CHAPTER 42……………………………………………….
When I thought back to yesterday, when I’d been thoroughly chewed out, there was nothing dignified left in me. I’d tried to square my shoulders and pretend to look cool for no reason, but no one noticed.
‘Let’s not do anything pointless.’
I decided to focus on what the fragments of that system were saying.
[Kay, don’t get mad. We’ve got a ton to explain, remember?]
Shiri patted Kay on the back, whose shoulders were still shaking with anger, as she spoke. She was clearly part of the system, probably something like an AI, yet the way she acted felt strangely human—it was unsettling.
[In the Seoul region, 189 guilds that survived the first Guild War have joined this event. The top 10 guilds earned seed privileges and automatically passed the preliminaries for the second Guild War.]
The faces of the guild masters who had earned seed privileges appeared in the air one after another. Among them were Baek So-hyuk, Kang Gwon-hoo, and even the puppet guild master from my former guild.
‘Still, what’s Kang Gwon-hoo thinking, acting so relaxed even though his guild might have to compete against his own in later rounds? Does he plan to lose on purpose or something?’
He was always scheming, and since his guild was just another tool to him, he probably thought of it as a piece he could discard. But it would be a waste to just throw away a guild he’d raised so well.
[The remaining 179 guilds must fight their way up to earn the right to choose a faction.]
Kay, still in a bad mood, waved her hand roughly through the air. The faces of the guild masters who hadn’t earned seed privileges spread out before us. The moment I realized my own face was among them, my facial muscles stiffened awkwardly.
“Wow, hyung, you’re on the screen! You look so handsome!”
Kim Jun pointed excitedly at my image and bounced on his feet.
“You don’t have to flatter me.”
Embarrassed to see myself on display, I decided to distract myself by scanning the other faces on screen. And at the far edge of the display, I saw a face that shouldn’t have been there.
‘Why is he here…?’
All the blood drained from my body, and my hands started to shake.
Someone who couldn’t possibly be alive—someone who, even if he was, shouldn’t be here—was right there, talking to others.
“Seo Go-gyeol…?”
It was my younger brother from the real world.
‘Could this be an Easter egg my brother hid in the game when he made it?’
That was the most plausible explanation—but my heart was still pounding uncontrollably. What if, like me, he’d entered the game? What if he hadn’t actually died? Those wild thoughts made my heart race like crazy. I couldn’t even hear the rest of the explanation.
[That concludes the first round of instructions! Guilds that must compete in the preliminaries, please wait until your next opponents are announced.]
The moment the announcement ended, the screen vanished. I shoved my way through the crowd, desperate to find that face again.
“Hyung? Where are you going?”
“Woo-jin?”
I vaguely heard Kim Jun and Ryu Ji-soo calling after me, but I couldn’t answer.
‘That back of the head!’
It matched my memory exactly—no, he looked a little younger than I remembered. When I grabbed his arm, he turned around in surprise, and his face reminded me of the photo from my nightmare not long ago.
“Um, are you Mr. Seo Go-gyeol?”
“That’s right. And you are…?”
My first thought was that he might be pretending not to know me.
‘Wait—unlike Go-gyeol, I’m not in Seo Han-gyeol’s body. Of course he wouldn’t recognize me.’
A timer was counting down, signaling that the waiting period was nearly over. There wasn’t much time left, so I decided to go straight to the point.
“Do you happen to know someone named Seo Han-gyeol?”
“Never heard of him. Is my long-lost family trying to find me or something?”
His cheerful, easygoing tone was completely different from the brother I knew. My brother had been more like Baek So-hyuk—cool and reserved.
“Ugh.”
Trying to recall my brother more clearly made my head throb violently. Clutching my temple, I forced the words out.
“Please, try to remember again.”
“Sorry, but there’s really no one by that name.”
He didn’t seem to be lying. Just as I started to wonder if this was really just someone who looked like him—
“Do you know him?”
Kang Gwon-hoo’s voice came from behind me, and a moment later, his hand landed on my right shoulder. I didn’t want to give away anything to this man whose motives were a mystery, so I stepped back. Seo Go-gyeol, perhaps intimidated by Kang’s presence, also took two steps back.
“Let’s talk later.”
I didn’t want to make things worse, so I gestured for Kang to follow me back to our spot.
“Were you following me?”
He glanced sideways at me.
“You ran off like a crazy cat that spotted a bug. Of course I was curious.”
For some reason, Kang seemed to have made a hobby of comparing me to animals. He didn’t even like them, yet he was annoyingly good at those metaphors.
‘Wait—did he just call me crazy?’
By the time I realized it, it was too late to complain.
“And who is this Seo Han-gyeol person?”
That question made any urge to argue vanish completely.
“Oh, that? He’s some guy who borrowed money from me and ran off. I’ve been dying to find him.”
It was the only excuse I could come up with for chasing someone so desperately.
“How much did he borrow?”
No matter what number I gave, he’d probably think it was nothing. Still, I decided to exaggerate a little.
“Uh… ten thousand diamonds?”
Kang’s eyes narrowed into triangles, as if thinking, You caused all that fuss over pocket change? What a pauper.
“Or maybe… fifty thousand?”
Even after I corrected myself, his expression didn’t change.
“Well, I hope your brother trained you well. You’ll need to be strong if you can afford to get that distracted.”
His sarcasm was top-tier.
“Y-yeah. I’m sure he did.”
Meow.
When we got back, the cat—who had been quietly inside the cage earlier—was now outside, tail puffed up. The cage bars looked even more bent than yesterday; it must’ve put up quite a fight.
“〈Since you have the Beast Tamer skill, monsters will naturally stick close to you. If you want to raise your skill level, make sure you keep it with you.〉”
Following Baek So-hyuk’s advice, I’d brought the cat along, but I was still full of worries.
‘I’ve been thinking this since the start, but can this little thing even fight? No way I’m sending something this small and cute into danger.’
“Where did you rush off to? I wanted to follow, but the cat was crying so much I couldn’t leave it alone—I was really worried!”
Kim Jun, who’d always been polite before, started voicing complaints after yesterday. It was nice that the wall between us was coming down, but now I had another nagger to deal with.
“Fifteen seconds left on the timer. The first matchups are about to be announced, and the prelim format will depend on that, so don’t wander off again.”
Listening to him talk, you’d think Ryu Ji-soo was the guild master and I was the troublemaking member.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll stay put.”
The timer ran down mercilessly, not even giving us a moment to breathe. As soon as it hit zero, Shiri appeared before us again.
[Chronos Guild is in Group B! Please follow the guide to your designated area.]
There were seventeen groups in total, each with around ten guilds. The system probably decided the placements. When we reached the B Group area, everyone was busy sizing each other up.
‘At least Seo Go-gyeol’s guild isn’t in our group.’
Half of me was relieved; the other half wanted the chance to dig up more about him.
[Hello again! I’m Shiri, the host in charge of Group B. You’re lucky to be in an early group—if you were in the last ones, you’d be waiting a long time!]
She tried to sound upbeat, but everyone was too tense to respond. Undeterred, Shiri continued cheerfully.
[Hmm… Since Group B seems so quiet, a survival match sounds perfect! But it’ll be chaotic if every member joins, right? So each guild will pick two members for the match! The participants will be chosen by a random roulette!]
Not good news. The worst-case scenario would be Ryu Ji-soo and Kim Jun being chosen. The second worst would be me and Kim Jun.
Ryu Ji-soo was strong, but she lacked a hunter’s instincts and had only fought once before, so pairing her with Kim Jun made me uneasy.
