The Blacksmiths' Conspiracy

'If only I'd held back on the power a little more…'

Tae-hyun still felt a pang of regret. He'd gone berserk and kept spraying Gold Dragon Breath everywhere — that was why things had ended up like this. If he'd used maybe half of it, the island still would've been blown to smithereens…

No, wait. Couldn't he have just taken out the Pirate Vanguard Captain without using Gold Dragon Breath at all?

'Stupid brute, throwing his weight ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠around…'

—Master, what are you thinking about?

"Nothing."

Just like his master, Yong-yong had an uncanny knack for sensing when he was being badmouthed.

In any case, since the very first Summon Divine Beast power he'd obtained had turned out to be such a devastating skill (well, not at the moment, but still), he had high hopes for the second authority too.

Honestly, what he wanted most was a powerful skill that would lock down his contribution points in this massive quest.

'So get out of my way, would you!'

But these clueless Kingdom soldiers refused to budge. The Kingdom officers kept gushing right in front of him.

"Magnificent, Lord Tae-hyun!"

"How did you come up with such a strategy?!"

"We never could have imagined it!"

"…I get it, now move!"

He was trying to head somewhere quiet to learn his new authority, but they kept grabbing at his ankles and refusing to let him go. To make matters worse, his subordinate knights were pouring ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fuel on the fire.

"Hahaha! Truly, what a magnificent battle!"

"You should've seen it for yourselves! Words can't describe how dangerous the place was. The wickedness of the Sadiq Cult!"

"When that wicked Sadiq Paladin appeared, we mounted our steeds and charged in valiantly! The vermin took one look at us and fled in terror!"

"You really should have seen it!"

The moment they got back, the knights were beside themselves, chattering away. The past, when Tae-hyun had been running them into the ground, had been forgotten in the blink of an eye!

In a way, it was impressive.

Watching the scene, the blacksmiths just stared in disbelief.

"Mounted their steeds and charged in? Didn't they ditch their horses and run for it?"

"Leave 'em be, leave 'em be. Them bragging doesn't hurt us any. More importantly, let's check our haul. How much contribution did we rack up?"

"Yeah! Contribution points!"

The three blacksmiths broke into ear-to-ear grins. Just looking at those contribution numbers was enough to fill them up!

Of course, the quest still wasn't over yet, and compared to the high-level players gathered here, their contribution was on the modest side. The amount of contribution Tae-hyun raked in — running wild solo — was on a whole different level from what they could earn.

But for the three blacksmiths, it was more than enough!

"You saw the contribution?! That number's real, right?"

"It's real! We hit the jackpot!"

Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan high-fived each other. All the hardship they'd suffered up to now felt like it was being washed away in a single moment.

Who cared if they didn't crack the rankings? They'd never aimed for the rankings in the first place.

Tae-hyun, the one chasing the top ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠spots in a massive quest like this, was the dreamer — most people didn't even bother trying. For players like them, the goal was simply to stack up a reasonable amount of contribution and earn a reasonable reward.

Unless you were part of some major guild or a top-tier ranker, that was pretty much the norm.

"Hey, mister. What are you doing?"

Kim Ji-sahn poked Woo Jeong-sik in the ribs. Woo had been sitting quietly off to the side, and it was getting on his nerves.

"Who're you calling mister? I was just wondering what that guy's up to."

Woo Jeong-sik was pointing at Cain.

"What about him?"

"You guys don't even know who he is?"

"…?"

The two of them tilted their heads.

Woo Jeong-sik sighed.

"That's Cain. Cain. You haven't heard of him?"

"Uh… have I heard that name somewhere?"

"M-maybe I've heard it?"

Neither of them had actually heard of him, but when Woo Jeong-sik shot them a contemptuous look, they tried to bluff their way through.

"He's the Red Zone guild master. The guy who used to roll around with his Red Zone crew shaking people down."

At first, when Cain had shown up completely stripped naked and whimpering pathetically, Woo had just thought, 'What the hell is that guy's deal?' Then he'd seen him talking with Tae-hyun and figured, 'Maybe he knows Tae-hyun?'

