I've Lived Such a Virtuous Life

"I've lived such a virtuous life... The bastards in Pan-On 1 were just weird."

If Tae-hyun's victims from Pan-On 1 heard this, they would weep tears of blood!

Sometimes, when a person's grudge surpassed a certain point, they reached a state where they no longer cared about profit or loss. Tae-hyun's victims in Pan-On 1 had reached exactly that state!

There was a reason Tae-hyun went around hiding his identity. Currently, in Pan-On 2, Tae-hyun was a famous Korean player. As one of the flagship players for a major domestic broadcasting station, most Korean players knew him, but foreign players were a different story.

Unless they had been directly targeted by Tae-hyun, few foreign players paid attention to players from other countries. Since Korea was a country famous for gaming, a fair number of people knew him, but otherwise, he would have been far less famous.

But in Pan-On 1, Tae-hyun had been a global player. It was only natural, considering he had fought for the first and second ranks during the game's golden age. In other words, his grudges were accumulated on a global scale!

Regardless, Tae-hyun felt relieved. At this rate, it didn't seem like they would be much of a hindrance in the future.

"Keep your mouths shut about what happened today," Chao growled, threatening his guild members.

The fact that they had succumbed to intimidation and leaked information about the guild alliance to Tae-hyun! In a way, the information itself wasn't that critical, but the act of betrayal was what mattered. If word got out, other guilds would use it as leverage against them.

"Of course!"

"We even turned off our streams when Kim Tae-hyun was threatening us earlier!"

The guild members raised their hands in agreement. They also had a lot to lose if they were kicked out of the alliance. Since they were chefs, support from other guilds was essential!

Meanwhile, Tae-hyun moved along and spoke to Lee Da-bi.

"Have the Power Warrior guild members spread rumors that the Restaurant Guild betrayed the alliance. Make sure to plaster it all over the Chinese websites especially."

"Understood!" Lee Da-bi replied brightly.

The two of them were in perfect sync when it came to things like this. Chao had absolutely no idea that in less than an hour, Chinese Pan-On community sites would be flooded with spam posts declaring, Chao leaked the info! Chao is a traitor!

"By the way, I heard players from other churches are getting plague-related quests. Why hasn't my church received any?"

"..."

No one could answer Tae-hyun's question. Come to think of it, it was strange. Every other church had quests popping up, calling it a continental crisis. That was why so many parties were heading to the Espa Kingdom. But why was the Archisus Church ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the only exception?

Is it because we lack pedigree?

If the other NPCs of the church heard this, they would weep! But Tae-hyun was cold and objective. No matter how he looked at it, the Archisus Church felt like a gathering of classless swindlers. Who cared if a continental crisis was looming! Was that why no quests were appearing? Because they didn't care whether the continent fell or not?

Thinking about it that way makes it a bit sad.

The truth about Archisus he had heard in the Demon Realm... Considering that, this theory was surprisingly persuasive.

"I just checked, and there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠are quite a few parties gathering members in the southern part of the Espa Kingdom. They seem to be preparing to clear the quest. Wouldn't it be best to join one of them?" Lee Da-bi said after checking the community boards.

Currently, the players gathered in the southern Espa Kingdom to resolve the plague curse were divided into two categories.

The first category consisted of players who wanted to clear it themselves and monopolize all the rewards. Usually, these were parties that included rankers. They were confident in their own skills and believed they could clear it with a small, elite group.

The second category consisted of players who lacked the confidence to clear it on their own and preferred to gather more people to tackle it as a large raid party. Although they lacked rankers, most of them were high-level players. Unless they were high-level, they wouldn't even dream of challenging a continental quest like this.

"That sounds like a plan. As long as I can piggyback on someone else's quest."

If he could just resolve the plague curse, he would receive the blacksmith arcane skill. Otherwise, he could just gather all the combatants from each church and raid Saruon! Tae-hyun was genuinely planning to raid Saruon if the arcane skill turned out to be garbage.

"Then let's go!"

"Wait, let's all disguise ourselves first."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Since all three of them had caused trouble in the Espa Kingdom before, it would be a headache if they got caught by the NPCs.

"Make my disguise pretty, please!"

"Is there even any point to that?"

After traveling with Tae-hyun, the group now accepted disguises as a matter of course. Disguising themselves was as natural as breathing!

A massive crowd of players could be seen in Kudba City, a southern city of the Espa Kingdom. Since it was a kingdom where many players who chose the Orc race started, there were quite a few Orcs as well. However, there was one peculiar thing: everyone was keeping as much distance from each other as possible, trying to avoid any contact! If anyone got even slightly close, they reacted sharply.

"Why are you coming closer?! Why are you approaching me?! Are you cursed?!"

"Cursed? No way! We aren't even close enough to touch!"

The players snapped at each other if the distance between them closed even slightly! It couldn't be helped, as a single mistake could get them cursed. Furthermore, the moment someone was cursed, most parties refused to accept them.

"It looks like they won't accept anyone who's cursed."

"What do we do?"

Cain and Lee Da-bi panicked. Both of them were currently cursed. Seeing this, Tae-hyun clicked his tongue.

"It can't be helped. I'll go in first and talk to them nicely."

"Does 'talking nicely' even work in this situation?"

"I just have to go in and show them my skills."

