Revenge Became Escape
Cain’s goal had changed from revenge to escape.
In a way, it was a spectacular downgrade—but Cain didn’t notice anything strange about it at all.
If anything, he was deadly serious.
Just you wait. The continent is huge! If I can just find the right chance and run, how the hell are you going to find me?!
He was scared of signing a contract and taking the penalty, sure—but compared to getting tormented by Kim Tae-hyun, being cursed almost sounded better.
And so Cain carefully built up his petty little plan in his head.
While they were doing that, utter chaos had broken out deeper inside the Valley.
The Fire Magic Beast was rampaging from the explosion Tae-hyun had caused.
The Sadiq Church was in disarray because of that very beast.
And players who didn’t know the full situation were charging in anyway, focused on clearing the quest first.
The Valley, where all those factions crashed into one another at once, had become chaos itself.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!
“How dare these lowly mortals?!”
“Wipe out the heretics!”
The Sadiq holy knights were being pushed back by the sudden momentum of the rushing players.
The players had sensed an opening, and even reinforcements from other churches had charged in at the same time. The force of that assault was tremendous.
And on top of that, the Fire Magic Beast the Sadiq Church had prepared wasn’t properly obeying orders for some reason.
They were at a disadvantage in every possible way.
But the Sadiq Church did not retreat.
As if to prove why this was the kind of large-scale quest it was, they immediately began deploying their hidden forces.
BOOM! BOOM!
—KUUUOOOHHHH!
“Watch out! It’s a demonic beast!”
“There were still more of them?!”
The players jumped in shock at the sudden appearance of more Sadiq demonic beasts.
They’d killed so many already, and yet more were still coming out. At this point, it was enough to make them sick of the sight.
And it didn’t end there.
“In the name of Sadiq!”
“Great Sadiq! Watch over me!”
The elite Sadiq holy knights who had remained still until now finally entered the battle.
The Sadiq Church’s elite troops—who had been conserving their strength while the fighting raged on the plains before the Valley—were now springing out from all over the place.
FLASH!
RUMBLE!
Intense, dazzling magic erupted everywhere.
Quite a few players, caught off guard for even a second, died on the spot and were forcibly logged out.
The spells flying around were simply too powerful. If a low-HP or low-defense class took even one solid hit, they were in danger.
“There! There are a ton of holy knights over there! Let’s go!”
“Our party saw them first, okay? Back off!”
That didn’t mean everyone was fighting together in perfect unity.
The battlefield was too wide, and there were too many enemies. So the players moved however they pleased, each trying to clear the quest in their own way.
The rankers and large guilds confident in their strength went toward places with stronger enemies.
The players with less confidence headed for enemies that looked easier.
And naturally, that led to plenty of conflict.
“What? Did you reserve them or something?!”
“Don’t touch the monsters I claimed first!”
In the middle of all that, Burford—a player affiliated with the Sadiq Church—was growing more and more uneasy.
“What is going on?! Why isn’t it obeying?!”
“S-sorry! We’re trying to find the reason right n—”
“Enough! Useless fool!”
Shouts rang out from inside the Sadiq Church command tent.
Standing guard outside, Burford heard them and grew more anxious by the second.
What the hell is happening?
Originally, they were supposed to unleash the Fire Magic Beast against the swarm of players gathered here.
The reason the Sadiq Church had confidently launched the first strike in the first place was because they had that beast.
Even if they were pushed back, they had believed the Fire Magic Beast would reverse the situation.
But the Fire Magic Beast wouldn’t listen.
No—it was even worse than that.
It was rampaging indiscriminately, attacking enemies and allies alike.
This can’t be happening...
Burford fidgeted nervously.
At this point, he was almost all-in on the Sadiq Church.
He had joined the church and waited for his chance for a very long time. No broadcasts, no noise—he had quietly stayed inside the church and kept clearing quests.
The moment he’d thought, This is it!, had been the royal palace assassination quest.
At that point, he’d figured there was no reason to hide anymore.
So he had gone public.
Burford’s plan had worked.
The sudden palace assassination quest, and behind it the Sadiq Church—there was no way people wouldn’t be interested.
Burford had attracted an enormous amount of attention.
Of course, things had gone a little off track because players had suffered from the assassination quest, and because he’d failed to kill the king in the end and had to flee—but that wasn’t a major problem.
All he had to do was successfully clear the next quest.
The countless players who had gathered to subjugate the Sadiq Church.
If the church successfully held them off, Burford’s position would become rock solid.
The Sadiq Church would be thriving for a while, which meant nobody would dare mess with him—and more importantly, Burford would be the only one able to broadcast content about the Sadiq Church.
It was practically an exclusive broadcast monopoly.
He’d already been getting offers from several places.
But Burford had held himself back.
With the Sadiq Church subjugation quest underway right now, he’d been afraid that if he revealed information carelessly, it would put them at a disadvantage.
People weren’t stupid. Even the smallest scrap of information could lead them to all kinds of conclusions.
So he endured. He held back. He kept clearing quests.
And now...
The atmosphere had turned strange.
The Fire Magic Beast, which the church had put so much work into, had stopped listening.
If the Fire Magic Beast wouldn’t obey, the Sadiq Church wouldn’t be able to hold out long against all these invading enemies.
They had launched this entire massive operation on the strength of that beast alone...
What do I do? What do I do?
Burford clutched his head in confusion.
Should I run? No, but... if I run now...
Staying with the Sadiq Church and turning into EXP for other players would obviously be worse than escaping.
