As we kept running, something that looked like a castle gate came into view. One glance was enough to tell—open that and you’re fucked—that was the kind of aura it gave off.
“Looks like a bonus gate.”
“Really? But… I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
We stood there silently, staring at the massive doors. I suggested we just pass it by, but Moment and Human ignored me.
“Hm. I saw on the forum that if you clear something like this, they toss in a rare item with the loot.”
“Oh. Yeah, I heard that too.”
SunlightAngel listened to the two of them, eyes scanning the gate with open curiosity.
Whenever there’s one lunatic in a group, everyone suffers. It’s like in zombie movies—someone always says, ‘Don’t go provoking it for no reason,’ and there’s always that one idiot who walks up anyway, gets bitten, hides the wound, and in the end the whole group gets wiped out.
And right now, there was exactly one person about to create that situation.
Moment.
So I grabbed him and begged him to just leave—but flames suddenly burst up around his entire body.
“If I kill this, will you link with me?”
“No. Even if you kill it, I won’t. So let’s just go.”
Please. We’re right on the verge of level 50. Let’s not do something stupid like this.
But even if I wanted to keep holding him back, the subtle heat radiating off him made it hard to grip him for long. It wasn’t exactly “Ow, that’s hot!” like a fresh Americano in the morning, but if I held on too long, my fingertips started to burn.
“I said let’s just go!”
“What, you think I can’t handle it? You don’t trust me?”
“It’s not that…!”
Despite my attempts to stop him, Moment reached toward the gate.
“U-ugh…!”
But before Moment could open the gate, SunlightAngel startled at an ant near his feet and fell backward faster.
Creeeak—
As he toppled over, he braced himself against the wall—but unfortunately for us, it wasn’t a wall. It was the door. He barely seemed to lean on it, yet the massive gate swung open helplessly.
No, seriously—shouldn’t a door like this require all four party members to open it at once? How does it open just because someone falls against it? What kind of half-assed game design is this? I cursed internally.
But since it opened so easily, maybe the boss inside wouldn’t be anything special. Thinking that, we stepped inside.
It was the same kind of fog-filled space. But the floor was marble, so instead of a forest, it felt like we had entered some kind of building. For now, SunlightAngel and I, the two Guides, waited at the edge while Moment and Human walked ahead. As they disappeared into the fog, I cast shields on them just in case.
Through the heavy mist, I could see Moment’s flames flickering. Human’s water pillars appeared intermittently, and in the distance, something that seemed to be the boss fired blue beams in all directions. It looked like thunder striking between clouds.
Then I heard their confused voices.
“…ShutUp?”
“Hey, Jun. Why are you here?”
“What? I just generated a dungeon and came in.”
Right then, the fog cleared—and the real ShutUp came into view. As if to prove they weren’t lying, ShutUp’s name was marked in red. Just like a boss monster. Because of the Ring of the Noble Elf’s Breath item effect, angel wings spread wide behind his back.
“What the hell? What’s going on?”
I approached and joined their conversation.
When ShutUp saw me, he reached out his hand. But even though we were partners, we were enemies inside the dungeon—so the moment his electricity touched me, my HP dropped.
“How exactly is this supposed to be working…?”
SunlightAngel came closer too, staring blankly at ShutUp. We were too flustered to even think about fighting when a message appeared in the center of the hall.
<<If combat does not begin within 3 minutes, all players will be marked as dead.>>
As an additional note, it kindly informed us: <<Upon death, items may be destroyed, and some EXP will be deducted.>>
In other words, we could lose both items and levels.
ShutUp was scary, sure—but right now it was four against one. No, actually, let’s be honest—SunlightAngel and I might as well not count. But we had Human, who had an elemental synergy with ShutUp, and Moment, who was evenly matched with him. Victory was practically guaranteed for us.
“For the greater good, you should sacrifice yourself.”
“Why the hell should I?”
Human offered that very friend-like advice, and ShutUp predictably snapped back. Moment asked him whether he really wanted his partner to get a level reduction, and the ill-tempered ShutUp replied that linking would feel the same either way, so it wasn’t a big deal.
After already watching him earlier that afternoon get completely smitten over some slick bastard and treat me like a sack of barley just tossed aside, hearing that from him lit a competitive fire inside me.
“Moment.”
“Yeah, Gentle?”
“If you kill ShutUp, I’ll hold your hand and link with you.”
“Really?”
Moment grinned brightly at my words, and ShutUp glared at him like he was ready to spear him through on the spot.
“Are you insane? You wanna die for real?”
“You don’t plan on going easy on us anyway, right? Then what choice do we have? Either you die, or we beat the shit out of you.”
Now even ShutUp’s eyes burned with blue electricity. Watching him like that, SunlightAngel clasped both hands together in a prayer pose.
“Wow… so cool.”
What exactly was cool about the guy who just declared he’d kill us? SunlightAngel wasn’t exactly normal either.
Missing out on loot? Fine, whatever. I could live with that.
But losing a level? Absolutely not.
“You’d better win. Got it?”
“Where the hell are you grabbing?!”
