The Demon Who Got Carried Away
“No, I really wasn’t planning to go this far in the first place, okay? But those guild bastards over there seriously didn’t catch on all the way to the end and just kept doing exactly what I told them, so I got carried away...”
“...”
The players present—Cain, Lee Da-bi, Yang Sung-gyu, and the others—stared at Tae-hyun with cold eyes.
That was what he had to say right after completely wrecking every guild in Abalab City?
“Come on, the result was good, wasn’t it?”
“Look at my Infamy! If I die right now, the penalty’s gonna be insane!”
“Exactly! How are you going to compensate us?!”
Cain and Lee Da-bi worked together flawlessly.
The two of them had suffered at Tae-hyun’s hands far too many times.
Instead of answering, Tae-hyun just stared at them in silence.
It was more terrifying than any half-baked excuse.
Cain immediately backed down.
“Haha. Now that I think about it, I never really cared about Infamy in the first place, right? Honestly, being infamous is kind of cool.”
“Excuse me?!”
Left alone all of a sudden, Lee Da-bi turned to Cain in flustered disbelief.
Infamy, huh. Wait. I should probably be a little careful about mine too.
Tae-hyun checked his stats.
How much had his Infamy gone up by now?
...
Even Tae-hyun flinched for a second at how high his Infamy had climbed.
His Infamy had always been fairly high thanks to the trouble he’d caused before, but it had never really mattered because his Fame was so absurdly high.
But now his Infamy had chased it all the way down.
All thanks to grinding those guilds into dust.
“Ugh... one of my old habits from Fantasy Online 1 slipped out.”
“...?”
Tae-hyun scratched his head.
Once he’d started fighting, he’d gotten excited and gone way too far.
- Praise the great demon, Tae-hyun!
- The one whose demonic blood runs thicker than demon blood itself!
[Your current standing within Edaor’s Forces is [High Command].]
[Edaor now holds the highest possible favor toward a human for you.]
[You may freely command Intermediate Horned Demons, Intermediate Large Demons, Intermediate Winged Demons, and Intermediate Black Mage Demons.]
[You may also command Superior Demon Warriors, but doing so will reduce the number of demons you can command overall.]
After tearing through a few guilds in Abalab City, the demons following Tae-hyun had started to revere him to an absurd degree.
And Edaor’s ironclad trust came on top of that.
I was just planning to wreck a few guilds and slip out, but this got way bigger than I expected.
The demons were looking at Tae-hyun with shining eyes.
Even with just these guys, he had enough force to stomp a small town flat.
- Tae-hyun. Would you grant me a name?
[The demon who has fought by your side the most is requesting promotion.]
[You may grant it a name and promote it. This demon will follow you independently.]
“...!”
A burly demon warrior with four wings on his back dropped to one knee before Tae-hyun.
Tae-hyun was slightly taken aback, but he instantly realized what was going on.
Because he had behaved so perfectly like a true demon, the demon subordinates he had led had grown stronger.
Hold on. Follow me independently? Does that mean I could even make them betray Edaor?
Thinking about it, that seemed entirely possible.
Edaor might have summoned them, but they were demons in the end.
They were the kind of race that betrayed people as casually as breathing and followed the stronger side whenever it suited them.
If I can make more demons follow me independently, that means I can keep them under my control, right? In that case...
Now that he had run out of guilds to stab in the back, Tae-hyun immediately started plotting how to stab Edaor in the back instead.
Calling him a master of betrayal wouldn’t have been an exaggeration.
“All right. Your name is...”
“...”
“Can’t think of anything. Should I just call you Long-Tailed Monkey?”
“You’re not seriously naming that demon that just because its tail’s long, are you?”
Lee Da-bi assumed Tae-hyun was joking.
He wasn’t.
“Hmm. You’re right. That’s too long. Let’s go with Longtail 1.”
“...Then why the one?”
“So if I get more later, I can just add 2, 3, and so on.”
The absolute height of laziness.
