[Guild Master ‘Chasa’ has logged in.]
[There are unsettled payments in the trading exchange.]
[A daily quest has arrived.]
[Guild] Chasa: Hello.
[Guild] Swakkoong: Captain, hi!
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Hiyo hiyo.
[Guild] Freedeal: Welcome~
[Guild] Shokrates: Chasa, daily quest? We’re just waiting on you for a three-man run.
[Guild] Chasa: Party invite, please.
The new daily quest was most efficient when completed in a three-person party. As Chasa waited for the invite, a new icon suddenly flickered right in the center of his skill window.
[An express mail has arrived.]
“Express mail?”
Unlike regular mail, which could only be checked at mailboxes in towns, express mail could be received anywhere. However, the service fee was three times higher. It was mainly used in urgent situations, like needing an item quickly while in a dungeon or out in the field.
Who would send something like this?
As Chasa tapped the icon, a rabbit wearing a delivery hat and carrying a satchel popped out of thin air. Licking its front paws, the creature soon displayed the mail window.
-DeliveryCarrot!
[Sender: Furple
Subject: A Perfect Day for Rice Cakes
Attachment: (1)
(30)]
Sa-yoon tilted his head. Even after checking the sender and the contents, he couldn’t make sense of it.
“Did they eat something good?”
Sometimes, when someone acquired a rare item, they’d get so excited that they’d hand out small bonuses like a celebration feast. Usually, these were given to the party members present at the time, but it seemed this guild extended the gesture to even a few select members.
This guild sure had strong bonds… Convinced by the thought, Sa-yoon pressed the receive button.
-Confirmed delivery, Carrot!
The tiny rabbit pulled out a document, scribbled a signature, did a midair somersault, and disappeared.
[Guild] Furple: Chasa.
[Guild] Furple: You’re here.
[Guild] Chasa: Hello.
[Guild] Furple: It’s been fun.
[Guild] Chasa: …Huh?
The abrupt start of the conversation carried an ominous tone. No way… Were they transferring back to their previous server? Was that what they meant by “a perfect day” earlier?
[Guild] Chasa: Where are you going?
[Guild] Furple: Yeah, we’re leaving.
Ah. Just as he thought. After spending months together, eating from the same pot, it felt bittersweet to see them go. Especially since he and Furple shared a connection forged through stubborn persistence.
[Guild] Chasa: That’s a shame.
As Sa-yoon typed the message, he noticed something even stranger. Normally, the guild chat would be buzzing with chatter, filled with collective murmurs. But today, it was eerily quiet—almost as if Furple was speaking on behalf of everyone.
“…No way, are they all leaving?”
A while ago, Sa-yoon had helped Killer customize their outfit—head to toe. It wasn’t the original appearance customization they were aiming for, but in a way, it was even rarer. While anyone could replicate a face or body customization by looking at a reference, the reward outfit from the paired battle arena was something that couldn’t even be obtained anymore.
Maybe Killer had been satisfied with that and decided to return to their original server. Maybe they’d even talked about it with the others.
“…That’s kind of depressing.”
Sa-yoon had always enjoyed a lively atmosphere and being around people. Sure, he’d told Freedeal to get lost once in a while, but now that they were actually leaving, he felt a mix of relief and regret.
[Guild] Furple: I’m off to the land of happiness now, hahahahaha!
[Guild] Chasa: You worked hard here. Thanks for everything, haha.
[Guild] Furple: Thinking back on these years of suffering… tears are blurring my vision…
[Guild] Chasa: Still, thanks to you all, it’s been a fun few months.
[Guild] Chasa: Take care, everyone.
Being on an underpopulated, backwater server must have been tougher than he realized. Even the merchants who were supposed to be part of the guild had run the numbers and decided not to bother coming. That said a lot.
[Guild] Shokrates: 100%.
[Guild] Shokrates: I bet the guild master hasn’t seen the website update.
[Guild] Freedeal: I was wondering how far this would go, lol. Chasa, you still believe it’s real, don’t you? TTTTT
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Wow, he actually fell for it. ;_;
[Guild] Swakkoong: Surprise camera, grand success!!
[Guild] Shokrates: Swakkoong, the way you said that makes you sound like a total otaku!
[Guild] Swakkoong: Huh? Did I just get electrocuted or something?
…What the hell were they talking about?
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Still, better than Jeon-gi. Honestly, people who grind with stubborn persistence are either angels or demons.
[Guild] Freedeal: If you take out angels and demons, what’s left?
[Guild] Swakkoong: Humans?
[Guild] Shokrates: Hey, at least I got a direct goodbye. Furple straight-up told me they were quitting! Chasa’s case is different!
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: But you literally said, “I’m quitting, here, take my bow.” (ㅇㅅㅇ)
[Guild] Shokrates: If you quit a game, it’s common sense to divide your gear among the family, right? Full dismemberment! Hahaha!
[Guild] Oath’s Vow: …I don’t think that’s what “dismemberment” means.
[Guild] Freedeal: Execution. TT
[Guild] Chasa: Is this some kind of friendship test?
