Pride and Consequences
There's no raid without a plan, and no hunter enters a gate without one. It's such an obvious truth that ancient cave paintings depict strategy meetings right before raids.
Whether it's a first-time clear party of rookies, a low-tier guild barely worthy of being called professional, or even the dream league known as the majors, explaining the plan in advance and convincing the raid team is an absolute necessity. The level of sophistication might differ, but the process remains the same.
Can I trust you with my life?
A raid leader's evaluation is determined by how convincingly they can answer that question.
That was exactly why Han Jeong-do found himself in such an awkward position right now.
“……Isn’t something wrong here?”
“Haha…… I can only laugh at this point.”
“This is disgusting. Can they really melt down a horde of this scale so easily?”
The voices of his team members drifted from behind.
Below the cliff, the dark trolls they had lured were packed so densely that the ground was no longer visible. It was no exaggeration to call it a black wave. Yet those very trolls were being sucked toward somewhere.
Straight into that radiant holy figure that every member of the Kirin raid team, including Han Jeong-do, was watching.
“Is that a wide-area protective barrier? Or some kind of large-scale protection spell? Did Hwarang even have that kind of technique?”
“I think it’s because of that shield. The flow of magic power feels off. It’s probably Legendary-grade.”
“Look at that monstrous brat. What the hell does that guy eat to get stronger every time I see him?”
Hwarang, who had brought what was likely a Legendary item.
Park Su-bin, who seemed to have realized something profound and had grown another level.
Up to that point, it was manageable. Han Jeong-do had singled out those two as key figures to watch during the pre-raid briefing, and equipment upgrades or individual growth were difficult for the other side to predict anyway.
The real problem, however, was over there…….
“……Who the hell is that? Do you know her name?”
“Seo Ye-na? It’s probably Seo Ye-na. During the briefing we just glossed over her as a support tanker healer, didn’t we?”
“A healer? Oh, so nowadays healers rip apart dark trolls like they’re goblins? Wow~ The league level has gone way up while I wasn’t looking.”
Seo Ye-na had unfurled her pure white wings and was holding the front line alongside the other two.
Tearing, ripping, smashing, crushing.
Her hands were brutally merciless, making her noble and pure white wings seem almost ironic. Her white armor was already soaked crimson with monster blood.
That one-dimensional violence was, in some ways, even more destructive than the two beside her.
Yes. Seo Ye-na’s performance was completely outside of Han Jeong-do and Kirin’s plan.
After all, who in their right mind could have imagined replacing all the tanks with healers?
And this unexpected variable that wasn’t in the plan caused all eyes to turn toward Han Jeong-do.
You missed someone with this much firepower? Hmm……?
That was why, despite his calm exterior, Han Jeong-do’s insides were growing increasingly grim.
Damn it.
He had thought they would be stopped. He had assumed there would be countermeasures.
He never expected them to crumble this easily.
Han Jeong-do was by no means a fool.
Having tasted Mir Guild’s true strength firsthand through their loss in the first half of the rivalry matches, he had acknowledged that the other side was clearly superior to his own guild at present.
Equipment quality, total talent, squad synergy, weapon variety, and more.
Everything was at least on par, if not half a step or more ahead.
And among those factors, the most decisive one was—
The difference in leadership ability.
Though his pride made him loathe to admit it, Han Jeong-do had no choice but to acknowledge it.
The gap in tactics and command between Mir Guild and the other nineteen guilds had grown to an insurmountable level.
All because of that bastard over there.
Han Jeong-do enhanced his vision with magic power. He could see Kim Jong-pil melting trolls from the main force’s flank.
Many called Kim Jong-pil the Mountain King, an unparalleled commander, treating him like a legend. But the truth was, no one could truly understand Kim Jong-pil’s real worth without fighting alongside him.
His near-prophetic strategies and his command ability that manipulated both enemies and allies alike like puppets in his hands.
Han Jeong-do knew that terror better than anyone. After all, he himself had been the greatest beneficiary of that power.
And now that monster had returned in perfect condition.
Squeeze—
Han Jeong-do bit his lip hard.
In truth, even this assessment was one Han Jeong-do had forced through gritted teeth, colored by personal bias. At this moment, Kim Jong-pil’s decades of accumulated experience and brilliant mind had fused with the body of his prime, displaying the peak form of his entire career.
