Get This Guy Off Me!
"Get this guy off me!"
Zhang Wei was a Ranker too. Having climbed all the way to Ranker status as a tank, he naturally possessed two or three skills designed to push back and block opponents. Yet, Zhang Wei couldn't even bring himself to use them. It sounded absurd, but he was completely overwhelmed by Tae-hyun's sheer momentum. If I try to cast a skill, he'll tear me apart first! Ultimately, Zhang Wei could do nothing but turtle up behind his defense and scream for his teammates. In the meantime, Tae-hyun unleashed a terrifying skill combo directly into Zhang Wei's face.
Archisus's Curse ➔ Archisus's Charge ➔ Archysis's Third Attack ➔ Critical Explosion ➔ Blade Detonation
Watching his HP bar plummet at a terrifying speed, Zhang Wei felt dizzy. It was the same sense of helplessness one felt when facing a raid boss alone! Was this monster really a fellow player? Even though it was a four-on-one fight, he felt utterly hopeless.
A tank's total HP pool was no joke. Tae-hyun couldn't burst him down as quickly as he had the priest. Knowing this, the commentators screamed in excitement.
"Player Kim Tae-hyun! He's taken down the healer! He shut down the healer! Despite four players rushing to pin him down, he ignored them all and successfully secured the kill!"
"First blood! He records the first kill of the match!"
"Shouldn't he back off now?! Player Kim Tae-hyun... Ah...! He's charging at Zhang Wei! He's a tank, Kim Tae-hyun! His HP pool is several times larger!"
The fans were just as worried.
But contrary to everyone's expectations, Tae-hyun's mind remained ice-cold.
Four of them. Four.
Even with all kinds of skills flying from every direction and having to cast his own abilities in rapid succession, his mind remained perfectly calm. His concentration was nothing short of terrifying.
The debuff stacking is getting a bit dangerous, though.
He hadn't been able to read all the system messages while beating the healer to a pulp earlier, but he could guess what they were. They were likely skills designed to drastically reduce his evasion rate! The other professional teams weren't fools. Tae-hyun's absurd evasion rate had been infamous for a long time, so they must have prepared some way to counter it.
It seems they think I won't dare use bombs in this state...
"!"
But they were dead wrong! When Tae-hyun ruthlessly hurled a bomb, the Shanghai Pandas players gasped in horror. Is he planning to blow himself up?!
Boom! Boom! Crash!
[Evasion successful...]
[Evasion successful...]
[You have taken damage!]
[Due to Sadiq's Authority, you absorb the flames!]
[You have taken damage!]
[Due to your high Engineering skill, damage taken is reduced...]
It seemed they had underestimated him because his HP was below average. But Tae-hyun was a man whose mechanical control was so refined that he was confident fighting even with less than 5% HP. Would a man like that hesitate to use bombs just because his HP was slightly low? Besides, thanks to his Engineering skill, he took reduced damage from explosions, and he even possessed Sadiq's Authority. Say what you want about the God of Fire, but Sadiq's Authority was incredibly useful!
Huh? I'm evading way more than I expected.
Tae-hyun was puzzled. The bomb he was currently using was one he had recently crafted: the Shrapnel Firecracker. It was a highly practical, high-grade bomb whose recipe he had learned from the Underground Alliance Goblins. Its defining feature was that it was packed with various material fragments to act as shrapnel! Rather than a single explosion, damage was calculated individually for each fragment, making it the perfect tool for inflicting stuns. Even if an opponent had stun-resistance options, getting pelted continuously meant they were bound to get stunned once or twice. Of course, this meant Tae-hyun would also get hit by his own blast, so he had braced himself since his evasion rate was supposed to be heavily penalized by the debuffs... but he was evading almost everything!
Are their debuffs weaker than I thought?
It seemed the enemy had grossly miscalculated Tae-hyun's evasion capabilities. If they wanted to shut him down properly, they should have stacked far more debuffs!
"Ugh...!"
Zhang Wei, who had been taking a brutal beating, finally activated a skill to buy himself some time. The ground rumbled as a stone statue of a warrior holding a shield rose from the earth, allowing Zhang Wei to slip backward. Tae-hyun immediately swapped his weapon. The Ancient Hammer blazed to life, radiating a brilliant light.
Slam!
Are you insane?!
Zhang Wei screamed internally. If this match weren't being broadcast live, he would have shrieked aloud multiple times by now. Only now did he truly understand the feelings of his healer teammate who had died screaming earlier. Having Tae-hyun's aggression focused entirely on him was genuinely terrifying. He felt like the protagonist of a horror movie!
"Argh! Please, stop chasing me!"
"D-Did Player Zhang Wei just beg him to stop chasing him?"
"Hahaha! I guess his true feelings slipped out! But I completely understand! If you look at it from Zhang Wei's perspective, it must be absolutely terrifying! Player Kim Tae-hyun is incredibly relentless! It really looks like he's trying to take down the tank as well!"
"What on earth is he thinking? Surely he doesn't plan to wipe out the entire team by himself!"
"Exactly! Just watching this is giving me a heart attack! Player Kim Tae-hyun detonates another bomb and unleashes flames to buy time! Player Zhang Wei's HP is below 10%! He's really going to die at this rate!"
Tae-hyun took the attacks coming from behind if they were manageable, and evaded them if they were too dangerous. Watching him react so nimbly, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, the opposing players were utterly demoralized.
Was he always this strong? Was he really this powerful?
They had only heard rumors of Kim Tae-hyun's strength. Since they had never faced him directly, they had assumed he was simply a high-level player with good skills...
We were wrong...!
We actually underestimated him!!
Tae-hyun's strength was fundamentally different. It was something that could only be truly understood by clashing with him directly!
[Critical hit landed!]
