Chapter 28

Theo hurried back through the Veil, heart racing, and froze when he reached his own side. He sucked in a sharp breath without meaning to—Noquia was under attack from the vigilantes.

The vigilantes must have gotten word that Noquia was in Ratteon and had marched in.

The guild members of Father and the Guest couldn’t handle NPCs like vigilantes, since their Murderer Tier was too low. Noquia fought desperately on her own, and as if waiting for the chance, Kilimanjaro and their allied guilds turned their focus on her too.

It became a chaotic free-for-all centered on Noquia. Attacks flew and clashed without pause—strikes, counters, blocks, ripostes—over and over again.

Noquia alone was dealing with hundreds of NPCs and dozens of enemy players, and she was finally hitting her limit. Father and Holanghee stood at her side, blocking and parrying the alliance’s attacks, but they couldn’t do a thing against the vigilantes.

It was a death trap. If she avoided the NPCs pressing from the front, the alliance struck from behind. Ranged attacks rained endlessly from above, and the moment she blinked, blades were already at her throat. The battlefield spun around her, dizzying and endless.

Noquia covered her mouth and gagged. She wanted nothing more than to collapse, declare surrender, and just sleep. What kind of glory was she chasing, breaking out of prison like this? Now she realized—the cell had been paradise compared to this.

Staggering under the weight of exhaustion, she suddenly felt her side explode. Noquia screamed and collapsed. Father and Holanghee turned to her in shock.

It had to be an attack. They quickly scanned the field and spotted Kim Na not far away. He had an Armor Bomb strapped to his arm and was aiming squarely at Noquia.

Father and Holanghee rushed forward, pale with panic, but the second shell was already in the air. Noquia braced, arms covering her face, body curling up. But no explosion came. No impact.

When she peeked her eyes open, the shell had landed on the ground completely intact.

“?”

She looked up and saw Blaine and Theo. Blaine’s gravity magic must have neutralized the projectile. Kim Na’s face was red with fury as he glared daggers at Blaine.

Theo extended a hand to Noquia. She grabbed it and pulled herself up. Grinding his teeth, Kim Na began firing shells wildly at them. Everyone braced themselves, each in their own way, preparing to deflect the bombardment. Theo checked that his Veil still lingered, then activated stealth.

He moved toward the spot where he had taken his first step, intending to slip past the enemy lines again and hit the backline archers. Just as he was about to go, a panicked voice rang out behind him.

“What the hell? Where am I?!”

Startled, Theo spun around—and faced the last person he expected.

“……”

“……”

It was Noquia.

The two of them stared at each other in stunned silence. Noquia, looking horrified, slowly glanced around before fixing her eyes back on Theo. Theo swept his gaze over her too, confusion all over his face—until he realized something.

He and Noquia were still holding hands.

Following Theo’s fixed stare, Noquia finally looked down. The moment she realized they were still holding hands, she flinched and tried to jerk away. But their hands wouldn’t come apart, as if they had been glued together.

“What the hell, this is gross!”

Noquia leaned back as far as she could, arm stretched stiffly forward, her face twisted in disgust.

“You think I’m enjoying this?”

Theo shot back flatly, then glanced at their joined hands, at the Veil around them, and then outside of it.

“Looks like if someone’s touching me, they get pulled into the Veil too…”

“Huh?”

Noquia’s awkward posture—her butt sticking out as she leaned back—looked ridiculous as she asked back. Theo, almost excited now, tugged on her hand.

“Hey, perfect. Let’s go out the other side!”

“What? Wait, what?!”

Theo didn’t bother to explain. He just yanked Noquia along, and before she knew it, she was standing dead center in the enemy backline.

Noquia’s eyes went wide at the sudden shift. The ranged fighters stationed there were just as stunned. They blinked at each other in confusion until Theo abandoned her, slipping back into the Veil with a shout.

“I’ll bring the others—kill everything in the meantime!”

Left behind alone in the middle of the enemy, Noquia looked a little dazed. She glanced back and forth between the ranged formation ahead and the Veil at her back. That was all the time the stunned enemies needed to regain themselves. Their spells and arrows flew first.

Projectiles rained down—arrows, spells, bombs, all crashing toward her. But Noquia didn’t panic. Instead, she smiled, almost thrilled, and tightened her grip on her daggers.

Meanwhile, Theo brought Father and Holanghee over one by one. If there had been time, he would’ve fetched Blaine too, but the Veil vanished after moving those two, cutting off any further transfers. Not that it mattered. It didn’t feel like they were short on allies. The enemy backline was collapsing in chaos, and the screams cutting through the night proved it.

