He hit the nail on the head. Crazy bastard. This is insane. Ji-han swallowed his curses and sent a humble whisper to the guild master.
“Yes, I’m sorry, but that person first sexually harassed a fellow party member.”
A few seconds—which felt like several minutes—later, a whisper came back from the guild master.
“It’s true that Chat-i-t-ya did something wrong. But you know our guild rules, right? Swearing between guild members is an automatic kick. I’m sorry about this incident. I’ll give Chat-i-t-ya a stern talking-to separately. However, apart from that, InnocentMage, I think you need to leave the guild. Thank you for your hard work. Goodbye.”
The guild master typed remarkably fast. Ji-han was quick himself, but this person was no slouch. With a Korean typing standard, they seemed to easily exceed 1,000 keystrokes per minute.
Staring at the yellow whisper that filled the chat window, Ji-han felt bewildered. He started typing a reply. It was when he had just written, ‘Hey, Guild Master.’
The message arrived, and under Kang Jaemi’s character name, the guild name vanished.
Thus, just one day after starting to level up Kang Jaemi’s character, Ji-han was kicked out of the guild that Jaemi had joined with sheer tenacity.
“……What the hell do I do now?”
Ji-han glanced at his silent phone.
Should he contact Jaemi now and confess everything? Explain the situation and beg for forgiveness?
“No, but that bastard started it…… Haah, no.”
Ji-han rubbed his dry face with his hands.
Spreading his fingers, he stared at the monitor through the gaps, then came up with a solution.
Join a new guild.
“The guild Jaemi was in was the second-ranked guild on the server……”
Ji-han frowned. A guild that had such a vice guild master and even coddled that vice guild master was second-ranked? Damn it. As expected, Eleven Wizards was a trash game.
The urge to quit the game surged up like the day of the [The Black Heart] guild meeting. But he couldn’t recklessly delete the account like before. After all, this wasn’t his character—it was Jaemi’s, which she had nurtured for years.
Ji-han opened the guild window.
In the upper left corner was an item called ‘View Guild Rankings.’ He clicked it.
“First place…… Jijo Guild.”
Seeing the golden crown emblem next to the guild name, he naturally recalled [The Black Heart] guild.
Come to think of it, there were good people in [The Black Heart] guild too. No, actually, there were more good people. Probably. He wanted to believe that.
What were those people doing now? Were they still playing Eleven Wizards? Or had they quit like him?
……Had they come back?
‘Let it go.’
Ji-han checked the information of the server’s top guild, [Jijo]. 87 members. 87? That was surprisingly small.
‘All other guilds have over 200……’
The maximum number of members a guild could hold was 250. Before Ji-han quit, it was 200, but now it had increased to 250.
He looked over all the guilds on the first page of rankings, but not a single one besides [Jijo] had under 200 members.
For reference, the guild Ji-han—or rather, Jaemi—had originally been in was [My Darling], with 249 members.
[Jijo] ranked first with 87 members, and [My Darling] ranked second with 249 members—right up until a moment ago, it had been 250.
Ji-han’s heart pounded.
He checked the online status of [Jijo] guild members. Just then, one of the vice guild masters was online.
He right-clicked the vice guild master’s nickname. He clicked ‘Send Whisper’ again.
Ji-han’s fingers moved with nervous tension.
***
Eleven Wizards wasn’t a trash game.
It was a piece of crap game.
Ji-han went to bed with a face that had grown noticeably gaunt in just one day.
As he laid his head on the pillow, the content of the whispers exchanged with the vice guild master of [Jijo] from hours ago came to mind.
[Whisper] InnocentMage: Hello. I’m asking about joining the guild.
He thought it was a perfectly polite whisper. The reply came right away. But the content was strange.
[Whisper] Kingbatgehajima: I’m not a robot that only answers guild inquiries. Please give me a pretty greeting.
Ji-han was flustered. Greeting? I already said hello. Was that not enough?
