The Weight of Karma
Still, no matter how he looked at it, it was hard to connect this situation to Kim Tae-hyun. Then again, it wasn't as if any of the previous incidents had been easy to link to him either...
"Call for backup! Something is weird about this!"
With the attacks coming in relentless waves rather than a single strike, Su Ning sensed that something was deeply wrong. This wasn't just a simple grudge. This was a thoroughly coordinated assault targeting the Guild Alliance!
"Recall all the parties we sent to the Demon Realm! This is all-out war. How dare these bastards look down on the Guild Alliance?"
"Understood!"
Su Ning felt pressured enough to mobilize the very parties he had set aside for crucial guild operations. The enemy's momentum was formidable!
"We can do this! Call in more guild members!"
"We don't even need to just bring guild members! Spread the word across Sky Island! If people hear there's a chance to crush the Guild Alliance, they'll come running!"
The Guild Alliance's fatal weakness was simple: they had made far too many enemies. Even if players weren't part of any official guild, a simple shout of, "Hey, want to go beat up the Guild Alliance?" was enough to bring a stampede.
Although the first raid had technically failed, it had actually boosted the attackers' confidence. The Guild Alliance had managed to hold them off, but they had lost several of their high-level rankers in the process!
"Should we tell them Kim Tae-hyun is here?"
"Are you out of your mind? Leave him out of it when you call them!"
Once the fire was lit, the momentum was terrifying. The Guild Alliance rankers watched in sheer horror as a black swarm of players began to gather outside the Sky Castle.
"W-what on earth is happening...?"
From the Guild Alliance's perspective, this was utterly incomprehensible! Standing nearby, Tae-hyun muttered to himself.
"Karma."
"What's karma?"
"Haha. Well, karma is when your uncle does—"
"Shut your mouth right now!"
Su Ning shrieked in panic, lunging to cover Tae-hyun's mouth. The man had absolutely no filter in front of his young nephew!
"How did things even turn out like this?"
"Hmm. If I had to guess... you've accumulated so many grudges over time, and seeing you casually stroll up to Sky Island probably set them off. On the Central Continent, they couldn't touch you as long as you stayed safe inside the Auston Kingdom, but Sky Island is a different story. Especially since your numbers are so small right now."
"...!!"
Tae-hyun had hit the nail right on the head. Su Ning was deeply shaken by his words. Usually, Su Ning would scoff and dismiss them, muttering, 'Hmph, a gathering of trash is still just trash,' but seeing them unite so rapidly was genuinely shocking.
"But still, for this many of them to gather like this makes no sense..."
"People always find a way to band together once they have a common catalyst."
"Wait a minute. You bastard, why are you talking about this like it's someone else's problem?"
"Because it is someone else's problem?"
"What? You're right here with us!"
"Haha. Su Ning, you seem to be under a massive misunderstanding..."
Tae-hyun pointed a finger at Su Ning. "You and I have completely different public images."
"......."
"You levy heavy taxes, while I don't. You attack other guilds the moment they step into your territory, while I don't. Do I need to go on?"
"Uncle, what are taxes?"
"It's nothing, sweetie!"
Su Ning hurriedly covered his nephew's ears and glared daggers at Tae-hyun. Of course, it didn't affect Tae-hyun in the slightest.
"Well, we're going to head inside and explore the Sky Castle a bit more, so good luck out there. Oh, and don't worry, I'll keep an eye on your nephew, so you should be grateful."
"......."
Trembling with rage, Su Ning ground his teeth. "Thank... you."
"Haha, don't mention it."
"Don't let them inside the castle! If they breach the gates, we're in deep trouble!"
The Guild Alliance party scrambled to set up their defenses. They had to hold out against this raging tide of players until reinforcements arrived from below!
Their best bet was to hold the castle gates. The narrow bottleneck made it the perfect choke point to defend with limited numbers.
Heavenly Cry! Earth's Resonance! Iron-Blooded Shield!
The tanks among the rankers formed a tight wall at the front, while the damage dealers rained down attacks from behind. Skills poured over the advancing players, but the crowd's momentum was unstoppable.
