The Perfect Labor Force
"Huh?" Tae-hyun wondered what that meant for a second. But as an experienced player, he caught on immediately.
-They're in disguise?
-Indeed.
-Master! I was just about to say that too...
Tae-hyun ignored Heuk-heuk once again.
If someone who isn't an Orc is disguised as one in this situation... they must be a player, right?
Suspiciously, the disguised Orc was chatting with a few actual Orcs. It made perfect sense if a non-Orc player and an Orc player had partied up to enter this place.
Tae-hyun pointed at them and asked, "Are those guys useful?"
"Chwek. They are greenhorns who arrived not long ago. I cannot guarantee their skills."
Yep, definitely players. Tae-hyun was certain now.
Disguising their race, huddling suspiciously to whisper among themselves, and wearing high-tier gear that stood out from the other Orc warriors despite being newcomers—they were absolutely players!
I don't know what they're up to, but... they'll make great labor.
In Tae-hyun's eyes, players were simply superior manual labor. If a player and an NPC of the same level clashed, the player was bound to be stronger—unless they were exceptionally terrible.
"We shall take them along as well," Tae-hyun said.
"Chweeeek. I truly do not understand the mind of a mage."
"Mages are simply like that."
"Chwek. Is that so? Mages are complicated."
Thanks to Tae-hyun, the Orc adjutant acquired a highly distorted understanding of mages.
"Ah, and I would feel quite guilty if I only put the Orcs here to work..."
"...?"
The Orc adjutant stared at Tae-hyun as if he were speaking gibberish. He had already drafted even the scrawny, elderly Orcs, so what was he talking about? Yet, Tae-hyun remained completely shameless. If shamelessness were a stat, Tae-hyun's would have easily surpassed 10,000!
"I plan to put my own servants to work as well. Could you perhaps assist me with something?"
"Chwek. How?"
"If they wander around here and bump into other Orcs, a fight might break out. I'd like you to ensure no misunderstandings occur."
"Chweeeek. Understood. Take these tokens."
◈ Description: A token used by the Orc tribes of the Uruk Region. If outsiders possess this token, the warriors of the Orc tribes will not attack them.
◈ Note: It smells a bit funky!
Still, Tae-hyun accepted and pocketed them.
Since I have plenty of people to exploit, I should give these to Kane and Lee Da-bi and have them search for other tribes separately.
"Chwek! You lot, consider this an honor. The mage has personally selected you."
"...?"
"What?"
"Wait, why?"
The Orc players reacted with sheer bewilderment. Tae-hyun stared at them intently.
They don't seem to realize I'm a player. Well, given my current appearance, it's only natural...
Tae-hyun's current appearance was the spitting image of a sinister, faceless mage NPC. It was no surprise that other players failed to recognize him.
"Chweeeek! New warriors dare to be picky about their duties?! Do you intend to disobey orders?! Chwek!"
"A-ah, no. It's not that..."
"Come now, Adjutant, please don't be like this."
As the Orc adjutant flared up, the players scrambled to appease him. They had barely managed to secure permission to enter the village; the last thing they wanted was to get kicked out for getting on his bad side.
"Chwek. Obey the mage's commands diligently."
"Understood!"
Alcott and his guildmates nodded for now. They had no idea who this mage was, but that wasn't important right now. They would quickly clear this quest and resume their search afterward!
As Tae-hyun set off, a crowd of Orc warriors and players followed close behind. Tae-hyun remained silent, quietly waiting. If he kept his mouth shut, the players would inevitably start chatting on their own.
"Man, Alcott seriously has the worst temper."
"Is he giving you sh*t again?"
"Yeah. I think I'm completely on his blacklist. Should I just leave the guild?"
"And risk getting retaliated against?"
"I'm thinking of joining the Choigang Jizon Mussang guild. I heard they have tons of Orc players."
