I blankly stared at the forum post and scrolled down meaninglessly. With the recommendation count nearing a thousand, countless people were cursing out the hyungs in the comments. Seeing that gradually put my mind at ease.
But then the really harsh curses strangely poked at my heart. In the past, I would have replied telling them not to do that and then reported them, but today I hated the hyungs, so I clicked ‘agree’ on each of those comments.
‘Let’s steel my heart. The hyungs don’t think about me at all.’
Then I discovered a comment.
A4B4: Can’t we just make a counter guild?
↳ Safari: What’s the point when we’ll get crushed anyway
↳ Gyodoranginddeung: Even if it’s not a head-on battle, there are ways to get revenge
↳ A4B4: For example?
↳ Ssapseonbi: If you’re on Diamond server, whisper me first
↳ Mandumandumandu: Won’t we win if we gang up? It’s unfair to leave it like this
.
.
.
Dozens of people replied to the comment about the counter guild. Seeing that, my fighting spirit began to burn.
‘That’s right, it’s unfair to just take it lying down.’
I looked through their collective comments, then stared intently at the last line of what Ssapseonbi wrote.
[Anyone who knows these bastards’ hideout, whisper me. I’ll get revenge for you.]
“…Hideout.”
I widened my eyes and racked my memory. If it was the hyungs’ hideout, there was a way to find out somehow. I just needed to crawl into their den. For instance… Gangjin hyung’s house.
I right-clicked Ssapseonbi’s ID and sent him a message.
[To: Ssapseonbi
If I find out the hideout, I’ll let you know!
From: Kkyudaeyoung]
* * *
“Hello.”
“Oh? Daeyoung. Long time no see.”
“Sojin noona, has everything been okay?”
“Yeah. Nothing special happened. But what’s that?”
“Ah, this?
I felt awkward coming to Gangjin hyung’s house empty-handed, so I bought drinks from the supermarket. Sojin noona received the drink I gave her and was too busy laughing to even say thanks, as if it was hilarious.
“Hahaha! Why’d you buy something like this? Isn’t this a character drink kids have?”
“This is pretty tasty. It’s yogurt flavored, and it has 100 million lactic acid bacteria…”
“Well, Gangjin does like cute things.”
Sojin noona said she’d enjoy it, then linked arms with me and led me to the kitchen.
The sink was a mess, as if she’d been making something. Noona liked cooking but… it really wasn’t tasty. This was why Gangjin hyung came to my house when he was hungry.
“Want something to eat?”
“Ah, no. I’m full.”
“Really? Sit there, I’ll give you something to drink.”
“I can just have one of what I bought.”
As soon as I saw Sojin noona chopping some unidentifiable leaves and trying to put them in a blender, I urgently opened the drink cap. Seeing me gulp it down, noona wiped the water off her hands and sat in the chair across from me at the table.
“Daeyoung, what should we do? Gangjin said he’ll be late today.”
I knew he’d be late since he was meeting with Daesu hyung. I knew, but I pretended not to and made a sullen expression, fiddling with my drink for no reason.
“Ah… I see.”
“Why? Did you have something to say?”
“Not something to say. I was going to ask hyung for a favor…”
“What favor?”
“My computer broke, so I was going to ask if I could do my homework here.”
“Don’t you have Daesu’s at home?”
“Hyung won’t even let me in his room.”
“Hmm, poor Daesu.”
“Right? When you see him next time, scold hyung for me, noona. It’d be even better if you hit him. Especially hit his philtrum.”
“Haha, okay.”
Sojin noona was 5 years older than Gangjin hyung. She’d done various sports since childhood and even did jiu-jitsu as a hobby. So she’d have no problem beating up my older brother and then some.
“I was going to go to a PC cafe but I ran out of allowance… It’s near school and the bus was about to stop running, so I came here.”
“After you finish your homework, noona will drive you home.”
“Thank you. But, noona.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you know Gangjin hyung’s computer login password?”
“No.”
“Ah…”
“Just ask him.”
“Then, don’t tell him I asked. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Yay!!”
“Are you that happy?”
“Yes!!!”
When I said I’d organize the kitchen before going home, Sojin noona’s eyes became quite serious. When noona picked up her phone, I stuck close and eavesdropped on the call.
“Hey. What’s your computer login password?”
─Why.
“What is it?”
─No, why are you asking? You have your laptop too.
“I’m asking for the last time. What is it?”
─…
“Hey. Are you ignoring me?”
─…KITI1234.
“All caps?”
─Yeah.
Noona hung up without saying thanks or anything. As expected, Sojin noona is really cool.
“KITI1234. All caps.”
“Thanks, noona!”
“Yeah, take your time. Noona will be doing weights in the basement.”
“Okay!”
