Chapter 28

Chapter 28 . Ahimbree (3)

“Nest, nest, nest . ”

Looking up information on his tablet PC, An Jaehyun sipped on his coffee . Thanks to the caffeine, An Jaehyun’s slow head began to roll .

‘So there’s 3 potential areas . ’

Bring an egg from a nest!

Although it sounded like an absurd quest, An Jaehyun had his ways from his long time experience with Warlord .

First, he narrowed down the potential areas . Ahimbree was currently staying in Bangtz Castle . Then, it was likely that the quest area was located near Bangtz Castle .

From here, the words ‘egg’ and ‘nest’ were extremely helpful hints . The target monster was likely to be birds, reptiles, or insects .

“Cave Snake Cliff, Lizard Swamp, Sawtooth Ant Tunnel . ”

Amongst numerous hunting grounds near Bangtz Castle, only three fit the requirements . Of course, these were only the known hunting grounds, and it is possible for there to be hidden hunting grounds . In the first place, players did not disclose the best hunting grounds to the public . Whether it be guilds or players, they used whatever means necessary to monopolize good hunting grounds .

Luckily, An Jaehyun already knew where to go .

‘Cave Snakes are over level 50, and you have to be around level 40 to hunt Sawtooth Ants . ’

The Cave Snake Cliff was a level 50 hunting ground, and the Sawtooth Ant Tunnel was a level 40 hunting ground . Even if one of them was Ahimbree’s testing place, An Jaehyun couldn’t do anything about it now .

Then, there was only one choice left .

‘It has to be the Lizard Swamp . ’

Lizard Swamp .

That would be his next destination . It was a place a level 30 monster called Green Lizards appeared .

The hunting ground itself wasn’t bad . Given An Jaehyun’s abilities, although Lizard Warriors may be difficult, Green Lizards weren’t a problem . Plus, lizards weren’t monsters players preferred . They were rather difficult to kill for average players . This was because they fought like human beings, just like werewolves . Not only that, but they also carried weapons and wore armors .

It was possible to kill them if need be, but no players went out of their way to make it more difficult for themselves .

On the other hand, they were good targets if one knew the hunting method and had the skills to back it up . Even if it weren’t for a test, it would have been a fine hunting ground for An Jaehyun .

As such, it could be said that he was killing two birds with one stone . He would be leveling up and investigating the quest .

The problem lied with filming .

‘If it was Ahimbree’s quest area…’

Any videos from the Lizard Swamp hunting ground was likely to be investigated .

Also, Hyrkan had already revealed receiving the Rising Star title through his video . Someone confirmed to have the Rising Star title appearing at what’s expected to be Ahimbree’s testing ground? It was a good scenario to be suspected .

Even back then, An Jaehyun only slid by because he was wearing the Subjugation Association’s default clothes . If he were wearing his hahoe mask, he would have been suspected whether he accepted the left handshake or not .

“Damn . ”

‘Those shitheads are making this harder than it has to be . ’

In truth, An Jaehyun had not expected to be worrying about such things . He was fine with hyenas . In fact, it would have been stranger for there to be no hyenas considering the scale of the quest he was doing .

However, what was on his tail weren’t hyenas . What was worse was that An Jaehyun didn’t know whether they were lions or tigers .

‘Who are they?’

One thing was for sure; they were predators .

‘White Mamba set… there’s no way he’s just a high-leveled player . He has to be a Ranker . ’

But he didn’t know what species they were . It wasn’t just because An Jaehyun couldn’t remember them .

Looking at just the options, it would be hard to say that the White Mamba set was an incomparably amazing set . However, 3 guilds had collaborated to kill the White Mamba, and a famous designer had been hired to make the set . Same bags would have different pricing if one had a brand name logo on it .

Usually, items like these weren’t sold at a known price . Guilds would give out these items as presents to their sponsors or friends, or they would keep it as a symbolic uniform .

In other words, it was easy to trace back .

However, that man couldn’t be traced back . Someone wearing such a pompous set didn’t leave any trace of himself online . If he came from a famous guild, An Jaehyun could relax and act accordingly, but it wasn’t the case now .

That was why An Jaehyun was so excessively cautious .

His intuition was telling him so .

‘There’s no way someone who tests people like that has a clean background . ’

If he were part of the Top 30 Guilds or forces that rivaled them, he wouldn’t have acted as he had .

He would have revealed his guild and offered up a trade . Even that should have been done by a messenger, not a Ranker . High-level players invested most of their playtime in hunting . It was a waste of time to talk and negotiate with suspicious players .

