Chapter 6

“Hello. My name is Shin Da-eun.”

If Da-eun were to start her self-introduction, nine out of ten would begin with this sentence.

“I am 26 years old and a streamer broadcasting on FishSik.”

Next would likely be a simple introduction of personal details.

Among streamers, there are quite a few who do not want to reveal their identity.

Some of Da-eun’s colleagues also hide their faces or keep their identities secret because of negative perceptions about being a streamer.

If personal details are revealed, troublesome matters could arise, and even though perceptions have improved compared to the past, the look in people’s eyes often changes when they learn about the profession.

Da-eun had experienced this herself, so she could fully understand her colleagues who hid their occupations.

Nevertheless, the reason she reveals her job is partly because she had shown her face since she started broadcasting, and also because she does not want to be tied down by such things.

Da-eun’s mindset has permeated her broadcasts, and her content and videos have become themed around freedom and healing.

“This year marks five years since I started broadcasting, and my streaming name is ‘Joanie,’ which I derived from the English word ‘Journey’ as I love traveling.”

She loves to travel.

This is a sentence that holds the most significance in Da-eun’s life.

To name her streamer persona after a journey.

Since her youth, she had traveled whenever she could, both domestically and internationally, and her parents supported her silently, understanding her passion.

Given that she had been a child who was often sickly, what did money matter when she could finally run around healthily?

Da-eun actually had a tough time dissuading her parents from supporting her even more out of concern for her.

For Da-eun, Silia Online was a revolution.

“Wow…!”

The sunlight wrapping around her skin, the wind gently caressing her hair, the soft earth felt through her shoes.

Everything felt no different from reality.

Da-eun enjoyed the refreshing nature that was hard to feel in real life.

And she sensed it.

She was completely captivated by this enchanting world.

***

A week after the first discovery.

— “Ugh!”

“Healer, you’re dead!”

A week later.

“Just die already!”

— “Hey, crazy boss! Be reasonable!”

… A few more days later.

— “How did you die?”

— “I got my head sliced off in one blow. What about you?”

— “He destroyed my heart.”

— “Wow… But why is your tone like that?”

— “I, foreigner. Not used to Korean.”

— “No way, when did the big data auto-translation module come out? That’s nonsense!”

— “I, didn’t understand. Korean is difficult.”

— “Crazy concept player…!”

Among players, the Gravekeeper was considered an impossible boss to conquer at the moment, but could someday be the key clue to clearing the game.

It was an NPC designed to prevent players from progressing. Or perhaps it was a significant blunder by Demoninus, the company that created Silia Online.

Many players gave up on clearing it, and the remaining players were divided into two groups.

Those who continued to challenge for the shining honor of a First Kill or First Clear or those who entered “the mode of complete enjoyment.”

[Dragon’s Tail Raid Group, Declaring to Give Up on Clear]

[Today’s Mad Movie of the Gravekeeper Shot by Me]

[Shouldn’t it be called a funeral director instead of a gravekeeper?]

What kind of gravekeeper buries people directly?

[Comment]

—I create my own work.

┗ So it’s self-employed then.

[Achieved 2-Minute Solo as the Gravekeeper]

(Timer.jpg) Sёarᴄh the NôᴠelFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“It’s nothing much, lol.”

[Comments]

—??? How did you do that?

—Hacker, I’m reporting you, bye;

┗ Does Demoninus look like a hacker to you, idiot?

┗ “Real.”

—Isn’t the current first-place engineering student unable to clear in under 2 minutes?

┗ Yeah, that’s right.

[Guide] Achieving 2-Minute Clear as the Gravekeeper

First of all, you don’t need any buffs or prior preparations. Even if you apply buffs, you won’t get to hit at all, and unless you’re a tank, you’ll die in one hit anyway. Just tossing in any weapon helps you last longer.

Once you enter the boss room and enter combat mode, the very first thing to do is to head to the open area. If you successfully reach the open area, just sit there and enjoy the Last Supper, lol. You can wait until you finish eating.

Just a reminder: if you sit in the flowerbed instead of the open area, you’ll die instantly, so be careful.

[Comments]

—Lmao, wtf, lol.

—This is ridiculous, lol.

—How to become a ghost with good looks, please tell me.

—I rushed here thinking it was a guide, and this is what I find, lol.

—Isn’t the Gravekeeper just watching in disbelief?

—?? I followed what this post said, but I died as soon as I took out the food from my inventory?

┗ Did you do it properly? I mentioned in the main text that sitting in the flowerbed is a big no.

┗ I checked it’s the open area, so what happened?

┗ No screenshots or video?

┗ Yeah, I didn’t take any.

