else wants in
[Party] Honeybread: ok
[Party] Conch Shell has joined the party.
[Party] Conch Shell: Hii~!~
[Party] IfYouTellMeToMakeJeonIWill has joined the party.
[Party] IfYouTellMeToMakeJeonIWill: HI
The party chat quickly grew noisy with greetings. Even Conch Shell, or Koso-nim for short, who was usually on the quieter side, was unusually excited and chatting enthusiastically.
Divine Knight Guardian Lv.45 | Honeybread
Warrior Slayer Lv.45 | NicknamesAreAllTaken
Assassin Slayer Lv.45 | Ceylon Tea
Assassin Slayer Lv.45 | Massacre
Priest Destroyer Lv.45 | IfYouTellMeToMakeJeonIWill
Combat Medic Harmonizer Lv.45 | Conch Shell
One tank, three physical, one magic, one healer. It leaned a little heavily toward physical classes, but this much wasn’t bad for a griefing party. Besides, everyone was a skilled player with the rank of Commander-in-Chief or Supreme Commander, so even if there were gaps in the composition, we could cover them without much trouble. Of course, the healer would be a bit overworked.
After setting priorities for who among the party members had to be protected first, I cut into the friendly chat, which was still full of pointless jokes even after the greetings.
[Party] Honeybread: Everyone ready ㅇ?
[Party] IfYouTellMeToMakeJeonIWill: yes sir
[Party] Massacre: lolololololol It’s so funny that he’s doing that because Korean won’t type lololol I’m ready too lololol
[Party] Ceylon Tea: yes^^d
[Party] Conch Shell: Me too lol I’m ready
[Party] NicknamesAreAllTaken: I think... I am too?? I’ll take a few more potions just in case, so you can go ahead right away~ hehe
[Party] Honeybread: ok ok then to 45 ㄱ
Still in the quest area, I rummaged through my inventory, clicked a stronghold movement scroll, and selected Base 45. When loading ended, the screen showed the field along with the sound effect announcing that I had entered a conflict zone. I saw Ceylon Tea, who had arrived ahead of me, and as always, she was wearing clothes in a color scheme whose intention I could not understand and in a combination I could not even dare to guess at.
The other party members also finished loading and arrived one after another, gathering beside us. After confirming even Nickjung, who arrived last because he was stocking up on potions, we immediately began running toward Base 13, located at the far western edge of the Jeop-a race’s dominant territory.