The Specialist's Invitation
"Juhyuk, a designated mission request has come in for you."
One day, while exploring the Internet, I stopped by the Sprout Guild office before heading back to Intra-Maetan. Yoo Hyeyeon spoke up as I walked in.
"A designated mission request... What's that?"
"It's a request issued specifically to a designated player. The client wants you, specifically."
My brow furrowed.
As a player, my recognition was practically zero.
I had briefly made a name for myself as the goblin who defeated a B-class player, but that was before I even became an official player, and the hype had long since died down.
Though I had hit the jackpot on my first mission by retrieving the drone blueprints, I hadn't achieved any other eye-catching results since then.
In other words, there was no reason for anyone to send me a designated request.
"Who is it?"
"...Someone I know. A B-class player, the Dark Warrior Lee Jun."
I didn't remember the name Lee Jun, but the terms 'B-class player' and 'Dark Warrior' rang a bell.
The first player my goblin had defeated.
The person who had hacked Maetan's security network to track me down.
The woman I had personally tracked down to warn against ever crossing my path again.
She was looking for me.
"What are the details of the request?"
"Well... it's an escort mission. It's a bit ridiculous for a D-class to escort a B-class, but knowing this person, I suppose it's not entirely incomprehensible..."
Yoo Hyeyeon knit her brows, looking troubled.
"Do you know her well?"
"Sigh... To be honest, she's someone I'd rather avoid. Her grandfather is... well, one of the absolute highest-ups in Maetan. I tried to get close to her once, but... how should I put it? She's the type that's hard to befriend. The kind of person you want to stay away from to avoid getting caught in the crossfire..."
Yoo Hyeyeon, the guild leader, spoke slowly, choosing her words with care.
It seemed that even associating with Lee Jun was a heavy burden for her.
The same went for me.
But I couldn't just run away from it.
If it were a request she could easily decline, Yoo Hyeyeon wouldn't be looking this distressed.
"Understood. I'll take it."
"Would you? The mission is scheduled for tomorrow at 18:00, right after the workday ends. Is that fine?"
As if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, Yoo Hyeyeon's expression brightened.
"Then I'll head out early today."
"Good work today."
"Kyaaaah!"
Immediately after logging out, I headed to the studio apartment I had broken into once before.
Since I already had experience breaking in, getting back inside was a simple task.
I scaled the building's exterior wall and slipped through the window on the third-floor landing. Quietly making my way up the stairs, I arrived at Room 23 on the thirteenth floor.
"Even though she was broken into last time, she hasn't changed a single security measure."
Of course not. She's probably waiting for you to show up, Mister.
"...Are you saying she set a trap?"
No... Let's just go in for now.
I pressed my ear against the steel front door, listening for any sounds from within.
Just like before, only the exceptionally loud hum of the ventilation system reached my ears.
I drew my combat knife, wedged it between the door and the frame, and popped the lock.
Exactly the same.
Not a single thing had changed.
Her security consciousness was utterly pathetic.
When I pushed the door open and stepped inside, the room was exactly as I remembered. Dark, messy, with books, trash, and discarded clothes strewn everywhere.
And right in the middle of it all, she lay on her bed-slash-connector.
Roughly cut, disheveled black hair that cascaded down to her waist. A sloppy, unkempt figure, skin marred by blemishes from a lack of sunlight, and thick glasses.
Choi Soyeong.
The real face of the B-class player, the Dark Warrior Lee Jun.
She was fast asleep, dead to the world, with her stomach exposed.
I quietly approached her and covered her mouth and nose with my right hand.
"...Usually, people wake up when you do this."
Choi Soyeong didn't wake up. Instead, she merely frowned and flailed her arms, trying to swat away the obstacle blocking her breathing.
I swept her arms aside with my left arm and waited for her to wake up.
Only after a good while did her eyes finally flutter open.
"Mmph! Mmmph! Mmph!"
Unable to breathe under my palm, she began to thrash violently.
