Chapter 145

—Fwoooosh—BOOM!

—BOOM! KABOOM!

No matter how far he lowered the volume, the explosions hammering against his eardrums refused to get any quieter. X-1211 was infamous even on a normal day, but the deafening racket had been going on for hours now at a level far beyond anything usual....

(Global) AnythingForFood: lag;;

(Global) Ppoppo: chat finally broke

(Global) HealMeMedicPlank: is there seriously a SERVER QUEUE now?? ppl are transferring here too??

(Global) KimSniper: transferred over to spectate hi lol

(Global) Ppoppo: look at all these immigrants

(Global) uiuiwu: chat is scrolling so fastㄷ its lagging behind cant even read itㄷ

(Global) 143755: wtf is with all the watchtowers lolol

So many people had crowded around a single set of coordinates that even the server was lagging, with his ping occasionally spiking.

Watchtowers rose everywhere he looked, surrounded by respawn bases and resource-gathering bases packed in shoulder to shoulder.

(Global) Ppoppo: are ALL these mechanics here to attack 47???

(Global) AMOUT: looks like it. only around 6 hours left now

(Global) Chebker: there are THIS many ppl in the mechanic coalition?

It was only natural for players who had just arrived to ask.

After all, six hours had already passed since the Mechanic hidden class advancement quest had been revealed.

(Global) ThatsMyTrapThough: u just get here? dont look at local chat, switch to global

But the world revealed through Global chat was nowhere near that simple.

(Global) Danggeurami: aaaaaa STOP FIRING CANNONS AT OUR SIDE;;;; wtf are u doing (coordinates) assholes;;;

(Global) IDevotedMyLifeToMyStaff: @@@@BUYING IRISㅠㅠㅠ@@@@@@@

(Global) BOboBo: sry sry sry sry sry accident

(Global) Danggeurami: do that one more time and idgaf if ur mechanics or what, im marking u hostile;

(Global) BOboBo: sry sry we just need to beat the shit out of 47 sry sry

(Global) BOboBo: actually fuck you ur annoying as shit

(Global) BOboBo: die

(Global) Danggeurami: try me lololol you fucking bitch-ass cunt

(Global) BOboBo: ur dad's the cunt lol go die

Some of the Mechanics who had gathered for the hidden class advancement had let petty arguments spiral into infighting.

(Global) apuunzeo: whats at 5 oclock

(Global) apuunzeo: why are u hitting our tower??

(Global) yangyang: who

(Global) Eogeu: how the fuck are we supposed to know what 5 oclock means from YOUR angle dumbass

(Global) apuunzeo: why the swearing? u a mechanic?

(Global) apuunzeo: lol typical mechanic quality lol

(Global) Eogeu: im not a mechanic im with the mage coalition fuckhead

(Global) Eogeu: arent YOU guys mechanics?

(Global) apuunzeo: im a gunner tho

(Global) Eogeu: gunner mechanic who gives a shit, ur tone is fucking annoying. hitting u first

(Global) apuunzeo: ?come then

(Global) yangyang: guys were allies chill

(Global) yangyang: stop the mechanics;

(Global) SetUpAMat: GEMSFIRESALEGEMS FIRE SALENEED CASH$$CHEAPWHISPERMEWHISPER ME

(Global) apuunzeo: these aggro fucks seriously shot first

(Global) Eogeu: thought u said come lol

(Global) apuunzeo: ur fucking dead now

(Global) dasihj: fucking infighting bullshitㅅㅂ

(Global) yangyang: WHY ARE THE MAGES AND GUNNERS FIGHTING~~~~~;;;

The users who had gathered to stop the Mechanics' hidden class advancement were just as divided, with skirmishes and outright battles continuously erupting between them.

(Global) Ppoppo: wtf is this age of chaos

(Global) Ppoppo: are we in the fucking warring states period???;;

(Global) ThatsMyTrapThough: right now its mechanics attacking 47 + ppl trying to stop mechanics + ppl who hate 47 + spectators who transferred from other servers + random others lol but even ppl on the same side are fighting so its one huge fucking mess

(Global) cardorganic: enemy of my enemy is also my enemy lololol there is NO alliance lolololol

(Global) Ppoppo: what the?

(Global) ThatsMyTrapThough: basically one giant fucking brawl lol fun to watch

In the beginning, everyone's side had been obvious.

As the hours passed, though, the whole thing had devolved into a complete shitshow, with everyone grabbing everyone else by the hair.

(Global) POPO: lol but guys im curious about 47 too

(Global) cardorganic: ?

(Global) POPO: whats it like in there? think its a shitshow like out here???

(Global) ThatsMyTrapThough: obviously lolol its already this insane outside

The ordinary players chatting as though they were watching ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) a fire from across the river turned their attention toward <47>'s outer wall, which looked a little more battered than before beneath the endless barrage of attacks.

