Ch. 214

## Chapter 214: Like Lovers Do (3)

*‘Mob-herding definitely makes the clear so much smoother.’*

[Time Remaining: 102 seconds]

[Enemies Defeated: 381/500]

The instant Hyun wiped out a massive cluster of stone sentinels in one clean sweep, Drawer secured a brief, precious breathing window. Taking advantage of the frame, he threw a quick glance across the field to check on Reward’s spatial position.

“Aaaaaah!”

“…”

Reward was in a state of absolute, unadulterated panic, sprinting blindly across the stone plain. Behind her, a colossal wall of stone statues pursued her pathing, their heavy footfalls causing the cavern floor to violently tremble.

Just as Drawer instinctively shifted his vector to move in and aid his lover… the girl’s sharp voice drifted over his audio channel once more.

“What are you standing around for? Hurry up and herd another wave back here.”

“Ah… r-right! On it!”

Drawer immediately resumed his sprint, sneaking a quick look behind his shoulder as he ran.

Out of everything he had witnessed today, *this* was the absolute most incomprehensible phenomenon.

*‘What on earth is that graphic glitch…?’*

Every so often, a second figure would mysteriously materialize right alongside the girl, only to vanish into thin air the second she swung her palm back into position.

No matter how hard he analyzed the silhouette, that phantom didn’t match the rendering model of a stone sentinel or a dungeon mob—it looked entirely human.

In truth, it was simply Hyun briefly breaking *Assimilation* to manually recharge his Demonic Power reserves. But through Drawer’s uninitiated perspective, it looked like a terrifying, grotesque specter continuously phasing in and out of reality.

*‘I have zero clue what’s happening!’*

Still, Drawer swallowed his mounting confusion, wisely keeping his mouth shut. He knew that maintaining absolute compliance was the sole strategic path to saving Reward before her HP bar ran out.

*‘Shadow Dash!’*

*Flash!*

Once again, with the blade laid flat along a horizontal axis, Ain’s physical form stretched out into a blurred streak of light.

Across the space swept by the *Darkness Sword*, several dozen stone sentinels instantly collapsed into bisected heaps of rubble.

“Hah… *gasp*… t-thank you so much…!”

“…”

“Should I… go herd another wave…?”

[Time Remaining: 81 seconds]

[Enemies Defeated: 453/500]

Hyun threw a quick glance at the remaining quest quota and shook his head.

“No need. We’re done.”

Hyun waited patiently until Drawer finished dragging the final cluster of mobs to the center coordinates. Then, he drew his blade one last time.

*‘Acceleration!’*

*Whirrrr!*

The sharp audio cue of the blade slicing through the air sounded fundamentally different from before.

It was the combined mechanical output of a 3-stack Agility buff synthesized directly with *Biorhythm Acceleration*.

The exact micro-second Ain’s blade flashed through the dark, an intricate web of fine hairline fractures spider-webbed across the surface of every single sentinel in Drawer’s incoming wave.

“Ah…! *That’s* how she was clearing them…!”

Reward was able to witness the entire mechanical sequence from a front-row seat.

From the translucent lattice of diagonal strike vectors mapping across the open air, to the instant where the hyper-fragmented stone blocks disintegrated into a cascade of falling debris.

In reality, Hyun had simply deployed an entirely different skill synergy than the previous pull. However, lacking the technical framework to break down high-tier combat logs, the spectacle looked practically identical through the eyes of the two spectators.

“Woah… *woooah*…!”

Reward couldn’t restrain her breathless awe.

Right on cue, the absolute final target quota ticked over to 500, triggering the official system conclusion for the Gate Opening Ceremony.

[Your qualifications have been verified!]

[The passage to the lower tiers is now open!]

[You are the first active players to successfully complete the Gate Opening Ceremony! Base Strength increased by 1!]

*RUMBLE!*

A massive circular section of the stone floor beneath their boots began a slow, heavy descent.

It was a subterranean elevator linking the 18th floor directly to the 19th—the exclusive structural passage to the lower tiers of the Labyrinth.

*‘Phew… I genuinely thought my character was done for.’*

Having finally regained her composure, Reward shook her head, a visibly exhausted expression taking over her face. Even after taking a moment to catch her breath, processing the combat sequences she had just witnessed was far from easy.

