Chapter 231: 231 Tutorial
Was it because of the 1-star review bombing I did after seeing the developer’s comnts on social dia?
Or was it because I sent a long, translated email full of criticism through the 1:1 inquiry channel?
Perhaps it was because I wrote a three-part critique on a fan site and deleted all the guides I had written up until then.
But even so, I couldn’t just quit a ga I’d been obsessed with for years in a single day. As always, I fell asleep with the ga running, only to wake up in a cold back alley of this labyrinth city.
...It has been three days since I entered this ga world.
Ian, who had beco the player character of this ga, looked down at the rcenary city of Labyrinth from a hill overlooking the streets.
From early morning, rcenaries and rchants were busily passing by, preparing for their day.
As a form of escapism, he had wandered all over the city looking for a way out of this ga world, but there was no progress; only his ager initial starting funds had dwindled slightly.
In the end, Ian had no choice but to admit that there was no other way but to clear this ga.
As he watched the city, Ian began to move.
The world of ’Call of Labyrinth,’ the ga Ian had entered, was destined for destruction unless he, the player, helped.
Of course, Ian had played this ga so much he was sick of it, so if the difficulty was at a normal level, he could have cleared it easily with any sort of joke build.
The problem was that because he had played it so much, he had installed countless mods to the point where it was hard to find any trace of the original ga.
Various difficulty-increasing mods and item expansion packs installed to raise the trivial difficulty.
Additional boss and hidden boss mods to supplent the lacking boss fights.
...And as a bonus, an R-18 mod pack, which was the reason all the rcenaries in this city had been turned into beautiful girls.
The labyrinth he had to challenge for the clear was undoubtedly going to be a literal hellscape.
"Sigh... I should have installed an editor mod."
Of course, in the community, you’d often be mocked as a ’noob’ if such mods even showed up on your installed list.
Because of his pride as a veteran—and especially since he often had to take screenshots to post guides—Ian hadn’t left a single trace of any so-called ’cheat mods’ that would allow him to breeze through the ga.
The residents of this city probably couldn’t even imagine that an avatar of the outer cosmos, which had suddenly appeared in the deep levels of the labyrinth, was just waiting for the day to be released.
And all because the ga was supposedly ’too easy.’
He couldn’t be sure if clearing this ga would actually return him to his original world.
However, he had already wasted three days in this ga that had a ti limit.
There was no other clear-cut solution other than preparing to clear the ga before it was too late.
After walking for a few more minutes through the crowd, Ian arrived at his destination and slowly opened the door to the rcenary Recruitnt Office.
* * *
The labyrinth city ’Labyrinth’ is a city of rcenaries.
A place where so co to escape.
A place where so co with dreams of adventure and honor.
A place where so co holding the dream of striking it rich.
It was a daily occurrence here for countless new rcenary groups to be born and disappear.
And there, as usual, a new rcenary group was being ford.
Ian, who had been filling in the blanks of the docunt handed over by the receptionist, stopped his pen and looked up.
"Excuse ."
"Ye-Yes!"
The short, black-haired rcenary waiting behind Ian with an anxious face replied in a panic.
"Wha-What is it...? Did you perhaps change your mind?"
"No, it’s just that I need to write your na. Can you fill this part out?"
"Ah, yes!"
Ian held out the application for the new rcenary group and pointed to the mber section at the bottom.
The person who received the docunt was a rcenary nad Rin, whom Ian had gone to the recruitnt office and hired early this morning.
"Na... Rin. Place of birth..."
Rin, taking the pen, was carefully filling in the blanks one character at a ti with a tense expression, terrified that she might write sothing wrong and invalidate the application.
Poor equipnt that couldn’t even be called armor and a single cheap sword.
The way she stood frozen with a nervous face just for a rcenary group application made her look like a complete novice who had never even been on a single quest.
However, such a rcenary was the only kind Ian, a rookie rcenary captain who had also just opened his group, could afford to hire.
As Ian quietly watched Rin, faint text visible only to his eyes gradually beca clear, revealing Rin’s stats.
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Na: Rin
Level: 1
Affiliation: None
Traits: [Swordsmanship E] [Throwing D] [Frustrated Desire]
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She was the basic rcenary that could be selected in the tutorial after starting the ga, under the prompt ’Try hiring a rcenary.’
