Chapter 256
The final phase.
Time limit: 1 minute.
Clearing it within a minute with a beginner’s damage output was impossible, but the timer indicated it was the time remaining until the enrage.
So.
Endure.
If you can just stay alive and steadily stack up damage, it might be possible.
The map returned to normal, and at some point Pain approached Seojun and swung his arm. Simultaneously, the sword fragments that had been circling the border instantly fused back into a single blade. The attack speed was faster than before.
“Deflecting isn’t an option.”
Seojun’s eyes tracked the Death Knight’s sword. Was this the same pattern as before, or a variant? With superhuman focus stretched to the absolute limit, slowing time as he watched, Seojun moved at the last possible moment to dodge.
Boom!
Energy exploded around the sword that struck the ground. Seojun, who had sidestepped, was safe. The pattern was identical to before.
He dealt damage.
Double Slash.
As the sword swung left to right, right to left, and the boss’s health bar shrank a little, Seojun moved again to evade the next attack. A Single Slash followed. There wasn’t enough time to use Triple Slash as a skill.
“Hang in there!”
“Let’s finish this here!”
“Yeah, since you’re doing it alone anyway!”
The dead had plenty to say.
“Wow, but the damage is disgustingly low. Is this really a beginner?”
“Tae-woo, shut up.”
Another Double Slash.
[LivingOnMartSamples: So the Sword God was riding our bus all along?]
-???
-lolololololol
-Suddenly the passengers are beating up the bus driver lololololol
Bam!
Bam!
Whoosh!
Seojun dodged toward the 9 o’clock position. At that moment, clones were summoned at 12, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 o’clock. It was obvious—you had to counter them just like the first gimmick.
‘Hmm.’
“Is it over?”
-lololol He came alone, so he’s supposed to take it lolololol
-Why did it have to be three though?
-Those who broke the statues could’ve lived? And the remaining three would whittle down the last 10 bars
-Then doesn’t that make a full party first clear impossible?
-For now, but once it gets nerfed, it’ll be a different story lololol
-So what’s the party leader gonna do?
“Hehe, it’s punishment for abandoning us!”
“But that’s because both Tae-woo and 119 kept making mistakes, so the standard strat wasn’t working…”
“Sisikoneo, you’re noisy!”
Right.
They were both noisy.
Seojun couldn’t prevent the six clones from driving their swords down from the border. However, when he briefly checked in observer mode, the red circles only covered the map’s edges, and he survived by avoiding those zones. He barely survived.
Rumble, rumble.
While Pain attacked from behind, the map’s border was destroyed and its diameter shrank. Fitting for a sudden match.
Remaining health: 9 bars. A map shrinking to an unknown extent. Time until enrage: 40 seconds.
“This is fun.”
Seojun smiled brightly.
* * *
[So, if we deduce it]
==
Originally, the people who destroyed the statues would share that aura—the red protective shield—with the inside members who had already reduced it to about 15 bars. Then all six would survive the weakened wipe mechanic with the shield and then break the last 10 bars within a minute. But since the team’s proficiency at going back and forth was low, he just said “screw it, I’ll do it alone” lol. And he could’ve saved one more person, but didn’t, because they’d just get in the way in the future fights?
==
-Exactly!
-Since there was only one shot at this, that makes sense
-He always shows that in the final moments... you can only trust yourself lololololol
└If I had his face, I’d trust myself like crazy
└His face even comes up here lolololol
└Imagine if the team members were there, eating three hits, getting caught by clones or AoEs and taking damage. Maybe it’s better to be alone?
[Another party’s 10-bar pattern just arrived!]
==
They got hit by space junk and three of them died instantly! LOL
So that part’s actually hard?
==
-This means they were too impatient
-Can you truly never just stroll around with your hands behind your back like the party leader?!
[But the damage barely goes down, is this right?]
==
1. Beginner class is absolute trash lolololol
2. He should’ve had at least one teammate.
3. What happens when enrage hits?
==
-Number 2 is a retirement home take
└Why lololol
└They’d have died anyway lolololololol
Makgora.
A one-on-one fight that doesn’t end until one side dies. And makgora is often the romantic ideal of gamers.
[Insane, both are fighting so damn well]
==
Is Pain’s level real? Holding on against the Sword God for nearly a minute!
==
-Hang in there, Pain!
-Though Pain hasn’t landed a single hit! But holding out this long is something!
-You crazy bastards lolololol He just can’t kill him because the beginner’s damage is garbage, how is that Pain holding on lololololol
[How far does the map shrink?]
==
It’s already the third destruction.
If they fall over, they’ll be lip-locking at this rate.
==
[Enrage on!]
==
Makgora, locked in!
Tempo’s speeding up!
Follow along well!
Enemy Knight Pain!
==
-lololololololol
-Health remaining: 7 bars!
[Whoa, hold on, how fast has it gotten?]
==
But Pain, can’t you get any faster?
He still can’t catch you?
