‘N-No! I have to stop this…!’
Chae Hyung-Seok wasn’t going to just watch as Siegfried was transferred to one of the main parties.
“Excuse me… senior-nim?”
He approached Yong Tae-Pung as courteously as possible. He was a piece of trash that trampled on others, but Yong Tae-Pung wasn’t someone he could mess with.
“Oh, hello, Hyung-Seok.”
“I apologize, but there is something I wish to say…”
“Hmm? What’s there to apologize about? Tell me, what is it?”
“I am well aware of his skills, but…”
“But?”
“He lacks Dimensional Resistance and level, so I believe that including him in the main party will only set us back later on…”
“Hmm…”
And it might set a bad precedent for others, so…”
“Well, I guess you’re right, but come to think of it… You don’t have five hundred resistance points, too, Hyung-Seok.”
“T-That is because I am a Buffer, senior-nim.”
“Then what about him?”
“P-Pardon me?!”
“He’s a good fighter on top of his excellent abilities to support allies.”
“…!”
“Frankly speaking, he’s much more useful than a dozen Buffers if you ask me.”
Chae Hyung-Seok was absolutely floored and speechless by Yong Tae-Pung’s words. It was true that he himself did not satisfy the requirements, yet he was included in the first party.
“But my skills have already been proven. You will not find a Buffer like me, so I have the right to be—” Chae Hyung-Seok said.
“Yes, you have more than enough right to join the main party,” Yong Tae-Pung cut him off and finished his words.
However, Chae Hyung-Seok didn’t relent. He immediately tried to put the matter to rest by saying, “However, letting him join the first party when he has not proven himself is a bit…”
“Then he can join the other parties, no?”
“What?!”
“I agree, it might be a stretch to include him in the first party since the others might not be so welcoming even if I vouch for him, but the second and third parties should have no qualms about him joining, right?”
“Heok!”
Yong Tae-Pung looked at the second and third party while rubbing his chin and muttering, “Let’s see… Where should I put you… The second party seems to be lacking in firepower, and I have a feeling he will fit right in…”
He raised his hand and called out to the members of the second party, “Hey! What do you guys think? I can vouch for him, so why don’t you take him?”
“I have no problem if you vouch for him, senior-nim.”
“Me, too.”
“He’s quite famous these days, so I don’t mind being acquainted with him.”
The second party easily agreed after the living fossil vouched for him.
“You see?” Yong Tae-Pung asked the NPC.
“Ah, yes!” the NPC nodded before he rushed over to Siegfried.
“Excuse me, King Siegfried van Proa…?”
“Yes?”
“Would you be willing to join the second party? Of course, I will not force you if you do not wish to—”
“I’m in! I’ll do my best!” Siegfried exclaimed in response before running over to the second party from the seventh party.
Wink!
Yong Tae-Pung winked at him, and Siegfried bowed to show his gratitude.
Meanwhile, Chae Hyung-Seok was trembling in anger. He finally thought that the stubborn bastard would not be able to stand in his way anymore, but he couldn’t have imagined that Yong Tae-Pung—of all people—would help Siegfried out.
“Hyung-Seok~”
A familiar and repulsive voice called out to Chae Hyung-Seok.
He turned around to find Siegfried looking at him with a smug smirk.
“We just got closer to each other, my dear Hyung-Seok~”
Siegfried was smiling, but he looked more eerie and sinister than a vengeful spirit in Chae Hyung-Seok’s eyes.
***
Siegfried entered the Great Rift: Raid Dungeon along with numerous Adventurers and NPCs after successfully joining the second party, thanks to his connections.
‘Who the fuck is that guy?’
‘So what if he’s close with Yong Tae-Pung?’
Of course, not everyone was receptive to Siegfried’s sudden promotion to the main party. Still, a person needed to have a certain level of skill for them to use their connections, and anyone with half a brain would know that there was no problem with the whole thing.
After all, Yong Tae-Pung wasn’t someone who would vouch for someone without the skills to back it up. He was a legendary figure in the Korean gaming scene as well as revered as the elder of all gamers, so it was impossible that he would be swayed by personal favors in the first place.
Why?
Because his reputation would be tarnished if he were to vouch for someone without the skills to back it up, and he knew that very well.
Perhaps that was the reason, but the entire second party welcomed Siegfried warmly.
“Welcome!”
“You’re more than welcome if Mr. Tae-Pung vouched for you.”
“You’re quite famous these days. Anyway, what do you think about debuting as a pro gamer?”
The members of the second party seemed fond of him.
