The Biggest Prize

Words that had slipped out of someone's mouth perfectly captured what every player was feeling right now.

They had fought that desperately, and yet the one who had walked away with the biggest share was Tae-hyun.

And before anyone could even confront him, the man in question had already mounted up and ridden far off into the distance.

"What the hell is with that bastard?!"

"Catch him! Go drag him back here!"

"And then what? What are you gonna say to him? You gonna PK him?"

"If I have to PK him to make him take responsibility, then I will!"

The place instantly descended into complete chaos.

Players all shouted whatever came to mind.

They wasted time yelling unrealistic nonsense at one another.

Meanwhile, Tae-hyun was already riding at full speed with the knights behind him.

Burford. I'm finding you myself!

His eyes burned.

Even the gaze of a man staring at his mortal enemy couldn't have been more intense.

"Achoo!"

Burford suddenly sneezed.

"What the... why all of a sudden..."

Muttering to himself, Burford looked ahead.

He could hear the ground shaking.

What appeared was a group of cavalry.

"Kingdom troops again? Ugh..."

Grumbling, Burford drew his sword.

He wasn't afraid.

There were still plenty of fellow Sadiq Holy Knights and priests around him.

While the Fire Demonic Beast was busy fighting the players, this was already the fifth royal pursuit force to come after them.

They had managed to hold them off every time, but now it was starting to get old.

How long are they planning to keep chasing us? They can't even beat us, so why don't they just leave us alone already?

Thinking that, Burford cast holy magic.

In an instant, his body glowed red-hot.

It was a buff spell he always put on before a fight.

"All right, let's go!"

"For Lord Sadiq!"

"Lord Sadiq is watching us!"

The other Sadiq Holy Knights shouted with equal fervor.

The priests began chanting magic to stop the incoming riders.

A thick, throbbing black curse shot forward.

It flew straight for the person charging in at the very front.

Clang!

"?!"

And then the curse bounced cleanly off a longsword and came flying back.

"Wha— urk!"

The Sadiq priest who had cast it so ambitiously was struck by his own curse and collapsed.

"Trample them all!"

"Yes, sir!"

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

This pressure was completely different from the royal troops who had been chasing them until now.

Burford realized something was off.

These aren't the same people?!

The kingdom army was strong and numerous enough that it wouldn't have been strange for some other pursuit force to appear instead of the ones they'd faced before.

But these knights gave off a completely different feel at a glance.

And the one rampaging at the very front was Tae-hyun.

Before charging into the chokepoint where the Sadiq Holy Knights were holding out, Tae-hyun gave the knights an order.

"All of you, change into the appearance of the royal cavalry!"

"Excuse me?!"

"N-no, how could we possibly do something so shameless and beneath our digni—"

The knight stopped mid-sentence ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠when his eyes met Tae-hyun's.

Then he flinched.

"—seem to make perfect sense, now that I think about it!"

"Obeying orders is the spirit of knighthood!"

Tae-hyun's list of skills was getting more and more random by the day.

The moment the preparations were done, Tae-hyun urged the knights onward.

This was the perfect timing.

The other players were still hesitating in confusion after suddenly having the Fire Demonic Beast stolen out from under them.

This was a golden chance to strike the fleeing Sadiq Order from behind and rack up even more contribution points.

And on top of that, there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was one more reason.

Burford.

Burford, who had been there during the royal palace assault.

Burford, who had taken Tae-hyun's ring.

Kill him and take it back!

It was an obsession that would have sent chills down Burford's spine if he'd known.

At the palace, Steven, the Punglimhwasan guild master, had gone on broadcast and explained in exhaustive detail just how good that ring was.

Of course, his goal had been to explain what a scumbag Burford was and how badly they had been cheated.

But the one secretly crying inside while watching that stream had been Tae-hyun.

That ring should have been his.

Burford had to still be carrying it.

And Tae-hyun had absolutely no intention of letting it go.

Normally, you couldn't just make an enemy drop exactly the item you wanted.

But Tae-hyun had done the math.

Burford's a Holy Knight belonging to the Sadiq Order. That means his Infamy is high, and so is his death penalty. And with my Luck stat, if I kill an enemy, the dropped item is way more likely to be something good.

If all of those factors overlapped?

Then the odds were high that Burford's best item would drop.

And Burford's best item was obviously that ring.

"Move! Let's kill the Sadiq Order bastards!"

At Tae-hyun's shout, the knights answered back.

"Long live the kingdom!"

"Death ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the filthy heretics!"

But there was one thing Tae-hyun was overlooking.

Burford taking the ring, Burford's heavy death penalty, and Tae-hyun's Luck were all absolutely real.

But the idea that the ring was Burford's best item was nothing more than Tae-hyun's assumption.

It never even occurred to him that Burford might be carrying something better than the ring.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

"Kyaaaagh!"

"Lord Sadiq!"

Riding at the very front of the formation, Tae-hyun deflected the incoming curses with Circle of Counterattack.

If the other players had seen it, they would've been screaming, Isn't that hacks?!

He was timing and successfully activating the skill while on a wildly galloping horse.

It was a technique that was hard enough to land while standing still on flat ground, and Tae-hyun was using it like it was nothing.

"Man. What a waste that I'm the only one seeing this."

In the monitoring room, Choi Myung-sung muttered to himself.

If it had been any other ranker or streamer, they would've sent this out live.

People would've gone crazy for a while after that.

But Tae-hyun didn't stream, and the only ones around him were knight NPCs.

Choi Myung-sung was practically the only person watching this incredible scene.

"Kim Tae-hyun doesn't broadcast... what a shame. Such a waste."

Choi Myung-sung still didn't know yet.

He had no idea Tae-hyun had already made an arrangement with Bae Jang-wook.

