Max Talent Player - Chapter 281

Shin Yeonseo panicked. As the elevator suddenly plunged, everyone inside hit the ceiling.

‘We-We’re falling!’

Fear engulfed her, shock taking over in the face of something she had never experienced.

‘Huh?’

But then, she met eyes with Kim Hyukjin, and in that moment, she felt a sense of reassurance.

Hyukjin was smiling, almost like he had already predicted this.

‘Heheh.’

Even as they fell, Yeonseo recovered her calm.

‘This is why you’ve gotta Play with Hyukjin.’

A person she could trust. A person who would fulfill their role as a leader without fail. Playing with such a person was when she had the most fun and felt the most at ease.

Hyukjin said, “Sunghyun.”

The next moment, Sunghyun used a spell.

“Lift.”

A gust of wind formed in the elevator, cushioning their bodies. It felt like Sunghyun’s mana and artificially-produced wind were enveloping Yeonseo in a comfortable embrace.

Thud!

The elevator crashed into the ground, the impact transferring to them as well. They had definitely landed.

‘We’re… okay?’

It was hard to describe this feeling.

‘Kinda like… I’ve been cushioned in bubble wrap.’

She wasn’t all that wrong. Sunghyun had used the wind spell Lift on the members of Giantgod. Lift was a support spell that normally cast the power of wind to a target’s body and made them levitate in the air or lose their balance. In this case, wind was used to neutralize the impact from the crash. They were still jostled a little, but no one was greatly injured.

“Everyone alright?” Hyukjin called out.

“We’re alright, Hyungnim.”

Hyukjin looked around the elevator.

‘Everyone’s in one piece, looks like.’

The comparatively squishy Choi Sung-gu was moaning, ‘Oww, my head’, but he seemed mostly unharmed.

“Elevators have some degree of safety features built in,” Hyukjin began.

This was an explanation for the Guardians, not for his guildmates. As they were falling earlier, he had caught a faint glimpse of Senia’s wings fluttering. She was only visible for a split second, but he was certain that she was streaming right now.

“They’re designed to stop before they hit the 1st floor.”

Elevators came with that safety feature to protect the passengers. Normally, that is.

“But for us to have crashed like this…”

Meant this was someone’s doing.

“Yoohyun. Open the door.”

“Yessir!”

Yoohyun squeezed his fingers into the crack between the elevator doors and began to flex.

“Uryaaaaaa!”

Blood vessels sprang up on his massive biceps, and his face went taut with exertion. The elevator doors began to part with an unpleasant, grating screech, the metal under Yoohyun’s hands caving in.

Sung-gu shuddered.

“Jesus Christ, you’re fucking strong. Yoohyun. We’re friends, right?”

The door opened to a murmuring crowd that had gathered because of the elevator accident. Hotel employees were running in, and someone was hastily making a call, presumably calling for emergency services.

Very quietly, Hyukjin whispered, “Darong. If there’s a thief approaching us, give them a taste of their own medicine.”

Three exclamation marks appeared above the head of the Phantom Thief Squirrel. Darongi swiftly became invisible to Hyukjin’s eyes as well, indicating that the squirrel was going into serious stealth mode.

‘Even after reaching level 44, I still can’t see him.’

Despite having breached the intermediate period, he couldn’t see a single trace of Kim Darong. Hyukjin grinned, recalling the Player he had met eyes with earlier in the Tutorial Building.

‘Lasbon. Are you a better thief than Kim Darong?’

* * *

* * *

Lasbon.

He was a 26-year-old Singaporean Player. His class: thief. Lasbon was a prideful man who thought of himself as the best thief in Singapore. And in truth, he would one day earn the moniker of ‘Starlight Thief’ and become one of the most famous thieves in the world.

Lasbon headed to the Tutorial Building, ‘Sunset City Building B’. While he was trading with the shop NPCs, he witnessed the Warp Gate being activated.

‘Are those guys Korean Players?’

An entire group of Korean Players came over via the Warp Gate. Most Players who used that facility were rich.

‘Koreans, huh.’

Lasbon’s heart began to thump. He had heard a lot of rumors about these Korean Players.

‘A server specialized in 1v1 PVP and dungeon raiding.’

Singapore was a server with an emphasis on trade and thief class Players. They were generally outstanding in those fields. It was very different from the Korean server.

‘Even if they have amazing combat skills…’

These Players might have that famous ‘Korean Style’, but they likely lacked defenses against thievery.

From what Lasbon knew, Korea was a somewhat unique country. If you left your wallet or phone in a coffee shop, or even something more valuable like a laptop, no one would steal it. A strange place, indeed. Perhaps of those norms, Korea was known to have an extremely small number of thief class Players.

‘When it comes to theft, I’ve got the advantage.’

Lasbon called up a few of his buddies. They called themselves the ‘Travelers of the Night’. Although they weren’t an official guild, they operated like one.

“A bunch of Koreans have shown up. They all came via the Warp Gate, and I know the name of one of them.”

“You do? Who is it? No shot it’s Song Kiyeol, right?”

“He’s not that big of a giant.”

If it was Song Kiyeol, Lasbon would never have coordinated a theft. Song Kiyeol was too big a name—he was one of the hero-class Players famous even around the world.

“There’s a guy who became famous as the Tutorial Ender.”

“If he’s that well-known in Korea, he’s pretty amazing, isn’t he?”

“I don’t think he had any big achievements after that, though I think he’s still a Ranker.”

But he wasn’t on Song Kiyeol’s level. It was worth provoking him.

Their destination was the Mandarin Oriental Hotel—that was where they would carry out their plan.

