Chapter 30: The Sinner’s Karma and the Banquet of Nightmares

“Excuse me, but would you mind if I added you to my friends list?”

“Oh, sure.”

AngelA readily accepted my request. I immediately opened a private whisper and sent him a message.

[Friend] BlueberryWhiskey: ㅠㅠ Angel-nim, I’m sorry, but I thought you should know… [Friend] AngelA: Yes? [Friend] BlueberryWhiskey: That ‘JustOneHitOppa’ person… he’s my real-life friend. [Friend] BlueberryWhiskey: He’s a guy ㅠㅠ. [Friend] BlueberryWhiskey: I saw you were trying to buy him that suit set earlier, and I just… ㅠㅠ

Exposing my friend’s pathetic secret was incredibly embarrassing. Why does he have to be a Net-kama and make things so awkward for everyone? As I chewed Gyu-tae out in my mind, my face flushed with heat.

[Friend] AngelA: Ah~

And then, AngelA’s reply arrived.

[Friend] AngelA: Haha, so that’s what you were worried about. [Friend] AngelA: It’s okay, I already knew! [Friend] AngelA: Oh, do you think it makes your friend uncomfortable that I’m playing along? [Friend] AngelA: If so, I’ll stop. ㅎㅎ

Huh? He knew?

The cheerful reply was the exact opposite of what I expected. I thought he’d be ready to hunt Gyu-tae down, but instead, he was speaking as if he was the one who might be causing trouble.

Well, okay. So he knew. Now I was the one feeling awkward.

Why should I be the one feeling uncomfortable? Whether he gets scammed or caught, he’s the one who dug his own grave.

I love Gyu-tae as a friend, but I don’t love his crazy antics. I’ve always thought he needed a wake-up call, and it looked like his time had finally come. I composed myself and sent a reply.

[Friend] BlueberryWhiskey: No, no! Why would I be uncomfortable? [Friend] BlueberryWhiskey: Please, do as you like. [Friend] BlueberryWhiskey: That jerk needs to learn a lesson anyway. [Friend] BlueberryWhiskey: Just… don’t send him to jail or anything ㅠㅠ… [Friend] AngelA: Aww, ㅎㅎ why would I do that to Noona? ㅎㅎ [Friend] AngelA: Don’t worry, we’ll have a good time! ㅎㅎ

The reply felt slightly unsettling, but I ignored it. Surely nothing major would happen? As long as it didn’t turn into a legal dispute, it was fine.

More importantly, I was now certain: Sephiroth was definitely a kid. If AngelA was the same age as Sephiroth, and AngelA was calling Gyu-tae “Noona,” the math was simple.

I shouldn’t get mad at a kid; I should be the bigger person and show some adult grace.

While I was exchanging glances with AngelA, someone suddenly tapped my shoulder.

“Whoa!”

“What are you doing?”

“You scared me.”

It was Sephiroth. His black iron armor gleamed. He looked back and forth between me and AngelA, then crossed his arms.

“If you’re done socializing, why don’t we get moving?”

“Socializing? Why do you make it sound so bad?”

“Got a problem, Bluey?”

“Hey, I told you not to shorten it to Bluey.”

Who on earth shortens ‘Blueberry’ to ‘Bluey’? I snapped at the nickname that sounded suspiciously like ‘Lovely.’ Of course, Sephiroth wasn’t the type to care about my annoyance. Ignoring me completely, he turned around and clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention.

We moved toward the gates of the Dragon Palace.

Beautiful blue and red coral reefs decorated the wooden gates like flowers. The door handles were classic Eastern style—rings hanging from metal plates. Even the way they had rusted into a sea-green hue added to the elegant atmosphere.

The gates were locked, but the moment I touched them, I was sucked through as if teleported. Starting with me—who had been nudged forward by Sephiroth—Sephiroth, Han Gyu-tae, AngelA, and Park Seong-jin were pulled into the palace one by one.

Unlike the exterior, the inside of the palace was a ruin. The paper windows were shredded, and the wooden lattices were broken in places. The massive wooden stairs were rotted through, looking too dangerous to step on. The space was filled with water, with weeds and fish drifting through the halls.

Seong-jin, who was the last to arrive, looked around in wonder. Unlike me, he seemed impressed by the mechanics rather than the scenery.

“Whoa. If we hadn’t been hit by that mermaid earlier, we would’ve been in trouble.”

