Episode 24
In truth, even if our party did consist of six Commanders-in-Chief and Supreme Commanders, the fact that a single party had managed to successfully grief in front of the farming dungeon was purely thanks to luck.
Normally, every Thursday, the area in front of the farming dungeon was packed shoulder to shoulder, so packed you couldn’t even dream of griefing there. Unless it was a large-scale griefing squad made up of several raid groups, suppressing that many players was close to impossible.
The only reason we’d managed to occupy it now was because the main story had been updated and users had flocked over there, while some others were buried in the free board, struggling with hidden story bait. Above all, it was a weekday afternoon, a time when most people were still at work or school.
Other users who had belatedly formed griefing parties and arrived were roaming the area. As they did, they found Jeoba parties opportunistically trying to reclaim the base and crushed them with sheer numbers. Thanks to that, we were able to relax comfortably inside the base, as if we’d come on a picnic.
While waiting for CeylonTea, who had disappeared saying he would check the free board for a moment, Haksal, after hearing why we’d suddenly started griefing, burst out laughing and repeatedly used the laughter motion.
[Party] Haksal : LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
[Party] Haksal : The class of occupying a base just to meet Retake is insane lolololololololololol
[Party] Honeybread : I have to do at least this much for him to look at me, don’t I
[Party] AllNicknamesAreTaken : That’s true hehe
[Party] AllNicknamesAreTaken : Though it’s like setting off the fire alarm when you could just ring the doorbell...
[Party] IfToldToMakeJeonIMakeJeon : lol
Was it……?
But how was I supposed to know which house Retake was in and go ring the doorbell? Rather than wandering all over the place, wouldn’t it be faster to set off the fire alarm and search through the people who came running out to find Retake?
[Party] CeylonTea : Looking at the free board
[Party] CeylonTea : Retake was in the middle of a wild theory party and is now hurriedly forming a party lololol
[Party] CeylonTea : But what does hiddenst mean? Hidden story?
See? He’d been distracted by the story, but once rumors spread that the base had been hit, he was hurriedly forming a party and coming over. Though we had unintentionally ended up griefing in front of the farming dungeon on farming day, drawing the resentment of Jeoba users, it couldn’t be helped.
When Retake formed a party, perhaps because he was famous and streamed as well, people gathered faster than usual. By now, he had probably filled two raid groups, with each raid group holding up to twenty-four people. If you added the users who couldn’t get into the party and the users who couldn’t enter the farming dungeon because of the griefing party, at least seventy to eighty people were probably rushing over.
Compared to that, at most, we had our six-person Commander/Supreme Commander party, two raid groups made by other users, and a few users tagging along because they were bored. And since those raid groups weren’t even full and only had some members gathered, we had roughly fifty people.
Wasn’t this way too disadvantageous? I grumbled inwardly.
[Race] SailorMuk : Butterflies spotted near Base 14@@@@@@@@
[Race] SailorMuk : Up to 2 raids + 2 parties, Retake is there too@@@@@@@
Just then, a report came in through race chat that the Jeoba had appeared. But not a minimum of two raid groups, only a maximum of two? Their numbers were smaller than expected. Of course, the other side still had two raid groups and two parties, around sixty people in total, so they did outnumber us.
[Party] ConchShell : I think they have a bit more than us, will we be okay...
[Party] Honeybread : If we lose, we lose. I came here to kill Retake anyway lol
In any case, by this point, everyone should have gathered at the occupied base and prepared to defend, but except for our party and a few users who seemed to be resting for a bit, I couldn’t see anyone inside the base. Just as I was wondering whether I should tell them to gather through race chat, I heard the faint sound of fighting nearby.
All of us, as if by agreement, headed toward the direction of the sound. Then, a little distance away, I saw a group of Jeoba fighting after running into Cheonsa’s raid group.
We hurriedly ran over there. If everyone had been gathered at the base from the start, we could have fought the Jeoba much more smoothly even if they came. But the raid members, completely obsessed with farming Fame points, had each split off to find and kill Jeoba on their own, only to get caught alone and die or run away with a sliver of HP. We were already short on people……!
[Race] Honeybread : I heard the Jeoba came with raid groups
[Race] Honeybread : Why aren’t you coming to the base?
I was so frustrated that I snapped at them, and sheepish messages slowly crawled up through race chat. I neither had the desire nor the leeway to say anything more to them, so I irritably lifted my hand from the Enter key.
