Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: A New Player
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Seong-un asked, puzzled.
"What do you mean by a new force?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
"You mean the abominations?"
"No, not that."
"Then the monstrosities?"
"Nope."
"A magic plague event, then? But it's too early for mages on our continent, right? Dragons are out of the question. Maybe something related to spirit beasts?"
Runda shook her head.
"No."
"Then there's only one thing I can think of."
Runda nodded.
"It seems like a player."
Seong-un grimaced behind his mask.
"...A player?"
Seong-un thought it made no sense, but added,
"And if it's a player, it's a player. What do you mean 'seems like'?"
"Just what I said. When you encounter a new tribe, you get the 'Civilization Clash' notification, right?"
"Yeah."
"And if the opponent is a player, a warning pops up saying 'The opposing race possesses Faith.'"
"But it didn't show for this player?"
"No, it did."
"Then it is a player."
"...But you know that doesn't make sense, right?"
Seong-un nodded.
'A player suddenly appearing in the middle of the continent now? It's been about 22 years since the game started. Staying dormant all this time and popping up now?'
Seong-un said,
"But if the Civilization Clash warning appeared, it could still be a monstrosity."
"It's definitely not a monstrosity. I could send a whisper, and it shows up in the local player list too."
"They didn't accept the whisper?"
"It's blocked."
Seong-un pondered for a moment before saying,
"How reliable is your source? Is it trustworthy? Or are you being fooled again? Or maybe you're fooling me."
Runda sighed and sent Seong-un the info she had on the 'new player.'
"Got the shared info? It's from AR."
"AR as in..."
"Nickname Ar1026. Nix—the player currently known as Golden Eye. They're in a loose alliance with Jangwan right now."
"Did you get this info alone?"
"No, it's not just me. She sent it to Wisdom and Krampus too. Obviously to her ally Jangwan as well. As you can see, this new player really exists. She asked how we thought about it."
"This is..."
"Unbelievable, right?"
Seong-un nodded.
When Runda mentioned a 'new force,' Seong-un hadn't held high hopes.
Abominations could grow massive and ravage villages like true monsters, while monstrosities gathered nomadic tribes and posed as gods.
There were other events tied to advanced civilizations—like magic plagues or dragon appearances—that could qualify as 'new forces' too.
'But a new player.'
Starting play after 22 years of lurking showed no strategy at all in Lost World.
'Sure, in Lost World, someone might reconnect late after losing internet, but could that happen here?'
And the oddity wasn't just the player's existence.
Seong-un checked the player's name in the shared info.
'...Garbled text?'
No normal player would pick such a nickname.
Even Seong-un, who'd devoted most of his time to Lost World since launch, had never seen that format.
"What do we even call that?"
"What?"
"The player's name."
"Oh, the first character is pronounced 'jeol.' It's like 'boil jeol,' but they combine the last two into 'Jeolubi.'"
"Jeolubi."
'Jeolubi. Unusual, but whatever.'
Seong-un could chalk the nickname up to an eccentric player or system glitch.
But what came next was weirder.
'No such race exists.'
What Seong-un saw was footage AR had captured from afar.
AR's main race was Nix.
Nix resembled elves—pointed ears, but smaller stature and dark skin. Where elves had an air of nobility, Nix were more lively.
The screen showed two Nix groups fighting, so Seong-un first thought it was civil war.
But Ar1026 swiped, pulling up status windows for each group.
The first group's race name read Nix.
The second was different.
"Vampires?"
"A race you've never seen before, right?"
"...Yeah. First time."
Seong-un had to admit it.
No vampires had ever existed in Lost World.
The closest was 'zombies,' but those were just corpses, not a race.
Zombies were animated dead. Specific magic or divinity could control them, but that counted as a status ailment.
Seong-un said,
"So what do you all think it is?"
"We haven't all gathered to discuss yet, but Krampus thinks it's a rare event he just doesn't know about—low probability."
"I've never seen it either, so that's unlikely. Rather than assume that..."
"Rather than what?"
Seong-un had to voice the unpleasant hypothesis.
"...Maybe it's like a DLC?"
"DLC? You think the game we're playing got an expansion pack?"
"Just saying it's possible. Strictly speaking, the Lost World we played isn't exactly the same as what we're doing now, right?"
"Obviously."
"Beyond it becoming a real world, I mean. For example..."
Seong-un opened his status window, then the options menu.
The options only handled add-ons and window sizes—no graphics settings at all.
