A Name to Leave Behind
"Never thought we'd end up on the same carriage."
Ho-jin muttered the words, still a little stunned.
He had logged in an hour before departure just to reserve a seat, and found only two spots remaining. Each carriage held no more than ten passengers, and missing one meant waiting at least two hours — so he had counted himself lucky. That was why he had assumed Yeon and Choco, who had looked as though they had only just arrived at the waystation, would be taking the next one. Instead, when he boarded, there they were, climbing in right behind him.
"Choco said we should book ahead. Something about not wasting time here for no reason…"
"Choco did?"
At that, Ho-jin glanced toward the corner of the carriage. Choco sat cross-legged in the seat beside Yeon, utterly absorbed in meditation — she had been holding that pose since before they even departed, as if circulating mana. He was still staring, puzzled, when Yeon leaned in and whispered.
"The truth is, Choco gets carriage-sick…"
"She gets motion sickness?"
"She's hoping meditation might help. That's why she's sitting like that."
Ho-jin couldn't quite hide his bewilderment. The motion sickness did confirm she wasn't a player — that much was certain. And yet everything about the way she carried herself, the way she spoke, felt less like a beginner and more like some grizzled veteran.
But she was an NPC. Curiosity stirred in him, and he shook his head and let it go. He had already promised to play dumb. Asking questions now would just be rude.
"Still, I never imagined you and Se-jin unnie would be traveling together. How long have you two been partying up?"
"I've been running with Cute ever since we cleared the Kobold settlement. She was the one who suggested we keep going together."
"Se-jin unnie did?"
Yeon turned to look at Se-jin, who answered in her usual even tone.
"Leveling's faster in a party than soloing. And if you're going to group up anyway, might as well do it with someone you've already hunted with."
"Cute's right. Once you hit a certain level, people usually lock in a fixed party with others who play on the same schedule. Hunting down a new group every time you switch hunting grounds wastes time, and it's less reliable besides."
Most players cycled through pickup groups in Gezina's Forest and put together a fixed party before setting out for Nateera. At the very latest, you found your people once you reached the city — and once a party formed like that, it tended to last, barring something unusual. That was why Al Fantasia had no shortage of small groups with years of history behind them. Some of those parties even banded together later to form guilds for taking down bosses.
"I still kind of figured Se-jin unnie would be the solo type… and I thought you'd go back to your main account, Ho-jin."
"I was planning to play with a friend from the start, so."
"There's not much for me to do on my main anyway. Even when I log into it, I just help people I know with boss kills, or jump in if a Main Quest drops."
Yeon tilted her head at the unfamiliar term.
"What's a Main Quest?"
"The Main Quest, put simply, is Al Fantasia's story."
"This game has a story?"
"Al Fantasia is an RPG, after all. In older games there'd be quests that forced the story on you, but here you have to go out and find even the smallest quest on your own — so a lot of people never realize. There is an ongoing story, though, for what it's worth. Have you ever checked the forums?"
"I've been on them… but I never looked anything like that up."
"Then let me start with the background."
Ho-jin had already pulled out a quill and a sheet of paper, sketching as he spoke.
"Long ago, on the Arina Continent — the setting of Al Fantasia — two races had an all-out brawl… or rather, a war for their very survival. Humanity and the Demonkin. The war took its name from both sides — the Human-Demon War — and humanity won. The Demonkin vanished from the continent for good."
He drew a slash through the word Demonkin on the paper and continued.
"But the war erased several nations from the map, and those places came to be called Forbidden Zones. The fighting had been so fierce, and the Demonkin's corruption so complete, that the land filled with Magi — demonic energy no human power could purify. An ordinary person who set foot in one of those places would never come back alive. Then, centuries later…"
He circled the word Lucifen and looked at Yeon.
"In a quiet country village, a boy — or a girl — grows up hearing stories of the Human-Demon War, and they form a dream. A dream of exploring those so-called Forbidden Zones, and purifying them."
"And that's the players."
"That's the lore, yeah. You've seen it yourself — the NPCs in Lucifen don't treat us like we're from the same village."
Ho-jin murmured the last part almost to himself, then went on.
"Anyway, the story of Al Fantasia — the Main Quest — is about us, the ones they call users, purifying the places named Forbidden Zones, or finding some way to do it. Three of them have been purified so far."
"Sirpa and Sehibne on the northern continent, and the undersea city of Egenoa."
"That's exactly right. …I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Ah, sorry. I was listening and I just couldn't help myself. Damn this mouth of mine."
One of the other passengers — the one who had jumped into the conversation — smacked his own lips with the back of his hand.
"I won't interrupt anymore, so please, go on."
"Ah… right."
Ho-jin gave him a look that was equal parts awkward and unimpressed, then turned back to Yeon.
"As he said, the purified Forbidden Zones are Sirpa and Sehibne on the northern continent. Both named after the kingdoms or regions that once stood on that land. Same goes for the undersea city of Egenoa."