"There's that bastard Su Ning!"
"Their numbers are tiny! There aren't even dozens of them! Don't let this chance slip away!"
"Yeah! If we don't crush them now, when will we ever get another chance to stomp those bastards!"
Half of the crowd consisted of players sent by rival guilds, but the other half were individuals who had joined entirely of their own volition. It was, quite literally, the Guild Alliance's karma! Bound by a shared desire to make the alliance pay for its past tyranny, the players refused to back down, ignoring the attacks raining down on them.
Furthermore, there were high-level rankers scattered among the attacking force. As a chaotic barrage of spells and steel flew toward them, the faces of the Guild Alliance members turned pale. They had never experienced being on the receiving end of such an overwhelming zerg rush before.
They were always the ones doing the bullying; being the victims was a completely different, dizzying nightmare. Attacks flew from every direction. High-level ranker spells were hidden within the chaotic spam of low-level players, and a single misstep or hesitation meant instantly taking dozens of hits. Fighting one-against-many was a chaotic, mind-boggling ordeal.
How on earth does Kim Tae-hyun pull this kind of thing off?!
The Guild Alliance rankers, who had secretly believed they could easily handle a one-vs-many battle just like Kim Tae-hyun, felt their pride shatter into pieces. It truly wasn't something just anyone could do!
— Hellfire Wa—
— Curse of Magic Interruption!
— Dagger of Magic Interruption!
— Shock Sword!
"Our flank is breached! The flank is breached! Protect the mages! Protect the mages!"
As the tanks were pushed back and the attacking players began pouring through the breached gates, the Guild Alliance fell into a complete panic.
"Retreat! Retreat! Fall back to the inner corridor!"
"When is the backup arriving?!"
"Even if they get here now, they can't get inside! The entire perimeter is completely surrounded!"
"Let's use Escape Scrolls!"
"Do you think they'll even work with this many enemies around? The casting will just get interrupted! We have to break through first before we can use them!"
"Let's ask Kim Tae-hyun for help!"
"......."
"......."
The noisy clamor of the Guild Alliance suddenly died down into a heavy silence. ...Ask Kim Tae-hyun for help?
"That's a bit..."
"Is there anyone else we can turn to right now besides Kim Tae-hyun?! Guild Leader! We have to ask him for help! If we lose any more people here, we're finished! We can't let ourselves get killed by these lowlifes!"
Hearing his guild member's desperate plea, Su Ning fell into deep agony. He had set out for the Sky Castle with such a light heart... How on earth did things end up like this?!
I was too careless!
I should have anticipated how many people were grinding their teeth, waiting for a chance to strike at the Guild Alliance... To think I came out here completely unprepared and ended up in this mess!
"There's no way that bastard Kim Tae-hyun would help us for free."
"He'll help us as long as we promise him a proper reward! You know how incredibly greedy he is!"
"...Fine. I'll try to negotiate with him."
Su Ning spat out the words through clenched teeth. He was extremely reluctant, but he knew that if he didn't agree to negotiate now, his rankers might actually abandon him and mutiny.
You have successfully dismantled an engineering component from the walls of the Sky Castle!
Your Blacksmithing Skill has increased slightly.
Your Engineering skill has increased slightly.
You have failed to acquire a hidden engineering skill of the Ancient Empire.
"Ahhhhh..."
"So close!"
The party let out collective sighs of disappointment. Tae-hyun was currently busy tearing down the walls of the Sky Castle to level up his crafting skills. Furthermore, the Sky Castle of the Ancient Empire possessed a very special effect.
The Sky Castle of the Ancient Empire contains numerous hidden technologies!
Dismantling it grants an extremely low probability of learning a new recipe.
......
"!"
Having stumbled upon this system message while simply trying to salvage some spare parts, Tae-hyun threw himself into the dismantling work with renewed vigor. Come on, drop a recipe! Just then, a member of the Guild Alliance came running over.
"Kim Tae-hyun! Let's negotiate!"
"What? What negotiation?" Tae-hyun asked, looking puzzled. "Ah, don't tell me you want me to get you out of here?"
