Victory at Crocodile Farm 2 – And the Sad Beast
The defense team had been struggling to hold the line for days, while the siege team had been comfortably farming experience by sacrificing Marvel. This naturally led to the defense team venting their frustrations. When their representatives went to confront the siege side, they were met with a blunt retort: "What exactly were you doing advancing all the way to the castle entrance? We only turned back because it looked like you were about to launch your own siege!"
The defense representatives could only hang their heads in silence. They knew that claiming "We were so focused on leveling up that we forgot about the altar" would only earn them more abuse. The siege team was already aware of this, but they held back from pushing further—after all, things could escalate from WWE into UFC territory if they pressed too hard.
In the end, the defense side, which had been dragged along from the very start of the meeting, had no choice but to accept terms heavily favorable to the siege team. The agreed plan was as follows: "Since the monsters have grown too strong, a small infiltration team would achieve nothing. Therefore, the defense team will hold off the monsters as long as possible. When the monsters gathered in the open field begin to move, everyone will relocate to Babel Tower. With all forces mobilized, we will march on the Dark Castle. While the monsters break through the village and destroy the crystal before heading to Babel Tower, we will push forward as far as possible, destroy as many altars as we can, and then fall back to Babel Tower to defend."
The critical point was that if they failed to destroy enough altars after entering, securing another opportunity would be extremely difficult. They needed to smash nearly every altar to make the subsequent siege manageable.
After everyone agreed to work together to resolve the situation, the first thing they did was issue a stern internal warning: "So, if anyone pulls any troll stunts this time, it's an instant ban. Understood?"
With so many streamers gathered for such a critical server operation, any idiot who summoned a horde of monsters and caused chaos would jeopardize their own broadcasting future. Everyone was strictly monitoring their own viewers. Of course, there would always be some lunatic who ignored the rules, but this time they decided to share the IDs of such troublemakers and blacklist them collectively. It was a clear demonstration of their resolve that such behavior would not be tolerated.
Thus, the streamers continued doing their best to hold back the monsters until the day of the operation.
Time passed, and on the second day of the seventh week, the operation day finally arrived. The main operation was scheduled to begin at 7 PM. Those who had logged in early to defend were, by 6 PM, moving toward Babel Tower as planned, while some area-of-effect specialists gathered off to one side.
"Alright, everyone knows what to do, right? We need to deal as much damage as possible to the monsters gathered in the open field."
"Kekeke. I'll keep spamming magic until I'm on the verge of death. Heh."
These players were a suicide squad meant to thin out the monsters in the open field and increase the operation's success rate. They were literally there to rain magic until they died. Meanwhile, those remaining on the walls would, at 7 PM, all leap down, draw aggro from the monsters, and scatter them as much as possible. Since their spawn points had already been changed to Babel Tower upon death, they could charge mindlessly without any burden.
The streamers continued slaughtering the monsters swarming the walls while reminding themselves of their roles.
"Damn… How many days have we been staring at these guys' faces now…"
"Seriously… Switching shifts to just hunt monsters is getting boring."
"Kekeke. At least with so many people we can rotate in three shifts. If we couldn't… it'd be horrifying."
"Wouldn't Crocodile lower the difficulty for us?"
"You think he would?"
Having repeated the same task for days, they mechanically dispatched monsters in perfect coordination. They resembled veteran soldiers from a war movie—bantering with each other while relentlessly blowing off enemy heads with their guns.
After continuing this mechanical hunt, 7 PM finally arrived.
"Alright~ Let's go go go go~~!"
At one person's shout, the streamers executed a barehanded dive.
"Yeeeee-haw!"
"Let's goooo~!"
"This is so fun~~!!"
"Yahoooo~!"
Leaping from the high walls into the wave of monsters sent dopamine surging through them. As planned, they all jumped down together, drawing the monsters away and scattering them. Meanwhile, in the open field—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The area specialists unleashed every ultimate and wide-area skill they had, wiping out monsters. Through countless practice runs, they coordinated their attacks so the ranges overlapped perfectly. Monsters vanished as if erased under the perfect teamwork. The players continued erasing monsters until their mana was completely depleted, then one by one they collapsed.
