The Pinnacle of Luck and Madness

As Tae-hyun pushed him forward, Gazen ran. He didn't know what kind of buff skill had been cast on him, but looking at his status now, every single attack was registering as an Evade.

'This is incredible! As expected of Kim Tae-hyun!'

With two boss monsters appearing and golems running amok in all directions, the chaotic battlefield had filled his message log to the brim. Consequently, Gazen completely missed the skill notification window!

"How dare you approach!" the Golem Summoner shrieked sharply, aiming directly at Gazen.

A golem's fist came hurtling down like a massive hammer. Crash! Yet, with the buff still active, it registered as a clean Evade.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Evade! It's an Evade!"

It was a thrill he had never experienced as a mage! Feeling as though he had suddenly become a warrior or a rogue, Gazen charged forward.

"But how long do I have to keep charging?!"

"Keep going!"

"???"

For a mage, getting any closer wouldn't increase his damage output. It was a completely meaningless action! Nevertheless, Gazen kept charging as instructed.

Swish— The Golem Summoner vanished, teleporting to reappear directly in front of Gazen.

"!"

"Die, intruder!"

"Oh. He's practically begging to be killed." Tae-hyun grinned, preparing his skills.

Demer's Time Reversal.

Living Bomb!

"Huh? What?"

Gazen turned his head to look at Tae-hyun. "What is thi—"

KABOOOOOOOOOOOM!

At that moment, the remaining golems lost their power and began to collapse. Tae-hyun nodded. 'Cleanly handled.'

This was a boss monster whose ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠golem summons would multiply over time. Tae-hyun was fine thanks to his absurd evasion capabilities and the Ancient Hammer, but the other mages were a different story. If they had delayed even a moment longer, they could have faced a total party wipe! If those golems had charged, even a dedicated tank would have struggled to hold them back.

"Alright. Now, let's retrieve the items..."

"..."

Shuffle, shuffle.

When Tae-hyun turned his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠head, he saw his party members backing away with terrified expressions.

"?"

"Did he... did he just strap a bomb to Gazen and send him straight to the boss?"

"Whoa... is he going to do that to us too?"

"They say you should never associate with mechanical engineering blacksmiths..."

"Shh! Keep your voice down! What if he straps a bomb to us next? I don't want to go first!"

Tae-hyun realized his mistake. Having spent so much time with someone as diligent and self-sacrificing as Cain, he had grown far too accustomed to this method. Normal players didn't hunt boss monsters like this! It was only natural that his party members were traumatized.

'Wait, then why did they think I sent those stealth guys forward earlier?' Obviously, it was to use them as meat shields and bomb ingredients! Of course, this was only obvious from Tae-hyun's perspective.

"What are you all talking about?!"

"??"

Gazen walked out from the wreckage of the golems. He was completely unscathed, without a single scratch! It was all thanks to the skill Tae-hyun had cast on him.

"That was just a skill! Besides, Tae-hyun-nim cast a buff on me beforehand, so I didn't even get hurt!"

"Uh... well..." Tae-hyun stared at Gazen with a complicated expression. It seemed Gazen genuinely believed Tae-hyun had planted the bomb and then used a protective buff to keep him safe.

In truth, there was only one reason he had used Demer's Time Reversal. If the boss monster had turned out to be stronger than expected, he planned to reverse time and detonate the bomb once more. He hadn't set the reversal point while the skill was active for Gazen's safety at all.

Unaware of such wicked intentions, Gazen was passionately defending Tae-hyun.

"A bomb is just a skill, there's no need to look at it like that! It's fine as long as it's used effectively!"

"Now that you mention it, that makes sense."

"Since Gazen is the one saying it..."

"And Gazen really didn't get hurt."

Moved by Gazen's passionate defense, the other party members nodded. They then looked at Tae-hyun with apologetic faces.

"We're sorry, Tae-hyun-nim. We let ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠our prejudices get the better of us just because we saw bombs and mechanical engineering..."

"Haha, it's quite alright." Of course, those prejudices were entirely accurate.

Though the players had been shocked by Tae-hyun's human bomb tactic, a far greater shock still awaited them. The item distribution! This had been their largest battle since entering the Magic Tower Dungeon, and the loot they had obtained was equally massive.

"..."

"..."

Shock and horror! When they had distributed the first item, they had merely thought, 'Wow, he's really ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lucky.' But now, that was no longer the case. This went far beyond mere luck!

"U-Uh... Tae-hyun-nim. You aren't using some kind of skill right now, are you?"

"What a thing to say. Are you accusing me of cheating right now?" Tae-hyun immediately adopted a stern, offended expression.

"No, it's not that... but how on earth..."

"Are you perhaps afraid of rolling the dice?"

"I am not! Roll them!" Baha shouted, his pride stung. If nothing else, he refused to be called a coward who ran away!

'Dad...! I think you're being scammed...!' Baher shook his head as he watched his father. No matter how he looked at it, this was a battle that could not be won! What made it even more absurd was that they were the ones who had insisted on this dice-rolling method in the first place. In other words, Tae-hyun hadn't even planned this scam! As a result...

"My. I'm terribly sorry about this. To think I'd end up taking all the items for myself."

"..."