And so, they got to work. Using Lasbon’s innate ability, ‘Invoke Accident’, they crashed the elevator.

‘They’re definitely shocked.’

While the Koreans were in a daze, the Travelers of the Night would go in and clean out their Inventories. That was their goal. If there was one issue, it was that Kim Hyukjin had already seen through their plan.

Hyukjin’s Eye of Perception scanned the surroundings.

‘There’s four of them.’

They were probably Travelers of the Night. And leading them was the famous big-time thief, Lasbon. Hyukjin was sure about that. How? Because he had already met eyes with Lasbon in the Tutorial Building. Not only did Hyukjin know what Lasbon looked like, he saw the thief’s summary.

Summary: Budding Big-Time Thief Wanting to Pilfer Koreans

Hyukjin knew a few of Lasbon’s methods, and he also knew about the thief’s innate ability, Invoke Accident. Since he already knew what the opponent had in store, there was nothing to be afraid of.

“They’ll think we’ll be all panicked. Do a little acting,” Hyukjin said under his breath.

Sung-gu took the order a step further and flopped onto the ground.

“Oh gawwwwd. How can this happen?! So this is how the Jayangdong Fire Master meets his end.”

Time passed.

In the end, the Travelers of the Night didn’t show themselves. They prowled the area before ultimately leaving, but not before Kim Darong unburdened them of the items in their Inventories. The uproar settled down, and after an endless stream of apologies from the hotel team, Giantgod Guild headed up to the 21st floor again. Despite the massive accident that had just occurred, they were able to check in fairly painlessly.

Hyukjin’s room, Room #2111, became a gathering place for all of Giantgod.

Yeonseo was the first to ask.

“Boss Hyukjin. Did you know?”

“I did.”

“Sunghyun. You?”

“I didn’t know.”

“Then how’d you think to use Lift there?”

“I just figured Hyukjin would have used it if it were him.”

Sunghyun was being sincere. The moment the elevator fell, one thought blitzed through his mind: What would Hyukjin do? What would the hyung he liked and respected do?

The answer came to him quickly. And to Sunghyun’s joy, Hyukjin called out his name. Sensing a great deal of trust in that call, Sunghyun used Lift after making an instantaneous judgment.

Yeonseo nodded in understanding.

“I sometimes ask what Boss Hyukjin would do and act accordingly, too.”

“…”

“If it was rigged, who the hell was it?” Yeonseo whipped out her sword. “If I catch them, you bet I’ll cut ‘em up.”

Yeonseo’s Asura hovered at Sung-gu’s throat.

“O-O-Oh come on now, for fuck’s sake. W-Why me? I’m your friendly neighborhood Bum-gu.”

“Yoohyun is too strong, Sunghyun’s a saint, and Sunhwa’s cute. And I can’t bare a sword at Boss Hyukjin.”

“Th-Then what about me?” Sung-gu took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat off his brow. “I-I’m cute t—urk.”

Yeonseo’s Asura poked ever so slightly into Sung-gu’s neck.

“FUCK! You really gonna stab me?!”

Sunghyun went to stand in front of Yeonseo, almost as if he were protecting her. “You didn’t die, so it’s fine.”

“Hyukjin! These two are ganging up on me!”

Hyukjin cracked a grin.

‘Doing good, guys.’

Hyukjin was well aware. It wasn’t just the Giantgod Guild in this room. One of the Travelers of the Night who had missed their chance on the 1st floor was here, too.

‘Are they here in the flesh…’

Or—

‘Are they just scouting?’

He could sense it—an outsider’s gaze. Someone was watching them. Giantgod Guild was just acting like they had dropped their guard.

‘Among Travelers of the Night… there was a guy with [Scouting Eye].”

There was a special object called a ‘Ward’. Sometimes Wards came in the form of a pebble, or a flower. Or a book, or a cup—it didn’t matter what form they took. It didn’t change the fact that if you placed a Ward somewhere, it would act as a sort of surveillance camera.

‘Basically, a spy cam.’

One that was produced by a Player’s ability. Used mainly by thief classes, the ‘secret footage leak scandals’ this ability resulted in sparked outrage all over the world.

Hyukjin took out an item from his Inventory.

“This is one of the items I stole from them.”

Their onlookers were probably having a fit about now. They came here wanting to rob Giantgod, but got UNO reversed. Kim Darong didn’t show them any mercy. The little squirrel stripped everything from their Inventories, down to the last Coin. Of those items, Hyukjin was focusing on an item that was glowing with yellow light.

“It’s called the Daedongyeojido.”

Sunhwa’s hand shot up.

“Me, me, me! I know! I know the Daedongyeojido!”

“You do?”

“Yes!” Sunhwa nodded vigorously, as if to say she had studied hard at school. “I learned about it in History class!”

The Daedongyeojido, something all Koreans would have heard at least one time in their life, was found in Lasbon’s Inventory.

The Daedongyeojido was a set of foldable booklet maps of Korea, produced by the cartographer Kim Jeong-ho in 1861 with a second edition published in 1864. This item shared the same name as the maps created by the Joseon period geologist. Hyukjin glanced at a part of the wall.

‘Come, Lasbon.’

He had thrown the bait. Now, it was time to wait for the fish to bite.

‘Didn’t think I’d be out fishing here.’

Singapore was a merchant and thief server.

‘It’s highly likely the Merchant of Venice is watching.’

It might even be that the ‘Milky Way Neutron Star’ was watching. Hyukjin suddenly recalled Ham Sohyun’s prophecy.

–Playwright and robber meet, a starry world unfolds.

This wasn’t in his plans, but he decided to grab the situation by the horns.