While players in Pandemonium Online could choose any race, most preferred Humans, Elves, or Dwarves. Orcs were... generally unpopular. In that regard, the Choigang Jizon Mussang guild—where everyone from the guild master to the executives was a middle-aged Orc—was highly unusual!
"Hey, I heard the rumors about that place aren't great..."
"That they force you to do gag routines? Dude, I'd take that any day over this!"
Wait, are these guys from the Guild Alliance? Tae-hyun began to suspect. He had only intended to eavesdrop on their idle chatter, but their conversation was sounding incredibly fishy.
-Hey, who was Alcott again?
-Alcott? He's a ranker from the Guild Alliance. You've met him once before, haven't you? He was among the rankers who came to hunt you down back then...
-Huh? Ah, is that so?
Lee Da-bi wasn't particularly surprised. It was nothing new for Tae-hyun to completely forget anyone he deemed irrelevant.
-But why do you ask?
-Some Guild Alliance guys are here. Looks like that Alcott fellow is among them.
-What?!?!
Lee Da-bi gasped in shock. Seeing her reaction, the rest of the party grew startled as well.
"What is it? What's going on?"
"What happened?"
"Apparently, some members of the Guild Alliance are nearby."
"...!"
Kane and Jeong Su-hyeok's expressions hardened. Both of them were already blacklisted by the Guild Alliance. Running into them would bring nothing but trouble.
"Damn it... and Kim Tae-hyun isn't even here!"
"Ahem, cough. Hmph."
Jang Ssu-an cleared his throat. Until a moment ago, he had been standing around in a daze, completely lost. Then, after receiving the Orc token from Tae-hyun, he had been told: 'Hey, you guys go far away so you don't get in my way, and clear some quests for the other tribes. Especially you, Jang Ssu-an—don't cause any trouble.' It was the ultimate humiliation!
But looking at it now, things were taking a highly entertaining turn. Jang Ssu-an knew very well that this group and the Guild Alliance were on terrible terms. In other words, if things kept going like this... his time to shine would finally arrive!
"What do we do?"
"Our current combat power is a bit lacking. Kane is the only real tank we have."
"Exactly. We only have Kane."
"..."
Kane felt conflicted. They weren't wrong, but it somehow felt like he was being insulted!
"In terms of raw damage, we have Su-hyeok, and I can hold my own, so we should be decent. But isn't our party composition way too unbalanced?"
Kim Se-hyeong, the newcomer, cautiously raised his hand and voiced his opinion. Unlike the rest of the party who had already adapted to the sheer absurdity of traveling with Tae-hyun, Kim Se-hyeong was still perfectly sane. To his eyes, the party's composition was bizarre beyond belief. There was absolutely zero balance!
A standard party consisted of a tank, a dealer, and a healer, but Tae-hyun's party... Although Kane could act as a tank, they had no healer and were an extreme, damage-only composition.
"That's true. With two mages, our damage output is fine, but since Tae-hyun is gone, we don't have a melee dealer..."
In truth, the primary reason this party functioned so well was due to Tae-hyun. His explosive damage that melted enemies in seconds, combined with the versatile utility of his legendary class, Avatar of Archisus, allowed them to adapt to any situation.
"Ahem! Cough, cough! Harrumph!"
Jang Ssu-an's coughing grew progressively louder. The meaning behind his coughs was simple: Hey, are you guys forgetting about the high-ranking melee dealer standing right here?
Yet, the others genuinely failed to notice.
"Since we lack a melee dealer, we might need to adjust our strategy. Maybe we can bind their feet first, and then..."
"Cough, wheeze! Hack, hack!"
At this point, his coughing fit bordered on a desperate plea for attention!
"What's wrong, Jang Ssu-an? Did you swallow something down the wrong pipe?"
"..."
The ever-kind Kane asked, looking at Jang Ssu-an. Meanwhile, Lee Da-bi received another whisper from Tae-hyun.
"Ah, actually, we should be fine. Tae-hyun says he's currently putting those guys to work."
"Huh?"
"How?!"
