Chapter 40: The Empty Throne

For a while, ‘ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ’ filled the screen.

At the news of the rage quit, I laughed too for a moment.

But it wasn’t something to just laugh about.

Quitting out of anger while gaming.

Yeah, that happens.

“But this is a Guild War, and he’s the Guildmaster, right? Even if it’s just a game, shouldn’t he know the difference between business and pleasure?”

The Hana Guild that was left behind would figure things out for themselves, but for those of us who remained, I didn’t know what we were supposed to do.

At the very least, he should have given us a heads-up.

Just as I was frowning at my own pointless serious thoughts, INFP opened his mouth.

—We may not always aim for fair play, but for an influential Guildmaster to leave without notice is definitely rude to us.

[Party] Ro: Exactly.

[Party] Ro: If Mushin drops out here, it’s basically game over.

[Party] Proposal: Yeah, they can just leave with him, but

[Party] Proposal: We’re stuck waiting until they tell us what’s going onㅡㅡ

The chat window, which had been buzzing with laughter, slowly grew quiet.

[Guild] Hungry: Trueㅡ ㅡㅋ it’s not like we’re allies.

[Guild] Reaper: He can leave out of anger, but the Guildmaster shouldn’t.

[Guild] Blue: Don’t tell me even Hana Guild’s people got abandoned?

[Guild] Bambi: So what do we do now?

[Guild] Midge: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Ah

[Guild] Woong: Freaking rude bastards.

[Guild] Woong: If they’re quitting, they should at least forfeit instead of keeping us hanging.

[Guild] Assassin: Shouldn’t we call them out right away?ㅎㅎ

[Guild] Chief Go: Hmm.

An awkward silence fell.

And the funny thing is…

If we call them out in public chat now, it’ll prove we’ve been eavesdropping on Hana Guild’s situation, which would make things really awkward.

—Let’s wait a bit. Mushin might come back.

INFP calmed the guild members, saying Hana Guild wouldn’t just stand by and suggested we observe for a while.

But even as five minutes passed, nearly ten, nothing changed.

[Guild] Taki: There’s like 30 minutes left, what are they planningㅋㅋㅋㅋ ffs

[Guild] Chief Go: Maybe it’s time we said something?

[Guild] Woong: Who’s their Vice Guildmaster?

[Guild] Woong: If the Guildmaster’s gone, the Vice should take responsibilityㅡ ㅡ

[Guild] Woong: Why aren’t they responding yet?

“What is this? Why does it look like they’re targeting INFP to me?”

Maybe I had some strange filter on, but people’s words felt twisted. Right then, my monitor shook.

“Another boss?!”

It wasn’t odd since it was a random spawn, but the timing felt off.

Still, since it appeared, we couldn’t just ignore it, so everyone dove in like machines.

“Wow. Even as we’re fighting right in front of them, they don’t even try to come in. No matter how tough Celestial is, still…….”

At this point, it felt like they’d basically given up on the game.

After the boss died, the guild chat buzzed again.

[Hana Guild: 8,750 points]

[Karma Guild: 19,450 points]

[Guild] Green: Look at that point gapㅡ ㅡㅋㅋ

[Guild] Trauma: If we just hold until 10, do we win again?ㅋㅋ

—It’s been over ten minutes. We’re not waiting any longer.

The moment INFP declared this, Hana Guild, who’d been grouped together, suddenly started to withdraw.

Looking at the route, they were heading to the east base. For a moment, I wondered if it was some kind of strategy.

[Guild] Chief Go: No way, are they logging off??

[Guild] Blue: Whoa.

[Guild] Hungry: Anyone got an alt in their town??

[Guild] Chief Go: I’ll go check.

Twenty seconds later.

[Guild] Chief Go: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Chief Go: They all went back to townㅠㅠ

[Guild] Taki: Crazy.

Looks like they all left the map on their own.

[Mining Site – Public] INFP: Hana Guild folks,

[Mining Site – Public] INFP: What is going on right now?

[Mining Site – Public] INFP: Are you not going to play anymore?

[Mining Site – Public] INFP: Where did Mushin go?

[Mining Site – Public] Hanna: I’m sorry.

Out of the now sparse group, Hanna, wearing a silver star badge, came running over.

—Vice Guildmaster is coming. Cease attack.

Since it was a meeting between Vice Guildmasters, INFP asked for everyone to be on their best behavior.

Accordingly, Celestial and Haema moved to the back.

Soon Hanna reached the center. INFP also stepped forward to meet her.

But just then, an arrow flew toward Hanna.

Swish, swish.

Right after the simple sound of the arrow, the death effect for buffer characters played as Hanna collapsed.

—Ah…….

[Guild] Blue: Whoa, she died.

[Guild] Woong: Ah, sorry, didn’t think she’d die from a normal hit.

[Guild] Woong: But two arrows fired by accident;

[Guild] Taki: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Freaking hilarious.

[Guild] Midge: Woong, you punk, we all know you did it on purpose~ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Bambi: ;;;

[Guild] Assassin: ㅡ.ㅡ

“Jeez, that guy, seriously…….”

The person who was getting mad at the other side for being rude was even ruder, which was just hilarious.

But maybe they thought nothing of it, since some of the guild members just laughed heartily.

It was definitely out of line, but even the Vice Guildmaster, INFP, could only sigh in annoyance.

“Hm… That’s not right.”

Sensing something odd, Hanna didn’t even care about dying and started to explain the situation.

[Mining Site – Public] Hanna: Sorry. Something urgent came up in our guild. We’ll forfeit here.

[Mining Site – Public] Hanna: We lost.

After repeating her apology and declaring their surrender, Hanna only respawned after hearing INFP’s confirmation.

So the second Guild War ended with thirty minutes left, another win for us.

Even the GM got called out and stamped it with a system message.

A win is a win, but it felt so empty that I was speechless.

But rather than feeling empty, everyone was caught up with Mushin’s story.

[Guild] Taki: So what exactly happenedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

With demands flooding in from all sides, Haema finally started to spill the ‘tea.’

[Guild] Haema: Looking at their chat logs, it seems they actually had a decent planㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Haema: When we pushed them earlier, their mood seemed pretty goodㅋㅋ

[Guild] Haema: But when Happy got Immortal again, they got annoyed.

[Guild] Haema: Looks like they were pressuring the DPS to kill Happy first.

[Guild] Haema: They didn’t want Celestial to get more killsㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Haema: They were trash-talking, saying there’s no way Happy would get Immortal this time, and then a fight broke outㅋㅋ

[Guild] Haema: When Happy actually did get Immortal, Mushin lost it and started swearing.

[Guild] Haema: Right after dying, he yelled in shout chat and just logged outㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Haema: They say he’s not even picking up his phone right nowㅋ.ㅋ.ㅋ.ㅋ.ㅋ

[Guild] Hungry: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

“Hm…….”

Honestly, earlier I’d thought Mushin was just being unreasonable, but as I sipped on my canned drink and thought about it, I could kind of understand.

“I mean, if I were Mushin… I probably would’ve smashed everything already.”

I looked at my barely surviving mouse and nodded.

“If you’re hard-carrying by yourself, and your guildmates are that uncooperative, you’d definitely get pissed…….”

It was amazing he’d even managed to put up with that bunch of amateurs for so long.

Anyway, we won, so all’s well that ends well. Word hasn’t gotten out yet, but it will soon enough… and Hana Guild’s reputation just took a nosedive.

Maybe that’s why the guild chat was in a party mood.

No clue about voice chat since they logged off right away, but it was probably the same over there.

[Party] Celestial: Great job, everyone~

[Party] Ro: Thanks for your workㅎㅎ

Even after the closing greetings, the party stayed together.

Maybe it was because both sides had a good impression of each other, but cheerful chatter continued for a while.

[Party] Ro: Wonder if next week will be more fun.

[Party] Celestial: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Let’s just hope their guild doesn’t implode first.

[Party] Happy: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] INFP: Happy, you really did a great job this time.

