Terrifying! ...Or So They Thought, But They Were Just Too Big of Fans
“S-Sis... I can't believe you remembered an insignificant player like me...” Nixia choked out, her face filled with deep emotion as she teared up.
“Wait, shouldn't we be terrified of that?”
“What? Terrified? Are you implying Miss Da-bi would ever do something bad to you?”
“N-No, that's not what I meant... It's just a bit weird that she even knows how much gold we made...”
“Why, you little...!”
“You better watch your back in Pan-On!”
A player attacked from all sides just for misspeaking! Lee Da-bi possessed a much more powerful fanbase than she realized.
“Everyone, please don't do that,” Da-bi said gently.
“Yes! As you wish!”
...They listen to me better than my own guild members? Da-bi was slightly taken aback. How was it that people she was meeting for the first time were so much more obedient?
In any case, Da-bi signed autographs for her fans. As she did, a thought suddenly crossed her mind. Come to think of it, if I sell my autographs... It was a purely instinctive thought! Of course, as a professional player, she shouldn't do such a thing, but she couldn't help but calculate the profit margins.
“Is something wrong?”
“Ah, it's nothing. All done. Shall we go meet Tae-hyun? If we go now, I think you'll have time to get his autograph too.”
“We're fine.”
“We're only fans of Miss Da-bi...”
“!”
Da-bi was surprised once again. To come all this way and only get her autograph without getting Tae-hyun's? It was like going to a luxury buffet and only eating the salad!
“Why?!”
“W-What do you mean why...? Because we're your fans...?”
The players were actually the ones who were flustered. Since when did being a fan need a reason? You just were! One of the bewildered players suddenly thought of something and asked:
“By the way, are you and player Kim Tae-hyun dating?”
“Huh? What? Um, uh, no, I mean, absolutely not!”
They're definitely dating.
They're totally dating...
At the very least, she definitely likes him.
They had asked without much thought, but seeing Da-bi blush and stammer only made them more suspicious. Were they really dating? Then again, it wouldn't be strange at all if Kim Tae-hyun and Lee Da-bi were a couple. They were pro players on the same team, and both were top-tier rankers in Pan-On. When two talented, attractive people spent so much time working together, feelings were bound to blossom!
The players gathered there all wore warm, knowing smiles and made up their minds. Let's support them!
“I'm a fan of Kim Tae-hyun, can I go meet him?”
“Cut the crap and stay right where you are.”
“Read the room, will you? Read the room! Shut up and don't butt in.”
“Don't you dare place a higher bid on Kim Tae-hyun when Miss Da-bi has already placed hers.”
“?!?”
When a beautiful female player who was a fan of Kim Tae-hyun tried to slip away, the other players immediately pounced on her. How dare she!
“Miss Da-bi, fighting!”
“We're rooting for you!”
“...I'm not quite sure what you're rooting for me to do, but thank you...?”
“Did you have a good time with your fans?” Tae-hyun asked, having just finished dealing with a crowd of his own. Da-bi nodded, her face still flushed.
“Did something happen?”
“Huh? No! Absolutely not! Nothing at all!”
“...You know saying it like that makes it sound even more suspicious, right?”
“I was just a bit touched that they were my fans.”
“...? But you have tons of fans.” Tae-hyun looked puzzled. Anyone could tell Da-bi had a massive fanbase just by looking at the community boards or news comments. Unlike Cain, whose comment sections were filled with things like:
Da-bi's comments were nothing like that.
“Ever since my days in Power Warrior, I made it a habit never to search my own name...”
“......” Tae-hyun nodded. Right... if that was the case, it couldn't be helped!
“Tae-hyun, though. I might be okay in Pan-On, but I'm not very confident in other games.”
“Have you never played other games?”
“Well... I did play Fantasy Craft once in the past.”
“Ah, that one.” A legendary game that had once dominated an entire era! “How was it?”
“You're supposed to gather resources and then build units, but I hated spending the money so much that I just kept hoarding it. Most of the time, I ended up losing because of that.”
