Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Mochibol's Secret Society
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Inbox ▼
MochibolTV [40] (n)
After accepting Mochibol's friend request, there were a whopping 40 messages piled up.
Yoo-hyun scratched his cheek and opened the messages.
- King God General handsome GodGod Yoo-hyun bro ㅠㅠㅠㅠ Are you really giving back my item?
- Please ㅠㅠ I'll get on my knees and beg, you have to do it
- This dungeon is insane
- Giving one awesome item and then taking everything. Is this how Job felt?
- The guy who caught Rectinus, now naked farming slimes—it's soul-crushing.
- I believe in you, bro. I believe in your morals, conscience, and goodness.
View more messages ▼
Most were pleas to return his stuff, comments on how handsome Yoo-hyun seemed, and rants about the dungeon.
Yoo-hyun read through them with great interest.
He'd spent weeks sitting there doing the dungeon's quest, only to die right after getting a unique item. It was pretty pitiful.
Since Dun had said he'd grab various items from home, Yoo-hyun stopped by Genesis before heading to Ulr.
Of course, he'd also picked up the items Mochibol left behind when he died.
"Yoo-hyun bro!!!"
Mochibol, who had been sitting on the fountain edge with a sulky face munching on an apple, spotted Yoo-hyun and waved wildly.
He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his basic ragged clothes and let out a sigh of relief upon seeing Yoo-hyun.
"You brought my stuff, right?"
"What stuff?"
"Don't scare me like that......!"
Yoo-hyun laughed, saying it was a joke, and handed over Mochibol's items.
Usually, people passed items to acquaintances before dying and then bolted or made demands, but this guy had offered to hand them over coolly first.
He looked sharp-faced, but his speech and smiling vibe made him seem nice—and he really was.
"Ah, what a relief. I was so worried I'd lose that hard-earned unique item for good. You're gonna be blessed for this."
His face showed a mix of relief and lingering tension, like he'd truly been anxious.
"Should I call you Mochibol? Mind if I ask you something?"
"What 'Mochibol'? Call me Jibol, Mochibol, whatever—whatever feels comfy. Ask me anything, anytime~"
Mochibol excitedly equipped his epic-grade gear with a bright smile.
"How'd you end up friends with Dun?"
"Hmm, how did that happen again?"
He brushed the dust off his mage robe and paused, lost in thought.
"Other players were forming parties to kill the training ground NPC, Jonathan. I tried stopping them, bumped into Dun, and suddenly he hands me an epic item. After that, I just followed him around sneakily."
Jonathan? Yoo-hyun suddenly recalled the old man he'd met at the training grounds. He had recoiled from the adventurers—now it made sense.
"Why stop them from killing the NPC? It's just a game character anyway."
Yoo-hyun probed casually. Mochibol frowned at Yoo-hyun's emotionless words.
"I know, I know. You can call it over-immersion or whatever, but doesn't this place feel too real? It's creepy how NPC corpses just stay there. And unlike monsters, dead NPCs don't respawn."
Lately, public opinion was leaning toward not killing NPCs. Killing them made online guides useless and added too many variables.
It also felt off when familiar NPCs vanished.
"I wish the system just made NPCs unkillable."
Mochibol unnecessarily ruffled his golden curly hair.
"What if someone kills Dun for fun? I've grown so attached... thinking of him gone..."
The cute, sassy Dun. He often dropped affinity and made you do chores for booger-level rewards, but he was fun to hang with. Seemed kinda nice, too, probably.
Sure, Dun was strong enough not to get killed, but imagining him gone felt like losing someone close—it'd hit hard.
Yoo-hyun listened quietly, then nodded in agreement.
"Honestly, I feel the same. That's why I'm thinking of suggestions for the next update to send to the devs."
"How do you contact the shrouded Nina Pinta devs?"
Nina Pinta's site had zero contact info.
But Yoo-hyun knew a way.
The Nina Pinta simulator was one of the massive projects run by the Hunter Association.
"Still, if I look, I'm sure I'll find something."
"What's with that confident yet vague answer? You're full of secrets."
Mochibol pouted, then suddenly leaned in, lowering his voice as if struck by an idea.
"You seem really into Dun—wanna join a good group?"
Mochibol glanced around warily and whispered to Yoo-hyun.
"Huh?"
"It's a group of people Dun often calls for errands...... Anyway, Illuminati-level secret society."
An open chat that started at dawn.
Yoo-hyun's eyes widened at the name. So these were those guys.
* * *
Indigo armor, sturdy and solid. Intricately engraved whirlpools of water adorned it. The helmet's eye slits glowed with sharp, blue-emitting eyes exuding a chill aura.
The Blue Ghost Knight.
He was one of Montjihel's strongest race, the 'Ghost Knights.'
Among them, the Blue, Black, White, and Red Ghost Knights were called dukes among monsters, nobles among nobles—so powerful.
"It's been a long wait."
The Blue Ghost Knight chuckled like scraping metal as he eyed the wanted poster.
Years ago, he had barely breached Montjihel's reinforced barrier. Disguised as a merchant, he approached Dun.
He was the first to find a way to kill the invincible-looking Dun.
He had casually laid the bait, waiting for Dun to bite. The moment Dun stepped into his trap, the bounty would be his.
The Blue Ghost Knight floated a water orb in his hand and trapped a rat monster with about a hundred teeth inside.
The rat thrashed desperately in the orb but eventually suffocated and died.
* * *
The 'Continent of Elements,' called a high-level hunting ground and gathering spot.
Strong monsters infested it, so hardly anyone lived there.
