To Think I'd Be Rejected for a Reason Like This!
"To think I'd be rejected for a reason like this in all my life...!"
McKinley didn't feel angry or resentful. He was just utterly dumbfounded. He knew Tae-hyun came from a well-off family, but he hadn't expected it to be to this extent.
"He's a real estate tycoon... Is there really no way to persuade him?"
There was no one harder to persuade than someone who wanted for nothing. Besides, Tae-hyun's reason for refusing was simple: he just couldn't be bothered to go abroad.
"I guess there's nothing I can do..."
McKinley stood up, his face drained of energy. His slumped shoulders looked pitiful for some reason.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Tae-hyun asked.
"Ha, haha. I'm fine. Just... a bit shocked..."
If McKinley's colleagues back at the office heard this, none of them would believe it.
"At least the silver lining is... the other teams won't be able to recruit Kim Tae-hyun either. Will he end up staying with a Korean team?"
The other American esports organizations that rivaled the New York Lions would definitely fail to recruit Tae-hyun as well. They were all incredibly strict about gaming houses and team training rules. Making an exception once would mean they couldn't enforce the rules for anyone else.
*Clack.*
The cafe door opened, and Kim Deok-su... no, Cain, walked in. Cain looked around timidly. He seemed embarrassed to have come alone to find Tae-hyun.
"!"
His eyes lit up when he spotted Tae-hyun, and he was about to raise his hand in relief.
"Huh?"
But then he noticed the unfamiliar foreigner sitting across from Tae-hyun. Cain froze.
"Oh, is that... Player Cain? Are you Cain?" McKinley asked.
"That's him," Tae-hyun replied.
McKinley looked at Cain with surprised eyes. "Did you call him here to talk with us?"
"No. I just had some business with him unrelated to the contract, but the idiot showed up early."
"Ah, I see. If you don't mind, would it be alright if I spoke with Player Cain for a moment?"
McKinley was polite and courteous. Even though the negotiations had fallen through, he still showed Tae-hyun respect. He knew how the industry worked.
"This business is ultimately a people business. You must never hold a grudge or get on someone's bad side—especially not a super S-tier player like Kim Tae-hyun. Throwing a tantrum just because a deal fell through is amateur hour."
Honestly, McKinley wanted to approach Cain right now and shower him with sweet talk. While not on Tae-hyun's level, Cain was still a solid A-tier player. Back at the office, some had even suggested, "If we recruit Cain, won't that sway Kim Tae-hyun too?" If things went well, he might kill two birds with one stone!
But McKinley didn't rush. Tae-hyun was sitting right in front of him, and he was far from stupid enough to miss McKinley's intentions. He had to maintain the utmost courtesy and show that he respected Tae-hyun's wishes!
"Go ahead," Tae-hyun said.
"Are you sure it's alright?"
"Yeah, sure." Tae-hyun shrugged. Contrary to what McKinley and others might think, Tae-hyun didn't really care if Cain went abroad. After all, life was about doing whatever you wanted.
"Player Cain."
"Huh? Uh, yes? Kim Tae-hyun! H-help me out here. Who is this guy?" Cain pleaded desperately. Being suddenly bombarded with English by a foreign stranger was far too cruel a situation for him.
"Since this isn't the best place for a long discussion, I'll just ask for your thoughts briefly today. If you're interested, we, the New York Lions, will set up a proper meeting. Would you be interested in joining our team?"
"..."
Cain hesitated. There was only one reason: he hadn't understood a single word.
"W-what? What did he just say? Is it something bad? What if he's trying to sell me some weird product...?" Cain racked his brain frantically. What was the safest answer in a situation like this?
"N-No! No!!"
"I see..." McKinley nodded with a disappointed expression. "Then it can't be helped. Understood. I look forward to seeing you both again. Have a good day."
McKinley politely took his leave. Watching him go, Cain let out a sigh of relief.
"D-did I answer correctly?"
"Hmm... Well, you didn't make any mistakes." Tae-hyun patted Cain on the shoulder. Cain was bewildered by the unusually warm look in Tae-hyun's eyes. "Why is he acting like this?"
"By the way, why are you so early? We still have an hour before our appointment."
"Oh. I was worried I'd get lost..."
"..."
"..."
"Well, since you're early, it worked out. Let's go play some games."
The game Tae-hyun referred to wasn't Pangaea Online. It was Fantasy Craft! The game chosen for Chairman Yu's upcoming charity tournament.
"There are more capsule rooms than PC cafes these days... Ah, there's one over there."
"But didn't you say you've never played Fantasy Craft before?"
"Yeah."
"Even if you start now, the other guys have probably played it a ton..."
"It's better than doing nothing. I'm only doing this because you asked, so are you going to keep whining?"
At Tae-hyun's words, Cain quickly shut his mouth. If Tae-hyun got annoyed, he was the type of guy who would literally just pack up and leave!
"And besides, even if Kim Tae-hyun starts late, he'll still be way better than everyone else!" Cain thought. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't picture Tae-hyun being bad at a game.
As they walked to the PC cafe, Cain began explaining Fantasy Craft.
"First of all, Fantasy Craft is an RTS—a real-time strategy game. You choose one of three races, gather resources, build up your forces, and defeat your opponent."
"Simple enough."
"What do you mean simple?! It's an old game, which means there are countless strategies and all kinds of cheap tricks. You can't let your guard down. Some of the guys we'll face in the tournament have definitely grinded this game to death!"
Cain spoke passionately. Tae-hyun gave him a pathetic look.
"If only you worked this hard during the Pangaea Online tournaments..."
"I—I did work hard! Anyway, there are three races: Humans, Bugs, and Robots. Each has its own characteristics, so you need to understand them well. Wait, what are you looking up right now?"
