Blue Badge 1's Desperate Plea

The day after my fierce battle with CuteWizard, the community was still flooded with posts about North Sea Ice Palace Master Seol Yeon-hui and the mysterious figure who had monopolized her attention—me.

"The bait's been burning for quite a while…."

Even most of the content blocked by Auto-Moderation Mode consisted of insults directed at me and the Murim practitioners' mockery of the Ice Palace Master. I scrolled through the system window floating in midair and added a few more nicknames to the updateable block list.

While handling Padak duties since morning, I checked the clock and paused.

Hmm… I somehow started moderating two hours earlier than usual.

Thanks to yesterday's skill enhancement trait extending the duration of Auto-Moderation Mode, my sleep cycle felt far more comfortable than before. I resolved to spend the remaining two hours on tower climbing, headed to the kitchen, and threw together a quick breakfast.

As I sat at the table slurping steaming stew, the gallery once again began filling with colorful poop memes.

"Really diligent bastards, even in the morning…."

I clicked my tongue while chewing rice, rapidly deleting posts with nothing but a thought. It should have been nauseating, but I'd grown so used to it that deleting poop memes while eating had become just another part of my daily routine.

After finishing my meal, I carried the empty dishes to the sink and stretched lightly. Time to start climbing the tower in earnest. I'd already felt the power of the Ice Snow Sword Technique I'd obtained yesterday, so I planned to push straight through from the fourth floor.

But just as I reached for the tower entry button floating in the air—

Ring—!

It was a completely different notification sound from the usual alerts or the paid messages from big shots. This was a special chime only those with administrator privileges could use.

"…Huh? Padak 1?"

Surprise lasted only a moment. I immediately tapped the red-bordered message icon floating in the air. This was my only remaining colleague and senior moderator in this insane integrated community. After Padak 2 had flaunted himself, been exposed by otherworlders, and met a gruesome end, this guy had gone completely silent, never showing his face in the gallery. And now that very person had suddenly sent me a message.

The message was unexpectedly a confession about his own abilities and circumstances.

"What kind of dogshit trait is that?"

The more you work, the weaker you get. If you don't work, your life force gets drained. It was like being caught in a catch-22. But that thought only lasted a moment. I immediately narrowed my eyes at the text floating in the air.

But why is he spilling such a fatal weakness to me so easily?

Even though we were both Padaks, we were complete strangers who had never even seen each other's faces. I could easily exploit this information, drown him, and monopolize the moderator privileges. As if sensing my suspicion from my lack of response, new text appeared below the paused message window.

That wasn't the end of it.

"…What the hell."

I hadn't even agreed to help or shown any willingness yet. Without waiting for my full response, the system had handed over not only the perfectly protected second identity, but even the real name and address that absolutely must never be exposed. It was no different from baring their heart completely to convey their desperation.

Because of that, I was quickly able to dispel my suspicions and regain my composure.

They probably just didn't want to die horribly like Padak 2.

Because of their weakness, they wouldn't have been able to climb the tower, let alone build the strength to protect themselves. They must have placed their last hope in me, who had been overwhelmingly displaying my martial prowess by consecutively clearing extreme difficulties.

I crossed my arms and stared at the ceiling for a moment. Logically speaking, ignoring them would be the safest option. There was no need to get involved with a target that the big shots were desperately searching for and risk exposing my own identity. But—

If the only remaining moderator colleague dies, all the shitposts and hate memes in this gallery will be dumped on me.

At that horrifying thought, goosebumps rose all over my body. Solo moderation duty. That was something I absolutely had to prevent. Though, even now it wasn't much different from me handling everything alone…. On days when I was really busy and couldn't manage properly, Padak 1 had stepped in appropriately. And thinking about it now, even though Padak 1 had been taking on enormous risk, they had moved to help me without any complaints.

In conclusion, to protect my comfortable and sweet capitalistic lifestyle, Padak 1 was worth keeping alive. Moreover, if those arrogant Murim Alliance old man and the Chinese bastards were involved, I thought it wouldn't be bad to use this opportunity to knock down their noses once more. My attitude toward everyone except the North Sea Ice Palace had already turned almost entirely hostile.

After finishing my deliberation, I let out a small sigh and tapped the reply button in the air.

Blue Badge 3: I roughly understand the situation. I'll come to the address you gave me tomorrow. See you then.

Blue Badge 1: Thanks for helping.

Blue Badge 3: It's nothing. We moderators should help each other out, since we never know when our numbers might increase.

When I pressed send, the system window in the air slowly disappeared.

Right after receiving Padak 1's contact yesterday, I entered the extreme difficulty of the fourth floor of the Tower of Ruin as planned and smashed the variant slimes to pieces. Today, with Auto-Moderation Mode activated to properly fill the gap left by both Padaks, I headed straight to the address in Seoul's Gwanak-gu that Padak 1 had provided.

The navigation led me to the semi-basement window of a shabby villa. I stood in front of the old iron gate with peeling paint, cleared my throat lightly, and pressed the doorbell.

