Should I Just Take It? ...But My Conscience Pricked Me Just a Little

"I mean... we... are going to pay... you... gold... to hire you. Do you understand?"

Even with the Supreme Eloquence skill active, there was no helping it if the other party was too dense to understand. The rankers barely managed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠calm their excitement and nodded.

"Oh, man. Getting paid by Kim Tae-hyun to play in a party with him? It's like a dream."

"I-I'm getting nervous here."

Are those guys really rankers?

Look at them acting like...

The members of the Restaurant Guild were utterly dumbfounded. How could high-and-mighty rankers act like such greenhorns? But it couldn't be helped. Tae-hyun was the ranker of rankers, the star of stars! There was a reason the rising rankers held him up as their ultimate role model.

"Duncan, calm down."

"I am perfectly calm. Oh, wait. Could those people be scammers?"

"What kind of nonsense is... Oh. Actually, that sounds plausible."

Come to think of it, there had been plenty of Tae-hyun impersonators.

—"I'm Kim Tae-hyun~"

—"Look ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at my username. It's 'KimTaeHyun_'. Who else could it be? It has to be Kim Tae-hyun!"

—"Back in Pan-On 1, I collapsed a mountain with a single finger. What? You've never seen that video? That's because the rankers I beat forced me to take it down."

They had popped up before he revealed his identity, and they kept popping up after. However, the fate of those impersonators was always miserable. ...Because Tae-hyun's countless enemies would usually track them down.

—"Die, you son of a bitch, Kim Tae-hyun!"

—"Aaargh! I'm not Kim Tae-hyun! I was just pretending to be him!"

—"...You're still annoying, so die anyway, you bastard! I need to vent my anger!"

—"Aaargh! I shouldn't have copied him!"

Better a chicken than nothing—those enemies were more than happy to settle for beating up an impersonator to blow off steam.

"...How could anyone fake this entire lineup and these specific pets?" Lee Se-yeon said, looking at them as if they were pathetic.

"Y-yeah. That makes sense too."

"Oh, Myung-soo. I'm so confused."

"Why are you even agonizing over that!" Chao shouted.

"If you took my gold, you should earn it!"

"Man, you sure love to nag. Fine, we'll just give it back. We'll return the down payment and call it quits."

"That player is extremely annoying. If this were my hometown, I would've shot him in the back."

Chao was flustered by their cold reaction. "W-wait. Hold on. I'll pay you double!"

"Oh, double?"

"Wait, didn't you say you didn't have any gold?"

Before they could even feel happy, the rankers grew furious. He had lowballed them so hard, and now he was suddenly offering double? Did he have no conscience?!

Tae-hyun asked curiously, "How much gold were you supposed to get... Whoa. That's actually a lot?"

"We're getting paid about 100 Power Warriors," Lee Da-bi noted.

"Don't use such a sad unit of measurement..." Tae-hyun and Lee Se-yeon said simultaneously in pitying voices.

Since it was a hundred times what a single Power Warrior Guild member made, they could certainly understand why the rankers had tagged along.

"We can't pay you that much. What a shame."

"Ah! It's fine. You can just pay us half."

"In fact, we'll pay you!"

"Hey...!" Chao grew even more furious.

What was wrong with these guys? They had tried to squeeze every last copper out of him, but now they were offering to pay Kim Tae-hyun just to play with him.

"Isn't this discrimination a bit too extreme?!"

"Well..."

"You're Chao, and he is the great Kim Tae-hyun."

"More importantly, why are you still standing there? Aren't you going to get lost?"

"..."

Chao agonized over it for a long moment, then suddenly looked at Tae-hyun and yelled, "Kim Tae-hyun! Name your price!"

"!?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Of course, it was completely out of the question. No matter how much money Chao or his guild had, they weren't rich enough to buy Tae-hyun. Knowing this, his guild members frantically cried out.

"Guild Leader, snap out of it!"

"Do you want to bankrupt us?!"

"Are you in your right mind? Have you finally lost it? Well, considering how you usually act..."

In their desperation, the guild members' true feelings slipped out. Tae-hyun was impressed. So they were actually this eloquent all along!

"I-I see. Yes, hiring Kim Tae-hyun is definitely a bit much. Wait, did you just say I lost my mind...?"

"More importantly, you need to focus on the Goladon quest right now, Guild Leader!"

They were smoothly changing the subject, completely playing their guild leader. Tae-hyun grew curious and asked.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Gaisep."

"What is this Goladon quest?"

"Well, it's..."

"Hey, you crazy bastard! Why did you tell him!"

"But if I didn't tell him, wouldn't he have killed us?"

"...Well, that's true."

Arcane skills were incredibly rare in Pan-On, powerful techniques known only to a select few NPCs. Everyone coveted skills like Arcane Swordsmanship or Arcane Magic. Honestly, Tae-hyun wanted one too!

I don't have a swordsman or mage class, so I barely have any active combat skills.

He was still using the basic swordsmanship skills he had acquired in the early stages of the game. It was a miracle he had even obtained his current weapon...

Still, he was incredibly greedy for a decent area-of-effect (AoE) or offensive skill.

I know.

But something about this quest felt off. "Doesn't this quest seem weird?"

"Yeah. I've never seen anything like it either," Tae-hyun's party whispered among themselves. It was technically an Erangs Kingdom quest, but... it was highly suspicious! In the first place, the fact that a demon's name was involved was incredibly bizarre.

"An arcane skill is tempting, but this is definitely sketchy."

"There is absolutely nothing weird about it!" Chao barked, clearly offended that they were trash-talking the quest he had been working so hard on. He passionately explained why it was perfectly normal.

