Squeezing the Priests Dry

"...!" The Tyran priest gasped, his face a mask of sheer horror. "Are you demanding a bribe?!"

"Whoa, watch your mouth. Someone might misunderstand. A bribe? No, this is a gift ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the heart."

"How on earth is that a gift from the heart?!"

"Come on. The higher the value, the more sincere the feelings. Isn't that right, Da-bi?"

"Absolutely," Lee Da-bi chimed in.

What a perfect duo!

The Tyran priest ground his teeth. "Fine! How much do you want?!"

"I'd prefer something other than gold. Hand over your Contribution Points."

"...!"

Tae-hyun demanded it so confidently, as if he were asking for something he had left in storage.

The priest of the Tyran Church replied as if it were utterly absurd. "Contribution Points can only be obtained by those who have dedicated themselves to the Church! How dare someone who has done absolutely nothing for the Tyran Church—"

"Suit yourself. Just so you know, there are other priests waiting behind you to apologize, and the further back you are in line, the more Contribution Points I'm going to squeeze out of you. If you want to minimize your losses, it's in your best interest to pay up now and get it over with."

"...Absolutely not!"

"Alright. I said suit yourself."

"I said it's out of the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠question!"

"...Are you deaf?"

Despite saying it was out of the question, the Tyran priest didn't budge an inch!

"If you're not going to do it, beat it!"

"Count Kim Tae-hyun! The continent is currently facing a crisis..."

"Ah, I'm not buying whatever you're selling. Guys! Get this priest out of my sight!"

Cain and Rufo immediately grabbed the Tyran priest by both arms.

The Tyran priest resisted with all his might!

"You can't do this! You can't do this to me!"

"Alright, next!"

There was nothing the priests, whose weaknesses had been thoroughly seized, could do. They all stubbornly insisted that Contribution Points were out of the question, but eventually, one of them began to crack.

"The Yata Church is truly magnificent! Excellent. I shall gladly accept these Contribution Points."

When the priest of the Yata Church surrendered and transferred the Contribution Points to Tae-hyun, the other priests flared up and shouted at him.

"How could you do such a thing?! Do you have no pride? To throw away the Church's Contribution Points so carelessly!"

"Isn't the priority right now to get Count Kim Tae-hyun to join the expedition?!"

Having sacrificed himself for the greater good only to be met with complaints from his colleagues, the Yata priest snapped back in frustration. Come to think of it, weren't they the ones who caused this mess in the first place?!

"You guys are the ones who couldn't keep your mouths shut and dragged everyone else into this! Instead of reflecting on your own actions, you're blaming me?!"

"W-what? Are you talking back to me now?!"

It was absolute pandemonium! The members of the continental churches, who had gathered to unite their strength and resolve the crisis of the continent, were already at each other's throats before they had even set sail.

"..."

"Isn't this getting a bit dangerous?" Rufo muttered under his breath as he watched the priests grabbing each other by the collars and hurling insults.

"Ugh... Lord Tyran. Forgive me..."

The priest of the Tyran Church, who had stubbornly held out until the very end, ended up paying the highest amount of Contribution Points!

With tears welling in his eyes, he handed the Contribution Points over to Tae-hyun.

"See? You should've done it first. Anyway, I'll put these Contribution Points to good use."

For a business transaction built entirely on a single slip of the tongue by the NPCs, it was an incredibly lucrative haul.

Getting items would have been nice, but that doesn't seem like the right move right now. Should I use these to improve our relationship?

Tae-hyun looked at the priests.

They were glaring at him with eyes full of resentment!

He highly doubted he could ever restore their relationship to a friendly state.

Hmm, I might as well just spend them elsewhere. Who cares if they hate me?

Tae-hyun didn't worry about their ruined relationship in the slightest.

As the atmosphere turned ice-cold, Priest Haron finally spoke up.

"E-everyone. You are the brave souls who have gathered here to resolve the crisis of the continent."

"..."

But the mood didn't budge. No one even wanted to look at each other.

