Chapter 28
Ten million gold per named monster. About a tenth of the price that Horupa had quoted.
[Party] RoyalFamily: hi
[Party] CherryHorse: Hiyo~
Upon joining the party, users with the Grace guild mark greeted first. WatchingChicken frowned after checking their usernames.
‘What, is this Grace’s B-team?’
Even in Grace, which was exclusive yet as famous as any other well-known guild, there were certain famous named users. WatchingChicken, who secretly hoped to connect with those users, halfheartedly responded to the other party members’ greetings while searching for the Grace guild members they knew on the community board.
‘Oh, did Sinu come back?’
After checking a post discussing rumors of Sinu’s return, WatchingChicken switched windows and noticed new party members’ names that weren’t there before.
[Party] SaltySalt: Cherry… I rly wanna eat youㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ
[Party] CherryHorse: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋno way
[Party] Youngglory: Sinu is here too?
[Party] Sinu: Just arrived
[Party] RoyalFamily: Our daily mercenaries are solid~ Is Tangerine coming too?
[Party] Youngglory: She’s logging in^^
[Party] Sinu: Then I’m out
[Party] CherryHorse: no
[Party] RoyalFamily: no
[Party] SaltySalt: Youngglory: no
[Party] Youngglory: ? I didn’t say anything^^;
[Party] Sinu: ㅋㅋ
[Party] SaltySalt: ㅋㅅㅋI can’t be the only one getting caught…
Holy shit. Somehow, the party list was now filled with undisputed first-string Grace guild members.
[Whisper/Horupa] WatchingChicken: yoyoyo Sinu is back;;
[Whisper/WatchingChicken] Horupa: Where’s that from? Rumors? Your opinion?
[Whisper/Horupa] WatchingChicken: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋwhat the hell they’re in the bus party
[Whisper/WatchingChicken] Horupa: Huh????
Only then did Horupa seem surprised and sent a few more whispers. However, WatchingChicken was busy licking their lips after confirming that Sinu’s equipment information was locked.
“Fuck, I just want to see it once… Would they show it if I asked them to make it public?”
But before there was a chance to approach them, the party entered the dungeon. Like WatchingChicken, users receiving the bus service gathered in the corners of the map or wherever the Grace guild bus drivers directed, chatting among themselves.
[General] Sbeol: Damn, what’s with this mercenary lineup
[General] Daljari: The speed is insane;
[General] Ogambulmansok: I joined the bus party to do other things, but I didn’t expect to have to move this quickly…
The Grace guild members worked perfectly together without exchanging many words. It was impressive how well they seemed to know each other.
Watching them, WatchingChicken muttered while clicking on each Grace guild member’s character information.
“What a secretive guild.”
How come none of them made their information public? It was even more baffling because some high-ranking players with equipment pride would deliberately make their information public to show off.
Every Grace guild member had set their information to private, as if by agreement. WatchingChicken’s gaze toward the guild members gradually changed to one of displeasure. They probably don’t hide things from each other, right?
[Party] Sinu: Something came up, gotta go
[Party] SaltySalt: ?
[Party] CherryHorse: You’re leaving now?
[Party] Tangerine: ?????????
[Sinu has left the party.]
Some time later, when Sinu abruptly left the party and deserted the dungeon, WatchingChicken’s emotions reached their peak, and they were even dumbfounded. What kind of bus driver abandons the dungeon in the middle of a run?
[General] WatchingChicken: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ?
[General] Daljari: Well, the lineup was already overkill for a non-max level dungeon
[General] Ogambulmansok: Oㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋmaybe the pace will match ours now
Judging by the atmosphere, it seemed like WatchingChicken was the only one who felt disgruntled. They let out a forced laugh and gritted their teeth. This wasn’t a bus party but a sucker party, fuck.
Still, the bus service provided by the Grace guild members went smoothly, clearing the dungeon faster than the initially advised time. As WatchingChicken tried to suppress the emotions felt inside the dungeon and consoled themselves that it wasn’t a bad party after all, they completely abandoned that thought shortly after.
[Guild] YucaPrinciple: Whoa, what’s this? Sinu is here?
[Guild] WatchingChicken: ??Why is Sinu there?
[Guild] TangShuShuk: Damn, so the rumors about Sinu’s return were true?
The guild chat that came up after Girmu and some guild members moved to a certain map to open special boxes was the root of the problem. Why was Sinu, who left the party claiming to have something to do, now at the Garden of the White Moon?
Later, WatchingChicken heard that Girmu and Sinu were acquaintances who had even added each other as friends.
‘So they broke up the party to meet Girmu?’
It also didn’t sit well with WatchingChicken that Grace guild members sent world megaphone messages targeting Sinu after the bus party ended. It only looked like they were happily socializing among themselves.