I had spent a week’s worth of Fame to buy the item that allowed me to use a territory skill. I didn’t mind losing because I made a mistake or because there was some unavoidable reason, such as a difference in fighting strength, and failed to kill Retake. But if we could have won and ended up losing because of a bunch of half-wits, I felt like it would be unbearably unfair.
I didn’t charge straight into the fighting, but kept enough distance to avoid attacks as I ran behind the Jeoba. It was to execute the sandwich strategy of pushing from both front and back. When the Jeoba saw us, they all grew wary and tried not to show us their backs, but because of the other griefing party holding out in front of them, it didn’t seem easy, and they became a little flustered.
That was when it happened.
[Combat] Peace status has been canceled due to Retake’s Harass effect.
Thanks to the system that temporarily displayed the user of a skill when hit by Harass, I saw Retake, who had somehow managed to spot me and use Harass even though he must have been busy healing. After using Harass on me, he went right back to busily healing his raid members.
[Party] Honeybread : Turn around like that
[Party] Honeybread : And back me up
Leaving those words behind, I used a charge skill and other skills in succession, closing the distance to Retake in an instant. When I suddenly cut in, the startled Jeoba made unnecessary movements and shifted to the opposite side.
By the book, instead of marking Retake here, I should have drawn aggro mainly from the threatening damage dealers with high attack power. However, I had once paid dearly for doing that in a party where Retake was present, so I didn’t look at anyone else and stood right in front of him.
[General] Honeybread : ^^)/
I would definitely kill him and send him the video.
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TIP - Commanders-in-Chief and Supreme Commanders can use territory skills to occupy an enemy base. If the base is not recaptured during the skill’s duration, the entire race will receive the effect “Fame points gained reduced by 40%,” so please take caution.
* * *
Once again, I felt it in my bones: calling Retake into a mass PvP battle was madness. A tank who never died while protecting his party members, and a healer who kept his party members alive until the very end, fighting as a party unit? That was hell.
At first, after hearing that the griefing had turned into mass PvP, Bia users who hadn’t been particularly interested in griefing excitedly ran over here. Thanks to that, I thought we would be able to kill Retake faster and more easily than expected. But the Jeoba also heard the news and came out into the field, so the scales of victory that had been tipping toward us returned to balance, and the endless battle continued.
We fought like that for thirty minutes. Thirty minutes. But even after thirty minutes passed, nothing changed. No one could kill me, and no one could kill Retake. If either one of us died, or at least if our party’s healer died, victory or defeat would be decided, but no such thing happened.
What if we had been using voice chat? What if I had been a dealer? Such thoughts suddenly occurred to me. It was enough to make me marvel at the fact that I, the tank, was the only person who knew the optimal timing to attack Retake.
‘Ah…… That’s a fake…….’
‘Ah…… We need to dodge that…….’
‘Ah…… Extraction’s cooldown is almost up, so we need to prepare…….’
Because I was busy moving and pressing skills, I couldn’t type in chat, so I had to swallow everything I wanted to tell my party members. Whenever I saw our party members’ HP and damage output suffer because they didn’t properly know how to deal with Retake, I had to quietly swallow my tears.
At least everyone was a ranker, so they were holding out well, and they even handled some attacks flexibly. But unlike me, who had personally learned by killing and being killed for a year, my party members didn’t know Retake’s tricks or habits, and they were struggling terribly.
Compared to that, Retake seemed to have roughly grasped our patterns not long after we started fighting in earnest. About ten minutes ago, Haksal had twice accomplished the great feat of slipping out of the party formation and cutting down priests, and when he once again used stealth to attempt an assassination, Retake, who had already figured out his movement path, found the stealthed Haksal like a ghost and used an area skill.
Because of that, Haksal’s stealth was broken, and after being beaten by the Jeoba raid members, he died heroically. The shock of this was so great that he couldn’t bring himself to get up for quite a while.
And that wasn’t the end. I didn’t know when he had figured out Jeon’s DPS cycle, but every time Jeon tried to use
Even while doing that, he didn’t forget to apply DoT skills from time to time to tanks like me and NickTaken, and he acted slyly, as if he were calculating the cooldown of each and every one of my skills.
[General] Retake : ^^)
He was nothing short of a monster.