Chapter 185
Taking out the two collectors was effortless. Do-Jin figured that if they were just common criminals, they posed no threat, and if they were low-ranking members of the Cult of Ruin, they were no different.
With that in mind, he ambushed them and sent both of them to the afterlife in four seconds. He checked the bodies just to confirm and found the Cult’s symbol carved onto their chests, a black mist-flower burned into the skin.
Just some Cult of Ruin trash, but... that mark isn’t from a curse.
It was a tattoo proving they were genuine believers. The Cult rarely outsourced operations like this, not because they cared about security, but simply because they didn’t want to share the glory of calling Ruin upon the world with outsiders. That said plenty about how completely deranged the group was.
I need to move these people first.
The captives lay unconscious inside the transport cage, sedated and stacked like cargo. Do-Jin decided to relocate them before anything else. He had dealt with one of these collectors from a distance and split the other one’s skull open before the man even understood what was happening.
However, since he fought near the hideout, other cultists might crawl out of the cave if he stalled any further. Do-Jin tossed the two corpses onto the iron slave cart with the rest of the merchandise and pulled away from the area.
I’m not worried about getting out by myself, but there’s no way I’m escaping with all these people if more enemies show up.
***
Do-Jin headed straight for the place where Kirkley was staying.
Kirkley must have been in the middle of a meal because he showed up with his mouth still shining with grease. He took one look at the cart Do-Jin dragged in and practically jumped out of his skin.
“What... what the hell is all this?”
“I stumbled onto a slave-trading ring while I was investigating,” Do-Jin said.
“Then these headless bastards are...?”
When Do-Jin nodded in response, Kirkley grimaced like he’d just been slapped in the face. “Damn it. Are all of them dead? This is a mess...”
“The accomplices are still alive. And we know where their hideout is.”
“You said the accomplices are alive? That’s fantastic news.” Kirkley lit up immediately. “But they’re nothing more than a small supply chain. The real bastards have got to be somewhere else...”
“Of course they are. Don’t worry. Once we grab the accomplices, we can climb the chain and find the big pieces of shit running the entire trafficking network.”
“Even so, it’s damn hard to pull out the roots of groups like this,” Kirkley said, completely missing what Do-Jin had pointed out. “Everything’s broken into tiny cells. It’s ridiculous to think fellow citizens of the Empire are enslaving their own people. The world’s rotting from the inside.”
Feeling like he was talking to a brick wall, Do-Jin decided to say it outright. “These two dead guys are Cult of Ruin members. I found their hideout. Let’s go wipe it out.”
The moment he said “Cult of Ruin,” a golden ripple flickered in front of Kirkley’s eyes. It was the Light of the World, a system that intervened whenever narrative logic or in-game causality faced collapse. Seeing it directly meant his words were literally being blocked by the world’s rules.
You’re telling me the game won’t even let NPCs learn the Cult of Ruin’s identity at this point in the story...?
Even for Do-Jin, this was new. He’d heard rumors that some information wouldn’t register for NPCs unless a player triggered the correct events, but he’d never seen the system forcibly stop an NPC from hearing something.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure your name’s recorded properly in the report,” Kirkley said, once again answering something completely different.
Do-Jin stared at him and mulled over the situation.
I didn’t want to charge in alone recklessly, so I thought I could at least pull the Adventurers’ Guild or the lord into this with the justification of crushing a slave-trading organization.
What he didn’t expect was an invisible wall that blocked the information entirely. He’d spent days worrying that contacting them too early might provoke the Cult and cause things to spiral, but all of that thinking turned out to be useless.
That means telling the Celestial See won’t do anything either. So what the hell am I supposed to do now...?
Faced with a wall he didn’t even know existed until now, Do-Jin felt another migraine coming.
***
Do-Jin needed to build a new plan from scratch, and charging in alone wouldn’t work this time.
Just because the weak ones are easy doesn’t mean the rest of the Cult are pushovers.
Even if he trusted the level scaling of the area, timing, and circumstances, this entire operation was happening in a zone that the Cult of Ruin had prepared. If even a mid-tier cultist showed up, Do-Jin would be overwhelmed at best.
And now that the Light of the World was preventing NPCs from getting involved, this place wasn’t just a hornet’s nest. It was a full-grown wasp nest wrapped in barbed wire.
Fuck it. If that’s how it is, I’ll go big.
He couldn’t finish this quietly on his own. Calling only Theresa, Soso, and Tanto wouldn’t reduce the risk. So he decided to blow the whole thing wide open.
“Hey, Chun Ji-Hyun!! I’ve got a piece of content I want to run this time.”
His manager raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What kind of content? You wanna go on a variety show or something?”
“What? A variety show? Why the hell would you say that?”
“You brought up content all of a sudden. You never start things like this. I thought maybe you wanted to show up next to some idols or something.”
She said all of that while already pulling out her phone. If Do-Jin said he wanted something, the company would throw rose petals in his path, so she was preparing to report it instantly.
