Stalkerizing

“What? Small fry?”

After leaving behind those words, SpinachTrumpet disappeared, and only Chasa’s cold corpse remained in the sandstorm’s wake.

Suppressing the surge of anger rising in his chest, Cha Sa-yoon opened his options menu. He immediately noticed that the checkmarks for “Receive whispers only from friends” and “Reject friend requests” had disappeared.

His sharp gaze swept across the monitor before he roughly grabbed his phone from the desk.

With no hesitation, he opened his browser and tapped on his bookmarked pages. The saved page was Divine – Customer Service – 1:1 Inquiry. He saw that a response had been posted to the inquiry he had submitted yesterday.

[1:1 Inquiry]
Title: This season’s cash boxes keep opening on their own.
Inquiry Type: Cash/Charging Error
Inquiry Details: The friend settings reset every time there’s an update. Please fix this quickly.

[Response]
Hello, Hero!

We’ve reviewed your valuable inquiry.

You mentioned that the [Settings] – [Friend Settings] reset after each update. This issue will be reported to the relevant department, but please understand that it may take some time to resolve the error.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to use the 1:1 inquiry system anytime.

We will continue striving to provide better service.

Wishing you a happy Divine experience.

Thank you.

The response was identical, word for word, to the one he’d received last time. Sa-yoon scowled deeply as he confirmed the same useless, automated reply for the umpteenth time. Finally, he slammed his keyboard in frustration.

[Whisper] Chasa: ㄴㄴㄴㅇㅌㅋㄹ

[Whisper] killer12345: Chasa-nim!

[Whisper] killer12345: Can you share your custom settings, please? ^^!

Wait, hadn’t he just blocked “killer1234” earlier?

If anyone deserved the title of persistent, it wasn’t SpinachTrumpet—it was this bastard.

Just seeing the lazy attempt at a new username, with only a single number added, made his nonexistent low blood pressure miraculously cure itself.

“You… fucking stalker.”

This shit had gone too far.

[Whisper] Chasa: Where are you right now?

To send a friend request, you had to search for a character’s name. And when you searched for them, it also displayed their current location.

This meant that Killer knew Sa-yoon was in the middle of an intense 1:1 battlefield, yet still went out of his way to launch an attack.

Until now, Sa-yoon had ignored it, but this was beyond tolerable.

[Whisper] killer12345: I’m in Facilite Village, Channel 1 >

It was the starting area—the tutorial village where all new characters spawned.

Today, I’m ending this stalker bastard once and for all.

Sa-yoon swiftly exited the battlefield and tore open a Teleport Scroll.

It had been about two months since a stalker latched onto Cha Sa-yoon’s gaming life.

Since nobody wanted to party with a jobless player, Sa-yoon had far more free time than the average user.

Fortunately, Divine had a decent amount of solo-player content. That was the only reason Sa-yoon, an unwilling solo player, hadn’t quit the game yet.

Fishing, crafting, gathering—and of course, Divine’s pride and joy: an insanely detailed customization system.

Character customization, often called appearance modification or plastic surgery, was one of those bottomless time sinks. Once you got into it, you’d forget time existed.

There were over thirty adjustable features just for the face alone. Tweaking even a single one slightly changed the entire vibe.

The idea of creating a customized look that reflected his own tastes? It was a system tailor-made for hardcore otaku immersion.

After perfecting a look he liked, he dressed the character in a limited-edition outfit, took a screenshot against a scenic backdrop, and admired the result—it actually looked pretty damn good.

Naturally, it wasn’t long before Sa-yoon’s hobbies expanded to include character customization, collecting limited avatars, and taking in-game screenshots.

As a result, he compiled those screenshots into posts, and one of them made it to the game’s main page.

Since Divine was practically a fashion-lover’s paradise, the response was explosive. His comment section and guestbook flooded with requests for customization settings. The number of comments quickly surpassed four digits.

At first, he was bewildered. Then, he started feeling proud.

[Lepus] killer: Please share your customization! ㅇ^^ㅇ
[email protected]

And among the countless people asking… was Killer.

Despite the game’s high level of customization, many players preferred to copy a well-made character design like a template, applying it directly to their own avatars.

From that point on, Sa-yoon started adding a disclaimer to all his posts.

[※ I do not share custom settings. Requests will not be answered.]

But the low illiteracy rate in Korea was a lie—the requests didn’t stop.

So, the disclaimer got flashier.

[※ I DO NOT SHARE CUSTOM SETTINGS. REQUESTS WILL NOT BE ANSWERED.]

Eventually, he bolded it in bright red Gothic font at both the top and bottom of the post. Only then did the requests slow down.

