The Goblin Ambush
Ring.
The elevator had just stopped at the tenth floor.
Now it was time to part ways.
Just ten minutes more…
“I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah… you too.”
Ten minutes later,
Rion Castle.
Mercenary Building.
Upon logging in, the notification window popped up.
Mercenary Quest: Goblin Extermination.
Start: Rion Castle Main Gate. (21 seconds remaining.)
It looked like the Green Grape Mercenary Corps had taken the job.
[Cain, hey~]
[Seolhwa, did the mission alert pop up?]
[Yeah.]
[Accept it. Let’s go.]
[Yeah!]
Rion Castle Main Gate.
Thirty fully equipped mercenaries stood gathered.
[You must be the new recruits. Welcome. I am Captain Grape.]
Even with facial scars, the man spoke with a gentle demeanor.
[Everyone’s here. Let’s move out!]
[Yes, sir!!]
[Let’s go!!]
[Cain, are you fighting with these guys?]
[Yeah. It’s hard to level up in the Hero game using only player power.]
[Huh? Cain, have you played this game before?]
[No… not really… but I searched online.]
[Really? When I looked there was nothing…]
Seolhwa had simply missed it.
In truth, information about the Hero game was almost nonexistent.
The player count was small,
and the game itself wasn’t very well known.
Especially the permadeath mechanic—dying meant character deletion—which had scared off potential users.
[Halt! From now on, move into battle formation.]
The mercenaries’ speed slowed as they advanced.
Just as they left the road and entered the forest, goblin figures appeared in the distance.
[According to the plan.]
The Green Grape Mercenaries formed the Crane Wing encirclement formation, trapping the goblin horde.
[New recruits, come with me.]
[Green Grape Mercenary Corps! Charge!]
Hidden mercenaries burst out from the trees all at once.
[Yaaaaah!]
[Uoooooh!]
The goblins, startled by the sudden pincer attack, faltered.
Slash. Slash. Slash.
The ambush had been a success.
Goblins afflicted with Demoralization could not fight the mercenaries properly.
[Seolhwa, kill as many as you can.]
[Yeah!]
Between the mercenaries, Seolhwa worked diligently to finish off goblins.
If the Green Grape Mercenaries cleared the goblins, they would split the success reward.
But
experience from monster kills was not shared with the mercenary corps.
I was only in a party with Seolhwa.
I rushed at a slow-moving goblin and struck it with my shield.
The goblin was paralyzed by both Demoralization and fear.
I finished it with a clean slash from my right-hand sword.
When I looked for the next target, I saw Seolhwa fiercely slaughtering goblins.
“She’s really into it…”
Making friends with Seolhwa had been a stroke of luck.
In reality she was a good friend, and in the game she was a reliable partner.
While I was taking down two goblins, she took out three.
It was no wonder she was destined to become the server’s strongest swordsman.
Even though it was still a 3D game, her efficient control allowed her to hunt monsters at lightning speed.
When the virtual reality update arrived, her control would shine even brighter.
[Halt!]
The goblins had all been killed.
[Moving to the next area.]
[Yes, sir!]
[Yes, ma’am!]
After clearing three more goblin groups, we returned to Rion Castle.
[New recruits, good work. Here’s your pay.]
Two silver coins.
[Let’s drink until we drop today!]
[Hoo!]
The mercenaries crowded toward the tavern.
[New recruits like alcohol?]
1) Yes, I do.
2) I have other things to do.
Already past noon.
[Seolhwa, pick option two.]
[Yeah.]
[What a shame. Everyone, let’s go!]
[Yes, sir!]
The mercenaries left, leaving only Seolhwa and me.
[Cain, I leveled up.]
[Me too.]
[Farming was really easy.]
[Yeah.]
Captain Grape of the Green Grape Mercenaries knew how to use tactics.
By employing ambushes, encirclements, and status-inflicting formations, he had driven the goblins into Demoralization and attacked.
Thanks to him, Seolhwa and I had cleared the goblins smoothly.
We bought supplies, repaired items, and logged off.
**
Time passed, and the retest day arrived.
The teacher had said to stay after class on Friday,
and I stayed in the classroom even after the other students left.
Creak.
“Dowoon, are you ready?”
“Yes.”
Murmurs. Murmurs.
On the corridor, fierce-looking aunties crowded in.
“He’s the one they say is cheating, right?”
“Yeah. What kind of era is this, tsk tsk.”
The teacher distributed the test papers and began.
Yet
Murmurs. Murmurs.
The aunties in the corridor didn’t stop talking.
Question 1.
Question 2.
Question 3.
“Teacher.”
“What is it?”
“The corridor is too noisy.”
“T-That… isn’t it?”
The teacher gave an awkward expression and stepped out into the corridor.
A golden Friday afternoon.
And the weekend.
To be taking a retest on the one day that should have been perfect for the Hero game…
Even before that, my mood was already bad,
and the noisy aunties only made it worse.
Creak.
The corridor had grown quiet and the teacher returned.
Contrary to the quiet, the aunties’ gazes through the glass window became even sharper.
As if they were trying to catch even a small act of misconduct.
Approximately three hours.
I had finished the Korean, English, and Math retests for the specified subjects.
“Dowoon. Good work.”
Even though the teacher had suspected my cheating, he now looked genuinely regretful after seeing me take the retest too.
“Can I go home now?”
“Go ahead.”
I hurriedly packed my bag.
I needed to get home as fast as possible to play the Hero game.
Creak.
Just as the teacher was about to open the classroom door to return to the office, voices from the corridor drifted in.
“With this, my kid’s rank will go up one spot.”
“Mine too. A single eel messed things up and wasted everyone’s time.”
“Yes, but we have to keep a close watch.”
