Chapter 24: A Public Humiliation

[Bizert Village ― All] WaterIsSelf: Huh?

[Guild] Hungry: Oh~ The GM has appeared lolol

At the single line of the admin's chat, announced across the entire Another server, a hush fell over everyone.

There was some murmuring, but most people, knowing why the admin had appeared, just quietly watched.

“Wow. The GM popped out all of a sudden.”

Judging from the mood, it was obvious that Heavenly Lord had summoned them.

It was surprising how quickly they appeared, but… thinking back to what happened in the desert last time, it wasn’t that strange.

“Well, even when Pineapple was blocked from joining, the GM came right away and spewed some nonsense.”

Whether that had been at the summons of the Hana Guild’s God of War alone, or combined with Karma Heavenly Lord’s voice, nobody knew, but in any case, the status of these two guild masters was already proven.

Moreover, this server was created in the first place based on the requests of the whales from the main server.

Heavenly Lord and God of War were active on the main server; whether whales themselves or in those circles, it was clear enough.

[All] Admin: It seems a user has raised a question regarding the guild war results.

The admin denied the suspicion directly.

[All] Admin: Some are saying there might have been a bug, but that’s absolutely not true. This guild war was conducted under the supervision of three admins, including myself.

[All] Admin: We have checked the play videos and system logs of the MVP characters, and found no problems whatsoever.

[All] Admin: Yet, to mention bugs and raise suspicions about the results is, in our view, a sign of distrust toward the admin team—going further, it maligns the Monster World staff. That is why I am stepping in now.

[All] Admin: Once again, I assure you, there were no issues during this guild war. Since guild wars are official events, our admin team thoroughly checks every aspect with utmost sincerity.

[All] Admin: So I sincerely ask you to refrain from making any further baseless accusations. If any users still have doubts, please inquire through the official website’s suggestion board.

[All] Admin: Lastly, know that the entire admin team is watching.

[All] Admin: That is all.

[All] Admin: Sorry for dampening the mood on an otherwise pleasant weekend night so suddenly^^;

[All] Admin: Quietly spreading a full buff… I’ll take my leave now^^

No sooner had the heavy, speech-like explanation ended than fireworks exploded throughout the entire village.

With the admin buff, a sparkling purple diamond effect shimmered over every character’s head.

“In short, the admin team isn’t stupid. Did Firebird’s nonsense bruise their pride a little?”

And that last warning. The admin team is watching, huh. It felt like a very pointed shot at someone.

“Wait, all of them?”

As I furrowed my brow at the strange feeling, the chat window exploded in chaos.

As soon as the admin left, the users jumped in with comments as if they had been waiting for it.

[Bizert Village ― All] WaterIsSelf: See, I told you it wasn’t meㅠ

[Bizert Village ― All] BossOfTheOrganization: lololololololol Got totally wrecked in public

[Bizert Village ― All] Baeksuda: Thanks to whoever it was, I got the admin buff, thank you so much!

[Bizert Village ― All] Conjurer: Who are you! You know nothing!

[Normal] MapleLeaf: FFS, they’re putting buffers to shame

[Bizert Village ― All] Harmo: Hey, the one who said it was a bug, show yourself! Where’d you go?

[Bizert Village ― All] BossOfTheOrganization: Panty run? lololololololol

Despite the mockery from the low-levels, the Hana Guild stayed completely silent.

Meanwhile, the Karma Guild chat was plastered with laughter at the obvious outcome.

[Guild] Green: They’re real idiots lololololol

[Guild] ManagerGo: Their higher-ups must be nuts too

[Guild] ManagerGo: Even if they push this claim, they’re just spitting in their own faces

[Guild] ManagerGo: Why didn’t they stop that nonsense?

[Guild] Woong: Firebird? That’s just a newbie who didn’t even rank

[Guild] INFP: If they were really from the Hana Guild, they’d have no reason to spout such crap, hmm

[Guild] Ariel: So what’s Hope then?

[Guild] Taki: Sis, that one’s just a moron

[Guild] Gadfly: Hey, Firebird—whose alt are they? lololol

[Guild] Haema: lololololol Not me, seriously!!

As all sorts of nonsense flew around, Heavenly Lord beamed.

[Party] Heavenly Lord: You don’t need to worry about it anymore^^

[Party] Heavenly Lord: Sorry I couldn’t respond immediately, as a guild master and all

[Party] Happy: Ah, not at all lolol

[Party] Proposal: I lost my words when the admin showed up lolol

[Party] Proposal: Is this for real?

[Party] Ro: Dang…

[Party] Heavenly Lord: lololol

[Party] Haema: I’m really sorry againㅠㅠ

The awkward atmosphere gradually cleared, and peace returned.

“It’s really weird. The admin tried to kick us out for going between Karma and Hana, but the moment I join Karma, I’m suddenly under their protection…”

I let out a hollow laugh at the strong backing. At the same time, the dirty and transparent structure of Another Server felt especially bitter.

[Party] Proposal: So there are multiple admins?

[Party] Heavenly Lord: As far as I know, there are six or seven^^

[Party] Proposal: I thought it’d be a skeleton crew since it’s a dead game lolol

[Party] Haema: Until I heard that, I thought it was a one-man company~k

[Party] Woong: Anyway, now that it’s all wrapped up, let’s hit the plains gogo

Once that ridiculous episode was over, the party headed straight to the plains.

A few minutes later, the previously silent Hana Guild began to slip into the plains one by one.

