Episode 88
088:The Man Himself Appears
“So, your reason for interfering?”
Cheonma seemed somewhat displeased by Liu Wei’s attitude. When he asked, Liu Wei showed him a post on Repinet through the system interface.
“Who ordered this?”
Cheonma reacted even before reading the post. Liu Wei began to explain, sweating coldly.
“W-well… it was a direct order from the Central Party. I had no choice.”
“How tiresome. Is the Central Party now meddling in 《Lepion》 as well?”
“As 《Lepione》’s economic scale has grown… the Central Party has initiated special management measures.”
Cheonma frowned at Liu Wei’s words. But the moment he read the text post Liu Wei provided, his expression began to slowly relax.
“These movements… he’s not a man who relies solely on 《Lepione》’s skills. I thought Korea had nothing noteworthy besides Kang Moo-jin?”
The man checked everything, including the video Geumson attached. It was content clearly unfavorable to China’s Central Party or the Grim Forest guild. But to Cheonma, that didn’t matter.
He saw only golden hands combat. Only golden hands movements.
“His level?”
“Reported to be around 60.”
“Such movements at level 60… Now 《Lepyon》 is finally getting interesting. Good, very good!”
Cheonma was smiling broadly. Cheonma, who had shown little interest even in the top-ranked players from various countries, was now beginning to take notice of Geumson.
“Golden hands, Golden hands, Golden hands… I wonder how far he’ll have grown by that day.”
China’s absolute powerhouse, Tianma. The moment golden hand name was engraved in his mind.
The post that made Cheonma laugh and watch. The players in Korea did not simply laugh off Geumson’s post like Cheonma did.
[Title: Hello, this is Golden Hand. Since when did Chinese subcontractor guilds exist in Korea? feat. Arachne Guild]
Author: Geumson
Content:
Looks like the era has arrived where Korean guilds take money and terrorize the Korean server.
But the monsters gathered around Airtos do give good EXP. Seems like insane leveling is possible?
I guess Arachne Guild is doing us a service.
※ P.S.: Yuan, is that money sweet?
[Video Attached: SpiderHunting_Allowance_Successful.mp4]
golden hands video, which recorded everything from the discovery of the Arachne Guild to the battle. Comments began to trickle in under the post.
└ Impersonation again? Geunsun-ah, you’re here again!
└ Huh? This doesn’t seem like impersonation… the author’s name is… it’s Golden Hand!
└ It’s the real Golden Hand? Is this for real?
└ It’s real! The real one has appeared!
└ Wait… what’s this video?
└ If it’s Geumrim , isn’t that a Chinese guild? Why are they here?
└ Wow, this is… Reporter! This is a scoop! A scoop!
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Geumson’s personal appearance was enough to grab the attention of Repinet users. It wasn’t just because it was golden hands. The content of the post was serious, causing the comment section to explode.
[Daily Pion: Urgent Breaking News_LIVE]
“Hello, this is Daily Peon reporter Kim Hyun-sang. Amidst the active performance of Yeokcheon’s Kang Moo-jin, news that throws cold water on the situation has arrived. It’s due to a post by Craftsman golden hands. Analyst, how do you view this situation?”
On one side of the screen was a 《Lepione》 expert analyst, ‘Analyst Park Choong-sik’. He opened his mouth with a grave expression.
“This is not an issue to be seen as a simple dispute between players. This can clearly be viewed as an invasion of the Korean server by Chinese capital and forces.”
“Invasion? Isn’t ‘invasion’ too strong a term?”
“Not at all. If not for Mr. Geumson’s exposure, we wouldn’t have known what was happening in Airtos, one of the Korean server’s core cities.”
Analyst Park Choong-sik began speaking about the current situation as if he had been waiting. Especially about the problems if Airtos were to collapse.
“If Airtos collapses, not only will Korean mages be unable to learn advanced magic, but core quests and item supplies will all be cut off, plunging them into a veritable dark age. Paralyzing the growth of an entire class—if that’s not an invasion, what is?”
At Analyst Park Choong-sik’s impassioned speech, reporter Kim Hyun-sang also nodded. He, too, was a 《Lepione》 player before being a reporter. However, he took it a step further and raised questions about ‘Grim Forest’.
“Listening to this, it really is a serious issue. Then, what is the intention of China’s massive guild ‘ Geumrim’ in conducting such actions?”
