Chapter 95: Chapter 95

[Anyone been to the Ruined City in Märchen Kingdom?]

– I heard you can go to a place called the Ruined City… but there’s no one around there.

└ Are you crazy? Don’t go there lol

└ I heard there’s someone who got forcibly suspended for a week after going there lol

└ Seriously, the NPC wouldn’t let them leave lol What kind of situation is that?

└ That crazy bastard tried to drag me down with him because he wanted to live. Just thinking about it still makes me shiver;

The Ruined City that everyone avoided.

The Ruined City was literally a ruined place with only traces left, and it was a place where ferocious monsters roamed, prohibiting people from entering.

[You need to be at least level 250 to catch that]

– But what would you do after catching that at level 250…?

└ You could clear titles or achievements, right?

└ There’s nothing like that lol

└ The experience points are pretty good… but honestly, at level 250, that amount isn’t enough.

└ Anyway, it’s better for your mental health not to go to the Ruined City lol

The Ruined City, showered with negative reviews.

That was the place Jeong-Hoon was headed to.

“You’re going there?”

Ha-Jin had a hesitant reaction.

He wanted to protest like before, but thanks to Jeong-Hoon, he had reaped great benefits this time.

Especially the Great Psyche Armor he was wearing now.

===

[Great Psyche’s Armor (Partially Sealed)]

– Type: Armor

– Grade: Unique

– Defense: 233

– Evasion: 6.25 ~ 6.75%

– Physical Damage Reduction: 10%

– Magic Damage Reduction: 10%

– Remaining Durability: 100%

– Special Ability (1): When wearing the armor, skill damage reduction increased by 5%

– Special Ability (2): When wearing the armor, critical hit damage reduction increased by 10%

– Special Ability (3): When wearing the armor, [Passive: Psyche’s Blessing] is automatically activated

– Special Ability (4): When wearing the armor, [Active: Psyche’s Song] can be activated

===

These were the stats of a partially sealed armor.

‘If the seal is released, it will become an armor comparable to Legendary.’

Gulp.

Had he ever lost out by trusting his friend?

Come to think of it, hadn’t he been able to get the capsule for free thanks to Jeong-Hoon?

So let’s trust Jeong-Hoon this time too!

“If you don’t like it, you can leave.”

Jeong-Hoon turned his back as if he didn’t mind at all.

“Hey! What kind of hurtful thing is that to say! What’s the point of having a friend! We’re in this together till the end!”

Ha-Jin hurriedly put his arm around his shoulder.

“But you looked like you were ready to abandon me at any moment.”

“…No way. Don’t you trust me?”

“I’m just kidding. What about the camera?”

“Ready! It’s live!”

“Live…?”

“Yes.”

He wanted to avoid reacting to chats, but this Ruined City needed to become a national dungeon as soon as possible.

That way, he could increase the growth rate of low-level users passing through Märchen Kingdom.

Before entering the Ruined City, Jeong-Hoon approached the NPC in front of it.

===

[NPC Information]

– Nickname: Nameless Man

– Level: None

– Class: None

===

This NPC was quite peculiar.

He was translucent, and his hand couldn’t be touched even if you reached out.

‘He’s similar to the ghosts Michael summons.’

He was similar to a ghost, but his presence was much fainter.

A question mark was blinking above his head.

[Choose a quest.]

There were two quests.

[Normal Quest]

[Epic Quest]

[Once you choose one, you cannot undertake the other.]

It was a choice-based quest where choosing one would automatically make the other disappear.

“Ha-Jin, shall we go for the Epic?”

“Epic…? Wouldn’t Normal be better? World Com said never to do Epic.”

No.

World Com said not to even look at the Ruined City, let alone pee in its direction.

Jeong-Hoon grinned.

“The Epic quest will obviously have better rewards.”

“…That’s true.”

“Hmm, I’ll ask you one more time. Are you out?”

In events like the capsule event or the temple quest, Ha-Jin wouldn’t be in any danger.

Jeong-Hoon was planning to take care of everything himself.

And he had actually made it that way.

But this event was a little different.

Jeong-Hoon would cover more than 90% of it with his own strength, but Ha-Jin also had to move with a tenacious spirit to survive.

“Wow, you’re making me want to do it even more. Why would I back out?”

Ha-Jin shouted, seemingly fired up.

Jeong-Hoon smiled satisfactorily at his reaction.

