HG Ch 7

<7>

The butterfly openly mocked him, but he didn’t care. He was too scared. The night sky was romantically adorned with countless stars, but honestly, they weren’t as useful as a single streetlamp. The forest path was rugged, and the visibility seemed to be less than a meter. With every step, he bumped into something, and his knees and legs ached in protest. If this were reality, he might have already suffered a serious injury.

Moreover, reaching the graveyard didn’t improve the situation. The wind was biting, and faint, unidentifiable noises coming from an unknown direction kept putting Eunho on edge.

“We’re at the grave, so why isn’t the quest completion notification popping u—ugh…”

「Stop that disgraceful whining! You haven’t done anything yet, so what are you expecting? Focus and examine the grave.」

How could he examine anything when he couldn’t see a thing?

Eunho was human. Unlike a cat, he didn’t have a tapetum lucidum, so no matter how wide he opened his eyes, nothing changed. With only the moonlight and starlight to illuminate the area, he couldn’t see a single thing…

“Hurk!”

Eunho swallowed a scream.

A faint, bluish glow was rising like smoke between the graves. What is that? He squinted, trying to get a clearer look, and finally realized—it was a ghost fire (Gwihwa), also known as a will-o’-the-wisp.

As time passed, the glowing flames became more distinct and slowly began to approach Eunho.

The butterfly flapped its wings.

「This must be your first hunt outside the mountains.」

「There will be no more beginner-friendly guidance from now on. You must fend for yourself.」

「Grip your weapon and aim at your target.」

Ah, so this is still part of the tutorial. Since I’ve chosen a class, now I have to learn how to use my class weapon.

That thought helped him relax a little. Eunho slowly drew his weapon and aimed at the will-o’-the-wisp. Despite holding an old-fashioned gun with a short barrel and no sights, he was able to assume a proper shooting stance thanks to his class—Gunner—and the stat points he had allocated to his firearm skills.

「Doesn’t something feel different?」

He tightened his grip around the solid gun barrel. Just as the butterfly had said, a bright yellow target indicator appeared on the enemy—something that wasn’t normally visible.

「Keep aiming, and when you get that “now’s the moment” feeling, attack.」

Being a virtual reality game, even aiming had a unique mechanic. As he made minute adjustments to his weapon’s position, the target marker gradually became clearer—signaling the perfect moment to fire.

「Do not be nervous.」

「With your abilities, you can handle this.」

The butterfly was right. Eunho focused on the green effect hovering around the will-o’-the-wisp. So that’s how it worked—monsters marked in green were easy targets, orange indicated a fair match, and red meant a single hit would send him straight to the afterlife. Seeing something from the novel come to life like this was quite an experience.

At any rate, since this was still the beginning of the main quest, the battle difficulty wasn’t too high. He could probably take it down with just a basic melee strike using his gun barrel.

I’m curious to see if my guess is right. And how melee attacks feel in this game.

But testing a barrel strike on the will-o’-the-wisp would have to wait for another time.

Checking my attack range is more urgent.

The novel had only mentioned that “guns are stronger than bows but have shorter range,” which didn’t give him enough information.

Positioning himself at a distance he guessed to be reasonable, Eunho used the Gunner’s basic attack skill—Shoot.

BANG!

A deafening explosion rang out, more like a cannon blast than a gunshot. If this were reality, his eardrums would have been blown out.

As expected, the ultimate weapon of the modern age was none other than a gun.

Feeling confident, Eunho casually slung the firearm over his left shoulder and stood at an angle.

“Did I get it?”

He even uttered the classic line that revived dying enemies in fiction. But the will-o’-the-wisp had no strength left. The bullet had struck it dead-on, causing it to flicker violently before dissipating.

No surprise there—it was a one-shot kill, just as the green indicator suggested.

At that moment, a notification window appeared.

[SYSTEM] You have gained 123 experience points. [SYSTEM] You have met the required experience and your spiritual power has increased. [SYSTEM] Your HP and MP have been restored, and all status effects have been removed.

“Oh, I leveled up just from killing one monster? The newbie zone sure is generous.”

「You were panicking with fear just a moment ago. Have you relaxed now? At least your recovery ability is decent.」

“Once you know what you’re dealing with, you get over it pretty quickly. Fear comes from uncertainty, after all.”

Like walking blindfolded, putting something unknown in your mouth, or being left alone with a stranger—you feel uneasy in those moments because you don’t know what to expect.

Worse than knowing nothing is knowing only half the truth—and right now, that was exactly Eunho’s situation.

It was like someone telling him, “A meteor is about to fall. It’s definitely going to hit, and if you’re within a 500-meter radius, you’re dead for sure. But we don’t know exactly when or where it’ll land.”

