Chapter 30

(Sniper) Miu: Was that the 24th time? Shooting a bomb and triggering a wipe? LOL. At this point I don’t think there’s even a piece of my corpse left.

(Sniper) Miu: I told you over and over to watch the wipe mechanic, and you still set it off again... are you mentally broken or something?

(Sniper) Miu: If you’re trolling this hard, what, you’re basically saying, hope everyone playing with me gets fucked, right?

(Sniper) Miu: If you’re not even planning to play the game, quit screwing around and just die.

(Sniper) Miu: Instead of wasting everybody else’s time, LOL?

The chat flying up the screen was savage.

1Poop1, who had been about to say something, quietly erased the message he was typing after seeing Miu’s vicious criticism.

(Whisper) 1Poop1: wow I think this is almost the first time I’ve ever seen leader swear;;; fuck the mood is legendary..

(Whisper) 1Poop1: Jadu try to calm him down pls;;

(Whisper) FUNK: the leader is swearing this is not an emergency vice leader hurry up and mediate

No one had ever seen Miu swear like this before. Whether that guy really was a spy or not, the atmosphere had gotten way too brutal, so 1Poop1 and FUNK hurriedly told ShinJadu to step in and stop it, but—

(Whisper) ShinJadu: ha.........why is it always me..

(Whisper) ShinJadu: I’ve never seen swearing Miu either.. I’m scared too.......

(Whisper) ShinJadu: T_T

ShinJadu, too, found angry Miu hard to deal with, and now he was even swearing.

(Whisper) ShinJadu: um Miu...

Even so, for the sake of the party’s atmosphere, ShinJadu tearfully forced himself to step forward.

If 0momo0 really was a spy, he deserved to hear that a hundred times over. But if, by some chance, he was just a beginner, wouldn’t he get hurt?

Of course, the instant he started to speak and saw Miu whip his head around toward him, ShinJadu felt the tiny scrap of courage he’d managed to gather vanish on the spot.

(Whisper) ShinJadu: so

(Necromancer) 0momo0: It isn’t funny!!!!

At that moment—

(Necromancer) 0momo0: I’m sorry!!

(Necromancer) 0momo0: Miu I’m sorry and Jadu ♥♥ and 1Poop1 I’m not a human♥♥ thing!! I’m sorry!!!

0momo0 flattened himself immediately.

Normally, if a beginner got talked to like that in front of other people, they would cry, or say they wanted to stop.

But 0momo0 was not normal.

(Necromancer) 0momo0: It’s absolutely not a joke! I’m just lacking in skill!!!!

(Necromancer) 0momo0: I’ll try even harder!!!

(Necromancer) 0momo0: Please just give me one more chance!!

As if it weren’t enough that he didn’t even flinch under the icy criticism—

(Necromancer) 0momo0: I got nervous because I came here with Miu, who I like sooo much!!! and because you’re right next to me and I’m sooo sooo happy about that!!! and it feels like I can smell something nice and my heart keeps pounding!!!! so I totally lost my mind and made a lot of mistakes but I’ll focus now for real!!!!

...he even started flirting!

For a moment, the chat window went silent. Nobody reacted, and then, belatedly coming back to their senses, the party members started typing frantically.

(Alliance) Miu: My heart... what?

What the hell were they supposed to do with this lunatic...?

(Alliance) 1Poop1: so who’s making the announcement for us now

(Alliance) FUNK: I’m fu.ck not funk

(Alliance) 1Poop1: no shut up and sit down already

(Alliance) ShinJadu: T_T_T_T Momo? T_T_T_T_T_T_T

At first, they’d almost been touched by his determination to try harder, but what in the world was that hideous “my heart is pounding” crap?

(Sniper) Miu: Why is your heart pounding

(Necromancer) 0momo0: maybe because you’re right next to me Miu..

(Necromancer) 0momo0: that’s why it’s pounding?

(Sniper) Miu: I said why

(Necromancer) 0momo0: because you’re cute..?

(Sniper) Miu: what the fuck is this bastard saying right now?

What was the point of swearing at him all you wanted?

(Necromancer) 0momo0: it’s a fact-based compliment though...

(Necromancer) 0momo0: what exactly is the problem...? T_T

The other guy was the world’s number one Miyoung-crazed idiot.

(Sniper) Miu: ?

(Whisper) FUNK: d!!ddd!!d!!

(Sniper) Miu: LOL???

(Whisper) FUNK: ddddddddddddddddd

(Whisper) 1Poop1: Jadu at this point isn’t this enough;; what if the moment we go in we just tie Momo up so he can’t do anything and the rest of us go hard as fuck and clear it??

(Whisper) FUNK: vice leader the vibe is weird can’t we just shove the dungeon through already?

(Whisper) FUNK: this dungeon cannot become my final work

They were fucked. Sensing the abyss opening under them, 1Poop1 and FUNK spammed ShinJadu with whispers like crazy.

(Whisper) ShinJadu: ok ok got it; I’ll say it;

The point of this dungeon had been to see whether 0momo0 really was a beginner or not, but did that even matter anymore? It was obvious to anybody with eyes that Miu was about to explode.

In the end, ShinJadu was the one who had to take the bullet.

(Medic) ShinJadu: Leader!!! Leader!! haha!!!

