The text flashed on his screen as his character loaded into the map engulfed in a dark blue smoke. There were 5 minutes left before the war started. He had just enough time to prepare and get logged into EclypseLink, a chatroom created by the same developers of the game, to keep guild members and friends connected.
"KeuMinMin? Are you finally here?" A frustrated voice called out as he joined the chatroom. The voice belonged to his guildmaster, a hot-headed Elf Mage with the in-game name of 'AreXBDY'. It was a difficult name to say, so rather than attempting, Min-jae just referred to him with a simple nickname.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm here aren't I? You should be glad I showed up, X." In game, KeuMinMin (or Min-jae) was equally as hot-headed as his guildmaster. They clash a lot, almost daily, but get over it quickly and work together.
With IMMUNE being the top guild in the region, they didn't have a lot of time for arguing, but Min-jae really couldn't stand the guy telling him what to do.
"Shut up, and show some respect. That's 'guildmaster' to you, not 'X'. I'm 10 years your senior," X retorted.
Min-jae rolled his eyes and yelled back, "Bastard. Don't tell me what to do. Are we queueing up for the war or are you going to sit there and cry all night?" Min-jae clicked into his inventory and checked his consumables. A ready-check popped up on his screen, which he accepted almost instantly.
Another voice piped up, a timid young girl. "Did you guys finish the weekly quest to get the buffs for tonight? The +10 to all stats will make a huge difference in the 1v1s."
"Yeah, the rest of us did that yesterday. I don't think KeuMinMin finished it." X said plainly. Min-jae hadn't. He couldn't be bothered. The weekly quests bore him and he's only interested in PvP.
It was 9:00 PM and IMMUNE had loaded into the arena. On the opposing side, Vanguard, also loaded into the arena. A guild war is a weekly event where guilds can participate in 8v8 tournaments, where the goal is to wipe out the enemy team, storm their castle and take the flag. It takes 2 minutes for each player to respawn, which gives the opposing team time to take the flag in the event of a full team wipeout. Points are awarded and deducted to the guilds based on how quickly the match ends.
Min-jae looked around at his team. As a Sniper class, Min-jae is instructed to stay back around the castle and watch for any backcaps (a strategy where players will go straight for the flag instead of killing enemy players).
Nah, Min-jae mused to himself. He wasn't going to sit back and wait around. Instead of admitting he picked the wrong class, he decided to go ahead and 1v1 enemy players each war - and it worked, normally. Nobody questioned it when they'd win and he was the obvious carry.
The timer ticked down. 30 seconds remaining before the match started. Floods of 'good luck' popped up in the chat from both teams. Min-jae took out his longbow and traced down the limbs. It took him months to grind for this longbow skin. It was a glacial colour, shimmering in the light of the virtual sun. His character wore a long black cape, torn at the edges, and his clothes were an onyx black with a red dragon imprint on the front.
Like his real-life self, his eyes and hair were a chestnut brown, styled in a similar fashion. In-game, his hair was slightly longer. It reached down past his neck and curled below his ears. Being an Elf, his eyes were pointed at the edge along with his ears which were long and sharp. His eyelashes were long, and his physique tall and slender. He has a tattoo on his cheek of three curved lines close together, with one line cutting through the three.
Standing alongside Min-jae were his guildmates:
AreXBDY, the Elf Mage. The guildmaster. Similar to KeuMinMin, he was tall and slender but with white hair and a long purple staff that curved at the top with a small gravity ball sitting in place.
WwChoib, a Sylph Fairy. The guild's top healer who chose the enchanter specialisation. Sylphs are small creatures with wings, and long hair. Min-Jae knows WwChoib very well. They frequent the 2v2 PvP mode and often find themselves both online late at night.
Sesong5, a Human Warrior. The guild's top tank couldn't make it tonight, so Sesong5 stepped in to take his place. He used to be the main tank for the guild, but as he has recently started at University, he has periods of inactivity and let someone else take his place.
Kyungbyeol44, a Revenant Bard. This is the owner of the timid voice Min-jae heard earlier. Min-jae doesn't do PvE content and so doesn't have a lot in common with most of his guild members. Kyungbyeol44 was no exception to this rule. He had briefly talked to her in the guild chat, but this was the first time he heard her voice. She doesn't normally participate in guild wars but her boyfriend is the guildmaster and he begged her to join them today.
