Chapter 182 - History Quests (3)

'There's something wrong…'

Mayday was dripping cold sweat while looking at the 12 sculptures.

'I can't beat a single one…?!'

A few minutes before, Mayday would've never imagined she'd feel so miserable.

In the easy difficulty, after meeting the girl that called herself Darkness, she'd even given her a cute name.

She'd learned a few things she didn't know about Asrian from her, and because of that, she'd become trapped by its story.

"I might even miss you a little bit."

That last phrase she'd said while making a sad expression had left a huge impression on her.

‘I should see the story of such a masterpiece on the real difficulty level.’

‘Yes, the real difficulty is probably the most vivid one!’

While thinking that, Mayday focused on unlocking all the different difficulties for each episode.

Easy, normal… until then, everything was okay. The problem was from that point onward.

To unlock the real difficulty, she'd failed the hard difficulty of six different episodes!

The funny thing was that, among them, there was the quest 'Defensive Line of Darkness's Land,' in which she'd appeared. It was the result of trying to solo a quest that recommended three people.

'How could this be? I, the 2nd in the rankings, can't even beat the hard mode?'

Enemies had their levels doubled with each difficulty increase.

On the other hand, that also meant that the enemies in the hard difficulty were half of the real difficulty ones’ levels.

Once again, the important thing wasn't the 'difficulty,' but the fact that the 'level' of the enemies was halved! Mayday knew better than anyone that the meaning of the former and latter was completely different.

Leaving the suggested members aside, she was ranked 2nd, so she should’ve been able to clear the hard difficulty easily.

'Am I the weird one?'

Mayday was able to sigh in relief after checking the community boards she often entered.

Asrian-related communities were in an uproar because of how difficult the History Quests were.

Korean communities weren’t so different.

- I did all the stories. You guys should also buy them.

- Really? I just cleared everything on the easy difficulty, and I'm having a hard time trying to do other things.

- What's the rare item you can buy with the seal?

- Can't you trade the seal of history?

- ★ History Quest Fast Clear ★ Lowest Price ☆ Normal, all. Hard, 4-set possible.

All the threads being posted were related to the History Quests.

Since time in Asrian had stopped, besides the History Quests, they could only hunt or enter the duel arena.

Not only that, but the experience they could obtain by clearing them was more effective than hunting.

- How do you beat the difficulties after normal?

The hottest topic was the extreme difficulty that the quests had.

- The difference between easy and normal is crazy.

- No one knows the difference between normal and hard.

- Who made the difficulties? Lol.

- Kwon DaeHo!!!!

- Kwon DaeHo, come out!!!!

Users had gotten tired of trying.

- Now you guys aren't going to complain anymore about the lack of content. Lol.

- Even if you do it slowly, the rewards won't disappear. Later on, once you get better specs, everyone should be able to beat the highest difficulty.

Some users were defending the difficulties.

- Even famous rankers are struggling with hard, so how and when will we get strong enough to clear this?

- Do you know what the scariest thing is? No one has beaten it with the suggested members from hard onwards.

- Yes. That's right. In hard, the quest that has a suggested number of one member was beaten with three or four.

- This is true. Even the bus service has three drivers and only allows one passenger after normal. Quests with a suggested member of more than two can't even be tried.

- Some buses fail to complete a quest with a suggested member of 1 with a full party. Lol.

The community boards became a place where users with many different viewpoints argued.

- I've seen a group of foreign rankers beat hard with the suggested member. (Link)

- Where are all those Koreans that brag about being good at games? Aren't Korean rankers going to upload a hard clear video?

- Fact: Koreans are good at typing. They usually don't do many sports, so it's understandable that they don't have a talent for virtual reality games.

- Yes. They don't have talent. That's why they all lose against Stardust for 3 to 0 or 3 to 1, right?

- Koreans lack imagination. (Link) Foreign gamers used creative ways like this to clear hard.

The hot thread changed every hour.

- A video of Koreans clearing it with the suggested members has been posted! (Link)

- Kingdust…

As time went on, users that had cleared the hard difficulty started to appear.

Unexpectedly, people Hyun hadn't expected were showing progress in the History Quests.

Rather than the Returner's Guild members or the rankers in the Hall of Fame, they were professional gamers with comparatively lower specs than them.

To become a professional gamer, you needed to have good controlling abilities and be able to make and execute strategies.

After a big tournament ended, professional gaming teams were free, so it was natural that they would become interested in the History Quests.

"How about we also try the History Quests?"

"That sounds good. Uploading a clear video will help us to promote ourselves internationally!"

It might have been because of someone's orders, or maybe it was because they became motivated.

Directors, coaches, and players gathered together and started to make a strategy to clear the hard difficulty quests with the suggested members.

After the news spread among professional gamers, a race between the different gaming teams started.

Among them, the fastest one was stardust.

Stardust cleared all the episodes from easy difficulty with the suggested members.

'Kaidan Castle,' 'Chain Sword,' 'Devil's Marble Ball.'

As all of the episodes except those three were uploaded, they incited an explosive reaction.

* * *

'Huh?'