If he found out, he'd probably jump straight into the air.

Meanwhile, Tae-hyun was leading the knights straight into Burford's Holy Knights.

KWA-KWA-KWANG!

"Kyaaaagh!"

The knights were already stacked with every buff imaginable from the charge.

And once Tae-hyun piled several layers of Lucky Strike on top of that, his attack power became truly monstrous.

It was enough to carve through the heavily armored Sadiq Holy Knights, who were themselves reinforced with holy magic.

Smack!

Every time Tae-hyun swung his longsword, Sadiq Holy Knights were sent flying back.

The other knights weren't far behind him either.

Before setting out, they had already received buffs from the royal army priests and loaded themselves up with every knight skill they had.

And considering their levels, the destructive force was terrifying.

"Th-this is impossible... Sadiq's Vision Distortion!"

"Sadiq's Confusion!"

The Sadiq priests began casting curses on the knights.

The enemy formation was too tightly grouped and was cutting through the Sadiq Holy Knights too easily, so they were trying to throw them into confusion first.

If they could just induce enough disorder to scatter them, the fight would become much easier.

As layer upon layer of curses piled up, a few of the afflicted knights began to slip toward a confused state.

Then Tae-hyun shouted.

"Everyone back to the center! Follow me! If anyone can't keep up, I'll punish them!"

Tae-hyun's tactics skill was no joke either.

Because of that, the Sadiq priests' curses failed.

Once even the curses they had painstakingly layered on proved ineffective, the Sadiq Holy Knights and priests began to get pushed back harder and harder.

"Lord Sadiq! Do not abandon us!"

"Death to those mortals!"

Ignoring all of it, Tae-hyun kept blasting through Sadiq Holy Knights while frantically searching for Burford.

Where are you?

This is impossible!

Burford realized it.

If he stayed here any longer, he was just going to die.

I have to run!

The Sadiq Order had shoved a forced quest onto him, sure, but if he died doing it, that was an even bigger loss.

He'd done as much as he reasonably could already.

Now he needed to get out.

Since he had at least held out for a while, the penalty would probably be lighter.

Burford got ready to run alongside the other Sadiq Holy Knights who were already falling back.

At that moment, a spear stabbed into the ground in front of him.

Thunk!

"?!"

Tae-hyun had snatched a spear from one of the knights at his side and thrown it.

"Th-that was my spear..."

"Shut it."

"Yessir."

The terrified knight immediately closed his mouth.

Tae-hyun turned to Burford with an extremely, extremely friendly smile on his face.

"You're Burford, right?"

"...?"

Thunk!

"Aaaagh!"

When Burford didn't answer, Tae-hyun immediately grabbed another spear from a knight and threw that one too.

Burford leaped in shock.

"Burford! Yeah, I'm Burford!"

Pak! Puh-puh-pak!

"Kraaagh!"

"Run! Run for it!"

While Tae-hyun and Burford faced each other down, the Sadiq Holy Knights and priests gave up trying to fight and started fleeing.

Burford noticed too.

I need to run too—

As Burford glanced aside, gauging his chance, Tae-hyun shook his head.

"Nope. Not happening."

"Wh-what the hell are you talking about?"

"Look around. Do you really think all the guys here are just going to sit back and watch you run?"

Having his intentions read so perfectly, Burford's face flushed red.

He straightened his bent back and said proudly,

"Fine. Let's negotiate."

"What?"

"There's a reason you seized me instead of attacking right away, isn't there? Right?"

"You're not completely clueless. That's right."

Tae-hyun nodded.

Inside, Burford felt a wave of relief.

The difference between the other Sadiq Holy Knights and priests and Burford himself was simple: NPCs versus a player.

Naturally, Burford was a player who could negotiate.

That had to be why Tae-hyun had captured him instead of killing him on the spot.

What does he want? Money? If it's money, I can pay.

If he could avoid the death penalty, that was cheap.

"Hand it over."

"...Hand over what?"

"The best thing you've got on you. You know exactly what I mean."

"What?!"

Burford stared in shock.

How the hell did this bastard know about that?!

Burford glared at Tae-hyun in alarm, but Tae-hyun remained flat and unimpressed.

"That was mine to begin with."

"What are you talking about?! How is that yours?!"

"Sure. Since you stole it, you'd probably like to call it yours. I used to say stuff like that all the time back in Fantasy Online 1. 'If I kill you and take it, it's mine!' Pretty convenient, isn't it? The difference now is, you're surrounded by my subordinates. If you don't want to die, hand over the item nicely. When I get pissed, I'm very good at making people's lives miserable in complicated and creative ways. Let's take the generous ending while it's still on the table."

Tae-hyun meant every word.

When it came to tormenting people in games, Tae-hyun was a master of the craft.

Chasing someone down after they respawned just to kill them again. Deliberately driving enemies into dangerous zones so they couldn't even revive properly. Pulling entire monster trains onto enemies while they were hunting.

If someone told him to publish a book called 101 Ways to Ruin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Your Enemy's Day, he could have it out within a week.

And yet today, unusually, he was being generous.

He had infiltrated the Sadiq Order's rear route, blown up their secret temple buildings, prevented the Fire Demonic Beast's complete resurrection, killed the Fire Demonic Beast itself, and now was mopping up the remnants of the order.

By contribution points alone, first place was already guaranteed.

He was sure of it.

At this point, if he got the ring back, he was in such a good mood that he could almost afford to magnanimously let Burford live.

For Tae-hyun to show this kind of mercy to an enemy was extremely rare.

But Burford had no sense.

Or rather, even if he did understand, he couldn't bring himself to give up what he was holding.

"N-no way! Absolutely not!"

"...Then die, I guess."

Tae-hyun's voice turned cold.