No one was going to deny it, but if it ever came up in a conversation by chance, everyone would pick to follow D.O in a heartbeat. Eunbi was a great leader—that is, if she wasn't glaring at them all the time. The comparison between D.O and Eunbi was just too much. He was patient, gentle, and forgiving; she was not.

"LEVEL UP!"

A high-pitched voice echoed in the air, but Mingyu knew that he was the only one who could hear it. It freaked him out at first, but over time, he got used to it. He turned around and checked his stats before walking over to the others, who were waiting for him for quite some time.

"Are you done yet?" Eunbi asked.

"Yeah. I'm level 15 now," Mingyu said.

"Great. So everyone's satisfied with their levels now? If not, then I don't mind leaving you out here while we go on the quest."

D.O tried to soothe her temper. "Eunbi, I—"

"What? I thought the deal was to let them get to level 10. Look at them! They're like level 12, 13, and we got two level 15s," Eunbi complained. She pointed at Yoobin, Dongmin, then at Jungkook and Mingyu respectively.

"At least our team is a little stronger, right?" D.O pointed out.

"We're losing time. I thought you knew about the game?"

"Oh, I do, but I got used to it," D.O explained. "One time, I was stuck in a game that happened to take up a year and a half of my life."

"A year and a half?" Dongmin repeated. He looked terrified. "I can't just drop my studies for a year and a half!"

"Don't worry. Somehow, you retain all the knowledge that you were supposed to learn in a year and a half. I'm not sure how it works, but they make sure that you have the memories to integrate back into reality smoothly," D.O assured him.

"How do you keep so calm? You make this sound as if it's really just a game," Jungkook said.

D.O chuckled. "It was really hard for the first few times. Every time you get into a new game, you're terrified because you don't know what to expect. Every time you return to a game you hate, you're stressed and trying to do everything to get out."

He had a look of exhaustion on his face as he reminisced his past. The four looked at him with pity while Eunbi cocked her head a little.

"How many Timeticks do you have?" she asked him.

"18," he answered. He grinned. "I just have six left."

"Impressive," Eunbi said, "especially since it looks like you earned all your Timeticks so honestly."

"Yeah. I learned that the hard way. I can't recount how many times I've been deceived," D.O said. He let out a light chuckle. "I do solo activities whenever I can, but I learned that you tend to live longer when you're in a group."

"Why?" Dongmin asked.

"Timepiece is like a messed-up reality show. Your interactions with people determine how entertaining you are, how lovable you are. The more the Timehosts like you, the more likely that they'll let you live. Of course, that doesn't mean that when you go solo, you're going to be eliminated right away. There are some people who go solo and they've been far better off than me," D.O explained.

"Wow, and I thought Eunbi was the only one who knew a lot," Mingyu said.

"There are people in this game who know a lot more than me," Eunbi said cooly. "If anyone gives you any kind of advice or a word about this game, I suggest that you pay attention extra carefully."

The four nodded. D.O smiled and got up from the log he was sitting on.

"Well then," D.O said. "Shall we go?"

"Finally!" Eunbi exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "Let's finally finish this game and get back to our lives, okay?"

She quickly began to walk, leading the team to their quest. D.O sighed and looked at Eunbi with eyes of pity. Mingyu inched next to him and elbowed him gently.

"If anything, we all prefer you as our leader," Mingyu whispered. He grinned at D.O, who gave him a small chuckle. Mingyu caught up with Eunbi, tagging along behind her.

The group of six walked for a while until the forest started to clear up. At the end of the forest, they arrived at a small village with a castle lurking on top of the hills. They walked through the village and stopped in front of the castle.

"Halt!" a soldier with his helmet covered exclaimed. "Before thou see our king, thou must tell us the name of thy guild."

"What the did he just say?" Mingyu whispered to Eunbi.

A large pixelated box hovered over the two guards' heads. All six players stared at the blinking cursor.

"It's asking for our party name, right?" Eunbi asked D.O in a small voice.