“Wow, fuck. This is ridiculous.”
From that moment on, WatchingChicken’s memories were completely reconstructed.
The things Girmu easily gave to guild members were now seen as initially only given to female guild members like MakeAWishBuang and YucaPrinciple, and then started sharing with others only because they felt guilty. Even then, it was just to buy the guild members’ favor with money.
Sinu, who had returned not long ago, was hanging out with the sucker Girmu to exploit them and make up for financial losses during their absence—that’s how WatchingChicken chose to interpret it.
Naturally, small troubles seemed much larger, and finally, working together with guild members who never looked kindly upon Girmu, they posted something similar to a hit piece on the free board of the <SOG> website.
“When they know the truth about those bastards, the fanboying will disappear too.”
The targets were both Girmu and Sinu. In Sinu’s case, since they had many admirers, the goal was to bring them down by creating a scandal linking them with Girmu.
But the result was disastrous. Using alternate accounts to add comments and properly season the post, things seemed to go according to WatchingChicken’s plan until midway, but Sinu’s single statement completely flipped public opinion.
To make matters worse, Dalkeum’s guild master, who rarely even logged in, heard the news and expelled WatchingChicken and several other guild members before dissolving the guild. Faced with this unexpected catastrophe, WatchingChicken was half out of their mind.
“Fuck, do they think I can’t spend money like crazy too?”
Leading several guild members who were kicked out together, WatchingChicken joined Gamjabbat and Horupa’s guild and desperately enhanced their weapon to +15, just like Girmu’s +15 weapon they had last seen, looking for a chance to make a comeback.
Although the newly joined guild had a strong reputation as a bad-mannered guild in the world, what did it matter? Just because it gathered those with strong antipathy toward Sinu and Grace guild members, WatchingChicken could become more attached to the new guild, ‘Bankruptcy,’ than to ‘Dalkeum.’
[Guild] WatchingChicken: Called that suck3r to the plateauㅋㅋ
[Guild] Horupa: ㅋㅋㅋㅋnow?
[Guild] WatchingChicken: yeahlet’sgo
After spending days getting on the good side of guild members and expanding their connections, WatchingChicken finally set a date and called out Girmu. The ‘Bankruptcy’ guild members already perceived Girmu as a Grace guild member. That’s why they readily participated in taking down just one Girmu.
[Guild] tkfdls: — Why aren’t they coming?
[Guild] Matcheulkka: For real, I was planning to finish them off within a minute before losing the spot, damn
[Guild] WatchingChicken: wait;
Under pressure from guild members, WatchingChicken frantically sent whispers to Girmu until they noticed the system message they had been ignoring: ‘Unable to send whispers as you have been blocked by the recipient,’ and spewed out a string of profanities.
‘Fuck, this bastard…’
With a burning desire to kill, WatchingChicken’s vision turned red as they barely managed to calm down the guild members before logging in with an alt character to call out Girmu.
Receiving a strange answer that they had a prior engagement made their blood pressure spike again, but they barely contained themselves. They imagined soon laying Girmu down in this field and turning that glossy face ashen.
[Guild] Bbaejak: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋso when is that newbie coming
[Guild] WatchingChicken: soon;
Slow bastard. WatchingChicken fidgeted with their sweaty hands in impatience, waiting for Girmu to appear in the field. And after a while, the long-awaited Girmu appeared.
[Guild] Matcheulkka: ?
[General] Sinu: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋThis place is hopping
[General] Sinu: It’s so crowded here, are you sightseeing?
But they weren’t alone. Just a few seconds after Girmu appeared, Sinu emerged behind them.
‘They said they weren’t in an online relationship, fuck.’
What the hell did Sinu lack that made them hang out with a newbie? They always matched their specs by throwing money around anyway.
[General] WatchingChicken: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋafraid so you brought Sinu?
[General] Girmu: Sinu, you’re fast…
[General] Sinu: As always
[General] WatchingChicken: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ?
[General] Girmu: You could have come a bit slower
This bastard, are they deliberately ignoring me? Just as WatchingChicken was about to unleash skills in uncontrollable anger:
[General] Sinu: ㅋㅋㅋㅋGirmu
[General] Sinu: You haven’t unblocked the bird brain yet, right?
[General] Girmu: Ah
[General] WatchingChicken: ♡♡
[General] Girmu: If I unblock them now, can I see the previous chat?
[General] Sinu: Noㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[General] Girmu: I see
I’m really going to make this bastard rage quit today. WatchingChicken ground their teeth and focused on the guild chat.
[Guild] Rampam: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋSinu’s here, what are we gonna do? Abort?
[Guild] WatchingChicken: ? There’s no business in front of a b3atingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋwhat do you mean abort? Just hurry up
[Guild] Bbaejak: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋsorry but are you really a bird brain?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