I held her arms down and whispered into her ear.
"I'm going to take my hand off now. If you scream like last time... there won't be a next time."
As I slowly removed my hand from her mouth, she gasped desperately for air.
"Cough! *Wheeze!* Cough... gasp... Y-you came, Goblin Mister."
Choi Soyeong managed a faint, trembling smile.
"I believe I told you never to approach me again. Are you still digging into my background?"
I raised my combat knife.
I intentionally angled the blade so the moonlight glinted off its edge.
"No! No! I have absolutely no intention of doing that! I haven't searched for anything about you since that day! I haven't hacked any CCTVs to spy on you either! I did wonder what you were spending your Maetan Points on, but I never actually tried to snoop!"
...I'll make sure to scramble those records from now on.
CC reacted to her confession-like blabbering.
I walked around the bed, positioning myself behind her.
"Then why did you send me a request? Didn't I tell you to stay completely out of my business?"
"I-I just... I really needed help, and I didn't have anyone else to turn to... Out of everyone I could think of, you were the strongest, Mister..."
As she spoke, I scanned the floor and located a two-way cable.
I used the cable to link her neck-hub with mine.
"Kyaah! So suddenly..."
Leave it to me.
As prearranged, CC began to rifle through her neck-hub.
Countless strings of text and images flashed before my eyes. Were these... comic books? Animations flickered into view and vanished just as quickly.
There are no traces of her searching for you, Mister. Her words are a bit sketchy, but she hasn't actually put them into action.
I pulled the cable from Choi Soyeong's neck.
"Kyaah."
Choi Soyeong let out a small shriek, rubbing her neck-hub where the cable had just been unplugged.
"So you really just issued a pure request? An escort mission?"
"Y-yes! The mission I'm working on right now requires an extra set of hands. But I... well, I don't really have many... close friends... so I was hoping I could get some help..."
Choi Soyeong answered the question I had directed at CC.
Looking at her neck-hub, that seems to be the case. Her recent files are piled high with data regarding her current mission, and it looks like she's having a pretty hard time with it. Some of the files go back quite a ways. There's absolutely nothing about me... that's for sure.
Fortunately, it didn't seem like she had caught wind of CC.
Even so, this was incredibly tedious.
Maybe I should have just killed her back then...
Let's go back. I think we can decide after seeing how things play out tomorrow.
As if reading my mind, CC displayed a message to soothe me.
"Don't be late tomorrow."
"Y-yes! Yes...!"
Choi Soyeong replied, trembling.
I backed away from her, intending to head back to the door I had entered through.
Mister, go through the window.
CC made the same bizarre request as before.
I suddenly spun around, dashed across the floor, and leaped out of the thirteenth-floor window.
*Whoosh!*
The moment I scaled the wall to the rooftop, I saw Choi Soyeong belatedly poke her head out of the window. She was scanning the darkness, trying to find where I had gone.
I muttered to myself, my voice barely a whisper against the wind.
"Being suspected is a nuisance."
I don't think she suspects you. No matter how you look at it, she probably just thinks you're incredibly strong, Mister.
The next day, I logged into the designated meeting place, the **Unjeong Server**, right on time.
As I passed through the Monolith Gate, my vision went dark, and the now-familiar strings of text and electronic beeps began to scroll by.
> OK
> …ATDT014XY…
> CONNECTING…
> Beep-beep-beep-shhhhh-screeeech…!
A moment later, the darkness lifted, revealing a bustling university campus under a clear blue sky.
"G-glad to meet you! I'm B-class player, Choi So... no, Lee Jun!"
Almost the exact instant my vision cleared, the Dark Warrior Lee Jun—Choi Soyeong—bowed deeply and offered a handshake.
"I'm Yoon Juhyuk, a D-class player from Sprout."
I lightly shook his hand.
Lee Jun stared at his own hand as if deeply moved.
"So, what do you need my help with?"
"Yes, yes! Could I explain while we move? Our destination is quite far from here."