‘There’s no way he’s from the Top 30 Guilds . I’ve never seen any of the Top 30 Guilds act like that . ’

From An Jaehyun’s standards, he wasn’t from the Top 30 Guilds .

‘He’s part of some organization, though…’

But he was sure that he was part of an organization . The other player who had been hiding while Hyrkan was talking was proof .

With those unfit to be part of Warlord’s world going after him, An Jaehyun’s headaches were only justified .

Irritated, An Jaehyun scratched his head .

“Damn it . ”

‘Why do I have to worry about this? I have enough on my hands with just the game alone . I’m going to go crazy because of bitches like that Choi Sulyeon . Where did these weird shitheads come from?’

Nothing is easy in this world .

An Jaehyun once again remembered the quote .

★★★

Lizard Swamp .

This hunting ground that most players avoided was located north of Bangtz Castle . Based on travel speed of most players, it was situated about 5 hours away . It wasn’t a short distance . No one was interested in doing a cross country run without actual gaming .

It was the same for Hyrkan . It wasn’t likely to run into a pleasant surprise just because he rushed to the Lizard Swamp . It was better to take care of things on the way there .

“Let’s see . ”

Hyrkan’s current action of fiddling with a Skeleton Warrior’s head was also part of ‘taking care of things on the way there . ’

‘So I just have to draw it here?’

After messing around with the head for a little bit, Hyrkan used magic . He drew a cross-shaped seal on the back of a Skeleton Warrior’s head, and the cross made its appearance with a scarlet glow .

The seal?

‘Next, I have to activate the magic . ’

It was, of course, the Unique magic skill, Madness Helm .

After drawing the seal, Hyrkan slapped the Skeleton Warrior on the back of its head . The Skeleton Warrior then stepped forward, scratching its head as it stared at Hyrkan .

At that moment,

Whoosh!

Hyrkan’s left fist flew like an arrow towards the Skeleton Warrior’s head . It was a perfect jab . Delivered with absolute conciseness, it looked as if his fist went out separately from its out .

Hyrkan didn’t just throw a jab . He stepped forward and closed their distance as he did .

Even so, the Skeleton Warrior tilted its head and dodged the jab . As it did, the Skeleton Warrior immediately distanced itself from Hyrkan . Watching this happen, Hyrkan let out a light smile .

‘I know I’m the one who taught it, but it grew well . ’

In the past, it would simply get hit . Even if it did dodge, it only dodged the jab .

Now, however, it even distanced itself and prepared for the next to come .

Not to mention, Hyrkan’s blows were much faster than when he was level 10 . Being able to react to such a fast attack showed how far it had come . It was the result of Hyrkan training them for over 30 minutes every day .

Next problem .

‘Will it maintain its evasion even with the Madness Helm buff?’

One could tell from just its name that Madness Helm was far from the word ‘calm . ’ Once a Skeleton Warrior received this buff, even a complete newbie would guess that it would turn aggressive .

For most summons, excessive aggression was a merit . However, it was different for Hyrkan’s summons . It was fine to turn aggressive, but it had to maintain Hyrkan’s teachings . If it were only aggressive, it would have gone back to square one .

“Helm On . ”

Hyrkan chanted .

Immediately afterward, the scarlet seal on the back of the Skeleton Warrior’s head glowed .

Crack!

Along with a strange sound, two horns the size of adult male’s fists sprouted out from the Skeleton Warrior’s head . The blue flames in its eyes also turned red as they grew . The flames blazed, seemingly about to burst out of its eyes at any moment .

Finally, the Skeleton Warrior opened its mouth . It looked like it couldn’t control its blood boiling, though such a thing should be impossible .

Watching the Skeleton Warrior, Hyrkan smiled . Then, he pulled out his sword from the scabbard on his waist .

Ching!

With the sound of a sword being pulled out, Hyrkan charged towards the Skeleton Warrior with all his power . He closed the distance in one breath and swung his sword with the intent of severing the Skeleton Warrior’s head .

Swish!

The sword made a crescent trace as it swung through the air .

The Skeleton Warrior dodged the swing by lightly tilting its head back . Hyrkan didn’t watch the scene . The moment the Skeleton Warrior tilted its head back, Hyrkan used the swing’s centrifugal force to spin his body . Using his left foot as a pivot, his right leg drew a circle . Hyrkan’s right foot approached the Skeleton Warrior’s body with a heavy sound .

Whish!

The Skeleton Warrior dodged the spinning back round kick by bending its body backward . After tilting its head and bending its body backward, the Skeleton Warrior straightened the bow-bent body once again .

