Chapter 65 065

The combat didn't take long as Seojin didn't need to hold himself back. Any enemies around his level wouldn't pose a challenge to him.

'I knew they'd come anyway.'

Seojin didn't panic at all even though his ability was exposed. He fully expected it to happen when he used it anyway.

'It could've been a problem if there was a crowd, but three people won't be that burdensome.'

Numbers were important when it came to credibility. If dozens of people all said that they saw "someone strange," it would be rather believable. However, if just one or two people said it, they would be considered trolls vying for attention.

'It's not like they could do a thing anyway.'

Seojin had already done them a favor by hunting their quota of burning Churai Crabs. To be precise, he did it for Haydall since he felt sorry for the guy.

'I know that the real world is a bitch.'

Seojin was worried that Haydall was in a pickle because he had hurt his superior's feelings. Nevertheless, it didn't even take that long. Seojin sent the monster he had tamed away as he already met his quota. Following that, he approached Haydall just as he did before.

"Here, twenty-four burning coconuts."

Haydall took the gift with utmost gratefulness.

"I already feel like I owe you too much."

"It didn't take that long."

"Well, can we just…."

Haydall led Seojin off to the side, creating enough distance between them and Odie.

"Thank you very much. We wouldn't have been able to do it if it wasn't for you. Sorry for being rude when we first met, and…"

He smiled awkwardly as Odie, who was standing far behind, didn't look so happy.

"She's still young, so…"

"I understand. Best of luck to you."

"…Thank you."

Seojin guessed that the man was being paid by Odie. No, the man must be involved in that kind of problem, too. He couldn't think of any other reason that Haydall had to endure working in such a difficult position. Odie began to approach while he thought as such.

"Odie, calm down for now…"

Odie pushed Haydall aside and stopped in front of Seojin, staring at his face.

"You hunted them all by yourself."

"You guys helped too."

"At least I healed you last time, I didn't do anything this time."

"So what, are you going to pay me?"

"How much do you want? Money's not a problem for me."

"A hundred gold, then?"

Seojin chuckled but was soon caught completely off-guard as Odie handed him a big money bag.

"Here, one hundred gold."

'…Seriously?'

Was she the kind of a girl who would willingly give ten million won away over a couple of monsters?

"Odie! Come on, wait. Haha, sorry, Seojin. She's a little…."

"Let me go, he carried us in the end."

"But this is…"

"I'm spending my money as I please. What's so wrong about that?"

That was true. Odie looked at Seojin again as Haydall took a step back, groaning.

"You don't want it?"

"There's no way I'd refuse one hundred gold."

Seojin wore an interested smile and received the gift.

Acquired: 100 Gold

'Wow, she was serious?'

It wasn't a prank or a joke, the woman seriously handed over the fat, heavy pieces of gold coin to soothe her bruised ego.

'Who is this woman? Is she the granddaughter of chaebol or something?'

One thing was for certain, and that was his curiosity was piqued.

She carried on, wearing an unwavering expression. "I think I'm entitled to ask you a question since I just paid you."

"I thought that was the price for the crabs, though? I'm a busy man."

"Do you really think I needed your… never mind. How much do you want?"

"Just kidding. What do you want to know?"

Odie thought that she could feel a vein popping up on her forehead.

"You pretended to be weak earlier, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"Why did you do that?"

"Because there were a lot of eyes around."

"Why did you change your appearance?"

"Because I'm being careful. I don't want to stand out."

"How about us?"

The corners of Odie's lips twisted up, but Seojin just nodded honestly.

"I don't care."

"If you think that we're nothing…"

"It's not about who you are, but how many. Don't you know the saying that three people can make up a truth?"

"There's three of us here, you know?"

Seojin managed to suppress his laughter as he was sure that Odie would go wild if he so much as chuckled.

"I have a question for you too."

"Go for it."

"Who are you?"

Everything after that happened so fast. Odie smiled confidently, Haydall charged in with a look of panic on his face, and Roth disconnected.

"I'm Kim H… ugh!"

"Hahaha, we'll be on our way! Thank you for everything and GG!"

Seojin couldn't help but laugh as the two of them vanished almost simultaneously.

"Never seen synchronized disconnecting before… no, maybe someone disconnected them from the outside."

That was the only plausible answer, which lead to the conclusion that Roth had disconnected the two from the game once he logged out. That meant they were in the same space, in real life.

'So, they must be in an internet cafe or something…'

Seojin didn't give it too much thought as their location did not matter. Odie's attitude was the thing bugging him.

'What kind of woman gives ten million won away so easily?'

Seojin could take a guess. The girl must have been of high social status, and two men would be like her minions. But if he looked at the way they spoke to her…

"One that was being polite to her, and the other just called by her name and spoke informally, right?"

A contractual relationship. So, it wasn't like they were servants escorting a noble lady, but more like suffering secretaries following their mean boss.

'It might be something else and they're just acting, but if that's true, they shouldn't be able to force her to do something like that.'

Seojin laughed, amused by his own curiosity. He felt sorry for the guy who was in such a shitty position, but he was more curious than anything.