"Huh? Cheese strategies."
Cheese strategies. Short for "sharp build" or "cheesy build"! It referred to extreme, high-risk, high-reward gambling strategies in RTS games. Things like pulling all your workers for an early-game rush, or proxy-building right outside the opponent's main base... Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't the kind of strategy a complete beginner should be looking up.
"Hey! Why are you looking at that already?!"
"I'm planning to practice cheese strategies."
"You can't beat the others with cheese! We're not playing against random casuals; these are actual pro gamers!"
"Actually, cheese strategies have a better shot. If I go into a long, macro game against guys who have played this for years, I'll be at a massive disadvantage. Besides, I have no intention of deeply studying this game."
While Cain and the other players were blinded by the prize money of the charity tournament, Tae-hyun was participating without much thought. He was fine with just winging it! Cain grew anxious at Tae-hyun's nonchalant attitude.
"You have to give it your all, no matter what game it is! That's what a true pro does!"
"I'm a Pangaea Online pro, not a Fantasy Craft pro."
"Ugh...!"
Tae-hyun refused to back down even an inch. Cain let out a frustrated groan.
"Fine, whatever! Do what you want. Just practice with me!"
"Once I shut down his cheese in practice, he'll snap out of it!" Cain planned to defend against every single cheese strategy Tae-hyun threw at him. If he did that, surely Tae-hyun would change his mind!
"..."
"Hey. Why are you so bad at this?"
Cain hung his head. His base was being utterly demolished. Buildings were crumbling, units were dying... it was a complete massacre!
What made it even sadder was that Cain already knew exactly what Tae-hyun was going to do. Tae-hyun had announced from the very start, "I'm going to cheese you," and all Cain had to do was defend... but he couldn't even manage that!
"Why don't you just give up now and go back to Pangaea Online?"
"N-no! Let's play a few more rounds!"
Cain couldn't accept this. Back in his school days, he had been completely unmatched among his friends!
One game. Two games. Three games.
"..."
Cain slumped over his desk. Seeing his tearful face, Tae-hyun stopped teasing him about how bad he was. Instead, he just stared at him with pity.
"Well, your skills can rust if you haven't played in a long time."
"R-really? I guess so, right?" Cain looked up, desperately wanting to believe Tae-hyun's words.
"Yeah! Let me try playing against some other people for a bit."
"Huh?"
Giving up on practicing with Tae-hyun, Cain searched for other opponents online.
One game. Two games. Three games!
"A three-game winning streak! See, I wasn't the problem! That bastard Kim Tae-hyun is just a freak!"
"What was that?"
"O-oh, nothing. I said you're really good..."
Realizing only then that Tae-hyun was sitting right next to him, Cain quickly lowered his voice.
"Ugh, but if I want to actually get better, I have to play against Kim Tae-hyun."
There was no point in playing against opponents weaker than him. He had to play against the best!
"Tae-hyun. Let's not use cheese strategies, though. It's no help for practice."
"Alright, alright."
But the result remained exactly the same. Even without cheesing, Tae-hyun used standard, textbook builds to systematically choke Cain out of the game.
"Hey, hey! You said this was your first time! How do you even know how to do this?!"
"I just looked up a standard build guide right before we started."
"?!?!"
He had looked it up for a brief moment before playing, and he was already executing it flawlessly?
"The world is so damn unfair!"
"Why are those older guys being so loud?"
"Seriously. What game are they even playing?"
"Looks like Fantasy Craft."
"Whoa, people still play Fantasy Craft? For real?"
"Should we tell them to quiet down?"
The whispering students stole a glance at them. Cain was small-statured, but Tae-hyun had an intimidating, fierce look about him.
"...On second thought, they're not really that loud!"
"Y-yeah, true."
"Tae-hyun. Let's not use cheese strategies, though. It's no help for practice."
"?"
"Kim Tae-hyun?"
"Kim Tae-hyun... that name sounds familiar... Wait, gasp!"
The students stared at each other. They hadn't recognized him at first because his real-life appearance was so different from his broadcast image.
"He looks way scarier than he does on stream."
"But I think it's him. Except for the eyes."
"Should we talk to him?"
"U-excuse me..."
Tae-hyun and Cain stopped what they were doing and turned around. A group of shy students was staring at them.
"?"
"Hyung! We're huge fans of yours!"
Sensing that this might get annoying, Tae-hyun immediately deflected the attention to Cain.
"Cain, they're your fans."
"What? This guy is Cain...?"
"He looks totally different from his image."
"..."
Even though Cain had shown his face on broadcasts, no one recognized him. Unlike Tae-hyun, his in-game avatar and real-life appearance were just too different.
"We like you too, hyung! We're your fans!"
"Yeah! We loved watching you fight against the Guild Alliance!"
"Y-you guys...!"
Cain stared at the students, deeply moved. How long had it been since he had heard such heartwarming words?
From his usual party members, all he ever heard was, "Why do you keep trying to slander Tae-hyun? That's not nice!" and the dark mages who had turned into Liches would only say things like, "We must fight to the end for our honor!" He had been so incredibly stressed, but seeing these students looking at him with pure, innocent eyes and saying, "We're your fans!" sent a wave of profound emotion deep into his chest.
"What do you guys want?! Photos?! Autographs?! I'll do it all!"
"Oh, wait, really?"
The students were momentarily taken aback by Cain's overly enthusiastic response. They took a step back.
"What's wrong?! Don't be shy! How often do you get an opportunity like this?! Here! Should I sign this?!"
"W-wait, not on my backpack..."
"I told you, no need to be polite! Bwahahaha!"