Beal Castle
Beal Castle! It had once belonged to the Second Prince of the Auston Kingdom, but that was ancient history now. Currently, the Guild Alliance and the Midas Guild were locked in a fierce struggle to seize control of it.
Situated right on their shared border, the castle boasted highly lucrative mines and dungeons nearby. Furthermore, capturing it would provide a perfect staging ground for launching attacks against the other side. It was a stronghold neither faction could afford to yield. Consequently, Beal Castle had become a sort of de facto neutral zone.
With both sides refusing to back down, neither could achieve complete occupation. And where there was such chaotic lawlessness, notorious NPCs naturally tended to gather.
"They're in Beal Castle?"
"Yes! A summoning gate has opened there!"
"So it wasn't the World Tree..."
Then again, if they had tried to use the World Tree, Tae-hyun would have spotted them instantly. After all, he had built a temple right in front of it...
"But why the Auston Kingdom? Is there a reason?"
If they wanted to attack Tae-hyun directly, the Atali Kingdom would be a better target. If they wanted to seduce the nobility, the Erangs Kingdom made far more sense.
"W-well... I'm not sure. It was prepared by the Demon Duke himself, so a lowly demon like me..."
"Hmm."
Tae-hyun had no idea. He didn't realize it was because he had been running around scamming Demon Dukes, boasting, 'I'm in the Auston Kingdom! Come and get me if you dare!' A Demon Duke like Adad had taken those words entirely at face value and opened an exit leading straight to the Auston Kingdom.
Having extracted all the necessary information, Tae-hyun was about to slice the demon to pieces. But then, Lee Se-yeon's bewildered voice echoed from behind him.
- Are you going to kill it?
- Huh? Of course. What, should I just let it go?
- Capturing a demon alive is a rare opportunity. Shouldn't we make better use of it?
- I mean, I've already captured plenty of demons anyway.
- ...!!!
Ah, right! Come to think of it, Tae-hyun was a lunatic player who literally packaged demons up and carried them around!
"S-surely..." the demon stammered, its voice trembling with terror.
Oh no. Did it realize? Se-yeon thought, panicking. A cornered demon was highly unpredictable!
"Are you planning to enslave me? Please, I beg of you, just send me cleanly back to the Demon Realm! *Sniffle!* I have a family waiting for me at home!"
"..."
Se-yeon was rendered speechless once again by this utterly bizarre reaction. Normally, demons dreaded being forcibly unsummoned back to the Demon Realm. Once banished, it was incredibly difficult to return, and they would lose a massive portion of their power. Yet this demon was literally begging to be banished! Just what kind of rumors had spread throughout the Demon Realm...?!
"...R-right."
Feeling a bit embarrassed himself, Tae-hyun swiftly banished the demon with a single strike.
"Shall we finish clearing this place?"
"...Let's."
Now that Se-yeon had recovered her strength, there was no reason to dawdle. Summoning a horde of undead and golems to overwhelm their foes with sheer numbers, the two of them rapidly tore through the dungeon.
A Necromancer really is convenient.
The title of "One-Man Army" wasn't just for show. A Necromancer of Se-yeon's caliber was theoretically all-powerful. They could tank, deal damage, and even heal themselves with their own spells. Even if enemies tried to launch silent ambushes, it was impossible when the entire area was packed tight with summons. That was the beauty of a numbers game!
Master. I believe you were just looking at her with eyes full of envy...
I-I was not! If I wanted to mobilize numbers, I could summon plenty of troops too.
Master...
In the end, they cleared the boss monster without a hitch! Though it had tried to be annoying with its silent, stealthy attacks, it melted instantly under the coordinated onslaught of two top-tier rankers.
"Ugh... I feel like we've been in there forever," Se-yeon said, stretching as the bright sunlight poured over them outside the cave entrance. Even though the raid hadn't actually taken that long, it felt strangely drawn out.
There aren't any giants out here, right?
Fortunately, there were no giants in sight. It seemed they had exited from an entirely different side of the mountain.
"Well, good work today. In that case... Oh, right. You said you came here to hunt giants, didn't you? Good luck with that!"
"..."
That... that... that jerk! Even after forming an alliance, his talent for getting under her skin remained completely unmatched!
"We literally got chased out together, and you're saying that now?!"
"I just thought you wouldn't give up so easily," Tae-hyun replied, his voice dripping with mock disappointment.
It was painfully obvious what he was actually thinking: I really wish you'd waste a bit more of your time trying to hunt those giants!
"I'm not hunting them, okay? I'm going back to do other quests. On the other hand, you..." Se-yeon trailed off, narrowing her eyes at him. "You must have come here because there's something specific you want, so you won't be able to leave right away, will you?"
This time, she hit Tae-hyun right where it hurt. While Se-yeon could easily abandon her quest and walk away, Tae-hyun still had a mountain of work left to do.
"This was just an exception. Normally, I wouldn't even run into any giants. I'll be traveling underground."
Tsk.
Hmph.
They were both trying to subtly get the upper hand! As expected of two highly prideful geniuses, every single exchange was a fierce battle of wits.
Carbanog notes that this is an incredibly petty and pathetic display of bickering...
"Well then, good luck with your quest."
"You too. Your match is coming up soon, isn't it? I wonder if you've even prepared for it."
"I'm always prepared."
"I'm also prepared—"
"I've been prepared since way back—"
Carbanog commands you both to stop this utterly pointless posturing immediately!
