The Perfect Monsters for PK
“Kraaagh!”
His health had been carved down in one brutal hit, and the Rogue let out a scream as he sprang back to open the distance.
Only after two backward jumps and a full flip through the air did he finally manage to catch his breath, panting hard.
“What the hell is with that bastard?!”
“Tsk, tsk. You should’ve used something with a little weight behind it. Throwing out flimsy garbage like that is exactly why you end up like this.”
Kim Tae-hyun wagged a finger and mocked the Rogue.
There was something unbelievably irritating about the way he did it.
But Tae-hyun wasn’t wrong.
If they wanted to break through Tae-hyun’s evasion with normal attacks, they’d need to land far more hits than that. It would be better to aim with a few skills that had extremely high accuracy.
Of course, there was no chance Tae-hyun would ever let those attacks hit him either…
Watching Tae-hyun fight, Cain spoke in a cold voice.
“Everyone, fall back.”
“Oh? You’re the one stepping up?”
Tae-hyun let out a faint snort of laughter and turned toward Cain.
The attitude was so arrogant it didn’t even seem like the possibility of losing had crossed his mind.
Bulging veins stood out on the foreheads of the Red Zone guild members.
Grinning, Tae-hyun asked, “So why are you here, anyway? Weren’t you hanging around near Ogden Fortress?”
“...”
For people who had come all this way after their guild had collapsed, that question alone was enough to set their teeth on edge.
“Ah. Did your guild go under?”
“You son of a bitch!”
One of the guild members finally lost patience with Tae-hyun’s provocation and charged in with a skill.
Blue Cold Wind Dance
But that had been Tae-hyun’s trap.
Circle of Counterattack
“Kraaagh!”
Once you showed a weakness in front of Tae-hyun, you were as good as dead.
He immediately stepped in and activated another skill.
Strong Strike
Multi-hit
Those were the skills on the newly made longsword. With buffs stacked on top, the power it produced was vicious.
A critical hit has been triggered!
A critical hit has been triggered!
HP has dropped to 0. Target has died.
In less than a second, another guild member was dead and forcibly logged out.
The sight left the Red Zone guild members staring in horror.
The one who had died earlier had been a mage.
Mages were naturally weak in close combat. They had low HP, and if they got ambushed, they were the easiest class to kill.
But the one who had just died had been a Warrior-type class.
And not some low-level scrub, either.
Yet he’d still gone down in under a second.
Gulp.
Somebody swallowed audibly.
They had all realized it at once.
Tae-hyun was far, far stronger than they’d thought.
Spinning his longsword once, Tae-hyun slowly swept his gaze over them.
His expression seemed to ask, So who’s next?
Everyone instinctively looked away.
The Red Zone guild members had, by nature, spent their time preying on people weaker than themselves. Tae-hyun, on the other hand, had always fought strong opponents.
The quality of the experience they had each built up was on a completely different level.
The one who kept the mood from collapsing entirely was Cain, shouting at the top of his lungs.
“I said fall back! Don’t attack until I give the order!”
“Oh? But two of them are already dead.”
“Don’t listen to this bastard!”
Cain swung one arm wide as he shouted.
He already knew from having fought Tae-hyun once before that the man’s silver tongue was more dangerous than anything else.
Besides, his evasion rate is absurdly high. He’s definitely got some kind of special class ability.
Fantasy Online 2 had all kinds of classes. A class built around extreme evasion wouldn’t be surprising at all.
If that was the case, there was no need to rush in first.
“He’s using some strange skill. He’ll dodge almost anything ordinary.”
“Sharp deduction. So if you’re that smart, how’d you manage to run your guild into the ground?”
Crk!
Grinding down his anger, Cain spoke again.
“Don’t go in first. We’re the ones surrounding him. We box him in, keep up the ranged attacks, and eventually he’ll go down!”
“If that’s what you think, sure.”
Tae-hyun sneered again and added, “Only inside your head, though.”
