Chapter 7
Hunter Gallery.
Korea's largest anonymous community, where hunters from all over the country gathered.
In public or in front of cameras, hunters usually had to be mindful of how the public saw them.
Outside, they were endlessly gentlemanly and polite, but even they needed a little freedom.
Their daily routine: hiding behind anonymity and freely posting garbage.
They found a sense of liberation in the community.
And now, a hot topic was making the rounds on the Hunter Gallery.
Naturally, the hottest topic was the first-floor NPC.
[Title: The First-Floor NPC Is a Hunter Playing a Character. No Counterarguments Accepted]
Author: Anon
Content:
(Close-up of white oversized T-shirt 1.jpg)
(Close-up of white oversized T-shirt 2.jpg)
You idiots are all praising it as an NPC. Wake up.
Anyone who's been around the tower knows NPCs don't change their appearance.
They say you can roll around in a mud pit one day and be perfectly fine the next.
But look at that close-up.
See how grimy and stained it is?
When I went to the first floor recently, I deliberately offered it dumplings with chili oil to check.
See that red mark on its chest where it looks like someone tried to wipe it off?
That's chili oil.
So it's not an NPC, just an attention-seeking hunter playing a character. gg.
Comments
ㄴAnon: True, would an NPC's clothes get stained?
ㄴAnon: Talk sense, seriously. At best, it looks like a middle schooler. You think it can fight like that?
ㄴAnon: lol, that's convincing. It really does look like a chili oil stain. Bet they tried to wash it off lol
ㄴSS Above S-Rank: Bullshit, how is that chili oil? Isn't that just blood splatter? What a reach.
ㄴQueen's Devotee: Our guild leader saw it and said it's definitely an NPC since there's no recoil when it casts magic.
ㄴAnon: Isn't your guild leader a nobody? What do they know?
ㄴQueen's Devotee: Our guild leader is S-rank, you moron.
ㄴAnon: Wow, lucky you, having an S-rank guild leader. No proof, so what are you?
ㄴAnon: All you ever say is S-rank lol. Show proof lol
ㄴAnon: Had spicy pork for lunch today. It was salty as hell.
ㄴWant to Quit: Goddamn, I really don't want to go on a raid tomorrow. Should I just take the day off?
ㄴMonster-Slaying Chimp: Isn't that chili oil stain a dead giveaway? I'd say there's a 99% chance it's a roleplaying nutjob.
As expected, the topic had been rolling along just like that.
Chaos incarnate, with everyone arguing that they were right.
Han Seong-woo also carefully checked the featured posts.
The general mood in the gallery was leaning toward the attention-seeking hunter theory.
'I should set the record straight.'
Just then, the video editing was finished.
He immediately jumped into the fray.
[Title: I've Come to End This Fight (Video Evidence)]
Author: Best Driver
Content:
(NPC in a fairy outfit.jpg)
(Video of NPC killing a boar with a dagger.mp4)
(Video of boar carcasses disappearing in front of NPC.mp4)
(Video of lunchboxes disappearing in front of NPC.mp4)
Today on the fourth floor, I almost got killed after being chased by a bunch of pigs.
If not for the NPC, the pigs would've eaten me.
I'd seen it use Fireball in an earlier video, but this time it used some weird skill like Yondu's arrow.
Anyway, thanks to it, I'm alive.
Not gonna say much. Watch the video.
Summary
It's freaking strong. At least A-rank?
Items and corpses disappear right before your eyes.
Definitely an NPC. If you disagree, you're wrong.
Also, I think its pattern changed.
In the previous video, it took junk items, but it got super excited when I gave it food.
It accepts items from the real world, too.
Newbies should bring some food and build up its affinity ahead of time, yeah?
The post's views skyrocketed at an alarming speed as soon as it went up.
Comments
ㄴTower Climber: Whoa, look at the items disappearing. It's real.
ㄴAnon: What the hell was that, piercing all those boars? The firepower's insane lol
ㄴAnon: I told you, right? Is that how a person moves? The items disappearing looks like a system effect.
