Arcana Online
"It was about time I left the village."
It had been about half a month since I started living in Cradle, the beginner village.
If I cleared just a few more quests, I’d reach level 15—the level you needed to leave the village.
Every day, I trained under Mr. Charles and helped Bella with the inn’s work. On top of that, I took on quests from the villagers and cleared those too.
If I’d been able to hunt, I probably would’ve graduated in a few days. But since I couldn’t, it took forever.
Still, life in the village wasn’t bad, and more than anything, I was happy because Yongyong was by my side.
After training with Mr. Charles again today and helping Bella finish up at the inn, I finally returned to my room.
I lay down on the bed and stared up at the star-filled night sky through the window.
Countless stars shimmered overhead, painting a beautiful scene. When had I last looked up at the sky like this?
Back in the real world, I’d always been too busy surviving to look anywhere but at the ground. Now I was living my life with my eyes on the sky instead, and somehow that felt strange.
As I watched the night sky, I turned to look at Yongyong beside me.
My adorable Yongyong.
He was munching on the Magic Stones I’d gotten as quest rewards. Were they really that tasty?
“Do you like Magic Stones that much?”
And then, at that very moment, something strange happened.
“Kkyu-ung.”
I thought I’d misheard him.
Yongyong, who had never said a single word until now, had spoken for the first time.
And it had been with the cutest little sound imaginable.
Thinking I must have heard wrong, I shot upright and asked again.
“W-what did you just say?”
“Kkyu-ung?”
My chest suddenly hurt, so I grabbed at it, and Yongyong looked at me with startled eyes.
That was the first time I’d almost died while playing a game.
If there was a final boss, wasn’t it actually our Yongyong?
I wanted to show this cuteness to the whole world, but I couldn’t, because of the stalker.
Not because I’d only just remembered it, but because the memory from back then was still vivid.
Whenever I thought about what happened then, my hands and feet shook, my heart felt like it would burst, and cold sweat broke out all over me.
Then, all at once, a warning alarm blared and the game shut down.
Due to an abnormality in the traveler’s health, the game has been forcibly shut down.
*
*
*
The contractor had fallen asleep.
For a moment I was startled when she collapsed onto the bed, but seeing that she was only sleeping put me at ease.
At ease, huh.
Had I already grown attached?
The moment I started to crawl into the sleeping contractor’s arms, I turned my head and looked outside.
Something was approaching.
A lot of things.
How dare they. How dare they disturb my contractor’s peaceful sleep.
That was when something strange happened in the village.
So many humans that hadn’t existed a moment ago suddenly appeared.
As though they had been there from the beginning.
Countless monsters are approaching the beginner village of Cradle.
Those monsters, as if under some kind of spell, are attacking many villages as though they’re searching for someone.
Players and villagers, join forces and defend the village.
Success: Experience points, Magic Stones, and items will be awarded according to contribution.
Failure: The beginner village, Cradle, will be reduced to ruins, and the villagers will scatter.
[Because this is an emergency quest, channels will be merged.]
Unlike ordinary quests, invasion quests were extremely important to players.
If the village disappeared, hunting and raids would become inconvenient.
Besides, if Cradle vanished, where were all the fresh newbies supposed to go?
Welcoming new newbies was always part of an old hand’s code.
The news spread through the community, and countless players began flooding toward the beginner village.
From high-rankers to ordinary users, they gathered in waves.
Players prepared for battle with military precision.
A massive wall was raised around the open city, and countless players stood watch at the perimeter, barely able to hide their excitement.
One large event could be the stepping-stone that turned a semi-ranker into a ranked player.
That was how huge the rewards were.
And then came the thundering roar.
When the players who had climbed to the top of the wall heard it and looked out at the approaching monsters, they all fell silent.
The monster army was so vast it made you want to run.
There were goblins and orcs, then wyverns, drakes, golems, and even undead like ghouls, dullahans, and liches.
The living and the dead do not belong together.
The fact that undead monsters like ghouls, liches, and dullahans were among living monsters made no sense at all.
Only one conclusion could be drawn from this situation: something with tremendous power was commanding the monsters.
Just as everyone tightened their grip on their weapons and braced themselves in tension, a huge shadow fell across the brightly lit village.
Everyone looked around in confusion, on guard, and then something enormous revealed itself.
From behind us.
The front line had been formed mostly of tanks and damage dealers, while the back had been assigned mages and healers.