Team Polar Bear was a lower-middle tier team among the twenty teams in Pandemonium Online's First Division. They weren't particularly popular either. While most of their fans liked them for casual reasons, saying things like, "The polar bears are so cute," achieving global popularity required either top-tier skills or a highly distinct team identity.
Yet, in their recent match against Team KL, this very team pulled off an entirely unexpected upset. It wasn't that they won. If they had actually won, the entire fanbase would have imploded. Team Polar Bear lost. They lost, but... they managed to force a draw in the first round and dragged the match all the way to the second and third rounds!
Against any other team, this wouldn't have been so shocking. After all, you never truly knew how a fight would go until it started. Even Yuseong Gaming dropped a round every now and then, and the other top-tier teams currently leading the rankings had either suffered a loss or were fully prepared to face one.
Pandemonium Online was a game of endless possibilities; if an opponent pulled out an unimaginable strategy, even the best players could easily get swept away. While individual player mechanics were crucial, tactics and strategy were just as vital!
But what if the opponent was Team KL? That changed everything. Since the start of the league, Team KL had utterly dominated every single match through raw physical mechanics alone, completely bypassing complex tactics! Fans of other teams were practically begging: "Kim Tae-hyun, please transfer to another game's league already," or "General Manager, please sell our trash players and buy Kim Tae-hyun instead!" That was how overwhelmingly dominant they were.
Yet, Team Polar Bear, from whom absolutely no one expected anything, managed to secure a draw in the first round and push the match to the second and third rounds! They lost in the end, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that they had shown a glimmer of hope when facing the absolute juggernaut that was Team KL.
Although people were already talking about Team KL achieving an undefeated championship, the team members themselves felt absolutely no pressure. If other pro players had known this, they would have turned green with envy. Instead, the ones feeling the heat were the top-tier teams sitting just below them!
From above, their corporate sponsors and management badgered them with demands like, "Are you really just going to hand first place to Team KL on a silver platter?!" Meanwhile, their fans sent "encouraging" messages like, "You guys have to at least secure second place, right?" and "You still have to beat our rival team, okay?" The greed to aim for first place and the heavy obligation to protect their current rank bound the players hand and foot.
Every single match was critical! In that sense, to the teams currently locked in a fierce battle for the top ranks, Team KL was nothing short of a nightmare. The sheer terror of knowing that a loss was practically guaranteed!
A win awarded 3 points, and a draw still gave 1 point, but a loss yielded absolutely nothing. In a razor-thin race for the top, a single loss was devastating.
The Beijing Fighters fans shut their mouths, unable to bring themselves to boast, "We won't change our strategy!" The reason was simple. The strategy Team Polar Bear had just showcased... was incredibly plausible. Honestly, they felt like their own team might copy it too! No, they actually hoped they would copy it! Because a single draw was infinitely better than a guaranteed loss!
Team Polar Bear's strategy was simple yet mind-blowing. It was so absurd that even their own fans were shocked, thinking, I can't believe they actually pulled that off!
"We do not aim for victory. We aim for a draw!"
To secure a draw in the Pandemonium Online League, all three rounds had to end in a draw. This wasn't something you could easily pull off just because you wanted to. The rules differed for each match, and they had to survive and run down the clock until the very last second of the time limit in all three rounds! Professional teams usually had some pride to maintain, so they rarely resorted to such a shameless strategy. But Team Polar Bear had thrown their pride out the window.
As a result, Team Polar Bear fielded five tanks. An all-tank composition! They bypassed dedicated healers entirely, equipping their tanks with gear that had HP recovery options and having each player learn as many self-healing skills as possible. It was a lineup so utterly ridiculous that even Tae-hyun, their opponent, had been momentarily dumbfounded.
"I've taken too much damage, I'm in danger! Block for me!"
"Hold on! I'll take the hit! Kim Tae-hyun! Hit me instead, you bastard!"
"What the hell are you crazy bastards talking about?! Get out of my way!"
"Heh... We have a special buff that activates when we're grouped together. Just try and break through us, Kim Tae-hyun!"
"Bwahaha! Polar Bear!"
"Polar Bear!"
"Polar Bear!"
It was a battle unlike any Tae-hyun had ever fought! An opponent that refused to counterattack at all, stubbornly turtling behind massive shields. To make matters worse, they had clearly practiced this extensively, as their coordination was flawless. Whenever one of them was on the verge of being beaten to death by Tae-hyun, the other tanks would instantly throw their bodies over him to block the damage... utilizing position-swapping skills, and emergency HP-boosting skills triggered at death's door... A team that was genuinely, single-mindedly determined to do nothing but survive was terrifying!
Despite Choi Sang-yun and Jeong Su-hyeok joining the fray, and Lee Da-bi providing all kinds of support, Team Polar Bear successfully survived the first round. Although Tae-hyun, having figured out their skill rotations, desperately focused down one target in the second round to reduce them to four, breaking their group buff and picking them apart one by one...
"...That was a crazy match," Tae-hyun muttered.
Everyone nodded in solemn agreement. They never wanted to play a match like that ever again! It felt like trying to fight while sinking in a muddy swamp.
"Well, Team Polar Bear clearly prepared that specifically. Other teams won't be able to copy it so easily. How many teams actually have five highly specialized tanks on their roster anyway?"
"You don't think some teams will just blindly copy them, do you?"
"Would professional gaming organizations really act so amateurishly? They've all spent a long time preparing their own strategies."
"Haha. True, right?"
Tae-hyun laughed it off.
However, Choi Sang-yun thought to himself:
Given how often professional gaming teams implode, their management is actually surprisingly amateurish and run by the seat of their pants...