Chapter 43
– We’re going for chicken and beer, want to come out now?
“I just ate.”
– With who? Did you eat pork belly with Yongje?
“No. With Kwon-ju.”
– Why are you always hanging out with that freshman lately? Hang out with us sometimes too.
“Me?”
– What do you mean ‘me’? Even when we ask to meet in the evening, you always say you’re busy.
This was already the second time Ji-won had heard this today. Did they really seem to be sticking together that much? They had just been busy playing games together from their respective homes.
Ji-won did feel somewhat sorry for neglecting his friends for a while. Contact with his high school friends had already become sporadic before stopping completely, and now it seemed he was making his college classmates feel left out too. And they were already taking different classes.
“Let’s go drinking after midterms.”
– Fine. If you say you need to play games when the time comes, I’ll kill you.
“…Of course not.”
Ji-won had quite a history of doing exactly that, making it difficult to deny. Right after being discharged from the military, hadn’t he shut himself in to just play games? While going out to meet people and sharing drinks was fun and enjoyable, the process of actually getting out was bothersome.
But thinking about it now, he did want to wet his throat with some alcohol. As Ji-won imagined numerous side dishes and exchanged a few meaningless words with Mingyu, Kwon-ju, who had gone down the stairs and opened the door, let out a small exclamation.
“Wow…”
This is fucking unhygienic. That was Kwon-ju’s first impression upon looking inside. He could tolerate the inconsiderate guys shouting with voices like pigs being slaughtered, but there were also tables with stacked empty dishes that no one had bothered to clean up. Fighting the dizziness overtaking his mind, Kwon-ju found a spot in a corner where two relatively clean seats were together, taking the one on the right.
How do I turn this on? Unable to immediately see the CPU, he fumbled for a while before finally managing to power it on and, observing others, completed the membership registration. After figuring out how to move around by watching others, he successfully charged 50,000 won into the machine, then sat back down with an exhausted face.
Kwon-ju’s criteria for disliking a place were simple: crowded places, dirty places, and noisy places. The place he was sitting in right now fulfilled all three conditions, which was why he had never visited before. If he needed equipment, he would just buy it and set it up at home, and if he wanted something to eat while gaming, he would just leave a message for the lady downstairs and food would come up automatically.
“Did you charge it?”
Kwon-ju nodded to Ji-won, who had just finished his call, and stood up from his seat.
“I’ll just go to the restroom for a moment.”
He felt he needed to wash his hands. As soon as Ji-won returned, Kwon-ju left his seat like a relay race handoff. While waiting for his computer to boot up, Ji-won peeked at the monitor next to him and at first thought the constant notifications appearing in the bottom right corner were lag. What’s with all these messages?
The first sentence of the uppermost message was partially visible. It was a message to user ‘BangbaeGunner’.
[Hello HolyKnightKnight. As the vice guild master of a guild ranked in the top 10…]
This was exactly the opening for that kind of message. Acting on instinct, Ji-won double-clicked to open the message window.
[Hello HolyKnightKnight. I’m the vice guild master of a guild ranked in the top 10. I’m sending this message to ask if you’d be interested in moving to our guild]
As suspected, it was the common practice of poaching guild members. Well, looking at the equipment alone, it would be the best on the entire server, so it would be stranger if recruitment offers weren’t coming in. Ji-won wondered how Kwon-ju had managed to play without drawing attention until now. With so many messages piled up and not a single one checked.
But ranked in the top 10? With a narrowed gaze at the higher-than-expected ranking, Ji-won continued reading the next line.
[For certain reasons I can’t reveal the name, but once you decide and proceed with the guild transfer, we’ll welcome you right away. The owner of your current guild is about to leave, so your ranking will only go down from here, but we can proudly say we’re at the top with guild skills and rewards all intact. Please reply if you’re interested]
What reasons could there be? They just can’t write their name for fear of being exposed for poaching guild members. Especially since they’ve even written bad things about the guild in the message. The anonymous reason was obvious. The guild owner they mentioned was clearly referring to his friend Jung-hoon, who had been taking a break from streaming for several months. While it was true that the guild had grown due to his YouTuber fame, that was only the beginning—it was no longer a guild that ran on that alone. Their promise to welcome him after leaving his guild was just a way to silence him and bring him over.
