In one corner of the screen, PleasePunishThem was hopping around fussily like, “I did good, right? Right? Give me some praise,” but Hae-in didn’t even see it.
If my paired DPS weren’t a freeloader whose only appealing trait is obeying orders with a meek “yes, sir,” and were Ignis-nim instead?
“Ugh…”
Just the happy fantasy was enough to make Hae-in clutch the mouse. Why had he holed up in the mountains, metaphorically speaking, grinding away at wall-facing meditation and waterfall training to climb the Tower of Pain?
Because he wanted to match Ignis’s feats one by one and become the kind of powerhouse who could stand proudly at his side.
‘He’ll log in again tomorrow, right?’
While Hae-in was lost in that sweet daydream, the enemy team’s Berserker, who hadn’t learned his lesson from getting wrecked earlier, charged Dohaesal again.
How dare you interrupt me while I’m thinking about Ignis-nim?
The hulking Terran Berserker lifting clean off the ground was the obvious next step.
As often as Hae-in recalled Ignis’s glory days and felt dissatisfied with PleasePunishThem,
PleasePunishThem in turn had plenty he could say. When Yeonhwa, as usual, claimed a resounding victory a moment later, what PleasePunishThem felt was relief—and pain.
Yeonhwa was, at its core, a small guild built around the guild master Dohaesal, his real-life friends, and their raid team. Even if they wrung out every last member, they barely had about ten people.
Because Dohaesal was one of the vanishingly few Storm Haste names on the server even before forming Yeonhwa, love calls poured in from every guild.
Even the ops team flat-out labeled the class in the official job description as “not suitable for beginners; control difficulty: highest,” yet with barely any decent buffs, StH remained a blue-blood class with rock-bottom population, rivaling Flammer.
The reason was obvious: the people who are good are too good. Even before Dohaesal showed up, three or four names could absolutely toy with the opposing team, and because of that, while StH—like Flammer—was a class chosen by only a tiny handful in parties, that handful were folks who clenched their teeth and survived the newbie death zone. It made the devs hesitate to consider buffs.
Once StH has you, you go whoosh into the air and never touch ground; if they’re running with Fire classes like Flammer or Battlemage, the only answer is to land the first blow before StH’s skills catch you and shred their paper-thin HP.
The urban-legend-level claim that nothing can match Flammer’s damage if you pilot it well also helped inflate StH’s asking price. Fantasies ran wild about someone leveling StH just so you could freely play Flammer—and demand for StH never dried up.
On top of that, after holing up in the Tower of Pain for nearly a year, Dohaesal pulled off what everyone thought was impossible: a solo climb to Floor 50.
Rumors spread far and wide that current lords were trying to recruit him—even offering to cover his account activity costs. As only Hae-in knew, that rumor was true.
“Hyung will give you spending money, so come duo with me.” After turning down proposals that poured in via messenger apps and whispers, the next thing Haesal did post-Tower was to issue a challenge to the Lord of Parel.
[Server Board: (Nacht Server)]
[Title: Dohaesal made a guild]
(Screenshot)
Just now a declaration of war on Parel Castle popped
[Comments]
- ? What’s the stake? Am I seeing things?
ㄴ It’s 200 mil.
- Bingsu was at least shitty; CreamCream just got slapped with 200 mil out of nowhere, confused as hell
ㄴ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ Wow, haven’t heard “Bingsu” in forever
ㄴ Sudden Bingsu cameo lololololol
ㄴ Dragged out and beaten even in 2020—Bingsu, what even are you people…
ㄴ What’s Bingsu?
- It’s about time Parel’s lord changed anyway, but WOW Dohaesal WOW I’m so hyped to watch
ㄴ Now I’m excited to see just how much the CreamCream DPS will actually keep their feet on the ground ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Server Board: (Nacht Server)]
[Title: Summary of the Bingsu Showdown for Newbies Who Don’t Know]
About 10 years ago
At launch there was only one castle: Parel
<Bingsu> was the guild that grabbed it the instant the castle system opened and sat on it
They jacked taxes so high the whole server wouldn’t use the market board except for junk items
Then one day they suddenly dropped the tax from 50% to 5%
Seeing the tax go down, everyone rushed to list high-value items on the market
What Nacht didn’t know—because Bingsu kept it fixed at 50%—was:
Market tax applies based on the time of sale, not at the time of listing, so lowered to 5% for just 12 hours and then raised it back to 50% as a trick.