But the demon warrior nodded happily as if that name was more than enough.
“It is an honor!”
“Good. Longtail 1. Do your best.”
“My lord! If you keep using demons like this...”
“It makes me look cool? Yeah, I know.”
With that answer, Tae-hyun grabbed Yong-yong and stuffed him into his bag.
He cut off the noisy complaining in advance.
He had to go meet Edaor now, and leaving Yong-yong out for no reason could be dangerous.
No matter how well he was disguised, he was still a Divine Beast.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“All right. No one’s left in the city now... guess it’s time to go see Edaor. He’s probably still in the arena, right?”
Because Tae-hyun had done such an excellent job leading the demons and handling things, Edaor was still grandstanding in the arena.
“Tae-hyun. You’re still planning to keep clearing Edaor’s quest?”
“Originally, I was just going to wreck a few guilds and then think it over... but now I’ve got subordinates too. Honestly, I could probably make my escape soon.”
And I need to open those chests too.
The demon followers trailing after him made it impossible to open the chests he’d gotten, which was starting to irritate him a little.
“Hold it! We can’t run away!”
“Then who told you to drink that much?”
“Y-you cheap little...”
“You can’t just run off by yourself!”
Yang Sung-gyu and Lee Da-bi clung to Tae-hyun and tried to stop him.
If Tae-hyun really ditched them here, the two of them were the ones who’d be screwed.
Edaor and his subordinates were still going strong, which meant the questline would keep going, and since the two of them couldn’t flee, they’d be hooked and forced to keep clearing it.
Sure, there would be rewards, but what kind of quests did they think they’d be doing if they followed Edaor around?
Destruction quests. Quests about smashing other cities to pieces.
And afterward, they’d be the ones left holding the bag.
Tae-hyun was the sort of lunatic who never thought about things like that and just rampaged on instinct, but they were not.
When Tae-hyun shook them off, Yang Sung-gyu snapped angrily.
“You little punk... fine! If that’s how you’re going to play it, then I’ve got a plan too!”
“Oh? What are you going to do?”
“You’re not the only one clearing Edaor’s quest, are you? I’ll go to Edaor myself and borrow some subordinates!”
“...!”
Lee Da-bi, listening from beside him, looked startled.
No, wait. That was actually a great idea.
While following Tae-hyun around and beating players from other guilds into the ground, they’d built up a fair amount of contribution points themselves.
Not enough to be on Tae-hyun’s level with Edaor, but still enough to borrow demons.
“And what do you plan to do with them? It’s going to take some time before they’re up to the level of the ones I’m dragging around.”
“Still a hell of a lot better than waiting around trusting you!”
With that, Yang Sung-gyu headed for the arena where Edaor was.
Lee Da-bi followed right behind him.
Unlike Tae-hyun, who hadn’t had anything to drink, the two of them had drunk alcohol, so for now they had no choice but to continue along Edaor’s questline while looking for an opportunity.
If things went bad, Tae-hyun could always escape alone.
For them, it was far better to get demon subordinates directly from Edaor and operate independently than to keep working with a man like Tae-hyun.
“You’re not gonna stop them?”
“Nah. Those two were never going to become my enemies anyway. And guilds like Su Ning and Crying Hammer are already completely smashed...”
Having gotten everything he wanted, Tae-hyun remained perfectly calm.
And of course he did.
Unlike everyone else around here, who still had plenty to lose, Tae-hyun could simply run whenever he wanted.
Should I just bail right now?
Going after Edaor from behind promised plenty of profit, but it was just as dangerous.
At his current strength, it was impossible.
He’d need to keep clearing the questline and wait for the right opportunity.
Besides, quests where a demon showed up in a kingdom and started wreaking havoc never ended well.
No matter how strong the demon was, people would keep flocking in and focus-firing it down.
The more destruction a demon caused, the bigger the reward, which only drew even more players.
If he kept aiming for Edaor’s back, he could easily get caught up in something ugly.