(Global) Ppoppo: god whats it even like inside

(Global) POPO: gotta be loud as hell

(Global) cardorganic: yeah lololololol only five hours left now

The countdown was rapidly approaching the five-hour mark.

Mechanic Hidden Class Advancement Quest

Current Progress: 99 / 100

Time Remaining: 05:22:01

As the numbers at the top center of the screen continued ticking down, <47>'s interior was nothing like the outsiders imagined.

Because inside their call room—

—....

—....

—it was currently dead silent.

Even though every alliance member was in the same voice-chat room.

What the hell is going on?

Mo Yeonhoo stared blankly at the screen.

It had already been six hours since he'd logged in. That wasn't especially long by his usual standards, yet he was already exhausted.

Apparently everyone else felt the same way. The assault had briefly eased off, so aside from the repair team, everyone had gathered in the same room for a combination break and strategy meeting.

—This is seriously weird.

ShinJadu was the first to break the silence.

And judging from their tone, they genuinely found it strange.

—How do they know every single time, no matter how many times we move things?

Because—

—I seriously don't understand why the rockets and cannons keep landing right by our key structures.

No matter how many times <47> relocated its critical buildings, the enemy somehow knew exactly which section of the outer wall to attack first.

—Jadu! Mousetrap is still locked up, right?

—Yeah. They kept insisting they weren't a spy and that they'd been falsely accused, so we just confined them. They were close to Opening, after all. We even assigned someone to watch them and make sure they stayed logged out all day, just in case.

—Exactly~. And after what happened with Opening, we even revoked everyone's building-mode permissions~.

—Right. No one except Miu, me, and GoodLuck should even be able to see the map....

—Don't tell me GoodLuck is—

—If GoodLuck was the spy, we'd already have been wiped clean.

—Haha~.

Just as GoodLuck said, Opening had tried to survey the alliance's internal layout while acting as a spy.

As a precaution, building mode had therefore been locked for everyone except the officers—Miu and ShinJadu—and GoodLuck, who handled construction. At the moment, ordinary members couldn't even build inside their personal bases.

—There's nowhere else for information to leak from. We're rotating all the offense and defense positions automatically on a timer too, based on everyone's support availability....

—And we keep moving the buildings around.

Everyone had reason to be suspicious.

Their positions were assigned randomly so long as it didn't interfere with their class specialties, while the officers continuously relocated the important buildings, leaving almost no opportunity for anyone to map the layout.

Then where the hell is the information leaking from?

But there was no more time to think about it.

—Break's over. Assault Team One, gather at C coordinates. Repair team, take the cannons now. Rockets too.

BOOM!

Another shell slammed into his ears, and at the same moment Miu sprinted straight for the outer wall.

Clank!

The repair team immediately took their places behind the cannons and rocket launchers.

—Cannon cooldown.

—Seven seconds!

—Six seconds left.

—Eight.

—Sync to the eight-second cannon cooldown. Rockets, fire individually after the cannon strike. Target is....

Tap, tap, tap.

The assault members rapidly lined the outer wall and raised their gun barrels toward the enemy camp as the cannon turned with a mechanical whir.

—C, one o'clock. Fire.

BOOM!

The shell launched before the last word had even finished leaving his mouth, tracing an arc through the air.

Black rounds streaked over the outer wall, belching smoke, with rockets following directly behind.

—Report in order from the left. Start with one.

—Watchtower at one o'clock, Team One hit!! No players visible.

—Wall Three didn't go down, preparing another strike!

—Two... two targets! One on the roof, one downstairs!

—Head on the roof. One down. Healer moving in.

—Healer stunned.

The alliance members stood in a line, continuously assessing the situation, dodging the relentless attacks, and returning fire without pause.

Their voices, scattered and chaotic at first, had grown increasingly serious as the hours passed.

Their reactions were visibly getting faster too.

And then—

—Defense teams take both positions at C. Everyone else clean up. We're moving to E. Launching the helicopter.

—Yes!

—Yep!!

As the formation rapidly split left and right, one person alone walked straight down the middle.

A long sniper rifle hung across his back as he quickly climbed into the helicopter.

Miu.

Kwon Mieon.

He's so cool....

Yeonhoo couldn't take his eyes off Miu's back.

Was it because he was playing in first person?

Or had he simply gotten too immersed?

Why do I keep seeing Kwon Mieon when I look at him?

At this point, even that sniper character was starting to look like Kwon Mieon to him.

Of course, Yeonhoo thought Kwon Mieon was much better-looking than Miu.

Kwon's proportions are better. Clothes look better on him too. I guess they do have that same cold, sharp sort of vibe... No, he's not just cold. When he smiles, his eyes curl up like this, and instead of looking cold he looks incredibly....

Wait.

...What the hell am I doing?