Chapter 18

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"This is insane!"

Jin-soo Oh, working overtime alone after everyone else had left, slammed his desk and jumped to his feet.

Could what he was seeing be real?

He had been about to finish up and head home, but he got curious about the progress of a user who had been diligently completing village quests.

He shouldn't have, but he opened up the user's gameplay again.

And he was shocked.

"That alchemist could give a quest...?"

The user approached the alchemist and placed Crasher's Inner Core on the table.

Then, something amazing happened.

A hidden quest appeared above the alchemist's head.

And as if expecting it, the user began the quest.

Jin-Soo couldn't take his eyes off the user's gameplay.

The user hunted down all the mutated rats in the building, collected green magic stones, and eventually succeeded in the alchemist's hidden quest.

As if having finished everything, the user logged out.

"Haha... No way."

Then what was the village quest for?

Could it have been a prerequisite...?

No, that couldn't be it.

How could this user have known about the village quest?

"...No. But he finished it too quickly for that to be the case."

Come to think of it, this user was a monster who finished a quest that should have taken at least two months in just two weeks.

It was a grind-heavy quest that couldn't be done just for the rewards.

"He definitely knows something."

How does he know about New World's information?

Curiosity arose, but his anticipation was greater.

Where would this user's next step lead?

* * *

Jeong-hoon's mother had prepared a lavish dinner because his friend was visiting.

Thanks to her, Jeong-hoon and Ha-jin ate until they were stuffed.

"Have some more."

Even fruit.

His mother always made sure his friends left with full stomachs.

Seeing his mother like this made him feel nostalgic.

"Thank you for the delicious meal!"

"You're welcome. Come again next time."

"Yes! Jeong-hoon, I'll tell you the rest through messages."

After Ha-jin left, Jeong-hoon looked around his room.

If he won the event, Genesis would come to install a capsule, so he needed to make space for it.

"Hm? Are you cleaning?"

His mother entered the room.

"Um... Mom, if I wanted to install a capsule at home, would you allow it?"

"A capsule? You want to buy that expensive thing with your own money?"

His mother frowned at the mention of a capsule.

Even she knew that the lowest grade capsule cost a hefty 20 million won.

"No, I'm going to get it with this."

Jeong-hoon showed his mother the event details announced by Genesis.

"An event? They're giving a capsule to the first-place winner?"

"Yes."

"Hmm... Still, wouldn't first place be a bit of a stretch?"

In an event like this, there would be a swarm of participating users.

He would have to beat all those users to get the capsule.

'As much as I love my son, this seems difficult.'

She was probably thinking that.

"Well, you never know until you try, right?"

"Well... Alright. It'll be a good experience, so give it a shot."

His mother didn't seem to have high expectations.

"Okay. Then I'll have it installed in my room."

"Sure."

His mother chuckled at her son's premature excitement.

* * *

[Scarecrow Dummy Destruction Event]

-Eligibility: Users under level 50 (Participation not allowed from level 51)

-Event Details: Inflict damage on a Lv.100 scarecrow dummy! (30 seconds)

-1st Place Prize (Capsule worth 30 million won)

One day left until the Scarecrow Dummy Destruction Event.

It had been a long time since a capsule event targeting beginner users had been held.

[Scarecrow Dummy event is back lol]

-Seems like it was 3 years ago, who won back then?

└Wasn't it G-ple? They're forgotten now lol

└They were a promising player back then lol

└It's just about inflicting the most damage on a Lv.100 dummy... No need to care lol

└It's just Genesis throwing an event for beginners lol

└But guilds seem to be paying some attention.

└Even so... In a situation where high-rankers dominate, they probably won't scout beginners easily.

World Com's reaction to Genesis' event was lukewarm.

This was because the event was only open to users under level 50.

More than 80% of World Com members were over level 50, and they were active in various villages.

So there was no reason to be interested in an event for beginners under level 50.

However, the guilds were watching this event with interest.

"There might be users with decent jobs."

"We need to find users who obtained rare classes."

The first decision you make when starting New World is your job.

Depending on how you play afterwards, you can change to a rare or higher grade of that job.

This was what the guilds were aiming for.

Not just users who change jobs normally, but users who achieve a rare or higher grade 1st job change through specific gameplay.

Such users grow to be far stronger than ordinary users.

That's why job changes aren't an event to be taken lightly.

"It won't be a disaster like three years ago, will it?"

Genesis hadn't held any events for beginners since the one three years ago.

As they had stopped the regular events, people said that there was a problem with the event three years ago.

[The event flopped.]

[Even rare-grade jobs... don't have much potential.]

[Sigh... The winner barely shaved off 20% of the scarecrow dummy's HP....]

[Hopeless.]

They said Genesis stopped holding events for beginners because there were no promising prospects.

The results actually supported this claim, so it was a believable story.

But Genesis was holding another event.

"Well, one thing's for sure, if it fails again, Genesis won't hold any more events."

"That's true."

Until now, Genesis had actively promoted their events to guilds.

But this time was different.

They didn't actively promote it to any guild, so the guilds had to find out about the event by visiting the website themselves.

As a result, the famous guilds had lost interest in this event.

Of course, this was only in Korea.

"The time when famous guilds aren't interested is the perfect opportunity."

"Exactly."

