Harin Learns the Cruelty of the Wild

Having stepped out of Jeong Hana's warm little game pouch, Im Harin finally learned that the wild could be utterly brutal.

Four high school girls stood waiting for the elevator.

Among them was Im Harin, reeking of malatang from head to toe. She kept giggling while her right hand guarded her chest.

Her dreaded midterms were finally over. She was free, and she'd spent the entire day with friends who suddenly had time on their hands, playing from lunch all the way through dinner.

“Harin~!!! Stop living in the PC bang and come out like this more often!”

“Yeah, every time we go to karaoke you just hog the mic by yourself, don't you?”

“I paid today, so no eating and running, got it?!”

At her friends' words, Im Harin playfully shoved the closest girl's chest with her palm.

“It's because you guys are always at academy! Honestly, it's not my fault!!!”

“Dude, even when we say let's meet for dinner after academy, you call it a dungeon run. That's why you never come out lately.”

“No… Ah! I'm really sorry. Next time I'll come out when you call. Okay?”

“Then if I invite you to dinner next time and you blow us off again saying you're gaming, you're paying, deal?”

Im Harin let out a small laugh as her chest was poked and prodded by elbows and fingers.

Her personal relationships were remarkably healthy and mature.

She didn't have any forced friendships, and since they'd all known each other since elementary school, there was almost nothing they didn't know about one another.

“See you next time, Harin.”

“Harinnie~~~! We're going to that place next, right? The sushi buffet?”

“Hey! That place is crazy expensive. How is Harin supposed to pay? For four people it'll be at least two hundred thousand won!”

Im Harin hurriedly covered her backside with both hands and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Hey, hey!! Why are you touching my butt?! I said no butt stuff today, didn't I?! Anyway! Get in already! Let's go!”

“Anyone would think you owned this whole building!”

“Hurry up, you weirdo!”

Her friends, barely containing their laughter, gave her chest one last playful smack or poked her stomach before piling into the elevator.

It was eight in the evening.

The high school girls who'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been having fun since lunch were starting to head home.

“Byeee~!”

Im Harin kept waving with a smile until the elevator doors closed. The moment they shut, she let out a long sigh.

It's been a while since I hung out with the girls. It was actually pretty fun.

Even though Im Harin loved games, she was still a high school girl at heart.

She enjoyed giggling over nonsense with her childhood friends, eating malatang or tteokbokki, going to room cafes or coin karaoke, and—if they were feeling extra bold—heading to an amusement park.

Unlike her friends who had gone down to the first floor, Harin caught the elevator heading up and rode it to the sixth floor.

— Ding!

She hummed a little tune as she headed to the couple seats out of habit, then stopped and turned around.

Oh, right… Sis isn't here today.

She had spent the whole day with her friends from right after the exam until eight o'clock, so there was no reason for Jeong Hana to be at the PC bang.

Lee Siwoo isn't here either… Fine, I'll take a single seat.

Spotting an empty single seat tucked away in the corner, Im Harin tossed her bag on the floor and planted her butt in the chair.

Without wasting even a single minute, she hummed cheerfully and logged straight into Lost of Fantasy.

8:05 PM.

For Harin, who had to head home at ten, those five minutes could mean the difference between squeezing in one dungeon run or not.

Since Sis isn't here today… I can just run a Headmaster Run. Each one takes about forty minutes, so I should be able to clear two tonight.

Starting from the Demon King's Castle, Im Harin expertly mounted a gargoyle and flew toward the village that housed Undead Academia.

It had already been roughly two weeks since Jeong Hana had hit max level.

Most of the dedicated players were now past level 55 and were frantically farming the Four Major Dungeons.

“Whoa… It's packed again today.”

The Headmaster Run that Jeong Hana had demonstrated on Kang Minseo's stream just two weeks earlier had already become common knowledge.

In a huge dungeon, you didn't need to kill every single boss like in other RPGs.

You only had to kill the boss that dropped the best items, walk out, and reset the instance.

After being shown repeatedly to twenty or thirty thousand viewers, the strategy naturally spread from the community into the game itself. Players began casually accepting the concept of “XX Run.”

“Ha… Doesn’t anyone want to level up properly like me?”

The Four Major Dungeons.

The dungeons that Jeong Hana had arbitrarily named could be entered from level 50 according to the system.

But simply entering wasn't enough. To deal proper damage you needed to be at least level 55, and to join the kind of fast farming parties Im Harin wanted, you really needed to be max level.

Most players found grinding mobs and doing quests from level 55 boring. If they were going to farm anyway, they preferred jumping straight into the Four Major Dungeons at 55.

Are there no players like me around…

With her Combat Power of 935, Im Harin was in an awkward position.

She had reached the point where she could no longer be satisfied with anything less than the graduation gear from the Four Major Dungeons.

Before hitting max level, she used to clap with joy whenever a blue item dropped. Now things were different.

Unless it was at least a purple item, she would narrow her eyes, meticulously read every option, and conduct a strict evaluation.

Anything under 900 is obviously a level 55 party… Still, I want to run with people who have at least tasted the Four Major Dungeons…

Im Harin shook her legs up and down and sighed.