He couldn't clear the real difficulty alone, so Hyun had only cleared up to the hard one.

Hyun got up in surprise after looking at a video.

'30 million views? Don't tell me… Did someone already clear it already?!'

‘Oops, I'm late!’

Although he was receiving money from Ain, TarrTarr, and Salon's channels, recently, they hadn't been uploading new videos, so Hyun's YouTube earnings had stopped.

'Ugh. I shouldn't have let Ain sleep!'

After the festival, the number of active players had doubled.

If he was with Ain, he could have cleared all of the real difficulty quests…! If he used TarrTarr, he also could've uploaded all of the videos by then.

'Stardust… This is JaeHoon's team, right?'

To think that they'd clear the real difficulty quest so quickly!

Had users become so strong that they were already chasing after him?

Hyun couldn't leave his anxiousness behind and looked at the video to see how they had cleared it.

A few minutes after the video began…

Hyun felt that something was weird.

'What's going on?'

After the girl that was playing as Louise got out of the Twilight Temple and the chase began…

Although that situation should’ve been super stressful, Hyun couldn't help but feel that it was lacking a bit in terms of strength.

'Is the speed of the video wrong?'

When the protagonist of the video began fighting the opponents…

When level 200 humanoid enemies with more than a million HP were killed after receiving one or two hits…

Hyun rubbed his eyes and checked the title of the video again; then he finally realized why he felt that something was wrong.

Hard difficulty…

The video Hyun thought was the real difficulty was, in reality, a video of them clearing hard.

At that moment, numerous thoughts crossed his mind.

'Don't tell me…!'

Hyun stopped the video and started to check Asrian-related communities.

If his guess was correct, it was something he hadn’t expected at all, though for different reasons.

All of the community boards were full of threads related to the History Quests, so SeoHyun was easily able to find a thread related to it.

- The gaming team 'Bless You' have uploaded a hard-difficulty video!

- But the clear time is slower than Stardust.

- The job composition is different. Both are equally amazing.

In other communities…

- News! Someone in Europe has uploaded a video of the ‘Devil's Marble Ball’ in hard difficulty! (Link)

- It's true. It seems like they've cleared it as a party of 4… Even considering that, aren't they the first to clear the real difficulty of this episode?

- Wait a bit. Stardust is going to clear it as a party of 2.

In other communities, too.

All the other threads that were being posted made Hyun think that maybe his hypothesis was correct.

'Maybe this…'

Hyun closed the notebook after browsing through the community boards for half an hour.

The closing notebook revealed a few calculations involving big numbers.

'This is going to be historic!'

He wanted to wake Ain up and immediately start to move, but he couldn't do that. He had to recover from doing the Main Quest and the History Quest.

He lay down on the bed but couldn't easily fall asleep. He couldn't help but smile while thinking about the next day.

Even after he fell asleep, the smile didn't disappear from SeoHyun's face.

* * *

The next day, Sunday afternoon…

Hyun, who had logged in first, was anxiously waiting for time to pass.

Wasn't there a saying that the more urgent the situation was, the more relaxed you should be? Ain had to be in the best possible condition.

'I shouldn't force Ain to wake up… Let's let her rest.'

He already knew Ain's weekend pattern.

When it was about time she logged in, Hyun always shouted through the capsule messenger to make her come to her senses.

LeeSeoHyun: Ain! When are you going to log in?

A few seconds later…

Ain's status changed to online.

Hyun was waiting at the place where she last logged off, so he was able to find Ain quickly.

"Wh-what? Did you just call me?!"

"Good. It seems like you've finally woken up. Let's get going."

"Wait. I still haven't finished the preparations."

"Do you need to make any other preparations? You already logged in, so let's just go."

"I don't have my clothes on… Is that okay?"

"Yes. We have to record a video so… Hmm…?"

Hyun took a glance at Ain at her sudden words.

‘But she's definitely wearing the Recard's Devil Armor…?’

Paf-!

Ain changed to rest mode for a minute and then appeared again while making a wicked smile.

"Hyun, maybe, did you just imagine…"

"Wait."

Hyun raised his hand before Ain could finish.

"I know what you're trying to say. I'll listen to jokes… but later."

"Hmm…?"

"Because things are urgent!"

Hyun stopped Ain's mischievous act by a narrow margin. He told her the plan he'd thought of while they walked.

He told her what happened in the community boards regarding the History Quests and what they had to do.

"We're going to record real-difficulty videos and upload them."

"All of them?"

"All except one."

The Kaidan Castle Invasion.

Not only was it the most difficult one, but it was also an episode TarrTarr and Salon had also taken part in.

Doing that quest only with Ain was hard, but even if he could, he wasn't planning to do it.

Even if he didn't make it, a video of high quality would be made as a movie, so it would be better to leave it alone for it to have a bigger impact once it released.

"We're going to do a total of eight episodes… Assuming we don’t fail any of them, it should take around nine hours."

Hyun was planning to do the full stories so they could create the perfect video.

The more effort they put into the recordings, the more things to see there would be.

Using TarrTarr's skills to cut out the boring parts would reduce the video’s time, and it wouldn't become unnecessarily long.

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