Ian was really a thorough gamer.

So, in most cases, he would be able to predict the flow of the quest with the little clues he got.

However, the ongoing quest of Ian’s—’P-77 Request’, wasn’t heading in the direction that Ian wanted to be thought it would go to.

Tring-!

[P-77 has made a grave mistake while repairing the machine structure.]

[Spirit energy has been consumed.]

[The time limit for the ‘P-77 Request (Hidden)’ quest time limit has been reduced by 525 seconds.]

[The remaining time for the quest end: 72 seconds.]

“What was that?”

Ian despite being worn out, without rest was hitting the pickaxe for the quest completion.

He was trying to collect as many essences as possible before the time could run out, and was trying to get a few for himself, but the situation took a dire turn into that he never thought of.

“Ahhh!”

The time lost due to the mistake of the 77 was about 9 minutes.

Which meant that he nearly lost about 2 medium attribute essences, if Ian opened his mouth, a fire could probably come out of frustration.

‘I need to increase the time and then come back here.’

Ian, who was literally grinding his teeth, hurried out of the cave.

And subsequently, he began to place the lesser and the lowest ones which he had collected for 30 minutes.

Tring-!

[You have used the ‘Lowest Water attribute essence’.]

[The energy of the machine has been charged.]

[The quest time duration for ‘P-77 Request (Hidden)’ has been increased by 6 seconds.]

[You have used the ‘Lesser Water attribute essence’.]

[The energy of the machine has been charged.]

… Syncopation…

[The quest time duration for ‘P-77 Request (Hidden)’ has been increased by 42 seconds.]

Ian placed the lowest and the lesser attribute essences. He then rechecked the time left.

And as soon as he confirmed it, he couldn’t help but feel anger rise in him.

‘Huuu, I can’t even recover the time that 77 lost?’

The time that was lost by 77’s mistake was 525 seconds, but less than 400 seconds were restored with both the lowest and lesser attribute essence.

Ian was carrying inside and placed two more medium attribute essences.

[The quest time duration for ‘P-77 Request (Hidden)’ has been increased by 294 seconds.]

[The quest time duration for ‘P-77 Request (Hidden)’ has been increased by 294 seconds.]

And the time left for the quest had changed to 17 minutes.

“Kuk.”

A low painful screech escaped the mouth of Ian after he placed the two medium essences.

Ian’s furious gaze turned to 77, who was busy repairing the machine.

All the lump of minerals that he had been mining in the mine without a single second of rest, so there was no way that Ian wouldn’t be angry at 77.

After one hour of non-stop mining, the only things that were left in the hands of Ian was three medium essences and 1 higher grade.

Ian was feeling that he was working like a passionate part-timer.

Maybe he felt the eyes of Ian burning his back, 77 turned while scratching the back of his neck and looked at Ian.

“I’m sorry, Ian. I was in a hurry to fix it, so I made a mistake…”

Ian was very upset with 77, but he decided to hold back a little.

‘Yeah well, it has turned out like this. Let’s try to win this in one try!’

Ian tried to calm himself and slowly opened his mouth to 77.

“77.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t have to get it done so quickly, take your time and get it done.”

“Hu, okay?”

“We have 12 hours ahead of us.”

“…!”

“No, we have around 11 hours, so I hope you wouldn’t make any mistake and just gradually repair it.”

Listening to what Ian had said, 77 was shocked.

It was because even after making a mistake, Ian had just said that he would provide him with 11 hours, but no matter how long he took or how long he was relaxing, there was no way it could take that much time.

With stuttering words, 77 spoke to him.

“Thank, thank you, Ian. But no matter how slowly I work, it will just be around 5 hours…”

And Ian just dismissed the words of 77.

“You are so noisy, it will take 11 hours. And just don’t make any mistakes in the future, okay?”

At the resolute words from Ian, 77 nodded.

“Ah, okay!”

The requirements of Ian was strange, but the generosity of time given to him was very wide.

* * *

The intentions of Ian were very simple.

He was thinking about how to get as many proficient minerals as he could before the buff on the mine would run out.

And in order for that to happen, the quest shouldn’t end until the buff ran out, and 77 just shouldn’t make anymore mistakes.

‘Until this quest ends, I need to get at least three or more higher grade attribute essences.’

Ian went back into the cave and started to pick up the axe which he had left when leaving.

Kang- Kang-!

[You have successfully mined the minerals!]

[Due to the high mining technology, mineral grades have been maintained.]

[Obtained the ‘lesser land attribute essence’ item.]

[You have successfully mined the minerals!]

[You have successfully mined the minerals!]

