What Do I Do? What Do I Do?!
"What do I do? What do I do?!"
"Calm down. Panicking now won't change anything. Honestly, as long as your basics are solid, practicing for a dungeon raid doesn't take long. In fact, it relies more on your usual skills and luck than practice anyway."
A wide variety of factors determined a successful dungeon raid: level, gear, judgment, teamwork, and party composition. If a team already possessed these fundamentals, they wouldn't fall far behind a team that had practiced the same dungeon dozens of times.
Normally, a team that had run a dungeon dozens of times together to perfect their coordination would have a massive advantage. However, the dungeons featured in the tournament were completely randomized, meaning no one knew what to expect.
But Cain was not comforted in the slightest.
"But I don't have any 'usual skills'!"
"...R-right."
Choi Sang-yun was left utterly speechless by Cain's brutal honesty.
In truth, there was a reason Cain was panicking so much. Tae-hyun was practically made of confidence, Jeong Su-hyeok was simply thinking, I'll just do whatever Senior tells me to do!, and Choi Sang-yun had plenty of experience soloing all kinds of dungeons before joining Tae-hyun's party. But Cain was primarily a PvP player.
It wasn't that he had never cleared a dungeon before, but his PvE experience was overwhelmingly lacking.
"Just go pick out your gear for now, alright?"
Still, considering the tournament, it might be better to get something different rather than standard armor.
Tae-hyun thought as he walked away.
His current armor was perfectly fine, and honestly, he rarely had any need for high defense. There were very few monsters capable of bypassing his overwhelming Luck stat and evasion rate, so raising his defense just to prepare for them was highly inefficient.
Since his level was lower than other players, his real weakness was his maximum HP!
It was far better to defeat enemies before they could strike, or find other ways to evade them entirely.
Since all kinds of items are allowed in the dungeon tournament... some truly bizarre tactics will probably pop up.
Any team participating would have a solid baseline of skill. Shaving off seconds would be key, but the real deciding factor would be who brought the most hidden trump cards.
With thirty-two teams in a tournament bracket, we'll have to clear dungeons five times if we make it to the finals. Even if people have special items, they won't be able to spam them recklessly.
Potions and various consumables were allowed, but the dungeon tournament wasn't a one-and-done deal. If they won, they would have to compete against the next team's time record. Strategic item management was absolutely essential.
An Orichalcum Arrow would be perfect.
In Pan-On, where instant-death skills were incredibly rare, Tae-hyun possessed a broken weapon: the Orichalcum Arrow. To be precise, it was only broken for someone with an absurdly high Luck stat like him!
Unfortunately, there were no Orichalcum-related items visible in the warehouse.
I guess I'll just grab whatever else looks useful...
"The tournament is just around the corner."
"Yeah. Everyone's working hard."
Team Leader Choi Myung-sung sipped his coffee, keeping his eyes glued to the monitors. Teams preparing for the tournament all over Pan-On filled the screens.
Yoon Ju-hwan turned to his boss and asked,
"I heard a rumor around the office that the higher-ups have really high expectations for this tournament..."
"They should. It's a tournament worthy of it. Having it hosted in Korea was a huge deal."
Even though it wasn't an official event and was hosted by a small Korean broadcasting station, the Arena tournament had drawn an astronomical amount of attention.
If a small Korean station can generate this much hype, how massive would the response be if we hosted an official one?
"Have you heard anything, Team Leader?"
"About what? The tournament structure? You already know the structure, and even I don't know what the dungeons will be."
Among Pan-On employees, there was a running joke that they had "the easiest job in the world." Since the Pan-On AI handled almost everything internally, the employees practically had nothing to do!
Of course, it was just a joke. There was plenty of work to go around. The tournament dungeons were also being generated entirely by the AI.
"No, not that. I meant, which of the participating teams do you think will win..."
"You sure are curious about useless things. What difference does it make? They're all top-tier teams, so it's impossible to predict."
"Even Kim Tae-hyun's team?"
"Team KL? Kim Tae-hyun is amazing, but... well, I don't know. There are too many variables."
Choi Myung-sung scratched his cheek.
"His teammates are far from top-tier rankers... and the other major gaming organizations have hired professional directors and coaches to train them. If it were a PvP tournament, Kim Tae-hyun could carry them somehow, but a dungeon raid might be tough even for him."
"Hearing that, it really sounds like Team KL is far from being a favorite to win."
"No, I didn't say they're far from it. I just said it might be tough."
"Ah, right."
Yoon Ju-hwan nodded sheepishly, seeing his boss get defensive the moment he suggested Tae-hyun wasn't a favorite.
"Kim Tae-hyun must be busy right now. Unlike other players, he has to worry about managing the team himself."
"We received a formal sponsorship offer from Prosdas. There are a few other places too, but let's put those on hold for now. They feel like they're just testing the waters because you're a new team. Like, 'if it works, great; if not, whatever' kind of vibe."
"Yes. I'm not in a rush either, so let's just accept the Prosdas offer for now."
