A Very Shameless Friendship
The Woodstock Guild members looked disappointed. To think the great Kim Tae-hyun would resort to running away!
“Wait, why are we running?”
“Yeah! With your skills, you could easily wipe them all out and walk right through!”
Complaints poured out in shrill, protesting voices. The Woodstock Guild members harbored a deep, festering grudge against the Choigang Jizon Mussang Guild. It was only natural, considering those middle-aged men had wiped out their guildmates outside and casually seized the fortress they had worked so hard to build!
Of course, Tae-hyun was not the kind of benevolent soul who would care about their perfectly reasonable feelings.
“Did you guys leave something in my safekeeping? Just because we cleared a dungeon together, you think we're buddies now?”
His voice turned ice-cold in an instant. The Woodstock Guild members flinched at his sudden shift in attitude.
They had forgotten while clearing the dungeon together, but when they really thought about it, this guy was the Kim Tae-hyun. The avatar of PK who had utterly demolished several guilds, including the Suning Guild, in the Arena City! The video of that event was still circulating like a textbook among players who loved player killing.
“If I help you out, you should be bowing your heads and saying, ‘Oh, thank you so much,’ instead of whining in my ear. Do I owe you something? I pull a drowning man out of the water, and now you're demanding my bundle of belongings. You guys didn't help me at all when I was clearing the dungeon...”
“T-That's because we tried to help, but you just moved on your own...”
“What was that?”
“N-Nothing.”
The guild member who met Tae-hyun's gaze quickly shut his mouth. The atmosphere made it clear that speaking up would only end badly for him.
Of course, the guild member was right. Tae-hyun had taken the lead in clearing the dungeon solely for the experience points. He wanted to maximize the rewards of the sixth floor! Even with that, it was barely enough for him to level up, so it was only natural.
The problem was that none of the guild members had the guts to say that out loud right now. Even the Woodstock Guild Leader was busy looking away!
“When I help you, just quietly accept it and say ‘Thank you~’. Got it? Stop talking back.”
Right now, Tae-hyun was exuding the exact same aura he had back in Pan-On 1.
“Whoa... he's not playing around.”
“Look at how terrifying he is. Is he always like this?”
The Power Warrior guild members whispered quietly among themselves. Tae-hyun, who had been smiling amiably just moments ago, was truly frightening when he turned serious.
However, Cain didn't seem particularly surprised.
“Why are you guys so shocked by this?”
“!”
“I knew it...! The rumors that you get cursed out by Tae-hyun every single day weren't a lie! This level of savagery is just a Tuesday for you!”
“Who said that?! Was it Lee Da-bi?! It was Lee Da-bi, wasn't it?!”
While Cain flared up, the Woodstock Guild Leader was desperately trying to soothe the freezing atmosphere.
“Haha, it seems there's been some sort of misunderstanding...”
Without realizing it, the Woodstock Guild Leader had adopted a highly submissive tone. It was because of the overwhelming power Tae-hyun had displayed in the dungeon! Even though he tried to act confident, his body, having witnessed Tae-hyun's combat prowess, refused to cooperate.
“What misunderstanding? The misunderstanding where you guys thought we were friends?”
“No, well... we cleared a dungeon together! Right? That basically makes us friends, doesn't it?”
“Hmm. Well, I suppose that could be true.”
“?!”
“?!?!!”
Cain and Lee Da-bi gasped in shock at Tae-hyun's response.
Run!
Run, you idiot!
If there were a degree in 'Tae-hyunology,' Cain would be a certified expert. He had become extremely adept at reading Tae-hyun's behavior. Those words were a major red flag!
'I agree with you' was equivalent to 'I'm going to butter you up and strip you of everything you own, down to your past life's inheritance!'
But despite their silent warnings, the Woodstock Guild Leader remained completely oblivious.
“Exactly! We're friends at this point!”
He actually looked delighted by Tae-hyun's reaction!
Ah. He's finished.
Poor bastard.
“We're definitely friends!”
“Is that so?”
“I'm telling you, we are!”
“Sure. I don't really know about that, but if you say we're friends, then I guess we are. So, my friend... surely you wouldn't help people who are trying to attack your friend, right?”
