Chapter 5

“Well, whatever.”

After dying so many times, Yeonhoo wasn’t even that angry anymore. The player who shot him dead wasn’t exactly the first. Or the second.

(Global) 0momo0: Yes!! I knowww!!

(Global) 0momo0: Still, nice to meet you

He was just happy to have met an actual person, so Yeonhoo typed brightly.

(Global) 0momo0: T_T I just started the game and this is my first time talking to someone!! T_T!

(Global) Hhumble: LOL what??

(Global) Hhumble: What is this guy?? He’s hilarious???

Watching how genuinely excited he was, Hhumble let out a laugh like he couldn’t believe it.

(Global) Hhumble: You a newbie??

The truth was, Hhumble had been roaming the field to kill zombies for a quest.

Then a character wearing nothing but underwear—no alliance, no tag—came wandering through the trees, so Hhumble decided to warm up and fired first.

(Global) Hhumble: You didn’t even put points into your class stats, and your base is level 1??? You’re for real???

Low character level was one thing, but a level 1 base meant he wasn’t some veteran’s alt.

He was a real newbie.

(Global) Hhumble: But why is a newbie on this server??

In Zombie Village, nobody starting fresh would ever come to server X-1211, so Hhumble still looked doubtful.

But the next message left him no choice but to believe it.

(Global) 0momo0: ?? Am I not supposed to be here :(??

If he didn’t even know X-1211’s reputation, he was definitely a newbie.

(Global) Hhumble: What the hell; why’s a newbie in a place like this LOL

(Global) Hhumble: I’ll kill you again, so just go back to town and do a server transfer or something

But 0momo0 looked so unusually innocent that Hhumble’s eyes flickered for a moment.

A fun idea came to him.

(Global) Hhumble: 0momo0?? Hey

Whoa. Someone’s actually calling my nickname.

Meeting a person at all still felt novel to Yeonhoo, so he answered with giddy energy.

(Global) 0momo0: Yeah yeah! Call me Momo!

(Global) Hhumble: Okay, Momo. You wanna live?

He tilted his head at the question.

(Global) 0momo0: Of course!!

(Global) Hhumble: Then want me to save you?

Oh. He was going to save him?

(Global) 0momo0: ??? You’re gonna save me?

(Global) 0momo0: I’m already down—how do you save me?

(Global) Hhumble: Yeah yeah yeah, that’s incapacitated, you can live. Hold up, hold up

Hhumble sat down in front of 0momo0’s collapsed body. Was he about to do something nice? Yeonhoo’s eyes sparkled.

Wow. Everyone’s been doing nothing but headshotting me, so I was worried, but there are kind people too.

He was genuinely moved by this first taste of kindness. Of course. It’s the kind of game Ms. Miyoung plays, he thought.

And then—

TZZT—CLICK.

A strange sound. Yeonhoo blinked, moved the mouse, lifted his head—then saw the tip of a bolt aimed right at his face.

His mouth fell open.

Ms. Miyoung...

(Global) Hhumble: If you hand over all your gold

(Global) Hhumble: I’ll let you live LOL

What kind of game is my baby rabbit playing...?

Yeonhoo might be clueless about games, but even he knew gold was in-game currency.

So if I pay, I live. I’m getting shaken down.

He rolled his eyes toward the part of the screen showing his gold.

131.9G

He had about 132G.

He’d started with 500G, but after dying over and over, at some point it had dropped to this.

Is that a lot? Is it nothing?

He hadn’t even progressed the main quest properly because he kept dying, so he couldn’t tell whether that number was big or small.

(Global) Hhumble: So? You paying or not?

While Yeonhoo stared at his gold, Hhumble shoved the crossbow closer and spoke. Because the view was first-person, the bolt right in front of his nose felt disturbingly vivid.

Should I just die?

But he was curious how reviving worked.

(Global) 0momo0: Will you save me for 131.9 gold?

He figured he should at least say something. But Hhumble immediately typed back with a mocking laugh.

(Global) Hhumble: Are you kidding? LOL How are you gonna walk away alive with that~~~

(Global) Hhumble: If you wanna live, you gotta top up gold and give it to me LOLLLLL

(Global) 0momo0: Oh, is it too little???

