The Corrupted World Tree
The roar that shook heaven and earth could not be expressed in human language.
It was an ominous howl that defied description, a sound that rattled the very bones of everyone present.
The raid team, who had been resting, sprang to their feet without a word and burst out of their tents.
“……Magic power?!”
“What the hell?!”
“L-look over there!”
One hunter pointed at the sky with a trembling finger. Their timing differed, but their reactions were eerily identical.
Shock. And terror.
The sky…….
No. The entire world was collapsing.
The once clear blue sky was melting away. Clouds and atmosphere twisted together, and the birds floating in the air turned into distorted dots, painted over by some unseen force.
The boundaries of concepts were vanishing. The world itself began to flow and clump like paint that hadn’t dried.
Bizarre. Grotesque.
A world of pure chaos.
It didn’t matter whether someone was a civilian or a hunter. Any living being would feel their instincts screaming the same thing: Get out of here right now.
But.
“Gear up first!”
“Abandon the tents!”
“Checking consumables! Potions!”
“Throwing weapons!”
“Scrolls!”
The Mir raid team moved with frantic precision, hands, feet, and mouths all working at once as they checked their status.
Of course they were afraid. They deliberately looked away, but the chaos creeping up behind them still drenched their bodies in cold sweat.
If they let their tension slip even a little, both body and mind might break.
Yet they endured the fear. They remembered their comrades beside them and the training carved into their very bones.
Lee Hye-jung, leader of Team 2, and the raid captain, Sanwang, moved quickly to steady their people.
“Team 2! Get over here! Eat this. It’s an antidote, so shut up and swallow it. Everyone, slap the person next to you once! Do it! You, hit me.”
“Tanker team including Kang Malsuk, check your equipment. Shin Yong-jae, snap the damage dealers out of it. Supporters and healers! All of you, gather up!! Park Su-bin, Baek Yeon-woo, take care of Lee Shin!!”
“Hyung!!”
“Director hyung!!”
The raid team grabbed only what they needed and moved out in a hurry.
In an emergency, the basics were securing a safe zone. It wasn’t about having a place to rest. It was about shrinking their defensive line.
Just as they were choosing a location, Lee Shin’s urgent shout rang out.
“Old man!! There! Right there!!”
The place Lee Shin was frantically pointing at was the door leading to the boss room.
Sanwang quickly scanned the terrain.
A door located midway up the stairs leading upward. If they took that position, they could protect their rear and secure a geographical advantage.
Even the top major hunters would have fallen into panic in this situation. The fact that the kid was keeping his cool was already impressive, but to make such a sharp judgment? Sanwang found himself genuinely admiring the young man.
“Everyone, head there!! Move quickly!!”
“Follow the captain!”
“Hurry, move it! Faster!”
They had just climbed the stairs and lined up in front of the boss room door when—
The sky had already twisted beyond anything that could still be called a sky.
Colors swirled and tangled together. There was no trace of the simple primary colors—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. The vortex continued to mix endlessly, erasing its original hues, and the final destination where all colors merged was—
Black.
The core of the vortex had turned pitch black.
And then it finally opened its eyes.
Despair itself!
Ki-gi-gi-gik—!!
Keruk%$^#$ehhh◎!#◎———!!
The ominous roar had become a scream.
The terrible shriek made the raid team clutch their ears and collapse to the ground. It was a scream that wounded the souls of the living.
But their response was equally fast.
“Take potions! Healer team, purify the mental status. Kim Yu-shin! Park Su-bin!”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
Soon after, the silver-gray shield created by Hwarang covered the raid team. Above it, Park Su-bin’s sphere of light formed a translucent barrier.
The raid team, who had barely caught their breath, stood up—
And everyone froze.
“N-no way.”
“Oh my god.”
The darkness stretching out from the vortex was corroding the land.
From the distant horizon, the terrain was gradually blurring. Trees and stones warped, the elven structures they had seen on the way twisted grotesquely, and finally shattered into pixels with sparks flying.
A mosaic.
The world had cracked like a mosaic. And mosaics always hid something behind them.
Kwa-dudududuk—!
The moment the darkness let out a violent scream—
The world flickered.
And the world turned ashen gray.
The lush trees had become gray. The fruits hanging from their branches were corpses.
“Ugh!”
“Fuck.”
And at that moment—
White bones burst out from beneath the ground.