“Okay. Then start the broadcast.”

Now, let’s start sharing some honey tips.

* * *

Jang Dae-Hwi replayed the uploaded video several times.

“Hah… Even though I edited it, it’s a really perfect video.”

The footage itself was clean, but he had perfectly condensed it into 15 minutes with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

“No, not again?”

Lee Hak-Song pulled his chair closer to Jang Dae-Hwi’s side while he was editing.

He looked at him with a pitying gaze.

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

“…You’d be perfect if you didn’t say things like that.”

“So, how many views did the video get?”

“It hit 1.2 million…?”

The view count had just surpassed 1.2 million.

At this rate, 2 million, even 3 million views weren’t impossible.

A YouTuber with nothing, just one video uploaded, and it’s in the millions.

It was truly astonishing.

“Yeah. Everyone’s going crazy over this.”

“…Actually, I leveled up by 3 thanks to this. Hehe!”

Lee Hak-Song made a V sign with his fingers.

“You too? Me too!”

Jang Dae-Hwi had logged into the capsule as soon as he got off work and completed the temple event, reaching level 188.

“But this is getting a lot of hate.”

“Hate?”

“They say you can’t continue the quest anymore.”

That’s right.

The quest in this honey tip video was a consumable quest.

A quest to capture 5 cultists with marks all over the capital.

Naturally, there was no reason to do the quest if there were no more cultists to capture.

“…Then 2 million views is impossible.”

They had reached 1.2 million views thanks to the initial hype, but if the quest couldn’t be done anymore, there was no reason for the hype to continue.

“At least we got to do it, so that’s good.”

“That’s true. Contact your brother.”

“Why?”

“We should buy him a meal. He got us 3 levels for free, we can’t just eat and run.”

Ha-Jin’s YouTube channel had just been created, so there was no income yet.

So no matter how many views the video got, he couldn’t make any money.

“We should.”

He was really grateful to Ha-Jin.

Leveling up after level 100 was extremely difficult, and thanks to him, he had gained 3 levels.

He was in a good mood!

He would treat him to pork ribs until he burst!

Jang Dae-Hwi sent a KakaoTalk message to Ha-Jin on his smartphone.

That was when it happened.

[LIVE broadcast starts.]

A new LIVE video appeared on Ha-Jin’s channel.

* * *

As the broadcast started, viewers slowly started to come in.

– What’s with the live stream?

– I was watching the video, and suddenly a LIVE popped up?

– Are they going to give us new honey tips?

Was it because of the video they uploaded earlier?

In 10 minutes, nearly 70 viewers were watching the live stream.

“Aha, hello everyone. I’m Honey 2 from Honey Tube.”

Ha-Jin introduced himself as Honey 2 in an awkward tone.

This automatically made Jeong-Hoon Honey 1.

– Hahaha Honey 2?

– Can’t you remove the mosaic and voice modulation?

– It’s weird that you’re using mosaic and modulation even though you’ve customized your appearance.

Chats were coming up in real time.

“Ah, that’s a bit difficult.”

Ha-Jin glanced at Jeong-Hoon.

Jeong-Hoon, on the other hand, wasn’t paying any attention to the broadcast.

“Please… Please fulfill our city’s wish…”

“What should we do to fulfill your wish?”

“Get rid of the monster that’s rampaging in the city. Get rid of that ‘monster’ in the center…”

The Nameless Man’s voice was full of desperation.

Jeong-Hoon nodded.

“I’ll do that.”

“To reach him… you have to go through several waves.”

“Yes.”

The center of the Ruined City.

The content of this Epic quest was to defeat the monster lurking in the center.

– Huh? The Ruined City?

– Crazy hahahahaha

– I guess they got it as an Epic quest…

– Wow… Why would they take that as an Epic quest ㅠㅠ

– You can’t even give up on that quest…

– That NPC is crazy. He gave them a quest to fulfill his wish, so he won’t let them give up until they die three times.

The viewers looked at Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin with pity.

– Ah, I thought it was honey, but it’s boring af ㅅㄱ

– The first impression was the best impression lol

After that, the number of viewers started to drop sharply.

“Wh-What do we do?!”

“Huh? Don’t worry about that. They’re the ones who’ll lose out if they leave.”

Jeong-Hoon entered the Ruined City.

