Chapter 18: Favoritism for the Foul-Mouthed

[Guild] Chorok: Inspector = On patrol. Early 30s.

[Guild] Chorok: Nu = Ma. This one’s a woman.

[Guild] Chorok: Gomae = Vitamin. This one’s kind of normal.

[Guild] Chorok: Cheotnun = Cheonga. This one's relatively calm. Probably going to be vice guild master again this time?

[Guild] Chorok: Pineapple = Guksan. Said he's from Geoje?

[Guild] Chorok: Shinyeong didn't play last season. But is friends with Apple.

[Guild] Chorok: And also……

Of all the endless streams of personal info pouring out, my eyes landed on the name Pineapple.

“Wait. Pineapple is Guksan?”

Well, sure. It would be nice if Pineapple was Guksan.

“…No, wait! Guksan, it was that bastard?!”

I still haven’t forgotten.

Season 15, the desert. The guys who mocked us mercilessly when we lost.

On patrol. Ma. Guksan.

They even laughed and looked down on us in global chat, like they wanted to make sure we heard.

And they even crossed the line with personal insults…….

It was so unforgettable I still remember their IDs.

But Pineapple, who was teasing me just the other day, turns out to be that Guksan?

“Wow. No wonder, I thought their way of speaking was oddly irritating…!”

[Guild] Ro: Now I get it.

[Guild] Cheonghon: Why, what is it??

When Cheonghon heard about that unpleasant incident from last season, she flared up.

[Guild] Cheonghon: Wait, that really happened??

[Guild] Cheonghon: I remember the ones mentioned, ㅡㅡ

[Guild] Baegopa: They're the rudestㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Chorok: The most hopeless one over there was Hope, the one who won

[Guild] Chorok: Even their guild doesn’t like them muchㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Haema: But Hope was the one who played the guild master’s main character for a long time

[Guild] Haema: Kind of has some connections, I guessㅋㅋ

Chorok filled us in on other things too.

But the presence of On patrol, Guksan, and Ma was so strong that my attention was fixated on them.

“This season, Pineapple, Inspector, Nu, and Hope—those four can’t be left alone, right?”

With a bit of pent-up emotion, I started to… “favor” those four the most.

Whenever I met them, I’d unleash a full set of debuffs as a gift. If time allowed, I’d make sure to stick around and torment them to the end.

[Party] Cheonghon: If you mob-die, don’t you drop more XP and junk loot?

[Party] Cheonghon: Let’s mob-die gogo

As expected, Cheonghon knows what’s up.

[Party] Haema: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Wow, not even thirty minutes in

[Party] Haema: And we’re on a 7-win streak, is this for real?

Just like Haema said, we’d been winning non-stop ever since we hit the plains.

Not only that, but Haema and I hadn’t died even once yet.

Compared to the opposing party, Gomae and Inspector, who were the same class as us, and had already died multiple times, it was almost laughable.

The winning streak was getting boring, so Cheonghon spoke up.

[Party] Cheonghon: Why are they so bad??

[Party] Cheonghon: They’re in their thirties, it’s not like their fingers are stiff, ㅡㅡ

That’s true. And apparently most of them used to play sub-accounts on the main server, which makes it even stranger.

With MonWorld’s nature, most of the grinding is done by sub-account users.

Main server guilds are just like Another, fighting and bickering every day.

But for sub-accounts, who are basically PK professionals, to play like that—it’s just odd.

[Party] Woong: Their debuffer is way behind compared to Happy-nim, and

[Party] Woong: They’ve got a bomb among their dealersㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Haema: Inspector used to be a mage, what kind of confidence made them go debuffer?ㅋㅋ

[Party] Woong: No matter how good the other four are, if two mess up, there’s no hope

[Party] Cheonghon: Now that you mention it, I haven’t been hit with many debuffs at all, ㅡㅡ

[Party] Haema: And Ro-nim and Cheonghon-nim are just too outstandingㅠㅠ

[Party] Haema: Even in 1:1s, you’d win easily~ㅋㅋ

[Party] Cheonghon: Aww

[Party] Cheonghon: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Oh, such obvious lip service.

But honestly, it doesn’t feel bad.

So we swept through the plains, chatting lightly.

Fighting and leveling up was exhausting. Plus, we had to coordinate with the fixed party members. It was a grueling schedule, but we adjusted quickly.

Even with the awkward and unfamiliar guild members, just exchanging greetings and chatting helped.

Still, I hadn’t quite adapted to the unique, earthy chat vibe of the older guys.

More than that, I still didn’t know who was who, so there wasn’t much conversation.

Especially for characters like Cheonjon and Woong, when their sub-account users were playing, there were times the main players weren’t in the chat.

It was a bit tricky, but in combat, I was thoroughly satisfied.

With just Ro, Cheonghon, and me, we’d never have felt this kind of high.

The PK scale was bigger, the matches more stable, and the freedom relieved my thirst for excitement.

Since it was a guild battle, the Hana guild kept showing up on the plains despite the embarrassment.

With constant PKs, I was thrilled.

“As long as I don’t attack fellow guildmates, I can take down anyone. This is awesome!”

The hunting grounds were dominated by Karma and Hana, but occasionally, there were exceptions.

[Guild] Goteamjang: Sword Saint’s here.

[Guild] Woong: ㅡㅡ

Currently ranked 10th, Sword Saint was the guild master of the Newbie Guild.

The Newbie Guild was what you’d call a “sacred and inviolable” group.

If you saw a user with a chick-yellow icon, you never touched them.

If you did, the admins would warn you.

Apparently, a main server user created the guild to protect newbies.

