Chapter 1
Chapter 1: What’s in a Title?
Han Beodeul never planned to get this serious about the game.
‘How did I end up like this?’
The MMORPG game that Beodeul enjoyed, <Story of Guardians>, commonly known as <SOG>, was once so popular that it was considered a national game.
Its cute graphic design with a low entry barrier attracted people of all ages and genders, while its emotionally stimulating storyline and excellent music were occasionally compared to famous Hollywood movies.
<SOG> successfully targeted even those who weren’t normally interested in games through aggressive promotion backed by a large game company’s solid capital. Thanks to this, it broke all previous records for Korean MMORPG games and has maintained its reputation as the company’s flagship title even now, eight years after its release.
Even Beodeul, who had no interest in games, was familiar enough with <SOG> to say, “Oh, that game?”
Then one day, as Beodeul was looking for a new hobby to break the monotony of daily life, a devil tempted him to play <SOG> together… Completely captivated by the cute characters, Beodeul became a newbie to this long-running game.
Until then, no, even until very recently, Beodeul wasn’t this serious about <SOG>.
‘At least until I died from being hit by a field monster. Yeah.’
How shocking it was to see his character drop dead from a light touch of a small, seemingly cute fox monster.
Beodeul, who had only thought of <SOG> as ‘a cute and casually enjoyable game,’ awakened that day and officially began paying server fees to the game company. In other words, he started entrusting his body and wallet to the ruthlessly designed probability games set up by the developers for equipment enhancement…
“That wasn’t the end of it.”
But good equipment wasn’t the solution to everything.
Beodeul could now easily take care of the fox monster that had once knocked down his character with a yawn. However, he hit a new wall in dungeons, the crown jewel of <SOG>, especially those that focused on party play.
“How is it possible that even with this equipment, I still can’t pull my weight…”
Beodeul’s gaze was troubled as he looked through the shining equipment in his inventory. Every time he saw the equipment he had ambitiously acquired, he felt half proud and half inexplicably sorry toward his character. That’s because he knew it was like putting a pearl necklace on a pig.
After closing the equipment window, Beodeul’s eyes turned to the quest window he had tucked away in a corner. For three weeks now, he couldn’t complete a single quest.
[Third Knight Trial — Clear the Trial Gateway III 0/1]
The quest to clear the dungeon called the Trial Gateway consisted of five stages in total. Players could receive the next stage quest every 20 levels starting from level 40, and Beodeul had already passed level 80, reaching the point where he needed to clear the third quest.
But even as Beodeul approached level 100, he still couldn’t clear the Trial Gateway III. It might become much easier after reaching level 100 and completing his second job advancement, but Beodeul thought differently.
‘It’s not really a DPS problem in the first place…’
Beodeul’s equipment already exceeded the DPS requirements for Trial Gateway III. The problem was that it was a dungeon that required both good luck and skilled control.
Beodeul considered himself clumsy. For someone who lacked confidence in his control, the Trial Gateway III dungeon was nothing short of a nightmare. His mistakes affected not only himself but also caused problems for others.
‘The first two were practically solo dungeons, though.’
Beodeul sighed as he recalled the dungeons he had gone through so far. He missed the previous dungeons that required damage output rather than control. There, Beodeul almost flew… well, not quite, but he had no major difficulties.
However, Trial Gateway III taught Beodeul the terror of multi-player dungeons. The trauma inflicted by the party members he met during his first try still made him hesitate.
“I think I could do it with a bit more practice.”
The problem started from phase 2 in the boss room. He had already studied the mechanics by watching other players’ clear videos, but he severely lacked practical experience. Even his first try had failed at the beginning of phase 2.
Unfortunately, since it was a multi-player dungeon requiring at least two people to clear, it was difficult for Beodeul to see phase 2 alone.
“Ah, what should I do?”
The dungeon entrance was deserted. It was even difficult to find a party through the party matching system.
This was expected. The Trial Gateway quest wasn’t a main quest but rather one of the title achievement quests, known as the grindiest of grinds.
[World] [One Who Defies Fate]ChaosOfChaos: Title work, piloting available. Price and details in whisper
Beodeul stared at the world megaphone that had just appeared, his eyes full of envy. As luck would have it, it was a user with the “Defier of Fate” title that Beodeul was aiming for.
That very title could only be obtained by clearing all Trial Gateway quests. The title, abbreviated as “Fate Defier,” was considered one of the most difficult and annoying title achievement quests.
Although the title’s effect wasn’t significant, its design was so pretty that many people hired others to get it for them.
‘Maybe I should just hire someone.’
Beodeul unconsciously muttered to himself, then hurriedly shook his head. In cases like that advertisement, they usually demanded real money. Of course, that wasn’t the reason he hesitated.
