Yes, I Will Do So!

"Yes. I will do so!"

Zakraltak, a high noble of the Asbian Empire, accepted the sword with sheer delight. He absolutely despised Tae-hyun. The upstart had appeared out of nowhere and stolen Emperor Uipoatl's favor! Just because he was the king of some kingdom on the Central Continent didn't mean he could dare to come to the Asbian Empire and catch the Emperor's eye.

That adventurer Lee Se-yeon is no different. All of these vulgar adventurers should be kicked out of the Empire.

To Zakraltak, both Lee Se-yeon, who had resurrected Uipoatl, and Tae-hyun, who had won the Emperor's favor, were massive thorns in his side.

Currently, Uipoatl and the imperial noble NPCs who followed him were all undead. Of course, they were on an entirely different level compared to low-tier undead like skeletons or ghouls. They were at least Death Knights or higher! Zakraltak himself was a Black Knight, a powerful high-tier undead unique to the Asbian Empire. He was a hybrid-type undead who possessed superior leadership skills compared to a Death Knight and could even cast various types of black magic.

"Hear me, vulgar adventurers!" Zakraltak shouted as he rode down the main avenue, leading his subordinate knights. "I shall bestow glory upon you! I will grant you lowly wretches a grand opportunity!"

"Who is this arrogant jerk?"

"Looks like a noble NPC."

The players who had crossed over to the Asbian Empire began to murmur as they listened to Zakraltak. If he had been another player, they would have beaten him up on the spot, but since he was a noble NPC, they held back and listened. What was he trying to say?

"We are going to capture the scammer who dared to disobey His Majesty's decree! Join this honorable expedition!"

The crowd murmured, tilting their heads in confusion at Zakraltak's words.

"His Majesty? The Emperor? Someone actually scammed the Emperor?"

"That's crazy. Who is it?"

"Wait, the King of Atali Kingdom..."

"That's Kim Tae-hyun!"

The players realized the situation the moment they saw the quest window. This NPC was going to capture Tae-hyun!

"There's no way Kim Tae-hyun would scam anyone!"

"Booo! You coward! How dare you frame Kim Tae-hyun!"

The players began to jeer at Zakraltak. Hearing boos from mere adventurers caught him off guard, throwing him into a fit of rage.

"How dare you?!" Zakraltak roared. "The King of Atali Kingdom borrowed His Majesty's warriors and has yet to accomplish his task! He is an incompetent fraud!"

"He must have had his reasons!"

"Yeah! I saw Kim Tae-hyun fighting demons! What do you expect him to do when he's busy fighting demons?"

"Are you going to stop the demons yourself? You're not even fighting!"

The atmosphere heated up in an instant! Normally, if they were face-to-face in a one-on-one situation, they would have been too terrified to speak. But with the streets packed with players, everyone felt incredibly brave.

Splat!

"?!"

An excited player had thrown an egg straight at Zakraltak. Take that! The egg of justice!

"...!"

The player who had thrown the egg out of pure excitement stared at the system message in shock. They had only thrown it because they were annoyed, but they actually got a bonus for it?

"Hey! Look at this! It gives a bonus!"

"What? Throwing an egg gives contribution points?"

"Wait, really?! Throwing an egg gives a monthly pass and a Mid-tier Church Blessing?"

The rewards were inflating at an absurd rate! The player who had started it panicked and tried to correct them.

"No, I didn't say that—"

"Is that true?! If you throw a stone, you get priority access to the Archisus Arena, priority access to the Goblin Universal Maker, and thirty free Advanced Church Blessings?!"

"...???"

The players were just hearing whatever they wanted to hear! Among the players in the Asbian Empire, a significant portion had come from the Atali Kingdom. They were the ones who had followed Tae-hyun when he set sail with his fleet. Many of them were either members of Tae-hyun's territory or the Archisus Church, and even those who weren't were actively collecting Contribution Points. They already wanted to take that arrogant noble Zakraltak down a peg, and now there were rewards on top of it! No one was going to sit still.

"Hey, I heard you get Contribution Points!"

The rumor started small, but eventually escalated to...

"If you throw enough and hit him in the head, they give you land!"

"What? Seriously?!"

As a result, a spectacle never before seen in Pandemonium Online unfolded.

Patter-patter-patter-patter!

"You absolute lunatics!" Zakraltak shrieked in horror.

A torrential downpour of garbage rained down from both sides of the street and the rooftops! Rotten eggs and tomatoes were the mildest of it. Bricks and stones flew through the air with alarming frequency.

Thud! Thwack!

Zakraltak's level was far higher than the players', so he didn't take any actual damage, but his pride was thoroughly dragged ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠through the mud. When had a noble who lived his entire life in high society ever suffered such humiliation?

"Stop this!"

Patter-patter!

"I told you to stop! If you do not cease, I will cut you down!"

Of course, his threats only poured gasoline on the fire.

"That noble is threatening us! Everyone! Do not let him get away with this!"

"Throw it! Throw everything!"

Boom!

Suddenly, bombs started flying. Even though they weren't high-grade explosives, Zakraltak realized he was in actual danger.

"Attack! Attack them! Put a bounty on every single one of those throwing things!"

