TWKH Ch3

As soon as the Funeral Director Guild’s emblem appeared in the waiting room, the Boss started running his mouth as usual.

[Battlefield] Boss12MoreHours: Thanks for the free win, Jangji folks~

[Battlefield] Sangjae: Thanks for saying what I wanted to say^^

[Battlefield] Boss12MoreHours: ? LOL

[Battlefield] Boss12MoreHours: Who was the one who got utterly crushed just the other day?

[Battlefield] Sangjae: Who was the one throwing a fit last week, saying they’d delete their character over a bet??

[Battlefield] Boss12MoreHours: Did you wear a diaper today, Sangjae? Ready to soil yourself?

[Battlefield] Sangjae: LOL, I heard your healer’s hands turned black? Must be from cleaning up all the crap your team made;;

The Guild Master of Funeral Director, Sangjae, and the Boss had a mutual dislike for each other that was perhaps even stronger than the one between Shin Jehyun and Habaek. Even though they were from a small server, the bad blood between them had been brewing since the game’s launch and had become a frequent subject of humor in the game’s community, Caplet Vendor, and Caplet Community.

While they were exchanging childish taunts, Shin Jehyun kept his eyes on Habaek, watching him closely as the countdown timer appeared in the center of the screen. Given what had happened in the dungeon earlier, Jehyun expected Habaek to target him specifically.

Even though he had participated in thousands of duels, the anticipation always made him nervous. Wiping his sweaty palms on his pants, Shin Jehyun focused on the screen, bracing himself for the chaotic battle that was about to begin.

The Party Duel will start in 2 seconds.

The Party Duel will start in 1 second.

You have used Blessing.

The party’s debuff resistance has increased thanks to the Priest’s Blessing.

The duel has begun!

The start message flashed in the center of the screen, and six characters appeared on the sides of the duel arena.

Healer’s class was a Priest, a character with powerful healing abilities and strong shields. With invincibility skills, evasion moves, shields, and self-healing, Priests were notoriously hard to kill, often spending the entire match being chased by enemy damage dealers rather than dying.

And, as always, the one from Jangji targeting the Healer was the extreme damage dealer Habaek. His class, the “Time Stealer,” was known for its ability to counter and instantly kill even a Priest.

Habaek lunged forward using his mobility skill, “Charge,” while Jehyun deftly dodged, fluidly tapping the WASD keys to reposition himself away from Habaek.

You have used Invocation.

You resisted Habaek’s Time Steal.

Using the invincibility skill, Invocation, to resist Habaek’s debuff, Shin Jehyun immediately dodged after seeing Habaek’s crowd control (CC) skill animation. Habaek’s dual daggers struck the spot where Jehyun had just been standing, missing him by a hair’s breadth.

You have used Retreat.

You resisted Habaek’s Binding.

You have used Self-Healing.

HP has been restored.

As soon as Jehyun backed off, Habaek, now with a stopwatch icon floating above his head, applied his self-buff and closed the distance again with a mobility skill.

Habaek, who was widely regarded as Caplet’s number one damage dealer, was playing as a “Time Stealer,” a class infamous for its high difficulty.

Time Stealers attack with their main skills, “Time Steal” and “Time Occupation.” If they successfully align the rapidly moving clock hands with the correct position to apply a debuff, their actions become twice as fast, giving them more time to deal damage.

An opponent hit by “Time Steal” would be unable to move, while one hit by “Time Occupation” would act as if they were in slow motion. In-game, it was expressed as the Stealer taking and occupying the opponent’s time.

n short, while the debuff was active, the Time Stealer’s attack speed increased, skill cooldowns shortened, and the debuffed person’s attack speed and movement speed slowed down while their skill cooldowns increased.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Caplet initially captivated users’ interest entirely because of the Time Stealer. Even now, the gameplay videos showcasing the Time Stealer, adorned with all sorts of effects, are mesmerizing to watch.

Of course, that fascination didn’t last long. Everyone started Caplet dreaming of becoming a Time Stealer like in those videos, but when the character’s motion sped up twofold, the lag also doubled. This server delay lag couldn’t be fixed, even with high-end PCs.

The cursed motion caused the players who had the Time Stealer on their screen to experience lag as well… Because of this, in the early days of the launch, Time Stealers couldn’t even join parties. Although a later update allowed party members to turn off each other’s motions, eliminating the exclusion, the Stealer’s own lag remained.

