“···What? North Korea?”
Choi Yoon reacted as though he had not expected that at all.
“Hmm··· no, suddenly bringing up North Korea is a little··· what do you call it? Mm···.”
At this rate, it would probably be insufficient to persuade him.
Han Woo-hyun knew Choi Yoon’s usual values well.
A pathological hater of China and, at the same time, a psychotic man with anger-control issues who seemed to embody all the hatred of humanity.
He would not accept it obediently.
“···Your guild is a funny bunch. Is it fine as long as they’re a lower weight class? Then does that mean every North Korean can be killed?”
“I didn’t go that far.”
And as expected, ridicule flew back at him. Han Woo-hyun frowned slightly.
That method was a second-best option, but it was certainly not the best.
Not because human life was precious, but because the global economy had to be considered, should they wreak havoc in North Korea instead of China?
What crime had the North Korean people committed that they deserved to be slaughtered by game-addicted shut-ins, when they were not even the leadership?
“What do you mean you didn’t? Fuck, you’re just saying it nicely. I think you might be the real lunatic here.”
“···Think whatever you want.”
However, there was no helping it.
Even if everything went as quickly as possible, it would take at least a week, perhaps longer, to properly draw in and unite even the users of the Chinese server beneath Han Woo-hyun.
But before his regression, the terrorism and slaughter against China had begun in only one day.
Starting with Choi Yoon, far too quickly.
Players had obtained power far beyond what they deserved without paying any price for it.
And until the day the world ended, they had constantly flaunted and wielded that power.
Even if it was not China, they were broken men who would vent their rage and hatred somewhere.
··A sacrifice was necessary.
A sacrifice geographically close to Korea, easy to direct attention toward, and where the international impact would be relatively smaller even if players used their power there.
He did not want to say there was no helping it, but··· there was no helping it.
Because Han Woo-hyun had to command all such violent players.
He had to become the ruler of players, most of whom were mad villains.
“That is not what matters, so let’s move on. Choi Yoon. That is not the only reason you should join.”
“···Then what is?”
After ending his thoughts, he demanded an answer from Choi Yoon again.
“Support. A great deal of support, across many fields. That is the price.”
“What? Price?”
His opponent asked back in a puzzled voice.
“Leveling, equipment items, money. Things like that will be included.”
“Hmm··· money.”
A flash of greed passed through Choi Yoon’s eyes. But it was not a strong emotion.
“On top of that, above all··· recognition of you by a guild made up of the world’s strongest superhumans.”
“You can really give me all of that? Your fucking clique guild can?”
Only when he had said that much did Choi Yoon finally show interest.
Not in the material things, but in Han Woo-hyun’s confident statement that they could provide all of that support.
He showed interest in the very existence of a guild that could make such a thing possible.
In other words, in authority and the power of a group.
“But, of course, it won’t be for free.”
“Fuck, why not now?”
“Have you forgotten what I said first? Join our guild.”
“Mm, mmm···.”
Perhaps because he felt sincerity through their conversation, Choi Yoon hesitated somewhat.
It was a clearly different attitude from just moments ago, when he had taken it as complete bullshit.
“Our guild does not evaluate you that badly. No, it would be more accurate to say we think rather highly of you.”
It was time to drive in the wedge.
Choi Yoon, the world’s first Villain Player.
But he had not been one at the final moment.
He had stepped forward as the leader of the villains while joyfully destroying China, but at some point, he disappeared.
He hid his whereabouts.
―You know who I am, right?
Choi Yoon revealed himself again one year later.
―I want to participate in the raid.
It was when the boss monsters had begun descending outside the dungeons in earnest and destroying the world.
―You? What are you scheming?
―···I absolutely won’t cause harm. I heard you’re short on [Priests].
―Do not try anything strange. The fate of humanity is riding on this raid.
―I know.
The Frenzied Priest Choi Yoon came to them stained with deep regret and despair.
His end, too, was entirely different from what Riley and Han Woo-hyun, who had suspected him until the very end, had expected.
―Fuck, fuck, fuck··· die! Just die!
―Fucking trash game, fucking rigged piece-of-shit game···.
Because he boasted loudly that he had experience as a raid leader, they appointed him Captain of the Third Mobile Unit.
It was not because they trusted him, but because there was no one else willing to act as Captain of a mobile unit.
―You idiots, you fucking bastards! Fight!
In his own way, he had courage. He dragged out every skill he had and fought at the very front.
―Mother···.
But in the end, he did not survive. He met a heroic end.
As the captain of the death squad guarding the raid party’s retreat, no less.
His way of speaking was extremely aggressive, the type that earned antipathy from others.
They had only been together for a very short time, yet Han Woo-hyun had felt that much.
So no one liked the death squad captain from a villain background who had volunteered to lead.
