I was sure I’d learned some trick to make one-stroke puzzles easier, but my memory was fuzzy. I couldn’t even guess which line I was supposed to cut.I left the puzzle to Gang Jaegyung and racked my brain for something else I could pay Anansi as the price. So far he had taken chat, flight, and inventory. Chat I wanted to keep, since it was my way of communicating with Gang Jaegyung, and flight couldn’t be used anyway—if it was taken, we got disconnected.It seemed like he was targeting functions that players actively used, like chat or inventory. What could I give him that wouldn’t hinder gameplay too much? Instinct told me not to hand over the character window. Same for the equipment window—if he stripped away my gear, that’d be a disaster.I went through the functions bound to hotkeys in my head: Settings, Character, Equipment, Inventory, Quest log, Life, PvP ranking, Guild…Guild?Guild, huh. That didn’t sound half bad. What’s he going to do if he takes my guild? Disband it? Strip me of guild leader rights? Sure, if the guild got erased that’d be a huge problem, but since everything taken was restored at the end of the Anansi clear, I figured there wasn’t much to worry about.And if all my guildmates got disconnected…“…”Well, so be it. I pressed Alt+G to open the guild window.Anansi, who had been pelting me with auto-attacks, froze when the guild window popped up.[Hmmm…]…But his reaction felt off.[Compared to what Anansi gives, that’s far too big a price.][I want something else.][Party] Honeybread: crazy bastardHe should’ve just taken what he was given—why complain about the price being too high?But wait. The moment I cursed him under my breath, a sudden uneasy feeling crept up on me. What the hell had I just done?[Good. I’ll take that!]Ah, shit—chat!I smacked my forehead with the hand still clutching the mouse. Stupid damn cat brain… Reflexively typing in chat before even speaking? That’s me all over—acting before words, words before thought. But even knowing Anansi would steal whatever I typed, I still went and did it……Well, too late now. Nothing to do but rationalize it. I’d given up chat because it was already tested and reliable—something that would make this run easier.Or at least, that’s what I told myself as I tried to move on.But Gang Jaegyung was oddly quiet.This guy usually spotted the solution to each puzzle in seconds, yet now, faced with this star, he hadn’t said a word. Was it really that hard? There were a lot of lines, sure, but if anyone could solve it instantly, it’d be him.Tick, tock. Anansi began clicking his mandibles like a clock as the time limit drew near.“What are you doing?”I flicked on my mic, impatience creeping into my voice. His answer came back without hesitation.― “There is no answer.”…What? Did he mean there wasn’t a single line that could be cut? How could that be?“You sure?”― “Yes. I’m certain. I’ve checked multiple times—no matter which line is cut, it’s wrong.”His voice brimmed with confidence, and if Gang Jaegyung was that certain, I had no reason to doubt. Besides, whether I liked it or not, all I could do was trust his judgment.“So what do we do?”― “If we cut two lines, we can make a correct solution. But Anansi clearly said one line per puzzle, so that won’t work…”I’d thought about paying twice, but as he said, Anansi’s rule was “one puzzle, one line.” Even if two payments were allowed, the time limit was so short we’d likely fail before I could even find another offering.But wait. If the rule was one line per puzzle, then shouldn’t all the puzzles be solvable with just one line? Otherwise, wasn’t this a mistake on the question-setter’s part? This wasn’t about us finding the answer—this was about the one giving the test being wrong.Of course, it wasn’t like I could confront Anansi right now. Instead, I tried to figure out a spot where he wouldn’t be able to cut the web. Maybe at a certain distance he couldn’t reach? From what I knew of Dusk’s system, he’d probably cut the closest thread……No, hold on. What if, precisely because it was Dusk, they’d planted a puzzle like this on purpose? A trick, something that could only be solved in an unexpected way. Like that dungeon run with “Corrupted Spirit Beast,” where pretending to pray was part of the gimmick.Would this really work? I hesitated, but as the ticking sped up, I decided to just go for it. Better to try something than sit and wait for a wipe.I quickly pulled up the social motion menu. First, I…[General] Honeybread points at Anansi.My avatar raised a finger, pointing upward. Then I craned my head back to stare at the ceiling. Still no reaction from Anansi.― “What are you doing?”“Just wait.”Next, to let him know there was no solution to the puzzle…[General] Honeybread shakes their head at Anansi.[General] Honeybread shakes their head at Anansi.[General] Honeybread shakes their head at Anansi.[General] Honeybread shakes their head at Anansi.I hammered the “shake head” emote, making my character look like he was desperately denying something. Please, let this work. Because otherwise, we were done for.And then—Anansi stopped ticking. The ominous background music cut out too, leaving tense silence to fill the hall. He lowered his shadowed face, peering straight at me.[Correct.]The music surged back as the seven-pointed star dissolved into nothingness.Holy shit. It worked? For real?― “Honeybread, what was that? How did you think of that?”Gang Jaegyung’s voice was wagging a tail if I ever heard one. Sure, he’d done the hard part, but thanks to my spoon on top, we’d actually eaten the meal. Damn right I was proud.“You solved all the puzzles. Least I could do was handle this much.”I boasted shamelessly, and Anansi let out a sinister laugh.[A Shinjok with such wit.][I like it…]He slowly raised two of his front legs and plunged them deep into the folds of his robe. Inside, there was the sound of something squirming, like bugs crawling. When he pulled them back out, they looked different—wrapped tightly in webbing, their sharpness dulled.I wondered why he’d suddenly bound up his own legs, but then he resumed attacking. And the instant I blocked one of his blows, I realized—something had changed. The strike was blunter, the sound muffled, the damage weaker.Could it be… he’d liked our answer so much he’d given himself a penalty?― “What did Anansi just do?”“He nerfed himself. His auto-attacks don’t hurt anymore.”― “…He restricted himself? Why? Just because we got it ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) right?”“Probably. Some kind of bonus, I guess.”They hadn’t hurt that much to begin with, but now they were ticklish at best.[The final question!]The end of the one-stroke gimmick was in sight. Just one more and we’d reach the second phase.Heart pounding, I lifted my camera to see the puzzle. Of course, it looked complicated, so I immediately panned back down. My job was to figure out what to pay, not solve the shapes.What we’d learned so far: functions like chat or inventory could be paid as offerings, and some functions were rejected for being “too great a price.” If only I could figure out why the guild counted as too big a price… but I was drawing a blank.Sure, I could test things directly, but this dungeon was full of instant-wipe mechanics. I couldn’t just go around pressing buttons at random.― “The solution is over here.”Gang Jaegyung had already solved it and marked the spot. Figures—he just glanced at it and done.Fine. Brains were his specialty. I’d leave it to him. My chance to be useful would come later.― “Still haven’t thought of what to offer?”“Yeah…”― “Strange. If it were you, I expected you’d have thrown something at him right away, so I had to ask.”…True. But the way he said it made me sound like some reckless idiot who threw things away for no reason. That rubbed me the wrong way.Annoyed, I stared hard at his polygon avatar. Maybe he felt my glare, because he quickly changed the subject.

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