It was a chance for lesser-known guilds to recruit a large number of talented individuals.

They couldn't miss this opportunity.

"Uh...? It seems Ho-Yeong is interested too?"

It was shocking news.

"Why is Ho-Yeong suddenly...?"

The eyes of the small guild leaders trembled.

Ho-Yeong had already recruited a large number of talented individuals over level 100 last year, so why would they be interested?

* * *

Jeong-hoon visited a capsule room for the event.

Ha-jin was already there, slurping down egg and cheese ramen.

Doesn't he ever get tired of it?

It seemed like he ate it every time Jeong-hoon saw him.

It was definitely delicious, but not something Jeong-hoon would want to eat so often.

"You'll have a message when you log in. There's a code in the message, click it and you'll be automatically transported. Okay?"

Ha-jin, who had devoured the ramen, reminded Jeong-hoon once again before getting into the capsule.

"I got it, so just explain it once."

How many times did he have to explain something that could be understood with one explanation?

"Oh, right. You have an amazing memory, don't you? Then I'll go in first."

Only then did Ha-jin enter the capsule and log in.

Now it was Jeong-hoon's turn.

As he entered the capsule, the door closed.

Whoosh-

[You have received an invitation from Genesis - Korea Server]

The event was global, but it was held on each server separately.

In other words, they would select a winner from each server to give the capsule.

Jeong-hoon touched the code indicated in the message.

His vision went dark and the surroundings changed into a training ground.

It resembled the dojo where the Underworld King, Dok-Go-Joon, had lived, but with one difference: there was a 2-meter tall scarecrow dummy standing in the center of the training ground.

That dummy was the highlight of this event.

[Welcome to the 17,732 users of the Korean server who are participating in the event.]

Text appeared on the right wall.

[Users participating in the event have been placed in separate training grounds.]

They had separated 17,732 people and moved them to individual training grounds.

Therefore, Jeong-hoon was alone in this training ground.

[There will be a scarecrow dummy placed in front of you.]

If you looked closely at the scarecrow dummy, you could see a faint flow of mana.

It was made so that it couldn't be attacked with barriers.

[The event will start in 5 minutes. The order is random, so please finish your preparations and wait.]

With that, the text disappeared.

* * *

The guild leaders watched the Genesis event participants through the screen.

Of course, they weren't watching their gameplay.

[Event Leaderboard]

-1st Place: -

-2nd Place: -

-3rd Place: -

It was a system to see who was in first place through the leaderboard.

The leaderboard displayed nicknames, levels, and jobs, but if the user didn't want it, their nickname and level would disappear, leaving only their job.

To ensure complete secrecy, even jobs should be hidden, but Genesis made jobs mandatory to be revealed.

[The event begins. Scarecrow dummy destruction will proceed in groups of 100.]

The event started.

It could have been done all at once, but this was a small consideration to allow guild officials to check jobs through the rankings.

Although there were 17,732 participants, the time limit was 30 seconds, so it went by quickly.

"Hmm... I don't see any promising users."

"Me neither."

"The damage seems decent... but the jobs are a bit disappointing."

Most beginner users revealed their nicknames, levels, and jobs.

It was to catch the eyes of the guilds.

But guild officials ruthlessly passed them over.

-1st Place: Woo-Rai-Mae / 46 / Assassin (1st) : Scarecrow Dummy HP reduced by 26%

The first place changed.

A level 46 assassin.

The officials, checking the level and job, were delighted.

"Oh! There's a user who changed to an assassin."

"Really?"

"Assassins are pretty good among the rare grades."

"And he even took off 26%? At this rate, that assassin will be first!"

The guild officials hurriedly wrote down his nickname, level, and job.

Currently the top priority for recruitment.

-1st Place: Eun-Wi / 47 / Sharpshooter (1st) : Scarecrow Dummy HP reduced by 26.3%

This time, a promising player appeared from the sharpshooters.

"A-Amazing... Two rare-grade job changes already."

"Yes! This event is a success!"

The officials cheered again at the appearance of the sharpshooter.

But the appearance of promising players didn't end there.

-1st Place: Ha-Reu-Teu / 48 / Saber (1st) : Scarecrow Dummy HP reduced by 33%

Saber?!

The pupils of the guild officials shook.

Saber was an epic-grade job change, not just rare.

Rare grade was already a jackpot, but who would have thought an epic grade would appear?

"This is crazy. It looks like that user Ha-Reu-Teu will take first place without a doubt."

"We must bring that Ha-Reu-Teu to our guild."

"Wow... It's a blessing in disguise that the famous guilds didn't pay attention because we flopped three years ago. Otherwise, we would have lost that Saber."

"But what does that matter... Ho-Yeong is probably watching this screen too."

Unlike small guilds, famous guilds would be watching the leaderboard in VIP rooms.

So, it was certain that Ho-Yeong would scout that Saber.

"Still, we have to make an offer. If we can't get the Saber, we have to take the assassin."

"Hey, we're going to take him, so stop drooling."

"If you don't want to lose him, just offer a higher price."

The atmosphere suddenly turned hostile.

They were conversing and evaluating each other, but in the end, they were all competitors.

Just then, the leaderboard changed again.

-1st Place: Private / Private / Martial Artist : Scarecrow Dummy Defeated

Huh?

What?