But his end, at least, had meaning.
“Choi Yoon. I am truly giving you a good opportunity.”
A definite psychotic man with anger-control issues.
Moreover, a man who had even held the position of leader of the villains in the beginning, whose command and leadership ability had been proven in a bad sense.
But at the final moment, he had sacrificed himself.
In other words, he was a ranker-class player whose abilities were more suitable than anyone else’s to become an intermediary manager of Villain Players.
That was one of the reasons Han Woo-hyun had made him the first recruitment target.
“This isn’t a bad offer for you either. There are no players in the north. If you go there, you can do whatever you want.”
“···Explain in more detail.”
“Above all, once you make the first move, the others will start thinking of going sightseeing too.”
“So?”
“With the authority of the world’s greatest guild of ranker players, we will recognize that. Recognize you as that place’s de facto king and administrator.”
“···There’s no basis for saying that has any meaning.”
Han Woo-hyun laughed inwardly.
Asking for a basis did not mean that he truly needed logical grounds and evidence.
It meant he wanted Han Woo-hyun to throw him something reasonably believable from the listener’s perspective.
And Han Woo-hyun had many such things.
“Inventory.”
He very slowly opened his hand in the air, slow enough that the other man would not feel threatened.
To show him the remaining items brought from the ruined world.
“[Totem of Frenzy].”
A discontinued item from the global server. Commonly called the Frenzy Totem. A totem that halved the skill cooldowns and focus times of all nearby players.
“[Crimson Ring].”
A discontinued item from the Chinese server. Commonly called the Crim Ring. A broken accessory that added the set effects of all other equipment items one more time.
“[Amazing Equipment Transcendence Scroll].”
A discontinued item from the Korean server. Commonly called the Amazing Trans Scroll. A scroll that granted transcendent enhancement values capable of destroying the very foundation of the existing equipment enhancement system.
“[Aisin-Gioro Ring IV].”
A discontinued item from the Southeast Asian server. Commonly called the Aisin Ring. An accessory that amplified damage dealt to bosses in proportion to level.
All of them were items that had been released more than ten years ago, and only for a brief period of less than a week.
Discontinued items that the developers had hastily recovered as much as possible because their effects were too powerful, and had never released again.
Naturally, through normal means, there was no way a single user could possess all of them.
“...Insane.”
They were so famous that every World of Yggdrasill user knew them.
Even a fairly large guild might or might not have one.
They were so rare and powerful that even though some came from other servers, one would still at least have heard their names.
“And lastly, [Gold Ingot].”
As if placing the final point upon it, Han Woo-hyun took out a single lump of gold.
“It is an advance payment. Of course, assuming you accept our proposal.”
“Fuck, what is this now? Is that blacksmithing material? Why do you have a useless junk item that was discontinued eight years ago?”
Choi Yoon screamed as though he had had enough.
“How about it? I think that should be answer enough.”
"···."
"And of course, these are only examples."
"You have··· more things like that?"
―Grin.
Han Woo-hyun smiled silently.
Because there was no need to explain further.
"Then··· no, fine. I saw the item information windows too. They’re real. They’re really real···."
“Now you won’t doubt the guild, will you?”
“···Fine. It is impressive. I have no choice but to believe this much.”
Choi Yoon narrowed his eyes slightly, as though he had regained his reason.
“But that is proof that your fucking clique guild is impressive.”
“Hmm?”
Han Woo-hyun let out a sound of doubt at the unexpected answer.
“It is not a reason why you people need me. Especially at an administrator level.”
“Huh.”
He was slightly surprised. An unexpectedly sharp question.
He was smarter than Han Woo-hyun had thought.
“You’re saying you’ll make me the leader of a country?”
“Isn’t it a good offer?”
“There should be dozens of players in Korea stronger than me, so why?”
“That is how highly we value you. You’re being far too modest.”
“It’s the truth.”
Choi Yoon was quite a high-level user.
However, by in-game specs, it was difficult to call him a true top-ranker.
Because he had originally followed the healer tree, then belatedly taken the DPS tree, which left him with an awkward skill structure.
So he was strong, but for his level, his character would be evaluated as a ruined character.
“Recognition as the first administrator? Fine, it’s good. It is good, but what exactly did you see in me? No matter how I think about it, it’s strange.”
“You’re very suspicious. There is no trap.”
“But there’s no favor without a price. I think rejecting it is probably the right choice.”
"Hmm···."
It seemed he would have to tell him the decisive information.
“Fine. Then I’ll speak more specifically and honestly.”
Han Woo-hyun decided to say now what he had intended to say a little later.
“You don’t know it, but you are quite important right now. Not just because of your level or skills. You yourself are important.”
“What? Wh-what, what, what are you talking about?”
As though it was the first praise he had ever heard in his life, Choi Yoon worked his mouth awkwardly.