"Look, this quest came from a cave dungeon discovered near Palano Castle in the Erangs Kingdom. There's a suspicious sage inside who loves food offerings, so a bunch of chefs gathered there. The NPC is never satisfied with ordinary dishes, so the difficulty kept ramping up. Every other guild failed except ours. Got it? It's a perfectly normal quest!"

"And that's why he told you to bring him demon meat?"

"Well... I mean, that thing looks like a wild boar..."

Chao's voice trailed off, his confidence wavering. His guild members also seemed to grow anxious at Tae-hyun's words, whispering among themselves.

"Now that he mentions it, asking for demon meat is pretty suspicious..."

"What if we offer it to him and he suddenly transforms into a demon?"

They hadn't suspected anything because the questline had started with simple requests like "Bring me a well-roasted steak," "Bring me a beautifully decorated cake," and "Bring me a grand feast." But looking back, a request like "I hear a demon named Goladon in the Atali Kingdom is delicious, so go hunt him down and bring back his meat" was incredibly bizarre. How had they not noticed?

"So, some guy in a cave kept demanding this and that, slowly ramping up the difficulty until he asked you to hunt a demon for its meat, and you guys didn't find that suspicious at all?"

"They must not have brains, Tae-hyun."

"If even the sweet Lee Da-bi is saying that, you guys are in serious trouble," Tae-hyun said with a straight face.

The guild members suddenly fell silent, looking like schoolboys being scolded by their teacher. Tae-hyun lectured them with absolute sincerity.

...Wait, why are we getting scolded?

Y-yeah, why?

"Let's hunt Goladon first and then go check it out. I'm curious."

"...Do the three of you always do quests like this?" Ryu Da-young, who had been listening from behind, asked curiously.

They had come out just to do a boss raid, yet they were smoothly hijacking someone else's Epic-grade quest as if it were the most natural thing in the world!

"No. This is an exceptional case."

"Actually, Tae-hyun, I feel like it's usually like this..." Lee Da-bi muttered.

Tae-hyun, realizing something was off, whispered to Lee Da-bi. "Da-bi. Is it just me, or has her tone with me gotten even stiffer?"

"Well, she just witnessed how you play. It's only natural she'd want to keep her distance, don't you think?" Lee Da-bi was surprisingly blunt about these things. She never held back the truth!

"Besides, Lee Se-yeon's fans don't usually like you anyway."

"...She said she's not a fan. She said Se-yeon is her target."

"Isn't that basically the same thing?"

"If we go by that logic, the countless enemies trying to kill me are all my fans."

"..." Lee Da-bi suddenly avoided his gaze.

—Kyao! Kyao!

"Ah! There's Goladon!" When uninterrupted, their detection skills boasted incredible tracking capabilities.

Even if Goladon burrowed underground to escape, their skills could easily track and hunt him down!

"Player Kim Tae-hyun! As I mentioned, its level is extremely high. It's at least level 500."

"Hmm."

"At that level..."

"It should be fine."

"!?!"

Everyone was dumbfounded by the casual reactions of Tae-hyun, Lee Da-bi, and Lee Se-yeon. Did they think a level 500 boss was some kind of joke?

But when you spent your time pulling off insane stunts against level 1000 enemies, a level 500 boss naturally looked like a walk in the park.

Besides, they even had the Garuda warriors with them now. They could just swarm the beast and beat it to a pulp in seconds.

"But a demon like that wouldn't just appear out of nowhere. Is there something nearby?"

"Now, now, Se-yeon. The Atali Kingdom pours immense effort into public security and citizen satisfaction." Tae-hyun adopted a serious tone.

Just think of how much investment and sacrifice Tae-hyun had poured into keeping the Atali Kingdom running smoothly! Every single gold coin he earned went straight back into the territory's budget, taxes were kept at rock bottom, and he hunted down monsters whenever they appeared... He had no choice, otherwise public discontent would skyrocket.

If this were the Auston Kingdom, which squeezed its citizens dry with insane taxes, that would be one thing, but there was no way such discontent could exist here—

—Grrr! Oink! Lord Lalgrgal! Where are you!

"..."

—Oink oink! Lord Lalgrgal! Lord Lalgrgal!

"..."

Tae-hyun and Lee Da-bi simultaneously averted their eyes. Lee Se-yeon caught on instantly.

"You two have something to do with this 'Lalgrgal' demon, don't you?!"

The Hungry Abyss was a sinister and dangerous dungeon that Tae-hyun had brought back from the Asbian Empire. It wasn't that the monsters inside were dangerous. The danger lay in the fact that there was absolutely nothing inside. Instead of monsters, it was a dungeon where one's satiety stat plummeted rapidly!

With no way to destroy the dungeon or escape once inside, even the most powerful demons and monsters would find themselves hopelessly trapped. No wonder the religious orders had coveted this place!

...And trapped inside this very dungeon was Lalgrgal. He was such a fierce and terrifying beast that they had simply locked him away and completely forgotten about him...

"I see. So a demon like that really didn't just appear out of nowhere."

"Exactly. Every quest has a root cause..."

"You two. Stop trying to change the subject and tell me what we're going to do." Lee Se-yeon rubbed her temples, a massive headache brewing. She had wondered why such a demon would appear...

"...Can't we just attack it?" Ryu Da-young raised her hand and asked.

"Ah. High-level ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠demons usually possess ridiculously broken Authority skills," Tae-hyun, the resident demon expert, explained kindly. He was, after all, the person in this party who had dealt with the most demons!

"As expected of Player Kim Tae-hyun. Those demons are about to find out who the real demon is." Ryu Tae-su clapped in admiration. Lee Da-bi tilted her head at the rather backhanded compliment. Wait, isn't that an insult?