MAX 2

“Whew…”

Having somehow managed to secure his own name, Han Jiho finally exhaled and relaxed the tension in his eyes that had been glaring at the monitor. He felt exhausted before the game had even started.

Just you wait, Seo Jaeyoon.

He was inwardly cursing his useless friend for making him waste energy for nothing when the cell phone placed next to his keyboard vibrated briefly. Taking advantage of the tutorial video that was currently playing, he checked the screen to find a message from Seo Jaeyoon.

The guy had said he was busy with an overseas shoot, yet his timing for sending messages was uncanny.

Did this bastard install a CCTV in here?

Feeling unnecessarily uneasy, Han Jiho took a quick look around his room and typed a reply.

“Whatever…”

Turning off his phone screen after that, Han Jiho realized he was now in a massive cave that looked like a tutorial dungeon. The video had finished while he was sending the message.

As a result, the tutorial began without him even knowing what the story was. Han Jiho first moved his mouse to look around and check his sensitivity.

He was currently inside a frozen cave, accompanied by two other users of different classes.

GoodAtAngerManagement | Lv. 01

cogus2 | Lv. 01

“Kong-guksu (Soy Milk Noodle)? Ah, no, it’s not.”

For a split second, he had misread ‘cogus2’ as Kong-guksu.

Swoosh, swoosh. After checking the sensitivity by moving the mouse and familiarizing himself with the skill hotkeys, Han Jiho soon saw thick white text float across the top center of the screen.

[Objective: Escape the cave with your teammates.]

[Time Limit – 00:05:00]

It seemed the start of the tutorial was to escape this cave with them within five minutes.

Soon, the countdown began and the time started ticking away. Following that, the screen flickered as if it were malfunctioning before a hologram appeared to mark the escape route like a navigation system. It was quite an impressive effect.

But before he could even admire it, he saw a user bolt forward past him. It was the user with the nickname ‘cogus2.’

Seeing that, Han Jiho immediately began to run after him, and at the same time, the cave began to shake realistically as if it were collapsing. The sound and graphics were so excellent that it was hard to believe this was an old, failed game.

“Oh…”

Letting out an exclamation, Han Jiho ran frantically and picked up an item dropped on the ground as instructed. It was a submachine gun named ‘Nia’s Vow,’ equipped with a red dot sight.

Reflexively pressing the right mouse button to check the scope, Han Jiho looked at the decreasing time. The fact that they gave him a weapon along with a time limit meant enemies were about to appear—and powerful ones at that, enough to hinder their escape.

Han Jiho recalled hearing that this game’s tutorial was famous for being quite difficult. It was information he had come across while briefly looking things up while downloading the game. It was also something Seo Jaeyoon had told him just a few minutes ago.

However, Han Jiho didn’t think much of it. No matter how hard a tutorial could be, how hard could it really get? He was the man called the God of FPS by himself and others. A tutorial of this level was nothing.

…Or so he thought.

Below the objective, a new instruction appeared in red text.

[Objective: Escape the cave with your teammates.]

[If even one teammate dies or you fail to escape within the time limit, you will start over from the beginning.]

“Isn’t this insane?”

That meant if he got stuck with a troll, he might have to try the tutorial dungeon dozens of times.

Han Jiho’s expression contorted at the ridiculous clear condition. The most terrifying shackle of all—joint responsibility—was holding them back.

Joint responsibility. Or guilt by association.

Through his long career as a professional gamer, he knew all too well how shitty that was.

If one thing collapsed, the whole team collapsed.

It wasn’t just a matter of skill. Mentality, atmosphere, the relationships and trust between teammates—everything was closely intertwined like a chain, and the structure was such that if one link shook, the rest shook as well.

Wasn’t that why he chose retirement even though he had completely cleared his name regarding the scandal and turned public opinion back around? It was because the trust between teammates had been completely shattered, on top of the atmosphere being ruined.

Anyway, for those reasons, sparks began to fly in Han Jiho’s previously indifferent eyes. He couldn’t let himself be held back by something like this.

We can’t escape if even one person dies?

Then he just had to kill the enemies faster than anyone else. If there were no enemies, there would be no reason to die.

Just as Han Jiho had that thought, enemies appeared before them, blocking the only escape route. They were alien creatures with the name ‘Kraksair.’

The moment he recognized them.