I’d grabbed Moment’s shoulder as I said it, and ShutUp immediately barked again. He’d just spent a nice time in real life with some handsome guy, yet here he was obsessing over me—his mere in-game partner. It made no sense.
<<All players will be marked as dead in 10 seconds.>>
As the warning appeared again, Human—who had been standing quietly—was suddenly behind ShutUp, summoning a water pillar to slam down on him.
Boom—!
ShutUp barely dodged the attack and cursed at Human, who pretended not to hear and whipped his lash around ShutUp’s ankles. A shallow layer of water spread across the marble floor.
I had a very bad feeling about this, so I grabbed SunlightAngel’s wrist and retreated onto a nearby statue. Sure enough, every time ShutUp hurled an electric spear at Moment and Human, it struck the floor and sent faint currents running through the water.
“That’s brutal.”
“If we’d stayed down there, we’d both have been electrocuted to death.”
Apparently, SunlightAngel and I were the only ones at risk of actual electrocution—Human and Moment were floating in the air. I knew Psychics could fly, but at times like this it felt unfair. Even in a game, we had to worry about dying from electric shock just like in real life…
“Filthy game world.”
At my grumbling, SunlightAngel chimed in beside me, “Right? Right?”
I checked the cooldown on Relax—five minutes left. SunlightAngel was periodically supplying Rapid and Healing to Human and Moment.
I’d thought ShutUp wouldn’t be able to use any major skills since we hadn’t linked recently and his PG should’ve been built up—but… he summoned a torrent of lightning crashing down like a waterfall.
“Must’ve blown some cash.”
He must’ve used a paid item to lower his PG. There was no other way he could’ve used a skill like that.
“Huh?”
But something felt off.
If he was evenly matched with Moment, then with it being two against one, this PK should’ve ended quickly. Yet somehow, even with Moment and Human fighting together, they couldn’t gain the upper hand.
Why?
Curious, I opened the partner window—
“Ha! No way!”
I clearly saw ShutUp’s PG climb to 20 percent—then it slowly started going down. Even though he kept using small skills, it dropped further to 10 percent.
“Human, Moment. Something’s wrong. ShutUp’s PG is decreasing even though he keeps using skills.”
“What?”
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding.”
I’d figured he wouldn’t fight fair—but apparently, for the sake of “balance,” they’d given cheat-like perks to a solo player. Even the previously confident Moment faltered and got blasted away by one of ShutUp’s thunder spheres.
KRAAASH!
The ground trembled beneath us, and the water covering the floor rippled like a brimming bowl set on the verge of spilling over. The two of them kept firing skills at ShutUp, but it was a complete stalemate.
If Moment and Human’s elements had stronger synergy, would it have been different? Every time Moment cast a skill, the water coating the floor extinguished his flames almost immediately. He couldn’t even form a lava field like he had when chasing off that ant earlier.
Still, despite the elemental mismatch, the two coordinated well. Human summoned a water pillar to force ShutUp to dodge in one direction, while Moment deployed Fire Rings, trapping him like a snare.
The problem was—they did trap him…
But perhaps because he could use his abilities endlessly, ShutUp unleashed his thunder barrier to the maximum. Crackling flames and lightning collided, and a blinding spectacle erupted before our eyes.
The enormous lights clashed so fiercely they made my eyes sting—then suddenly separated, and ShutUp bounced out of the Fire Ring snare like a rubber ball. I used Relax to lower both their PG and cast shields.
But even together, they weren’t achieving much. Human and Moment, visibly fatigued, stood in a tense standoff with skills ready in hand when ShutUp made an offer.
“If Gentle promises to link with me obediently, I might let you win.”
Yeah. Better than losing a level. I figured I could treat it as a final link, then transfer servers cleanly afterward. So I climbed down from the statue and walked toward them.
Beside the relaxed-looking ShutUp, Moment spun a Fire Ring idly with his fingers and sneered.
“I don’t like that.”
There was no need to provoke him further. I hurried across the splashing water and stood between them.
“I’ll just sacrifice myself. We’re partners anyway—linking with him isn’t exactly hard.”
Moment quietly stroked his chin and cast a subtle glance behind ShutUp. From that look alone, I realized Human and Moment were planning to seize this opening in the conversation to capture him. So I committed harder to the act.
“I’m fine with it. So stop fighting now. ShutUp, give me your hand.”
“You’re trying to settle this with just holding hands? Do it properly. Or I won’t.”
“Fine. Fine. Just grab it first.”
I stepped forward and held out my hands. ShutUp dismissed his thunder barrier and came closer, gripping both of my hands tightly.
It was practically the same as throwing off his armor—making sure I wouldn’t take damage from the electricity. To an outsider, he might’ve looked like some devoted romantic hero. But knowing what he was really like, I wasn’t moved in the slightest. Behind his back, Moment stood with his hands clasped behind him, subtly manipulating his Fire Rings.
Meanwhile, Human had quietly moved behind ShutUp and was summoning a water pillar. A cage of water bars formed—just large enough to trap one person. If he were sealed inside, even ShutUp wouldn’t be able to use his thunder skills easily.
But just as they were about to drop it over his head, SunlightAngel screamed.
