The New World Begins
Several days had passed since the event kicked off. One rumor had begun spreading like wildfire across the community.
“Hey, have you heard?”
“Heard what?”
“There’s this guy called Fafnir who’s currently number one in the event.”
“Oh, but why?”
“He’s supposedly fighting on the front lines of the tier-one server mode and still racking up first place every single day lol.”
The rumor was that the number-one Fafnir in points had been grinding points in the tier-one server mode.
“Why would the number one even play tier one? Must be a misread, right?”
“No no, I saw the MVP pop up with Fafnir. It’s real.”
At first, everyone dismissed the claim as crazy talk. But the videos proving the point showed nothing but Fafnir.
“Spotlight on the trending figure ‘Necromancer Fafnir.’”
“A C-tier or lower Necromancer? ‘That’s changed now.’”
The name of Fafnir appeared on every gaming news site and even on multiple YouTube videos. The focus was almost entirely on how Necromancy now had new possibilities and potential.
“What the hell is he doing over there? Got a thing for egg farming?”
“Watching him, it seems pretty organized. Since he can take on skeleton soldiers one-on-one with orcs, he’s probably solo sweeping and farming contribution points that way?”
“Oh, pure gathering?”
“But that guy’s a necromancer, right? What the hell lol”
If a skeleton soldier could handle an orc one-on-one, his farming efficiency would be dozens of times better than anyone else’s. If that was possible, Fafnir’s strategy had to be working.
But not everyone bought it. Hours later, a post appeared.
“I’m rank one in Necromancy, Baalrun. From my perspective, that’s not strategy at all, just egg farming.”
The current rank-one Necromancer had shot down Fafnir.
“Using skeleton soldiers to farm low-level orcs is way better than chaining high-rank orcs together for both experience and contribution points.”
“You can see it for yourself in the video. My contribution points are rising much faster, and the efficiency is incomparable.”
“Baalrun is pulling five thousand points a day by farming for ten hours straight, far more than Fafnir’s three thousand seven hundred.”
“In the end, it’s just egg farming. With the same specs, he doesn’t have confidence against equal opponents, so he’s just slaughtering low-level monsters. Let me put it bluntly… that’s a pathetic necromancer?”
“Even worse, he’s stealing the monsters that normal users at the right level should be farming. If he sweeps everything, what are the rest of us supposed to farm?”
Baalrun’s post had Fafnir tearing himself apart with glee! He had no real grudge against Fafnir, and his own level and specs were clearly inferior, so the post was possible. But it still stung.
“My conclusion is that this will never be a good thing. Even normal players would get hated if they did the same as a Necromancer.”
The community split in two over Baalrun’s strike.
“Haha, now that I see it, he’s actually bad. He really earned that takedown.”
“Everyone else can complain, but Fafnir’s not bad at all. Without him, the frontline defense wouldn’t even hold.”
“Still, bad manners are bad manners, right? If we’re gonna control it, should we do the same?”
The community was boiling over.
Meanwhile, some Necromancer players rushed to test the new meta.
“Saw that post and looked it up. The skeleton gear thing actually seems okay. Gonna try it.”
“No way lol, I’m doing it right now!”
If the method was sweet honey, they might as well suck it up together while the chance was good. Excited, they logged in. And almost everyone immediately ran into trouble.
“Hey, what are you doing over there! Stop fighting!”
“Wait, dress the one over there first!”
“It takes twenty minutes just to dress one skeleton! I swear if I didn’t have to stay quiet…!”
Skeleton soldiers had low AI, so they could only follow simple commands. They needed actual help putting on clothes.
“How do you even put armor on this thing?”
“Ugh… I’m gonna die.”
Even the Necromancers who thought it would be easy started sweating while trying to dress the skeletons.
“Title: I Tried Fafnir’s Grind Necromancer.”
“Content: lol, the all-time worst farmer. Don’t do this, seriously.”
“I failed too.”
“I literally heard every insult I’ll hear all year in just one day.”
“Is that you? You showed up and spent the whole day dressing skeletons on camera before getting wiped out.”
“lol, I thought I saw something weird and came here.”
Every single Necromancer who tried blindly copying Fafnir tasted bitter defeat. It proved that grinding on the tier-one server was a strategy only Fafnir could pull off.
“Nobody else can do this.”
“Even dressing the skeletons counts as skill.”
“lol”
While all that chaos played out, the first frontline slowly began to clear. The result was a victory for the players. The front line had advanced one step further.
“The Monster Empire’s Emergence, receiving overwhelming attention worldwide.”
“Korea server event ‘Orc Empire Emergence’ raises game population by three million.”
The event reaction had been explosive. Even people who normally ignored games jumped in because the battlefield felt so real and started creating accounts left and right. Player participation hit an insane ninety-eight percent! Almost every user enjoying Horizon had rushed onto the front line. Even some beginners lower level than orcs were there.
“Training dummy, my strength is gone. One, two! One, two!”
“One, two!”
“Waaaaaaa!”
Beginners who couldn’t fight orcs were sent to the training camp to train. The grueling sessions gave tons of experience, special quests, and gold rewards.
