[Guild]kk1234: 『rainfall』 you fucking bastard
I immediately dumped all this rage into guild chat.
The responses came right away.
[Guild]Rete: You were having fun, why you mad again lol
[Guild]BlueSky: Weren’t you saying he was better than you thought lol
[Guild]kk1234: Turns out this bastard normally logs off early, but he’s been matching his login to my hours...
[Guild]kk1234: And now, during prime time, he just logs off to sleep;
[Guild]BlueSky: lmaoooooooooooo
[Guild]Rete: That’s love. That’s totally love.
[Guild]Rete: What channel are you two getting married on?
[Guild]kk1234: stfu
“So am I supposed to match my schedule to 『rainfall』 now?”
We had no choice but to do the linked quests together….
But I wasn’t some model grade-school kid; it felt like a waste to log off already when it was still peak time.
[Guild]shine..: K, want to run a dungeon?
Right on cue, like they could read my mind, shine.. spoke up.
[Guild]kk1234: As tank?
[Guild]kk1234: I don’t wanna tank
[Guild]IDJobless: I’ll tank lol
[Guild]HealiveryService: If you wanna do DPS, play a DPS class…
[Guild]kk1234: Doing DPS as a tank is the real fun
[Guild]DuckButtHee: Pervert omg
<‘shine..’ has invited you to a party.>
You have joined the party ‘gg’.
Whether we were chatting or not, shine.., who lived for efficiency, fired off a party invite without delay.
The party had four left: shine.., Rete, BlueSky, and Jobless.
[Party]kk1234: BoomerLatte already left?
[Party]IDJobless: Gotta work tomorrow
[Party]kk1234: You’re going to work too though
[Party]IDJobless: I took vacation lol
[Party]IDJobless: I’m staying up all night
Jobless sounded hyped out of their mind.
Rete dumped cold water on it.
[Party]Rete: You’re pitiful, wage slave
[Party]IDJobless: Shut up, trust-fund baby
[Party]Rete: lolololol
[Party]shine..: Anyway, with 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 DPS, the balance is fine
[Party]Rete: Yeah, that’s perfect lol
I swapped the setup I’d been using to tank with 『rainfall』 back over to a DPS configuration.
[Party]kk1234: What are you guys running?
[Party]BlueSky: We’re looping a quest
[Party]Rete: Go back to town and do the prereq quest
[Party]kk1234: Can I solo it??
[Party]Rete: Yeah
[Party]shine..: We’ll take a short break while you do it
[Party]Rete: There’s a mid-quest guide on the strategy board, go go
[Party]Rete: “Ancient Temple” <<it’s a quest
If they were just doing a quest from the strategy board, I guessed they hadn’t found the hidden quest.
I checked the guide board and went straight to find the NPC Mot.
[Mot] Greetings, adventurer.
[Mot] Wait, that aura…
Huh, what?
The NPC’s reaction was different from what I’d seen on the guide board.
I was about to hit ESC, but I calmly pressed Enter.
[Mot] That sword is clearly a possession of the Riphart royal family, isn’t it?
Riphart—that had to be it.
The quest item I’d just gotten with 『rainfall』, [Lloyd’s Dagger].
[Mot] That’s a precious item. If you sell it to me, I’ll pay you properly.
[Hidden Quest: Betrayal]
It looks like you can sell [Lloyd’s Dagger], the item needed to accuse the chancellor [Ast], for a high price.
Should you try selling it and cash in big once?
Condition: Sell [Lloyd’s Dagger]
Reward: [Ast]’s Trust, Gold
At the same time, a prompt popped up asking if I wanted to accept the quest.
Without hesitation, I clicked [Decline].
[Mot] How unfortunate…. If you ever decide you’d like to sell it, please come find me again anytime.
I’d thought it would end as a one-off dialogue option….
Wait, could this be a quest branch?
I hadn’t expected to stumble onto a branching point while coming here for a different quest.
Lucky.
I wrapped up the conversation with Mot for now and chose a different dialogue option.
[Mot] Have you heard the rumors about the Ancient Temple? They say a legendary weapon, coveted by many adventurers, lies sleeping there.
[Mot] To reach the temple, you’ll need a Guardian Talisman…. If you bring me the materials, I’ll craft a talisman for you for a small fee.
You can run multiple quests in parallel, so I took the [Ancient Temple] quest right away.
“Clear the entry quest, then grind the dungeon.”
Judging from the talk about some legendary weapon, it was probably a dungeon where you grind gear items.
Fitting for a quest that got discovered quickly, the entry quest wasn’t hard.
You just had to kill a few field mobs wandering around town.
