The Art of Instigation
'Should I just leave them be? Or should I use a skill to make them think they're under attack?'
Tae-hyun was a master at turning people against each other and instigating fights. He didn't do it as much in Pan-On 2, but back in Pan-On 1, he was a guy who engaged in PK more than ten times a day!
'What? Why? This is plenty of leeway.'
To fight against entire guilds by himself, driving wedges between them was the absolute basics. Back in his heyday, Tae-hyun knew the structures and weaknesses of every famous guild in Pan-On 1 inside and out!
"Wait, stop! There are guys heading ahead of us. If we fight among ourselves, they'll take everything! You guys have business in that building too, don't you?"
"...That's a fair point."
'Tsk. They actually have brains.'
After dealing with the Guild Alliance—who used their heads as mere hat racks—for so long, encountering people who actually knew how to think was a bit of a surprise. But it didn't matter. There were other ways.
"It's Lee Se-yeon! Lee Se-yeon is clearing a quest here!!"
"Lee Se-yeon is here!!"
"?!?!?"
"?!??!"
The Black Rock Sect and the Guild Alliance were shocked. Lee Se-yeon?
"Where?"
"There's no one... What a pathetic trick!"
But they didn't know why the Power Warrior Guild members were shouting "It's Lee Se-yeon!" all over the place. There was only one reason!
Rumble!
A massive crowd of players in the plaza heard the shouts and began to swarm in!
"Where is Lee Se-yeon?! Is she clearing a quest?!"
"Me too... I'm going to join in!"
An onslaught of greedy players! The Black Rock Sect and the Guild Alliance players panicked. No matter how high-ranking they were, they couldn't push through such a massive crowd. It wasn't like they could just slaughter everyone, either.
"Where is Lee Se-yeon!"
"There is no Lee Se-yeon! Some bastard lied!"
"No! There she is!"
"Ah! I think Kim Tae-hyun is here too!"
"Smith is over there as well! It looks like every single ranker is gathered here!"
"Who the hell keeps spreading these fake rumors?! I'll kill you!"
The rumors grew wilder by the second! Tae-hyun, thoroughly satisfied, led his party inside.
"Lock the door!"
"If they break through, won't they just smash it down immediately?"
"That's why we're setting up bombs."
"..."
"..."
"Don't worry. It won't kill them."
"Well, it might not kill them... but wait, then what's the point?"
"Even just one bomb will scare them enough to keep them from coming in. Rankers are cowards, you see."
Indeed. Once they saw a trap, rankers—who had too much to lose—had no choice but to hesitate. They would be forced to proceed slowly and cautiously!
"More importantly, why are there so many competitors? You useless bunch."
Tae-hyun scolded the demons. The demons felt a surge of sorrow and indignation. 'You're the one who dawdled...!' He had spent all that time in his fief tearing, chewing, tasting, and enjoying everything, and now he was complaining about having too many competitors? What a shameless bastard!
"Crawford. Why the long face? Is there a problem?"
"Huh? No. I was just thinking about the Guild Alliance rankers. A lot of famous mage rankers went over to their side."
"Gasp. Even Lee Se-yeon?"
"...Lee Se-yeon didn't go. No, wait, shouldn't you be the one checking whether Lee Se-yeon went or not? You guys are close!"
"We are not close, okay? Are you insane? What a piece of trash, casually talking about other people's relationships. You're as flighty as Kane."
"W-Wait. Was what I just said really worth such a harsh insult?!"
Crawford had spoken without much thought and was now utterly bewildered. It was his first time experiencing Tae-hyun unleashing such direct, venomous remarks on him.
"Anyway, what does it matter if a bunch of mage rankers went there? Aren't they just insignificant nobodies?"
Crawford shook his head at Tae-hyun's arrogant words. Tae-hyun was probably the only person in the world who could call those top-tier rankers "insignificant nobodies"!
"The Guild Alliance... No, calling them that is getting confusing. The guild is..."
"Midas?"
"That's the new name the Guild Alliance chose, Tae-hyun-nim."
"Why did they choose such a weird name? At least Su Ning chose something easy to understand. They seem even worse than Su Ning."
