“How did things get this bad? It should’ve started out five against five.”
A shadow crossed Mellem’s face at Rough’s question.
“There’s a remarkably strong player among the rebels. He’s the reason the situation deteriorated this much.”
A remarkably strong player.
Those words piqued Rough’s interest.
‘Could he be a beta tester? No, it’s too early to jump to conclusions.’
There were hundreds of millions of users playing Dream World Online.
There were bound to be countless powerful players besides beta testers.
“...Just how strong is he? Or did he have anything unusual about him?”
Mellem glanced at Jaar before leaning close to Rough’s ear and whispering.
“If I remember right, his overall combat power was about the same as yours and that NPC’s combined.”
Rough and Jaar were deliberately wearing unimpressive equipment.
In other words, they were pretending to be weak.
Even so, their combined combat power was close to six thousand.
At this point, a combat power of six thousand was a figure only rankers could reach—not ordinary players.
Numerically speaking, it even slightly surpassed Rough in his original equipment.
‘Six thousand? Damn, this is getting interesting.’
Rough imagined the opponent whose face he had never seen and allowed himself a faint smile.
‘Now the real fight begins. They must have realized how serious this is by now, so they’ll start making their real moves.’
“Rough.”
Jaar, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, approached him.
“You’ll soon have to return to your own world. What do you intend to do?”
Jaar knew that Rough belonged to another world.
He also knew Rough periodically had to leave Dream World Online.
But that was no longer a concern for Rough, who had submitted his resignation.
“Oh, I don’t have to.”
He was technically still an intern until the end of the month, but he no longer needed to go to work.
Once his departure had been confirmed, he had used all his remaining paid leave at once.
“I’m invincible now.”
***
“Four strongholds taken from us! How could this happen?!”
Evit, the leader of the rebel army, sprayed spit as his face flushed red.
“Wasn’t it you who said that today would be the day I became the ruler of Myel?”
“...”
Kushin, the player enduring Evit’s tirade, was dumbfounded.
‘The battle ratio is thirty-five to sixty-five?’
Just yesterday, before he logged out, it had been thirteen to eighty-seven.
He had ordered them to capture the final stronghold before he returned today.
The rebels had been just one step away from victory.
Yet the situation had changed completely.
Rather than ending the event, they had lost stronghold after stronghold—four in total.
“Have you found out who did this?”
“We’re investigating.”
Bang!
Evit slammed his desk and vented his rage.
“Damn it! What exactly do you do?”
Ding!
[Evit’s affinity toward you has fallen sharply.]
‘...You fat pig.’
Kushin ground his teeth inwardly as he looked at the notification.
The rewards for the Rebellion Suppression event were based on contribution from start to finish.
Affinity with NPCs was included in that calculation.
‘I’ve spent all this time doing every filthy little chore to raise his affinity...’
He wanted to get rid of Evit right then and there.
[Evit]
[Lv. 8]
[Overall Combat Power: 256]
It was a laughable number.
Kushin could take him down with one hand.
But the rebels had to fulfill two conditions to win.
First, they had to capture every stronghold, including the suppression forces’ headquarters.
Second, Evit—the rebels’ leader NPC—had to remain safe.
If anything happened to him, the event would be marked as a failure.
In any case, his survival and high affinity were both necessary for good rewards, so Kushin had no choice but to endure and cater to him until the event ended.
“Finish this as quickly as possible!”
“...Understood.”
With that short reply, Kushin left the tent.
He made his way to the tent where the officers had gathered.
Yeonun and Garbo, both of whom had previously lost to Rough, were among them.
“The recordings?”
“Yes, we saved them.”
At Kushin’s question, Yeonun played the footage from when he had faced Rough.
‘A named NPC traveling with him...’
The player-and-NPC duo was anything but ordinary.
The NPC was a named NPC, while the player had an unfamiliar class: Appraiser.
In Yeonun’s recording, Rough put Jaar at the front and used his superior range to deal with the enemies.
It was textbook ranged-DPS play.
‘Other than his high accuracy, there’s nothing particularly special about him. This guy took four strongholds from us?’
“He doesn’t look like someone worth being that wary of.”
“We just need to be careful of the named NPC.”
The other officers in the tent reacted similarly.
Then Garbo played his recording.
The atmosphere immediately changed.
“Take down that crossbow user all at once!”
At Garbo’s shout, six players—including Garbo himself—charged at Rough.
The next moment, Kushin frowned.
‘The crossbow turned into a sword? A second weapon? The effect is blue, so it must be Rare-grade.’
What happened afterward was even more astonishing.
All six allies turned gray at once.
From a single skill Rough used.
“...!”
Every rebel officer’s eyes widened.
“He took out six people at once? How did he do that?”
“That can’t be just a good weapon. His skill grade must be high too.”
“Tch. We were so close to the end, and now this has become a nuisance.”
Until a moment ago, Rough had not been much of a concern to them.
But after Garbo’s footage, he instantly became their highest-priority target.
‘His class is Appraiser, but he uses both a crossbow and a sword.’
He did not merely wield them—he was extremely proficient with both.
‘Rough...Rough. That name sounds familiar.’
