Pick Me Up!

Chapter 231: After the Ending (2) (1)

A few days later, in the evening.

[Welcome, Master Anytng, to Pick Me Up!]

As usual, Anytng logged in.

The loading bar on the screen began to slowly rise.

[Loading complete.]

[T O U C H! (Select)]

As Anytng quickly tried to skip the announcements, a banner popped up with a cheerful sound effect.

[Thanks to the support shown by many masters in the 7th Raid Festa, a special event will be held once again! For details, touch ‘here’!]

The announcement, wanting to catch attention, sparkled in colors.

The screen went dark, and a video started playing with a burning effect.

[Do you want to become stronger?]

A vast twilight sky.

A small airship with no insignia or markings was heading somewhere.

[Do you want to test your limits?]

The airship zoomed in.

On the deck, someone was standing.

Their face was obscured by the backlight, but the figure looked strangely familiar.

[Then challenge it! The highest glory is yours, Master!]

[Coming Soon!]

With a static noise, the video ended with the man on the airship as the final shot.

For an event promotion video of a popular game, it was laughably crude.

It repeated the tagline from the 7th Raid Festa and didn’t include any grand battle scenes to excite the players. Just showing one man on an airship, and that was it.

[The first user to clear Pick Me Up, El Cid!]

[The final destination for the ranker who cleared all stages is indiscriminate PVP?!]

A detailed guide followed.

[Masters, a sudden crisis has struck the peaceful Mobius where heroes and monsters live together!]

[So you’ve cleared the game and now you’re slaughtering low-level masters because there’s nothing else to do? That won’t do! Show the clueless Rank 1 your strength! Show him that life is a real battle!]

[Massive rewards for the master who defeats the main boss ‘El Cid’!]

[Additional rewards based on contribution to defeating the boss!]

[Various items stored in the golden warehouse will be available as clear and participation rewards! There are many amazing items, so don’t miss out.]

[※Notice]

[This raid is an event limited to ‘Server 2’ only. Masters from other servers cannot participate, so be aware!]

Anytng read through the announcement.

The event would start early next week, less than a week away.

For large events like joint raids, notices were usually posted weeks in advance, but this time it was too sudden. No preparation time was given.

‘They must be in a real hurry.’

Following Anytng’s gaze, I scanned through the list of rewards.

The way items were distributed was different from the world raids. In world raids, the high-ranking players took most of the loot, but this event offered substantial rewards just for participating in the raid.

I had anticipated this.

The timing of El Cid’s activities and the surprise event announcement matched perfectly.

He had crossed the server barrier that normal heroes couldn’t, and he had destroyed Muryeon, one of the largest waiting rooms. It seemed the headquarters decided to intervene directly due to the situation.

‘Still…’

It was a significant gamble.

Turning a normal user into a scapegoat for the event. Masters who didn’t know the circumstances might let it pass, but those familiar with El Cid would find it suspicious.

According to Yurnet’s explanation, Mobius had its own enforcement group.

Their main role was to sanction masters and heroes who broke the game rules. However, considering they asked other masters for help, it seemed this target was a big deal.

‘Well, he is Rank 1.’

I chuckled.

Anytng, after closing the event notice, checked the official forum.

The forum was buzzing with excitement due to the unexpected event.

[Lol, so Rank 1 was just an event account created by the headquarters. No way a user could clear this dead game.]

└

[So, El Cid registered in the Hall of Fame wasn’t a real user?]

└

[Probably an event promotion account. I think it’ll be removed after this raid. It never participated much and then suddenly cleared the game, so it’s obviously a fake. It’s just the company’s production.]

└

[I don’t think they’d mess with records like this…]

└

[When has Mobius ever managed things properly? Just go with it. We didn’t have anything to do anyway, and now there’s an event. Let’s just grab the rewards.]

[Is this event limited to Server 2 only? What about users on other servers? Are we supposed to just watch? Is it okay to discriminate like this because of different servers?]

└

[Are you… upset?]

└

[If you’re upset… you know what to do, right?]

[El Cid always seemed strange. Today’s announcement confirms it was a dummy account created for the raid. Does this mean other top rankers might be the same? Up to Rank 4, they were no different from El Cid.]

└

[Top 5 rankers, except Loki, are all detached. But even Loki has been quiet lately.]

[That’s odd. I’m a beta tester and have talked to that user. And now you’re saying they’re all fake?]

└

[Would they really pull this stunt on a real user? The company would get in trouble immediately if there were complaints.]

Anytng closed the official forum.

Then immediately opened the airship tab.

[Airship ‘Lucette’]

[Grade – Small]

[Current Status – Under Repair (64%)]

[Manager – Katio (★★★★)]

Anytng pressed the wrench icon next to ‘Under Repair’.

[Ding!]

[You can order the manager to work overtime. The manager’s stamina will decrease, but the repair speed will increase. Would you like to order overtime?]

[Yes (Select) / No]

I'm currently Translating the following novels: Pick Me Up! | A Frontline Soldier Awakened as a Gamer In The War! | The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player. If you want to support me and read more chapters please subscribe to my Patreon!