Translator: She.Wee
Chapter 18
Even though Cheon Noeul is an unpredictable guy, I’ve gotten used to him over time. Now, his behavior patterns are so predictable that they’ve become dull. No matter what tricks he tries to pull, Kyungsoo felt confident that he could handle them with ease and maturity. In other words, Cheon Noeul was practically in the palm of his hand.
「Noeul: Hyung, are you asleep?」
「Noeul: I guess you are…ㅠㅠ」
「Noeul: Sweet dreams ><」
After reading the messages in preview, Kyungsoo flipped his phone face down. Noeul probably thought he was sound asleep. Lately, Noeul seemed to be keeping a regular schedule, as he no longer logged in late at night. So, Kyungsoo was free from him at least in the early hours. He turned on his computer and logged into the game. The guild members who were online for the dawn shift just greeted him with a quick “ㅎㅇ” and went about their own business.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Hyung, are you busy right now?
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: ?
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Oh, it’s me, Jung Min-jae.
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: ㅇㅇ?
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: I’m a friend of Cheon Noeul’s. Don’t you remember me? We played together on the day of the festival.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: I’m Jung Min-jae, 17-year-old male. My hobby is reading, and my specialty is cooking. I make a mean kimchi stew.
Kyungsoo immediately opened his friend list to check which of his friends were online. Cheon Noeul was offline. If it weren’t for Noeul, Kyungsoo would never have exchanged words with Jung Min-jae. Although they had added each other as friends before, they had never chatted since then. The sudden contact was so unexpected that Kyungsoo was bewildered.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: And also…
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: You don’t have to say all that. I know who you are, lol. Anyway, what’s up?
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Haha, thank goodness.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: If you’re free, do you want to run a Milky Way raid with me?
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: All of a sudden??
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Yep, lol. I’m trying to gather star fragments.
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: Ah, okay.
‘SpadeQueen has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
Before Kyungsoo could even respond, the party invitation window popped up. He pressed ‘Accept’ to join the party and noticed that besides himself and Min-jae, there was one more person in the party. Reflexively, Kyungsoo clicked the leave button.
‘MeowieMeowMeow has left the party.’
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Why did you leave, lololololololol
Kyungsoo muttered curses under his breath as he furiously typed on his keyboard.
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: Damn it, don’t ever talk to me again.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: He’s not that bad, lololololololol.
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: Screw off.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: I’m serious… At least not to you… ^^
To top it off, the party leader was Sunset. Kyungsoo wanted nothing to do with Melody, let alone the guild master. It’s not like he couldn’t take on a Moon Fairy, but it was better to avoid crossing paths with them whenever possible.
‘SpadeQueen has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
‘Declined.’
‘SpadeQueen has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
‘Declined.’
‘Sunset has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
‘Declined.’
‘SpadeQueen has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
‘Declined.’
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Hyung, please (TT)
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: S
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: ??
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: No.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: I promise I won’t let him bother you… Really!!!
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: ㅗ
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: I swear ㅜ Sunset is giving me a hard time, calling me trash because of my lousy damage output. He’s cursing me out even now, asking what the hell I’m doing. He told me to go grind in the beginner’s hunting grounds if I’m going to play like thisㅠㅅㅠ
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: His personality?
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Exactly;; It’s too hard to do this alone, I can’t take it anymore (TT) All the guild members are gone right now (TT) Please help me just this once ㅠㅠ It’s not like you have anything else to do if you’re not farming Songpyeon, right?
“……”
After reading the chat that exceeded three lines, Kyungsoo felt a bit sympathetic. Even as a Dark Knight, you could at least deal some damage with basic attacks. How high must their standards be? What kind of scumbag treats the vice guild master like that? It’s not like he was unaware of how Melody was perceived among the players during his absence.
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: Are you farming star fragments, or are you farming me?
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Fragments ㅠㅠ
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: Haha, send the party invite.
‘SpadeQueen has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
A crown symbol next to Sunset’s name indicated that he was the party leader. Kyungsoo warped to a stone tower near the dungeon. SpadeQueen, sitting in front of the tower, used an emoticon to wave. Perched lazily on a harp atop the stone tower was a white character exuding a drowsy aura—the infamous Sunset.
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: Hello, hello.
[Party] Sunset: Hello ^^
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: 0.5 per run / Double the fee if I get the final hit on the boss.
For a moment, no one said anything. A few seconds of silence passed, and Kyungsoo smirked slightly.
[Party] Sunset: Is that your part-time fee?
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: Yep.
Sunset was also a max-level player. Even though he held the overall top rank in PVP, making him nearly unbeatable, a damage dealer was still essential in boss raids. The faster you completed the raid, the better the rewards. Kyungsoo had only made the demand to see if he could rattle Sunset’s pride enough to get kicked from the party.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Lololololol hyung, did you join the party just to do this, lololol?
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: I’ll clear each run in under 10 minutes.
Kyungsoo wasn’t particularly close to Jung Min-jae, and he had no intention of running the raid for free. Even if it was the notorious Sunset. Back in the day, he used to help newbie players for free, often acting as their bus driver while grinding for money. But now, he didn’t do that anymore. The fee he quoted was higher than the going rate, but since it saved time, it wasn’t an unreasonable amount.
[Party] Sunset: Hmm, 10 minutes should be fine…
[Party] Sunset: How about the route? The Milky Way is a bit complicated~
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: Of course I memorized it, duh;
[Party] Sunset: ^^
‘Sunset has requested a trade.’
