Dusk (BL Light Novel)

[Party] Honeybread: Weren’t you all confident about solo-healing just a bit ago? Why are you suddenly getting all shy?
[Party] Honeybread: Also—
[Party] Honeybread: Even if it’s hard to repeat the same thing,

[Party] Honeybread: The fact that you succeeded once is what really matters.
[Party] Honeybread: If luck played a role, it just shows you had the skill to back it up. That’s what makes it luck, yeah.
[Party] Honeybread: Sure, you might get a little shaken in mind games,

[Party] Honeybread: But honestly, once you’ve done enough PvP, you realize most of it’s the same, and it stops being a big deal.
[Party] Honeybread: With enough experience, you could totally outclass Retaking.
If she were a real newbie, she would’ve panicked and ragequit by now. But since she wasn’t, I just kept firing shots freely.
After all, the goal was simple: Praise the hell out of this “newbie” priest who’s totally not Retaking.

[Party] Gonyanyanya2: I’m really bad at that kind of mind game stuff… so I think it’d be too hard for me…
[Party] Honeybread: I’ll teach you. Don’t worry.
[Party] Gonyanyanya2: I’m seriously not confident with that stuff… I make a lot of mistakes too.
[Party] Honeybread: Doesn’t matter.

[Party] Honeybread: Wanna hit max level today and head out to the field?
[Party] Honeybread: I’ll go with you.
I glanced at the clock while typing. 4:22 PM.
Almost time for Gang Jaegyung to log in and keep our field-fighting promise.
Which meant he'd refuse now and switch to his Retaking account. And he might never log into the Gonyanyanya2 character again.

But I couldn’t let that happen.
[Party] Gonyanyanya2: Ah, I have to go to my part-time job soon, hehe…
[Party] Honeybread: Student?

[Party] Gonyanyanya2: Yeah…
A student, he says. God, what a joke.
[Party] Honeybread: Aight

[Party] Honeybread: Then not today
[Party] Honeybread: When’ll you be on next?
[Party] Gonyanyanya2: Hmm… I’m not sure, haha…

[Party] Honeybread: Not on break?
[Party] Gonyanyanya2: I’m working a lot of part-time jobs…
Just as I suspected—he was laying the groundwork to stop logging into Gonyanyanya.
Making excuses now so he could ghost the character later.

[Party] Honeybread: Okay, next time you’re on, let’s run together.
[Party] Honeybread: Good luck with work. Bye-bye.
[Party] Gonyanyanya2: Thanks, I’ll head out now.
And with that, Gang Jaegyung logged off.

I was left alone in the dungeon, took the portal back to the entrance, and exited.
Outside the dungeon, I ran into the griefing party that had wiped while I was with Gonyanyanya.
But this time, thanks to a Viajok 4-man party who’d jumped into the fight midway, we wiped them out quickly.
I left Base 42 and wandered between Bases 44 and 45, which were under Jeojajok control, waiting for Gang Jaegyung to show up.
How much time passed? I was catching my breath after taking Base 44 when a message popped up in faction chat.

[Faction] Cinnamonroll: 25, recruiting squad leaders
That had to be Gang Jaegyung.
[Faction] Honeybread: Hands off

[Faction] Honeybread: Take the party down
[Faction] Wek: On my way to 45
[Faction] Cinnamonroll: d-d okay

From faction-heavy Base 44, I sprinted past 45 and headed straight for Base 25.
The map was huge, so even with sprinting, it’d take a bit to get there.
But Gang Jaegyung was probably on his way too—so we’d run into each other soon enough.
And the moment a familiar-looking character came into view, I immediately used my capture skill.
Gang Jaegyung came to a sudden halt mid-run, barely dodging the skill as the battle began.
Since we were fighting dead center on the map, there were tons of other players around.
Skills flying around accidentally hit bystanders, people rolled into other fights, everything got chaotic.
Eventually, what started as a 1v1 between Gang Jaegyung and me turned into a full-scale faction brawl.

It wasn’t my first time dealing with this.
We’d fought so often that it was almost expected.
Even if things turned into a brawl, it didn’t stop us from fighting. It just changed from a pure mechanics duel to an order-based battle.
But yeah—beating Gang Jaegyung in orders and brawls was never easy.
[Combat] You died from Ju’s attack.
[System] You died in a conflict zone.
[System] Lost 6,230 Renown from dying to another player.
[Faction] Jeojajok Commander Ju has defeated Viajok Supreme Commander Honeybread.

