The Dragon Lich Awakens
"What should we do? Should we go back and drag him out?" Cain asked.
At his words, the players from the Beijing Fighters burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! You must be joking!"
"You've got a great sense of humor, Cain."
"...I wasn't joking, though?"
"What?! You weren't joking?! I mean, why are you looking out for Do Dong-su like that, Cain? What do you even see in him?"
The players were genuinely taken aback. No matter how they looked at it, Cain had absolutely no reason to be nice to Do Dong-su. In fact, when Do Dong-su was talking trash about Kim Tae-hyun, he had dragged Cain into his insults too!
Come to think of it, why am I doing this? Cain wondered. The answer came to him almost immediately.
Ah...!
A kindred spirit in suffering! He felt a strange, lingering pity for Do Dong-su, who was constantly getting thrashed and manipulated by Tae-hyun.
Sigh. I really am too good for this world.
"But you guys are on the same team. Shouldn't we bring him along?"
"We might be a team, but we're also rivals."
"Exactly. Everyone has to look out for themselves. Honestly, if one of us got left behind, I highly doubt Do Dong-su would've come back for us..."
What rock-solid trust! Neither the players nor Do Dong-su had an ounce of faith in one another.
Their relationship was built entirely on the assumption of: If I trip and fall, that bastard will just walk right past me and keep living his best life.
"Besides, a ranker of Do Dong-su's caliber should be able to get out on his own."
"Yeah. He's technically our team's top expert."
But looking at that dungeon earlier, it seemed uniquely cruel to Do Dong-su...
Even so, Cain hesitated. That was when one of the players leaned in.
"Cain. Um... I feel a bit bad bringing this up, but..."
"?"
"Do Dong-su talks a massive amount of trash about you behind your back. Right alongside Kim Tae-hyun."
"......."
"I just felt bad seeing you try to look out for him, so I thought you should know."
"Leave him!"
Cain made his decision with lightning speed.
Tae-hyun's group watched in admiration.
"As expected of Cain!"
"I really enjoyed your commercial, by the way!"
"...Let's not talk about the commercial."
"Well, at least you'll have plenty to talk about during the interviews. Better than getting buried because you didn't have enough screen time, right?"
"?"
Cain flinched at Tae-hyun's words.
"Uh... what interview?"
"What do you mean, 'what interview'? You're a player heading into the tournament finals. Of course you'll have interviews. It's not like this is your first time; you did them last time too."
"!"
Cain's face turned completely pale.
"W-when is it?"
"Let's see, when was it again..."
No matter when it was, it would definitely take place after his hemorrhoid cushion commercial aired! Cain's instincts screamed. The reporters were absolutely going to ask him about it!
Aaaaargh!
"Is it just me, or are there a lot of people around?"
"Yeah, seriously..."
Cain looked around. Sure, the Asbian Empire had just opened up, drawing in countless players, but... wasn't this a bit much?
They weren't even in a city right now. They were in the middle of a desolate desert, traveling toward some ruins. There was nothing here but a dirt road and endless sand, so why were there so many people? Did a high-tier dungeon spawn nearby or something?
"It's an ambush."
"What?!"
Tae-hyun was the first to realize. Having survived battles on land, sea, and air, he was easily one of the most battle-hardened players in all of Pan-On! There was no fooling someone with his level of experience.
How many are there...? Whoa. Holy crap. They're everywhere. What is this?
Tae-hyun used a skill to scan his surroundings. Across the vast, sprawling desert, players were swarming in like a black cloud. There were even entire parties whispering and waiting just behind the dunes, completely out of their direct line of sight!
They were all shuffling around, trying desperately to avoid eye contact, but their movements were painfully obvious. They were targeting Tae-hyun's group.
I don't mind being targeted, but I'm curious about the reason.
If a single party had charged at him screaming, "Die, you bastard!" Tae-hyun would have just shrugged and thought, Yeah, that makes sense. But when dozens, even hundreds of parties were converging on them? There had to be a catalyst. Players didn't gather like this out of nowhere.
"Tae-hyun! The Guild Alliance... they've put a bounty on us!"
"What? Again? Wait, more importantly, they hadn't put one on us yet?"
