The Cost of Recovery
Kim Tae-hyun’s eyes widened.
This was the best item he could get under the circumstances.
It hurt to think he’d have to spend almost all the contribution points he’d painstakingly saved up, but if it meant he could restore Yong-yong, then that was nothing.
“I’ll take this one.”
“An excellent choice, Count.”
Watching the NPC bow at a perfect ninety degrees, Tae-hyun understood exactly why players ran themselves ragged trying to earn noble titles.
The difference in treatment was immediate.
This reminds me of Father.
An old memory surfaced.
Before his father, Kim Tae-san, once launched a large-scale war against enemy guilds, he had hired people to cut the internet lines to every PC bang where those guild members gathered.
Then that night, beside himself with delight, he’d grabbed Tae-hyun and shouted—
Of course, these days it had become one of those mortifying black-history quotes that made him cringe the moment anyone brought it up.
That leaves me with, what, around three hundred contribution points? If I want to build them back up again… that’s awkward.
Tae-hyun’s contribution points were this high because he’d borrowed knights, brought every last one of them back alive, and even sent them home significantly stronger than before.
But with only three hundred points left, borrowing knights again was out of the question.
Just like how it takes money to make money, the same was true of contribution points.
You needed a certain amount to earn more in earnest.
And right now, Tae-hyun didn’t have enough time to go grind Royal Palace quests just to raise them.
I’ll think about that after I find this Authority.
—Master. Must I really be the one to drink that? It’s a very ominous color.
“Everything good for you tastes bad.”
—That is not the issue here…
Yong-yong sprang out of the bag and flapped his wings. He was plainly reluctant to go anywhere near the Rag-abi’s Vitality Recovery Elixir in Tae-hyun’s hand.
“Hmm. Yong-yong.”
—What is it, Master?
“See that cloud floating up there in the sky?”
—I do, Master.
“And can you see what’s behind that cloud?”
—Not very well.
“Look closer. What’s over there?”
—Nothing at all… Ghk!
The instant Yong-yong narrowed his eyes and looked up, Tae-hyun shoved the elixir straight down his throat.
“Hey now. Don’t bite.”
—You tricked me! You tricked me!
“Strictly speaking, I didn’t. Did I ever say I wouldn’t give you the medicine?”
—I thought you were about to say something meaningful!
“Then you’ve learned a lesson. Never trust humans. Pass it on if you ever meet another dragon.”
You used Rag-abi’s Vitality Recovery Elixir.
The condition of the divine beast Yong-yong is recovering.
A bright light rose from Yong-yong’s body, and he slowly began to grow.
Tae-hyun watched him with eyes full of hope.
The race of the target who consumed the elixir is Dragon. A penalty is applied.
The consumption required is too great. Rag-abi’s Vitality Recovery Elixir cannot restore him completely.
“Isn’t this a scam?”
Tae-hyun complained, but that didn’t change the result.
Yong-yong stopped growing at roughly the size of a human.
—Master!
“Yeah. Got some of your strength back?”
—A fair amount of it has returned, but… uurgh… uuuurgh…
“Hmm. Cain! Cain!”
Tae-hyun called out quickly.
Cain, who had been standing off in the distance in a daze, ran over the moment he heard him.
“Why’d you call me?”
“Hold this guy.”
“What? I can do that?”
Cain was startled.
At a glance, this pet looked absurdly valuable. Considering a guy like Tae-hyun was carrying it around, there was no way he’d gotten it from some ordinary quest, either.
And yet he was being told to hold it?
Don’t tell me this bastard’s finally acknowledging me now?
Thinking that, Cain took Yong-yong into his arms.
And then—
—Gwaaagh, gwaaagh.
Splat!
Yong-yong vomited all over him.
You were hit by a powerful acidic attack. HP is dropping rapidly.
Equipped items are corroding.
“……”
Covered in a complete mess, Cain glared at Tae-hyun.
Tae-hyun, meanwhile, simply nodded in admiration.
“Huh. So he had an ability like that too.”
“All right. We’re more or less ready to go now, but before that.”
“……?”
“You’re out.”
“Sir Tae-hyun! Why me?!”
“One loudmouth is enough, and Ed-an already fills the quota. If you want in on the quest later, bring me the location of another Authority.”
Tae-hyun coldly shoved Pelmas aside with his foot.
One noisy bastard was plenty.
“As for you three…”
“Put us on odd jobs, sir!”
“Trash loot too!”
“Anything with the word ‘junk’ in it, we’ll handle it all!”
“You’re sounding more and more like actual riffraff. Fine.”
By now, the three blacksmiths understood perfectly well.
No matter how much abuse they took, no matter what hardships they suffered, sticking to Tae-hyun was insanely profitable.
“So those three are coming. Which means our Cain’s coming too.”
