Chapter 5
The friend who was cursing her professor until this morning turned out to be a ranker?!
‘What the—’
Putting it into one sentence only made the situation feel even more absurd, my mouth hanging open.
“Pretty shocked, right?”
Even now, Mag was smiling and poking my cheek.
My eyelid twitched from the teasing when a sudden scream rang out.
“Waaah!”
It was the kind of reaction you’d have after opening a door and seeing a giant spider on the bed.
Startled, I turned my head and saw who had screamed.
“…That’s really Mag?”
“Ah, y-yes….”
“Huk!”
As Mag shyly nodded, the priest jumped straight up in place.
No matter how you looked at it, that wasn’t the kind of reaction someone would have to a normal player.
‘Just what did she do?’
“Later, later….”
When I glanced up, Mag wrapped her cloak around me instead of explaining.
I was about to ask again, but seeing the surroundings, I obediently stuck close to her.
There were just too many people.
“I-I’m a fan! I picked my class after watching the Behemoth raid!”
“Uh, th-thanks….”
“You’re insane, seriously… Could I maybe get an autograph?”
“Who is she?”
“A ranker.”
“Oh.”
Once the priest started showing fan enthusiasm, even more people gathered.
Mag looked flustered by the commotion she’d caused.
‘What a mess.’
There was no way to fix this properly.
I wondered if we should log out, when the solution turned out to be surprisingly simple.
“Thank you for the support, but I don’t really have an autograph—”
Suddenly, my body was lifted into the air by one arm.
‘Airplane?’
I never expected to experience that at my age.
And she lifted a full-grown woman as if it were nothing.
“???”
I froze, unable to struggle, clutching her arm as Mag hurriedly put her helmet back on.
“Then at least a photo—”
“I-I have a party with me, sorry!”
“Huh? W-wait!”
And then she ran.
Ignoring fans trying to grab her and crowds blocking the way, she sprinted forward in huge strides.
‘So this is how rankers solve things?’
Dangling helplessly, limbs swinging, I could only admire the overwhelming force.
***
I touched the ground again only after we found a place where we could be alone.
A café we reached while avoiding people’s eyes.
After barely fixing my clothes, I was about to ask about everything that had happened.
“You—”
“Danha! No, Libe! Why did you make your customization so pretty?!”
But my friend was faster.
At some point, Mag had latched onto me and started squishing my cheeks.
“Wait—”
“I almost didn’t recognize you at first!”
Her trembling smile looked downright desperate.
It was clearly a plea not to bring up what happened in the plaza.
Fine, I get that, but—
‘Hands off.’
Between the plaza and now the café, everything felt chaotic.
This really wasn’t the time.
“How far did you customize? Your race is—”
“Hey!”
I had to stop her before she went completely off track.
Shaking her off with effort, I quickly grabbed her hands.
“…There’s something I need to say.”
“The stuff at the plaza isn’t a big deal!”
“That’s not it.”
“Huh?”
She looked guilty before I even said anything, so I denied it quickly.
I was curious too, but something else was more urgent.
Looking at her round, questioning eyes, I swallowed.
“Right. How did hunting go? You allocated your stats, right?”
“Ah… about that….”
Mag started for me at just the right moment, but my mouth wouldn’t move.
My lips felt glued shut.
“Actually, I died once before you got here….”
“What!?”
I forced the words out with my eyes shut tight, but her reaction made my face burn.
“…Where?”
“I was trying to use the hidden piece you told me about….”
“There!?”
Seeing her panic, I lowered my head completely.
Even my ears felt hot.
“How do you already die…?”
“…….”
She had so many questions, but I had no answers.
No matter how much of a beginner I was, I couldn’t say I got killed in ten seconds.
“Even with auto-combat, that’s not easy….”
“So, um—!”
Before the facts hit any harder, I quickly placed something on the table.
“Could it be because of this?”
The item that looked like a rusted coin.
Mag’s mouth slowly fell open when she saw it.
“That’s….”
“It’s called a sealed relic. Do you know it?”
The moment she realized what it was, Mag jumped up from her seat.
“This is insane.”
Her pupils shook violently.
Seeing that, I felt confident and asked again, seriously.
“This is it, right?”
“No, wait—what… hold on. Don’t tell me that note meant this?!”
I didn’t know what she meant by that, but I nodded anyway.
Because I was already convinced the sealed relic was the reason I died.
I was sure.
‘It has to be this.’
I’d thought hard about why my experience didn’t match what I’d heard at the plaza.
Then I remembered the sealed relic that wasn’t mentioned anywhere.
The only variable.
So logically, it had to be the cause.
‘It’s definitely the trigger for hard mode.’
As a gamer, and someone who’d watched other people play games for six years, I explained with conviction.
That I was right.
That it explained why I died in ten seconds and couldn’t use the hidden piece—
“No, what are you talking about?”
“Huh?”
“Hard mode? There’s no way an MMORPG has that….”
I got shut down mid-explanation.
