The God of Shoveling and the Golden Priest

"I must...!" The memory of Team KL's last match was still vivid in her mind. The legendary scene where they finally broke through the defense of the brutish Polar Bear team, who had been holding out while shouting, "Bwahaha! The more we get hit, the more our HP increases!" All the fans watching the broadcast together had cheered, chanting Tae-hyun's name.

As a broadcaster, her ambition to get close to Tae-hyun and her personal fan girl feelings could easily coexist. No, to be honest, her personal feelings as a fan might actually be stronger...

"Look at this video. See how well Cain is blocking the attacks?"

"...Yes..."

It was Ha-yeon who snapped Lecia out of her daze. An introduction to classical tanking! Ha-yeon seemed to have absolutely no intention of talking about Tae-hyun. She just kept rambling on about how well Cain was blocking.

'...They were in the same agency, and she literally has nothing to say about him?' As Lecia grumbled to herself, she suddenly realized something. Get to know Cain → get introduced to Kim Tae-hyun → become close friends → win Pan-On!

'Ah...!' What a brilliant plan!

"Are you listening to me?"

"Yes!"

"What was the skill he just used?"

"Is it... the Chain of the Pushover?"

"It's the Slave's Chain!" How could she call it that! Ha-yeon was dumbfounded, but Lecia felt the exact same way. They sounded basically the same anyway...! Instead of wasting time memorizing Cain's skills, she'd rather memorize one of Kim Tae-hyun's!

"Wow, it actually works."

"Honestly, I didn't think this would actually work..." (Cain made it happen.) The players in the pioneer group gasped in admiration. Look at what they had accomplished! The barren, chaotic wasteland had been cleared and organized quite beautifully. Every single rock and weed had vanished. Cain, in particular, was truly magnificent. He had shown a natural talent for shoveling back when he only had two arms, but now those arms had multiplied. He wasn't just a genius of shoveling—he was the God of Shoveling!

He was literally a shoveling lord! Rumble! Entranced by the system messages, Cain worked on the chores in a complete trance. If Tae-hyun had seen him, he would have nagged him to death, saying, 'If only you trained like that normally, tsk tsk.'

"M-My goodness...! Is that a human or a bulldozer?"

"That's not a human! That's the God of Shoveling!"

"I used to do some manual labor back in the day, but that is truly... incredible!"

Exclamations of awe erupted from all directions! The pioneer players could finally feel why Cain was a ranker.

'...Wait. Does being good at shoveling have anything to do with being a ranker?'

'Y-Yeah, now that you mention ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it?' They had been so mesmerized by his incredible skill that they had admired him without thinking, but when they actually thought about it, this had nothing to do with playing Pan-On, did it?

"It's done!!"

"Waaaaah!" Regardless, the players cheered. Now that they had finished the most tedious, low-reward chores, surely some fun quests would finally appear, right?

"Hmm. Next is the quest to build 100 small houses. It's cold here, so we need to build them sturdy."

"..."

"..." You crazy bastard!

"Cain!"

"?" The players turned their heads toward the voice echoing from the distance.

"!!" It was a broadcast crew! The Korean players immediately recognized MBS and their MCs. While Tae-hyun and a few other rankers had requested not to be filmed, saying, "It's disadvantageous to be caught on broadcast," most players absolutely loved being on TV. It was a golden opportunity to promote themselves!

'Why is MBS here?'

'Shoot. I need to change my gear.'

"It looks like a broadcasting station, but which one?"

"MBS from Korea. You know, the one that broadcasted the tournament Kim Tae-hyun was in."

"Ahhh! That one! Shoot, hold on. I need to change my gear too." Even the foreign players had at least heard of the name! It was a testament to the massive reputation MBS had built through Pan-On.

"Who did they come to see? Is there even anything to look at in Nodranche?"

"...They obviously came to see Cain!"

"Well, Cain is a ranker after all, despite everything..." While they grumbled, the MCs and guests surrounded Cain and began chatting with him. Seeing a popular idol talking so warmly and familiarly with Cain, sparks flew from the eyes of the pioneer players. Even you, Cain!

'I... trusted you!!'

'You traitorous bastard!' They didn't even know what he had betrayed, but they felt utterly betrayed nonetheless! If these players had been NPCs, a system message saying [Loyalty is dropping drastically!] would have popped up.

"Cain, what kind of place is Nodranche?" Ha-yeon struck up a conversation with him. Cain had always been notoriously bad at speaking on broadcasts. He was the type to get nervous and stutter the moment he realized a camera was rolling—a fatal flaw for any broadcaster. However, Cain had grown significantly after going through the tournament. He was surely different from before. Hadn't he done plenty of interviews by now?

"Uh, it's a place with absolutely nothing!"

"...I-I see...?" Round one of panic! The MC, however, didn't lose her composure and smiled to keep the atmosphere light.

"Then why did you come here?"

"Because I'm stupid... and ended up receiving my territory here of all places..." Cain replied in the most depressed, sorrowful voice in the world.

"..." Stop bringing the mood down!

— What do we do about this?

— No, wait. This is actually pretty funny. Keep going, keep going. This is entertaining in its own way! Besides, in Cain's case, he was so popular that everyone loved him even when he spouted nonsense like this.

"How did those players over there end up coming with you?"