Eunho had read the novel and not a strategy guide. The things he knew were just bits and pieces, details the author had stitched together based on personal preference.

For example, he knew there would later be a quest to resolve the grudge of Son Gaksi^[1], or that he needed to unequip accessory items when hunting the Tanjueo^[2].

He wasn’t completely clueless, but that just made things even scarier.

Just now, he had been scared precisely because he knew that, at some point, a giant centipede-shaped monster would appear in the graveyard. But was that the only thing lurking here? There were also spiders bigger than humans, which laid eggs just before dying.

The mere thought made his skin crawl, and his face twisted in disgust.

Ding!

“Ugh! I told you, I hate spiders—AHH!”

A sharp, ringing sound echoed inside his head, startling him so badly that he stumbled backward.

Only after a moment did he realize—it was just a system notification.

[SYSTEM] Fwꠑ?gl!e? ?BrxTrq ?xe#?

But something was wrong with the system.

“…What the hell? What is this? Why is it acting so creepy?”

Unlike the usual semi-transparent blue window, this one was pitch-black, making it look even more ominous.

Ding!

[SYSTEM] Rx8Vlq? ?? Gj#Lzm OrꠘYdKp?B$ktXw?

“No, no, the text is all messed up! Get it together!”

Ding!

[SYSTEM] 93qkzZmn.

“Please, stop! Ughhh!”

Alone in the pitch-black night, surrounded by an eerie graveyard, a system window spewing nothing but garbled text—it sent chills down his spine.

Was this a game bug? Or was the server under emergency maintenance?

Eunho, who had crouched down in despair, slowly lifted his head. The moment he thought about an emergency maintenance shutdown, a terrifying question struck him.

But wait… I’m inside the game right now… If the server becomes unstable, won’t I just get erased?

If that was the case, then now was not the time to be trembling in fear.

Eunho frantically scanned his surroundings.

“Master! Is this emergency maintenance? Then what happens to me?! Do you even know I can’t log out?!”

「……」

“…Say something.”

「……」

“Wait. Hold on. Master, where did you go? Why aren’t you here?”

That’s when he finally realized—the butterfly, which had been flying beside him just moments ago, had vanished without a trace.

What the hell? Where’d it go?

I’m still a fresh newbie with barely dried ink^[3] on my class selection! I need my guide!

No way… Could this really be a server crash or something?

As the game environment started behaving strangely, his frustration naturally turned toward its creator.

Damn those game devs!

Are you seriously not managing your servers properly?

Later, they’d probably just post some half-assed announcement like, “An unexpected issue has occurred, and we are currently investigating. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please wait a little longer. Teehee, sorryyy~” and move on. But his life was on the line!

This was no different from God randomly throwing down meteors and triggering earthquakes on Earth for fun. If you create something, take responsibility for it!

“Master! Am I really alone right now? I’m scared out of my mind—huhuhuu…”

Am I going to disappear, too?

I just got into my first-choice university. I haven’t even had my first drink yet. I’ve never had a girlfriend. There’s so much I still want to do…

He had never thought of himself as particularly sentimental, but ever since coming here, he kept finding himself on the verge of tears.

As Eunho wiped his damp eyes with his sleeve—

Ding!

[SYSTEM] Hey.

“…What the hell is this?”

Immediately, a series of pitch-black system windows began appearing.

Ding!

[SYSTEM] You,

Ding!

[SYSTEM] Right there,

Ding!

[SYSTEM] Stay still.

The rapid succession of alerts in such a short span made his head feel like it was going to explode.

Ding!

[SYSTEM] Hi

And then—

Ding!

[SYSTEM] JfPw#,??Wrn$ꠖTgz{=

—All sound vanished.

The rustling of leaves caught in the wind, the distant cries of mountain animals, the system notification chimes—even Eunho’s own breathing disappeared.

The world had gone completely silent.

A terrifying, all-encompassing sense of isolation washed over him, as if he were stranded in the vast emptiness of space.

Just as the fear threatened to overwhelm him—

Ding!

[SYSTEM] Due to server instability, we are experiencing disruptions. [SYSTEM] We apologize for the inconvenience.

Ding!

[SYSTEM] I’ll be there soon. [SYSTEM] VpGmLwQH?

Ding!

[SYSTEM] Initiating server stabilization. [SYSTEM] Stabilization in progress.

Ding!

[SYSTEM] Stabilization complete.

[SYSTEM] Welcome to Ja-Gwi: Monster Hunter. [SYSTEM] Enjoy your adventure and build deep connections with a variety of people.

[SYSTEM] Loading…

[SYSTEM] You have repelled the unidentified will-o’-the-wisp at the graveyard. [SYSTEM] To continue the main quest, you will be automatically transported to “Summit Ridge” in 10 seconds.

And then, Eunho’s vision went completely black.