– He says they’re the ones who’ll lose out if they leave hahaha

– Look at his confidence lol

– Okay. I’ll watch until the end lol

– But if there’s no gain, I’m going to curse a lot

* * *

At that time.

Yeo Min-Ji was having a conversation with Jeong-Hoon’s mother, Lee Na-Yeon, at a cafe.

They were having the tea time that had been postponed due to the guild member disappearance incident.

“Here’s some information about the second class advancement. It probably won’t deviate much from this.”

She handed the organized information to Lee Na-Yeon.

Fortunately, there was a guild member who had obtained a hidden class in the same gunslinger line, so she had received a lot of help in obtaining basic information.

“Thank you for always taking care of me.”

“No problem. And I’ll adjust your equipment to your level again. Same goes for consumables.”

“That’s okay, but…”

“No! The Gunslinger class is more dependent on equipment and consumables than other classes. So please accept it.”

“…Alright. Then I’ll gratefully accept it.”

Lee Na-Yeon also keenly felt how important equipment was while playing the game.

To be honest, the monsters that users of similar levels were hunting were too easy.

It was partly because of her excellent shooting skills that blew their heads off, but the biggest reason was probably her gear, which was incomparable to other users’.

Ho-Yeong spared no material support for Lee Na-Yeon, so she was armed with Epic and Unique items that were worth a fortune.

But now that they were offering to upgrade her equipment again, she honestly felt a bit burdened.

“…I survived thanks to Jeong-Hoon this time.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I got caught in a trap recently.”

It was true.

Thinking back to how she had wandered around the maze countless times, it was horrifying.

If Jeong-Hoon hadn’t discovered the maze’s weakness and broken through it, wouldn’t she have been trapped there forever?

Just imagining it was terrifying.

Of course, she simply told Lee Na-Yeon that Jeong-Hoon had solved a complicated maze for her.

“Oh my, really? Hoon has always been a bit extraordinary.”

Lee Na-Yeon also agreed.

Her son had been quite unique since he was young.

He didn’t cry much and was more mature and composed than other children his age.

She was convinced that her son was different from others when they went on a family trip.

At that time, the navigation system broke down and they were having a hard time, but her 3-year-old son started pointing the way with his finger.

‘We came this way.’

At first, she was doubtful, but 3-year-old Jeong-Hoon remembered the entire way they had come.

Even the surrounding buildings and structures, perfectly.

Perfect memory.

Even the doctor at the institution they had visited for testing was amazed by his perfect memory and wanted to study him.

But the child’s father refused their interest and took Jeong-Hoon home.

‘I want Hoon to live freely.’

‘…Me too.’

That’s why she actively supported what Jeong-Hoon wanted to do.

The same was true for this game.

If it weren’t for Hoon’s father’s words, she might not have seen Jeong-Hoon engrossed in the game.

“You think so too, Mom?!”

“Of course. Whose son is he?”

Lee Na-Yeon’s shoulders lifted.

At that moment, they heard a noisy voice from the next table.

“What are you watching?”

“Huh? Oh, a broadcast.”

“A broadcast? What broadcast all of a sudden?”

“You don’t know Honey Tube?”

“Of course I do. I leveled up by 3 thanks to that!”

“Yeah. They’re doing a LIVE stream right now.”

“LIVE?”

“You know Märchen Kingdom, right? They went into the Ruined City there.”

Their voices were so loud that even Lee Na-Yeon could hear everything from her table.

“They’re quite noisy, aren’t they?”

Lee Na-Yeon said to Yeo Min-Ji with a smile.

But Yeo Min-Ji’s expression wasn’t normal.

“Mom… I think I need to watch the broadcast for a moment.”

“The broadcast?”

“Yes.”

Yeo Min-Ji took out a tablet PC from her bag and played the Honey Tube LIVE video for Lee Na-Yeon.

“…This?”

Lee Na-Yeon recognized her son in the broadcast at a glance, even though his face was mosaicked.

“Yes. It’s Jeong-Hoon.”

“Hoon’s even broadcasting?”

“I don’t know the reason either.”

“…Let’s watch for now.”

Lee Na-Yeon and Yeo Min-Ji focused on the broadcast.

[Usually, there’s a cheat code or something in places like this, right?]

Jeong-Hoon tapped his fist, and there really was a spot that dented.

[Wow! There really is one?]

Jeong-Hoon put his hand into the spot.

Pop!

With that sound, the golems in front of them lost their power and collapsed.