A Feast Fit for Hunters
"If you go around PKing people like this, won't you get penalized too?"
"You mean getting locked out of towns? That wears off after a while."
If you killed other players at will, your Infamy went up, and town guards could arrest you on sight.
But even that could be managed.
Kill someone once, wait for the penalty to expire, then do it again.
These guys were used to that kind of play.
"So this is about the Orc head?"
"Yeah. You low-level scrubs."
"How long are you gonna keep yapping? Hand over the Orc head, or die."
Choi Ha-jun and Choi Ha-yeong exchanged glances.
They look way too high-level.
Even if everyone here rushed them together... would that even work?
The rest of the party thought the same thing.
And the fact that they had shown up as just the two of them meant they were that confident in their skills.
Not just in their levels, but in one-on-one combat and PK too.
Maybe it was better to just hand over the Orc head...
But seriously, they're doing all this over an Orc head?
It made no sense.
The thing was, they had more of them back at camp anyway.
Still, giving it up seemed like the safer option.
They could always collect another one.
While they were thinking that, Tae-hyun let out a quiet snort of laughter.
Kim Tae-hyun genuinely liked players who enjoyed PK.
Why?
Because killing scum like that came with no penalty!
On top of that, PK players tended to drop really good gear when they died.
Experience, quality items, and no penalty for killing them—
they were the most nourishing prey in the whole game.
Before Tae-hyun had started hunting down rankers, the ones he'd farmed to build up strength had been PK players.
"Ha. This really takes me back."
Grinning, Tae-hyun sprinted forward.
"?!"
"Is that idiot insane?"
Choi Eun-cheol, who had already finished preparing his spell, hurled a fireball at Tae-hyun.
A mage with a spell fully prepared had some of the highest burst damage of any class.
Tae-hyun wasn't even wearing heavy armor like a warrior, so trash like him should've been easy to—
A fireball. It's not like it has homing or anything. It just shoots straight out from the mage's fingertips.
He didn't even need to rely on Luck to dodge something this basic.
The fireball's trajectory was so obvious he could've seen it with his eyes closed.
Boom!
So close it made the onlookers' hearts lurch, Tae-hyun barely slipped past the fireball.
He'd dodged it because he trusted his skill, but to everyone watching, it looked like nothing but dumb luck.
"He dodged it?!"
"You can't even hit that?!"
Kim Byeong-guk snapped at his friend and raised his axe.
With a heavy rush of air, the blow came down at Tae-hyun.
"You... should realize you picked the wrong opponent."
"...?"
There was a certain kind of player Tae-hyun loved fighting in both Fantasy Online 1 and Fantasy Online 2.
Slow types who bet everything on one big hit.
Warrior builds that sacrificed speed in exchange for defense, HP, and attack power.
In PK, few classes were more terrifying than that.
But to Tae-hyun, they were basically just food.
The movement he could read from the opponent's shoulders, elbows, eyes, feet...
Wham!
He dodged?!
Kim Byeong-guk was stunned.
Sure, his attack was on the slow side—but it wasn't so slow that some low-level nobody should've been able to dodge it.
Tae-hyun had read it before the attack even came, predicted it, and moved first.
A naturally gifted monster.
Kim Byeong-guk swung his axe again.
But he couldn't so much as graze the hem of Tae-hyun's clothes.
"The hell?! Is this a bug?!"
He couldn't help but think so.
Never in all his PKs had he ever failed to touch someone even once.
"I told you. You picked the wrong opponent. By the way... what level are you?"
"Shut up, you piece of shit!"
Lucky Strike — 5 seconds remaining.
"Well. You seem over level 50, so this probably won't kill you."
"What the hell are you—"
Tae-hyun darted in and thrust his sword straight for his chest.
Kim Byeong-guk instinctively raised himself to guard.
Steel Resolve
One of the defensive skills of the Rare class Steel Axe Warrior.
