Chapter 46: The Trauma of a Song

[Party] Haema: I think they’re nearbyㅋㅋ

[Party] Cheonjon: Hyung, just leave Mushin to me.

[Party] Cheonjon: I’ll sweep up everyone except Gomae.

“So I’m supposed to aggro Gomae and Mushin?”

With the sudden strike, only five of us were left in the party.

I thought Jelly would be really annoyed at our suggestion to do PK instead of grinding today, but… After spitting out what sounded like an order to only play for three hours, he went down to the village by himself.

(Chunhon)

[Failed at politics]

[Seems pissed]

(S)

[Always was a petty guy]

[Probably swearing like crazy right now]

[Telling his close friends to come quickly]

[Probably messaging them ㅇㅇ]

For a moment, I could almost see the guild’s grim future, but still, we just let Jelly’s petty and rude attitude slide.

Besides, none of us actually planned to fight all night.

We just wanted to roam the field until things got “fun(?)”.

“I found them.”

As soon as I spotted Mushin’s party along the path, a grin stretched across my face.

Suddenly, all the irritation from someone’s cheap political scheming melted away.

Absolute confidence that we’d win.

The primal thrill of seeing their frustrated faces.

My head felt as light as a feather, swept up in raw excitement.

[Party] Haema: Happy’s on the move!ㅋㅋㅋ

The moment Haema’s cluelessly excited chat popped up, I charged straight at Mushin and Gomae.

Both characters rushed over to intercept me.

[Gomae-nim has used a powerful taunt.]

It didn’t matter if I was locked down by the taunt.

Mushin’s attacks didn’t hurt anymore anyway, and I was just the bait.

While Mushin and Gomae reflexively blocked me—the troublesome one—Haema squeezed in by my side and yanked Mushin away.

Pinned down, Mushin accidentally struck me, and Cheonjon slipped in for a clean hit.

Flames burst from Cheonjon’s character, and the ground-rending effect took out Pineapple, Shinyeong, Inspector, and Hannari, who were gathered nearby.

“Seriously, you get more monstrous every time.”

It’s only natural since the subs keep grinding even when we’re off sleeping, but… Every time I see it, I can’t help but be impressed.

[Party] Chunhon: Shot

I wanted to clap too, but the remaining two came first.

As soon as I broke free from Gomae’s taunt, I laid all the debuffs I’d held back on the surviving Mushin and Gomae.

Meanwhile, Haema, who had deliberately kept his distance, rushed in and switched places with Cheonjon.

With Mushin caught by a powerful taunt, Cheonjon, Ro, and Chunhon launched a joint attack.

Even if it was a potion fight, Ro was still the number three dealer, so there was a limit to how long Mushin could last.

Desperate to take out Chunhon at least, Mushin just got pummeled until he finally went down.

Now, all that was left was to deal with Gomae… but it looked a bit tough.

“If that’s the case……”

Watching quietly, I simply walked back and dragged a whole bunch of mobs over.

[Party] Chunhon: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Haema: Happy-nim, you’re so meanㅠㅠ

Since monsters attack whoever’s closest, Gomae, unable to run far, was quickly surrounded and trapped.

Monster attack from the eight o’clock direction.

And from even further away, terrifying attacks from mages rained down.

Gomae couldn’t withstand his rapidly dropping gauge and died.

[Party] Cheonjon: To the entrance, let’s go

Before we could even feel satisfied with the now pleasant map, cleared of corpses, we hurried toward the entrance. The vengeful Mushin party would surely enter the grasslands again.

[Party] Chunhon: Let’s tail them persistently todayㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Ro: That three-second invincibility is annoying, let’s sidestep a bit

[Party] Haema: This is where their hunting route starts

We deliberately hid, and Mushin’s party, not suspecting a thing, entered and got wiped out again.

This time, it was even faster.

Maybe because of that, on the third round, they seemed a bit more cautious.

Realizing I was the bait, they tried to ignore me on purpose.

“I knew it……”

I had an aggro plan ready.

The infamous Unlucky Song.

The skill that had humiliated Mushin during the guild war!

When I cast Unlucky Song on Mushin as he tried to pass by, he reacted instantly, just as I expected.

Of course, it didn’t actually land.

But for Mushin, it was a major trauma.

The aggro effect was enormous.

[Mushin-nim has used Blazing Flames.]

[Mushin-nim has used Blazing Flames.]

[Mushin-nim has used Crimson Pursuit.]

[Mushin-nim has used Blazing Flames.]

Knowing it wouldn’t work, Mushin still unleashed his rage at me.

Still, my character steadfastly went through the Unlucky Song skill motion.

The party chat was filled with ‘ㅋㅋㅋㅋ’.

[Party] Haema: Mushin’s rage button got pressedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Ro: Mind games ㄷㄷ

[Party] Cheonjon: I heard the outcome of a game depends on who can piss off the opponent more

With Mushin locked on me and frantically spamming single-target skills, Gomae rushed over to help.

Once again, I got caught in Gomae’s taunt and couldn’t move, but it was fine.

Now Mushin’s attacks couldn’t faze me at all.

Instead, Haema took the chance to grab and hold Mushin.

From there, it was the same pattern as before.

[Party] Chunhon: It’s interesting

[Party] Chunhon: If they tried harder, it feels like they could at least go back and forth

[Party] Haema: No way, as long as Happy-nim’s here, it’s impossibleㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Haema: Unless Inspector or Hannari gets into the top five…ㅋㅋㅋ

Of course, that wasn’t going to happen… So we leisurely crushed Mushin’s party for a while.

After about ten repeats, Mushin’s party seemed to give up and didn’t show up on the grasslands anymore.

“Their next destination is obvious.”

