Part 1. A Lucky Day (4)
For the past few days, Cheon Gyeong-u had been feeling annoyed.
“Delete. Delete. Delete... Why do they keep sending these? I told them I’m not doing it.”
The Rudisa TV show had been annoyingly persistent in trying to cast Cheon Gyeong-u. Even when Ted, who had felt bad about blocking them, conveyed his refusal in simple terms, they did not give up.
“Why can’t Mr. Ted be cast? Thomas. This is disappointing.”
“Oh, Rudisa. I’m sorry… I’ll ask again.”
Every day, the main PD sent Ted messages as if taking a bitter pill. Then, a few days later, a reply came from Ted.
“Ooh, shit! This teddy bear bastard, this is a place others are dying to get into, and instead of being grateful, what the hell kind of attitude is this! He doesn’t even know what a huge opportunity this is!”
The PD who received the reply tore at his hair.
* * *
Those who had been radiating killing intent around Ted all stopped moving at once. They had recognized what was in Ted’s hand.
“Are you out of your mind? You’re trying to deal with us?”
The moment he saw the photo, a man clad in Unique-grade items walked out from the crowd. He was Chinese, but since automatic interpretation worked inside the game, there was no hindrance to conversation. He was the bastard who appeared to be their leader. Looking closely, Ted recognized the face. It was someone he had seen on a gaming broadcast TV. A world numbering ranker in the 700s, a full 100 levels higher than Ted, and one of the certified world’s strongest. The Dawn Curse Mage,
“You’ve really gone completely mad. You bat bastard.”
What Ted had taken out was a
‘This arrogant bat bastard…’
Bats. It was a word Chinese people used to disparage Korean users, thinking that Goryeo people fought wielding bats.
The message mentioned CGTV and Alibaba, and contained information that they were trying to raise a super-large boss monster. Even a screenshot of the decomposed core’s information was attached.
‘He even decomposed that? That must have cost him a fortune; how did he know? What a damn lucky bastard.’
Langwa’s complexion twisted for two reasons upon seeing that.
First. The moment contact was severed, he had guessed the bastard would know the situation to some degree, but he hadn’t known Ted would dig this deep.
Second. He saw that the recipient of the transmission waiting to be sent in 30 minutes was the address of the main PD at
‘If this information falls into Rudisa’s hands, that’ll be troublesome. This brat prepared everything.’
Langwa frowned. If it spread that China’s two great guilds had raised a boss-class monster, something forbidden on the continent? China already faced no small amount of checks from the other seven great guilds.
‘Still, the boss’s wrath is more important than that.’
Wang Zhongqing, who had lost the Inferno Imoogi, had shed tears. Although he had raised it through a forced contract, it seemed he had grown attached over the years. Wang Zhongqing, who had always moved for corporate profit, had spoken emotionally for the first time.
“Make sure that bastard can never enter the game again,” he said.
Langwa steeled his heart.
“If a person does something wrong, they should reflect and apologize.”
“I just caught a monster. You’re the ones who did wrong.”
“Aren’t you too confident just because this is a game? Killing someone like you is nothing, even by myself.”
“Just try attacking me. I never die alone.”
Ted wasn’t good with words, but given the situation, desperate defiance burst out of him. Like a cornered rat, desperately.
Langwa scratched his head for a moment and opened his mouth.
“Ha, you bat bastards have brains that spin uselessly in circles. Really annoying.”
Kwaang—!!!
The moment he finished speaking, a dark red light burst from Langwa’s shadow and engulfed Ted. It took the form of a hand and wrapped around Ted’s body, gripping him. Ted didn’t dodge even though he could. Dodging once or twice before them was meaningless.
Strength began to drain from Ted’s body touched by the black shadow.
“I’ll give you one week. Delete your character yourself by 10 AM on February 28th, game time.”
Langwa scratched his head roughly and continued.
“If you do not comply, your character will never set foot on this land again. Additionally, we will endlessly PK every character we’ve identified as having a relationship with you.”
“What? You think I’ll stay still?”
Ted let out a strange cry. The words this man had just spat out were words that would rob him of his entire ten years.
“Hey!!! Stop making a fuss over nothing, you downy bat bastard! We won’t be too sorry even if you report that. We can just kill everyone and be done with it. But it’s troublesome if it spreads. Even if you delete your character on time, if you send that email, we will make sure every character related to you can never access Face Chronicle again... Choose wisely. Whether to delete the mail. Or to have everything around you deleted.”
Langwa looked Ted up and down with an annoyed expression.
“I made myself clear. The choice is yours.
Soon, a dark red light emanated from his eyes and coiled around Ted’s body.
Status windows appeared. Red stains began forming on Ted’s body like tattoos and started glowing. It seemed detection-type curses had been cast so they could find him even if he fled.
“Then I hope we don’t meet again. For your sake.”
Langwa, having cast the curses, left the spot with twenty guild members.
‘Damn it.’
Ted, left alone, knelt and sat down on the rice paddy he had been cultivating.
‘I’m completely entangled.’
He had done his best. But there was nothing more he could do. Because the difference in strength was too vast.
