“How did they catch this? They say the pattern is random, so it’s hard to dodge even with advance motions… Just how did they……”
Even the YouTuber I watched introduced Goldmess by titling it ‘Going to See Gold Dust’ rather than going to catch it—that’s how difficult this dragon was.
“Woah…… Wow……”
In the video I watched yesterday, I saw this dragon fly up into the sky, sprinkle gold dust, and kill all the users on the ground with a wipe mechanic, but they defeated that dragon and even brought back its egg. The hyungs are really amazing.
“No, this isn’t the time for me to be impressed.”
I pulled myself together again and moved to the next hideout. The next hideout was also no ordinary place, but it wasn’t as special as the underwater one. I quickly pulled up the map and took a picture.
‘If I get caught, I’m dead. If I get caught, I’ll be tormented until I’m sixty. No, I might even be preserved in my epitaph.’
At the next location, I also took pictures of the map coordinates with my phone and quickly moved to another hideout.
The psychological pressure gradually built up. Why did I dream of revenge? But it was useless to regret it now. If Gangjin hyung suddenly came into this room, I felt like I’d have a heart attack.
When I first planned this revenge, it was just a ‘screw you’ kind of thing, but seeing the items in the hideouts, I got scared to the point of thinking, ‘Ah, this isn’t right…… What if the real me dies while raiding this place?’
At the 4th hideout, I was taking pictures of the coordinates with the map open when I saw someone entering inside. So I quickly placed this character in the village where I started and logged out.
“Whew……”
I hadn’t managed to find out all 5 hideouts, but I’d found 4 of them. Even this was a huge achievement. If even just one of these got properly raided, the hyungs probably wouldn’t be able to recover mentally.
After confirming that I’d taken the pictures properly, I stood up from my seat. If I got too greedy, my tail would—no, my whole body could get stepped on.
Just as I was about to get up and leave the room…… through the second-floor window, I saw car headlights cutting through the darkness. Since Gangjin hyung’s spot was by the window, I immediately turned my head to check, and there were exactly 2 vehicles entering the yard.
Seeing the light green cute beetle car coming in first, I felt like my blood was draining down to my feet. Moreover, following behind it was…… a matte black car. It seemed Seongheon hyung had come too.
“Ah, damn it.”
I quickly left the computer room.
There were a total of 3 holes to escape from Gangjin hyung’s house. The front door, the back of the kitchen, the basement. First of all, not the front door. I’d run into the hyungs.
While I was racking my brain about whether to go through the back of the kitchen or the basement, the hyungs finished parking. Seeing the headlights turn off felt like the light of my life was also turning off. I could even see 3 shadows moving across the lawn in the yard…… damn it, Daesu hyung must be with them too.
“Hah. ……Uh, where should I go.”
I came down from the second floor and headed toward the back of the kitchen.
I tried to open the door there, but the doorknob just spun uselessly. It must be broken. No, why is the doorknob broken in such a nice house!
“Why won’t it open. Open up, please!!”
I urgently looked back and saw the hyungs crossing the yard and approaching the front door. I flattened myself on the floor and quickly crawled toward the stairs leading from the kitchen to the basement.
When I reached the stairs and had gone down about half a floor in a crouch, I heard the sound of the front door opening, and at the same time, I heard voices.
“Sojin noona! We’re here!”
It was Seongheon hyung’s voice. Unlike when I saw him at hyung’s house before, his tone was very bright. For a moment, I was so happy that I almost jumped out to greet him warmly.
Since the only place to escape right now was the basement, I carefully went down, but when Daesu hyung stood in front of the stairs I was going down and called out “Sojin noona!” once more, I thought my heart would burst.
‘Could he be coming down??’
Ugh, my legs were trembling so much that I almost misstepped. I looked up at the stairs anxiously, but fortunately, he didn’t seem to be coming down as the sensor light upstairs turned off.
Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief and finish going down the stairs, opening the glass door to the gym set up in the basement and entering. Sojin noona was lying down lifting equipment, but at the sound of me entering, she sat up for a moment and wiped her sweat.
“Did you finish your homework?”
“Yes! Yes! But, Sojin noona.”
“Yeah?”
“The hyungs are here!”
“Really? Then you can go home with Daesu.”
“That’s not it! Noona, you absolutely can’t let the hyungs know that I’m here…… no, that I came here!”
“Why?”
“Well…… Please. Actually, the hyungs always tease me, so I came here to do something out of frustration, you know? Noona, anyway, please keep it a secret that I came here. Please. And I’ll definitely come next time to clean up the kitchen. Okay? Noona, please let it slide just this once. Please hide me. Please spare me just this once!”
I begged desperately like a shit fly, pride and all.
Sojin noona tilted her head while watching me desperately plead and ramble incoherently. Then, as if thinking for a moment and remembering something, she clasped my two hands that were rubbing together.
“Alright, you must have been so upset to do that. I don’t know what it is, but noona will protect our Daeyoung.”
“I’m really grateful. Noona, I’ll even bow to you.”
“No, no.”