ㄴAnon: Isn't that AI? This looks so fake.
ㄴAnon: Look at this armchair expert lol. Even with proof shoved in their face, they keep denying it.
ㄴTower Climber: Here comes another 'it's fake' guy lol. Probably the same dude who was going on about chili oil earlier.
ㄴBest Driver: Your IQ is showing lol. This is the original drone footage. Keep barking if you want me to prove it outside the police station.
ㄴWant to Quit: Ah, carry players, stop going on strike. All the newbies are going to die.
ㄴSoup-Rice Addict: But damn, the outfit change is so cute lol.
Three high-quality videos filmed from fairly close range.
Plenty to use as evidence.
On top of that, the videos showed overwhelming firepower, with monster corpses—and lunchboxes—vanishing into thin air.
The scales had already tipped toward the NPC camp.
The gallery members arguing it was a roleplayer gradually lost ground.
And so, the gallery reached a conclusion.
'That little girl is an NPC created by the tower system.'
They hadn't exchanged opinions, but they'd reached an unspoken consensus.
1.
Nebula Guild lounge.
Guild Leader Yoo Se-ah had just returned after a tedious, high-minded negotiation with the Hunter Management Bureau.
She sank deep into the plush sofa.
A soft sigh escaped her.
"Phewㅡ."
Just as she was about to close her eyes for a moment from fatigue...
The lounge door opened, and guild members hurried over.
"Guild Leader! You really need to see this video."
At the guild member's excited insistence, Yoo Se-ah calmly accepted the tablet without showing any annoyance.
What played on the screen was a video of the NPC she'd seen before.
Or was this the next video?
ㅡ Pop! Pop! Pop!
In the video, a dagger threaded with red string tore through the air like a living creature.
Each time the dagger traced a path, boars dropped one after another....
And after the hunt, the corpses and lunchboxes vanished into thin air?
Yoo Se-ah watched the whole thing, her eyes widening in surprise.
'That's... magic?'
A dagger that flew as if targeted, with no casting.
There were no signs of mana, either.
It was an occurrence that couldn't be explained unless it was the tower's system.
"This is the same first-floor NPC from before, right? They say it appeared on the fourth-floor field!"
"Its clothes look like a fairy's now. Its weapon changed to a dagger, too. Doesn't it seem like it leveled up?"
The guild members chattered excitedly.
Yoo Se-ah's brow furrowed.
'Leveled up? Fourth floor?'
Usually, NPCs inside the tower were bound to a specific floor and area, weren't they?
An NPC that climbed the tower on its own, changed its equipment, and even grew stronger?
It was a pattern she'd never encountered before.
"Everyone says it got a lot stronger than before. What do you think, Guild Leader?"
Yoo Se-ah, who had been staring intently at the tablet, calmly spoke.
"At least A-rank."
"Gasp!"
"It might even be stronger than that. The destructive power is one thing, but a targeting skill makes no sense."
Yoo Se-ah tapped the NPC on the screen with her finger.
"Just a few days ago, this NPC was firing Fireballs. Then overnight, it went from B-rank to A-rank."
"...."
"That's a rate of leveling up that's absolutely impossible for a hunter."
At Yoo Se-ah's answer, the guild members started chattering excitedly again.
"The topic has completely shifted that way now. Everyone's wondering how many floors the NPC will climb."
"How many floors...."
Yoo Se-ah looked at the screen again.
An absurd growth curve, going from the first floor to the fourth all on its own in just a few days.
'If this growth rate continues....'
It seemed like it could easily break through floor twenty.
No, if things went well, it might even solo its way into the thirties.
The current top-ranked hunters in Korea were stuck in the fifties.
'And in that situation, an NPC is growing on its own and chasing after them?'
How should she interpret this?
What on earth was the tower's intention in creating an NPC?
No, she didn't have time to worry about that right now.
'I need to solve the food problem first....'
"That's interesting. Thanks for showing me."
Yoo Se-ah left the guild members behind and headed to her office.