But later, when he saw Cain donning armor and swinging around a greatsword, the memory finally clicked. Back when Cain had been the Red Zone guild master, he'd been pretty famous — there were even a few videos of him floating around.

Once it came back to him, Woo Jeong-sik pulled up the old footage and compared faces.

It was identical. That was Cain, all right.

'Why the hell is he dragging around a guy like that?'

Naturally, Woo Jeong-sik didn't think highly of Cain.

'A bunch of thugs who used their strength to bully guildies and shake down anyone they came across!'

Blacksmith classes like Woo Jeong-sik had no choice but to fork over their money when players like that came demanding tribute. Just looking at Cain triggered traumatic flashbacks.

—I-I really don't have any gold!

—What do you mean you don't have any?! You wanna die here and eat the death penalty? If you've got no gold, hand over your gear!

'Just thinking about it pisses me off all over again!'

While Woo Jeong-sik was fuming on his own, Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan tilted their heads and asked,

"The Red Zone guild master?"

"Why's a Red Zone guild master hanging around over there? And besides, that guy was…"

Park Seong-chan was being polite. He pointedly didn't say, 'That guy was running around naked, begging like some kind of pervert.'

"The Red Zone guild collapsed. They caused ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so much trouble that there were bound to be people who hated their guts. Grudges piled up, obviously. Probably got hunted down after the guild fell apart and ended up like that."

Woo Jeong-sik sounded thoroughly pleased about it.

"But then, why's Master Tae-san dragging him around?"

"Yeah, that's weird, huh?"

Hearing the two blacksmiths, Woo Jeong-sik realized something didn't add up either.

'Yeah, that's right. Why is Kim Tae-hyun dragging that guy around?'

Woo Jeong-sik dug through his memories. From the way Cain had treated Tae-hyun when they'd first met, the two of them had clearly known each other from before.

'They already knew each other? Well, that guy — yeah, I can absolutely see it!'

If Cain was the back-alley thug shaking down kids, then Tae-hyun was the kind of guy who'd round up those thugs and bleed them dry! They were birds of a feather when it came to wickedness.

Of course, on the wickedness scale, Tae-hyun was on a whole different tier from Cain.

Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan had the rose-tinted glasses on and were thoroughly deluded about Tae-hyun, but Woo Jeong-sik, in his own way, was keeping a clear head. He was seeing Tae-hyun relatively accurately for what he was.

While Woo Jeong-sik was thinking all this, the other two were speculating about why Tae-hyun was keeping Cain around.

"Isn't it 'cause he needs him?"

"Needs him for what?"

"Well, his level's high. He's a tanker, so he's pretty sturdy…"

"…!"

While the two of them were going back and forth, Woo Jeong-sik was thinking something else entirely.

The important question right now wasn't why Tae-hyun was keeping Cain around. Of course Tae-hyun was — sure, Cain had a rotten personality and a long rap sheet, but he was still a high-level player. Dragging him around always had its uses. Even leading a guild and doing bad things took a certain amount of strength. If you were weak, you couldn't even pull that off.

The important question right now was why Cain was following Tae-hyun.

'This bastard… so he figured out there's stuff to leech off Tae-hyun, that's why he's tagging along! Of course — he didn't become Red Zone's guild master for nothing!'

A cascade of misunderstandings!

Woo Jeong-sik was convinced that Cain was chasing after Tae-hyun. The Red Zone guild had collapsed, he'd made plenty of enemies — so wasn't he sticking close to Tae-hyun, trying to get a fresh start?

It was a perfectly plausible explanation. Just looking at a few of the quests Tae-hyun was currently running, the tier was on another level. The kind of quests broadcasters would drool over, dying to get their hands on!

Clearing quests like those alongside Tae-hyun, recovering his stats and levels, getting his popularity back…

Cain could make a comeback.

Cain caught plenty of hate and had no shortage of antis, but back when he was on top, he'd had plenty of fans too. No matter how much of a villain you were, the fans always came around when you were winning!

Right now his guild was gone and he was a laughingstock, but if he kept clearing jackpot quests, pulled in viewers, and leveled back up, he could return to his old self.

