The Beggar Who Found a God

The authority to borrow soldiers from the fortress was no small thing.

Well-trained soldiers were stronger than most players. The very fact that he was allowed to borrow them was proof of a huge amount of contribution points and affinity.

"Thank you!"

Kim Tae-hyun bowed deeply.

This kind of power was exactly what someone who wandered around alone like him needed.

Especially now that there were people out there who wanted to hunt him down and kill him.

"What do you think will happen to those Red Zone Guild bastards?"

"Their guild master is dead, and the guild members are all about to get dragged off and arrested too... so won't they be staggering for a while? Still, you'd better be careful. Judging by their guild master, I think he really hates you."

"I don't even know what I did to make him act like that."

"......"

"Don't worry. I'm leaving anyway. I cleared the quest, and I never planned to stay here forever."

Because he had killed Orc Chieftain Kazak, Kazak's father, the Great Chieftain, was bound to cause trouble.

And when he did, the first place he'd come crashing into would be this area.

There was no reason for Tae-hyun to stick around and get attacked by Orcs for nothing.

"Ah. You finished all your quests?"

"Yes! Thank you so much!"

Ji-su approached and bowed her head.

She was one of the people who had gained the most from this quest.

Choi Sang-yun had already been such a high level that clearing one quest didn't change much for him.

Tae-hyun had gotten a lot of items, but thanks to the penalty on his Legendary Class, he'd only managed to level up once at most.

But Ji-su had shot up tremendously.

That was thanks to the benefits of becoming a Tyrum Ranger, and because she'd cleared a rare quest.

Normally, that rare quest would never have appeared in the first place, so the reward for clearing it was beyond imagination.

"Looks like you gained a lot of levels?"

"Yes!"

"I only gained one...."

"?!"

Ji-su froze in panic, not knowing what to do.

Tae-hyun snickered and ruffled her hair.

"I'm kidding. Anyway, that means you cleared the quest, right? Let's get out of here first."

"But this is Ji-su's class quest, right?"

A class quest.

It was the quest that appeared after you gained a class.

Players grew by following those quests.

The rewards varied, but most of the time you got class-exclusive skills and things like that.

The more you cleared, the more secrets of the class came out, along with NPCs and hidden lore....

No one ignored their class quests.

"Right?"

"Yeah. But don't you have one?"

"......?"

Only then did Tae-hyun realize something was off.

Why didn't he have a class quest?

"Uh...?"

"Nothing showed up for you? Usually when you class-change, some NPC related to it gives you something."

"I got a quest from the Tyrum Hunters too."

"I... well...."

Since he'd been forcibly class-changed in the middle of the road, there hadn't been any NPCs, or anything else for that matter.

"I didn't get anything like that...."

A heavy silence suddenly fell over them.

Ji-su lowered her head and couldn't bring herself to meet Tae-hyun's eyes.

He'd come all the way here and gone through all this trouble because of her, and now it turned out he hadn't even gotten a class quest....

"M-maybe it's because it's a Legendary Class?"

"Right! Because it's a Legendary Class!"

The two clapped their hands like they'd found the perfect explanation.

Tae-hyun, not thinking much of it, opened his status window.

Even though he'd leveled up, his bonus stats were at 0.

And his Wisdom had gone up by 15.

"What the fuck is this...?"

The curse came ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out on its own.

What was he supposed to do with more Wisdom when he didn't even use magic?

Sure, his magic defense would go up, but nobody raised Wisdom just for that.

It was good that leveling up had given him 15 points instead of 5.

That was triple, wasn't it?

But for it to randomly dump all of that into Wisdom and auto-assign it there....

Tae-hyun let out a long sigh and calmed himself down.

Right. Wasn't this exactly the kind of class he played best?

The weirder and more busted and miserable the class, the more motivated Tae-hyun got.

How do I raise this thing and make it strong?

Even just worrying over that was fun for him.

Still, still... if you were going to do this, you could've just taken off the "Legendary Class" label first before giving it to me!

He still couldn't quite let go of that grievance.

No matter where he went for PvP, he didn't want people saying, That bastard only won because of his Legendary Class!

"Yeah. Let's head back for now. Ji-su, you'll need to get your next quest from the Tyrum Hunters, and I...."

"And you?"

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going back to hunt rabbits."

"......"

"No, seriously, what kind of lunatic is that guy?!"

"That's Kim Tae-hyun. And it's fine now, isn't it? We fixed it."

"Yes. Rabbit Foot doesn't drop anymore."

During the period when the rabbits had temporarily stopped spawning, the patch had gone through.

No matter how many Tae-hyun killed now, Rabbit Foot would no longer drop.

"Still, he really is something else. He killed the Orc Chieftain, killed the Red Zone Guild Master, and the guild's practically been wrecked...."

"The Red Zone Guild Master was streaming, so everyone's curious, you know? Do you think people will figure out it's Kim Tae-hyun?"

The employees all looked at Tae-hyun expectantly.

He had been one of the most famous players in Fantasy Online 1.

If it became known that he was playing 2, interest would explode all over again.

Even now, famous players in Fantasy Online 2 were already getting booking offers from broadcasters.

Just having them appear on a fixed channel or program was enough to pull ratings.

People were that interested in Fantasy Online.

The world's number one VR game.

"No one's gonna realize it's Kim Tae-hyun."

"Huh? Really?"

"Back in 1, Kim Tae-hyun always ran around wearing a helmet. Nobody's going to recognize him. Unless he reveals it himself."

