Episode 33
[Party] Kkulppang: How on earth do you
[Party] Kkulppang: know that we could match with the pair
[Party] Kkulppang: too?
When I asked, Jaesugang stopped the heals he had been pouring out endlessly. Then, before long, he finally began to tell me the part I had been curious about.
[Party] Jaesugang: I wasn't sure from the start, but while finding it strange that the matching was slow, when it passed one minute, a button appeared on the screen to switch to normal matching.
[Party] Jaesugang: As I said earlier, it's a dungeon that matches regardless of job and stance, and it's even a two-person dungeon, so there's no reason matching should take several tens of seconds.
[Party] Jaesugang: Besides, the viewers all definitely said matching was fast. It's the day the dungeon opened, so there's no way there aren't any people.
[Party] Jaesugang: But then, something I'd never seen or heard of suddenly appeared, a matching switch...
[Party] Jaesugang: When I saw that, I thought maybe, waited for you, Kkulppang, and then queued for matching.
[Party] Jaesugang: Haha
[Party] Jaesugang: I did well, right?
So that's why earlier on KakaoTalk you asked if I had matched, and said you'd try an experiment. When Jaesugang had asked me to reply immediately if I got a match, the fact that I got matched right after answering was also because of that.
Wait. Then what was it when my character died before entering earlier? Did I see wrong? No, that absolutely wasn't it. I definitely heard the sound of my character dying, the screen was glitched, and even the loading screen remained in a broken state. When loading finished and I entered the dungeon and the party was created, the screen recovered.
While I was worrying about whether I should tell this to Jaesugang too, the chat window suddenly started getting flooded.
[Party] Jaesugang: I did well, right?
[Party] Jaesugang: I did well, right?
[Party] Jaesugang: I did well, right?
[Party] Jaesugang: I did well, right?
[Party] Jaesugang: I did well, right?
[Party] Jaesugang: I did well, right?
[Party] Jaesugang: I did well, right?
[Party] Jaesugang: I did well, right?
He must be going crazy wanting to be praised. When someone demands this much attention, it makes you want to ignore them or crush their expectations out of pure spite.
[Party] Kkulppang: k
...But after sending the chat, I felt like I had given an overly indifferent reaction and started watching his mood. And no wonder—even as time passed, he didn't send crying emoticons, much less say anything.
Is he sulking? Sure enough, it was exactly that. He had quietly targeted me and was staring intently, his gaze seeming to say "Are you kidding me?" or "I'm upset."
I needed to fix this.
[Party] Kkulppang: You did reeeally well
Is this enough?
[Party] Jaesugang: Forget it ㅠ
Guess not... Well, he said it's fine, so whatever.
[Party] Kkulppang: Okay
[Party] Jaesugang: ㅠ?
Jaesugang seemed utterly dumbfounded, then used the Corner Strike skill on my character repeatedly. The motion of slamming down a thick academic book with all one's might struck me directly, yet it was remarkable that no damage came through to me at all.
At this point, I threw out a piece of bait that would be enough to soothe Jaesugang's mood (or more precisely, divert his attention).
[Party] Kkulppang: btw
[Party] Kkulppang: before entering the dungeon
[Party] Kkulppang: did you suddenly die?
[Party] Kkulppang: right before I entered my character suddenly died
[Party] Kkulppang: and the screen glitched
[Party] Kkulppang: and the glitch carried over to the loading screen
[Party] Kkulppang: it was scary af
And Jaesugang bit the bait eagerly.
[Party] Jaesugang: Ah
[Party] Jaesugang: Ah!
[Party] Jaesugang: I saw that too. Right before the loading screen appeared, my character suddenly died, and the screen glitch continued through the loading, then disappeared when I entered the dungeon.
[Party] Jaesugang: If you experienced that phenomenon too, then with high probability it means it's related to the hidden [dungeon], right?
[Party] Jaesugang: I don't have a clear sense of it yet, but there must be something that is only fulfilled when we die or become combat-incapacitated, right?
The disappointment from me not praising him properly was momentary. As soon as I threw him something he liked, he immediately started filling the chat window at a fast pace. Anyway, whenever story talk came up, his already abundant words doubled. He was like katsuobushi dancing to the heat.
If this had been voice chat instead of text, he would have been completely out of breath.
[Party] Jaesugang: The fact that when we die, instead of a light orb, a corpse? remains is one thing, and the fact that the screen glitch continues on the loading screen is another—I don't think they just put those in thoughtlessly as mere easter eggs.