“Haha… I don’t have plans to become a pro gamer, but I’ll be in your care. I will try my best to pull my weight and not be a nuisance to you guys,” Siegfried politely replied while trying to sound as humble as possible.
‘I need to do my best since Uncle Tae-Pung vouched for me.’ He was slightly burdened by having to repay the fossil’s trust in him and by the fact that he had to show people that he deserved to be in one of the main parties.
“All right! Party four to twelve will enter first!”
The raid finally started.
The fourth party to the twelfth party entered the City of the Dead first, and their task was to spread out and secure control of the city’s perimeters from the monsters.
It went without saying that the second party and third party, which Siegfried and Taycan were in, entered right afterward.
“Move out!”
Siegfried and the second party entered the Raid Dungeon, but…
[Alert: Your character has been swept away by the Dimensional Storm!]
A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes, followed by a flurry of messages.
[Alert: A Dimensional Storm is raging! Please wait!]
[Alert: Stand by!]
[Alert: There are twenty-four hours before the storm subsides!]
[Alert: You may not log out from the game while the storm is raging!]
Siegfried doubted his eyes for a second.
‘Huh? A dimensional what? What the hell is this?!’
Han Tae-Sung tried to regain control of his character, but it was in vain.
[Alert: 23:59:59 left until the storm dissipates!]
The only thing he could do was watch the countdown timer in front of him.
‘What the hell…? Does this always happen when entering this place? Ah… I have no idea, as this is my first time here…’
Han Tae-Sung was a noob when it came to Raid Dungeons, so he had no idea what was happening.
‘Ah, forget about it. Whatever happens will happen, I guess… I’ll just take a nap while waiting for the timer.’
In the end, he closed his eyes while logged into the game. He was a noob at the Raid Dungeon, but he was still a veteran in BNW. This meant that he had no problem relaxing whenever something out of his control happened.
In other words, he could easily fall asleep while logged into the game.
He knew from personal experience that anything illogical in BNW was bound to resolve itself later down the road, so there was no point fussing over it.
Tae-Sung fell asleep in less than three seconds, as he was exhausted both physically and mentally from hunting for so many hours.
***
Twenty hours later…
[Alert: 3 hours 49 minutes and 11 seconds…]
‘Whoa! I slept this much?’
Tae-Sung was taken aback. However, it was not that surprising as anyone who worked for an entire day would know that it was completely reasonable for them to sleep for twenty hours.
‘Ah… I should’ve just kept the game on and went to bed…’
Tae-Sung lamented his stupidity. He briefly left his capsule to take a leak, eat, and take a shower. Then, he entered his capsule again to find that there were less than ten minutes remaining on the countdown.
‘Hmm… I made quite a profit this month, so should I buy Mom a house? I’m slowly getting bored of the Ferrari, so hm… what about a Lamborghini?’
He spent the next ten minutes thinking about all sorts of useless things.
[Alert: 10 seconds…]
[Alert: 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4…]
[Alert: Get ready! The storm will dissipate in 3… 2… 1…!]
Siegfried set his useless thoughts aside and focused on the game.
[Great Rift: City of the Dead]
Tae-Sung entered the Raid Dungeon as the Adventurer, Siegfried van Proa.
“Wow! I thought the server crashed!”
“Twenty-four hours? That’s a first…”
“What happened?”
Everyone in the second party was baffled at the delay.
“Kyu? Owner punk?”
“What?”
“Why do you look so good? You look like you had a good night’s sleep! Kyu!”
“That’s because I actually slept?”
“Kyu? Slept?”
“Yeah.”
“How?! Only a second has passed since we came here! Kyu!”
“What…?”
Siegfried noticed something strange from what Hamchi said just now.
“Only one second has passed since we came here?”
“Kyu! We just entered, right? So why are you asking?!”
“No? I just spent an entire day in my world before entering.”
“Kyuuuu? That’s not possible? Hamchi’s sure we’ve been here only for a second!”
It was not only Hamchi. The other Adventurers were talking about the twenty-four-hour delay that occurred, but the NPCs seemed as perplexed as Hamchi.
“What are they talking about?”
“Does time flow differently in our world and their world?”
The NPCs and Hamchi seemed to be oblivious to the fact that twenty-four hours had passed since they stepped foot into the Raid Dungeon.
‘Oh! The entire raid party got swept up by the Dimensional Storm, but we are aware of the delay since we are players with consciousness in our world, while the NPCs have no idea about it since they only exist in the game!’
Siegfried quickly saw through what was going on.