(Global) Hhumble: Yeah. It’s insanely little. Doesn’t even cover “medicine.” Top up in the shop and pay me, then I’ll revive you.

No matter how he looked at it, this was a shakedown.

He could just die and restart in town, but...

(Global) 0momo0: OK OK

He’d been planning to spend money on the game anyway, so he figured it wasn’t the worst idea to see how reviving worked while he was at it.

One problem.

(Global) 0momo0: But how do I top up???

Yeonhoo didn’t know how to top up gold or how to send it. At that, Hhumble hesitated, then asked like he didn’t trust him.

(Global) Hhumble: You don’t even know how to top up? Is this your first game ever?

(Global) 0momo0: Yeah yeah

(Global) Hhumble: ...Hold up

He seemed to believe it. He slung the crossbow back over his shoulder and squatted down.

(Global) Hhumble: Hit the settings window on the right. There’s a shop.

(Global) 0momo0: Shop??? This S Shop thing?

(Global) Hhumble: LOL yeah. Try Shift + right click shortcut.

And just like that, Yeonhoo started learning how to top up gold and send it to the guy extorting him.

So this is the shop... oh?

There were a lot of things that looked worth buying.

Not just clothes—there were all kinds of dazzling weapons laid out too. He stared, half spellbound, thinking that if he put on something like that, even his bald character would look cute.

But then a message popped up, pressing him, and he had no choice but to stop window-shopping.

(Global) Hhumble: You done yet??

(Global) 0momo0: Yes yes!

Finding the top-up button, Yeonhoo stared at the amount options, trying to estimate.

How much do people usually spend on games? Maybe... two million gold?

He pictured a few items he liked in the shop, decided two million gold sounded about right, and topped up that amount.

So it’s one-to-one.

A notification popped up on his phone: a two-million-won payment completed.

(Global) 0momo0: It’s done

(Global) Hhumble: How much did you top up??

(Global) 0momo0: Two million gold!

(Global) Hhumble: What????

(Global) Hhumble: Two million gold????

(Global) You just burned two million just now???

Why was he reacting like that?

(Global) 0momo0: Yeah. How much do I have to give you to revive me?

Was it too little?

Considering the shop items, he could probably spend more.

Hhumble went silent for a while, then finally typed.

(Global) Hhumble: LOL you messing with me?

(Global) Hhumble: You send all of it LOL

(Global) 0momo0: ?? All of it?

(Global) Hhumble: Yeah. You don’t know the market, that’s why.

(Global) Hhumble: Usually for a revive, you also pay a “sincerity fee.”

All two million won?

(Global) Hhumble: Sincerity. LOL. You know what that is, right?

(Global) Hhumble: Oh, see the little envelope icon top left?

(Global) Hhumble: Type recipient as Hhumble there.

(Global) Hhumble: And attach the gold LOL. On the right there’s “ALL,” got it? It has to be ALL LOL. If not, you die.

(Global) Hhumble: What are you doing

(Global) Hhumble: Hurry up, you not sending???

(Global) Hhumble: LOL if you back out now, I’ll camp your respawn and kill you every time you come out LOL

Respawn. What was that?

Yeonhoo searched the meaning, blinked, and realized it meant reviving.

So he’s saying he’ll come kill me every time I revive.

What a pain. Maybe he should just quit.

“...Huh.”

Even while he was thinking, the other guy kept reloading the crossbow over and over, threatening him.

He could pay. But the way he talked was so nasty it made Yeonhoo’s skin crawl.

Well. I’ll figure it out somehow.

He wasn’t about to give money to someone this obnoxious. He was just about to type, Just kill me, when—

FWEET!!

A sound suddenly sliced past Yeonhoo’s ear.

Then, with a THUD, Hhumble’s character vanished from view.

“Huh?”

Yeonhoo tilted his head, startled.

Where’d he go? He was right in front of me a second ago.

No way he walked off on his own. Yeonhoo moved the mouse, changing the angle, and spotted a head of orange hair sprawled on the ground right in front of him.

Incapacitated?