The Sadiq Church Was No Pushover

"You lot, whose history is shorter than ours and who have been ruined for ages, sure have some nerve! Let's see how long that lasts! Let's see how long your smelly god can protect you!"

"Short history?! How dare you say our ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠history is short!"

"When Lord Sadiq was roaming the world in all his glory, Idergo couldn't even show his face!"

"Excuse me. Fighting is all well and good, but first, how about ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we figure out a way to persuade the beast..."

Tae-hyun tried to intercede, but the fired-up Sadiq Church NPCs wouldn't stop. They were already sorrowful enough that their church had been ruined; being looked down upon by the likes of the Idergo Cult was the final straw!

"If you bastards really have so much confidence in Idergo, come down here! Let's have a duel to see which god this beast chooses!"

"Ha! You think we won't? Let's do this!"

The Idergo Cult breeder leaped down and stood before the Sadiq priest. He was brimming with confidence. Even if the beast had originally hatched from a demonic beast egg stolen from the Sadiq Church... since then, it had been raised and nurtured through the magic of the Idergo Cult. Naturally, it would follow Lord Idergo!

"Power of Lord Sadiq! Burn!" *Whoosh!*

The Sadiq priest was no pushover either. Even if the beast had been corrupted for a long time, it was definitely born of the Sadiq Church. Once enveloped in the flames of Lord Sadiq, its corrupted mind would surely return!

"……."

Tae-hyun, who had been watching blankly, suddenly snapped out of it. Wait, what am I doing?

Tae-hyun used the skill on his armor to strip away the opponent's magic defense, then closed the distance to unleash a flurry of attacks. In an instant, sword light flashed, and a critical explosion erupted!

"Aaaaargh!"

The breeder's combat power wasn't actually that high compared to his level. He was highly skilled at handling beasts, but his raw fighting ability was lacking! There was no way such an opponent could withstand a proper close-quarters onslaught from Tae-hyun. The breeder melted away instantly.

"C-Cowards! You Sadiq Church bastards! What is the meaning of this?!"

"W-We didn't do it!" the Sadiq priests stammered in panic. Then they turned to Tae-hyun and yelled, "What on earth did you just do?!"

"What do you mean, 'what did I do'? If the enemy willingly steps down from their beast, of course you take them out."

"……."

Well, he wasn't wrong! If the opponent got off their mount, why on earth would you just stand there and wait?

The surrounding players nodded in agreement.

"I mean, he's right. If the guy gets down, you kill him."

"Why were they planning to just wait around anyway?"

Flustered, the Sadiq priest said, "But even our cult has its honor..."

"You guys are an evil god cult."

"……."

T-That was true...! But still!

The Sadiq priests were utterly speechless. Even for an evil god cult, there were usually unspoken rules of engagement between factions. Even evil cults typically fought duels fair and square!

"The beast is confused now that it's lost its master! Leave it be and crush those Idergo bastards behind it first! Find their Plague Pond and burn it to the ground!"

"Yes, sir!!!"

Once Tae-hyun bound the giant beast's feet, the excited players charged forward.

"Jekas. Do we really have to wander around the Atali Kingdom?"

"Didn't you agree to follow my lead?"

"Well, yeah, but... it just feels off."

The explorer ranker, Jekas! He had been a famous player since Pan-On 1, and he was a reasonably successful explorer in Pan-On 2 as well. However, at some point, Jekas had drastically reduced his live streams and stopped disclosing his location.

It was all because of Tae-hyun.

"If we run into that Kim Tae-hyun bastard..."

"Quiet."

Having realized early on that Tae-hyun was that crazy blacksmith from Pan-On 1, Jekas had run ragged trying to crush him. He could never forget the grudge from Pan-On 1!

At first, things were good. Jekas wasn't the only ranker who held a grudge against Tae-hyun.

Rankers who had been victimized by Tae-hyun in Pan-On 1 lined up to help Jekas.

However... at some point, Jekas's position grew increasingly precarious.

The public opinion, which had been hostile toward Tae-hyun, began to shift rapidly! While the rankers who challenged Tae-hyun were utterly crushed and broken, Tae-hyun kept building up his Reputation through massive quests. Naturally, public opinion flipped.

Add to that his tournament victory and his management of a kingdom, and Tae-hyun's popularity became rock-solid. It was practically concrete! It was a transformation that made it impossible to believe he was the same guy who used to wander around alone in Pan-On 1.

By that point, the rankers trying to attack or assassinate Tae-hyun found themselves at a disadvantage.

