A Ticket to the Show

Yoon Ju-hwan wasn't the only one left utterly speechless. Tae-hyun was equally flabbergasted.

"Hey. You guys realize this puts you at a disadvantage too, right?"

If a resurrection mechanic was added, Tae-hyun's team was bound to be at a disadvantage. Tae-hyun's greatest strength was his instantaneous burst damage! His playstyle of linking up with Cain to pick off opposing team members one by one was something opponents had to suffer through even when they knew it was coming. Yet, his teammates remained perfectly nonchalant.

"As ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if you'd lose just because of that," one said.

"Exactly. You can still win, right? We believe in you, Senior," another chimed in.

"..."

Tae-hyun raised a fist to smack them but held back. Granted, the Pan-On arenas were diverse, and there were indeed deathmatch arenas that featured resurrection mechanics. But still! How could they react with such a carefree, "We don't care, hehe" attitude when discussing something that actively disadvantaged them?

"Yeah. I don't really care—"

Thwack!

"Why only me?!"

Cain had tried to jump in at the very end, only to pay the price!

Choi Myung-sung, who had been watching them while trying to gauge the mood, quietly slipped into the conversation.

"Um, Player Kim Tae-hyun?"

"...?"

"Could I get an autograph...?"

"..."

Yoon Ju-hwan buried his face in his hands. This man, seriously...

Upon arriving at the hotel, Tae-hyun and his group unpacked their bags and went outside to spend time meeting their countless fans... Or not.

"See you in Pan-On."

"Yeah. See you in Pan-On."

"I'll see you in Pan-On!"

They were all eager to dive straight into the capsules in their respective rooms! They had absolutely no intention of making any public appearances other than the official events scheduled by the Pan-On organizers.

Yoon Ju-hwan was dumbfounded once again. Do these players not realize how popular they are?! Even after seeing that massive crowd of fans cheering for them at the airport, they seemed completely unfazed.

If they reached out to American broadcasters, those networks would welcome them with open arms. If that felt too burdensome, they could just stream on their personal channels. Even a simple fan-meet stream from their hotel rooms would... Just off the top of his head as a non-expert, Yoon Ju-hwan could think of so many lucrative ideas. If actual marketing professionals got involved, they could come up with events ten times better. And yet, their only thought was to go play the game?!

"Niece! You're a world star! A world star!"

"I'm already a world star. I need to play the game, so..."

"Niece!! Niece!!!"

"Ah, Kim Tae-hyun is probably playing the game right now. If I lose because of this, are you going to take responsibility?"

Perhaps because the tournament was just around the corner, Lee Se-yeon's voice was ice-cold.

"Kim Tae-hyun is also on air..."

"He is?"

"...well, he completely ignored them too, but..."

Beep— beep— beep—

"...These kids don't know a thing about show business!"

Lee Dong-pal shouted in sheer frustration. It was incredibly stifling to watch the two most globally viable stars under his agency act like this. This was an opportunity others would practically beg for!

"Ah, yes. I'm so sorry. Since the tournament is right around the corner, they are focusing entirely on preparing..."

"I said I'm sorry, okay? Yes. No, don't be mad. I'll buy you dinner next time we do an overseas shoot!"

"Ah, I know. But because of the tournament, there's really nothing we can do~"

Lee Dong-pal cursed inwardly as he fielded calls flooding in from all directions. It felt like every single contact he had overseas was calling him.

—We should meet up before the tournament, shouldn't we?

Their intentions were glaringly obvious! Normally, Lee Dong-pal would have happily agreed, thinking, Let's meet up and get on some shows! But with both Tae-hyun and Lee Se-yeon putting up an iron wall and locking themselves in their capsules, he had no choice but to reject everyone while practically weeping. Knowing exactly how massive of an opportunity this was as a CEO only made the tears flow faster.

Ah, next time, please let us sign some pro gamers who actually have some ambition for broadcast appearances.

"You guys still haven't left?!"

When Tae-hyun logged in, he was startled to find the knights waiting for him with gloomy expressions. What a persistent bunch! Of course, even though the knights looked gloomy, they were nothing compared to the vampires. Terrified of their impending execution, the vampires wore the most miserable expressions in the entire world.

"Your Majesty. When are we leaving?"

"Well, I heard that the leader of these vampires hid an evil artifact somewhere. I don't think we can execute them until we find it."

The vampires' faces brightened instantly, while the knights' faces fell.

"How about we help you find it, and then we execute them?"

The execution-obsessed Fourth Order of Knights of the Erance Kingdom!

Tae-hyun felt like their eyes were practically screaming, Just let us execute them once! Please!

"How can we execute them when they hold the information! We must wait!"

"??"

The vampires looked at each other. Did we know something? No, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we don't know anything...?

"Sob... Then, Your Majesty, when do we get to do the execution?"

"What a crazy bastard of a knight..."

"Who on earth recruited that guy as a knight?"

The vampires of the Salavian Order shuddered as they looked at the knights. Look at those eyes sparkling with the desperate desire to burn vampires to death! It was absolutely terrifying!

"If you really want to execute them, there is a way."

"...?"

"Why don't you travel with me, and once everything is finished, you can execute them then?"

"What a brilliant idea!"

"Wait, hold on..."

The vampires tried to stop Tae-hyun in a panic. Is that something you should be saying right in front of us?! Surprisingly, there were a few actually sane knights among the group.

"Wait a moment. His Majesty's words make sense, but we don't even know when that task will end..."

"True. We have our own duties to attend to."

"Then let us do this: we will assist His Majesty, but if it takes too long, we will leave to attend to our own duties."

"Your Majesty. Will you permit this?"

What does it mean they 'partially regained their senses'... Ah, that must have been Carbanog's doing.

Carbanog had slyly spoken while pretending to be a system message window!

