Chapter 18: Gold Ninja(2)

The shutdown message I had seen right before logging off from the game still lingered in front of my eyes.

As I rose from the capsule with a body drenched in sweat, I felt a strange elasticity.

It was proof that I had been so immersed in the game that it had affected my real body.

“Ah…”

A quiet sigh escaped my lips.

Just as I was about to distribute the gold, 10 o’clock had struck, and the game connection was forcibly terminated.

The shutdown system—what a truly terrifying law it was.

In the past, it had been a law I had no concern for, so I had simply laughed it off.

But now, it had become a huge obstacle in my life.

‘What should I do?’

My mind went blank.

It felt like my brain had stiffened, despite having worked fine while playing the game.

I got out of the capsule and grabbed my phone.

Fortunately, there was a chatroom where I could talk to the guild members, even though I couldn’t log into the game.

If I hadn’t had this chatroom and was left with just the guild’s last moments, I would’ve definitely ended up on the “guild’s last moments” section of the forum.

I checked the chatroom, and it was already filled with countless messages.

It was a 40-person chatroom.

If one person wrote a message per second, with 40 people, that would make 40 messages piling up.

I gently touched my cheek as I checked the messages in the chatroom.

• Wizard Group 1 Leader: [Guild Leader, shutdown system ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ]
• Priest Leader: [Was it part of the concept, or was it really true?]
• Wizard Group 22: [Guild Leader… we trust you…]
• Wizard Group 2 Leader: [Hawawa… the middle school girl can’t play because of the 10 o’clock shutdown…]

Looking at the messages, the atmosphere didn’t seem too bad.

But there was an unmistakable feeling of anxiety that couldn’t be hidden.

If this was left unchecked, the mood would quickly turn sour.

I hastily wrote a message.

• Guild Leader: [Sorry, I got kicked out because of the shutdown system. I’ll log in briefly before school to send the gold via mail.]

As I wrote the message, a soft knock came from outside the door.

[Harang. Hey, Harang.]

It was Harang’s voice.

I thought it was my mom, but what was going on with him suddenly calling out?

I ignored his call and focused on my phone.

• Wizard 7: [More serious about the setting than anyone else;]
• Guild Leader: [It’s not a setting. I really can’t log in.]
• Wizard Group 2 Leader: [Hawawa… the middle school girl doesn’t lie…]

I frowned.

I had been speaking the truth, but it seemed no one believed that I was really a middle school student.

Knock knock knock!

[Harang!]

The knocking grew louder, and the voice calling me became more urgent.

I frowned as I walked to the door.

“What? What is it?”

[Is it… really true?]

“What do you mean?”

[Were you playing Deron?]

He suddenly asked if I was playing Deron?

I sighed and opened the door.

“Ugh…”

The door burst open, and Harang stood there, making a strange expression.

He was someone who should normally be holed up in his capsule, so why was he out here?

“What’s going on?”

I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall, glaring at Harang.

It still felt awkward dealing with a boy who looked just like my past self.

It was strange to treat him casually, and treating him as Harang’s brother felt uncomfortable.

Harang, who had been watching me closely, took out his phone and showed it to me.

“Look at this.”

I checked the screen of the phone that Harang handed to me. On it was a post from the Deron gallery.

[Deron Online Gallery]

[Let’s see the value of the gold that the middle school girl Ninja obtained.] [221]

(Real-time price fluctuation graph from a gold trading website)

The middle school girl who turned the gallery upside down swallowed a total of 12,750 gold in just 5 hours. If we calculate it based on the current exchange rate, 10 gold is worth 14,900 KRW. In other words, the middle school girl swallowed 18,997,500 KRW in cash.

It was truly an extraordinary event.

2,000 in 5 hours? ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ

(A meme combining the character of Yeon with a ninja, with a gold pouch hanging behind)

Everyone was fooled. She wasn’t a middle school girl, but a ninja.

[Comments]

[Info: If you calculate it with 9,000 KRW for a bowl of rice soup, it’s roughly 2,110 bowls.]

[Wow… middle school girl… must have been eating rice soup till she burst… ]

[ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ]

[Wow… seems like the guild’s last moments won’t run now]

[Just do the gold distribution right after the auction ends]

[Let’s go to the dice party]

[I went to the dice party before, but a rogue who was bad at tanking took all the loot…]

[It’s not a ninja, she just got kicked out because of the shutdown system]

[Do you really believe that?]

[The guild members aren’t saying anything, why the drama?]

[The middle school girl guild leader is hereᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ]

[I’m so jealous of the gold, give me some too]

As I checked the contents of the post and the comments, the corners of my mouth began to twitch.

I had been out of the game for no more than 5 minutes. What had happened in that short time?

I frowned and glared at Harang, who was in front of me.

“This isn’t it.”

“What, what isn’t?”

“I didn’t do the gold ninja thing.”

“Ah…”

“No, seriously… I got kicked out because of the shutdown system.”

“Well…”

“I came to check because I was curious, didn’t I?”

Harang shook his head in response to my question.

In his eyes, there was an undeniable sense of expectation.

What exactly was his intention?

“No, what I’m curious about is whether the guild leader who got the first clear is you.”

I nodded in response to Harang’s question. I wasn’t trying to hide the fact that I played Deron, so there was no reason not to say it.

Then Harang took a step closer to me.

“Harang!”

“Ugh!”