'There's no way in hell I'm letting that happen!'

Woo Jeong-sik gritted his teeth.

What was needed right now was unity.

"So you guys are just gonna sit there?"

At Woo Jeong-sik's words, the two blacksmiths looked baffled.

"Huh?"

"What're you on about now?"

"You're telling me it doesn't bug you that he's tagging along with us?"

Kim Ji-sahn just shrugged at the question.

"Doesn't really bug me. He doesn't even seem like that bad a guy."

"Yeah. We made his gear, didn't we? If Master Tae-san told us to, he must've had his reasons."

'Have you ever seen such idiots?!'

Woo Jeong-sik lamented internally. There was no way to fix the simple-mindedness of these two. He'd have to change his approach.

Woo Jeong-sik hated players like Cain. And right now, he hated him even more. Wasn't Cain trying to leech off the very Tae-hyun that they had latched onto first?

Even when it came to scrounging up crumbs that fell from someone else's table, there were rules of conduct.

"Hmm. Yeah, well. If you guys say so, I guess that's that."

With that, Woo Jeong-sik turned his head away.

Woo Jeong-sik wasn't stupid. At least, not compared to these two. He knew exactly how to get them to move. The trick was to not say anything first — to wait. Then they'd get curious and come asking on their own.

"What is it now?"

"Why'd you stop in the middle?"

"No… you guys said it's fine, right? So I'm not gonna say anything more."

"What's not fine? C'mon, don't leave us hanging — what is it? Really, what?"

When Woo Jeong-sik kept hesitating like he was sitting on something juicy, the two blacksmiths kept pressing. Finally, putting on a show of reluctance, Woo Jeong-sik opened his mouth.

"There are a lot of players trying to tag along with Kim Tae-hyun right now, aren't there? Especially after that last quest — he's popular now. But if guys like that start latching on one or two at a time, more are gonna pile on. And Kim Tae-hyun's not the type to flat-out refuse. So what happens then? It'll just keep growing, won't it?"

It was true that Tae-hyun wasn't the type to cut people off cold when they tried to follow him. Famous broadcasters and rankers often chased away or attacked anyone tagging after them. Information was lifeblood, after all.

But Tae-hyun didn't actually stop people from following him. He just worked them to the bone. The deal was: if you want to follow, you pay the price. But honestly, even that was an incredible opportunity.

It just wasn't widely known yet. Once other people caught wind of it, it was a sure bet that everyone and their mother would be lining up to follow Tae-hyun around.

"Y-you think?"

"C'mon. Would that many people really tag along?"

Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan looked at each other and tried to brush it off. But the denial on their faces couldn't hide the unease.

"Sure. Maybe not that many. But that Cain guy — he's a ranker, or at least near-ranker level, and a tanker who can hold his own against most monsters. We're just blacksmiths pulling porter duty. Don't you think there are plenty of people out there better than us? Hm?"

"…!"

Woo Jeong-sik's words struck home, hitting both of them square in the gut.

He was absolutely right. Cain was, in his own way, a valuable asset. They, on the other hand, really didn't have much to offer beyond grunt work. Even when it came to blacksmithing skills, Tae-hyun was the better craftsman! Once other people started piling on, they'd have nothing to bring to the table.

Seeing the looks on their faces, Woo Jeong-sik decided he'd said everything he needed to say.

Time to play it cool and walk away!

"Whatever, I dunno~ Yeah. You guys said it's fine, so I guess it's fine. Even if a bunch of people come along, there'll be one little spot left for us, right? Well then, I'll just…"

Grab!

Kim Ji-sahn caught Woo Jeong-sik's arm.

"Let's drive him out!"

"Yeah, let's!"

Woo Jeong-sik grinned and answered,

"Now you're thinking straight!"

It was the kind of conversation that would have made Cain clutch the back of his neck in rage if he'd heard it.

—You think I'm hanging around because I want to, you bastards?!

A conversation only possible because they had absolutely no idea what kind of situation Cain was actually in!

Meanwhile, completely oblivious, Cain was wandering around the battlefield in front of the valley, keeping a wary eye on the other players.