These days, if anyone waited around the Valley trying to target Tae-hyun, they would be beaten to death by other players first. And it didn't stop there. Even if someone merely hinted on their personal stream that they were targeting Tae-hyun, all kinds of people would show up out of nowhere to disrupt them. Most of them were low-level players, but a few were terrifyingly high-level! Furthermore, even the low-level players were incredibly annoying when they showed up carrying items like bombs.

It was the same for Jekas. Once it became known that he was targeting Tae-hyun, Jekas had to be extremely careful about streaming. The moment he started a broadcast, assassins would hunt him down! The constant influx of assassins from all over the world, day and night, was an absolute nightmare.

How on earth did that bastard Kim Tae-hyun endure all this?

He felt a renewed sense of dread at how monstrous Kim Tae-hyun truly was. Any ordinary player would have quit the game, yet that madman had stubbornly crushed everyone and kept playing!

The Guild Alliance had been the only ones helping Jekas, but recently, even his relationship with them had been severed.

"Su Ning. What are you doing? You're not even thinking about fighting Kim Tae-hyun..."

"Hey, I have my own position to consider. I have to run a guild; I can't just spend all my time fighting Kim Tae-hyun. We have plenty of other enemies besides the Midas Guild."

"What are you talking about...! I told you we need at least five specialized raid teams dedicated solely to targeting Kim Tae-hyun!"

Because Tae-hyun's evasion was so terrifying, Jekas had completely changed his approach. He wanted to gather a massive number of players who had mastered skills specifically designed to counter Tae-hyun and overwhelm him with sheer numbers!

If they gathered a force focused on curses and archery and rained down thousands, tens of thousands of arrows, even Tae-hyun would be in danger. It didn't matter if they only dealt 1 damage per hit. Jekas planned to chip him to death.

"We already failed that once before."

"That was because we weren't fully prepared and the leadership was sloppy!"

"Hey, watch your mouth!"

"Are you going to give up just because it failed once? Increase the scale! That method is definitely correct. To take down Kim Tae-hyun, we have to push him like that!"

"You crazy bastard... Do you have any idea how much it cost just to assemble that group? And you want to increase the scale? Are you going to fund it? As if the investors would just say, 'Oh, yes, please go ahead!'"

Regardless of Jekas's ideas, creating such a specialized raid team cost an astronomical amount of money. They had to acquire as many curse spellbooks ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as there were players, train those players in archery and curse magic, provide constant support so they wouldn't waste time on other skills, funnel experience points to them...

Moreover, this raid team was completely useless under normal circumstances. Where else would they use a team that had weak attack power but exceptionally high accuracy, except when dealing with an enemy with abnormally high evasion like Tae-hyun?

"You bragged about being the guild leader, but you don't even have that much authority? You're just a figurehead."

"W-What? Watch your mouth. Do you think you and I are on the same level? Get lost!"

Now that his ties with the Guild Alliance were severed, there weren't many people Jekas could win over. Except for someone like Do Dong-su...

"You must have come because you're desperate for something too, right?"

"I don't particularly have any intention of fighting Kim Tae-hyun right now."

Do Dong-su's spirit had completely withered since they last met. In the past, he had been dead set on screwing Tae-hyun over, but he had taken a massive beating both in and out of the game. It was so bad that no domestic esports team would accept him, forcing him to join a foreign team!

And his current Pan-On character was ill-suited to defeat Tae-hyun anyway. Do Dong-su was an evasion-based close-range dealer, a concept almost identical to Tae-hyun's. When concepts overlapped, the one with superior skill and a higher level was bound to win.

"That bastard Kim Tae-hyun's level must be way higher than mine. It's probably over three hundred."

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Why so lukewarm?"

"Because that's not what's important right now."

Grrrrr...

"Were you looking for the Idergo Cult bastards?!"

"Yeah. I've done some research on the Idergo Cult."

Jekas was an explorer player. An explorer's greatest weapon was information. Information gathered through countless quests and collection!

"I plan to join the Idergo Cult and use them."

"Hey! The Idergo Cult is literally destroying the continent right now!"

"Since when did you care about your public image?"

"……."

Do Dong-su almost attacked Jekas right then and there. This bastard really knew how to poke where it hurt...!

Kwoooooooh!

"This beast... do we really have to take it with us?"

Having cleared the dungeon, Tae-hyun and his party stood in a circle, staring at the giant beast left all alone. They had destroyed the Plague Pond, so all that was left was to exit... but this one beast remained unresolved.