Chapter 44: The Crimson Notice

After chattering for ages about a spy whose identity I still didn’t know, I just passed out.

Maybe because I’d gotten used to this pattern over the last couple of months, my eyes snapped open at noon like a slave.

I forced my exhausted body upright and checked my phone...

“There’s over 300 messages.”

A ton had been said in the Secret Task Force chat room in just one hour.

Naturally, the important spy talk only lasted a moment.

After that, it was nothing but a flood of irrelevant chatter.

“Work... I have to work.”

I washed my face haphazardly, ate whatever I could grab, and sat like a machine in front of my computer.

Even in the chat window of the character I’d left hidden in the village, I found piles of messages from overnight—no, while I slept—most about the spy problem.

“Not first place... I see.”

The sub-leaders of Celestial and Woong had taken the baton since morning and were busily leveling up, and Jiho, who arrived five minutes before me, was AFK.

Meanwhile, everyone in Infp’s party except Ariel was logged in and grinding.

These people were truly terrifying...

The Village of Bizert was quiet in the daylight.

“Is Haema and Cheonghon’s proposal going to be late? Ah, right.”

Suddenly, the dawn’s macro incident popped into my mind.

I hurried to the official site, but the report I’d submitted hadn’t even been received yet. Looks like it’ll take a while.

“Come to think of it, I completely forgot about True Buffer because of the macro issue.”

I was curious about the item news, but I didn’t actually intend to ask them about their current items.

That would be way too shameless.

So, just to check if they were around or not, I headed to a low-level map.

But in the busy daylight, there was no brave soul running macros, and the ones I was looking for were nowhere to be seen.

[Ruined Temple — All] NoName: Wow, a high-level is here, please carry me!!! Please carry me!!!

[Ruined Temple — All] Herney: sry sry, is that guy even normal?

[Hero’s Resting Field — All] Handeman: Wow, Happy-nim, we used to party together ages agoㅜ

[Desert of No Return — All] BossOfTheOrganization: Why is a ranker here?

[Desert of No Return — All] MapleLeaf: scared the hell out of me

[Desert of No Return — All] WaterIsSelf: I flinched too;;; what brings you here;;;

“It’s just normal users, looks like True Buffer’s crew isn’t here...”

Well, even if they were, I don’t know all their IDs so I might have missed them...

“Oh. Hana Guild is here?”

It was only by chance that I wandered into the desert.

Between the users fleeing at the sight of me, I spotted three enemy guild members.

Bebe. Ghost. Heartless.

They were low-levels, far below me in ranking.

But from the desert on, PK is legal (sort of), and they were all wearing their guild marks.

And if these people manage to climb up, it’d become troublesome for me.

“Let’s kill them first.”

Of course, I couldn’t kill them directly, so I switched to PK mode and piled on enough debuffs to nearly kill them.

The trio—a warrior, mage, and buffer—resisted as best as they could.

But their resistance was laughable.

“It tickles, it really does.”

After flaunting a bit, I gifted them a mountain of debuffs.

The three, rooted in place, were swept away by the waves of mobs I’d gathered and quickly died one after another.

[Desert of No Return — All] WaterIsSelf: Happy-nim, you are merciless... truly merciless...

There were subtle complaints from the regular users, and I could almost feel the three corpses cursing me as they lay side by side.

Still, I hardened my heart.

“Indirect triple kill, success.”

Assigning myself an achievement, I continued to patrol the desert.

After repeatedly chasing out Hana Guild’s low-levels, it was already noon.

[Guild] INFP: Dang

[Guild] Taki: Wushin that bastard

[Guild] Assassin: Hahahaha, what’s up, FP-nim?

[Guild] Hungry: Got killed by Wushin’s crew in the plains— ㅡㅋ

[Guild] Assassin: Ah, I see, hahaha

[Guild] Ro: Happy, where are you?

[Guild] Happy: Me? Causing chaos in the desert

[Guild] Blue: Truly the pillar of the guild...