They were Death Knights. The undead were raising their skeletal bodies.
At that point, the sharp-eyed members of the raid team had already noticed something strange.
“Wait…… isn’t that what I think it is?”
“Yeah, it looks like it.”
Their skeletal frames, body shapes, and those pointed ears crawling with wriggling maggots.
“They’re elves?!”
Exactly.
The Death Knights rising from the ground were the very elves they had fought earlier.
The moment they realized it—
The earth trembled, and a completely different roar echoed across the battlefield.
The source of the disturbance was behind them. It was happening on top of the altar.
“!!”
“Oh my god.”
“Heavenly Father.”
“……What the hell is that thing.”
A tree shot up from the altar, piercing toward the sky.
Its trunk grew without end. It became larger than a building, thicker than a skyscraper.
Its branches finally reached the sky, covering the ashen heavens. Instead of green leaves, it bloomed with gray leaves that resembled the dead sky above.
It was then.
A blue ghostly fire ignited in the eyes of the risen elf Death Knights. Starting with them, countless blue ghostly flames rose from the darkness.
Sanwang roared.
“Battle stations!!”
In response to the charging legion of elf Death Knights—
A wall of shields was raised, and magic power exploded outward.
The silver-gray shield, the milky-white giant’s arms, and—
Colorful magic circles enveloping the entire area.
After confirming everything, Sanwang gave a single firm nod.
“——Begin.”
A large-scale magical bombardment turned the surroundings into scorched earth.
A few hours later.
On the battlefield where smoke still rose in thin wisps.
Before the fierce aftertaste of battle had even faded, Lee Shin made sure everyone ate first.
He opened his subspace pouch, praising them for their hard work and reminding them this was truly the final battle.
Top-grade potions, stimulants, enhancers, and all kinds of doping agents were distributed.
After that, Lee Shin went looking for Sanwang.
The old man was gently stroking the boss room door.
“……Why are you standing here alone?”
“I’ve learned something this time. What an incredible trick.”
A minimum of A-rank or higher hunters. A minimum double squad—thirty people.
A minimum clear time of three months. Consumable costs beyond anything one could imagine.
Only after meeting all those conditions could one even see this door. The boss room of an LV8 gate.
“And yet you managed to reach it in just eighteen days.”
“Hehehe. You probably won’t get to use it much anyway.”
Lee Shin’s laughter suddenly vanished as his expression turned serious.
“You can praise me later. For now, take this. It’s a summary of everything about the World Tree.”
It was a binder prepared with A4 documents. Although he called it the World Tree, it was actually a detailed analysis of patterns and information on the ‘boss’ above them.
“My guess is we won’t be fighting the World Tree itself. The fact that the elves turned into Death Knights suggests they were cursed or corrupted somehow.”
“Yet that World Tree up there still retains its color.”
“Which means.”
There was an entity interfering with the World Tree in some way.
“I’ve set the stage. From now on, it’s your turn, Sanwang. Pour everything out. Don’t hold back thinking about the league. No matter what happens to you, I will perfectly restore you.”
That is what it means to be your representative.
So trust me and give it your all.
At Lee Shin’s resolute gaze, Sanwang closed his eyes instead of answering.
“…….”
A brief silence.
When his eyes opened again, he had returned to the flawless commander who had once led this country to the top.
Looking straight at Lee Shin, he shouted with pride.
“Raid team!!”
Yes!!
“We will begin the boss raid while combat senses are still sharp. Rest for thirty minutes. Do not lose focus.”
He didn’t wait for verbal replies. This man proved everything through action.
Lee Shin didn’t wait for an answer either and descended the stairs.
He had done everything he could.
He had run multiple simulations.
He had assembled perfect firepower.
Now all that remained was to believe.
In the team he had built.
The Mir raid team opened the door to the boss room.
·
·
There is destructive power that comes from sheer size.
When something grows far beyond normal proportions, its very existence becomes a weapon.
Kwaaaang—!!
The vine that slammed down was larger than any ancient tree. The roots that swept away enemies within range were the size of small buildings.
Each one of those vines was equivalent to high-level magic, and the roots were harder and more resilient than most tankers.
A colossal monster that could bring about catastrophe with nothing but its thrashing body.
That was the World Tree, Yggdrasil.
“Damn it. We can’t even get close.”
“I thought Sanwang was exaggerating when he said it was LV8, but it really is.”