She stole another glance at the hooded girl.

*‘How can a solo player melt that many Golems all by herself? Were those mob hitboxes actually way squishier than they looked?’*

No, that couldn’t be it.

Reward clearly recalled driving her own weapon into one of those stone sentinels earlier, only for her strike to leave zero structural impact.

If the mobs weren’t weak, that meant this girl’s raw stat scaling defied all conventional player logic.

She was undeniably a top-tier Ranker. Reward instinctively began calculating where her name might fall on the global leaderboards.

*‘She has to be top 100 minimum… maybe even top 10? I heard the top 10 are all absolute monsters, but to think the mechanical gap was this absurd…’*

Drawer, by nature, was a player who focused strictly on his own individual gameplay loop.

Because he held zero interest in competitive leaderboards, he barely recognized any player IDs outside of top Rankers from their home country. But that was simply because Drawer rarely engaged with global community forums.

Most of the player base, however, was completely different.

Having observed the girl in silence from the side, Reward’s eyes suddenly sparkled as she spoke up with intense curiosity.

“Excuse me… I know who you are.”

“Hmm?”

“You’re Ain-nim, right?”

“…”

“And that insane skill you just executed—that’s a specialized high-tier skill you unlocked after breaking past Level 200!”

“What?! Level 200?!”

Drawer gasped in sheer shock, turning to Reward in absolute disbelief. “Are you… serious right now?!”

As the two stood with faces painted in a mixture of intense anticipation and utter shock, waiting for a confirmation, the girl’s flat response cut through the air.

“No, I’m not.”

“You’re… not…?”

A single, calm nod.

“But… your frame is so petite… and I distinctly saw you deploy flame attributes earlier… Are you really not Ain-nim…?”

Hyun decided it was time to drop the actual facts.

The wide-area strike that had bisected the giant stone sentinels wasn’t a flame-attribute skill; it was *Darkness Sword*, a core class asset of a Shadow Linker.

The brief usage of flames had merely served as an auxiliary channel to recharge his Demonic Power. In truth, while he was utilizing Ain’s physical character avatar, the mind steering the combat loop from start to finish was his own.

“I’m Hyun.”

“…?”

“Hyun…?”

A brief, awkward silence settled over the elevator platform.

Immediately after, a flurry of private direct messages zipped back and forth between Drawer and Reward.

「Hyun? Who is that? Have you ever heard that ID before?」

「Nope, never heard of it. But ‘Hyun’… doesn’t that sound like a male name?」

「Maybe a top player from the Chinese server region?」

「I have no idea. I just pulled up the global Hall of Fame, but that ID isn’t registered anywhere within the top 100.」

Most high-tier Rankers who prioritized competitive intelligence had researched past *Asra Online* logs at least once, meaning they were well aware of the name Hyun.

Furthermore, within the domestic Korean server base, a vast majority of users recognized Hyun’s existence right alongside Ain.

However, to the vast majority of international players, the name ‘Hyun’ was entirely obscure. And to this couple, it was no different.

*‘Ah… as expected, they have zero clue.’*

Noticing their completely lost reactions, Hyun let out a bitter, silent chuckle internally.

Since he had never officially registered his profile on the Hall of Fame, nor had he pulled off high-profile global stunts like Ain’s dramatic public showcases, it was completely natural that his ID remained completely unknown to casual international users.

*‘Well, it’s not like I intend to stay hidden in the shadows anymore anyway.’*

Hyun had already made up his mind that it was time to step out from behind the curtain.

There were two explicit strategic reasons behind this decision.

First, after personally clashing with the elite forces of the Regressor Guild, he was fully confident that his current mechanical loop and stat output wouldn’t lose to anyone in a direct confrontation.

*‘If anything, establishing a public presence is going to work out better for me moving forward.’*

And the second reason was that building global name recognition carried immense practical utility for his future progression.

Having personally witnessed how *Darkness* wielded massive leverage even over real-world mega-corporations, Hyun had come to realize just how invaluable global brand authority truly was.

*”If the boundaries of the real world continue to bleed into Asrian, large-scale guilds will inevitably shift into corporate entities,”* Jinnie had casually remarked not too long ago.

