The raid took exactly as long as I’d expected to clear.
A raid that should’ve been easy even at five hours got dragged out to six and a half.
By the time we’d wasted time fooling around at every save point and I’d even deliberately died a few times, even the guild members who’d come to help started sounding thoroughly sick of it.
[Party] rxrx78: let’s stop already....
[Party] Astaroth: this is why they said never get involved in psycho fights
[Party] Maha: this bullshit really comes in all varieties
[Party] TodayIsSunday: no but;; you said it was fine if it took long;;
[Party] sky004: didn’t think it’d be this bad
[Party] MeowMeowRawr: Sunday...
[Party] MeowMeowRawr: you’re kinda pervy! ㅜㅅㅜ
[Party] TodayIsSunday: ㅡㅡ
Weaklings. Complaining over just a measly six and a half hours of raiding.
Well, it was getting late. Seeing it was almost 4 a.m., I figured this was enough and switched weapons.
[Party] TodayIsSunday: okay
[Party] TodayIsSunday: let’s head out soon
Only the final boss was left anyway. We’d already figured out all the patterns long ago. There was no reason to stall anymore—we just had to kill it and leave.
[Party] TurnTheLightsOn: finally 😭😭
[Party] Yeoyeorang: omg but I still don’t know this boss’s extra pattern 😭😭
[Party] rxrx78: all good all good
[Party] rxrx78: guild master’ll handle it somehow
[Party] TodayIsSunday: only call me guild master when it suits you huh
With a short laugh, I activated my buff skill, and the guild members quickly caught on and took their positions.
For all the joking around, we’d still been raiding together for well over a year. Even if we’d entered half-seriously as a joke, everyone knew what they had to do and moved like second nature.
[Party] sky004: go?
[Party] TodayIsSunday: go
Sky, our Holy Knight, saw my chat and stepped onto the floor etched with a strange pattern. Rumble. The screen shook violently, and black smoke began to spill down from above.
【Worms like you dare crawl this far?】
A character with bat wings descended, long hair scattering dramatically behind them.
The boss monster of this raid dungeon.
【I’ll devour every last one of you as sacrifice!】
The monster spotted Sky standing on the sigil first and shrieked sharply as it raised both arms.
Pitch-black lightning crashed down across the map.
Hearing the line that officially signaled the start of the boss fight, I placed my hands on the keyboard too.
***
[Party] TurnTheLightsOn: Sunday did the least and still got #1 dps
[Party] TurnTheLightsOn: is this real lmaoooo
[Party] TodayIsSunday: seriously
[Party] TodayIsSunday: is this for real?
[Party] TodayIsSunday: you guys are actually so bad
[Party] TurnTheLightsOn: ?
[Party] rxrx78: ?
[Party] MeowMeowRawr: ㅇㅅㅇ LMAO
By the time the raid ended and we were splitting the rewards, it was already well past 4 a.m.
Good. At this hour, there’s no way even Ilhwiilbi could still be waiting.
What kind of lunatic would wait this late in a game just to meet another player?
Smiling in satisfaction at my brilliant plan once again, I stepped out of the dungeon—
[All] Ilhwiilbi: OIL!!
“...you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”
The curse slipped right out the second I saw Ilhwiilbi’s character jumping up and down in the exact same spot as before the raid.
[Party] sky004: wow.... this is kinda...
[Party] Astaroth: daaaaaamn
[Party] Yeoyeorang: that’s insane;
[Party] Maha: lmaoooooooo
[All] MeowMeowRawr: Ilhwiilbi-chan, were you seriously waiting this whole time?
[All] Ilhwiilbi: of course~^^
[All] MeowMeowRawr: d
Even Meow, the ultimate concept-roleplayer who never broke character, couldn’t help admiring Ilhwiilbi’s sheer psycho power.
“Ha....”
I covered my eyes with one hand and let out a deep sigh. I genuinely had no idea what to do with this crazy bastard.
The guild members were just as horrified at Ilhwiilbi’s insanity after he’d waited in one place for over six hours.
[Party] Yeoyeorang: maybe he played another game while waiting?
[Party] Maha: yeah probably
[Party] IOnlyHave6000Won: that’s honestly kinda scary too though lmaooo
[Party] LookAtOurTeamPersonality: somehow... I’m starting to feel bad comparing him to Heunjeok
[Party] rxrx78: fr this guy’s worse
Whether we reacted or not, Ilhwiilbi came bounding over to me and abruptly sent a trade request.
What the hell was this idiot trying to do with me now?
I accepted the trade request first.
“What now?”
Ding.
With a cheerful sound, a single item appeared in the trade window.
An Origami Crane Filled with Love (Crafter: Ilhwiilbi) has been added to the trade window.
[All] Ilhwiilbi: it’s a gift, Oil hehe
[All] Ilhwiilbi: what do you think?
[All] Yeoyeorang: a gift??
[All] Maha: what is it?
