MAX 7

“…”

In that moment, Han Jiho reached out and gulped down some water.

Strangely, his throat felt parched. He felt as if he had learned a secret he shouldn’t have known. It was like opening Pandora’s box out of curiosity, only to find that instead of hope, some “fking otaku” was the only thing left at the bottom.

He had met countless fans throughout his life, but he had never met a fan like this in his entire time on this earth. The impact was significant in many ways.

The person he had thought was just someone with good chemistry and a decent personality turned out to be a “fking otaku”—no, a superfan—of his.

How would he react if he found out that he was actually Han Jiho?

Han Jiho, who found himself imagining this, snorted and muttered to himself, “Whatever, it’s not like we’ll ever meet.”

Yes, he was someone he would never meet. If he deleted the game, it was just a phantom-like connection that would vanish without a trace.

The impact was a bit strong, but then again, it wasn’t the first time he had run into one of his fans in a game.

Han Jiho quickly organized his thoughts and emotions. All he had to do was enjoy the game. He didn’t want to think about anything else.

[Party] JunkCollectionMaster: But the newbie-nim’s class is Vital.

[Party] JunkCollectionMaster: Vital is going to be a bit tough in PvP.

[Party] EchoThief: The basic skills are a bit like that. Don’t they have zero attack skills?

[Party] HanJiHo98: Yeah, I only have heals lolol.

Just as EchoThief said, he had no attack skills. The only thing even remotely related to attacking was his ultimate, which increased attack power, defense, and health regeneration.

[Party] EchoThief: ㅠㅠ

[Party] EchoThief: What are you going to pick for your job advancement??

[Party] HanJiHo98: Arbiter of the Sun.

[Party] EchoThief: Oh.. h.

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: Wouldn’t Guardian of the Sun be better? Arbiter is too ambiguous;;

[Party] HanJiHo98: Why???

[Party] JunkCollectionMaster: The performance is mediocre. You’re neither a dealer nor a healer.

[Party] EchoThief: It’s just “mediocre” itself.

[Party] HanJiHo98: Ah..

[Party] 1Jiho: Ah, I want to eat japchae.

[Party] cogus: 98-nim is good at the game, so don’t worry.

[Party] HanJiHo98: Hahaha;;;;

[Party] 1Jiho: Huh? This is the first time I’ve seen hyung praise someone.

[Party] EchoThief: ???? Me too.

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: Lmaoㅋㅋㅋ Hasn’t he been hacked? Someone check on him.

Despite the party members’ chats filled with concern, Han Jiho’s mind became even more resolute.

In his opinion, the performance of the character itself wasn’t very important. Echo of Eternity wasn’t a game where character skills played a massive role anyway. Since it was based on an FPS foundation, the most important thing was the player’s skill.

And Han Jiho possessed the absolute skill to elevate that mediocre performance to the top.

[Whisper] cogus: 98-nim, are you sure you’re okay with your weapon?

[Whisper] cogus: What weapon are you using now?

[Whisper] HanJiHo98: One moment.

He opened his inventory for a second to check his weapon. Because he had been swapping them out constantly whenever one with higher attack power dropped, he hadn’t had time to memorize the name.

[Whisper] HanJiHo98: I’m using a submachine gun right now.

[Whisper] HanJiHo98: Heart of Steel.

It was a weapon he didn’t even remember where or when he’d picked up. The small magazine was a flaw, but the recoil was decent, and it was useful because it had a “Focus Fire” perk that increased damage when attacking the same enemy consecutively for a certain period of time.

[Whisper] cogus: Ah, you’re using that one.

[Whisper] cogus: Then try playing one round first, and if you think you need something else, let me know. I’ll give it to you right away lol.

[Whisper] HanJiHo98: Okay haha thx thx.

[Party] cogus: I’ll make the room, so come in.

[Party] 1Jiho: Yeap.

[Party] 1Jiho: Hyung, why are you suddenly using polite speech?

[Party] EchoThief: What’s with the sudden image management?

[Party] 1Jiho: Hyung, why are you suddenly acting all cool?

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Hey, does that look cool to you?

Han Jiho inwardly nodded at WrigglingDdorak’s chat. He couldn’t understand which part of it was supposed to look “cool” either.

[Party] cogus: Anyone who wants to do voice, come in.

[Party] 1Jiho: Go go to E-Cord?

[Party] cogus: No no, in-game.

[Party] 1Jiho: Ahㅠ In-game is “byeol-lo” (bad).

[Party] cogus: ?

[Party] 1Jiho: Like the “byeol” (star) in my heart.

[Party] EchoThief: Look at him being servile.

[Party] EchoThief: I can’t do voice today. My unnie is going to sleep super early ㅡㅡ

[Party] cogus: K.

