Chapter 143

What kind of out-of-nowhere question was that?

“You mean exchanging StarGram IDs? Of course I remember....”

Yeonhoo was about to say that when he’d told Kwon he didn’t have a Korean number, Kwon had smoothly wrung even his barely used StarGram ID out of him instead.

Then the next words made him freeze.

—That was the day we first met. When I forced a StarGram ID out of someone who said he didn’t even have a Korean number.

Yeonhoo had practically admitted it himself.

—You remember the day we first met now, don’t you?

The day he had pretended not to remember all this time.

—You remember what happened between us too, right?

How he had gotten involved with Kwon that day, what they had talked about....

His memory wasn’t perfect, but he remembered most of it.

—Yeonhoo....

Why was admitting it so hard?

As he hesitated, a piece of the puzzle that had bothered Yeonhoo for some time suddenly clicked into place.

Now he understood why Kwon hadn’t been surprised at all by the bizarre number of family photos covering Yeonhoo’s living room.

So that’s why he barely reacted.

The first night they met, Yeonhoo had spilled everything—from every last story about his unrequited crushes to the complicated, eventful history of his family.

You were ridiculously cute as a kid. Do you have more pictures from back then? You’re so cute. Is this from when you were a student? Why don’t you age?

Kwon could have acted like he already knew.

Instead, he had pretended not to.

Maybe that had been his way of being considerate.

—Or do you at least remember some of it? Yeonhoo, say something.

While Yeonhoo sat there blankly going over the memories, Kwon pressed him for an answer.

Honestly, remembering that night was embarrassing.

He had said far more than he’d realized, and been far more honest than he’d realized, which made it hard to simply admit that he remembered everything.

But—

“Yeah.”

He wasn’t going to make Kwon wait anymore.

Hey. Yeah. This is because of that weird bastard, isn’t it? No wonder he kept contacting me like a lunatic.

Kwon Mieon contacted you?

Yeah, fuck. He kept asking if I knew Mo Yeonhoo, took the CCTV footage, kept demanding I get in touch with you! Shit, now that I think about it, that bastard was weird from the moment he started hitting on Yejin. Crazy fucker spent months chasing me around asking where you were, looking for you... Hey, Mo Yeonhoo!

Kwon had already spent so long searching for him.

So Yeonhoo admitted it honestly.

“I remember... almost all of it.”

For a while, there was no response from the other end.

Why am I nervous over something like this?

All he had done was say he remembered.

Yet somehow, his nerves were going wild.

What do I say now? Should I apologize and tell him I was drunk that night and smashed my head on the floor, so I lost the memory? Or just tell him that now that I remember, I’m even happier to see him...?

Had he always been this awkward?

Yeonhoo struggled to figure out how to continue before finally lifting his head with determination.

Fine.

He’d start with, Now that I remember, I’m even happier to see you.

“Hey....”

—Um, Yeonhoo.

Except the exact moment Yeonhoo started speaking, Kwon did too.

They both startled.

“Oh, sorry. You go first—”

—You first....

What are we doing?

“Oh. Yeah? Then I’ll....”

—Then I’ll... no, you—

Seriously, what are we doing...?

In the end, Yeonhoo burst out laughing.

Kwon did too.

Listening to the low laughter coming through his speakers, Yeonhoo thought,

I want to see him.

...Wait.

Had he just said that out loud?

—Can I come see you right now?

Yeonhoo flinched when Kwon somehow voiced the exact same thing that had been in his head.

It was ridiculous.

And strange.

Kwon kept stealing everything Yeonhoo wanted to do, everything he wanted to say.

...And it makes my heart race.

—DING!

Before he could even answer, a sharp notification sound practically struck his ears.

The two of them had already forgotten all about the war and disappeared into their own little world, but the sound instantly dragged them back into the game.

“Did you hear that? It sounded like some kind of warning.”

—Give me a second.

Both of them turned their attention to the game screen they had been ignoring.

An urgent carrier pigeon has arrived from Admin GM Horror...?

What kind of notification was this?

A black crow icon suddenly appeared in the center of the screen, beating its wings.

Then a parchment-style message window stamped with a red seal forcibly popped open.

🕊 [Admin] Emergency Carrier Pigeon from GM Horror

“Only 12 hours remain until the boundary between human and machine collapses and the heart of steel begins to beat.”

Notice to all users.

As the Mechanic hidden class advancement quest has entered its final stage, the system will now automatically provide real-time updates in accordance with system guidelines.

Current Quest Progress: 99%

-View Real-Time Collectibles List-

Real-time updates? Mechanic? Hidden?

A flood of information had appeared all at once, leaving Yeonhoo confused, but between the community posts and his time undercover, it wasn’t impossible to understand.

“So there really was a Mechanic hidden class advancement. Did you already know?”

—The people over in L2 were talking about a class advancement in chat, so I found out then. The information probably leaked because they were already near the end.

“Then what’s this? Collectibles?”

Yeonhoo clicked the collectibles list beneath the progress indicator and blinked.

