Eden Ch 14

Chapter 14

Still, since he was the guild master, Raham’s position was at the center. When Ian brought Raham in under escort and stood next to him, Eraine clapped her hands.

“All right, everyone, lock your gaze on our Speedy up front~ And please disable your safety mode for a moment so your faces show. One, two, three!”

Click— The camera shutter fired about ten times in a row. Ian forced a slight upward curve of his lips to prevent his face muscles from twitching, and dropped it the moment the shoot ended.

“Is it okay if I post this on the official site?”

“Do as you please.”

“Same here.”

Since no one objected, Eraine happily hummed while checking the screenshots.

Meanwhile, Raham ignored the rare moment of cheerful atmosphere and left silently on his own. Debbie, who had been gazing at him fondly, was visibly let down, and for some reason, the other guild members also looked disappointed. Ian couldn’t understand their reactions.

“The guild master acts like that and no one finds it weird?”

“Hmm?”

Cocopang stared directly at Ian and then suddenly asked,

“You said you were originally a solo player, right?”

“Yes.”

“Oh really? Then why did you choose to be a tank? That’s got to be rough for soloing.”

As Jijongso-si* said, the tank wasn’t exactly a favorable class for solo players. It was indispensable for party hunts but being focused entirely on defense, it had considerable limitations when trying to enjoy the game alone. Still, Ian had a simple reason for choosing it.

[*Footnote: “Jijongso-si” is likely a username. Korean players commonly use Romanized or creative compound names for their online personas.]

“It came up in the class aptitude test.”

“……”

Even after taking the test three times, it kept recommending tank, so Ian figured he might as well follow it. Everyone wore subtle expressions at his response, except for Debbie who nodded, saying the test was scarily accurate.

“In my opinion too, Ian, you’re a tank through and through. You’re good at leading parties, for one.”

“That’s just because of the class…”

“And you still look after me even when I’m annoying.”

“We’re in the same guild. I really am more of a solo type.”

To be honest, Debbie’s chattiness was more amusing than truly bothersome. Cocopang, observing the slightly uncomfortable Ian, laughed and added,

“You totally give off the vibe of someone who always ends up the team project leader at school.”

“……”

That was true—but still, Ian firmly believed himself to be a solo player. He only took leadership because there was no one else when something had to be done in a group. It was never by choice.

“Anyway.”

Ending the meaningless solo-player self-identification, Cocopang returned to the original topic.

“I actually mainly played solo too, except for dungeons, because guilds were too much hassle. But there’s only one reason I joined Nox Guild.”

“What was it?”

“Because the guild master is good-looking.”

“……”

“Same here.”

Eraine chimed in, distracted from uploading the screenshot, clearly resonating with Cocopang’s sentiments. Even Jijongso-si raised his hand with a laid-back smile.

“I joined after seeing Guild Master’s looks and his popularity.”

“Ah, I see…”

In Eraine’s case, that might have been expected, but even the founding members—Debbie, Cocopang, and Jijongso-si too… Cocopang giggled at Ian’s disheartened expression and added, “Oh, and.”

“He’s quiet, too. That’s very relaxing for me. Especially since Debbie’s the noisy type.”

“Right. Guild Master and I are the perfect balance!”

“I don’t like guys who talk too much.”

“…Unnie…”*

[*Footnote: “Nuna” or “unnie” is a term Korean men use to refer to older women, usually implying familiarity or slight exasperation in context.]

Is this guild really okay…?

Ian avoided looking at the group now caught up in their shared sentiments as he thought for the umpteenth time. At least one member wasn’t swept up in their chatter—that was a relief.

“What about you, Valor-nim?”

“Oh, me? Jijong-hyung scouted me. We’ve known each other for a while—he goes to my gym.”

“You’re a trainer?”

“Yes. I’m both the owner and trainer.”

As the topic shifted to the gym, Ian’s gaze naturally dropped to Valor’s body. Though they were about the same height, the sheer muscle mass on Valor was leagues beyond, looking much more suited for a trainer or even a professional athlete. He’d heard Valor was twenty-nine this year, and while it was surprising that he already owned his own gym, it was impressive nonetheless.

As Ian looked on admiringly, Valor scratched his cheek with a shy grin.

“It’s not really my doing—it’s thanks to my parents… Anyway, Ian-nim.”

“Yes?”

In an instant, Valor’s eyes lit up, watching Ian intently as if his earlier awkwardness had vanished. The intensity of that gaze made Ian instinctively shrink back, but Valor closed the distance accordingly. He circled around Ian once, speech pouring out in excitement.

“I’ve thought this for a while, but you’ve got such a nice frame. Your posture is straight, and you’ve got decent muscle already… If you trained properly, the muscles would form so beautifully. If the location isn’t too far, would you like to come work out with Jijong-hyung? You wouldn’t even need a personal trainer—I can take care of it.”

