Chapter 4

After making his decision, Yeonhoo crushed the cookie he’d been holding and swallowed it in one go, then chugged the half-cup of coffee left like it was a shot. When he walked over to the return station, Miyoung’s eyes went round, like she’d been startled by how much faster he was moving than usual.

Her rabbit-like face—like she was about to ask if he was leaving already—was so pretty and cute it hurt, but Yeonhoo had a bad feeling that if he kept staring, he’d end up glued to the chair forever, taking root. So he tossed out a quick goodbye and bolted.

“Um...! Ah.”

Miyoung called after him a beat late, but Yeonhoo’s head was full of the game now, and he was too busy rushing. That was when he caught a long, massive silhouette coming out of the restroom in his peripheral vision.

‘Big.’

Even with his head lowered, you could tell the guy was tall enough to be obvious. Yeonhoo’s eyes went there for a moment, but—

‘My eyes need to look at Ms. Miyoung only.’

He had no attention to spare for some random man. Yeonhoo’s brain was already packed to the brim with zombie faces.

‘Should I buy another computer?’

Later, Miyoung could come over to his place and they could play together. The thought of them sitting side by side at the same desk, gaming, felt so newlywed it made him smile on reflex.

At the time, Yeonhoo was sipping that fantasy broth like a pro, and he genuinely thought it would be easy.

How hard could a game be? He’d just find Miyoung, and then the two of them would start dating while sweetly, happily killing zombies together—

...that’s what he thought.

“Wow.”

At 4:30 a.m., after playing until the sky was the color of old charcoal, Yeonhoo’s character, 0momo0, was—

“Did I die again?”

—currently experiencing his twenty-fourth death.

After the tutorial, the game told him to pick a class, so he’d chosen something he’d heard of a lot somewhere, but it felt... off.

‘Necromancer—this is a total scam class, isn’t it?’

What Yeonhoo had pictured was a job that commanded a horde of skeletons and zombies, casting eerie, wicked magic.

But—

—Clack-clack! Clack-clack!

A tiny skeleton at his side clacked like a wind-up toy, loudly announcing its existence. Yeonhoo grabbed his head and groaned.

‘A robot vacuum would be more useful than this....’

Reality was just this: a bald necromancer wearing nothing but underwear, dragging around a baby-sized skeleton that didn’t do anything.

‘And the gun is weird. Isn’t this just a BB gun?’

Other classes were walking around with sniper rifles, but the necromancer got handed some palm-sized toy pistol, and the damage was pathetic.

But class balance wasn’t even the real problem.

“This game is full of nothing but gangsters.”

He died every time he tried to step out into the field. And honestly, it made sense.

‘I picked the server because Ms. Miyoung is on it... but did I come here for no reason?’

Yeonhoo’s server—X-1211—had a reputation. A bad one.

(Free Board)

Fucking x server

Author: sapal-sapal

fuckkk came here bc my friend said to and almost quit the game on the spot; why are these bastards so serious about killing newbies??

is this even a survivable server? why is literally the whole map pvp?? is it normally like this?

Comments (23)

<img alt="grave3.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302046675/epub/images/Images/grave3.png"/> pasdasd Reply

x is always pvp everywhere except the town lol your friend is insane lol even if you take the main quest there you can get killed by pvp so there are no newbies lol move to another server do main quest then go back lol

<img alt="grave2.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302046675/epub/images/Images/grave2.png"/> let’s-run Reply

i used a relocation ticket and went to X after i got out of newbie status and those guys live to kill people, i swear; feels like they’re monitoring people just so they can kill them; i died every day and begged like crazy then bought a relocation ticket and left.

<img alt="grave3.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302046675/epub/images/Images/grave3.png"/> 8922 Reply

X is legit hell yeah. fatigue is nuts so you end up dropping your real life too lol hurry and use a relocation ticket and go to the beginner planet

<img alt="grave2.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302046675/epub/images/Images/grave2.png"/> Kimg Reply

bro are you sick???? why would a newbie go there and act like that? you should suck the sweet juice in Eden first and then go Vega or Orion lol

⤷ uh-waaah Reply

for real lol Orion is such a honey pot. good for farming newbies and people are kinda mannered. X is insane—every time you wake up you’ve got alerts saying your base got raided, your mental just explodes and you can’t do anything.

