“Well, damn.”
Sa-yoon let out a sigh of disappointment upon spotting the names he had hoped wouldn’t appear on the enemy team—alongside Killer, no less.
WhiteNoise, RedAlert, GreenLight, and even a healer from Noize. Since they had entered in even numbers, it seemed like they had queued up as pairs as well. There was no DolgaengiGuk, but with this lineup, the snipe matchmaking was a success.
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: So this is… sleeping with the enemy?
[Guild] Shokrates: Inseong, don’t rage quit in the middle of the match, okay? ㅜ
[Guild] Freedeal: Damn, it’s a shame we can’t beat up our own teammates, Inseong.
[Guild] Freedeal: At least I got lucky—I can still beat up WhiteNoise’s crew!
[Guild] Killer: LOL
[Guild] Killer: You guys do realize I can beat you up too, right?
[Guild] Killer: Guys.
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Uh… was that a typo? Or was that… intentional? Did you just drop formal speech for a sec?
[Guild] Shokrates: If he rage quits for real, what do we do? Shhh.
[Guild] Killer: Can’t wait to see who I run into first. LOL.
[Guild] Furple: death threat??
[Battlefield] WhiteNoise: LOL?
While the guild members were busy teasing Killer, the Noize crew seemed to have checked the enemy team lineup as well. Soon, the all-chat came alive.
It was the kind of laugh that blurred the line between mockery and provocation—just the kind of thing you’d expect from sneaky bastards like them.
[Battlefield] Chasa: lol
[Battlefield] Furple: LOL
[Battlefield] GegulGegulFrog: LMAO
[Battlefield] Freedeal: HAHAHA
[Battlefield] WhiteNoise: Why are you laughing?
[Battlefield] Shokrates: LOL
[Battlefield] Shokrates: Oh damn, it got cut off ㅜ
[Battlefield] GegulGegulFrog: You laughed first, so we just laughed along?
[Battlefield] Freedeal: Do laughs have copyright or something?
[Battlefield] GegulGegulFrog: Starting today, we’re selling Han River water! Limited stock! @@
[Battlefield] Furple: If you smile~ good fortune comes your way~ Smile :D!
[Battlefield] RedAlert: We just laughed, and you guys pounced like a pack of dogs. LOL.
[Battlefield] Furple: Woof woof!
[Battlefield] GegulGegulFrog: But I’m a frog, though? ㅇㅅㅇ
[Battlefield] Shokrates: Are you talking with your fist in your mouth right now? Pawk ob dawgs pouncing~
[Battlefield] WhiteNoise: This is beyond childish.
For every sentence WhiteNoise typed, two or three replies flooded the chat. It was as if these guys had done nothing but practice typing all day. Realizing they couldn’t win with words, the enemy team suddenly tried to act composed.
Sa-yoon found their fake nonchalance grating. He stopped scanning for the enemy healer and placed his hands on the keyboard.
[Battlefield] Chasa: So we can’t even laugh when we’re happy? Seeing you guys here makes me so damn happy I just can’t stop laughing.
[Battlefield] Chasa: LOLOLOLOLOLOL.
[Battlefield] Chasa: Thanks in advance for the free points. ^^
If there was one thing to know about Sa-yoon, it was that he’d been forged in battle against those who looked down on Warlocks—his keyboard warrior skills were second to none.
[Battlefield] RedAlert: LOL, isn’t that a bit of a premature judgment? If you lose after talking all this shit, it’s gonna be twice as embarrassing.
[Battlefield] Chasa: I’ve taken past win rates into full consideration. ^^
[Battlefield] GreenLight: ♡♡
[Battlefield] GreenLight: Showing off as a Warlock♡♡
Nice. Perfect. The moment those hearts popped up in chat, Sa-yoon instinctively spammed the screenshot button. Unblocking them was so worth it.
As he took his screenshots, his guildmates—already fired up by anti-Warlock discrimination—exploded in the chat, as if they’d been personally insulted.
Frankly, the kind of cyberbullying these guys did in groups was easy enough to ignore. But having allies ready to throw hands alongside him? That felt… oddly reassuring.
The never-ending war of words came to a temporary halt as Oath’s Vow’s system announcement cut through the chat.
Oath’s Vow: 1 minute remaining. Settings unlocked, everyone turn on your mics.
[Guild] Freedeal: Are we using mics?
Oath’s Vow: Yes, everyone, turn on your mics.
GegulGegulFrog: Hiiiiii! It’s your favorite frog!
Freedeal: Testing, testing, can you hear me?
“Yeah, you’re coming through fine.”
[Guild] Shokrates: Finally breaking the seal, huh?
Jeon-gi: Jeon-gi, making an entrance!
GegulGegulFrog: Furple, no mic today?
[Guild] Furple: Haven’t used it in forever, hooking up my headset now
As if they’d been waiting for this, unfamiliar voices flooded the chat all at once. You wouldn’t think it was the middle of the night with this kind of energy.
Furple: Wow, it’s been ages since I last turned on my mic.
Jeon-gi: Ugh… I hate the underground sewer map.
Furple: Who’s handling the payload?
Freedeal: Uh, can I go with a DPS build?
