326. Raid Start
326. Raid Start
***
One minute before four o'clock. When I arrived just barely on time, the first thing that came into view was what looked like dozens of users.
A low murmur filled the air.
The crowd had formed a ring around two people, and their gazes quickly turned to me as I descended to one side.
—It's Rin!
—Whoa, what the hell?
—It's really Rin, that's insane...!
—Rin actually looks even better in person?
I kept hearing all sorts of voices. As Arianat touched down and folded her wings, I dismissed the summon and walked toward the two of them surrounded by the crowd.
The murmur grew louder.
The closer I got, the louder the voices from the gathered users became, and I wondered how so many people had ended up here.
'We definitely never told anyone the channel.'
Was it because Sua and Yujeong both drew that much attention? Or had users heard rumors through word of mouth and flocked here across all those channels? I couldn't tell.
"Serin. You really... arrived right on time, didn't you?"
Sua said with a playful laugh, and I found myself glancing around.
"Was I late?"
I wondered if the two of them had been stuck dealing with this crowd because of me.
"No. We just got here a little early, so I guess word spread among the users."
I felt relieved when Yujeong smiled brightly and said it wasn't the case. Actually, before arriving at the meeting spot, I'd mentioned on stream that we were going to the Gorge of Estrangement, and that had been nagging at me.
"Should we head in? If more people gather here, it's just going to cause a scene."
Sua glanced at the surrounding crowd and spoke awkwardly, and I nodded.
We'd only met in private spaces or the Arena before, so I hadn't really felt it, but we could obviously run into other users like this. When I glanced around, the crowd of at least several dozen people surrounding us with their eyes fixed on us was pretty overwhelming.
Ding!
[Party invitation from user Plea!]
As we quickly formed the party, I found myself glancing at the entrance.
The Gorge of Estrangement.
The gorge walls soared skyward as if touching the heavens, imposing in their sheer scale, and from the middle up they were shrouded in clouds, making their height impossible to guess.
On top of that, a hazy fog blanketed the gorge entrance, completely obscuring what lay inside.
As Sua, who held the raid entry authority, stepped forward to enter, the crowd around us parted slowly, like the parting of the Red Sea.
It was so surreal it made me laugh.
—Plea, I'm your fan!
—Bloody Night! Bloody Night! Bloody Night!
—Rin! I started playing Dancer because of you!
—Eeeek! Rin!
All sorts of voices kept coming, and I wondered if this was what it felt like to meet your viewers in person.
Still, I was glad everyone kept their distance. There were plenty of people shouting that they were fans, and my eyes kept drifting toward them.
'That seems really embarrassing.'
Just before entering the raid, Sua suddenly stopped. When Yujeong and I looked at her, Sua burst out laughing and waved her hand broadly.
"Everyone, from here on you'll have to watch us on stream~!"
She shouted toward the surrounding crowd like it was fan service, and I smiled for a moment.
Ding!
[Raid: Entry request for the Subjugation of Zervallua, Beast of Destruction]
[Y / N]
The raid entry prompt appeared.
......
Content you could call the crown jewel of RPGs.
—Raids.
But in Another World, "raids" were the most polarizing content of all.
Sure, there were many types of raids depending on a user's build, and the categories were generally divided in fine detail so that all users could participate. But as always, "cooperative" content with other people was bound to have its lovers and haters.
Some people performed their roles properly in raids, but others often failed to do their part across various patterns due to differences in proficiency, not knowing the raid mechanics, or simply control mistakes.
And in Another World, a virtual reality game, the barrier to entry was far higher.
It was commonly called "Cyber Boot Camp" for how merciless the difficulty generally was, but more precisely, the system itself had a lot of problems. Each raid was divided into 3 to 5 phases of lengthy patterns. If a user died even once, that was it.
After that, all you could do was watch the other party members play.
The average raid clear time was between 4 and 5 hours. And that was based on experienced parties. That clear time applied when users skilled in raid gimmicks and patterns formed a party. Everyone else mostly disbanded the raid party without clearing it.
