Chapter 40 : Bug (2)

Is it a hack or not?

I felt uneasy,but if Frost says that, there must be a reason.

“Yeah. Let’s check it out.”

On a smoothly running server, the first-ever Hidden Piece worth celebrating had appeared.

If someone got that Hidden Piece using a hack,it would be like throwing cold water on the hype.

It was better to check it with my own eyes for peace of mind.

“Play the video from the user ‘Silver Hair’—start from when they obtained the Baegnyeongmok.”

At Frost’s command, the monitor began playing the log footage from Silver Hair’s perspective.

Silver Hair was glancing around nervously.

It didn’t take long for her to find the Baegnyeongmok.

The moment she struck it with her hand axe and obtained the item.

“This is where it starts.”

With Frost’s low voice, the atmosphere on screen took a chilling turn.

Tadadak.

The sharp sound of claws.

Nine gaunt, rabid dog-like monsters appeared.

Their red eyes radiated a killing intent unfit for a beginner area.

“Aren’t those monsters… the patrol pattern gimmick? The ones you’re supposed to avoid?”

“Yes. Normally, they hide in the bushes, and the intended solution is to find an opening and escape without drawing aggro.”

Apparently aware of this, Silver Hair hid in the bushes.

The monsters patrolled mechanically along a set path.

They were brutally powerful.

In her current unequipped state, even brushing against them wouldn’t just be a critical hit… it would be instant death.

‘But she said she beat them?’

They weren’t monsters meant to be fought.

You were supposed to avoid them, and the moment they spotted you, you’d die.

No—you had to die.

But Silver Hair told Rydel she beat them.

Said she smashed them all with a pickaxe.

‘She was bluffing, right?’

Zeronix shook his head.

Anyone can say something that sounds convincing.

She probably just snuck past them like normal and lied about taking them all down.

Watching this footage would surely prove that Silver Hair had been lying.

CRACK—!

“Huh?”

Instead of escaping, Silver Hair aimed for an opening and swung her pickaxe at the nearest monster.

The monster took a clean hit to the waist and vanished without a sound.

The second monster charged in, but she pulled out a hand axe from her side and threw it.

The spinning axe hit dead center in its forehead.

The second one collapsed as well.

It all happened in an instant.

“…What the?”

Zeronix’s mouth fell slightly open.

“She really took them down…?”

They were weak in terms of HP,but insanely fast monsters.

Once they charged, they’d be on top of you in the blink of an eye, crushing their prey.

But Silver Hair had thrown an axe right between the eyes of a charging monster, like it was nothing.

And that wasn’t all.

She caught the exact moment when they moved out of each other’s sightlines,and pulled them out one by one.

Without drawing aggro.

Using only a pickaxe and a hand axe.

She took down all nine of them.

She dodged every monster attack with godlike movements.

“She’s insane, seriously…”

Zeronix muttered in disbelief.

“Even if the monsters have low HP, how did she not get hit even once? Those things are ridiculously fast.”

“I thought I was seeing things too. That’s why I replayed it several times… but as you can see, it’s real.”

Frost added quietly.

“She wiped them all out with just a pickaxe and a hand axe.”

Once all nine monsters were gone, Silver Hair paused to catch her breath and looked around.

Then, with a puzzled expression, she tilted her head.

“Now that I think about it… did we set up EXP for those monsters?”

“No. Since they weren’t meant to be fought… there probably isn’t any set. It should be zero.”

“Right. They’re not supposed to be killed.”

And yet, Silver Hair had done exactly that.

After killing them all,she looked confused, as if wondering, ‘Why am I not getting any EXP?’

“Ha… she’s a real monster.”

Zeronix kept letting out impressed sighs.

“It honestly doesn’t make sense.”

Frost, standing beside him, nodded in agreement.

“So, just to be sure—there’s absolutely no hack involved, right?”

Zeronix asked for final confirmation.

Frost answered without hesitation.

“Yes, 100 percent. According to the log data, there were no signs of any external interference.”

Even during the moment Silver Hair showed her godlike pickaxe skills,

the anti-cheat program—which would turn red if a hack was detected.

It remained green.

Clear evidence that it wasn’t a hack.

“Whew! Thank god. Really, thank god.”

Only then did Zeronix lean back deeply in his chair, finally at ease.

The biggest concern—accusations of hacking—was now put to rest.

It wasn’t a hack; it was just that her skills surpassed what hacks could do.

Once this footage was released, the hacking rumors would die down.

Just when it seemed the issue had been resolved.

Frost cautiously brought up a new report.

“But, hyung… there’s another complaint from some streamers.”

“Huh? Now what?”

Zeronix already looked tired.

The hack issue was cleared—so what else could be the problem now?

“You know the Hidden Piece clue that Silver Hair found? The bird carrying a branch?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

The bird carrying a Baegnyeongmok branch.

It was the biggest clue to the location of the Baegnyeongmok tree.

You had to sail in the direction the bird flew in order to find it.

“Well, some streamers are saying… they couldn’t tell the bird was carrying anything at all.”