[Party] Ariel: Yeah, you basically made history.

[Party] Ro: ㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] INFP: Ro and Proposal were both amazing too.

[Party] Celestial: Your execution was seriously good.

[Party] Ariel: How do you two sync up so well?ㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Ro: INFP and S really helped, and Goni worked hard tooㅎㅎ

The compliments about each other were so sweet it was almost cringe-inducing.

Then, just as everyone was about to die from the embarrassment, Proposal, who’d been quiet the whole time, threw a curveball.

[Party] Proposal: By the way, is Jelly always like that?

“Wow.”

There was clear displeasure towards Jelly in that blunt question.

Of course, I felt the same. Ro probably did too.

That’s why I’d expected us to talk about this in a private chat, but Proposal threw the topic right into the party, making me swallow dryly.

[Party] Proposal: This might be a little rude to say out of nowhere,

[Party] Proposal: But since the Vice Guildmaster is here, and it’d be awkward to bring up in guild chat,

[Party] Proposal: I want to ask as a fellow guild member.

[Party] INFP: Hmm.

[Party] Proposal: Even if it’s just a game, this is a team battle.

[Party] Proposal: He ran around alone the whole Guild War, didn’t listen to anyone,

[Party] Proposal: And even at the end, he clearly crossed the line.

[Party] Proposal: Maybe people who’ve known him for a long time can just laugh it off,

[Party] Proposal: But as someone who’s basically a stranger, it really bothered me.

[Party] Proposal: I’m starting to wonder if it’s even okay to keep playing with someone I can’t trust.

Proposal had pointed out Jelly’s faults one by one… In other words, why is that guy always acting out— that’s what he meant.

And well, we weren’t exactly close, so it took some courage to call it out. I respected Proposal for that.

[Party] INFP: Happy, Ro, do you feel the same?

[Party] Happy: Yes, I felt the same way.

[Party] Ro: Yes.

[Party] INFP: If that’s how you felt, then that’s what matters.

[Party] INFP: I’m sorry for not handling it better.

[Party] INFP: Sorry.

[Party] Celestial: Hey, no.

[Party] Celestial: Why are you apologizing? Jelly’s the one who should be apologizing.

“Uh… Is this going to make things awkward?”

Just as that thought crossed my mind, a message popped up.

(Bae Hojun)

[???]

[Did I mess up??]

[ㅠㅠ]

(Jung Jiho)

[ㄷㄷ]

Even Proposal, who’d brought it up, was nervous, and so were we all, but thankfully S’s anger wasn’t directed at us.

[Party] Celestial: Just like you thought, Samhyungje, that jerk’s always been a weirdo.

[Party] Celestial: That crazy co-op account acts like he owns the placeㅡㅡ

[Party] Ariel: Yeah, he’s kind of strange.

[Party] Ariel: The guild people are just used to him, that’s all.

[Party] Ariel: We don’t say anything just to avoid drama.

[Party] Proposal: Wait, really??

[Party] Proposal: He’s definitely done something huge and stupid before, hasn’t he?

[Party] Proposal: Weren’t there any problems on the main server?

[Party] Celestial: Even if there were, what can you do?ㅋㅋ

[Party] Ro: ???

[Party] Ariel: He’s basically the real boss hereㅋㅋㅋㅋ

“The real boss? What’s that supposed to mean?”

I could smell guild politics from here.

The moment I found out, I’d probably get more entangled with them.

And we might even get dragged into their faction wars.

But the lure of dopamine was too strong to stop now.

How could anyone resist hearing this kind of secret?

By the time I came to my senses, we were all glued to the party chat.

[Party] Ariel: Prpi,

[Party] Ariel: Is it okay to say it?

[Party] INFP: Hmm.

INFP seemed a bit hesitant.

Well, it wasn’t easy to share the inner workings of the guild with people who weren’t original members, so I understood.

But maybe because he trusted us, or maybe because he’d had no one to confide in until now, he finally started explaining himself.

It began with the story of Celestial and Woong, the married couple.