"Definitely. What should we call—"

Suddenly, they heard typing noise from above. Eunbi and D.O looked up and noticed that their name was already written in:

< TEAM NAME: DOES THIS WORK >

< TEAM NAME APPROVED >

< LOADING… >

They looked over and noticed Mingyu whispering next to one of the soldier's ear. He stared at the screen above with wide eyes as if he had not expected for his whispers to get through. Eunbi groaned while D.O tried to smile at the situation. Mingyu quickly stepped aside and cleared his throat.

"Uh, well, it worked," he said softly.

Eunbi glared. "Mingyu, I swear—!"

"I didn't think it was going to work!" Mingyu shouted to Eunbi. "I promise! I was just playing around!"

"How many times do I have to say that this game isn't just a game?"

Before he could answer, the gates came down.

"Welcome, DOES THIS WORK! Please follow me to see our king."

Mingyu almost laughed, but he stopped when Eunbi looked extra peeved. He cleared his throat and scooted closer to D.O. Eunbi stormed inside and the rest quietly followed. As they entered, they noticed that the room had a particularly dull atmosphere. People seemed to lack the energy to continue whatever tasks they were trying to do. The whole area seemed depressing and heavy.

The six stood in front of the king, who was sitting on the throne. He was an ordinary NPC king with a red robe and a golden crown. The king looked miserable, sighing over and over again. The knight who guided the group into the chamber kneeled before the king. Everyone froze. D.O and Yoobin kneeled. The others followed. Everyone else began to resume movement.

"My king! Pardon my presence, but hither I have the most powerful guild, DOES THIS WORK! They have come to save the princess under thy instructions," the knight recited.

"Begone, my knight," the king ordered. The knight got up and walked away, leaving the Timepiece players kneeling before the king. "So, what art thy names?"

"Do we have to speak like that?" Mingyu whispered to Eunbi.

D.O spoke first. "My king, I am D.O the Hunter. These are my guild members: Eunha the Rogue, Mingyu the Knight, Binnie the Cleric, Cha Eunwoo the Mage, and Jungkook, the other Hunter. We hast come to start our quest to save the princess."

"What happens if we don't speak like that?" Mingyu whispered again.

Eunbi, annoyed, glared. "Then we can't continue. Remember, you're roleplaying."

"I can't do this. I can't speak like him," Mingyu said, pointing his chin at D.O.

"You don't have to speak like that to us. Just speak like that to the NPC or else they'll remain frozen and won't continue the plot," Eunbi muttered.

"Well, DOES THIS WORK, I hast terrible news. My daughter, Princess of the South, was taken away by the Demon Lord! We were on our way to meet the Prince of the East for an arranged marriage. She was looking forward to this moment until the Demon Lord attacked out carriage and snatched her away. My men faced severe casualties and we were forced to retreat back to my kingdom. The East Kingdom is furious and is demanding the Princess of the South, but my men art not strong enough to retrieve her from the Demon Lord."

Suddenly, a box appeared in front of all six members:

< OBJECTIVE: SAVE THE PRINCESS OF THE SOUTH FROM THE DEMON LORD >

< ACCEPT OR DECLINE >

Everyone clicked "ACCEPT." The boxes disappeared with a blink and the king stood up with open arms.

"Thank you, brave ones! Return my daughter immediately!"

The castle and its people disappeared. The six found themselves floating in air for a second before falling down onto a soft patch of grass. They groaned in pain, but quickly got up to observe their new surroundings. 

They were on top of a rich green hill lightly brushed with thin grass and white trees. The wind blew against their cheeks, fluffing their hairs while a leaf or two joined the breeze. Dots of flowers decorated the beautiful landscape. The sky was bright blue with clouds draping across the sphere. It was the kind of setting where no one would want to escape—under normal circumstances, of course.

Eunbi tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She closed her eyes, reminiscing the familiar atmosphere. Everything was so peaceful, so calming. These were the small moments that made her remember the good in Timepiece.

"Eunha." Eunbi turned around and saw Mingyu standing behind her. "We need to go."

"I know," she said. She took one last look at the hill before turning around, following the group into a thick dark forest. 