And then he charged.
Cain clenched his teeth and widened the distance.
Clang! Clang!
He focused only on receiving Tae-hyun’s attacks, refusing to counterattack. Instead, he signaled the guild members.
“Attack! Don’t let the encirclement break!”
Evasion successful.
Evasion successful.
Arrows and daggers came flying in from behind. Tae-hyun let a few graze him and dodged the rest.
Seeing that, Cain laughed at him.
“Let’s see you keep dodging forever!”
He wasn’t trying to fight Tae-hyun head-on. He was simply stalling, holding the defense while Tae-hyun was attacked from all sides inside the encirclement.
Dirty, but not a bad method.
If Cain focused entirely on defense, even Tae-hyun couldn’t bring him down instantly.
But Tae-hyun was dumbfounded.
“Are you an idiot?”
All he had to do was pick someone other than Cain, kill them quickly, and break out of the encirclement.
Cain was still underestimating him.
I can burst someone down in an instant, or create chaos with a bomb…
For Cain to act smug over an encirclement like this, as though he’d already won, was laughable.
Has this idiot still not come to his senses?
Normally, when someone got killed by an opponent once, they’d at least realize, Ah, this guy’s no pushover.
But Cain seemed to have processed it in some warped way.
He’s not easy, sure, but he’s not insanely strong either. If I just keep my head straight, I can definitely win.
It was a kind of self-serving delusion.
Without even noticing Tae-hyun’s scorn, Cain gestured confidently.
“Come on, then! Let’s see you try! Go ahead!”
“Don’t think I need to.”
Tae-hyun sheathed the longsword he had been holding.
The moment Cain saw that, he burst into loud laughter.
“Kuhahaha! What, you can’t break through the encirclement, so now you’re surrendering? Too late! I’m never letting you go! I’ll find your respawn point and kill you again!”
“Encirclement?”
“Yeah! This encirclement!”
Cain shouted confidently, pointing at his guild members.
But something felt off.
The expressions on the guild members’ faces… every single one of them was standing there with their mouths hanging open.
What the—?
It was the same kind of moment as before.
Cain turned his head.
He found himself surrounded by heavily armored soldiers.
Murderous intent poured from their stern eyes.
“...!”
“What about the encirclement?”
As he said that, Tae-hyun waved cheerfully at the soldiers.
“Wow, you got here fast.”
“Y-you, you bastard, seriously...”
“Well then, I’m off.”
With that, Tae-hyun tried to break through the ring.
One of the guild members slammed his shield into the ground and planted himself in Tae-hyun’s path to block him.
Go ahead. Try to get through.
If Tae-hyun got delayed even for a moment here, the other guild members would immediately pile in and pin him down.
They didn’t know who those soldiers were, but one thing was obvious—they were on Tae-hyun’s side.
If so, there was only one option left: hold Tae-hyun here somehow.
“Stop him! Don’t let him get away!”
As Cain shouted, Tae-hyun looked at the guild member with the shield planted in the ground and grinned.
Something about that smile filled the guild member with a nameless dread.
Chiiiiik—
In Tae-hyun’s hand was a bomb.
“If you’re fighting someone who invested in Engineering, you should’ve been a little more careful.”
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-BOOM!
You have fallen into a Stunned state. You cannot move until the status is removed.
Caught in the blast, the guild member froze stiff on the spot.
The damage was one thing, but the stun effect was far more deadly.
This is why Engineering is so good.
It was a skill tree that could create variables at any time.
That was the beauty of Engineering. Even without casting magic, it could apply debuffs instantly like this.
Sure, it was annoying that it required preparation and materials, but it was still more than worth it.
He could’ve finished the guild member off right there, but instead Tae-hyun simply kicked him aside and sprinted through.
Once he rapidly widened the gap, the guild members lost him.
Clack-clack-clack—
And then, as if they’d been waiting for exactly that moment, the soldiers came charging in.
