A One-Gold Ticket to Disaster
Rufo, who had been standing in the back trying to look imposing, jabbed Tae-hyun in the side.
What are you doing? Do it properly!
The people meant to look intimidating up here were the merchant company's fighters. Men like Rufo, the very best warriors the company had. Between their gear and their appearance, they radiated pressure just standing still.
And yet Tae-hyun, after placing himself right in the middle of them, had opened with, “What a lovely morning.”
It was humiliating for them too.
Man, you're impatient. Just wait.
Tae-hyun cleared his throat once and opened his mouth again.
“You must be wondering why I’m standing here like this. Am I right?”
“Then hurry up and say it!”
Someone in the crowd, who had been holding back as long as they could, finally shouted. Another person waved a fist and yelled,
“Yeah! Just spit it out already!”
“It’s simple. I came here to bring you some good words…”
He caught himself for half a beat.
“…no, a good quest.”
The word had come out wrong for a second, but Tae-hyun corrected it without the slightest change in expression. Not that anyone could see his face anyway, with the mask on.
“A good quest?”
“For us?”
There were a few high-level players in the square, but most of the crowd was made up of low-level players.
And more than half of them were production-type classes.
Blacksmiths, tailors, cooks—if they all had one thing in common, it was that in the early game, they couldn’t do much on their own. Dungeons, boss raids, all of that was out of reach. At the start, they mostly had to stay inside the city and do whatever the NPCs told them.
So when someone said they were handing out a good quest, of course their ears perked up.
“Come on. Isn’t this a scam?”
“What? Why would he scam us?”
“Think about it. If it were you, would you just share a great quest with other people for free?”
“Well… that’s true…”
There were negative people everywhere.
And honestly, their suspicion made sense. Nobody just handed out quests to other people.
“Of course it isn’t free.”
“……!”
“But it’s not expensive either! I know your situation. I can’t very well charge you some outrageous amount. You all have a hard time earning gold, don’t you? I know. Production skills are hard enough to level, and the NPCs do nothing but work you to the bone…”
Tae-hyun knew exactly what life was like for production classes.
And hearing him say it out loud made the players in those classes feel a little choked up. The kind of words that hit you right in the chest and made your eyes sting.
“So for the low, low price of just 1 gold! If you pay only 1 gold, you can join the quest!”
“1 gold?”
“If it’s 1 gold…”
It wasn’t pocket change for low-level players, but it also wasn’t some impossible sum. It was expensive enough to matter, cheap enough to pay if you really wanted in.
If it meant getting in on a jackpot quest, it was a bargain.
“But what kind of quest is it?”
“Excellent question. You see these people from the McCraney Merchant Group here?”
Tae-hyun placed a hand on Rufo’s shoulder. Rufo visibly hated it, but didn’t shrug him off.
“Yes! We see them!”
“This is a quest where you board a ship with these fine friends and travel to an island.”
“And what do we do on the island?”
“You show the NPCs there your skills to your heart’s content. Blacksmith? Cook? Gardener? Painter? Musician? Anything is fine. If you have a production or artistic class, I promise you—you will not regret going.”
“Wooooooah!”
Everybody threw up their hands and cheered.
For production and art classes, getting to go somewhere new like that was an enormous opportunity. Just discovering a place they’d never been before came with bonuses on its own. A stat bonus at minimum, and if they were lucky, even class skill bonuses.
And if they got quests from the NPCs in that region and completed them, there would be extra rewards on top of that.
Of course, Tae-hyun neglected to mention that those NPCs were pirates…
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
While the crowd roared in excitement, Rufo hurriedly grabbed Tae-hyun and whispered sharply,
“What do you mean, what am I doing? I’m solving your pirate problem.”
“The pirate crew isn’t some pushover! These small fry gathered here could never clear it! And you still haven’t told them, have you? If you tell them they’ll be dealing with pirates, every single person here will run!”
“Relax. I’m not planning to fight.”
“What?”
“We just have to get underground, don’t we?”
“??”
“Pirates are still people. If they’ve been stuck living in a place like that, there’s bound to be plenty they want.”
“D-don’t tell me…”
“We load the ship with enough bribes to make it worth their while. Booze, food, whatever. Then we let all these people loose and put them to work.”
Rufo’s mouth fell open as he listened to Tae-hyun’s plan.
What kind of lunatic was this?
“So you mean… we’re going to decorate the pirates’ fortress for them?”
“Well… something like that? Don’t make it sound so serious. Anyway, the people here aren’t that skilled, so whatever they make probably won’t be all that impressive.”
“That is not the issue! This isn’t about whether they’re good or bad at it! You can’t do that for pirates!”
“Why not?”
“B-because… because they’re pirates?”
“You’re merchants. Don’t merchants trade with anyone if there’s money in it?”
“We have never done such a thing!”
“You really that confident you never will?”
“Th-that…”
Rufo smacked his lips together.
If a situation like that ever came up, he couldn’t say with absolute certainty that McCraney wouldn’t make the deal. Merchants were merchants. If there was money in it, they could do business with anyone.
“Whether it works perfectly or not, whether the pirates are satisfied with the trade or not, none of that matters. We just need to get onto the island first. Once we do, we can sneak underground.”
That cold indifference—he didn’t care in the slightest what happened to the players boarding the ship.
For the sake of his objective, Tae-hyun could do anything.
And besides…
It’s not like they can see my face under the mask anyway.
If things got messy later, he could just change his appearance again and be done with it.
“Try negotiating so the pirates let us onto the island. That’s your side’s role, right? You said you’d support me.”
“……”
Without even waiting for a response, Tae-hyun hopped down from the stage.