Noona stopped me as I was about to prostrate myself.
“So, how can I help you?”
“First, please let me get out of here.”
“So you can take the bus home?”
“Yes.”
“It’s cold and dangerous at night. Wait a little. Noona finished exercising, so I’ll just shower and take you.”
“Then I’ll wait here.”
“Okay.”
After noona went upstairs, I went and sat on a nearby exercise equipment chair.
The reason Sojin noona is helping like this is because she’s seen the hyungs giggling while teasing me more than once or twice.
It was when I was 10 years old.
Back then, there was also a llama at Gangjin hyung’s ranch, and it would spit at anyone it saw. Not knowing this, I went into the pen when the hyungs told me to give it carrots, and the hyungs locked the door from outside so I couldn’t get out.
Inside there, I ran around crying hard trying not to get spat on by the llama, but it was futile because I was slow at running. Sojin noona, who happened to be passing by, got me out, but I was already in terrible shape from being spat on by the llama.
I’ve endured until now after experiencing that misery. Sojin noona probably thought I’d suffered some unfair incident like that, so she didn’t ask for detailed reasons. She was a really grateful noona then and now.
Sitting on the exercise equipment, I scrolled through the pictures I’d taken earlier on my phone. Since they were pictures of the monitor screen, they weren’t very clear, but they were sufficient to make out.
‘I think I’m really smart.’
Recently, a ‘Demolition’ guild had been created on the Diamond server to fight against the Black Guild. That guild master was Ssapseonbi, and after telling him I’d reveal Black’s hideouts and laying out the specific plan, I also joined that guild.
Currently, I was exchanging messages with Ssapseonbi through open messenger, and today was the scheduled day to hand over the hideout information to him, so I touched the screen.
I opened the chat window with Ssapseonbi and uploaded the pictures I’d taken today one by one to send as attached files. However, while I wasn’t sure about the others, I hesitated a bit to upload the hideout that was in the underwater cave.
Not only was there a high-value item worth 30 million won in cash there, but it also said that the person who obtained the Goldmess egg was ‘Enter’, which made me hesitate even more. I’d started this boldly saying I’d get revenge on the hyungs, but I didn’t want to see Seongheon hyung’s sad expression. It was contradictory.
‘Why do I keep getting soft-hearted.’
「People have various sides. Even though Seongheon is rough, the way he treats you well is sincere, so don’t think too complicatedly about it.」
Like Gangjin hyung said, maybe Seongheon hyung’s kind treatment of me was also sincere, so is it okay to backstab him like this? The remnants of conscience that remained began to censor my actions.
‘Are you really going to do this?’
‘Still, how many years have you known the hyungs, and you’re going to hand over the hyungs’ hideouts to a complete stranger?’
‘If you betray them like this, you won’t be able to turn back, right?’
‘What will you do if you become close with the hyungs again later?’
Just as numerous questions were trying to put the brakes on my actions, a darkened heart that had been hiding in a corner of my mind suddenly popped out.
‘So what, they don’t know it’s you. And compared to everything you’ve endured so far, isn’t this just a drop in the bucket?’
With that thought, the weight of guilt that had been pressing down on my heart gradually lost its form like a snowman melting in the morning sunlight.
‘That’s right. They won’t know it’s me. And I can’t just keep being on the receiving end forever, right?’
Moreover, since I wasn’t destroying all of the hyungs’ hideouts, and my goal was just to see them mope around upset for a few days, my heart began to feel much lighter.
It felt like after this incident passed, the lump of hurt feelings in my heart would be resolved, and I too could get along with the hyungs in small ways like before with a refreshed heart.
Really wanting to get revenge only to that extent, I left out only the underwater hideout with the Goldmess egg and sent pictures of the locations of the other three places.
[Keyboard Cleaning: (01.jpg) (03.jpg) (04.jpg)]
[Keyboard Cleaning: Guild Master-nim. These are the Black Guild hideout coordinates.]
[Ssapseonbi: I’ll check them.]
[Ssapseonbi: Wow, you found three places?]
[Keyboard Cleaning: Yes, the last hideout’s numbers are a bit blurry, but the coordinate number at the end is 832.]
[Ssapseonbi: No, I can see it well. But how did you find them?]
[Keyboard Cleaning: The process is a bit… But you can trust the information. It’s certain.]
[Ssapseonbi: That’s amazing. I’ll scout with the sub-guild masters and let you know the results. Since we need to proceed in utmost secrecy for now, please don’t tell other guild members either, Cleaning-nim. Just in case.]
[Keyboard Cleaning: Yes, then please let me know when you have a specific plan.]
[Ssapseonbi: Then let’s meet in the game.]
I was about to send a reply saying [Yes, then] when someone suddenly entered the gym. Thinking Sojin noona had already come down, I raised my bowed head a beat late and looked toward the door.
But the person who entered wasn’t Sojin noona.
“Daeyoung-ah…… Why are you here?”
A familiar voice struck my ears. Seongheon hyung, who I least wanted to run into and at the same time most wanted to see, was staring at me intently with an incredulous expression.