“It’s preliminary work with server integration in mind. They aim to weaken our forces in advance by destroying the Korean server’s key strongholds. That way, they can easily deal with Korea when servers integrate.”
“Ah! Sorry to interrupt, but… breaking news! Yeokcheon Guild’s official stance has been released. Let’s take a look together!”
As the broadcast screen switched, Kang Moo-jin’s face, logged into 《Lepione》, appeared on screen. Unlike during the press conference, Kang Moo-jin wasn’t smiling. Moreover, Kang Moo-jin was already in full battle gear. As if right before subjugating the Nightmare King.
“…The Yeokcheon Guild will not stand idly by in the face of this cowardly invasion. We will immediately mobilize the guild’s full force to converge on Airtos.”
Yeokcheon’s swift response. Not only the Yeokcheon Guild, but players on Repinet were also taking the incident seriously. Furthermore, the keyword ‘traitor’ associated with Geumson had long vanished, replaced by ‘Arachne’.
[Title: Wizards MUST READ) If Airtos goes down, we’re all doomed. Let’s go defend it with our lives.]
[Title: Arachne = Chinese subcontractors. They’ve really crossed a line… Guild dissolution petition in progress.]
[Title: Arachne Guild, these traitor bastards. Anyone with info, please share.]
[Title: Kang Moo-jin is going personally? Crazy, should I go check it out too?]
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Posts blaming Arachne, posts welcoming the news of Kang Moo-jin’s deployment, posts worrying about Airtos’s crisis—various opinions flooded Repinet. But Korean players seemed to see an opportunity within the crisis.
[Title: First opening dungeons, now reporting an infinite hunting ground… golden hand, just what are you… simply shining shining shining!]
[Title: Expedition Recruitment) Monster wave? Nah, isn’t this an EXP event? Going on an open run! Recruiting party members (7/8).]
[Title: Lots of monsters? Means lots of item drops too, right?]
[Title: Recruiting those going to Airtos to do business! Crafter guild alliance welcome! (97/100)]
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Players who instead saw Airtos as a land of opportunity. They began heading toward Airtos. The dungeon rush created when Golden Hands opened the ‘City of Giants’. Followed by yet another rush toward Airtos. No, a player wave heading toward Airtos had begun.
“Things are going better than expected?”
Geumson felt satisfied seeing the heated reaction on Repinet’s. If it were the golden hand of the past, even posting such a video wouldn’t have caused such a huge stir.
It would have just been low-level trolling by a streamer. Or, more likely, he would have faced backlash as a fake broadcast. Especially since the opponents were ‘ Geumrim’, backed by massive Chinese capital, and ‘Arachne’, specializing in Korean underworld requests. They could have manipulated comments and formed opposing public opinion to socially bury golden hand.
But the weight of the name ‘golden hand’ now was on a different level from the past. That’s why he could mount an immediate counter to such suspicions.
‘I should finish Astrid’s business and join in too.’
While successfully drawing player attention, he couldn’t relax yet. Unlike the atmosphere on Repinet, how many would actually gather was unknown. Moreover, it was still too early to judge how many would be combat-capable. His mind grew restless.
“Master?”
Golden Hands hurriedly sought out Astrid. Astrid turned to look at him.
“So you’ve finally returned. Was sightseeing the world fun?”
Geumson tilted his head at her words. It was a strange thing to say. Not something Astrid, who had issued the ‘Twisted Causality’ quest, should say.
‘Sightseeing… asking if it was fun?’
Moreover, it was a phrase he had heard before. It was definitely what she said when Golden Hands first logged back into 《Lepyon》, when Tia flew off her shoulder on her own.
“Um, Master? I’ve completed the task you requested.”
“Hmm? A task I requested? Well… if it’s herbs, we have enough prepared.”
“Huh? No, you clearly said you were worried about Airtos…”
Something was off. Astrid’s reaction was as if she had forgotten the quest itself. Then, Astrid also closed her mouth and frowned. She too seemed to realize something was strange.
“Oh my… I’m sorry. Could you give me that brooch for a moment?”
The brooch on golden hand chest. The item Astrid had given as a prepaid reward when the quest began. He thought it was just a brooch to confirm his status as Astrid’s disciple, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
The moment he handed it to Astrid, a blue light began to shimmer from the brooch. She stared blankly at the blue light, as if reading the memories stored within it. After the blue light faded and she seemed to organize her thoughts for a moment, she let out a sigh and spoke.
“I see… So you found out the cause?”
