Chapter 125
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 125
Chapter Title: Upper Raid
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There were no rewards as spectacular as a Class Stone to elicit cheers from the GGW team members, but they still pocketed a hefty sum from the distribution this expedition.
They secured two pieces of equipment with a Gear Score - 300—items destined for the auction house since they had no heroes left to equip them—and seventeen Revival Stones to boot. Even subtracting the ones used in the raid, it was a solid profit.
But the news that greeted Han Minguk and the GGW team upon their return to Hanoi was enough to sink their spirits.
"G-Garuda?!"
"You don't mean one of the Twelve Disasters is that giant bird, do you?"
Confusion spread across the faces of the team members gathered in Minguk's room.
It stemmed from the name of one of the Twelve Disasters—the most dangerous entities among the monsters of darkness—slipping from the lips of Giselle, who had been resting at the hotel.
Giselle shrugged and elaborated.
"To be precise, it's not the real Garuda, but something like its avatar or offspring? Those things have started appearing in upper dungeons. Some raid parties have taken them down, but others have failed. The difficulty... it's a bit odd. They were first spotted in A-3 difficulty, but lately, they've shown up in A-5 as well."
With that, Giselle activated a hologram using her Hero Pad. It looped footage of a massive bird-like monster spewing fire from its maw, locked in combat with heroes.
"So what does that mean? With a two-step gap in difficulty, raid parties operating in lower tiers might find them pretty tricky..."
"The patterns are nearly identical, but the monster's abilities scale accordingly. I heard it straight from heroes in raid parties that fought them firsthand."
Minguk nodded in relief. At least the new monsters wouldn't devastate parties in lower difficulties.
"Does that mean the real Garuda is actually going to appear?"
Shin Na-yeon looked up and asked.
"Wouldn't we have to evacuate Vietnam immediately if it did?"
"Thailand and China would be on high alert too. If Garuda targets their countries... how would they even stop it?"
The other heroes murmured uneasily. If one of the Twelve Disasters like Garuda broke out of its dungeon, Vietnam's spreading gates would be the least of their worries.
No, they'd have to brace for a dungeon break and abandon Vietnam altogether. The Twelve Disasters were that lethal.
"What should we do...?"
Minguk's expression grew grave. Back in his old world, he'd heard endless tales of the Twelve Disasters—monsters akin to final bosses that had to be defeated to return home.
'First things first, I need to reach out to Memorias or the Strong Women clan.'
Something was brewing, but since GGW had been tackling impassable upper dungeons, solid intel was scarce. He also needed to confer with Oh Hyun-jung, their clan leader back home.
'Wait a second.'
Then it hit him—there was another clan he could contact besides Memorias or Strong Women.
Canada's top clan, Maple Leaf. They might even be a better source for info, ranking higher than Memorias.
And Minguk had ties to high-ranking heroes there. Intimate ties, to be exact.
Decision made, he sprang into action. Luckily, Maple Leaf had just wrapped up their own expedition, much like GGW.
"The mood's tense, but it's not that dire. That bird thing resembling Garuda? It's unusual, sure, but hardly unbeatable."
A sweat-drenched Western beauty gasped for breath atop the massive bed before speaking. Her face glowed with satisfaction after rekindling old flames. Minguk asked her.
"Have you already figured out how to beat it?"
"Of course. What kind of clan do you think Maple Leaf is? Though it cost us a few packs of Revival Stones..."
Her tone held no regret.
No surprise there—for Maple Leaf's raid leader Dalia, that many Revival Stones were pocket change. Especially since they'd cracked the code on this new special variant.
With Vietnam's government and the World Hero Association on edge from the emergence, they were even pledging more Revival Stones and raid parties.
"Asking about them like this... even the hotshot GGW raid leader's pretty interested in Garuda's avatars, huh?"
"I heard the same entity shows up in both A-3 and A-5 dungeons. Doesn't that mean it could pop up in B-rank ones too? Better prepare early."
"B difficulty, huh... You might be right. No need to worry too much, though. We've confirmed the monster's power scales to the dungeon's difficulty."
Top-tier raid parties had suffered to verify that. Word of a Garuda-like foe meant dropping everything for an immediate raid.
"The attack patterns are tricky, but I'm sure you'll handle it."
"Here's hoping."
Minguk murmured softly.
