Chapter 252
The battle against the Death Knight Pain, a humanoid skeleton roughly 2.3 meters tall, was not easy.
"Ah, I got hit! Sorry!"
Dodging his attacks was difficult.
Even simply avoiding his swings and thrusts posed a high level of difficulty.
It wasn't just because he swung so swiftly for such a massive frame, or because his greatsword was so long.
Kwaang!
Even when the Death Knight merely swung his greatsword from left to right, an explosion of energy erupted up to five meters in front of Pain.
'The range is the problem.'
The boss wasn't difficult because he attacked with arcane, refined principles.
The difficulty stemmed from the fact that the basic ranges set by the developers were just on a different scale.
Kwaaang!
When the boss slammed his sword into the ground, the surrounding area exploded in a circle one second later with energy radiating from the blade.
If anyone had been nearby, they would have lost at least 70% of their health.
Seojun and Ppoppi Appa were melee fighters, so whenever an attack like the one just moments ago forced them to briefly retreat, it inevitably caused a DPS loss—a loss in damage output.
But that didn't mean ranged fighters had the advantage either.
"Now!"
Geomsin119 was a support, so he had a little more breathing room, and he shouted a callout every time a magic circle appeared.
Once every ten seconds.
They quickly checked the floor markers.
Since the markers were usually not near the boss, the ranged players had to pay close attention.
And then.
This time, Death Knight Pain raised his sword, gathered energy for two seconds, and unleashed a crescent-shaped sword blast.
The area of effect was wide. The targets were the distant ranged users.
In other words, the raid was fairly difficult for everyone.
"Ah, I got hit after all! My bad!"
Dangso eventually took a hit.
His health dropped below 40%, but that wasn't the problem.
- gg we're doomed
- Was that the 3rd time he's been hit?
- No but seriously the difficulty is fucking hell lol
- I'm at a loss for words
Seojun spoke.
"Should we retry?"
"Let's keep going for now. We've already taken down 10 bars of health."
Through the past two and a half hours of attempts, they had realized many things.
First.
Do not let the boss successfully land hits, aside from the floor markers, three times.
The reason was simple and critical.
A massive sword erupted from the floor.
The Black Heavenly King they fought in Phase 1 had it in his hand, so this was a new sword.
The form of the newly emerged sword was identical to the previous one.
Soon, it designated a target in the air and shot towards them.
It wasn't incredibly fast.
It was quite avoidable. The trajectory was straightforward, and it only came in a straight line after locking on in the air—if anything, it could be considered easy.
Swoosh!
If only they weren't fighting the boss right now.
Kwaaang!
He moved his massive body lightly, swinging his weapon, and the sword energy spread.
Seojun dodged with ease.
It was a pattern where, after one attack, the sword energy flew out in four directions.
But there were always some who couldn't.
"Oh no, I got hit again."
"That's two! And now!"
Geomsin119 gave two briefings at once.
The former was the number of hits remaining before another sword was added.
With every third hit landed, a sword was created. They hadn't verified it, but they had confirmed the existence of up to a fifth sword.
The latter was the callout for the floor marker.
Seojun quickly checked the marker's location through the observer, positioned himself, and used his Double Slash skill.
Following the skill, his blade moved left to right, right to left, slicing the skeleton's body and chipping away its health.
Soon after, the skeleton's next pattern of attack grazed right past Seojun's location.
The floor markers detonated in sequence.
Naturally, the spot where Seojun stood was safe.
- Wow, the guild master is really a total veteran
- He seemed like a veteran from the start lol
- That's a bit of a stretch
- But he has zero hits taken, right?
- Still zero hits taken is seriously seriously seriously a tale for the history books lol lol lol lol lol lol
- Lmao, anyone who hasn't only watched the guild master's stream would never believe it. Not one hit in this raid?
Just like that, the boss's health dropped and the mechanic began.
The 80-bar mechanic requires six people to stand respectively at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 o'clock, avoid the black crystal icicles that protrude from the ceiling and fall, and counter the attacks of the newly appearing duplicates at each spot.
If even one person fails the counter, it's a wipe.
And getting hit by a falling black crystal inflicts a 3-second stun.
The armored Death Knight in the center gathered energy, gripping his sword with both hands and raising it high.
They were inside the massive airship.
Sharp black crystals began to form on the ceiling and fall.
The raid members checked the color of the aura swirling around the boss, Pain.
"It's black!"
If it's black, the duplicates attack clockwise starting from 1 o'clock.
