The Oasis Guardian
In the Taeyang Guild conference room.
The front office staff, who had been busily reviewing documents, all turned their heads at once as if on cue, drawn by the fresh scent of shampoo.
Sure enough, Yeo Eun-seo had just finished training and a shower, stepping through the door.
“Oh my, you’re already here? Everyone’s working so hard.”
“Welcome back, Raid Captain.”
“What are you all working on?”
“We’re organizing gate data. Would you like to take a look?”
“Sure, I’d appreciate that.”
“Start with these, and the rest of you—what are you doing? Hurry up and get ready!”
As the staff quickly filed out, Yeo Eun-seo twisted her still-damp hair with one hand and flipped through the thick stack of documents.
Before forming their super team this season, the Taeyang Guild had maintained a surprisingly weak squad for a guild carrying the Taeyang name.
They had no notable rankers and no star hunters with real drawing power. The fans’ complaints toward Chairman Son Seong-ho weren’t without reason.
But here’s the thing.
Despite that, the Taeyang Guild somehow managed to produce results. How?
The secret was the competitive raid.
When Chairman Son Seong-ho first created the Taeyang Guild, he had thought simply reaching the playoffs would be enough. That alone would be sufficient for advertising purposes. Rather than investing in expensive star hunters for the versus matches, he focused on the more straightforward competitive raids.
So how exactly did they focus on the competitive raids?
This part was truly brilliant…
“Here’s the data.”
“We have more over here.”
“And here too.”
Documents piled up one after another. Before long, the table in front of Yeo Eun-seo was completely buried under stacks of files.
This was it. All this data.
The Taeyang Guild had bought up every single piece of information related to gates. Not just the gates used in the league, but everything from solo hunters clearing gates to foreign guilds as well.
Any information connected to gates, no matter what it was, they purchased without hesitation.
Field characteristics, attribute understanding, monster spawn patterns and weaknesses, distinctive traits, and so on.
The data accumulated over several decades in this manner was the true foundation of the Taeyang Guild’s strength.
And that strength had finally found its rightful owner. The World Class commander known as the Guardian, Yeo Eun-seo.
“Hmm, this data is excellent. Our guild’s data is on a completely different level. I really like it.”
While Yeo Eun-seo was deeply focused on the data, the Taeyang raid team, fresh from their showers, began entering the conference room one by one.
No one dared disturb the concentrated raid captain, but one person stepped forward—her universally acknowledged partner, the Black Star, Gong Ju-in.
“Eun-seo unnie.”
“Oh, yeah? When did you get here, Ju-in?”
“A while ago.”
All of us.
Gong Ju-in jerked her thumb behind her.
Yeo Eun-seo rose from her seat with a smile as she saw the raid team looking in her direction.
“Sorry, sorry. I saw Gwang-seob come in, so everyone must be here now.”
“…Why am I suddenly being called out?”
“Everyone, take your seats. We’ll begin the strategy meeting.”
Park Gwang-seob grumbled while the raid team burst into laughter.
Good performance led to a good atmosphere.
Seeing this, Yeo Eun-seo smiled softly as she stepped up onto the podium.
Click!
The lights went out.
In the darkened conference room, a large screen lit up, displaying massive text.
“The gate for this 14th round competitive raid is the ‘Oasis’s Guardian.’”
Lv7. Oasis’s Guardian.
A gate’s name always reflected its core identity.
This gate began with securing the ‘oasis’ strongpoints scattered across the field. Once the raid team awakened an oasis, monster hordes mesmerized by its magical power would endlessly attack it.
The raid team’s role was to defend the oasis from the incoming monster waves.
It was a gimmick similar to a defense game.
That was why fans commonly called it ‘Oasis Defense.’
“Our first objective upon entry is to secure an appropriate strongpoint—an oasis. What does ‘appropriate’ mean here, Ju-in?”
“It would be a location where the defensive line can be as short as possible. We should avoid the middle of the desert or areas where securing a safe zone would be difficult.”
“Excellent. Additionally, we should head for high ground. You all know better than anyone the advantages height provides in battle. Going to low ground is practically fighting with a penalty.”
After the so-called ‘position scramble’ to secure a decent strongpoint among the four guilds, the real defense phase would begin.
“The first wave will most likely consist of ‘Desert Gnolls’ and ‘Venom Scorpions.’”
The monsters that appeared had sand and desert attributes. These creatures would crawl out from beneath the desert sand to attack the oasis.
Endlessly! Infinitely! Without any breaks!
“If Defense Team 1 holds off the wave, what should the rest of you do?”
“We need to set up a base camp.”
“We need space to eat and rest our eyes.”
“Correct, everyone’s right. This wave doesn’t stop for 24 hours, not until the final wave ends. That’s why stamina management is essential.”
It was a point she always emphasized.
Hunters were humans before they were superhumans, and raids were by no means games.
