Assassinate Wonderwind [Book 1 Completed!]

“As expected, Zenith Protocol has obtained by far the most soulshards, having descended to level three,” Ji-soo, the head of Wind Virtual’s surveillance team said. “Top guilds are seeing success relative to their strength. Most are clearing dungeons on the second level, with the exception of Eon Covenant, who is also clearing the third level thanks to Veilshot’s return.”

She lifted her gaze from her tablet and smiled at Hyunwoo. “Overall, Caverns Of Creation has been our most successful expansion yet. Player progress is moving as planned with very few exceptions. We won’t see any disasters with this launch.”

“Thank you, Ji-soo,” Hyunwoo said. Clear satisfaction flowed through him. He rarely felt relaxed lately, with so much work to do every day, but hearing reassurance from someone as sharp as Ji-soo, and seeing the statistics and sales numbers, Hyunwoo couldn’t have been more relieved to hear that nothing had gone disastrously wrong with Caverns Of Creation’s launch.

The expansion was one of his proudest ideas yet. The map wasn’t expanded to new seas or new lands like all previous events. Instead, the Caverns Of Creation unlocked Wonderwind’s underground—a vast network of caverns that delved deep into the core of the world through multiple levels, like descending into a gigantic dungeon of the world itself. The first few levels were simple to offer everyone a fun time. On the third level, top players were already starting some of the major questlines.

The best feature, however, was that Caverns Of Creation was accessible to all players, regardless of what level they were and where they entered. All cities and areas of Wonderwind’s wilderness—all former expansions and events—had entrances to the new expansion grounds. The difficulty and average monster levels of the underworld were determined by the area where players entered. If a new player wanted to only play the expansion, they could theoretically enter right after completing the tutorial.

For top players, the most prestigious and most contested entry points were spread across the Ray Dragon event. Guilds had required multiple days just to defeat the sentry bosses guarding each entrance, and that was by design. Caverns Of Creation was to last for a full year with fresh content to offer for years to come.

Zenith Protocol reaching level three of the underworld in two weeks was fast, but this pace wasn’t unplanned for. “I’m glad the monster avoidance nerfs seem to have worked.”

“About that…” Ji-soo said, and suddenly, the reassurance Hyunwoo felt sunk into his stomach.

Ji-soo treaded her words carefully. “I must talk about… a specific guild that I believe we all know about…”

“Assassin A better not be on level three as well,” Hyunwoo said with an internal sigh. A lot of measures had been taken to prevent his method of rushing through events and initiating every questline. A nerf to monster avoidance was the largest measure taken.

With Caverns Of Creation, preventing premature progression was especially important. The first guilds to gain access to a mineral merchant or a soul collector would gain an advantage, and that advantage could very well snowball out of control.

“Um, no, Assassin A is not on level three,” Ji-soo said. “Guild Solo Mage has reached level four.”

Hyunwoo blinked. A long, confused blink.

“The monster avoidance nerfs seemed to slow him down, but he has also gotten better at his method,” Ji-soo said. “He’s currently faced with Shaltar’s bridge.”

She connected her tablet to the video projector and showed a live feed of Assassin A in a dim crystalline cavern, observing the hostile monsters from a dark corner. His items were conventionally trash. He’d hidden all of his important items—the gearset he’d won the three versus three tournament with—to a garbage set of monster avoidance only with the sole goal of passing monsters without interacting with them.

“He’s already at the bridge?” Song Joon said from the opposite side of Ji-soo on the rectangular table. “Wasn’t that intended to be discovered two months in?”

“Yes,” Ji-soo explained calmly. “But I wouldn’t lose hair over this. Shaltar’s bridge consists of literally half a mile of level four hundred monsters. It’s designed to be impossible to pass without clearing. There’s no class or ability in the game that can just sneak by. It’s a deathtrap, and it’s an intended obstacle to stop players like Assassin A. He cannot get past that.”

“Even if he does somehow pass, he currently has zero soulshards,” Min Lee said from next to Ji-soo, the youngest girl in the room, which showed in her soft voice. “He’s skipping through all the quests. Even if he reaches the first soul collector, he won’t understand their importance. He’ll prioritize opening the rest of the map for assassinations instead. There is no way he will make it all the way to the castles.”

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Hyunwoo nodded at Min Lee’s answer. The young intern had shown promise and talent, enough so that it was worth bringing her to regular meetings. Her point made a lot of sense.

There was most likely no need to worry. Assassin A was still a maniac, but the addition of a new expansion had given a good excuse to nerf many of the exploits and items he had been using. The three versus three tournament had been amazing for Wonderwind in the short term, but Hyunwoo couldn’t let him dominate the game with the same tricks every year.

The projections of the caves showed Veyra logging in. Assassin A’s calculative expression became noticeably happier. Veyra, too, spotted the cluster of monsters on the bridge.

