The Map I Suffered to Get
"I went through hell to get this map, and now you want me to just hand it over?"
"That may be true, but isn't it too dangerous? If Gardu finds out..."
"It's fine. If the time comes when we need to offer up the map later, we'll just send Pelmas. If he gets caught, he'll deal with it somehow."
Such cold-bloodedness, with not even a second's hesitation!
Ed-an, who had been listening from the side, spoke up.
"N-no, Tae-hyun-nim! That's a bit too much for Pelmas..."
"You want to do it?"
"...You truly are too kind to me!"
"Since we're at it, I should give the position to Pelmas. He likes titles, so he'll probably be happy."
For the crime of not being present, Pelmas ended up assigned to the most dangerous role.
Not long after, the fake maps were finished.
Since the players' skill levels weren't all the same, the maps varied wildly in quality. Some were crude; some looked convincing.
Tae-hyun selected the best one and wrapped it up neatly.
"What do you think? This should fool him, right?"
"It's perfect! Tae-hyun-nim! If that idiot Gardu sees this, he'll fall for it completely!"
Ed-an began rubbing his hands together and buttering him up. The moment he'd seen Pelmas get assigned the most dangerous role, his survival instincts had kicked in.
"By the way, Ed-an."
"Yes?"
"You're the Great Thief, aren't you?"
"...I'm not a Great Thief!"
With his survival instincts in full force, Ed-an immediately caught on.
He's trying to make me do something difficult and dangerous right now!
"Haven't you been going around calling yourself one all this time?"
"I said former Great Thief! Right now I'm a washed-up relic with both arms cut off!"
"You got new arms, didn't you? It's fine. I trust your skills."
If anyone else had said it, it might've sounded moving.
When Tae-hyun said it, it only sounded terrifying.
"Sob... sniff..."
"..."
When Ed-an started crying, both Tae-hyun and Rufo looked baffled.
"Ed-an."
"Sniff, sob, sob!"
"Ed-an."
When Tae-hyun's voice softened, Rufo briefly wondered if he was going to go easy on him.
Of course he wasn't.
"You need to practice fake crying a little more."
"..."
Ed-an lifted his head.
His face was spotless—not a single tear in sight.
"I'm not making you do it right now. It's for later. No need to worry so much."
"Understood."
"And if you run and get caught, I'll kill you."
"W-what are you saying? Why would I run? This Archisus Church is my home, and..."
Caught with his true intentions exposed, Ed-an stammered.
"I'm not joking. I'll really hunt you down and kill you, so don't run."
"..."
Ed-an retreated with a gloomy face, and Rufo asked,
"But Tae-hyun-nim, wouldn't one fake map be enough?"
The fake maps the painter players had made weren't just one or two.
Tae-hyun had gathered every last one of them.
"Well, better to have several than one. Might come in handy someday."
"What on earth would you even use them for..."
"That's none of your concern, Rufo. Follow me. And bring Cain too."
"What are you trying to do?"
"I'm going to make a few more things to sell at the auction."
"?"
Rufo tilted his head.
They'd already gathered and organized all the loot meant for auction.
Items and treasure were piled up like mountains.
What else was there left to sell?
"That bastard's snooping around over there again."
"Hey! I told you to get lost!"
The assassins, who'd been hatching plans in a corner of the territory to ambush Tae-hyun, grew annoyed when they saw that same player from earlier loitering around again.
They had a mountain of things to do, and some nobody was getting in their way.
"?"
But that player wasn't alone this time.
Behind him was a face that looked oddly familiar...
"Huh?!"
"What is it?"
"That's Cain!"
"What? That Cain? The one they say would gladly throw his life away for Kim Tae-hyun?"
"..."
Cain gripped the weapon in his hand tightly.
Then, seething, he charged at them.
"Where the hell did you hear that kind of crap?!"
"We've been spotted! Run!"
The assassin players panicked and tried to flee.
After all, what they'd aimed for was a sneak attack on Tae-hyun from the shadows—not a frontal confrontation.
If they could beat Tae-hyun head-on, they wouldn't be skulking around here in the first place.
Slave's Chain
"?!"
Hearing such a bizarre skill name, the assassins flinched.
Slave's Chain?
Clink—!
A gleaming chain shot out of midair, binding Cain to the nearest assassin player.
Crunch!
Then it yanked them together.
The distance vanished in an instant.
"The Warrior of Red Blood class didn't have a skill like that, did it?!"
"...It's a new one, you bastards!"
Hearing the assassins say that, Cain found himself startled all over again.
These bastards... they really did dig up everything on me.
Cain's class, Warrior of Red Blood, was fairly well known.
Unlike Tae-hyun's class, which nobody knew, Cain's information could be found easily enough.
Still—every single one of these guys showing up with his full skill list memorized?
That son of a bitch Kim Tae-hyun was actually right...
For all of Tae-hyun's problems, the attacks aimed at Cain didn't look trivial either.
Now that it had come to this, changing classes was starting to feel like it had truly been the right choice.
But Cain couldn't admit that.
Because...
The class name was Archisus's Slave!
A class name he absolutely could not accept!
Slave's Loyalty
"Is that really Warrior of Red Blood?!"
"That's not Cain, is it?!"
Thrown into confusion, the assassins abandoned even their comrade and started running.
Black Assassin's Stealth
Marked Retreat Stealth
Stealth skills triggered one after another.
But the stealth was meaningless.
Eye of Insight has activated.
Stealth skill failed. The target has been revealed.