Watching this, Hyrkan stopped his movements .

‘Oh?’

What entered Hyrkan’s eyes was the appearance of a Skeleton Warrior that did not falter back and stood its ground .

‘It won’t back off?’

Knowing no retreat on a battlefield* . [TN: Korean idiom]

Although it would evade attacks, the Skeleton Warrior was determined never to retreat .

Watching this, a big smile appeared on Hyrkan’s face .

‘This could be useful…’

★★★

As the popularity of Warlord increased, its guilds, including the Top 30 Guilds, struggled to recruit more people . With this shortage of manpower, it went without saying that guilds raced to recruit promising players . [TN: ‘promising player’ here and in other places is the same word used for the ‘Rising Star’ in the Rising Star title . ]

Lately, the competition to recruit these ‘promising players’ was fiercer than ever . What caused this were the words ‘1 year anniversary . ’

In Warlord, it was difficult for latecomers to catch up to the front-runners . In such situation, the words ‘1 year anniversary’ served as a mental cutline . It is impossible for anyone starting after the 1 year anniversary to catch up to the Rankers! Such was what all Rankers believed .

In other words, promising players recruited before this 1 year anniversary were the last rookies who could challenge the Rankers .

Such was the background story behind why Choi Sulyeon was currently looking through a list of players with potential . She looked over the selected players’ battle videos and history . Most were players who were known to be skilled in other games and had now gotten used to VR games .

Their talent and potential couldn’t be called bad .

However .

“There’s over 10 million people in the VR game world now . How come there isn’t a single useful one?’

Choi Sulyeon was unsatisfied with the list of promising players . She didn’t look satisfied either .

In truth, it wasn’t her job to go over promising players one by one . Although she watched YouTube videos from time to time, it was more for a change of pace than for recruiting promising players . With that being the case, she couldn’t be happy with the current situation .

No one entered her eyes . Looking for a gem in a pile of stones was only worthwhile if a gem was found . With nothing but stones, it was hard to find the motivation .

In response to Choi Sulyeon’s thorny complaint, her secretary, Park Suji, quickly worked her brain .

‘Young miss is more annoyed than usual . She must have a standard in mind . ’

As a secretary of 5 years, Park Suji quickly figured out Choi Sulyeon’s mind .

“Is there someone you have in mind?”

At her question, Choi Sulyeon knit her brows .

Did she have someone in mind? She did .

Except, the skilled players in her mind belonged to other guilds .

Desiring them was no different than desiring bread within a painting . The money wasn’t the problem . Amongst the Top 30 Guilds was a gentleman’s agreement . At the core of this agreement was player transfer . It was fine if it was something both sides wanted, but a one-sided theft meant war .

But other than these skilled players, there was no one she had in mind .

No…

‘What was it?’

She remembered a face . No, it was hard to say ‘face . ’ After all, she had never seen his face .

There was only one thing she knew .

“Hahoe mask . ”

“Excuse me?”

Park Suji tilted her head, while Choi Sulyeon finally understood the cause of her irritation .

“There’s a guy wearing a hahoe mask who uploads videos to YouTube . Look him up . Get rid of the data for these other guys . ”

Hahoe mask .

With just one clue, Park Suji nodded her head .

“Yes, miss . ”

“By the way, did the Helpers respond yet?”

“No, not yet . ”

“What an amazing bunch . The audacity on those guys… oh well, we’ll contact them first . Ask them exactly when and who they’ll dispatch . We’ve got a raid soon, so get an answer as soon as possible . If they’re late, you can threaten them with my name . ”

“Yes, miss . ”

“Also, I’m going to work out in 30 minutes so tell the trainer to get ready . I’ll eat afterward, what’s the menu?”

“It’s Korean beef steak salad . The coffee is the Jamaica Blue Mountain you wanted . ”

“Anything else?”

“That’s all . ”

That’s all .

With that, Choi Sulyeon’s complexion changed . She made serious, grave expression .

“The President?”

“He hasn’t said anything . ”

Hasn’t said anything . Hearing that, a slight smile came out of her stiff expression .

“Looks like father and mother aren’t saying anything since Warlord’s getting so popular . Feels like just yesterday they tried to force me into marriage just because I was spending some money on a game . ”

After reminiscing for a bit, Choi Sulyeon got up from her seat . As she was wearing her thin pajamas, her glamorous, model-like figure showed . Seeing her figure and look, her secretary, Park Suji, felt envy from the bottom of her heart .

‘Life sure is unfair . I don’t know who it’s going to be, but whoever marries the miss in the future must have saved a country in his past life . ’