—...Ha. What boyfriend. It’s not like that.
—Then why can’t you kick him. What has he even done for the guild, honestly? All he ever does is spam swears in chat, and now look where that got us. Doesn’t help at all, but still gets a fat payout just ‘cause he’s a guild officer. What’s the point of us busting our asses all day if it’s just gonna go to her boyfriend—
—Tangerine-nim. Watch your mouth.
(Assassin) NyamNyami: Wow, what the hell even is this...
(Alchemist) QuengKang: So the Spirit Association said they’ll lift the blacklist if they kick Sekki-nim?
(Dual Cannon) BaekKimchi: Whoa; isn’t that going a little too far though?
Ye Uwon listened in silence, then opened up the guild info panel to start checking.
‘Siege contribution, guild activity contribution, territory management...’
This game had a far more complex guild and territory system than most realized. And calculating contribution meant digging through a mountain of numbers.
But maybe because he majored in something math-related, Ye Uwon scanned through the figures swiftly—then began looking into dividend distributions.
‘Loot shares.’
When a guild won a siege, they could take a cut of the losing guild’s gold as loot.
And that gold was distributed based on guild contribution...
‘That’s a lot.’
When you clicked on battle history, you could check each siege’s win rate and the number of participants.
Being the #2 ranked guild, they’d done tons of sieges and had a high win rate. But it was still PvP, run by real people—they lost too, and each battle had different participants, so the numbers fluctuated slightly.
‘Those four always show up together.’
The four people currently complaining had fought in almost every siege together and mostly gained their guild contribution through those battles.
Ye Uwon narrowed his eyes, focusing on their data.
‘Their win rates are... a little weird.’
At first glance, the numbers didn’t look suspicious. But against one specific guild...
‘The losses are consistent?’
What the hell? How could their loss scores line up so perfectly?
Since battles didn’t follow identical conditions every time, the win-loss outcomes should naturally vary, shouldn’t they?
‘I need to check this more carefully.’
Ye Uwon opened Excel and started inputting numbers for comparison.
A few figures weren’t enough to be sure. He’d need to go back several months.
His right hand scrolled through the data while his left quickly recorded entries.
His fingers flew like they were doing paid work. Meanwhile, the others continued to argue.
—Instead of just yelling, why doesn’t the man himself say something? What’s the point of hiding behind your girlfriend?
—What am I even supposed to say.
—See? That’s what I’m talking about. Still denying she’s your girlfriend? Look at how hard she’s working to protect her man.
MeteorMagic jumped in, raising the temperature even more.
(Dual Cannon) BaekKimchi: What the hell is this? Gisekki-nim never even uses a mic; why are they making this about “boyfriend/girlfriend”? It’s so gross.
(Assassin) NyamNyami: Should we just say something already? If they don’t like it, they can leave; fuck this.
(Alchemist) QuengKang: That bitchㅇ_ㅇ?
The party chat was in chaos.
Even members who usually avoided profanity couldn’t help but let it spill.
—What makes that guy so untouchable? We’re the ones who built this guild. Look—top 1 through 4 in contribution ranking? That’s us. And he’s sitting at number 5, barely active, always slacking off.
—Seriously, no.10-nim, are you dating Gisekki or what? Is that why you can’t kick him? No? Then why are you defending him so hard? Gisekki-nim! Turn on your mic. Now!
—Please, let’s all calm down. Just hold on. Stop spamming my DMs and mail... Haa, fine. I’ll unlock mics for everyone.
Eventually, no.10 gave in with a sigh and unlocked all mics.
Now everyone could speak, but no one rushed in. The room fell quiet again.
—Gisekki-nim, say something. This whole mess started because of you, and you're just hiding behind your girlfriend like some beta loser?
—…
—Still nothing? What, only tough behind a keyboard? You’re real mouthy in chat. Just say you’re quitting already~ This is so fucking pathetic.
The jeers only got worse.
(Dual Cannon) BaekKimchi: Should we say something now?
(Assassin) NyamNyami: I actually whispered the guild master just now... They told me to stay quiet ㅠㅠ said it’ll blow up if we get involved.
(Dual Cannon) BaekKimchi: God;; they’re just screaming at this point;; my ears are dying;; can’t we mute them again?
(Assassin) NyamNyami: I’m getting messages from the guild master. Apparently they were getting spammed with whispers and mail so bad it was crashing their client, so they had no choice but to unmute themㅠㅠ
(Alchemist) QuengKang: What’s even left to blow up? I’m just gonna say somethingㅇㅅㅇ
(Assassin) NyamNyami: ㅠㅠ Please, QuengKang-nim, just chill. They asked us to hold off...
(Mage) Jinhee: I’m gonna lose it... I just got messaged too. How are we supposed to stay quiet?
The party clearly wanted to step in, but no.10 had already told them not to.
(Dual Cannon) BaekKimchi: Agh... Sekki-nim never uses voice in the first place. Haa... They’re ripping him apart just for not talking. He’s got personal reasons, and they’re crucifying him for staying silent;;
(Dragon Knight) YeUbeomjeol: Excuse me.
(Mage) Jinhee: Ah right... YeU-nim, it’s only been a month since you joined;; Sorry, you’re getting dragged into a mess…
(Dragon Knight) YeUbeomjeol: No, it’s alright. I just had something I wanted to ask.
Quiet until now, Ye Uwon finally typed into the party chat.
The other members, just realizing YeUbeomjeol had been standing alone in the territory, started moving toward him.
Just as he was about to type again, a voice cut through the yelling.
—Fuck off, loser hiding behind a girl. If you’re causing trouble, at least have the balls to leave.
As soon as he heard that, Ye Uwon slipped on his headset and tapped the mic on.
A soft, calm voice flowed into the chaos of the in-game voice room.
“May I speak, Guild Master?”
—…Uh, oh? YeU-nim?
no.10 called out in surprise, caught off guard.
—Who are you, exactly?
“Ah, I’m the Dragon Knight with the handle YeUbeomjeol. I’m sorry for intruding—I know it’s not my place as a new member.”
—Wait… Oh. Do you also have a problem with that guy?
Dotbal, initially caught off guard by Ye Uwon’s voice, softened a little and asked.
Ye Uwon neither confirmed nor denied it—just smiled faintly. ElephantCoffee immediately jumped in.
—I mean, of course you’d be upset. I saw your name in chat a bunch. Gisekki totally tore into you. Fucking ruined the guild’s image and bullied a new recruit? Honestly, that alone should be enough to kick him.
“Hmm…”
(Dual Cannon) BaekKimchi: ?????;;
(Mage) Jinhee: YeU-nim?????
(Alchemist) QuengKang: ??????????????
(Assassin) NyamNyami: ???????Wut???
The guild members flooded the chat with question marks, stunned by YeUbeomjeol’s unexpected move.
But Ye Uwon just stared at the screen quietly.
He knew this wasn’t his place. He hadn’t been in the guild long enough to intervene.
And yet... the fact that Gisekki was still silent, despite the barrage of insults, gnawed at him. Normally, Gisekki would’ve exploded by now.
“You mentioned guild contribution earlier, so I looked into it.”
That’s why he spoke up.
“All this talk about contribution you’ve been making…”
Ye Uwon calmly skimmed the Excel sheet, the list of siege results, and the names of the guilds GaeSae had lost to.
“It looks like you four have benefited the most.”
—…What?
The voice was so calm, almost pleasant, that it took a moment to register.
Ye Uwon smiled gently, still sounding devoid of malice.
“Manipulating siege outcomes to rake in guild dividends…”
And then, still smiling faintly, he delivered the final blow:
“That was you four, wasn’t it?”