The newly introduced class, Fighter, was a melee damage dealer that wielded gauntlets as weapons. Was this the game’s way of telling ranged players to try melee for a change?
[General] WhiteNoise: If you play Fighter, I’ll level it up for you.
[General] Chasa: Why would you?
WhiteNoise suddenly volunteered to be a babysitter no one had asked for. Whether in reality or in games, helping someone level up was an act of pure altruism.
Chasa had run into them a few times in the same area, enough to recognize the username, but that was it—nothing that warranted this kind of conversation. The topic had come out of nowhere, making him even more suspicious.
People always had a motive when offering kindness. Chasa’s eyes narrowed as he tried to gauge their intentions.
[General] WhiteNoise: You’ve got decent mechanics, it’d be a waste otherwise.
[General] WhiteNoise: If you roll a new character, I’ll get you into the Noize guild too.
“Ah.”
Only then did Chasa realize what had changed. Up until now, his character, “Chasa,” had always displayed the tag of his one-man guild, .
But after leaving just moments ago, the space under his name was now empty.
It was rare to see someone in this area without a guild. WhiteNoise was clearly trying to recruit him first before he settled on a new class.
[General] WhiteNoise: Ah, well, if you do roll Fighter, that’ll probably become your main, lol.
[General] WhiteNoise: We’re not total strangers, so I’m offering this as a special deal, haha.
[General] WhiteNoise: If you pick Fighter, you’ll get power-leveling for both that and Warlock.
“What a joke.”
Every single message dripped with condescension toward Warlocks. That holier-than-thou attitude was something else.
Who the hell do you think you are?
Curious, Chasa looked them up. WhiteNoise turned out to be the vice guild master of Noise.
Like a commander heading into battle, he firmly placed his hands on the keyboard.
[Round 2 is starting!]
Right as the round announcement popped up, their conversation was cut off. Just like in the previous round, the Blade Master charged in. Sa-yoon summoned the same demon again.
[‘WhiteNoise’ has been slain.]
[Round 2 has ended.]
But this time, the outcome was different. Whenever Chasa retreated, the demon would latch onto the Blade Master’s ankles. With the curses he had been steadily stacking, Sa-yoon easily whittled WhiteNoise down to death.
[General] WhiteNoise: Ah, lol.
[General] WhiteNoise: Got distracted while recruiting, haha.
Sa-yoon scoffed. Their win-loss record was heavily in his favor. Either WhiteNoise had a terrible memory, or they only remembered things in a way that suited them.
When Sa-yoon didn’t respond, WhiteNoise also fell silent. And with that, Round 3 began.
[‘WhiteNoise’ has been slain.]
[Victory!]
[You have gained 7 ranking points!]
[Your rank has increased.]
At least they had some capacity to learn—this time, the Blade Master played more cautiously. But a Warlock was a ranged damage dealer. In the circular, Colosseum-like map, WhiteNoise barely got to land a proper attack before being forced to run in circles, dying without much resistance.
Sa-yoon closed the chat window, walked over to the corpse, and crouched down beside it.
[General] Chasa: You know…
[General] WhiteNoise: Yeah?
[General] Chasa: I think you picked the wrong class.
[General] WhiteNoise: …Huh?
One way or another, debts had to be repaid—whether in gratitude or with a blade.
[General] Chasa: You’re a melee class, but your spacing in a fight against a ranged class is that sloppy? T_T Maybe you should reconsider your career path.
[General] WhiteNoise: ???
[General] Chasa: Thanks for the advice about playing Fighter, but I’ll pass.
[General] Chasa: Lol, killing you…
[General] Chasa: I can already do that just fine as a Warlock. Why would I switch?
[General] WhiteNoise: Wait—
Having said his piece, Sa-yoon felt no need to stick around. He pressed the exit button without hesitation. The background shifted in an instant, and he found himself in a bustling, brightly lit lobby.
“Getting wrecked by a Warlock, and he thinks he can level me up?”
To be fair, the idea of “leveling up” someone like him was flawed to begin with. Chasa was already fully grown—raised with Sa-yoon’s own blood, sweat, and tears. Sure, playing solo had cost him several times the effort, time, and in-game currency compared to others, but…
Even though he had won, the taste left in his mouth was bitter. Some of WhiteNoise’s arrogant remarks had actually hit home—his pride, for example, which were still aching from the fight. If he had been a weaker Warlock, he would’ve been obliterated by now.
“What a noisy little shit.”