"Uh, well..." Cain hesitated. Could he really admit on live television that he had tricked these people into doing hard labor for him?

"We're friends!"

"Cain and I have been close since way back!"

"We're friends, right?? Right???"

"???" A sudden onslaught of forced friendliness!

After finishing the introduction of Nodranche, the broadcast crew closely followed and filmed Cain's quest. At first, they were pleased with the exotic scenery, but they soon realized something was off. This ranker...! He was doing nothing but chores!

— W-Wait. Isn't he bored?

— Maybe it's a Team KL training method? To raise basic stats...

— T-That... No, no matter how I look at it, other methods seem way more efficient. Are we seriously just going to keep filming chores? Of course, there were people who could make even the most boring tasks entertaining, but Cain was not that type. He was the type who needed to actually do something to be fun!

'What do we do??'

'Should I start writing my apology letter to the board?'

'N-No, it's too early to tell...! We don't know yet! Once he finishes that... Wait, what the hell, he finished building it all, so why is he going to build something else?!' However, a miracle was on the horizon. Ships approaching from the far distance caught the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes of the despairing staff!

"Cain! Let's go hunt Sirens!"

"!!!!!!" The other players of Team KL!

'They came to save the broadcast...!'

'Sob! I knew I could trust them!' The staff wiped away their tears. This was the true friendship of Team KL...! With multiple people together, they would keep talking, and something entertaining would surely come out of it!

"Huh? I still have to finish this quest..."

"Ah, just get on the boat already!!"

"They said they're going to hunt Sirens! Think of how fun that'll be!" The pioneer players erupted in fiery rage. Hunting Sirens was obviously the priority here, so why the hell was he building walls right now?!

Tae-hyun was flying swiftly toward the Kaf Volcanic Region on Yong-yong. He was moving at a much faster speed than before. Now that several of the enemies threatening him had disappeared, he could travel in comfort.

"Do you think the others will do well on their own?"

"They're all rankers, so they should be able to pull their own weight. I can't worry about them every single time we're not together, can I?" Tae-hyun said. It was true that he was slightly worried, but they had to be capable of keeping themselves alive. ...Surely, they wouldn't end up in a situation where all four of them got wiped out, right?

'Well, except for Cain, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠everyone else is fully capable of protecting themselves and running away if things go south...' Besides, he had sent them off with plenty of protection. Hadn't Choi Sang-yun and Jeong Su-hyeok taken the kingdom's fleet with them?

"Wow. It's been a while since we've been here."

"Honestly, there's a reason this place isn't popular." The Prica Continent was far less appealing compared to other regions.

Whoosh!Skreech! Yong-yong hastily performed an evasive maneuver. An attack had flown up from beneath the Karp Mountains.

'Now that the Sadique Order is gone, the monsters have multiplied like crazy.' Even if there were no NPCs actively targeting Tae-hyun, it was still incredibly annoying!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! "Master. It's a bit much to take all these hits on the way in. Wouldn't it be better to land?"

"I agree. Let's land." People often thought, 'If you have a flying mount, won't it be easy to go anywhere?' But Pan-On was not that simple. Flying meant inevitably encountering flying monsters. In fact, you could run into far more of them, making it much more dangerous than walking. On top of that, even ground monsters would immediately launch attacks the moment they spotted something flying overhead.

"Da-bi. Can you hold them off for a bit?"

"Of course."

"Thanks. In that case..." Before he even finished speaking, Tae-hyun leaped off Yong-yong. Lee Da-bi immediately began casting curses on the nearby venomous lizards.

Arcisus's Golden Donation.

Aside from the bizarre class name of Golden Death Merchant Priest of the Archisus Order, Lee Da-bi's class was actually one of the most stable among Tae-hyun's party. A priest capable of handling various situations! Arcisus's Golden Donation was the core of all her skill combos, boosting her stats in exchange for gold. Da-bi tried her best not to look at the system window notifying her of the consumed gold. This was the one thing she could never get used to. 'Gold is meant to be spent...!'

And next was her curse!

While it didn't possess the sheer destructive power of Tae-hyun's curses, it was an incredibly annoying curse skill. After all, it was a curse that caused ranged attacks to miss or fly completely off-target.

"Thank you, Master!"

"I-I'm not your master, though...?"

"...Let's just roll with it!" With a quick word of thanks, Yong-yong began unleashing wide-area magic indiscriminately. Even if the venomous lizards were relatively high-level and massive in size, Yong-yong was a dragon! Their very fundamentals were on completely different levels.

"Whirling Chain Lightning!" Crackle! Along with the sweeping lightning, Yong-yong swiped at the lizards with his claws. The venomous lizards shrieked and retreated.

Meanwhile, Tae-hyun was swiftly clearing out the venomous lizards nearby. Although he had been playing in parties frequently of late, Tae-hyun was originally a solo player. He had fought one-against-many battles so many times he was sick of them. His technique of breaking enemy formations, picking them off one by one, and hit-and-run tactics was of the absolute highest caliber!

"All clear. Oh? Da-bi, did you defeat them already? That's amazing."

"Haha... It was nothing." As Lee Da-bi smiled bashfully, Yong-yong muttered in disbelief.

"...I'm the one who killed them..."

Shut up, you clueless Gold Dragon.