“Why the mermaid?”

“When I got hit by the claws, I got a status effect called ‘One Who Defies the Rules.’ When I touched the gate just now, the mark flashed and I teleported.”

“There was something like that?”

“Yeah. Come to think of it, weren’t you the only one who didn’t get scratched?”

“Yeah. I guess I got special treatment.”

“Well, your level is already ‘special’ enough.”

I nodded at Seong-jin’s comment. It seemed I was naturally the ‘One Who Defies the Rules,’ while everyone else had to earn the mark by being hit. Given how the gate reacted, it seemed impossible to enter without it.

Did Sephiroth figure all that out in that short amount of time?

I remembered him calling for AngelA immediately after the mermaid’s first claw swipe. Thinking back, it seemed he had been controlling his DPS to force the patterns until even Gyu-tae got hit.

His gaming sense was truly something I could call “Hyung.”

I followed behind Sephiroth, who was leading the way. He glanced back at me.

“This map is pretty quiet. No mobs.”

The Dragon Palace was silent. Not a single trash mob, usually common in instanced dungeons, was in sight. It seemed the developers had poured all their effort into the map design and puzzles instead. There were several points where we had to solve puzzles to proceed.

However, I preferred stylishly killing monsters over solving brain-teasers. Brains are for real life, right? Sephiroth seemed to agree, as he nodded at my comment.

“True. It’s a shame there’s no one to warm up with.”

Calling pulling a whole room of mobs and slaughtering them a “warm-up”… he really wasn’t your average gamer. Even for me, the warm-up sessions with Sephiroth weren’t bad, but fighting while only dealing 1 damage lacked any real impact.

I wanted to level up quickly and feel some actual “haptic feedback” from my hits, but even after killing the giant mermaid, my experience bar hadn’t budged.

“We worked so hard to kill that boss and didn’t even get a drop of EXP.”

“Are you still level 1?”

“I managed to hit level 17 with quest rewards.”

“Long way to go. When am I ever going to see you at max level?”

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

“Doing what?”

I considered hitting the brazenly questioning Sephiroth, but I held back. Be patient, Eonha. He’s a kid. Maybe not even a college student yet.

While I was calming my temper, we passed through another room. We arrived at a high pavilion that looked like an observation deck overlooking a vast banquet hall. It was as if a whole city street had been moved inside this small palace. Of course, the “pavilion” was only the shape of it; in reality, it was a desolate map filled with rotted walls and torn banners fluttering in the dark.

“Looks like something’s about to jump out.”

“Noona, are you scared?”

“…Please…”

Behind me, the Net-kama and the weasel who knew he was a Net-kama were doing their comedy routine. They could probably pass a comedian audition together. I was lost in these idle thoughts when my foot touched a black tile.

SLAM!

“What was that?!”

The door we had just entered slammed shut with a thunderous bang. I instinctively turned around, and the others looked just as startled. But the surprises didn’t end there. When I turned back around, a whole new world was unfolding before our eyes.

The pavilion, which had been a hollow shell of its former glory moments ago, was suddenly bathed in a warm, reddish glow. It wasn’t just the pavilion. Wall lanterns, hanging lamps, and dragon-shaped lights all flickered to life. The rotted walls and stairs were now polished and new, and the moss on the stone bases of the red wooden pillars had vanished.

But the most shocking part was the banquet hall. The empty, desolate space that had only contained a few fish and weeds was now overflowing with silk flowers, fragrant refreshments, ornate beaded curtains, and a massive crowd of people. The sound of a zither echoed from beneath the pavilion. When I stood on my tiptoes to see, I saw a Slug playing the instrument.

Seeing non-human races like Orcs, Slugs, Lions, and Mermaids dressed in traditional Hanbok left me with two words: utter confusion.

“What is this?” Gyu-tae blurted out, clearly sharing my sentiment.

And at that moment, every single gaze in the banquet hall snapped toward us.

“Get ready,” Sephiroth said, gripping his axe.

[Do not wake us from our dream!] [Do not wake us from our dream!]

BOOM!

A massive surge of water erupted. A giant stone lantern smashed into the spot where I had been standing a second ago, sending shards flying. Before my vision—murky with bubbles—could clear, something sharp like a whip lashed out from behind. Without time to think, I rolled to the side. Clatter! A beaded curtain of jade became tangled in the stone lantern.