“……Excuse me?”
I poked the Mado Engineer character, who stood foolishly frozen before my eyes.
I had always thought their customization was a bit goofy, but seeing them like this made them look truly idiotic.
“Didn’t you get the invite? What’s wrong?”
“Oh, no! The invite came.
It came……”
A shiver ran through them.
I sighed, watching them tremble as if waking from a brief stupor.
It seemed I had stumbled upon the wrong companions.
Of course, I could clear it alone, so it wouldn’t be a huge problem, but the difficulty did increase slightly with more people.
“Hey, wasn’t the person next to you also joining?”
“Yes, yes! That’s right!”
When I spoke to the person beside them, they snapped out of it.
Though, they didn’t look entirely normal either.
A gulp.
Their face resembled someone about to bungee jump.
Their hands trembled, too.
It was fascinating.
How could someone tremble like this in a virtual reality game?
So, I simply took their hand.
Immediately, information appeared.
“Oh.”
A Level 272 Martial Artist.
This was an impressively high level.
It was even higher than my character’s level in my original world.
Of course, my focus there had been primarily on arena combat, and I often lacked time to game, but regardless, a high level was a high level.
“Your nickname is private?”
“Oh, yes! It’s just more comfortable that way!
Oh, should I tell you? My name is Yeonwon!
My age is……”
“……You don’t necessarily need to tell me all that.”
I cut off her excited babbling, her face flushed crimson.
Observing the girl, her expression still alight with a mix of embarrassment and eagerness, I tilted my head.
‘……Is Level 287 really that impressive?’
It was certainly a high level, an incredibly high one that was rare to encounter.
But to react so intensely to just that…
Lost in thought, I activated the broadcast settings.
[Room Title – Level 287 Elementalist: Lich Raid in Lion’s Den]
“This should get people to join.”
I gazed at the room title with a sense of satisfaction, then turned to the two dunderheads.
“Let’s go, both of you.”
“Oh, yes!
No, Unnie (TL Note: A Korean term used by a younger female to address an older female.), snap out of it!”
As if to underscore their utter inexperience with men—
……I ignored the sounds that followed from behind them.
It seemed it would take some time to adapt to the mannerisms of this world.
****
A man? He’s a man?
Mado was still reeling in confusion.
As if to prove her reaction wasn’t unusual, something similar was happening beside her.
“……Sis, I’ve never seen a high-level male player before.
He’s practically a ranker.
Is this for real?”
“If it hadn’t shown up on his profile, I wouldn’t have believed it either.”
Male players in Spiral accounted for 0.9 percent.
Subtracting those who quit immediately, deeming the game too cruel and violent, halved that number again.
Even the male players who managed to survive mostly had abysmal game skills, so a normal, mid-tier male player was practically treated as a celebrity.
Consequently, the general consensus was that the male players existing in Spiral were merely ‘drones’ (TL Note: A derogatory Korean slang term, ‘subeol,’ for a man who is surrounded by and dependent on many women, likened to a drone bee.) leading around dozens of women—
—Whoa, what the hell is a Level 287 male player? Is that even possible?
—And an Elementalist, too, LOL.
That’s super hard;;
—Isn’t he just a proxy player or something? It makes no sense.
—A proxy player in Spiral, my ass LOL.
—Don’t you know female players can’t even register male characters? Even if you went to Thailand and got a d*ck, it wouldn’t work, LOL.
Given that the player who had just appeared before their eyes seemed far removed from such types, the chat window inevitably erupted.
Mado, too, was aware of these reactions and wanted to talk to him, but……
“……Hey, how do you even talk to a man?”
—LOL, you virgin.
—There’s someone who’s twenty-five and never talked to a man?
—Mado, I’ll tell you how to handle men.
Just do a wall-slam (TL Note: ‘Byeok kwang,’ a common trope in romance manga where a character dramatically slams their hand against a wall near another character’s head.), gaze deeply into their eyes, and declare, ‘The moment I saw you, I fell in love!’ Go for it, LOL.
—So many unpopped virgins in chat, LOL.
—Mado, please just talk to him, I can’t take it anymore.
It was difficult in many ways.
Like most women, Mado had never conversed with a man, nor was there anyone to help her.
“These crazy bitches are useless.
This is such a damn struggle.”
[TodayOnlyWoman577 sponsored 10,000 won.]
[The ‘struggle’ is your uterus shooting out eggs when you hear his voice, LOL.]
“……You’re getting a donation ban, you psycho b*tch.”
—LOL, but Mado totally lost it the moment she heard his voice.
—Damn, I’m so jealous.
How does a man’s hand feel?
—His voice is so hot, for real.
I’m just dripping down there.
—What’s dripping, you crazy bitches, LOL.
A deluge of vulgarity erupted, as if a dam had burst, starting with the donation.
There was nothing to be done about it.
Normally, she would have managed to control it somehow, but it had already spiraled out of control.
Just as she sighed in resignation:
“Red Skeletons (TL Note: ‘Jeokgol,’ meaning ‘red bone.’) have appeared up ahead.
Just take care of any stragglers.”
“Yes, yes?”