It was an incredibly powerful defensive skill that instantly increased defense by 100%.
The moment he used it, Kim Byeong-guk regretted it.
It wasn't a skill he should've wasted on someone like Tae-hyun.
But his body had activated it on instinct.
That was how much pressure he was under.
From someone who had done nothing but dodge him.
A critical hit has landed!
The target has been inflicted with Bleeding.
The target has entered Near-Death.
The target has been afflicted with Mortal Wound.
"Guhk!"
His vision blurred in an instant.
That was how much damage he'd taken.
"Oops. Guess I stacked Lucky Strike a little too much."
He hadn't known exactly how strong the opponent was, so he'd layered Lucky Strike like crazy.
"Wh-what the... insane..."
HP has fallen to 0.
You have died.
The sliver of health he had left was erased by the status damage, and he died on the spot.
Kim Byeong-guk hadn't managed to land even a single proper hit before going down.
"......"
"......"
The area fell silent.
Choi Ha-jun, Choi Ha-yeong, and the rest of the party had gone speechless because Tae-hyun's strength was so far beyond anything they'd imagined.
As for Choi Eun-cheol—
I'm screwed!
Even if they were both level 50, there was a huge difference between a mage and a warrior.
A level 50 warrior could frontally crush level 30 players all by himself.
A level 50 mage couldn't do that.
He'd get attacked and die before he finished preparing his spells.
That was the price of wielding powerful magic.
"Looks like you understand your situation."
Tae-hyun looked at Choi Eun-cheol with a mocking sneer.
Choi Eun-cheol flinched.
"Wh-what?"
"Your friend's dead. Guess you won't be seeing him for 72 hours."
"D-don't come any closer!"
"Quit bluffing, you little mage bastard. You've got no tank in front of you now, do you? No friends, no underlings..."
"If you come any closer, I'll fire! I swear I'll fire!"
At the tip of his staff, a blazing fireball swelled.
There was only one way out now.
He had to threaten them with this and run for it.
If nothing else, he could instantly kill the first one who charged him.
"You do realize that the second you fire that, the people behind me kill you on the spot, right?"
"Shut up!"
"Everyone! If this friendless mage bastard casts, just rush him! It'll take him a while to prepare another one anyway!"
"I said shut up!"
Choi Eun-cheol shouted, sweat pouring down his face.
"By the way, what level was your friend?"
"......"
"Oh? Not answering? Should I charge, then? If I charge, you're dying right here, aren't you? And since you've been PKing too, your penalty's gonna be even worse. If you lose your gear now, that's not gonna be easy to recover."
The threats came smoothly, one after another, without Tae-hyun even seeming to breathe.
It was one of the things he did best.
Choi Eun-cheol felt like he was suffocating.
"F-fifty... fifty-six..."
"56?"
Tae-hyun was a little surprised.
Level 56?
That meant he'd closed a gap of almost 30 levels.
No matter how favorable the matchup was, a 30-level gap wasn't something you bridged easily.
More impressive than I thought... though I did dump over two thousand points into one stat, so I guess that kind of result makes sense.
Now he was certain.
Certain that the method he was using to raise his character would work.
Yeah. With this much Luck, I can survive even without a class.
"Hey. Backing up's fine, but watch where you're going. You'll trip."
At Tae-hyun's words, Choi Eun-cheol stopped retreating.
Then he glanced behind him.
"Idiot."
"...!"
And Tae-hyun lunged immediately.
The advantage of Lucky Strike was that unlike flashy skills, you could use it without anyone noticing.
"Aaaagh!"
A critical hit has landed!
The target has been killed instantly!
Swordsmanship proficiency has increased.
Collapsing, Choi Eun-cheol glared at Tae-hyun with eyes full of resentment.
"You bastard... you tricked me...!"
"If you believed me, you're the idiot. Who the hell trusts the guy standing right in front of them? Even if I hadn't killed you, somebody else would've. You and your friend don't have any talent for PK. Stop acting tough and just quietly level your character instead. Got it?"