┗ Then I don’t know either. Just consider it bad luck.

┗ Ugh; it stinks of bad luck.

—Actually, it was an environmentalist.

┗ “Kill the bastard ruining nature.”

┗ That’s… quite persuasive…!

A community filled with various antics and jokes.

However, the enthusiasm for the Gravekeeper was clearly cooling down.

[Basic Magic Operations]

[The Gravekeeper’s Reasons for Running Away]

[About the Demon Race araboza]

[101 Reasons Why the Knight Can Never Defeat the Sniper]

Since a few days ago, the mentions had started to dwindle, and now there was a clear difference compared to its peak period.

There was no clear progress, let alone a proper clear, so it was natural for the enthusiasm to die down. If things continued this way, it was obvious that the boss would be remembered as poorly designed and forgotten by players.

Yeah, unless something unexpected happened.

***

“Ugh… guys, is this really the right way?”

—Yeah, it is.

—Just go wherever you want~.

—Why do you keep asking when you’re not going to believe it? This is the third time.

—I’m already a user who died from frustration.

“Seriously, this is strange!”

Usually, the chat atmosphere during Joanie’s broadcasts is occasionally playful, but overall, it’s quite mild.

Given the calm nature of her streams, there isn’t much reason to curse, and even when some troublemakers come in to stir things up, they get blocked immediately.

—Message deleted.

—Message deleted.

—Can this person make it within today? (Actually don’t know.)

But today, the mood in the chat was quite different from usual.

No one was defending or agreeing; everyone was throwing stones.

As she blocked those who crossed the line, Joanie looked up.

“Is it really right to call this a path?”

What is a path, anyway?

By dictionary definition, it’s a space created on the ground that people, animals, or vehicles can pass through.

There are deeper meanings, but let’s put those aside for now—

“Isn’t it too dense…?”

This isn’t the deep woods where I wanted well-paved asphalt or sidewalk paths.

But if it’s going to be called a path, at least it should be passable, right?

What lay before Joanie’s eyes was a scene of thick trees and grass, along with a rugged mountainous landscape.

‘They said the path was rough, but I didn’t expect it to be like this…’

Joanie sighed deeply as if the ground were sinking beneath her.

“The engineering students who try this must have passed through here every time they died. Wow, I really have to acknowledge that.”

It takes quite a while to get to the nearest resurrection point, and even when they arrive, an exciting hike awaits them.

Joanie thought it wouldn’t be strange for an ordinary person to get annoyed and give up.

—So when do we go? When do we go? When do we go?

—At this rate, let’s just sleep well at the inn and go. It’s dangerous to hike at night; a tiger might come and get you.

—Did you just come from the Joseon Dynasty?

“Alright, fine. I’m going.”

Denying reality, she finally stepped into the treacherous mountain terrain.

“But didn’t anyone think about making a path? That would make sense, right?”

—The engineering students are too busy trying to die.

“Well, that makes sense.”

Instead of making a path, they’d probably just bash their heads against it once more.

Joanie easily accepted this reasoning.

Panting while climbing the mountain, she took a moment to catch her breath and wiped the beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

“Wow, this is really steep. I feel like at least one person must have thought about wanting to set fire to it.”

—???

—What?

“Oh, no! I’m not saying I would do that, just that there could be someone who might think that!”

—<<<< Someone like that.

—When someone says “a friend,” it usually means it’s about themselves.

—If you want to get chased out after receiving a permanent assassination order in Liberi, that might not be so bad.

“What’s a permanent assassination order?”

—If you kill a lot of NPCs or accumulate bad deeds, you get one.

—You get permanently blacklisted from the Liberi registry and can’t rejoin. All NPCs become hostile, and you can’t use the resurrection points affiliated with Liberi, plus various penalties piled on.

—They even periodically give quests to kill you to other players.

“…So it’s just telling you to quit the game?”

Considering there can only be one character that can be created and that deletion and recreation are impossible, it was a rather harsh punishment.

—Killing hostile NPCs doesn’t matter, but if you kill a lot of villagers or such NPCs, that happens.

—Seeing how you can’t respawn after dying once makes it seem like they’re discouraging you from doing so.

“So that kind of system exists…”

Joanie found it quite surprising that such a system was present in Silia Online, known for its high degree of freedom.

“I thought in Silia Online you could do whatever you wanted without it being an issue.”

—There’s speculation that they did it to increase realism, but opinions seem to vary.

—Still, under normal circumstances, you won’t receive an assassination order. You usually get a warning first.

—Is it not psychotic to massacre NPCs in a game? What’s the point of tolerating psychos?

—So does that mean that great car thieves only do this game for psychos? It could be like that since it’s just a game.

