A Highly Motivated Coach
"This guy is trying to sound all noble, talking about helping other players out of a sense of responsibility!"
"Hey, it sounds cool, doesn't it? Tae-hyun, if they ask you in an interview later, make sure to say that's the reason."
"Seeing you two bicker over such useless things, you must have a lot of free time on your hands lately."
At Tae-hyun's words, both of their hearts skipped a beat. Danger!
"No way! Ask the coach! Do you have any idea how many dungeons I'm clearing a day? I run dungeons in the morning, hunt in the fields in the afternoon, and raid the tower in the evening!"
"I'm working way harder than this Cain bastard! I run races during the day and run dungeons at night!"
"Races, my foot! What is that even supposed to mean? What kind of ridiculous excuse is that? Hey! He's definitely just playing around!"
"No, I'm not! Su-hyeok! Come over here! Tell this guy how exhausting and difficult racing actually is!"
Watching the mudslinging match unfold, Lee Da-bi leaned in and whispered to Tae-hyun.
"The Canadian players will be here soon. Shouldn't we stop them?"
No matter how she looked at it, they were making an absolute embarrassment of the team. But Tae-hyun remained completely unfazed.
"Well, they're only embarrassing themselves, not me..."
A great leader who deeply respected his teammates' freedom—that was exactly who Tae-hyun was.
"By the way, what is this racing thing?"
"Ah. It's one of the popular activities on Sky Island right now. A lot of our guild members are really into it too."
"Sometimes things like that happen. Weird things suddenly become incredibly popular."
Having played since the days of Pan-On 1, Tae-hyun was well-acquainted with the volatile nature of trends. Trends were like unpredictable gusts of wind!
He would often look at something and think, Why on earth is this popular? only for it to capture everyone's attention before vanishing just as quickly. Back in Pan-On 1, things like the Pan-On card game, Pan-On pet battles, Pan-On dice games, and the Pan-On bomb roulette were all the rage...
"...Excuse me? Bomb roulette??" Lee Da-bi asked, pausing as she heard something incredibly bizarre. Did such a crazy game actually exist?
"Yeah. I started selling bombs packed into barrels to make some quick gold, and for some reason, it became a massive trend."
"...!?"
A hidden piece of history from Pan-On 1 that absolutely no one else knew! Lee Da-bi was utterly dumbfounded.
"I didn't expect it to trend either... but anyway, I made a killing in gold thanks to it."
"I see. And what did you spend all that gold on?"
"On materials to make more bombs."
"......"
Lee Da-bi decided to pretend she hadn't heard that.
"The racing is probably something similar. Still, tell the guild members not to go all-in on it. Those kinds of trends die out in the blink of an eye."
"Yes, I'll pass that along."
Tae-hyun was genuinely concerned for the Power Warrior guild members. You never knew when a trend would suddenly freeze over. If they invested too heavily, they could end up crying tears of blood when the bubble burst.
I don't think something like racing will last very long.
But Tae-hyun didn't know. Trends were, by nature, entirely unpredictable!
"It is an absolute honor, Player Kim Tae-hyun!"
"No need for all that. Please, make yourselves comfortable."
Tae-hyun smiled warmly as he shook hands with the incoming Canadian players.
"It is an honor!! Player Kim Tae-hyun!"
"Yes, yes. Good to meet you."
"......"
"Why aren't you doing it?" Tae-hyun asked, turning his gaze to Evangeline. He wasn't trying to pick a fight; it was just pure, innocent curiosity.
Evangeline stared back at him, completely dumbfounded. It wasn't like this was their first time meeting; they had literally cleared several quests together. What "honor"?!
What made it even funnier was her Canadian teammates frantically nudging her in the ribs.
"You have to greet him properly."
"Yeah. I searched it up before we came. They say Korea is the 'Land of Eastern Courtesy,' so they beat rude people to death."
"...?"
Tae-hyun tilted his head in confusion. Something... felt incredibly distorted about that piece of cultural trivia.