GegulGegulFrog: Damn, talking is so much easier than typing! So, how are we splitting into twos?
Furple: I’ll take Jeon-gi.
Furple: When a Warlock runs solo, enemies charge in blindly. Absolute gold.
Jeon-gi: Can’t believe you’re so proud of using a fragile mage as a meat shield…
[Party] Shokrates: ㅇㅅㅇ
[Party] Furple: LOLLLLLL
It took about ten seconds after everyone’s mics were on to understand why Oath’s Vow had made voice chat mandatory. Ten seconds were all it took to realize—this wasn’t a conversation. It was pure, chaotic noise.
For a brief moment, Sa-yoon had a vision of an unleashed pack of beagles running wild before his eyes.
Oath’s Vow: Let’s get things organized. First, check your gear, skills, and buffs. We’ve only got one healer, so no DPS builds allowed.
Freedeal: Damn.
And as expected, it was Oath’s Vow who took charge of organizing them.
Oath’s Vow: I checked the enemy team, and their rankings are all pretty similar. Most likely, we got matched with them because Jeon-gi doesn’t have any ranked records, and Frog has a low ranking.
What’s the most important factor in a 6v6 battle? Mines? Party DPS? Class composition?
Of course, all of these mattered, but if you had to pick just one, it was, without a doubt, the command center.
King Slayer was a strategic mode where victory depended on securing as many points as possible within a limited time. With the right leadership, even a fleet of twelve ships could take down 133 and still emerge victorious.
And if you compared their team to a ship? Then Oath’s Vow was a 300-ton luxury cruise liner. With such steady leadership, things already felt reassuring.
Oath’s Vow: Hold on a sec.
Jeon-gi: Yeah?
Oath’s Vow: Inseong, you’re not going to leave even if I tell you to, right? I’ll just kick you.
At that moment, Killer’s name vanished from the voice channel.
[Guild] Killer: LOL
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Ah, LOL. No spies allowed!
Killer, who had been silently listening in, didn’t say much after being caught—just let out a short laugh.
[Guild] Shokrates: Inseong, how’s their leadership over there? Are they smart?
[Guild] Killer: Not telling.
[Guild] Shokrates: Wow. So this is all our friendship amounts to? ㅜ
Oath’s Vow: Alright, let’s set up pairs.
GegulGegulFrog: Who’s joining us? I hope we get a Blade Master.
Frog spoke as they led the way down a dark passage, cutting down a monster that had leaped out from the sewers.
Abandoned Underground Sewer—just like the name implied, it was a labyrinth of dark, narrow tunnels.
King Slayer was a battleground mode where the goal was to summon and kill the king. Unlike other maps, in the underground sewer, the Kirrash, which dropped the crown needed to summon the king, always spawned at the center.
And to reach the center?
You had to pass through three separate tunnels branching out from the starting point and take down every gatekeeper blocking the way.
In the end, the most efficient strategy was to split into pairs, clear their paths separately, and regroup at the center.
The three branching paths leading to the central corridor had occasional side routes, but ultimately, they all connected to the enemy base on the other side. This meant that on the way to take down the gatekeepers, they were guaranteed to run into the enemy team somewhere along the way.
Due to the underground sewer map’s design, visibility was extremely poor. Step just three paces away from your position, and you’d be swallowed by darkness. It was the perfect environment for stealth characters to sneak up, land a kill, and vanish.
The enemy team’s composition was Tank-Tank-Tank-DPS-Healer-Healer. Their only stealth character was a Hunter. In other words, as long as they were wary of Killer, they’d be fine.
With a one-in-three chance of running into him, they held their breath. Beneath the eerie background music, the steady dripping of water from the ceiling filled the silence.
“…Feels like it’s about time we run into someone.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Oath’s Vow, who had taken the central path, suddenly had his health bar turn green, and a debuff icon appeared beneath it. Enemy contact.
Oath’s Vow: Guardian WhiteNoise, TwinCrescentPie Priest, center.
Freedeal: Oh damn, a mirror match.
Jeon-gi: Agh! Fuck!
Furple: What the hell, there are three of them here?
Oath’s Vow: Who exactly?
Jeon-gi: I’m dying—HEAL!
Furple: You think we have any? Chug a potion, dumbass!
Shokrates loudly reacted to encountering the enemy, but in the chaos, he didn’t manage to answer Oath’s Vow’s question about which three they were facing.
“Frog, they’ve got three over there.”
GegulGegulFrog: Ah, damn! I wanted to beat the crap out of Noize myself!
“Then that means we have Killer on our side, right?”
GegulGegulFrog: No doubt.
With their enemy now identified, the two of them stayed close, preparing for an ambush.
Unfortunately, their location couldn’t have been worse. They had ended up right in the middle of a four-way intersection. With open paths in every direction, the tension heightened as they had to watch for threats from all sides.
Sa-yoon lowered Jeon-gi’s voice volume to a minimum—he was screaming as he fought in the background, adding to the already chaotic atmosphere.
Three minutes passed. Still, no one came.
GegulGegulFrog: This is weird…
Frog, who had been holding their breath the whole time, muttered under their breath. Given how fast a Hunter could move, if they had started at the same time, they should have already encountered them by now.
Were they lost?