With everyone already annoyed at Hana Guild’s stupid behavior, both our party and Manager Go’s party went wild, determined to wipe out the enemy.

I busily spun Black Melody to dispel the admin buff from the other party.

Thanks to that, I managed to dispel buffs from everyone except God of War. The admin buff on me also helped a lot in surviving God of War’s attacks.

But the situation wasn’t as it used to be.

“Wow, God of War really…”

As shown in the 9 o’clock guild war, Woong was the first to fall, unable to escape God of War’s overpowered skill attack.

Their side also lost their Inspector to Heavenly Lord’s skill.

Because of that, our admin buff was less dispelled, but honestly, it was still dangerous.

“I almost died too.”

As I barely withstood the dealers’ combined assault and breathed a sigh of relief, Heavenly Lord jumped in to block God of War’s path.

Meanwhile, Haema provoked the surviving enemy dealers and immediately pulled them over to keep them in check.

The top priority, of course, was Pineapple.

I delivered a comprehensive debuff to Gourmet and the dealers in order.

Ro and Proposal unleashed a relentless barrage of skills at Pineapple.

Up to that point, everything was going smoothly.

“Good. Pineapple’s down, and Hope? What? When did they die? Huh, huh?!”

[Party] Proposal: Ah crap—admin buff’s goneㅠㅠ

It was because of the AOE attacks God of War kept launching and Shinyoung’s flame attacks.

When Proposal took a critical hit and died, my fingers flew even faster.

Shinyoung, cleverly dodging Heavenly Lord’s skill range, attacked Ro with all he had.

Sudden one-on-one.

But there was no way Shinyoung would win against Ro.

Before I could even intervene, Shinyoung fell in vain.

“Well then.”

As my cursor, ready to deploy every little debuff, naturally drifted toward God of War.

Gourmet, for some reason, was taunting Heavenly Lord, so… I didn’t need to worry much.

“Did they think that things would go their way if only Heavenly Lord was out of the picture?”

As I let out a dry laugh, God of War, stripped of admin buff and loaded with a set of debuffs, died to attacks from Heavenly Lord and Ro. With Gourmet down right after, we took our first night battle win.

[Party] Haema: Entrance gogo

“Ah. Looks like we’ll be forced to brawl some more as payback for this…”

I sighed at the sight of corpses vanishing one after another.

Of course, we were bound to win at PK, but still…

“It’s no fun if your opponents can’t keep up.”

Nine times out of ten, we always won, so it was getting tedious.

Now, I was almost looking forward to the rumored ‘main server reinforcements.’

[Party] Proposal: They’re coming again… lolol

Proposal, having re-entered the plains, gave a heads-up about another ambush.

Exactly three seconds later.

The Hana party, led by God of War, appeared all at once at the entrance.

Even after losing the guild war, being humiliated with nonsense plots, and getting crushed by us in field PK, Hana Guild kept coming at us with unbreakable will.

[Party] Proposal: They’re so stubborn, those people

[Party] Haema: Their blood must be boiling lolol

As said, Hana was relentless in following us.

Sometimes, we’d get wiped out by a huge critical from God of War. Still, we had the upper hand…

[Party] Ro: This is getting annoying

[Party] Heavenly Lord: For real lolol

[Party] Proposal: Looks like they’ve decided to just keep us from leveling

[Party] Haema: Whoa lolol

[Party] Woong: That’s why we have to move to the next map ASAP

That’s true. We needed a change in the current situation.

Fortunately, it was almost time to break through to the next map.

[Party] Woong: Looks like God of War is eyeing the next map too

[Party] Woong: Haema, can you tank in the Ruins now?

[Party] Haema: I’ll give it a try next time~

As expected of an event server with infinite growth, the monsters in Another Server were on another level.

The higher the map tier, the more absurd the monsters’ stats became.

The next map, ‘Silent Ruins,’ was where the hunting requirements spiked sharply.

Even God of War, ranked number one right now, would get flattened by a few hits in the Ruins.

“Can Haema survive there? I’d be down in three seconds too if I went. Well, that’s a tank for you. And with the admin buff now, at least one hit can be taken.”

I’d heard that from the Ruins onward, class specialization became crucial.

To hunt safely there, the tank must absolutely endure the hits, and the rest of the party either needed to survive a hit or dodge everything with top skills.

Most importantly, it was a question of whether the dealers could even kill mobs there.

Until the plains, you could usually sweep mobs with a single skill, but from the Ruins on, you’d need two or three average hits to kill anything—sometimes only if all the dealers hit together.

[Party] Woong: Anyway, Heavenly Lord, Haema, Happy—three characters still have admin buff left

[Party] Woong: Let’s hurry and test it out before it wears off, gogo

“Ah, me too? I hope I don’t die. Kind of a waste to lose my admin buff… Oh well!”

With a sigh, I gloomily followed Haema into the Ruins.

[Silent Ruins]

Dry, dusty ground and huge stones. White pillars and tombstones.

It was a field-type map littered everywhere with the remains of collapsed buildings.

Barely out of the small safe zone at the entrance, frog-like monster creatures began to approach one by one.

The moment those fluorescent frogs opened their mouths and stuck out their red tongues, I expected to get one-shotted and frowned.

“Ugh… huh?”

Surprisingly, I survived. Even as I reflexively pressed my potion, I tilted my head in wonder.

My character only lost about a fifth of their HP from the frog’s attack.

“What the… Is it the admin buff?”

[Party] Haema: Oh… both of us are tanking just fine?

[Party] Haema: At this rate…

We can start hunting before Hana Guild does…!