If it's red, it goes counterclockwise from 11 o'clock.
If even this much wasn't fixed and was randomized, they truly wouldn't be able to clear it.
Seojun, standing at 1 o'clock, lightly countered the attack of the Death Knight duplicate that appeared in front of him, on the outskirts of the map.
Single Slash.
Clang!
The black crystals now started reaching the floor.
The 1 and 11 o'clock positions could counter with almost no regard for the black crystals, and the reason Seojun took the easiest spot like this was for the sake of improving his teammates' skills.
- Let's go!
- This rockfall pattern is also agonizingly hard lol
- But honestly, since one sword has already appeared, I think this run is screwed too
- It's hopeless......
The chat was right.
At 3 o'clock, Taewoo dodged the rain of falling rocks and successfully countered.
But at 5 o'clock, Ppoppi Appa, trying to avoid the flying sword this time, got hit by a falling rock and failed the counter.
The result?
The Death Knight duplicate slammed its greatsword onto the map where they stood, and the terrain shook violently.
And then.
As a consequence of that tremor, the penalty for failing the pattern cast a shadow over their heads.
A gigantic black crystal fell, covering the entire map.
Kwaaang!
With a tremendous sound, the screen went dark.
It was a failure of the raid, repeated over the past two and a half hours.
"I don't know how many times I've said this, but it's really hard. Haha. It's okay."
Seojun shrugged. He had expected this, so he wasn't shaken.
His teammates were the same.
Taewoo chuckled and asked,
"It's hard, so how many times did you get hit?"
"Hmm…."
"You still haven't been hit even once, right? Wow, seriously. Yeah, I believe that someday, a week from now, you'll finish your job change and come back to clear this! Ugh, it's filthy hard. And there's a guy who doesn't even get hit once in all that difficulty."
"Exactly."
The team all snickered.
Despite repeated failures, they weren't greatly affected.
Why?
"So, is everyone else still on Phase 1?"
"Oh, a party that just cleared it is surfacing now, I hear."
"They're going to suffer terribly like we did. Whew."
Because the situation is like this.
No matter how much they could now preview the patterns thanks to them, becoming proficient in them was a different matter.
Solving the mechanic?
They, too, had only solved the first mechanic so far anyway.
"Haha."
The moment their strategy of prioritizing perfect mastery of patterns over mechanics became a perfect one.
- Not even researching the second mechanic yet turned out to be a massive gain, so guild master, feeling good, please laugh lol
- Can't resist when you've gained an advantage lol lol lol
- Wow! Latecomers are catching up! Be careful!
- For real lol
- The second party is no joke. They're pretty good. Cleared it almost perfectly in the final try without any stray hits
And then, that moment.
The moment Seojun heard the news.
- ????
- Wait
- That's a bit arrogant, isn't it?
- Hmm lol
- I'll make no comment
What were they watching together?
"Everyone, what's going on?"
"What's up, Seojun-nim?"
"Is something the matter?"
"I'm not sure yet either. Hold on."
Seojun waited for the chat.
There are no secrets from them anyway.
And soon, he learned the inside story.
- They said they'd destroy us straight up, no distortion lol lol lol
- Guild master, are you gonna get destroyed?
- Let's go!
- Guild master, wanna die? Declaration!
- People distorting things, get lost lol lol lol
- Anyway, a provocation came in, and a pretty strong one at that
Putting it all together, a streamer party had cleared it second and mentioned them.
'It's on purpose.'
Currently, Seojun's viewer count is 100,000.
It wasn't likely to stay at 100,000 until the raid clear, and this was definitely the peak, but it was still a major broadcaster level.
If they mention him to deliberately draw attention and then prove themselves with the first clear afterward?
'It would work out well.'
Seojun didn't know what kind of person the streamer 'Tper' was, but apart from some strong phrasing, it was easy enough to let slide, and it didn't make him angry.
Rather, he found it amusing.
Seojun himself had grown by attracting aggro like that too.
"Aha. It looks like someone mentioned our party just now."
Taewoo, who had read the chat and grasped the situation like Seojun, relayed it to the raid members.
"So it's, 'Let's really race this one'?"
"Sisik-corner-nim. Those people said they'd wipe the floor with us."
"Huhu. Huhuhuhu."
"Um, it's kind of scary when your father laughs like that."
Taewoo rubbed his arms up and down brazenly and looked at Seojun.
The other raid members did the same.
They were waiting to see how he would react.