The kind of vicious trash talk that left people speechless.
Choi Eun-cheol wanted to curse him out, but death triggered an automatic logout before he could.
"Man, the quality of these brats is even worse than in Fantasy Online 1."
The PK players who'd made a name for themselves back in Fantasy Online 1 had been on a whole different level.
Real lunatics who lived for PK.
Every kind of trap imaginable, terrain abuse as standard practice, and some of them even dragged NPCs or monsters into fights.
And Tae-hyun had hunted those guys.
Compared to that, a pair of idiots swaggering up this confidently was laughable.
"Now then, let's see what kind of gear you've got..."
Since they had initiated the PK first, they'd dropped important items on death.
The penalty for PK.
Of course, neither of them had even considered the possibility that they'd lose, so they'd never worried about it.
◈ Burning Steel Heavy Armor
◈ Burning Steel Axe
◈ Belt of Grit (+1)
He'd gotten the main pieces—the armor and the weapon.
When they logged back in, they'd probably cry tears of blood.
Grinning broadly, Tae-hyun gathered up the mage's gear too.
◈ Magic Tower Flame Stone Staff (+2)
◈ Earring of Mana Recovery
Just hearing the names, you could tell they were expensive.
"Wow... these guys are seriously screwed, huh?"
His mouth said he was concerned, but his face was beaming.
Still smiling, Tae-hyun finished collecting the loot and turned around.
The party members were staring at him in a daze.
"Um... would it be all right if I asked roughly what level you are?"
"No."
"...Pardon?"
"I said no."
"?!"
Rejected without even a second's thought.
That question had only come because Tae-hyun was so absurdly strong.
I mean, really—he'd handled two players over level 50 with ease.
They knew he had a Rare class, but they still wanted to know what kind and what level he was.
Not that they were expecting an exact answer; even something vague like I'm over 50 would've done.
Whether he was over 40 or over 50 wasn't all that precise anyway.
"Ah... right..."
Choi Ha-yeong was instantly embarrassed.
No one had ever shut her down like that when she'd asked politely before.
Part of that was because of her manners.
Part of it was because of her looks.
A pretty face, a kind attitude, and on top of that, a Priest class—there wasn't a single person in Fantasy Online 2 who didn't like that combination.
If anything, most people volunteered information first just to get in her good graces.
But Tae-hyun wasn't the kind of person who cared about any of that.
The second I tell them my level, they'll start thinking something's off.
Even if he told them he was in his twenties, there was no way they'd believe him.
The atmosphere turned awkward all at once.
Choi Ha-yeong and the others wanted to ask more about Tae-hyun, but he had cut her off so sharply that they couldn't bring themselves to keep pressing.
To be blunt, what exactly were they supposed to ask a man who had crushed two level-50-plus players in an instant?
Tae-hyun was the one who finally broke the silence.
"For now, let's head back to the fortress. We've got the Orc heads."
"Right!"
One of the party members nodded as if he'd been given a reprieve.
"As for the people who died here... they'll be back in 72 hours, so we can just call them again then."
"Come to think of it, what level are you now?"
"Twenty-three!"
"What? 23? Already?"
Tae-hyun was startled.
Level 23.
Ji-su had been a fair bit lower level than him before.
Tae-hyun was currently level 26.
Compared to the gap they'd had before, her growth speed was insane.
"One of the Tyrum Ranger passive skills gives bonus experience, so maybe that's why?"
"......"
A Heroic class, huh.
If that was the reason, it made sense.
At this rate, is she going to catch up to me soon?
As if she had read his mind, Ji-su muttered under her breath.
"That's why you should've changed classes into a Tyrum Ranger with me..."
"No thanks."
Tae-hyun opened his character window.
He had leveled up from that fight earlier.
Finally hit 2500?
His current Luck was 2495.
All he needed was 5 more points to reach 2500.