Former Hero, Solo Play Oriented

[Title]

First Legendary Weapon, ‘Astaroth’ Owner, White Dog.

[Content]

After the World Boss raid ended yesterday, as soon as White Dog pulled the weapon, a world announcement was made.

Now it’s common knowledge that White Dog’s full name is ‘Drizzle Rain.’

So, who is this Rain guy?

Those who’ve been around since the opening of Astria Online will remember him as the owner of a full set of Orc Warrior gear, which had once been posted on the gallery.

First off, his physical characteristics stand out the most.

He’s small, has a cute face, and his eye and hair colors are also pretty and unusual.

You could try making those colors from RGB codes, but you probably wouldn’t get that exact look.

There’s even a nightmare fusion like Kim Jjalgit that was made after trying to copy his character art style.

After that, occasional eyewitness accounts started popping up amongst the elite dungeon party selection team.

He never talks to anyone, avoids people, and disappears the moment you take your eyes off him at the dungeon entrance.

Witnesses say that not long after a perfect party is formed, he changes his weapon, which leads us to believe he’s one of the tanks in the perfect run party.

The search for ties to the perfect team ‘Noname’ began in earnest after the ‘Forward Base’ opened.

Around this time, posts surfaced from those who rode the party bus with Chris, claiming they saw White Dog.

Chris has locked the in-dungeon screenshot function, so nothing official has come out, but a few screenshots have popped up taken with external programs.

All the bus passengers said that his play style is quite different from the swordsmen they’ve seen before.

He deals tremendous damage and never gets hit.

He dodges what he can and blocks what he must.

The swordsmen will probably sort out the details of White Dog’s damage cycle.

White Dog has physical prowess superior to Chris’s main tank ‘Deathly Death’ and shows remarkable weapon swapping speed among the advance farming team.

From what was displayed during the Green Dragon raid, it’s almost certain that White Dog is the tank for the perfect party ‘Noname.’

In fact, when he fought with Jo Hyun-Soo, it was epic.

This proves he’s not just good at PvE.

He overwhelmed Jo Hyun-Soo with PvE gear, and since his damage didn’t register due to the gear difference, he lured the dragon’s breath to finish it off—absolutely perfect.

You could say he’s the strongest swordsman, or perhaps the strongest user in the entire game.

I’ve put up a few screenshots and GIFs of White Dog during the Green Dragon raid.

(jpg file)

(jpg file)

(jpg file)

(gif file)

(gif file)

….

[Comments]

– Oh wow…

– Oh lol, oh lololol!

– Why are the comments above like this?

N: They’re probably people about to get caught.

– Wow, but he’s really cute. Small, pretty, and really good at gaming.

– Based on movement, he’s either at max synchronization rate or hacking. But even if we disregard the face, we’d have to assume his height is realistic?

N: Yeah, you can make the face look younger with character customization, but if you mess with height or body shape, the synchronization rate plummets.

N: Oh wow… if he’s that short… is he a minor?

N: Are there ways for minors to play this game?

N: Absolutely not. This game has strict identity verification. Even if there are synchronization limits, since users can actually die in-game, minors are prohibited from playing due to mental shock risks.

N: If a minor managed to bypass the age verification illegally, the game company would have already taken action. The fact that they’ve been playing since the open beta suggests there’s no age issue.

N: His height seems to be around 140cm in the mid-to-late range. There’s definitely some small adult females out there.

N: Yup, you could barely qualify him as an adult female.

– The swordsman needs a nerf. That damage is insane.

N: Quit whining, dude. If you can deal even 80% of that damage after leveling up as a swordsman, I’ll give you props. White Dog would probably have put up great damage regardless of the character he picked.

N: Given that vitality buffs aren’t interrupted, it seems he’s actively using the Just Guard mechanics. And strangely, he’s hitting all his skills without any misses.

N: Yeah, his single-hit damage and agile attack power seem to be average for fully-farmed shrine swordsmen. He must be skillfully utilizing elements alongside his agility.

N: Those who just spam their skills wouldn’t know the difference. Just look at how White Dog uses One Flash in the air. There are endless ways to utilize based on the user.

N: But judging by how he dodged skills during the Jo Hyun-Soo fight, his synchronization rate must be insane? Is he actually hacking the capsule?

N: Just because the synchronization rate is high doesn’t mean he can dodge like that. You can’t just avoid bullets by waving a sword in real life, right? Even someone with amateur boxer experience like Deathly Death can only replicate such movements to a degree. So even if his synchronization limits are broken, achieving athlete-level reaction speeds in reality is quite something.

N: So the swordsmen essentially have a training dummy. They should just try to follow White Dog.

N: Ugh, I really wish Rangers had someone like that creating a new damage cycle for them.

– But what’s the relationship between Chris and White Dog? That’s what I’m most curious about.

N: Why are you curious about that? LOL.

N: For real… I’m curious too… That picture of them standing next to each other looks so beautiful.

N: I’m getting excited… a cute, loyal little sister and a cool older sister…

N: Look at image 11. Chris looks like she’s got honey dripping from her eyes. LOL.

N: Oh wow… is it the relationship I’m thinking of? For real?