“Uh... what?”
“What do you mean, 'what'? I'm talking about that massive Guild Alliance you joined.”
“Uh...”
The Woodstock Guild Leader stammered, completely tongue-tied. He had never expected Tae-hyun to bring up the Guild Alliance in this situation.
“What's this? Didn't you just say we were friends? Were you lying to me?”
For some reason, a chilling trace of bloodlust crept into Tae-hyun's voice. The Woodstock Guild Leader blurted out in a panic.
“We are friends!”
“Then you wouldn't help them attack your friend, right?”
“T-That's right!”
“In fact, shouldn't we beat up the bastards trying to attack your friend together? Guys like Su Ning, for instance.”
“Su Ning is fine! Let's crush him together!”
He still held a grudge over Su Ning not helping them! He was more than happy to attack Su Ning.
“And it's not just Su Ning. We should also beat up the ones who just stood by and watched while they tried to attack your friend, right?”
“W-Wait, that's a bit... they were just standing by...”
Tae-hyun was essentially telling him to turn the entire Guild Alliance into their enemies. One wrong word, and he would be forced into becoming a traitor!
“But you said we were friends.”
“W-Well... yes, but...”
“Are we friends? Or not?”
Tae-hyun lightly tapped his longsword. Having witnessed Tae-hyun's terrifying damage output earlier, the Woodstock Guild Leader swallowed hard.
“We are... friends...”
He unconsciously slipped into formal speech!
“Exactly. You catch on quick. So, you'll protect your friend from now on, right?”
“Y-Yeah...”
“Good, good. I'm glad to have made a friend. I didn't even realize we were friends, but since you say so, I guess we are. Right, buddy? Hahaha!”
“Ha... haha, hahaha...”
The Woodstock Guild Leader nodded with a hollow, dazed expression. He had tried to smooth things over, but it felt like he had just dug himself into an even deeper, more inescapable hole.
“Shall we head up now?”
“W-Wait a minute. Since we're friends... instead of running away... isn't there some way we can drive out the Choigang Jizon Mussang Guild?”
“What? Are you asking your friend to attack his own father? How can you be so wicked? Do you call yourself a friend?”
“…….”
Tae-hyun turned dead serious with shameless hypocrisy.
You attack him every time you see him!
He is unbelievably shameless!
“Something is off.”
Kim Tae-san frowned as he stared at the entrance of the dungeon. While ordinary players were trickling out one by one under their watchful eyes, not a single member of the Woodstock Guild was in sight.
The middle-aged men of the Choigang Jizon Mussang Guild, who had been pushing through the dungeon, had retreated the moment they realized the Woodstock Guild members had slipped down to the sixth floor. The raid party, which included the Woodstock Guild Leader, was their guild's strongest force. There was no need to plunge into the deepest depths of the dungeon and fight a battle that favored the enemy.
They figured that if they just waited out here, the cornered rats would eventually crawl out on their own...
“They should have been out by now.”
“Should we wait a bit longer?”
“If it were him, he would have come out already. There's no way he'd be holding out in there for this long.”
“Could they actually be clearing the dungeon?”
“Bwahaha! If he had the guts to clear a dungeon while we were occupying this place, he wouldn't have just hit our hunting grounds and run away in the first place. He would have declared an all-out war right off the bat!”
Kim Tae-san looked down on the Woodstock Guild Leader. He saw right through his shallow scheme—too cowardly to risk an all-out war, so he resorted to petty harassment in other people's hunting grounds.
The Woodstock Guild Leader's inner thoughts were transparent: 'They won't go as far as an all-out war over just this~' after all, they had a massive size advantage and allied guilds backing them.
But Kim Tae-san was a man who existed entirely outside of such calculations.
If someone struck first? All-out war!
If someone harassed them and ran? All-out war!
If someone provoked them? All-out war!
Calculations, losses, alliances, coalitions, odds of winning—none of it mattered. If you picked a fight with him, he would do everything in his power to utterly crush you!
“Still, the fact that they haven't come out yet... is indeed strange. Could there be another exit in the dungeon?”
“There was no mention of one in the information we gathered beforehand.”