I quickly ran up to Gangjin hyung’s computer room on the second floor. My heart pounded not knowing when hyung would come. If he was meeting Daesu hyung for dinner, they’d eat and hang out, so 7 PM was peak busy time.
The reason I didn’t try on Daesu hyung’s computer was… I was afraid there’d be traces of use. I always got caught whenever I used it secretly, so it was better not to touch it if possible.
“Kiti1234, K-I-T-I-1234…”
I recited the password like a spell while opening Gangjin hyung’s computer room wide.
The atmosphere had changed to be even more like a PC cafe than before, with blue LEDs blinking on one wall. All the computers had been replaced too—the inside of the cases was transparent like a frog’s belly and flashy.
If I remembered correctly, Gangjin hyung’s spot was by the window. I approached and checked the mouse pad, and it was indeed the same.
“This is it.”
I sat in that seat and turned on the power. Because he’d even tuned the cooling water in the case, lights flashed and something shaped like a test tube bubbled. He must have really gone all out on customizing the case.
After booting, I entered the computer password on the screen and the desktop appeared.
“Where’s the Earth icon?”
When I carefully double-clicked the earth-shaped icon in the corner of the desktop, the Earth game company’s launcher screen appeared. Since it was already logged in, I just needed to press the execute button, but after the game launched, a notice appeared asking for a secondary password.
“What is this? Whatever.”
Just in case, I tried the same as the computer password, ‘KITI1234’, and fortunately it was correct.
When I pressed the confirm button, the screen suddenly brightened and a connection screen with a lush green land spreading wide appeared. When I connected to the Diamond server, I could see several characters hyung used, and I was about to select the ‘Alt’ character right away but paused my action.
“No, that’s not right. If I go in with the main character and meet someone I know, that’d be trouble… Surely the hideout’s teleport location will be saved on the sub-character too.”
So I deliberately connected with the most shabby-looking ‘Alt C’ character.
My heart pounded as if I’d become the protagonist of a spy movie. My legs trembled as I kept looking toward the door, then the screen changed and I stared at the monitor.
After connecting, I checked the inventory. The class was Ranger like the main character, but as expected, the items carried were minimal. This was definitely a storage character, and above the name was written the guild name ‘Black’.
“Ah, why am I so nervous?”
Fortunately, the friends list only had the hyungs. I quickly pressed Ctrl+Y to check the teleport list.
“Wow… Are all of these hideouts?”
The teleports were helpfully designated by purpose—there were 5 hideouts. The places marked as roadblocks and dungeons numbered over 10.
“So they use sub-characters to block roads or move items.”
I quickly teleported to the first hideout.
The reason for having hideouts like this is that Earth, unlike other games, doesn’t have banks or storage. Instead, the free territory without monsters was larger than all the game maps combined, so you could build and use a personal hideout in a secluded place.
Of course, if you got robbed, there was no answer. So high-level players with expensive items couldn’t guard a hideout alone, which is why they had to join large guilds.
Guilds built hideouts and released tamed monsters around them to protect the territory.
The reason dragons were most preferred among monsters was that unlike other monsters, they didn’t need to be captured and fed to be tamed—you just had to hatch an egg and they’d recognize you as their owner. Plus, they had fearsome attack power, so they were most popular regardless of type. Well, even that became useless if you raided in groups, but it was effective for preventing petty thieves.
Since it was the hyungs’ guild, I thought they wouldn’t make a hideout in an ordinary place, and sure enough, one teleport location was behind some waterfall. I quickly opened the map to show the coordinates and took a picture of the screen with my phone.
“That’s why they can’t find it.”
Then I went to the next hideout. This time it was underwater. How did they even find an undersea cave like this—they were using it as storage.
“Wow…”
I exclaimed in admiration and opened the map again to capture the coordinates.
“Do I have to come here on a raft?”
You could make boats if you raised your life level, but good lord… Who would think there’d be a place like this in the deep middle of the ocean? The hyungs really have exceptional brains.
Whether this was the most important hideout, all the weapons hanging on the walls were sparkling. I opened a nearby box and checked the items inside. Even to me as a newbie, the materials and accessories inside were extraordinary, and there were even dragon eggs of different types.
“Did they catch every dragon in the game?”
I checked item prices on the homepage yesterday to get a feel for the game atmosphere, and there were eggs worth over 30 million won in cash.
Wondering what kind of dragon it was, I searched on NewTube and found it was called ‘Goldmess’—its entire body was made of gold, so whenever it flapped its wings, it scattered gold dust everywhere.
But that dragon’s egg????
I placed the mouse cursor on the egg and blinked speechlessly for a while. Looking at the egg’s acquirer, it said ‘Enter’. As expected, Seongheon hyung must have gotten it.