[Guild] Ro: ;;

I was wondering what was up, and a moment later, Jiho came to the desert himself and invited me to a party.

[Party] Ro: Let’s go

[Party] Ro: To help out in the plains

[Party] Happy: Just the two of us?

[Party] Happy: You think we can do it?

[Party] Happy: We can’t join INFP’s party since it’s full, right?

[Party] Ro: It’s fine

[Party] Ro: If you’re with me, we can do anything

[Party] Happy: hahahahahahahaha

Back in Season 15, it used to be tough for just the two of us, so it felt refreshing and nostalgic to move as a duo again.

“Yeah, back then we used to charge in just the two of us. The important thing is... unbending d... no, that’s not it.”

Anyway, numbers didn’t matter.

Feeling newly motivated, Jiho and I boldly stormed the plains together.

[Party] Ro: Hold on

[Party] Happy: Yeah?

[Party] Ro: Let’s wait at the crossroad and ambush them

[Party] Happy: ?

[Party] Happy: Where’s that bravado that used to charge in headfirst with me?

[Party] Ro: Well, it’s 2 vs 6, after all

[Party] Ro: Wouldn’t it be smarter to play it safe?

[Party] Happy: Yeah, honestly, I was thinking the same

To make up for a small disadvantage, we switched up our plan.

Jiho PM’d INFP to find out Wushin’s party’s location.

After roughly figuring out their route, we predicted where Wushin’s group would pass and hid discreetly above the spot.

A short while later, I heard skill effects somewhere on the empty map.

[Party] Ro: They’re coming

As Wushin’s party appeared at the edge and headed straight for the center, we pounced right underneath them.

I cast Slow on Wushin first.

Meanwhile, Jiho swiftly took out Inspector and Hannari with single-target attacks.

While dodging the slowed Wushin, I cast debuffs on Gomae, Pineapple, and Shinyeong in order.

As I moved my mouse cursor from one to the next, my heart pounded a little.

Normally, I might have failed.

But luckily, it was a surprise attack Wushin’s party hadn’t expected in the slightest.

“They’re slower to respond than usual. Maybe they were busy chatting?”

Relieved, I cast the next round of debuffs on the four floundering in Slow.

Dropping their defense and casting Crumbling Skin, Jiho finished off the weaker Shinyeong.

Once Pineapple was neatly downed, INFP’s party came running from behind for backup.

Thankfully, with Ro, Team Leader Go, and INFP’s firepower, we managed to take down Wushin too.

With only the corpses of Hana Guild left on the plains, we paused for a brief chat.

[Guild] Taki: hahahahahaha

[Guild] GoTeamLeader: Good shot

[Guild] Gakdagwi: That was thrilling

[Guild] INFP: Good

[Guild] Ro: Thanks for the assist

[Guild] Assassin: Did something fun happen? hehe

[Guild] Hungry: Ambushed Wushin’s party and crushed them— ㅡㅋㅋㅋ

[Guild] Trauma: hahahahahaha

[Guild] Blue: Revenge grats grats

[Guild] Taki: Please crush them again, Happy-nim, Ro-nimㅠㅠㅠ

[Guild] GoTeamLeader: Can’t, buffs have worn off

[Guild] Hungry: Yeah, only an idiot would get caught again— ㅡㅋ

[Guild] Assassin: They’re not back yet

[Guild] GrimReaper: Then let’s ambush them again later, hehehehe

[Guild] Gakdagwi: Nah, if we wait a bit, they’ll all show up anyway, so it’s fine

“What’s Assassin suddenly talking about?”

I was a bit puzzled by the random chat, but figured it was just a slip-up in their own party and didn’t think much of it.

More than anything, right then, Cheonghon logged in, and the chat window exploded.

[Guild] Cheonghon: Slept in, sorryㅠㅠ

[Guild] GoTeamLeader: Warning, beep beep

[Guild] Blue: lol latecomer Cheonghon-nim

[Guild] Cheonghon: sry sry

[Guild] Cheonghon: Is everyone else here?