Tae-hyun was actually more surprised by the fact that this was news. They hadn't put a bounty on him until now?
"No, this time is different."
Bounties. It was a time-honored tradition that stretched all the way back to Pan-On 1. Even if a guild wanted to crush a single player, doing so presented a logistical nightmare. Guild members would have to spend all their time chasing that one person down. But guild members had their own things to do! On top of that, Pan-On was so massive that if someone was determined to run, they were nearly impossible to find.
That was where bounties came in. By offering a bounty, money-hungry players would willingly become the guild's eyes and ears. The higher the bounty, the more exponential the effect!
Naturally, Tae-hyun already had a hefty bounty on his head. But up until now, it had been completely meaningless.
How are we supposed to kill that monster?
Players who looked up Tae-hyun's track record were instantly demoralized and gave up. No matter how tempting a massive payout was, there had to be a realistic chance of success. The endless videos of high-level rankers getting absolutely shredded whenever they challenged Tae-hyun only served to make people avoid him like the plague.
But this time, the terms were different.
• Hit Kim Tae-hyun just once to receive a payout!
• Interfere with Kim Tae-hyun's quests to receive a payout!
• Block him with your body or stall for time—any contribution will be rewarded!
• The same applies to his companions. Land a single hit on them to increase your bounty reward!
• The greater your contribution, the larger the payout!
These were unprecedented, revolutionary conditions! It was practically free money. And of course, the ones funding this madness were the Guild Alliance.
Can these bastards even afford the gold? I heard they're already struggling with a severe gold shortage.
As soon as Tae-hyun heard the terms, his pragmatic mind began to question the logistics. Operating a bounty system like this would drain gold at an exponential rate. Where on earth did they get that kind of capital?
Wait, don't tell me they're planning to... eat-and-run?
It was the ultimate scumbag move, practiced only by the lowest of the low back in Pan-On 1! Putting up a massive bounty and then refusing to pay out! Once a guild pulled a stunt like that, they would be dragged and cursed out until the day the servers shut down.
But then again, they're already total scumbags.
Considering their track record, they were already more than qualified. They were basically the evolved, worse versions of the notorious large guilds from Pan-On 1! Extorting other guilds, launching surprise attacks to seize territories without declaring war, taxing non-guild members at astronomical rates, and so on...
But are they really going to pull an eat-and-run? Wow. If that's the case, I actually kind of want to see it happen.
Honestly, even Tae-hyun was left wondering, Would they really stoop that low?
"Stop Kim Tae-hyun by any means necessary!"
As the massive war erupted, the Guild Alliance went into emergency mode. Their top priority was finding a way to halt Tae-hyun's advance.
"But he went to the Asbian Empire, so shouldn't we be fine? Aren't we worrying a bit too much—"
"Drag that idiot out of here!"
"?!"
One newly promoted guild executive was instantly kicked out of the meeting room for running his mouth. Everyone else was in unanimous agreement.
"Kim Tae-hyun will absolutely get involved! There is no way that bastard stays out of this!"
But how were they supposed to stop him? Currently, the main forces of the Guild Alliance were gathering to deal with Kim Tae-san and his coalition. Although they had a specialized Kim Tae-hyun assassination squad, deploying them against Tae-hyun directly was deemed a massive waste of resources.
If we clash with Kim Tae-hyun, at least half of our forces will be wiped out...
They needed to preserve their strength as much as possible! In the end, they came up with the idea of a bounty.
"What about a bounty?"
"Who would actually go after Kim Tae-hyun for a bounty?"
"That's only because previous bounties required taking his head. What if we offer a payout just for landing a single hit, or even just for blocking his path? Wouldn't players swarm him then?"
"That sounds plausible... but who's going to pay for it?"
"We can just pay out a tiny bit at the beginning, and then refuse to pay the rest later."
"?"
"???"
"Are you... a genius?"
It was a diabolical idea that left even the corrupt executives of the Guild Alliance in awe!
"W-wait. Hold on. Can we really do that?"
"Who cares? What are they going to do about it?"
"Exactly. If we show them a few successful payouts at the start, everyone will rush in. After that, we just need them to buy us enough time."
"We have to stop Kim Tae-hyun somehow! Are you going to go block him?"
