Chris became furiously angry when she heard that I encountered a bad person while running solo play buses.
I was shocked at Chris asking about the elf user’s nickname, appearance, and personal information.
-You understand, right? Don’t run buses alone when unnie and unnie’s party members aren’t around, run with guild members. Unnie already told them, you know? To look after… ahem, to take good care of Rain when I’m not around.
Though solo buses that can take sub-customers besides the main customer earn a bit more gold per time, customer interaction alone is still difficult for me. Party play buses where task division is possible and can run faster are more comfortable.
The fastest way to become close with people in ‘Astria Online’ is, as expected, running dungeons together.
Chris, Bae Merong, Cherni, Deathly Death. Besides these four people who cherish me and have become close to Lee Seulbi too, I hadn’t particularly formed any relationships. But the ‘Red-White’ guild members are also comrades who conquered the Green Dragon together.
“I told you to get closer with guild members too.”
Chris is enough for me. But those are Chris’s words.
She says there’s a need to meet them one by one, run dungeons together and get to know each other.
-If Rain directly mingles and thinks everyone is a good person…
Though Chris trailed off, she seemed to want to broaden the circle of people around me.
I stood in front of the ‘Ice Palace of the Frozen Land’, waiting for Hopkins and his party members.
This time it’s a bus with two Fighters no less.
Stomp stomp.
Two sets of large footsteps.
I turned my head to greet them.
Two young Fighter men with large builds, ‘Red-White’ guild members.
“Uhahah! Rain-nim, please take care of us for today’s bus. Next to me is Hopkins party’s Fighter, ‘Gandal’.”
“Kahaha! Isn’t it reassuring to have two big guys?”
“Hello.”
I bowed to the two heartily laughing lumps, ‘Leroy Hopkins’ and ‘Gandal’, and created a party.
Glance.
And watching their reactions, I sent intense looks meaning ‘Please recruit customers, handle customer interactions, and receive gold. I’ll just do the sword work.’
“Uhahah!”
“Kekeke!”
The two Fighters looked at each other blankly, then started laughing heartily again.
“Seeing that the decades-old WOA, which was a PC online game, is still running, it seems the nostalgia for dungeon raid games is amazing even in this era.”
“Uhh, now almost the entire gamer user pool has moved to virtual reality. And an excellent alternative called ‘Astria Online’ has appeared. Did you know? My nickname ‘Leroy Hopkins’ is taken after a famous user from the classic raid game WOA.”
“Aha, I know that episode! He wiped the party while reheating chicken or something?”
Amazing. I can’t do things like that.
Hopkins, who was chatting non-stop with the middle-aged male customer, looked happy.
Gandal followed next to me and kept exclaiming in admiration at my play.
“Kehe, Rain-nim is really amazing. Even with two Fighters taking turns interrupting patterns and adding Strength Contest additional damage, the Shieldbearer’s HP is dropping faster.”
“…Well, it’s because I have a good weapon.”
“Kahaha! Astaroth, right? It’s a shame the World Boss respawn cycle seems quite long. The next World Boss encounter might be faster than the Green Dragon respawn. By the way, I’ve saved up a lot of gold to bid? Though not as much as Chris-nim.”
“Heh.”
I smiled slightly at Gandal’s joke. Gandal looked at me with a fatherly smile and cleared his throat.
They’re both people with good personalities.
And soon we faced the 2nd Named boss, ‘Lesser Demon’.
Hopkins and Gandal boldly stepped forward.
“In this elite dungeon, ‘Ice Palace of the Frozen Land’, the Fighter’s role is very important. Because it’s a dungeon where ‘status effect skills’ are fully used in gimmick breaking.”
“Though Rain-nim seems to break all three phantoms alone, with two Fighters it’ll be much easier for you. Kahaha!”
Swish.
They drew their axes and jumped at the ‘Lesser Demon’ simultaneously.
Thud.
The ‘Lesser Demon’ fell not long after.
“Oh.”
It was definitely comfortable. And fast.
Maybe for the 2nd Named boss, it might even be faster than running buses with Chris and Bae Merong unnies.
Though the damage output itself is lower than Chris’s party, the gimmick performance speed is very fast.
Since they created free damage time constantly while even applying status effects to the Named boss, there weren’t many patterns I had to pay attention to.
The two Fighters alternately bound the Lesser Demon’s movements with the ‘Strength Contest’ skill.
As soon as phantoms appeared from three directions after entering the special phase, the Fighters leapt in like an arrow and applied down and stun. I walked over to the remaining phantom and applied an aerial skill.
Clap clap clap.
I clapped in admiration at the Fighters’ performance.
“It’s comfortable.”
“Kehe, right?”
“We’ll make it so you can just do damage for the 3rd Named boss too.”
Fighters are so reliable.
“Kyaah!”
The 3rd Named boss, ‘Witch Frederica’, kept letting out fierce cries as if angry that the battle wasn’t going as she thought.
I really only did boss damage.
Gandal and Hopkins went around swinging their axes in circles, stepping on and erasing all the created cold floor signs.