[Party] Jaesugang: Plus, isn't it strange that we can talk right now? There's no way Zero Soft would abandon the concept they've stubbornly held onto and ease restrictions just for our convenience so different races can talk to each other.
I agreed with that. Honestly, meeting as a party with opposing races wasn't something I couldn't understand. Refreshing? They really committed to this. That was about the extent of it. Like the saying goes, even the Jeopa and Bia tribes could end up traveling together out of necessity.
But being able to converse between opposing races was unlike Zero Soft, who had stubbornly maintained the concept. Just from the story video that came out earlier, it was enough to naturally think, "These guys are the type to stick to the concept whether or not it creates an imbalance in story weight between users." The script weight was heavily focused only on the Bia tribe. Even though Jeopa tribe users obtained far less information compared to Bia tribe users.
[Party] Jaesugang: Is it only party chat that works?
[General] Jaesugang: Can you read this chat?
Jaesugang suddenly spoke in general chat. Seeing that, any possibility that they had made party chat usable for the convenience of users cleanly vanished.
[General] Kkulppang: Yeah, I can read it fine
[Party] Jaesugang: There's definitely something going on...
[Party] Jaesugang: The part where we suddenly died when entering the dungeon might be related to us being able to talk.
After saying that, Jaesugang didn't type any more, perhaps deep in thought. While Jaesugang was lost in thought, I drank the ice water I had left out before the patch.
And while I was crunching the piece of ice in my mouth...
[Party] Jaesugang: Oh
[Party] Jaesugang: Was I talking too much?
Jaesugang, who had been chirping excitedly like a sparrow on his own, suddenly started watching my mood. I had been reading with interest; was I too quiet? Or maybe the viewers had been pressing him to stop talking since I was here too.
[Party] Kkulppang: Nope
[Party] Kkulppang: It's fine it's fine
[Party] Kkulppang: I like it when you talk
After sending a chat to reassure him, I crunched on the ice again. But even as time passed, Jaesugang didn't say anything.
...Why is he quiet? Is it hard to believe? Do my words not sound like words?
[Party] Kkulppang: For real
When I appealed my sincerity once more, Jaesugang sent a chat somewhat slowly.
[Party] Jaesugang: Good
[Party] Jaesugang: Now that I know your taste
[Party] Jaesugang: I'll kill you later, Ppang, and talk your ear off. Haha.
The content of the chat was a sudden murder notice. I was dumbfounded. Had it been a trap designed to make me say such things?
[Party] Kkulppang: That's like playing an electronic drum with a dog bone
[Party] Kkulppang: I'm not gonna let myself die, so what are you gonna do? lol
[Party] Jaesugang: Didn't you say you like me talking?
[Party] Jaesugang: Doesn't that mean you like dying more?
What the hell is this supposed to mean. What I like is your voice murmuring quietly, gentle yet subtly excited and chirping—a voice I believe without doubt deserves to be registered as an intangible cultural heritage. I don't want to see you collapsed on virtual ground made of stiff polygon plates, blabbering away with stiff speech balloons over your head.
[Party] Kkulppang: Shut up and let's game
[Party] Jaesugang: ㅜㅜ?
I cut off the flow decisively, afraid Jaesugang might act up more. Jaesugang made crying noises, perhaps disappointed he couldn't tease me anymore, but no way.
[Party] Jaesugang: Then let's decide this before we set off.
[Party] Jaesugang: Are we keeping our stances as they are?
He had seemed like he would keep whining, but he finally said something normal. Since we were currently a tank-healer combination, damage would be lacking, so I had been wondering if at least one of us should switch to attack stance. But...
[Party] Kkulppang: As a tank user...
[Party] Kkulppang: Changing stance to DPS...
[Party] Kkulppang: Hurts my pride?
[Party] Jaesugang: Hah, me too...
Jaesugang and I were of the same mind. Then there was only one choice.
[Party] Kkulppang: Let's show them
[Party] Kkulppang: the true specimen of "you die, I live."
[Party] Jaesugang: lolololololol
[Party] Jaesugang: Okay
[Party] Jaesugang: You won't even know you're dying.
Grinding them to death with tank and healer. If you keep hitting them with a spoon, eventually they'll die.
[Party] Jaesugang: We can do it
[Party] Jaesugang: Let's go
[Party] Kkulppang: k
[Party] Kkulppang: go go
As soon as I typed the chat, I started running forward following the trail of light left by the angel. Jaesugang and the NPCs followed behind me.