"So, is preparation going well? I looked it up, and there are quite a few tournaments this year."
Tae-hyun, receiving a call from Lawyer Jeong, couldn't answer right away.
"O-of course."
"Is that so? Well, gaming is your specialty, so I'm sure you'll handle it."
From Lawyer Jeong's perspective, Team KL was bound to get more sponsorship offers. Since they were smaller and newer than other teams, companies looking for high advertising effects at a low cost would covet them. They had to filter these offers carefully.
"Oh? Apparently, Yuseong is forming a gaming team too. Is that friend who's supposedly dating you in it?"
"...Excuse me??"
Tae-hyun wondered what kind of nonsense this was. But then, a sudden realization hit him. No way...!
Tae-hyun hung up and turned on the TV.
So this was it.
Tae-hyun finally understood why Lee Se-yeon had looked at him with that meaningful, smug "Hehe, I'm going to surprise you later" expression.
He checked the community boards. They were already flooded with posts about the announcement. Even the international boards! That was how massive Lee Se-yeon's name value was.
But it's true...
Is it really that strange? Tae-hyun felt a bit bitter.
"Did you hear?! Lee Se-yeon, Lee Se-yeon is...!"
"I heard."
"Did you hear?!"
"I said I heard."
"Did you—"
"Ah, I said I heard!!"
Looking at his teammates making a fuss one after another, Tae-hyun spoke with annoyance.
"Why does that even matter!"
"I mean... it's terrifying."
"And you've lost to Lee Se-yeon before."
"......!"
Cain looked at Choi Sang-yun in absolute horror.
Is he trying to get himself killed?
Of course, Tae-hyun didn't hit Choi Sang-yun.
Cain thought to himself:
Oh? Is that level of banter okay? I guess I can do that too.
"That was then, and this is now. Don't worry. Aside from Lee Se-yeon, the rest of them won't be much of a threat."
Choi Sang-yun thought to himself:
Notice how he didn't say Lee Se-yeon isn't a threat.
"But Ryu Tae-su is on the roster."
"Ryu Tae-su...?"
Tae-hyun's face grimaced.
He wasn't good at remembering names, but he remembered Ryu Tae-su.
The captain of Team Eight whom he met during the Arena tournament!
But more importantly, Ryu Tae-su had been a massive fanboy of Tae-hyun since Pan-On 1.
Without knowing who Tae-hyun actually was, he had proudly declared, "I am a true fan of Kim Tae-hyun!" only for the two of them to share the most awkward moment of their lives once the truth came out.
Just thinking about it gives me chills.
The moment where they couldn't even make eye contact, repeating things like: "So you were Kim Tae-hyun... I, uh, was a fan... I'm sorry, ugh..." and "Ah, yes. It's fine..."
No matter how shameless Tae-hyun was, he couldn't be cruel to his own fan.
"Well, I remember his skills being decent."
"Maybe they put him in as a substitute since they couldn't get you, Tae-hyun-nim? Their playstyles are pretty similar."
"That makes me feel a bit... weird."
Tae-hyun felt complicated.
Out of all the things to substitute, why that? But compared to how Lee Se-yeon must be feeling, his complicated feelings were nothing.
"Excuse me, Captain. What about Kim Tae-hyun?"
"What do you think Kim Tae-hyun would have done in this situation?"
"You went on a broadcast with Kim Tae-hyun last time..."
"When you took this magazine photo..."
Should I kill him?
Lee Se-yeon swallowed her rising murderous intent.
Being a team captain was truly not easy!
Honestly, Ryu Tae-su was a good player. Diligent, possessed solid basic skills, followed orders well... What was important for a gaming team member, besides skill, was personality and teamwork.
No matter how skilled, a player who couldn't work with the team was dangerous. Lee Se-yeon had realized this bone-deep truth watching Do Dong-su (and Kim Tae-hyun) during the Arena tournament.
In that regard, even though Ryu Tae-su had been the captain of his own team, he didn't throw useless tantrums and followed Lee Se-yeon's orders perfectly...
...but he was incredibly annoying.
Whenever he had a spare moment, he would run over and ask, "What was Kim Tae-hyun like?" At this point, she wondered if he was a spy paid by Kim Tae-hyun.
Why does this guy make me angry even when he's not here?
If Tae-hyun had actually planned this, she would honestly be impressed!
"Huh? Lee Se-yeon sent a text."
"Is it about the announcement?"
"No. She just wrote: 'You set this up, didn't you?'"
"Set what up?"
"Hmm. There are too many possibilities... I'll just say no for now."
When in doubt, deny everything!
"Alright. Enough chit-chat, everyone head to the capsules. We have some time before the next quest, so let's actually run some dungeons and build our teamwork."
"Yes!"
"Sounds good!"
As they dispersed toward their capsules, Cain suddenly remembered something. A conversation he had with Lee Se-yeon when she visited...
Come to think of it, didn't she say she was going to rent out other people's dungeons last time?
A shiver ran down his spine!
Now that he thought about it, it didn't seem like a joke.