'I'll see them again soon.'

They were in the same quest line now, and they had almost zero competitors. Seojin grinned before turning to the other side of the beach.

"Hmm."

The southern island of Churai Island was quite far from the northern side, but it was burning so brightly that it was visible even from there.

"That's hell?"

"Wayul, it's becomin' one for shur. Look at thuh hellfire."

Flappy was talking from three hundred years of experience, and it wasn't a metaphor.

"Demons must be swarming there."

"Like the skeleton in Erzebet?"

"Thet skeleton guy wuz corrupted while thangs ovare wuz bornd as demons. Don't yawl know whut hell iz?"

Seojin looked up information regarding "hell" in relation to the game, but the information he found in various communities was somewhat strange.

[It wasn't like that before. The fire won't go out… and they toss some quests but now it's impossible to even enter the island. The fire damage-over-time isn't something you can handle.]

There was almost no information at all. The little he did manage to scrape up only indicated that it had been less than a day since the island started burning like that, and that fire resistance seemed meaningless for that fire.

[It's probably one of those, you know? Like, some main storyline that you can only take on when you're high-level. Maybe players over level 150 can do something about it… Otherwise, it just doesn't make sense.]

Many different opinions popped up, but Seojin thought completely differently.

'There's no way the devs will toss out clues for high-level quests this early on in the game. All clues are there to be used immediately or very soon. That's how Midgard works.'

In other words, the cause of the event was in Churai Island, and it was clear that the solution was somewhere on the island too.

'Kenzie's quest is a filter, whoever passes can go and see the situation on the southern side for themselves. That must be the 'full qualifications.''

Seojin concluded that Kenzie would have the answer and returned to the village.

* * *

Quest Complete.

Reward: Full Qualifications.

"Wow! Kenzie feels good! The burning coconut is delicious!"

Kenzie ran around excitedly as soon as the quest was completed. Kenzie brought eight coconuts into her house and returned to Seojin.

"You're the best, Adventurer!"

"Do you have any other requests?"

"No!"

"Then is there anyone else who needs my help?"

"Well…"

Kenzie pressed her index finger to her lips once again and smiled after a brief silence.

"No!"

That was impossible. No RPG game would allow a questless phase.

'Guess I've gotta search the community.'

Seojin searched about the quest route on Churai Island. As expected, most people failed the first quest, and the few survivors were shaken off during the second quest. With that, they were given another quest which was easier than hunting the crabs.

'I think it's safe to assume that I'm on a different quest chain...'

The outcome of the burning crab hunt led players to totally different quest chains, which meant that Seojin couldn't get on the other one.

All of a sudden, Kenzie rushed into the house as if she had just remembered something, handing a milky-looking drink to Seojin.

"It's coconut! Kenzie made it out of coconut!"

"Oh, thank you."

It seemed like Kenzie wanted to return the favor in her own way. The reward for the quest was practically non-existent, come to think of it. Seojin's eyes almost popped out of his head as he sipped it.

Acquired Buff: Hot Passion to Overcome Flames.

* Resistance to Hell Mana increases by 100%.

* Effective: 20 minutes.

At first, it was only twenty minutes long, but it increased as Seojin gulped the drink down, finally giving him two hours of resistance buff.

"Oh, yawl saym stronger. Ah thank yawl can stand thuh hellfire now."

"Do I?"

Flappy had popped up and informed him right on time.

"It's uh kind of blessin'. Interesting! Iz thus young hyooman uh priest?"

Flappy told him that the coconut juice was a source of protection.

"Kenzie."

"Yes!"

"How did you make this?"

"By hand!"

It seemed he wasn't allowed to know the recipe.

"Can you make some more for me?"

"Then Kenzie will be sad! There won't be any coconut left for Kenzie to eat!"

"How about I bring you more coconuts then? Just half would be sufficient for me."

"That sounds great! Kenzie loves coconut! It's not difficult to make it!"

Repeatable Quest

* Collect the burning coconuts. This little girl is not greedy. She'll eat as much as she needs and you'll get what's left.

* Basic Reward: Kenzie's Special Coconut Drink.

Seojin nodded.

"This is it. I should go again."

He finally had a clear clue, but the moment he was about to depart to the shore, a message popped up. It was from BunnyRabbit.

-Seojin! Ironblood released an official statement!

"Oh…"

Seojin opened up the community tab.

[Robert here.]

The title was as simple as before, and so was the content. He was saying that he'd take full responsibility for their faults and offer maximum compensation to the victims, including Seojin.

[The World Quest is currently underway, so I will compensate them directly as soon as it's finished. Once again, I sincerely apologize…]

So, he was doing the world quest. Seojin opened his mouth wide.

"Now I get it…"

Why had that hellfire suddenly appeared? Why did Kenzie's quest change? What did full qualifications mean?

Finally understanding everything, Seojin replied to BunnyRabbit.

[You know my community account, right? Please log in and tell him to give me compensation face-to-face. I'm busy right now, but I'll tell you the details later.]

He was going to be incredibly busy from now on.