A Trap Within a Trap
When people experience something completely unexpected, their brains fail to process the situation. Choigang-jjangjjangman was no exception.
“W-What? Why am I the Guild Master? Where is Su Ning? Wait, where are the other guild members?”
Babbling incoherently, Choigang-jjangjjangman frantically opened his guild status window.
Guild Member List: Choigang-jjangjjangman
※ Total Guild Members: 1
He was the Guild Master, and there wasn't a single other member. He had absolutely no idea what was going on.
“Hey! What the hell is this?! What happened?! Where is Su Ning? Where are the other guild members?!”
A massive guild like the Suning Guild having only one member? It made absolutely no sense!
“Hmph. Did you really think a prestigious guild like our Suning Guild would let a loser like you in?”
“W-What?”
“We just wanted to teach you to know your place!”
“This bastard... do you want to die?!”
Indeed. Kane's strategy, the Flying Dutchman, was an utterly wicked and underhanded scheme.
It was a time-honored trick passed down since the days of Pandemonium Online 1! The method was simple.
First, a player with nothing to lose had to take the fall. That player would create a guild. Of course, when creating the guild, they had to name it exactly the same as a famous guild and design a similar emblem.
Then, they would approach the target and send a guild invite.
Since most people only checked the guild's name and emblem, they never bothered to look at the detailed stats. Furthermore, if it was a famous guild, people would think, What a stroke of luck! Thank you so much! and accept even more readily.
Once the target eagerly clicked the accept button, they moved on to the next phase.
The Guild Master would leave the guild.
A guild was required to have a Guild Master. If the current master left without appointing a successor, the member with the highest contribution points would automatically inherit the position. Naturally, if there was only one person left, they automatically became the Guild Master!
Just like that, the target would suddenly find themselves the master of an empty guild.
It was an absurd and frustrating prank, yet there was nowhere to complain! They either had to swallow their tears and pay gold to disband the guild, or lure in another victim to pass on the master title.
While it was merely a prank in Pan-On 1, Kane had adapted and evolved it into something far more malicious.
• If you disband a guild, you cannot create a new one or join another guild for six months. This rule was established in Pan-On 2 to make guild creation and deletion a serious matter. Kane decided to exploit this.
• Pretend to be the Suning Guild and lure them in.
• Once they join, make them the Guild Master and immediately leave the guild.
• Shift all the blame onto the Suning Guild. They will find out eventually, but a guild with a reputation as bad as theirs will have a miserable time trying to explain themselves.
• Make sure the target player disbands the guild immediately so they are locked out of joining any other guild for six months!
The guild members began to move. The Power Warrior Guild members, who had nothing but time on their hands, swung into action!
“Hey there, sorry to keep you waiting! Come on in. I've sent the invite.”
“I accepted... Wait, why is there only one member? Hold on, why am I the Guild Master?! Why did you leave the guild?!”
Victims began to pile up, one after another.
At first, the Suning Guild had no idea what was happening. They never imagined there would be people dirty and underhanded enough to sabotage them like this.
A sudden deluge of whispers!
Flustered, Su Ning scrambled to make sense of the situation. After a considerable amount of time, he finally managed to grab one of the victims and hear the full story.
“What kind of crazy bastards are these?!?!”
Even upon second thought, the method was utterly absurd! To Su Ning, who had always walked the royal road of gaming since Pan-On 1, such a tactic was simply mind-boggling.
What angered him even more was that the tactic was incredibly effective! Even when they tried to explain, the Suning Guild's reputation was already so tarnished that half the players they were trying to recruit refused to believe them.
“First, we need to control the damage! Send whispers to everyone we're trying to recruit! Warn them to watch out because there are scammers impersonating our guild!”
Su Ning ground his teeth as he barked out orders. Who on earth could be sabotaging him like this?
Could this also be Kim Tae-hyun's doing...? No, surely not! There's no way he has the free time to pull something like this!
But complacency always breeds disaster. And the Power Warrior Guild was far from finished.
“Um, I've sent you an invite to the Suning Guild.”
“...Who do you think you're scamming? There's only your name on the member list!”
“Eek!”
The player brandished his sword threateningly. The Power Warrior member disguised as a Suning Guild recruiter quickly turned tail and fled.
“Seriously, there are all kinds of weirdos out there...”
He was glad he had been warned by Su Ning. The player let out a sigh of relief.
At that moment, another player came running from a distance!
“I'm so sorry! I'm late... Wait, was that another impersonator?”
“Yeah.”
“I'm so sorry!”
The player bowed repeatedly in apology.
“It's fine. I wouldn't fall for such a stupid trick anyway.”
“I'm so sorry, truly. I've sent the real invite again.”
The player received the invite and checked the member list. The names of the players in the guild! Starting with Su Ning, it was filled with Chinese-sounding names.
“Great. I accept.”
[System: User_A has left the guild.]
[System: User_B has left the guild.]
...
[System: You have become the Guild Master of the guild.]
“S-Surely...”
“You wouldn't fall for such a stupid trick, huh?”
The recruiter's face was twisted in a mocking sneer! Only then did the player realize what had happened.
These bastards set up a double trap on purpose!
The first clumsy guy was sent to get caught on purpose, and the second guy had meticulously filled the guild with fake Chinese-named alts to make it look authentic.