[Party] cogus: 98-nim, you can just listen haha.

[Party] EchoThief: K.

[Party] HanJiHo98: Okay haha.

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: Ah, this is hilarious ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: No, I’m telling you, he’s definitely been hacked ㅋㅋㅋㅋ how can a person change that much? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Party] JunkCollectionMaster: Hey, how do you use the vomiting emoticon?

[Party] EchoThief: You can’t use it here, Mister.

He wondered what the guy was usually like for them to react this way. It was just as he was letting out a silly snort while looking at the incredibly distracting chat that a whisper arrived from cogus.

[Whisper] cogus: 98-nim, if you right-click my nickname,

[Whisper] cogus: there’s a “Join Match” option. You can enter the room through that lol.

[Whisper] HanJiHo98: Okay thx thx.

Han Jiho clicked the nickname and hit join, just as cogus had instructed.

In the waiting room he moved to, cogus and the party members he had only seen in the chat window were gathered together. Every single one of them was at max level and wearing flashy “Rabbit Princess” skins that seemed to scream, “I’m a veteran player.”

Han Jiho momentarily froze at that overwhelming sight.

For some reason, he felt like he had bumped into a group of delinquents hanging out together while walking through an alley. It was a completely different atmosphere from Xeno-Force, where you couldn’t tell who the veterans were just by their appearance.

Furthermore, above their heads, they were all wearing titles with the number “1225,” which seemed to be the name of the clan they belonged to.

Meanwhile, they swarmed toward Han Jiho and began to perform bizarre dances as if showing off.

Among them, the strangest was EchoThief. He was doing a popping dance that made him look like a broken robot.

[Party] cogus: 98-nim, you can press P to join the party voice haha.

[Party] HanJiHo98: Okay haha.

[Party] 1Jiho: 98-nim, are you not doing voice?

[Party] HanJiHo98: Ah, yes, my mic is broken ㅠㅠㅠ

[Party] 1Jiho: Ah ㅠㅠ what a shame.

Having answered shamelessly, Han Jiho reached for the headset hanging on the headset rack. The black headset, with his name engraved on it, was a gift from a luxury brand that had been his sponsor during his days as a pro player.

As such, it was a brand-new item, so clean it didn’t have a single scratch, let alone being broken, but given the circumstances, using the mic was out of the question. Moreover, weren’t there two people in the party claiming to be his fans? He hated getting involved in bothersome things.

Anyway, Han Jiho, who had joined the party voice as cogus instructed, was just adjusting the volume after turning off his microphone.

【cogus】 [Hello. Can you hear me well?]

Suddenly, a strange voice was heard. The party member’s nickname at the bottom left of the screen flickered, indicating who was speaking.

The owner of the voice was, surprisingly, cogus.

“Uh…”

Han Jiho almost scratched his ear unconsciously. It was a low and deep voice, to the point of feeling ticklish.

He had participated in voice chats with countless people while gaming up until now, but cogus was the first person with such a good voice. Even though they were both men, it was a voice so good it made him curious about the person’s face.

【1Jiho】 [Yep. I can hear you well. But hyung, did you change your mic? Why does your voice sound even better?]

[Party] EchoThief: You said it seemed broken last time, did you swap it?

【JunkCollectionMaster】 [Ah, I need to buy a mic too. What did you buy? Send me a link.]

1Jiho and JunkCollectionMaster followed in order. They also had pleasant voices, but they were no match for cogus. There was something about cogus’s voice—it had a strange addictiveness that seemed to stick to one’s ears.

【cogus】 [Yeah. I’ll send it to you later. What about 98-nim? Can you hear me well?]

[Party] HanJiHo98: Yes, I can hear you well haha.

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: Ah, fk.

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: My headset mic is broken.

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: Chunsam played with it and snapped the cord ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

In the meantime, WrigglingDdorak whined that his headset was broken. He didn’t know who Chunsam was, but judging by the old-fashioned name and the situation, it seemed to be a pet.

【1Jiho】 [Heek. Wriggling-Chunsam is a bad boy. Give him a butt-slap.]

[Party] EchoThief: Huh? Wouldn’t Chunsam like that?

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: I’m not giving him snacks for a week, you bad bastard ㅠㅠㅠ

[Party] HanJiHo98: ㅠㅠ

【cogus】 [Just play. It doesn’t matter since we’re just doing matches anyway.]

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

[Party] WrigglingDdorak: Then let’s go go go go go.

With that final chat, the words “Searching for a game…” appeared on the screen. The estimated time was 1 minute.

However, before even 30 seconds had passed since they started the queue, the screen transitioned with the announcement that a game had been found. The matching time was much faster than expected.

The name of the map where Han Jiho’s first game would take place was “Desolate Square.”