<img alt="grave3.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302046675/epub/images/Images/grave3.png"/> glasdas Reply

why would you go to X;;; that’s where people who don’t sleep and only play games, or kids with a ton of money, live...;;

<img alt="grave3.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302046675/epub/images/Images/grave3.png"/> mad-hack-mad Reply

may the souls of people who went to X rest in peace lol if you can move, move no matter what... this place is a sewer where only fossilized veterans are left. i said it. i warned you~~ lol

<img alt="grave1.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302046675/epub/images/Images/grave1.png"/> iooiolll Reply

but seriously if you think about it those Sunrise guys are insane. i don’t get why they don’t touch that crazy planet lol and they made it so you can just go there with one tap in planet select too lol shouldn’t they block newbies from going in??

⤷ zYoungAndPlus Reply

people who go in by mistake just get turned into jerky and sucked dry as an appetizer for the veterans lol what, you think veterans would have fun only with each other?? lol toss in a few newbies so the whale bros can cleanse the palate~ collect the money~ done~

⤷⤷ iooiolll Reply

exactly. it makes even less sense. shouldn’t newbies fight their way up from the bottom for the game to grow?

⤷⤷⤷ zYoungAndPlus Reply

from Sunrise’s perspective it’s insanely worth it to occasionally throw newbies in as bait for veterans. that’s where all the sales come from lol

<img alt="grave3.png" src="https://webview-cache.ridibooks.com/3302046675/epub/images/Images/grave3.png"/> army-ant Reply

X is unplayable if you don’t spend money lol from the company’s pov X server is a land of milk and honey

Not knowing any of that, Yeonhoo had simply chosen X-1211 because Kang Miyoung’s character—Miu—was there.

And so he was now repeatedly meeting death.

Even the planet name basically meant you’d failed exploration 1,210 times and only managed to take root on the 1,211th attempt, so the survival difficulty was brutal to begin with. Then he learned that outside the town, every area allowed PVP, and it was enough to make his head hurt.

Which meant—

(Notice) You have been killed by stop-being-funny-and-walk-by!

(Notice) Your character has died in combat!

(Notice) You have no instant revival item and will be summoned to your base. 5% of your gold will be deducted.

“Wow. Again?”

Yeonhoo stared at his bald character and marveled, impressed despite himself.

Just like every time, he died before he could mine even a single scrap of material for a base upgrade.

(Notice) You have revived!

This couldn’t keep happening. Determined to avoid at least his twenty-sixth death, Yeonhoo got cautious.

But what good was caution?

X-1211 was a server that had already rotted past the point of “matured.” It was not a place where a beginner survived.

—Bang!

Even dying still didn’t feel normal. It was a first-person game, and the sound was painfully vivid, so Yeonhoo flinched.

(Notice) You have been incapacitated. Use a medical kit to recover, or wait for recovery!

Current recovery rate: 3%...

“Oh. I’m alive?”

Maybe he’d gotten lucky—maybe the bullet had grazed past his head. Of course, in a moment another bullet would fly in and finish him, or a nearby zombie would spot him and that would be the end.

‘I need to look up a guide.’

With just the tutorial, progressing was impossible. Right as he was thinking that if he died again, he’d watch some guides on YouTube and start over—

Someone typed in chat.

(Global) Hhumble: what is this guy in nothing but underwear?

A character with orange hair, goggles, and a crossbow in hand appeared in front of him, and a speech bubble of text floated up.

Yeonhoo’s eyes went round.

‘There’s a chat function?’

X-1211 was famous for having almost no chat. For Yeonhoo, this was the first time he’d seen a real person speak—someone who wasn’t an NPC.

‘Wow, a person!’

After hours of doing nothing but dying, the sheer human smell of a message was weirdly comforting. Yeonhoo greeted him enthusiastically.

(Global) 0momo0: Hello!!!

(Global) 0momo0: Nice to meet you!!!!!

But Hhumble didn’t reply right away. He just circled the incapacitated 0momo0 a few times like Yeonhoo was some rare animal, then asked again.

(Global) Hhumble: why is it nice to meet me?

(Global) Hhumble: i’m the one who shot you?!

Yeonhoo blinked.

(Global) 0momo0: ah

Right.

He did.