By the time the second frontline started, Fafnir had successfully defended and won battles all the way to the eighth line. Forward, destroy, experience, contribution points. That was Fafnir’s fighting style.
‘Multiple big battles in a row. Not bad.’
After a long time of true multitasking, the dead feeling inside him woke up again. In fact, his senses felt even sharper than in real life. Thanks to Oh Jinhwan’s body being more energetic than Kim Ganghan in reality.
‘If I keep practicing like this while keeping my senses sharp, I’ll have fewer problems later.’
No matter how much he practiced, it would never be enough. In real life, Kim Ganghan frowned on anyone who glanced away from even basic phone or PC games. He did enjoy web novel reading, but he drew a clear line. Fun for fun, real life for real life. He hunted nonstop, and every level and skill level rose one by one.
Fafnir
Level 113
Skeleton Summon
Skill level: 9
Skeleton Mastery
Skill level: 9
Elite Skeleton Soldier Summon
Skill level: 8
Single Attack
Skill level: 8
The passive combat skills were included too. He kept summoning while fighting at the front line. Commanding other users to fight wasn’t a bad idea either. With hundreds of players acting as meat grinders, the hammer Fafnir and his skeletons could take down far more monsters.
‘Still, it doesn’t seem very efficient to keep fighting together.’
Fafnir’s charge was so fast that most users couldn’t keep up. But compared to before, leading users was clearly more profitable.
“The Rookie Commander’s Qualities (Magic) have been completed.”
“Experience gained.”
“Charisma stat increased by one.”
“New quest ‘Rookie Commander’s Qualities (Rare)’ has been generated.”
“Due to your charisma shown in multiple battles, your reputation has risen.”
“You can obtain the title of Baran Kingdom officer.”
“Do you wish to change your title? (Y/N)”
After winning several battles and completing quests, the officer title offer came. ‘He said he didn’t like being a sub-officer, so now he’s offering officer? Am I being mocked?’
Fafnir pressed the decline button.
“Baran Kingdom officer title rejected.”
“The officer unit that recognized your abilities has granted you soldier recruitment rights.”
He now had the power to handle extra NPC allies in villages and on the front lines. Other users who finished fighting soon approached.
“Thank you! We held on today thanks to you too.”
“You’re really good at commanding on the front line, not just fighting up front.”
The users smiled brightly and thanked him. “The early users who couldn’t believe it are throwing rude words, but they’re coming soon.”
“That’s good news.”
The more users joined, the more additional contribution and reputation they gained during victories. With that stat high, NPCs and knights could be brought in too. ‘If I die in battle and become a knight… will I get skeleton knight materials? Of course, dying is something that happens anyway.’
As a Necromancer, he hadn’t deliberately killed anyone. This was an honorable sacrifice protecting Fafnir, the commander and assault leader. ‘Hmm…’
One user who noticed Fafnir lost in thought spoke up. “Oh, Fafnir, don’t worry about the community.”
“Eh?”
“Someone posted a shot against you because they heard you’re playing too hard.”
“A shot, huh… I see.”
In real life, there had been plenty of people who made ridiculous shot posts or forced arguments. They usually created controversy articles on WoodWiki or posted threads in communities to stir public opinion. ‘I was too busy hunting to check the board, so the rumors spread anyway.’
When he looked at the board, sure enough, the shot posts against Fafnir were everywhere. The most common complaint was that the weird farmer meta had caused a lot of damage! ‘Yeah, that’s true. No matter how many monsters you kill, your contribution stays low if the conditions are the same.’
Anyways, obsessing over that stuff would stop you from being a pro. Plus…
‘They’re starting to show up on normal difficulty now too.’
The corner of Fafnir’s mouth lifted slightly. “Oh, good news?”
“No, I got a lot of contribution today.”
“Ah…”
“I’m going to the next frontline then. There are even more enemies.”
Before the competition got too fierce, he needed to widen the gap even a little more. The next day, Baalrun, rank one in Necromancy, stepped onto the front lines as usual.
“Entered Helprain Fortress front line.”
“Defend the fortress.”
Besides pushing the front line, users received various missions like defending fortresses or attacking enemy supply lines. This time it was fortress defense. “Hehe, troop reinforcement is my specialty.”
Around Baalrun, hundreds of skeleton soldiers, skeleton knights, skeleton archers, and skeleton mages appeared. The power of a Necromancer, a one-man army!
At that moment, a huge orc with impressive red hair crawled under the fortress wall and rolled straight onto the rampart. “Huh!” “Eh?”
Users who saw a monster of unknown specs were startled. The red-haired orc ignored them and looked straight at Baalrun. “Tch, skeleton soldiers… annoying.”
The skeleton soldiers rushed forward, but the red-haired orc didn’t take a single scratch and smashed them all in one breath. The orc spoke again. “Are you a shaman?” “Sort of.” “Hmph, then I guess I have to kill you.”
The next instant, the red-haired orc charged straight at Baalrun. That evening, several urgent news alerts appeared on the main pages of every Horizon community. “Orc Four Heavenly Kings appear!” “Even rankers suffered a crushing defeat, difficulty of the event skyrocketed.” “Second day frontline was a ‘new world.’”
The New World. The start of a brand new order.