“The info we gathered only went up to the fifth floor. There might be an exit on the sixth floor.”
Vroom, vroom, vroooom—
“?”
“??”
It sounded like something was revving inside the dungeon. A highly unusual sound that was incredibly rare to hear in Fantasy Online!
“What is that noise?”
“Uh, I think I've heard that before.”
“Where?”
“In the dwarven city, the mechanical vehicles the dwarves ride make a sound like...”
“Why would that be inside a dungeon...”
Crash!
With a thunderous roar, someone burst out from the entrance. Naturally, it was the motorcycle ridden by Tae-hyun, Cain, and Lee Da-bi...
...and the Woodstock Guild members riding in the cart hitched to the back!
“?!?!?!?!?!?!”
The middle-aged men were too slow to react to a sight so utterly beyond their imagination.
Thud!
You have been hit head-on by a red-painted flying motorcycle. You suffer a severe impact.
You are temporarily immobilized.
[Title Acquired: First Traffic Accident]
“Ack!”
“Oops!”
Tae-hyun had tried his best to steer clear. But Kim Tae-san had suddenly stepped into his path, resulting in him getting run over.
Kim Tae-san, coughing on the ground, furrowed his brow when he heard that "Oops."
“Wait, that voice...”
“You must be hearing things.”
“You punk!!”
“Haha! Let's go!”
Before Kim Tae-san's rage could erupt, Tae-hyun revved the motorcycle to its absolute maximum output. It accelerated to a speed that left ordinary mounts in the dust!
In the blink of an eye, they shot out of the dungeon entrance and tore right through the fortress gates. Their entrance was so intensely shocking that no player dared to block their path.
“Aaaah, aaah, aaaah! It's shaking! It's shaking too much!”
You are sitting in a rattling cart. Your Health decreases.
You have been afflicted with Motion Sickness. Your Accuracy decreases.
“Drive! Better! Please!”
“Can't be helped. Shut up and attack the guys chasing us.”
“How! Are we! Supposed to aim! From here!”
Inside the dungeon, Tae-hyun had hastily jerry-rigged a cart to hitch to the back of the motorcycle. But it was no flimsy cart. He had used high-quality, Grade-A steel (which belonged to the Woodstock Guild) to make it incredibly sturdy, and studded the exterior with spearheads to deflect incoming attacks. It was a combat cart designed to let the guild members inside fire back and disrupt any pursuers!
Lee Da-bi, who was steering the motorcycle, suddenly thought of something and asked.
“Wait, wouldn't it have been much better to make a carriage? We were using their materials anyway.”
“Ah. Making a carriage requires a blueprint. I can make a cart without one.”
“...Your Blacksmithing Skill is at the Advanced rank, and you don't have... a carriage blueprint?”
“Hey, things happen. Why are you looking at me like that?”
Tae-hyun's Blacksmithing Skill was extremely lopsided!
“Kim Tae-hyun, you punk! Do you want to die?!”
“Ugh!”
You have heard the Orc's Battle Cry. All stats temporarily decrease.
You have successfully resisted the effect.
The Orc's roar reverberated thunderously across the fields! While Tae-hyun easily resisted the effect, Lee Da-bi and the other players seemed to have taken a hit.
“Did that old man level up again in the meantime?”
“How dare you run over your own father, who is as high as the heavens?!”
“Hey, I was trying to steer clear, but you suddenly stepped into my path, Father!”
“Do you think that makes any sense?! Get off that thing right now, you punk! Stop right there!”
Their bickering sounded like playful banter, but the intensity of the pursuit was anything but a joke. The Orcs were chasing them with terrifying momentum!
The mounts of the Choigang Jizon Mussang Guild were not horses. They were Blue Battle Wolves! These were rare combat mounts that required players with taming classes to spend months of painstaking effort just to tame a single one!
Yet, every single one of the Orc uncles was riding one. The sheer power of pay-to-win!
Realizing this, Lee Da-bi stared at the wolves with a look of deep sorrow. To think they had to attack those creatures. How much money did all of those wolves represent?!
“You're not thinking about something weird right now, are you?”
“N-No, I'm not!”