"Shut up and listen! The magical firepower of the mages who joined the Midas Guild is terrifying, that's what I'm saying."
In Pan-On, there were certain classes that shared incredibly tight-knit bonds. First were the crafting classes! Having endured the hardships of eating tear-soaked bread together, they naturally helped one another, and even the rankers knew each other well. Mages were quite similar. The places where one could learn magic on the continent were limited, and as they traveled around clearing quests in those areas, they were bound to cross paths and become close. The Midas Guild had exploited this. They utilized the fiefs they had secured while breaking away from the Guild Alliance, implemented a completely different, rational, and easy-to-accept new policy, and finally, brought in mage rankers to lead the way!
"From a mage player's perspective, having a single ranker help you out makes things incredibly easy. For a class like a mage, knowing what skills are available is extremely important... The Midas Guild gathered a massive number of mages using that. It helped that the large guilds that broke away from the Guild Alliance were primarily mage-focused to begin with."
Their own rankers were mages. The rankers they poached from the Guild Alliance were also mages. Their magical forces alone were of such a terrifying scale that no one in Pan-On could dare look down on them. And to think, they were technically a brand-new guild! Thanks to this, the Midas Guild was receiving an astronomical amount of attention. There were even rumors that they had surpassed the investments and advertisements the Guild Alliance used to receive.
'Su Ning must be dying of jealousy.'
Getting beaten up by Tae-hyun was bad enough, but now the bastards who broke away from his alliance had snatched up all the talent and were thriving...
"Can't they make a warrior guild?"
"As if anyone would join. Have you seen the 'Paladin is King' guild? Single-class guilds might be tight-knit, but it's incredibly hard to scale them up."
Kane and Choi Sang-yun whispered to each other. They were absolutely right. Expanding in size while maintaining a core identity was a remarkable feat! Tae-hyun, who had dismissed them as just another bunch of Guild Alliance-style fools simply because they broke away from it, asked with curiosity:
"Who's the guild master?"
"Are you finally interested? They don't actually have a single guild master."
"?"
"Well, they have one on paper, but apparently, several mage rankers run it together."
"A perfect recipe for infighting."
"..."
What a twisted guy! But Crawford couldn't deny it. It really was a structure ripe for conflict.
"So, as for who those guild masters are..."
"Forget it. If there are several, I'll just ask when I need to. But why were you thinking about that just now?"
"Ah. I saw someone who's been bothering me... a bit of a crazy guy."
"?"
Alcott, who was listening nearby, flinched. What is he talking about?
"But Kim Tae-hyun is right here?"
"...Alcott. I know exactly what you think of me..."
"Gasp! No! No, it's not like that! I just...!"
"Your true thoughts slipped out, didn't they? I understand."
Kane nodded from the side. He understood all too painfully! While Alcott turned pale, Crawford spoke up.
"Well, I guess I was worrying over nothing. Compared to Kim Tae-hyun, that guy is nothing."
Just as Alcott used to have anger management issues but suddenly learned self-control after meeting Tae-hyun, that slightly crazy mage ranker would probably regain his sanity the moment he met Tae-hyun. That was just how the world worked!
As they chatted, the party entered the building, climbed the stairs, and reached the fourth floor.
"Is this the place?"
"Yes! We always met here!"
"Right. If he's not inside, your lives are forfeit."
Your Infamy in the Demon Realm has increased.
Perhaps because he threatened people as naturally as breathing, he didn't even care about these message windows anymore. The demons, trembling in fear, pushed the door open. Fortunately, inside was a demon disguised as a well-dressed chamberlain.
"Whoaaaa!"
"He's here! He's actually here!"
"We're saved!"
The demons erupted into cheers! The chamberlain demon inside looked bewildered.
"What is this? Have you already used up all the poison? I thought the Count was already poisoned?"
"Ah. Well, not exactly."
"We have to make a living too, you know..."
The demons coughed awkwardly. They felt a bit embarrassed about cheering right in front of him.
"What do you mean by th— No... Don't tell me!"