Under the intense social pressure of her trusted teammates, Evangeline hesitantly extended her hand. As a natural introvert, she was incredibly weak to this kind of peer pressure.
"It's... an honor to meet you..."
"But it's not like this is our first time meeting, so 'honor' is a bit..."
"Do you want to die?!"
Evangeline flared up instantly, reaching out to grab him by the collar. In just one second, the awkward barrier between them had completely vanished!
The Canadian players quickly held Evangeline back before turning to ask, "By the way, where is Player Cain?"
"......"
I'm standing right in front of you, you bastards! Cain cursed inwardly before raising one of his hands.
"I... am Cain..."
"Oh?! Player Cain?!"
"It is an honor to meet you!"
If it's such an honor, at least recognize my face! Cain silently resolved to pin a massive name tag saying 'Cain' to his left chest whenever he had to meet outsiders in the future.
"Alright. Since we're all busy people, let's get straight to the point. You asked for help training against the Chinese team, correct?"
"Yes."
Honing their combat senses through practice matches with Team KL—that was exactly what the Canadian national team wanted. Team KL was one of the absolute strongest teams in the world. Just fighting against them would grant them invaluable experience they could never obtain from normal practice.
"Since you mentioned you're aiming for a draw, I went ahead and looked up some useful skills for you."
"...?"
"Pardon?"
The Canadian players were taken aback. Wait, weren't they just here for a practice match?
"Out of the skills I know, I compiled a list of ones that would be incredibly effective against the Chinese team. Learning these will be quite helpful. One of their players, Penguin Panda, uses a main skill called [Glacial Freeze], right?"
Penguin Panda, one of the key players of the Chinese national team. Despite his ridiculous username, he was one of the most skilled players in China. His signature skill, [Glacial Freeze], was a devastating ability that set up the Chinese team's most dangerous combos! Once he froze a target with [Glacial Freeze], another player, Li Chao, would immediately chain it with [Shatter].
The damage itself was terrifying, but the fact that it completely locked down one player made it an incredibly threatening combo. Naturally, Tae-hyun had already put some thought into how to counter it.
"Yes. It's an incredibly threatening skill."
"There's a skill that can counter it perfectly."
"...!"
"What is it?!"
"If you use [Akisus's Favor], they say it counters it with a 50% probability."
"......"
"...???"
The Canadian players blinked in utter bewilderment. First of all, it was shocking enough that a skill they had never heard of could counter such a powerful move with a 50% chance. But if it was 'Akisus'...
Wasn't that a skill from Kim Tae-hyun's own cult?
"Is something wrong?"
"It's... it's just so surprising. Is it really true that it counters it with a 50% probability?"
"Yeah. I found it fascinating too, but they say it works."
The Canadian players whispered frantically among themselves to organize their thoughts. It was a bit shocking that it was a skill from the Archisus Church, but thinking about it, that wasn't what was important. The important thing was that it could block the combo!
If they could learn a skill like that, they would gladly join the Idergo Cult, let alone the Archisus Church, just to get their hands on it.
"Let's start by learning this as a baseline."
"Yes! How can we learn it?"
"You can learn it if you enter the [Archisus Sanctuary] in the Valley."
"I see. Are there any specific conditions to enter?"
"You have to be Silver Tier in the Archisus Church."
"...What is Silver Tier?"
"You need to accumulate 10,000 contribution points, but you can figure that out on your own. Anyway, next up, what else is there? There's a skill called [Goblin Hide]..."
The Canadian players looked increasingly puzzled as they heard yet another unfamiliar skill name. Of course, there were hundreds of thousands of skills in Pan-On, but usually, useful and powerful skills were widely shared among the community. By the time you reached the ranker level, there were almost no skills you didn't know!
Yet Tae-hyun was continuously listing skills they had never even heard of. It was almost as if he was a professional collector of obscure, hidden skills...
"Where did you obtain this skill? It doesn't seem like an Archisus Church skill either."
"From the Goblins."
"......"