“...I-I see.” She mentioned a few other games, but the stories were mostly the same. She would hoard money until she lost!
“Don't worry. I'll carry you.”
“What kind of game is it?”
It was a charity tournament where players paired up in duos to compete in friendly matches! Since it was a friendly event, it was supposed to be a lighthearted, cheerful affair. Most importantly, Lee Se-yeon wasn't here. If Se-yeon had been present, it would have turned into a madhouse of a tournament with Tae-hyun and Se-yeon constantly aiming for each other's throats...
“I don't know either. Well, it shouldn't be anything too difficult.” Tae-hyun's prediction was correct. In fact, strictly speaking, it wasn't even a video game.
“Will the two members of each duo please sit back-to-back! You will write down your answers to the upcoming questions.”
“Oh, is it just a quiz?”
“No! The goal of this quiz is not to find the correct answer, but to write down the exact same answer as your partner!”
A game where the objective was matching your partner's answer rather than giving the factual truth! It was a game that tested how well they understood each other.
Tae-hyun tilted his head. “Isn't this a bit too outdated?”
“I know, right?” Seeing this, the staff members began whispering among themselves.
“Who suggested we do this?”
“Shh. The order came from the higher-ups. I was originally planning on Fantasy Craft...”
“Wouldn't a Fantasy Craft duo match have been better? I wanted to see Fantasy Craft too. I really wanted to see Kim Tae-hyun play Fantasy Craft.”
“You clueless idiot... You dummy! What do you think 'from the higher-ups' means?”
“???”
“What does it mean?”
“It means the Chairman chose this game himself.”
“...The Chairman personally chose this?” Did he have nothing better to do? The department manager who had brought it up also looked embarrassed and lowered his voice.
“Even if the Chairman didn't choose it personally, he must have paid some attention to it. How would he feel if he picked something and got zero reaction?”
“...Wow! As expected of the Chairman! He completely revolutionized the tournament!!”
“Exactly. Keep that energy up!”
While the staff clapped enthusiastically, the host continued the program. The players gathered here were all professionals in their own right. They weren't flustered just because an old-school game had popped up.
“Now! Let's do a practice round. The two players from Yuseong Gaming! Ryu Tae-su and Kim Chul-soo! Please sit so you can't see each other's boards... Here is the question! Who do you think is the greatest player in Pan-On?”
Ryu Tae-su and Kim Chul-soo pondered for a moment before quickly writing on their whiteboards. Kim Chul-soo, naturally, wrote down their captain, Lee Se-yeon. Ryu Tae-su, on the other hand...
Wrote 'Kim Tae-hyun'.
“......”
“......”
The crowd burst into laughter. It was an unexpected comedy goldmine!
“Ah, Ryu Tae-su, what a great sense of humor! I really didn't see that coming!”
“I was being completely sin—mmph, mmph!”
“Be quiet. You're going to get me punished too.” Kim Chul-soo quickly covered Tae-su's mouth. He had absolutely no desire to share the wrath of Lee Se-yeon.
“The winning team will receive a cash prize, and an equal amount will be donated under their team's name!”
“Ah...!” Lee Da-bi's eyes sparkled. The moment money was on the line, her concentration spiked exponentially!
“Tae-hyun, you know Morse code, right?”
“I do, but... let's not do that in a tournament...”
If they got caught communicating in Morse code, that would certainly make the headlines in its own way!
“It's a tournament for a good cause, so let's play with good intentions.”
“Isn't a good intention ultimately the desire to win? Besides, the rules didn't say we couldn't use Morse code...”
“No, Da-bi. I might not mind if it were Cain, but I don't want to see you embarrass yourself.”
“You two! Please take your seats!”
Tae-hyun and Da-bi sat down. As the two most famous players of the moment took their seats, a roaring cheer erupted.
“Kim Tae-hyun! Kim Tae-hyun! Kim Tae-hyun!”
“Kim Tae-hyun! Kim Tae-hyun! Kim Tae-hyun!”
