Chapter 2: The Reason Why Sephiroth Can Roam Free Despite His Infamy

You’ve probably all heard about the infamy of the fanatic, Sephiroth.

He’s a lunatic who considers anyone entering his field of vision to be picking a fight and starts a PK immediately.

So, why is this madman’s account still alive?

To understand that, you first have to understand the characteristics of this game, Zelpia.

Zelpia was heavily promoted as a game managed internally by an AI without a management team.

Everyone knows the story about how if a gold farm is discovered, that area is closed off and the map is regenerated.

In the same vein, Zelpia’s permanent suspension method is quite unique.

When infamy fills up beyond a certain point, a GM doesn’t just slice the ID; instead, the town guards within the game slice the character.

There are guards at dungeon entrances, and there are knights patrolling the fields, right?

Those guys are all there to screw over high-infamy bastards, LOL.

Since guards will beat you to death the moment they see even a single hair on your head, the result is that you can’t play the game and end up deleting your character.

That was exactly the problem.

Five guards tried to take down Sephiroth, whose infamy was stacked to the heavens, but they couldn’t kill him. LOL.

Do you know that guards have nearly infinite HP? It’s practically impossible to catch them, but he actually caught them.

Later on, he started kiting the guards so much that every guard in towns, dungeons, and fields was chasing Sephiroth, leading to a situation where guard-related quests were blocked.

In this situation, shouldn’t they have perma-banned Sephiroth?

But this sh*tty game couldn’t give up on its concept, so they released a new patch.

Even if infamy stacks up, if the character runs away for a certain amount of time, the guards respawn in their original positions. Instead, they patched it so that if you die to someone with excessively high infamy, the death penalty is weakened by about 90%.

Basically, it was a sniper patch specifically for Sephiroth. LOL.

So, what’s the conclusion? Quitting this sh*tty game early is the shortcut to raising your IQ.

When my pitch-black vision brightened again, a new sight unfolded before my eyes.

The sandy fields, where the scorching sun beat down, had not a single tree, reminiscent of a desert. It wasn’t terribly hot, but I could feel a warm breeze blowing. I looked around, but not a single soul was in sight.

What filled my vision was a massive tower. I could see a giant gate at the entrance of the tower made of black bricks. Even without prior information, I could easily tell that something like an event would happen if I went inside.

[Whisper] PoongPoongieLove: Just go into the tower and take the mission.

[Whisper] PoongPoongieLove: Since it’s your first time doing VR.

[Whisper] PoongPoongieLove: Go for the lowest difficulty.

Seongjin’s whisper popped up before my eyes. He said he would help with the tutorial, and it seemed he meant it. Meanwhile, the other culprit who dragged me here, Han Kyutae, hadn’t said a word, perhaps already immersed in the game. When I waved my hand, the words disappeared with an effect of being scattered into pieces, which was a bit fascinating.

The sensation of the sandy ground beneath my feet with every step I took was surreal. Artists seeking new sensations say they play Zelpia for vicarious experiences, and I felt I understood what they meant, if only a little. I walked toward the tower, feeling my heels sinking deep into the sand. Small grains of sand rolled into the leather shoes I was wearing.

No, seriously, what are you supposed to do if sand gets in your shoes?

As expected, VR games don’t seem to be my thing. I thought this as I entered the tower entrance.

[O Hero, destined to save the world. Welcome.]

[I’m sorry to hear you’ve lost your memory.]

Listening to the voice of the tower reciting cliché lines with one ear, the desire to quit this game as soon as possible only grew. I was thinking it was a trash game that didn’t even allow skipping when a whisper came from Han Kyutae.

[Whisper] JustOneHitOppa: How is it** isn’t it f*cking amazing.

I recognized it was Han Kyutae by the way he talked, but why the hell was his ID like that?

[Whisper] BlueberryWhiskey: Why is your ID like that;;

[Whisper] JustOneHitOppa: Hehe.

[Whisper] JustOneHitOppa: Anyway, you’re a Zelpia addict now too, heh. There’s no escape.

Is he insane?

I knew our Kyutae’s brain was rotting because studying was hard, but I didn’t know it was rotted to this extent. Of all things to do, he was roleplaying a girl online. The world was ending.

Thinking about it, Seongjin’s ID wasn’t exactly normal either. When I thought of the guys around me who played Zelpia, not a single one who was crazy about the game was normal. Does Zelpia attract crazy people? Or do crazy people play Zelpia? Either way, as someone who has nothing to do with crazy people, I wanted to finish the tutorial of this game and run away quickly.

