TAHR Ch 4

Clink.

A tumbler filled with ice landed on the table with a soft noise. Jaein, having brought his summer essential, sat down and checked the time.

“3 o’clock.”

He hadn’t expected the servers to open on time, but seeing his prediction come true didn’t make him feel any better. What kind of issues kept cropping up during maintenance to cause these constant delays?

If problems arose, they should announce them in advance. Since they only announced the extended maintenance after the opening time had passed, it was no wonder the forums were in an uproar.

It was fortunate the website was working. If that had been down too, other community sites might have crashed.

While the game was still closed, the website data had already been updated. Jaein sipped his coffee through a straw, staring at the individual ranking page.

[Blaze Individual Rankings]

1st: Daejang / Lv60 / Engineer / Sorbet Server
2nd: HolyHoly / Lv60 / Blade / Artiasan Server
3rd: Mollamolla / Lv60 / Mage / Kanilla Server
4th: GatherRoundInTheForestOfSlaughter / Lv60 / Demon / Kanilla Server
5th: Anonymous0101 / – / – / Kanilla Server

After scrolling down to the 100th rank, he went back to the top and quietly murmured.

“Three Anonymous players.”

Blaze had a diverse player base.

Some enjoyed dungeons and raids because they liked hunting monsters, while others enjoyed PvP, battling other players in war zones.

Less combat-oriented players enjoyed gathering and crafting, or the more advanced versions, farming and trading, to accumulate wealth. There were also those who enjoyed decorating their homes or completing achievements.

Fortunately, Blaze allowed players to enjoy the game according to their preferences. This was because the horizontal and vertical content was well-balanced.

However, the most distinctive features of Blaze were undoubtedly Conimons and rankings.

Conimon was a term used in Blaze, similar to pets or summons, but with a slightly different concept.

It was a unique term coined by combining the Latin word Con, meaning “together”, with Animal and Mon from monster.

Unlike other games, Blaze emphasized ‘togetherness’ with tamed monsters as its signature feature. There was an interview with a developer who stated they created pets not as mere accessories, but as companions.

Perhaps because of this, it was impossible to enjoy other content in Blaze without Conimons. They played a significant role in combat, gathering, crafting, and even farming.

Therefore, it was natural for Conimons to be the first thing that came to mind when thinking about Blaze.

Another defining feature of Blaze was its ranking system. The game company emphasized rankings, displaying the top 10 players prominently on the main page of the website.

Because of this, Blaze gained immense popularity at launch, fueled by the enthusiasm of Korean players. Although it had slowed down to the point of merging servers, it was still at the top among domestic MMORPGs.

In any case, out of the hundreds of thousands of players in Blaze, only 100 could be ranked, and three of them were eccentrics. It was remarkable in a way.

What was even more surprising was that all three of them were on the Kanilla server. It seemed they had coincidentally gathered together due to the server merge, having previously been scattered across different servers.

5th: Anonymous0101 / – / – / Kanilla Server
46th: Anonymous3087 / – / – / Kanilla Server
87th: Anonymous231 / – / – / Kanilla Server

Jaein looked at the Anonymous users in turn, then stopped at 5th place, wrinkling his nose.

“……Anonymous0101.”

He hadn’t paid much attention before, but now this player was someone he had to find. He desperately wanted to see Youngil, the 5th ranked player with the shining diamond badge.

―Hey, why are you talking about Youngil like you’re going to eat him alive? It’s creepy.

A familiar voice suddenly came from the headset, which had been silent until then. It was Ttunttuni, his vice-guild master and real-life friend, who had stepped away to run an errand while they were voice chatting, waiting for the game to open.

Jaein couldn’t help but frown.

“Don’t use the word ‘our.’ We haven’t even met him. What do you mean ‘our’ Youngil?”

―It builds camaraderie, how nice is that?

“Don’t talk nonsense about camaraderie.”

―He’ll be one of us when he joins the guild anyway.

“Then should I call you that too? Our Hajoo, our Kim Hajoo, how about that?”

―……Damn it. Are you insane?

As Jaein corrected his friend, who was already getting ahead of himself, a torrent of curses poured out from the headset.

“Well, then stop saying weird things.”

―It’s my fault for having you as a friend.

“Enough with the confession, and when the server opens, just focus on finding Youngil.”

―Sigh…….

Ttunttuni, or Kim Hajoo, still seemed to be in shock, his voice trembling. He then started lamenting, saying he should beat up his past self for being fooled by appearances and talking to Jaein first. Although Jaein had heard this countless times, it sounded more like a compliment than a complaint each time, causing him to chuckle to himself.

As he half-listened to Ttunttuni’s muttering, his friend quickly recovered and spoke as if he had remembered something.

―Hey, but thinking about it, Youngil seems like a tough one.

“Tough? Why?”

―He was on the same server as All Talk No Bite. The market crashed because of the taxes, but he survived there. Doesn’t that make him tough?

“……Well.”

Since the Lucan server’s economy was completely destroyed, every item upgrade attempt must have consumed a massive amount of gold. If the average cash price on other servers was around 70,000 won, it would have been approximately 300,000 won on the Lucan server.

‘Imagine 300,000 won disappearing with every click…….’

Since this was just an estimate, the actual amount spent would probably be even higher.

“He’s not tough, he’s rich.”

―Even better. Just be both tough and rich, Youngil. And please come to our guild.

Jaein nodded slightly in agreement. A tough and rich player would be more than satisfactory. You had to be serious about everything to become the best. He couldn’t stand seeing people slack off, even in games.

―Oh! The server is open! It’s open!

At Kim Hajoo’s excited voice, Jaein minimized the website he was staring at and clicked the game start button. It was his first login after the server merge.

“Ah, right. When we advertise for Youngil, let’s offer a reward of 10,000 gold.”

―Huh? 10,000 gold? Why so much? Are you sure?

“No one has found him yet. If he’s real, we have to offer that much.”

―I didn’t know our Guild Master was so generous? Will you give it to me if I find him?!

Kim Hajoo, his eyes gleaming at the mention of 10,000 gold, asked excitedly. Jaein couldn’t stand it and said with a smirk,

“As the vice-guild master, don’t be tempted by the reward money. Mingle with the users from the Lucan server and get some information.”

―……Tsk.

“Let’s work hard, okay? Don’t slack off and play around.”

―When did I ever slack off and play around?!

“If you had spent the time you were chatting in town taming in the field, wouldn’t you be ranked 20th? When are you going to move up from 25th? All Talk No Bite’s vice-guild master is 15th. Doesn’t that tell you anything?”

―Hey! That’s!

“That’s what.”

―Ugh, th……this……this!

“If you have nothing to say, I’m turning off the voice chat. See you in the game.”

Jaein left the voice chat, leaving Ttunttuni to mumble to himself. He heard him yell something at the end, but he ignored it.

The loading screen had finished.

“Wow, it’s crowded.”

Jaein chuckled at the sight that greeted him as he logged in. The place was so packed with people that he couldn’t see the ground. It was a scene reminiscent of the open beta. Seeing this, the reality of the server merge finally hit him.

As he looked around in admiration, LotteriaKetchupThief logged in.