That’s why Habaek became famous. Four years since the launch, during all that time when the lag issue remained unsolved, Habaek had become someone who could predict and use skills based on the opponent’s actions and movements. He had essentially mastered every class’s skills, cooldowns, and behavior patterns.

“What a stalker…”

Shin Jehyun shuddered as he watched Habaek persistently attempting to steal his time. Normally, Habaek would have kept his distance and gone after the less defensively strong Dark Warlock, the Boss, but it was clear that today he was determined to kill Jehyun. He must have been furious about what happened in the dungeon earlier.

The Blessing’s protection will disappear in 3 seconds.

The Blessing’s protection will disappear in 2 seconds.

Once the blessing expired, the chance of resisting Time Steal would plummet. With a crooked tilt of his head, Shin Jehyun moved his hands. Tap, tap, the crisp sound of the mechanical keyboard filled the room as the Healer waved his wand.

You have used Radiant Protection.

A shield that can absorb 17,231 damage has been created.

[Guild] Healer: Got it

Quickly casting a shield on himself and typing a short message in chat, Shin Jehyun cursed Habaek under his breath and turned the camera to lock onto the Chain Blade user, Contempt, who was on the other side of the arena.

The large figure of Contempt appeared in blue at the center of the screen, and Shin Jehyun noticed Habaek reapplying his self-buff.

By now, the cooldown for Time Steal would have reset. This time, Jehyun had to dodge it. Recalling the timing for Habaek’s skills and weapon options, Jehyun quickly activated a skill just as Habaek moved.

The Blessing’s protection will disappear in 1 second.

You have used Rescue Companion.

You are affected by Spirit’s Curse.

As soon as Jehyun used Rescue Companion, he and Contempt swapped places.

Due to the skill’s effect, the debuff that Jangji’s Spirit Shaman, BeoseotTangsuYuk, had placed on Contempt was now on Healer. Jehyun quickly cleansed the debuff and moved to heal the nearby Boss. At that very moment…

Habaek has stolen Contempt’s time!

[Guild] Contempt: Ah.

“Ah!!”

An alert for Time Steal, a skill that left no hope once activated in the battlefield, appeared. Jehyun sighed along with Contempt as he clicked the mouse wheel, rotating the screen. Across the arena, the all-black character of Habaek was seen attacking Contempt.

Though Contempt’s class, the Chain Blade user, had high defense due to the heavy armor, in a situation where he was taking hits defenselessly, even that wouldn’t be enough.

That’s the curse of the Time Stealer in PVP. The chance of getting hit by a debuff was low, but once it happened, the opponent could do nothing but take the hits. While heavy armor could survive with just one heal, robe and light armor characters were as good as dead the moment they got hit by Time Steal.

“I really hate this…” Shin Jehyun let out a frustrated sigh as he dispelled the debuff on him, then dodged BeoseotTangsuYuk’s spirit attack and hid behind the Boss. Just as he turned the screen to lock onto Contempt to heal him, an alert popped up.

You are affected by the Roaring Cry of the enemy.

You will focus on the enemy for 3 seconds.

“Damn it!”

As soon as the battle began, Sangjae, who had been knocked out in the corner by the Boss’s sleep spell, used an area-of-effect skill that pulled Shin Jehyun’s aggro.

As soon as Shin Jehyun was hit by the tank’s debuff, Roaring Cry of the Enemy, the game screen automatically turned to Sangjae, canceling his healing motion. It was a death sentence for Contempt.

Contempt has died.

[Guild] Contempt: Ranked #1 by Forbes as the most annoying class: Time Stealer 100% ㅇㅅ”ㅇ…

There was no time to sympathize with Contempt’s comment. Shin Jehyun saw Sangjae, the Lancer, charging at him with his long spear and began spamming his skills. Since the Lancer had many crowd control abilities, it was essential to use blessings when engaging in close combat with them.

You have used Blessing of the Raindrops.

1 second remaining for the Blessing’s cooldown.

1 second remaining for the Blessing’s cooldown.

You have used Blessing of the Raindrops.

[Guild] Contempt: Seriously, I have 982 Debuff Resistance, and I still got hit by this? (ノ｀Д)ノ

With the Priest’s blessing, the party’s Debuff Resistance has increased.

You have resisted Roaring Cry.

