Light of Arad: Forerunner

The clanging noise from the chains on his arms was exceedingly irritating, but the man couldn’t afford to worry about such things.

“Haah, haah…”

It was already challenging enough to look ahead while running through the dark forest.

He knew very well that the forest was so dark it was hard to tell whether it was day or night.

He also knew that since no light penetrated, the forest was filled with an overwhelming chill.

‘Damn it, but knowing and experiencing are way too different…! Ugh.’

The man frowned and clutched his left shoulder.

He thought his left arm was trembling, but in reality, it wasn’t just his left arm that was shaking.

“Ugh…”

“…Fire…”

He had been unable to control his body’s trembling from the instinctive fear caused by the sounds coming from behind him.

“Get lost! You weren’t supposed to come for me in the first place, damn it!”

The small mercy was that those things, which looked human, were approaching relatively slowly.

Yet the unfortunate reality was that they possessed significant problems, such as a stench, body parts falling off, or exposed intestines, issues that should never arise in normal humans.

Rustle, rustle.

“Kyarrgghhhh-!”

Moreover, the problem wasn’t just the slowly approaching ones.

Strange beasts that sprang out from bushes as tall as his thighs glared at him with glowing eyes.

Even someone who loved animals would feel differently if they had claws belonging to beasts that couldn’t be found even in zoo predators.

Especially when these creatures, speaking strange words and wearing masks, couldn’t be clearly identified as either human or beast.

“Ugh, what am I supposed to do?! What do you even expect me to do?!”

He could only shout and stumble blindly in the dark woods.

But where could he run?

What meaning did running away have?

In this dark forest, without a map or any knowledge of the paths, it was impossible to evade them forever.

‘No, I don’t even know if I can escape or find my way back…’

The man swallowed dryly.

What lay beyond the human-like creatures, whose state of life or death was uncertain, and the beings, whose nature as either human or beast was unclear, was light.

The light that allowed him to flee even a little, and the only remaining light in this dark forest.

He barely managed to see a few silhouettes around that light.

A silhouette appeared as if it were floating in mid-air from the center of the light.

Another silhouette stood idly around the light emanating from the ground.

‘At this rate…’

The man bit his lower lip.

He wanted to express his frustration but had little opportunity to do so.

Because he saw yet another silhouette around the two.

A slightly abnormal, elongated silhouette, twitching as if it was about to do something with a long stick, made the man’s body stiffen again.

“No, if you had explained it like this from the beginning, given more detailed information… Ah, damn it!”

The man panted, voicing his frustration and resentment.

However, none of the approaching beings could understand his words.

“Ugh…gu…”

“Kyahhh, kyah!”

Bodies moving despite their severely damaged state.

Monstrous creatures with sharp claws rushing at him.

Blacker than black, incomprehensible masses of energy covering the entire forest.

And beyond them, the light and the silhouettes.

This wasn’t a dream. This was reality.

Seeing those clearly in his sight, the man had to make a decision.

“Damn it… This wasn’t supposed to be my fucking job!”

When his trembling left arm had calmed slightly, his pale right hand moved to his waist.

The sensation was not just unfamiliar but downright strange, yet one thing was certain.

“If you don’t keep your promise, I’ll drag you to hell myself!”

The man shouted.

And then, he drew his sword.

* * *

Jinseong heard the BGM, which was like an alarm for him to go to work.

‘No matter when I listen to this BGM, it always excites me.’

Jinseong smiled as he looked at the D&F, Dungeon Fighter Online, logo.

Seeing all his character slots filled to the brim, he understood the saying, “I feel full without eating.”

“Hehe, where should I run today? Where would be better for farming….”

Moreover, all those characters were sparkling, with their items, titles, and auras. And most importantly, their collective ‘Adventurer Fame’ was immense.

“Ah, this account has already completed the weekly dungeons. I need to log in with another account.”

Considering he had several similar accounts, it was no exaggeration to say that Jinseong had reached the endgame content with every character and every job.

It was just a game he started because it looked fun.

It was only natural that a game he got so engrossed in would become a hobby.

However, unlike typical Dungeon Fighter Online users, Jinseong could say, ‘My life is with Dungeon Fighter Online.’

‘It’s about time for my YouTube earnings to come in… How much was it this month?’

When his YouTube income, utilizing Dungeon Fighter Online content, surpassed his small company’s salary, Jinseong made a decision.

He decided to invest his life in Dungeon Fighter Online, literally.

So far, Jinseong did not regret his decision.

Thanks to the popularity of the global game, his views were relatively steady and stable. Occasionally, some videos gained a surge in views due to his bizarre antics, leaving no room for complaints about his income structure.

“Hmm… But right now… Well, it’s inevitable at the end of every season.”

However, due to the nature of content creators, income could not always increase.

Especially in a season-based game like Dungeon Fighter Online, it was unavoidable for things to slow down towards the end of a season when most of the new content had been consumed.