The brawl between Base 25 and 45 ended with a total wipe of Viajok forces.
Between an unkillable healer and an unkillable tank, the healer has the advantage in brawls.
Even if it’s only a slight edge, in moments like this, that edge makes all the difference.
Through the cracked death screen, I saw Retaking’s chat bubble pop up.
[General] Retaking a Class: How was your date with the god-tier newbie? ^^

The very person I “dated” was now asking the question.
I didn’t know what angle he was playing, but to answer him—I had to win.
Once I confirmed Gang Jaegyung wasn’t typing anything else, I resurrected at base.
I reequipped, returned to the field, and started sweeping between bases.
I checked Base 25 again, but it was packed with other players—no sign of Gang Jaegyung.
After shaking off the usual Jeojajok leeches, I began circling the area.
Eventually, I found Gang Jaegyung a bit away from Base 25, tucked in a corner.

[Combat] Took 2,015 damage from Retaking’s skill Research Virus XXI.
He struck first from range, and Round 2 began.
This time, there was no one around. I could focus solely on Gang Jaegyung.
I zeroed in on the animations, the sound of casting, the effects—matching him move for move.
Our HPs chipped down in tandem.

Each time a cooldown reset, I gulped a potion and checked his health.
Surprisingly, I ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) was ahead. Curious, I opened the status window.
Turns out he had one extra Stress debuff stacked.
I’d interrupted one of his cast chains earlier, breaking his rotation and triggering the extra Stress stack.
A rare mistake from Gang Jaegyung—and it gave me an easy win this time.
[Combat] Retaking a Class has been slain by Holy Blade.
[System] You’ve defeated Jeojajok Commander Retaking a Class.
[System] You’ve gained 3,860 Renown.
[Faction] Viajok Supreme Commander Honeybread has defeated Jeojajok Commander Retaking a Class.

Now this—this part was important.
I had to set the bait for Gang Jaegyung to log back into Gonyanyanya.
[General] Honeybread: That newbie solo-healed Phase 2 Abassin at level 43 with level 41 gear, one-shot clear.
[General] Honeybread: And it was their first run, too.

[General] Honeybread: Dodged every mechanic, nobody died, and they even covered for some scrub melee DPS who almost got knocked into a scorpion slam.
[General] Honeybread: Is that really something a first-timer can do? But yeah—they’re a true newbie with Priest as their first class.
[General] Honeybread: And their mechanics? On my level.

[General] Honeybread: Totally adorable.
[General] Honeybread: Only flaw is they’re a little stiff in personality—
[General] Honeybread: But who cares? I’ll stuff their ego full for them, no problem lol

[General] Honeybread: Gonna raise them to Grand Commander and bring them into brawls!!
[General] Honeybread: Once our cutie’s fully grown, our faction’ll be top-tier ^^
Acting like Retaking didn’t exist, praising the newbie like crazy.

[General] Honeybread: Honestly, they might be the best priest I’ve ever met.
Then I added the final blow:
Even if Retaking was cracked, I thought the newbie was better.
That should trigger something in him—force him to find a way to change my mind and log back into Gonyanyanya.
It’d take more than one round to make it stick.
I’d have to keep hammering it in after every win: the newbie is better than Retaking.

I crouched down in front of Gang Jaegyung’s character and typed in chat.
After reading it, he vanished without a word.
Just in case, I checked my phone—but the screen stayed dark. No message.
What was he doing now? Seething and charging over?
Or stuck in a panic, trying to figure out how to turn this around?
I waited, predicting his reaction—and sure enough, before long, he showed up again.
The next fight started naturally, without any interference.
And after the usual length of time, the result came in.

[Faction] Jeojajok Commander Retaking a Class has defeated Viajok Supreme Commander Honeybread.
Losing the mind games back-to-back was what cost me.
Sure, it would've been fun to win and watch him squirm—but I was curious what he’d say after winning, so I didn’t mind losing either.
[General] Retaking a Class: There’s no one better than me.

Yeah, of course.
[General] Retaking a Class: You’re being deceived.
Also true, yep.

[General] Retaking a Class: Maybe they’re using cheats…
Okay, now that’s not it. Why the sudden gas pedal?
I was nodding along in agreement in my head when he suddenly dropped that line, and I got thrown for a loop.

[General] Retaking a Class: Right? There’s no way a first-timer clears Phase 2 Abassin solo at level 43 with level 41 gear. It has to be cheats.
How is it possible to accuse yourself of cheating?
[General] Retaking a Class: Give me their name. I’ll take care of it—quietly, completely.

So now he’s talking about deleting the character.
And if it really was cheating, shouldn’t he report it to the admins? Why is he saying he’ll handle it “quietly and completely”?
He went silent after that, like he was seriously waiting for me to give him a name.
So I respawned at base and returned to the spot.
Gang Jaegyung just stood there quietly as I approached—waiting to be killed.