Calmly centering his aim, Han Jiho began to fire. The recoil was heavy, making the aim shake, but controlling something like that was child’s play for him. Every time the red dot of the sight passed over them, the enemies fell, and the path opened up. His will not to waste a single bullet was evident in his play.

In the midst of that, he saw cogus2, who had gone ahead, jumping around and killing enemies. His movements seemed too skillful and familiar to be called a beginner. It was a sharp contrast to GoodAtAngerManagement, who was wandering around behind them not knowing what to do, just firing shots blindly.

Then, he saw GoodAtAngerManagement’s health bar suddenly drop by half. It was because he had been acting like a klutz and got hit in the head.

At that, Han Jiho cast the basic recovery skill, ‘Blessing of Light,’ toward GoodAtAngerManagement. GoodAtAngerManagement’s health bar filled to the max in an instant, and after confirming that the 20-second cooldown had started, Han Jiho immediately ran forward.

Cogus2, standing at the very front, was taking the hits by casting the Argoknight’s basic skill, ‘Immortal Fortress.’ It was a buff skill that deployed a barrier making the user invincible for a set time, taking damage on behalf of allies while increasing the reload and attack speed of nearby teammates.

The fatal drawback, however, was that the caster could not move or attack, meaning they could potentially die from a carpet bombing of enemies if something went wrong. Han Jiho knew this well. As a healer, it was basic to be familiar with the skills of tankers and dealers.

So, he stood close to cogus2, providing cover and continuing the attack. Originally, that was the dealer’s job, but right now the dealer was shitting the bed.

And Han Jiho was an expert at cleaning up other people’s messes.

It was entirely thanks to XenoForce.

After frantically playing a game for nearly ten years that was full of “Heal-Parrot” dealer-mains—who would die after whining about why they weren’t getting heals while being in spots where there was no line of sight and never even thinking about eating a health pack—it would be weirder if he wasn’t an expert. His mental state was at a level similar to a Buddha who had reached Nirvana.

Han Jiho continued to pour attacks on the enemies lunging at cogus2.

Thanks to the Argoknight’s buff, his reload and attack speeds were so fast that the enemies fell in an instant, to the point where he was running low on ammo. GoodAtAngerManagement, who had almost died from a headshot while acting up in the front, had pushed himself to the back at some point.

Before long, cogus2 began to move again, likely because the skill had ended. Above his head, a thumb-up emoticon popped up cutely. It seemed to mean “thanks for protecting me.”

Cute. Seeing that, Han Jiho let out a chuckle. It was a cute attitude that didn’t fit the urgent situation.

The remaining time was now down to about three minutes.

Picking up the ammo dropped by dead enemies to attack, and throwing ‘Holy Grenades’—Vitalis’s only attack skill—he advanced without rest.

Krrrkk! Boom!

As they got closer to the cave exit, the Kraksair’s wave of attacks became even more intense. It was truly a situation where enemies were flooding in like water. If it weren’t for cogus2’s appropriate aggro-management and tanking, even someone like Han Jiho would not have escaped death.

Even so, Han Jiho occasionally looked back to check GoodAtAngerManagement’s health. GoodAtAngerManagement, who had been acting like a klutz, seemed to have gotten used to it by now and was attacking the enemies comfortably from the rear.

In the midst of that, he had somehow figured out the shortcut for requesting support, as a heal icon appeared above his head, but Han Jiho ignored it as if he hadn’t seen it. The cooldown was too long to use the skill for a mere 10 percent loss.

The probability of a boss appearing right before the escape was about 99 percent. If he used it recklessly without thinking, a worst-case scenario would occur where he couldn’t provide a heal when it was actually needed.

Therefore, he had to save ‘Blessing of Light,’ his only healing skill, for cogus2, who was fighting at the front while taking the brunt of the enemy attacks. What was important now was to kill off the enemies while providing cover so that cogus2 didn’t die.

So, Han Jiho protected cogus2 and faithfully performed his role in the middle, taking hits in place of GoodAtAngerManagement who was slacking in the back.

Occasionally, he sighed whenever a stray grenade thrown by GoodAtAngerManagement resulted in nothing more than a pointless firework display, but that was it. He wasn’t going to see the guy again anyway, so there was no need to waste emotion.

After advancing like that for about a minute, the cave exit finally came into view. Cogus2 was the first to bolt out. Han Jiho followed him and ran out of the cave.

What greeted them as soon as they stepped out was a white expanse of a snowy field and a bizarrely shaped spaceship covering that field.