Frost summarized the complaint that had come in.

“They said it looked like a tiny white dot that zipped past so fast, they couldn’t even register that it was holding something.”

Frost looked troubled.

“They said it never occurred to them to replay that part. ‘How is it a clue if we can’t even tell what it is?’ ‘This is way too unfriendly to be considered a proper hint.’ Stuff like that…”

Zeronix let out a scoffing laugh, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

‘Huh… They didn’t see it, and now they’re taking it out on us?’

He felt a surge of frustration, but he couldn’t say what was really on his mind.

After taking a moment to calm down, he spoke.

“So what, what do they expect us to do? If they missed it, that’s on them. It’s not like we did anything wrong with the design, right?”

Of course, Zeronix wasn’t feeling completely righteous himself.

The “bird carrying a branch” clue?

That mechanic was kind of a last-minute idea.

It had been hastily added near the very end of the server launch.

The schedule was too tight, so they just implemented it as planned—barely.

“We didn’t get to do a final test.”

It was a simple function—just a scripted bird flying through.

“What could possibly go wrong with that?”

Besides, Silver Hair had seen the clue and found the Hidden Piece because of it.

She was living proof that the clue worked.

“She saw it just fine. That means it’s not broken. The others just missed it.”

With that reasoning, Zeronix tried to shake off his irritation.

But.

That nagging feeling wouldn’t go away.

Ten streamers.

And counting the viewers watching live, that made tens of thousands of people.

Out of all of them, not a single person had seen the branch.

Everyone said the bird flew by so fast, it was impossible to even notice it had something in its beak.

Only one person—Silver Hair—had seen it.

“Did you miss something?”

A wrinkle formed between Zeronix’s brows.

It was too many people saying the same thing to just dismiss it as mere whining or complaints.

What if something really was wrong?

“No way…”

A bad feeling crept in.

Zeronix suddenly jumped up from his seat, his eyes flickering with urgency.

“Hey, bro!”

“Y-Yeah?”

Frost flinched at the sudden shout and quickly turned around.

“Quick! Pull up that video—Silver Hair’s! Right at the beginning, when the bird flies past!”

“Okay, just a sec.”

They opened the log of Silver Hair’s gameplay.

Specifically, the part right after the game started.

The moment when the bird carrying the Baegnyeongmok Tree branch was supposed to appear.

In the video, Silver Hair’s avatar stood at the edge of a blue seaside, just beginning her journey.

And in the next moment.

Whoosh—!

Something white streaked across the screen from right to left, a blur so fast it was barely visible.

Even with eyes wide open, you could miss it.

If it weren’t for the faint screeching sound, you might’ve thought it was just a visual bug.

“……!”

Zeronix and Frost both gasped at the same time.

“Wh-What the hell is this?! Why is it so fast?!”

Zeronix shouted in a flustered voice.

“Bro… This is way faster than the value we set.”

Frost also muttered in disbelief, glancing back and forth between the screen and the data.

It was always supposed to be fast…,But fast enough that you could at least make out the branch it was carrying.

Not… whatever this ridiculous speed was.

“Check the other streamers’ footage! Hurry! Anyone!”

Flustered, Frost scrambled to pull up another early-game video from one of the other streamers who started at launch.

The result was the same.

No matter whose perspective they viewed.

The bird shot across the screen at a speed no human eye could realistically track.

Let alone spot the white branch it was carrying.

You could barely even tell that it was a bird.

“…….”

A heavy silence fell between them.

Zeronix was the one to break it.

“So… of course no one could see it…”

He muttered in a dazed voice.

His whole body felt drained.

The streamers’ complaints were completely valid.

In fact, it was a miracle this had only resulted in a few claims.

“We screwed up… This one’s on us.”

He slumped into his chair with a deep sigh.

It was a mistake.

A clear blunder on the dev team’s part.

Before the server launch,Pressed for time, they’d skipped the final checks.

And now, that oversight had come back to bite them—in the worst possible way.

“What should we do about this…?”

Zeronix mumbled as he stared blankly at the repeating footage of the bird.

It was obvious that the streamers couldn’t see it.

In fact, it was almost strange to think anyone could claim they saw it.

‘How am I supposed to fix this mess…’

A headache began to throb.

Should he officially apologize and admit it was a bug?

Or should he just stay silent and endure?

As he pondered deeper, a thought suddenly flashed across his mind like lightning.

‘…Wait a minute.’

Everyone else had missed it.

It was a speed that no normal human would be able to perceive.

It was a bug, a mistake.

But.

Cold sweat started to run down his back.

“…Frost, the footage from earlier, was the bird’s speed exactly the same as the other streamers’?”

Zeronix turned to Frost.

“You’re sure the bird didn’t fly slower for just ‘Silver Hair’? Or something like that?”

“Yeah, the bug did make the bird’s speed faster, but it wasn’t different. It was at the object speed limit anyway….”

Frost, who had been giving a “why are we making a fuss over this?” expression, suddenly stopped mid-sentence as though realizing something.

“…But how did Silver Hair see it?”