But really, they only protected actual low-levels, so if you were strong enough to clear the ‘Ruined Temple’ map, like Jiho and me last season, you’d get kicked out and lose protection.

Instead, the guild master Sword Saint, who guarded them, was basically a walking “sacred and inviolable” sign…

Rumor had it, even the most rotten players didn’t mess with them.

“Oh… this is my first time seeing the character in person. That’s cool.”

They’d ranked high every season, so I wondered where they hid, but I guess they just hunted quietly alone.

[Guild] Gakdagwi: Ah, gotta sprinkle some salt~~~

[Guild] Woong: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Chorok: That’s annoying, seriously

“Hmm? The mood’s off…”

For some reason, Karma guild’s response was negative.

No specific subject, but from the context, they were clearly talking about Sword Saint.

“Why? Do they not like the fact that someone made a guild for newbie protection?”

Well, if you think about it, it makes sense.

A regular user, not even an admin, acting as an intermediary to protect newbies—it’s understandable that the jaded players wouldn’t look kindly on it.

And honestly, the Newbie Guild does have a weirdly jaded atmosphere for a guild meant for newbies.

When I returned to Another server, I’d monitored the guild chat to get a feel for the vibe. There was always an undercurrent.

Users from Karma or Hana would throw subtle shade at individuals or groups.

With anonymity and safety guaranteed, people spoke their minds—sometimes even crossing the line.

Were we talked about? Of course.

Speculation about personal info, suspicions, rumor-mongering—there was all kinds of talk, even while we were logged in.

Eventually, I just turned off the guild chat mid-season.

“Seeing that, maybe the Newbie Guild isn’t well managed either…”

Anyway, the uncomfortable vibe toward Sword Saint didn’t last long.

The Mushin party appeared in front of us again.

[Party] Cheonjon: Mushin, Pineapple, Shinyeong, target them first

With the guild master’s order, I rushed forward.

Gomae immediately tried to pull me in, but I didn’t care.

For me, it was a chance.

I stuck close to Gomae and used Unlucky Song so they couldn’t use skills.

Gomae and I were just one rank apart. Surprisingly, the skill worked easily.

“They said the closer you are, the higher the success rate for Unlucky Song. Guess it’s true?”

Then I dove into a screen full of mage attack skills.

Once I joined in, it felt like all three of their attacks focused on me… But I hung in there and cast Crumbling Skin on Mushin.

Mushin was the #1 ranked character.

Lately, they’d been leveling up like crazy, pulling far ahead even of Cheonjon, who was just behind them.

Even Ro and Cheonghon struggled with Mushin, so I started by lowering their defense to make things easier.

After that, they got hit with slow and even skill block, and Mushin started retreating, flustered.

Pineapple and Shinyeong put extra effort into trying to kill me.

Inspector even tried to sneak in and join.

But Inspector was Woong’s responsibility. Woong deliberately changed direction and hounded Inspector relentlessly.

Not only was Inspector bombarded by Woong’s archer attacks and skills, but our party’s mages joined in as well, so Inspector couldn’t hold out long.

“I’m sure they shifted their stats for max HP. How can they not survive? Is it the ranking?”

Inspector is currently in the high teens. If the gap below the top ten is that big, I guess it makes sense.

“Ah… there they go running again.”

It had been the same pattern all along.

If Mushin’s party lost more than two, they’d suddenly retreat.

“Are they just trying to keep their death count low since they know they’ll lose anyway?”

As I guessed, I kept frantically clicking my mouse.

Before, even if a few slipped away during the fight, we wouldn’t chase. But now, no way.

Maybe because it was a guild vs. guild war, everyone was determined to wipe out the enemy to the ends of the earth.

“Feels just like a real turf war on the plains.”

So the Hana guild resorted to sneaking onto the map and hunting like thieves.

Of course, we still had the upper hand, and Hana got wiped every time.

The only time things evened out was when the three of us left to eat, sleep, or take breaks.

So every time we logged in, the Karma guild greeted us with enthusiasm.

[Guild] Haema: We’ve been waiting for youㅠㅠㅠㅠ

[Guild] Chorok: But why do the three of you always log in and out together— ㅡㅋㅋ

[Guild] Chorok: Are you triplets??ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Taki: We need an emergency contact system!!!!

Day four since joining the guild.

At last, talk of sharing contact info came up.

Of course, we weren’t close enough to share, so Karma only mentioned it in passing—they didn’t directly ask us.

Instead……

(Bae Hojun)

[What is this]

[Why are these people so nice it’s scary]

(Kwon Aran)

[It’s not just me who feels pressured, right?]

(Jung Jiho)

[It is pretty overwhelming, haha]

(Bae Hojun)

[At least we’re not broke anymore]

Just yesterday, we were worried about potion costs, but at perfect timing, the Karma officers started offering financial support.

They told us to use the guild vault funds anytime we wanted.

It felt kind of sketchy, so we tried not to use it—but we were too broke not to.

So we only took out the minimum for potions.

(Jung Jiho)

[We’ll have to pay it back later, haha]

[But by then, the value will have dropped a lot…]

(Bae Hojun)

[Can we just get to the guild war already ㅡ ㅡ]

[They said the rewards go straight to the participants]

The much-anticipated guild war coming up in a couple of days was our hope.

The reward for victory was sent directly to personal mailboxes.

Each person got 30 million won.

We spent over 3 million won a day just on potions, so if we won every week, we’d never have to worry about potion money again.

Besides, the usual PK was getting boring.

We needed some excitement, even a small change, and the guild war was a ray of hope.

And before we knew it, the day of the long-awaited guild war finally dawned.