Evangeline's Tears of Regret
"Sob... Sob, sob, sob..."
Evangeline was beating the ground in regret! Tae-hyun looked at her, utterly dumbfounded.
"What are you doing over there?"
"What are you going to do about this! My curse was lifted!"
"Uh... congratulations?"
"That's not it!"
Since her curse had been lifted, Tae-hyun offered his congratulations first. Of course, this only made Evangeline's stomach turn even more!
Evangeline lunged to grab Tae-hyun by the collar. Naturally, Tae-hyun didn't just let himself get caught. Instead, he shoved Cain, who was standing right next to him, forward as a shield.
"?!"
Cain gasped in surprise at the sudden message window popping up in front of him.
"Why me?!"
"I couldn't let myself get caught... Oh, wait, it wouldn't have mattered to me anyway."
Come to think of it, Tae-hyun wasn't really affected by Evangeline's penalty.
"Sob... I finally thought I could play Pan-On with friends..."
"It's fine."
"...?"
"You don't need friends."
"That's not what I meant!"
Tae-hyun had a unique knack for making people even angrier when trying to comfort them.
Evangeline spoke in a resigned voice. "I'm the idiot for coming to help you out of a sense of obligation."
Since Evangeline seemed so deeply depressed, Tae-hyun decided to agree with her for now.
"Yeah. I think so too."
"Do you seriously want to die?!"
"Why are you mad when I'm agreeing with you?!"
"Sigh, seriously..."
Evangeline shook her head and stood up. It was time to accept reality! No matter how much she cried and denied it, nothing would change.
"I thought my days of suffering because of my bad luck were finally over..."
"Let's look on the bright side. If you stick close to someone when fighting, they get hit with an extra penalty. How great is that? Just touching them blasts them with bad luck!"
For Tae-hyun, who loved PvP, this was a highly coveted advantage! Furthermore, since he had zero interest in party play with friends, it was an even better feature.
"I don't need any of that, so just let me play in a party..." Evangeline muttered in a low voice.
"Come to think of it, didn't you say you founded the Archisus Church?"
"I did."
It had been a while since they last saw each other, but Evangeline had heard that Tae-hyun had established the Archisus Church. He was the first player to revive a religion! Naturally, most players in Pan-On knew about it.
"It's a god related to luck, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"If I join, is there something that increases my Luck?"
"There is, but I doubt it'll be enough to cover your -999 Luck. The priests of my church are only low-grade or intermediate, so even if they bless you..."
The Archisus Church priests he had hired in droves from the Auston Kingdom, and the new ones hired from his territory. These NPCs were in charge of trivial tasks, like giving players various daily quests and rewarding them. Of course, they also performed ordinary roles like bestowing blessings on players who joined the Archisus Church, so Tae-hyun knew what level their blessings were.
A blessing level that slightly increased Luck, or randomly gave a special effect! Of course, even that was a massive boon to players blinded by gambling—no, crafting. Moreover, the success stories of players who beat the slim odds and succeeded made other players highly interested.
However, as the head of the church, Tae-hyun had a cold, realistic grasp of the priests' capabilities. Out of all players, Tae-hyun understood the Archisus Church the best.
'Compared to other churches, we have too few high-ranking NPCs. And the ones we do have are all weirdos...'
An exiled knight, a gambler, a former master thief, a copyist... One of the Archisus Church's biggest weaknesses was its lack of NPCs! Considering that even the Sadiq Church, which was ostracized continent-wide, had powerful NPCs like the Sadiq Archbishop and the Holy Knight Commander, it was obvious where the Archisus Church stood.
"I see..." Evangeline's shoulders slumped.
"Ah, come to think of it, it might be possible with an artifact."
"You have one?!"
"No, not yet..."
"..."
"But I think I can make one if I clear a quest."
"Let's go clear it! I'll help you!" Evangeline cheered up again and shouted.
But Tae-hyun shook his head. Of course, having a ranker like Evangeline help him for free was extremely convenient, but...
"I have to go to the Arena."
"Ah, right... You do..."
He had a prior engagement! Still, to make sure he could use Evangeline later, Tae-hyun spoke kindly.
"I'll go clear it right after the Arena is over, so don't worry. I'll call you then."
"Thank you so mu—wait, there's no way you'd be this nice?" Evangeline paused. Her despair had clouded her judgment, but this was simply too strange.
Tae-hyun put on a serious face. "Wow, I try to help and this is what I get? Fine. My feelings are hurt."
"N-No, it's not that I won't help... It's just weird that you're being nice..."
Though her words were polite, the underlying meaning remained the same. She brought this on herself! However, Tae-hyun maintained a completely shameless, straight face.
"I'm being nice because you ended up like this after coming to help me. Actually, if I had caught the Archbishop myself, I might have been able to solve your problem..."
"!!"
Evangeline's eyes changed. A murderous glare directed at the players who had scaled the cliff and stolen the Archbishop kill! If there weren't people around, she looked ready to pounce and slaughter them right then and there.
"Well, what can we do? It is what it is. I'll call you when I do the quest, so make sure to come."
"Okay. See you at the Arena then."
"...?"
"??"
"What do you mean, see you at the Arena?" Tae-hyun didn't understand why Evangeline was saying they'd meet at the Arena.
"I mean, because I'm participating in the Arena tournament too?"
"The qualifiers?"
"No, straight to the main tournament. The invited Canadian team. Wait... I thought you were also invited by the broadcasting station to participate directly in the main tournament? Why don't you know?"
Evangeline tilted her head. It would be one thing if he wasn't participating at all, but Tae-hyun was someone who had received an invitation from the station to go straight to the main tournament. There was no reason for him not to know about the Canadian representative team, whose participation in the main tournament was already decided!
