A Thief Recognizes a Thief

At first, the Midas Guild was thrilled. They had assumed the rankers, alongside Tae-hyun, were launching an assault on their easy target, the Guild Alliance.

Look! This is the trend of the times! The Midas Guild is the rising sun, and the Guild Alliance is the setting sun!

Those rankers were attacking as if they didn't have a single fear of the Guild Alliance's retaliation!

To avoid the Guild Alliance's revenge, they had to join a guild of equal stature. And what rising giant guild was there right now besides the Midas Guild? It was a much better choice than some mediocre large guild in the Erangs Kingdom or other nations!

Of course, that harmonious conversation quickly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠changed. The rankers started raiding dungeons owned by the Midas Guild as well.

The exact same reaction as Su Ning! From the Midas Guild's perspective, this was absurd. If they had become enemies with the Guild Alliance, shouldn't they try to stay on good terms with Midas? How did they plan to survive in Pan-On by making enemies of both sides?

Of course, the rankers weren't thinking that far ahead. All they saw was immediate profit! And they had a groundless confidence: We have Kim Tae-hyun, so they won't dare touch us!

Guilds cared about their image above all else. Once they started looking weak, it was over. They had to teach them a lesson!

The Midas Guild wasn't run by a single dictator like the Guild Alliance. Rather, it was run by a council of guild leaders who consulted with one another, much like the old Guild Alliance. Even so, the decision was unanimous!

The normal mine dungeons in the border mountain range were stripped clean in an instant. A ruthless mining raid that didn't care about the Guild Alliance or Midas! The low-level mine dungeons had small yields, and they melted away in an instant under the pickaxes of the crazed Goblins and Akisus Chimeras.

And now, Tae-hyun and the rankers had arrived to conquer the unreleased, un-cleared secret dungeons.

"There's no one here..." Tae-hyun said, staring intently at the rankers.

There was no way a secret dungeon managed by a guild would be completely empty. There should have been players guarding the entrance and plenty of others assisting the miners inside.

For it to be like this? It was obvious the rankers had leaked the information because they were streaming.

"Y-you didn't tell us not to stream...!"

"Yeah! We were just doing what we normally do!"

"Who said anything? I was just looking at you," Tae-hyun replied.

Just a single glance from Tae-hyun made the rankers babble excuses! Knowing they had done something shameful, they coughed awkwardly and avoided his gaze.

"I hope they didn't lay a trap for us."

"Don't worry. That won't happen," one of the rankers said confidently.

Tae-hyun asked, puzzled, "Why?"

"If these secret mines get ruined, the financial loss is devastating. They'd have to block us at the entrance or the upper floors, but there's no way they can do that against you. It's actually less damaging for them to just leave it empty."

If they tried to defend it and failed, the mine would be destroyed, and their guild members would just get logged out. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠It was better to leave it completely vacant.

A surprisingly good judgment from the Guild Alliance!

Of course, Tae-hyun was baffled. "Wait, shouldn't the mindset be 'if I can't have it, no one can'?"

"..."

"..."

What a terrifying bastard... the rankers muttered inwardly.

Kim Tae-hyun's thought process was fundamentally different from theirs. His attitude was: Why pay the guild when we can just smash our way in? Looting was a way of life for him.

"Alright. We're going in. But don't let your guard down."

"Of course. Who do you think we are?"

Aren't you the guys who got thrashed by the World Tree?

The rankers spoke with confidence, but in the minds of Tae-hyun and Carbanog, their prestige had long since hit rock bottom.

The scary part is that it actually might be true, Tae-hyun thought as he stepped forward.

Although the players had cleared out, there were no monsters in sight, likely because they had been hunting and mining here continuously until just recently. This was a common sight on the first basement floor. With so many people hunting, the monsters were wiped clean.

No need to wait for the monsters to respawn on the first floor. We should just keep heading down.

The monsters on the 1st to 3rd floors were Miner NPCs. Thief miners who had snuck in to mine secretly! They were only level 50 to 100, and they didn't drop anything special—just worn-out armor, or occasionally rare gems and ores. Unless the guild was training its members, they didn't bother clearing them all out.

As they descended further down the path, a swarm of thief miners lurking in the corners rushed at them.

"What! You dare enter here?! This is our mine, get out!"

"Do you have any idea how hard we worked to sneak in here?!"

