A Natural Cure for Anger Management
The Death Knight stared at Kim Tae-san and the Orc warriors with startled eyes.
- "Did you really come to talk? Your aura is so menacing, and you're practically dripping with holy power. I thought you came to fight."
"W-we... we always dress like this," Kim Tae-san stammered, making up an excuse on the fly.
If he attacked guys like this, he'd feel so guilty he wouldn't be able to sleep at night!
- "I see. What a relief. I feared I would end up in a pointless battle in these mountains before I could even avenge my grudge."
"What kind of grudge?" Kim Tae-san asked.
If they could resolve this through dialogue, that wasn't a bad thing. He might even be able to recruit a Lich to the Orc tribe's side. The Orc tribe was always desperately short on magic users like shamans!
- "It all started back when we were in the Auston Kingdom..."
"!"
"And that's how we became friends."
"Ah, yes. Good for you."
"Fufu. Chese-do is an incredibly powerful Lich. You'll be shocked when you see him."
"I've seen plenty of guys way stronger than him..."
"Are you talking about Lee Se-yeon? You rascal. Bringing her up like that... I knew those scandal rumors were true—"
"I was talking about other NPCs!" Tae-hyun snapped, his face turning dead serious.
Kim Tae-san flinched. I haven't received my slime clone yet, so I'd better keep my mouth shut.
"Oh, hello!"
Ju Hyeon-yeong, emerging from the kitchen, greeted the two of them. "I saw that you started a war. Congratulations!"
"Right. Thank you."
As Kim Tae-san spoke, he felt a strange sensation. Is starting a war really something to be congratulated on? The phrasing felt a bit off for a congratulatory remark!
"What kind of quest are you working on these days?"
"I'm doing the culinary skill quest that unlocks after reaching the Master rank."
"Ooh...!"
A Master-grade culinary skill! It was a realm reached by only a handful of chef players.
"I'm jealous. Mine is still only at Advanced," Tae-hyun sighed enviously.
Tae-hyun had so many skills to level up that his cooking skill was still stuck at Advanced.
"Wait... isn't that actually more ridiculous...?"
"You punk..."
Ju Hyeon-yeong and Kim Tae-san stared at Tae-hyun with utterly dumbfounded expressions. How could a guy who wasn't even a chef have such a high skill level?
Kim Tae-san thumped his chest proudly. "Since you're a chef, you must have a lot of annoying pests bothering you. Just say the word! I'll send my guild members over!"
"Ah, it's fine. Well, there is one..."
"There is?!" Tae-hyun was surprised. Who could it be?
"A high-ranking chef player keeps inviting me to join their guild."
It was Chao, the guild leader of the Restaurant Guild! Chao had been persistently scouting Ju Hyeon-yeong lately.
"Suspicious..."
"Highly suspicious."
Kim Tae-san and Tae-hyun muttered simultaneously. No matter how they looked at it, it was a shady invitation! Chao was a rival ranker chef. He should be trying to suppress Ju Hyeon-yeong, not invite her.
"Is that bastard harassing you because you won't join?"
"No? He hasn't really done anything like that."
"What? Really? Are you sure you just didn't notice?" Tae-hyun couldn't believe it. "He's the kind of guy who laces food with poison just to eliminate his competition."
Of course, Tae-hyun himself had once kidnapped a judge, but that wasn't important right now.
"Yes, but he really hasn't done anything bad. He just keeps sending offers..."
The Restaurant Guild was currently trying to expand its scale. Recently, their relationship with the Guild Alliance had soured, and internal complaints were piling up. From Chao's perspective, he had to plan for the future.
We need to reach a point where we can run ourselves even without the Guild Alliance's help.
The greatest advantage of a crafting guild was its overwhelming income! If a high-ranking crafter made a single top-tier item and put it on the auction house, the gold earned from that alone could sustain an average guild for a month.
However, rankers didn't just sprout from the ground or fall from the sky. Usually, high-level players belonging to other guilds grew over time to become rankers. Yes, almost all rankers already had guilds they belonged to. Thus, the number of scoutable rankers was extremely limited!
"What's going on? Did he reflect on his actions and turn over a new leaf?"
"As if." Kim Tae-san waved his hand dismissively. People don't change that easily! "He's just hiding his true colors for now, but he'll show them eventually!"
"Hmm. True."
"In my opinion, since he's going to show his true colors later anyway, wouldn't it be better to beat him up now?"
"I think you're right, Father." Tae-hyun nodded in agreement with Kim Tae-san. If the guy was going to reveal his wicked nature later, wasn't it better to strike first?
Ju Hyeon-yeong said in a fluster, "N-no, really. He's not causing any trouble."
"That's all just part of his preparation! He's even more wicked than I thought. What a devious bastard!" Kim Tae-san slapped his knee in indignation.
Hearing the commotion, Ju Hyeon-yeong's mother, Kang Hyeon-suk, came out.
"Oh my, Chairman. What's going on?"
"Mrs. Kang! Listen to this. There's a terribly wicked guy in the game Hyeon-yeong plays...!"
Upon hearing Kim Tae-san's explanation, Kang Hyeon-suk cried out in fury. Harassing her daughter's only hobby!
"How could such a horrible person exist! Chairman, please give him a good scolding!"
"Leave it to me! As an elder, is it not my duty to guide the youth onto the right path?" Kim Tae-san roared boisterously.
"Well, I hope that gets resolved nicely."
"What does?"
"Nothing. Is everyone ready? Let's just do what we always do."
