Why Would I Be Your Ally?

"Why would I be your all—"

"Help our ally!"

"Attack!"

At the sudden appearance of the Sun Bandits, the assassins shouted as if they had expected this all along.

"Just like the vulgar, filthy scum you are, you side with bandits!"

'And they're literally assassins...'

Tae-hyun felt a bit wronged. Who was calling who dirty? Of course, from the perspective of the kingdom's underground assassination guild—who considered themselves of noble pedigree—the Sun Bandits were nothing but a rootless pack of thieves.

"Kill them!"

"You trash!"

'Well, this is getting heated...'

Swords flew and skills flashed in a chaotic frenzy all around him. It was a complete madhouse, several times more chaotic than before.

'I need to be careful.'

Among the curse skills used by the assassins, some were guaranteed hits. Tae-hyun decided it was time to slip away. The assassins were actually quite formidable.

'Level aside, they're annoying.'

The high-ranking members leading these assassins were around level 300 to 400. A boss monster of level 300 to 400 wasn't considered exceptionally difficult in Pan-On. Of course, that was by Tae-hyun's standards, but still... However, regardless of level, some enemies were just inherently troublesome. Even though he was wearing Adamantium Armor, guaranteed-hit curses still got through! Foes with skills like that were always a massive pain to deal with.

'There's no reason to get tangled up in a fight in a cramped place like this.'

Tae-hyun always preferred fighting on his own terms, in a battlefield he had prepared. He just needed to back out of this mess!

"Run! We will protect you!"

"Grah! Hurry! Get out of here!"

"..."

Tae-hyun, who was just about to slip away, was left utterly speechless by the Sun Bandit NPCs. Every single player's gaze instantly locked onto him. He had planned to use the chaos to quietly vanish, but those damn Sun Bandits had to open their big mouths...!

"Y-You're not planning to leave us behind and run, are you?!"

"No way!"

"If you have a conscience, you can't do this!"

The very people who had been blocking his path and trying to extort a toll just moments ago were now shamelessly grabbing his ankles and whining for him to stay. He wondered if they even knew the meaning of the word 'conscience,' but then again, plunderer players were notoriously shameless by nature.

"If you leave us, you're not even human!"

"Fine by me. I'll happily be non-human."

"No! No! Don't go! We were wrong!"

"Don't abandon us! Fight with us!"

"Waaaah!"

The plunderer players wept and pleaded, desperately holding onto Tae-hyun. They weren't stupid. If this terrifying, mysterious ranker abandoned them now, they would be utterly doomed!

"Tsk. Fine. You over there in the red hat, the one in green leather, and you with the spear—get to the front. You two with the bows, fall back. And you with the staff, if you keep trying to conserve your MP and slack off, I'll kill you myself. Cast your spells, now."

"N-No, it's just the cooldowns, I can't help it..."

"Your cooldown was three seconds earlier, so how did it suddenly jump to twelve? Stop bullshitting and cast. One more excuse and you're dead."

The mage player, who had been shamelessly hoarding his MP, flushed red. The other plunderers immediately began to jeer.

"What a cheap bastard! How could you do that to your own party!"

"You're not even human!"

"Shut up. You're the one who was slipping to the back earlier because you didn't want to get hit."

"..."

As the target shifted, the other plunderers began to jeer at the new victim...

"If anyone tries to play smart or pull any tricks, I'll blast you from behind myself. Cut the crap and fight! As long as you don't screw up, this is a winnable fight."

With the Sun Bandits drawing aggro and a decent number of players gathered, they stood a solid chance if they worked together. The only problem was that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠these plunderers had never cooperated in their lives! However, with Tae-hyun cracking the whip from behind, something resembling actual party play finally began to take shape.

"Hey!! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Why are you backing off!"

"My HP is below 10%, I'm backing off to heal! Let me drink a potion!"

"Don't lie to me, you bastard! I used an HP check skill on you earlier, and you were at 47%!"

"Why the hell are you using skills on me instead of the enemy?!"

'It's a miracle they were ever in the same party to begin with.'

...Of course, they were still constantly at each other's throats, but the makeshift plunderer party somehow began to hold their ground against the assassins.

Thwack! Thud! Crash!

And naturally, the one doing the heavy lifting was Tae-hyun.

"Flame Explosion!"

When he detonated the skill contained within his weapon, a massive explosion of fire erupted, engulfing the surrounding area and tearing into the assassins.

"Sadik's Flame Spear! Sadik's Flame Spear! Sadik's Flame Spear!"

As he layered Sadiq's fire magic on top of it, the power of the flames surged exponentially. The plunderer players were so terrified they scrambled backward!

'Is that crazy bastard trying to kill us too?!'

'Where the hell did a lunatic like that even come from...!'

Jackal beat down an assassin with a flurry of strikes, knocking them to the ground, before turning his gaze. Tae-hyun was practically rampaging right in the dead center of the enemy forces.

"Hey! That's too dangerous!"

Jackal rushed in to help. No matter how confident a damage dealer was in their evasion, getting surrounded like that meant you could get deleted in the blink of an eye.

Yet Tae-hyun calmly carved his way out, slaying them one by one. He used Sadik's Flame magic to force the assassins back, then swung his sword through the newly cleared space to trigger explosive critical hits! Tae-hyun only fought this way because he had a method to remain immune to fire damage even when surrounded by flames, but to anyone else, it looked like sheer madness. It looked like he was trying to drag everyone down to burn with him!

