Christmas Event (3)

Where's Santa?

The snowman hunt was over. Before the next event kicked off, we were on the move to trade in the tickets we'd earned from Santa for actual prizes.

Elena's no slouch either, though. She had taken down seven of those lightning-fast snowmen all by herself, and her footwork was so quick it barely lagged behind my own.

This is getting a little awkward.

I'd scooped her up in my arms to get here faster, and now the memory of it left me faintly embarrassed. I'd only done it to save time — but looking at her speed, it probably wouldn't have made any real difference if I'd just let her run on her own.

A restless murmur of voices rolled toward us. People were packing in somewhere up ahead.

"Ah. Look at all those people clustered over there — Santa must be that way."

A thick knot of bodies was always a reliable tell that something was going on. We started walking toward it at an easy pace when Elena turned to me, a question clearly sitting on her tongue.

"Why are most of my tickets Silver or Copper, though?"

"W-well... I'm not really sure either."

It was strange. Nearly every ticket Elena had earned was Copper or Silver grade. She'd only managed a single Gold. Mine, on the other hand, were almost all Gold. The gap was almost absurd.

Don't tell me it's luck?

The fortune I'd gained by predating the Grim Reaper. Honestly, I'd never felt any concrete number tick upward, so I hadn't been sure it was doing anything — but maybe this was how it manifested.

I should test that at some point.

Nothing was confirmed yet. There was no real way to know whether I'd actually gotten these tickets because I was lucky, or for some other reason entirely.

We kept walking toward Santa, and there he was — a massive figure with a warm, grandfatherly face, clutching a red sack, looking exactly like he'd stepped out of a movie.

"Ho ho ho! Next, please!"

People were lined up in an orderly queue, handing over their tickets and walking away with gifts.

The kids and Dad aren't here. There was probably more than one Santa in D-Land.

I'll grab my gift first, then go look for them.

We waited our turn. There were quite a few people ahead of us, but the line moved faster than I'd expected.

"Ho ho ho! Mind handing over those tickets?"

"Yes. Here you are."

Elena went first, passing Santa everything she had.

"Let's see here — one Gold, two Silver, four Copper."

Santa stuffed every last ticket into his red sack, gave it a vigorous shake, then pulled out a gift box and handed it to her.

"Here you go."

The box Santa gave Elena gleamed with a rich golden light.

"Whoa. A gold box."

"I wonder how good the items inside are?"

"Dude, forget the gold box — look at her face. She's an actual goddess. A goddess!"

"Wait, that person... actually, I'm not even sure that's a person?"

Between the box she'd received and Elena's looks, the two of them together were drawing every eye in the vicinity.

"Ho ho ho. Next!"

"Ah — yes. Tickets, right here."

I wanted out of that spotlight as fast as possible, so I shoved my tickets at Santa and prepared to grab whatever I got and leave.

"Huh?! Eight Gold? And two Silver?"

Santa's eyes went wide. Maybe he'd never seen anyone walk up with that many Gold-grade tickets. The crowd around us hadn't either.

"Eight Gold tickets?!"

"Are you kidding me? I didn't even get one!"

"The rich get richer, I guess."

Apparently even pulling a single Gold-grade ticket was genuinely difficult. Santa took my tickets and dropped them into the red sack. Then, the moment he opened the mouth of the sack to pull out a gift—

A brilliant spray of color burst from the bag.

Light of every hue flooded the area, so bright it was almost blinding, and the crowd stared at Santa with eyes full of anticipation. What emerged in his hand was a gift box shining with a radiant rainbow sheen.

"Ho ho ho! Even I've never seen one of these."

Santa looked just as surprised as everyone else as he handed the box over.

"What do you think is even in that thing?"

"Man, I am so jealous."

People immediately started theorizing among themselves about what could possibly be inside.

"That's gotta be a five-star item at minimum."

"Well, yeah, obviously. I heard even Gold-grade boxes can drop five-stars."

"What the hell is it? I'm dying to know."

I wanted to rip it open right then and there, but I had zero interest in attracting any more attention. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stuffed the box into my inventory and moved off with Elena in another direction. A few people tried to follow ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠us, but picking up the pace was enough to shake them off without much trouble.

Alright. Time to find everyo— Dad?

I'd barely glanced around when one person leapt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out at me. You couldn't miss him even if you tried — not in that outfit.

What on earth is he wearing?!

You know those skin-tight superhero tights from the movies? The ones the heroes wear, with briefs pulled on over the tights and a cape draped over the whole ensemble? That was Dad.