One enraged named player who’d thought it was 5% but got gouged 50% took the lead and immediately slapped down a declaration of war with a 200 million stake
Bingsu lost in 30 minutes, stepped down from lordship, and after that the 5% tax became the de facto rule on the Nacht server
Reason for this post: lots of newbies saw “200 mil” and were like “what’s this Bingsu thing”
[Comments]
- Wow, such nostalgia. Yeah, most players these days wouldn’t know ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ Then they won’t know who Ignis is either?
ㄴ Probably not
ㄴ Who’s Ignis?
ㄴ ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ I figured, but seeing it for real is wild
ㄴ Kinda amazing someone’s played this since back then
- So the reason Dohaesal tossed 200 mil is because of this?
ㄴ Nah, we don’t know that
ㄴ But if they’re an StH ranker lol it’s impossible not to have a romantic dream of a Flammer that can pump out as much damage as you want
- Grandpa’s old tales
ㄴ (OP) I’m hurting here—use your blinker before you merge, okay
- That’s one of those ancient stories only old dudes remember
ㄴ 222222
ㄴ 3333
With a declaration offering the same stake as when Ignis challenged Bingsu, even the communities were abuzz.
But more people either didn’t remember or had no idea who “Bingsu” or “Ignis” were, compared to those who did and marveled at that bygone war; they were simply shocked by the unusual sum of 200 million gold.
There’s been inflation since launch, so it’s not as huge an amount now as it was then. Still, it remains a sum a lord can’t refuse out of sheer pride. The current lord, ButterCream of CreamCream, accepted the declaration, scoffing that without a Flammer how high could an StH really fly… and by that evening a new lord had taken the seat.
PleasePunishThem, latched on as the forcibly paired DPS to that monstrous ranker, was the subject of countless rumors: “Just how good are you to be paired with the server’s No. 1 StH?” “What does it feel like to get buffed by the No. 1 StH?”—but he himself was nothing if not miserable.
What? Lucky to be duo’d with the No. 1 StH?
Luck, my ass. Keeping up with standards as high as that ego meant he was forever one step from rage-quitting. Please, if you know a good Fire DPS, introduce me.
There’d been a time he’d needed personal help from Haesal, and until Haesal personally released him, he’d made a sort of unspoken pact to fulfill his duties as the pair—so unless he brought Haesal a new, satisfactory duo partner, he couldn’t escape the guild.
People think, “If the top of the job rankings is boosting you, all you have to do is do damage,” but obviously not. Just following Haesal’s orders the way he wanted was no easy task.
Rip that. Burn that. Run over here. Stand over there. Easier said than done! People who’ve never tried to tail an inhuman level of evasive maneuvering while not getting chomped by the enemy team have no idea. They don’t know—so they can say they’re jealous. Whether in raids or siege matches, acting as Haesal’s pair left PleasePunishThem with only one feeling:
“Please let me go…”
There were only two ways to escape this crazy synergy DPS: find a substitute who could satisfy Haesal as much as he did, or recruit Ignis—Haesal’s beloved hero—into the guild.
Having just barely managed not to annoy Haesal today, PleasePunishThem prayed desperately that Ignis would join the guild.
And MidlifeHunter—who, just earlier, had tailed along with Hae-in to follow the newbie suspected to be Ignis’s new character—was no different in that wish.
Su-yeong and Hae-in’s families had known each other since elementary school. They weren’t particularly close, but there was no reason to snub each other either; they were the pretty kid you’d run into once or twice a year on family trips.
From a young age, he’d stood out as stunningly beautiful, so at tourist spots, strangers would hand business cards to his parents. Because Hae-in was so young, they’d put it off with “we’ll think about it once he starts middle school,” but sadly, after an accident when Hae-in was in second grade, every offer after middle school had to be declined.
Well… that’s why he clings that much harder to Ignis, that old named player. Yeah, I get it…
No matter what, recruiting him wouldn’t hurt; so long as he contributed as a guild member, he’d be a plus. Su-yeong readily joined Hae-in’s grand “Recruit Ignis” caper partly because there was nothing to lose—but honestly, there was a bigger reason.
“Looks fun. Let’s egg him on.”
That was Su-yeong’s true feeling.
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