But Sa-yoon wasn’t someone who broke easily. He had always been resilient, and playing as a Warlock—one of the most persecuted classes in the game—had only hardened him further.
Yeah, this was just how Warlocks were treated in public parties and other groups.
But it didn’t matter. Now, he had people who actually wanted a Warlock in their party.
And soon, he’d be joining a guild.
[Whisper] Freedeal: Chasa, good morning!
Sometime during his battle with that background noise, Freedeal had logged in. The message popped up the moment Sa-yoon left the battlefield.
[Whisper] Chasa: Morning.
[Whisper] Chasa: You’re on early.
It wasn’t even dawn yet. Sa-yoon blinked, slightly surprised. He had been the first to log out last night, without a doubt.
Freedeal often called his own guildmates gaming addicts, but judging by login times, he wasn’t much different.
[Whisper] Freedeal: My arena ranking got reset when I transferred servers.
[Whisper] Freedeal: Gotta climb back up a bit.
Ah, the arena rankings.
Sa-yoon hadn’t expected that, but it wasn’t anything surprising either, so his gaze softened slightly.
When transferring servers, the only things players could bring with them were gold, items, and a portion of their siege war points. Rankings, which were just numbers, didn’t carry over—they were wiped completely.
Plenty of top-ranked players grinded for days without sleep before ranking deadlines. The rewards for the top 1% were the same, but seeing your exact rank on the leaderboard had a way of stoking competitive instincts.
If Freedeal cared enough to do this, that meant they had been pretty high-ranked on their previous server too.
[Whisper] Chasa: What was your old rank, if you don’t mind me asking?
[Whisper] Freedeal: Ah, haha.
[Whisper] Chasa: If that’s too personal, you don’t have to answer.
A lot of players kept their individual rankings private for various reasons. Freedeal might be one of them, so Sa-yoon quickly added a disclaimer.
[Whisper] Freedeal: Nah, it’s fine.
[Whisper] Freedeal: I didn’t stay until the end, so it’s not exact, but…
[Whisper] Freedeal: I was inside the top 30.
“Are you kidding me?”
The words slipped out before he could stop them. That was a way higher rank than he had expected.
Divine didn’t just have 1v1 arena rankings—it ranked players across multiple categories: boss-killer rankings, siege war rankings, PvP rankings, cumulative rankings…
Anyone in the top 30 for arena ranking was usually a high-ranking player in other areas too.
More importantly, the cumulative ranking was based on everything you did from the moment you created your character. Transferring servers meant throwing away that entire history—it was practically deleting your legacy.
That was why Sa-yoon had assumed the server transfer tickets would be useless. Even for a regular player, switching servers seemed like a questionable move. But a ranked player?
And not just that—Lepus was the main server. The one with the highest population, full of streamers and competitive players. Leaving all that behind for a backwater server? It made no sense.
[Whisper] Chasa: Seriously, why… transfer?
[Whisper] Freedeal: LOLOLOLOL
[Whisper] Freedeal: Ah, there’s a deep, tragic story behind this… T_T
[Whisper] Chasa: You should’ve at least stayed long enough to claim the season rewards.
At that rank, they had to be one of the top five healers on their server.
Considering how most high-ranking players were damage dealers, it was a reasonable assumption. No wonder Freedeal, a Priest, had been running solo as the only healer in their parties—it took guts.
It also made Sa-yoon reevaluate that damn frog who had been burning through such a valuable player. Not in a good way.
People really didn’t appreciate healers. What were they gonna do when someone like this finally snapped and said, I’ve had enough of you idiots and left for another party?
Suddenly, he remembered someone calling Cygnus a backwater server when they first met.
“What a waste.”
Even if Freedeal grinded nonstop until the ranking deadline, getting back to their original rank was practically impossible.
[Whisper] Freedeal: Honestly, I mostly followed Inseong here.
[Whisper] Freedeal: Like I said before, I thought I’d have more fun on this server, lol.
So once you reached a certain level as a city-server ranker, did you stop caring about things like rankings?
But something in their message caught Sa-yoon’s attention.
[Whisper] Chasa: 44?
The moment he sent the message, his mind started replaying past fights like a film reel—the sheer damage output, the movement so clean it looked like a PvP veteran’s.
Back then, he had been too focused on the fight to dwell on it, but he had definitely wondered what server that temporary nickname had come from.
[Whisper] Chasa: Don’t tell me… 44 was a ranker too?
