Makeshift Methods (3)
Without a moment's hesitation, we piled into the van with our two new companions and headed straight for Gangbuk.
Plan B, which had completely overturned our original strategy, was simple enough. Clear Gangbuk's dungeon as fast as possible, then put people to work grinding the Gangnam and Gangbuk dungeons we'd secured — leveling up and farming gold like a production line.
Anyone hearing it might think we were running a sweatshop, but the truth was this plan would genuinely help people survive. Earn experience, level up, make gold, gear up. That simple.
The equipment our blacksmiths forged was solid, no question — but it paled next to shop-bought items with their permanent durability. Anything we crafted by hand came with a durability rating. In other words, it had a hard limit.
Of course, the people with the Blacksmith class had pointed out that if they leveled up themselves, they could forge gear of far higher grade and durability. That was where Plan A had come from.
Recruit residents willing to risk the outside, form raid parties regardless of class, clear Gangbuk's dungeon, then carefully manage the difficulty of both the Gangbuk and Gangnam dungeons to grow our people. That had been the plan...
Until the sudden update notice blew the whole thing apart. The feeling that we couldn't afford to take our time had hit hard — hard enough that the rest of the party agreed without argument.
And so only Han Yeji and Kim Seonhye had ended up joining me and my women on this dungeon expedition. Now they sat in the van, chatting with whoever they were closest to, conversation blooming all around.
"You two are incredible! I — with a class like mine, all I could do was watch from the sidelines... but even from a distance, I never took my eyes off either of you fighting alongside Jeong Hoon. That's why I volunteered. I want to help however I can. I swear I will!"
"Don't put so much pressure on yourself, Yeji unnie! Hoonie oppa and I will handle the front line. Just think of it like a picnic!"
"Seeun, honestly. A picnic? We're heading straight into danger... Yeji, stay close to Sora and Mina. You'll be absolutely safe with those two. And if you do get hurt, I'll heal you, so don't worry."
"S-Seeun... Seyeon unnie...!"
Han Yeji looked genuinely moved as she talked with Park Seeun and Kim Seyeon, her face lit with gratitude.
I knew Han Yeji pretty well myself, having spent time in XX City in Gyeonggi Province. She'd always been one of the women hanging back, looking up at us with a mix of admiration and barely concealed frustration.
Hardly surprising, given that her class — Mage-Illusionist — was about as poorly suited to combat as it got. Most of the specialized subclasses branching off from the Mage class in Brave Saga Online had their uses, but each came with a fatal flaw.
Elementalists had no utility magic beyond pure offense. Summoners were left completely defenseless the moment their summoned monsters vanished. Alchemists had zero attack magic. Necromancers were useless without corpses.
And Illusionists... the vast majority of their magic had no offensive power whatsoever, and to make any of it truly effective, you had to hit level 100 and unlock second-tier skills.
Take Terror Burst, one of the Illusionist spells — it fired a dark arrow. But landing it dealt no damage at all. All it inflicted was the Terror status effect.
And even that was reduced or completely nullified against monsters higher-level than the Illusionist herself. That it didn't work on undead or inanimate objects went without saying.
Even so, Illusionists had quietly enjoyed a kind of aristocratic status in BSO. They were a nightmare to raise early on, but once you hit high-difficulty fields and dungeons, a class that could inflict status ailments became invaluable. A skilled Illusionist could lock down high-level monsters with status effects and make a whole raid far smoother...
Or so Sora had told me once — back before she'd gotten mad at me. In short, the class was utterly helpless in the early game... but at high levels, an Illusionist could become a massive asset to any party.
Anyway, Han Yeji — still a low-level Mage-Illusionist — had been warmly welcomed by people she'd known for a long time, and that was enough to bring her along without issue.
Support from the rear, sure — but the truth was she probably wouldn't see any real combat. At best she'd cast Terror Burst and scare one or two monsters. That would be the extent of it.
And then...
"Mina unnie... you smell."
"Huh? Smell? Hey, you...!"
"Woman smell... the thick, messy kind that says you spent all night with a man... sniff sniff... Never thought I'd catch that scent coming off Mina unnie, of all people. The one I figured would die a virgin. Live long enough and you really do see everything."
"You... hah... Want me to beat the absolute shit out of you in this cramped van? Hmm?"
Today, I was treated to a truly rare spectacle.
Well — I was sitting up front, so I couldn't keep turning around — but still. Yun Mina, always so composed, always ready with a cutting remark, was openly losing her temper and snapping back with real heat. I was watching it with my own two eyes.
"Seonhye, you absolute... Of all the people they could have sent, it had to be the one who never shuts up about sex. Jung Yun unnie is definitely still holding a grudge against me. Crystal clear now."