The walk in the forest felt like it took forever. Occasionally, a pack of violent wolves or an ogre or two would appear out of the bushes, attacking the group. For Eunbi and D.O, it was fairly easy to slaughter them. The rest of the four had to team up together in order to attack one.

Eventually, Eunbi and D.O began to grow bored of the game. They had played the game before and knew that the game always felt long and repetitive. Eventually, the two high-leveled players would allow the four to have their fun and made them take on all the enemies. As the two watched, they began to have a short conversation.

"So, tell me about yourself," D.O said with his arms crossed.

Eunbi looked at him skeptically. She leaned against a tree and crossed her arms. She studied his expression for a minute before looking back at the four.

"I'm Eunha. I'm a First-Time Returnee." D.O widened his eyes briefly, then quickly looked straight ahead as an attempt to hide his expression from her. She smirked. "Are you regretting being in the same group as us?"

"W-Well, I, uh, I'm—" D.O took a deep breath. He sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean it. Really, I didn't. It's just—You know, I don't know why anyone would want to come back here. Returnees freak me out. They're…insane." He stopped himself. "Sorry—again. I didn't mean to offend you. I just feel that people shouldn't return to this game for fun, you know? It's just…messed up."

"Well, I have some good news for you," Eunbi said. "I didn't join because I wanted to. I joined because I needed to find a friend." She looked at him. "Do you know a Timepiece user named Yuju? If you played RPG with her before, she's a level 28 Mage class the last time I remember."

"Nope. Doesn't ring a bell," D.O said earnestly. "Sorry."

"It's okay. It was probably a stretch for me to ask," Eunbi said with a sigh.

"But what happened to your friend?" D.O asked her.

"I don't know. All I know is that she's been stuck in Timepiece for two years and I haven't been able to contact her. I joined the game to see if I can find her, but I haven't been able to do anything. The closest thing I got was Binnie, who knew her personally," Eunbi explained.

"You know, this is all great and all, but do you think that this is something you want to tell to a complete stranger?" D.O inquired. "I mean, you don't know if you can trust me or not."

Eunbi smirked. "I can usually tell who I want to trust and who I don't within the five minutes I interact with them."

"That sounds like a bad way of judging people. What if people change?"

"I trust my instincts."

"What if someone's a really good actor?"

"They won't slip past me."

"You're very confident, huh?"

"I have to be. If not, then I'd be on a losing streak," Eunbi said.

"True." D.O paused. "Well, I trust you, too. It's good to be in a team where people actually know the dangers of the game, but know how to make the best of it."

"Hey! We're here!" Mingyu yelled, waving his hand in the air. He and the three other members were nearing the end of the forest after they finished killing the last of the ogres. 

Eunbi pushed herself off the tree with her foot. D.O fixed his clothes before walking with Eunbi to the light. All six members crossed from the forest to the hellish kingdom of the Demon Lord. The sky was rich in red like blood and the clouds mysteriously swirled over the top of the black castle. Flames dropped from the sky like meteors and spread themselves across the field like a devil's wings. 

"You know, for a game that just wants to see people suffer, you have to admit, they do a pretty awesome job with details and design," Jungkook said as he looked around in awe.

"Why do they have to make everything look so scary?" Dongmin complained. He held onto his staff with two hands. "Look at that castle! That castle screams 'Don't come in,' right? You don't even need to be told to not to enter!"

D.O took out his phone to see the quest map. "Well, it looks like we'll have to encounter the Demon Dragon. Then, we can get into the castle, where the Demon Lord will be waiting for us."

"What about the princess?" Eunbi asked.

"Probably at the top of the tower or next to the Demon Lord's throne."

"Like I thought." Eunbi paused and looked around. "Where's Mingyu?"

"H-He ran off with Jungkook," Yoobin said quietly.

"You saw them run away and you didn't tell us?" Eunbi asked. Yoobin bit her bottom lip. "Binnie, what were you thinking?"

"I-I was going to say something, but J-J-Jungkook told me to stay quiet…"

Eunbi groaned. "Come on! Let's hurry—"

They heard a terrible roar from the other side of the hill. Then, they heard two boys screaming at the top of their longs. A bright purple flame erupted from the tip of the hill. Without waiting for another second, the four ran to the boys' aid. Eunbi, being more agile and have more speed, dashed ahead. She pulled out two silver throwing knives. 

