Chapter 11: The “Accidental” War

[Desert of No Return ― Global] Pineapple : ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

[Desert of No Return ― Global] Pineapple : I totally forgot to turn it offㅠㅠ

[Desert of No Return ― Global] Pineapple : So unfairㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Pineapple had returned.

Left alone, Gomae hurriedly headed back to the entrance as well.

[Party] Proposal : Wow, did that actually work??

[Party] Proposal : Happy used a curse right away and then Ro attacked, so I joined in too

[Party] Ro : Good

[Party] Happy : Good good

[Party] Proposal : ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Proposal : Should I hit again??

[Party] Ro : If you mess with them againㅎㅎ

[Party] Proposal : I feel bad for Happy, but honestly, I hope they mess with us again

[Party] Proposal : My heart’s pounding

[Party] Proposal : PK is so much fun

“Seriously, this guy……”

Seeing Proposal so hyped, veins popped on my forehead.

But just like Proposal secretly wished, I was hoping Pineapple would attack again too.

“Isn’t it obvious it was on purpose? If I had died from that, they’d have immediately targeted Ro and Proposal to stop us from grinding.”

Their intentions were crystal clear, which made it even more infuriating.

So while I was all fired up, furiously typing in chat to say, let’s just fight those jerks—

[Party] Ro : Hmm

[Party] Ro : Next time, let’s just attack first and say it was a mistakeㅎㅎ

[Party] Ro : I’d feel weird just letting it slide

[Party] Proposal : ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ That’ll start a war for sure??

[Party] Ro : Pretty sure they were planning the same thingㅎㅎ

[Party] Proposal : I’m in

[Party] Proposal : Since they started it, they need to be punished at least three times

[Party] Happy : ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Happy : I’m in

[Party] Happy : I’ll curse them on sight

Thanks to them, my fighting spirit was surging.

[Party] Ro : Alright, get ready for PK and let’s head to the entrance first

[Party] Happy : Then I’ll take point now

[Party] Ro : ㅇㅋㅇㅋ

With me at the wheel, I stayed alert as we made our way to the entrance.

I wasn’t as familiar with the map as Ro, so I made a few wrong turns, but since we were close, we arrived quickly.

We circled the area, waiting for the two to come back from town.

[Party] Proposal : Wow, back in the day we used to guard the entrance like this for PK tooㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Proposal : Never thought I’d be doing this againㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Ro : Guess you really liked PK, huhㅎㅎ

[Party] Proposal : Isn’t PK the best part of games?ㅋㅋㅋ

“Right? Right? PK is the most fun.”

[Party] Proposal : I haven’t played that many games, but PK in MonWorld is definitely the most funㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Ro : Same here ㅎㅎㅎ

[Party] Proposal : Glad I came backㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Proposal : Was going to play a game with a friend but then that capsule incident happenedㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Proposal : Was looking for something else and ended up hereㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Ro : Oh, you were going to do VRㅎㅎ

[Party] Proposal : Yeah ㅋㅋㅋ Tried a few others too, but haven’t found one to settle onㅋㅋ

[Party] Happy : The capsule incident, was it Nord World??

[Party] Proposal : Yupㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Proposal : Heard it had a decent community for VR, so I wanted to try, but just my luckㅠㅠ

[Party] Ro : That was even on the news, right? It was wildㅎㅎ

[Party] Happy : Oh

[Party] Happy : I came here too after reading an article and reminiscing!

[Party] Proposal : There’s more returnees here now

[Party] Proposal : Bet Nord had something to do with it?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Proposal : After the Nord news, even other dead games hanging by a thread were talked aboutㅋㅋ

[Party] Proposal : Seems like most people ended up here thinking, “Is that game still alive?” like Happy

“Oh… that makes sense.”

Now that I thought about it, except for Karma and Hana Guild, there were quite a few mysterious rankers popping up.

Judging by server chat, there weren’t any newbie vibes, so most were probably returnees like me.

“Come to think of it, what’s everyone who played Nord up to now? Looks like they all got treated and compensated…… Anyway, why aren’t those guys coming?”

Before I knew it, ten minutes had passed.

But Pineapple and Gomae still hadn’t entered the desert.

The Karma Guild’s INFJ party had already passed by us several times.

[Party] Happy : What the? Are they not coming?

[Party] Ro : Strange

[Party] Proposal : Are they too scared?

[Party] Proposal : Or maybe they went somewhere else

[Party] Ro : Let’s not waste time. Let’s just keep grindingㅎㅎ

[Party] Happy : ㅇㅋㅇㅋ I’ll drive just in case

Every second counted, so we set a new route and started circling again.

Even my driving, which had been sloppier than Jiho’s, smoothed out after a couple of laps.

The best part was that with only two parties instead of three, things were so much better.

“Mm. Nice, nice. With Pineapple’s group gone, no more mob shortage. And our route won’t overlap with Karma’s party.”

It was a bit of a shame that the PK switch was off, but leveling up in the peaceful desert was just as important.

If not now, I wouldn’t be able to shoot up in levels.

After focusing on hunting like that for about twenty minutes—

“Hmm? What’s this? Why are there no mobs?”

We were following our route, but the mobs that should’ve respawned weren’t there.

Since Karma’s party was sticking to their route, in this case…

[Party] Ro : Someone’s here

[Party] Proposal : Wait, don’t tell me

Maybe Pineapple’s party was back? I was typing in chat when—

[Pineapple used Burning Flame.]

