A Villainous Victory

Without having any idea that Daniel looked at him and saw a mad scientist in the making, Tae-hyun swept through the dungeon, wiping out monsters left and right.

The giant cannon was incredibly efficient. It detected hidden enemies Tae-hyun hadn't even noticed, lured them out, and completely annihilated them! It was efficient enough to make Cain and Choi Sang-yun feel a sudden crisis of utility.

'It's not just Kim Tae-hyun. Even that cannon is doing our jobs for us...!'

'Should I really have brought popcorn?'

They were moving fast, but their hearts were filled with anxiety!

BOOM!

Watching the cannon cleanly sweep through the fourth zone, Tae-hyun felt a strange sense of dissonance. What was this unsettling feeling?

'...It's because it's too normal! That's why it feels weird!'

Tae-hyun finally realized the source of his discomfort. Normally, the skills he used always had a screw loose somewhere. Wasn't that the case with both Archisus's divine beast and Sadiq's divine beast?

Yet this skill was too competent. It didn't spout useless nonsense; it just did its job perfectly on its own! He felt like if he had about ten of these cannons, he could conquer Pan-On.

'N-No. Let's not get carried away. There must be a catch to that cannon.'

But even with that thought, he couldn't help but feel a lingering regret. To think that once the skill duration ended, it would revert to a regular, inanimate cannon.

'If I bestow divinity on other items, will they be just as competent? ...Please let it be so.'

For some reason, he had a tragic premonition. A premonition that he would never encounter such a highly competent engineering item ever again!

"Kim Tae-hyun! Watch out!"

"...?"

While happily moving to the next location, Cain suddenly let out a roar and lunged forward, raising his shield to block a monster's attack.

"That was close!"

"...You're not just doing that for the cameras, are you?"

"N-No, of course not."

As Tae-hyun unleashed an entirely unexpected skill, the stadium erupted into a different kind of frenzy. Tae-hyun was always presenting new answers to the engineering meta! Already, people were buzzing with discussions on how to obtain that skill, or arguing that choosing engineering just for one skill was absolute madness.

When the cannon Tae-hyun summoned dominated the screens with its flashy display, wiping out monsters, everyone predicted an easy victory for Team KL.

Yet, surprisingly, Lee Se-yeon's team was catching up. Though not as flashy as Tae-hyun's team, Lee Se-yeon's team possessed a solid, balanced strength. Their trump card wasn't just having the same setup. The mere fact that Lee Se-yeon herself was the server's top Necromancer was their greatest advantage!

Once Lee Se-yeon unleashed all the class buff skills she had been saving and applied them to her teammates, alongside the buffs from their team's priest, their combat power skyrocketed. Because these were standard, well-known skills, it wasn't flashy. However, when a player of Lee Se-yeon's caliber unleashed buffs she usually saved due to long cooldowns, the sheer power was astronomical.

A balanced, orthodox strength! It was a kind of power that a bizarrely composed team like Tae-hyun's could never replicate. Lee Se-yeon's team compensated for their golems' lacking firepower with the raw strength of their players, steadily closing the gap.

This naturally created a bizarre dynamic. Lee Se-yeon's team, holding hands and cooperating perfectly, was chasing right behind the wildly rampaging Team KL! It felt as if Tae-hyun's team was the villainous faction, while Lee Se-yeon's team was the heroic protagonist party.

The shouts of a few of Tae-hyun's diehard fans only served to make him look even more like a villain.

Whether he looked like a villain to the outside world or not, Tae-hyun's mind was busy calculating. While the spectators cheered at the flashy skills and combat controls, the players inside required entirely different skill sets.

Invisible but essential skills! Analyzing the terrain, formulating strategies, maintaining focus, and more...

However, the reality was slightly different. From analyzing the terrain to devising strategies, Tae-hyun handled absolutely everything for his team. He mapped out the unfamiliar dungeon in his head, rapidly predicting the next zones.

'There were two rooms to the northwest, and a path to the right, so...'

"Hey, where are we going? Oh no, what if Lee Se-yeon's team overtook us? I haven't done anything...! People are going to blame me!"

The pressure of the finals! He hadn't felt it while running at full speed, but the moment they paused, sheer panic set in. Calming this chaos and boosting morale was also the leader's responsibility.

"Cain."