If that was the extent of these new foes, no big deal—just another monster with fresh patterns. The real issue was Garuda itself, one of the Twelve Disasters.
If the beast that claimed over twenty million lives across Southeast Asia—including Vietnam—stirred, all bets were off.
'At the very least, the people living in Vietnam and Southeast Asia...'
They'd pay a horrific toll. That's why the World Hero Association was rushing in Revival Stones and extra raid parties.
Still, neither Minguk nor Dalia could predict what came next. They'd have to stay vigilant and adapt their plans.
'That said...'
Garuda's supposed dungeon, the Tower of Birds, was estimated at S-5 difficulty.
No raid had challenged it yet, so Minguk couldn't gauge what an S-5 truly entailed in this world.
Still, he could ballpark it from footage of S-9 raids cleared by heavyweights like White House or Tencent—humanity's last bastions.
Tough, sure, but nothing like the final raid boss from his mobile VR game GGW days, that Damn Thing.
Garuda seemed weaker than even the expansion pack's final named bosses.
'If only those guys were here...'
Julia, Suzuki Koharu—the GGW heroes he'd painstakingly raised—flashed through his mind. He shook his head. They were gone for good.
Besides, this world's GGW heroes would fill those roles.
Squeeze.
Lost in thought, something brushed Minguk's manhood. Dalia's slender, elegant finger.
"No matter how I look at it, this thing's worth studying. It ravaged me senseless just now, yet it's not even winded? And you've cum how many times already?"
Her voice brimmed with surprise, admiration, and eager anticipation. Fresh from their reunion, she had no intention of letting him go. Neither did he.
Minguk, astride her, thrust his length straight into her depths. Slick warmth engulfed him as it vanished inside her in an instant.
"Ohh...!"
Dalia shuddered at the overwhelming fullness. This cock outclassed every man she'd known, delivering pure ecstasy.
Thwack! Thud!
"Oooooh! Yes! Yes! Oh! My Gosh!!!"
Pinned by ferocious pistoning, Dalia wailed in bliss, desperately invoking her god.
Despite the ongoing Garuda kin spawns, raid parties across nations pressed on against the spreading gates.
The lack of changes at the Tower of Birds fueled this resolve.
No anomalies there, and the dungeon timer still showed over a decade left.
"All temporary dungeons at B-5 difficulty and below in the northeast have been cleared."
"Temporary dungeons spawning up to 27 km northwest of Hanoi will all be destroyed by today."
Priority was the low-difficulty temporary dungeons, with under a month until their deadlines.
Dungeon breaks at midnight would doom Vietnam.
With countless unresolved temps lingering, one break could trigger a chain reaction.
Thus, low-difficulty raid parties had no respite. GGW, under Minguk's lead, was no exception.
"Shouldn't we get hazard pay or something? Among Vietnam ops, we've probably cleared the most dungeons."
After shattering six in their fifth expedition and en route to another, Tanya's grumbling reached Minguk's ears.
"Want me to pitch it to the World Hero Association?"
Minguk chuckled. Russia's "Bear Tank" was feeling the grind of multiple daily raids.
If tank Tanya was this worn, the others were worse off.
"...You good?"
"N-No, not really. Feels like my body's not my own anymore."
"Hmm... We've got three more dungeons ahead. The other dealers are out of mana... Na-yeon sunbae, mind pulling extra weight? How about you wrap up the rest cleanly?"
"...Not funny."
Hyun-ah teased Na-yeon, the team's youngest by age. Still young, she and Kendall looked raid-weary and unfit for more.
'Gotta hand it to Korean gamers.'
They'd burn health and life on VR games for dozens, hundreds of hours nonstop. Online, boasts of repeating raids this intense dozens of times abounded.
A hundred such obsessives? Garuda would be a joke.
Plus, GGW heroes used items to shrug off fatigue for endless raids.
"But this isn't a game..."
Rest was needed.
With that thought, Minguk checked his quest log. Ppuu's final condition—"Destroy 50 temporary dungeons"—was nearly met. Four more, and a Legendary Class Stone was his.
'Gotta clear this quest ASAP.'
Ppuu's deadline: Before the twelfth disaster awakened.
He'd figured plenty of time... but doubts were creeping in.
'[Duration] - (Extremely Dangerous) Until the twelfth disaster awakens!'
The Garuda avatars were bad enough, but the phrasing screamed Garuda would awaken.