[Whisper] JustOneHitOppa: YOU. CAN. NEVER. ESCAPE.

I mean, besides the ominous feeling that Han Kyutae wouldn’t let me go.

I racked my brain desperately. The tutorial narration was almost over. I had to come up with an excuse that would prevent Han Kyutae from catching me. So.

[Whisper] JustOneHitOppa: Hurry up and go Easy Mode. I’ll carry you after you’re done.

I just need to experience something that makes me never want to play this game again.

I looked at the difficulty selection that appeared before my eyes and raised my hand. Soon, the difficulty I selected sparkled and floated in front of me.

“Nightmare Difficulty.”

It was the highest difficulty in the Tutorial Tower.

I didn’t know how high the tutorial difficulty was, but if I said I did my best but got so miserably trashed that I didn’t want to do it anymore, the gamer Han Kyutae would be reasonably convinced.

He would be, right?

I shook my head to dispel the ominous feeling, and soon the stairs leading to the upper floor of the tower descended.

As I climbed the stairs, a subtly musty smell, as if a hint of mildew had been implemented, lingered at the tip of my nose. Even if it was a VR game pursuing reality, I wondered if it was necessary to implement such unpleasant parts so needlessly well.

[Whisper] PoongPoongieLove: Did you pick a difficulty okay?

[Whisper] BlueberryWhiskey: Seongjin, I’m screwed TT.

[Whisper] BlueberryWhiskey: I accidentally pressed Nightmare difficulty while looking at Han Kyutae’s chat….

[Whisper] PoongPoongieLove: ???????

[Whisper] PoongPoongieLove: Eonha, are you quitting the game right away? ㅠ

The reason I pressed Nightmare difficulty was because of Han Kyutae. Although the process was a bit different, the cause and effect weren’t that different, so I confidently used Han Kyutae as an excuse. Soon, a bunch of whispers flew in from Han Kyutae, but I ignored them for the most part. To summarize:

[Whisper] JustOneHitOppa: Hey wait a sec.

[Whisper] JustOneHitOppa: Ah f*ck I’m going crazy, you went Nightmare???

[Whisper] JustOneHitOppa: Ah sh*t, my big picture of playing games with Eonha is…

[Whisper] BlueberryWhiskey: The picture is torn.

[Whisper] JustOneHitOppa: Did you really go Nightmare??? TT?? TT/??

Yes. I really came to Nightmare.

It was called Nightmare, but it didn’t look as difficult as I expected. Perhaps because it was the first floor, cute slimes appeared. I learned the controls against the slimes that jumped around making boing-boing sounds. Jump, punch, kick. While roughly learning how to use a few simple techniques and skills, the slimes melted away with disappointing ease.

“What. This is Nightmare?”

Nightmare is nothing. Did that bastard Han Kyutae get scared and not try Nightmare?

Thinking that, I went up to the next floor, and only then could I realize the true value of Nightmare difficulty.

On the second floor, a pack of Black Golems appeared. These golems were so damn big that I judged I would die instantly if I were trampled by those feet. It was fortunate that their punching speed was slow and their cognitive abilities were low. After several minutes of hitting and running using the speed of my small body, I was finally able to catch five Black Golems.

On the third floor, the Corrupted Harpy Princess appeared. The red-haired Harpy Princess, flapping her large wings, launched claw-slashing attacks from the air. A notice popped up warning me to be careful because the tips of her claws were poisoned. Because my reach was short, I had to dodge all the attacks and wait for one cycle to finish. Only when the Harpy Princess landed could I finally attack. It took about ten minutes to catch the Harpy Princess.

On the fourth floor, the Skull Archmage appeared. The Skull Archmage, who scattered various spells, was skilled at confusing my vision. Within the narrow field of vision, it was harder than I imagined to listen only to the sounds of the Skull Archmage to figure out the next casting position and the spell being cast. It took ten minutes plus a few more to catch the Skull Archmage.

And just before going up to the fifth floor, I suddenly realized something.

“……Why did I work so hard?”

To make an excuse, the blood of a Korean flowed through me as well. I said I didn’t want to do it, but how could I not do my best when the game was throwing missions at me? If it were impossible, I would have struggled a bit and then given up, but it was actually doable.

I was extremely nervous because it was Nightmare difficulty, but it was more manageable than I thought. Even though it was very burdensome to fight five giant monsters with one-shot kill moves, dodge all the attacks of a flying monster that stayed out of reach, and continue the battle using only my sense of hearing while unable to see.

It’s just that it wasn’t so burdensome that I couldn’t do it.