[Guild] Ro: Except for Haema, haha

[Guild] Cheonghon: Oh dear

[Guild] Ro: Sub-leaders, please go ahead and start at the ruins first, haha

[Guild] Cheonghon: Ah ok ok

[Guild] GoTeamLeader: Haema-hyung will be here soon, hang tight!

Today, for some reason, Haema was unusually late, and five more minutes passed as we waited.

It felt weird to just keep waiting, so I was about to suggest we start grinding on our own.

[Guild] Woong: Ah, Cheonjon and I just died, lol...

[Guild] Cheonghon: Huh?

[Guild] Woong: To Wushin’s party.

[Guild] Taki: Wushin went up to the ruins?

[Guild] Hungry: I thought I hadn’t seen them for a while— ㅡ

[Guild] GoTeamLeader: Did they go for revenge?

Revenge wasn’t strange, but watching quietly, something felt off.

[Party] Ro: Didn’t expect them to attack first

[Party] Happy: Right?

[Party] Cheonghon: Those kids used to be too scared to even show up if Happy was around

[Party] Cheonghon: Where’d they get the guts to come looking for us?

[Party] Cheonghon: Did they know only you two were there?

[Party] Ro: Then it kind of makes sense

“Who’s online right now?”

A chill ran down my spine, and I immediately tried to check who was logged in.

Of course, this game’s convenience is garbage, so there’s no online member list—I had to dig through chat logs one by one.

“What the... Of all times, all the newbies are online?”

Just as I frowned, confirming everyone’s greetings, the tardy Haema finally logged in.

[Guild] Haema: sry sry, was on a call

[Guild] GoTeamLeader: Are you going to be late every day??

Immediately, the grinding began, and we forgot all about the subtle tension around the spy, focusing on leveling up.

And soon, evening arrived.

[Party] Haema: It’s six o’clock, let’s rest till seven and go again

As usual, the sub-leaders did their own leveling, and we enjoyed a well-deserved break.

“What should I eat? Something quick and easy...”

Gyerae-bap or ramen. I was debating between the two, wondering what was left in the fridge.

[Assassin has left Karma Guild.]

The moment the message popped up, I widened my eyes, and the chat window exploded.

[Guild] Hungry: What the heck

[Guild] GoTeamLeader: Hmm?

[Guild] Taki: Out of nowhere? Why?

[Guild] Gakdagwi: What’s going on? PM’d them but no response, then they just logged off— ㅡ

[Guild] Bambi: Whoa, did something happen?

As everyone tried to make sense of the situation, my messenger chimed.

(INFP)

[Assassin is the spy]

[You’ll get it if you check the guild notice]

[The notice will be deleted in 5 minutes]

I quickly opened the guild info window.



We have removed the double-guild character embedded in Hana Guild.

If you’re a Hana Guild member reading this, please quietly remove your character as well.

You have 5 days. If not processed by then, you will be officially expelled.

If you see this, don’t tell outsiders or anyone else, and please keep quiet for now.

“Oh... That was cleanly handled.”

Hardly anyone ever checks the guild info window.

It only contains guild ‘information,’ and the notice section isn’t prominent at all.

Moreover, writing something there doesn’t send any notification—so it’s a practically useless feature.

But strangely, if you enter the guild dungeon, the notice appears as a system message.

In red, even.

So INFP wasn’t worried about existing members, but used this structure so that new members using the guild dungeon couldn’t miss it.

(Cheonghon)

[Handled quietly, well done]

[But did you really remove Haema’s spy character?]

(INFP)

[Took a while to persuade them]

[Guild leader agreed it was best for both sides]

[Told Haema to delete the character]

[So no record remains]

“Oh... You really did a good job. This way, neither side has to make a fuss.”

Or so I thought.

[Guild] Woong: What the heck?

[Guild] Woong: That bastard Assassin was the spy?

That night, Jelly showed up for work and stirred up a little chaos.