"Anyway, Evangeline! Everything is ready. You just need to speak!"

"...Did I ever say I would tell you??"

Evangeline almost answered, swept up in the momentum of the moment. Even though she had said the exact same thing last time!

"What? Weren't you going to tell me?"

"If you were in my shoes, would you tell after hearing all that?!"

Evangeline yelled in frustration. Seriously, the way he phrased things was infuriating! Evangeline barely managed to calm herself down before speaking.

"I don't mind telling you, but I have a condition."

"No."

"The tourna— Hey!"

"Ah, sorry. Force of habit... What is it? Tell me."

"...Can you get me a ticket to the arena...?"

"??"

"You're in America right now, aren't you!"

"How did you know I'm in America... Gasp. Are you a stalker?"

Whisper, whisper—

Tae-hyun's companions behind him began to whisper among themselves.

"A stalker?"

"Now that I think about it, we do seem to run into her quite often..."

"What? That person was Senior's stalker?!"

Misunderstandings piled up in an instant! Evangeline cried out in a panic.

"I am not! It was on the news that you arrived in America! And besides, the tournament is starting soon..."

"Ah. Right. Sorry. I forgot."

I seriously want to PK him right now!

"...Wait, you have a match coming up, is it really okay for you to be doing this?"

"Ah, tournaments are played with one's usual skills anyway. Cramming is only for kids who don't study regularly."

"???"

What absolute nonsense! Evangeline wanted to argue but held back. If Tae-hyun's team didn't perform well, that was his problem!

Wait, now that I think about it, if he loses to Lee Se-yeon...

She wanted to see it! She desperately wanted to see Tae-hyun's utterly dejected face after losing to Lee Se-yeon!

"So, what about the match?"

"Huh? Ah. Right. A ticket to the arena..."

"..."

"..."

The atmosphere turned freezing cold in an instant. Tae-hyun's companions whispered once again.

—Don't they usually give tickets to the players?

—And not just one, but a decent amount, right?

—Is she really a stalker?

"N-No, I'm not!"

"You're not crying, are you?"

"I am not crying!"

Despite her words, tears were welling up in the corners of Evangeline's eyes.

"I got tickets because I'm a player too, but I gave them all away to other people..."

To her family, friends, and even her next-door neighbors! Evangeline, who had been excitedly handing them out, suddenly realized one crucial fact:

I gave away my own ticket too!

By the time she realized her mistake and tried to buy one, they had long been completely sold out. It was a Pan-On tournament, so high popularity was a given. Let alone the finals!

"...Why don't you just ask the Pan-On staff for one more?"

"How could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I possibly ask them for that?!"

"But it's fine to ask me? Whatever, forget it. I'll give you one."

She had managed to get a ticket, but receiving it felt strangely insulting! The pitying looks from Tae-hyun's companions pierced her heart. Still, since she had secured the ticket, Evangeline opened her mouth to speak.

"NPCs related to the Salavian Order are usually all corrupted vampires."

"Corrupted vampires..."

"The kind of monsters that attack people and suck their blood. So, I'm not close with them either."

In fact, given Evangeline's class, she usually had to hunt those kinds of vampires down.

"What? Did you scam me just to get a ticket?"

"...I wasn't finished speaking! I do know a few vampire NPCs. We'll probably have to fight them the moment we arrive, but with your skills..."

With your skills, you can easily defeat them and shake them down for info! The rest of her sentence went unsaid, but everyone present understood exactly what she meant.

"Right. We can just go and defeat them."

"Corrupted vampires tend to cooperate with each other, so they should know quite a bit. Though, since the archbishop of the order is a boss NPC, some low-level NPC won't cut it..."

"It's fine. I'll go help you, so let's hunt them together."

"Huh?"

Evangeline felt a strange sense of dissonance at Tae-hyun's words. Hunt them together?

"N-No, wait. I've already finished my quest, so I was going to leave?"

"The ticket."

"...Let's go together..."

In Pan-On, areas crawling with vampires were rare. After all, any properly functioning kingdom would dispatch its order of knights to hunt down vampires! It wasn't for nothing that Marquis Marden faced a subjugation force when he revealed his true colors. Because of this, vampire territories in Pan-On were highly restricted.

"The closest place is the group of islands attached to the southern region of the Erance Kingdom."

The Blood Archipelago—a region where islands clustered together! It was so close that it took only a few dozen minutes by boat from the southern port of the Erance Kingdom. Consequently, vampires and bat monsters were frequently spotted in the vicinity.

"What's the difficulty level there? Is it clearable by players?"

"If it were clearable, it wouldn't still be standing."

Many holy orders rewarded players with contribution points for hunting vampires. Players obsessed with farming contribution points would have wiped them out long ago!

"The Blood Archipelago is only an archipelago in name; you should basically view it as a kingdom. A vampire kingdom. Their leader is a king. Just like how no one tries to raid the King of Erance..."

"..."

For Tae-hyun, who had witnessed king NPCs being driven out or killed right before his eyes multiple times, those words felt a bit questionable. Can't we just hunt the king too?

"So, instead of picking fights with random vampires, we just need to gather some rumors, target the specific vampire we need, and extract the information."

"I see."

Tae-hyun nodded in agreement.

"And you absolutely have to keep those guys in check."

Evangeline pointed toward the knights. They were practically itching to execute someone! If they heard they were heading to the Blood Archipelago, they would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠probably start dancing with joy and unsheathing their swords.

"Well, I can manage that much. In that case, I'll summon the Atali Kingdom's fleet..."

"Stop! Stop!"

"??"

"Why would you bring a kingdom's fleet there?! Do you think the vampires will just sit back and watch?!"

They would assume a subjugation force had arrived from the kingdom and fight back with everything they had.