His real-life friends were part of this guild too, and they joined in on the war. Kim Elf Mage also known as Eunnie in game. Eunnie is a Chimera Assassin who chose the Shadowblade specialisation. Eunnie has a long tail, and a beast-like physique with bright brown hair all over his body. Kang Yu-jun is known as Yunnie in-game, it was intentional that when they started, Eunnie and Yunnie would have similar names. Yunnie was also a Chimera, but chose the Shifter class with the Beaststorm specialisation. They both tried to pretend to be girls to get free items out of players but were quickly found out and exposed. While they couldn't change their names, they changed their entire character appearances including gender as a result. As an attempt to stop certain rumors from spreading, they made their characters as manly, buff and tall as they could. Not that it helped though, it really didn't.
"Everyone ready?" Asked Sesong5. He swung his axe over his shoulder and prepared for a charge.
"MinMin~ Are you going solo again?" Yunnie pleaded.
"Lol, of course I am. I don't know who these noobs are but I'll kick them out of the leaderboards today."
"Sounds like someone's pissy today," a different voice came from the chat. The voice belonged to a Cest1a. KeuMinMin wasn't on speaking terms with him as he always took to embarrass Min-jae whenever he could. Min-jae had a streaming channel on LiveRing, he didn't have his face on camera and would very rarely speak, too. He had a couple hundred viewers each stream, and he only streamed his PvP matched.
Cest1a would only watch his streams to trash talk the streams. He would clip losses or bad plays and post them all over the forums which led to KeuMinMin receiving a lot of hate and off-stream cheating accusations. Some of these accusations led to witch hunts and in-game stalking incidents.
KeuMinMin didn't bother to humour him with a response. He was already furious from the day - and Min-jae was still uncomfortable from the damp cold and rain. He was in a shitty mood and all he wanted to do was stomp this guild war.
The timer ticked down. "Match starting in 3…2…1…."
Min-jae didn't listen to any of the strategy discussions in the voice chat. He didn't read any of the notes from the pre-war discussion text channel. He immediately ran up the stairs to the castle's top floor, his feet skating along the crimson carpet. KeuMinMin threw open the heavy doors to the exit of the top of the castle.
He gazed at the extraordinary view of the open map. The sun was high in the sky and a sea of shade was cast over the lavish, green forest. A gust of wind lightly brushed his hair to the side as he overlooked the forest.
He scoured the area for any signs of a rush. Nothing.
"ACK- WHAT?" He heard a loud angry yell from the voice chat, and an announcement was made.
Cest1a was slain by HJKaioss77
"Lol how did you die already?" The guildmaster taunted, and a feminine laugh followed that. "Did someone record?" He continued to taunt.
"I got one shot?!" Cest1a exclaimed, the previous confidence in his voice wavered. He was both angry and confused.
"Did you see what killed you?" Eunnie asked. "Where did you die?"
AreXBDY was slain by HJKaioss77
"Are you serious? He's over by the quarry. Someone take this asshole out." That was X. He, too, sounded pissed off.
KeuMinMin scanned the map ahead and took off towards the quarry. He activated his sprint and his Elf racial ability to further enhance his speed. This is the fun he was looking for. The stress relief.
As he closed in on the quarry, he encountered a tall Human Warrior wielding a large battleaxe, pulling it out of the corpse of his Chimera teammate.
Eunnie was slain by HJKaioss77
"What the f*** is this guy?!" Eunnie yelled. "Yo, Min, you got this right?"
"Guys has anyone actually seen the rest of their team? Is it just one guy?" One of the other teammates asked.
The handle of the battleaxe was a pristine gold while the blades were a dull silver. "Yunnie, stay with Choib at the castle. This guy's mine."
Min-jae took a sip of water. The Human stared at him, waiting for him to make a move first. Min-jae opened up the in-game match chat in game and typed out: 1v1?
"Are you joking?" Kyugbyeol's voice called out. "I'm heading over there, this idiot's probably hacking or something. Ah sh-"
"The rest of their team are here." This was it, they were all storming the castle. This HJKaioss77 character was the distraction. The carry.
HJKaioss77 emoted in chat with a /smile and a /wave. That had thrown off Min-jae. This guy is weird.
'I'll take him out, then go help at the castle. The others should be respawning soon.'