“……”
“What, you don’t want to? Wow. You’re really hurting my feelings.”
“N-no. Let me come…”
“Say it louder! Don’t you see how enthusiastically those blacksmiths are volunteering?”
“I-I want to come too…!”
The expression on Cain’s face looked like he might start crying blood.
“Anyway, that’s our headcount. But there’s one problem.”
“What would that be?”
“We’ve got a lot of enemies.”
Tae-hyun looked at Cain in a way that plainly said, Isn’t that your fault?
Cain flinched under the gaze.
“M-most of the people chasing me are gone by now…”
“Actually, I’ve got more enemies than you do.”
“……”
Cain nearly snapped, but held it in.
Kim Ji-sahn raised a hand and asked, “Sir Tae-hyun, what do you mean, a lot of enemies? The Sadiq Church is gone, isn’t it?”
“Ah. Right. Come to think of it, the Sadiq Church still counts too.”
“……”
“Besides the Sadiq Church, there are quite a few people who hate me.”
Nobody had yet connected him to Fantasy Online 1, but Tae-hyun was already being watched and checked by plenty of people based on what he’d done in Fantasy Online 2 alone.
Once the broadcast aired and he got popular, the offers started coming in directly.
The other guilds were just doing the usual recruiting or threatening, but that last one somehow made him feel uniquely filthy.
I’m beating them up if I run into them later.
In any case, those threats, offers, and invitations didn’t mean much by themselves—but if they actually ran into those people in person, it would be another story.
Erangs Kingdom was packed with players, so if Tae-hyun got recognized, there was a good chance several guilds would swarm them.
Fighting wasn’t the problem.
The problem was getting into a fight and having the quest derail because of it.
Tae-hyun knew better than anyone how easy it was to interfere with whatever somebody else was doing and then run.
After all, it was one of the things he’d done most often himself.
“So we disguise ourselves. Everybody changes their outward appearance a bit before we go.”
Tae-hyun tossed out cloaks from the McCraney Merchant Group one after another.
◈ A cloak that can cover you from head to toe.
◈ The moment you put it on, it broadcasts to the whole world: “I’m definitely suspicious!”
That was the item description, anyway, but plenty of players actually went around hiding their appearance like this.
If Tae-hyun’s party dressed like that, they probably wouldn’t draw much attention.
“Wow. He really is ridiculously popular. Everything I spent over half a year building up, and he just…”
Choi Sang-yun was browsing the Fantasy Online 2 boards, looking at the reaction to Tae-hyun.
It was blazing hot.
Of course, that was because the broadcast was airing right now—but it still felt like Tae-hyun was drawing more attention than top-tier rankers like Lee Se-yeon or Smith.
People were always more fascinated by something unfamiliar than by what they already knew.
In the middle of that sea of information and wild rumors, Sang-yun spotted a few comments that stood out.
The broadcast had edited out the parts where Tae-hyun used blacksmithing skills.
So most people had no idea he was this much of a bizarre all-round build.
This was bad. Once a rumor like that got out, it was hard to contain.
And this wasn’t even a false rumor.
It was true.
Sang-yun’s mind raced. How the hell was he supposed to clean this up?
Rumors breeding more rumors.
With just a few lines, Sang-yun had plausibly redirected public opinion.
He ignored the inconvenient part and ran.
Once you got a rumor rolling, it would keep circulating on its own anyway.
“For the Orcs!”
You completed the quest Orc Shout. Fame increases by 150.
You obtained an item.
“Amazing as always, Guild Master!”
“Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty!”
“Haha. Come on, it’s nothing.”
Kim Tae-san rested his hammer on his shoulder, looking utterly pleased.
The guild was growing fast.
It had already secured all sorts of powerful Orc-exclusive classes—Orc Warrior, Orc Berserker, Orc Shaman, and more.
Every guild member was an Orc, every one of them had a strong class, and above all…
They were middle-aged men with lots of money and lots of free time.
Kim Tae-san could feel the old thrill he’d once known in Lineage coming back to him.
No—this feels even better.
There was no comparing direct immersion to experiencing a game through a mouse and a monitor.
You couldn’t smell fresh air through a computer screen.
“Castle Lord!”
“……”
“G-Guild Master.”
“Yeah. Try remembering that!”
“Those players getting chased by wild Orc Warriors over there… aren’t they players?”
At the guild member’s words, Kim Tae-san looked down below the hill.
Three players were running for their lives, pursued by wild Orc Warriors.
“Should we help them?”
“Shouldn’t matter. Let’s go!”
“As expected of Guild Master!”
“Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty!”
“You guys aren’t making fun of me, are you?”
Saying that, Kim Tae-san hefted his hammer and took the lead.
In his own way, Kim Tae-san was every bit as much a gaming addict as Tae-hyun.