[Party] Haema: Ruins, let’s go

Originally, Mushin’s party would hunt in the lower-level grasslands to avoid us, so this time they ran off to the ruins to dodge us.

But unfortunately for them… We had the advantage in the ruins.

[Party] Chunhon: Hannari’s like a sunfish

[Party] Ro: Probably still can’t survive here

[Party] Cheonjon: They’re saving us the trouble by mob-dying, thanks

[Party] Haema: All I need to do is pull a bunch of mobs, right?ㅋㅋㅋ

No matter how many skills Mushin used, he couldn’t cover every direction.

Hannari, hopping like a startled rabbit, would die instantly to any ranged monster.

If not him, Pineapple, Shinyeong, Inspector—users ranked lower than us—couldn’t withstand the mobs and got knocked out one after another.

[Party] Chunhon: This place is funㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Cheonjon: I didn’t even touch them and they just died on their own

[Party] Haema: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Later, they’d get spooked by the mobs we dragged over, retreat, get separated, and die alone.

A complete mess, nothing less.

[Party] Happy: They say late-game turns into a mob-die battle

[Party] Happy: I get it nowㅋㅋ

[Party] Haema: Fun, right?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ?

Even so, Mushin was persistent, not giving up despite the humiliating losing streak and kept challenging the ruins.

But that didn’t last long—after a few more mob-deaths, he got mad and suddenly stopped coming.

[Party] Ro: Why aren’t they coming?

[Party] Happy: Did they go back to the grasslands?

[Party] Cheonjon: Probably rage-quit again

[Party] Haema: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Chunhon: Anyone in town?

[Guild] Chunhon: Anyone see Mushin’s party?

[Guild] Blue: Town

[Guild] Blue: All six of them are waiting in front of the portal ㅇㅇ

[Guild] Blue: They look spaced out

[Guild] Chunhon: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Taki: Bullying Mushin’s group again?

The news of Mushin’s party being forced to rest gave us another surge of satisfaction.

[Party] Haema: What should we do?

[Party] Haema: I bet they’ll sneak back to the grasslands in a bit

[Party] Haema: Wait in ambush?

[Party] Chunhon: Gotta let them breathe a bit

[Party] Cheonjon: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] Chunhon: Let’s fake like we’re grinding again here

[Party] Haema: But don’t we need Woong’s character if we’re going to hunt?

[Party] Ro: Gotta call himㅎㅎ

Even for a while, we couldn’t leave Woong’s character out.

So Haema sent Woong a whisper.

But Woong—no, Jelly—didn’t answer.

It’d only been an hour, but he really planned to AFK for the full three hours.

[Party] Haema: Not answering whispers or messagesㅠㅠ

[Party] Haema: Feels weird to call him in the middle of the night

[Party] Cheonjon: We’ll just do a quick run by ourselves

[Party] Haema: Is that okay…?

[Party] Chunhon: We can’t all go AFK just because of him

[Party] Chunhon: Besides, they won’t rest for long

[Party] Haema: Hmm;;

Knowing Jelly’s personality, Haema hesitated for a while.

But as Chunhon said, we couldn’t rest just because of him.

Eventually, Haema agreed and took the lead.

So for about thirty minutes, the five of us kept at it.

After that, Mushin’s party moved again, and we chased them down for some more thrilling PK fun.

Jelly appeared right on the dot at three.

[Party] Woong: You could’ve at least called me

[Party] Woong: If I fall behind Cheonjon in experience, noona will hate it

He made his dissatisfaction very clear, killing the party mood yet again.

I really wanted to punch him.

Haema awkwardly soothed him until he finally went quiet, but after that he barely said a word.

Well, whatever, we kept chatting excitedly about PK amongst ourselves.

Feeling a little guilty for leaving Jelly out, I tried to include him in the conversation a few times.

But as usual, the narrow-minded Jelly only gave curt, unenthusiastic replies.

After two or three repeats, we gave up on him.

That’s how another slightly awkward pre-dawn passed.

And then, morning.

After a short sleep, I looked back at my monitor.

Except for the day-shift subs, I was number one today.

Still half-asleep, staring blankly at the screen, the wildness of last night came back to me.

It really… was fun.

“Ah… Just thinking about grinding again is boring.”

I shouldn’t be saying this already.

My motivation took a hit.

“It’s all Jelly’s fault.”

I blamed the guild atmosphere to motivate myself.

“But, if I go hunting all lethargic, I’ll just get bored even faster.”

Frowning at the sluggishness, the rampage in the desert yesterday suddenly flashed through my mind.

“Should I go for a bit?”

Motivation, barely the size of a fingernail, started to bubble up again.

Knowing the desert users would hate it, I giggled and clicked my mouse.

[Desert of No Return ― World] WaterIsSelf: Here you are again ㄷㄷ

[Desert of No Return ― World] MapleLeaf: 111111111

A strange signal seemed to ring between them, but I pretended not to notice.

“Bebe, Ghost, that’s too much. They’re here again?”

Nice to see you.

After greeting them by myself, I immediately cast a debuff.

But maybe because of the memory of what happened yesterday, all three of them bolted for the entrance without even trying to resist.

“Uh, if you run away too fast, this won’t work……”

There weren’t any mobs nearby to finish them off.

WaterIsSelf? That one subtly followed me around, clearing a straight path.

Feeling like I might lose all three without getting anything, I hesitated, wondering if I should call a guildmate.

“Wait?”

From up ahead, six characters with the Hana guild mark came running toward me.

Since they couldn’t handle me alone, they must’ve called in some top rankers.

“A cheap 6:1, huh……”

But I wasn’t the least bit nervous. There’s no way it was Mushin’s party.

They had to hunt while I was gone, no way they’d waste time on this.

“Wow.”

When I checked the names of the characters approaching, a huge smile spread across my face.

Because ‘Hope’ was in their party.