As she approached the battle, she used her abilities to quickly examine the situation: a furious black dragon with purple fire-breathing abilities. The dragon was at least 150 feet high with wings stretched to a size of 50 feet. It had rich red eyes ready to destroy anyone who dared to pass it. It barred no fangs but had jaws strong enough to crush bones. It didn't seem like it could fly because its long neck was chained to the base of the castle, but it was able to spread its wing open to bring a gush of strong wind. 

Weakness, weakness, weakness… Eunbi's eyes darted all around the dragon, but she was unable to find anything that could help her find the monster's weakness. She looked over at the two boys, checking to see what they have been doing.

Jungkook was standing a bit far from the dragon, using his bow and arrow, trying to hit the dragon's mouth. However, every time the dragon opened its mouth, fire would come out, forcing Jungkook to quickly dodge and move away from the flames. Mingyu, on the other hand, directly charged at the dragon, but seemed to have trouble with close combat because the dragon would flap its wing to push him all the back to where Jungkook was standing. 

Eunbi looked behind her. D.O, Dongmin and Yoobin weren't too far away. She nodded to herself and looked back at the dragon. She pointed one of her knives at the dragon's head. The dragon suddenly looked at her. She threw one of her throwing knives at the dragon. The dragon roared and breathed out fire, burning her weapon. She tumbled down the hill, avoiding the heat by a few inches.

Judging from the dragon's skills, it's probably around D.O's level, Eunbi thought. Which means that Jungkook, Mingyu, Cha Eunwoo and Binnie won't be able to do anything to it.

"You two! Retreat!" Eunbi yelled at Jungkook and Mingyu.

"Fat chance! I'm not letting you and D.O have all the fun!" Mingyu shouted. 

"This monster was specifically built for me and D.O to handle! You guys can't do anything to it! Retreat right now!" Eunbi ordered.

"Never!" Jungkook yelled. Mingyu let out a battle cry and charged at the dragon, but the dragon flapped its wings again, blowing him next to Jungkook, who dug his feet on the ground to keep him still.

Eunbi rolled her eyes. Idiots.

She stopped her movements and switched her weapons from throwing knives to a chain with a sickle attached to one end and a weight attached to the other. She twirled the weight in a circle, creating a disc that acted as a shield. The dragon, provoked, threw its head back and released a wave of flames at her direction. She quickened her pace and whirled the weight in a fast circle.

"Eunha, watch out!" D.O yelled from the top of the hill.

The group watched the flames swarm over her. They all held their breaths, paralyzed, worried about Eunbi's state of health.

The dragon withdrew its head. It roared at Mingyu and Jungkook, who were close by. The two boys braced themselves, but at the corner of their eyes, they saw Eunbi perfectly safe, still spinning the weight. She stopped spinning the weight and switched back to her throwing knives. She made a quick gesture to the boys to distract the dragon as she neared the mythical lizard. The boys exchanged glances before screaming at the dragon.

The dragon opened its mouth and breathed out its flames. When the boys thought that they were done for, they quickly found themselves zapped to the top of the hill with D.O, Dongmin and Yoobin. Confused, the boys looked down at the dragon, who was still breathing fire, thinking that it had burned the boys alive. Then, the boys looked over and saw Dongmin with an open book, pointing at the exact spot that they were standing just moments before.

"Did you just teleport us?" Jungkook asked.

"That took a lot of blue points," Dongmin said, letting out a sigh of relief.

"You mean mana points?" Jungkook corrected.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Dongmin said.

"You know, you don't play games very often, do you?" Jungkook asked the student council president.

"Never mind that! You guys were almost dead!" D.O exclaimed. "Why didn't you move?"

"Eunha said to cause a distraction," Mingyu quickly explained.

"Eunha's alive?" D.O repeated.

