[Guild] CrossroadBlossom: lololololololololololol
[Guild] CrossroadBlossom: Wow, but seriously, that’s incredible…
[Guild] BlackOfBlack: OMG, so that’s why it took 11 minutes
[Guild] BlackOfBlack: Removing the arm usually takes a long time
[Guild] GodController: Innocent-nim
[Guild] GodController: Not a mage
[Guild] GodController: He’s an archer?
[Guild] InnocentMage: lol
Ji-han awkwardly laughed as he typed ‘lol’.
An archer… that’s right.
He had been an archer for a full ten years. He had been an archer.
[Guild] StarlightHerC: OMG I just saw the chat, that’s insane
[Guild] StarlightHerC: But is Shadow’s damage that strong?
[Guild] StarlightHerC: Enough to one-shot Hella’s arm???
[Guild] HouseDeedPlease: Yeah
[Guild] HouseDeedPlease: There was Hella’s arm, now it’s gone
[Guild] HouseDeedPlease: I saw a meteor called Hella’s Arm today
[Guild] HouseDeedPlease: It existed for a moment, then vanished before I could make a wish
[Guild] CrossroadBlossom: lololololol ah
[Guild] EveryoneExceptMeNerf: Nerf Shadow
[Guild] MangbungExpert: Hmm, even if they nerf it, none of the Light Mages will care except for Innocent-nim
[Guild] BlackOfBlack: I agree lololol
The guild chat was bustling for a while.
One member typed, “The real GodController has arrived… fake GodController get out,” and GodController actually left the guild.
Of course, both were joking, and GodController rejoined shortly after.
[Guild] Olivia: What’s going on?
[Guild] Olivia: GodController
[Guild] Olivia: They said their mouse gained sentience
[Guild] Olivia: And they accidentally left the guild, they whispered me.
[Guild] GodController: K
[Guild] BlackOfBlack: lololol
[Guild] CrossroadBlossom: Sentience lololol
[Guild] MangbungExpert: The era of autonomous driving is over. Now autonomous mice rule the world.
[Guild] MangbungExpert: Everyone be nice to your mice, if you don’t want to regret it.
[Guild] Olivia: Someone explain.
At Olivia’s request for an explanation, the chat was flooded with various messages.
After a while, when the chat settled down, Olivia, who had been quiet, typed.
[Guild] Olivia: Innocent-nim
[Guild] InnocentMage: Yes?
[Guild] Olivia: Want to run Hella’s Palace with me tomorrow?
[Guild] Olivia: Just the two of us.
[Guild] Olivia: I think we can finish faster than 11 minutes.
[Guild] CrossroadBlossom: Wow…
[Guild] MangbungExpert: Daaaaaaaaaamn
[Guild] MangbungExpert: We’re done for.
[Guild] GodController: Wow
[Guild] MangbungExpert: Are you going? Are you going? Are you going? Are you going? Are you going? Are you going? Are you going? Are you going?
[Guild] CrossroadBlossom: Are you going to Africa Ghana? haha
[Guild] MangbungExpert: No fun.
Ji-han’s eyes widened slightly as he stared at the monitor. A whisper arrived from Olivia.
[Whisper] Olivia: In front of Hella’s Palace tomorrow at 4.
[Whisper] Olivia: Okay?
Strangely nervous, Ji-han sent a whisper.
[Whisper] InnocentMage: Yes, sounds good.
The next day, Ji-han and Olivia cleared Hella’s Palace in exactly 10 minutes and 1 second, just the two of them.
****
What can’t Olivia do?
Ji-han sat in a cafe and thought.
For one, Olivia was good at cursing.
She ran the guild well.
She was good at comforting.
And she was good at the game… incredibly so.
‘Two people clearing Hella’s Palace in 10 minutes 1 second, isn’t that the fastest?’
Ji-han took a sip of his iced Americano, which he had requested to be made weak with only one espresso shot and lots of ice. It was refreshing. He popped an ice cube into his mouth and crushed it with his teeth. Ooh, cold.
‘Without a healer’s shield, I died twice from instant-kill attacks and got charmed twice, losing almost 4 minutes… So we actually killed it with 6 minutes of damage. And with a curse that couldn’t be dispelled, reducing damage? Crazy.’
Ji-han had replayed their dungeon run three times in his mind when…
“Oppa, sorry!”
Finally, the person Ji-han was waiting for appeared at the cafe. Jaemi, panting, plopped down in the chair across from him.