"I'll head out first~ Haha."
"Hey~ You should've brought at least one mana potion, hyung~"
"Whoops. I'll definitely bring one next time, haha."
"Alright~ See you in a bit~"
After completing their assigned tasks, the streamers gathered one by one at Babel Tower. They waited briefly until everyone assembled, finished their preparations, and immediately set off for the Dark Castle the moment the last person arrived. There was no time to waste—they were racing against the clock.
…
After running hard, they arrived at the Dark Castle. They quickly formed pre-arranged parties with mixed job classes and attempted to enter all at once.
"Charge~!"
"I'll win this fight and confess to her!"
"Dude! That's a death flag!"
"Ahahaha. Then I'll definitely make it back alive!"
"If I die, take care of my kids~"
"Oh yeah~. Chicken squad, you heard that? If he dies, come to my room~"
"Hey, you bastard!!"
"Put some personal stakes into it~"
"Hahahaha~"
After entering together, they spread out along the corridors and began smashing every altar they spotted. They sacrificed their lives to destroy as many altars as possible. Even those who died first rushed back in to continue destroying them. Once they had destroyed every altar they could find, they all committed suicide the moment the global chat announced that the monsters were approaching Babel Tower. Since the area around the Dark Castle was also set to prevent return scrolls like a dungeon, suicide was the only way back.
Once they regrouped at Babel Tower, everyone combined their strength to repel the monsters. A short while later, a victory announcement came from Crocodile floating in the sky.
"Monster horde repelled successfully~!!"
"Waaaaah~"
"Wait, wait. We need to check how many monsters are still coming out of the castle first."
At his words, everyone looked up at Crocodile in the sky.
"Just a moment… Checking now."
Gulp.
Everyone stared tensely at Crocodile above. How long did that suffocating tension last? As if sensing the anxious hearts below, Crocodile soon spoke again.
"It's done! It's over! Only thirty monsters came out of the castle gates!!!"
"Waaaaaaaah~~~!!!"
"We did it~!! Woah~!!"
"What do I do… I think I'm gonna cry…"
"Waaah waaah waaah."
"Guys~ Ttamdami's already crying~"
"If you're gonna cry, do it in three parts! If you're gonna cry, do it in three parts!"
"I'm gonna go watch Ttamdami's stream in person~"
…
"You bad guys~ Waaah."
Thanks to the grueling defense battles over the past few days, most streamers had been waking up and going to sleep according to shift schedules, barely managing to stream at all. Today, they decided that only those who needed to stay would remain, while everyone else could clock out early and rest. Hearing this, two people quickly made a date plan.
After such a long time, Kim Jiwon headed to the meeting spot with an excited heart. Ahead of him, inside the café, he could see Han Soyu's elegant figure already seated and waiting. Just as he was about to break into a wide smile at the sight of her, he noticed a man approaching her. His expression hardened instantly, and he quickened his pace. When he reached the café and opened the door, he heard her voice.
"I'm waiting for my boyfriend, so I'm sorry."
"Come on. I'm a pretty decent guy myself. I really fell for you at first sight. How about just one meeting?"
"No. I'm not interested. Please move aside now."
"Is it really that hard to meet just once? I might be better than your boyfriend, you know?"
Han Soyu was growing increasingly irritated by the man who kept pestering her despite her repeated refusals. As she had once said, she had grown up without lacking anything, which gave her a haughty personality. The only time she showed shyness was in front of someone she liked.
"Whoever you are, it has nothing to do with me. Could you please leave now? You're bothering me."
"This bitch, talking with no manners—"
The man, enraged by her firm rejection, cursed and reached for her shoulder. At that moment—
Grab.
"What do you think you're doing to my girl?"
Kim Jiwon, who had approached unnoticed, seized the man's wrist and spoke. Han Soyu's face bloomed with a bright smile at his appearance.
"Oppa!"
Kim Jiwon smiled gently back at her. The man glanced between the two of them, then tried to yank his hand free with force…
"Ugh. This bastard. Why is he… so… strong…"
He shook his arm wildly trying to break free, but only his own arm flailed—Kim Jiwon's grip on his wrist remained immovable.