At that point, it might be better to just escape now with the few demons he had already made his own.
And above all, there were the mountain-sized piles of loot he had obtained by crushing those guilds.
There was so much of it that Tae-hyun hadn’t even had time to check it all yet.
What he really wanted right now was to settle down somewhere and start raising his crafting skills.
“Huff... huff...”
“...?”
Someone came running toward the city gate, half-destroyed by the battle.
Obviously not an NPC. A player.
“What’s with that guy? Why would someone come to Abalab City right now?”
By this point, everything that had happened in Abalab City had spread across every kind of site and forum.
And even if he somehow hadn’t seen any of that, anyone who looked at the ruined area around the city should’ve been able to tell something had happened.
And yet he was still coming straight toward the city without caring.
“Who knows? Maybe there’s something here he wants.”
“What could he possibly want here?”
“Maybe he’s trying to join Edaor’s forces...”
That was plausible enough.
It wasn’t just people like Tae-hyun, who wanted to use demons to smash other guilds.
For players with black mage classes or demon-related jobs, the appearance of a demon like Edaor was a real opportunity.
“...!”
But that theory was disproven almost immediately.
The distant player spotted Tae-hyun, waved at him, and started running straight toward him.
“...He’s waving at you.”
“Then I guess he’s not trying to join Edaor’s forces. In that case...”
“He’s after you, isn’t he?”
“No, it doesn’t automatically mean he’s after me. Just because a player’s around here, he has to be targeting me?”
“If you do all that and still hope assassins won’t come after you, then you’ve got no shame.”
Cain clicked his tongue at Tae-hyun’s shamelessness.
How many players had Tae-hyun killed in Abalab City already?
If the guild members he’d force-logged out had immediately hired assassins and sent them after him, it wouldn’t have been surprising at all.
“It was a fair fight. It doesn’t have to be some assassin player after me...”
“Kim Tae-hyun...!”
“He’s calling you.”
“Damn it. Assassin it is, then.”
Tae-hyun immediately moved to draw his longsword.
“...sir!”
“...?”
“I’ve been looking for you!”
“Who are you?”
“My name’s Roy.”
“Does your guild happen to be called Team Rocket?”
“...”
The moment they met, Roy felt a surge of emotion rise in his chest.
The familiar feeling coming off Tae-hyun.
It was a lot like the feeling he’d gotten from Kim Tae-san.
A natural-born talent for turning people inside out.
While Tae-hyun was leading demons around, setting guilds against each other and smashing them to pieces, other people had been livestreaming the whole thing.
Abalab City hadn’t been occupied by guild players alone.
There were plenty of unaffiliated players there too.
When Edaor appeared and the city turned into a battlefield, they’d first fled outside, then started watching with fascinated curiosity to see what would happen inside.
“Levitation buffs here! If you watch from this hill, you can see the battle in the city perfectly!”
“How much?”
“Just 2 gold.”
“T-two gold?! You’re charging 2 gold for a levitation spell?!”
“Then don’t buy it. Plenty of people want it.”
“Drinks for battle spectators! Made by a chef with Intermediate Cooking!”
“Selling items enchanted with night vision magic so you can see straight through the darkness!”
Thanks to the fight between Tae-hyun and the guilds, a makeshift festival had sprung up outside the city.
The nearby hills were packed with players who had come to watch the battle.
Sure, Abalab City getting wrecked was technically a loss.
But the battle happening right in front of them was much more exciting.
And their opponents were the very guilds that had run wild all over the city up until now.
“O-ohhh...! The Su Ning Guild is running away!”
“Did Crying Hammer and those Holy Knight bastards win?”
But a little while later...
“Crying Hammer’s getting wiped out?!”
“What?! How’d that happen?!”
And a little later than that...
“The Holy Knight bastards are retreating! Their guild master died!”
“What?! That’s impossible!”
By the time the sun began to rise...
“...”
All that remained was stunned silence.
No one shouted anymore.
They simply watched Tae-hyun’s battle in total concentration.