‘The trade is complete.’
Suddenly, the amount of money in Kyungsoo’s possession increased dramatically. The part-time pay from Sunset was 1.5 billion won.
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: I think you made a mistake. You added an extra zero.
[Party] SpadeQueen: Whoa, did you just give him 1 billion? LOL
[Party] Sunset: 1.5 LOL
After saying that, Sunset scattered stardust and began to fly into the air. Kyungsoo and Min-jae quickly followed and arrived in front of the dungeon.
‘The instant dungeon has been reset.’
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: I can only play for a bit, so I don’t have time for ten rounds.
[Party] Sunset: That’s fine~ You can keep the extra.
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: ?
[Party] SpadeQueen: It’s okay, just take it.
Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes, unable to shake off his suspicion. He wondered if they were setting him up so they could later target the entire Poseidon guild for a massacre.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Dude, it’s really okay LOL. That guy is seriously loaded LOL. He sold off all his items LOL. Just take advantage of him, serves him right.
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: Isn’t he your guild leader? Is it really okay?
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Who cares? LOL That guild is trash anyway, but I’m sticking around because of the guild skills. ^^
Even if Sunset was treated like this, he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if he tried to complain. Kyungsoo, just in case, took a screenshot of the chat window to prepare for any potential problems.
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: Seriously, I’m only doing this for today.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: Got it, LOL.
[Party] Sunset: Hold on a moment, I’ll give you a buff~ ㅇㅅㅇ
Sunset plucked the strings of his harp, and musical notes wrapped around the party members, activating the buff icons in the upper left corner: increased health, maximum damage boost, increased evasion, and other basic buffs. After applying the buffs, Sunset floated down to land beside Kyungsoo’s character.
‘Kiss of the Archangel!’
With a light stroke of his fingers across the harp strings, white cherubs appeared, blowing kisses over Kyungsoo’s head. An icon of crossed swords appeared above MeowieMeowMeow. It was a special skill exclusive to the Moon Fairy class, which could only be used on one party member. Since there weren’t many Moon Fairies around and few chose that class, it was Kyungsoo’s first time seeing it in action.
[Party] SpadeQueen: Wow, what a jerk! He never uses that on me!!!
[Party] Sunset: It’s because you don’t do any damage even with it~
[Party] SpadeQueen: Seriously, I’m so pissed. You always refuse to use it, even though you never need it anyway, just to insult me.
Despite the harsh language, it seemed like they were close. Then again, if they weren’t close, how could SpadeQueen tolerate ‘that’ Sunset? For every five words SpadeQueen said, Sunset responded with a single, short sentence. But once they entered the dungeon, both became silent.
Since Kyungsoo had received the part-time pay, he couldn’t slack off. He used the most efficient skills he had to gather the monsters in one place. Except for the floating monsters that couldn’t be dragged by the Berserker’s hook, everything else melted away under the barrage of bazooka shots. Sunset and SpadeQueen divided the airborne monsters between them and took them out.
[Party] Sunset: You’re fast.
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: Thanks.
Apart from that one comment, Sunset kept quiet. Kyungsoo could fully concentrate on the raid. When they reached the mini-boss room, dozens of smaller monsters appeared all at once.
‘Time Bomb!’
As Sunset shouted the skill name, clock-shaped icons appeared above the monsters’ heads. Then, they all exploded simultaneously, reducing their HP by half. The maximum damage reached 800,000. It was even higher than the damage output of the Dark Knight, a melee DPS.
“……”
More than anything, Kyungsoo froze for a moment, realizing it was the same skill that had been used six months ago. When the boss monster inspired by the Milky Way exploded from Sunset’s attack, a brilliant meteor shower rained down on the map. Sunset fluttered his wings as he organized the raid items.
After a couple more rounds, they exited the dungeon, and Minjae suddenly asked a random question.
[Party] SpadeQueen: Meowie, which do you value more when judging people: personality or looks?
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: Both.
[Party] SpadeQueen: But if you had to choose just one?
After a brief moment of contemplation, Kyungsoo chose the former.
[Party] MeowieMeowMeow: Personality.
There were other parties entering and exiting the dungeon to gather materials besides theirs. Sunset flew over to a nearby party and gave them a buff. Instead of rejoicing at the stardust effect, they recoiled in horror.
[Global] Injeolmi Jjang: What the heck is that
[Global] Nam Kkot: Eek;
That entire party promptly switched channels. Each time they left the dungeon, Sunset took the opportunity to give buffs to other parties. And without fail, they would panic and run away. It seemed like he had found a new hobby.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: The guild leader won’t cause trouble, LOL. I told you it’s fine.
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: You’re right, but is he usually this quiet?
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: ??? Who?
Kyungsoo found it surprising that Sunset didn’t talk much. Given his notorious personality, he expected more harsh words or nitpicking, like pointing out flaws or insisting on specific skill usage.
[Whisper] MeowieMeowMeow: Anyway, it’s better to stay quiet than cause stress.
[Whisper] SpadeQueen: LOL, agreed.
Even amidst this, Sunset continued to give buffs to other parties, seemingly enjoying his new hobby. Maybe he liked seeing their reactions of confusion. Either way, it was much better than picking fights.
T/N: Lol it can’t be because Kyungsoo said he liked people more for their personality? LOL that’d be so funny.
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