In other words, the delay caused by the Dimensional Storm was a part of the game, but it was impossible for the game to influence the flow of time in the real world, so they had to come up with the delay in order to make it seem as realistic as possible.
‘They say these guys are crazy about details, but they’re really overdoing it for their own good. I wonder what those guys at Hive are thinking? They’re really in a league of their own, I tell you…’ Siegfried grumbled in awe at the developers of BNW.
“Well, that’s that.”
Siegfried decided to focus on the raid.
The Raid Dungeon, City of the Dead, was covered by a thick fog, and visibility was absolutely bad. It was impossible to see more than two meters ahead.
Shwaaa!
The entire place was also cold and humid, making it feel as eerie as its name.
“Where are the other parties? There should be nine parties that entered before us, right?” Siegfried asked while tilting his head in confusion.
The same went for everyone else.
“Huh? Could it be that they already left? Or did they enter from another area? But I think this is the only entrance based on the minimap…?”
“How can we tell where they are with this horrible visibility?”
“Excuse me! Is anyone there? Where is everybody?!”
The first nine parties that entered the Raid Dungeon were nowhere in sight, but that was not the end of it.
“Aren’t they coming in?”
The first party and third party were nowhere in sight as well.
“Let’s wait here for now,” the party leader said.
The party waited for the first party and third party, but neither two parties showed any signs of arriving.
“Let’s wait a bit longer…” said the party leader.
Three hours later…
“Is the entrance blocked or something…?”
“Seems like it…?”
“That’s the only way to explain why they still haven’t entered when they should have entered at least ten minutes before or after us…”
The first party and third party were nowhere in sight.
“It seems that they entered from another entrance. Let’s move out for now and hope we run into them sooner than later.”
In the end, the second party had no choice but to get going.
“Owner punk! Kyu!”
“Hmm?”
“This place stinks! Kyu!”
“What stinks?”
“Sniff! Sniff! Something smells rotten here! Kyuuu!”
“Really? Sniff! Sniff!”
Siegfried took a whiff of the air.
“Euk!”
A rotten stench in the damp fog around them assaulted his nostrils.
“What the hell is this smell? It smells like rotting corpses…”
“Gwuu Uuu… Ooooh!”
“Gwuu Aak!”
“Gwuoo Oooh!”
Half-rotten corpses popped up from within the fog and charged at the party.
‘N-No! I have to stop this…!’
Chae Hyung-Seok wasn’t going to just watch as Siegfried was transferred to one of the main parties.
“Excuse me… senior-nim?”
He approached Yong Tae-Pung as courteously as possible. He was a piece of trash that trampled on others, but Yong Tae-Pung wasn’t someone he could mess with.
“Oh, hello, Hyung-Seok.”
“I apologize, but there is something I wish to say…”
“Hmm? What’s there to apologize about? Tell me, what is it?”
“I am well aware of his skills, but…”
“But?”
“He lacks Dimensional Resistance and level, so I believe that including him in the main party will only set us back later on…”
“Hmm…”
And it might set a bad precedent for others, so…”
“Well, I guess you’re right, but come to think of it… You don’t have five hundred resistance points, too, Hyung-Seok.”
“T-That is because I am a Buffer, senior-nim.”
“Then what about him?”
“P-Pardon me?!”
“He’s a good fighter on top of his excellent abilities to support allies.”
“…!”
“Frankly speaking, he’s much more useful than a dozen Buffers if you ask me.”
Chae Hyung-Seok was absolutely floored and speechless by Yong Tae-Pung’s words. It was true that he himself did not satisfy the requirements, yet he was included in the first party.
“But my skills have already been proven. You will not find a Buffer like me, so I have the right to be—” Chae Hyung-Seok said.
“Yes, you have more than enough right to join the main party,” Yong Tae-Pung cut him off and finished his words.
However, Chae Hyung-Seok didn’t relent. He immediately tried to put the matter to rest by saying, “However, letting him join the first party when he has not proven himself is a bit…”
“Then he can join the other parties, no?”
“What?!”
“I agree, it might be a stretch to include him in the first party since the others might not be so welcoming even if I vouch for him, but the second and third parties should have no qualms about him joining, right?”
“Heok!”
Yong Tae-Pung looked at the second and third party while rubbing his chin and muttering, “Let’s see… Where should I put you… The second party seems to be lacking in firepower, and I have a feeling he will fit right in…”
He raised his hand and called out to the members of the second party, “Hey! What do you guys think? I can vouch for him, so why don’t you take him?”
“I have no problem if you vouch for him, senior-nim.”
“Me, too.”