Contempt was dead. Even without the blessing, the chances of getting hit by Time Steal were extremely low—just bad luck.

[Guild] Contempt: Habaek’s movement abilities are all used up. Head over there.

[Guild] Contempt: Time Steal cooldown: 30 seconds.

[Guild] Contempt: Time Occupation is still available ㅡㅅㅡ

From his spot on the ground, Contempt checked Habaek’s skill cooldowns. As Jehyun quickly processed this information, he surveyed the battlefield.

The Boss was relentlessly chasing Jangji’s healer, BeoseotTangsuYuk, while Habaek and Sangjae were charging toward Jehyun. Preparing himself for the attack, Jehyun applied a speed reduction debuff to Sangjae and got ready to cast a shield on himself, anticipating that Habaek would target him next.

You have taken 1872 damage from Habaek.

Just as expected, as soon as Habaek closed the distance, he used his mobility skill, now off cooldown, to approach the Healer. Shin Jehyun smirked at having predicted this move and was just about to cast a shield on himself.

Casting Radiant Protection.

However, the moment the Healer raised his hand, Habaek immediately changed his course and charged at the Boss, Boss12MoreHours. He had been waiting for the Healer to use the shield on himself.

“Ah…”

It was a disaster. I thought I’d be his stalker today.

Shin Jehyun belatedly tried to apply a speed reduction debuff on Habaek, but it was resisted, and Habaek charged at the Boss without any interruption.

BeoseotTangsuYuk has died.

Boss12MoreHours has died.

[Guild] Healer: Oh, for fuckk’s sake, lol.

[Guild] Contempt: I knew we were screwed as soon as Time Steal hit ㅇㅅㅇ;

[Guild] Contempt: But seriously, isn’t that a hack? We need an investigation ㅡㅅㅡ.

[Guild] Boss12MoreHours: I just took 12,000 damage from that idiot; how does that even make sense? Meanwhile, I’m dealing 2,000 damage at best.

[Guild] Boss12MoreHours: Ugh, this is so frustrating.

[Guild] Boss12MoreHours: Contempt, let’s have a quick match. If we lose again, I’m deleting my Warlock character.

As soon as the Boss died, everyone took their hands off their mice and started typing in the chat. Since only the Priest was left, defeat was inevitable.

While they were chatting in the Guild, Habaek leisurely walked over and stood in front of the Healer. An item soon dropped in front of Shin Jehyun.

Apprentice’s Gloves.

Seeing the blatant taunt, Jehyun, with trembling hands, forced himself to type a response.

[Battlefield] Healer: Honey, are you proposing to me? 😭 I’m so touched…

[Battlefield] Habaek: Sir, put on these gloves and get to work; the stench is unbearable.

[Battlefield] Sangjae: LOL 😂😂😂

[Battlefield] Healer: But seriously, what’s with the gardening gloves? 😭 At least give me something cooler like Mayo Gloves 😭

[Battlefield] Habaek: With how you’re cleaning up this mess, how do you expect to get paid? You still owe the PC bang for your tab.

[Battlefield] Sangjae: You’re always left alone as the Healer, right? Your back must be breaking from carrying Neungdong all by yourself, huh? 😭😭

[Battlefield] Sangjae: Why don’t you join Jangji? Ditch Habaek, and we’ll even give you a Deputy Guild Leader spot.

Sangjae had been pestering Jehyun to join Jangji for a while. It was clearly a low-grade bait to sow discord, but Neungdong wouldn’t stand for it.

[Battlefield] Boss12MoreHours: Yeah, a lot of talk from a Lancer who spent all day crawling around.

[Battlefield] Sangjae: Oh? Dark Warlock, is that trash class still not deleted yet?

[Battlefield] Boss12MoreHours: Yeah, word on the street is your class is next on the chopping block, lol.

[Guild] Contempt: Took 0 damage from Sangjae… We lost 2v3 😭.

[Battlefield] Sangjae: Winning without doing anything vs. trying really hard and getting obliterated.

[Guild] Contempt: Is the free ride comfy? I wish I could freeload like you… ㅇㅅㅇ.

Even without lifting a finger, the Guild Leader and members managed to bash Jangji. At that moment, Shin Jehyun had no idea that Boss12MoreHours and the Guild Leader, Gaeul, would propose merging their Guild with that of their nemesis, the Funeral Director.