[Guild] Oath’s Vow: Ah, LOL.
[Guild] Freedeal: Chasa.
[Guild] Freedeal: There’s a new update announcement on the website.
“…At this timing?”
It wasn’t even a scheduled maintenance day, so the announcement felt completely out of the blue. Sa-yoon, who had logged in directly through the launcher, belatedly opened the official website.
Instead of the familiar homepage he could navigate with his eyes closed, a different screen appeared—an event page.
The first thing that caught his eye was a massive moon. Accompanied by an eerie BGM, a dark forest and a lake gradually came into view. A crow, perched on a nearby skull, let out a chilling caw before flapping its wings and taking off. Smoke swirled above before morphing into gray text.
[New World D-30]
Behind the countdown, the moon’s reflection in the lake began to wane, shifting from a full moon to a half-moon, and then to a crescent. No matter how he looked at it, the main focus of this event was the moon.
So that’s why.
The moment Sa-yoon saw the event page, he understood why Furple had been so convinced about the Sniper buff.
In Divine, a game based on Greek and Roman mythology, there was only one major deity associated with the moon.
Artemis. And the class linked to her? The Sharpshooter.
Sa-yoon let out a long sigh, clasping his hands tightly together. It was the only thing stopping him from sending a profanity-laced support ticket and getting hit with a penalty for bad manners.
Isn’t it about time they finally buffed the Warlock? Sharpshooters had already received a buff once during the open beta. Sure, it was just the beta, but the fact that they had gotten any adjustment was what mattered.
Meanwhile, Warlocks?
Zero. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Never.
There was no god. Or, if there was, WarTum was blatantly signaling for all Warlocks to quit, and he had just been too dense to notice for two years.
—Caw!
As he seethed over this absolute bullshit, another crow cried out without a hint of awareness for his mood. A new one had perched itself atop the skull.
Sa-yoon tilted his head, staring blankly at the screen. Where is that? The setting felt both familiar and unfamiliar. Before he could figure it out, the crow flapped its wings and flew off again.
Does it even matter? The season’s main class was obviously Sharpshooter. There was no need to waste energy trying to figure out the location. His fingers, hovering over Alt and Tab, felt sluggish.
[Server] GoryeoBestArcher: The age of Sharpshooters is here!
[Server] Jumong: This is the land of archery!
[Server] Artemis: I believed in the goddess of the moon!
[Server] Zeus: Sorry for not being honest~
[Server] SakeLatte: If this moment is just a dream~
[Server] Melody: No singing in server chat.
[Server] Zeus: No teamwork, huh? ┐(￣ヘ￣)┌
[Server] Furple: Who wants rice cakes? <Channel 5> Plaza, come quick!
[Server] RegressionPossessionReincarnation: Giving away 1,000 bundles of arrows at <Channel 5> Plaza! ^^
[Server] HanzoWaiting: @@@ Free unenchanted bows crafted by yours truly! Come to <Channel 5 Plaza> to claim! @@@
[Server] RiceCakeShopSon: …What’s with today?
[Server] SakeLatte: The Sharpshooter buff is looking huge.
[Server] RiceCakeShopSon: Oh, I see.
[Server] UltimateWeaponBow: @@@ <Antagora’s Venom> for sale @@@
[Server] CrunchyIcedTea: Any raid, any time—Sharpshooter buffs incoming!
Now that he was looking, the server chat was overflowing with Sharpshooter-related usernames. Just like Furple, everyone was high on the buff hype, throwing around giveaways like it was a festival.
[Guild] Chasa: Ah, LOL.
[Guild] Chasa: And just like that, we send off another one.
[Guild] Chasa: Ha…
[Guild] Shokrates: Chasa, you’re not actually crying, are you? LOL.
[Guild] Chasa: Busted. TT
[Guild] Furple: Leaving you behind in this cruel world breaks my heart. TT
[Guild] Furple: My chest aches so much I could cry.
[Guild] Swakkoong: And here they go again, saying things they don’t mean.
[Guild] Shokrates: Crocodile tears, maybe?
[Guild] Swakkoong: Ahh~ Yesterday I was wondering if this trash game would ever get an update, and boom, an announcement the very next day.
[Guild] Shokrates: Insane timing, right?
If the next balance patch didn’t include Warlocks, Sa-yoon was really quitting this damn game. It was the 297th time he’d made an empty threat, but still.
He rejected the party invite that popped up.
[Guild] Shokrates: Wait, Chasa, no daily quest? TT
[Guild] Chasa: Haha, I’ll be back later.
Maybe WarTum didn’t actually know what “balance patch” meant. Or maybe they just didn’t understand English.
Losing all motivation, Sa-yoon left Chasa sitting idle and stepped away from his desk to cool his burning frustration.
[Guild] Killer: What the hell.
[Guild] Killer: This rice cake is absolute garbage.
[Guild] Furple: TT
By the time he downed a glass of cold water and returned, a whisper was already waiting for him.
[Whisper] Killer: Hyung.
[Whisper] Killer: Hyung, hyung.
[Whisper] Killer: AFK?