Transactions involving real money clearly violated game policies, and if someone reported it, the account could be suspended. Also, because you had to expose your ID and password to the person you hired, there were frequent cases of hacking.
With limited gaming experience, Beodeul felt uncomfortable with the very idea of revealing his ID and password to a stranger and asking for a favor. Besides, getting the title through someone else wouldn’t give him any sense of accomplishment.
“A public party is a bit…”
Beodeul rested his chin on his hand, clicking his mouse. His character, who had been jumping meaninglessly at the dungeon entrance, finally settled on the ground.
He habitually opened the window to check the location of guild members and hesitated for a moment. The few guild members were all in the same place except for him. It was the same location as when Beodeul had checked an hour ago.
After hesitating, Beodeul decided to type in the chat. While people in public parties were scary, partying with guild members he’d become friendly with over the past few months wasn’t too burdensome.
[Guild] Girmu: Anyone want to do Trial GW3? haha
Beodeul looked at the quiet chat window. The guild members, probably huddled together chatting, remained silent.
Then, after a while, guild chat messages started appearing one by one.
[Guild] YucaPrinciple: Trial Gateway?
[Guild] TangShuShuk: I haven’t done the prerequisite quest ã…
[Guild] MakeAWishBuang: Mu-nim, you’re still doing Trial Gateway quests? ã„·ã„·
[Guild] ororo: No chance with that; just give up and come back…
The so-called casual gamers in his guild were rarely seen hunting, let alone running dungeons. How remarkable that when someone was at a hunting ground, everyone would gather to watch out of curiosity.
The guild members were people who most enthusiastically engaged in “gathering to chat,” which is considered the ultimate content of all games. Beodeul also enjoyed chatting with them, and there was a time when he logged into the game solely for that purpose.
The reason Beodeul, who had been a casual gamer like them, suddenly became a hardcore gamer was entirely due to the reason mentioned at the beginning. Because he died after being hit by a regular field monster, not a dungeon monster or field boss.
From that point on, he started gearing up, and as hunting became easier with better equipment, he gradually became more ambitious about leveling up. Then he remembered the existence of his wannabe title that he had forgotten about for a while. That was the day Beodeul found his goal in gaming life.
But what good is having a goal? It was all a pie in the sky.
“Maybe I should just give up…”
Who am I to aim for the Fate Defier title? Beodeul banged his head on the desk as he read the guild members’ discouraging messages.
It finally hit him that despite hunting from level 50 to nearly 100 for over two months and spending quite a sum of money on equipment, his character’s situation hadn’t improved much. Now he wouldn’t die from field monsters, but his hands couldn’t keep up with the level of his equipment…
[Guild] ororo: Mu-nim, you’re still at Trial GW3 entrance;
[Guild] YucaPrinciple: Ah lol I can see the lingering attachment in your silence lol
[Normal] SonyeoGajang: Hey
[Guild] CocaEww: Then just hit max level first… Didn’t you say you were going to reach max level anyway?
[Guild] MakeAWishBuang: Eek, max level? ã„·ã„· Is someone in our guild going to reach max level?
[Guild] WatchingChicken: Is that even possible in this lifetime? lololol
[Normal] SonyeoGajang: Girmu-nim
Beodeul, who had raised his head and was reading the chat with bleary eyes, blinked. Mixed in with the guild chat was a message from a user in the same field calling out to him.
[Guild] Girmu: Yes?
No, that’s not right. Beodeul hurriedly changed the chat.
[Normal] Girmu: Yes?
[Normal] SonyeoGajang: Are you going to Trial GW3
When he turned the screen, he saw a female character with pink braided hair. She must have set her height small because she looked at least three heads shorter than Beodeul’s character, which was set to average height.
From the sparkling silver tiara to the fluttery yellow dress and the translucent fairy wings on her back, it seemed she had put quite a lot of effort into her character’s appearance. In contrast, Beodeul’s character with ordinary black hair and a dark gray suit looked plain from every angle.
‘Wait a minute. This person… mentioned Trial GW3, right?’
In the chat window, the guild members had already moved on to another topic and were chatting excitedly. Beodeul scrolled up the chat window to check the content that had been buried under the guild members’ messages. There was no question mark, but it was clear they were asking him.
[Normal] Girmu: Yes, yes
[Normal] SonyeoGajang: Party invite please
*Phase: Stage. Refers to when a stage changes, such as when a boss transforms or changes attack patterns.
*Mechanics: Patterns. Refers to actions that must be performed according to the boss’s patterns, meaning role performance by position.
*Public Party: A party open to anyone.
*Party invite: Invitation to join a party.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
