“Ha… This is driving me crazy—it’s so damn refreshing.”
After going at it last night and passing out, the morning felt crisp and clear. Though mentally refreshed, my lower half was sore. I remember mumbling some emotional stuff like “Thanks,” and “I’ll do better,” to Kessler as he carefully wiped my ass while I was lying down…
I downed three cans of beer and even blacked out—how could I still feel this good?
“Augh.”
My body ached in all the spots that were thoroughly worked over last night. Must’ve gotten bruised. He probably thought he was being gentle, but when your body’s basically a lethal weapon, tenderness isn’t exactly easy.
After washing off all the evidence of last night clinging to my body, I went to the kitchen. The dining table was already set with food. Obviously not cooked by Kessler… He must’ve stopped by my favorite side dish place early this morning to pick it up.
Next to it was a cute little note on stationary with a baby fox character in the background.
Hang in there today too. Always cheering for you. Eat before you go.
…Damn, that got me all choked up. I’ve never really done anything like this for him.
After finishing the meal, I logged into Last Shadow for a moment.
“Huh?”
Even the air felt different than before I logged off. I pulled off my bat pajamas and looked around the cave. Nearby, wounded souls—clearly stragglers from some battle—were crawling along the ground and walls. Some of them reached out toward me with blackened hands, like they were begging for eternal erasure.
Luckily, that was something I—no, Master Undertaker now—could take care of.
“Did you win the battle?”
—……
No reply from the souls. Their faces bore the deep wounds of something broken inside.
“Do you need help?”
—……
None of them responded.
[System]: A rebellion is underway.
So the rebellion’s still ongoing… But is it nearly over?
They acted like everything would succeed once they got 10,000 people… Guess it failed. I quietly returned to my usual spot, peeled open a few choco bars to fill my character’s hunger gauge, and was just about to go AFK when—
[System]: A song of scales echoes throughout the world from somewhere. You are tempted to follow the melody.
[System]: You resisted thanks to the power of “Jung Da-hoon” achieved at the end.
What? Resisted through the power of “Jung Da-hoon”?
That’s the name I gave the final class I achieved when I hit Master. I scrolled further through the notification log.
[System]: A player has achieved a great feat and reached Master level. The second Master player may have a significant impact on this world. (+ See More)
Someone else hit Master level too. I clicked (+ More) to check the full details.
[System]: You resisted a Master Skill through a Master-class Job. Only a Master Player can resist a Master Skill.
‘Could that be Kebab-nim?’
[Yeo Woo-rim]: Kebab-nim?
[System]: No users are currently available to respond on this server.
Weird. There’s a login record showing he’s online. Maybe he’s inside some hidden map?
If it was resisted, then the skill must be Song of Scales. I don’t know exactly what it does, but since Kebab’s class is Scale Trainer and he’s been doing his Master quest, it’s probably his doing.
I logged off and started sending messages.
[Last Shadow]
Jung Da-hoon
Yes, yes.”
Seong Juwon
Mhm.
Jung Da-hoon and Kessler replied instantly, while the other two didn’t respond—probably still in-game.
[So hey, that Song of Scales quest that popped earlier—was I the only one who got it?]
Jung Da-hoon
I wouldn’t know, I’m not a lizard.
Seong Juwon
I’m your boyfriend lol
What the hell, this guy.
“So cute.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle like a lovesick fool on my way to work.
[Was the one who became Master Kebab-nim?]
Jung Da-hoon
Yep yep. He’s currently grinding like crazy with Bori-ssi on a secret map.
Oh.
Before I knew it, I was already in front of the company building, exchanging just a few lines along the way. The practice room buzzed with unusually energetic greetings from the staff today.
“Woo-rim-hyung, I heard DealMeat slept in the lounge last night.”
“Huh? Hey, rookie. The lounge? Did he fall asleep gaming?”
“Yeah.”
“Is his neck okay?”
“That guy doesn’t… really have a neck to turn…”
Right. DealMeat doesn’t have a neck. Still, for someone who insists on going home after work and only practices solo, crashing in the lounge was unusual. And Killbill, who never exercises, was suddenly doing squats in the gym. These guys are seriously unhinged. Someone has to keep it together—and that someone’s me.
“Woo-rim.”
“Yes, Coach.”
The coach, having finished analyzing, called me over.
“We won’t be filming any content videos today. If anything’s weighing on you, speak up anytime.”
“Okay.”
I’d completely forgotten it was supposed to be a filming day. The coach’s hand on my shoulder tightened a little. That was how he gave support. Even the second-stringers and the passing staff felt unusually fired up today.
I headed to the lounge and woke DealMeat, sprawled out on the massage chair.
“Hey. Get up.”
“Ugh, it’s still dawn…”
“It’s morning.”
Drooling in his sleep like that—he must’ve been dreaming about gaming too. That ‘night’ he mentioned was probably in-game time.
“You good? I heard you stayed up all night. Got a lot on your mind?”