That’s half a mile of level four hundred soul-starved demons protecting a castle, Hyunwoo thought. Even you cannot dash through.

“I believe we all deserve a long weekend,” Hyunwoo said, satisfied. Maybe he could even take a break himself. The event had gone well, and measures had been taken to prevent Assassin A’s progress. Everything would go well this time.

But somehow, deep down, Hyunwoo hoped Veyra and A would just go on a happy honeymoon for a week without Wonderwind to let everyone catch a break.

***

“You’ve called,” Veyra said.

“I might need a portal or two,” I said.

The ambient light of the orange crystals poking out of the cavern floor lit Veyra’s outfit. She still rocked the same frost and time mage combo, with Robe Of The Grand Sorcerer equipped. She examined the area I’d teleported her to.

We stood at the edge of a warehouse-sized cavern, just far enough from everything hostile to not draw aggro. The walls were dark stone with minerals giving color to the otherwise rough and monotone environment. Many corners were entirely pitch black with only three reliable light sources scattered across the cavern. The orange crystals, the non-hostile Shell Crabs, and the Mineral Extractors.

A pickaxe clinked against a mineral as one of the extractors mined ore in the corner with sluggish movements. Brighter orange crystals grew from its back, leaving a globe of light around it. The extractors weren’t dangerous: they were essentially just wretched tank monsters. This one wasn’t even protected by the more dangerous Spirits Of Creation that I’d dashed past hundreds of times in the last few weeks.

Veyra hardly glanced in the extractor’s direction. Her eyes drew straight to the left, where the cavern walls abruptly ended, revealing a fall to a deep abyss. Crossing it was a bridge filled to the brim with horned demons from tiny imps with spears to ten-foot monstrosities with spiked clubs. There were so many monsters that the system didn’t even give them individual name tags. Instead, each cluster was called something along the lines of, Defenders Of Shaltar (Level ~437).

After noting everything around us, Veyra gave me a side-eye and said, “So you called me just to portal you into that death trap?”

“No, I wanted to call you because I missed you and I wanted to give you a goodnight hug,” I said. “But if that was the reason, you would have called me silly, so the portal is a better excuse to call you online.”

Veyra laughed, and the side-eye had clearly been a joke. “I’ll call you silly regardless,” she said. “As a compliment, of course.”

I smiled with her and asked, “How was your day?”

She shrugged. “Mom is still alive. Her memory is a little better. A full recovery is still unlikely, but the doctors are thinking about trying to make her drink water on her own.”

“She’s regaining her senses, then?” I asked.

“Starting to, at least,” Veyra said.

We smiled at each other for a few seconds.

She was just too cute. I gave her the hug I’d been waiting for all day. “That’s awesome.”

She leaned into the hug. “She still hasn’t smiled, though. I can’t tell what she’s feeling at all…”

I just held her there. The surgery had been a success, saving Veyra’s mom’s life, but something about the motorcycle accident, or maybe the coma, had also impacted her head. She’d woken up with limited action in her brain. She had recovered steadily, day by day, but still too slowly to help with Veyra’s stress.

“Sorry for not logging on today,” Veyra said. “I’ll try to get better at dating you.”

“You’re right here, though,” I said.

“I’ll need to leave in twenty minutes…”

I knew that already. Veyra would have missed her sleep schedule otherwise. “I’m glad you got here for twenty minutes. And I do honestly need help with this bridge. I’d say we’ll be done in five minutes.” Or we’ll be dead.

Veyra eyed the bridge, and from the doubtful look in her eyes, she seemed to agree with my latter assessment. “That’s what, half a mile? My portal won’t do much after the nerfs.”

Don’t remind me of the nerfs… I thought. The expansion had changed plenty of stuff, and of course, most of the items and spells we used were nerfed. For Veyra’s portals, Wind Virtual implemented a hard range cap of sixty yards between portals.

“I can cross that with five or six max-range dashes without a portal,” I said. “With a portal, it might be four. No more than five. And, uh, I don’t want to ask, but I might need the Emerald Aurora buff during it.”

Veyra sighed. “I really need to start playing more. My best use can’t be to use that goddamned robe.”

“I’ll need the heals just this once,” I said. “Can you do it?”

“If I die, you risk losing big money,” Veyra said.

“It’s fine. I still have the Godripper. And I don’t think you’ll die.”

She glanced at the bridge of hellspawn monsters. Beyond it, the caverns seemed to open up again, which would give me more opportunities to continue exploring.

“Here’s my map, by the way,” I said and opened her the map of the fourth level. “Last I checked, most livestreamers were stuck on the second level. I’ve explored almost everything except that bridge. I’d say top players will take a full day to clear it. If I just run past, I’ll gain a full day ahead from everyone. I’m fairly sure opening the map will be just as beneficial this time around.”

Veyra turned back to me. With another sigh, she said, “Alright, if you have ideas, let’s cross this bridge.”

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