Chapter 76: How a Veteran Plays Defense (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 76: How a Veteran Plays Defense (1)
"Graaaah!"
"Keeek!"
With peeled skin and festering, blood-dripping flesh, a horde of zombies craving nothing but human flesh surged forward.
Their numbers were overwhelming.
And because they were incredibly fast, they reached the stadium's doorstep in the blink of an eye.
"Hyung. Can we really block them with this?"
Lee Tae-min looked anxiously at the plants sprouting at the stadium entrance.
The 'Solar Plants,' modeled after the shape of the sun, were quite large, but they didn't look suited for combat.
"Oppa. You didn't pick something weird on purpose just to 'enjoy the thrill' like you used to, did you?"
Yu Yeon-hwa chimed in.
Even as veterans, neither of them had ever used plants as their primary defense on the 4th floor.
It was completely uncharted territory.
"Don't worry. These guys are much more useful than they look."
Jinhyuk smiled with absolute confidence.
Right then—
"They're coming!"
Shring!
Cheon Yu-seong drew his sword.
At the same time,
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The zombies' assault began with an earth-shaking rumble.
The zombies tried to push past the vines and force their way into the stadium.
But the moment the first zombie stepped onto the ground—
[Solar Plant fires Lv1 'Light of the Sun'!]
The heavily swollen plant spat out a sphere two meters in diameter.
Boom!
A massive mass of mana packed with solar energy exploded right in the middle of the densely packed horde.
"Kieeeh!"
"Argh!"
Zombies engulfed in flames staggered and collapsed.
"Huh?"
"W-What kind of power is...!"
"This seems way stronger than a Flame Tower or an Ice Tower."
"..."
The eyes of the four onlookers shook with shock.
It was only natural, considering over fifty zombies had been vaporized in a single shot.
"See? I told you it didn't matter if we chose the stadium as our base."
Although it came with the tricky condition of having to defeat the 3rd-floor boss and arrive at the 4th floor first, once properly set up, these plant-type towers boasted the greatest power.
'Of course, no one else would be able to utilize them properly.'
To truly understand the characteristics of these plants and deploy them in the right places, one needed experience, not luck.
Countless hours of real combat experience, to be exact.
"It takes about a minute before we can use 'Light of the Sun' again."
"So you want us to hold off the zombies until then."
Cheon Yu-seong gripped his sword as if there was nothing more to say.
At least he was quick on the uptake.
"Don't overdo it and get bitten. It'll be a pain to clean up if you get infected and turn."
"Absurd. Do you really think I would fall to mere zombies?"
"Didn't you say something similar right before getting trashed by those Murim guys?"
He had boasted about wiping them all out.
Yet he barely lasted three minutes, clinging to life by a thread... Jinhyuk had watched the whole thing.
He sincerely regretted not recording it to host a monthly screening; it was a crying shame.
"T-That was because I was already exhausted from fighting the bastards below! Didn't you see how many I took on by myself?!"
"Oh, of course, of course. I hope you pace yourself veeeery well this time."
"Ugh."
Cheon Yu-seong swallowed a groan of frustration.
He knew that whatever he said now would just sound like a pathetic excuse.
With a sulky expression, he turned away.
"...I'll show you what I can really do this time."
He didn't forget to cling to his pride until the very end.
"Hyung, I'll take the center."
With the wide field of vision granted by his 'Machine Lord' ability, Lee Tae-min would be perfect for coordinating the overall situation from the center.
After all, his skill to deploy drones was nothing short of a cheat code.
"Alright. I'm counting on you."
"Hmm. Then should I head north?"
"I will take the southern entrance."
Yu Yeon-hwa and Teresa also moved to support the plants.
That left the east.
'It's been a while. Time to get some proper skill practice in.'
Jinhyuk drew the 'Twin Dragon Sword' he had received from Yu Cheon-yeong.
The blade, so pristine it made his eyes water, radiated a sharp, cold aura.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
His heart beat quietly.
A relic-grade item, being used in reality for the very first time.
Just how powerful was it?
It was time to find out.
'First, Grave of Swords...'
Jinhyuk manifested his black Aura.
Hummmmm!
The wild, unruly energy coated the blade with surprising smoothness.
'As expected...'
To think it could perfectly accommodate such a foreign and volatile power.
As if they had been one from the very beginning, the sword and the Aura fused into a single form.
"Graaaah!"
"Keeek!"
The zombies opened their maws, desperate to feast on human flesh.
Bloody saliva dripped from their jaws.
"You guys seem pretty hungry. I'll let you eat your fill."
Though it wasn't the flesh they craved, once they choked down a healthy serving of his Aura, they would never want to eat anything ever again.
And so,
over the stadium that had turned into a defiled land,
[Black Moon Night is activated!]
a black crescent moon cast its shadow.
* * *
[You have successfully defended against the first wave.]
[The second wave will begin in 3 hours.]
[Time Remaining: 2h 59m 59s]
Along with the brief status window, a message announcing victory appeared.
Players scattered across different bases gasped for breath.
"Pant... pant..."
"Damn it, did it have to start so suddenly? The very first wave was brutally hard."
"Tell me about it. At this rate, we'll be wiped out halfway through, let alone reaching the final wave."
"Just grit your teeth and hold on. We have to scrape by somehow if we want those extra rewards."