“He’s quite famous these days, so I don’t mind being acquainted with him.”
The second party easily agreed after the living fossil vouched for him.
“You see?” Yong Tae-Pung asked the NPC.
“Ah, yes!” the NPC nodded before he rushed over to Siegfried.
“Excuse me, King Siegfried van Proa…?”
“Yes?”
“Would you be willing to join the second party? Of course, I will not force you if you do not wish to—”
“I’m in! I’ll do my best!” Siegfried exclaimed in response before running over to the second party from the seventh party.
Wink!
Yong Tae-Pung winked at him, and Siegfried bowed to show his gratitude.
Meanwhile, Chae Hyung-Seok was trembling in anger. He finally thought that the stubborn bastard would not be able to stand in his way anymore, but he couldn’t have imagined that Yong Tae-Pung—of all people—would help Siegfried out.
“Hyung-Seok~”
A familiar and repulsive voice called out to Chae Hyung-Seok.
He turned around to find Siegfried looking at him with a smug smirk.
“We just got closer to each other, my dear Hyung-Seok~”
Siegfried was smiling, but he looked more eerie and sinister than a vengeful spirit in Chae Hyung-Seok’s eyes.
***
Siegfried entered the Great Rift: Raid Dungeon along with numerous Adventurers and NPCs after successfully joining the second party, thanks to his connections.
‘Who the fuck is that guy?’
‘So what if he’s close with Yong Tae-Pung?’
Of course, not everyone was receptive to Siegfried’s sudden promotion to the main party. Still, a person needed to have a certain level of skill for them to use their connections, and anyone with half a brain would know that there was no problem with the whole thing.
After all, Yong Tae-Pung wasn’t someone who would vouch for someone without the skills to back it up. He was a legendary figure in the Korean gaming scene as well as revered as the elder of all gamers, so it was impossible that he would be swayed by personal favors in the first place.
Why?
Because his reputation would be tarnished if he were to vouch for someone without the skills to back it up, and he knew that very well.
Perhaps that was the reason, but the entire second party welcomed Siegfried warmly.
“Welcome!”
“You’re more than welcome if Mr. Tae-Pung vouched for you.”
“You’re quite famous these days. Anyway, what do you think about debuting as a pro gamer?”
The members of the second party seemed fond of him.
“Haha… I don’t have plans to become a pro gamer, but I’ll be in your care. I will try my best to pull my weight and not be a nuisance to you guys,” Siegfried politely replied while trying to sound as humble as possible.
‘I need to do my best since Uncle Tae-Pung vouched for me.’ He was slightly burdened by having to repay the fossil’s trust in him and by the fact that he had to show people that he deserved to be in one of the main parties.
“All right! Party four to twelve will enter first!”
The raid finally started.
The fourth party to the twelfth party entered the City of the Dead first, and their task was to spread out and secure control of the city’s perimeters from the monsters.
It went without saying that the second party and third party, which Siegfried and Taycan were in, entered right afterward.
“Move out!”
Siegfried and the second party entered the Raid Dungeon, but…
[Alert: Your character has been swept away by the Dimensional Storm!]
A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes, followed by a flurry of messages.
[Alert: A Dimensional Storm is raging! Please wait!]
[Alert: Stand by!]
[Alert: There are twenty-four hours before the storm subsides!]
[Alert: You may not log out from the game while the storm is raging!]
Siegfried doubted his eyes for a second.
‘Huh? A dimensional what? What the hell is this?!’
Han Tae-Sung tried to regain control of his character, but it was in vain.
[Alert: 23:59:59 left until the storm dissipates!]
The only thing he could do was watch the countdown timer in front of him.
‘What the hell…? Does this always happen when entering this place? Ah… I have no idea, as this is my first time here…’
Han Tae-Sung was a noob when it came to Raid Dungeons, so he had no idea what was happening.
‘Ah, forget about it. Whatever happens will happen, I guess… I’ll just take a nap while waiting for the timer.’
In the end, he closed his eyes while logged into the game. He was a noob at the Raid Dungeon, but he was still a veteran in BNW. This meant that he had no problem relaxing whenever something out of his control happened.
In other words, he could easily fall asleep while logged into the game.
He knew from personal experience that anything illogical in BNW was bound to resolve itself later down the road, so there was no point fussing over it.
Tae-Sung fell asleep in less than three seconds, as he was exhausted both physically and mentally from hunting for so many hours.
***
Twenty hours later…
[Alert: 3 hours 49 minutes and 11 seconds…]
‘Whoa! I slept this much?’
