[Global] MeowMeowRawr: Ilhwiilbi-chan ^.^)/~
[Global] Ilhwiilbi: ^^~
[Global] sky004: party go go go go
These bastards actually came.
We did need to fill the party if we wanted to enter the raid anyway, but I had no idea whether I’d be able to focus on Ilhwiilbi with these loud idiots tagging along.
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: I told you I didn’t come here to hang out
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: I came to find proof Ilhwiilbi is Heunjeok’s alt ㅡㅡ
[Guild] sky004: isn’t that basically hanging out?
[Guild] Maha: lol
These punks. So none of them had ever personally suffered at Heunjeok’s hands, huh?
Grinding my teeth, I checked the raid list on the board. Was it the Epel Raid? Since it was mostly for low-level players, it was short and easy. It wouldn’t be bad to bring Ilhwiilbi in there.
The moment I picked the raid and opened the party window, the guild members flooded in as if they’d been waiting.
[Party] TurnTheLightsOn: but why are you two suddenly close?
[Party] TurnTheLightsOn: Sunday is actually carrying him omg
[Party] GoodWeather: fr first time I’ve ever seen Sunday carry a newbie
[Party] TodayIsSunday: no, ha...
[Party] TodayIsSunday: whatever, shut up you assholes
[Party] Maha: lmaoooooooo
Now that I looked at it, the people messing with me just as much as Heunjeok did were my own guildmates. Seriously, without me, what fun would these guys even get out of this game?
Watching everyone get all cozy among themselves while excluding only me was so ridiculous it left me speechless. Annoyed, I hit the raid entry button right away.
The screen shifted, revealing a forest filled with glowing green brush and towering trees. Epel was a simple raid where you cleared monsters that appeared along the woodland path, then killed the boss at the end. It probably wouldn’t even take thirty minutes.
[Party] TodayIsSunday: Ilhwiilbi
[Party] TodayIsSunday: you take the lead
I’d come here to check his skill. If we killed everything ourselves, there’d be no point.
At my words, the guild members all huddled together and stepped back. Looks like they were curious too whether Ilhwiilbi was really Heunjeok.
[Party] Ilhwiilbi: I’m scared so I don’t wanna go 😭😭
[Party] TodayIsSunday: bullshit
[Party] TodayIsSunday: hurry up and move
Prompted by my urging, Ilhwiilbi reluctantly dragged himself forward, then typed with a sulky air.
[Party] Ilhwiilbi: then call my nickname nicely
[Party] Ilhwiilbi: I think that’d give me courage 😭.😭
[Party] TodayIsSunday: ????
[Party] MeowMeowRawr: exactlyyyy 😭 you’re calling him so coldly~
[Party] rxrx78: you’re typing all four syllables every time;;
[Party] rxrx78: kinda in.con.venient
[Party] GoodWeather: agreed
[Party] MovieIsSoSo: shorten it to two
[Party] Maha: try “Ilhwiya~” lol
[Party] Ilhwiilbi: lol
[Party] Ilhwiilbi: say “Ilhwiya♡” for me
[Party] TodayIsSunday: the hell are you doing
[Party] TodayIsSunday: if you hate it that much then hurry the hell up
[Party] GoodWeather: daaaamn
[Party] sky004: eek
[Party] TurnTheLightsOn: the filter censoring him lmaoooooooo
[Party] rxrx78: bro’s rapping in profanity omg
[Party] Maha: he’s ultra-pissed lol
[Party] Ilhwiilbi: 😭😭
Only after acting fake-cute to the bitter end and then getting cursed out by me did Ilhwiilbi finally start moving.
Once I confirmed he’d entered the monster spawn zone, I gave the guild members strict instructions too.
[Party] TodayIsSunday: don’t help him
[Party] rxrx78: uh isn’t this... just bullying a newbie...??
[Party] GoodWeather: this is seriously too much....
[Party] Ilhwiilbi: 😭😭
How is this too much? I was going to revive him if he died anyway.
As the first wave of giant moth monsters came swarming in, Ilhwiilbi at the front swung his weapon with determination.
“…Hm?”
That was when, while quietly watching his fight, I noticed something strange in the flashy skill effects unique to the Tracker class.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it felt different from an ordinary Tracker’s combat style.
‘What is this? Why does this feel so weird?’
In over two years of playing Arc, this was the first time I’d experienced something like this. Which meant I couldn’t figure out the cause.
Maybe because it was a dungeon suited to his level range unlike a field boss, Ilhwiilbi somehow managed to keep clearing monsters without our help.
[Guild] TurnTheLightsOn: nothing that impressive tbh?