It was the semifinals of the Dungeon Clearing Tournament! If they cleared this match, they would face Lee Se-yeon in the finals. Of course, Lee Se-yeon had to win her match too, but Tae-hyun naturally assumed she would. There's no way Lee Se-yeon would lose, right? If she does, she should smash her capsule and quit the game!
At that exact moment, Lee Se-yeon was thinking the exact same thing about him.
"The players are entering the arena!"
The broadcasting stations and players gathered near the dungeon let out a massive roar. Tae-hyun could see the LK Lions players walking up from behind, staring at him with tense eyes.
Is that their director?
The director and coaches stood out immediately. They wore unmistakable novice gear! While some directors and coaches were high-level players, there were quite a few who simply created characters and never bothered to level them up.
?
Tae-hyun tilted his head. Coach Ju was looking at him with a sly, sinister smirk. It was the kind of wicked grin that only appeared when someone had a scheme up their sleeve and felt absolutely confident in it!
What is it?
Tae-hyun's instincts flared with warning.
Come to think of it, I think Vincent warned me about this...
Among the many things Vincent, the agent who had desperately tried to recruit him, had said, there was this:
- "Player Kim Tae-hyun. LK Lions might not be much on the global stage, but their director has a terrible reputation. He's notorious for playing dirty."
- "I see."
- "But do not worry! As long as I am your agent, I will never allow anyone to pull dirty tricks on my players. If they try, my lawyers will tear them apart."
- "Ah. Yes."
Vincent was the kind of guy whose conversations always naturally segued into, "So, you should sign with me as your agent!" Tae-hyun had never met anyone who was so shamelessly open about their intentions. But then again, having a face made of brass was probably a basic requirement for an A-grade agent.
But what kind of trick could they possibly pull in a Dungeon Clearing Tournament? Tae-hyun wondered.
No matter how much he thought about it, there was no way. It would be different if they were interfering from the outside, but the match was about to start, and Tae-hyun's team was fully assembled. He couldn't imagine what kind of stunt they could pull.
Don't tell me...
Tae-hyun grew tense. If he lost here, he would never be able to show his face to Lee Se-yeon again. She would mock him for the rest of his life!
That absolutely cannot happen!
As tension gripped him, Tae-hyun's concentration spiked to its absolute peak.
Seeing this, Cain was struck with awe.
As expected of Kim Tae-hyun...! He never lets his guard down! I have to do my best too!
"Team KL wins! It's an overwhelming victory! They've broken their own record once again!"
"Has Player Kim Tae-hyun been hiding his true skills all this time?! How can there be such a massive difference?! Their strategy remained the same, but the difference was that Kim Tae-hyun finally unleashed his true power!"
Thanks to Alexeos's buff, Tae-hyun's stats were currently multiplied several times over. Because of this, the LK Lions only ended up looking pitiful. They had studied and practiced so hard, only for their opponent to suddenly go berserk...
What? That was it? It was nothing, Tae-hyun thought, feeling silly for getting so worked up. He had expected some grand scheme.
"LK Lions put up an incredible fight as well! They easily surpassed their previous record!"
"They lost, but it was a valiant effort. LK Lions! It was a near-perfect performance."
Coach Ju's face was twisted in a hideous grimace. Even after doing all that, they still lost!
What on earth is that Kim Tae-hyun monster?! Did he take drugs too?!
Indeed, the hidden trump card of the LK Lions was doping. They had exploited the perception that esports, unlike traditional sports, was relatively lax when it came to drug testing.
Coach Ju, who would stop at nothing to win, had procured drugs that enhanced reaction speed and concentration, and tested them on his players. The results had been astonishing. The LK Lions had managed to set a record that nearly matched Tae-hyun's team.
But then, their opponent had suddenly gone wild and completely shattered their own record. It was an utterly incomprehensible situation.
Was he really hiding his true skills? In a tournament where you can't even watch your opponent's match beforehand? Does that even make sense?
"Uh, Team Leader. We detected some strange readings from the LK Lions players' capsules."
"What is it? Wait a minute... Is this... No way, is it drugs?"
Coach Ju had vastly underestimated the technology of Pandemonium Online. Once a player entered a capsule, the system naturally monitored their physical state. While they didn't check every single detail during casual play, they pulled and verified the players' biometric data during official tournaments.
And this was the result of that process!
"Are these people insane?!"
It was an incredibly brazen act! What was even more shocking was that they had still lost despite doing this.
The public is going to lose their minds.
The first-ever doping scandal in Pandemonium Online esports was shocking enough, but Kim Tae-hyun, who had casually crushed them anyway, was on another level. While cheating scandals weren't entirely unprecedented in esports, it was extremely rare for a team to lose even after doping.
A new legend is about to be born...
Since he had utterly annihilated opponents who were literally on performance-enhancing drugs through sheer skill, the public's explosive reaction was entirely predictable.
"Report this to the higher-ups, and get ready to contact their director. We should at least inform them before making the official announcement."
The next day, the official announcement was made, and articles began flooding the internet. It was an absolute shockwave!
"What?! They were doping?! Those dirty cheaters!" Cain gasped in shock.
When he watched the broadcast after the match, he had thought they played incredibly well. He had even self-reflected, thinking, Wow, those guys must have practiced so hard. Their reaction times were razor-sharp and their coordination was perfect. I should be ashamed of myself!
But it turned out to be the drugs. A sudden wave of betrayal washed over him.
Meanwhile, Tae-hyun, who had just woken up, walked out while yawning.
"What are you doing?"
But how on earth is this guy's reaction time faster than people who are literally on drugs?
Cain stared at him. Was he even human?