A gust of black wind rushed towards Min-jae, and in the blink of an eye he was in his face, with a dangerous swipe at KeuMinMin. It was a blur of silver and gold that hacked and slashed at incredible speeds. Min-jae barely registered the swing before his bowstring twanged, firing a stun arrow with trembling hands.
The enemy was stunned for 12 seconds. KeuMinMin got a good look at his opponent, messy black hair and deep black eyes that seemingly sucked in his soul. He had soft, yet strong features and was slightly taller than his own character. Completing the ensemble was a set of black armour with gold rims. There was an aura radiating from his armour, was it max enchanted?
The stun had 10 seconds left. All KeuMinMin needed was one buffed critical headshot to finish this guy off. He walked up to the stunned Human and opened up his chat.
Min-jae's lips curled into a bitter smile. The guy thought he had the upper hand. So predictable, so annoyingly confident. And yet… damn it, he's fast. Too fast. His pride got the best of him, and his arrogance couldn't help but shine through. After a day like today, he deserved this. Right? He started typing quickly.
8 seconds left.
KeuMinMin: I've had such a shitty day. Die idiot.
3 seconds left.
He aimed his bow at the head and fired a flaming arrow shot to hit for triple the damage of a normal headshot. HJKaioss77 was gone.
"What, where did he go?" Min-jae panicked. "That wasn't twelve seconds?" His character flailed, the enemy was gone. But how? There isn't an item in the game that lets you shorten stuns in PvP.
HJKaioss77: idc
Kaioss reappeared behind KeuMinMin a moment later and slashed at him with heavy force, and pushed him onto the ground. His axe shimmered with a sapphire blue as it came in contact with KeuMinMin's torso.
Min-jae health bar dropped to half, critical hit. There was chatter in EclypseLink that he tuned out to focus on the fight. His status bar was loaded with multiple debuffs: Slowness 50%, DEF -30%, ATK -20%, Dazed 3s. At the corner of the screen, the deaths of his guildmates were announced. Vague threats and rage could be heard from the guild chat, but he lowered his EclypseLink sound down to ignore them.
Last man standing.
'Idiots,' he mentally scolded them. Min-jae was desperate to finish this guy and rejoin the rest of the fight. He had about one minute before the opponents took victory yet here he was, flailing like a rookie. Rage and shame tangled in his chest, and he clenched his jaw until his teeth hurt.
With his blood stained axe hanging loosely over his shoulder, Kaioss took leisurely steps towards Min-jae.
KeuMinMin popped one of his stealth abilities and quickly recovered from the ground. He dodged and put distance between them and used a potion to clear two random debuffs. Slowness and ATK reduction debuffs were removed. The Sniper fired a flurry of 16 arrows, each of them of various elements and ailments.
Three arrows found their mark, but they barely touched him. Min-jae's chest tightened. "Damn it, this guy's built like a tank." He cursed under his breath, backing away as HJKaioss77's fury bar filled like a storm.
HJKaioss77 activated the ability Blood Rush and as a result sprinted towards his prey. This triggered KeuMinMin to sprint away too, all he needed to do was outrun his ability.
He steadied his breath, his sprint bar down to about 50%. They had exited the quarry and KeuMinMin had escaped into the forest, further away from IMMUNE's castle. Sharp thorns scraped along their skins and Min-jae rolled back through a bush, and slid on one knee dodging a ranged attack and came out the other side into a clearing in the forest.
HJKaioss77 tilted his head with a teasing grin.
HJKaioss77: Careful, Little Min~ Don't want you to get lost out here.
Min-jae's fingers itched with irritation. Cocky asshole.
A ray of sun hammered down onto KeuMinMin's beaten form. His breath hitched and he continued to fire at his enemy in short bursts. Sliding across to the left and the right to dodge at the quick swings of the battleaxe-wielder. His arrows were just grazing his skin, dropping Kaioss' health little by little in 2% chunks.
HJKaioss77: Min~ stop running.
He wasn't going to take the bait and charged up a special attack, blue light particles filling up the bow as it expanded and grew larger. The arrow turned from a sharp steel into an electric blue bolt as it flew towards HJKaioss77, but landed right next to KeuMinMin as it was deflected with a brutal arc swing from the axe.
The Warrior was enveloped in a sea of crimson from the effects of his fury bar. A fire danced in his eyes, although he looked somewhat bored of this. He tried to tease KeuMinMin further before charging up for a final blow. His axe morphed into a new shape, the blades on each side of the hilt had grown down like vines and twisted around the hilt.