“Ha… Streamer parties really are the sweet spot. I never realized because Sis always found parties for me……”

Muttering to herself, Im Harin stared at the unappealing LFG posts for a long time.

8:30 PM.

Ah, I'm wasting so much time… Should I just join any of them? A party around 900 should still be decent…

Not wanting to waste any more time, Im Harin grabbed her mouse.

Going for a party that's only recruiting DPS… Huh? Oh?!

“What, what, what? Only looking for DPS? Me! Me!”

Im Harin typed with a huge grin on her face.

Exactly one hour later, Im Harin would deeply regret sending that whisper.

* * *

“Aishiiii… It’s so far… I can’t even go to the bathroom uuuuuuu…”

Im Harin’s face was bright red as she trembled, glancing repeatedly at her smartphone.

9:45 PM.

“Just die already! You pieces of trash!!!”

Im Harin timidly smacked the desk and shouted.

This was already their tenth wipe. There was no way she wouldn’t be pissed.

“Aaaaaah~ Aaaaaaaaah!!!”

Im Harin let out a miserable scream and clutched her head with both hands, messing up her hair.

“S-Sis! I miss Hana unnie…!”

To finish a Headmaster Run, you had to kill the headmaster.

Im Harin, who had never once wiped in Undead Academia before, found the current situation absolutely agonizing.

So this is what the wild is like?! This is what public parties are?! Wiping on the headmaster?! The healer can't keep everyone at full health?!

The reason Im Harin’s wild party kept wiping was simple.

Darkness Specialist Juggling

The party members couldn't properly respond to the patterns of the boss known as Juggling.

The simple pattern of selecting a random party member and teleporting them to the room with the adds was causing repeated wipes.

You have to top off their health… Isn't that the tank's job? Or maybe not…?!

Im Harin was struggling in a party that Jeong Hana would have taken one look at and immediately fled from.

Im Harin let out a deep sigh and clicked on the tank’s character to check their class.

“Irea was really good at it though…”

85YearOldKimGranny’s class was Protection Paladin.

According to Jeong Hana, this was the worst tanking class of the current era, so it was no surprise it wasn't performing in a wild party.

The party was trading vicious parent insults and looked ready to explode at any moment, yet it somehow didn't break apart.

The DPS and tank didn't want to waste time recruiting a new healer.

The healer knew their own skill was absolute garbage, so they didn't want to give up on a party that only had the boss left.

“Hana unnie… I miss you so much…”

Im Harin sniffled slightly as she reached for the keyboard.

If this goes past ten o'clock I'll have to turn off the computer and I'll be the bad guy. I can't let that happen! I have to do something!

Taking a deep breath, Im Harin recalled the various tricks Jeong Hana had taught her and summoned a Demon Guardian.

The party members who had been trading curses suddenly fell silent at the message from FireFrog, who hadn't typed once until now.

Im Harin squeezed her eyes shut and searched her memory.

After that explanation, the party members didn't complain much.

They had only been throwing insults because they were frustrated; they still wanted to clear the dungeon.

The boss fight started again with the tank’s message. Im Harin glanced at her smartphone.

9:54 PM.

Ah, please… This has to be the last one, seriously! I really need to pee! Please! You uncles! You aunties! Please do well!

Im Harin even drank the expensive potions and elixirs she usually saved and poured everything she had into her damage.

“It’s time to study, you idiots!!”

“Ah, please heal… Ah! The tank again!”

Im Harin screamed, but the trick she had learned from Jeong Hana worked perfectly.

The healer’s healing was still horrifically bad, but…

The Demon Guardian Im Harin had summoned bought them enough time.

“Ah!! Both of you!! Stop typing!!”

Im Harin screamed as she twisted her body, struggling to control an unfamiliar summon while trying desperately to clear the dungeon.

“It’s time to study, you idiots!!”

“Please, please…! Just don’t let it die! As long as it doesn’t die even at low health, we’re good!”

9:57 PM.

Seeing the boss’s health drop below ten percent, Im Harin kept screaming.

“A little more—!”

Contrary to Im Harin’s desperate wish, the healer’s heals were pathetically bad.

It was only natural.

A Holy Paladin’s healing was different from a priest’s.

If someone who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠didn’t understand the mechanics tried to heal, their mana would bottom out instantly and the healing output would be trash.

The gearing was difficult too.

“Die! Die! Die! Di… Dead!!”

Im Harin, half-risen from her seat, frantically spammed the 1, 2, and 3 keys until the very end.

“We got it—!!!!”

The rest of the party had died. In the end, only Im Harin remained, but the boss finally fell.

The moment she saw it, Im Harin shot up from her chair. She grabbed her crotch tightly with her left hand and frantically clicked on the corpse with her mouse.

“I-Item… Trash! Don’t need it!”

Im Harin hurriedly passed on the items and grabbed her smartphone.

Despite the warm atmosphere in chat, Im Harin clutched her phone tightly and sprinted toward the bathroom.

For real…! I'm never joining a random party again! No, if I do join one, I'll make the party myself! What the hell is with all these trash players!!! Why can't the healer heal properly! Why is the tank always at death's door!!!

Im Harin sat down on the toilet with desperate urgency. More than ever, she sincerely missed Jeong Hana.