As soon as I finished the quest, shine.., who’d been waiting, grabbed me and dragged me into the dungeon.
We ran circles in there for three hours, barely talking.
[Party]shine..: Good work, everyone
[Party]Rete: Nice run
[Party]IDJobless: I’m gonna go crash now
[Party]kk1234: bb
It was already two in the morning.
The guildies were exhausted and clearly ready to call it.
Before logging off, I sent Rete a whisper.
[Whisper]kk1234: Hey, Rete
[Whisper]Rete: What
[Whisper]kk1234: You know anything about 『rainfall』?
[Whisper]kk1234: You sounded like you had a rough idea, from what you said about Guardian
I’d told myself I wasn’t curious… but of course I was.
[Whisper]Rete: I’m not sure, but if it’s Guardian’s “close little brother,” there’s only one
[Whisper]kk1234: What kind of little brother?
[Whisper]Rete: I don’t really know either, but it’s tied up with family shit, so it’s hard to explain
[Whisper]kk1234: Then it’s fine
I was curious, but I didn’t want to dig into it like I was doing background checks on someone.
Instead, I asked about something else I wanted to know.
[Whisper]kk1234: Then what’s the deal with you and Guardian?
[Whisper]Rete: There is no deal, fuck that guy
[Whisper]kk1234: So he is your ex?
[Whisper]Rete: stfu
[Whisper]Rete: I’m killing that bastard today
[Whisper]kk1234: lmao lololololololololol
*****
The next day, I logged in after an early lunch.
Right away, a party invite from 『rainfall』 popped up.
[Party]『rainfall』: Why are you so late
[Party]kk1234: This is when I normally log in
[Party]『rainfall』: Log in earlier
“So fucking naggy….”
Haven’t I been getting chewed out nonstop since yesterday?
I complained at 『rainfall』.
[Party]kk1234: You’re the one who should stay on laterㅡㅡ
[Party]kk1234: You used to play late
[Party]『rainfall』: My brother scolds me
[Party]kk1234: What are you, a kid?
Instead of responding to my aggro, 『rainfall』 switched his gear.
Since we were in a party and couldn’t PK anyway, I just comfortably kept typing.
[Party]kk1234: Hey, give me your Discord
[Party]『rainfall』: Why do you keep trying to pry into my personal info?
“Touchy much, this bastard….”
Generous soul that I am, I let it slide.
[Party]kk1234: We’ve gotta keep playing together for this linked quest
[Party]kk1234: So it’s better if we sync our schedules
[Party]kk1234: ok?
At my perfectly reasonable point, 『rainfall』 went quiet for a while.
Then, after a moment, he came clean.
[Party]『rainfall』: I don’t use Discord
[Party]kk1234: Your guild doesn’t use Discord?
[Party]『rainfall』: They do, I just didn’t join
So he’s an outcast….
Considering they’d said they’d kick him from the guild without hesitation,
I was starting to think this guy really did live his gaming life solo.
[Party]kk1234: Then let’s use open chat
[Party]『rainfall』: I don’t have KoTalk installed
[Party]kk1234: If you don’t wanna add me, just say so
[Party]『rainfall』: I really don’t use it
[Party]kk1234: Why?
[Party]『rainfall』: I hate KoTalk’s CEO
[Party]『rainfall』: He’s a fucking criminal
“…….”
Well, I mean, sure?
[Party]『rainfall』: Do we really need an app?
[Party]kk1234: We need a way to contact each other, that’s why
[Party]『rainfall』: 010-xxxx-xxxx
After a brief silence, 『rainfall』 suddenly dropped a phone number.
[Party]kk1234: ?
[Party]『rainfall』: We’ve got calls and texts
[Party]『rainfall』: If something urgent comes up, contact me there
[Party]kk1234: Weren’t you the one saying not to pry into your personal info? And now you’re dropping your phone number?
[Party]『rainfall』: I’m giving it because there’s nothing you can dig up with just this
[Party]kk1234: You can dig stuff up on me though
[Party]『rainfall』: Live right
It didn’t feel like 『rainfall』 was going to bend that stubbornness and install Discord or KoTalk just to game with me,
so I obediently saved the contact as [Lunatic] and sent him a text.
[Party]kk1234: That message you just got, that’s me, so save it
[Party]『rainfall』: Got it
I had the guildies added on Discord, but this was the first time I’d traded actual phone numbers with someone.
“What the hell does this guy even do….”
And since I had his number now just in case, I checked KoTalk and Insta.
Nothing came up.
Playing online games while staying away from every social media platform—
what a bizarre guy.