Chapter 113
Chapter 113
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 113
Chapter Title: Chapter 22 Party Play (4)
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As soon as he spotted someone waving their hand wildly, the area around them grew noisy.
“K?”
“K, you say?”
“Where?”
“K’s in the non-beta zone?”
“Crazy, this is huge!”
The name just mentioned carried that much weight.
Murmurs spread.
In the midst of the commotion, players who knew K approached him.
Three players with fairly flashy gear.
A Black man, a Latina woman, and a man who looked Southeast Asian.
Despite their diverse races, they shared one thing in common.
The symbols floating above their heads were identical.
‘Those, they’re all Palao?’
Yang Tae-ho’s eyes went wide.
He’d seen it next to K, but he still hadn’t gotten used to that symbol.
The other players in the outpost hadn’t either.
“It’s Palao.”
“All of them?”
“So players really did join up there.”
Oblivious or not to the surrounding fuss,
Those bearing the Palao symbol approached K with friendly expressions.
“You’re late—when’d you get here?”
K responded to them naturally.
“Just arrived.”
“No way, did you go hunting?”
“Killed two birds with one stone, stretched my legs a bit.”
“Huh… You’re one tough son of a bitch. So, you’re done?”
“As you can see.”
After a few back-and-forths with K, they glanced at Yang Tae-ho and the Phoenix crew before asking,
“But what’re you doing here? Assembly point’s the south lot.”
They were near the outpost’s west entrance.
“The early birds pitched tents—let’s go.”
“If you’ve got business left, we’ll wait.”
K shrugged, answering casually.
“If it’s business… one of my party members had trouble.”
“What? Party member?”
“He said party member?”
“You formed a party?!”
The players yelped in shock, their eyes sliding toward Yang Tae-ho and the Phoenix crew.
Judging from their darting gazes, they were hunting for K’s party member.
“Over here.”
K tapped Yang Tae-ho’s shoulder demonstratively.
“Code name Pudding. Position: tank.”
“Whoa, no shit—you formed a party?”
“The lone wolf’s changed.”
“Thought you’d be solo for life…”
K gave a light chuckle at the barrage of reactions.
“Solo for life? What kinda curse is that?”
“You never paid us any mind before…”
“Look at that guy’s size—no wonder you overlooked us.”
“We respect your tastes.”
K lightly kicked the nearby player amid the ongoing fuss.
It was casual, like with a buddy—no formalities.
“You’re all fire-attribute, overlapping my position too. Quit the bullshit and say hi.”
He patted Yang Tae-ho’s shoulder and introduced them.
“Friends from the same order. We run into each other a lot, so we’re pretty tight.”
“Whoa, K’s party member… This feels unreal. Not dreaming, right?”
“Mind if I shake your hand?”
“Honored to meet you!”
“Uh, uh, happy to meet y’all too…”
After the rushed greetings, the Palao players turned aside.
“So who’re they?”
Yang Tae-ho’s gaze followed naturally.
In that brief moment, the Phoenix crew’s expressions had gone rigid.
Their faces pale white—to the point they almost seemed pitiable.
No need to dwell on why their attitudes had shifted.
It was surely because of the eyes scanning them from right next door.
K stared silently at the Phoenix crew for a beat.
“Hmm…”
Then came the feeling his eyes had gone ice-cold.
“Trash bastards?”
“Yeah?”
“What?”
The blunt condemnation continued.
“Trash who ditched their party member to save their own asses, then have the gall to crawl back spouting let’s get along bullshit.”
“Whoa.”
“Big time.”
Watching K’s chilling expression, Yang Tae-ho swallowed dryly without thinking.
The Phoenix leader, taking K’s stare head-on, trembled as he backed away.
“Life’s shown me there’s no shortage of hopeless assholes. You’re one of ’em.”
K cracked his neck side to side before striding a step toward the Phoenix crew.
“If you were scared of your dirty laundry airing out, you should’ve stayed the fuck down.”
What gave them the right to slink out here and start shit?
“Hey, face twisting up? Don’t like hearing it?”
K curled his lip high, jabbing the Phoenix leader’s shoulder as he closed in tighter.
“Then come at me.”
The taunt kept coming, but Phoenix stayed frozen in place.
K’s smirk curved even more gracefully.
“What, chickening out now you heard my code name? Scared I might actually be the real K?”
Up close, K somehow seemed bigger than usual.
Though their height difference was just a few centimeters at most.
“Part of me wants to say I’m not K, but…”
Before the words finished, a status window popped up—everything hidden except the code name.
“What can ya do? Reality ain’t that forgiving.”
Phoenix’s eyes quivered mercilessly upon confirming the code name on K’s status window.
K mocked the look to the hilt, then abruptly cocked his head.
“Hey, but c’mon, you got pride, right? Where’d all that cocky bullshit from earlier go?”
He leaned in a touch—his vibe intensely menacing.
“If you were gonna pick fights like a pussy anyway, should’ve been careful from jump.”