Since a grown man who looked like a bizarre Japanese ghost was doing that, it was extremely painful to look at.
But Han Woo-hyun endured it. Compared to that twisted monster, the Eighth Apostle, this much was still tolerable.
“There are few Priests in Yggdrasill. And most of the few Priests that do exist invest mostly in DPS skills by the time they reach that level.”
“I’m on the DPS tree too.”
“At your level, it should be seen as half and half.”
The reason Choi Yoon had ended up that way was nothing special. Han Woo-hyun knew the reason himself.
It was simply because his character had been created before the DPS tree skills were released.
Most Priest users on the support tree had almost quit the game after being neglected for a long time.
In other words, Choi Yoon could not be called a professional supporter who had developed only the healing tree.
But if one considered his value as a damage-healing hybrid class, he was a meaningful ranker not only in Korea, but even globally.
“Do you understand?”
“···Fuck. You need a healer?”
And as Han Woo-hyun had expected.
Despite that impulsive, anger-control-disordered side of him.
Choi Yoon was smarter than he appeared.
“You—no, your guild. Don’t tell me you’re preparing for a raid?”
Han Woo-hyun smiled faintly.
“What if we are?”
“···Fuck.”
Han Woo-hyun did not believe in human goodwill.
He had seen far too many ugly players to believe in such a thing.
The Paladin who had regressed from a ruined future looked only at the past.
The past before regression. The future from the current point in time.
By combining those things, he inferred possibilities.
How high-level players had judged things.
Why they had moved the way they did.
What kind of personalities they had usually possessed···.
The ranker-class players Riley Granger had told him about in excessive detail.
He had heard and reheard every one of their actions and stories so many times that he had now memorized them all.
“What raid in reality? Are you really a game-addicted clique guild? Did you all fall into delusions together?”
“···.”
“Fuck. ···That’s it, right? You’re lying, right?”
“Does it seem like a lie?”
That was why Han Woo-hyun could be certain.
Even if Choi Yoon was the world’s first villain, if he was someone who had sacrificed himself as a death squad captain in the end.
Then when Han Woo-hyun promised him power, position, and money, and even revealed a convincing future of destruction.
“···You’re saying the abilities that appeared for no reason aren’t really for no reason.”
At the very least, he would not resist until the end.
***
―WHOOOOOSH···!
A fierce wind brushed past Choi Yoon’s ears.
―WHOOOOOSH···!
He was now flying eastward again, crossing the sea. Toward North Korea.
In his hands, he held one gold ingot Han Woo-hyun had given him and a backpack packed full of dollars.
―In North Korea, dollars are mainly used. Gold will be difficult for you to use immediately as physical currency, so use this as your funds.
“···Fuck, these alone must be worth several hundred million.”
As he did, Choi Yoon recalled the conversation that had ultimately persuaded him.
―Fine, I’ll join your fucking clique guild. But remember this. I’m not your subordinate.
―Do not worry. I will not force you. I will only ask. Help me with one thing.
―What is it?
―If players try to run wild, guide them as much as possible toward where you are. I will not tell you to block or control them. There needs to be a place for them to vent their anger.
―Well··· fine. But how? I’ve never even been class president in elementary school.
―It is simple. Just be the first to wreak havoc. Make them recognize that place as the players’ playground.
―Those are all the conditions? That’s nothing much.
―One more thing. Sell the guild’s name as much as possible. Spread and establish our authority. If there is a decent bastard who wants to join, enroll him.
Unexpectedly, the guild’s recommendations were not much.
But something being easy and looking good was not everything.
In Choi Yoon’s opinion, that bastard’s words were definitely logical and plausible.
"···."
In other words, they were too perfect.
It was not a plan that should have emerged before even three hours had passed since all the players in the world suddenly became their characters.
As if that were not enough, they were even planning a boss raid?
On top of that, players from all over the world, people who could not even communicate, were uniting as one?
Did that make any sense?
“···Fuck, the four great discontinued items and even Gold Ingots··· they were all real, though.”
But if he tried not to believe it, the evidence was far too great. The reason they wanted to recruit him was understandable as well.
Rather, if all of it was true…
Then, conversely, he was in a situation where he should be crying and begging them to accept him.
“Ha··· well, it’s not hard anyway, so let’s just test some skills. My head’s cooled a bit too, so not too big··· maybe I’ll just blow away the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun first.”
In any case, he had ultimately been convinced.
So he was going to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, to wreak havoc.
In order to announce the existence of players and the guild in a grand fashion.
“The first Korean to overthrow North Korea··· that doesn’t sound too bad either.”
Choi Yoon unconsciously chuckled. Then he added,“Chinese bastards are fucking awful···. Mm, but thinking about it carefully, it is my hometown, after all.”
In Standard Mandarin.