"...Yeah."
"Haha. I've lived long enough to see the Guild Alliance beg for a favor... How amusing."
The guild member swallowed hard, feeling incredibly tense. Negotiating with Kim Tae-hyun was a dangerous game; one wrong move, and he could end up stripping their guild down to its very foundations.
"We'll pay you in... in gold."
"Hmm?"
"We absolutely cannot give you any territories. We have our own circumstances. We'll pay you in gold..."
"I wasn't even thinking about territories."
"Oh, really?" The guild member let out a sigh of relief. He had fully expected a notorious swindler like Tae-hyun to immediately demand their lands.
"You guys have parties currently conquering the Demon Realm, right?"
"Huh? Yeah..."
The Guild Alliance's rankers were currently split between two fronts: one guarding the border against the Midas Guild, and the other exploring the Demon Realm. The Demon Realm was just that lucrative, despite being incredibly dangerous due to the high-level monsters. Naturally, the parties sent there were their absolute elite.
"I'd like to borrow them sometime later."
"...B-borrow them? For what? To use them as human bombs like Cain?!"
"You bastard..." Cain growled, his blood boiling. Did they completely wipe all his legendary achievements from their memories and only remember the bomb incident?!
"No. I'm going to use them to conquer the Demon Realm."
"Ah...! You want to learn from our Guild Alliance's years of expertise and experience!"
The guild member immediately spun the situation in his own favor. Ever since Kim Tae-hyun pulled off his massive stunt of running away with the Sky Castle during the early days of the Demon Realm update, he hadn't actively tried to conquer it. Since then, the Guild Alliance had accumulated far more information on the Demon Realm! Naturally, this was highly classified data that they wouldn't easily share. If Tae-hyun wanted to start conquering the Demon Realm now, it made perfect sense that he would want the Guild Alliance's help.
"Indeed. No one is as thorough or has better information management regarding the Demon Realm than our Guild Alliance."
Of course, Tae-hyun was receiving constant updates on their every move from his spies, including Alcott, but the Guild Alliance remained blissfully unaware. The guild member immediately reported back, and Su Ning gave his approval without a moment's hesitation.
"The Guild Leader said yes!"
"Hmm. But you guys... Actually, never mind."
"?"
"It's nothing. Let's go help."
Tae-hyun thought to himself, Do these guys seriously not care to ask what I'm actually going to do with their Demon Realm conquest parties once I borrow them?
"Everyone, get down."
"?"
Before they could even process his words, bombs began flying from Tae-hyun's hands.
Toss— BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Having had no reason to use bombs for a while, Tae-hyun gleefully began lobbing his stockpiled explosives down the corridor. In truth, bombs were far more devastating against players than boss monsters. The bosses Tae-hyun usually fought were at least Level 500, with some even exceeding Level 1000... whereas these players barely scraped Level 300 at best!
You have detonated explosives inside the Sky Castle!
Your Infamy has increased.
Your Engineering skill has increased.
The explosive effects have intensified and stacked!
"W-what the hell?!"
"Is this the end of the world?!"
The attacking players, who had been making great progress, panicked as the path ahead was suddenly blocked by a wall of fire. If it had been just one or two blasts, they would have raised their shields and pushed through, but these explosions kept going off relentlessly, one after another, with absolutely no cooldown.
With the enemy pinned down, Tae-hyun began to advance. He marched forward, throwing bomb after bomb after bomb! As the wall of explosions crept closer, the terrified players began to scramble backward.
"Get back! Fall back for now!"
"Get out of the castle! The whole place is going to collapse!"
In an instant, the players retreated like a receding tide.
Silence—
The corridor, which had been a chaotic warzone just moments ago, was suddenly dead silent and completely empty. The Guild Alliance members blinked in disbelief. The massive horde of attackers they couldn't push back no matter what they tried had been swept away by Tae-hyun alone, as casually as if he were taking a stroll in the park.
The Guild Alliance rankers had always refused to acknowledge the gap between themselves and Tae-hyun. But seeing this, they were forced to admit it instinctively. Is this... the difference in our class?!