Netkama Punch!!!

A world full of adventure—
Welcome to Arcadia.
Seeing all ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) the starter-town characters in nothing but white underwear wielding wooden swords gave me a weird feeling. Familiar. A little nostalgic.

The moment I put my hands on the keyboard, my character moved like I’d been playing just yesterday. I casually wiped out four slimes and hit level 10.
“Definitely faster leveling during Burning.”
Just like Hyejin said, the Burning period made experience flow like crazy, letting me breeze through the boring early levels.

Every 20 levels, they even handed out Spirit Stones and Guardian Talismans like candy. Thanks to that, I hit level 60 in just three hours and could finally start doing party hunts in the dungeon called [Swamp of Bewitchment].
Lemonzzup
Hoo
Sesam
PolitePerson
That made four of us—a full-on grind party.

For an hour, we looped the same dungeon over and over with the “Blessing of Experience” buff, mindlessly killing mobs. All I had to do was heal, throw in crowd control when mobs got too dense, and keep everyone alive.
Compared to my Battle Mage days, when I’d pound my keyboard like it owed me money, playing a healer build was kind of boring. Just two or three key presses to match cooldowns, and done.
[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PHoo: Sesam-nim, your buffs are amazing
PLemonzzup: fr
PPolitePerson: Good stuff

But the praise from the party never stopped. I didn’t even do that much, just threw some heals and buffs, yet they kept buttering me up. Made me suspicious for no reason.
[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PSesam: haha, thank you
Still, they didn’t seem to be mocking me, so I replied politely.

And honestly? I didn’t hate the compliments. So I started working even harder. I began laying traps to stop oncoming mobs, kept everyone’s HP from dropping below half, and even managed monster aggro a bit.
Having raised a character to ranker level before, none of this was hard—but to them, I must’ve looked like some genius.
[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PHoo: You’re seriously cracked ;;
PHoo: 20 levels in an hour ;;
PLemonzzup: fr, I’ve never seen that before
PPolitePerson: Much respect
PSesam: lololol

Who hates being praised for doing well? Every compliment pushed me to go harder. What was supposed to be a one-hour party stretched into a three-hour grind just because we were vibing.
Eventually we added each other as friends, and someone asked if I had a main account. That question made my heart skip a beat, but I played dumb.
[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PSesam: Nah lol, I don’t

PHoo: This your first time playing? damn... am I looking at a prodigy?
PSesam: lololol
PSesam: Nah just… I’ve played a lot of other games…
PLemonzzup: Still, this really is your only character. Searched your account and only found this one...
Apparently Lemonzzup was the overly thorough type and had already searched my account info. Creepy, but it made me glad I started fresh.

[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PPolitePerson: We actually have mains too, but since it’s Burning we’re just leveling alts
PPolitePerson: We’re all in the same guild
PSesam: I see
Their vibe was really natural and friendly, so I wasn’t surprised. Now that I thought about it, they all had matching black-eye avatars.

Then out of nowhere, Hoo dropped a sudden suggestion.
[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PHoo: If you don’t have a guild, wanna join ours?
Totally caught me off guard.

“…A guild, huh.”
My trauma around guilds wasn’t really the issue. If I was going to play again, I’d have to get involved with one sooner or later.
No, the real reason I hesitated was…

“If I’m doing this again, I wanna get into a major guild…”
Since I’d decided not to spend money, my guild choice needed to be strategic.
Leveling gets way harder later, and especially if you’re in a guild with a castle, things are very different.

[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PSesam: Uh… I heard guilds with territory are best…
PSesam: So I was looking around
I turned it down gently, but Hoo’s avatar suddenly jumped and started clapping.
[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PHoo: Our guild has 3 territories!!!

“What? You’ve got three?!”
I responded in shock.
[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PSesam: Holy crap, so you do three sieges a month…?

PHoo: Yep!!! So...
PHoo: ㅠㅠ It’s kinda intense
PHoo: But otherwise the vibe is chill and everyone’s nice
PLemonzzup: fr
PLemonzzup: Also we’ll help gear you up
PPolitePerson: Just bring yourself
I was speechless at this stroke of luck.