[Shinyeong used Burning Flame.]

“What the—! What’s going on?! Shinyeong? Where did they suddenly come from…?”

Suddenly, two mages swooped down from above and attacked me at once.

It wasn’t particularly threatening.

But seeing my HP bar drop much lower than from mob attacks, I couldn’t help but be startled.

As if possessed, I started spamming the potion key, then quickly cast Cursed Omen on both of them.

Whether they were surprised I survived the combined attack or by the sudden speed debuff, Pineapple and Shinyeong panicked and scrambled away.

Ro and Proposal had already started attacking them, each going after a different target.

[Party] Ro : Start with ㅇ0ple

Ro quickly called out the target.

Even with the typo, Proposal understood instantly and chased after Pineapple.

I’d already cast Crumbling Skin on Pineapple.

With reduced movement speed and defense, Pineapple got finished off by Proposal and collapsed on the ground.

…They looked kinda dumb.

“Wouldn’t it have been better to attack Ro and Proposal instead of me?”

They could have probably taken down at least one of us by focusing.

[Desert of No Return ― Global] Pineapple : Ahㅠㅠㅠ this is ridiculous

“That bastard… were they just testing me?”

[Desert of No Return ― Global] Shinyeong : Woah~ Happy, you’re not even a tanker but your HP is insane

[Desert of No Return ― Global] Shinyeong : Are you pure HP build…;;;

They were right.

Unlike last season, I was a ranker debuffer this time.

And, trusting my fixed party members Ro and Proposal, I’d put all my points into HP and defense.

Unless a group of damage dealers focused me or there was another debuffer on my level, no one would be able to kill me.

“Oh, they’re back.”

Before long, Pineapple and Shinyeong reappeared.

Even after getting wrecked twice, they still hadn’t learned, attacking us again.

At least this time, they had a plan.

They targeted Proposal, who had the lowest ranking among us.

Pineapple came close as a decoy, while Shinyeong attacked Proposal from a distance.

“Can they hold out? Shinyeong’s rank should be a bit higher, right?”

Thankfully, Proposal didn’t go down easily.

[Party] Proposal : What the heck

[Party] Proposal : ?

As soon as Shinyeong attacked, Proposal instantly healed and used Sturdy Shield.

Then tossed a Red Tracker.

Shinyeong’s HP dropped by more than half in an instant, and with lowered fire resistance, they died on the spot.

It all happened in one or two seconds.

“Oh… That was amazing.”

After dealing with Pineapple the same way, I was honestly impressed by Proposal’s instincts.

Sturdy Shield is a one-time defensive skill that reflects a certain amount of received damage.

It sounds broken, but the success rate is really low, and it has a long cooldown.

Plus, if the enemy has high HP, the reflected damage is actually lower.

With the growth system, Another Server characters had way higher HP than the main server, so it was usually inefficient… but this time was different.

[Party] Ro : Ah, Shinyeong must’ve lowered HP and put more points in Mindㅎㅎ

[Party] Happy : Ohh!

[Party] Proposal : Lolㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Proposal : I just used it out of habit and it happened to workㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Ro : Anyway, nice

No wonder they attacked Proposal from the edge of the screen.

“Even if the shield was luck, their reflexes are amazing.”

Made me feel a little more confident about future games.

***

Even after that, Pineapple and Shinyeong kept challenging us.

But they never managed to win.

[Party] Proposal : Seriously, even with Happy, how do two mages never kill us once?

[Party] Proposal : Wasn’t Gomae supposed to come too?

[Party] Proposal : But even if they did, wouldn’t make a difference

[Party] Ro : Let’s just grind comfortably and deal with them as we goㅎㅎ

[Party] Happy : Alright, let’s go again

It was definitely PK, but there was no tension.

We just followed our route, hunted as usual, and killed Pineapple and Shinyeong on sight.

By about the sixth time—

[Whisper] Pineapple : sorry sorry

[Whisper] Pineapple : Please have mercyㅠㅠ

[Whisper] Pineapple : I was wrongㅠㅠ

“What are they even saying?”

It was ridiculous, but kind of funny.

[Party] Ro : I got a whisper

[Party] Proposal : Huh?

[Party] Proposal : Oh, me too

[Party] Proposal : They’re begging for mercyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Happy : They say they’re sorry?

[Party] Happy : ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

The three of us burst out laughing. Of course, we had no intention of letting them go.

[Party] Proposal : We can’t show mercy

[Party] Proposal : Right now they’re groveling because they’re outnumbered

[Party] Proposal : Just wait a few days

[Party] Ro : Bet they’ll gather a mob and come after usㅎㅎ

[Party] Proposal : So from now on, we just kill them on sight?

[Party] Ro : Hmm, let’s leave Karma alone for now

“True, they’re quietly grinding, and our main target is Hana Guild anyway.”

[Party] Proposal : Just leave them?? They’re high-level too, they’ll attack us eventually

[Party] Ro : If we make them our enemies now, it’ll be tough for us tooㅎㅎ

[Party] Proposal : True

We ignored Pineapple and Shinyeong’s pleas.

And after that, we killed them on sight every time.

Hana Guild was completely cut off from the desert.

“Hmm, is this okay?”

Sharing the desert peacefully with Karma’s party made me wonder for a moment.

“It’s self-defense, but… it does look kinda bad.”

Just as I was starting to worry about how this might look to the admins—

[Desert of No Return ― Global] Admin : Hello, this is the Admin.