"If a woman says she doesn't like it, you should apologize and back off right away. Are you some kind of thug? Still trying to hit on her?"
The man's face flushed red at Kim Jiwon's words. Meanwhile, Han Soyu also turned red, her heart pounding at the words "my girl."
'My girl… Kyaaaa~'
The enraged man raised his other hand, cursing. Kim Jiwon tightened his grip.
Crack.
"Agh. Aaah. My hand, my hand~"
The man felt intense pain as his wrist was slowly crushed, as if caught in a machine.
"If I squeeze any harder, what do you think will happen to your wrist? If you're still not planning to get lost, should I grab your other hand too?"
The man's body gradually collapsed from the pain, but the arm held by Kim Jiwon stayed locked in place. Eventually, he was left dangling by one arm. Overwhelmed by the intensifying pain, he began to tear up and beg.
"S… Sorry. Ugh. I'm sorry. I'll leave right away. Please, just this once—"
His words faltered briefly from the pain, but he quickly spat out an apology. The moment he finished, Kim Jiwon released his wrist. Thud. The man collapsed to the floor. Kim Jiwon's cold gaze lingered on him.
'Hmm… Should I just let him go… or scare him a bit more…'
If this café weren't so close to Han Soyu's house, he wouldn't even be considering this.
'Letting him go feels a bit unsatisfying… Well, can't be helped. It'll be annoying if we run into him again here.'
Having made up his mind, Kim Jiwon called upon Memories of His Past Life.
'And… like this?'
Digging through his past-life memories, he slowly focused killing intent toward the man still slumped on the floor. It was one of the few techniques that still worked in this life. Normally it required infusing mana with murderous intent, but with his greatly enhanced mental strength, he could execute a weak version even without mana. Even that faint killing intent was more than enough to overwhelm ordinary modern people who had never experienced such a thing. The man's reaction made that clear.
"A… ugh… a… uuu…"
The man couldn't even speak properly, looking as if his soul had left his body.
"Oppa… What's wrong with this p… person?"
Han Soyu, concerned by the man's strange state, stood up from her seat and approached. Feeling uneasy, she gently linked her arm with Kim Jiwon's.
Poof~
In that instant, everything vanished from Kim Jiwon's mind, leaving only the sensation of her touch.
'S… Soft… No. No. I can't lose to this sensation(?). Get a grip, Kim Jiwon.'
He wanted nothing more than to quickly take her somewhere private and savor this feeling to the fullest. The man slumped on the floor? That didn't matter in the slightest. Not even a tiny bit!
"Um… Soyu? It's a bit awkward to stay here. Want to go somewhere else?"
"Huh? This person… I mean, what about him?"
At her words, Kim Jiwon glanced at the man with clear annoyance in his eyes.
"Looks like he has some kind of chronic condition? Anyway, let's just go. Too many eyes on us."
Han Soyu glanced around the café at his words and blushed upon realizing everyone inside was staring.
"U-Um. Let's go, oppa. Everyone's looking."
At her words, Kim Jiwon quickly grabbed the coffee she had been drinking and carefully moved while making sure she wouldn't pull her arm away. After returning the cup at the counter and leaving the café, a cool breeze—unusual for summer—brushed past them. Walking together for a while seemed romantic, so after exchanging glances, they began strolling side by side. Han Soyu seemed to enjoy walking arm-in-arm as well, chattering away about what had happened in the game while Kim Jiwon happily responded. She smiled lovingly at him, completely unaware of the fierce battle he was currently waging in his mind…
'Aaaah~ My arm feels like it's melting. This feels way too good.'
…
And naturally, a certain male physiological reaction followed. The sensation of touching her. Her scent. And her lively voice. All of it was a tremendous temptation to him. While physical contact with the person he loved was wonderful, it was also incredibly difficult to endure.
'No. Son? You're still supposed to be asleep. Hey now. Don't wake up(?).'
The poor, woman-immune virgin was once again locked in a grueling battle with himself today.
'Aaaah~ Until the East Sea dries and Mount Baekdu wears away~'
Ah… O pitiful beast… Thy name is Man.