Tae-Sung was taken aback. However, it was not that surprising as anyone who worked for an entire day would know that it was completely reasonable for them to sleep for twenty hours.
‘Ah… I should’ve just kept the game on and went to bed…’
Tae-Sung lamented his stupidity. He briefly left his capsule to take a leak, eat, and take a shower. Then, he entered his capsule again to find that there were less than ten minutes remaining on the countdown.
‘Hmm… I made quite a profit this month, so should I buy Mom a house? I’m slowly getting bored of the Ferrari, so hm… what about a Lamborghini?’
He spent the next ten minutes thinking about all sorts of useless things.
[Alert: 10 seconds…]
[Alert: 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4…]
[Alert: Get ready! The storm will dissipate in 3… 2… 1…!]
Siegfried set his useless thoughts aside and focused on the game.
[Great Rift: City of the Dead]
Tae-Sung entered the Raid Dungeon as the Adventurer, Siegfried van Proa.
“Wow! I thought the server crashed!”
“Twenty-four hours? That’s a first…”
“What happened?”
Everyone in the second party was baffled at the delay.
“Kyu? Owner punk?”
“What?”
“Why do you look so good? You look like you had a good night’s sleep! Kyu!”
“That’s because I actually slept?”
“Kyu? Slept?”
“Yeah.”
“How?! Only a second has passed since we came here! Kyu!”
“What…?”
Siegfried noticed something strange from what Hamchi said just now.
“Only one second has passed since we came here?”
“Kyu! We just entered, right? So why are you asking?!”
“No? I just spent an entire day in my world before entering.”
“Kyuuuu? That’s not possible? Hamchi’s sure we’ve been here only for a second!”
It was not only Hamchi. The other Adventurers were talking about the twenty-four-hour delay that occurred, but the NPCs seemed as perplexed as Hamchi.
“What are they talking about?”
“Does time flow differently in our world and their world?”
The NPCs and Hamchi seemed to be oblivious to the fact that twenty-four hours had passed since they stepped foot into the Raid Dungeon.
‘Oh! The entire raid party got swept up by the Dimensional Storm, but we are aware of the delay since we are players with consciousness in our world, while the NPCs have no idea about it since they only exist in the game!’
Siegfried quickly saw through what was going on.
In other words, the delay caused by the Dimensional Storm was a part of the game, but it was impossible for the game to influence the flow of time in the real world, so they had to come up with the delay in order to make it seem as realistic as possible.
‘They say these guys are crazy about details, but they’re really overdoing it for their own good. I wonder what those guys at Hive are thinking? They’re really in a league of their own, I tell you…’ Siegfried grumbled in awe at the developers of BNW.
“Well, that’s that.”
Siegfried decided to focus on the raid.
The Raid Dungeon, City of the Dead, was covered by a thick fog, and visibility was absolutely bad. It was impossible to see more than two meters ahead.
Shwaaa!
The entire place was also cold and humid, making it feel as eerie as its name.
“Where are the other parties? There should be nine parties that entered before us, right?” Siegfried asked while tilting his head in confusion.
The same went for everyone else.
“Huh? Could it be that they already left? Or did they enter from another area? But I think this is the only entrance based on the minimap…?”
“How can we tell where they are with this horrible visibility?”
“Excuse me! Is anyone there? Where is everybody?!”
The first nine parties that entered the Raid Dungeon were nowhere in sight, but that was not the end of it.
“Aren’t they coming in?”
The first party and third party were nowhere in sight as well.
“Let’s wait here for now,” the party leader said.
The party waited for the first party and third party, but neither two parties showed any signs of arriving.
“Let’s wait a bit longer…” said the party leader.
Three hours later…
“Is the entrance blocked or something…?”
“Seems like it…?”
“That’s the only way to explain why they still haven’t entered when they should have entered at least ten minutes before or after us…”
The first party and third party were nowhere in sight.
“It seems that they entered from another entrance. Let’s move out for now and hope we run into them sooner than later.”
In the end, the second party had no choice but to get going.
“Owner punk! Kyu!”
“Hmm?”
“This place stinks! Kyu!”
“What stinks?”
“Sniff! Sniff! Something smells rotten here! Kyuuu!”
“Really? Sniff! Sniff!”
Siegfried took a whiff of the air.
“Euk!”
A rotten stench in the damp fog around them assaulted his nostrils.
“What the hell is this smell? It smells like rotting corpses…”
“Gwuu Uuu… Ooooh!”
“Gwuu Aak!”
“Gwuoo Oooh!”
Half-rotten corpses popped up from within the fog and charged at the party.
