Chapter 7
Dohyun closed his eyes briefly.
As he took a slow, deep breath and focused, then opened his eyes, the world looked different from before.
Clearer vision and fading noise. Even the creature's form appeared more distinct.
The darkness covered in hair-like scales rippled, and even the trivial movement of its fingers trembling minutely was vivid.
“…….”
So quiet it was as if even the sound of breathing had stopped.
This was a phenomenon that occurred when Dohyun focused extremely. Feeling his head grow cold, Dohyun objectively checked his body's condition.
'My condition is good.'
Was it thanks to playing a game after a long time?
Perhaps his mind had emptied; it didn't seem like it was normally to this extent, but today his concentration was working even better.
Kruaaaa!!
Did it sense an unusual flow from such a Dohyun?
The creature began to roar more violently.
Since it was a creature with only instincts remaining, having lost its rationality to a degree that made it hard to believe it was a Named Boss, it reacted more sensitively.
Ha!
The first to move was Dohyun.
Whether it was a probing battle or whatever, as he quickly dashed out, the creature reacted immediately. Of course, only its reaction was fast; its speed was slow.
However……
Kuuoooung!
Being so enormous, the surface area of its arm was absurdly large.
It was just a simple motion of extending its arm, but that alone was threatening enough that he had to throw his body with full force.
[Basic skill 'Heavy Strike' is used.]
Clang!
As he threw his body almost rolling and slashed its arm, a sound like striking metal rang out.
That series of processes flowed like water, as if it were one movement.
Kruaa!
Then the creature roared and swung both arms alternately.
Against that savage attack, Dohyun rolled with all his might in the opposite direction to avoid it and swung his sword again.
Hearing the sound like a plastic sword hitting a steel ball, Dohyun retreated from the creature's range and checked its reduced HP.
-HP: [999,880 / ???]
'……120.'
The HP reduced by two attacks.
Moreover, one of those was using Heavy Strike.
'Heavy Strike does 80, normal attack does 40.'
Considering Heavy Strike's cooldown was 12 seconds, he would need to slash roughly 20,000 times to bring it down.
Even if he tried to chain attacks, his speed was slowed by the debuff, so two hits at most would be the limit.
In contrast, Dohyun would die from a single hit.
He hadn't been hit yet, but he was certain.
-HP: [200 / 200]
Because he didn't think his measly level 1 HP could withstand that monstrous attack.
He needed to dodge at least 10,000 attacks and deliver 20,000 attacks.
And in a state slowed by a debuff.
To do that, he had to roll and dodge with all his might every moment.
At the same time, he had to squeeze in attacks, and if he let his guard down even for a moment and failed to roll in time, it would be over right then.
'……It is the worst difficulty though.'
Did they really leave this as a Hidden Piece expecting someone to clear it?
They said Godoese was managed by an artificial intelligence, not humans, but he wondered if the AI couldn't consider human standards.
But facing such despairing difficulty, Dohyun smiled.
'Fun.'
There was one reason Dohyun never let go of Demlok despite suffering all sorts of sorrow from this luck-based trash game.
Insanely high difficulty.
The sense of achievement when clearing that difficulty as if to show off.
Because that was so fun.
Just what would that thing spit out when it dies?
It wouldn't spit out bricks like Demlok.
Even there, at least when clearing a Hidden Piece, they gave something.
Kruaaaa!
Glancing ahead, the creature was still roaring and swinging its arms in the air.
He could feel the killing intent of it wanting to tear him apart right this moment.
In a way, it was just swinging wildly like a child throwing a tantrum, but with a body that size, that alone was the best offense and defense.
Because each of those seemingly random attacks was a hell where a graze meant death.
“Dodge 10,000 times, strike 20,000 times…… What the hell, let's give it a try.”
Having steeled his resolve, Dohyun leaped toward the creature again.
* * *
Numerous posts are uploaded to the official Godoese website.
From various information to events, and further to the updates of veteran users including the Top 10 Guilds and other trivial talks.
As with other game communities, the official Godoese website wasn't much different.
The only difference was its massive scale and the fact that even after 1 year and 6 months, newbies kept coming without end.
[God-fool started Godoese for the first time today and it's seriously insane. Is it true that the tutorial production is no joke?]
Therefore, it was common for tutorial-related posts to be uploaded on the website.
Because the tutorial was what newbies encountered first.
And such posts always had many comments.
-Seriously fun. I can see why they call it Godoese Godoese.
-The production at the end where the goddess appears right before death and seals the monster again is seriously wow……
-It's really so funㅠㅠ At first, the feeling of killing monsters was a bit unsettling, but it really feels like being on a battlefield so I got overly immersed too.
-Doesn't Charlie have charm too? He's too prickly and obnoxious, but he still takes care of you secretly. Seems like a tsundere lol
-Take care my ass, whenever you do anything he clicks his tongue and wants to beat you up.
-That's because you play like shit. He's a complete meritocrat, so if you fight well at least he doesn't click his tongue.
-He's going to die at the end anyway, so be nice to him, kids.
-It's so heartwarming to see the growing sprouts…… Those pure kids will soon be crying luck-based trash game too……
Newbies in similar positions could relate, and users who had played for a while found the newbies excited about the tutorial cute.
For various reasons, the tutorial that was a hot topic had a few common themes.
[Anyone tried raising Charlie's affinity?]
[Did that guy even have affinity?]
[They say if you fill affinity to max, they give you some reward.]
[Is it even possible to fill it?]