Right below the fire nation Joharaum lay the water nation Ulr.
It refined and purified the ferocious mana from Joharaum's monsters, so Ulr had relatively milder ones.
Still more vicious than those in the earth nation Souil or wind nation Lowriarin.
Souil, the easiest of the elemental continents now, was mostly cleared by rankers. Lowriarin mixed weak and strong monsters, stumping everyone.
Ulr was always a challenge—and failures.
So, few players came to Ulr.
"It's the prettiest ever...... but scariest too."
Yoo-hyun couldn't close his mouth at Ulr's vast landscape.
"The ground's water?"
"Not fully liquid—half-solid, half-liquid."
The ground was water mirroring the sky perfectly. Clouds stretched across the floor like paintings.
Delicate trees of transparent ice beautifully decorated it.
Hordes of 'Kwaknuks' swarmed the expansive watery floor.
Kwaknuks resembled crabs with blue liquid bodies and ice claws. Their icy pincers sparkled like crystals in the sunlight.
Yoo-hyun didn't step right away—instead, he reached out to touch the watery ground.
His hand sank right in. Startled, he tried pulling back, but the water gripped tight, refusing to let go.
It felt like sticky, transparent clay.
Yoo-hyun flailed for a while before finally freeing his hand.
"Caution: The ground around here is basically a swamp. Mess up and you're dead."
"You said Yenz and Gray's habitats are beyond this, right? How do we cross?"
"Run super fast or take a boat. My least favorite zone."
Unlike the grimacing Dun, the Poopy on his head eyed Ulr's scenery with sparkling eyes.
[This place rocks....... hehe.......]
"Yeah, you'd like it, you water-attribute poop dog."
[Poopy....... Poopy.......]
"Yeah, Poopy. Poop dog or dog poop, same thing."
Dun stroked Poopy's antennae. Thrilled to travel with Dun again after so long, Poopy sang a clear, xylophone-like tune in delight.
Lately, he'd been with Lykulin more, so less time with Poopy.
Poopy, level 100 water-attribute, could evaporate against Lykulin's level 350 fire.
Just happy to be with Dun again, Poopy clung to his head, refusing to budge.
"Anyway, we gotta cross this. Poopy, can you traverse it?"
[......I'll....... try....... I can do anything.......]
If Poopy could float over the water, they could ride him across easily.
At Dun's command, Poopy hurled himself onto the watery ground.
Splash.
A small, clear water sound, and Poopy sank in.
"He's not floating—just sinking?"
"......Wait a bit longer."
Dun knelt, pressed his hand to the ground, and peered closely.
It was a weird liquid-solid hybrid, but solid enough that Poopy should walk on it easily.
Minutes passed, no Poopy. Just black bean paste crawling on the floor.
"Poopy?"
Panicking as Poopy didn't resurface, Dun paled. He raised a fist, debating a shockwave to flip the water.
[......Can't see me now?]
A voice suddenly came from the ground. Turning toward it, Dun finally spotted Poopy's bean-like eyes-nose-mouth. And next to it, a tiny protruding slime flower.
Spotting Poopy, Dun scowled.
"Blend in with the surroundings and of course you're invisible. Go back to your normal color."
Poopy had been hard to see because he'd sucked up surrounding water, matching his body color to it.
"Wow, Poopy bulked up proper."
He'd drunk so much, a 10-pyeong area was now Poopy-colored. Depth unknown—but knowing might scare him.
"This isn't Poopy anymore—it's mammoth poop."
[Mammoth poop......? I'm Poopy......?]
Unaware of "mammoth," Poopy sensed the bad vibe and teared up his button eyes.
"Nah, you're Poopy. Proud Poopy."
[Hehe.......]
Dun stretched out on the expanded Poopy.
"Mister, hop on. Gotta go far to reach Ulr's core."
"Then 'scuse me, Mr. Mammoth Poop."
[Meeer!!]
As Dun mounted, Poopy, who had turned pink, flushed deep red.
Yoo-hyun climbed on, and Poopy grumbled while swimming forward with wriggles.
"Poopy, make a bed and blanket."
Poopy recreated Dun's room bed and blanket as best he could. No real materials, so water bed and water blanket.
Having absorbed the semi-solid liquid, it held the bed shape better than before.
Dun turned to Yoo-hyun. He was petting and smiling at cute Poopy, looking peaceful.
Scared of water but fine if not submerged directly.
"Poopy, make Yoo-hyun a seat too."
At Dun's request, Poopy made a toilet and plopped Yoo-hyun on it.
"Hmm? Kinda embarrassing."
"But it looks stable enough—ride like that."
Suppressing a laugh, Dun squirmed in his water bed.
At Poopy's speed, it'd take an hour or two.
He closed his eyes for a nap when he saw Yoo-hyun rising from the toilet.
Suddenly casting skills, making something furiously.
"......What're you doing?"
"Ah, sleep if you're sleepy. Thought of a great fast-leveling method."
He'd made a massive net with his trap skill.
Like a fisherman, Yoo-hyun cast it into the watery floor. Hundreds of Kwaknuks tangled and thrashed.
They traveled in packs, so the whole bunch got netted.
Yoo-hyun tightened the net, bunching them, then formed a gourd-shaped barrier around it loosely, making their ice spit bounce inside.
Then he whipped up bombs sized for the barrier—rare-grade, impressively made in haste.
Yoo-hyun tossed them in and detonated.
Boom after boom, Kwaknuks vanished.
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
"Whoa....... That's awesome?"
Dun gave a thumbs-up.
Yoo-hyun proudly thumbs-upped back.