Farming Efficiently (5)

"I told you not to call me noona. You really don't listen for shit."

The typos were bad, but not so bad I couldn't read them. Probably meant another party had shown up.

It wasn't like they were pro gamers. Dumping this much firepower just to kill one sniper was blatant overkill. Then again… they'd said he ran off with their items. They'd keep coming until they got them back. Fair enough, I supposed.

The fighter's health bar was still thrashing around, so the fight was clearly still going. Watching it, I hesitated for a moment.

Should I go help?

Did I really need to? I'd already done my part. I'd promised Myeolgong another twenty million gold if he survived, sure. But an assassin wasn't a babysitter. There was no guarantee Myeolgong would still be alive by the time I finished killing the rest of them. Worst case, I'd do all the work and walk away empty-handed.

Couldn't I just leave the party and queue for arena matches instead?

Killing the streamer had already been enough for me. Dongmicham had silently cut her broadcast, and the hunt was a lost cause anyway. Right on cue, a message landed in my interface that snuffed out whatever motivation I had left.

And yet my legs kept carrying me toward the battlefield without rest. There was one thing I absolutely had to check.

The sniper's gunshots rang out without pause. The situation was exactly as predicted: two against five. A clear disadvantage, and yet they weren't getting swept in a single rush. That was entirely thanks to the fighter, FundoshiMania, putting up a hell of a fight.

He made full use of the sniper's covering fire while focusing on cutting off the enemy assassin's escape routes. The overwhelming gear of a top-tier siege guild certainly helped, but his raw skill was clearly excellent on its own.

Even so, there was a limit. A high-end fighter was a fully filled hexagon of a class — damage, defense, even combat sustain. On the surface it looked like a class with no real weaknesses, but that also made it an honest one. When pure power was against you, the best you could do was take hits that hurt a little less. There was no capacity to create a variable.

Proof of that sat in the arrows sticking out of the fighter's body, several of them.

Sure enough, a message arrived thick with desperation. He wanted me to kill the two enemy archers while he held the line.

I couldn't think of a better plan, so I immediately started tracking the arrow trajectories. One was on top of a hangar container pile. The other… hard to see even from here. That one kept moving, too, which would make tracking a pain. The skill gap between the two archers was obvious. Better to leave the hard-to-find one for later.

Alright. Target locked. Start with the easy kill. Thin the numbers first, and something always opens up.

No time to waste. Fundoshi's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠health had dropped hard since the last time I checked. The pressure must have been too much. He'd apparently decided holding the assassin any longer was impossible, and was now just maintaining a standoff with the paladin. The enemy would be sweeping the area by now looking for our sniper. I used that window to slip in behind the archer who'd been cheerfully raining arrows down.

He seemed to notice me partway through, but far too late. Close-quarters combat between ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an archer who needed range and an assassin. Specs and skill both favored me. It didn't take long for my dagger to find his heart.

The priestess I found nearby was a free bonus. She must not have accounted for me at all, because her positioning was way too careless. Guess she never got the news from the dead Dongmicham. What the hell had she been doing that she couldn't even get a briefing? There should have been ways to contact each other outside the game.

The archer I'd ignored earlier threw some suppressing fire my way, but our sniper, still hidden, answered back. I took the priestess's life without much trouble.

Though… was that shot just now actually the right call?

Snipers had long range, but the gunshots were loud and the trajectories easy to track. His position had definitely been compromised. Well, he must have been fine with it if he took the shot. He wasn't an idiot.

Either way, cutting down the priestess had evened the numbers. Our fighter's health was badly chewed up, but the gear gap was massive. I could afford to expect a little more fight out of him.

A short stretch of time passed. Then, while I was still hunting for the remaining enemy archer, a welcome message popped up.

Our fighter had finally managed to kill the paladin. He hadn't survived the arrow that came right after, but thanks to that, I'd confirmed the archer's position. This one was sharp, no question. The moment the location was exposed, he started relocating — but I wasn't so green that I'd lose a target I'd already seen. And more than that, if running away actually worked, why would anyone play an assassin?

I closed the distance, batting aside incoming arrows with my dagger. The tedious chase didn't last long. The archer's path happened to be heading straight toward our sniper.

Bang—! A bullet punched through the forehead of the archer who'd been hopping around like a rabbit.

But there was one thing Myeolgong's Torch hadn't considered. Had the enemy archer really moved that way by pure coincidence? Not a chance. He'd been heading toward their assassin to shake me off. And more importantly, reading a position from a bullet's trajectory wasn't a trick only I could pull off.

So then — where was the enemy assassin right now?

That was the moment my twenty million gold went up in smoke.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Death penalties in Infinity Black were not light. The most common was a four-hour login restriction, but dying while infamous could cost you experience or slap you with temporary stat reductions. And some items carried risks like "destroyed on death" or "ownership released on death."

Those weren't ordinary items — they were mostly the kind used at the guild level. They served as materials for useful siege weapons, and the game couldn't exactly let people mass-produce strategic weapons without friction.

And just one day ago, Myeolgong had told me this:

Did he still have those items now? Was that why the SSA guild had spent money to keep Myeolgong alive? Maybe Myeolgong's condition for handing over the unique items was personal protection.

And if my guess was right… then the unique item would be on the bastard who'd just killed him.

My dagger punched clean through his brow.

That was why I'd risked going back into the fight.

A very efficient farm.