[Detonating Critical Explosion stacks!]
[Zhang Wei has been defeated!]
[You receive an additional buff!]
[Current Kill Count: 2]
[Movement speed increased...]
[Attack power increased...]
[...]
Tae-hyun had actually managed to take down the tank!
"Three left."
Tae-hyun spun around instantly. His eyes locked with the three remaining players. Although he had fought while dodging and parrying as much as possible, his own HP was down by more than half, and he was weighed down by numerous debuffs. If they clashed with everything they had, the outcome would be highly unpredictable.
Yet, the remaining three were completely paralyzed by Tae-hyun's overwhelming presence.
"Fall back to base! We regroup and fight!"
"Even Kim Tae-hyun won't be able to chase us in that state!"
It was a strategy to retreat and wait for another team fight, especially since they didn't know when Tae-hyun's teammates would arrive. But it was the worst possible choice. From the very beginning, Tae-hyun's plan was to slaughter as many of them as he could until he absolutely couldn't fight anymore.
I need to pull more than my own weight. At least three... Let's take down three of them!
"Three!"
"Is that guy actually insane?!"
Li Chao screamed as he retreated behind the Iron Golom he had summoned earlier. Even though their opponent was visibly battered, he showed absolutely no intention of backing down.
Ancient Hammer.
The Iron Golom instantly crumbled into dust.
Circle of Counterattack.
An incoming spell was parried and redirected straight back at them.
Incarnation's Cry!
A mighty roar that cleansed all status ailments echoed across the battlefield, instantly restoring Tae-hyun to peak condition.
Critical Explosion!
A blinding light engulfed Li Chao. Tae-hyun drew his sword and began to ruthlessly strike at his opponent's weak points in a frenzied flurry.
"Ah! Player Kim Tae-hyun!!! He actually took down Zhang Wei!"
"I am utterly speechless! This is incredible! I had my doubts, but I never imagined he would actually pull it off!"
"With two players down, the Shanghai Pandas have no choice but to retreat! Engaging in a fight now would put them at an overwhelming disadvantage! They must fall back to their base to buy time!"
"Since Player Kim Tae-hyun is also heavily injured, he should recover... Wait... Uh... Player Kim Tae-hyun! He's charging again!"
Even the ecstatic commentators were left speechless with bewilderment. They never expected him to go after a third target. If it were any other player, they would have written him off as a madman... but the one charging right now was Kim Tae-hyun!
"C-Can he actually get the kill? If he does..."
"Surely he won't take down all five of them by himself..."
While the commentators fell silent, the chat and the crowd erupted in a chaotic frenzy of noise.
As the third player fell, the commentators snapped back to reality. What am I doing, just staring blankly like this?
"Players Xiao Mingchi and Black Panda are retreating! They are retreating!! It's completely different from before! They are running away with everything they've got!"
When there were three of them, they had retreated while keeping Tae-hyun in check, but now that they were down to two, all pretense of a tactical retreat vanished. It was a strategy of absolute survival—meaning, every man for himself!
Calling it a strategy was just a polite way of saying they were running for their lives.
"The Shanghai Pandas fans are booing! But they have no choice! How could just two of them possibly stop Player Kim Tae-hyun? At least one of them has to survive! Frankly, the Shanghai Pandas' strategy was far too naive from the start!"
"They should have thoroughly anticipated the possibility of Player Kim Tae-hyun running amok on his own and prepared more countermeasures! They were simply outmatched!"
If the Shanghai Pandas players had heard this, they would have grabbed the commentators by the collars and screamed, "Why don't you try it yourself, you bastards!" It wasn't like they didn't know; they had tried, and it just hadn't worked!
But since the commentators were safely out of reach, they continued to chatter away excitedly.
"But it's understandable! Who could have predicted this outcome? We also thought he might take down one, or at most two players. To think Player Kim Tae-hyun would completely dismantle them all on his own!"
"There were quite a few people claiming Team KL's roster was unstable. After this match, those critics will vanish completely! Even if their composition is unstable, what does it matter when they have Player Kim Tae-hyun leading the charge!"
"And before I can even finish my sentence, Player Kim Tae-hyun secures his fourth kill! This is insane! Absolutely insane!!"
"The outcome of the first match is already clear! While the remaining Team KL players secure the capture points, the Shanghai Pandas can do absolutely nothing!"
Meanwhile, up on the hill, Cain, who was clutching his shield with a tense expression, muttered, "...Shouldn't we go help him?"
"Kim Tae-hyun explicitly told us not to move. Just trust him and wait."
"But..."
"If you go, I'm telling him you're doing 'Cain things' again."
"H-Hey, I was just asking! Do you guys only do exactly what you're told? You spineless sheep!"
It was utterly absurd hearing this from Cain, who was by far the most obedient member of the team. When the entire team stared at him, Cain cleared his throat awkwardly. It was a remarkably peaceful scene, completely contrasting with the brutal massacre unfolding below!
"PENTAKILL!! He has successfully secured a pentakill! Player Kim Tae-hyun is absolutely running riot!"
"Player Kim Tae-hyun... Wait, huh? Where is he going? Why isn't he returning to his base? Instead, he's heading toward the enemy spawn... Don't tell me... Don't tell me...!"
"Player Tao Chen! You need to get inside the spawn zone! He doesn't realize it! He has no idea!"
When players died, they respawned at the spawn point. Inside it, they were immune to attacks but also unable to cast any skills. Because of this, Tao Chen, who had respawned first, had stepped outside the spawn zone to cast various buffs and prepare for the next engagement.
But Tae-hyun was currently sprinting straight toward him, bolstered by the massive buffs from his pentakill!
Seeing Tao Chen's blissfully ignorant, innocent expression, everyone watching the broadcast went wild.