Black Online-Chapter 182: New Party Rising

1st Floor, the Beginner Forest.

Crackle~ Crackle~ Crackle~

A fire crackled in the forest, casting a warm glow over the group of players gathered around it—they were resting after a long day of grinding.

"I found a player that can sell the Tower Key for us tomorrow. If we pool our money together, I think we can get it."

Kevin said.

"Sounds good."

Marina said with a smile.

"Where are Aella and Chaewon? They’ve been gone for a while now."

Bobby said nervously.

"Haha, calm down, Bobby. They’ve been gone for only ten minutes. They said that they were going to find some Moonlight Flowers, so it’ll take some time."

Kevin laughed.

In that moment, they heard a twig go "crack," and they turned around to see two women walk over to them.

"Aella, Chaewon!"

Bobby smiled.

"We found one~"

Aella showed a beautiful blue-petalled flower in her hand, and she had a bright smile on her cute face.

She had short black hair, almond-shaped eyes, a little button nose, and a petite frame that made her look slightly younger than her actual age.

"I hope there wasn’t any trouble that you two came across, Chaewon."

Kevin said with worry.

While he just made fun of Bobby for worrying too much, he was also quite worried about Chaewon’s safety.

Even though they hadn’t known her for long, Kevin had already grown very fond of her, and thus, he was also crushing on her quite hard.

"Hehe, there is nothing to worry about~"

Chaewon said with a smile and sat down at the campfire.

While she was dressed in the basic Helper’s robe, it was impossible for it to diminish her natural beauty.

When she first arrived at the 1st floor, she was immediately the center of attention wherever she went, and there was no shortage of parties that she could’ve joined.

In the end.

She befriended Aella and ended up joining her friend group’s party—Aella, Kevin, Bobby, and Marina had known each other since they were very young.

Even now they were in the same class at school.

"..."

Marina looked at Kevin, who was only paying attention to Chaewon, and then fixed her glasses on her nose bridge.

While Kevin had a one-sided crush on Chaewon, she had a one-sided crush on Kevin—they had been real-life neighbors since they were born, and their parents were best friends.

Thus.

They were around each other since forever, and eventually, Marina started to develop feelings, which Kevin was oblivious to.

"Bis sis Chaewon, you can have this."

Aella sat beside Chaewon and slipped the beautiful Moonlight Flower into her hair, tucked near the ear.

She was treating Chaewon like she was her big sister, as she had always wanted a big sister of her own.

And she thought that Chaewon was exactly the kind of big sister that she would love to have.

Beautiful. Smart. Kind.

"We were just talking about getting the Tower Key."

Bobby said. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

He was a little chubby kid with a bowl haircut, wearing glasses that were a little too big for his face.

On the other hand, he had been liking Aella since forever, but he believed that she would never accept his confession, so he had never mustered up the courage to tell her how he felt.

At first, he didn’t want to play Black Online, but since everyone in the friend group wanted to play, he also decided to join them.

Bobby wanted to be Mage at first, as it sounded cool to be able to throw fireballs across the air, but Kevin had other plans.

He wanted Bobby to become the party’s Tank because "You are a big boy, so you’ll be an excellent Tank!" he said to Bobby.

"What about the Tower Key?"

Aella asked.

"There is a guy selling one that I found. It’s about 80 gold coins, quite expensive, I think, but if we pool our money, I think we have enough."

Kevin said.

"Yeah, sure. I think we are ready to leave the first floor."

Aella said.

"Alright, let’s see how much we have!"

Kevin lifted up a log, then put it down beside the campfire, and poured his money onto the wood.

"I got about 22 gold coins."

Kevin said.

Bobby, Marina, Chaewon, and Aella took out their money, and they had a total of 93 gold coins altogether.

"That’s good enough."

Kevin said with a sigh of relief.

"What are your goals in the tower, Chaewon? Is there any specific floor that you would want to go to?"

Aella asked curiously.

Everyone was also quite curious.

They just teamed up earlier today, and thus, they really didn’t know anything about Chaewon.

"I want to get to the 15th floor."

Chaewon said with a smile.

The smile was different from what she had shown before—her previous smiles had just been kind and approachable—this one had a lot of feeling behind it.