I followed Lee Jun down the path.
Perhaps there was a women's university nearby, as the streets were filled with young women.
"Oh my, look at him."
"Oh my god... What is a handsome guy like that doing lost here...? Move aside, I need to go guide him."
"Kyaah! He looked this way!"
Every time the women saw Lee Jun, they couldn't take their eyes off him, always leaving a comment.
"But what's with that goblin next to him...?"
"Right? Is he doing volunteer work?"
The women who looked at me after looking at Lee Jun also made sure to leave a comment. However, the difference in temperature was stark.
I looked up at Lee Jun walking beside me.
He was tall.
Kang Yeolchan and Dae-nyang were also massive, requiring me to look up at them, but Lee Jun possessed a height of a completely different nature.
If Kang Yeolchan and Dae-nyang were like massive buildings, Lee Jun was like a towering tree.
"I'm an Event Interpretation Specialist."
Lee Jun suddenly spoke up.
Looking at his face, he was completely stiff, keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead.
Looks like he can't stand the silence.
"Event interpretation?"
"Yes. You've experienced Event Zones before, right, Juhyuk? Like Royal Canin, or the Relic Auction event I heard about from Guild Leader Yoo Hyeyeon. Finding the trigger conditions for those Event Zones is my primary job."
We walked out to the road and boarded a bus.
We sat side-by-side in a double seat at the back.
I had intended to stand so I could react to any potential threat, but Lee Jun insisted we had to sit together to talk, so I reluctantly took the seat beside him.
"I predict what kind of events might exist, verify their existence, and ultimately find their trigger conditions... For example, you had to get off at various stations to reach Royal Canin, right? I find the exact travel routes required to access those Event Zones. Then I report them to Maetan and receive rewards."
To enter an Event Zone, one had to follow a specific route with absolute precision. If even a single step deviated, the entry would fail, and time and space would simply flow normally without anything special happening.
"So... humans were the ones finding those?"
"Yes. They seem completely random, but there are actually strict conditions. Oh, we have to get off."
We got off the bus and transferred to the subway. Inside the subway, we kept walking, got off, took another bus, and even cut through a shopping district at one point.
"Is this... the route to the Event Zone?"
"Yes. It's still incomplete, but I thought it would be easier for you to understand if you saw it firsthand. The next part is the final leg of the route."
We got off at a place called Uijeongbu Station.
It was less crowded than Chungmuro, where the Sprout office was located, but it was a clean space lined with newer-looking buildings. There were open spaces here and there, offering a clear view of the blue sky.
"This way."
I followed Lee Jun into a department store right in front of us.
After walking up and down a few floors, we returned to the main entrance.
"We're done. I haven't found the optimized path yet, so it's a bit complicated and takes some time."
"How did you even find this? Did you walk every single path one by one?"
"I'll tell you in a bit. For now, let's go."
Lee Jun pushed open the department store's main doors and stepped outside.
I followed right behind him, and in an instant, a blinding flash erupted before my eyes.
A familiar scent hit me.
An acrid, pungent odor filled the air, stinging my nostrils. A sharp, metallic aftertaste—like metal that had burned and then cooled—surged down my throat.
"This is..."
This was not the pristine Uijeongbu Station from a moment ago.
The blue sky was choked with thick black smoke, and the buildings were so utterly demolished that their original shapes were unrecognizable.
The once-neat asphalt was cracked, cratered, and torn apart, as if screaming in agony.
And everywhere, there were corpses, corpses, and more corpses.
Soldiers clad in the uniforms of the human coalition forces lay strewn across the ground.
Lee Jun spoke.
"This is three years after the war between humanity and the AI began."
Though the AI had held the upper hand from the very start of the war, humanity had somehow endured, throwing old-generation weapons and endless manpower into the meat grinder.
But it was nothing more than buying time.
Once that thing made its appearance, everything changed.
"This is the place where the multi-legged tank first appeared."