When someone said collectible, you usually imagined something impressive.

Something with a special story behind it, like the music box YoureGettingSued had been desperate to obtain before, or some unusual item that was difficult to find in this world.

These just look like... pieces of glasswork.

Every one of them had a different shape.

Some were completely ordinary geometric forms, while others were more unusual.

As Yeonhoo examined them one by one, he moved his cursor over one and his eyes widened at the description.

Item Info: Core Crystal (Hidden)

An energy fragment separated from an alliance core.

If enough fragments are gathered, the true power of a dormant “someone” may awaken.

So the hidden collectibles were Core Crystals.

Everything they had suspected suddenly seemed to fall perfectly into place.

VITA.

.

The Mechanics.

All this time, they had been collecting Core Crystals.

For their own hidden class—the “someone” referred to in that description.

Hidden Class Advancement

Mechanic: Singularity

Class Classification

Final Mechanic Mutation: Users of this class can use System Seizure, absorbing the equipment durability of nearby users to strengthen their own equipment.

Unique Authorities

Blueprint Rewrite: Randomly destroys existing item options and forcibly replaces them with attributes advantageous to the user. Attack power may increase by up to 45%.

Core Recalibration: Allows the user to check the locations of other alliances’ cores in real time.

Emergency Repair: Instantly restores 80% of the user’s equipment durability during combat.

Module Installation: Allows the user to change combat styles according to the current battle situation.

Emergency Protocol: A defensive system that activates during critical danger. Automatically triggers when HP falls below 20%, reducing damage taken by 50% for 5 seconds. (5-minute cooldown after activation.)

.

.

(View More)

〈Further details will be available in a future update.〉 ℴ

Yeonhoo’s mouth fell open as he kept scrolling and scrolling through what seemed like an endless list of skills.

“Isn’t this way too strong? If they release it like this, Mechanics are going to become completely broken. Every other class is going to get slaughtered....”

That was the problem.

The hidden class was overwhelmingly powerful.

Far beyond anything the other classes could compare to.

(Global) BlueComet: ARE YOU SERIOUS???? wtf are those hidden quest rewards

(Global) WhiteCrow: is this for real? this isn’t a balance patch it’s a fucking disaster lol how am I supposed to play against that I’d just quit

(Global) IronFist: they said they were buffing Mechanics and just gave them permission to terrorize alliances;

(Global) Daha: I seriously don’t get it. Mechanics only suck because THEY fucked up the balance patches, so now giving them special treatment with some >>>>hidden class advancement<<<< is supposed to be fair???

(Global) Daha: why are the PLAYERS paying for the devs’ fuckup?????

(Global) Data: guys did you even read the conditions before losing your minds

(Global) Daha: conditions?

Naturally, the backlash was fierce.

But it wasn’t as if the class advancement was being handed to them for free.

—There are conditions underneath.

The developers had clearly anticipated this reaction.

A short clause had been added beneath the announcement in red text.

Notice

If the hidden quest succeeds, only the Mechanic class will have access to the third class advancement for 5 months.

However, if the quest fails, Mechanics will receive a 3-month penalty before the third class advancement update is released.

The penalty for failure was substantial too.

From the Mechanics’ perspective, they don’t really have a choice in the first place.

Even taking the quest difficulty and penalty into account, though, it was obvious just how favorable this entire situation was for them.

People are fighting like crazy.

Yeonhoo checked the chat window.

The rankers were losing their minds, demanding to know how they were supposed to maintain their rankings if Mechanics were given a class advancement like that.

Others cursed the developers, claiming the game’s player count had been declining lately and the dev team must have gotten desperate enough to pull a stunt like this.

Just as the chat descended further and further into chaos, bright yellow text appeared.

Someone had used a megaphone.

(Global Megaphone) HHH: Greetings. I’m HHH, representative of the Mechanics.

It was him.

Quest Participant: HHH

Current Progress: 99 / 100

Time Remaining: 11:59:59

※ Upon completion of the first hidden class advancement quest, emergency maintenance will begin to rebalance the entire Mechanic class skill set. Users are advised to take note and log out from a safe location.

“HHH.”

The alliance leader of , and probably the former leader of as well.

Yeonhoo couldn’t see him, but he stared hard at the chat.

There was a good chance he had encountered HHH before.

He was probably one of those three.

Yeonhoo had a feeling HHH had been the character who survived to the end and smugly used that interaction at them.

(Global Megaphone) HHH: I imagine everyone was surprised by the announcement. I sincerely apologize for the sudden notice.

(Global Megaphone) HHH: We were the ones who spent all this time raiding the alliances you worked so hard to build and looting their cores.

(Global Megaphone) HHH: I sincerely apologize for the tremendous damage we caused in the process.

(Global Megaphone) HHH: However,

Unlike how obnoxious he’d been back then, his messages now were surprisingly polite.

Extremely courteous, even....

(Global Megaphone) HHH: fuck

(Global Megaphone) HHH: what do you want me to do about it

(Global Megaphone) HHH: like YOU wouldn’t do the quest if you were us?

...?