"......"
No... The Canadian players were utterly dumbfounded by the completely unexpected source. Of course, goblins possessed various skills, but players at the ranker level never bothered looking for goblin skills. It simply wasn't a race known for yielding high-quality abilities.
"Anyway, this skill temporarily lets you burrow underground to hide, so even if it doesn't look very cool, it'll be great for stalling time. Make sure to learn this too."
"Which goblins can we learn it from?"
"Don't worry. It's not that hard. There are goblins living in the underground of the Valley, so just go there and learn it. If you go and build up contribution points for them, they'll teach you."
"......"
"...Th-thank you?"
"Alright, we don't have much time, so you should go and learn it quickly. Get in your capsules and head to the Valley. Contact me once you've learned them all. Got it?"
"Huh? Yes..."
The Canadian players walked out of the room with completely dazed expressions. Something... felt incredibly different from what they had imagined. It was definitely helpful, but why did they feel so strangely unsettled?
"I didn't expect Kim Tae-hyun to go as far as helping us with skills..."
"Should we go learn them first?"
"Y-yeah, let's do that."
The staff member in charge of guiding them received a call from the Canadian national team's head coach and spoke with a bright, excited expression.
"Coach, things went incredibly well."
"Did they already have a practice match? What was the result?"
"Kim Tae-hyun actually put together a skill set that can counter the Chinese national team and is helping them learn it. He was teaching them very seriously."
"What?! Is that true?!"
The coach was shocked by the unexpected help. He had only expected a simple practice match, but to think Tae-hyun had compiled a list of counter-skills and even taught them how to obtain them.
This is truly touching. In a way, we're competitors...
I was surprised too. Isn't he a player of truly grand caliber?
The coach nodded with a deeply moved expression. If they achieved good results against the Chinese team, he would definitely express his gratitude to Tae-hyun once more!
"Huh? Who are those foreigners?"
"Aren't they the Canadian players?"
"Is... is Team KL recruiting new players?!"
The senior reporter, Song Dae-seung, cried out in surprise. No matter how much he thought about it, that was the only conclusion he could reach.
Reinforcing their roster before the season started! Although Team KL had pushed through a grueling season without a single substitute, the dominant opinion was that they couldn't do the same in the second season. Most believed they would recruit at least one, if not two or three, substitutes!
"This is a massive scoop! Did you get the shot?"
"Yes! I got it!"
"...Do you have any from the front? Who's going to recognize them if we only see their backs like this?"
Song Dae-seung still remembered the bitter taste of his last article. Although they had used a sensational headline for clicks, that last article had been completely true. Yet people didn't believe a word of it and only criticized them...
"Shouldn't this be enough?"
"...Tsk. Can't be helped. Let's go with this."
"Your Majesty! The outcry from the adventurers is severe."
The nobles of the Erangs Kingdom spoke cautiously. Ever since the rebellion, the King had become extremely... fierce. It was at the level where one had to risk their life with every single word!
"Isn't the Ancient Empire University a facility designed to train outstanding adventurers to prevent continental crises? Perhaps you could grant permission to other adventurers as well..."
"What if those who enter harbor treasonous thoughts against me? Are you going to take responsibility?"
"Th-that could never happen! Such a thing would never occur. Are they not Your Majesty's subjects!"
"Hmm. Yes. If they are subjects of the Erangs Kingdom, they would surely offer me their loyalty."
"Indeed! How could they dare harbor treasonous thoughts?"
"Your Majesty. What about the Atali Kingdom? If they are subjects of the King of Atali, surely their loyalty is trustworthy?"
"!?"
When one noble brought up the name of the Atali Kingdom, the other nobles glared at him. They needed to band together to keep the King of Atali in check, yet this sycophant was flattering him?
"That is also true! I shall permit the subjects of the Atali Kingdom as well."
"Th-then wouldn't there be too many?"
"Is that so? Then we can simply filter them out."
"...!?"
The nobles cowered in an inexplicable sense of dread.