Brand value was a titanic factor that exerted astronomical influence over both the virtual economy and real-world dynamics. To fluidly adapt to the changing ecosystem of *Asrian*, publicizing the name ‘Hyun’ across the globe was an essential operational move.

*‘It’s a bit of a shame I can’t leverage the official Hall of Fame registry just yet, though…’*

However, locking in a public ranking would instantly broadcast his name and generate Global Renown among NPC factions as well.

With Louise currently marked as a high-priority wanted entity, attracting unnecessary attention from non-player entities carried zero strategic benefit. Thus, Hyun decided to temporarily hold off on registering his profile on the leaderboards.

*‘Besides, that dynamic media footage is going to drop soon anyway.’*

Even without rushing, carving his name into the global consciousness wouldn’t take much time at all.

Perhaps another structural opportunity—like a world-tier ‘History Quest’—would present itself downstream. But even if it didn’t, opportunities like this, where he could naturally establish his identity, were more than abundant.

“Searching the leaderboards isn’t going to pull up anything besides generic duplicate IDs anyway. My profile isn’t registered on the Hall of Fame.”

“Ah… I see!”

“I might not be on the active rankings… but if you run a search for the ID ‘Hyun’ on the global community forums, you might stumble across a few logs.”

“…?”

The exact second those words left his mouth, Hyun felt a brief shiver of absolute cringe run down his spine.

Saying that aloud gave him the exact uncomfortable feeling of reciting one of Salon’s cringey, melodramatic lines.

*‘Was dropping that line a mistake…? That sounded so pretentious…’*

Hyun breathed a silent sigh of relief, profoundly grateful that Ain’s hysterical snickering through their spiritual link couldn’t leak out into the physical environment.

*RUUUUMBLE.*

The titanic cylindrical elevator continued its slow, steady descent through the bedrock.

The four of them waited in silence for the platform to hit its terminal depth.

「Drawer, look at this!」

During the awkward downtime of the long ride, Reward—who had been quietly pulling up data logs on her interface—suddenly shouted across their private link.

「I just ran a forum search… and this guy is an absolute legend!」

Reward immediately shared a holographic screen layout of a top-voted community thread with Drawer.

「Hyun?! He was the absolute Rank 1 player in Asra Online?!」

「Wait, but the crazy part is that according to the forums, zero players have ever spotted Hyun active in Asrian!」

「You’re telling me *this* guy is that legendary Hyun?!」

「Maybe…! We might literally be witnessing a historic moment right now!」

The community archives held far more data on Hyun than they had anticipated.

From his absolute reign in the past era, to his close operational relationship with Ain, down to detailed theoretical posts speculating what his build would look like if he ever logged into *Asrian*.

*‘Ah…?!’*

Reward’s eyes sparkled with newfound excitement once more as her interface loaded a mind-blowing theoretical post.

The author of the thread argued that if Hyun were ever to play *Asrian*, he would undoubtedly party alongside Ain, proceeding to outline one extraordinarily specific mechanical hypothesis:

The concept of ‘Possession.’

*‘Is a mechanical interaction like that actually coded into the game…?! But wait, if that theory is correct, it completely explains every single anomaly we just witnessed!’*

The more she analyzed the mechanical logic, the more her deduction narrowed down to a single definitive reality.

“Um… excuse me…”

Reward summoned every ounce of her courage to verify her theory.

“You’re… Ain-san, right?”

“…”

“And at the exact same time… you’re also Hyun-san…! Am I correct?!”

“Reward, what kind of nonsensical logic are you—”

It was a statement that sounded entirely detached from conventional game design logic.

“Spot on.”

However, Hyun simply let out a light chuckle and offered a clean nod.

“Phew, looks like someone finally figured it out correctly.”

*Flash!*

With that, he cleanly deactivated *Assimilation*.

“W-WOAH! What the—?!”

Seeing a completely unfamiliar male avatar suddenly materializing right out of the girl’s physical form, Drawer recoiled in absolute, frantic shock, nearly jumping out of his skin.

Having calculated that maintaining secrecy was no longer necessary, this marked the absolute first moment Hyun revealed his true physical form to users outside his immediate inner circle.

