Chapter Text
Kevin was really anxious by the time the clock hit 11pm. He had everything prepared for the new expansion.
Snacks? Check. Soda? Check. Pester Hyunjae so that he would play with him? Check!
You see, Kevin and Hyunjae were best friends. So, obviously he convinced his buddy to play with him. It wasn’t so bad since it was free.
Elder Tale had thirteen servers all around the globe, a really popular game, and the Korean was the only one free-to-play. How about that? There were hundreds of thousands of players in Arirang, the Korean server. And since Kevin discovered that his college crush used to play, he gladly became one of those hundreds of thousands and of course, with Hyunjae by his side. Always.
“So, are you ready?” Kevin said to the other who was in direct call with him.
“I guess. I heard this expansion will affect only the high level players. Like new items, raids and stuff.” Hyunjae complained. Good thing it was Saturday and tomorrow they wouldn’t have to go to college.
“Well, our goal is to get stronger, right? We’ll eventually get there.” And all he could hear was Hyunjae’s tongue clicking and a gulping sound. Kevin bet that his friend was drinking a ton of energetic right now.
“It’s finally midnight. Are you ready?”The older asked Kevin with a drowsy voice.
“You betcha!”
He could not be more wrong.
☆° . •. ○ ~☆° . •. ○ ~☆° . •. ○ ~
It was definitely cold. And for some reason… dark.
Kevin blinked a couple of times to get used to the white place he’s in. “What the hell?” He thought. Was he a little bit smaller? Was it snowing? He looked down to see he was wearing clothes that definitely weren’t his. A long light blue kimono was covering his whole body; he could spot some pretty golden stars on it.
He had the faint feeling he had seen this clothing before. He tried to move and felt something on his hand. He checked in and saw a long staff ornamented with lots of bells hanging from his hand.
“Kevin? Is that you?” Someone called him from behind. And as he turned, he gasped a bit and a window popped up.
“Hyunjae
Race / Elf
Class
Sorcerer – Lv. 29”
That’s it. That was definitely Hyunjae. For some reason his tall friend was wearing a light yellow robe with a thick book on his hand. “You have pointy ears” It was the first thing Kevin noticed to be honest.
“And you have fox ears, like, on top of your head. AND A TAIL!” Hyunjae screamed when getting closer to the latter. “Wait, hold on. Are we on Elder Tale?”
“What?! No! I mean, how?” Kevin was at a loss of words. “We are dressed as our characters but–“ Kevin was interrupted by a loud growling, and as soon as he turned to see where it was coming from, Hyunjae gasped beside him.
“Is that a monster?” The latter’s voice was trembling a little.
Kevin could only spot a silhouette far from them, in the middle of the snow.
“Shit,” He turned to Hyunjae and finally realized where they were. “We were in the middle of a quest when we logged out yesterday. We’re on Yim Snow field”
“So we are really inside the game?!” Hyunjae had his eyes fixed on the figure that was moving slowly towards them. “Quick, Kevin. Pinch me, this must be a dream.”
The latter turned to his friend and it all happened really fast. Something jumped towards Hyunjae, taking him down. They rolled on the snow and fell just a couple of feet from Kevin.
“White-Blue Snow Wolf – Lv. 31 – Normal Rank”, said the monster`s window. It was trying to bite Hyunjae who was somehow escaping putting his grimoire in front of his face.
“Kevin! Do something!” He pleaded.
“Like what?”
“I don’t fucking know! Just get this thing off of me!”
Kevin ran and hit the canine with his staff. The thing barely moved. Instead, it turned to him and growled showing his white teeth and piercing him with black eyes. A new screen appeared before Kevin’s eyes. Lots of them, actually.
One of them caught his attention.
“Skills”
At that moment the boy just followed his instincts. He took a deep breath and raised his staff.
“Summon Companion: Wolfie!” He shouted and a green circle appeared before him, releasing a much smaller and cuter version of the wolf attacking Hyunjae. However, it jumped head first on the monster, throwing him far and giving Hyunjae the chance to get up. The summon disappeared after that.
“How did you do that?” Hyunjae asked out of breathe.
“It’s a game, right? If we have our equipment, I figured we’d still have our powers.” Kevin answered a little bit apprehensive.
The grey wolf got back on its feet and started running towards them. Kevin could see its life bar. 70% or so.
“Okay. Then it’s my turn.” Hyunjae grunted and mumbled a few words “Come on, you can do this. You are amazing.” The sorcerer opened his grimoire, managing to put it on one hand. “Orb of Lava!” He shouted.
His book glowed mysteriously and an orange-ish ball of fire was shot from his hand and hit the wolf right on its face and disintegrated it. Hyunjae celebrated, jumping up and down. “I did it! I did it! We defeated it! Am I great or what?”
“Hmm, Hyunjae…?” Kevin gulped audibly.
“What?” Hyunjae turned to him. The silhouette that was coming towards them was close enough so they could see it clearly. “Fuck.” Hyunjae exasperated.
“Yeti Chief – Lv. 35 – Party rank”. The beast was almost three times taller than them and had white fur covering all of his body. It also had an ice mace oh his right hand.
“His life bar is different.” Hyunjae said sheepishly, thinking that maybe if they didn’t move too much it would ignore them.
“He’s a Boss. And a big one…” Kevin said, looking around for a way out.