The Fighter skill, ‘Whirlwind’.
The Whirlwind skill that assists Fighters who only have Backward Evasion as a movement skill also has movement speed increase and damage reduction attached.
The Fighters minimized damage from attacks through the damage reduction attached to Whirlwind.
It seems there’s even a function to deflect attacks depending on proficiency, but they seemed to have specced into the movement speed increase and damage reduction tree. Certainly, unless you’re in the tank position, that’s much better for gimmick performance purposes.
They say it’s the Fighter’s bread and butter, it’s a completely versatile skill.
Today’s morning bus was with Fighters throughout.
“Hello.”
“Oh, Rain-nim. Please take care of us today.”
“My little sister is this small too. Haah, I wish my sister had cuteness like Rain-nim.”
I puffed my cheeks at the Ranger ‘Disappointing’ who called me cute.
Of course, my appearance is pretty?
Well, it might be closer to cute than pretty?
I prefer being called cool though.
In the afternoon, the people running buses with me were the Ranger duo from ‘Disappointing’s party’.
Both Hopkins’s party and Disappointing’s party didn’t have Fighter or Swordsman classes suitable for the tank role, but in ‘Astria Online’ any class can perform the tank role.
Rather, the fact that classes other than sword-wielding ones perform the tank role was also proof of their excellent skills.
Two young Ranger men using the nicknames ‘Ko Seungwoo’ and ‘Disappointing’.
Disappointing had blue hair, Ko Seungwoo had green hair.
With two Rangers of similar height standing there with unusual hair colors, it makes an interesting picture.
“Oh?”
A fact I had overlooked during the Green Dragon raid because I just glanced and then clung tightly to Chris’s side.
The Ranger called ‘Disappointing’, his face is somehow familiar.
I stared at Disappointing’s grinning face.
Young man, blue hair, Ranger.
Didn’t he say he moved factions from the Betarion Empire to join the Red-White guild of the Alpharion Empire?
“Ah!”
Isn’t he the user who stole my egg during the Copopo egg delivery quest?
I jumped up pointing at him with my finger.
“Copopo egg!”
“Wah!”
Disappointing was startled like someone caught committing a big mistake.
The bus with the two Rangers wasn’t as comfortable as with the two Fighters.
Rangers close to pure dealers don’t have that many status effect skills. Naturally I performed quite a few gimmicks too. Still, they quickly erased one cold floor sign. I suppose Rangers having many movement skills deserves some points.
I accepted Disappointing’s apology. Stealing eggs a few times isn’t a mortal sin.
And I’m not narrow-minded enough to hold a grudge over something like that until now.
I ran buses with other guild members after that too.
Hopkins party’s Mage ‘Yeon Minah’, Elementalist ‘Full Moon’.
Disappointing party’s Mage ‘Red Hot Chicken’, Yin-Yang Master ‘Top Fishing Catch’.
“Hmm hmm.”
I accepted friend requests from guild members who ran buses with me today and organized their nicknames.
Though we can communicate through guild chat too, putting them in the friends list makes it feel a bit closer.
Fortunately everyone was a good person. They didn’t approach me too much either. However, I couldn’t prevent the unnies from dripping honey from their eyes while looking at my face.
More than that, their attitude of trying to learn by watching my play stood out. As expected of advance party users. They all had amazing desire for improvement.
The disappointing point is that there are few female users.
“Elementalist Full Moon unnie, Mage Red Hot Chicken unnie. Only two?”
I preferred unnies over male users.
If they don’t approach too pressingly, I’m willing to approach first and hold hands after becoming very close.
It seems there’s a need to accept more female users into the Red-White guild.
* * *
Beep, click.
The sound of the front door opening was heard, and Chris entered with a tired expression.
“Chris unnie.”
“Haah, unnie is home from work. Too late, right? Sorry~! Are you getting ready to sleep soon? Did you have fun with guild members today?”
“Yes.”
“Huhu, how was it? They’re all good people, right? Though unnie didn’t say, I even did in-depth interviews with each one?”
I chuckled.
If she had known Disappointing was the user who interfered with Rain’s ‘Copopo Egg Delivery’ quest, Chris might not have accepted him into the guild.
Well, I received an apology, so it’s fine now.
Chris scratched her face for a moment, then carefully began speaking as if saying something difficult.
“Um, so about that. It might be sudden but.”
“Yes?”
“Well, there’s talk among guild members about wanting to have an offline meeting.”
Offline meeting.
Online groups and users gathering offline.
Is she talking about meeting game friends in real life?
“If Rain is okay with it, I’d like to see guild members’ faces together too.”
“Ah.”
Chris seemed to want to broaden not only ‘Rain’s’ friend relationships, but ‘Lee Seulbi’s’ surrounding relationships too.
“Hmm…”
Though I’m someone who okays everything Chris says, this time I hesitated a bit.
Lee Seulbi.
My appearance in this world isn’t great enough to show others.
My body condition isn’t normal either.
Won’t they look at me with pitying eyes?