FBPP C26

Chapter 26

010-xxxx-xxxx
Hello. I’m the person who contacted you last time regarding the car accident. Has the estimate been prepared yet?
AM 9:20

PM 8:51
(Attached: estimate photo)
Yes. Please give me the account number and the account holder’s name, and I’ll transfer it immediately.
PM 9:01

“Account holder’s name?”

Ji-han tapped his cheek with the hand that was propping up his chin. After a brief moment of hesitation, he grabbed his phone with both hands again.

He already knew the other’s face, so what difference did revealing his name make?

AM 3:14
AC Bank xxx-xxxxx-xxx-xx, Account holder: Seo Ji-han.

“Ah, fuck.”

He realized his mistake too late, but the message had already been sent. Since his schedule-free days blurred into the life of an idle loafer, he hadn’t been paying attention to the time and hadn’t realized it was past two in the morning.

Cancel, cancel. He desperately pressed on the message, but there was no “unsend” option anywhere.

Ji-han gave up easily. Still, the fact that he at least recognized this as impolite and bothered to look for a way to cancel the message was something. If the other threw a fit, he could just apologize… maybe toss over a gift card or something.

He tossed his phone aside and turned back to his monitor. He had already collected fourteen keys. Sweeping up MVP after MVP, he wouldn’t need to grind through all forty-five matches.

The thought that most of these were earned while duoing with AkashaPhilban left him both smug and bitter. On the one hand, it meant he’d done a fine job rattling that bastard’s mental state. On the other, without him, Ji-han doubted he would have farmed keys this quickly.

[Guild] MondayToSunday: Hani-nim, are you available??
[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: Yeah.
[Guild] MondayToSunday: I was wondering if you’re planning to participate in the next Territory War, hehe.

Ji-han opened the event post on the official site with his secondary monitor.

The detailed schedule for the upcoming event had not yet been released. Most likely, they’d drop a vague notice about a week in advance. That was how Xenox always operated. And that “strategic score” used to determine the winning guilds would probably only be revealed then as well.

With countless Heavenly-rank players throwing themselves into the fray and new guilds popping up everywhere, if the devs had any sense at all, they would build in mechanics to prevent pure mechanical skill from dictating the outcome. Even if such systems didn’t exist, they would have to create them. If the top 0.1% monopolized the anniversary event, the other 99.9% of the player base would revolt.

[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: Never done a Territory War before.

It was true. He knew they existed, knew they were 30v30 massive battles, and vaguely understood how they worked—mostly because the game had shoved a flashy tutorial about them in his face at the start.

But he’d never cared. Neither had most players. Personal rankings mattered, not guild rankings. He wasn’t even a guild master—what was the point of wasting time just to boost the guild’s standing? With the nature of AOS games, guild buffs weren’t all that significant either. The mode was basically abandoned, little more than a playground for cliques and petty social circles.

Sure, he understood the company’s desperate attempts to revive the guild system. But that didn’t make him interested. What caught his eye were the new ultimate-skill effect skins and the exclusive Territory War champion avatars. Once he got the rewards, he’d drop guild matters without a second glance.

More importantly, Ji-han planned to return to his main account, HanJiHanJang, as soon as its suspension was lifted. That would be on June 23, with the season ending on June 25. After the preseason, the new season would most likely start on July 3, alongside the kickoff of the event Territory War.

Collecting fifteen keys in just one week carried significant risk. The Heavenly tier wasn’t like here, where MVPs came easy. Matches there were harder to find, and during preseason, the mood shifted toward casual play. Banking on the event using HanJiHanJang was unrealistic.

Thus, his plan was clear: park his main at Legend tier by surpassing the lowest Legend-ranked score the moment his ban lifted, then use JiniHaniJihani exclusively for the Territory War.

“But aren’t the avatars bound to the account? Wouldn’t they be stuck on JiniHaniJihani?”

Not in Xenox. If two accounts were registered under the same name, players had a one-time chance to transfer a bound avatar through the Premium Vault.

This had been a hard-won concession—the result of user uprisings after Xenox’s countless underhanded schemes to monetize avatars. April Fools’ events that boosted “Laughter Points” upon losses, spawning droves of match-throwers. Players had flocked to alt accounts to shield their mains from tanking ranks, leaving Bronze-Silver-Gold-Platinum in chaos. And yet, the reward avatars were non-tradable.

Then came the rigged gachas: “limited edition avatars” with suspiciously higher drop rates for new accounts. The community had cried foul so often it was practically a seasonal tradition.

[Guild] MondayToSunday: Honestly, not many people have done Territory War before ㅠㅠㅋㅋ It’s only popular now because of the event, hehe.

Ji-han figured he should at least try it once. If he went in blind and clueless, only to lose, who would compensate him for the lost avatar?

[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: So what do you actually do?
[Guild] MondayToSunday: The map’s big, so basically just kill every enemy you see. Planting flags is handled by designated members. Combatants get an Excel sheet the day before, posted in the group chat, hehe.
[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: And how do you score points?

Cheongpadong guild was overwhelmingly ranked first. They held the same number of territories as the #2 guild, but their points were way higher.