And the cause of that was obvious.
Lee Shin, that damn lucky bastard…….
Han Jeong-do now clearly recognized Lee Shin.
Gathering talents like Park Su-bin, Baek Yeon-woo, and Yu Ri-ra in one place. Stealing Hwarang away. Awakening Kim Jong-pil.
And never settling, constantly pulling out wild cards like Seo Ye-na.
Lee Shin was every bit as insane as Kim Jong-pil.
Kim Jong-pil and Lee Shin.
The Mountain King and the representative genius.
When those two geniuses created a chemical reaction, Mir Guild’s power had reached a level that was now impossible to measure.
Even if the three kings of the past returned…… could they stop this?
Han Jeong-do’s Super Intuition was also sending fierce warnings.
This couldn’t continue. He had to do something.
That was why Han Jeong-do had taken the risk of contacting the other raid leaders. By provoking their pride in a hunter-versus-hunter matchup, he had managed to secure their “cooperation.”
So I believed that if we hammered them without pause—one, two, three times—we could break them…….
But.
That belief had crumbled the moment it began.
At that moment, their eyes met by chance. From afar, the red-haired Flame Queen, Kim Ji-ah, sent him a silent question.
Is this correct? Do you actually have a plan?
Though he maintained his composure throughout, cold sweat trickled down Han Jeong-do’s spine.
Even without that, his Super Intuition was already sounding alarms that this situation was untenable, and now even Kim Ji-ah, along with the rest of the team, was adding pressure.
Han Jeong-do, backed into a corner.
Yet even then, he desperately kept his expression under control as he responded to the gazes pouring in on him.
“We……”
Pridwen
* * *
“We have no choice but to push through.”
Lee Shin chuckled as he watched the screen.
A massive wall of monitors filled one side of the large conference room.
On them, the three guilds appeared from various angles. The raid teams wandering through a gloomy forest, followed by a horde of dark trolls chasing them like mad.
Chae Dong-ha, who was watching the broadcast with him, tilted his head.
“I don’t understand. So, according to what you said, Representative, the luring strategy was a bad move.”
“Yeah, it’s a stupid thing to do.”
A fully charged Bokchi.
Hwarang wielding Pridwen.
And finally, their hell-chang healer team and the gym goddess princess who had completed their squad transformation.
Three of the modified squad compositions Lee Shin knew that could replace tanks had been combined.
The destructive power was one thing, but their sustain was on another level.
The proof was that the monsters they had gone through so much trouble to lure were steadily being converted into points.
“So in that case, wouldn’t it have been better to stick with the original speed run strategy?”
“At least that would have given them better odds than this luring nonsense.”
However, there is no such thing as a perfect strategy in this world.
The monstrous sustain and destructive power Mir Guild was currently displaying came at the cost of one critical sacrifice.
The very thing Chae Dong-ha had just mentioned.
“Breakthrough power and mobility, right?”
“Right! We’ve lost our legs!”
The shield wall summoned by Hwarang’s Pridwen was a stationary ability. Bokchi’s destructive power also shone brightest when he held his ground.
“And most importantly, our princess—the core of this strategy—only reaches her full combat potential once a certain area has been secured.”
“Therefore, to minimize combat power loss, the entire raid team must move in accordance with Kim Yu-shin’s formation, correct?”
“Right! You’re finally starting to get an eye for strategy.”
“I understood that much earlier. What I’m curious about is over there. Those guys.”
Chae Dong-ha pointed at the three guilds currently on the run.
“It can’t be helped if they didn’t know, but according to what you said, Representative, they should have noticed by now.”
“Let’s exclude the core guild. They might genuinely not know.”
“Then let’s say the other two guilds do know.”
A full day had already passed. Inside the gate, that meant three days.
Even if no one else noticed, was it possible that the man who called himself the next Mountain King and the famous Ten Thousand King hadn’t realized the current situation?
Not a chance. They definitely knew. At the very least, everyone would agree that this luring strategy was not the key to victory.
Yet Lee Shin had predicted that even if they realized it, they would continue the luring anyway. And just as he said, for three days the three guilds had stubbornly clung to the strategy like fools.
Chae Dong-ha simply couldn’t understand the situation.
Why? Why were two people famous for being smart in the league doing something so stupid?
To that, Lee Shin gave the simplest and clearest answer possible.
