The One Thing He Sought
What he sought was only one thing.
The former Red Zone guild members!
"I'll find every last one of them and kill them!"
Cain ground his teeth, his eyes blazing.
The grudge piled up inside him felt strong enough to punch through the heavens.
He had already given up on taking revenge on Kim Tae-hyun.
The gap between them was just too vast.
You only thought about revenge when it felt at least remotely possible. When the difference was this overwhelming, the idea didn't even occur to you.
And after clearing this quest, Cain had once again been reminded just how absurdly strong Tae-hyun was.
What level is that bastard, anyway? No, forget that—why the hell isn't someone like him active as a ranker?
People like him hid in the shadows, then popped out of nowhere and caused innocent, good-hearted people like Cain to suffer.
At least, that was how Cain saw it.
Anyway, revenge on Tae-hyun was already out of the question.
If that was the case, then he had to vent all this resentment on the bastards who had put him in this situation.
Just let me see you. I'll smash you to pieces.
Cain gnashed his teeth viciously.
All the resentment that had originally been aimed at Tae-hyun had now shifted completely toward the former Red Zone guild members.
Now that he thought about it, the reason he was stuck under Tae-hyun's thumb, running around doing whatever that bastard ordered, was all because of them.
Weren't they the ones who had dragged him into the mountains and made him run straight into Tae-hyun while trying to escape?
If they hadn't pulled that stunt, he never would have met Tae-hyun in the first place.
Where the hell are you?
Of course, if you actually traced the cause of everything back properly, most of the blame fell on Cain himself—but if he had been the sort of person capable of that kind of self-reflection, he never would have ended up here to begin with.
"Huh?"
Cain, who had been walking around with his face hidden behind his helmet so other people wouldn't recognize him, turned his head when he sensed someone watching him.
It was the blacksmiths who had cleared the quest with him.
Why are those guys following me?
From Cain's perspective, those three blacksmiths were deeply uncomfortable to deal with.
Because...
They were Tae-hyun's underlings.
Why are Kim Tae-hyun's lackeys following me around? Are they tailing me to keep an eye on me?
Cain completely misunderstood what the blacksmiths were thinking.
He assumed Tae-hyun had ordered them to watch him.
And honestly, Tae-hyun was more than the sort of person who'd do exactly that.
"Why are you following me?" Cain asked brusquely.
"...!"
"H-how did he know?"
The blacksmiths whispered among themselves, realizing they'd been caught.
Seeing that, Cain asked in disbelief,
"You seriously thought you could hide like that and not get caught?"
At Cain's words, Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan whispered to each other.
"As expected of Cain... the former Red Zone guild master."
"Yeah. He's no joke!"
"..."
For a moment, Cain wondered if the two of them were mocking him.
But no matter how he looked at them, they were dead serious.
What the hell are these idiots? Are they stupid?
Just talking to them made him feel stupid.
Whether Cain liked it or not, Kim Ji-sahn pointed at him and said,
"Hmph. You may think following him around means you'll get something to mooch off of, but we won't back down that easily. If I were you, I'd be the one retreating first."
"????"
Cain's jaw dropped.
He genuinely couldn't understand what he was hearing.
But Kim Ji-sahn interpreted that expression as shock.
Of course he'd be stunned getting openly challenged like this head-on!
That was not what was happening.
Inside his head, Cain was thinking:
What the hell are these bastards talking about? What kind of nonsense is this? Did Kim Tae-hyun send them? Tell them to come mess with me?
Normally, he would have tried to PK them on the spot or at least threatened them.
But behind those blacksmiths stood Tae-hyun.
If he messed with them for no reason, the only one who'd end up bleeding was Cain.
He managed to force the words out.
"What... what the hell are you even talking about?"
"Don't play dumb. You're following Tae-hyun around and trying to clear quests with him."
"Yeah. You're probably trying to rebuild yourself that way!"
"????"
At first, Cain thought he'd misheard them.
But the two blacksmiths looked completely serious.
Only then did Cain realize they truly meant every word.
No, what kind of bullshit is this...?
He was already on the verge of exploding because Tae-hyun had leverage over him, and now these lunatics had shown up and started spouting nonsense. His insides burned with rage.
"Who says I'm following him because I want to?!"
Cain burst out before he could stop himself.
Of course, the blacksmiths didn't listen.
"I figured you'd say that."
"Look how sneaky he is. Trying not to let anyone see through him."
"No wonder he used to be Red Zone's guild master."
Whisper whisper.
Cain grabbed the back of his neck.
These blacksmiths scraped at a person's nerves in a completely different way from Tae-hyun.
I can't just attack them either... right, hold it in. Hold it in!
Cain let out one long, heavy sigh after another.
Then he steeled himself again.
Wasn't it always the one in the weaker position who had to endure?
Lately, he really felt like his patience had grown by leaps and bounds.
"Ah! He's leaving!"
"Listen carefully! We have absolutely no intention of backing off!"
"That's right! We got close to him first!"
Hearing the voices behind him, Cain finally snapped. He whipped his head around and shouted,
"I'm telling you, that's not it! It's not like I'm hanging around him because I like it!"
"That's what you'd like to believe! You've got your pride, after all!"
"Exactly! If you really weren't doing it because you wanted to, then why don't you leave right now?"
The two blacksmiths struck back.
Cain beat his chest in frustration.
"If I could leave, I would've done it a long time ago!"
And then, in the middle of that ridiculous argument, Cain spotted some very familiar faces.
Players talking with an unfamiliar party off in the distance.
"!!!!"
They were the former Red Zone guild members.
The former Red Zone guild members had tried to drag Cain into some secluded spot and bury him there, but that plan had failed, so in the end they had no choice but to come down from the mountains.
Their goal was the players gathered in front of the Valley of Despair and Sorrow.
