Hard Carry Support

Salon was also there and had seen the incident from start to finish.

The appearance of a second-generation artificial intelligence… It was hard to believe what the developers had said. A computer that could think and make decisions like a human? Not only that, but they could also feel emotions.

\'Now that I think about it, I’ve felt something strange recently.\'

Salon remembered Iluna\'s Quest.

The expression of that girl wearing white robes that was escaping with him.

\'Was that girl also a second-generation artificial intelligence?\'

That girl had a completely different face and expression than the NPCs he had met.

Not only that, but she seemed to be able to make more expressions than a human being.

He’d thought that they were maybe Hyun\'s expressions that were leaking through «Assimilation», but maybe she was an NPC that played an important role in the story.

\'No, they said that only Archangels and Great Demons were created using the second-generation AI technology, so maybe she was one of the ones created using AI technology between first and second generation. Tsk... I should have tried to increase my affection rate.\'

Well, it wasn\'t like they had free time that day. Not only that, but that incident was already in the past, so there was nothing he could do about it. Therefore, Salon decided not to think too much about it.

The festival wasn\'t over yet. Salon recalled the real purpose behind why he had decided to attend the festival.

Salon looked at a man who was at a distance.

He\'d followed him the entire day as if he were a stalker.

Hyun…

He couldn\'t find him since he didn\'t know his face.

He’d heard his voice but hadn’t seen his face due to «Assimilation».

Salon couldn\'t find him the first day since it was impossible to go around trying to listen to the voices of the tens of thousands of people visiting the festival.

Then, the second day…

He wasn\'t even sure that Hyun was there.

In the worst scenario, he may have already gone back after the first day was over.

\'I should\'ve searched for Ain rather than him!\'

Salon changed his strategy.

It was a known fact that they had been close friends since the previous game.

Not only that, but you could see the effect of Hyun\'s «Powerless Wave» skill in every video that Ain appeared in.

Maybe he could learn about Hyun\'s whereabouts from her?

After changing his strategy, it didn\'t take long before it showed results.

He went through the multitude and asked staff members of the festival or people that looked like Asrian users, and Salon soon found a small girl who was wearing an obvious disguise.

She looked exactly the same as her in-game avatar.

\'I\'ve found her!\'

Not only that, but she wasn\'t alone.

Salon sneaked near them. After listening to his voice, he closed his fists and cheered inside.

\'I knew it! I knew that Hyun would come to the festival!\'

Salon began following the two.

Even as time went on, they didn\'t seem to have the intention of separating.

\'Hmm... It\'s just like the rumors said. It seems like they\'re really close.\'

Salon was waiting for their conversation to be cut, but that opportunity didn\'t come.

He didn\'t have another option.

He was thinking that she should just go and talk to him when an opportunity finally came!

Ain left for a moment.

\'Good, now it\'s an opportunity.\'

Salon approached SeoHyun. No, he was about to, when suddenly…

Tap Tap-

He felt someone knocking on his shoulder. Surprised, he turned around.

The person standing there was Ain, who had smelled something fishy.

Ain narrowed her eyes and glared at Salon.

"Are you a stalker? How long are you planning to follow us?"

"No. This… that\'s not it..."

"What? Ain, weren\'t you going to the bathroom?"

After hearing some noise, Hyun approached them.

Salon became flustered and couldn\'t speak. Ain triumphantly spoke.

"I just pretended to leave. I was trying to see if this stalker would leave... nut he seems to have no intention of doing that? That\'s why I decided to trap him!"

"A stalker...?"

"Yes, that\'s right. We should immediately report people like this..."

"W-wait...!"

Salon kept shouting, but neither SeoHyun nor Ain could understand him because he wasn’t speaking Korean.

"A foreigner?"

"Hyun, don\'t go easy on him just because he\'s a foreigner."

"No, wait, please. I\'m not a stalker!"

Salon quickly took out the voice translator and shouted.

He couldn\'t understand Korean, but had heard that word many times, so he wanted to clear up the misunderstanding.

The translator even translated the tone of his voice, conveying Salon\'s desperation, so Hyun and Ain had no choice but to stop.

While Salon was thinking about what to say, SeoHyun tilted his head.

The moment he saw the stalker\'s face, he remembered something.

"Uhmm, aren\'t you the person from the other day?"

After looking at Salon\'s face, Hyun smiled.

"Yes, you\'re…!"

The last survivor from Iluna.

When Hyun found him in the middle of monsters, he felt he\'d found salvation.

He had become his last hope.

If he hadn\'t accepted «Assimilation», he wouldn\'t have been able to save Louise.

If he lacked in terms of skills, things would\'ve been more dangerous.

Although Hyun ended up using him as bait... There wasn\'t any other option, so he felt sorry for him.

"What, you know him, Hyun?"

"He\'s someone you also know!"

As Ain looked at him suspiciously, Hyun spoke.

"Look closely. He even appeared on the Iluna broadcast!"

"Oof..."

Thanks to SeoHyun recognizing him first, Salon was able to calm down.

Salon talked while trying to stop his lips from going up.

"Fufu, so you do remember me. That day was really incredible. We pushed ourselves to the limit."

"I\'m sorry about that day."

Salon didn\'t seem to mind that he had left him to die.

"Oh, don\'t worry about that. I... Also got a lot on that day."

SeoHyun and Salon talked for a little bit while Ain glanced back and forth between the two.

Salon confirmed that Asra\'s Hyun and Asrian\'s Hyun were indeed the same person.

There was no way that the conversation between ranker-level users would be cut short.