Kushin felt that he had seen it somewhere before.
As he thought it over, a fragmented memory came to mind.
A world message that had appeared in enormous letters when he had only just shed his beginner status.
“Ah, right. That’s where I saw it.”
“...What is?”
The officers beside him looked at him curiously.
“That player, Rough. I was wondering where I’d seen him before—it was in a world message. The named NPC beside him too.”
The officers searched the community, just in case.
Before long, they realized Kushin had been telling the truth.
“But why is his combat power so low?”
Rough’s combat power in the footage was roughly 2,600.
Even after switching weapons, it did not exceed 4,000.
“He probably equipped low-grade gear on purpose to make us let our guard down. He might have even better equipment hidden away.”
“He’s cautious too.”
Their opponent was a powerful player who had appeared in a world message.
Yet rather than shrinking back, the officers’ fighting spirit rose.
“Based on his character customization, this player called Rough seems to be from the Asian region—Northeast Asia, probably.”
“Wouldn’t he be asleep by now?”
Time in Dream World Online passed exactly as it did in reality.
And it used Korean Standard Time.
Naturally. The game had been made in Korea.
It was currently four in the morning.
Most players would have logged out and gone to sleep by then.
“We can check directly by adding him as a friend or whispering him.”
One officer sent Rough a whisper.
[That player is currently unable to receive whispers.]
“He can’t receive whispers. Looks like he’s offline.”
“Then we finish everything before he comes back.”
Kushin made the decision.
The reason they remained confident even against Rough and Jaar—
“Gather every soldier currently online. Attack as soon as preparations are complete.”
—was Kushin, the rebel army’s raid leader.
***
7:10 a.m.
“...Ugh.”
Namgung Jun woke up relatively early.
From today onward, he no longer had to rise early, but there was one reason he had to.
The Rebellion Suppression event in DDO.
“Why does the left side of my brain hurt so much? Is it because I only slept three hours?”
Clutching his head, he staggered toward the bathroom to shower.
“No, wait. Who has time for a shower?”
He stopped mid-step and turned on his capsule instead.
While waiting for it to boot, he habitually checked the in-game situation.
He could do that without logging in.
“...What?”
Namgung Jun’s sleepiness vanished at once as he casually checked the current status.
While he had been logged out, every stronghold they had reclaimed the previous day had been taken again.
“What? What happened? Jaar was there, so how did they lose them? I need to get in right now!”
Just as he was about to scramble into the capsule—
Grrrrumble!
A signal came from his lower abdomen.
“Damn, did I eat too much galbi yesterday? I can’t help it. Hey, just wait! I’ll get in as soon as I take a dump!”
With tears in his eyes, Namgung Jun rushed to the bathroom.
He could not exactly soil an expensive capsule.
***
The community became noisy.
[Breaking: Myel Main Quest Update]
-Where did the guy who was always with the named NPC go? They’re getting pushed back again now that he’s gone.
┗ [Probably off in dreamland.]
┗ [Wow, Kushin is no joke.]
┗ [Hey, we can’t stop this. I’m surrendering and getting out.]
The reason was the event taking place in the vast reed field.
In front of the suppression forces’ final stronghold—
“Huff... huff...”
Jaar panted heavily as the events from moments ago replayed vividly in his mind.
“The rebels are here! Ranged classes, prepare to attack!”
Not long after Rough logged out, the rebels had launched an all-out assault.
Their plan had been to hold on until Rough returned, if not actually win.
Jaar had been confident.
After taking the fourth stronghold, the suppression forces’ numbers had visibly increased.
Rough had also established several defenses in case Jaar was left alone.
But none of it mattered.
Their thorough preparations crumbled helplessly before Kushin’s overwhelming power.
They lost the stronghold and were driven back, leading to the current situation.
“...”
Jaar studied the culprit behind this crisis.
Even now, Kushin was easily subduing suppression-force players as though an adult were dealing with children.
‘Then if I...’
If Jaar switched back to his original equipment, he would be able to face Kushin.
But he could not do that.
There were several other enemies who were at least formidable enough to be called strong opponents.
He could not reveal an important trump card so carelessly.
It had to be saved for the absolute last moment.
There was only one way to overcome the current crisis.
Rough had to come back.
“We’re almost there! Once we take the stronghold, the headquarters will fall quickly! Finish them off!”
“Hold the line no matter what!”
The longer the battle continued, the wider the gap became.
And that gap created an even greater gap.
Moreover, it took four long hours to re-enter after dying.
In a situation where every person mattered, even a single death was devastating.
“If that person had been here, things would’ve been different...”
Mellem sighed.
Then he saw a faint silhouette running toward them from the direction of the enemy stronghold.
“Ah, hell. Reinforcements too? Whatever. We lost.”
Having sensed defeat, Mellem gave up entirely.
Tap-tap-tap! Whoooosh!
As he closed his eyes, he heard running footsteps, followed by the sound of a blade slicing through the air.
Slash!
Then came the clear sound of a sword cutting through flesh.
Yet Mellem felt nothing.
It was not because he had set his pain-sync rate to the minimum.
His HP had not changed at all.
“Why are you closing your eyes?”
“...!”