By Zephyria 
#4 Melody (1)
Although Cheon No-eul is unpredictable, I’m getting used to him as time passes. Now, No-eul’s behavior patterns are nothing but cliché. Kyung-soo was confident that he could handle any of his tricks skillfully and maturely. Cheon No-eul was practically in the palm of his hand.
“ㅊ-ㅇ: Hyung, are you asleep?”
“Looks like he’s asleep…ㅠㅠ”
“Dream of me><“
After reading the messages in the preview, he flipped his phone over. No-eul must really think he’s sound asleep. These days, No-eul lives a regular life and doesn’t log in at dawn. So, at least during dawn, he could escape from him and be free. Kyung-soo turned on his computer and logged into the game. The early morning Guild members greeted him with ‘hi’ and went off to do their own things.
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Hyung, are you busy right now?
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: ?
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Ah, it’s Jung Min-jae
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: Yes?
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Cheon No-eul’s friend, don’t you remember me??? We even played games together on the festival day
[Whisper] Spade Queen: I’m Jung Min-jae, 17 years old, male, my hobby is reading, my special skill is cooking, and I’m good at kimchi stew
Kyung-soo immediately opened his friend list and checked which friends were currently online. Cheon No-eul was offline. If it wasn’t through No-eul, there would be no reason to talk to Jung Min-jae. He had added him as a friend before, but they had never talked since then. It was such a sudden contact that he was flustered.
[Whisper] Spade Queen: And also….
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: You don’t have to say all that, I know who you areㅋㅋㅋㅋ Anyway, what’s up?
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Haha, that’s a relief.
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Brother, if you’re not busy right now, do you want to run the Milky Way raid?
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: Suddenly??
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Hahaha Yep Haha I’m going to collect star pieces
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: Ah okay okay
‘Spade Queen has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
As soon as he said that, a party invitation window popped up. He pressed the ‘Yes’ button to enter the party, and besides Kyung-soo and Min-jae, one other person was participating in the party. Kyung-soo reflexively pressed the leave party button.
‘Catmeowmeow has left the party.’
[Whisper] Spade Queen: No, why did you do that?lololollolololㅋㅋ
Kyung-soo muttered curses like a machine gun and slammed on the keyboard.
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: You son of a bitch, don’t ever talk to me again
[Whisper] Spade Queen: I’m not that bad of a guyㅋlololollololol
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: Go fuck yourself
[Whisper] Spade Queen: I’m serious… at least to hyung…^^
Even Sunset was the party leader. He said he was a psycho back then, so how is he not a bad person? Kyung-soo didn’t want to get involved with Melody, especially not with Guild Master Melody, no matter what. It’s not that he wasn’t confident in beating Moon Fairy, but it’s better not to run into him if possible.
‘Spade Queen has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
‘Declined.’
‘Spade Queen has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
‘Declined.’
‘Sunset has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
‘Declined.’
‘Spade Queen has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
‘Declined.’
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Ah, hyungㅠㅠ please
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: S
[Whisper] Spade Queen: ??
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: No
[Whisper] Spade Queen: I won’t let him give you a hard time… I’m serious!!!
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: F***
[Whisper] Spade Queen: I swear, that Sunset bastard keeps saying my damage is trash and keeps nagging me. He’s still yelling at me for what I’m doing. He says if I’m going to do this, I should just go to the beginner hunting grounds.
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: Personality?
[Whisper] Spade Queen: I know, right;; It’s too hard to do it alone, I can’t handle itㅠㅜㅜㅠ All the Guild members are gone right now tooㅠㅠㅠㅠ So please help me just onceㅠㅠ You don’t have anything else to do unless you’re collecting Songpyeon anywayㅜ
“……”
After reading the chat that went over three lines, he felt a little sorry for him. Even if a Dark Knight’s damage isn’t great, it should be average, so he couldn’t even guess how high the standards were. He’s really a human trash bastard, how can he treat the Vice Guild Master like that? He didn’t even know how users treated Melody while he was suspended and not around.