At his words, spoken as he walked ahead, I collected myself and scanned the front.
Immediately before my eyes was nothing but utter darkness.
Yet, Mado didn’t think he would speak idly, so she chanted an activation spell.
“Reveal yourselves—!”
With her chant, the darkness ahead receded, revealing a multitude of skeletons with dark crimson bones, as if stained with blood.
“……Are you kidding me?”
Mado gulped.
Indeed, the sheer number was excessive.
In areas containing raid bosses, especially those intertwined with the main storyline like the Lion’s Den, the ‘trials’ were multifaceted, and their difficulty was random.
The Red Skeletons, appearing to number in the hundreds, with each one capable of matching a typical Level 200 player, suggested that giving up on the raid at this point was the sensible choice……
Whoosh—!
“Huh?!”
“What?!”
However, the man ahead of them suddenly leaped, soaring into the very center of the Red Skeletons.
Both Yeonwon and Mado let out bewildered cries.
How could a mage, not even a melee warrior, charge straight into the front lines?
—Whoa, what the heck? So many Red Skeletons; aren’t those all elite mobs in the field?
—We should just bail on this, LOL.
That guy just charged right in.
—Mado, damn it, stop zoning out and do something!
The chat window, too, was a crucible of chaos, yet amidst the rapidly scrolling messages and the unfolding situation at the front, she suddenly read something intriguing.
—Mado, if you just smash through these Red Skeletons super coolly and save that guy, he’ll be your husband that day, LOL.
You absolutely have to save him.
Of course, she wasn’t entirely foolish and recognized that talk of a husband was utter nonsense.
However.
“……Hey, let’s go.”
“Oh, Unnie.”
Could they perhaps earn some points with him?
Such a thought began to consume the minds of both women.
“Hyaaaah!”
“Overwhelm them—! Collapse—!”
With that, Mado and Yeonwon attacked the Red Skeletons, each wielding their highly proficient skills.
As skilled players, they both displayed considerable prowess.
“Rise—! Fall—!”
Mado, in particular, displayed far greater control than usual; the chat erupted in exclamations of awe as she rapidly calculated coordinates and obliterated the Red Skeletons.
—Whoa, why is she so good today? Her control seems better than during her prime, LOL.
—That crazy simp (TL Note: ‘Nam-mi-sae,’ a derogatory term for a woman who is desperate for male attention.) is about to kill all the Red Skeletons by herself;;
—Ugh, if she’d played like this in clan wars or the arena back then, she definitely would have hit ranker!!!
—She just held a guy’s hand once and awakened, LOL.
Dozens of Red Skeletons scattered instantly.
Yeonwon, too, despite her class being ill-suited for large numbers of enemies, advanced, shattering bones with her hands and feet.
As the ‘rescue’ operation proceeded smoothly……
—But why isn’t the mage’s HP dropping in the party window? It’s almost full?
—The male mage’s HP isn’t decreasing? How did he do that?
—Can’t see anything from here to say; the Red Skeletons in front are blocking the view.
—Huh? His mana’s dropping.
The nickname ‘Hyeonio’ was displayed in the party status window.
Beneath it, his HP percentage remained at 100, with only his mana being consumed.
Mado also noticed the situation but didn’t think much of it.
“He must be continuously casting shields.
If he draws aggro from the rear, we could probably kill half of them together, so maybe this is efficient?”
Indeed, there were almost no arrows flying from the Red Skeleton archers in the rear.
She was admiring what seemed to be a good strategy when suddenly:
Kwoooong—!
“What was that……?”
In an instant, a sound reverberated.
A colossal sound that vibrated throughout the entire cave; with it, the movements of the Red Skeletons halted.
No, they had no choice but to stop.
After all, Mado and Yeonwon were both staggering, barely able to keep their balance.
Kruuuurung—!
Subsequently, a storm of magical power spread, accompanied by a sound as if the entire cave were collapsing.
The area before her eyes flickered for a moment, and Mado, who had squeezed her eyes shut, opened them once the phenomenon subsided.
Then, she was aghast.
“……What.”
Annihilation.
All the Red Skeletons that had been before her were utterly pulverized.
In that scene, as if a storm had swept through, a lone silhouette emerged from the thick dust.
“You held up well.
Shall we proceed quickly?”
The man stood there proudly, his voice and expression seeming quite pleased.
However, neither his compliment nor the handsome face revealed as his robe fell away did anything but amplify the shock in that moment.
—Holy shit, what the hell? What did he use to kill all those field-level Red Skeletons?
—Is Elementalist that broken? Is that even possible?
If so, why would anyone play Elementalist when Summoner, Necromancer, or Mado are such trash (TL Note: ‘Gudegi,’ a derogatory term meaning ‘maggot’ or ‘trash,’ often used for something useless or bad.) classes?
—Level 240 Elementalist here) I don’t know how he did it, damn it.
He must have combined water, fire, and ice-based magic, but can a person really calculate that?
—And he’s super handsome too, LOL.
Hey, character customization isn’t that detailed in this game.
—There’s a guy who looks like that in real life? And plays the game that well? No way, that’s a lie.
The reactions were nothing short of awe.
