A Revolutionary Form of Marketing

"But will it really be a hit?" Lee Da-bi asked, looking a bit worried.

Tae-hyun shrugged. "Who knows? Remember back in Pan-On 1 when that card game was all the rage inside the game? No one plays that now. This could end up the exact same way."

"And yet you're still going to host it?"

"Well... you never know until you try. Besides, I figured it'd be good experience."

In truth, sustainability was the only real question; he had no doubt the tournament itself would be a success. The sheer brand value of Team KL guaranteed that. It ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wasn't as if Tae-hyun was ambitiously launching some massive global event backed by international investors; it was just a small, cozy tournament for those who were interested. He would easily recoup his costs and then some.

"I'll probably learn a thing or two from running something like this. I should reach out to some contacts and start getting things ready."

A tournament didn't just materialize out of thin air. From broadcasting and casting to promotion, it required the coordinated efforts of various industry professionals. Of course, Tae-hyun's network was anything but ordinary. His name value was simply off the charts!

"I-Is that really true?"

"Yeah. Make sure to thank Tae-hyun when you see him later."

"I'll go do it right now!!"

"No, not right now. Later."

"Yes, sir! Later!"

"Oh, right. Before you go meet him, we'll need to do a quick body search to make sure you aren't carrying any weapons, and we'll need to verify your identity too."

"...W-Wait. Are ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you serious?"

"Yeah. We have to watch out for assassins."

The players were utterly bewildered by Choi Sang-yun and Jeong Su-hyeok's words. Are they joking, or are they actually serious?

Wait, that's not the important part right now.

Y-Yeah, exactly.

They had been momentarily distracted by the sheer absurdity of it, but that wasn't what mattered. The legendary Kim Tae-hyun was hosting a tournament!

"He said he'd like it if you guys could work with us as staff, if possible."

"What?! Is that true?!"

"Could you stop shouting every time you speak? Yes, it's true. We'd really appreciate the help too."

Embarrassing as it was to admit, neither Choi Sang-yun nor Jeong Su-hyeok had any real experience with event operations or management. Sang-yun had mostly been a solo player, and Su-hyeok had been a solo player too... In truth, neither of them had any right to lecture Tae-hyun about developing social skills.

"We will do our absolute best!"

"We're highly confident in our promotional skills!"

"Really? Have you guys worked in marketing or PR before?"

"No. But we're from Power Warrior, so we're confident in our promotional abilities."

"..."

Choi Sang-yun felt a strange sense of foreboding and asked,

"Can everyone here who belongs to Power Warrior raise their hand?"

Rustle!

An astounding eighty percent of them raised their hands! They were all members of the Power Warrior guild!

"Wait, you were in Power Warrior too?"

"You as well?!"

It was so absurd that some players were genuinely shocked to discover the person standing right next to them was in the exact same guild.

"...Well, if you're from Power Warrior, I suppose you're trustworthy... Alright, here are the contracts."

The players tilted their heads in confusion as Choi Sang-yun handed them the documents.

"Uh, what kind of contract is this?"

"You idiot! It's obviously a non-disclosure agreement. Probably a pledge swearing that if we leak any of Kim Tae-hyun's secrets, we'll accept being hunted down until our accounts are deleted without a single complaint."

"...What kind of crazy nonsense is that?!"

Choi Sang-yun was horrified. Sure, Kim Tae-hyun was a total nutcase...

...Well, that was actually true, but this was still going too far!

"It's an employment contract! If you work, you get paid."

"O-Oh, no. We're just doing this because we want to..."

"It's not like Kim Tae-hyun charges Cain for cooking him meals, right?"

"...Stop using logic that's hard to refute and just sign if you want to do it."

"What kind of food do dragons like?"

"Isn't it humans?"

"...Whoa. For a second, that actually sounded plausible."

In the Valley, if even three people gathered, they would inevitably start gossiping about the quest Tae-hyun had posted. The pets Tae-hyun traveled with were unmistakably of the dragon lineage. They seemed to be of a much rarer breed than mere drakes or wyverns, but the bottom line was that they were dragons. The problem was that information regarding dragons was incredibly scarce.

"Drakes, wyverns, earth dragons, and dragon wyrms all love eating humans, don't they?"

"Someone shut this guy up. I know he's a Bizarre Chef, but there's a limit. Has he completely lost his mind?"

"You can't beat the competition with ordinary methods! Do you have any idea how formidable the people gathered here are?"

There was Ju Hyeon-yeong, a ranker chef who had built up her reputation in the Orc-infested lands of Uruk. There was Chao, the leader of a famous culinary guild and a high ranker himself. And there was Paz, a renowned real-life chef who had also achieved massive fame in-game through his countless legendary dishes. On top of that, the culinary squads from Power Warrior were preparing to fight as a collective unit, rival culinary guilds were sharpening their knives in anticipation, and countless nameless ranker chefs were waiting to seize this golden opportunity.

"It's not like Kim Tae-hyun is handing over a kingdom as a reward, so why is the competition this fierce?"

"The rewards are one thing, but it's mostly a battle of pride. It's not often you get an event that draws this much attention."

Once a tournament or quest reached a certain level of prestige, simply participating in it became a reward in itself. In an era where the sheer number of rankers made it difficult to garner attention without self-promotion, an event like this was a monumental opportunity. A single standout performance could engrave one's name into the minds of players worldwide!

Tae-hyun himself had never imagined that a quest issued in his own Valley would have such a massive ripple effect. To be precise, Tae-hyun was just sitting back doing nothing while players from all over the world took it upon themselves to broadcast and promote the event straight from the Valley! It was a revolutionary form of marketing that defied everyone's expectations.

