[Event] Find the Hidden Treasure!
Hello, this is Arc Road.
After maintenance, starting at 11:00, the <Find the Hidden Treasure!> event will begin.
Who will be the one to discover the hidden treasure on the new island added in this update, Wonder Island?
A pet that only one player per server can obtain is waiting for you.
Starting at 11:00, a quest with a hint revealing the treasure’s location will be sent out.
Interpret the hint and claim the treasure!
(This event is held separately per server, and the event for that server will automatically end the moment a player obtains the pet.)
Thank you.
[Quest] Find the Hidden Treasure! (Hint)
12, 3, 6, 9
L-shape
At the hour when dogs look like wolves
At the highest place
“What the hell is this.”
I narrowed my eyes at the hint that had arrived in the quest window.
This is supposed to be a hint?
A meaningless string of numbers, then a L-shape... was it a typo? No, there was no way they’d make a typo in an event like this.
The hour when dogs look like wolves... and the highest place?
The string of numbers and the consonant that looked like a typo were hard enough to understand, but the next line wasn’t any easier.
The hour when dogs look like wolves usually referred to the hour between dog and wolf—twilight, sunset.
But Arc Road didn’t even have a sunset system.
And the highest place was weird too. The island added in this update was pretty large, so there were quite a few places that could qualify as “high.”
“Should I just forget it.”
The reward wasn’t even a weapon, just a pet, so there was no reason to get worked up over it.
Besides, it wasn’t even a special stat pet—just a cosmetic one that only a single person on the server could get.
Well, obviously if it did have special stats, the whole server would already be on fire.
[Guild] MovieIsSoSo: I seriously have zero clue 😭😭😭
[Guild] Maha: starting with just a string of numbers makes it way too vague
[Guild] rxrx78: feels like it’s a clock
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: 12 3 6 9 all fit clock numbers
[Guild] LookAtOurTeamPersonality: but even if it is a clock..
[Guild] LookAtOurTeamPersonality: what exactly is it saying lol
[Guild] sky004: what a trash event seriously
[Guild] Yeoyeorang: but Arc’s pet quality always goes insanely hard 😭
[Guild] Ryupe: agreed I want it 😭😭😭😭
[Guild] Yeoyeorang: it’s gonna be 100% adorable 😭😭
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: did any other server find it yet?
[Guild] Maha: nope
[Guild] Maha: otherwise the whole game would’ve exploded already
True enough.
There’d been no mention of different locations or different hints by server, so it was probably the same everywhere.
Which meant the second one server found it, everyone else would stampede to that location.
Anyway, in the middle of all this, why the hell was...
“...that bastard still only following me?”
The sky-blue figure flickering at the edge of my screen had been annoying me for a while now.
After ignoring it with a furrowed brow, I finally sighed and typed.
[All] TodayIsSunday: why are you following me
[All] Heunjeok: am I not allowed to? Haha
The moment Heunjeok saw my chat, he hurried over like he’d been waiting for it.
He was approaching me with field PvP turned on and without a weapon.
Not that I had any intention of fighting right now while I was busy trying to solve the pet event.
[All] TodayIsSunday: aren’t you looking for this too?
[All] Heunjeok: hmm who knows
[All] Heunjeok: not really interested, it’s only one pet
[All] TodayIsSunday: it’s a free pet though
[All] Heunjeok: do you want it?
[All] Heunjeok: the pet?
[All] TodayIsSunday: only one person per server gets it, no downside to grabbing it
I answered flatly, and after standing still for a moment, Heunjeok sent another chat.
[All] Heunjeok: if you want it, should I tell you?
[All] Heunjeok: where the treasure is
[All] TodayIsSunday: ??
[All] Heunjeok: I already solved the whole hint
[All] TodayIsSunday: what?
He solved it?
Heunjeok?
Caught completely off guard, I immediately grew suspicious.
[All] TodayIsSunday: you???
[All] Heunjeok: wow that reaction hurts 😭
[All] TodayIsSunday: what bullshit
[All] TodayIsSunday: then why aren’t you going to get it?
[All] Heunjeok: I don’t really need it
[All] Heunjeok: if you want it, should I tell you?
[All] TodayIsSunday: you’re gonna tell me?
[All] Heunjeok: yep
“......”
What was this bastard plotting?
Even if he personally didn’t care, he still had his own guild members.
So going out of his way to tell me, someone he was on bad terms with...
[All] TodayIsSunday: do you actually know it for real?
[All] TodayIsSunday: not lying?
[All] Heunjeok: wow you really don’t trust me
[All] Heunjeok: just join first
[All] Heunjeok: unless you wanna announce it to the whole world
Heunjeok sent me a party invite.
I really lived long enough to party up with Heunjeok.