On the 4th floor, players didn't just have to survive the waves; achieving certain accomplishments unlocked additional rewards.
First was the Most Kills reward, given to the base that eliminated the most zombies.
Second was the Popularity Award, determined by votes from subscribers worldwide based on how creative and spectacular their defense was.
These were the two main categories.
It was a golden opportunity to obtain not only A-Rank Random Boxes but also rare items and materials that fetched high prices on the Coin Exchange!
To stay ahead of the pack, securing at least one of these was a must.
Right then,
[The highlight reel is now broadcasting.]
another message popped up.
It was a three-minute video compiling the highlights of each base's performance for the subscribers' popularity vote.
"As expected, the Chinese side is strong."
The one that stood out the most in the highlights was the supermarket base, held by the Triad, a Chinese guild.
Their setup consisted of Flame Towers as their main defense, supported by holy-attribute auxiliary towers.
With hundreds of players, including what looked like powerful rankers, they had cleared the first wave with relative ease.
Given the flashy presentation and spectacular skills backed by their inner force, they were bound to score high in the popularity vote.
A few seconds later, the screen changed.
It showed 'Sangam Stadium,' the largest and most difficult base to defend.
"They're defending that massive place with only five people?"
"I wondered what kind of idiots would choose that place, and they actually exist. Brainless fools."
"I guarantee they'll be wiped out in the next wave."
"Pfft, look at the defense towers they chose. Plants! And they don't even have auxiliary towers."
Jeers immediately erupted from the watching players.
It was only natural.
In defense games, it was common sense to choose Flame Towers for raw power, or Ice Towers for a mix of damage and crowd control.
No one in their right mind would look twice at plants, which were notoriously hard to grow and did little more than temporarily bind enemies.
However,
as the video continued, the mockery quickly turned into awe.
"W-What is that?"
"No way..."
Awe soon warped into sheer shock.
"Are you crazy? Did those plants eat some kind of super elixir? How are they that strong?"
"Unbelievable. I heard they're incredibly hard to cultivate. What on earth did they do?"
They were strong.
Absurdly strong, as if mocking the players who had chosen other towers.
But the most shocking part was the skill of the five players.
"They're holding it... with just five people."
Each person was defending an entire entrance on their own.
An impossible feat unless backed by monstrous individual strength.
And the one who stood out the most among them was the black-haired Asian man at the eastern entrance.
"To wield Aura so freely..."
"I'm just glad... he's a fellow player. Imagining him as an enemy gives me goosebumps. Shiver."
The sight of him utterly sweeping away the zombies was enough to send chills down everyone's spines.
An entirely different level of ability, paired with perfect pacing.
Even after facing such a massive horde alone, his breathing wasn't even slightly labored.
He was on a completely different level from ordinary humans.
"Who is he?"
"He looks like a ranker..."
"Probably from China or Japan. The large guilds over there have been making big waves lately."
As speculations flew back and forth, a man shouted.
"Ah! That player is Kang Jinhyuk. The Korean ranker, Kang Jinhyuk!"
"The one who got S-rank recently?"
"Come to think of it, they did say a massive rookie emerged in Korea."
"He definitely deserves that S-rank. With strength like that, how could he not?"
In an era where super rookies were popping up left and right, remembering a player from another country was no easy task.
Yet, at this very moment, a single name was carved deeply into the minds of every player on the 4th floor.
The player named Kang Jinhyuk from Korea.
And the sheer, overwhelming uniqueness he possessed.
* * *
At the same time,
Jinhyuk was explaining how to care for the plants to the rest of the group.
"This is 'repotting' and 'pruning.' I made this soil myself, so use it for repotting. As for pruning, just trim the 6th and 7th branches for now. The 14th branch... do that in about an hour. Once you do that, they'll grow well on their own."
To strengthen the base, the plants had to be nurtured.
By using this method, they could multiply the number of plants while maximizing their growth rate by cutting away the parts that needlessly drained nutrients.
"See? Simple, right?"
"S-Simple? You call this simple?"
Yu Yeon-hwa let out a dumbfounded sigh at Jinhyuk's nonchalant tone.
"Oppa, seriously, were you a botanist in a past life?"
"Hyung, what on earth did you do back when you played the [Tower of Trials]? At this rate, you could practically write a doctoral thesis on the Tower..."
"You're truly amazing, Jinhyuk. Wow."
"No wonder I struggled to beat you. Trying to compete against an out-of-this-world hardcore gamer was my mistake."
Huh?
There was something slightly off mixed in with those compliments.
That last comment.
It actually hurt his feelings quite a bit.
"Anyway, just do it like this. Keep a close eye on the plants until the next wave."
"Keep a close eye on them? What do you mean by that? Where are you going?"
Cheon Yu-seong narrowed his eyes.
His expression made it clear he couldn't comprehend why their core force would leave during a crucial defense battle.
"I'm just going to pay a quick visit to the neighboring base."
He had noticed in the highlight reel earlier that they were holding up pretty well.
If things kept going like this, they might end up competing for the Most Kills reward.
He couldn't let that happen.
It went without saying, but there was no need for rivals on the 4th floor.
This wasn't a cooperative game, after all.
And besides, those Murim bastards rubbed him the wrong way just by existing.
Most importantly, those who dared point their blades at him and his companions had to pay the price.
So they would never, ever dare cross him again.