When someone still left a comment asking for the settings, other users started self-policing, telling them to read the post.

But Killer? He didn’t give up.

[Lepus] killer: Please share your customization! ㅇ^^ㅇ
[email protected]

[Lepus] killer: Please share your customization! ㅇ^^ㅇ
[email protected]

[Lepus] killer: Please share your customization! ㅇ^ㅇ
[email protected]

Was this a battle of wills?

When Sa-yoon kept ignoring him, Killer moved to his guestbook and started spamming 100 messages at a time.

Back then, Sa-yoon hadn’t taken him seriously. He thought, What more can some random guy from another server do besides spamming comments and guestbook entries?

That was his mistake.

Since server transfer tickets didn’t exist, Killer just created a new character every time to whisper him. When Sa-yoon blocked him, he’d make another one and come right back.

Every time a whisper came in, Sa-yoon blocked him. When the block list filled up, he cleared it and kept going. It was an endless battle of spear versus shield.

Still, after getting blocked so many times, he had thought Killer would eventually give up. At least, for today.

But of all days, it had to be today.

“The one fucking day this bastard decides to show up…”

It was the final day before the 1:1 battlefield rankings were calculated.

Did this asshole not care about ranked matches at all?

Then again, a normal person wouldn’t be pulling this kind of crazy bullshit in the first place.

[General Chat] killer12345: Chasa-nim ><

As soon as Sa-yoon arrived at the beginner village, a tall, lanky character bounced over to greet him.

It was the default customization—the one generated when you skipped the character creation process entirely.

Sa-yoon ignored him and headed for the village gate.

Like a clueless idiot, Killer obediently followed along, his flimsy stick-figure avatar trailing behind.

[‘killer12345’ has died.]

The moment they stepped beyond the village boundary, Sa-yoon turned and attacked Killer12345.

A level 1 character stood zero chance against a max-level skill—he died instantly.

[General Chat] killer12345: ㅜㅜ

Then, he respawned… and Sa-yoon killed him again.

And again.

And again.

***

[Cygnus] What’s up with the newbie zone massacre?
Author: killmehealme

I’m a returning player.

My main is a lost cause, so I was leveling a secondary character. I saw a high-level player in the newbie zone and just assumed they were helping out new players.

Then out of nowhere, this guy attacks me and kills me. ㅠㅠ

Like, what the fuck does a level 60 player even get out of killing a level 1?

Is he just emotionally unstable or something?

(Newbie Killer.jpg)

I dropped my starter club, so I was barehanded, trying to kill moths, and the dude came back and killed me again.

(Tracked me down in the bushes.jpg)

But here’s the weird part—he wasn’t killing everyone.

I noticed he was only going after people with names that started with ‘K’.

The guy kept alternating between me and another player named ‘Killer’, just killing us over and over.

Every time I respawned and stepped out of the village, he killed me again.

I’m a solo player, so I had no one to call for backup. ㅠ

In the end, I just gave up on the character.

Why the hell are there so many crazy people in this game now?

I’m so fucking pissed.

***

Comments (35)

– Have some PK etiquette in the newbie zone, dude.
– Why didn’t you bring your main?
L Because I quit ages ago, and my main is only level 50. ㅜ
ㄴ Damn, that sucks. ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
– Instead of making a new character, you should’ve just leveled up your main. This isn’t a place for you to cry about getting your ass kicked.
ㄴ My main is a Warlock, dumbass.
L Ah, now I understand.
L Makes sense. Warlock players are a whole different breed.
ㄴ Fighter class is fine tho~

– Wait, why is PK even allowed in the newbie zone?
ㄴ I think it’s because of a seasonal raid that spawns there.

– “Barehanded against moths” LOL. You know you can buy a new basic weapon at the shop for 1 gold, right?
ㄴ I did. But that asshole killed me twice, and I dropped both.
L LMAO, rip. ㅠㅠ
L Newbie zone gang leader goes hard. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– Doesn’t killing players under level 10 give you nothing?
L If there’s a 20-level difference, you don’t even get EXP.

– Of course it’s a Warlock player pulling this shit.
– 222. Anyone who actually maxes out a Warlock is already unhinged.
– Guys, just invite Warlocks to parties. This dude was probably rejected so much he’s taking his frustration out on newbies. ㅠㅠ
L He’s eliminating future players who would reject him.

– Stop the Warlock hate!
– Good Warlocks quit.
ㄴ What the hell does that mean?
ㄴ It means “The only good Warlock is a retired Warlock.”
ㄴ Damn, that’s brutal. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ But not wrong. If you’re still playing one, you’ve got a mental problem.