"I've heard of the undersea city. It surfaced about half a year ago…"
The only place in the game where you could walk and breathe beneath the sea — a destination people visited less to hunt and more to enjoy the water. The scenery was said to be breathtaking, and the thought of it had set Yeon's heart racing more than once. If the recommended level weren't well over three hundred, she would have dragged Choco there already.
Yeon's voice trailed off with a hint of regret, and Ho-jin picked up the thread.
"Well… the post announcing the discovery did go up about six months ago, that's true. But they actually found it two years ago."
"Two years ago?"
"It used to be a small port city on the northern continent called the Egenoa City-State, until the aftermath of the Human-Demon War sank it beneath the sea and wiped it off the map. But a Main Quest raid guild called Prota finally managed to purify it and raise it back to the surface."
"I know the Prota Guild! They're the raid guild with the top forty rankers, not counting first and second place, right?"
"…Yeah, that's them. You rattled that off pretty smoothly — you've been on the forums, haven't you?"
The passenger who had interrupted earlier — a boy — gave an awkward little laugh at Ho-jin's remark. He looked about the same age as BlueSky, the player they had met the other day. Unlike that shy boy, though, this one had a distinctly outgoing air.
"Ah, sorry. I really wasn't trying to jump in, but you were telling such an interesting story. I've never heard the behind-the-scenes on Egenoa before. Did they seriously find it two years ago?"
"To be precise, they learned it existed two years ago. They actually laid eyes on it a year ago."
And after six months of throwing everything they had at it, they succeeded in purifying it and raising it above the waves. That was the full story of the undersea city of Egenoa. When Ho-jin finished explaining, the boy's eyes shone.
"How do you know all this, mister? You got ranker friends or something?"
"I'm not telling you. That's personal information."
Ho-jin drew a firm line. The boy, sensing he wouldn't get any further, clicked his tongue and leaned back against the wall.
"Then at least keep the story going. I really won't interrupt this time."
Anyone listening would think Ho-jin had been telling the story for his benefit. Ho-jin stared at him, incredulous at the sheer nerve, then turned back to Yeon.
"Anyway, that's what the Main Quest is. You purify a Forbidden Zone and restore it to what it used to be — or something close."
"I see…"
"Are you interested in the Main Quest yourself, Yeon?"
Yeon thought it over carefully before answering.
"Is there anything good about clearing the Main Quest?"
"You can become a noble."
"A n-noble?"
Yeon's eyes went wide. She stared at Ho-jin, caught completely off guard.
"The purified land gets absorbed by a neighboring nation, but if they just swallowed it whole, the players would push back. So the nation that takes it grants titles to the raid members and hands over a share of the territory. Before long a proper city goes up, people start coming and going, and you collect taxes from it."
Which was why Ho-jin, who had taken part in the Main Quest twice, never ran dry of gold. When taxes landed in your inventory just for existing, what could you possibly be short on?
"And you get treated as nobility in the country that granted you the title. You can ride horses or carriages inside towns and cities. But more than anything, it's the fame."
"Fame…?"
"The names of everyone who cleared the Main Quest are announced across the entire continent. Something like, 'So-and-so of such-and-such, along with several others, has succeeded in purifying a Forbidden Zone.'"
It wasn't a system announcement — the news spread through heralds and word of mouth. But the forums would be buzzing regardless, so you were a celebrity within a day. On top of that, your name got plastered across the Arina Corp website for good measure.
When Ho-jin finished, Yeon's eyes lit up.
"I want to do it."
"Sorry?"
This was what she had wanted all along: a way to leave her name behind, clearly and unmistakably. She had thought she wanted to become a ranker, but making a name for yourself that way meant sitting at the very top — first place, or at worst one of a handful. And Yeon knew that no matter how hard she tried, she would never break into the top five. The gap that already existed was too wide to close. In time, thousands of players would hit the level cap, but not all of them would see their names among the high rankers. For someone who had only just started, like Yeon, it went without saying.
But if she could join a Main Quest raid? Level wouldn't matter. If they succeeded, her nickname — the one she had deliberately made identical to her real name — would last forever.
"How do I get into that Prota guild?"
"You can't."
"…What?"
"You'd need to be level four hundred, for one thing. And more importantly, there are no openings. The guild's been running for almost six years, and in all that time, not a single member has left."
The bluntness of it made Yeon's voice shrink.
"That can't be… Then is there no other way…?"
"It's not that there's no way at all. If you found a method of purification, Prota would take you in."
They advertised as much, in fact. Bring them a way to purify a Forbidden Zone, and they would put your name on the raid roster regardless of level.
"But don't you need a high level just to enter a Forbidden Zone?"
"That's fine. The method for purifying Sirpa on the northern continent wasn't found inside a Forbidden Zone at all — it was somewhere else."
"What? It wasn't inside the Forbidden Zone?"
"Most of the time it is inside, yes. But Sirpa is proof it isn't always. If you're lucky, you might find something."
"Ugh…"
Yeon let out a groan. In the end, it meant there was nothing she could do about it right now.