"Why the 15th floor?"

Aella asked curiously.

It was a very specific floor, and since she had been studying quite a bit of the tower before she started playing, she knew it was one of the winter floors.

"My boyfriend is there, and I want to get to him."

Chaewon said with a smile.

When the word ’boyfriend’ left her lips, silence fell over the campfire, and Kevin looked crushed as if he had lost his soul.

"You have a boyfriend?!"

Aella cried out in excitement.

She was now really curious about who could be her boyfriend, as when she talked about him, she looked like she was really in love.

’Who could be amazing enough to capture Chaewon’s heart? She is so beautiful, smart, and kind... I hope that her boyfriend is treating her well!’

Aella puffed her chest.

Even though she had barely known Chaewon for a day, she wanted nothing more than to see Chaewon smile.

’Ah...’

Marina was slightly happy about it.

She thought that maybe Kevin would give up on Chaewon, as she had a boyfriend now after all.

When she looked at Kevin, she saw that he was clearly in shock, and it made her slightly mad at him.

’I’ve known you for all my life, and you hadn’t even known Chaewon for a day, and you are this infatuated with her? Unfair...’

"I do."

Chaewon said with a smile.

She was, of course, lying, as she wasn’t officially together with Fang Raon, but she thought that they were more than friends.

They were basically a couple already, in her opinion. Neither of them had officially confessed yet, but she thought it was only a matter of time.

Therefore.

Might as well call him her boyfriend already!

"Your boyfriend is on the 15th floor? Are you sure that he is staying over there, or is he still climbing the tower?"

Bobby asked curiously.

"I think he is with some guild over on the 15th floor."

Chaewon said.

She remembered Fang Raon talking about some guild and how he was in a guild war, which they ended up winning.

"He is a part of a guild? And he is on the 15th floor? Doesn’t that mean he is part of Rose Records then?"

Bobby said in surprise.

"Rose Records? I don’t know. What is that guild?"

Chaewon asked curiously.

"Rose Records is the 55th ranked guild in the Global Guild Rankings. They rose recently quite a few spots after defeating both Monsieur Rascals and Grinding Griefs in a guild war.

"They’re an up-and-coming guild with lots of potential. I think they can become a top 20 guild in the future. They’re rulers of the 15th floor.

"When we reach the 15th floor, we would have to purchase a Tower Key directly from Rose Records if we want to advance. And we have to do the same in floors that have "rulers," such as the 15th floor."

Bobby said.

"It sounds like your boyfriend is part of quite an amazing guild."

Aella said with a smile.

"Sounds like it."

Chaewon said.

"Will you then join Rose Records with your boyfriend? Maybe we can also join it with you. It would be really nice to be part of a guild.

"The guilds will even give you weekly paychecks, and they have a lot of resources that would be very helpful!"

Aella said with a smile.

"...Mm."

Kevin nodded.

However, he wasn’t quite sure whether he wanted to join that guild now, especially since Chaewon’s "boyfriend" was part of it, as he was feeling very jealous.

"Also, the Rose Records guild master is Della Rose."

Bobby said with a smile.

"That streamer?"

Aella asked with wide-open eyes.

She had heard about the streamer Della Rose, even though she hadn’t watched her, but knew that she was popular.

"Who is she?"

Chaewon asked with a frown.

"A very popular streamer. She is really beautiful, and she is the young princess of the Rose Family, a powerful and influential family that has been making headlines for years.

"With Rose Family backing up her guild, they have a lot of money and resources at their disposal."

Bobby said.

"...Beautiful, you say? How beautiful?"

Chaewon only focused on that part and narrowed her eyes.

"...Well..."

Bobby scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he felt a sudden chill from Chaewon’s gaze and didn’t know how to respond to that.

"Compared her to me."

Chaewon crossed her arms and legs and stared down at Bobby like an ice princess, and despite the campfire, the temperature seemed to drop.

"I-I think... I-It’s very close... Y-You’re, of course, more beautiful, for sure, without a doubt."

Bobby said awkwardly.

He didn’t mention the part where he liked cute girls more, so Della would be more of his type and not Chaewon, who was beautiful and sexy.

’I have a bad feeling.’

Chaewon narrowed her eyes.