For nearly twenty minutes, the only two patterns the Mir raid team had observed were those.
In other words, those two patterns had wasted twenty precious minutes.
It was only natural that the raid team was growing impatient.
“The damage is landing, right?”
“Hey!!”
While the tanks and melee damage dealers moved back and forth between advances and retreats to analyze the patterns, the long-range damage dealers poured out attacks to gauge its defense and health.
They had to…….
“Don’t talk to me right now.”
“Its resistance is insane.”
“That’s why they classify ultra-large monsters separately.”
“No, something’s still off. The attacks aren’t landing at all.”
Unfortunately, their side wasn’t producing results either.
The attacks seemed to connect, yet not even a scratch appeared. They were all veterans, and the situation was becoming clear.
“Don’t tell me it’s that?”
“……Looks like it.”
“We’re screwed.”
Among fixed-type monsters, there were occasionally individuals with gimmicks that ignored attacks from outside a certain range. It was practically the natural enemy of long-range dealers.
In other words, they also had to enter that space where the melee damage dealers and tanks were currently running around.
It was an absurd difficulty. Considering this wasn’t a league match, their lives could genuinely be at risk.
The moment they clenched their eyes shut, their bad premonition proved correct.
— “Long-range dealers, advance 5 meters on my signal.”
A moment later, the deadly jump rope began. The long-range dealers fired spells and arrows while dodging the slamming vines.
As the entire formation shifted forward, the melee damage dealers and tanks naturally entered the range of the roots.
From here on, it was truly critical.
— “All tanks, group up. Standard is Kang Malsuk.”
At the command, the six scattered tanks gathered around Kang Malsuk. Six shields formed a scrum, creating an iron wall.
At that instant, a root slammed down with tremendous force.
Kwaaaang——!!
The tank team’s knees buckled. The ground shook violently. If this hadn’t been a field, the impact would have been enough to collapse their formation.
The problem was that the root wasn’t the only one.
One hit was already this powerful. If they came down continuously, it would be dangerous!
At that moment—
— “Park Su-bin, Kim Yu-shin, join them.”
A silvery-gray shield and spheres of light covered the tank formation.
While that created a brief opening—
— “Advance.”
The tank line moved forward like a turtle.
The closer they got to Yggdrasil’s main body, the fiercer the attacks became.
Hidden patterns emerged. Falling leaves exploded, sprouts rising from the ground grabbed ankles, and bursting spores spread poison.
And finally, when the roots entered effective range—
Wiiiiiiiiiiii——!!
Along with pure white light, characters glowed on the surface of the rising trunk. Thousands of white beams fired toward the tank formation.
Over a hundred beams per second slammed into the formation.
Kwagagagagagang—!!
Park Su-bin’s sphere of light vanished first. The sphere that had never broken once from League 4 all the way to League 1 lost its light.
Next, Kim Yu-shin’s shield shattered. The top-tier defensive skill that had only been pierced once in his entire career scattered apart.
Now only the wall of shields remained.
The bombardment continued to rain down.
After what felt like the longest minute in the world, the shield formation emerged from the dust.
The shields had turned red-hot from the overwhelming destructive power, smoke rising from their surfaces.
They once again felt the terrifying force and realized anew that this was truly an LV8 boss.
But there was also progress.
— “Good work.”
First, they had confirmed all the patterns.
Second, the information cross-verified with the data Lee Shin provided had been inputted into Sanwang’s mind.
And finally—
— “Yu Ri-ra.”
Pew-woong—!
The moment the gunshot rang out, the shell exploded.
Everyone’s eyes turned to Yu Ri-ra at the first effective hit, and soon they were shocked to see…….
Hwaaaaak—
A small cloud of gun smoke spread.
What lay in front of the prone Yu Ri-ra was none other than a sniper rifle.
A sniper rifle much larger and far more powerful than her usual one.
◈ Custom-made masterpiece anti-materiel sniper rifle ordered from Barrett Firearms.
◈ Uses 12.7mm magic rounds. Magic stones can be used to add elemental properties.
◈ A sniper rifle that transcends the limits of firearms. It can deliver a powerful blow even against large monsters and above.
The first arrangement Lee Shin had prepared.
It was an anti-materiel sniper rifle capable of piercing the World Tree’s windpipe.
— “Counterattack begins now.”