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: Are you the one collecting the star pieces, you son of a bitch? Not him?
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Yepㅠㅠ
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: Haha;; Send me a party invite
‘Spade Queen has invited you to a party. Do you accept?’
The crown symbol indicating the party leader was attached to the left of Sunset’s name. Kyung-soo warped to the stone tower near the dungeon for now. Spade Queen, who was sitting in front of the stone tower, waved his hand using a greeting motion emoticon. Above the right side of the stone tower, a white character leaning diagonally on a harp and exuding a languid atmosphere was the infamous Sunset.
[Party] Catmeowmeow: hihi
[Party] Sunset: Hello^^
[Party] Catmeowmeow: 0.5 per run / double for giving up the final hit on the boss raid
At those words, no one spoke for a moment. After a few seconds of silence, Kyung-soo slightly raised the corners of his lips.
[Party] Sunset: Is this a part-time job fee?
[Party] Catmeowmeow: Yes
Sunset is also the same max level user. Even if he took the top spot in the overall PVP ranking and no one could break that record, a dealer was still necessary for boss raids. The faster they cleared it, the more generous the rewards would be. He just said it once, thinking that if he asked for a part-time job fee, he would immediately hurt his pride and kick him out of the party.
[Whisper] Spade Queen: lolololㅋㅋHyung, is that why you accepted the party inviteㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Party] Catmeowmeow: I’ll cut it down to 10 minutes per run
He wasn’t that close to Jung Min-jae anyway, and he didn’t want to just run the raid for free. Not even if it was the infamous Sunset. In the old days, he often gave free rides to beginners under the pretext of raising new users, and he also worked part-time to earn money, but he doesn’t do that anymore. It’s a bit higher than the market price, but it’s not that expensive considering the time saved.
[Party] Sunset: Hmm, 10 minutes is good….
[Party] Sunset: What about the path? The Milky Way is a bit complicated~
[Party] Catmeowmeow: I fucking memorized it, of course;
[Party] Sunset: ^^
‘Sunset has requested a trade.’
‘Trade completed.’
Suddenly, his holdings increased dramatically. The part-time job fee that Sunset gave him was 1.5 billion.
[Party] Catmeowmeow: I think you gave me the wrong amount? There’s an extra 0
[Party] Spade Queen: Wow, you gave him 1 billion?ㅋㅋ
[Party] Sunset: 1.5ㅋㅋ
Sunset said that and started flying into the air, scattering star dust. Kyung-soo and Min-jae followed him and arrived in front of the dungeon.
‘The instant dungeon has been reset.’
[Party] Catmeowmeow: I’m only going to do it for a short time, so I don’t have time to do ten runs?
[Party] Sunset: It’s okay~ Keep what’s left.
[Party] Catmeowmeow: ?
[Party] Spade Queen: You can take it.
Kyung-soo couldn’t let go of his suspicion and narrowed his eyes. He wondered if he would use this as an excuse to target and massacre the entire Poseidon guild later.
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Brother, it’s really okay haha He has a lot of money haha He sold all his items hahahahaha Just rip him off, serves him right.
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: He’s your Guild Master, is it okay to do that?
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Who cares?ㅋㅋ It’s fucking annoying, but I’m putting up with it because of the Guild skills^^
Even if he’s treated like this, Sunset wouldn’t have anything to say. Kyung-soo also took a screenshot of the chat window in case something happened.
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: I’m only doing this for today, okay?
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Yesyes hahaha
[Party] Sunset: Just a moment, I’ll give you a buff~
As soon as Sunset said that, he plucked the strings of his harp, and musical notes wrapped around the party members’ bodies, and stat-enhancing buffs appeared in the upper left corner. After giving basic buffs such as increased health, increased maximum damage, and increased evasion, Sunset came down and gently landed next to Kyung-soo’s character.