It didn't even have to be a large guild. There were plenty of players around, so all they needed to do was slip into some suitable party.
And once they got in, naturally, the plan was to stab them in the back.
But before they could even pull anything off, disaster struck.
The Sadiq Order had suddenly launched a night assault.
The former Red Zone members had been wiped out without managing to do a single thing.
The whole thing was so absurd they were left speechless.
"This is insane... what the hell is this...?"
"Does this even make sense? Is this even a game?!"
No matter how much they grumbled, their death penalties didn't disappear.
So they checked the damage.
Because they'd died in the middle of PKing, the penalty had indeed been severe.
Their stats had dropped a lot, and several skill levels had gone down quite a bit too.
They were all high-level players, sure—but death penalties still hurt right down to the bone.
"At least our items are intact..."
Since they'd switched into different gear for mugging other people, their real equipment had survived relatively unscathed.
"Hey, let's move. Looks like the quest has progressed a ton."
"The Sadiq Order's still going strong, right?"
"Yeah. Feels like something big's about to happen. When it does, the large guilds will jump in and the other parties will too, so we need to grab a party and get in fast."
Even while dead, they'd managed to get a rough idea of the situation by watching other players' broadcasts.
The Sadiq Order's army, the kingdom's troops, various church forces, and players were all locked in a fierce clash.
And it looked like something was happening farther inside.
The quest was progressing.
Which meant they had to find something as fast as possible.
Prey.
"How about those guys?"
"Hmm... they look too strong. And there are too many of them. If we hit the wrong target, they'll counterattack."
"What about that group?"
"Don't those look like high-level gear pieces?"
"Yeah. Skip them."
Prey.
What they were always searching for was delicious-looking prey.
And delicious-looking prey meant suckers with good quests, good gear, and faces that practically screamed easy kill.
Of course, Fantasy Online 2 was a game where it was extremely hard to judge someone by appearances alone.
There had been plenty of cases where people saw someone wearing low-level equipment, assumed they were easy meat, tried to PK them, and got slaughtered instead.
The former Red Zone guild members knew that too, so they moved carefully.
The caution born of countless experiences.
And then, while roaming around, they found a target.
A party with a manageable number of people, no obvious high-level players, pretty decent-looking gear, and expressions that suggested they'd gotten hold of some kind of opportunity.
"Noona. Should we go a little farther inside this time?"
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"The priests can throw some buffs on us, and with party members too..."
Choi Ha-jun and Choi Ha-yeong.
The Demer Paladin and Demer Priest siblings.
The former Red Zone members cleared their throats and approached.
"...?"
"Are you taking party members, by any chance? If it's okay, we'd like to join."
At a glance, the former Red Zone guild members looked like an ordinary, harmless small party.
They were extremely good at that sort of thing.
"I'm a tanker, and this guy's a mage. He's pretty good with lightning magic too, so he'll definitely be useful for damage."
"A mage and a tanker?"
Choi Ha-jun's eyes lit up at those words.
A mage.
A tanker.
Both were classes that were always better to have more of in a party.
"Yes. I specialize in large shields, so I can take the main tank role. Even if there are a lot of enemies, I can still hold a few extra behind me."
"Oooh...!"
The words came out so smoothly that Ha-jun was visibly tempted.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to let people like this into the party?
"Hold on. Ha-jun. Even so, we should check first before adding them. There are other people in the party too."
The one who stopped him was Choi Ha-yeong.
No matter how much Ha-jun was the party leader, she didn't think it was right to add people on the spot.
There were already quite a few members in the group.
They needed an explanation.
Ha-jun nodded as if he understood.
"All right. Could you wait just a moment? I'll ask them and come back."
"Aw, do you really need to ask? Isn't this the kind of thing the party leader can just decide? Who asks every single time they take in party members? That's the party leader's authority, isn't it?"
Twitch.
The Red Zone member had read Ha-jun perfectly.
Calling him the party leader and puffing him up like that made Ha-jun start to waver.
Then another Red Zone member drove the point home.
"Hey, hey, knock it off. That party leader's probably got his own situation too. Of course he'd need to ask his party members."
"I guess so. Can't be helped, then."
After hearing the two of them talk, Ha-jun almost shouted on impulse.
"I can decide that myself—"
Thud!
"?!"
"We'll go ask them."
Choi Ha-yeong drove a heavy elbow into her brother's side and dragged him backward.
Seeing that, the guild members smacked their lips in disappointment.
"He was almost completely sold."
"That woman's smarter than she looks."
Players like Choi Ha-jun were incredibly easy to handle.
The kind who wanted recognition as leaders. The kind who wanted to accomplish something, to be seen.
If you scratched just the right spot, they'd bite right away.
"Don't worry. Looking at his face, he's already hooked. What are they gonna do? We're offering a mage and a tanker."
The guild members snickered among themselves.
They could already see how this would end.
"Yeah. Nice work."
That was when a voice came from behind them.
The guild members, not noticing anything strange, answered automatically.
"Yeah, right?"
"Huh? Wait, who said that?"
They looked at one another and realized none of them had spoken.
Then they turned around.
Standing behind them was Cain.
"Grrrr..."
Cain bared his teeth so hard he was practically growling like a beast as he glared at the former Red Zone guild members.
The killing intent in his eyes was so intense it looked like laser beams might shoot out.
"H-how... how are you...?"
The guild members cried out in shock as soon as they saw him.
How had he gotten here from there?
No matter what, after losing all his gear and items, there was no way he should've been able to come down from the mountains in one piece.
And where the hell had all that equipment come from?
When the guild collapsed, Cain had lost everything down to his last rag.
"You're wondering how I'm here?"
The guild members nodded instinctively.
Cain answered in a murderous voice.