Now that Tae-hyun was out, they had no reason to hold back.
“Y-you’ve gotta be kidding me...!”
The moment Cain saw the soldiers closing in, he knew the situation was ruined.
There was no way they were winning this fight.
Clang! Clang-clang!
“T-these bastards are way too strong!”
“Cain! What do we do?!”
The soldiers attacked without so much as a word.
The guild members fought back desperately.
But the difference in numbers was overwhelming from the start.
Each guild member had to face four or five soldiers at once.
And these were the elite troops Admiral Brangsong had brought with him.
They were tough enough one-on-one already, and now they were swarming in groups. One after another, the guild members turned gray and collapsed.
And from behind them all, Tae-hyun gave a delightfully obnoxious order.
“The ugly one’s the leader!”
“...!”
The instant they heard that, the soldiers lowered their spears and rushed Cain.
HP has dropped below half. Failure to recover is dangerous.
You resisted the shock. You have broken out of paralysis.
HP has fallen low.
Warrior of Red Blood class ability activated.
Messages flashed up in a dizzying torrent.
Cain didn’t even have time to read them.
He hacked aside spears, slammed into armor, and tried desperately to break free.
“You son of a biiiitch!”
HP has dropped to 0. Target has died.
Resistance turned out to be useless.
Cain was the last one to fall.
Once all the guild members were down, the soldiers immediately re-formed in orderly ranks.
Watching that, Tae-hyun broke into applause.
“Wow, impressive. Seriously impressive.”
“You flatter us, Tae-hyun-nim!”
“We apologize for not arriving sooner!”
Strong and loyal to the last—true professional soldiers.
It’s kind of a shame I can only use them right now.
Brangsong got to command troops this strong and loyal, while Tae-hyun had…
Tae-hyun looked over at Rufo and Pelmas.
Way off in the distance, they were just staring blankly back at him.
“Is there something on my face? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Nothing. You bastards.”
With that, Tae-hyun turned and looked over the spot where the guild members had fallen.
The greatest joy of PK came after the fight—loot.
The Red Zone guild members obviously spent their lives doing PK, so surely they’d drop some good gear.
Heart pounding with anticipation, Tae-hyun checked the items.
◈ Heavy defensive equipment in poor condition
◈ Standard mass-produced weapon
Huh?
Tae-hyun blinked in surprise.
No matter how he looked at it, these weren’t the kind of items Red Zone guild members should’ve been carrying.
The only decent thing that had come out was a pouch with some gold in it.
And judging by the look of it, that probably came from some other party the Red Zone guild had robbed earlier.
Why are all their items like this? Ah. Don’t tell me these bastards...
Tae-hyun figured out what had happened.
Even players who loved PK didn’t succeed every time. Sometimes they misjudged their target, picked a fight they shouldn’t have, and died.
And when that happened, the penalties for PK players were much harsher than for ordinary players.
So among PK players, there were those who deliberately carried only trash-tier normal items.
After all, if they only targeted people much weaker than themselves, they could still win without good gear.
And even if they died, they’d at least keep their real items safe.
Nodding in admiration, Tae-hyun muttered, “Clever enough in your own way. Yeah. That’s how you should do PK.”
It never even crossed his mind that the Red Zone guild members weren’t using that sort of trick at all.
Those items were simply… their actual gear.
As the guild had collapsed, the members had run all over the place trying to salvage it.
Naturally, they needed money. And to get money, they’d had to sell off the gear they were wearing.
Since things were urgent, they were making do with whatever trash they could scrape together for the time being.
Tae-hyun had no idea that he had just smashed the last rice bowl the Red Zone guild had left.
That’s a shame. Next time I run into them, I’ll definitely kill them and take their items.
It was a truly cold-blooded thought, without a trace of pity.
In Tae-hyun’s eyes, the Red Zone guild members were nothing more than monsters that dropped good gear.
Perfect monsters, really—ones that committed PK first, so there’d be no repercussions for killing them.