“Because it’s embarrassing.”
“……Sorry? I must have misheard.”
“It’s. Em. Bar. Rassing.”
It was the truth.
Think about it. After spending days, even weeks, on briefings and training for a plan that got completely destroyed within hours of entering the gate—wouldn’t that be humiliating?
“If I were to put it more elegantly, I’d say that if the leader’s authority is damaged and the chain of command collapses, it becomes impossible to manage, blah blah blah…… but in the end, it’s just because it’s embarrassing.”
“Oh my god……”
Chae Dong-ha felt dizzy.
He truly couldn’t understand.
“They’re commanders, aren’t they? Shouldn’t they be rational? To ruin everything over something as trivial as pride……”
“Heh heh. To hyung, that’s obvious, right? But other places aren’t like that. Being smart doesn’t mean being wise, and having a lot of knowledge doesn’t necessarily mean having good judgment.”
It was a side effect of having worked with Kim Jong-pil and Lee Shin from the beginning.
These two almost never made wrong decisions in the first place. But even if they did make a mistake, to Kim Jong-pil there was no individual greater than the team, and to Lee Shin there was nothing he wouldn’t do for the guild. So swallowing their pride and bowing their heads was never an issue.
But for the Guardian and the Ten Thousand King, the situation was completely different.
“They’re nothing like us.”
The Ten Thousand King had monopolized power far too much, and the Guardian had suppressed those around him with his own leadership ability.
The Rebound guild, which had always been run with an iron fist.
To them, pride was an area that could never be ignored. It was defiling their sanctuary. Once authority was lost, it could never be regained.
So they had no choice but to continue.
“Then it looks like that luring will continue for a while.”
“Mm, probably.”
“Tsk.”
“Why? Are you worried?”
“A little. Are you okay with this, Representative?”
No matter how many healers they had, and even though Seo Ye-na’s Archangel’s Touch could restore both magic power and fatigue, running for three days straight without proper sleep while fighting monsters was not a sight one saw often.
In fact, the public opinion in fan cafes and communities that had initially been cheering and clapping had slowly begun to shift.
“Hm? What’s changing?”
“The fans are attacking the other guilds, claiming they’re conspiring. They’re asking if this is teaming.”
“Hahaha. Really?”
“This isn’t something to laugh about. It’s actually serious.”
The galleries were flooded with curses, fan cafes had lost functionality, and even the official websites of each guild had gone down from excessive traffic.
“Even the department head contacted us.”
“The department head? You mean the Bureau??”
“The complaint emails are no joke. They say the department’s workload has become overwhelming because of them.”
“Puhahaha! As expected of our fans.”
Indeed, the image of Mir Guild shown on screen was not something that looked good even as a joke.
They looked haggard from lack of sleep, chewing on energy bars in the middle of battle because they didn’t even have time to eat properly. The passionate Yongbung fans must have felt as frustrated as if they had eaten a hundred sweet potatoes.
“Still, you worried for nothing. There’s no way I’d let us get hurt.”
As their representative, he was grateful that their guild was loved so much, but leaving things like this would be a terrible thing to do.
So he had prepared something.
“It’s about time.”
“Time for what?”
“There.”
Lee Shin, who had been checking his watch, pointed at one of the screens.
Chae Dong-ha looked where Lee Shin was pointing and his eyes widened.
“Huh??”
When did he get there……?
* * *
A man was sprinting through the forest.
His white robe, tied tightly, flashed like a ray of light between the black trees. With every footprint he left, the forest contaminated by demonic energy was purified and transformed into lush greenery.
And that land soon fell under his control.
Kim Jong-pil, the Mountain King, declared it.
This forest is now my domain.
Vita, perched on his shoulder, let out a cry toward the sky. In an instant, the colorless world burst with color.
And then—
Crack! Crack! Crack—!!
Tree branches shot out in every direction.
Water rats followed right behind them.
And behind those, wind hawks spread their wings.
Branches and spirits spread out in all directions, sweeping across the surroundings.
Flash!
The forest shook violently for a brief moment.
Then, a cloud of dust rose behind Kim Jong-pil, who had shot forward like a bullet.
Uwooooooo!
Kieeeee—!!
!◎#!$#&!
It was dark trolls. An uncountable number of dark trolls.
A black wave? No. This was a black tsunami.
Now it was their turn to pay them back.