"She pulled out a chain-sickle weapon earlier. Judging the fact that she was spinning it in a circle when she was attacked by the fire, I think it's safe to say that the weapon has fire-resistance," Yoobin observed. The boys gave her a look. She turned red. "W-Well, that's what I saw earlier…"

"If she was a lot less soft-spoken, I'd say that she'd be a better player than Cha Eunwoo," Mingyu said to Jungkook.

Jungkook scoffed. "She's a girl. She's probably just saying random stuff that she heard once or twice from somewhere else."

"Focus!" Dongmin scolded them. "We don't have much time!"

"Oh, we have plenty of time," D.O said. He pulled back the string of his longbow and aimed the arrow at the dragon. "Stand back."

They did. They watched D.O pull back his strings just a little bit more, then release the arrow, piercing the dragon's throat. The dragon roared and twisted around. When it turned its back against them, they could see that Eunha was starting to climb on its tail. 

D.O quickly grabbed another arrow from his quiver and aimed carefully.

"Alright, this is where we do a little bit of teamwork," D.O started. "Binnie, start restoring Cha Eunwoo's mana points. Cha Eunwoo, once you have enough mana points to use teleportation, teleport Mingyu to the Dragon's tail. Mingyu, you're going to sacrifice your sword and pin the tail on the ground. Jungkook, you and I are going to try our best to damage the dragon's wind. After that, it should make things easier for Eunha to climb up the dragon and stab its weak spot." Yoobin looked at D.O, stunned. He gave her a soft smile. "Please? Let's hurry up and finish this quest so that we can go back, okay?"

Yoobin hesitated, but nodded. Taking a deep breath, she placed her two palms against Dongmin's back. Dongmin flinched, but he quickly noticed that his magical abilities were coming back to him. He glanced behind and saw Yoobin turning pale and shaking. She was obviously paranoid about completing her task, but there wasn't much that he thought he could do. He only kept quiet and had his spell book open to the teleportation spell page.

Mingyu began to stretch his body and wielded his sword. He moved the heavy weapon gracefully, but slowly. Rather than looking behind him to see if Yoobin was done restoring Dongmin's mana points, he had his eyes firmly on Eunbi. He watched her climb stealthily on top of the dragon, her feet almost gliding against its scale. Yet, he was the only one who could notice that she was slightly trembling. His eyes narrowed a bit before he stopped stretching.

"Okay, I'm ready!" Dongmin yelled.

"Jungkook, position yourself!" D.O shouted, stretching his arrow a bit further. Jungkook hastily grabbed his own bow and arrow and pointed at the moving wings. D.O, seeing Jungkook struggle with aiming properly, yelled, "It's okay if you miss, Jungkook! You just have to keep distracting it!"

"G-Got it!" Jungkook stuttered.

"On the count of three!" D.O hollered. "One—"

Yoobin pulled her hands back. The Hunters stretched the strings.

"Two—"

Dongmin began to mutter the spell. His book began to glow and so did Mingyu. Mingyu raised his sword.

"Three!"

Zip! Zap! Whoosh!

The book stopped glowing and Mingyu was gone. The bows soared through the air, gliding against the sky before puncturing the dragon's wings. The dragon roared and looked at the ones on top of the hill. It threw its head back to throw fire, but howled even louder when it felt something stab its tail. The dragon whirled down and saw Mingyu digging the blades of his sword down from the dragon's tail to the ground. The dragon bellowed out a cry and was about to attack Mingyu until the arrows hit its wing and arm. Distracted, the dragon kept going back and forth, trying to figure out who to attack first in order to win the fight.

The group finally saw Eunbi at the top of the dragon's head. They cheered, urging her to stab the head. As it looked like Eunbi was going to stab the dragon's head, Yoobin frowned. She quickly noticed something odd about the scene. After witnessing Yoobin's change of expression, Dongmin looked ahead. He was confused until he saw D.O's large eyes widen even further. He squinted his eyes to see what they were both staring at: a fake Eunbi pretending to struggle with stabbing the dragon's head.

A fake? How? Dongmin wondered. His puzzled expression became more evident when he saw a black swirl coming from the castle. Then, several explosives fired off inside the black kingdom. The dragon turned to the castle, roaring. Before it could do anything, D.O quickly aimed and fired at the dragon's critical point, causing the monster to collapse momentarily, paralyzed.