The discord that had erupted during Tae-hyun's extortion of their Contribution Points was deep!

"Hmph! We shall take our leave first."

"As if we wanted to stay!"

The members of each church quickly boarded their respective vessels.

Watching them go, Haron collapsed to the ground.

"How... how could this happen...!"

Rufo, Cain, and even Ed-an stared at Tae-hyun.

Their eyes clearly said, What are you going to do about this?

But Tae-hyun remained completely unfazed.

"Well, since they've all boarded, I guess we can board too, right?"

"..."

"The ships are setting sail."

"Great! We raise anchor and follow them in thirty minutes!"

"But Boss, isn't this too dangerous?"

"What's dangerous?"

"It's Kim Tae-hyun. He's a top-tier ranker..."

"Have you never hunted a ranker before?"

"I mean, we have, but... we didn't exactly beat them in a fair fight. We just threw them into the ocean."

"And that's the whole point! No matter how tough they are, once they're in the water, we have the upper hand. Have you seen Smith? What do you think would happen if we threw him into the sea? He wouldn't even be able to mount that precious horse of his; he'd just be flailing around like a wet rat."

Jack, the pirate player. He had dreamed of being a pirate ever since he was a kid. Even now, his phone ringtone was still The Lonely Island's "Jack Sparrow"!

It was only natural that he chose the pirate class in Pandemonium Online.

Of course, being a pirate was no easy task. In cities, he was constantly hunted due to his high Infamy, and at sea, he had to navigate while avoiding even stronger pirates or the kingdom's navy.

But Jack was meticulous and patient. He avoided strong foes and ambushed the weak. Raiding and plundering ships was the primary way a pirate player grew!

As a result, Jack had made quite a name ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for himself in the criminal underworld.

Unlike the land, which was teeming with competitors, the relatively quiet sea was Jack's domain!

And then, a request came to him.

The request came from the Guild Alliance—a coalition that had suffered immensely at Tae-hyun's hands! The bounty was a whopping 2,000 gold.

When converted to real-world currency, it was worth nearly 100 million won! That was how much resentment the Guild Alliance had accumulated against Tae-hyun.

"Of course, a head-on clash would be difficult. I know that."

"Then what's the plan, Boss?"

"We do what we've always done. We tail them quietly. An opening is bound to present itself eventually!"

Jack hadn't survived this long by only fighting those weaker than him. Plunderer players who enjoyed PVP always faced the possibility of fighting stronger opponents. That was when raw individual skill truly shined!

Jack was an absolute master at waiting patiently for the perfect moment to strike.

"As expected of the Boss!"

"Did you swap the flags properly? We have to hide the fact that we're pirates. Make sure we have a plausible excuse ready if we get caught."

"Hehe, you know how good my Art skill is."

The players aboard the pirate ship possessed skills optimized for maritime plunder. This was clearly not their first rodeo!

"What a pain in the ass. Why does he have to have a name like Kim Tae-hyun anyway..."

Hearing Jack's grumbling, one of his subordinates spoke up.

"Are you talking about back in Pan-On 1, Boss?"

"Yeah. Just hearing the name Kim Tae-hyun gives me bad luck."

I've heard this story a hundred times already...

Back in Pan-On 1, Jack had attempted to PVP Tae-hyun, only to be thoroughly and utterly demolished! To make matters worse, Tae-hyun had been a mere blacksmith at the time, which made the psychological damage even more devastating. For a long time, Jack had been the laughingstock of the plunderer community forums.

Of course, that mockery quickly died down once the other plunderers were also systematically and politely demolished by Tae-hyun one by one...

"Anyway! Focus on the task at hand. Follow them!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Did you send the message to Jack?"

"Yeah, I sent it."

"We have to be thorough. Did you send it to the other groups as well?"

"I did, so stop worrying."

"Most of these guys are going to fail anyway... It feels like a waste of gold to pay them an advance."

"They wouldn't even budge if we didn't pay them upfront. Stop talking nonsense."

"I know. It's pocket change anyway."