Like other games, Arc Serenity had a particularly negative perception of guild member poaching. Trying to entice someone who already has a guild to switch was considered bad manners from the start, and people who got caught were often publicly exposed. Especially with a guild-based PVP system, targeting well-known users like this was bound to be more sensitive.
[BangbaeGunner│Gunner│Lv.52]
Checking the homepage just in case, Ji-won confirmed it was an alt character as expected. Of course they wouldn’t send it from their main character while hiding the guild name. The nickname didn’t give any clues about the main character, and the level was so low that the chances of tracking them down in cases like this were slim.
Although he wanted to reply with “Get lost^^,” this wasn’t his character. Resting his chin on his hand and staring at the monitor with dissatisfaction, Ji-won suddenly thought: although he had found Kwon-ju at a dungeon entrance and brought him along, and had suggested he join after meeting at the departmental assembly, he didn’t know how Kwon-ju actually felt.
Being in a guild ranked in the top 10 would offer many benefits aside, and just having the guild name above your head would become part of your appearance. After all, he himself thought players from top-tier guilds must have amazing specs when he encountered them in-game.
“Hmm…”
As he read the message contents over and over, almost as if being sucked in, the chair next to him clattered. When he turned, Kwon-ju was standing there looking down at him, having apparently finished his business, causing Ji-won to hurriedly straighten his back.
“Sorry. It was showing at the bottom, so I read one of your messages.”
“I don’t mind.”
At this point, even if Ji-won had accidentally clicked the leave button and wiped the entire account, Kwon-ju wouldn’t care—reading some message from someone unknown was no problem at all. After glancing at Kwon-ju’s completely untroubled face, Ji-won tapped the still-open message with his fingernail.
“Look at this, a top 10 guild is asking you to switch over.”
“Is that high?”
“With so many guilds, of course it’s high. We’re only around rank 40.”
With college students in the guild having reduced their activity since the start of the semester, it was natural that their ranking would fall when competing against guilds that pushed with full force 365 days a year. Ji-won asked Kwon-ju as he carefully read the contents of the message on the screen.
“Don’t you want to move?”
“Not at all. I like our current guild.”
That’s our newbie for you. Ji-won felt proud at the response that came without a moment’s hesitation. He sat down properly in his chair, logged in, and connected to the game. Still feeling like he couldn’t just let this go, he threw a spark into the guild chat.
[Guild][Hando: Anyone know BangbaeGunner]
[Guild][Hando: Seems like an alt]
[Guild][Ppojjo: Chelling is the person-finding specialist]
[Guild][Chelling: What’s up?]
Despite it being work hours, Chelling reflexively popped up as if being online was perfectly normal. Come to think of it, there was Chelling. Ji-won subtly brought up the message he had just read to the trustworthy player whose nickname alone inspired confidence.
[Guild][Hando: They sent Sasa a message asking to join their guild lololol]
[Guild][Hando: Says they’re a top 10 guild]
[Guild][Chelling: ?lolololololol]
[Guild][Chelling: Guild member poaching, so shameless lolol]
Chelling, who had strong guild loyalty, immediately expressed anger. When other guild members jumped in, reciting names of guilds in the top 10 and starting a guessing game, a message appeared in the server chat.
[Server][Chelling: BangbaeGunner << If anyone knows who this is, I’ll give 100,000 gold for information]
It was a wanted poster with a bounty from Chelling.
[Guild][Ddaji: Wait are you crazy lololololol]
[Guild][Ddaji: 100,000 gold lolololololololololololol]
[Guild][Kkangki: Flexing;T;]
[Guild][Chelling: This method works perfectly^^]
[Guild][Chelling: You can see how shallow Arc friendships really are]
[Guild][Chelling: I’ll wait for info while doing some searching lolol]
Ji-won knew best about Chelling’s persistence from years of gaming together in the same guild. Now as a working adult with less time for gaming, it might seem different, but when unemployed, Chelling would go without sleep and run around all day until practically every user on the Asuka server knew who they were. With a high mention rate, Chelling was also a regular on community sites, so they’d be skilled at finding people.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
