Chapter 46

Once this pattern begins, one of the two party members sees a screen like mine—somehow strange, yet normal at a glance—while the other sees the screen flipped left and right, as if reflected in a mirror. And while the party member is treated as a blank and cannot be seen on the normal screen, the mirror screen lets you see the party list in full. The party member visible in that state may be a “user,” or it may be the “boss.”

The reason the party list can only be seen on the mirror screen is apparently because the human eye shows a distorted image through light and the brain’s computational processes, whereas a mirror can be interpreted as “showing things as they truly are.” Naturally, that was a theory Jaesugang had come up with.

Therefore, whatever I saw on my screen was ultimately nothing but a distorted “fake,” so it had no meaning. The method of handling it changed slightly depending on “who was in a party with the boss” on Jaesugang’s screen, which would be reversed by the mirror that faced the truth—not by me.

I dealt with the fake Jaesugang charging at me out of nowhere as best I could, but since the damage hurt more than what he actually dealt, I wrapped myself tightly in survival skills and waited for the real Jaesugang’s chat.

Before long, a single line of chat appeared.

[General] Jaesugang : <|0

I could read it right away without even needing to tilt my head to the left. He had written “win” using symbols and numbers. This was a signal that, from the perspective of the mirror screen, Jaesugang and I were still in a party, so the version of him in the “real world” had to win.

No sooner had I checked Jaesugang’s chat than the screen darkened. After that, the moth silhouette I had seen during the first boss appeared again, torn all over and in a wretched state.

Just like during the first boss, the silhouette that had been nothing but black quickly regained its color and began to shine. Then white light gathered around it, prompting me to press any button in time with the timing.

However, I pressed nothing. Since Jaesugang had said “win,” I had to “lose.”

Because I did not match the timing, the moth shattered into pieces, and the beams of light that had been tracing paths along its fragments vanished, leaving faint marks behind. Not only that, but my character’s HP also instantly dropped to 1, and a status abnormality called Near-Death appeared. My character, barely supporting himself with one hand on the ground as he sat there, panted harshly. Seeing my character like that, the fake Jaesugang rushed in as if this were his chance.

In the center of the screen, a gap appeared like a crack, exactly following the torn marks of the moth. The gap showed no sign of disappearing, and soon, with the sound of glass shattering, it cracked even further and ultimately broke apart.

Then a hand suddenly shot out from between the cracks, grabbed my character by the collar, and yanked him in at once.

As my character was dragged away, the screen blacked out at high speed, then brightened again just as quickly, and Jaesugang’s face appeared through the blurry focus. I figured it was roughly a scene about rescuing a party member who had been trapped somewhere by a skill used by the boss.

I smacked my lips. So the mutual animation I hadn’t gotten during the first boss was happening here. This was the second time I’d been rescued by the collar, but every time it happened, I was the one getting excited.

After the animation of being pulled out through the crack, Jaesugang was back in the party list again. The boss merely looked down at us with the same expressionless face, not flying into a rage like other bosses would.

Now that we had handled the mirror pattern, all that remained was the pattern called sleeve-stuffing, which we had not solved, and whatever new gimmick would be waiting beyond that wall. It was mountain after mountain, but there were not many mountains left. The boss’s HP was now about to drop below 30%, so we only had to hold out a little longer.

Before the next gimmick appeared, the pattern behind its back shot out a strong light and transformed into a new symbol. Beneath a large circle like the sun hung a small crescent moon—the symbol of the Jeoba race and the daytime. It had changed to the day phase.

The basic attacks still came at the same speed and the same intervals. However, just as Jaesugang had experienced during the night phase, I, being of the Bia race, started gaining two stacks of the Scorch debuff at a time. I had to step on the ground tiles a little more carefully than during the night phase.

……And despite paying that much attention, there was one time when my quick slots changed, and my brain froze because I couldn’t remember which attack skill I was supposed to press. Because of that, I stepped on a spot where two sun tiles overlapped, and my Scorch debuff instantly climbed to 9 stacks. By the greatest fortune imaginable, after the moon tile appeared, the boss began casting and its basic attacks stopped, so the debuff settled at 8 stacks.

I took shallow breaths in relief, having almost burned to death at 10 stacks of Scorch but surviving by sheer luck. If the boss had tactlessly fired off more basic attacks there and I had died because I couldn’t manage my stacks, not only would we have failed to see the gimmick we needed to see, but Jaesugang might even have mocked me nastily in chat.

[Party] Jaesugang : inv

While I was feeling relieved after sticking a toe into the jaws of death all by myself and then fleeing in terror, Jaesugang told me in chat to check my inventory. When I opened my inventory as he said, an item with a bomb icon, which I had no idea when it had gotten there, was sitting proudly inside. This bomb was an impressive bastard that had been giving us hell for four attempts now.

The bomb item had an expiration timer. On top of that, it had the nasty trait of automatically exploding 15 seconds after entering the inventory and dropping its owner’s HP to 1 for 5 seconds. Because of that, if we failed to deal with the bomb within the time limit, we had no choice but to die to the next AoE attack. It seemed like the problem would be easily solved if we simply discarded the item, but unfortunately, this item could be neither dismantled nor destroyed.

We racked our brains, trying to break away from the patterns of ordinary game bosses and find a solution by thinking differently.

Hovering the mouse over the item and pressing skills,

using a play-dead motion and trying to drop the item,

dragging the weapon equipment icon over the item and trying to swing it around like a sword…….

We squeezed our meager imaginations dry, exchanging utter nonsense that made us say, “No way,” out loud, and even tested it all in person. Even so, we had yet to find a way to solve the gimmick.

I stopped dealing damage and stared intently at the bomb, whose expiration timer had dropped to 12 seconds. How were we supposed to solve this? We couldn’t even throw it on the ground. I pulled together every bit of focus and imagination I had and made my brain work as fast as possible.

The gimmicks of this final boss were clearly different from those of existing dungeon bosses. Unlike other bosses that used orthodox attacks that could feel monotonous, this one “messed with” or made use of the “system.” There was a high chance this gimmick was the same.

Handling it with the system…… A way to solve it through the game system. An item that only reduces its owner’s HP to 1…….

I stared at the shrinking number so hard my eyes felt like they would pop out, then snapped my eyes wide open toward Jaesugang.

A way to change the owner of an indestructible item through the game system. I rolled my eyes back to the bomb item and skimmed its description. The words “Untradeable” were nowhere to be found.

When there were 4 seconds left on the timer, I hurriedly ran to Jaesugang, spam-clicked his character with my mouse, and pressed the trade request hotkey. Then, miraculously, even though we were in combat, a trade window popped up.

With my heart pounding, I placed the bomb item into the trade window, and without even checking whether the other party accepted the trade, I frantically worked my keyboard. I typed an excited chat message saying I thought I’d found the method, letting Jaesugang know about this joy as well.

While he was asking again what I meant, the remaining 4 seconds passed. I opened my character information window and checked my HP. Even after the time had passed, my HP had not dropped to 1; rather, the familiar number, one hundred twenty thousand times greater than that, remained filled without change.

[Party] Kkulppang : trdae works!

[Party] Kkulppang : request a trade

[Party] Kkulppang : and one person

[Party] Kkulppang : just has to sacrifice themself!!!

[Party] Jaesugang : It can be traded?

Jaesugang must have given up since he was going to die anyway, because he just stood still and typed in chat. But there was something a little strange about him asking whether it could be traded.

[Party] Kkulppang : yeah just now

[Party] Kkulppang : I sent yuo a trade request

[Party] Jaesugang : ??

[Party] Jaesugang : I didn’t get any trade request?