Netkama Punch!!!

Prologue

There were a bunch of missed messages piled up.
Every single one of them was from Shin Heejae.
Heejae
Why’d you quit the clan, noona?
You’re quitting the game??
Did I do something wrong?

My hand flinched reading up to that point, and then about five minutes later, Shin Heejae started to reveal his true nature.
Heejae
I didn’t do anything wrong though...ㅇ_ㅇ??
Heejae
This is seriously pissing me off, what are you doing??
Why won’t you answer the phone?

Heejae
Is something going on?
Even though every message ended with a question mark like he was some kind of question mark serial killer, I didn’t reply. About ten minutes later, as expected, the threats started.
Heejae
Noona LOL Unless you got into an accident
you’re seriously dead to me

Heejae
You messing with me?
Heejae
I’ll come find you?
Of course, I knew Shin Heejae couldn’t actually come /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ find me. I never gave him my address. I knew all his threats were empty bluffs…

But still, my knees trembled.
Because of how fucking crazy Shin Heejae’s personality had proven to be before. There was this irrational fear crawling up my spine that maybe, just maybe, one day he really would show up at my front door and ring the bell.
Heejae
Please contact me by tomorrow, noona
Or I’ll seriously come find you
Haha you’re not actually feeling safe just because you didn’t tell me your address, are you?

My breath caught when I saw that message. But I quickly tried to calm myself down.
It’s all just hot air.
I’d only even played around with Shin Heejae for less than two months. I never once even let him hear my voice. So even after reading his last message, I still didn’t reply.

But he must’ve been staring at the messenger app all day. The second the read receipt popped up, he messaged me again.
Heejae
?
Heejae
Noona, say something
[Block user ‘Shin Heejae’?]

“……”
I hesitated for a second but declined his incoming call and blocked him like I planned. A deep sigh escaped my lips—though honestly, more than anything, I felt relieved.
At least for exactly two weeks.

Right up until the day Shin Heejae actually appeared in front of me.
Chapter 1
I spent a whole year playing the game [Arcadia] with every ounce of dedication I had. I dumped 1.5 million won a month into it (basically my entire paycheck) and even hired a sub-user to help me grind, eventually pushing my character all the way to rank 5.

I created a clan, participated in siege wars, and even managed to conquer a castle. Sure, my real life was total cyberloser YOLOness, but in-game? I was a goddamn warlord, a sovereign ruling over a fortress.
A Master Mage that every player wanted to add as a friend—that was me. Even though in real life I lived in a dingy one-room with a 3 million won deposit and 300k monthly rent, the moment I logged in, I was welcomed into a lord’s office laid out with red carpet.
Naturally, I forgot all about my dirt-poor reality and sunk into the game like it was a drug. I thought I’d be happy forever in my pixel kingdom…

And then that nightmare, Shin Heejae, showed up in my gaming life.
[Private Whisper – Party/Clan Friend]
NHeejae: LOL you bought that account or what? You fucking suck.
It all started from some petty squabble.

In [Arcadia], it was normal for clans that owned a territory to monopolize the best dungeon nearby.
Our clan wasn’t especially vicious or money-obsessed—every decent clan with a castle did it. But then some crazy bastard decided to challenge that norm.
That bastard was Shin Heejae.

Heejae tried to force his way into that dungeon, saying he needed an item there, even though it was reserved for clan members only.
And then he fucking slaughtered the 20 clan members, including our vice master, who tried to block him.
Shin Heejae’s class was [Nightwalker].

It was a class most players considered trash except for its fast attack speed, but that bastard humiliated and massacred our max-level members, including top-tier Spirit Healers and Hunters—classes known for their dominance in PVP.
Then he uploaded the footage to his YouTube channel. (That video has over a million views now.)
That video made Shin Heejae a star, practically a gaming celebrity. But for our clan, it marked the start of a steep decline.

Heejae started dropping by our territory every day just to mock us, and as clan master, I had no choice but to step up and face him.
I challenged him in a match that would determine the future of our clan—and got absolutely destroyed.
And to make it worse (fuck, of all times, fuck!!!), I dropped the most valuable weapon I had: [Blue Flame Signiel].

It was the most expensive drop I’d ever farmed and the very item that made me a lord. But that day, Shin Heejae snatched it from me.
Then he put it up for auction and sold it.
Final bid: 16 million won.

For someone like me who barely earned 2 million a month, it felt like my blood was boiling backwards.
But no one gave a shit about how unfair it was. Public opinion was trash.
Apparently, low-level players had long been fed up with the clan’s entrance fees and ass-kissing policies. Before I knew it, I was seen as some greedy villain who leeched off noobs and got clowned by the valiant Heejae.

We got wrecked by a single player, and the internet turned us into a laughingstock. Clan members started leaving one by one under the barrage of mockery. We didn’t even have enough people left to defend our castle in the next siege.
Guess who stole the castle?
Heejae.

He created a clan called [Akui] (Malice), seized our castle, jacked the taxes up by 1,000%, ran our thriving territory into the ground, and sold it off without a second thought.
Fuck me… This bastard who painted himself as some holy crusader calling out our clan’s "exploitation" turned around and milked the players harder the second he took control—and then dumped the whole thing after a month.
But players didn’t blame Shin Heejae.

They cheered him on, saying his ruthless strategy was “refreshing.”
And me…?
“Shin Heejae… Die. Die. Die!”

I spent every day grinding my teeth, replaying every PVP match against him in my head.
But the chance for revenge never came. Shin Heejae had become the head of a massive guild, while I’d lost my best weapon, my class got nerfed to hell, and I couldn’t even maintain my rank.
I couldn’t get into any guilds as big as [Akui], because my name was radioactive. No one would take me.

In the end, I rage-sold my account. Took a massive loss, too. I’d poured in thousands, but only got 5 million won for it.
And just like that, I quit [Arcadia] for a year.
Hyejin
hey
i’m playing Arcadia again lmao

Around that time, I got a message from Hyejin—my old vice master and sub-user from my glory days.
We stayed in touch even after quitting the game, so it wasn’t that strange, but the message definitely caught me off guard.
Me
Are you out of your damn mind?

Hyejin
LOOOOOOOL
It’s actually fun after a break
lol
Hyejin
Starting from level 1 again makes it feel fresh
Hyejin
It’s Burning period rn, wanna join too, clan master?
take care~

Back when we both quit [Arcadia], it was after all kinds of fucked-up drama. We both swore we’d never even look at the game again.
But Hyejin rambled about getting hit by a new character or something and sent me a bunch of screenshots.
And then…

[Would you like to name your character ‘Sesam’?]
Yes / No
It felt kinda lame, but since I had nothing to do during the holidays, I ended up creating a new character in [Arcadia].
Of course, I didn’t tell anyone I was back—I’d literally mocked Hyejin a few days ago for going back.

But this time, I swore to myself: I will not spend like an idiot again. No more dropping 1.5 million won a month on this stupid game.
“Battle Mage was a bottomless money pit… What was there I could play for free…?”
Free-to-play sounded impossible, but I still signed up again for the [Arcadia Official Forum] and searched for the latest trends.

Apparently, the go-to low-cost build these days was a Spirit Healer from the healing tree—a solid pick for buffing parties. I’d been a Battle Mage before, which was in the same spellcasting family, and most of the ranged skills felt similar.
So I picked Spirit Healer without hesitation.
And…

“Of course the mage has to be a girl.”
Just like my old character, I made a long-haired, golden-blonde female avatar.