“Hehehe.”
“Hehehe.”
They sounded genuinely happy, as if their own children’s ranks had improved.
That hope wouldn’t last long.
This test was also 100 points.
Every question was one I knew.
I packed everything and stood up from my chair.
Creak.
As I opened the back door of the classroom and stepped out,
there was Eunhye in the corridor.
“Eunhye?”
“Oh. Did Dowoon finish?”
“You waited?”
“Yeah.”
It took three hours.
Waiting in the corridor for that long…
“Thank you.”
“No… let’s go home now.”
As Eunhye and I walked side by side down the corridor, voices came from behind the aunties.
“Tsk tsk. She’s already dating at her young age.”
“Right. Don’t pay attention to those kinds of kids. Their rank went up with this.”
“Hehe. Exactly. With kids like that, it’s easy for the rank to rise.”
Such loud gossip.
Eunhye’s shoulders stiffened, as if she had heard it too.
“Eunhye.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t worry about what the aunties say. Probably we’ll study better than their kids.”
“R-Really?”
“Of course.”
I would naturally do better.
One hundred points in every subject.
And Eunhye studied well too.
“Eunhye, let’s run until Sunday night.”
I said it deliberately in a bright voice.
“Yeah!”
Eunhye clenched her fists with both hands and replied cheerfully.
As we left school, the sky was already setting.
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah!”
The retest was over.
Now it was time for the Hero game.
**
Friday night.
With the mercenary corps, we completed the goblin extermination mission.
[New recruits, want to go drink?]
1) I’ll go with you.
2) I decline.
I chose option two.
There was no virtual reality; watching characters drink on a monitor screen had no meaning.
I declined and returned to the Mercenary Building with Seolhwa.
Joining the Green Grape Mercenary Corps automatically registered me in the mercenary guild.
That meant I could take quests from the Mercenary Building at any time.
- Goblin Extermination
- Orc Extermination
- Northwest Rion Castle Exploration
- Caravan Escort (Sirio Village route)
- Puppy Search
[Seolhwa, let’s do the puppy search.]
[Puppy?]
[Yeah. There’s nothing else to do.]
Goblin extermination was best done in groups.
Exploration was too dangerous,
and caravan escort required going to other villages.
The only easy one was puppy search.
Quest: Puppy Search.
Description: Find a puppy in Rion Castle. (Reward: 3 silver if successful)
The reward wasn’t bad.
Even though it was just talking, I decided to go.
[Let’s go.]
[Yeah.]
We walked from Rion Castle’s main road.
Among countless NPCs, I searched for the puppy.
[Cain, it doesn’t seem to be on the main road.]
[Let’s try the back alleys.]
[Yeah.]
[Wow… even in the small alleys there are NPCs.]
Seolhwa let out an exclamation.
Rion Castle had an enormous number of NPCs.
Not just on the main road, but in narrow alleys each went about their own business.
[This really feels like a medieval castle.]
[Yeah…]
Once the virtual reality update came, it would become a real medieval world.
At that time, the AI would be so advanced that no one could tell the difference between NPCs and players.
[Cain, look there.]
[Let’s go.]
In the narrow alley, a puppy NPC appeared.
I quickly approached and clicked on it, capturing it.
[Wow! It was easier than I thought. Cain, let’s go back to the Mercenary Building quickly.]
[Yeah.]
This quest had been fortunate because it wasn’t virtual reality.
If it had been, I probably wouldn’t have found the puppy NPC so easily.
[Seolhwa, you worked hard today too.]
[Yeah. Exploring Rion Castle was really fun. Seeing so many NPCs was great…]
The next day.
Mercenary Quest: Stop Goblin Horde.
Start: Rion Castle Main Gate. (12 seconds remaining.)
Upon logging in, the alert appeared.
“Goblin mission.”
Seolhwa was offline, so I took out my smartphone and called Eunhye.
The ringing tone played,
“Hello?”
“Eunhye. Are you asleep?”
“No. I just woke up.”
“Can you log in now?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“A goblin mission popped up, and we have to go within twelve minutes.”
“I’ll log in right away.”
“Okay.”
A moment later Seolhwa connected.
I accepted the mercenary quest and headed to the Rion Castle Main Gate.
[Cain, there are a lot of mercenaries.]
[Yeah…]
The Green Grape Mercenary Corps had only thirty men.
Yet the number of mercenaries gathered at the gate seemed closer to one hundred.
When it was time to start, one mercenary stepped into the center.
[Brave warriors, thank you for coming. A horde of five hundred goblins is passing beside Rion Castle.]
Five hundred… a significant number.
Even so, with one hundred mercenaries, it looked manageable.
[Let’s go!]
[Hoo!]
[Yes, sir!]
One mercenary group led the way, and the Green Grape Mercenaries followed behind.
[Captain, shall I leave command to the Wild Strawberry Mercenary Leader?]
While marching, a mercenary NPC spoke to the captain.
[We have no choice. He’s stronger than me.]
[Isn’t command better handled by you, Captain!]
[It’s already decided.]
Was the dialogue programmed?
Or had the Hero game applied AI technology to NPCs from the very beginning?
In a game that would one day speak of alien technology, something felt different from the start.
[Wait here. The goblins will come soon.]
[Yes, sir!]
[Hoo!]
The Wild Strawberry Mercenary Leader only told them to wait and gave no further orders.
If they had arrived first, they could have ambushed or set traps to create a battlefield advantage…
I understood the mercenary NPC’s words while marching.
At least if it had been Captain Grape, he wouldn’t have commanded like that.
He would have taken some measure to turn the battle in their favor.
Just as we were wasting precious time, a goblin horde appeared ahead.
Five hundred goblins.