The vigilantes, unable to find the suddenly vanished Noquia, just milled about helplessly. Theo, Blaine, and the remaining guild members calmly hunted down the alliance players who tried to flee back into town, waiting only for the moment of victory.

It came soon enough. The alliance’s core members fell, and the small fry scattered. Once the dust settled, Father promised to cover Noquia’s bail money, and Noquia, surprisingly obedient, allowed herself to be dragged away by the vigilantes.

The guild members of Father and the Guest exchanged small words of comfort—“Good work,” “That was rough,” “You did well”—then turned toward town to celebrate together. But just then, from among the bodies littering the ground, one surviving enemy spoke up, his voice sharp with warning.

“This incident—we’ll make sure it gets publicized!”

Everyone froze mid-step and turned to stare at him, their faces saying, ‘What nonsense is he on about now?’

His name was Chester, the guild master of Apophenia—one of the two guilds Kilimanjaro had recruited for this alliance.

Without a word, Father walked over and stood above him, looking down.

“We need to have a little talk, don’t you think?”

“?”

“Go respawn and come back. We’ll be waiting here.”

Father swept her gaze over the fallen enemies. Another voice cut in.

“And what guarantee do we have that you won’t just run off while we’re gone?”

That was Hanayu, guild master of Siesta, another guild in Kilimanjaro’s alliance. Father shrugged, as if saying, ‘Do as you please.’

“Then have the conversation while lying down.”

Chester and Hanayu exchanged a look, whispering silently to each other, then finally spoke.

“…We’ll talk like this, then.”

“…Suit yourselves. Now, tell me—what exactly are you planning to publicize?”

Chester’s eyes flicked toward Theo.

“One of your guild members, a player named Theo, is using hacks. We all saw it for ourselves during the fight.”

“And?”

“Stop using them, before we take this public.”

Father turned to Kim Na.

“Hey, didn’t you say you reported it to the admins? What did they say?”

Chester also glanced at Kim Na. Kim Na’s face burned red as he glared at Father, then exploded.

“You think we don’t know you’ve bribed the admins?!”

“What?”

“You’re such hotshots you can openly use hacks, and all we get back is a reply saying there’s no issue! I don’t know how you twisted the admins around your finger, but once we make this public, both you and those admins are screwed!”

Kim Na puffed up with smug triumph. Father barely held back a laugh, then asked with a straight face:

“If they said it’s not a problem, then isn’t it just… not a problem?”

“How can you look the other way when you’re blatantly using hacks?! This time it’s not just us—everyone else here saw it too! Don’t think you can deny it.”

“Hm…”

Father dragged out the sound, as if troubled. Seeing that, Kim Na, Chester, and Hanayu felt certain. They had them cornered, caught red-handed, and now they were panicking.

But after a moment of serious contemplation, Father burst out laughing. The laughter spread like wildfire to the guild members behind her, who clutched their stomachs and roared with mirth.

“Wh-what’s so funny?!”

“You can laugh right now?!”

“What exactly is the joke here?!”

Kim Na and Hanayu raised their voices in outrage, but Chester’s tone grew heavier, like a weight settling. He sounded angry now. Father kept laughing, then pointed at Theo.

“What does that look like to you?”

“?”

The three alliance leaders blinked, confused. They glanced at Theo, then back at Father, not understanding the question. Father smirked at their stupidity, then strolled over to Kim Na and nudged his head with her foot.

“That cloak—like it’s dissolving into mist—does that look normal to you? Ever seen anything like it before?”

“?”

Kim Na frowned. Sure, it looked unusual, but so what?

Chester, however, froze. His eyes widened as realization hit him. He sucked in a sharp breath and shouted.

“Wait—don’t tell me, it’s an Eternal?!”

Kim Na and Hanayu turned to him in shock, while Father and Theo simply shrugged.

“C-can you prove it?”

Father looked at Theo. Theo gave a nod, then raised his hand, conjuring up the ‘Eternal Fog’.

Chester, still lying on the ground, couldn’t access the detailed info, but he could at least confirm the item’s name: ‘Eternal Fog.’

It was the first Eternal Item he had ever seen in all his time playing. His body trembled greatly. Realizing his mistake, he quickly apologized.

“We’ve made a grave mistake. I’m truly sorry. If there’s any form of compensation you want, name it—we’ll do our best to meet it.”

Hanayu, still stunned speechless, bobbed their¹ head rapidly in agreement.

“There’s no need for compensation. Just make sure rumors like this don’t spread again. If you’ve been spreading false information, set the record straight.”

“Yes, we’ll do that. You have my word—”

“How do we even know that Eternal Item wasn’t bought with a bribe to the admins?!”

Kim Na cut Chester off with a furious shout.