The Shamelessness of a Ranker
"But I think our comparison is a bit off."
"...!"
"Well, I suppose all crafting skills are trivial compared to Engineering."
"..."
Freid resisted the urge to smash his head in with an alchemy bottle.
"...Listen carefully. Alchemy is by no means a trivial skill. Besides, what I do is none other than..."
"Come on. Alchemy is already mediocre, so what difference does it make if you slap 'Demonic' in front of it? I don't like that kind of deception."
"Exactly. We don't get fooled by the packaging; we look at what's inside."
"Shut up and listen!"
"Did you just yell at us?"
"N-no. It's not like that... I'm just saying, please be quiet and listen."
Freid struggled to speak calmly. He was absolutely going to drag these guys into the world of alchemy and give Saruon the middle finger!
"Now... Alchemy is not difficult..."
"*Yawn.*"
"I'm already bored."
"..."
"Are these bastards really Elves?! Even dwarves and goblins wouldn't do this!"
Even dwarf or goblin fortresses, famous for their engineering traps, weren't this obsessively packed with them. It was a level of persistence that made it seem like some human with way too much time on his hands had done nothing but build traps!
The Rankers who had painstakingly sneaked in with their party members were utterly sick of the traps that triggered with every single step. One by one, the Rankers began to flee!
"Retreat for now!"
"Let's at least destroy one siege weapon before we go!"
"Yeah! Let's break it and run!"
Even as they claimed they were going to break it, their bodies were already scaling the fortress walls to escape! The Rankers who were a step too slow realized the others' true intentions. They were planning to use them as bait to escape safely!
"You dirty bastards?!"
When escaping, you only ever needed to follow one rule: run faster than the companion you came with!
"Huh? Who cast a spell?"
Tae-hyun was puzzled as he watched the players whose movements had ground to a halt due to the skills. What admirable player showed such great tactical sense?
"...They're casting them on each other."
"!"
The parties were sabotaging each other! Watching this, Cain spoke hesitantly.
"Hey... Do you think... they just don't get along?"
"..."
Tae-hyun nodded. ...They really just hated each other!
The infiltrating parties were discovered one by one, getting smashed to pieces or forced to retreat. Even the parties that managed to sneak in couldn't do a thing, completely paralyzed by the dense web of traps Tae-hyun had laid out.
Even in the midst of this, the Rankers miraculously managed to escape without getting caught once. They possessed the absolute ruthlessness to not even turn their heads while their party members were dropping dead!
Cain watched in awe.
"Wow. What absolute trash."
"That's a Ranker for you."
The thoroughness of prioritizing one's own character and stats over any party! A true Ranker valued a single point in their own stats over the lives of ten party members.
"Let's check if there are any left and gather the loot."
Tae-hyun walked around the area with Cain, picking up the loot dropped between the traps. Cain shuddered. Seeing nothing but empty pits littered with dropped items made it all too easy to guess what had happened.
This is terrifying!
My victory.
While the infiltrating parties were being smashed to pieces and fleeing, a single Ranker was leisurely walking through the sky. It was the Mage, Jeinen!
When the others were getting exposed one by one earlier, Jeinen had been the very first to abandon her party and take to the skies. It was an excellent choice. Thanks to that, while everyone else was in utter chaos, she was able to fly inside with relative ease.
- Yawn. Do you really think some idiot would fly in? I highly doubt it.
- I believe Master's words.
Yong-yong and Heuk-heuk yawned as they circled the sky above the fortress walls.
- N-no, it's not that I don't believe him...
Heuk-heuk quickly made an excuse. Surely this bastard isn't going to tattle on me, right?
- I-I'm just saying, wouldn't a normal adventurer avoid flying in? Since there's nowhere to hide and all.
At that exact moment, their senses picked up a player flying toward them.
- ...!
- ...!
Heuk-heuk was astonished. There really is an idiot adventurer!
- I'm going!
- W-wait. Master said not to act rashly and just report if there's an intruder...
Yong-yong tried to stop him, but Heuk-heuk charged forward in excitement. Having just talked behind Tae-hyun's back, he was even more desperate to prove himself.
Roar of Magic Dissolution
"Aaaaargh?!"
Jeinen shrieked in terror at the sudden appearance of a Black Dragon emerging from the darkness. It was so dark she could barely see its silhouette, but its eyes gleamed menacingly.
You are falling from a high place! Impact may cause severe injury.
No!
As her Levitation spell and various other active buffs were dispelled, Jeinen instinctively tried to recover. But before she could even finish, Heuk-heuk loomed right in front of her and pounced.
- Levi— *Urgh! Crunch!*
- Farewell, you foolish adventurer!
"S-surrender! I surrender! I was wrong! I surrender!"
- Huh?
Heuk-heuk was flustered. If they surrender, what am I supposed to do? He didn't recall receiving any specific instructions for that...
I should probably just kill her, right?
Heuk-heuk prepared to clamp his jaws down on Jeinen.
"Wait. Aren't you the pet Kim Tae-hyun drags around?"
Yong-yong and Heuk-heuk. Their appearances were so striking and memorable that anyone who saw them once would never forget them. The two pets that symbolized Tae-hyun!
- ...N-no, I'm not?
"Yes, you are! Where else would there be a pet like you?"
- I am not a pet! Die!
"No! Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"
"So you let your identity get exposed and brought her here?"
- I am sorry...
Heuk-heuk was prostrating himself, his head pressed against the ground. Tae-hyun spoke, utterly dumbfounded.
"Did I tell you to go catch them, or did I tell you to come report when you saw an intruder? We could have easily shot her down with arrows from below."
A shiver ran down Jeinen's spine. Come to think of it, if they had done that, she would have been logged out before she even had a chance to surrender.