"Aaaah! The noble is trying to slaughter us!"

As the noble cavalry charged forward on their steeds, the players scattered in all directions. There were simply too many of them to capture without using wide-area skills. However, unleashing massive area-of-effect spells ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the middle of a major city avenue was out of the question. Zakraltak did have a brain, after all. In the end, he had no choice but to retreat, fuming with rage.

Even as they fled, the players cheered at the rewards. This was an absolute steal!

Once the commotion settled down, Zakraltak gathered adventurers once more. Fortunately, a decent number of them assembled. Half of them were ambitious players who didn't care about Tae-hyun and just wanted experience points and rewards. The other half, however...

I'm going to join and sabotage this.

If I ruin this quest, the Archisus Church will probably reward me, right?

I'll use this quest to promote my stream! I'm going to troll them so hard!

They were players entirely intent on ruining the quest! Completely oblivious to this, Zakraltak nodded arrogantly.

"At least you are not all useless trash! Everyone, head to the docks and board the ships! We set sail immediately!"

"Hey. How much of a reward do you think we'll get if we poke a hole in the bottom of the ship?"

"Tae-hyun, do you hear that sound?"

"What sound?"

"I can hear it."

"???"

"The sound of money... the sound of money rolling in!"

She's terrifying sometimes.

Tae-hyun subtly took a step back from Lee Da-bi. It looked as if a golden light was glittering in her eyes. Wait, it actually is gold?!

It was a class skill! When she temporarily received a massive amount of gold, she gained an additional buff. And right now, their party was raking in gold like crazy.

"Ohhh! My body feels completely refreshed...!"

"Haha, it was nothing. Since you still seem a bit weak, Count, I'll go ahead and collect the reward directly from your treasury."

"P-please, do so."

Wait, maybe I shouldn't have cured them all at once. I could have extorted more money out of them.

Tae-hyun was literally trying to do exactly what Lalgrgal had planned!

True. If I keep pushing my luck, I'll get caught.

If the King was cured but the Counts remained sick, people would definitely find it suspicious. It was much ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠better to cure them like this and play the benevolent savior! Tae-hyun quickly made his rounds, curing three Counts, two Barons, and various other nobles. He had already secured enough gold to cover his territory's operating expenses for an entire year, and tens of thousands of gold were still piling up on top of that.

"With this much, I can build several... No, wait. Should I expand the Archisus Knights? Or the priests? Actually, I think I need to recruit more soldiers for the Capital as well."

Tae-hyun was lost in a happy dilemma. Worrying about having too much gold in his territory's treasury felt like a first since he had acquired the fief.

Haha. What nonsense.

Tae-hyun ignored the message window and swiped it away.

Carbanog's eyes sparkled the moment it saw the message window.

No way...

A long list of the authorities Tae-hyun had acquired appeared, with system messages asking him to build golden statues for each of them. Of course, Tae-hyun had absolutely no intention of doing so. Why on earth would he build a golden statue for Sadiq or Salabian? He did feel a bit indebted to Carbanog and wanted to build one for it, but he couldn't bring himself to waste precious gold on something like that.

N-No...!

...I'll think about it...

Tae-hyun sighed and stopped. He owed Carbanog too much to reject it coldly. Although Carbanog looked cute and harmless, it was still one of the few remaining gods on the continent. Since he hadn't seen any other gods yet, it might even be the only one left. Carbanog only stuck around and helped because Tae-hyun served and pampered it; if it got upset, it would be a massive headache.

Well, even if I build the golden statue, I'll still have enough left over for other things.

Even if he constructed a giant golden rabbit, a substantial amount of gold would definitely remain. First, I need to repair the road connecting the Capital and the Valley, start managing the dungeons, clear out the surrounding monsters, reclaim the land... Whew, there are so many things that require gold. How on earth did those Guild Alliance bastards squeeze out so much gold?

The answer was taxes and investments! From the perspective of the Guild Alliance or other large guilds, Tae-hyun was the real anomaly.

"There's a guy running a territory without collecting taxes or accepting investments?!"

"Tae-hyun, if you're short on gold, I actually have a secret method."

"...What is it?"

Hearing Lee Da-bi speak like that made Tae-hyun quite terrified. She isn't going to sell me out, is she?

"You should create your own personal streaming channel."

"Aren't I already doing that?"

For quests that didn't need to be kept secret, they were already broadcasted on the Power Warrior Guild's channel or Cain's channel. Would starting a new one now make any difference?

"It's on a completely different level!" Lee Da-bi replied firmly.

Whenever Tae-hyun appeared on the Power Warrior Guild's stream, the viewership multiplied by at least tenfold. If Tae-hyun were to create his own personal channel? The impact would be beyond imagination. There was a world ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of difference between occasionally showing his face on someone else's stream and running his own.

"And we can put a caption under the stream like this: 'All proceeds from this broadcast will go toward territory maintenance...'"

"...That sounds way too depressing!"

"S-Senior. Do you need money? If you need money, I can give you some..."

Yu Ji-soo, who had been listening to their conversation, looked at Tae-hyun and offered. Flustered, Tae-hyun quickly rejected it.

"No, I don't!"