"...Options are empty. No need to tweak graphics. But the most important thing's missing."
"What's that?"
"No logout."
Runda nodded.
It was true. No logout button anywhere, just like options.
Seong-un continued,
"Anyway, things disappearing means new things could appear too."
"I get what you mean."
Seong-un scrolled through Ar1026's shared info and said,
"Definitely dangerous. You must've wrapped up deliberations by now?"
"Dangerous?"
"Huh? Isn't that why you told me?"
Runda shook her head.
"You said to share info first thing. That's all. Plus, with something new appearing, I was curious about opinions."
"No, it looks really dangerous."
"AR and Jangwan are just leaving it be for now since they don't know what it is."
"And the rest?"
Runda shrugged.
"Not my business. It's not on our land. Wisdom's staying put, and Krampus and I are watching."
"...Hmm."
"Using this as an excuse to invade would be too hasty."
Runda crossed her arms.
"I don't think it's that dangerous. Jeolubi's divinity level is probably just 2 or 3."
Seong-un asked,
"What about AR? Doesn't she know about vampires either?"
"You saw the shared info. Vampires infect like zombies, turning victims into their race. But transformation takes a day at best, days at worst, and stats often drop. Some rose—probably random."
"Hmm."
Seong-un noted other players comparing vampires to zombie plagues.
'Zombie plagues are scary—hours at most, minutes at quickest to turn. Vampires seem like a weakened version.'
But Seong-un saw a key difference.
'Zombies are mindless corpses. Vampires aren't.'
Vampires retained intelligence, so they could hide issues players hadn't spotted.
"Has that AR player tracked down the vampire priests?"
"Dunno. She didn't share that."
Seong-un nodded.
'She hasn't found them.'
Seong-un discreetly opened another window—a memo of formulas he checked often, including zombie spread rates and risks.
He tweaked variables and reached a conclusion.
Seong-un said,
"So you're just watching for now?"
"Why?"
"At least tell AR to find their priests. It might be a special event, but knowing priests lets you handle issues fast. If it's a real player, losing one at low level means no recovery anyway."
Runda eyed him suspiciously.
"You're hiding something."
"No way."
"And I don't want to tell AR that."
"Because they're enemies?"
"Yeah. Keep forgetting, but to others: Krampus and I are one team, Wisdom solo, AR and Jangwan another. And these three teams are at war."
"One team took a major hit recently."
Runda's right eyebrow twitched, but she held her anger.
"...You know it well. Need to balance things a bit."
"Not forcing you. Just felt a moral duty."
"Didn't know you had that in you."
Seong-un chuckled lightly.
The laugh echoed eerily from inside the mask.
"See you soon, then."
Runda found it odd.
She'd shared all the intel from Ragnar's land—Red Fruit—no need to meet Seong-un again soon.
Atop an unknowable high mountain.
Four video chat windows floated, each showing one person.
The four formed a circle, facing each other.
A man wearing a lion mask upside down alone said,
"Do we really need that guy's help?"
A woman in a black veil and black rococo dress replied,
"We can't rely on Hegemonia either."
"True. He'd send an army under the guise of help."
The devil beside her, Krampus, chimed in,
"To me, they're both the same kind of scum. What do you think, Runda?"
Runda, not in the chat, sat with legs crossed, idly swinging one foot.
"I agree... but I think he'll at least talk, unlike Hegemonia."
"If you say so, Runda."
Krampus scratched his chin.
Then the fourth window—the one with a bizarre star-shaped head—spoke.
"Logged in. Nebula here."
A fifth chat window appeared before Runda.
It was Seong-un.
"Didn't know I was so popular, everyone calling for me."
The players' faces soured.
They'd suffered massive losses from the locust swarms, especially Krampus and Runda in the war.
The star-headed one, unable to show expressions—Wisdom—said,
"Nebula, you know why we called, right?"
"Who knows? My guesses aren't always spot on."
Runda clenched her fist.
She'd already told him everything before this meeting—it was blatant acting.
'Even without that, everyone here knows our scouting covers central continent!'
As Runda debated cursing him out or changing her image, Wisdom spoke first.
Wisdom was patient.
"You know something odd's happening in central continent."
"A little."
"You know the player we call Jeolubi showed up with a new race: vampires?"
"Yes."
"And vampires, starting in Golden Eye lands, now spread across all five players' territories, building huge forces...?"
"I know."
"So you know everything you need to."
Wisdom added,
"Nebula, will you help us?"