N: Aren’t they just close older sister and younger sister? They probably meet in real life too, right?

N: The fact that White Dog, who usually avoids people, is sticking close to Chris suggests they’re really close.

N: I remember during the auction, White Dog got a Dragon Heart and was rumored to have paid back in body.

N: But that kind of seems pointless. Those who were there just thought it was cute.

N: But wouldn’t it be fine if they were dating?

N: Since we’ve dismissed the minor theory, as long as they’re both okay with it, there’s no issue.

“Haa.”

I sighed deeply as I looked at the messenger window that popped up in front of me and rejected the friend requests that had come in today.

Who would’ve thought there would be a world announcement when I obtained the legendary weapon?

I didn’t expect my full name to be publicly revealed.

Of course, I resigned myself to the fact that my existence would be unmasked to the users in the Faction Battlefield during the World Boss raid.

My desire for the legendary weapon was stronger than the risk of my unusual play style surfacing.

But with the world announcement, things escalated more than I expected.

I might draw the game company’s attention. The risk of my abnormally high synchronization rate being discovered has come up.

Still, if I want to keep living in the Continent of Astria, it’s something I have to face sooner or later.

I can’t keep hiding forever.

Is this the point of no return?

Since it’s come to this, the days of hiding my existence are over.

[Hong Baek Guild]

[Guild Leader / Onmyoji ‘Chris’ (Offline)]

[Sub-Guild Leader / Fighter ‘Deathly Death’ (Offline)]

[Guild Member / Wizard ‘Bae Merong’ (Offline)]

[Guild Member / Spirit Master ‘Cherni’ (Do Not Disturb)]

….

….

The guild members’ connection statuses popped up in the guild interface window.

Deathly Death and Bae Merong were offline, while Cherni seemed to be doing something else.

I wanted to farm gold together, but Chris was back at work for the first time in a while. Regardless, I would still receive my base salary even without partying with her.

In that case, I need to make the most of my leftover time alone.

I looked once again at my newly obtained legendary weapon, ‘Astaroth’.

If it had been an elite weapon, I would have faced frenzy patterns due to a lack of damage, making it impossible to run the bus alone.

But with this weapon, I can now run the bus on my own.

Thanks to Chris, I’ve slowly started to get to know some of her party members.

And during the recent Green Dragon raid, I teamed up with the new Hong Baek guild members, significantly reducing my aversion to people.

Rain, who used to flee at the mere sight of a human shadow, had grown a lot.

How long will I continue to hide behind Sister Chris?

It’s time to learn how to serve customers on my own.

It’s the first step towards socialization.

After completing today’s daily quest, I opened the local announcement chat window in front of the ‘Ancient Shrine of Berveia’.

[Running a bus to the Ancient Shrine of Berveia. It may be a little slow, but I’m offering it cheap.]

Hmm, is this alright?

Is it too long?

Let’s rephrase it into a message that clearly conveys meaning and draws attention.

[★Safety Driving Bus★ ★Industry Lowest Price★]

Oh, this looks good.

Beep-

Not long after sending the message to the local chat, my chat interface began to fill with whispers.

[Me! Me! I want to ride five times!]

[Eeehee! I want to ride!]

[Me! Me! Me!]

[Is there still a spot available!?]

[White Dog! White Dog!]

[Is it too late!?]

[Rain! Rain!]

[Hello! I’d like to inquire about bus rides.]

[Is Chris also around?]

…

…

“Oh no…!”

I jumped in shock.

Three female user passengers approached me as I was heading down to the shrine.

“Thank you for letting my friends ride with me!”

“Wow, you’re really running the bus solo? That’s amazing! The first owner of a legendary weapon in Astria Online!”

“So, if you have a legendary weapon and are running the bus for shrine farming, you can do it solo. You must have practiced a lot! You’re going to have quite the show this time!”

“Th-thank you…”

I answered while shrinking back a bit.

Running a dungeon bus is a service where I charge for the service.

Expectedly, I must interact with the customers.

Fortunately, the first passengers of the ‘Rain Safe Driving Bus’ were female users. Female users are generally less intimidating than male ones.

The first female wizard user who sent me a whisper immediately asked if it was alright for her friends to join after hearing I’d be running the bus solo.

Usually, the rule is one passenger per bus operator, regardless of how many people are initially running the bus.

This is because I charge a set amount in exchange for delivering items to one customer.

At first, I was going to refuse. But the customer said since they were all friends and needed different item pieces, it would be fine to divide them up.

As long as the customer is okay with it, it’s no problem. I agreed to do it at a price for two people instead of three.

This is the win-win structure possible precisely because it’s a solo bus.

The bus operator can receive from two or more passengers needing different weapons or accessories, and they can pay less than the single-person price.

With this solo bus selling, perhaps I could pay back Sister Chris faster than I thought.

“Oh wow…! Look at the hair color! It’s so pretty!”

“Oh my god, how can you…? Your eyes are so sparkling!”

“How did you get your hair color RGB code?”

“Y-yeah? Ah, that…”

I started to stutter as I was surrounded by the female customers.

I was flustered by their barrage of questions.

My body shrank, and my head began to spin.

I quickly felt like crying.

Dealing with strangers is still too difficult for me.

---