As the thief miners shouted and lunged, Tae-hyun yelled back righteously:

"I snuck in here too! Do fellow trespassers really need to fight each other?"

"What kind of nonsense is..."

The rankers following behind were dumbfounded. What kind of conversation was he having with enemy NPCs?

"Ugh... indeed..."

"He smells like a thief too."

"A massive, overwhelming scent of a thief. He definitely snuck in."

"In that case, we'll let you pass quietly. Just make sure you don't make too much noise!"

"Done."

"!!!"

The rankers were shocked. Naturally, the players watching the rankers' streams were equally stunned.

Usually, personal streams had their own unique vibes. Different viewers gathered depending on the personality of the streamer. The rankers' streams were mostly centered around their fans, who watched for the thrill of seeing what epic quests they were doing or how high-level their hunts were. Occasionally, some rankers went for a comedic concept, but that was rare. Why would they level up so high just to do comedy?

But that was under normal circumstances.

The moment the tag "with Kim Tae-hyun" was attached, countless players from all over the world flooded into the rankers' streams. The atmosphere was completely different from usual!

Even the rankers' usual fans were talking about Kim Tae-hyun!

In the end, the rankers had to pretend not to see the chat. If they tried to address every single question, Kim Tae-hyun would immediately snap at them, asking, "Did you come here to raid or to do a Q&A?"

Once the thief miners' hostility vanished, Tae-hyun asked them:

"What lies down below?"

"What are you asking? Don't tell me you're planning to go down there... to the depths?"

The thief miners shuddered in sheer horror.

The name of this mine was [The Whispering Shadows Mine]. Currently, only up to the 7th floor had been conquered. While floors 1 to 3 spawned thief miners, floors 4 and 5 spawned Mine Golems, and floors 6 and 7 spawned undead ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠monsters.

And the undead boss monster blocking the entrance from the 7th floor to the 8th floor was none other than a Lich!

The Guild Alliance had mobilized raid parties composed of rankers several times to break through, but they had failed every time. Fortunately, because of those attempts, a lot of information had been shared, but after failing a few times, the Guild Alliance gave up on conquering it entirely. There were plenty of other dungeons in the world, and they could mine more than enough without going to the 8th floor.

This was the information released by the Guild Alliance back then! And this information had already reached Tae-hyun through the rankers.

It was enough to make the Guild Alliance clutch their necks in frustration once again.

But Tae-hyun wanted to know more. There was always a discrepancy between the information known by players and that known by NPCs. Since the players who raided this place were all high-level players or elite rankers, they wouldn't have bothered grabbing a 1st-floor monster to interrogate them.

But Tae-hyun was different.

Gathering information like this is actually quite helpful.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step! The more information, the better.

"Down below, there are all sorts of things, starting with rock-hard stone monsters!"

"If you go even further down, the dead walk... Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps."

"Kim Tae-hyun. We already know all of that."

"There's not going to be much useful info from low-level NPCs like that..."

The rankers chimed in from behind, wondering why he was wasting time. To them, it was incomprehensible why a player of Tae-hyun's caliber would waste time like this.

"Why? Is the stream getting boring?"

"No, it's not that..."

"Want me to spice things up for you?"

"...Keep talking! We'll just mine over here!"

At Tae-hyun's offer to "spice things up," the rankers immediately backed down. They didn't want to play a game of "dodge the bomb" in a mine just because they rushed him.

The Underground Alliance Goblins were deeply impressed by their proactive attitude.

"Ohhh... Have you finally realized the beauty of mining? Splendid. Here, take these pickaxes."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"W-wait, no. We were just joking..."

They didn't want to spend their stream time just mining! But the Underground Alliance Goblins were merciless. They shoved the pickaxes firmly into their hands without a shred of pity.

"You'd better move your hands quickly if you want to fill your quota, humans."

"Wait. Quota?!"

"Hurry up, hurry up! How can you be doing worse than the Chimeras over there!"

The Akisus Chimeras had already claimed their spots and were swinging their pickaxes like madmen. Natural-born workers!

Meanwhile, Tae-hyun continued his conversation with the miners.

This was exactly what the Eloquence skill was meant for! When negotiating with merchants or talking to quest NPCs, a player with high Eloquence could proceed much more smoothly.

Using it to deceive, scam, threaten, and sow discord among others was the actual anomaly.