The large Guild Alliance! Formed with grand ambitions and high spirits, the very first thing they did was hire assassins to target Tae-hyun.

The proportion of guilds in the alliance that had been victimized by Tae-hyun was so high that they might as well have named themselves the Kim Tae-hyun Victims Association.

There were, of course, guilds like the White Knight Guild and the Holy Knight Size King Guild that had been directly targeted and ruined by Tae-hyun, but there were also guilds that simply viewed Tae-hyun—a highly successful solo player—as a massive thorn in their side, even if they hadn't personally crossed paths with him yet.

Of course, not everyone was on the same page.

"Do we really need to obsess over Kim Tae-hyun? Especially in a situation like this?"

The masters of the guilds that hadn't been directly victimized by Tae-hyun were not pleased with the current state of affairs. To think that a coalition of the continent's top large guilds had gathered, only to waste their resources hiring assassins to deal with a single solo player. There was a limit to how embarrassing this could get!

"Exactly. We gathered here to become the strongest force on the continent, not to make fools of ourselves."

At that, Su Ning spoke up.

Tae-hyun's most loyal customer! Or rather, his most frequent victim! Perhaps because of that, Su Ning's voice carried a very real, cold-blooded murderous intent.

"We're the ones who paid the gold. Did any of you chip in?"

"..."

"And you all know the current situation in the Auston Kingdom is entirely because of Kim Tae-hyun, right? You know exactly how much our plans were derailed because of what happened there, yet you still talk like that? Showing this guy what happens when you cross our alliance is reason enough!"

"Mmm..."

The incident Tae-hyun had caused in the Auston Kingdom simply to grow the power of the Archisus Church! It was now returning to him as a massive butterfly effect. Quite a few guilds in the alliance had been planning to establish their own fiefdoms and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠territories within the Auston Kingdom.

Once they had secured their power bases, they were going to publicly announce their grand alliance and confidently march down the path of a dominant, unstoppable coalition...

But because they had been forced to waste all their resources fighting the Auston Kingdom's army, they no longer had the luxury to do so. Naturally, the guild masters' hatred for Tae-hyun only grew deeper by the day!

"What happened to the plan to recruit other guilds?"

"The invitations have all been sent out."

"Our numbers are sufficient as they are, but there's no harm in gathering more. We aren't the only large guilds out there."

"True. If we want to deal with the high-ranking solo players, we need to band together even tighter."

Ironically, very few of the top-ranking players currently competing for the peak of the leaderboard belonged to large guilds. Smith and Lee Se-yeon belonged to their own elite, small-scale guilds, while Tae-hyun was a completely solo player with no guild affiliation whatsoever!

For the large guilds, who prided themselves on supporting their high-level members through sheer numbers and meticulous cooperation, this was a massive blow to their pride.

"I know a pretty useful ranker. A guy named Roy."

"Roy?"

"Isn't that guy a notorious PKer?"

"Even if he's a PKer, a ranker is a ranker. It's in our interest to bring him in. Tell him to join if he's interested."

"Actually, I think he's currently held captive somewhere."

"...?"

"A ranker is held captive?"

The guild masters gathered in the room exchanged looks of disbelief, as if to say, Is he an idiot?

"I heard he's currently held captive by the Ultimate Matchless Guild. Apparently, they've got him completely on a leash."

"What a pathetic loser."

"Why would we even bother inviting someone like that?"

"Hear me out. I was curious, so I looked into them, and that guild is surprisingly strong. It's honestly a miracle they aren't more famous."

At those words, the other guild masters perked up.

"Really?"

"Well, elite, small-scale guilds usually fly under the radar. So, what's your point?"

"Roy said that the guild master of the Ultimate Matchless Guild absolutely despises Kim Tae-hyun."

"Aha! That guild master must have been victimized by Kim Tae-hyun as well!"

"Perfect. Invite that guild master too."

Su Ning and the leader of the Holy Knight Size King guild chattered away in excitement.

Watching them, another guild master thought to himself:

Can I really trust these guys?