"Don't tell me you haven't even looked at the participant list? No matter how much... Wait, you really haven't, have you?!"
"Haha. Why bother looking at names? They're all people I don't know anyway."
"Have some interest in the tournament you're actually playing in!" Evangeline scolded him.
"Anyway, see you in the main tournament."
"But with your -999 Luck, can you even do team play with your teammates?"
A verbal jab that struck right where it hurt! Evangeline tried to ignore Tae-hyun's words and walk away.
Watching her leave, Tae-hyun suddenly grew curious about something.
"By the way, do you still have that ring you got from fighting the Sadiq Church?"
Tae-hyun sat gloomily next to the ruins of the Sadiq Church. He had heard about the ring from Evangeline.
- Huh? The ring? Oh, that? I'm using it well. The options on it are so good, it's really useful!
- Th-That ring was originally m...
- So I left the ring with a Vampire Elder. An upgrade quest for the ring popped up. I'm planning to reinforce it by adding bloodstones.
- ...
The more he thought about it, the more detestable Burford was!
'Ah, come to think of it, I have this.'
Tae-hyun checked his inventory. He had obtained it after defeating Burford in the past!
Actually, strictly speaking, he had extorted far more from Burford than Burford had taken, but there was no way Tae-hyun would be satisfied with that.
'Wait, now that I think about it, besides the Authority, did the notification about being able to revive the church pop up because I have this?'
Tae-hyun fell into thought as he looked at Sadiq's Sacred Ring.
◈ Description: A sacred relic containing the sealed dark power of Sadiq, the Evil God of Fire. Acts as a key to advanced Sadiq Church quests.
How could he use this to get the best possible results?
"Excuse me."
"...?"
Someone tapped Tae-hyun on the shoulder and spoke. Tae-hyun turned his head.
It was Kim Hyeon-ah. Of course, Tae-hyun had no idea who Kim Hyeon-ah was. And naturally, he didn't know why she was glaring at him either.
But Tae-hyun didn't panic. Having a stranger (from his perspective) glare at him as if they wanted to kill him was as natural as breathing by now.
Tae-hyun asked calmly. "Right. What's your grudge against me?"
"...??"
Kim Hyeon-ah was flustered by his reaction. It was a completely unexpected response! Thanks to that, she stammered.
"Th-That... Don't get cocky just because you're close with my sister!"
"...?"
Tae-hyun tilted his head. Was there anyone close enough to him for her to say that?
"Who is your sister? Huh? Are you Lee Da-bi's younger sister by any chance?"
"Lee Se-yeon!"
"Who's close to who?!"
Tae-hyun snapped back, genuinely annoyed. It was a rare sight for him!
"I have absolutely no desire to hang out with her, okay? She's the one who follows me around and torments me. This is ridiculous."
"Do you have a problem with hanging out with my sister?"
"Do I have a problem? I have nothing but problems with it."
Kim Hyeon-ah looked utterly shocked. Someone who hated hanging out with Lee Se-yeon! Such a person could not exist in her common sense!
"And isn't it a good thing for you that I dislike Lee Se-yeon? You seem to hate the idea of me hanging out with her."
"W-Well, yes, but..."
"Great. Let's cooperate. I don't want to hang out with Lee Se-yeon either!"
"Uh, wait?"
Kim Hyeon-ah felt like she was being tricked. But thinking about it, Tae-hyun was right. Tae-hyun didn't want to hang out with Lee Se-yeon, and Kim Hyeon-ah didn't want Tae-hyun hanging out with Lee Se-yeon. Their goals aligned perfectly!
"Tell Lee Se-yeon to leave me alone! Please!"
"Senior!"
"You guys came too?"
Tae-hyun was surprised to see Jeong Su-hyeok's party arriving late. Just how many people had come here?
"We came to help you! My friends wanted to help you too, so we all came."
"Really? You should've just focused on the Arena."
Jeong Su-hyeok thought Tae-hyun was saying that out of consideration for them.
"No, it's fine! We've received so much from you..."
"No, I meant we would've cleared this place even without you guys, so you should've just played in the Arena to raise the Archisus Church's reputation."
"..."
It wasn't out of consideration; he was being completely sincere!
"A-Anyway, there's still plenty of time before our next match, so it's fine."
"Really? Think you can do well?"
"We'll do our best. The advice you gave me last time was incredibly helpful!"
"Well... I could secretly disguise myself and join to help you guys."
"Hahaha! Senior, you're quite the joker!"
Jeong Su-hyeok burst into laughter. He completely failed to realize that Tae-hyun was being dead serious!
"You're joking to help me relax, right?"
"Huh? No, actually..."
"But we will do our best in our own way! We'll just take your thoughts with us!"
"..."
At this point, Tae-hyun couldn't bring himself to say, 'You guys have to win for the church's reputation to go up! I'll wear a mask and beat everyone up for you!' Tae-hyun was always weak against people who worked earnestly like this.
"Y-Yeah... do your best..."
"Yes!"
Watching Jeong Su-hyeok walk away excitedly, Tae-hyun smacked his lips.
Slap.
Lee Se-yeon placed a hand on Tae-hyun's shoulder.
"It's time to go. Stop stalling and let's move."
"I wasn't stalling."
"And don't say weird things to Hyeon-ah."
"!"
Tae-hyun was momentarily flustered, but he didn't show it. "What do you mean?"
"I saw you two talking earlier."
'Damn it. She's too quick.'
"You were cursing me out in your head just now, weren't you?"
"!?"
Tae-hyun quickly changed the subject.
"More importantly, when is the final member of our Arena team being decided? Shouldn't we decide quickly?"
"And here I thought you had zero interest... Well, perfect timing. I just got a call from the PD."