"Do you think nobody will even suspect it?"

"How many people are there copying Kim Tae-hyun right now?"

"Ah...."

Tae-hyun had been that memorable in Fantasy Online 1.

Because of that, copycats were everywhere in 2.

There were dozens of players who had named themselves Kim Tae-hyun and were pretending to be blacksmiths.

"They'll just think he's another imitator."

"I guess you're right."

Even if Tae-hyun went around saying, I'm Kim Tae-hyun, most people would probably think, Yeah right, fake.

And if he didn't reveal his identity, all the more so.

"Smith's about to class-change into a Legendary Class too... this is good. This month is going to be packed with headlines."

Rabbit Foot no longer dropped.

"Is it because I class-changed?"

Tae-hyun tilted his head.

He'd figured there would come a day when it stopped dropping.

If it kept dropping forever, it would've been absurdly broken.

Still, now that it really had stopped, he felt a little disappointed.

In the meantime, Ji-su went to turn in her quest and collect her reward.

"Then I'm off?"

"Yeah. Thanks for helping."

"If those Red Zone Guild guys come after you, call me. You'll probably handle it fine on your own anyway. Oh, and... don't just watch out for Red Zone Guild members. Be careful of other players too."

"......?"

"My viewers are going nuts saying they're gonna kill you."

"......"

"Anyway, I'm going!"

Choi Sang-yun headed off without another word.

The rankers were all locked in fierce competition right now.

Who would get the better skills, the better gear, and level up faster?

Everyone was aiming for the title of strongest in Fantasy Online 2.

At times like this, one mistake could be fatal.

If you died even once, like the Red Zone Guild Master had, the penalty would drag you down fast.

And even knowing that, Sang-yun had come without hesitation to help Tae-hyun.

Tae-hyun didn't suddenly say thank you.

They both knew already, even without saying it.

That was just the kind of relationship they had.

But his viewers say they're gonna kill me?

After Sang-yun left and before Ji-su came back, Tae-hyun briefly checked Sang-yun's stream.

He was curious about the reaction.

"......"

Most of them sounded like bluffing, but a few seemed serious.

Do I need to start covering my face?

He was now in a position where he had to be suspicious even of people he'd never met.

"Hey. Hey."

"......?"

"Have we met somewhere before?"

"Nope."

The one speaking to Tae-hyun was an old beggar.

And if you were going to rank beggars, this one was easily A-tier.

Worn-out clothes hanging in tatters, and a face that radiated misery.

"I'm not giving you money, so move along."

Tae-hyun drew the line immediately.

Whenever you went to a village or city, there were beggars like this.

Beginners would often give them alms.

Partly out of kindness, yes, but more than that because of a thought like this:

What if they give me a quest or some amazing reward?

Such wonderfully innocent thinking.

Of course Tae-hyun had tried it too.

He liked testing things like this and investigating them.

He'd gone from town to town, giving money to beggars and seeing how they reacted.

The result?

Nothing.

The most useful thing he'd ever gotten was maybe a rusty longsword some beggar had been carrying.

Since that had been the case in Fantasy Online 1, it probably wouldn't be much different in 2.

Even if there was a hidden quest, he didn't really want one right now.

He'd already suffered more than enough because of hidden quests.

If he'd been unlucky, he could've ended up getting chased all over creation by the eastern Orcs.

Let's live the proper way for once!

"No, that's not it. I just thought maybe we'd met before."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. In another life, probably. I used to think I'd met actress Kim Su-a too, but it turned out I was mistaken. That's life, isn't it?"

Tae-hyun babbled nonsense as he tried to push the beggar away.

But the old man grabbed his arm and said,

"That's not what I mean! Are you Archisus, by any chance?"

"???"

Gambler Pelmas had spent his whole life believing in Archisus.

Archisus was a god without priests or temples.

There was no way for his faith to be rewarded.

And still, he never gave up. He kept believing in Archisus and gathered followers.

Follow him and meet the believers he gathered.

Reward: ?

"?????"

Tae-hyun was startled, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and then he understood the situation.

First of all, he did have a class quest after all.

That part was good.

But....

Why do I get a beggar?

In Lee Se-yeon's case, the head of some cool necromancer faction had knelt before her and begged her to accept the quest.

And even Ji-su had been treated with respect as a Tyrum Ranger and received quests from the Tyrum Hunters.

But Tae-hyun got a beggar.

Well, technically not a beggar but a gambler, though calling him a beggar didn't seem all that inaccurate.

"Are you Archisus?"

"Well... close enough, I guess...."

"Oooooh! Archisus! Archisus!"

"Can you stop? This is embarrassing."

People around them passed by, glancing over with curious looks.

"I've spent my entire life searching for you, Archisus!"

"I'm impressed you recognized me at all, but more than that, I'm curious about this 'followers' thing. What kind of people are they?"

"As expected, you already knew what I'd done!"

"......"

"They're the friends I work with. Every one of them sincerely believes in you, Archisus."

"Uh... so... when you say you work together, you mean... you're all beggars together?"

"Hahaha, you're quite the joker, Archisus!"

"If not beggars, then what are you?"

"Gamblers, of course!"

Archisus was the god of luck.

So naturally, the people who believed in him most desperately were....

Gamblers.

Tae-hyun shook his head.

No matter how he looked at it, they didn't seem like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠much.

"Archisus. May I serve you?"

"Do whatever you want. Whatever."

Half giving up, Tae-hyun nodded.

He had to clear the quest either way, after all.