Guild: Noct7 has logged in.

Suddenly, the guild master appeared. Ji-han knew the name, but since he never paid attention to the guild roster, it felt like their first meeting. Even when checking AkashaPhilban’s activity, he’d only whispered directly rather than looking at the list.

[Guild] MondayToSunday: Heyyy, what are you doing here again??
[Guild] Noct7: Woke up.

Waking up at 3 AM and logging into the game? If anyone doubted he was Heavenly-tier, his behavior erased all doubt. He wasn’t normal either.

[Guild] MondayToSunday: Kachu-nim said he’s going on a business trip next week, so I thought I’d slot Hani-nim in, hehe.
[Guild] Noct7: Do as you like.

Then, as if on cue, both fell silent. Ji-han frowned, annoyed at having the flow of his explanation cut off.

[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: So how exactly do you earn points?
[Guild] MondayToSunday: The more kills you rack up, the more your score rises. Deaths make it fall, hehe. Speed of territory capture counts too, and the fewer guild buffs you use, the higher it goes.

So basically: die less, kill more, win faster.

[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: When’s the next one?
[Guild] MondayToSunday: Normally, we defend. But this time we’re planning to attack, to size up the competition. We just haven’t picked a target yet, hehe.
[Guild] Noct7: Betting. We’ll fight “WeDon’tEvenHaveAGuildNameYet” in two weeks.

WeDon’tEvenHaveAGuildNameYet? That crappy thing was their guild name?

[Guild] MondayToSunday: Huh?? No way, that place is too strong!!!!
[Guild] Noct7: They’re the only territory-holders left that are worth fighting.

At that, Ji-han finally opened the guild tab to check his guildmates’ tiers.

“What the hell? This roster is stacked.”

He had wondered how they held #1 so convincingly in a mode where victory boiled down to killing more and dying less. Now it made sense—the guild’s lineup was loaded.

MondayToSunday was Plat 2. Ji-han was Dia 5. Shockingly, they were the lowest-ranked members. Most were Dia 2 to Master 4. Suddenly, it clicked.

Maybe MondayToSunday was even an alt. AkashaPhilban, of course, was not Platinum level, so whether in Cheongpadong or elsewhere, he definitely had a main. If MondayToSunday was recruiting, he clearly had an eye for talent. He had even admitted to spectating Ji-han’s matches directly. This wasn’t random scouting. He must have combed through records before making the final offer.

“So they’re aiming for avatars too? Or maybe it’s pride. No way the #1 guild wants to be mocked for collapsing the moment Heavenly-tier guilds show up.”

[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: Wait, is “WeDon’tEvenHaveAGuildNameYet” actually their name?
[Guild] MondayToSunday: LOL ㅠㅠㅠㅠ No, it’s “Yorkshire Division”ㅠㅠ

Yorkshire Division? Ji-han only knew Yorkshire as a breed of dog.

[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: Yorkshire? Like the dog?
[Guild] MondayToSunday: No, “YorkshireOwner-nim” <<< that guy. Don’t you know him, Hani-nim??

Ah. The name rang a bell. A marksman who always secured Legend placement every season. Ji-han remembered him only as the guy driving CloudJamie’s bus.

[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: So that loser Jamie’s in too?
[Guild] MondayToSunday: Yeah, they’re a set. But actually, CloudJamie’s the lowest-ranked one. The rest are all Master 3 and above.

The stench of clique politics was thick. Clearly, Jamie had whined about avatars, so Yorkshire made a guild. Ji-han could already picture the cozy circle they had curated to pamper themselves.

[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: Fine. So, in two weeks, when and what time?
[Guild] MondayToSunday: Wait—what? Hani-nim, are you saying we should fight them??
[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: Jamie’s a pushover. What’s the problem?
[Guild] Noct7: LOL.
[Guild] MondayToSunday: Bro… that guild has all 30 members at Master rank…
[Guild] JiniHaniJihani: And?

Was Master rank supposed to be a big deal? If you were some Bronze-to-Platinum guild, yeah, challenging them would be suicide. But with Cheongpadong’s roster? Ji-han didn’t see the issue. And in a 30v30, who knew what could happen?

[Guild] MondayToSunday: I’m just saying… We’ll run into them in the main event anyway. Why rush into it now, only to get stomped and embarrassed?
[Guild] Noct7: Then don’t get stomped. Simple. LOL.

Ah. Noct7 was making sense. Exactly Ji-han’s point.

[Guild] MondayToSunday: You two are seriously… the way you talk, you’re making me feel like the crazy one here…
[Guild] MondayToSunday: Anyway, our wars usually start at 11 PM. Unless they use a defense ticket? The exact day we’ll only know then.

So there were even “defense tickets”? For such a dead-end mode, the devs sure had stuffed it with gimmicks.

While the guild tab was open, Ji-han checked AkashaPhilban’s activity. Last login: two hours ago.

So after ranting and even tagging him for not showing up, he had logged off. His ranking points hadn’t moved since yesterday—clearly, he had been online but hadn’t queued ranked.

For someone like Ji-han, who only logged in to grind ranked, this was incomprehensible.

“What a lunatic.”