Chapter 108

“Excuse me.”

At Theo’s call, the player who had been performing a series of violent movements against a scarecrow turned around, gasping for breath. Wiping the beads of sweat forming on their forehead and catching their ragged breath, the player scanned Theo from head to toe before asking.

“What do you want?”

“Where did you learn how to use that weapon like that?”

“?”

Frowning at the abrupt question, the player looked Theo up and down again with an annoyed expression. They rested their bow on their shoulder with a thud and spoke sarcastically.

“What’s it to you where I learned it?”

One of Theo’s eyebrows twitched upward.

“I’m asking because it does matter. Where did you learn it?”

The player looked at Theo suspiciously after hearing that it mattered. “You really want to know?” they asked, snickering with a regretful face. They rubbed their thumb and index finger together in a universal gesture for money—“Nothing’s free in this world,” they added pompously.

Seeing them demand money made the blood rush to Theo’s head instantly. Did this mean people were buying and selling his growth method? Theo roughly swatted away the player’s hand as it waved flippantly in front of his face, then pulled out his own bow.

“Is this information you traded for?”

The player flinched for a moment after having their hand struck. However, seeing the bow Theo had drawn, they made a face as if they understood the situation.

“I guess you’re a bow-user too. You seem pretty desperate to know, but even so, extortion is a bit much, don’t you think?”

“Extortion?”

“You’re trying to rip my info off for free right now. That’s extortion. What are you, a thug?”

Theo’s grip tightened on his bow. Veins and knuckles bulged from the sheer pressure of his grip, and his hand began to tremble slightly.

“Hyung…”

Blaine, who had been watching from behind, called out to Theo in a worried tone. That voice acted as the fuse. Theo swung his bow and smashed the scarecrow next to him. With a critical hit sound effect that roared through the training grounds, the half-destroyed scarecrow collapsed pathetically.

Startled by the sudden outburst as if they had been burned, the player quickly looked back and forth between Theo and the scarecrow. It was an unbelievable result—destroying a scarecrow in a single blow, and by swinging a bow like a club no less. The player looked at the bow in Theo’s hand and then back at their own, before recoiling with a pale face.

The power was on a completely different level. There was no way someone could achieve that level of mastery with information that had been released only three days ago. There was an original. And that original was undoubtedly the person standing before them, who, judging by the reaction, was clearly not the one who had shared the info. Most likely, their growth method had been stolen or hijacked.

The player hurriedly tucked away their shabby bow and stammered in a panicked voice.

“I-I didn’t buy the info. It was… it was on the growth forum! I was just trying to copy it because it looked interesting!”

“Growth? The growth forum?”

“Yes, yes! The method was posted there for everyone to see… There are plenty of other people trying to copy it besides me!”

Theo immediately pulled up his system window and entered the game’s growth forum. He scrolled through every post from the last three days until his hand stopped at a specific title.

‘Revealing a New Type of Archer Growth Method.’

Staring at the title as if he wanted to kill it, Theo opened the post. There, written out in plain sight, was the exact growth method he had developed to switch from long-range to melee after obtaining the Eternal Fog.

As he read through the post with bloodshot eyes, he discovered a name that was utterly atrocious.

Author: Jurz

Furthermore, Jurz had even falsely announced that this growth method was something he had conceived, researched, and invented himself. It felt like something exploded inside Theo’s head.

“That son of a bitch!”

Gritting his teeth as the harsh words escaped him, Theo’s bloodshot eyes widened as he quickly called out Jurz’s name.

But Jurz had predictably blocked him. The anger swirling within him with no outlet made Theo feel dizzy.

When Theo staggered, unable to contain his rage, Blaine rushed over and quickly supported him.

“Hyung, are you okay?”

Theo leaned on Blaine’s arm for a moment to compose himself. He took deep, steady breaths, but the more he thought about it, the more his blood boiled. Finally, before anyone could stop him, Theo bolted from the spot and ran off.

“Hyung? Hyung!”

A startled Blaine chased after Theo in a panic, but he couldn’t keep up with him at full sprint. Having lost sight of Theo, Blaine stomped his feet in frustration, not knowing what to do, before hurrying toward the guild house.

Gasping for air, Blaine arrived at the guild house and rushed toward the central hall. The guild members, who had been sitting around the central hall table enjoying a leisurely time, waved happily at Blaine. However, seeing his disheveled state and the fact that he appeared alone without Theo, they all stopped what they were doing at once.

“What’s going on? Why are you back alone?”

Father stood up and scanned the area behind Blaine as she asked. She had been curious ever since her conversation with Theo had been cut short, and now Blaine had appeared without him. It was incredibly strange.