Baha hung his head in deep depression. The sheer embarrassment of a party leader who couldn't secure a single piece of loot! "Kids... I'm so sorry...!"

Watching this, Kim Se-hyeong whispered to Jeong Su-hyeok, "Hey, is this what you meant when you said there are plenty of rewards if we follow him around?"

"No... this wasn't what I meant at all..."

Following that, Tae-hyun's party cleared three more dungeon rooms. Although the items piled up like a mountain, Tae-hyun had no choice but to admit that his strategy had been flawed.

'I see why everyone curses the Magic Tower Dungeon. It's completely impossible to target a specific drop here.'

Tae-hyun had cleared countless dungeons before, but the Magic Tower Dungeon was far too random. Even his Divine Foresight shifted constantly here. No strategy could reliably work in a place like this.

'My skills are on cooldown, my evasion buffs are depleted, and I just used Demer's Time Reversal to hunt that boss monster just now...'

"Hehe. Master. Who is our next opponent? Let me face them!" Meanwhile, Heuk-heuk was completely thrilled on his own.

Heuk-heuk had benefited the most from this dungeon run. Whenever a boss monster appeared, he would relentlessly rush in right before its death to use Energy Drain! Thanks to that, his scales were now sleek and glossy.

Smack!

"Why?!" Heuk-heuk cried.

Tae-hyun flicked Heuk-heuk's forehead and fell into deep thought. 'Should we pull back for now and draw up a new plan?'

They had managed to defeat the previous boss monster by establishing a holy domain and overwhelming it with the mages' firepower. However, starting from the next boss, it was highly likely that several of the mages would end up getting logged out. Not every player in the world could move and dodge like Tae-hyun!

'Yes. If we go any deeper, it'll be difficult to escape if things go south...' Reaching a conclusion, Tae-hyun addressed the party, suggesting they call it a day.

"Great!"

"I agree!"

"That's an excellent idea!"

The moment the words left Tae-hyun's mouth, the party members cheered. They, too, had realized just how utterly garbage the Magic Tower Dungeon was!

However, one person opposed. It was Baha.

"No! To the end! We must go to the end!"

"Hmm. Then it can't be helped."

"As expected of Tae-hyun-nim! A real man knows what's truly important—"

"Those who wish to continue can go on by themselves."

"..." Baha fell silent.

"W-Wait! A majority vote! Let's take a majority vote!" Unable to let go of his lingering attachment, Baha pleaded. Watching him, Tae-hyun thought, 'I've seen that look plenty of times in my territory...'

It was the exact same look as the players in his territory who would scream, 'T-This time it'll hit...! This time for sure!' until the very end.

"A majority vote?"

"Yes!" Baha turned his head with hope. Surely his son and his son's friends would raise their hands!

Yet, not a single hand went up.

"No one. Go ahead by yourself."

"...Let's just go back."

Baha was well aware that they had only survived this far thanks to Tae-hyun. Although Tae-hyun looked like a mage on the outside, his ability to dive into enemy lines and decapitate boss monsters was extraordinary. On top of that, his wide-area buffs covered the mages' paper-thin defenses. The moment Tae-hyun pulled out, the entire party would likely crumble instantly.

"Finally...!"

"Look at this! It's so beautiful! *Sniff!*"

The players gathered in the territory felt tears welling in their eyes. Looking at the beautifully crafted statue, it felt like their own child. It was a masterpiece born from the combined efforts of not just the production classes, but the combat classes as well!

"But doesn't that look a bit different from Player Kim Tae-hyun's actual face?"

"It's the exact face from the broadcast."

"I thought he looked a bit different in-game..."

The statue's face was strangely handsome! This was because it had been modeled after his broadcast makeup appearance.

"Gabriel-nim. The statue is complete."

"Yes. Great job, everyone! Behold the pinnacle of mechanical engineering!"

Unbeknownst to the other players, Gabriel and the blacksmiths had rigged the statue with all sorts of sinister features. Had anyone found out, they would have screamed, "What the hell are you doing, you maniacs!" and stopped them immediately.

Unfortunately, Gabriel and his crew were exceptionally skilled blacksmiths, and the other blacksmiths in the territory lacked the proficiency to detect their hidden work.

"I want to try firing the Plague Bomb."

"I want to try the Rocket Punch..."

"When can we trigger the Self-Destruct?"

"Haha. Patience, everyone. Don't be in such a rush. We'll get to use them eventually." Gabriel said these terrifying things with a perfectly calm smile.

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Let's go! Let's craft!"

"We have to make it now!"

The quest reward message window drove the players wild. They immediately scattered to their respective crafting stations!

"Bring all the materials! We're crafting everything at once!!"

"Hey! Empty the guild warehouse! If we don't make it now, we never will!"

The Valley was pure madness. Among the players scrambling in a frenzy were even the farmers.

"What's going on?" Yong-yong tilted his head in confusion while hunting the rabbits gathering nearby. The farmer players were swinging their agricultural tools with bloodshot eyes.

"Don't be greedy, let's aim for three times! Just three times the yield!"

"Don't be a coward! I'm aiming for five times!"

Even under normal circumstances, a lucky harvest could yield several times the standard crop. With the divine blessing active, there was no telling how massive the harvest would be. They were all aiming for the ultimate jackpot!