* * *
Compared to others, Ted had a good attitude in dealing with misfortune. Because he had experienced much of it since childhood. Outwardly strong but inwardly soft, his heart was tender, but repeated despair made him strong.
So now. Ted wasn’t just sitting in despair.
‘I have to find a way…’
First, he tried to break the detection-type curse.
“Huh, I’m level 588, but my
It was the high priest’s words.
Ted didn’t give up. He repeatedly logged in and out, deliberately died, and bought and drank all sorts of expensive holy water from overseas. But the curses wouldn’t break.
‘Damn it!’
In fact, even if he broke the curses, the answer would have been the same. That they would kill people around him. This was exactly what held him back.
In fact, Ted had almost no acquaintances. Because since the day all his guild members died, he had never belonged to a group.
The problem was Ted’s family.
Cheon Gyeong-u’s family had started Face Chronicle together ten years ago. Although their relationship had grown distant since Cheon Gyeong-u left home.
His father enjoyed the game with a fishing rod, saying he would catch the
His mother worked hard every day, saying she would fulfill her unfulfilled dream of being a painter inside the game.
His older brother, Cheon Si-u, was the head of a Korean ranking guild, and his younger sister was also active as a black gamer in Cheon Si-u’s guild.
Of course, even if the Chinese bastards targeted his family, they wouldn’t die in reality.
But… he had to avoid the deletion of the characters his family had raised with care for 10 years.
‘Sigh…’
Now there were 12 hours left until the character deletion deadline they had set.
‘I guess I have to delete my character. There’s just… no way.’
Even if he didn’t delete his account himself, he couldn’t play the game anyway.
For China’s powerful mammoth guilds, infinitely PKing a single user was easier than eating cold porridge. If things went wrong, they could bury him so deep at the bottom that he could only breathe.
But if it was the top two guilds that even mammoths had to bow to? Needless to say.
Rather than that, it would be best to fold on his own without harming his family.
If there was a silver lining, it was that he held one of their weaknesses. Because of that, his family would not be harmed.
‘It can’t be helped… this is my luck. Still, getting this far is something.’
It wasn’t the worst moment. Because he could protect his family.
‘I just have to die.’
With that, his complicated thoughts became clean.
Deleting Ted’s character was the best choice at this point.
‘…’
His throat closed up.
Until exactly three weeks ago, Ted had been at the peak of his life. He had spent the last 10 years working toward that rise.
But for his wings to break, a single day had been enough.
Now, the bottom was visible before his eyes.
‘It’s fine. It’s okay. I just have to delete it. Let’s delete it and start over quickly. I’ve done it once, so what, I can’t do it twice?’
Fortunately, he could make a new account.
Cheon Gyeong-u could start Face Chronicle again with a different character, not Ted.
Ted brought up the account deletion window.
Yet when it came time to fold, his hand wouldn’t move.
‘Hey. Gyeong-u. How could you delete Ted, whom you built up like this…… Ted, whom I built up….’
A full ten years.
A character he had raised for ten years, betting everything and giving up his youth. Ted.
There were many hard times, and many happy times.
Though it was a happiness only he knew, unable to share it with anyone. To him, it was a happiness more precious than anything in the world.
‘Ah, I just want to bite my tongue and die… Why am I so unlucky. Huh? Why am I so unlucky…’
His eyes grew moist on their own.
It wasn’t a simple emotion like regret or attachment.
All sorts of sorrow and despair gathered and weighed down Ted’s heart.
‘I really have no luck… Really not a shred of luck… I am. In the end, misfortune drives me to the bottom again.’
The past flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern.
When he first started the game. When he missed the job change and changed class at level 11.
When he broke his first rare musket on the first enhancement.
When he had suffered for a year to clear the third job advancement mission solo, which was only possible as a team.
….
It wasn’t only such unfortunate things.
There were times he had felt great ecstasy he would never experience again.
‘Black and White.’
The reward of an SS-grade quest he had cleared by solo-killing a whopping 100,000 undead over 3 years.
A Unique-grade item of which there were only 1,000 in the entire world.
At the same time, a Unique-grade musket of which there were only two in the country. Black and White.
Ted recalled the ecstasy of the day he had obtained it.
That day’s joy would never fade even if he lived the rest of his life.
Because Black and White was the proof of his effort overcoming dirty luck.
Perhaps that was why.
As Ted looked at Black and White, venom filled his eyes.
‘If this weapon remains, I can’t delete Ted… The regret won’t go away.’
It was a weapon worth a whopping billion if sold.
But to Ted, who had already earned billions from the game, it wasn’t such a regrettable amount.
It was just that a lump of lingering attachment remained in his chest.
‘If I imagine another bastard using this gun, I would really want to die. This has to end in my hands. This is my life’s…’
Black and White is the proof of my life.
The moment Ted thought that, one decision was made.
‘At the end, I have to put things in order with my own hands, not someone else’s.’
Though bad luck had swept everything away.
At least the end, he would decide with his own hands.
Resolved, Ted turned on Paprika broadcast.
And then he posted an announcement.