He did knew this place in the game, but right now he couldn’t access his map and he was afraid to wander off and get lost with Hyunjae.
“Buddy?” He called the latter. “There’s no way out. We’ll have to defeat it.”
“What?! You crazy?” Hyunjae turned to him and the Yeti Chief began to run at full speed now.
“Stay close to me, my magic range is short!” Kevin shouted while casting barriers around Hyunjae.
“I’m not a tanker! I’m not gonna stand his attacks for too long!” He replied.
In a perfect timing, a window appeared before both of them.
“Sunwoo invites you to join his party!”
Yes No
Hyunjae looked to the monster that was now too close and looked back to Kevin with an apprehensive face. The latter just nodded and they both accepted the request.
As soon as they hit yes, a mysterious guy jumped in front of the monster. He was wearing a traditional Korean red armor with a long-bladed ring-pommel sword on his hands. He had ears and a tail just like Kevin’s, but the latter knew they weren’t the same.
“Sunwoo
Race / Wolf Fang
Class
Hwarang – Lv. 31”
For some reason, as soon as he appeared, the monster turned to him. He was now parrying his attacks with his blade and Kevin thought he was too agile and strong so they might have a chance to actually win this thing.
“Medium guy! A little help here!” He yelled.
That was Kevin’s cue. He used his healing abilities – although very weak – on him and he could see Hyunjae was aiming his own skills to the monster.
“Hwall, now! His flank is open!” The tanker yelled again and a cat-like creature surged with a long bow and aimed to the beast’s side.
“Assassinate” He said slowly and a red Hangeul with the word Death appeared in front of the monster and his life bar got really damaged after that. The beast roared in pain and turned back to attack the cat that stood still in his place, smirking.
“No you won’t.” Sunwoo said pressing the base of his sword against the palm of his hand. “Hwarang Challenge”. A blue tailwind hit the monster and made him look confused for a while than it turned back to hit the tanker kid to which Kevin kept casting barriers at over the time. “Sorcerer, you can finish him.” Sunwoo said confidently.
“Inferno Strike!” Hyunjae casted a fire attack against the beast. It crumbled and exploded in small bubbles, leaving a great amount of items and coins on the snow where it was.
A rainbow vortex surrounded Hyunjae and Kevin.
“Congratulations. You leveled up!” They could see on a pop-up window in front of them.
“Kevin “Hyunjae
Race / Fox Tail Race / Elf
Class Class
Medium – Lv. 30” Sorcerer – Lv. 30”
Kevin was still immobilized is his place. “What just happened?” He thought. Hyunjae fell on his knees beside him, sighing really loud. Meanwhile the two strangers were going through the reminiscing items of the area boss.
“Hey, Medium guy. This is an armguard for supports. You should have it. It’ll increase your healing and barrier strength.” The Hwarang approached them with the other dude behind him. “Here’s your share of gold as well. Divided by four.”
Kevin bowed down and grabbed the item and gold in front of him. “Hm… I’m Kevin, and this is Hyunjae.” He pointed to his friend who was getting up by now.
“Thanks for helping us.” Hyunjae said offering his hand to shake. Sunwoo looked to it, considering it for a moment and then accepting the gesture.
“It was nothing. Me and Hwall here probably wouldn’t have defeated a thing that strong alone anyways. So we should be thanking you guys as well.” He said with a tender smile on his face.
The cat-like creature behind him nodded and put his bow on his shoulder. He had white and black fur with heterochromic eyes. He was as tall as Hyunjae.
“You’re not much of a talker, are you?” Hyunjae joked to it. To which he just pierced the latter’s body with a cold look.
“Hwall
Race / Werecat
Class
Assassin – Lv. 32”
“Don’t be like this, man.” Sunwoo reprehended his friend. “I’m sorry. He’s really… moody?”
“It’s understandable…” Kevin sighed. “Hm… Do you guys have any idea of what happened?”
“We were playing Elder Tale and the new expansion came up… Next thing we knew, we were here.” Sunwoo told them while trying to remember things clearly. “Actually we were a bit uphill. But them we heard you guys fighting and we came down to help.”
“Same to us.” Hyunjae said clicking his tongue. “This is really messed up.”
The Hwall dude walked over to Sunwoo and whispered something is his wolf ear, making him become startled for a split second. “What? What happened?” Kevin asked, worried.
“Hwall asked me if this is like that novels we used to read.” Sunwoo began. “Like… If we die here. Do we die in the real world?”
The four men stood in silence for a few moments. Kevin still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it. He just knew he didn’t want to die there, not like that.
“We need to get out of here. At least go to somewhere safe” He looked around but all he saw was snow everywhere. Then something hit him. “We can use the spell Call Of Home, right? Then we can go to the nearest city around here.” They all nodded slightly. That was a spell that all races and classes had in order to go to a city no matter where they were. Kevin turned to the two new guys in front of him. “Are you guys coming with us? We did a pretty good job right now.”
Hwall whispered something again and Sunwoo smiled and nodded. “Sure. We’ll stick around for the time being.”
“Okay. So let’s go.” Hyunjae said, energetic as ever. “I’ll meet you guys wherever we end up.”
They then counted up to three and pressed the spell “Call Of Home” at the same time. A white light surrounded each one of them individually and after five seconds, it all became dark. And for a little while Kevin felt less cold.