After thinking, Ji-han sent a message.
[Whisper] InnocentMage: How are you? The weather is quite cool these days^^ As I walk, the flowers by the roadside are in full bloom. I really feel that phrase ‘May in full bloom.’
Would this be enough? Fortunately, the other person replied with ‘lol’ this time. Ji-han judged it as a positive reaction. Good.
Ji-han got to the point.
[Whisper] InnocentMage: Are you accepting guild members now? What are the conditions to join……?
This time, the reply came quickly too.
[Whisper] Kingbatgehajima: For guild joining conditions, please DM via Instagram.
It was nonsense. But it was fast.
Ji-han was lost for words at the nonsense that arrived so quickly.
‘Ask about guild joining conditions via Instagram DM? Am I inquiring about enzyme purchase or something?’
Of course, that couldn’t be the case…… Ji-han recalled Jaemi’s face. Her earnest voice saying she would keep playing Eleven Wizards even after entering college.
He logged into Instagram on his phone. After completing registration, he searched for ‘Jijo’ in the Instagram account search bar.
Nothing came up. Well, a lot came up, but not what Ji-han was looking for.
He searched for ‘Jijo Guild.’
Nothing came up.
He searched for ‘Kingbatgehajima.’
Nothing came up.
He searched for ‘Eleven Wizards Red Server Top Guild.’
Nothing came up.
Ji-han couldn’t hold back his curses. Damn it! Where the hell was he supposed to send a DM?
In the end, he typed another message.
[Whisper] InnocentMage: Sorry, but could you tell me the Instagram account address to inquire about guild joining conditions?
For a moment, Ji-han’s vision went white.
He hadn’t felt such anger and humiliation since the Blossom incident.
Like an immature teenager unable to control his emotions, Ji-han cursed heavily and closed Eleven Wizards. He even turned off the computer.
Then he grabbed his ID, ran to the convenience store near his house, and bought four cans of beer for 10,000 won. He downed three cans in a row. The fourth one made him too full to drink.
Ji-han turned on the TV. Then he binge-watched foreign dramas on an OTT service.
Watching a drama where human and zombie heads alternately exploded calmed his mind.
The anger subsided. The night grew deep, and he was sleepy. Ji-han said goodnight to his family, went into his room, washed up, and lay down.
Then he replayed the chat with [Kingbatgehajima]. His sentiment was simple and clear: f*cking bastard!
The next day, around 3 PM, he logged into Eleven Wizards, and a message had arrived from the f*cking bastard.
[Message from Kingbatgehajima: Hello, InnocentMage-nim ㅠㅠ Please contact me when you see this message.]
“What?”
Ji-han muttered out loud without realizing it.
He glared at the words in the message, then pressed ‘Reply.’
[I’m not a robot that only replies to messages. Pretty greeting]—
Just as he was typing the reply, a chat arrived like a hawk, as if the other had noticed he read the message.
[Whisper] Kingbatgehajima: InnocentMage-nim!!!!!
“Geez.”
How many exclamation marks did they attach?
[Whisper] Kingbatgehajima: InnocentMage-nim ㅠㅠ You were really flustered by my whisper yesterday, right???
……They knew that, yet they did it? Ji-han was about to reply with whatever came to mind, but then changed his mind.
[Whisper] InnocentMage: I was a bit surprised, haha.
I was so surprised that I downed three cans of beer and binge-watched a zombie drama.
[Whisper] Kingbatgehajima: Oh, I’m really sorry… Actually, it wasn’t on purpose.
[Whisper] Kingbatgehajima: I thought InnocentMage-nim was our guild member.
What does that mean?
[Whisper] InnocentMage: Huh?
[Whisper] Kingbatgehajima: There’s a guild member with a nickname similar to InnocentMage-nim.
[Whisper] Kingbatgehajima: I thought InnocentMage-nim was their alt account ㅠㅠ;; So I was just joking.
[Whisper] InnocentMage: Ah…