The absurdity of it made a dry laugh escape me.
Still, if he really had solved the hint, party chat was definitely safer than all chat where other players could see.
The moment I quietly joined, Heunjeok summoned a two-person horse mount.
[Party] Heunjeok: I’ll explain the hint while we ride
[Party] TodayIsSunday: this feels shady as hell
[Party] Heunjeok: saying it that openly would hurt anyone, you know
[Party] TodayIsSunday: just explain already
At his obvious get on message, I climbed onto the horse with him.
The second I mounted, it started moving immediately—he’d apparently already marked the destination point.
Leaving the horse to auto-run, Heunjeok continued.
[Party] Heunjeok: let’s start from the first line
[Party] Heunjeok: you already know the 4 numbers mean a clock, right?
So I was right.
12, 3, 6, 9.
The numbers a clock hand points to.
12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 9 o’clock.
If it had started from 3 maybe there could’ve been another interpretation, but starting from 12 and ending at 9 made it impossible to think of anything else.
[Party] Heunjeok: now that we know the first line is a clock
[Party] Heunjeok: the island itself is the important part
[Party] Heunjeok: Sunday
[Party] Heunjeok: have you ever looked at the Wonder Island map?
[Party] TodayIsSunday: the map?
[Party] Heunjeok: it’s on the homepage
[Party] Heunjeok: go take a look
Why the map all of a sudden?
Confused, I did what he said and pulled up the island map from the Arc Road homepage on my second monitor.
As expected from something called an island, the new map added this update was circular.
And each direction had a village with a different concept.
A snow-covered village in the north.
A village with a giant lake in the west.
Each village’s dungeon style and field monsters were different too, which meant more varied materials, so players had loved the update.
[Party] TodayIsSunday: I’m looking at it
[Party] TodayIsSunday: what does this have to do with a clock?
It was definitely round...
But beyond that, nothing about it immediately screamed clock.
I tilted my head while touching my chin, and Heunjeok answered.
[Party] Heunjeok: do you know Roman numerals?
[Party] TodayIsSunday: Roman numerals?
[Party] Heunjeok: if you look at the edge of the map there are white markings
[Party] Heunjeok: lighthouses, beaches, sculptures, stuff like that
[Party] Heunjeok: every position has a different shape
Following his explanation, I looked more carefully at the map and found several white markings around the edges.
He’s right.
At the 12 o’clock direction was a shape like an upside-down V and I.
At 3 o’clock, I and X...
Wait.
I’d definitely seen all these shapes somewhere before.
[Party] Heunjeok: by now you’re probably starting to get it
[Party] Heunjeok: what you’re thinking is right
[Party] Heunjeok: the white markings on the map are Roman numerals
[Party] TodayIsSunday: no but
[Party] TodayIsSunday: the positions look weird
[Party] Heunjeok: right, because the orientation’s different
[Party] Heunjeok: the XII that should mean 12 o’clock is at the 6 o’clock side on the map
[Party] Heunjeok: so you need to rotate the map until the Roman numerals match a real clock
[Party] Heunjeok: rotate it 180 degrees to the left
I spun the downloaded map image to the left.
The moment I did, the white Roman numerals lined up perfectly with the numbers on a real clock.
[Party] Heunjeok: the numbers in the hint mean you need to rotate the map
[Party] Heunjeok: and the second line, L-shape, tells you the hidden position
[Party] Heunjeok: when clock hands form a L-shape, they point at 6 and 9
[Party] Heunjeok: but this island is rotated right compared to the clock
[Party] Heunjeok: so in reality that becomes 12 o’clock and 3 o’clock
12 o’clock and 3 o’clock.
That still didn’t narrow it down to one place.
I was trying to think what was in those directions when the third line suddenly hit me.
[Party] TodayIsSunday: the hour when dogs look like wolves
[Party] TodayIsSunday: wait, don’t tell me—
[Party] Heunjeok: yep
[Party] Heunjeok: the village at 3 o’clock is twilight-themed
[Party] Heunjeok: there are other places with sunset skies too
[Party] Heunjeok: but once you narrow it down to the 12 and 3 o’clock villages
[Party] Heunjeok: the answer becomes obvious
Just like Heunjeok said, the village at 3 o’clock was permanently in sunset, with a huge graveyard built into it.
[Party] Heunjeok: from the 3 o’clock village
[Party] Heunjeok: the highest place
[Party] Heunjeok: then there’s only one answer
Right then, the horse that had been running nonstop finally stopped.
My mind had been racing over the island map so hard that I only belatedly looked back at the game screen—
and my eyes widened.
A sky and sea drenched in crimson twilight stretched out before us.
And at the center of it stood a towering clock tower.