No, more than that—I’d never seen a monster that big before.
Even high-rankers who had seen dragons were looking at this creature for the first time.
A monster shaped like a dragon out of East Asian legend looked down on the ground from the sky.
Its size was so vast it was impossible to guess how large it really was.
In that instant, a roar that shook the very earth rang out, followed by a solemn voice.
“You lowly creatures. How dare you disturb my sleep?”
Players and NPCs alike clutched their ears and cried out in agony.
It had only spoken one sentence, and yet HP had already dropped below half.
A hopeless situation.
In games, dying meant losing experience, so some players tried to run—but it was useless.
[Because this is an emergency quest, logging out is impossible.]
As I stared up at the dragon, my eyes full of despair, something else happened.
Something began gathering in that gigantic mouth.
Beautiful blue light was condensing there, and no way—was that a breath attack?!
“Everyone capable of barrier magic, gather up! Use every shield item you have!”
“Tanks! Move to the rear, now!”
“Priests, buff us! Mages, get your attacks ready!”
Even as countless players followed the orders with military precision, their eyes were filled with despair.
Could they really stop something like this?
Then something strange happened.
Along with the blue light gathering in the dragon’s mouth, the massive breath attack flew not toward the village, but toward the direction where the monsters were surging in.
And then came an explosion so enormous it might as well have been a nuclear bomb, followed by a mushroom cloud blooming into the sky.
How powerful did it have to be for a breath attack that landed so far away to still send shockwaves all the way to the village?
At that moment, a message appeared.
You have cleared the emergency quest.
The ranking will now be calculated according to contribution.
Please wait a moment.
No. 1: Yongyong
No. 2: Undecided
No. 3: Undecided
No. 4: Undecided
No. 5: Undecided
Rewards will be distributed according to contribution.
[The quest has ended. The channel will normalize in one minute.]
The people staring at the blue window wore stunned expressions.
So the dragon that had just appeared was called Yongyong...?
No matter how crazy you were, you didn’t name yourself Yongyong.
After one minute passed, the players scattered back to their own channels.
The huge dragon vanished in an instant too.
Then there was only one conclusion.
The dragon that had just appeared was someone’s summon.
This was shocking enough to send the community into a frenzy all by itself.
*
*
*
Having been forcibly logged out, I sat there blankly on the bed.
Just remembering it made my hands and feet tremble, my heart pound, and cold sweat bead on my skin.
To calm myself down, I turned on my private stream and played the video I’d recorded of Yongyong on my phone.
Our cute Yongyong, tilting his head and looking at me.
After watching the video, I lay down to sleep.
My precious Yongyong.
I missed Yongyong.
Ring ring! Up and at 'em! Ding ding ding! Eat eat eat eat eat...!
Apparently I’d fallen asleep while watching Yongyong’s video.
Stretching, I got up and headed downstairs to the kitchen to fill my empty stomach.
I opened the refrigerator to see what was inside, but it was poorer than I’d imagined.
There was only some leftover water I’d been drinking, and nothing else.
I had no choice but to open the cupboard, only to be devastated by the reality that there wasn’t even a single packet of instant ramen.
The weather was nice today, so I really didn’t want to go out.
Still, I pulled on a hoodie and hat and headed for the nearby convenience store.
While I was picking out ramen and triangle kimbap, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
Startled, I turned around and saw a familiar face.
“Oh my, what a coincidence. Do you remember me? We bumped into each other last time.”
“Ah, the noonah I bumped into then.”
“Noonah? Oh, I see.”
The pretty noonah, who had been muttering to herself, said she’d like to talk for a bit.
If it had been anyone else, I wouldn’t have followed them, but for some reason this felt okay.
I used to mock dramas for going on and on about plot convenience and whatnot, but only now did I understand.
Looks were plot convenience. They were trust. They were proof.
After paying, I stepped out of the convenience store and saw the pretty noonah waiting for me.
I followed her to a bench in a nearby park and sat down. What was this about?
“I was trying to decide where to start, but I think I’ll just tell you everything from the beginning.”
The pretty noonah introduced herself as the leader of Frey, a small elite guild that was one of the ten major guilds in Arcana Online.
And then she said that one of her guild members had happened to see me broadcasting before.
She went on to explain everything that had happened since then—how she had wandered through channels in the beginner village for more than a week looking for me, and all the rest.
After a thirty-minute explanation, she made me an offer.
“So, what do you think? Do you want to join our guild?”