Just like Ian had asked, the 77 hadn’t finished the repairs for 10 hours.

And 77 without finishing up the repairs, he sat beside Ian looked at him work.

“Ian, with just one part more, the repairing will be done!”

Kang- kakang-!

“How long is it going to take?”

“Around 5 minutes?”

Kang-

“You aren’t making even a single mistake, right?”

“Obviously! Now the task is so easy that it can even be finished with my foot!”

Ian who just rechecked the remaining time left for the first discovery buff nodded and responded,

“Then let’s take exactly 5 more hours, and then we can finish it 77.”

“He he. Okay, Ian! You really do look like a very kind friend!”

77 who was excited, ran around Ian.

77 who had been working non-stop from the moment he was born, was very interested in the concept of ‘nothing to do’.

However, Ian wasn’t a kind friend like 77 was assuming him to be.

“77.”

“Huh?”

“Maybe, is there another pickaxe in the management room?”

Without giving it much thought, 77 nodded.

“Uhu, there. Why?”

As soon as 77 answered the question of Ian, a nasty smile spread on his face.

“77, shall we have some fun?”

“Really? I’m excited! What will we do?”

With a chuckle, Ian spoke in a low voice,

“Maybe… have you ever heard of the ‘mining game’?”

* * *

This was the time when Ian had been in an unexpected hell like non-stop.

The official community of Kailan had been raging non-stop too.

The huge server traffic simmered until just before it had to explode.

And all that because of a single post that was placed in the morning.

-Title: Breaking News! The Secret of the Middle-Earth, revealed today!

Writer: Alancra- Titan

Hello, this Alancra from the Titan Guild.

There might be those who know me as a ranker and those who don’t know me too.

Which is why I’m not sure as to how many will accept the information that I’m going to divulge…

But I’m under the impression that most of you will probably welcome the news I have brought to the present.

… Syncopation…

Alancra, one of the person who had been in the Titan guild from the very beginning and has been very popular among the Titan.

But, just because a ranker had posted some information, the traffic in the community server couldn’t just blow up.

The reason why the post had hit a hundred of views was because of the content that it had in it.

-Oh sh*t, what was that?

-Is that true? Is the Middle-Earth an integrated server?

-Crazy! Kue! So the Titan Guild has met some US sub rankers in the Underworld?

-Kya! If this is how it is going, then won’t there be wars between the servers?

-Kue, somehow, I was under the impression that the Middle-Earth content was a bit lame… but if this is the case then I feel good! Surely Kailan is awesome!

Alancra’s post was quite a lengthy one which needed anyone to scroll to hell.

However, the contents that were given could be arranged in just a single line.

Middle-Earth, the place where all the servers were connected to one single server.

Till the moment every user of a particular server in Kailan hadn’t interacted with the other ones, which definitely made it great for everyone to read it.

-Wow… this isn’t some kind of trick, right?

-Could that be possible? It wasn’t something written by a freshman, it was posted by the ranker of the Titan Guild…

-No, leave that part aside. There is solid evidence in that shot.

-? What? What solid evidence are you talking about?

-There was a snapshot posted on the US server by a user.

-Ahh, how would you know if it really was a US server user?

-Hmm, there is no clear way to know, and I realize that. But no matter how uninterested one is in the game, there was no way for one to not know Mark Oliver?

-Who is that?

-The one who is standing in front of them all with a blue robe. He is a legend in the US server, a magician…

-Oh, really? The 1st ranker of the US server is a magician?

-No, I didn’t mean that. I meant it like a separate level 1st ranking. But in the category of recognition, it is considered that Mark Oliver is number one.

-Oh oh!

The words that were said by Alancra were spread quickly.

The size of the content she had written was very large, but the concise proposition was linked to so many possibilities.

And among them, the thing that piqued the interest of the reader was about the ‘World Ranking’.

Who was the best ranker of each of the servers?

A huge super concern for the users.

-Of course, Ian is no 1 right? That should be a speculation, but it is a fact.

-But all that is your thought. There are many servers in the Kailan world. Wouldn’t there at least be three to four rankers who are high above Ian in the US right now? Starting with Mark Oliver, someone else said about Britling, Ralph, etc…

-Not just the US server. There are so many monsters in the Chinese server and the Mad Movies makers in Europe.

-No no. Mad Movie, the hell… they probably can’t handle Bbookbbook all alone.

-I can hear the sound of our Bbookbbook losing its shell.

And before the heat could even cool down.

The official page of LB, a powerful notice had been posted.

[Massive Update ‘Warrior’s village’.]

Like someone had been planning for everything to happen accordingly.