ShinJadu quickly squeezed himself in between 0momo0 and Miu, who were facing each other, used a beaming smile interaction, and spoke sweetly.

(Medic) ShinJadu: it’s great that you two are bonding and all, and it is nice that we’ve spent so much time together in the dungeon and gotten closer~~~

(Medic) ShinJadu: but our try time is getting close to two hours now~ it’s getting suuuper long~ so maybe it’d be okay if we cleared it now~~!!

(Whisper) 1Poop1: that took guts Jadu..

(Whisper) FUNK: T_T god Jadu T_T

(Sniper) Miu: You mean just clear it

(Medic) ShinJadu: Yes! We’ve shown him all the patterns there were to show, so what if we let Momo stay down and the rest of us clear it??

(Medic) ShinJadu: we’ve done this much today, and next week we can do a little more!

Anyway, over the past two hours, 0momo0 had seen a whole range of monstrous bird patterns. So Jadu suggested that the rest of the raid members, excluding 0momo0, just finish the dungeon here.

But—

(Sniper) Miu: Jadu

At the direction things took next, ShinJadu could not hide his confusion.

(Sniper) Miu: I promised I’d turn Momo into a human being in this dungeon

(Sniper) Miu: are you telling me not to keep my promise?

(Medic) ShinJadu: Huh?........

(Sniper) Miu: He has to at least function as a human being, but I’m supposed to fail to keep that promise

(Medic) ShinJadu: no.....

(Sniper) Miu: is that the right thing to do?

(Medic) ShinJadu: well...

(Medic) ShinJadu: a promise is a promise, but... um...

(Sniper) Miu: ?

Why was the leader—

(Sniper) Miu: A promise, but?

—so obsessed with promises all of a sudden...!

As the atmosphere turned ominous again, ShinJadu’s whispers exploded one more time.

(Whisper) FUNK: oh god why did you say that word

(Whisper) 1Poop1: you idiot..! why would you do that!!!!

(Whisper) FUNK: I think leader is hooked on the word promise today every time it comes up he goes off

(Whisper) 1Poop1: when somebody says promise the leader starts casting a huge fucking AoE..!!!

(Medic) ShinJadu: ...T_T

They had realized it too: today, Miu clearly had some kind of grudge against the word promise.

(Sniper) Miu: Of course, it’s been a long time, so if the rest of you want to stop, you can stop

That said, he wasn’t forcing the party members. At the words that they could stop if they wanted, they all hesitated for a moment, but—

(Whisper) FUNK: if Momo is really a beginner can we really leave him like that?

(Whisper) FUNK: if we leave the two of them alone like this it feels like something’s gonna happen

(Whisper) ShinJadu: ugh T_T yeah true if he might be a beginner then I have to stay I guess..

(Whisper) 1Poop1: I’ve got a bad feeling; ah;

(Whisper) ShinJadu: T_T

Today, Miu was unusually low-pressure, the atmosphere was weird, and if they left things like this, nobody knew what might happen. If 0momo0 really was a beginner, then something irreversible might happen.

(Grinder) FUNK: no no let’s all go together if we can

(Gunner) 1Poop1: together with you, leader, haha.. love it...

(Medic) ShinJadu: th...thank... T_T..

There was, practically speaking, no choice.

(Necromancer) 0momo0: oh wow I’m so touched that you’re all staying with me like this!!! T_T_T_T

Meanwhile, completely oblivious to what the others were feeling, 0momo0 bounced around, apparently moved by their loyalty. And in that awkward situation, where no one could really back out anymore, the raid resumed.

(Grinder) FUNK: this time we absolutely clear it we can do this

(Gunner) 1Poop1: totallypossible

(Medic) ShinJadu: That’s right! Good! Let’s do our best!!

(Necromancer) 0momo0: Fiiightiiiiing!!!!!!!

So they cheered each other on and shouted that they would definitely clear it this time, but—

(Notification) FUNK has died!

(Notification) 1Poop1 has died!

(Grinder) FUNK: sorry...

(Gunner) 1Poop1: ahkmdnjdndn2dndaaahkrlm sorry T_T_T_T

(Medic) ShinJadu: wow how did the two I trusted make mistakes like this...

(Notification) ShinJadu has died!

(Grinder) FUNK: Jadu you died right after saying that too didn’t you

(Medic) ShinJadu: ...heh sorry T_T

As time wore on, it wasn’t 0momo0 making mistakes anymore. It was the alliance members.

They died absurdly to easy patterns they would normally have dodged without effort.

(Grinder) FUNK: I may be unemployed but please let me live

(Gunner) 1Poop1: T_T fuck... T_T_T_T I can’t see anything anymore... why..? I’m the one who covered my eyes, so why is 24-year-old Kim Taehwan, freshly discharged and planning to go back to school, the one suffering..?

(Grinder) FUNK: way to dox yourself naturally

(Gunner) 1Poop1: LOL wait why Mincheol Min??

(Grinder) FUNK: why the fuck are you exposing my personal info, bastard

(Medic) ShinJadu: should we step out and take a break for a sec...??

(Medic) ShinJadu: T_T_T_T let’s rest just a little before we keep going T_T

(Grinder) FUNK: leader please guarantee our labor hours

(Gunner) 1Poop1: dad let me sleep for just 5 minutes; pls;;