#22 - The Wugyeol Couple Hits the Mega Server
At last, the day finally came for the big server, Refu Mountain, to open.
Refu Mountain was a Dig Craft streamer server that was being marketed as a “peaceful healing server.”
Knowing that Refu—a creator with nearly a million subscribers—was putting so much money into pushing the keyword healing, I figured the budget had to be enormous.
Thanks to that, there were plenty of streamers trying to ride the Refu hype wave, and one of those streamers was me.
Refu had carefully, and then carefully again, selected a total of forty streamers to form the first wave of invitees, after which more people could enter the server with invitation tickets.
I was one of those forty, thanks both to my connections with Refu and to the fact that I’d cleared the requirements.
I’d heard there were also a few streamers who’d met the requirements but were left in limbo because they were borderline cases, and in their case—just like Yebin—the existing streamers had agreed to bring them in on Day 1 the moment the server opened, using invitation tickets.
“Agreed” was putting it politely. In practice, it was just good streaming material.
Anyway, that brought the initial number of participants to fifty. I had no idea how much that would grow after that, but one thing was certain: the more people there were, the happier I was.
Why? Because, obviously, more people meant more fun than I could ever generate on my own.
I turned on my stream and waited for the server to open. The moment it struck 8 a.m.—the official start time for the server—I went straight in along with the other streamers.
The first thing I saw after entering was, naturally, the starting point. And standing there at the starting point was Refu.
“Hello, everyone! Welcome to Refu Mountain, Refu’s healing server! I’m Refu, your server operator and the village head of Refu Mountain!”
“Waaaah!”
“Refu oppa, you’re so cool!”
“Refu! Refu! Refu! Refu!”
“Big boss Refuuuu!”
“Thank you for inviting us!”
“Wheeeew!”
The streamers all cheered in their own ways, and Refu burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahahahaha! Oh, come on, you’re all being far too kind to me. Then let me give you a quick explanation of the server. I’m sure you’re all eager to get started.”
The setup for Refu Mountain was simple.
Refu City, once a prosperous metropolis, had been reduced to ruins by the eruption of the volcano next to it, and the people who lived there had abandoned the city and fled.
Then, after a very long time had passed, life began to return to the city broken by the volcanic blast, and later generations rediscovered the place and built a village there.
“We’ll be rebuilding Refu Mountain while also doing various commercial activities, and we’ll explore to find relics from the old world. In short, you’re free to do anything you want on Refu Mountain!”
“Then what about jobs?”
The jobs, he explained, were based on basic production roles like farmer, miner, and fisher, with the fun coming from discovering hidden jobs and the like.
“Once a hidden job is registered, that entire job class becomes newly available.”
“Then if a hidden job opens up, can we switch to it?”
“You can, but I don’t think there’ll be much of an advantage. It’ll probably only be worth it for new streamers coming in, or for people who really hate their current job.”
It was a choice with pros and cons, but the fact that he kept emphasizing that “the difference between hidden jobs and regular jobs isn’t all that large” made it feel like he’d toned down the thrill of hidden jobs in favor of balance.
Maybe that was why it felt even more like a healing server.
What was it they always said—once you move to the countryside and start farming, you get a dopamine detox? That was exactly the vibe.
“Other than that, there are independent groups like vigilantes and explorers, so feel free to choose a job and join whichever group you like. Or you can even make a brand-new group of your own.”
It was way more involved than I’d expected, which made it sound fun.
The viewers seemed to think so too.
Seeing those reactions from the viewers, I gave a small nod, though they couldn’t see it.
“Yes, of course we do.”
The moment I answered with my Dig Craft mic muted, Refu finished all his explanations and shouted out in a bright, energetic voice.
“Great, then! Enjoy Refu Mountain! Thank you to all the streamers who joined!”
With those words from Refu, everyone scattered to do whatever they wanted.
Some grouped up with the streamers they’d arranged to meet beforehand, some stayed with streamers they were already close to, and the ones who wanted to get ahead immediately started the tutorial.
As for me, since I had a promise with Yebin, I donated money to Refu’s stream.
“Ah, Dog-Do! A three hundred thousand won donation—thank you! So what would you like me to give you?”
One of the defining features of the streamer server was that streamers could obtain certain items through the donation system. And streamers could also donate directly to Refu, the server operator, to receive items that way.
For the record, that three hundred thousand won was money Refu had already given me. You could say it was a prop for the WWE I needed to summon Yebin.
“Give me one random summon ticket!”
“A random summon ticket, huh~ Oh? You’re not calling for Vini?”
“If she’s got luck on her side, she’ll show up, I guess.”
“Puhahaha…! Right, sounds good! Try using it once.”
I used the ticket and shouted,
“Please, anyone but Vini show upoooooooo!!!”
To the people saying, “Is this even WGM?”, I had one thing to say: this was DoDoVini-style WGM.
Of course, the viewers already knew that and were enjoying it in exactly that spirit.
Meanwhile, in response to my shout, the roulette began to spin...
And from among the streamers on the reserve list, one name popped out at random.
And that random streamer was, naturally, the person who had been planned in advance.
“ViniVini! Vini has been summoned!!”
“Ah, crap! Why you? Why youuuu!!”
“Whoa, we’re getting a front-row seat to your duel? This is fun~”
That was the WWE. The scripted WWE.
Now all that was left was for the person who’d land the finishing blow to show up.
Whoosh!
Yebin, who had been waiting nearby, was summoned in just three minutes...
“DoDo, you bastard! You’re my boyfriend! My boyfriend, dammit!!!”
She immediately started beating me with the wooden sword everyone was given at the start.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
I took the blows with my bare body, since I didn’t have any armor on, and screamed all the while.
“Ow! Ow! It hurts! Stop! Stooooop!”
Thwack!
“Refu! She killed me!”
“Of course this is justified! He totally had it coming!”
“It’s normally not okay to kill someone for no reason, but when a husband and wife are fighting, it’s like cutting water with a knife—so let’s call this one a clean slash through water!”
Refu’s trademark wit had the viewers laughing instantly.
“Everyone making husband-and-wife jokes, you’re all banned.”
After that WWE ended, Yebin and I went off to do the tutorial.
Even while heading there, we were still snapping at each other and fighting.
“Hey, you stupid woman. You’re going to hit it with a sword and kill it?”
“It’s not stupidity. You’re just the bad guy. And between the two of us, who’s actually stupid? Let’s hear it.”
“Why don’t we hear it? I’m clearly better.”
“What are you talking about? I can expose your grades right here and now.”
“I always say this, but ViniViniViniViniViniVini, being smart doesn’t mean you’re good at studying.”
“But most people who study well are smart, aren’t they?”
“Sounds like you’re not one of them.”
“What did you say?”
Today’s fight was somewhere between UFC and WWE. For the record, after a certain point, it was UFC.
To the viewers, it probably just looked like WWE.
“Just try taking the tutorial after me.”
“Tutorials are easy.”
“Pfft, you? Finish it quickly?”
“No nonsense, no. I’m a Dig Craft master.”
“If you’re a Dig Craft master, then I’m the Dig Craft god.”
Just like that viewer said, we were fighting like literal grade-schoolers.
Whether the viewers knew it or not, we went ahead and started the tutorial, and at the end of it, Yebin and I chose our jobs.
For the record, we’d said we’d pick our jobs on our own, but...
“...Why are you a miner?”
“Why are you a miner?”
Why was the job matching too? That was disgusting.
Not real dating. Even the fact that we matched was annoying. “Karma” made it even more annoying.
I needed to cut the neural links. Right this second!