Seojun just grinned and said,
"Alright, let's ignore that and just do what we have to do. It's not like we can have a guild war, right?"
It was a remark that fell short of their expectations.
"Okay!"
"Geomsin119, I'm trusting only the guild master!"
"Am I the only one who finds him scarier when he's like that?"
- Taewoo, we feel the same lol
- Why is he laughing
* * *
After the second Phase 1 clear party emerged at 10:30, countless clear parties appeared over the next hour and a half.
Phase 2 was still a distant dream for gamers of an average level, but it was safe to say that all those proud enough to participate in the race had made it past that point.
These parties all had one special thing in common.
Non-streamer parties did so through verification posts.
Streamer parties did so through video messages.
They were either giving a shoutout to Seojun's raid or provoking them.
They were the biggest competitor, having arrived a full two and a half hours early, after all.
And since there was no particular reaction to the provocation made by Tper who cleared it second, people were saying it for fun, and also from the heart.
By midnight, Seojun's party had even successfully performed the second mechanic, reaching the 40-bar mark.
[40 bars! Almost there! Crazy!]
==
The difficulty is historic, but these guys are amazing too.
==
- Info) The guild master still hasn't used Flowing Away. The moment he unseals it will probably be after they've fully grasped every last mechanic, right?
└ For real lol
└ That's the wise thing to do
[Status of Other Parties]
==
For now, everyone else is just dropping dead lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol
==
- Still, since the method to break the second mechanic has been revealed, it'll probably be easier to get to that point
- Once you get used to it, it gets caught quickly
└ But it's so hard you can't get used to it!
[The Tale of Geomseoun]
==
Still!
Not!
Still not a single hit!!
Not even one!!!!!
==
- Crazy bastard, crazy bastard, crazy bastard, crazy bastard
- The first clear is definitely these guys
└ I said you never know?
└ Honestly, some of the raid members seem a little less skilled compared to other places lol
└ Flowing Away still remains
└ And they're still at the front of the pack right now, so what
[Won't the first clear happen by dawn? I'm not sleeping lol Everyone's screwed]
[Tper <--That bastard's party also reached 40 bars!]
==
They barely made it with one person left, but they're slowly catching up! Run faster, Geomsin.
==
- Still, there's a big difference in overall proficiency for now
└ But they caught up anyway, didn't they?
- Geomsin might actually lose lol
- We will wipe the floor with you.
Everyone was rejoicing at the news of Seojun's raid reaching the third mechanic, enjoying the intensifying competition.
When everyone was anticipating when the first clear would happen.
Seojun spoke.
"Alright. We're going to sleep now."
- ????
- What, suddenly?
- Abandoning the first clear? Abandoning? Abandoning?
- It's not even enough to study through the night, and you're saying you'll sleep early???
Ignoring the chat, Seojun said what he had to say.
"So listen carefully. This is for every party challenging for the first clear. We're going to sleep and come back at 8, and if you haven't managed to clear it by then?"
Seojun delivered this message to all the first-clear parties.
"Then we will definitely take the first clear tomorrow. Bye."
The biggest competitor right now, them, saying they'd disappear for a whole 8 hours.
"Seojun, what's this? Our usual bedtime was 3 AM if it looked like the raid would become a long fight."
After turning off all the streams, Taewoo said this, and Seojun answered with a smile.
"If we sleep at 3, others will follow us and sleep too. But if we sleep now?"
"Ah! Wow. As expected, you really did take that provocation against you to heart, didn't you?"
Taewoo understood immediately.
It was just like the friend who knew Seojun's personality best.
Seojun had judged that they wouldn't be able to clear it even if they stayed up all night. That's why he said they'd go sleep.
But given the current progress, it wasn't yet at a level where others could be certain of that.
Taewoo muttered,
"If we had said at 3 that we were going to sleep, others around that time would probably have given up on clearing it by staying up all night and gone to bed too. But since we said we're sleeping at midnight now?"
And Ppoppi Appa picked up this train of thought.
"They'll see it as a golden opportunity. Huhu. But then, even when 3 or 4 AM rolls around and it looks like they can't clear it, they won't be able to give up easily because of the anxiety that we, arriving at 8, might snatch the first clear."
Especially the second-place party will feel it more intensely.
Being closest to the first clear, they won't be able to just go and rest easily.
So, in other words, Seojun had effectively told the other parties this:
Don't bother managing your condition.
Stay up all night.
Not that you'll be able to clear it anyway.
And if you end up going to sleep after all?
"What a devilish guy."