The fans' reaction was so passionate that one might have mistaken the charity tournament for an idol concert. The players who had just finished their turn grumbled.
“Isn't the reaction like ten times louder than when we were up there?”
“Have you no conscience? How can you compare yourself to Kim Tae-hyun?”
“Still, I'd have no regrets if we got even a tenth of that reaction.”
“Now, a question for the two from Team KL! Please write down the most high-maintenance, troublesome player in Team KL.”
“Too easy.”
“This is a freebie.”
“It's Cain. Definitely Cain.”
It was such an easy question that even the spectators muttered the answer in unison! Naturally, the two matched easily.
The first question was bound to be easy. Gradually, the difficulty of the questions began to rise. From Tae-hyun's class in Pan-On 1 (Da-bi wrote it down in less than a second), to Tae-hyun's hobbies (which also took her less than a second), and even the birthdays of Tae-hyun's family members (which Tae-hyun actually wrote down slower than Da-bi).
“P-Player Lee Da-bi! Incredible! Amazing! It's like she knows everything about him!”
“Wait, isn't that basically a stalker?”
“How dare you, you bastard!”
“Can't you filter what comes out of your mouth?”
The fan who had accidentally spoken out of turn had to shut his mouth under the murderous glares and threats flying from all directions. T-Terrifying!
Tae-hyun was no slouch either. Starting with Da-bi's birthday, he correctly answered her hobbies, family relations, favorite foods, and more without missing a beat. Tae-hyun's exceptional memory never let go of anything he had heard once. The information Da-bi's younger sisters had forcefully drilled into him had paid off in an unexpected way.
“What punishment does a player who makes a mistake in Team KL receive? The answer is 'Archisus Punishment'! You've matched again! Wow, truly incredible! How is it that you haven't gotten a single question wrong? At this rate, we can practically guarantee their victory!”
At first, people were amazed, thinking, Wow, they're so good at this, and That's fascinating. But now, their expressions had shifted to, Wait, why do you two even know that about each other? They knew too much! Seeing the two match everything from each other's habits, hobbies, and speech patterns to the skills they frequently used in-game, the crowd couldn't help but be dumbfounded.
“Here is the final question! Who is the player that Captain Kim Tae-hyun of Team KL treasures the most? This is too easy, right? Come on! Write down your answers!”
Da-bi and Tae-hyun wrote their answers simultaneously. It was simply too easy of a question. Da-bi wrote 'Cain', while Tae-hyun wrote 'Lee Da-bi'.
“...Why on earth would it be Cain, Da-bi?!”
“!??!”
While Tae-hyun was receiving cheers in the real world, Cain was also receiving cheers.
“Cain! Cain! Cain!”
“Shut up...!”
“Cain! Cain! Cain!”
“Strong and mighty! Champion of the world! Made of iron!”
“Argh! Shut up already!”
Of course, the nature of the cheers was slightly different! Cain was currently rolling around the training ground floor, completely battered and exhausted.
“Cain! Hang in there! Don't lose! Get up!”
“Yeah! It's not my turn yet!”
These were the rankers cheering Cain on! To an outsider, it might have looked like a touching scene, but the reality was quite different. The gathered rankers were only worried that they wouldn't get their turn. Now that they had come all this way, they absolutely had to land at least one hit on Cain!
“This won't do! We should go first!”
“No way. We promised to take turns! We have to break that title of his first.”
“What if that bastard Cain gives up and runs away before we get a chance!”
“Trust me! Cain won't run!”
“Ugh... but... but...! I really want to beat up Cain...!”
Knock, knock, knock— Someone tapped on the training ground door from the outside.
“Who is it?”
“Excuse me... is this the place where we get to beat up Cain? I heard that if we pass level 250, we're allowed to hit him...”
The newly arrived rankers asked with shy, hopeful expressions! Furious at the sight, Cain roared:
“Which one of you bastards posted about beating me up on the internet?!?!”
The rumors had already spread far and wide!