"K-Kim Tae-hyun! I'm a fan of yours."
"Sure. Thanks. Goodbye. It's a shame we got exposed, but it is what it is."
He had been hiding his identity so the Guild Alliance would let their guard down and act more recklessly. Now that was ruined, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Well, I've already extorted everything I could anyway.
"No! No!"
Jeinen cried out desperately.
"I'm really a fan! I even bought your merchandise!"
Tae-hyun was genuinely surprised.
"There's merchandise of me?"
"There's probably unofficial stuff being sold... More importantly, let's just kill her."
"Kill her."
"Let's kill her!"
Lee Da-bi, Yu Ji-soo, and even Jeong Su-hyeok chimed in, unanimously calling for her death. Seeing some random female Ranker they had never met claiming to be Tae-hyun's fan was an absolute eyesore to them.
"A fan? From the Guild Alliance?! She's a fake!"
Jeong Su-hyeok shouted passionately. Jeinen flinched. How did he know?
"I really am a fan! Is this how you treat your fans?!"
"My fans usually enjoy becoming bombs, though?"
Tae-hyun said as he stepped closer to Jeinen. Terrified, Jeinen shook her head frantically.
"Spare me! I have an ongoing quest right now, so I can't die! If you let me go, I'll never come back!"
Seeing her desperate state, Cain's heart softened slightly.
"She is a bit pitiful..."
"Not pitiful at all."
"I don't find her pitiful."
"She's not pitiful."
"...O-oh, really?"
A barrage of sharp glares instantly pierced Cain! Tae-hyun agreed with them.
"They're right. Rankers are notoriously good at playing the victim. I dealt with plenty of them back in Pan-On 1."
And thirty minutes later:
"I was wrong, waaaah! Please spare me!"
"Come to think of it, Cain definitely had the talent of a Ranker."
"Huh? Why all of a sudden?"
Cain felt a bit bashful. To think Tae-hyun would actually praise him.
"I mean, after getting utterly wrecked by me, you immediately turned around and asked for my help. You need that level of shamelessness to make it."
"..."
To be a Ranker, you had to be able to forget everything you said thirty minutes ago and immediately prostrate yourself! Listening to Tae-hyun and Cain's conversation, a cold sweat broke out on Jeinen's neck. In truth, Jeinen was one of the players who had been victimized by Tae-hyun back in Pan-On 1. And in a manner very similar to what Tae-hyun was describing!
Thirty minutes later:
"Uwaaaah! I was wrong! Please spare me!"
Surely he doesn't remember, right?
Of course, Tae-hyun didn't remember. Seeing no sign of recognition, Jeinen felt relieved. But at the same time, she felt a surge of annoyance.
Wait, now that I think about it... how could this bastard forget that?
From Tae-hyun's perspective, there were simply too many players like Jeinen for him to keep track of, but from the victim's perspective, it was deeply infuriating.
"Anyway, did you say your name was Jeinen? Huh? I feel like I've heard that somewhere before."
"T-that's because I'm famous in the Guild Alliance."
"Really? Strange. Well, whether you're my fan or not doesn't really matter... Here, let's take a picture together."
"?"
Tae-hyun stood close to Jeinen, linking arms with her in a friendly manner, and snapped a screenshot.
"??"
"Ah. You're wondering what I did? I'm going to leak this to the Guild Alliance later."
"...You absolute son of a b—!"
"I knew she was acting."
Jeinen realized her mistake too late. She looked around and saw murderous glares locked onto her.
I'm going to kill her!
Should we kill her?
The Mage gear she's wearing looks pretty good.
As the air grew thick with killing intent, a panicked Jeinen tried to salvage the situation.
"I just cursed because I got worked up!"
"I'm getting worked up too, so it's fine if an arrow slips, right? Right?"
"Hold on a second. Now, 'Ainen.' If you don't want to be known as Kim Tae-hyun's best friend to the Guild Alliance, spit out everything—starting with why you came here and what those guys are up to."
"My name is Jeinen..."
"What?"
"N-nothing. I'll be Ainen. But can you please get them away from me?"
Jeinen pointed at Tae-hyun's companions, who were glaring at her from behind. Even Cain, who had pitied her just moments ago, was now glaring at her with a look that said, I was fooled.
"If I knew you were Kim Tae-hyun, I wouldn't have even come here! Stop glaring at me like that!"
Jeinen was completely misunderstanding why Yu Ji-soo and Lee Da-bi were glaring at her. It was because she had taken a friendly photo with Tae-hyun, but Jeinen assumed it was simply because she was a Ranker from a rival guild.
"...You expect me to believe that? Ji-soo, draw your bow."
"Yes, Hyung!!"
"It's the truth!! I swear it's the truth!!!"
Jeinen screamed at the top of her lungs. Just believe me already!
"So you fought over some Archisus-related gear, Su Ning took off with one of them, and you guys came here but couldn't coordinate, so everyone just did their own thing... That sounds like complete nonsense. How could anyone be that stupid?"
"..."
Jeinen grumbled inwardly. That's literally what happened, what do you want me to do about it?
Tae-hyun pondered. Considering the pathetic display they had put on earlier, Jeinen's explanation actually made sense. It was just incredibly embarrassing.
"Look, I'll even give up on the Archisus gear and leave. If you could just let me go..."
"Sure, why not?"
"!"
"!!!"
"!!!!!"
The kindness was so unexpected that even Jeinen, who had suggested it, was shocked!
"Senior! Let's just kill her! Her gear looks really good!"
Jeong Su-hyeok's true feelings slipped out from behind! Watching him, Tae-hyun thought:
He's really changed a lot.
He used to be so much more innocent...
In truth, there was an even more aggressive figure standing right next to him, but Tae-hyun remained completely oblivious.