From the castle, they could see Eunbi dashing up to them, piggy-backing the NPC princess. Mingyu, who was still confused, stood still for a few seconds until Eunbi caught up to him.

"Here, catch!" she said, throwing the princess to him. He caught her bridal-style. "Now run!"

Without a moment of hesitation, he quickly followed her. 

"What about 'you' up there?" Mingyu asked, pointing to the clone. Eunbi made some hand signals and muttered something out. The Eunbi on top of the tower burned up. Mingyu widened his eyes, but didn't question anymore when she kept looking straight ahead.

Once they got up on the hill, they quickly told the others to run with them. They looked back at the dragon before following Eunbi and Mingyu to the exit.

After they left the Demon Lord's kingdom and finished crossing the forest, they were teleported back to the kingdom's entrance. This time, the villagers flocked the entrance, cheering and chanting "DOES THIS WORK" with sheer joy. The group looked down in embarrassment from their guild name, but they quickly resumed to waving and smiling at the crowd since the NPCs would freeze every time they didn't play their role as victorious heroes.

D.O, who was standing next to Eunbi, whispered, "Why did you go and fight the Demon Lord alone?"

"I told you, we could've completed all this a lot faster if it was just the two of us," Eunbi whispered back.

"I know, but that wasn't right. You shouldn't have tricked us into thinking that you were having a hard time with the dragon with that fire clone of yours."

"If I didn't trick you, then we would've spent forever with that dragon."

"So you decided to use a lot of mana points to create a clone before you snuck into the castle by yourself? Did the Demon Lord even respond to you?"

"No, but the princess did, and that was our objective."

D.O frowned. Before he could say anymore, the princess jumped off from Mingyu's arms and ran to the king, who was standing beyond the gates. They exchanged some cheesy dialogues before the king turned to the party of six.

"Thank you, DOES THIS WORK, for saving my precious princess!" the king recited. "Now, it is time for you to go!"

An exit portal appeared for the group to leave. Dongmin quickly fled inside. Yoobin followed after him, and so did Jungkook. Mingyu stopped himself and turned around, noticing that D.O was stopping Eunbi from entering.

"What?" Eunbi asked, annoyed.

"I really didn't like how you went ahead without letting us know or without us," D.O said, confronting her.

"We got everything done, right?" she pointed out.

"You know, you might think that doing everything solo like this is helping the team, but sometimes, you can be harming them," he said. He took out his phone and tapped the screen a few times. Mingyu's and Eunbi's phone pinged. They looked down and saw a friend request from D.O. "I had fun with you guys. I sent a friend request to all of you. Of course, it's up to you guys to accept or not." Just before he entered, he smiled at them. "See you around. Stay alive!"

With that, he entered the portal. Mingyu stood next to Eunbi, who only stared at the portal.

"He's a nice guy, isn't he?" Mingyu asked.

"Yeah. I hope nothing too bad happens to him," Eunbi said. She entered the portal and Mingyu followed after her.

"Ah."

A woman around the age of 20 took out her lollipop from and showed her phone to the attractive man next to her. He brushed his brown bangs away and leaned close next to her.

"Is this who I think it is?" the woman asked.

"Looks like it. Eunha's in game now?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow. "She's not the type to join."

"Oh my god! I can't wait! She must've grown up so much!" the woman exclaimed. She paused. "We should let the others know, too! They'll be excited to hear that she's back in game! Aw, this is the first time she gets to be a Returnee! How cute!"

"You're excited about this, aren't you?" the man said, chuckling.

"Of course! It's like when we were kids all over again!" The woman giggled. "Do you think she has her own team now?"

"Probably. Who knows. We'll have to meet her to find out," he said. He kept quiet for a second. Then, he started to look distorted in her eyes. "Oh, but I'll talk to you guys later. I'm being called into a game."

"Ooh, okay! Have fun!" the woman said. She waved at him and he waved back. In a blink of an eye, he was gone. The woman smiled to herself and played with her phone, wondering when she could meet Eunha.