Blinking, I saw Mag pointing at the item with a dazed expression.
“This is the hidden piece.”
“?”
“And it’s way better than the one I told you about… You seriously didn’t know?”
“???”
I repeated her words in my head again and again.
And when it finally sank in—
“…This?”
My face went pale.
Mag looked at me with complicated eyes.
***
This was already the second plot twist of the day.
But this time, I couldn’t calm down at all.
“B-but…!”
A situation completely outside common sense.
And it wasn’t someone else’s problem, it was mine.
My head felt empty.
“Aren’t hidden pieces supposed to be rare and strong?”
“Yeah. Usually.”
“But mine wasn’t!”
I denied it over and over before finally pulling myself together and protesting.
With my friend agreeing, I raised my voice.
“It just got handed to me after the job change quest, and it didn’t even seem good! A-aren’t you mistaken?”
I shoved the item toward her as I denied it with everything I had.
I had to.
‘Otherwise, I’m just trash!’
At least here, I didn’t want to be that.
‘I don’t even know when I’ll get another chance.’
I didn’t just want to try hard.
I wanted to be good.
But me being trash?
Worse than an average newbie, someone who couldn’t even use an amazing hidden piece?
“…!!”
“Calm down!”
My whole body trembled at the unbelievable reality.
I shook so badly I almost collapsed backward, and Mag quickly grabbed me.
“Not yet! It hasn’t shown its real power!”
“…Really?”
“Of course. It’s sealed. You have to unlock it through a linked quest to get its real effect. It’s a bit different from the one I told you about.”
So that was a thing.
I had no idea.
“Then does that mean I died just because I’m bad…?”
Even so, the original problem didn’t go away.
When I asked, Mag groaned.
“Where do I even start….”
“Is it serious?”
“No, not really. Umm….”
Pressing her brow, Mag chose her words carefully.
“You’re a bard, right?”
“!”
“And your job change NPC was Cain.”
“!!”
Every word hit exactly right.
“How did you—!”
“That’s why.”
Wondering how she could know, I hurriedly opened my status window, when she suddenly said something unexpected.
“That’s the reason you died.”
“…?”
I looked up at her blankly, not understanding.
Mag laughed awkwardly.
***
Mag felt her chest tighten as she looked at her friend who had caused a massive incident.
‘That scared me….’
Anyone who played DW would feel the same.
Running into a sealed relic like that.
A sealed relic!
“I don’t know all the details, but sealed relics are insanely hard to get.”
But now wasn’t the time to panic.
Composing herself, Mag explained as calmly as possible.
“Remember how I said hidden pieces are like Easter eggs? Stuff you can see if you meet conditions.”
“Yeah.”
“Sealed relics also have conditions, but they’re way harsher.”
Thinking of how they were obtained, Mag clicked her tongue.
“You have to fulfill hidden conditions in job change quests. Only one person per class can get one.”
“…One person?”
“Yeah. And there’s only one per world. If someone in another server gets it first, you can’t get it even if you meet the conditions.”
That wasn’t all.
To keep things fair, once someone clears the quest without meeting the condition, it can never be obtained again on that server.
If all servers fail, it gets deleted entirely.
It was truly rare.
“And even after getting it, you have to find and clear linked quests. It’s a pain.”
“This?”
“Yeah.”
Mag gave a bitter smile at my obvious doubt.
I clearly didn’t believe her.
“But it’s insanely good.”
To change the mood, Mag exaggerated on purpose.
“Exclusive quests, class buffs, and at least a hero-grade item as a bonus.”
“…That’s good?”
“Very.”
Mag said firmly.
“Rumor says it even gives stats. It’s basically a full class overhaul.”
“Oh.”
She gestured wildly as she spoke, leaving me dazed.
When I started clapping weakly, Mag finally sighed in relief.
“But why would something like that be on me?”
“Ah.”
But the relief didn’t last.
“The game’s been out for about three years, right? Even in just the Korean server, there are tons of users. Isn’t it weird that I got it?”
It was a sharp, core question.
Cold sweat ran down her back.
“Did it just get added recently?”
“No. It’s been there since launch….”
“Then why…?”
Watching her try to solve an unsolvable problem logically was painful.
“Is there no one with a music major who plays this game? Or does no one know Cain…? But that can’t be….”
‘What do I even do with her.’
As she drifted further off the point, I shut my eyes tight.
I couldn’t let this continue.
“Actually.”
“I’m listening.”
“Bards are bad.”
“…What?”
Her mouth slowly opened.
It hurt to say, but there was no room to back out.
“So bad that even hardcore veterans don’t touch them.”
Swallowing her tears, Mag said it plainly.
“You wouldn’t know yet.”
She carefully helped her stiffened friend stand.
A pure newbie who had no idea what she’d gotten herself into.
“Let’s try it out.”
Telling her the truth was what a friend should do.
She planned to let her face reality, then talk seriously about what to do next—
“Waaah!”
—Clang!
…Why is she good?
Faced with an impossible situation, Mag was left in shock.