==
That very romance.
The map gradually shrank. The speed became insane. At this final stage of the raid, which could become the moment of the first clear, it was all unfolding right now.
[What’s the difficulty?!]
[Are you really gonna first-clear like this, insane lolololol]
[My money……]
* * *
The boss on screen continued to speed up.
The map, already down to half a soccer field, had shrunk further—to the point where one of them would inevitably fall off. The boss’s health was draining slowly to begin with, and now it was depleting even slower. 5 bars left. The situation was so cramped that each time the boss swung his sword, there was only a single point to dodge to. And the chain of attacks was fast.
He brought the sword down.
Then, as if spinning, he dragged it up from below and swung.
Seojun escaped the range of the spin. One more step back and he would have fallen to his death.
And the enraged boss truly gave no openings to attack.
Even after a perfect dodge.
The sword slash spread in three directions. If he dodged diagonally, the boss stabbed his sword there again.
The only attack windows came after several patterns, fleeting moments.
The attack that fit in there was, at best, the beginner’s Double Slash.
And yet, there was no room for laughter.
“One hit and he’s dead. Haa.”
More than the players, the developers themselves were in awe. They saw more because they knew more.
“If he had dodged that last pattern to the left, he would never have dodged the next one and died.”
“Did he dodge right on pure instinct? Or…”
“It must be within his realm of possibilities. He senses and avoids things we can’t even begin to guess at.”
“Raid Team Leader. Why the sudden spontaneous worship…”
They had designed the enrage under the principle that it must not be completely impossible to clear. So the boss’s speed had reached its limit. Even so, you had to keep dodging without a moment to breathe.
Every single moment, there was only one safe path. Yet a player was finding that path somehow, enduring and enduring, and chipping in damage little by little.
“How long has he survived in enrage mode?”
The Raid Team Leader asked.
“It’s already over 14 minutes!”
“Crazy…”
They had to acknowledge it.
Even in that tiny space, he precisely discovered the sole safe routes, seizing them and executing every play like a machine.
‘Right. Like a machine.’
TAS.
Short for Tool-Assisted Speedrun. It refers to using external programs to achieve a dream playthrough that clears a game in the most perfect and shortest time. The most perfect dodges, blocks, and runs at the most perfect moments—things humans can’t do—machines can execute without error.
But.
There was a play happening that was like a machine.
Unless he was a cyborg.
The words of a colleague who called him the Sword God came to mind.
‘That clearing during enrage must not be completely impossible?’
Honestly, they had only said that; they never thought anyone would actually clear it. They had pushed it to the limit, thinking as long as it was physically possible, that was enough.
Yes. To a level only a machine could clear.
[Whew. Almost there. 3 bars.]
* * *
The map had shrunk after the border vanished three times in a row. Fewer attack opportunities meant the health bar was depleting much more slowly.
“…….”
“…….”
Even the teammates had gone quiet, as focused as Seojun. Yet the chat window was the same as always.
-lolololol The crazy bus driver is inertia-drifting on the edge of a cliff lololololol
-How the hell is he surviving that?
-Just how! How is this bastard not getting hit even once!!!
-First Clear Party Leader: Sword God (0 hits taken) Kyah, holy shit lololololol 0 hits!!!!!
-Wow, is there anyone in Korea better than him?
-You RPG hillbillies, even pros got caught by the party leader and got destroyed lololololololol
Always consistent. Seojun burst out laughing as he glanced at the chat even while dodging.
-Y’all know? If this bastard wasn’t a beginner, we would’ve had the first clear at 12 o’clock yesterday.
-That’s correct
-Double Slash is so damn weak!!! Lololololol
-With a short cooldown, the per-hit damage is even lower, and it’s impossible to land damage every cooldown, so it’s super frustrating
-It’s not frustrating. I’m terrified he’ll die.
The end was in sight.
Surely there wouldn’t be some gimmick like health recovery here. Or a third hidden gate called a “showtime,” delivering the ultimate twist.
1 bar. Two-thirds. One-third. One last hit.
The moment the Death Knight raised his greatsword, flashing with a crimson glow.
Ordinarily, Seojun would have moved sideways to dodge the continuing attacks, but he stepped forward instead and said:
“The first clear is ours.”
A Single Slash landed.
11:10 PM.
-Kyah!!!!
-He really just crushed it with pure physical skill lololololol
-The other parties gotta admit it now if they saw the end lololololol
-When the hell is second place gonna clear this? Lololololol
At the moment the raid was cleared.
[Achievement Unlocked: First]
[You have obtained the title ‘First Four Heavenly Kings Slayer’.]
A notification message appeared.
* * *
[Hello, I’m Im Gangsan, director of Last Chronicle.]
[The hero of the first clear has just emerged.]
[Not only to the raid party who achieved the first clear, but to all the users who challenged it and watched, thank you so much.]
[For establishing an achievement that will never fade as long as our game lives on.]
[Congratulations.]