"I don't care if I have to use human meat, I'm going to win!"

"That guy's going to end up arrested if he keeps that up."

"I'm going to try my luck with rock worms. Drakes are supposed to love them."

"..."

"Don't buy that garbage! You all know that's a total scam, right?!"

"I'm sorry. It's another failure."

"Aaaaargh!"

The members of the Black Rock Sect were currently pouring all their efforts into awakening the [ ]. How hard had the entire guild worked just to rent the Sky Castle Blacksmith, where the [ ] was located, from Tae-hyun? All of it had been for this single quest.

...But as expected, the path of a blacksmith was never easy.

They had tried over ten times, and every single attempt had resulted in nothing but wasted materials! Because they had to gather rare materials, recollecting them after each failure was an absolute nightmare.

"We have to go gather them all over again."

"Aaaaargh! What kind of garbage quest is this?!"

"That is simply the way of the blacksmith."

"!"

The members of the Black Rock Sect jumped in surprise at the voice appearing from behind them.

A burnt child dreads the fire—just seeing Tae-hyun's face on TV was enough ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to make the Black Rock Sect members flinch instinctively.

"How many times have you failed? You look like you're having a rough time."

"Well... it's because of my own shortcomings..."

"No, it's not, Phil! You're the best blacksmith in our guild!"

"This game is just a piece of trash!"

Isn't that a bit harsh? Tae-hyun thought to himself.

But he couldn't entirely blame them. When you spent ages gathering materials, crafted or enhanced an item, and ended up with a failure, it was impossible not to think of the game as absolute garbage. And if the item had been destroyed on top of that...

"But what happens once the [ ] is successfully awakened?"

At Tae-hyun's question, the members of the Black Rock Sect looked at one another. It was originally a top-secret matter, but on second thought, even if Kim Tae-hyun knew, it wasn't as if he would go out of his way to get in their way.

"This is a secret."

"Ah, never mind then. I wasn't particularly curious anyway."

"...If you asked, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at least listen to the answer!"

The Black Rock Sect members quickly grabbed Tae-hyun. Honestly, they wanted to hear his opinion and thoughts.

Awakening the [ ] was part of a Legendary Class quest.

"Oh..."

Tae-hyun was genuinely surprised. A Legendary Class quest? Well, considering the incredibly complex and tedious process, it certainly seemed worthy of being one.

"It's a class associated with the Ancient Empire, no less."

"Don't more than half of all Legendary Classes have something to do with the Ancient Empire?"

"...Well, yes, but couldn't you at least act a little impressed?"

"Ah. My apologies."

"Anyway, we'll just have to gather the materials again and give it another shot."

They really are a good guild, Tae-hyun thought.

For the entire guild to rally together like this just to help a single member... It was something that would be impossible unless they were exceptionally close.

"An ancient dragon's claw, the essence of top-grade steel... what else do we need?"

"A Fire Spirit Ruby. Ah, we've mined that place so many times and still haven't gotten a single drop..."

Looking at the guild members speaking in dejected voices, Tae-hyun asked,

"Would you like me to help you on your next attempt?"

"!"

"!!"

The guild members gasped in shock. Tae-hyun was offering to help?

"A-Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

"W-Wait, are you planning to use this as an excuse to enslave us again?"

"...So that's what you think of me."

"N-No! We've never once thought of ourselves as slaves!"

"Exactly! We were perfectly happy!"

The Black Rock Sect members frantically made excuses. In truth, the quests they had done with Tae-hyun had never yielded bad results. It was just that the process was excruciatingly painful! No matter how great the rewards and level-ups were, it wasn't an experience they ever wanted to repeat.

"We'd be extremely grateful if you helped."

Tae-hyun was a highly accomplished ranker blacksmith himself, not to mention the owner of this very Sky Castle Blacksmith. There was absolutely no downside to receiving his help.

"Excellent. In that case, would you mind helping me with a little task of mine as well?"

"Of course. But what kind of task is it?"

Phil grew curious. For Kim Tae-hyun to ask for help, what on earth was he trying to craft? Adamantium gear?

No, Kim Tae-hyun is already wearing Adamantium gear, and melting it down to forge something new would be an astronomical gamble.

Forging Adamantium gear required an immense amount of effort and relied heavily on luck. Melting down a perfectly crafted set of armor to start anew would be sheer madness.

"I'm planning to extract a fragment of the Hungry Chaos."

"...P-Please don't drag me into your criminal activities," Phil said, his voice trembling with horror.

What kind of insane thing was this madman trying to extract?!

In the end, Phil succumbed to persuasion. Tae-hyun had coaxed him with all sorts of sweet, silver-tongued words.

"I'm someone who doesn't even cut in lines because I hate gaining Infamy..."

"Personally, I find it much more convenient when my Infamy is moderately high."

"What kind of absurd nonsense is that?"

Tae-hyun was dead serious, but Phil took it as a joke. What could possibly be convenient about having high Infamy?

"...?!"

Phil was startled by the sudden influx of uninvited guests who materialized out of nowhere. He had thought this was a ghost castle because there hadn't been a single sign of life, but it turned out there were this many people here.

"W-Where were they all hiding?"

"Ah. We probably had Bekelf locked up somewhere to keep him from saying anything weird or trying to run away."

"????"

"Haha. Don't worry about it. The Archisus Church manufactures its equipment through perfectly legal means."

For some reason, Phil felt as though he had just caught a glimpse of the dark underbelly of the Archisus Church. Is there a demon locked up somewhere in this Sky Castle too?

Ah. No, they just locked the demon up outside and dragged him around...

Maybe I can believe in it just for a second and then cancel it when we're done?