Whether a party member died in Phase 1 or Phase 4, you ultimately had to retry and start over from Phase 1.
Given the nature of virtual reality, where a user's skill couldn't be measured by "objective stats" alone, raids were content that only certain people played, content said to exist only for the truly gifted.
And now.
The Zervallua, Beast of Destruction raid was one of the highest-difficulty raids among them all, drawing intense interest from top-tier users.
Word had spread frequently among users that "Mythic-Grade Items," whose acquisition routes were still unclear, had been obtained through this raid, so expectations of striking it rich were high.
......
*
————
【You have entered the Subjugation of Zervallua, Beast of Destruction】
————
*
As if signaling the start, a massive message filled my vision, and numerous warning lines appeared.
—No experience penalty will be applied even if you die during the raid.
—This raid can only be cleared once per month.
—Confirming entry count. Difficulty will be "slightly" adjusted.
...
Then the warnings faded, and thick fog settled heavily across the entire space.
Serin turned her head with curious eyes. Just as Sua had said, if they hadn't been holding each other's hands, it wouldn't have been strange for them to lose each other at any moment—the space was that hazy.
"A real 3-person raid. Doesn't it make your heart race?"
Sua's voice was bright with excitement, since this was like the start of the project, and Yujeong nodded with an equally bright expression.
"Me too. I'm really looking forward to it."
Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Serin, and Serin slowly parted her lips.
"I... think it'll be fun, too."
It felt like she was talking with NewTube in mind, which was a little embarrassing, but she wondered if this was what streaming was.
Looking at the chat scrolling up actively, the viewers' expectations seemed enormous.
[Rin, fighting!]
[Whoa, they're attempting this with just 3 people?]
[If they succeed, that's another achievement, damn]
[Still, with this lineup, it might actually be possible?]
[Lmao even with 3 people it says difficulty slightly adjusted, that's terrifying]
[Rin, I'm rooting for you!]
[Rin, Plea, and Bloody Night is basically a top-ranker 3-person party]
[Even if I don't know much, shouldn't they get through Phase 3 without trouble?]
That was when I was looking at the chat.
"Yujeong! No matter what happens, you absolutely can't let go of our hands, okay?"
Sua spoke as if confirming, and Yujeong nodded with a serious expression.
Wearing her signature black suit that hugged the curves of her body, she was currently between me and Sua—in the center—with both hands gripping my waist and Sua's.
Her combat power was restricted, but given the nature of Phase 1, there was no helping it.
[Phase 1: Hall of Illusions]
True to its name, the Hall of Illusions was a phase where illusions with the exact same specs as your party members—no, the exact same specs as yourself—appeared as enemies.
And the illusions appeared a total of 3 times.
1, 2, 3.
They appeared in increasing numbers, so the raid was also a fight against yourself, and trust with your party members was the most important thing.
The standard strategy was for raid members to form pairs and distinguish friend from foe, but since we were a 3-person party, we chose to stick together as one group.
The illusions supposedly copied a user's words and actions perfectly, but if we stayed together from the start, we'd be able to tell them apart.
...
The three of them were walking in a horizontal line.
The order from the left was Serin, Yujeong, Sua.
How many minutes had they walked slowly?
Shhh. Shhhh.
The already thick fog grew even denser, beginning to completely block their vision. The fog wrapped around them so heavily it felt like walking through clouds. Serin slowly tightened her grip on her sword.
'They even made this feel real.'
The fog felt so realistic, cutting off their vision and severely limiting their senses.
With their range of movement extremely restricted by the environment that kept them from separating, she had chosen the sword for instantaneous response.
"Serin?"
And then. Suddenly, two voices rang out from both sides, resonating.
"Sua?"
I murmured cautiously and turned my gaze to the right through the thick fog, where I could faintly make out Yujeong's face.
"I'm on your right."
Yujeong answered calmly with the truth. I kept my sword raised and turned my gaze back to the left.
The fog there slowly lifted. And there stood another Sua.
"...Serin. That Yujeong, she's fake."
Then Sua's voice, wearing a thoroughly dumbfounded expression, resonated in my ears once again.