His voice sank low as he menaced Phoenix, then he slowly straightened up.
“Well, guess you didn’t have room to think that far. No brains for it.”
His fierce scowl eased, but his eyes stayed razor-sharp.
“I really fucking hate bullies who’re weak to the strong and strong to the weak—like you lot.”
K lightly smacked Phoenix’s cheek before ripping into him, contempt and disgust plain as day.
“If you want big bro to zip it, cough up every scrap of loot from today’s hunt and beg nice. Otherwise? Shit’s gonna get real uncomfortable with me.”
It was straight-up humiliation bait—and it landed hard.
Phoenix fumbled open his inventory, whole body flushed red with shame.
The others eyed things nervously before placing stuff in front of him bit by bit.
A few bits of gold and rusty weapons caught Yang Tae-ho’s eye—familiar.
Loot the Phoenix party had grabbed hunting with him that morning, for sure.
Phoenix then mumbled with his head hung low.
Please just let this slide quietly.
K turned to Yang Tae-ho like he was asking what now.
Yang Tae-ho nodded numbly.
He’d never planned to blow it up big anyway.
Though he sure hadn’t pictured it playing out like this…
Situation resolved, at least.
K gave a short tongue-click and shooed the Phoenix crew away.
“Business done? Beat it.”
Yang Tae-ho stared blankly as Phoenix—who’d once spewed nonsense right in his face—booked it.
“There’s nice and then there’s too damn nice. After that crap, you just gonna let ’em walk?”
K sidled up, tone peeved.
“Enduring blindly ain’t always smart. Gotta stomp trash like that out for good.”
“Th-that’s…”
Yang Tae-ho trailed off in a daze.
He’d held back to avoid dragging K into it.
K didn’t seem thrilled about that, though.
‘Whew, guy’s got fire.’
Always calm and precise in the contaminated zone—turns out he had an aggressive streak.
Yang Tae-ho scratched the back of his head, replaying K’s sharp takedown.
“They probably didn’t cough up everything scheming little shits… but grab it anyway. Your cut, bro.”
Even so, he scooped up the floor loot like a good kid, not forgetting.
“What’s with the softness… Wife needs that surgery, yeah? Bills ain’t cheap, and shuttling here means a caregiver— that free? Scrape every penny you can first off.”
Never figured on getting chewed out by a kid brother ten years younger, but it didn’t sit wrong.
“Hah hah ha, spot on a hundred times. Today’s been nothing but thanks. I’ll treat ya huge soon—till your gut bursts. Lookin’ forward to it.”
The more he mulled it, the wilder the day felt.
Met K—from stories only.
Pocketed a fat stack he’d never touched before.
Watched some punk who’d roughed him up tuck tail and bolt.
“Hah.”
Tried acting nonchalant, but yeah—satisfying.
Yang Tae-ho hated beef, sure—but that didn’t mean no anger.
Hence the grin slipping out.
K stepping up had melted it all away.
K, though, still scowled like his was half-simmering, muttering,
“No shame? Least have some damn sense—punk-ass nobodies starting shit.”
“Fix that hair-trigger temper! You’re piling up enemies.”
The Latina woman jumped in nagging beside K.
“Better off making clean enemies—less headache. Those are backstabbers.”
“You’ll catch a blade for real!”
“If they’re stabbing anyway, give ’em the front.”
“Argh, you psycho fuck!”
Banter—not bickering—flew as the Black guy hung back a sec and approached Yang Tae-ho.
“Startled ya, huh?”
“Huh? B-bro?”
“Get used to it. Guy’s temper runs hot.”
Yang Tae-ho froze at the raw K rundown.
The Black player kept going, unfazed.
“Polite and straight-laced usually—but snaps? He charges.”
“Huh?”
“Rock-solid personal code, y’know? Not rigid, but…”
To shift it, needs a reason he buys.
Mostly calls bullshit excuses—picky as hell.
“Brutal on himself too—high bar. Leads from the front. Picky eater, basically.”
The Black player tacked on as another voice jumped in.
“Thanks to him, all the rowdies piped down.”
The Southeast Asian-looking player, piping up out the blue.
Yang Tae-ho blinked—what?—as the Black guy clarified.
“Church’s got plenty who got re-educated for mouthing off. Squad leader vibe? Makes shit easier for us, true.”
What the hell’d he do to earn squad leader rep?
Bit more time, and Yang Tae-ho would’ve grilled the Palao crew.
What’s their K like?
No such luck, though.
“There he is.”
“Oh, it’s really K!”
Suddenly, more Palao players swarmed in.
Nearby gawkers started buzzing in shock.
Yang Tae-ho wasn’t spared.
“Wh-what? What’s happenin’?”
He stammered, shuffling back.
“Hey, here? Hit us up!”
“Hunting? Let’s roll together.”
“K, no tent yet? Ours has extra bunks—join?”
Snapped to—and Palao symbols mobbed him.