‘Archangel’s Kiss!’
As Sunset rolled his fingertips as if sweeping the strings of his harp, pure white baby angels appeared and blew hand kisses over Kyung-soo’s head. An icon of a sword crossing in an X shape appeared above ‘Catmeowmeow’. It was a Moon Fairy job-exclusive skill that could only be applied to one party member. There were no Moon Fairies around, and he hadn’t seen many people choose that job, so this was the first time Kyung-soo had actually seen it.
[Party] Spade Queen: Wow, you son of a bitch, you never gave it to me no matter what!!!
[Party] Sunset: It’s because you can’t do damage even if I give it to you~
[Party] Spade Queen: It’s so unfair, it’s not like I’m going to use it anyway, what’s the big deal about giving me that one thing and embarrassing meㅠ
Even though he cursed like that, they seemed to be close. Well, how else could he endure ‘that’ Sunset if they weren’t close…. Spade Queen would say five words, and Sunset would reply with one short word, and that’s how the conversation went. As soon as they entered the dungeon, they both became silent.
He received the part-time job fee, so he couldn’t do it carelessly. Kyung-soo used only the most efficient skills to gather the monsters in the map in one place. Except for the floating monsters that couldn’t be pulled by the Valkyrie’s hook, they all melted away as soon as the Bazooka exploded. Sunset and Spade Queen divided the floating monsters and dealt with them.
[Party] Sunset: You’re fast
[Party] Catmeowmeow: thx
Except for this one time, Sunset didn’t even open his mouth. He was only able to focus on the raid. When they reached the sub-boss room, dozens of small monsters appeared at the same time.
‘Time Bomb!’
As Sunset shouted the skill name, clock-shaped icons appeared above the monsters’ heads. And soon, they all exploded at once, cutting their HP in half. The maximum damage was 800,000. It was higher damage than the Dark Knight, who is a short-range dealer.
“……”
More than anything, Kyung-soo’s fingers froze for a moment because it was the same skill he had used half a year ago. As the boss monster, which was modeled after the Milky Way, exploded with Sunset’s attack, a shower of pure white meteors poured down on the map background. Sunset flapped his wings while organizing the raid items.
After doing two or three more runs like this, as soon as they came out of the dungeon, Jung Min-jae asked something out of the blue.
[Party] Spade Queen: Cat-nim, when you look at people, do you look at personality vs face first?
[Party] Catmeowmeow: Both
[Party] Spade Queen: If you had to choose just one?
After a moment of thought, Kyung-soo chose the former.
[Party] Catmeowmeow: Personality?
There were many parties besides Kyung-soo’s that were going in and out of the dungeon to procure materials. Sunset flew over to the other parties gathered nearby and gave them buffs. Instead of cheering at the star dust effect falling on their heads, they were horrified.
[Global] Injeolmi Jjang: What the fuckㅠ
[Global] Namkkot: Eek;
And the entire party changed channels in turn. Every time they came out of the dungeon, Sunset gave buffs to other parties from time to time. And every single one of them was horrified and ran away. It seemed to be his new hobby.
[Whisper] Spade Queen: Guild Master isn’t giving you a hard time, rightㅋㅋㅋ I told you it was okay
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: I guess not, but is he usually this taciturn?
[Whisper] Spade Queen: ???Who?
He was more quiet than he thought, so it was unexpected. He thought he would say a lot of harsh things in proportion to his famous personality. He thought he would give him a hard time, saying things like this and that are bad, or don’t use certain skills….
[Whisper] Catmeowmeow: Anyway, it’s better to just not talk than to get stressed;
[Whisper] Spade Queen: lololollololollolololㅋAgreed
Even in the midst of all this, Sunset was enjoying his new hobby of going around giving buffs to other parties. Does he enjoy seeing people get flustered? Anyway, it seemed several times better than starting a fight out of the blue.
To be continued in Volume 2.