Chapter 231: 231 Tutorial

Was it because of the 1-star review bombing I did after seeing the developer’s comments on social media?

Or was it because I sent a long, translated email full of criticism through the 1:1 inquiry channel?

Perhaps it was because I wrote a three-part critique on a fan site and deleted all the guides I had written up until then.

But even so, I couldn’t just quit a game I’d been obsessed with for years in a single day. As always, I fell asleep with the game running, only to wake up in a cold back alley of this labyrinth city.

…It has been three days since I entered this game world.

Ian, who had become the player character of this game, looked down at the mercenary city of Labyrinth from a hill overlooking the streets.

From early morning, mercenaries and merchants were busily passing by, preparing for their day.

As a form of escapism, he had wandered all over the city looking for a way out of this game world, but there was no progress; only his meager initial starting funds had dwindled slightly.

In the end, Ian had no choice but to admit that there was no other way but to clear this game.

As he watched the city, Ian began to move.

The world of ’Call of Labyrinth,’ the game Ian had entered, was destined for destruction unless he, the player, helped.

Of course, Ian had played this game so much he was sick of it, so if the difficulty was at a normal level, he could have cleared it easily with any sort of joke build.

The problem was that because he had played it so much, he had installed countless mods to the point where it was hard to find any trace of the original game.

Various difficulty-increasing mods and item expansion packs installed to raise the trivial difficulty.

Additional boss and hidden boss mods to supplement the lacking boss fights.

…And as a bonus, an R-18 mod pack, which was the reason all the mercenaries in this city had been turned into beautiful girls.

The labyrinth he had to challenge for the clear was undoubtedly going to be a literal hellscape.

“Sigh… I should have installed an editor mod.”

Of course, in the community, you’d often be mocked as a ’noob’ if such mods even showed up on your installed list.

Because of his pride as a veteran—and especially since he often had to take screenshots to post guides—Ian hadn’t left a single trace of any so-called ’cheat mods’ that would allow him to breeze through the game.

The residents of this city probably couldn’t even imagine that an avatar of the outer cosmos, which had suddenly appeared in the deep levels of the labyrinth, was just waiting for the day to be released.

And all because the game was supposedly ’too easy.’

He couldn’t be sure if clearing this game would actually return him to his original world.

However, he had already wasted three days in this game that had a time limit.

There was no other clear-cut solution other than preparing to clear the game before it was too late.

After walking for a few more minutes through the crowd, Ian arrived at his destination and slowly opened the door to the Mercenary Recruitment Office.

* * *

The labyrinth city ’Labyrinth’ is a city of mercenaries.

A place where some come to escape.

A place where some come with dreams of adventure and honor.

A place where some come holding the dream of striking it rich.

It was a daily occurrence here for countless new mercenary groups to be born and disappear.

And there, as usual, a new mercenary group was being formed.

Ian, who had been filling in the blanks of the document handed over by the receptionist, stopped his pen and looked up.

“Excuse me.”

“Ye-Yes!”

The short, black-haired mercenary waiting behind Ian with an anxious face replied in a panic.

“Wha-What is it…? Did you perhaps change your mind?”

“No, it’s just that I need to write your name. Can you fill this part out?”

“Ah, yes!”

Ian held out the application for the new mercenary group and pointed to the member section at the bottom.

The person who received the document was a mercenary named Rin, whom Ian had gone to the recruitment office and hired early this morning.

“Name… Rin. Place of birth…”

Rin, taking the pen, was carefully filling in the blanks one character at a time with a tense expression, terrified that she might write something wrong and invalidate the application.

Poor equipment that couldn’t even be called armor and a single cheap sword.

The way she stood frozen with a nervous face just for a mercenary group application made her look like a complete novice who had never even been on a single quest.

However, such a mercenary was the only kind Ian, a rookie mercenary captain who had also just opened his group, could afford to hire.

As Ian quietly watched Rin, faint text visible only to his eyes gradually became clear, revealing Rin’s stats.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Name: Rin

Level: 1

Affiliation: None

Traits: [Swordsmanship E] [Throwing D] [Frustrated Desire]

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

She was the basic mercenary that could be selected in the tutorial after starting the game, under the prompt ’Try hiring a mercenary.’