“Line up in a single file! I’ll be taking names!”
“Woooooah!”
People surged toward him in an instant, desperate not to miss their chance.
“Here! I’ve got 1 gold! I’m James! Put my name down!”
“I’m Tanaka! Please, you’ve got to put Tanaka on the list!”
“Um, by the way, which island are we going to?”
Questions like that were quietly ignored.
Tae-hyun smoothly brushed past it and called the next person.
Before long, he had enough people to completely fill one ship.
All of them were production or art classes.
Every last one of them was already excited about the rewards they expected to get in a new place.
“When are you planning to tell them it’s the pirate den?”
“When we arrive?”
Tae-hyun said it while shaking the now-heavy pouch of gold coins in his hand.
The McCraney Merchant Group, which dominates Genoma City, is a company that goes wherever there is profit to be made. They are now recruiting people. Travel to an island and carry out various production and artistic activities, and you will be rewarded handsomely.
🎁 Reward: ?, ??, ???
The quest popped up for everyone who had gathered.
When the merchant company employees kindly escorted them to the harbor and showed them the enormous merchant vessel, everyone was overwhelmed.
“See? If he’s close with the McCraney Merchant Group, why would he need to scam people like us?”
“Yeah. I think I was too suspicious. Now I kind of feel bad.”
“What’s there to feel bad about? We just have to work hard once we get there!”
“Haha! True, right?”
The players chatted brightly, not even dreaming where they were headed.
Not a single one of them imagined they were sailing for the island where the infamous Caterand Pirates were holed up.
Tae-hyun stood on the ship’s deck and looked around.
The giant sail, the sturdy and beautifully made hull.
It was an incredibly expensive merchant ship. The sort of sailing vessel that even if players poured in their entire fortune, it still wouldn’t be enough to buy one.
And it was packed.
People crowded the deck, their faces shining with hope.
“Where do you think we’re going? It has to be somewhere good. If the McCraney Merchant Group is going there.”
“Right? It’s not like a merchant company would go someplace super dangerous.”
That trust in the merchant company was one of the main reasons so many players had shown up.
The McCraney Merchant Group had been famous in Genoma City long before Tae-hyun arrived. And just like a famous religious order or powerful faction, a famous merchant group was something people put their faith in.
Besides, since they were merchants, the McCraney group was seen as taking on less dangerous jobs than other major powers.
The McCraney Merchant Group is recruiting people!
When the announcement went out, most people had thought, Well, if it’s the McCraney Merchant Group, they probably won’t take us somewhere too dangerous.
So they’d followed along.
“What islands are around here again?”
“Elderen Island? That place would be amazing! If that’s where we’re going, there’s definitely gonna be a discovery bonus. The scenery’s beautiful, the monsters aren’t that strong, and I heard the locals are nice too.”
Two players wearing beginner painter sets looked at each other and beamed, hearts pounding.
They would go to beautiful Elderen Island and capture nature exactly as it was.
In real life too, they were painters.
But the natural world of Fantasy Online 2 was on a scale reality could never compare with.
Mana storms pouring down from the sky, ice dragons flying between glaciers, giants boiling up from within lava…
Every one of those scenes stirred an artist’s imagination.
I’m definitely going to find inspiration here!
Thinking that, they clasped each other’s hands.
Clank, clank—
“Hey. Why’d you pack so much stuff?”
“If you’re a blacksmith, this is basic prep. You think it’ll be easy to find materials once we get there? You’ve got to carry plenty.”
The two blacksmith players were friends. One looked at the other, who was staggering under a mountain of baggage, and tilted his head.
“Still, I don’t think you’ll need that much. You’ve slowed down now.”
His friend had gone over the maximum weight limit and was moving sluggishly.
“Don’t come begging me for materials later!”
“Come on, what kind of talk is that? I’ll pay you. If I need materials later, share some. We don’t even know what we’ll be making there.”
“Hmph. I’ll charge you extra.”
Their conversation was warm and easy. It sounded like bickering, but only because they were close enough to talk that way.
“I hope there’ll be lots of weapons.”
“I’m hoping for heavy armor. I need to raise my skill proficiency. You know heavy armor’s the hottest thing in Genoma City right now, right? If I level the skill, I’ll make a killing.”
“I still like weapons better. They’re cooler.”
“Forget cool. You need money first before you can do anything.”
Rufo happened to pass by, heard them, and muttered under his breath,
“There’ll be lots of weapons. And lots of heavy armor too.”
“...?”
“Didn’t that NPC just say something?”
“He said there’d be lots of weapons and heavy armor, right?”
If they’d heard correctly, yes—that was exactly what he’d said.
The two men clenched their fists.
“Seriously…”
“Coming here was the best choice ever!”
Rufo stared at Tae-hyun with a cold look in his eyes.
Doesn’t this prick your conscience at all?
But Tae-hyun, without the slightest change in expression, turned to the captain and asked,
“How much longer?”
“Another thirty minutes or so, and it should come into view.”
“You informed them in advance?”
“Yes. Proper negotiations will have to be done in person, of course, but…”
Tae-hyun gave the captain’s shoulder a couple of pats, then turned to Rufo.
“Rufo. Let’s go negotiate.”
“What?! Why me?!”
“Aren’t you the strongest person here?”
“……!”
Rufo was a little startled.
It was true. Out of the company’s fighters, he was the strongest. He took a quiet pride in that.
But how had Tae-hyun noticed?
“If something happens, you’re supposed to help me.”
“……”
Tae-hyun had a real talent for making people instantly lose all desire to help him.
But what could Rufo do? He had his orders from McCraney.
Dropping his head with a heavy sigh, Rufo followed after Tae-hyun.