HJKaioss77: Wow. You almost got me.
Min-jae didn't wait for the end of Kaioss' taunt as he fired up another special again. Min-jae's hands trembled on his keyboard and mouse. His moves were erratic.
"KEUMINMIN WHAT ARE YOU DOING, DEFEND THE BASE YOU IDIOT?!" He heard screaming down the voice chat.
KeuMinMin was slain by HJKaioss77
HJKaoiss77: Gotcha ;-)
The rage from Cest1a broke Min-jae's focus and was slain by the enemy. The game ended as Vanguard took victory from capturing the guild's castle.
"What did you do that for?" Min-jae snapped, his voice raw with anger. "Fuck! Seriously? You got me killed for that!" His hands slammed against the desk. The impact rattled his keyboard, toppled his glass of water, and sent it shattering across the floor. His fists trembled, still clenched as if he could punch through the screen. "Can't you just shut up and let yourselves be carried? I can't focus when you idiots are screaming down the microphone."
"KeuMin, you were supposed to stay back and defend the base. Are you dumb? Do you not know you get a bonus as a Sniper from defending?" His guildmaster blamed him and the words hit him like a second defeat.
"And watch your temper," Kyungbyeol snapped back at Min-jae.
"Seriously," Sesong5 started to pile the blame on. "If you even bothered to listen in the beginning, we could've piled on HJKaioss in the quarry before anyone even died. What, you finally decided to give up against some nobody."
"It's this arrogance, I told you guys before," that was Cest1a to add fuel to the fire. There was a deafening ringing in his ears as all his guildmates attacked him. He could hear Yunnie and Eunnie trying to defend him, but their voices were nothing compared to the barrage of insults.
Their voices bled together in his headset, a chorus of blame that clawed at his already boiling nerves. Min-jae ripped his headphones off, tossing them onto the desk. His chest heaved as he stared at the defeat screen, the mocking "Gotcha ;-)" still glowing in the match chat.
What felt like hours passed by, was actually a couple of minutes. He clicked out of the defeat screen and he'd been flooded with DMs by his guildmates.
KeuMinMin: Shit talking in voice but you guys can't win a match without me.
KeuMinMin: ㅗㅇㅗ
In a swift motion, he smacked the 'Leave Guild' button and uninstalled EclypseLink.
For a second, he thought he might laugh, because wasn't it ridiculous? All this rage, all this heat, and that smug bastard on the other side was probably smiling, maybe even meaning it in good fun. But Min-jae couldn't see it that way. Not tonight. Why was it suddenly his fault that three of them died to one guy? One guy who ended up at full health after each kill.
A wave of anxiety hit Min-jae, who were those guys? Alts of another guild? No, he never lost a match in a guild war. A wave of shame hit him as he checked his match history. 41 wins and 1 loss, a painful mark on his record. He took a quick look at the leaderboard and there they were… Vanguard sat at the top of the guild war mode leaderboard. Their logo was a gold lion emblazoned on a blue and white shield. Min-jae's stomach twisted.
They lost to a no-name guild. He didn't recognise any of these people. His death broadcast to the whole server.
Scrolling down further and he was met with absolute horror. HJKaioss77 was right at the bottom with 14 points, he was dead last in contribution. KeuMinMin, the unbeatable sniper, got his ass beat by their worst player.
He knew what was coming next when he loaded up the game's forum and it was no surprise that all of the recent posts were regarding the 'top ranked guild losing the spot to nobody guild' and 'undefeated top ranker defeated by 2-5 casual PvE player.'
The name 'KeuMinMin' slated across all forums, and his DMs were starting to fill up with trashtalk. With hesitation, Min-jae reached for his phone to check the notification. The trembles hadn't stopped, and a layer of sweat coated his hand. Multiple missed calls from his friends known as Yunnie and Eunnie in-game.
Min-jae had been humiliated. He couldn't show his face in the game any more. He couldn't stream any more. Too many people in the game knew 'KeuMinMin', while they didn't know who he was in real life, he had no shot of getting into parties or guilds any more. Every match was going to be full of trashtalk and hitting the low-hanging fruit. Min-jae, IMMUNE, and the rest of the guild were popular for their guides, how-tos and entertaining matches as they demolished other players and guilds in PvP and guild wars.
Before he closed off the game, he saw one message pop up in the corner. HJKaioss77.