But Burford couldn’t bring himself to do it.
He had already invested far too much to run.
Meanwhile, the players were steadily closing in.
Thud-thud-thud—
BWOOOOOO—
The sounds of horns and war drums echoed out.
They weren’t kingdom troops or church NPCs.
They were mercenaries.
“They even hired mercs?! Who hired them?”
“Some big guild, obviously. Must be nice having all that money.”
Unlike the kingdom military or holy knights, who came with all kinds of troublesome conditions, mercenaries were generally easy for players to hire.
Pay them, and that was it.
The large guilds had hired full mercenary companies to secure a better position in this quest.
“Push forward! If we take that area, the Sadiq bastards won’t have anywhere left to run!”
The Sadiq holy knights and demonic beasts occupying a small hill were slowly being pushed back by the players’ fierce assault.
If they kept losing important positions one by one on the plains before the Valley like this, defeat was inevitable.
The Sadiq Church knew that too, so they fought desperately—but their disadvantage kept growing.
“If we take that spot, we get contribution points! Move!”
The guild players shouted excitedly.
At that moment, they were convinced they were in the lead in the contribution point race.
They’d been fighting holy knights and demonic beasts on the front lines and seizing key positions. They’d been making huge contributions.
Naturally, what they wanted was first place.
But the world rarely went the way people wanted.
KWA-AAAAANG!
Then the Fire Magic Beast appeared.
A gigantic figure that blasted flames from its whole body with every pounding step it took.
It was so overwhelming that just looking at it sapped people’s courage.
But the players gathered here weren’t the kind who would panic and run just because a boss monster had appeared.
Maybe they hadn’t fought anything exactly on the level of the Fire Magic Beast, but many of them had plenty of boss raid experience.
“There it is!”
“Stick close to the Sadiq guys! Then it won’t be able to attack!”
“Go in! Go in!”
When fighting a boss monster, the most important thing was analyzing its patterns.
How did it attack? What was its weak point? When did it leave openings?
That kind of information was invaluable.
There were even people who made a business out of collecting and selling it.
Normally, if you tried to raid a boss monster without that kind of intel, you had to be prepared to fail once or twice.
But the experienced guild members here were veterans for a reason.
That thing was summoned by the Sadiq Church.
So it must obey the Sadiq Church.
Which means if we stay right on top of the Sadiq holy knights, it won’t be able to attack us!
At a glance, the Fire Magic Beast was exactly the kind of boss that would rely on wide-area attacks.
It was that huge.
Just swinging its fist would count as an AoE attack.
And they thought that would become its weakness.
With that in mind, the guild players rushed forward, trying to get as close to the Sadiq holy knights as possible.
And then the Fire Magic Beast swung its fist.
KWAAANG!
The sound of air being split was followed by a deafening blast.
The ground overturned, and pillars of flame erupted upward like geysers.
You have been hit by the Fire Magic Beast’s attack.
A debuff has been inflicted.
HP and MP are rapidly decreasing!
“Aaaagh!”
The players screamed as the unexpected attack hit them.
“What the hell?!”
“There were Sadiq holy knights there too—did it hit them? Are allies immune to the damage?”
The players fell into confusion, shouting over one another.
Even the party leader who had given the order stared in shock.
Are their own side really immune? What kind of broken ski— huh?!
He’d thought perhaps the Sadiq holy knights had some special skill protecting them from the damage.
But that idea shattered a moment later.
The Sadiq holy knights at the front were burning too.
“?!”
“What the hell?!”
Only then did the players understand.
That Fire Magic Beast attacked everyone, ally and enemy alike.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“Aaaagh! Move! That thing’s insane!”
“Why the hell is it attacking its own side too?!”
Even if they asked, the Fire Magic Beast wasn’t going to answer.
After sweeping away the people running beneath its feet with another fist, it threw back its head.
KWAAAAAAAH—
You have been hit by the breath attack.
All buff skills have been dispelled.
HP has dropped to 0. You have died.
It wasn’t quite on the level of dragon breath, but it was still a terrifying exhalation.
Already wounded from taking several hits, the players couldn’t endure any more once that landed. One after another, they began getting forcibly logged out.
“You bastard!”
“Attack!”
A few of the players still in place launched immediate counterattacks.
Dazzling Charge
Successive Shadow Ambush
Thud! Thud-thud!
One status-effect debuff skill after another slammed into the beast.
No matter how powerful a boss monster was, if it was stunned or blinded, it shouldn’t have been able to move immediately.
But the Fire Magic Beast was far stronger than they had expected.
Even after taking successive attacks from players at the near-ranker level, it didn’t so much as blink.
—Grrrr...
Paaaaat!
The Fire Magic Beast shuddered all over—and then a rain of flaming arrows began pouring out of its body.
An attack with an absurdly huge area of effect.
“Move! Fall back first!”
“That thing’s insane!”
Only then did the attacking players truly realize just how strong the Fire Magic Beast was.
This was not a boss monster they could even scratch with the forces gathered here.
This was a boss that required support from the kingdom army and reinforcements from other churches to bring down.
“Run!”
And so an absurd sight unfolded: with the Fire Magic Beast in the center, the Sadiq Church and the players both fled in opposite directions.
The Fire Magic Beast hurled lumps of flame at the fleeing figures.
If you were unlucky enough to get hit while running, you simply died.
Once the first guild that had rushed in turned and fled like that, everyone else who had been charging in began to hesitate as well.
And before long, a vast empty space opened up before the Valley—with the Fire Magic Beast at its center.