Sensing something was off, the chamberlain immediately tried to bolt for the window. But Tae-hyun's party was already prepared.
⟨ Slave's Chain ⟩
⟨ Hell Mana Interference ⟩
⟨ Demon's Ankle Blockade ⟩
Clang!
Just like the other captured demons before him, the chamberlain demon was instantly bound.
"Aaargh! You pieces of trash! Do you think you'll get away with selling me out?!"
"Well... we are a bit scared..."
"But we have to survive too..."
The demons sighed as if they had no choice. The chamberlain demon stared at them in disbelief. What on earth was going on?
"So, who is your master?"
"Do you think I'd tell you? No matter who you are, you will never make me open my mouth!"
One minute later.
"...My master is Lord Lalgrgal!"
"Galgrgal?"
"Lord Lalgrgal!"
"...It definitely seems like there's a connection to Galgrgal."
The names were too similar to be a coincidence. Galgrgal, the right-hand man of Demon Duke Adad! Unlike Jukenen over there, who was all talk, Galgrgal was an incredibly powerful demon in his own right. Tae-hyun had to mobilize everyone from Chairman Yoo to Lee Se-yeon just to take him down. Even then, it had been an incredibly difficult raid! It was a raid so tough that even Lee Se-yeon had to pull out her hidden trump cards.
'Come to think of it, wasn't the one who got the last hit that middle-aged guy the old man brought along?'
Having accidentally landed the final blow, Executive Director Kim had to walk on eggshells around Chairman Yoo for quite some time. Of course, Tae-hyun didn't know the details of that...
What mattered to Tae-hyun right now was Lalgrgal! Jukenen was easy enough to capture because he was weak, but if Lalgrgal was a demon on the level of Galgrgal...
'Hmm. Doing this alone might be impossible.'
Lee Se-yeon happened to be in the Erangs Kingdom right now. Should he call her over? Tae-hyun asked his party what they thought.
"What do you think?"
"I think it's madness."
"Senior. I support and back you up in whatever you do, but I don't think this is it."
"Hey. You're going to get stabbed. Actually, no, you'll get hit with a staff."
"Even I think that's a bit much."
Even Alcott stepped in to stop the plan!
"Who the hell is using my name... No matter how I look at it, this has to be Kim Tae-hyun's doing!"
Lee Se-yeon was frustrated. Her gut! Her gut was telling her so. The culprit behind this kind of stunt was usually Kim Tae-hyun! Even back in Pan-On 1, whenever she felt a sudden chill of suspicion, Tae-hyun was almost always behind it.
"Unni, there are over twenty or thirty guilds here. It's only natural that rumors would start flying."
"Why are you suddenly being so logical? You're usually not like this."
Kim Hyeon-ah's logical reasoning only made Se-yeon more frustrated. She couldn't even refute it!
"I knew it, it's the real Lee Se-yeon!"
"Please give me an autograph! Here! Just cast one spell for us!"
"Is this going to be on the broadcast?!"
People swarmed like clouds with every step she took. Se-yeon said,
"Turn off the broadcast."
"What?! No, wait. The viewer count right now is... this is an incredible promotional opportunity!"
"Yes, let's turn it off."
"What?! Wait a minute! Se-yeon-ssi! Se-yeon-ssi!"
Ignoring the desperate cries of the gaming team staff, Se-yeon coolly shut down the stream. Broadcasting her live location was practically begging players to swarm her!
"Doing things I'm not used to is so exhausting. I wish I could just play comfortably like I usually do."
"Unni... I'm sorry! I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help!"
"No, you're doing plenty fine."
Holding back a lunging Kim Hyeon-ah with one hand, Se-yeon fell into deep thought. With a Legendary Quest active, and with rankers and guilds gathering, it was only natural for massive crowds of onlookers to swarm. But the current situation felt off.
'This is intentional!'
Several suspicious-looking parties had appeared to draw attention, and then those absurd rumors started spreading...
"Unni, look over there. It's the Guild Alliance."
"Huh?"
"Ah, right. They're the Guild Alliance... I mean, the Midas Guild now. They sent you a message asking you to join them too, didn't they?"
"Ah, those guys."