"W-well, no, but..."
They had to do something! Driven by sheer desperation, the guild executives finally approved the bounty.
"Shouldn't we avoid them?"
"I think we should slip away. Once we get out of their sight, we can disguise ourselves."
Tae-hyun's companions were highly skilled in the art of disguise. If they could break away just once, they could use their skills to blend in as ordinary players, making them incredibly difficult to track.
However, Tae-hyun shook his head.
"No. If you spoil them once, they'll only get worse."
"?"
Was that really the right idiom for this situation? The others tilted their heads in confusion.
"We need to give them a proper demonstration so they won't dare try this again."
"Tae-hyun. You just want to farm them for experience and item drops, don't you?"
Lee Da-bi instantly saw right through him.
"Well, that's definitely part of it."
"......."
"......."
"Wait, Tae-hyun! I actually have some connections with the Guild Alliance. If I speak to them, I'm sure they'll listen. I can convince them that you're not a bad person!"
"Uh... sure. Go ahead and try."
Tae-hyun didn't stop him. He knew it was utterly pointless, but it was the guy's free will.
The Beijing Fighters player quickly sent a whisper.
- Hey, I'm currently running with Kim Tae-hyun right now...
- You traitorous piece of trash. Die!
You have been blocked by the recipient.
"......."
"What did they say?"
"Ah... it's nothing."
He got rejected.
He definitely got cursed out.
"Alright! Let's move!"
Tae-hyun smoothly changed the subject as if nothing had happened. The Beijing Fighters player slumped his shoulders in defeat.
"First, let's head to the nearest dungeon. We can't fight out in the open like this."
When fighting at a severe numerical disadvantage, terrain selection was everything. A deep dungeon where they could bottleneck the enemy and strike from the shadows was Tae-hyun's absolute favorite kind of battleground!
"......."
"......."
This is so annoying! Cain gritted his teeth. The players hovering around them were starting to get on his nerves.
"Why aren't those bastards attacking? Are they just sizing us up?"
"Of course. Because whoever makes the first move is going to die instantly."
"Ah...."
Cain understood. No matter how lucrative the bounty was, nobody actually wanted to die. They were all waiting for some other idiot to make the first move.
Someone just start already!
If I go first, Kim Tae-hyun will remember my face. You go first.
What are the ranged classes doing? Once you guys start, I'll jump in too.
Every single movement from Tae-hyun's group made the surrounding players flinch. The tension in the air was so thick it felt like a powder keg waiting for a spark!
"Oh. Can't we just walk right past them?"
Cain asked, his voice filled with naive hope. Tae-hyun shook his head.
"Not with this many people gathered... They're definitely going to attack. With a crowd this size, someone is bound to take a shot. There's always that one guy who gets brave because of the crowd and draws his bow."
"If they do, I'll slaughter them all!"
"U-uh, sure. Thanks?"
Tae-hyun was slightly taken aback by Yu Ji-soo's fierce, passionate response.
Step.
Before they knew it, the group had arrived at the entrance of the nearest dungeon. It was a dungeon shaped like a ruined temple.
Hmm... looks like it has an underground level too. This should work perfectly.
Tae-hyun quickly calculated the layout. The temple itself was spacious, and there seemed to be a subterranean floor below. It was the absolute perfect environment for tormenting others!
"Hey! They're trying to go inside!"
"If they get inside, we're screwed! We have to stop them!"
As Tae-hyun's group reached the dungeon entrance, the surrounding players grew frantic. Just one hit, and they would be rolling in gold!
"Dammit! I'm taking the shot!"
Finally, one of the players notched an arrow. He had no intention of actually defeating Tae-hyun. He just wanted to land a single hit and claim his bounty!
Please hit!
Swish!
"!"
"H-he shot!"
"We've been spotted! It's time to fight!"
Hearing the sudden uproar, Cain bellowed in annoyance.
"We knew you were there the whole time, you idiots!"
"A-as expected of Cain! You noticed us!"
"How could we not notice when you've surrounded us like this?!"
"Tae-hyun, what are you doing?"
"Oh, this? I was just swapping out some gear to use a skill."
Tae-hyun unequipped some of his gear that would get in the way. Then, he activated his skill.