However, since mercenaries in this game were basically randomly generated, even initial mercenaries had slightly different traits.

Among them, Ian had picked and chosen the most helpful one, selecting Rin—who had the [Throwing] trait that was useful in many ways in the early stages—as his initial member.

…The problem was the last trait, [Frustrated Desire].

This wasn’t a trait originally in the game; it was a trait derived from the R-18 mod he had installed separately.

It meant her desire levels accumulated easily, she was easy to seduce, and the effects of training were high.

It was a trait that could be considered useful in the early stages in… a different sense.

In particular, the mod creators’ obsession with detail for this game was incredible, to the point where these elements were persistently integrated across various aspects of the game system.

“…I should have installed an editor mod.”

Since they provided no help in combat but took up a trait slot, the traits from this mod were the biggest headache, lowering the overall combat power of the mercenaries.

It was something he had always admired while playing, but for Ian, who now had to clear his own custom ’Hard Mode’ with these mercenaries, he could only regret why he had installed such a mod.

“I’m finished!”

“Yes, please give it here.”

The receptionist, who had been waiting for the paperwork to be finished, quickly snatched the document from Rin’s hand.

After verifying the contents in an instant, the receptionist finally stamped the bottom of the document with a loud thud.

“Alright, the name is… Ian Mercenaries. Registration is complete.”

The receptionist, checking the name of the mercenary group with a slightly tired face, handed over the permit along with the two mercenary badges.

“I’ll look forward to your great performance.”

Rin took her mercenary badge with sparkling eyes.

Having finally joined a mercenary group, Rin smiled as she looked down at the badge in her hand.

“We’re done, so could you move aside?”

“Ah, yes!”

“Next person.”

But the employee, who had seen such a sight countless times, chased Rin away from the counter with an expression of total indifference.

Rin, who had stepped aside after taking her share of the contract and mercenary badge, approached Ian and spoke while glancing at his face.

“Um, so, should I call you Captain? You can just call me Rin.”

“Sure, Rin.”

“I look forward to working with you!”

Rin bowed deeply toward Ian.

“I am, well… I’m from Rodenfell, and I’ve practiced swordsmanship a bit by reading books…”

Rin, who had been gauging his reaction on what to talk about first, began her self-introduction.

Originally, this was a conversation that should have happened during recruitment, but Ian, who had approached after already verifying Rin’s abilities, had abruptly offered membership without even asking what she was confident in.

Rin had accepted immediately because she couldn’t miss the opportunity, but because of that, they were in a situation where they knew almost nothing about each other.

“Ah! I’ve caught a goblin that came down to the village! You don’t have to worry about fighting!”

“I see… By the way, there was only one goblin, right?”

“Yes! I can easily win against something like a goblin!”

At the moment Rin was proudly telling the heroic tale of fighting and winning against a single goblin.

With a loud bang, the guild door suddenly swung open.

A mercenary who had rushed into the guild looked around at the faces of the people inside and shouted at the employees.

“Hey! Are there any D-ranks here right now?”

“Not at this hour.”

“Why are the guys who usually slack off never around at times like this!”

This time of day, which was awkward for both accepting quests and returning after finishing them, was usually when paperwork like opening a mercenary group or registering for quests took place.

Inside the guild, there were only fledgling mercenaries who were just in the middle of setting up their groups.

“Did something happen? Mr. Chris.”

“A request for backup from Outpost 3. Goblins have come down.”

“There are no parties that can head out right now.”

The one-eyed mercenary looking around the guild shouted, pointing his finger at the group of mercenaries including Ian, as if he had no choice.

“Can’t be helped. Hey, are you all E-rank there? Everyone, follow me out!”

“Huh?”

“It’s an emergency mobilization! Anyone who wants out, hand back your mercenary badge right now!”

A flustered atmosphere instantly spread among the novice mercenaries.

“Wh-What’s going on? I heard that monsters sometimes come out of the labyrinth and attack the city… Could it be?”

Rin also asked Ian with a panicked expression, but Ian had a completely calm face.

An uproar had occurred as if it were a disaster, but this was the combat tutorial that began immediately after signing the application.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep