All the users who were playing Kailan suddenly stopped at once.

They were all looking at the system messages that had come up.

Tring-!

[The first hidden episode opens.]

[The ‘Richie King Chalian’ ambition has been revealed.]

[The hero of the continent, ‘Muran’ is activated.]

[The Undead army of the Richie King Chalian will begin to erupt on all continents.]

[Hidden quests will be created for all warlock classes. (Level Limit: 300)]

[The episode intro video will start now.]

Users who were hunting in the hunting grounds were flustered by the system messages that suddenly popped up.

Time seemed to have stopped. The users weren’t able to move, nor were their voices could be heard.

The good news was that it wasn’t just the users who stopped moving, all the NPCs and the monsters stopped at the same time.

Bit by bit, the user’s sight began to darken.

[Scenario viewing mode.]

[Connected to the chatting server 2798.]

[Scenario viewing mode will go on until the end of the video. All users will not be able to access the game until the end of the event even when the users try to forcibly terminate their connection.]

After Kailan opened, a new type of event, which had never happened before had just started.

At first, all the users were shocked, but it didn’t take long for them to adjust to it.

It was a familiar interface for users in Kailan’s official community.

– Oh oh…! Is there an alien in the Kailan’s development team? How do they manage to get a new system every time?

– Wow! This type of freshness… It really looks like they are developed by alien programmers.

– Those aliens… they won’t be able to keep this up and end up dying of overwork.

– What is this about this story? It looks a bit like a prison.

– Are you guys not seeing what I’m seeing?

The chat window became noisy as the users get adjusted to the changes. The video zoomed into two people who were facing each other.

A confrontation between a warrior with grey hair and a long glossy sword, and a warlock holding a black sword.

The scene was dimly lit like it was taken straight out of a movie.

“You—Black Magician—who I haven’t seen or heard about anywhere, have the guts to stand in front of my majesty!”

The grey-haired warrior lifted his long sword and let out a powerful energy.

Kaizer’s cloak fluttered as he began to wield his sword.

Ian became thrilled upon seeing it.

‘Majesty…? Listening to Kaizer call me Majesty…!’

Ian’s heart fluttered upon hearing what Kaizer called him.

Kaizer, who was calling Ian ‘Master’ before, was now referring to him as his majesty.

What Kaizer did only happened during a quest, but Ian was still very pleased with it.

“Hahahaha, Kaizer. No matter how strong you are, you won’t be able to get out of here alive…”

The voice of the Black Magician echoed in the room.

Ian and his party members were now slowly approaching the Black Magician.

* * *

In LB’s planning team and monitoring team.

The development team was very busy.

Since the first system was launched, it was necessary to make a backup so that nothing goes wrong in real time.

At that very moment, the most nervous and anxious team was the planning department.

It was because the users who had discovered the hidden episode were rankers and top class rankers.

Among them, was the famous headache initiator.

Bang-!

Kim Yue-Hwan, who forcefully opened the door, entered the monitoring room.

He spoke to Na Ji-chan, who was watching something very intently, right away.

“Hey, Ji-chan-ah. Why did this happen? Wasn’t Remir the only one who found the episode this morning?”

Na Ji-chan sighed upon listening to Kim Yue-Hwan’s unstoppable rant.

“Phew, well. From what I had seen, Ian and Yu Shin came in; even Hoonie rushed in there.”

“Haa… Don’t tell me… they aren’t thinking about killing Kells right?”

“I’m not sure. It wouldn’t have been a problem if Ian wasn’t there… but the warlock seems like he will go right at Ian…”

“Euh…”

The hidden episode ‘Richie King Chalian’s Ambition’.

The beginning of the episode was from the ‘Battle of the Underground’, and it didn’t really matter who wins in this scenario.

This battle shouldn’t take too long.

The warlock—Kells—wasn’t supposed to die in the battle.

Kells should manage to stay alive and run off to Chalian and report to him, that was when the episode would begin.

Kim’s face was turning dark.

“God no, find an alternative quickly. I’m about to go crazy any second now.”

Kim was looking at the huge monitor on the wall and moved like a blank thoughtless puppy.

Kim saw on the screen that the battle was about to start, and Ian’s party was looking very strong even from Kim’s eyes.

If Kells get killed there, they might have to revise the story that they planned.

Na Ji-chan stood up from his seat and called out to him.

“Team leader.”

“Huh?”

“There is a way.”

“…?!”

Kim made his way to Na Ji-chan’s chair and sat in front of him.

Na Ji-chan was someone whom he knew well, though he sounded a bit kinky at times, he wasn’t the kind to talk useless stuff in troubling situations.

“What is that! It’s less than a minute until the battle starts! Talk quickly! Fast!”

Na Ji-chan took out a smartphone from his pocket. He then smiled and said,

“I knew something like this would happen, which was why I prepared something in advance.”

“Um…?”

Na Ji-chan’s finger was pointing at something in the screen.

He was pointing at Hoonie who was just standing there with a straight face.

“That guy, let’s try to use him.”

* * *

‘What? What is happening all of a sudden?’

Hoonie who had cast magic according to Ian’s orders was shocked upon seeing the system messages that popped up.

[As the scenario progresses, the quest ‘Chalian’s Power Succession’ has been activated.]

[AI will be activated for the quest progress.]

Hoonie hadn’t accepted the quest.

‘Maybe the quest window turned itself on…!’

Once the message came up, he was forcibly under Chalian’s Power Succession quest.

He also lost control of his character.

‘What the Hell!! Why is this happening to me!’

Hoonie began to think hard about to do.

His heart started to feel uneasy.

Hoonie thought that Ian wouldn’t believe that he was under the AI’s control.

‘The AI wouldn’t attack Ian, right? No, please. Please attack Kells or whatever his name is!’

While he was being flooded with different thoughts.

He couldn’t stop the AI from controlling his character.

If the AI was successful and the quest had gotten cleared, that would be the best outcome.

However, that scenario was unlikely to happen since Hoonie was being controlled to betray his comrades.

Hoonie was begging in his mind

‘Please…! If the quest is going to continue… At least do it without getting killed…’

A myth ranked weapon box, something about the Richie Mage, and a top tier hidden class; Hoonie suddenly recalled all of those things.

If Hoonie had to confront them face to face, there wasn’t much difference in the results, but Hoonie wasn’t in a position where he could even say what he wanted.

What the planning team was trying to do was to decrease the power of Ian’s party by making a hidden quest be invoked to Hoonie, and it was a good move on their part.

What was happening was making Hoonie—who was losing hope—suffer. It was the opposite for the planning department though since they were now filled with hope.

However, Hoonie and LB’s planning department were going to be faced with something they weren’t expecting.

* * *

Kwang- Kwakwang-!

“Yu Shin! Create some space up ahead! Bbookbbook will soon initiate heal!”

“Kay!”

The current area they were at was vast, but the floors became more complex and narrow as they descend.

The battle between the warriors and Ian’s party was about to begin in the alley.

“Noona! Move back and support us with some secondary magic!”

“An attack magic?”

“The deal isn’t enough here. With the map’s structure, our efficiency is considerably low in the wide areas!”

“Okay!”

“Hoonie, block the left side with Undead!”

Ian was at the forefront of the battlefield as soon as the battle began.

He was giving out orders without break and took command as usual.

However, he began to feel an odd feeling as he watched Hoonie.

“Ohho… this is…?”

Unlike the orders that Ian had given, Hoonie was moving to a direction that he couldn’t understand.

Ian hadn’t meet Hoonie for a day or two, which was why he decided to ignore the slight difference in his actions.

Ian decided to not pay attention too much on Hoonie’s movements anymore.

However, there was a small message that was blinking at the corner of Ian’s view.

[Quests that can be shared are present.]

It was a quest window that was shared with Hoonie.

Since Kaizer hadn’t destroyed him, the relation between Ian and Hoonie was still going on!

Since Ian hadn’t shared any quests with Hoonie for months, it was very something that Hoonie couldn’t think of.

There was no way that Na Ji-chan would’ve known something that even Hoonie didn’t even think of.

Even though he was a stalking fan of Ian.

‘This jerk Hoonie, was he trying to backstab…?’

Ian who had read Hoonie’s quest thought that the contents of it were good enough to even make him think about it.

Which was the reason why he was watching Hoonie’s movements since the beginning since something felt wrong.

‘Is he losing control because of the conflict?’

However, as time went on, something was feeling off.

Hoonie would always respond whenever Ian give him an order, but he wasn’t responding now. He just kept moving on his own.

He wasn’t able to perform an order correctly.

That was very uncharacteristic of him.

Ian called Ly who was facing a skeleton warrior.

“Ly, come here.”

[You called, master?]

“Go over to Hoonie and cover him.”

[I will do that, master.]

“And…”

Now that the battle was at its peak, Kaka’s wide range debuffs would get triggered, and the darkness would spread onto the battlefield.

Ly was one of Ian’s familiar that exerted more power in the dark.

Moreover, of all the familiars that Ian had, Ly had the highest level of agility, which was why it was the most suitable to check for any suspicious acts.

After a second, Ian added another instruction, but this time he said it in a low and secretive voice.

“With my signal, kill Hoonie right away.”