After some rustling sounds from inside, the door clicked open halfway.

"Who…."

"…!"

The moment I saw the face peeking through the gap in the door, my eyes widened slightly without realizing it. Disheveled hair like someone who had been holed up in their room for a month. A bare face so pale it looked like they'd only applied sunscreen, wearing an oversized, stretched-out tracksuit. Overall, it was a completely unkempt and plain appearance, but the facial features beyond that had a strangely captivating quality.

…She's pretty cute.

I inwardly admired her briefly before speaking.

"You're Padak 1, right? I'm Blue Badge 3, the one you contacted yesterday. Standing out here like this feels awkward, so shall we go inside first?"

"Blue Badge 3? You're more… than I expected. Anyway, come in… yo?"

"If you're comfortable with casual speech, let's use that. I think it'll be more comfortable for me too."

"R-really? Then let's speak casually."

She stepped aside as if she'd been waiting for this, making way. As I entered the house, musty humidity and clutter scattered everywhere came into view. I roughly took a seat on one side of the floor and nodded toward her.

"For now, my Hunter identity for outside activities is D-class Lee Minhyuk. As for my real identity… I'll tell you later when things are more settled and we're a bit closer."

"Ah… Yeah, that makes sense. For now, I'm Lee Sieun, just like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I sent you yesterday. My laundered identity is Cha Seyeon."

She sat down carefully across from me, fidgeting. After glancing around one last time, I got straight to the point.

"First, how did you end up getting properly marked by the Murim and Chinese guilds? No matter what, you're a moderator of the integrated community. For your identity to be exposed like this, it couldn't have been an ordinary situation."

"Ah…… Well, you see."

Lee Sieun hugged her knees and spoke with a bitter expression.

"Back when the otherworld factions were fiercely competing to recruit Earth's Awakeners, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠right? At that time, to stop the Chinese guilds and Murim side from dominating too much, I focused on sanctioning and moderating those guys."

Well… up to that point, it was a normal exercise of moderator authority. Even now, I was concentrating all my attention on taking down the Murim and the Empire. But the problem was the damn trait she possessed.

"Because I overdid it, the Lazy Padak penalty had risen right up to my chin. So I had no choice but to go silent for nearly a month and dump all the moderation work on Padak 2, who was still alive back then."

Her voice gradually grew smaller.

"But the system seemed to interpret that as semi-forced negligence of duty. During the process of the Padak penalty activating… a very slight trace leading to my real identity was left behind. The Zhuge family guys and the unorthodox assassins dug into that persistently and eventually tracked me down here."

"……"

Having said everything she needed to say, Lee Sieun—rather, Padak 1—hung her head completely. I looked at her for a moment before shifting my gaze to the ceiling and opening my status window.

The situation's a bit ambiguous.

The rewards from consecutively clearing extreme difficulties and diligently cleaning up the gallery's shitposts every day. Thanks to that, all my major stats had long since surpassed 70, greeting me.

With stats like this, I could probably take down one or two ordinary guys without much trouble, right?

It would depend on what difficulty and floor the opponents were climbers of, how much training they'd received, and how good their equipment was… but based on general circumstances, I figured I could handle up to two people alone. But—

That won't work.

Thinking about it, I'd recently been showing off my martial prowess too much in the community by using the Ice Palace Master's techniques. If that had made them wary of a moderator's combat ability, they might have sent at least A-class assassins to properly deal with Lee Sieun.

But would those guys really come with the intention of killing a moderator? No, since they killed Padak 2 so easily, I can't let my guard down.

Anyway, facing enemies in this old, cramped semi-basement one-room apartment would be the worst choice. I stood up and extended my hand to her.

"Let's move to my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠place for now. Since your address has already been exposed, staying here any longer is no different from suicide…."

However—

Crash—!

Before I could finish speaking, the narrow semi-basement window behind me completely shattered. Through the broken glass fragments, two sharp daggers came rushing in at tremendous speed.

"Kyaaak!!"

"Shit…!"

Lee Sieun screamed and curled up on the floor. I immediately condensed mana at my toes and kicked off the ground. At the same time, a chill cold enough to freeze all the humidity in the semi-basement rose up through my feet as the North Sea Ice Palace technique activated.

Snow Flower Steps.

With dazzling ice flowers blooming in the air, my body leaped in front of the daggers' trajectory.

Clang—!

The daggers were sent flying in an instant. The mana-infused kick delivered the same slash that had instantly dealt with the Elemental Slime. The two fiercely flying daggers froze and bounced powerlessly to the floor.

I landed lightly and glared at the two shadows that had slipped into the house from outside the broken window. They were unorthodox assassins wrapped in black masks, not even bothering to hide their characteristic repulsive killing intent.

"Hey, breaking the window and coming in while someone's talking—what country's etiquette is that… No, wait, it's not."

Ah, they were Chinese. Okay, perfectly understood.