One of them was the Knight Commander, Charlie.
Unlike other games where NPCs act according to set patterns, the artificial intelligence of Godoese wasn't much different from humans.
Because of that, the way they treated newbies varied depending on affinity, and people started taking interest in this thing called affinity.
However, what was initially interest gradually became distorted into something more.
[This is Red Fingers Guild. Anyone whose affinity rose more than twice during the tutorial, please contact us. We promise sufficient treatment.]
[Recruiting those with affinity raised 3 times or more. We will welcome you with the best conditions.]
[Simple test and tutorial video will be referenced.]
How much Charlie praised you in the tutorial.
How much you raised that picky man's affinity.
That became proof of proving one's skill, and numerous mid-sized and large guilds wanting skilled players used that as reference to treat users well.
It had essentially become a kind of career.
Because of that, even among general users, raising Charlie's affinity became something worth bragging about to friends, and not only newbies but also veterans came to take such interest in the tutorial.
-Who were the ones who maxed out affinity again?
-Don't you know? Probably all the Top 10 Guild Masters filled it?
-The Master of the Armory probably couldn't fill it.
-He is a bit suspicious. He's the type to push through with money.
-These days there's no one who's maxed out affinity.
-It can't be helped since the skilled ones all started long ago.
However, compared to the early-to-mid period when skilled players emerged in droves, at this point 1 year and 6 months later, no one who had maxed out affinity had appeared.
Well, that was only natural.
Those who were quite good at games had started Godoese long ago, and even among them, those who maxed out affinity could be counted on one hand.
At most about 10,000 out of 1 billion users.
Now, those who had secured their positions all said the same thing.
“Can you catch the tutorial boss? Are you crazy?”
“You absolutely can't catch it. That wasn't made to be caught.”
“Don't even mention that Iron-Blooded Demon Dragon Lord or whatever the fuck kind of Lord. It gives me goosebumps.”
For some reason, they hated the tutorial boss even more fiercely than regular users.
When asked for detailed reasons, they didn't answer, so users could only speculate that it was related to having maxed out affinity.
“……The Iron-Blooded Demon Dragon Lord? That doesn't seem to be a very good memory.”
Even the famous Myeolsal was included among them.
It was an ambiguous answer, but seeing him, who was always confident, falter was a huge shock, and users eventually had no choice but to accept it.
[The tutorial boss is not a monster made to be caught.]
[It's merely a show-off event to let users know that such monsters exist.]
The tutorial boss, the Iron-Blooded Demon Dragon Lord.
That it was not a boss monster made to be caught.
[Can't you catch the tutorial boss? Damage did seem to go through though.]
-Yeah, can't catch it. Even Myeolsal couldn't catch it.
-That seems to be just made so damage goes through for realism.
-Wow, still, you thought of hitting that? I just spaced out and died.
This was why, even when ignorant newbies occasionally saw that damage went through and asked such questions, veterans consistently gave the answer of 'impossible.'
[Huh? What's this? This guy's name changed?]
-??
-What are you talking about?
-No, it should be the Iron-Blooded Demon Dragon Lord, but it's changed to Slothful Demon Dragon Lord or something.
-?? Heol? What, it's real?
-Can names even change?
However, today, for the first time, a crack appeared in that consensus that had solidified as common sense since release.
-Why did the name change arbitrarily?
-Isn't it a bug?
-What bug in Godoese, it's managed by an AI tens of times better than AlphaGo.
-Then what? Did someone actually catch it?
-Heol…… Really?
It was understandable since for the first time, a change occurred in the tutorial boss that hadn't changed even once since release.
Accordingly, some put forward the opinion that the boss had finally been caught after 1 year and 6 months.
However, that opinion was quickly buried.
-No way…… No matter what, that's not it.
-How would a level 1 catch that.
-Someone caught what even Myeolsal couldn't? Who?
-If they caught it, they would have uploaded a video long ago.
-There's no evidence that it was caught in the first place, right?
-If it was really caught and the name changed, that means it's a Named Boss…… Doesn't it look too much the same as usual except for the name?
Because no matter how they thought about it, it was an unreasonable thing.
In a situation where even if direct evidence was shown they'd call it fabricated, speculation without any evidence couldn't help but lack credibility.
“The tutorial boss's name changed?”
“……An error, huh.”
“They do update regularly…… And since they updated today, it might be because of that.”
“Caught that thing…… That doesn't make sense. Well, if they brought Kaiser's party from those days, it might be possible.”
“Then can Kaiser do it? Didn't you hear me? You need to bring his party. Whether it's Kaiser or whatever, 'that thing' absolutely cannot be caught alone.”
Even high-rankers who had maxed out Charlie's affinity spoke like that, so people no longer raised objections.
Myeolsal was the only one who remained silent, but since he didn't particularly deny it either and numerous rankers were saying so, general users had no choice but to accept it as such.
Of course, that was that, but honestly they were curious.
-But if someone actually caught it, what reward would they get?
-This game has fucking ridiculous difficulty sometimes…… But whenever that happens, they give generous rewards, right?
-True, even when thinking it's a luck-based trash game that's shit, at times like that you end up calling it a god game.
If someone were to really catch that bizarre boss that everyone said couldn't be caught……
Then just what would they obtain?
-Well. I'm not sure, but wouldn't they get the greatest reward in Godoese history?
It was, after all, a story closer to delusion, and users quickly dismissed it as a joke and moved on.
Because of that, they couldn't even imagine.
That what they had dismissed as absurd was actually happening.