It was pretty overwhelming when someone much bigger than me suddenly moved closer.

“Let me join the guild!”

“Join the guild…?”

I stepped back in response to Harang’s question and asked, “What do you mean?”

At this time, I was definitely in a different guild.

It was my first guild, so I could still vividly recall the memories. The connections that began there lasted for such a long time…

“Yeah!”

“Weren’t you in another guild?”

“Me? I just hit max level two weeks ago… joining a guild…?”

I opened my mouth, stunned by Harang’s words.

That’s when I realized that this world was quite distorted.

It wasn’t a game played with a keyboard and mouse. Naturally, Harang in this world must have played differently than before.

“What’s your class?”

“I’m an archer.”

As expected, Harang in this world was different. Unlike me, who had raised a melee class, he was a ranged DPS.

However, both the higher and lower job ranks were important.

“What’s your first and second job rank?”

“Both are Ranger.”

A Ranger is a class that can shoot multiple arrows with one attack.

Its versatility in both single-target and area-of-effect damage was wide, but it consumed a lot of arrows, which was a disadvantage. However, in terms of DPS, it was on par with mage classes.

Harang had reached max level as a Ranger class.

This meant that he must have some basic sense of the game.

“Move for now.”

“Huh? Uh…”

“I’m going to take a shower. We’ll talk later.”

I wanted to wash off this sticky sweat first.

After finishing my shower, I headed to the living room, and there was an ice cream on the table.

Shaking my hair dry, I walked over to the table, and my eyes met Harang’s, who was sneakily watching from the corner.

“What are you doing?”

“Uh, is there anything else you need?”

“Did you put this ice cream here?”

“Uh… Don’t you like it?”

The ice cream on the table was milk-flavored. I didn’t particularly like it.

It seemed like it was more something Hayeon liked, not me.

I shook my head, unwrapped the ice cream, and put it in my mouth.

It was quite tasty.

With the ice cream in my mouth, I looked around the living room.

Since I couldn’t see my mom, she must have already gone to bed.

That meant I didn’t have to worry about being careful.

I walked over to the couch and comfortably slumped down.

My wet hair dripped with water, but I didn’t mind.

Harang cautiously approached me. He also had an ice cream in his mouth.

“Hayeon.”

“2H.”

“When did you start?”

I furrowed my brows and tried to remember.

It hadn’t even been a week since I started playing as myself in the game.

But Hayeon was already playing Deron. On Hayeon’s account, there were other characters besides the ones I had raised.

It was probably the character that Hayeon had been raising.

“Some?”

“Some…?”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Do I have to say it?”

“Well, not necessarily…”

Harang continued to look around nervously.

I couldn’t stand his anxious expression. Seeing a boy, who looked exactly like my past self, being nervous around a younger kid was quite uncomfortable.

“I’ll let you join the guild.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I was planning to change up the dealer lineup anyway.”

“Really? I was thinking the same thing. When I was watching the stream, those mage idiots were so frustrating.”

As soon as I nodded at Harang’s words, an unusual term reached my ears.

Stream… Stream?

“Stream…?”

“Yeah.”

Stream? I had never turned on any broadcast like that.

No, it wasn’t me. It had to be someone from the guild who had started the stream.

“You didn’t know?”

I quickly pulled out my phone.

Which idiot had started the broadcast? A guild’s tactics leak is fatal.

If others start copying the strategies I’ve created after seeing them broadcasted, the significance of being part of the guild I built would diminish.

Preserving the value of the items was important.

Keeping the symbolism intact was just as important.

If anyone can clear a raid, then raid gear becomes the new standard.

I didn’t want that.

My head was pounding. I knew the guild was full of misfits, but I never expected them to stream without the guild leader’s permission.

Had I sacrificed myself for these people?

And to top it off, while contributing to the guild’s achievement?

I hadn’t realized the stream was still live until the end of the guild session.

I sighed deeply and started browsing various sites.

Sure enough, everything was being broadcasted live because of the stream.

I checked the broadcast screen and saw the nickname of the mage who had been streaming.

[IceMagicBibiBig]

This guy was done for.

I clicked into the chat room and entered the admin settings to kick him out.

The admin has kicked out [IceMagicBibiBig].

• Priest Leader: “Wow… Guild Leader’s doing the sword dance…”
• Mage 2 Guild Leader: “Wow… The middle school ninja too;;;”
• Sub-Tanker 2: “It was the one who was streaming.”
• DogRick: “Wasn’t that authorized by the Guild Leader?”
• Sub-Tanker 2: “Looks like it wasn’t, judging by the fact he got kicked.”
• Guild Leader: “Just to be clear, if anyone wants to stream, please leave the guild. Streamers, same goes for you. No leaking guild tactics.”

The situation was more or less resolved.

I muttered to myself and got up from my seat.

Harang, who had been sitting beside me, stood up as well.

I looked at him and asked,

“Why are you getting up?”

“Huh? Ah… I’m gonna play the game.”

The game? It was already past 10 PM. That meant he had to teach me some study material.

He was vulnerable to me now. Whether or not he joined the guild depended on me. He couldn’t refuse my request.

“Wait here.”

“Huh, you’re not…?”

“I need you to teach me.”

Harang, who had been nervously watching, nodded and quietly sat back down.

Still, his expression didn’t look too bad.

A small smile hung on his face.