Tae-hyun confidently approached a party that was recruiting. The party leader looked Tae-hyun up and down.

"May I ask what your class is?"

"I'm in the rogue branch."

In Pan-On, even when joining a party, one didn't have to state their exact class. Because there was such a vast variety of classes, a class's identity was valuable information in itself. Usually, players would just state which branch of classes they belonged to.

"If you're in the rogue branch, can you deal a lot of burst damage?"

"Of course."

Tae-hyun's answer was filled with sincerity. When it came to burst damage, Tae-hyun was the undisputed king! His class was one that exploded damage through powerful luck and stat buffs. Although Tae-hyun was raising it in an even more unique way by mixing in his signature jack-of-all-trades spirit...

"Oh, really? We were actually looking for more damage dealers."

Sensing the confidence in Tae-hyun's voice, the party leader was pleased. Usually, players who spoke with such confidence actually had the skills to back it up.

"And you're not cursed, right?"

"Yes."

"Hmm, what else... Ah. Your level is obviously over 100, right?"

"...Pardon?"

"Excuse me?"

Usually, players trying to clear this kind of quest were high-level players who had easily surpassed level 100! It was such an obvious condition that the party leader hadn't even thought it necessary to ask, but for Tae-hyun, it was a completely different story. Far from level 100...

Tae-hyun wasn't even level 80!

"..."

An awkward silence suddenly descended.

"Are you, by any chance, below that?"

"Yes..."

"I'm sorry, then..."

Tae-hyun was rejected! The party leader had absolutely no idea that the player under level 100 speaking to him was actually the legendary Kim Tae-hyun. If he had known, he would have welcomed him with open arms!

Tae-hyun turned around and walked away dejectedly. He looked so pitiful that one could almost picture autumn leaves falling over his shoulders. From behind him, voices drifted over.

"Why did you reject him?"

"He said his level is under 100..."

"Wait, he came all the way here when he's not even level 100? Where does he get that confidence?"

"..."

Tae-hyun didn't get angry. He merely thought to himself:

If we meet in a dungeon, please, I beg of you, attack me first!

"We need to gather party members quickly and enter the dungeon. There are way too many parties around here right now."

"There's so much information floating around that it's confusing. By the way, I heard rumors that Kim Tae-hyun doesn't get cursed. Is that true?"

"Even that ranker rogue got cursed, so how did Kim Tae-hyun avoid it? Isn't it just a baseless rumor? Maybe he just dodged it?"

"There's so much talk about Kim Tae-hyun's class anyway. He might have blocked it with a hidden skill."

"There's a rumor that Gabriel, the one who caused the recent incident, is Kim Tae-hyun's disciple. Could that be true?"

"I watch all of Kim Tae-hyun's streams, and I've never seen Gabriel on them. If it were Cain, maybe."

Now, Cain was being treated as Tae-hyun's disciple of all things.

"So Gabriel really has nothing to do with him?"

"Still, I feel like Kim Tae-hyun will show up here."

"Oh, really? Why?"

The party member's face lit up at the party leader's words.

"His name was brought up. If it's Kim Tae-hyun, he'd definitely show up to resolve this."

"Wow, I've always wanted to see Kim Tae-hyun in person!"

Meanwhile, Tae-hyun was walking away dejectedly in the background, completely excluded from their attention!

"It's highly likely Kim Tae-hyun would come."

"Right?! I'm really looking forward to it."

"Hey, we should focus on clearing it ourselves."

"Hehe, true."

"If we clear this, our church contribution points are guaranteed. Once I clear this, I'm going to walk around with paladins in tow."

"Why are you back?" Cain asked in surprise.

With Tae-hyun's skills, it was absurd that he couldn't get into a party.

"...I hit a restriction."

"What restriction?"

"Just wait here. I'll go try somewhere else."

"What kind of restriction did you hit?!"

Tae-hyun didn't answer and tried his luck with other parties. But every single time...

"You're at least level 100, right?"

"We only accept level 110 and above."

"Wait, you're not even level 90, so why did you come here? Aren't you being a bit ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠too shameless? This guy is totally trying to get a free ride."

The responses were sharp and biting!

Tae-hyun turned his gaze to Cain. And he thought:

Should I just grab that guy and hurl him right at these party members?

He felt a sudden urge to spread the plague curse to everyone! In the end, Tae-hyun had to give up and return. Lee Da-bi looked at him with warm, sympathetic eyes.

"It happens."

"...Stop it, that hurts even more...!"

Sympathy was far more painful than criticism!

In the midst of this, someone approached Tae-hyun. Judging by his equipped gear, he was quite high-level.

"Excuse me, are you looking for a party?"

"?"

"Would you like to join our party?"

"What about the level 100 restriction?"

"Haha, we don't mind that."

"!"

"Instead, we have quite a few players in our party who are already afflicted with the plague curse... so it might be a bit tough during combat."

Indeed. The players who desperately wanted to resolve the plague curse first were those who had already caught it. If they couldn't solve it, the game itself became nearly unplayable!

"Since we're all cursed, we figured we need strength in numbers, so we're gathering as many people as possible. However, you shouldn't expect any healing, and you'll have to fend for yourself."

Quantity over quality! This was the strategy chosen by the players afflicted with the plague curse.