Meeting Father’s worried gaze, Blaine hurriedly blurted out everything that had happened at the training grounds. Upon hearing the news, everyone simultaneously pulled up their system windows.

The room went silent as they all scoured the growth forum. However, the silence didn’t last long.

“Wow… Wow! This crazy bastard!”

A murmur spread, ignited by Marco’s voice which trembled with rage.

“Is this guy a total psycho or what?”

“Who does he think he is, leaking this? And why did he write it like he’s the original creator?”

Voices mixed with absurdity and shock erupted from all directions. Some tried to whisper Jurz to demand an explanation, but they were either blocked or received no answer.

Father was among those who were blocked. Since Jurz couldn’t possibly know every member of their guild, it seemed he had specifically blocked only the users he recognized. This meant he had anticipated this exact situation. The fact that he went through with it despite knowing the consequences suggested clear malicious intent.

“I mean, why did he even tell him…?” Father muttered. She wasn’t saying Theo was at fault. How could he have known something like this would happen? While Jurz was clearly the villain for exploiting someone else’s information, Theo’s tendency to give away his growth method so easily was a bit frustrating.

I told him to at least take some money for it.

Father swallowed a sigh and turned to Holanghee.

“I’ll go find Theo first.”

“Do you even know where Sweetie is?”

“He probably went to find Jurz.”

“And do you know where that brat is?”

“I’ll find out if I go to their guild house.”

Father searched for Jurz using the user search function and viewed his profile to find his guild. The guild name was ‘Edom.’ It was a guild based in Gerda, the capital of the Tiernan region.

After Father left the guild house to hunt down Jurz’s guild, the remaining members gathered together and began a massive reporting campaign against Jurz’s post, leaving a flood of rebuttals in the comments. Feeling like they needed more hands, they spread word of the situation to their acquaintances and requested reinforcements. It was the birth of a massive comment army.

Driven by a single-minded determination to catch Jurz, Theo had sprinted all the way to Gerda, leaving even Blaine behind. Standing before the Edom guild house, he took a deep breath. It wasn’t a breath to calm his nerves, but one to stoke his fury even further.

I will make sure this son of a bitch faces a miserable retribution.

After Theo sent a visit request and waited, the guild house door opened, and a player poked their head out.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for someone named Jurz.”

“Jurz hyung?”

The player stared intently at Theo. Then, they opened the door wide and stepped aside.

“Come on in.”

Theo gave a slight nod as he passed the player and stepped inside. The Edom guild house wasn’t large; the guild seemed smaller than he had expected. The players huddled inside looked at Theo with eyes full of curiosity.

The concentrated attention was heavy, but Theo didn’t care as he scanned the interior. He met the eyes of every person there, searching for his target, until he spotted Jurz sitting with his chin resting on his hand, looking at him with a bewildered expression.

Found you. A manic laugh threatened to escape him. In the blink of an eye, Theo drew his bow and used a movement Action to lunge right in front of Jurz, swinging his bow.

“Aaaack!”

Terrified by the sudden attack, Jurz narrowly dodged. Instead of hitting Jurz, Theo’s bow smashed the table he had been sitting at.

“Wh-what? Why are you doing this!”

Turning pale at the sight of the table split in half and collapsing helplessly, Jurz scrambled to create some distance. However, Theo kicked him to the floor, pulled out a bolt, and pinned him down.

“You’re asking because you don’t know?”

As Theo aimed the bolt right under his chin, Jurz desperately grabbed Theo’s hand and shouted to his stunned guild members.

“Wh-what are you doing? Someone stop this guy!”

Only then did the Edom guild members hurriedly start trying to pull Theo off. However, Theo easily knocked down the members trying to stop him and suppressed Jurz once again.

The two began to scuffle, rolling around on the floor. Infuriated by Jurz’s violent resistance and his repeated cries of ‘Why are you doing this’—as if he hadn’t done anything wrong—Theo slammed his elbow into Jurz’s temple instead of using the bolt.

Jurz let out a scream as his head snapped to the side from the impact. He looked up at Theo with eyes filled with terror. At that moment, someone grabbed Theo’s arm and shouted urgently.

“Wait a minute! Wait! That’s not Jurz hyung! It’s someone else, please calm down!”

“?”

Theo looked up; it was the player who had first opened the door. What did they mean, it wasn’t Jurz? Theo looked down at Jurz, who was now on the verge of tears.

“Why are you doing this to me…?”

As it turned out, this was a player named Bingie, who had swapped appearances with Jurz using a Shuffle Ring (A magic item used to swap appearances with another player). Theo had to apologize over and over again to the sobbing Bingie, who wouldn’t stop wiping away his tears.