What terrifying dedication just to pull off a scam!
“I'll kill you!”
“Run! Run!”
“Screw this guild!”
The player immediately disbanded the guild and chased after the Power Warrior members.
And the news eventually reached Su Ning once again.
“...What? They still got scammed even after being warned?! Do those idiots not have brains?!”
At Su Ning's outburst, the others fell silent. Only those who had actually experienced it could truly understand.
“Whew, whew... No need to get angry. It's just a petty prank anyway. Probably the work of some pathetic losers who are jealous of us. As long as we explain properly, we can bring them back. Explain the situation clearly and send the invites properly.”
“Um, about that...”
“...?”
“The victims disbanded the guilds immediately... so they can't join any other guild for six months.”
“...”
Su Ning's jaw dropped. He thought they were just trying to ruin his guild's reputation by impersonating them, but there was a trap within the trap!
Oblivious to the chaos unfolding outside, Tae-hyun was fighting hard in the Demon Realm alongside his companions.
To raise their reputation in the village, they had to bring the demons what they wanted, which meant gathering Soul Stones. And the best way to obtain Soul Stones was, of course, clearing the nearby dungeons! However, they couldn't just enter any random dungeon.
Using his skill, Tae-hyun sharply distinguished between dungeons they could handle and dungeons that would get them absolutely wrecked.
Normally, being able to assess a dungeon from the outside without any prior information was a feat only possible through his unique skill, Demon's Eye. While other players had to send in an Adventurer class first and explore with bated breath to gather information, Tae-hyun bypassed all of that with a single skill.
But it was still no walk in the park. Even in the relatively weaker dungeons, the monsters of the Demon Realm were incredibly powerful, forcing the party to band together and fight with everything they had. As a result...
“...Uh, did your pet always look like that?”
“...Don't ask.”
Lee Da-bi tilted her head as she stared at Yong-yong. He looked vastly different from when she had first seen him!
Muscles! He had kept his small size, but the muscles on his wings and torso were now absolutely insane.
-Master... heh-heh... power... is surging through my veins...
Even Yong-yong's way of speaking had changed!
Tae-hyun shook his head and headed back toward the village.
“How many Soul Stones did you guys get?”
“Twelve. The drop rate is absolutely atrocious.”
“And the demons give such stingy rewards. They aren't called demons for nothing.”
The members of the Black Rock Sect grumbled as they walked. They were currently gathering Soul Stones to complete a quest given by the village demons.
Soul Stones! They were an item coveted by every single demon. Young or old, male or female, all demons sought to hoard them. Naturally, to raise their reputation in the village and get on their good side, they had to find and offer Soul Stones...
The problem was that the drop rate for these Soul Stones was abysmally low.
-You brought Soul Stones? Great. Now bring ten more. What? No reward? An insect like you being allowed in this village is reward enough!
Furthermore, the demons were incredibly stingy with their rewards. It was practically passion pay! Players doing the quests had no choice but to struggle constantly to meet the required quota.
But there was one exception. It was, of course, Tae-hyun.
Clatter!
“How many Soul Stones could you possibly bri—gasp!”
The demon's eyes widened to the size of saucers at the pile of Soul Stones Tae-hyun poured out. It was several times the amount other players had managed to gather!
“H-How?”
“We clearly fought together?!”
The Black Rock Sect members were even more shocked than the demon. They had moved together and fought the same battles, yet his haul was several times larger.
I guess this is where my Luck stat comes in handy.
Since he rarely had a chance to use it, it was easy to forget, but gathering quests like this were a breeze for Tae-hyun. It was all thanks to his absurdly high Luck stat! It was pure magic—the kind where hunting a single chicken yielded eight drumsticks, and defeating an octopus dropped twenty tentacles!
You have completed the quest perfectly! You receive an additional bonus.
Your reputation in the village has increased. The demons acknowledge you just a little bit more.
Ignoring the stingy demons, Tae-hyun felt that the time had finally come. Having raised his reputation this much, he had likely capped out what he could achieve here for now.
It was time to make a run for it! Lingering in the Demon Realm just to squeeze out a bit more profit would be far too risky. From Edaor to the countless demons who utterly loathed Archisus, there were simply too many enemies here.
“Alright. Shall we slowly make our way to the castle where the master of this floor resides?”
“Um, Count Kim Tae-hyun?”
Priest Haron raised his hand and asked hesitantly.
“...?”
“What about the other members of our order...?”
“Ah. I completely forgot about them.”
“...”
Tae-hyun's expression was so genuinely blank that he had clearly forgotten. Priest Haron and the rest of the Demer Order broke into a cold sweat.
“Y-You're joking, right...?”
“No, I really forgot. Let's go find them.”
Well, at least he was willing to go look for them. Though flustered by the blunt admission, Priest Haron nodded. He thought to himself: As expected of the hero, Count Kim Tae-hyun. He might talk like that, but his sense of responsibility is...
However, that warm thought was instantly shattered by Tae-hyun's very next words.
“I almost left all those contribution points behind.”
“...”
The other priests following behind stared at Priest Haron with utterly dumbfounded expressions. But Priest Haron quickly averted his eyes.
“I didn't hear a single thing!”