“My mom gave me a ride, but the traffic was terrible, seriously.”
“You’ve had a rough time. What do you want to drink?”
“Uh, I’ll order and come back.”
Jaemi went to the counter, lingered for a moment, and came back holding a green smoothie.
“Oppa, now tell me. What really happened?”
Ji-han had come to the cafe after receiving a call from Jaemi earlier. Jaemi had been extremely excited. When Ji-han put the phone to his ear and said ‘Hello,’ Jaemi had shouted, ‘What’s this about Jijo?!’ Then she said they should meet to talk in person instead of over the phone.
“I just checked my character info to see how our mage was doing, and you know how shocked I was? Jijo guild? Wow, I thought I saw it wrong.”
“You’re not angry, are you?”
“Who, me? You’re asking if I’m angry?”
“You left MyDaling without a word and joined another guild.”
“What’s MyDaling again?”
Jaemi said innocently. Of course, she wasn’t really pretending not to remember the [MyDaling] guild. Ji-han chuckled. Jaemi kept up the act.
“Did we have a guild like that? Hmm, must be a country guild.”
“Who was it that joined that country guild with pure grit?”
“Ah, Ji-han oppa. Let’s drop that. Just tell me how you got into Jijo.”
“Well…”
Ji-han moistened his throat with his half-melted iced Americano and began his story.
“…So that’s what happened.”
“Crazy! Ah!”
“Hey, Kang Jaemi. Don’t shout. You’re being a nuisance.”
“Ah, sorry, sorry. But this is seriously amazing. Crazy, really.”
Jaemi was even happier than Ji-han had expected. The corners of his mouth naturally twitched upward.
“Happy?”
“No joke. I once had an interview to get into Jijo guild.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. But I got eliminated right away.”
Ji-han tilted his head. Jaemi had interviewed to join [Jijo] guild?
“Did you interview as InnocentMage?”
“Ah, same character but a different nickname. I changed my name recently.”
‘Nickname change’ was the abbreviation. Ji-han finally nodded. There was a reason Olivia had acted like she was seeing InnocentMage for the first time.
If she had seen InnocentMage before and didn’t recognize him this time… he might have been a little upset.
‘Upset?’
…But why would he be upset?
Ji-han ignored the question that popped into his head and spoke.
“What was your nickname when you interviewed?”
“MageMageHasHeal.”
“…Light Mages don’t have heals.”
“That’s why I changed it.”
Ji-han furrowed his brow slightly. That was because OppaOppaCarIsHere came to mind.
But the crease on Ji-han’s forehead soon disappeared.
Thinking about it, it was because of OppaOppaCarIsHere that Ji-han was able to join the [Jijo] guild. Without OppaOppaCarIsHere, or if he had been a decent player with manners, InnocentMage would still be in [MyDaling] guild.
The resentment toward OppaOppaCarIsHere suddenly melted away. Of course, OppaOppaCarIsHere was a trashy sexual harasser and a mold ♡♡ that should be expelled from Eleven Wizard, but that was just an objective fact; Ji-han no longer felt any personal emotion toward him.
“You changed your nickname well.”
But regardless of that, this was also sincere. Even setting aside OppaOppaCarIsHere, Kang Jaemi’s previous character nickname was just bad.
“Thanks. Ah, I really think it was the right choice to change. Because of the nickname, I got into Jijo.”
“I guess so.”
A question suddenly occurred to Ji-han, so he asked.
“Why did you fail the interview? My InnocentMage’s stats were decent. Max level. Was it not max level then?”
“It was max level then too… but do you know what the interview question was?”
“What was it?”
“Describe in about 500 characters the harm that netcafes cause to Eleven Wizard, logically and coherently.”
“…”
“Time limit: 5 minutes. I couldn’t even write 100 characters.”
“…You suffered.”
“But the interview questions aren’t always the same. Sometimes they recruit based on stats, but that time wasn’t it. I was just unlucky.”
Jaemi gulped down her smoothie with the thick straw and then grinned.
“But anyway, I’ve joined now! So that’s what matters.”
“Right. If you’re happy, I’m happy.”
“Oppa, but do you know that Olivia, the guild master of Jijo, is seriously amazing?”
“…Why?”
“They say he’s really handsome.”
“What?”
Ji-han, who had been expecting a comment about Olivia’s outstanding gaming skills, or his luxurious equipment, or perhaps something about his guild management, widened his eyes in surprise.