2.
A secluded mountaintop in the fourth-floor public field.
Right now, I'm hard at work stirring the pill-refining furnace.
The enormous pill-refining furnace Jade-Cold Ice Empress sent through the Heavenly Dao Network.
It came up to my chest, and I could barely stir it with a ladle.
"Eeegh~! Ngh!"
It's hot. And I'm about to die from exhaustion.
They said it's a vessel used to make pills.
Should I call it a giant cauldron that comes up to my waist?
Anyway, all I had to do was keep stirring the thick liquid inside so it wouldn't burn.
The only problem was that the furnace was enormous compared to me.
More than that, why was I doing this backbreaking labor? Pill... pill refining?
I'd heard it was a technique for making medicine.
"Is this enough?"
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: Yes. Add more spirit charcoal there.
"Spirit charcoal? You mean regular charcoal, right?"
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: It is not charcoal. It differs from the common materials of the lower realm, so call it spirit charcoal.
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: You're doing well. Be careful not to burn your hands.
ㄴHeavenly Secrets Pavilion Master: It looks like it'll work this time.
I didn't have time to pay attention to everyone constantly chattering.
I'd already failed three times, after all.
They said I stirred too fast, or the opposite, too slowly.
The fire was too strong, or too weak.
I put too much spiritual power in, or too little.
Why were there so many things I had to get just right?
There was so much to worry about that I could only half-read the chat.
No, more than that, what kept circling through my mind was the term "spirit charcoal."
'Isn't charcoal just charcoal? Is spirit charcoal something different? And that spirit ginseng I bought on the Heavenly Dao Network earlier looked just like regular ginseng.'
Was it like K-food and K-pop? Did they just want to make the name known?
Was sticking "spirit" in front of things just a trend over there?
'It's really lame to try to sell it by giving it a fancy name.'
No, more than that, the others were acting a little weird, too.
I was butchering the boar just as they'd taught me, but they were making a huge fuss beside me.
ㄴTaebaek Sword Lord: Child, be careful with your hands.
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: The Three-Sword Ruler is doing the cutting by itself anyway. Why are you making a big deal out of it?
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: Isn't something strange about that boar's inner core? "Low-level"? Doesn't a low-level hunting ground mean the cultivation realm is low?
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: Something is definitely strange. It looks as large as the spirit beasts you'd see in the Immortal Realm.
ㄴFive Azure Demon King: They sure are bigger than our kids.
ㄴHeavenly Secrets Pavilion Master: If you don't mind, could you send those to me? I'll send them back afterward.
"You want me to send them? Wait a moment. I'll send them when I'm done with this."
Did he want to eat some pork?
But hadn't they said this pork was needed to make spirit medicine?
"But isn't the pork needed to make spirit medicine?"
ㄴHeavenly Secrets Pavilion Master: I don't need that. Please send me the bones and inner core.
ㅡ Bubble bubble bubble
ㄴTaebaek Sword Lord: Child!! Get away!!
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: Hey, hey, get back!
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: No! Move farther away!
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: Hurry and retreat!
ㄴFive Azure Demon King: Is that so? Humans can't even withstand something like that?
ㄴHeavenly Secrets Pavilion Master: Get away!
ㅡ KABOOM!
I thought a grenade had gone off.
Weren't we making medicine?
I thought a bomb had dropped.
Still, fortunately, I'd listened to them and retreated, so I wasn't hurt.
The problem was that once they'd confirmed I was safe, they started dogpiling me.
This isn't some kind of show trial....
ㄴTaebaek Sword Lord: Pavilion Master, you bastard! Weren't you about to get the child hurt?!
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: I knew that guy would cause trouble one day.
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: If the child had been hurt, I'd have come all the way to where you are!
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: Isn't this because everyone kept saying useless things?
ㄴFive Azure Demon King: That guy only thinks about getting laid.
ㄴHeavenly Secrets Pavilion Master: Why is everyone blaming only me!!
Phew, the chat's gone wild again.