“Guess I didn’t wanna hear us being called barely a group project-level team. Scary stuff…”
“Stop squirming and get it together, man. I mean, come on, it’s not like we’re trapped in a game world and facing complete annihilation if we fail. What’s there to be scared of?”
“That’s… not the most convincing comparison… And won’t we face social death instead?”
I sat down next to him. The tournament hadn’t even started yet, but something heavy was already pressing down on us. Both of us felt it the most.
The company poured massive investment into building a new team by recruiting us. Everything—from the fridge stuffed with snacks, air purifiers in every room, to a café just for players—was the best of the best.
From the first to third floors, the entire space was dedicated solely to our team. And among that team, the two front-and-center players were DealMeat and me.
Our combined annual salary? 10 billion won. It was our job to produce results worthy of that pay.
“Sure, we’re the team that kept getting stomped by Flag. Because of them, we have to go through the Asia playoffs for other tournaments.”
We even earned the nickname “weverK’s personal punching bag.”
“But letting that weight crush us isn’t going to help us win either.”
In other words, they had to get their heads straight.
“True that.”
“Even if we lose to them, as long as the other two teams lose too, we’re still in it. Of course, SeaWays isn’t the kind of team that’ll just take our hits lying down, but even so, we’ve got more than enough firepower to hit back two, three times over. It’s winnable.”
That team had come in second place over and over again. And this year, to close that last gap, they recruited my former teammate, Park Gwibolle.
“You gonna lose on purpose for me?”
“I’ll lose for you.”
I stood up and reached out my hand. DealMeat took it and got up. After sending him off to the practice room, I went to the coaching office before practice officially started. I sat down with the coaches.
“Um, Coach.”
“Yeah, go ahead, speak freely.”
“It’s not that I think the others are mentally weak or anything… but because this job puts us in the public eye a lot, I think regular mental health check-ins might help. Like counseling, I mean.”
“Thanks for bringing it up first. We were actually just talking about how there’s probably a lot of stress building up in the practice room too.”
“Oh, then maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up…”
“No, not at all. If you share things like this, we get a better sense of where the players stand. We trust the team, so Woo-rim, you just trust us and follow along. Let’s get those results.”
“Got it.”
As I left, I glanced at the screen. The rest of the coaches were still analyzing opponent tactics. I returned to my seat to prep for practice. Slowly, the team gathered around.
“Hyung, no strategy meeting today?”
“Nah, they said we’re doing tag-mode today.”
“For real?”
I was the first to join the tag channel and claimed the bubbly dinosaur character. Seeing that, Killbill quickly got back to his seat and picked his favorite character too, changing into its skin.
“Ugh, it’s been so long since we did this. I suck at this mode.”
“I’ll carry you.”
I shot a cocky grin at the team.
***
Four days later, the group preliminaries began. There’s always someone who can’t sleep the night before a match. Thankfully, today’s match was scheduled for late afternoon, so even those who stayed up nervously ended up taking long naps in the morning.
DealMeat, still not fully recovered, even nodded off during makeup.
“Ahh, that was a good nap.”
After messaging back and forth with Kessler on KakaoTalk, I entered the arena and sat down. Next to me, DealMeat fiddled with a hot pack. He had severe cold hands and feet. Like me, he took herbal tonics regularly for his constitution, blaming his chubby cheeks on the medicinal weight gain.
Of course, the fans affectionately called those cheeks “control pouches.”
—Poksup, Killbill, DealMeat, Cannibus, Choki. WeverK!
The MC introduced our team with gusto. As we struck our cool poses, a painfully cringe concept video played behind us. Arms crossed, smug look, glasses push. DealMeat casting his signature move ‘Grip’ with one hand, and me—imprisoned in a box under his grip—breaking free and gazing at the sky, awaiting the night.
Then, the five of us, after all kinds of over-the-top poses, gathered on a throne.
As soon as the video ended, we practically scrambled into our on-stage pods, and the crowd burst into cheers and applause.
‘God, that was such terrible acting.’
I wanted to disappear into the void.
Post Titles from Viewers:
Title: Who came up with WeverK’s concept? This is insane (47)
Title: Poksup-hyung blushing is legit adorable (31)
Title: He totally looked embarrassed, LOL (25)
Title: Love seeing this bashful WeverK struggling with cringe (18)
Title: Can’t wait for the behind-the-scenes of this shoot (66)
As I sat, I watched the Flag team’s entrance video. Turns out, their concept was even worse.
“Guess their concept is Hephaestus from Greek mythology. The god of fire.”
Their blacksmith champion was forging the best weapons and handing them out to other gods, with my friend Golpa standing dead center at the end.
The music was epic and grand, but honestly, it made me feel better.
‘Good. My bad acting’s gonna be overshadowed by theirs.’
A sense of peace instantly washed over him.
Peace washed over me. I cracked my knuckles over the keyboard a few times.
The match was about to begin.