The situation was so baffling that even the hacking Jang Ssu-an instantly stopped coughing to ask.
"Hmm..."
"...?"
"Do you see those herbs up there on the cliff?"
"...Yes, we see them."
"Go pick them."
"...Wait, but they're all the way up there?"
"Ah, you're mages, aren't you? Use your magic! To think you'd complain when I am doing this for the sake of your fellow Orcs... Perhaps I should report this directly to the Orc adjutant—"
"A-ah, no! We'll do it! We'll do it right away!"
The herbs Tae-hyun pointed to were clinging precariously to the face of a sheer cliff. The guild members grumbled as they prepared to summon their flying mounts.
"Hold on."
"...?"
"Are you unaware that this area is teeming with flying monsters? If you ride those, you'll be spotted instantly."
"Chwek. He is right. These Orcs are fools."
"Chwek. Indeed, indeed."
Even the other Orc warriors chimed in to agree with Tae-hyun. There were few things more humiliating than being called a fool by an Orc.
"T-then how are we supposed to get up there?"
"You'll have to climb."
"..."
"That absolute son of a b*tch, motherf*cker, piece of sh*t...!"
"Seriously, what the hell are we even doing?!"
While the guild members and Orc warriors painstakingly scaled the cliff, Tae-hyun leisurely unfurled a map. It was a map of the surrounding area he had wrangled from the Orc tribe.
He had several excellent reasons for putting the guild members through such misery.
First, the herbs atop that cliff were actually incredibly rare items.
Second, it was far more convenient for Tae-hyun to study the map and plan his next moves without other players hovering around him.
Third, Tae-hyun simply enjoyed screwing over his enemies.
Besides, it's fun.
"Hmm..."
What Tae-hyun was currently searching for was the location of the Goblin Tribe. Since Jeong Su-hyeok had already cleared an Archisus quest for the magic-specialized Primitive Human Tribe, Tae-hyun had dispatched the rest of his party there. Simply helping them and ensuring their safety would be enough.
However, the Goblin Tribe and the Giant Tribe required Tae-hyun's personal touch.
The Goblin Tribe is definitely the best place to start, right?
Though he had never met them, Tae-hyun was highly confident. The defining trait of the Goblin race was Engineering! Goblins were a race renowned for their mastery of mechanical engineering.
The various Engineering-related titles Tae-hyun possessed granted him a massive boost to affinity when interacting with Dwarves or Goblins. And he had more than just one or two of those titles...
"Pant, pant... We brought them."
You have acquired the items.
Despite only retrieving raw ingredients, the guild members' HP had already dropped by over 10%. Scaling a sheer cliff was no easy feat; they had slipped, fallen, and slammed into rocks along the way...
"Good. Excellent work."
"T-thank you?"
"Now, let us move to the next location. We still have many things to gather."
"..."
The guild members were slowly starting to lose track of whether they hated Alcott more, or this sinister-looking mage.
"No time to rest! Faster!"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The next task assigned to the guild members was swinging pickaxes.
You have swung the pickaxe without rest. If you continue without resting, your Constitution may decrease.
Strength has increased by 1.
"...Doesn't something feel off? Why is a mage making us do this? This is blacksmith work..."
"Mages use ores and gems as reagents all the time."
"Yeah, but even so, why would he need this much iron?"
"You there. Do you have a complaint?"
"N-no, not at all!"
Pitter-patter—
"...?"
At the sound of approaching footsteps in the distance, everyone turned their heads.
"Chwek! It is the mage's slave!"
"Chwek! Everyone, greet—Oof! Chwek! Why did you strike me?!"
Thwack! Tae-hyun whacked the Orc who had stopped working with his staff and spoke coldly.
"Keep your hands moving."
"..."
Your Infamy among the Orc tribes has increased.
What a peculiar appearance.
The figure the Orcs referred to as the mage's slave possessed a highly unusual appearance. They didn't seem to belong to either the Human or Orc race...
-It's a demon!
-That's a demon, Master!
Huh?