The way his hands itched to touch Ian’s body for evaluation, yet held back, clearly spoke of how eager he was—but also how aware he was that they weren’t close enough for that. Ian, used to seeing Valor apathetic and reserved, was momentarily struck speechless by the shift.

Somehow, people always became super passionate when talking about their interests.

“Um, maybe not right away… But I’ll try to find time and swing by later.”

“Definitely! Jijong-hyung paid for a year-long membership and showed up less than ten times.”

“I told you, work’s been hectic.”

“Ian-nim, you said you were on leave from school, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you need stamina to study too. You’ve heard this before, right? ‘A healthy mind comes from a healthy body!’”

“No, I haven’t…”

“It’s my motto.”

“I see…”

Ian listened as Valor passionately spoke for another twenty minutes on the correlation between a happy life and muscle.

A few days after they defeated Ouroboros under dramatic circumstances, the large-scale summer update for Eden began. As expected, the launch exceeded its initial schedule by far, and even as the sun reached high noon, the maintenance continued. Thanks to that, in the open chatroom for Nox Guild, Debbie had been whining for the past hour.

「Debbie: Maintenance extended again to 12:30ㅠㅠ」

「Debbie: A 3-hour delay is ridiculous, isn’t it?」

「Debbie: And watch—when it ends, the servers will crash, and they’ll go into emergency maintenance againーー」

「Jijongso-si: Still, the dev team’s been busting their backs since dawn. Let’s be patient.」

「Debbie: But that’s their jobㅠㅠ」

「Jijongso-si: They probably aren’t getting paid what they deserve either…」

Ian chuckled at the gap in age and attitude in their chat and went about tidying his place. Living alone meant there wasn’t that much to do, but the recent gaming spree had left a small backlog. After cleaning and airing out the room, he laid down on his bed and checked his phone. He’d assumed Debbie was still venting, but strangely, Ian’s name had appeared in the latest message.

「Eraine: Iaaaan~~~」

「Yeah. Just saw this.」

Rolling over, he replied, and immediately the message counter by the chat bubble dropped.

「Eraine: Do you happen to know someone named SolarSeif?」

SolarSeif? The name rang a very familiar bell, and Ian furrowed his brow trying to recall. He wished he could forget already, but the notorious screenshot posted on the official site made it hard to erase—the lunatic from the Leta Ruins incident.

Why was that guy’s name coming up here? Just as he typed his question, a link popped up. It led to the official Eden homepage.

「Eraine: I uploaded our guild photo to the site and he’s been picking fights, haha.」

「I’ll check it out.」

Clicking the link brought Ian to Eraine’s post on the screenshot board. The “Popular Post” badge gleamed proudly.

[Title: ♡NOX♡ Guild Clears (Chaos) Ouroboros with 7-Man Party^^7]

Attached was the group screenshot with Raham centered, as well as the in-game popup showing their raid clear as proof. Ian scanned past Raham’s impassive face and his own half-forced smile and opened the comment section, watching his expression grow more and more complex as he scrolled down.

He had expected comments expressing disbelief that Ouroboros was cleared with only seven people, or people accusing them of using exploits. But in reality, the rest of the comments were all—

[Wait, Raham’s in a guild?]

└Yeah, he’s the guild master.

[Second from the left—is that Cocopang?]

└Yep. Even turned down an officer position in the Justice Guild. Wise choice, lol.

└Noona, I love you—I picked Assassin because of you.

[That guild got looks for days;;;]

[That’s nuts lol. From left: Arc Mage Jijongso-si, then Shadow Walker Cocopang, to the right, Barbarian Valor—those three are PvP rank #1 in their class. Always top 20 overall.]

└Don’t forget Raham.

└Raham’s rankings in PvP suck though?

└Yeah, he prefers PKing over PvP.

└Why don’t they do guild wars?

└Looks like the guild only has 8 members—doesn’t meet the required size.

At that point, Ian let his gaze go hazy like he was staring at a magic eye image. Seeing familiar guildmates attached to such exaggerated descriptions only made him feel more embarrassed. No wonder Eraine was so excited about the photo—she didn’t just want to commemorate the clear; she was enjoying people’s reactions to Nox Guild. As expected from someone who proudly claimed to be an attention addict…

Sure enough, further down, there was a comment from Seif—whining about how unjustly he had been treated, laced with accusations that Raham and Ian were conspiring together. But Seif’s comment didn’t draw much attention. It wasn’t that people didn’t believe him—most just assumed that if it was Raham, such behavior was completely within character.

Losing interest, Ian exited the website and messaged Eraine.