Despite the sigh mixed with regret, Jinseong’s expression wasn’t entirely dark, perhaps because of the successful videos he had already produced.

『Baek Jinseong’s Training Raids』 – Asrahan: Fog God, AtoZ

Views: 890,000

『Baek Jinseong’s Training Raids』 – Machine Revolution: Bakal Raid, Everyone but Me is a Newbie?

Views: 1,030,000

『Baek Jinseong’s Training Raids』- Eoduk Island: Liberation, Hardcore with 3 Level 0 Players!

Views: 660,000.

『Dungeon, Teacher Baek』- Asrahan: Veil of Nothingness, First Clear on the Test Server! First Clear in the Galaxy!

Views: 510,000.

『Liberation Genius Baek Manager』- Vigilante No-Hit Eoduk Island Liberation, Solo Clear with All Dealers Alive!

Views: 470,000.

.

.

.

As he looked at his main content playlist, which included videos that surpassed a million views for the first time, he grinned widely.

“Heh, that was really fun. After the educational Training Raid Party became popular, even the view counts for other raid and legion strategy videos skyrocketed…”

Immediately after a specific dungeon or raid was updated for the first time, Jinseong utilized his long-standing understanding of Dungeon Fighter Online and his inherent gaming skills to effectively join the leading clear groups.

And after that?

His pattern was to upload the strategies he had discovered and organize educational raids to teach so-called ‘newbies,’ which sustained his reputation within Dungeon Fighter Online.

‘It was really tough at first.’

For some, forming a raid group with strangers and tackling a raid would be nothing but stress.

The pressure and burden of these so-called ‘Training Raid Parties’ were significant, but teaching all the patterns and strategies to rookie adventurers who had barely met the entry conditions for the raid and had never experienced it before was undoubtedly more stressful than those common ‘Training Raid Parties’!

However, Jinseong did not view pressure as merely pressure.

Amidst extreme stress, he saw the potential to use it as content, and what seemed like a reckless challenge back then had now become one of the killing contents on his YouTube channel.

Recalling the difficult past, Jinseong chuckled.

“The 『Baek Jinseong’s Training Raids』 series… haha, since I’m really Baek, people will probably see it as a cute parody.”

Imitating famous people’s speech and dialect, sometimes gently, sometimes provocatively, Jinseong’s popularity grew as he shared his strategies, and his YouTube channel’s subscriber count increased, bringing him fame. However, this wouldn’t last forever.

Dungeon and raid updates inevitably required sufficient preparation time, and repeatedly running the same dungeon would only cause view counts to gradually decline. Most importantly, there had to be a steady influx of new users.

Jinseong absentmindedly logged into one of his characters.

“Still, I have to wait. Tomorrow… once the new season updates tomorrow…”

A notification appeared on the huge announcement window, so large it obscured Seria’s room.

Jinseong couldn’t contain his excitement as he looked at the announcement for the large-scale patch signaling the transition to a new season.

‘At the very least, there’s definitely going to be a new Apostle. I can roughly guess who it’ll be based on the current flow, which makes it even more exciting—plus, it’s not just because of the story! Oh man, the level cap increase is practically confirmed, and with that comes new item farming—obviously, there’ll be new dungeons and raids where you can get those items! And with the new season, there’ll be buffs and rewards and all sorts of cool goodies!’

There would be so much to enjoy.

He could feel his heart race once more.

A small number of people despised these large updates, calling them a reset due to the tension and burden they brought, but for most Dungeon Fighter Online players, it felt like the day before a festival!

[Hey, hey! Madak Jinseong! Hey!]

While wondering what to do today, Jinseong, who was merely passing through Hendon Myre, was suddenly called out by another player.

A male Ranger following him, repeatedly calling out “Hey”?

Since the nickname was unfamiliar to Jinseong, he tilted his head in confusion.

[Yes ?]

[You’re the one who runs the educational Training Raids, right?]

The subsequent chat was enough to make Jinseong smile broadly.

Having raised many characters, he usually gave their nicknames little thought.

‘For that player to recognize the fleeting display of my adventurer team name… well, I guess it’s natural since my name is in the team name.’

Considering how brief and difficult it was to catch the name “Baek Jinseong,” which only appeared for a moment among various notifications and rankings, it was a testament to Jinseong’s growing fame that a player on a random street could notice it.

Jinseong smiled and typed back.

[Oh, yes. Are you a YouTube subscriber?]

[No, I can’t watch even if I wanted to… More importantly-.]

The reply was not what he expected.

‘Hmm? What is this person talking about? They can’t watch even if they wanted to?’

While Jinseong pondered for a moment, the unfamiliar player’s chat continued.

[Please help me. I need to defeat the Apostle Prey-Isys. More precisely, I need to subdue the awakened Isys… and check his card.]

It was such an earnest message.

Which made it even stranger.