Should I... pretend I don't know him?

The outfit was so mortifying I almost couldn't bring myself to acknowledge him. It wasn't that I was ashamed of my father, exactly — but that was a bit much, wasn't it? If I'd been alone I would have said something somehow, but with Elena standing right there I was still trying to decide what to do when—

"Hey! Son! You're alive!"

Dad spotted me from a distance and came striding over. The costume was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still embarrassing, but I couldn't exactly pretend I hadn't seen him.

"Dad."

"Min-seong!"

He threw his arms around me.

Dad was normally a pretty taciturn man — the kind of person who never hugged anyone. Maybe seeing me alive had just hit him that hard. I was genuinely moved by how tightly he held on... except for the tights. They made the whole embrace feel a little too close for comfort.

"Haha. Dad, what's with the outfit?"

"This? It's a class-exclusive costume I picked up through the event. Pretty sharp, right?"

"It's... sharp, yeah. Aren't you cold, though?"

I couldn't bring myself to tell him it looked terrible, so I sidestepped. Apparently the tights had some kind of insulation function, because he insisted he wasn't cold at all.

"And who's this next to you?"

"Ah. My name is Elena."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Min-seong's father."

Dad and Elena exchanged greetings as if nothing were unusual. The silver lining was that Elena didn't seem to find his outfit particularly strange.

"Your mother's going to be worried sick about you."

"I already stopped by the house."

"Did you? She wasn't angry? She raised holy hell when she heard you were coming here."

"I dunno. She didn't say anything to me."

I'd been apart from them for so long that I'd expected a flood of things to say once I saw my parents again. Instead we were mostly trading this kind of idle chatter. Then again — wasn't that what family was? Being able to talk about nothing at all.

We were still talking when a message appeared, announcing the start of another event.

So this event was winding down. People who'd scored good items and people who hadn't both wore the same faintly disappointed look as they started walking toward the entrance. We headed for the gates of D-Land at an unhurried pace.

A massive crowd was already packed in around it. And there, among them, I found the kids who'd been participating in the event.

"Ssaem! Over here!"

I told Dad they were my students, and he went over first to introduce himself. The kids looked briefly startled by the tights, but their reaction wasn't as bad as I'd feared. To be fair, their own outfits had changed quite a bit since I'd last seen them before the event.

Jin-hwan was dressed in something that looked like genuine clerical vestments. Jin-ri wore the kind of robe you always pictured on a mage. Ah-ra had on a fairly ordinary traveler's outfit. And Ji-ah — Ji-ah was wearing an adorable mini-Santa costume. Apparently a lot of the items people had picked up during this event were clothing-related.

"Ssaem, did you get anything?"

"Me? I got one thing."

"What is it? Show us!"

"Later, you brat."

I'd shown up late and only received the one item — but it was a Rainbow Grade box. Opening it in front of this many people felt like a bad idea, so I decided to wait and see what this final event had in store.

We waited a little longer. Then the lights on the giant Christmas tree suddenly went dark.

A tremendous rumble rolled in from somewhere, deep enough to shake the ground.

The source of the sound was a Giant Rudolph. When the tree blazed back to life, a Rudolph roughly the size of a truck was circling through the air above it.

"We're supposed to take that thing down?"

The moment the timer started, people launched whatever attacks they had. Some breathed fire. Some hurled spears. Some loosed arrows. Every method they could think of — and none of it did a scrap of damage.

"The only thing that works is snow, huh?"

The ground was buried under a thick blanket of it. Had they dumped all this snow specifically for this event? A few people scooped up handfuls, packed them into snowballs, and threw. The damage was pathetic — barely a speck — but it was there.

Once everyone realized there was no other option, the entire crowd started packing snowballs and hurling them at Rudolph. Soft thuds filled the air, one after another. The damage was still vanishingly small. Five minutes had already ticked by, and Rudolph's health had dropped by maybe one percent.

We're never going to kill it like this.

That was when Dad, apparently fed up with tossing snowballs, ripped an entire tree out of the ground and flung it at Rudolph.

The tree itself did nothing — but the snow piled on its branches hit Rudolph and carved off a respectable chunk of health. Other people saw it and started trying to send as much snow as they could, but there was only so much they could do.

Watching it all, something clicked.

So as long as snow touches it, it takes damage?

A grin spread across my face. If I could dump a massive amount of snow on that Rudolph, that would do it.

In which case—