"Grudge? Hold? Oh... you mean the back door? So you went there too. Kinky, Mina unnie."
"What kind of brain even makes that leap?! You insane bitch! Be grateful you're a woman! If you were a guy I'd have you in court for sexual harassment so fast—!"
Seeing Mina this worked up was rare enough that even a second look would leave your jaw hanging open.
"Ah — there it is."
Driving beside Kim Seyeon, I saw it with my own eyes too.
The building that had once been called the Ministry of National Defense. It was sealed off by a tight ring of black walls.
The dungeon we were about to clear. Gangbuk's only dungeon had, of all places, swallowed the very building that bastard Han Daegeon had once led people into as a temporary refuge.
"Haah... at least we won't be running ourselves ragged. Not if the whole dungeon is just one building, right?"
I carefully agreed with Yun Mina in my head.
The dungeon we'd cleared in Gangnam — the one that had swallowed that enormous campus — came flooding back. The nightmare of trekking from building to building for what felt like forever.
May 10th.
The same hour.
On the outskirts of Seoul...
"You son of a bitch... didn't I tell you yesterday this is our turf? And you still drag your little dogs over here and squat? Looking to die, huh?!"
"Give me a break. What, you buy this land? Piss on it to mark it? Everything's already gone to shit — what's this 'your land, my land' garbage even mean?!"
"Oh, so you wanna die? Fine! Boys — hit 'em!"
"Everyone, we must rise! This beautiful Seoul — the home of our hearts — has been swallowed whole by a monstrous capitalist pig named Jeong Hoon, who hoards every scrap of profit for himself! We must bring him down! I, Kim Jihwan, will stand at your vanguard! Together we will spark a revolution and reclaim what is rightfully ours!"
"Swords that can break the Sanctuary barrier — only a thousand gold! Selling now~"
"Hammers that can smash the Sanctuary barrier — five hundred gold flat! Get yours! Forged from ground ogre bone, no less—"
A scene of pure madness was unfolding — the kind only humans could create.
Every flavor of riffraff, conspiracy theorist, selfish man, thug, swindler, and con artist milled about in a seething mass.
Along Seoul's boundary line, out on the periphery, countless people sat waiting.
Waiting for the day. Waiting for the moment they could enter Seoul.
And this was only possible because the area around Seoul was relatively safe. One of the Vampire Lord's unintentional achievements in Gangbuk had been drawing vast numbers of monsters to his side, packing them tight — so Jeong Hoon could slaughter them all in one go.
The result: thousands, tens of thousands of survivors flooding in from every direction around Seoul, squabbling and fighting each other for territory.
"That Jeong Hoon guy — unless he's completely insane, he'll let us in, right? We're all human. We've got to help each other!"
"Damn right! Turning away people who walked here on their own two feet offering to help, in times like these? That's not human. Not even close!"
Some waited under the excuse of hope, when in truth their hearts were full of nothing but the selfish desire to climb aboard the achievements Jeong Hoon's group had built — waiting only for the Sanctuary to open.
"Let us wait, everyone! And then let us go! To our home, to the place where our longing, our wishes, and our hope still live! To Seoul! And once we're there... we drag that arrogant pig Jeong Hoon down and take our rightful share!"
"Waaaaaah!"
"Kim Jihwan! Kim Jihwan!"
There were those who repeated demagoguery and fabrication, gathering followers as if they'd somehow become cult leaders in their own minds.
"Hyomin, you hear? South of Seoul is packed with people. Men and women both, swarming like mosquitoes trying to suck that Jeong Hoon bastard dry... Jesus."
"Oh, there are women? Should we check it out?"
"Sit your ass down. Huh? You pounded Yujeong half to death yesterday and now this... Just hold out till June first. If you need to mess with someone, mess with the humans camped around here. Got it?"
"Yeah, yeah. Hyomin... I was just joking..."
And there were those who looked toward Seoul with nothing but malice, radiating a dark and hungry menace.
"This goddamn... not even a rat hole through?"
"No, sir. Nothing gets through! We even tried the autocannon just in case... useless. Didn't leave a scratch."
"Shit... fine. Understood."
There were those who arrived full of ambition, only to slam face-first into failure trying to force their way into Seoul.
And lastly...
"These crazy bastards, I swear...!"
"Easy, Jeonghye. There's way more of them than us. Besides... I don't think we even need to get angry."
"But they really... day and night, they just keep going completely feral. These lunatics!"
"Still, though..."
"Every single night — isn't the racket humans make a lot easier to listen to than monsters and zombies howling?"
There were also those who had gathered here carrying the faintest, thinnest thread of hope.