However, since rcenaries in this ga were basically randomly generated, even initial rcenaries had slightly different traits.
Among them, Ian had picked and chosen the most helpful one, selecting Rin—who had the [Throwing] trait that was useful in many ways in the early stages—as his initial mber.
...The problem was the last trait, [Frustrated Desire].
This wasn’t a trait originally in the ga; it was a trait derived from the R-18 mod he had installed separately.
It ant her desire levels accumulated easily, she was easy to seduce, and the effects of training were high.
It was a trait that could be considered useful in the early stages in... a different sense.
In particular, the mod creators’ obsession with detail for this ga was incredible, to the point where these elents were persistently integrated across various aspects of the ga system.
"...I should have installed an editor mod."
Since they provided no help in combat but took up a trait slot, the traits from this mod were the biggest headache, lowering the overall combat power of the rcenaries.
It was sothing he had always admired while playing, but for Ian, who now had to clear his own custom ’Hard Mode’ with these rcenaries, he could only regret why he had installed such a mod.
"I’m finished!"
"Yes, please give it here."
The receptionist, who had been waiting for the paperwork to be finished, quickly snatched the docunt from Rin’s hand.
After verifying the contents in an instant, the receptionist finally stamped the bottom of the docunt with a loud thud.
"Alright, the na is... Ian rcenaries. Registration is complete."
The receptionist, checking the na of the rcenary group with a slightly tired face, handed over the permit along with the two rcenary badges.
"I’ll look forward to your great performance."
Rin took her rcenary badge with sparkling eyes.
Having finally joined a rcenary group, Rin smiled as she looked down at the badge in her hand.
"We’re done, so could you move aside?"
"Ah, yes!"
"Next person."
But the employee, who had seen such a sight countless tis, chased Rin away from the counter with an expression of total indifference.
Rin, who had stepped aside after taking her share of the contract and rcenary badge, approached Ian and spoke while glancing at his face.
"Um, so, should I call you Captain? You can just call
Rin."
"Sure, Rin."
"I look forward to working with you!"
Rin bowed deeply toward Ian.
"I am, well... I’m from Rodenfell, and I’ve practiced swordsmanship a bit by reading books..."
Rin, who had been gauging his reaction on what to talk about first, began her self-introduction.
Originally, this was a conversation that should have happened during recruitnt, but Ian, who had approached after already verifying Rin’s abilities, had abruptly offered mbership without even asking what she was confident in.
Rin had accepted imdiately because she couldn’t miss the opportunity, but because of that, they were in a situation where they knew almost nothing about each other.
"Ah! I’ve caught a goblin that ca down to the village! You don’t have to worry about fighting!"
"I see... By the way, there was only one goblin, right?"
"Yes! I can easily win against sothing like a goblin!"
At the mont Rin was proudly telling the heroic tale of fighting and winning against a single goblin.
With a loud bang, the guild door suddenly swung open.
A rcenary who had rushed into the guild looked around at the faces of the people inside and shouted at the employees.
"Hey! Are there any D-ranks here right now?"
"Not at this hour."
"Why are the guys who usually slack off never around at tis like this!"
This ti of day, which was awkward for both accepting quests and returning after finishing them, was usually when paperwork like opening a rcenary group or registering for quests took place.
Inside the guild, there were only fledgling rcenaries who were just in the middle of setting up their groups.
"Did sothing happen? Mr. Chris."
"A request for backup from Outpost 3. Goblins have co down."
"There are no parties that can head out right now."
The one-eyed rcenary looking around the guild shouted, pointing his finger at the group of rcenaries including Ian, as if he had no choice.
"Can’t be helped. Hey, are you all E-rank there? Everyone, follow
out!"
"Huh?"
"It’s an ergency mobilization! Anyone who wants out, hand back your rcenary badge right now!"
A flustered atmosphere instantly spread among the novice rcenaries.
"Wh-What’s going on? I heard that monsters sotis co out of the labyrinth and attack the city... Could it be?"
Rin also asked Ian with a panicked expression, but Ian had a completely calm face.
An uproar had occurred as if it were a disaster, but this was the combat tutorial that began imdiately after signing the application.
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