"Yeah?"

"Shut your mouth, or I'll kill you first before we move on."

"..."

"I've finished the calculations. Let's go!"

The caster's words were not wrong.

BOOM!

The moment the opponent tried to make a move, Tae-hyun immediately cast his buff. It was a split-second decision.

The soundwaves unleashed by the giant warrior violently assaulted the party, but "Evasion" popped up over and over again.

The commentators and casters were dumbfounded. The fans were equally shocked. Right now, Tae-hyun's team was... stuffing Cain into the cannon!

"Are you ready? Here we go!"

Tae-hyun even cast Salavian's Rampage and Living Bomb on Cain.

Since there was no penalty for dying inside this special tournament dungeon anyway, a player's life was just another resource to be spent!

'I'll deal as much burst damage as possible, and then detonate Cain.'

It was the best burst-damage scenario currently possible! Of course, that was only in theory; no one actually expected him to launch a self-destruct offensive using his own teammate. Even the fans who had jokingly shouted, "Stuff Cain in and shoot him!" had their jaws drop. They never imagined he would actually shoot him!

"Let's go!"

The preparations were complete. Tae-hyun cast his Archisus class skills and various Divine Authority skills onto the boss monster and charged.

Skills that were terrifying even on their own were unleashed in rapid succession. The Giant Warrior swung its weapon to counterattack, but Tae-hyun ran up the weapon itself, focusing his assault on the boss's weak points. It was a relentless burst of damage, poured out all at once without a single thought spared for MP or skill cooldowns!

"GRAAAAAAH!"

Witnessing this, the commentators and casters forgot all about Cain being stuffed inside the cannon and erupted in excitement.

In a virtual reality game, the motion sickness debuff—which caused one's vision to shake violently—was incredibly annoying. Especially during a high-stakes boss raid!

Tae-hyun grit his teeth and forced himself to balance. Then, he roared:

"Cain! Fire!"

"...Fine! If this is what it takes to get noticed!"

BOOM!

Cain was launched with a bizarre, screeching sound. The battered giant, who had been trying to grab Tae-hyun to counterattack, flinched as it saw something flying toward it.

CRASH!

"Guh!"

As Cain collided head-on, both the giant and Cain let out groans. However, Cain lacked the ability to react instantly and regain his balance like Tae-hyun.

*Grab!* The giant was a step faster, seizing Cain in its massive grip.

"GRAAAWR!"

The giant prepared to bite Cain's head ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠off! Seeing this, Tae-hyun smirked. *You're literally offering your neck on a silver platter!*

"Farewell!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The broadcast screens were instantly engulfed in a blinding storm of flames, explosions, and light, making it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠impossible to see what was happening inside.

Meanwhile, Yuseong Gaming executed a textbook raid. Lee Se-yeon stacked various class curses befitting a legendary Necromancer to weaken the boss monster. Once the boss was slowed and its judgment clouded, they hammered it with defense-penetrating and high-damage skills. Whenever the battered boss showed an opening, they sent ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in a gas golem to detonate. They repeated this process flawlessly!

The formidable boss monster was being utterly toyed with by a mere five players. It was the epitome of a stable, secure raid.

'Ugh... I'm so anxious...'

Though her fingertips fired off skills in the optimal sequence without a single tremor, her mind was inevitably filled with anxiety. It was only human! With the end in sight, she was dying to know what was happening outside. Just how far had Kim Tae-hyun gotten? Surely he hadn't cleared it already?

'That jerk definitely has something hidden up his sleeve...'

"We did it!"

Amidst her teammates' cheers and the clear notification window, Lee Se-yeon exited the capsule, her heart pounding.

The very first thing she heard was the crowd chanting her name. In that instant, Lee Se-yeon had a sudden realization.

'...We lost!'

It wasn't a cheer celebrating victory, but a consoling cheer praising a hard-fought battle. Lee Se-yeon didn't want to look at the results, but she forced herself to raise her head. This, too, was the duty of a professional!

'I shouldn't look at Kim Tae-hyun.'

Looking at his face would only give her an ulcer! On the stadium's giant screens, highlight clips were playing alongside messages congratulating Team KL on their victory. Cain was currently being launched out of a cannon.

"..."

Lee Se-yeon blinked. *Am I seeing things right?*