[All] Ilhwiilbi: paper cranes
[All] Ilhwiilbi: made it exactly 1000 haha
[All] sky004: ??????
[All] Maha: LMAOOOOOOOOOO
[All] MeowMeowRawr: wow...
Paper cranes were an item you had to manually craft by buying paper from the life-tool NPC, and every single one required pressing the Enter key once to finish.
Which meant...
Ilhwiilbi had spent the entire time waiting for me outside the raid making paper cranes one by one.
Pressing Enter.
Every.
Single.
Time.
Ah, creepy.
The image of Ilhwiilbi standing outside the dungeon entrance late into the night, just tapping Enter... tap... tap... sent chills all over my body.
I rubbed both arms to calm the goosebumps and mercilessly hit Decline.
[All] Ilhwiilbi: 😭😭
[All] Ilhwiilbi: Oil why did you decline? 😭😭
[All] TodayIsSunday: why the hell would I accept that?
Sighing, I smacked away every trade request that came after it.
Seriously, nothing good ever happened when I got tangled up with this bastard. Like the guild said, Ilhwiilbi was twice as annoying as Heunjeok.
Why do freaks like this always latch onto me?
Why did my gaming life always turn out like this? Did I betray my country in a past life or something?
After gaming this late into the night and having the careful plan I’d built completely ruined, a headache started creeping in.
I pressed a hand to my throbbing forehead and was just about to log off when Ilhwiilbi, finally done with the trade spam, sent another message.
[All] Ilhwiilbi: but Oil
[All] Ilhwiilbi: I guess you’re not actually that good at the game?
[All] TodayIsSunday: ?
[All] TodayIsSunday: what?
[All] Yeoyeorang: omg..
[All] MeowMeowRawr: ㅇㅅㅇ;;
[All] Ilhwiilbi: this dungeon raid is hard
[All] Ilhwiilbi: but even so, taking over 6 hours is kinda too much, isn’t it? Haha
[All] Ilhwiilbi: normally it’s 5
[All] Ilhwiilbi: honestly with your party I expected a 4-hour clear
[All] TodayIsSunday: ? lmaooo
[All] Ilhwiilbi: it’s the #1 guild on the server and the guild master’s in the party too, so 4 hours should’ve been easy
[All] Ilhwiilbi: hmm... well...
[All] Ilhwiilbi: guess your skill isn’t quite what I thought it was? lmaooo
The moment I saw the chat filling the screen, my hands on the keyboard started trembling on their own.
“This bastard right now...”
Even the guild members who’d been standing nearby watching us rarely looked this cautious before stepping in.
[All] Ilhwiilbi: ah well it’s okay
[All] Ilhwiilbi: I’m a little disappointed, but my feeli—
CRACK!
Before Ilhwiilbi could even finish, I swung my weapon.
The blow slammed straight into the top of his head, and his HP instantly dropped by half.
Perfect timing—a critical hit had doubled the damage.
This bastard seriously left field PvP on and said that shit right in front of me?
Even knowing he’d obviously said it just to mock me for making him wait till dawn, I still couldn’t help getting pissed.
It was honestly impressive how perfectly he knew how to get under someone’s skin.
He could’ve turned field PvP off if he wanted, so the fact he’d blatantly left it on meant that was probably intentional too.
What exactly was he trying to bait here?
Did he just want me to beat the shit out of him?
Thud, crack, smack!
The sound of a full-on beating rang out nonstop.
I’d completely lost it, wildly swinging attack after attack while Ilhwiilbi dodged like a rat and burst into laughter.
[All] Ilhwiilbi: LMAOOOOOOOOOO
On top of the chat spam, this bastard even threw up a clapping emote.
Naturally, that only made my attacks even flashier.
[Guild] MeowMeowRawr: they really get along ㅇㅅ;ㅇ
[Guild] Maha: don’t they ever get tired even at this hour
[Guild] TurnTheLightsOn: no but
[Guild] TurnTheLightsOn: the more I watch this newbie the more he reminds me of Heunjeok
[Guild] sky004: fr
[Guild] Maha: hmm
[Guild] Maha: could this be an alt?
[Guild] Yeoyeorang: omg true
[Guild] Yeoyeorang: Heunjeok deleted his account right
[Guild] Yeoyeorang: if he wanted to play Arc again he’d have to start over
[Guild] MovieIsSoSo: the way he acts is way too similar
Still beating Ilhwiilbi senseless, I narrowed my eyes at the guild chat.
...Heunjeok’s alt?
Actually... that was possible.
More importantly, it had already been a month since Heunjeok vanished after suddenly deleting his account.
What if something had happened?
What if he’d deleted the account, quit, and then came back?
What if he’d made a new account and returned?
If that theory was right, then this infuriating newbie right in front of me was actually...
Heunjeok?
The moment that nickname surfaced in my head, the color sky blue naturally followed.
The same sky blue that had practically become Heunjeok’s trademark over the past year of driving me insane.