Translator - Daniel Shin

Proofreader - ilafy

* * *

"Thanks to the sensory sharing from «Assimilation», I learned how to maintain the combos more reliably."

"Haha, I did a good job creating that, right?"

"You came up with those movements? Really?"

"I modified the movements that all Asra users used."

"Haha, improving a skill is in the realm of creation!"

SeoHyun learned a bit more about the user called Salon through their brief conversation.

He was 28 years old.

It was a little bit late to become a professional since he was at an age when his reaction speed began to fall, but, even considering that, he was quite good. He was actually proud of his controlling skills.

He’d realized he was talented after uploading YouTube videos to explain his hunting strategies.

"I was a little bit famous before that day... But after Iluna\'s Quest, it seemed like everyone knew about me. Once it was over, I realized that tens of channels had broadcasted my face!"

"Broadcast...?"

SeoHyun\'s eyes changed the moment Salon mentioned that word.

Back then, he hadn\'t thought about that because of the situation, but he suddenly realized there was something he had missed.

The drones chasing after them had probably asked Salon for a 1st-person and 3rd-person point of view.

And that footage was the hottest topic among Asrian communities.

"About that..."

According to the terms of service, users whose image was used for content had the right to claim a profit.

Did Salon receive all that?

"How much did you receive?"

"Hmm...?"

Salon became flustered at the sudden change in Hyun\'s tone.

"It wasn\'t that much, but it wasn\'t a tiny amount either, but as expected, it would not be nice to take it all, right?"

Salon saw that Hyun\'s expression relaxed as soon as he finished talking.

Realizing what he wanted, Salon kept talking while smiling awkwardly.

"Haha, I decided to participate in this festival to deliver that to you... That\'s also why I followed you!"

Hyun had to stop his mouth from rising.

It was too soon to show his inner feelings.

He should test him a bit more.

"Hmm... Wouldn\'t it be shameless of me to claim my part in the profit? Not only did you help me... but receiving money on top of that..."

"No, no. I was going to die either way. I also got to receive lots of attention thanks to you. Also, I have a lot of money. You\'re also a ranker, so you know it, right? How much rankers earn."

SeoHyun bit his lip.

It was to stop himself from smiling at his sudden unexpected profit.

After the atmosphere improved, Salon brought up the real reason why he was there.

"Changing topics... Are you in need of more guild members?"

"Guild members?"

"Yes. What if a user of my talent is searching for a guild to join...?"

"...?"

Salon threw a bait, but it seemed like Hyun didn\'t catch his intentions.

He looked oblivious compared to how fast he’d smelled money before.

No, maybe he was pretending to be oblivious?

Salon coughed and tried to ask a bit more directly.

"Do you have a guild?"

"Yes, I\'m the guild leader."

"Oh, I see! What if I join you? Wouldn\'t that make the guild stronger?"

After saying that, Salon expectantly waited for the other person\'s reaction.

He was someone very prideful, so it took him a lot of courage to say such a direct proposition.

"Hmm, I\'m not sure. Our guild is quite small. Not only that, but it was created recently."

SeoHyun\'s attitude was still lukewarm.

Salon thought that he should try even harder to appeal.

"It\'s kinda strange to say it myself, but there aren\'t that many people as talented as me! I\'m probably good enough to be among the top 50!"

At that moment, Ain, who had remained silent until then, spoke while clapping.

"Oh, I remember! Isn\'t this Mr. the Thief we killed in one shot while doing a quest at a mountain when we were around level 50?"

"Oh, really?"

"Of course... I was talking in regards to hunting... About PvP... I\'m not really interested in it."

Salon tried to appeal to them by mentioning his specs and skills.

SeoHyun became immersed in his thoughts.

He had already seen his status window in Iluna, so he already knew it…

His job was Sword Dancer, and he was indeed someone talented in regards to hunting.

\'There\'s nothing bad with having more people that are good...\'

To be honest, Salon\'s specs were more than good enough to accept him as a guild member.

Except for how overly confident he was in himself, he seemed to be a decent person.

But he still felt a bit hesitant to accept him as a guild member based on just that.

Salon nervously looked at the silent Hyun.

‘Will he accept me? Will he not?’

If the answer was the second one, Salon might have to drop his pride and post another thread on the community boards!

Hyun opened his mouth after deliberating for a while.

"There are some prerequisites to joining our guild."

"What? Was there something like....?"

Ain tilted her head, but SeoHyun covered her mouth before she said something she shouldn\'t.

The moment Salon heard the word “prerequisite”, he became a bit nervous.

"The first one is that all guild members should accept my use of «Assimilation» on them and give me control priority. Ah, you\'ve already accepted «Assimilation», so you just have to give me control priority."

"I have no issues with that!"

Salon nodded.

He had already experienced «Assimilation» before.

Not only that, but he could benefit a lot from Hyun using «Assimilation» on him.

—He could always try to remember his movements and try to make them his later on.

Getting to learn the know-how of the overwhelming first-ranking player of the previous game wasn\'t something that was easy to do.

"The second thing is that, on the videos where I\'m using «Assimilation», profits should be split 5 to 5 with me."

"Hmm? But right now, TarrTarr—"

Ain found that weird and tried to say something, but it was Salon who interrupted that time.

The moment he heard that name, Salon spoke up.

"TarrTarr? Is he also in the same guild?"

"Not yet, but he\'s probably going to join soon."

"As expected, I was right!"

His eyes shone when he heard that TarrTarr was in Hyun\'s guild.

"I have no problems with the second condition as well. Considering how much I can learn, 50% is just like a class fee."

"And finally...\'

Hyun stopped for a moment and thought about it.

The last condition was the easiest but also the most important.