“Hey, hey, don’t fight. If you fight, you’ll get banned?”

Joanie hurriedly closed the door to the arena, which was about to open.

After locking it securely, she issued a stern warning, keeping her eyes peeled in case someone tried to come through the door.

“Anyway, are all those people under permanent assassination orders? They said they received one. If they’ve paid the price, then there’s no need for further discussion. If you want to argue about it, take it up with the game company, not my stream.”

There are various ways to enjoy a game, so it’s not possible to clearly divide what’s right or wrong.

Unless it’s bug-related play that exploits the system, is it really fair to criticize someone for using the systems that have been implemented in the game?

In reality, this was a difficult issue with many discussions taking place.

Considering the severe penalties, it was evident that the game company didn’t want players to engage in such behavior. However, since it wasn’t an external sanction but an internal one, Joanie thought it shouldn’t be a problem.

She also felt a certain dislike towards players who enjoyed indiscriminate slaughter.

“By the way, we’re almost there, right? It feels like we’ve been walking for a long time.”

—We should be coming up on it soon.

—How come we haven’t encountered any mobs?

—It’s fortunate we haven’t; if we had, we’d have to see the oven again.

—Oh…

“…”

That was true.

According to the information, the mobs that appeared on this mountain were of quite a high level, so it wouldn’t be easy for her, at her low level, to take them on.

Especially since she didn’t focus on combat and lacked proficiency.

“Don’t say anything that could jinx it. Whenever someone does, something happens-”

Kieeeek!

“…said that….”

—Hahaha!

—You’re doomed!

—Runnnnn!!!!!!

Words become seeds.

Is there a situation that fits that proverb better than the current one?

No sooner had her words ended than a monster with the head of a chicken appeared before Joanie: the Cockatrice.

Moreover, it was a flying mob that wasn’t even a good match for her.

“Um, I don’t plan to harm you, so can you just let me go?”

Caw! Caw!

“…Yeah, that’s not happening.”

—They said they have plans to harm you.

—Please press X to express your condolences.

—X

Unfortunately, the Cockatrice didn’t seem willing to engage in conversation with Joanie.

Should she flee? It was obvious she’d be caught and killed in no time.

Accepting death? Then she’d have to make the long journey back to the resurrection point from here.

If she encountered another mob on the way, she might have to embark on the same journey all over again.

And….

‘I don’t want to be hurt.’

Joanie gritted her teeth and drew her sword.

The chat was erupting with all sorts of opinions, but she didn’t pay any attention.

‘I can do this.’

She just needed to remain calm and respond to the motions.

Her grip tightened on the sword, the bones in her hand standing out starkly white.

She took a deep breath in and out.

After repeating that process about three times.

Kyaak!

“…!”

‘It’s coming!’

The Cockatrice charged at her.

With her focus honed to the limit, Joanie perceived the Cockatrice’s movements in slow motion.

The right leg pushed off the ground, followed by the left.

The wings drawn back were tense, ready to strike at any moment.

The head, with its deadly gaze fixed on her, separated from its body and slid away—

“…Huh?”

Whump!

The head of the Cockatrice that was charging at her suddenly flew into the sky.

The headless body fell to the ground, red blood gushing from the severed neck.

Tap.

Accepting the sudden change in situation, Joanie stared blankly, and a dark shadow lightly descended before her.

“…Gravekeeper!”

The figure she had seen countless times in the community stood prominently before her.

—Wow, he showed up;

—The Gravekeeper actually came dun..dun..dun..

—What is this? Why is he saving her?

“…I don’t really know.”

Anyway, she was alive, so wasn’t that enough?

The tension that had gripped her body relaxed, giving way to a sense of relief.

However, it was still too early to feel at ease.

“….”

“Wait a second!”

The ongoing combat state and the sword aimed at her.

Even someone oblivious could understand what that meant.

Though the old sword looked like it might break at any moment, Joanie knew that countless players had returned to the resurrection point because of that very sword.

Knock.

Swallow.

A drop of blood fell from the sword, and Joanie gulped.

“Wait a second! Time out!”

Just like other players had tried to talk to the Gravekeeper, there was no response.

One step.

Two steps.

The Gravekeeper moved closer.

Feeling like the Grim Reaper was approaching, Joanie’s heart raced madly, and without realizing it, she shouted out loudly.

“Wait a second!”

Suddenly.

The Gravekeeper halted his steps.

-“…‘Granick’?”

At that moment, a gentle girl’s voice unique to young girls flowed from behind the cape.

“…?!”

—???

—???

—????

—!!!!

Joanie and the viewers’ minds went blank.