“Just say the word,” she said, having already opened a group chat with the Content Team Lead and the Marketing Team Lead.
“I got a hidden quest. But it’s too much for me alone, so I’m going to need a lot of people,” Do-Jin said.
“Okay, I’m listening...”
“You remember the old world boss quest, right? The one where we gathered a huge raid group?”
“Of course I remember. The live reactions during that were insane. The Content Team and Marketing Team both got bonus payouts and a special dinner because of it.”
Her eyes widened as the memory clicked into place in her head. “Wait... are you saying you want to do something like that again? There wasn’t any event announcement in-game, though?”
“No, it’s not an event. It’s my personal quest. I won’t gather nearly as many people as last time, but I still want to spend a decent amount of money on it.”
“Don’t worry. As long as you aren’t asking for the moon, everything’ll be approved. You just need to explain the details later. I’ll send a short preliminary report first.”
Her fingers flew over the screen in a horrifying blur. About five seconds later, her phone started ringing.
***
Team Lead Oh Young-Sik immediately logged into the virtual conference room.
“What about marketing?” He shot the question at a marketing staff member who was already waiting.
“She’s outside the office. She’s on her way back right now.”
“And what about communications?”
“I’ll relay everything myself.”
“Good. That’s enough.”
Oh Young-Sik nodded and waved his hand, telling them to start the meeting. Do-Jin’s face appeared on the screen.
—Long time no see, Oh Young-Sik.
“Hah, it’s been way too long. If I could see your face more often, my performance review would look a lot better. And since we’re meeting like this, I’m guessing you’ve brought us another set of results worth bragging about.”
Do-Jin cracked a dry smile.
—We never know how things will go.
“You can say that, but we’re still expecting a hit. Anything you’re involved with is practically a money-printing machine for us.”
—If you put pressure on me like that, I’ll be too scared to say anything.
“That’s the opposite of what I wanted.”
Just then, the marketing employee approached Oh Young-Sik looking troubled and handed him a tablet. On the screen were two messages.
Team Lead Kim Young-Hee: Show exactly this message to him right now.
Team Lead Kim Young-Hee: Stop running your mouth, unless you want to watch Do-Jin walk away from the project.
Oh Young-Sik cleared his throat when he felt the killing intent of someone usually calm and polite.
“Right... Do-Jin. There’s no need to feel any pressure at all. Can you tell us the general idea first?”
—I’ve got a quest I can’t afford to fail. So I’m planning to mobilize everything I can. Money, manpower, whatever I need.
“Is this meant to be a recorded video, or are you thinking about running a live stream too?”
—I’m fine with streaming it live.
“Then the budget isn’t going to be a problem. A recorded video alone would’ve been fine because we could treat it as a production cost. If it’s live, that’s even better...”
The meeting room door swung open as Team Lead Kim Young-Hee rushed in. “That won’t be a problem at all. We have a long line of advertisers waiting for a slot.”
She steadied her breathing and continued. “What’s the quest about?”
—I’m going to wipe out an organization that’s running a slave-trafficking ring.
“Oh...” Oh Young-Sik said with mild disappointment.
“I feel like it’s missing a little impact. Last time we had an enormous World Boss Raid with hundreds of people, so it was massive in terms of scale.”
—That was a World Boss. I can’t match that kind of size, but this isn’t some basic slave-trading criminal gang. If we go inside the hideout, I’m pretty sure human experimentation’s the bare minimum of what they’ve got going on.
“That’s pretty straightforward and solid. Nothing beats classic good-versus-evil content.”
They spent the next stretch of time ironing out the details. Since the quest would be broadcast in real time, production costs would be minimal. Even so, the total budget they approved for the project reached a massive one billion won. Do-Jin planned to convert every last won of that money into consumables: explosives, scrolls, potions, siege tools, anything he needed to smash through those scum.
What are they going to do if the difficulty spikes?
If the system was blocking NPC involvement, what else would break? If he gathered more than a hundred people, handed them bombs, scrolls, and potions, then pushed them forward, how the hell would the Cult handle that?
That evening, a new announcement dropped on Do-Jin’s channel.
[Recruitment Notice]
[We are seeking adventurers to participate in an operation to destroy a vicious criminal organization.]
There was nothing flashy in the announcement, just a simple, clean statement. But one sentence was all it took for people to lose their minds.
└ What the hell. What’s happening? Is this another hidden quest?
└ Wait, he’s actually recruiting people? He always solos everything and uploads the video. Is he finally letting others join?
└ MEMEMMEME LET ME IN.
└ Are there no level requirements or dates?
└ Click “see more.” Everything’s listed there.
└ Is he finally sharing a hidden quest?
└ It might not even be a hidden quest. Could be a personal channel event.
└ I don’t care. I cried for three days last time because I didn’t get picked. Please let me in this time.
└ Are you even high enough level?
└ Duh. I’m not trash like you, you clown.
Within minutes, the official Rael Entertainment email inbox ballooned like it was about to explode.