"I think it's over there."

The members of the Rudolf Guild followed the sounds of commotion echoing through the dungeon. But the noise was much louder than they had expected.

"...!!!"

Upon arrival, the guild members gasped in shock. The situation was vastly different from what they had envisioned.

"L-Leader. What is this?"

It wasn't just a single party. Instead, five or six parties' worth of players had gathered in one spot, locked in a fierce battle. Their opponents were a group of NPCs they had never seen before—likely assassin classes, given how they were viciously leaping around and striking the players. And for some reason, the Sun Bandits were fighting alongside them too...

"Whoa, did a guild like that exist? I've never seen them before."

The Rudolf Guild members mistook the plunderer players for an organized guild. After all, they were maintaining a decent formation and cooperating. In this lawless area, you would never see such coordinated party play unless they were a proper guild!

"I've never heard of a guild like that. What are they?"

"Ah! Look over there, it's Jackal."

"...!"

Seeing Jackal made them even more bewildered. Jackal was the last person who would ever belong to a structured guild like that. Yet, regardless of their confusion, this mysterious group was fighting incredibly well. From their distance, the guild members couldn't hear the actual conversation happening within the party.

"Hey, you go to the front, you piece of shit!"

"Fight properly before they reach the backline!"

"I am fighting properly! Hey! This bastard is hoarding his skills! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠He's hoarding his skills!"

"I-I am not hoarding them!!"

...Despite the constant bickering and backstabbing, on the outside, their coordination looked remarkably polished! Even as the assassin NPCs lunged from all directions with ferocious attacks, they somehow held their ground and struck back.

"Retreat! Argh!"

"Just you wait. We will never let you get away with this!"

Ultimately, the assassins were the first to break. With most of their forces wiped out, they could no longer sustain the fight.

The viewers watching the Rudolf Guild's stream grew restless and began clamoring in the chat.

Of course, just because the viewers were demanding it didn't mean the guild members were going to rush in. The enemy numbers were simply... too high! If they picked a fight now, they risked getting wiped out entirely.

"Everyone, quiet. They haven't spotted us yet," Closs ordered his guild members sternly.

However, they had forgotten about the people watching the stream. The viewers quickly hopped over to the personal streams of the other plunderer players and began snitching.

The viewers wanted only one thing: absolute chaos!

"Boss!! There are guild bastards hiding over there!"

"Boss! It's the Rudolf Guild! They're incredibly wicked and evil! Let's tear them to shreds!!"

Despite having just met, the plunderer players were already acting incredibly chummy with Tae-hyun. Since when was he their "boss"?

"The Rudolf Guild is quite strong. We should be careful," Jackal warned, only to be fiercely shot down by the other plunderers.

"What do you know!"

"Just because you claim to be from the same guild as Cain, you think you can act all high and mighty? Stop trying to set the mood!"

"Hey... but they say that guy over there is also from the same guild as Cain."

"Wait, really?"

The Rudolf Guild members awkwardly shuffled out of their hiding spot. It was an incredibly tense situation where they could be attacked at any second!

"They definitely followed us here. Boss! Let's crush them!"

"Let's force them to log out and take their gear!"

The plunderers shouted excitedly at Tae-hyun. Seeing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this, the Rudolf Guild members grew even more tense. *That guy must be the leader of these plunderers!*

'He's no ordinary guy. To lead that many people like that!'

'They don't even look like a guild, which means he gathered them through party finder and is leading them...'

Plunderer players were notoriously the most uncooperative people in the game. They were essentially a collection of the worst slackers you'd find in a group project! To lead so many of them in a coordinated party... Even though they had never seen his face before, he was clearly extraordinary.

'For now, we have to keep our heads down.'

"W-We didn't follow you. We just happened to enter this dungeon."

"You totally followed us!! Why else would a guild like Rudolf come to a dungeon like this!"

"Exactly! Boss, don't be fooled! Just give the word, and I'll slice that bastard's head clean off!"

"No, let me do it!"

The plunderer players were having the time of their lives. Having a reliable powerhouse backing them up gave them a surge of confidence they never usually possessed. They wanted to take this chance to beat up the Rudolf Guild—whom they had always disliked—and strip them of their gear!

"Hmm. It's true that a prominent guild wouldn't normally form a party to come to a dungeon like this." Tae-hyun also found it suspicious. 'Did they really follow me?'

"No! We have our reasons..."

"And those reasons are obviously to launch a cowardly ambush on our Boss! We must kill them immediately!"

"Kill them! Kill them!"

"We really just came here for a quest!"

"You idiot! Why would you blab that out?!" Closs scolded his guild member. No matter how scared they were, how could he just leak quest information like that!

"Oh. What quest?"

"T-That is..."

"Spit it out already! Can't you see this esteemed gentleman is waiting?!"

The Sun Bandit NPCs barked, brandishing their weapons. The Rudolf Guild members felt like crying from the sheer injustice. They had spent so much effort raising their affinity with these NPCs in town, yet here they were, completely taking the other guy's side! 'Those treacherous bastards...!'

'I'm never selling stolen goods to them again.'

'I did all those daily quests for them, and they backstab me like this?'