—

「…I’m really not liking this.」

Inside the elevator descending toward the 19th floor…

Ain suddenly voiced a grumpy complaint across their mental connection.

「Not liking what?」

「The fact that you’re about to become super famous, Hyun-nim.」

「Why…?」

「…」

Ain offered zero verbal answer to his follow-up question, but Hyun instantly picked up on the underlying rationale without needing her to articulate it.

After all, her raw emotional stream was flowing directly into his mind via their link.

If his deduction was correct, Ain’s reason was hilariously petty and personal.

「It can’t be helped, you know? The environmental parameters here are fundamentally different from back in Asra. If I strictly stick to hiding in the shadows, someone is eventually going to overtake my progression curve.」

「Can’t you just out-scale everyone like you always do, Hyun-nim?」

「I’m not a literal god, Ain… of course there are hard caps! You saw that player who cleared past Level 200 earlier, didn’t you?」

Hyun swiftly pivoted the conversation to shut down the pointless argument, aiming straight at resolving the root cause of Ain’s pouty mood.

「Besides, that specific scenario you’re stressing over isn’t going to happen.」

「W-What scenario am I supposedly stressing over…?!」

「Do you really want me to spell it out explicitly?」

The exact emotional state Hyun was focusing on flashed straight through their link, delivering his exact thoughts directly to Ain’s mind.

「…No.」

From that micro-second onward, neither of them needed to speak another word, allowing a quiet silence to settle back over their connection.

*‘Is Hyun-san… a hyper-intimidating player by nature?’*

Watching the petite girl maintain a completely cold, uncomfortable silence, the two casual players standing nearby couldn’t help but sweat bullets, their nerve gauges spiking through the roof.

「Reward… are we actually going to be okay?」

「I… I don’t know. I managed to pull up an old forum post detailing Hyun-san’s personality back in the Asra days…」

「What did it say?!」

「Well… let’s just say the description wasn’t exactly warm and friendly…」

Reward murmured under her breath after a long pause.

「Honestly… it might be safer for us to just forfeit that Mana Stone reward entirely…」

*THUD!*

After a long descent through the bedrock, the massive circular platform finally ground to a halt.

They had officially arrived at the 19th floor.

*‘We finally made it to this depth.’*

Hyun quickly refreshed his internal database regarding the structural layout of the 19th tier.

While general forum consensus dictated that dungeon difficulty scaled exponentially the deeper a player descended into the Labyrinth, this specific floor was a unique exception to the rule.

The 19th floor housed a major structural outpost constructed directly by high-tier NPC factions, rendering it a domain far safer than the 18th floor—or even any of the upper tiers preceding it.

*‘Because from here on out, it’s officially classified as the Lower Tiers.’*

However, the second a player crossed the threshold from the 19th floor down to the 20th floor, the environmental variables shifted entirely.

*‘I need to keep my situational awareness razor-sharp from here on.’*

Even elite veteran adventurers and high-tier mercenary NPCs rarely dared to venture below the 20th tier. It had only been five years since the colossal Labyrinth had manifested in the world, meaning the structural map of the lower tiers remained largely unmapped.

In a sense, the NPC outpost on the 19th floor served as the primary forward staging base for deep-tier lower-level exploration.

*‘Looks like my pathing with these two ends right here.’*

Hyun threw a brief glance at the couple who had been nervously trailing behind his steps.

Once they stepped foot onto the 20th floor, their utility as mob-herding assets dropped to absolute zero, nor did he possess the spare operational capacity to act as their bodyguard.

“Um… what’s going to happen to us now…?”

Noticing his gaze, Drawer swallowed hard, asking in a trembling voice.

For some inexplicable reason, despite having committed zero transgressions, his tone sounded like a convicted prisoner waiting to hear a execution sentence from a judge.

“Well…”

Hyun pondered the operational reality for a moment.

There was zero mathematical chance that a pair of average Level 150 casual players carried ultra-expensive high-tier Return Scrolls in their inventories.

Furthermore, their raw stat scaling was nowhere near high enough to manually fight their way back up through the maze. To reach the surface world, their exclusive remaining exit vector was to die and force a system graveyard respawn.

“I guess your best move now… is to die right here?”