[Guild] rxrx78: just looks like normal play
[Guild] MeowMeowRawr: Heunjeok was waaaay better than this tho
[Guild] Maha: yeah
[Guild] Maha: Heunjeok was basically even with Sunday
[Guild] GoodWeather: Sunday’s game skill is good
[Guild] GoodWeather: his temper’s just too fast
[Guild] GoodWeather: Heunjeok’s good too but he’s also insane
[Guild] MovieIsSoSo: seeing it like this, they really are alike?
[Guild] sky004: why are we suddenly roasting them?
[Guild] TurnTheLightsOn: honestly true
The guild members watching Ilhwiilbi kill monsters gradually leaned toward the conclusion that he wasn’t Heunjeok’s alt.
I didn’t say anything rash. I kept watching Ilhwiilbi’s play.
After chugging potions and forcing his way through the path, Ilhwiilbi finally failed to hold out in the last section where the highest number of monsters poured in and died.
With his low level and trash-tier gear, the moment he crumpled alone, the spectators got even louder.
[Party] MovieIsSoSo: truly impossible to watch without tears 😭😭😭😭
[Party] MeowMeowRawr: Ilhwiilbi-chan 😭😭😭😭
[Party] Maha: can’t believe he missed that dodge
I had been waiting for exactly this moment. With a resurrection feather already in hand, I sprinted over and revived him immediately.
Then I demanded the moment he was back on his feet.
[Party] TodayIsSunday: go again
[Party] TurnTheLightsOn: whaaaat.....
[Party] sky004: absolutely heartless;;
[Party] MovieIsSoSo: wow to someone who literally just got revived;; is this for real?
[Party] GoodWeather: honestly Ilhwi could report this on the drama board and I’d get it
‘There’s a reason for this.’
Even as the criticism crashed over me like a tidal wave, I firmly pushed Ilhwiilbi forward.
The more he fought, the more information I got.
If I saw him use his skills just one more time, I felt like I’d be able to identify the source of that strange feeling from earlier.
[Party] Ilhwiilbi: I’m tired
[Party] TodayIsSunday: just this section go go
[Party] TodayIsSunday: I’ll kill the boss
[Party] Maha: ?
[Party] Maha: what’s gotten into you
[Party] MeowMeowRawr: the bare minimum conscience?ㅇㅅㅇ
I couldn’t let Ilhwiilbi get upset and quit, so I soothed him just enough and even handed him a full recovery potion. He must’ve burned through a lot of them getting this far.
Unexpectedly, he didn’t complain any further. He accepted the potion I tossed him, drank it, and started fighting again.
There were still plenty of monsters left, so I leaned back in my chair and calmly watched the skills he was using.
‘A, D, W… R. Then A again. Next is D?’
The moment my thought ended, black rose petals scattered from Ilhwiilbi in a burst of effects.
It was the exact skill I had predicted.
Then came the follow-up W skill. Most Tracker skills had short cooldowns, so you could cycle two sets in a single turn.
And inside that tangled mess of skill order and overlapping effects, I finally realized what had felt wrong.
‘He’s not using Q or E at all.’
Ilhwiilbi was even using his ultimate R skill to fool everyone’s eyes while deliberately avoiding Q and E.
Q in particular had an effect so similar to R that people often called it the budget version of the ultimate, just with slightly lower damage.
There were plenty of ways to pretend you were bad at the game.
But the easiest was to intentionally not use certain skills.
Just like Ilhwiilbi was doing now, if you cleverly buried it under other skill effects, no one would notice unless they were paying close attention.
Which meant, if my guess was right, Ilhwiilbi was—
‘Heunjeok.’
I felt more certain than ever.
Maybe other people wouldn’t know.
But I would.
For more than the past year, my every day had been filled with nothing but Heunjeok.
How he fought, what kind of strategies he prepared, what skill tree he used most often—I had spent every single day thinking about him, studying him.
Heunjeok had done the same with me.
Otherwise, there was no way either of us could win.
We were so evenly matched it was like we were twins, our skill and the way we thought almost identical.
What I thought of, that bastard thought of too.
Whenever I prepared some brilliant strategy, he’d see through it and come armed with a countermeasure.
So I had no choice but to sharpen myself too.
The game sense and absurd luck that had always let me dominate everyone else even while half-assing it had hit a wall in the form of Heunjeok.
The moment I relaxed, I lost.
If I caught something Heunjeok missed, I won.
That predator-and-prey battle had gone on for over a year.
After spending that entire year obsessively researching nothing but Heunjeok, there was no way I wouldn’t recognize him.
No—more precisely…
Heunjeok was testing me.
Just like I had dragged Ilhwiilbi around putting him through test after test, Ilhwiilbi had been testing me too.
Whether I could recognize him.
If Heunjeok truly hadn’t wanted me to figure out who he was, he would’ve ignored everything and left.
He was more than capable of that.
‘Ilhwiilbi is Heunjeok…!’
Without realizing it, I touched the corner of my mouth.
At some point, my lips had curled sharply upward into a grin.