"What?!"
Grrr—
The demons howled viciously.
Wearing those weird, uncomfortable stone armors had only made them more irritable.
Once Longtail 1's Eye of Insight stripped away the stealth, the players cried out in confusion.
"Gargoyles?! What the hell, who summoned those?!"
"Take them out!"
Bzzzzzt!
But the demons weren't the only ones there.
Now that the Archisus Church had been fully restored, Yong-yong had also grown far stronger.
A bizarre combination—a divine beast leading demons around!
"Aaaagh!"
You are paralyzed and unable to move for a short time.
-How dare you!
KABOOM!
"Th-those things... the Archisus Church summoned them!"
One of the players, at least smart enough to think under pressure, finally realized what they were facing.
-That's right! I am—
"These gargoyles! They're gargoyles summoned by the Archisus Church!"
-...
Yong-yong fell silent for a moment.
The winged demons around him awkwardly avoided his gaze.
-Are you blind? Comparing me to those filthy creatures—!
I am nothing like—
But the players weren't listening to Yong-yong anyway.
They had bigger problems right now.
"I'll use the scroll! Run while you can!"
Divine Seal Scroll
It was a scroll that weakened the power of enemies with Divine stats.
One of the assassins had it on him.
As befitted an assassin class focused heavily on PVP, he carried all kinds of player-killing tools.
The problem was that he used the scroll on the demons.
Fwhaaa!
A black brand flew toward the demons in stone armor.
Yong-yong had already darted upward into the sky and avoided the scroll attack.
"Go!"
When the winged demons didn't immediately move, the assassin players waved their hands and shouted.
Then they dashed forward.
-...
THUD!
"Kghk?!"
The winged demons had stood still until the players came close—then smashed them with brutal force.
"But why aren't you killing them?"
Cain tilted his head.
In front of him were the players they'd taken prisoner.
"What? How can you so casually tell me to kill people?"
"..."
"I'm kidding. I've got a use for them."
"Ah. You're going to use them as hostages!"
Cain pointed at Tae-hyun as if he'd figured it out.
Among the players who had come to attack Tae-hyun here, there were bound to be some from guilds.
Not all of them would be independents hired by others to carry out the attack.
If they captured those kinds of players, they could be used as hostages.
"Huh? Hostages for what?"
"...That wasn't it?"
"To begin with, it'd be hard to attack me in this territory."
"Aren't you a little too confident? Do you have any idea how many people hold grudges against you?"
"Ah. Here they are."
"?"
"Out there on the horizon. What do you see?"
"An army...? What the hell? Who's leading them?"
"Count Marcel and Count Anong."
"?!"
Of course Tae-hyun had expected bloodshed during the auction.
If not a direct ambush, then there would definitely be people who came intending to stir up a large-scale battle.
Even if they failed to kill Tae-hyun, damaging the territory alone would be enough.
To stop that, ordinary measures wouldn't cut it.
What Tae-hyun had over other players was this:
Connections.
His ties with nobles.
This time, Tae-hyun had mobilized that advantage completely.
Count Marcel and Count Anong, both indebted to him, had each led their knight orders and were now on their way to attend the auction as "guests."
Guess I've used up all my Count Marcel contribution points with this. Still, it's a relief I could bring Count Anong too...
It didn't matter.
Once the auction ended, he could just gift them some good items and raise his contribution again.
The players' expressions changed the moment they saw the knight orders marching in disciplined formation from afar.
Some of them looked as if the sky itself had fallen.
Naturally, those were the ones who had arrived early to attack Tae-hyun.
"Honestly, why are people so bad at letting go of grudges?"
Tae-hyun said shamelessly.
"..."
"We can't give up!"
"Then what are you planning to do?"
"We cause chaos and run! At the very least, we have to destroy the buildings under construction, don't we?! That fucking Kim Tae-hyun! Son of a—! Bastard! I'll kill—!"
By the end, it was almost all profanity.
That was how deep the grudge ran among the guild members gathered here.
They were members of the Suning Guild.
"Do you know what I had to do to get that?! I cleared six chained quests! Six! And that bastard just swooped in and stole it all!"
"This is the fifth time you've told us. That's enough."
"I will not stop! I'll kill him! Kim Tae-hyun! I'll tear it all down! Kim Tae-hyun!"
Leaving the enraged guild member to vent, the others began discussing matters among themselves.
"Guildmaster, I don't think directly hitting them is possible anymore. There are too many NPCs. And they look high-level too."
At the moment, the Valley of Despair and Sorrow still didn't have that many buildings.
But once the two counts arrived with their knight orders and soldiers, there'd be hardly any opening to destroy anything.
"Hmm... Is there no way to wreck the buildings and escape? I want to interfere somehow."
Suning still refused to give up.
And honestly, he had every reason to.
How much had he lost because of Kim Tae-hyun?
So many strong guild members dead. Items dropped. Quests they had invested in ruined.
And on top of that, the city of Abalab—which they'd poured so much into—was obliterated.
If their guild warehouse hadn't been so deep, the guild might've outright disbanded from the blow.
In fact, he'd heard that one of the other guilds that got hit back then had actually collapsed after internal strife.
"What about allying with the others?"
"Allying?"
"We can't be the only ones here to attack Kim Tae-hyun."
"That's true."
There was one thing everyone acknowledged without argument.
Kim Tae-hyun had an astonishing number of enemies.
If they were the only people here holding a grudge against him, that would have been the truly shocking part.