I’ve been there—I know how hard it is to manage even one territory. A guild with three castles must have insane resources.
[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PSesam: Um… what’s the guild name?
PHoo: It’s Degeuldegeul!

I immediately searched the name—and it was sitting comfortably at #1 on the guild rankings.
[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PSesam: Is it okay for a lowbie like me to join…?
Getting scouted by the top guild just one day into playing? Felt unreal. But the party members didn’t seem to care and kept encouraging me.

[Private Whisper – Party Friend]
PHoo: Seriously ㅠㅠ
PHoo: We need a fresh newb like you ㅠㅠㅠ
PLemonzzup: You’ve got amazing instincts...
PPolitePerson: I’ll send you an invite now

PolitePerson didn’t even wait for me to respond before logging off—and seconds later, a guild invite popped up on my screen.
[‘Yeou’ has invited you to join the guild ‘Degeuldegeul’.]
[Accept] [Decline]
It felt too easy, almost suspicious—but I thought, well, why not. So I clicked [Accept], a little excited.

The moment I accepted, the [Guild] window popped open, showing the guild’s current stats and unlocking the guild chat.
Current Online Members: 388
“Wow… this is wild…”

Back when I ran my old clan, our max concurrent online members was like 70 at best.
Seeing a guild with over four times that number left me speechless. Then again, if they’re doing three siege wars a month, I guess it makes sense.
Guild Master of ‘Degeuldegeul’: Heenyang

“Heenyang? Never heard of that name.”
The guild master was someone called Heenyang, and they happened to be online. Maybe they saw the join notification, because they messaged me first.
[Private Whisper – Party Guild Friend]
CHeenyang: yo
CSesam: Hello!
CHeenyang: Who invited?

Kinda blunt, but before I could even feel offended, Yeou answered for me.
[Private Whisper – Party Guild Friend]
CYeou: I did
CHeenyang: ok
And that was it. Heenyang seemed chill—just wanted to know who invited me, and left it at that.

After that, guild members who’d been silent started greeting me.
[Private Whisper – Party Guild Friend]
CFlowerWall: Hey there haha
CJellyPook: hihi~
CKkona: Hiyoo
CStanby: yo
There were so many people online that the chat was scrolling nonstop. I couldn’t possibly reply to everyone, so I just answered here and there, getting friendly with some of the names.

You could click names in the guild tab to see their level and gear—and most of them were max level with top-tier equipment.
Seeing those items made me think of my old Battle Mage.
“Haah… I had gear like that once too…”

I clicked my tongue unconsciously, and suddenly, the desire to whale flared up hard. Just 500, maybe 600 bucks, and I could be back in top-tier gear…
“…What the hell am I thinking?”
Remembering my bank balance, I snapped myself out of it and slapped my own cheeks to kill the thought.

Meanwhile, the people I partied with earlier logged back in on their main characters. The usernames were easy to recognize—they all followed similar naming patterns.
And of course, the moment they logged in, they started fussing over me again.
[Private Whisper – Party Guild Friend]
CHooha: Everyone!! We got a real fresh noob here!! I recruited her!!!!
CLemonade: Take good care of her
CYeou: Let’s protect her

The guild seemed pretty kind overall. My mailbox immediately started filling up with high-grade weapons and crafting materials from guildies.
[Private Whisper – Party Guild Friend]
CFlowerWall: hehe, let’s do your Master Skill quest together later ^^
CKkona: You’re a Spirit Healer? I’ve got a spare Spirit Stone I’ll send ya, wait a sec
I replied with thank-you messages to each of them. My replies must’ve sounded totally newb-ish, because they all thought it was adorable.

Which, well—was kind of on purpose. In a game like [Arcadia], being a clueless newbie gets you affection. And I needed to survive without spending a dime.
So yeah. Some light people-pleasing. Smile and wave. Build that foundation.
And then—

[System Whisper – Party Guild Friend]
‘Heenyang’ has logged out.
‘Heejae’ has logged in.
An unforgettable username popped up in the guild alert window.