Meals, hygiene, sleep—the bare minimum required for humans had to be guaranteed. Ignoring that and trying to endure a raid that lasted nearly twenty days was absolutely impossible.
If that was the baseline role established so far, what Yeo Eun-seo was about to say next concerned the real competition.
“I’ll skip over the Core and Challenger. Is there anyone here who thinks we’d lose to them? If so, quietly leave and take a nap. I don’t need cowards in my raid team.”
“Hey, don’t you have any consideration? Can’t you see how bad Ju-in’s expression is?”
“It’s fine, oppa. I’m okay……”
“Ah, right. Challenger. It’s your old home guild. This won’t do. Since we’re at it, I’ll destroy the Challenger that abandoned me!”
“Unnieeee—!!”
Hahahaha——
The mood lightened for a moment.
Everyone quickly refocused on the meeting like the professionals they were. The screen changed, displaying the Mir Guild’s profiles alongside a dragon emblem.
“In this raid, the Mir Guild can deploy two possible formations. One centered around Kang Mal-suk, or the occasional formation they’ve shown with Seo Ye-na, Hwarang, and the Colossus.”
The former was the textbook tank-damage-heal formation.
As the term ‘textbook’ suggested, it had no glaring weaknesses and didn’t stand out either. Its strength was the ability to respond to any variable.
The latter was the so-called Fortress formation, created through linked abilities that meshed together like gears. Its characteristic was extreme sustainability gained at the cost of mobility.
“I believe there’s a high chance the Mir Guild will choose the latter. Kang Mal-suk truly shines when she plants herself and tanks, but she has gained a new weapon called ‘Charge’ in the Mir Guild.”
“A weapon that isn’t needed in a defense scenario.”
“Exactly the point. The Mir Guild’s strategy is designed to draw out the maximum potential from each hunter’s abilities.”
It sounded simple, but it was by no means easy.
In fact, it was realistically close to impossible. Normally, if there were people who stood out, there needed to be people supporting them. Teamwork and coordination were what narrowed that gap.
Yet the Mir Guild showed full potential from every member without any of that. It was absurd, but they acted as if this had been the best approach from the very beginning.
“Lee Shin and the Mountain King. Those two are what make that impossible feat possible. Anyway, that’s why I thought in reverse. What does the Mir Guild want to show the most right now? Who becomes the most terrifying when they explode with maximum potential?”
There was no need to say it twice.
Yeo Eun-seo’s finger pointed at one spot without hesitation.
Droopy eyes, gentle gaze, and slightly parted lips that made him look a bit slow. But no one in the conference room dared dismiss him.
He was Korea’s Rank 1 hunter.
The Colossus, Park Su-bin.
“It’s the Colossus, who’s been showing the most insane form lately.”
Without any restraint, the Colossus Park Su-bin’s destructive power made him the Mir Guild’s strategic weapon.
How they utilized that would be their main challenge.
At that moment, the quietly listening Karl Blackwood cut straight to the core.
“But Captain. From what I understand, that Fortress formation requires quite a lot of preparation.”
“Good point, Karl. The healers needed to maintain Seo Ye-na’s wings. That’s the weakness of this formation.”
The more healers who participated, the more holes would inevitably appear elsewhere.
And the reason those holes mattered to the Taeyang Guild lay in the next gimmick of the ‘Oasis’s Guardian.’
They had to find the monsters that held the ‘keys’ to raising the level of the monster waves.
Where? By thoroughly searching the vast desert!
Yes, that was the reason search teams existed.
They were the true frontline of this competition.
“…The Mir Guild will have no choice but to reduce the number of their search teams.”
Analysis team leader?
At Yeo Eun-seo’s call, the analysis team leader stood up and spoke.
“From our investigation, the Mir Guild can only operate three search teams. Any more and the burden on the main force becomes too severe.”
“On the other hand, we can operate four, or even five if we push it. Thanks to one particular person.”
All eyes turned in one direction.
Gong Ju-in scratched her head shyly under the barrage of gazes.
Not only could she form formations, but she commanded an army capable of auto-hunting.
In a defense genre, the existence of the necromancer Black Star was practically cheating.
“And that’s not all. This gate is one where the Mountain King cannot properly receive terrain synergy. On the other hand, our guild has someone who can maximize their abilities in a desert field. Right, Horus?”
“Leave it to me.”
The Sand Sorcerer, the Desert Priest. Horus Mohamed Salah smiled brightly.
Yeo Eun-seo gave a light nod at that smile, then looked around at her team members.
Yes. She acknowledged it.
Their opponent was the Mir Guild, currently evaluated as the greatest squad in history.
The Mountain King, the Colossus, Hwarang, the Genius, Blitz, and so on… Across the entire world, there were only a handful of guilds that could stand toe-to-toe with them in terms of pure weight class.
But.
We won’t fall behind either.
The Sword Master, Black Star, Horus, Specter, Guardian…
On top of that, the vast amount of data possessed by the Taeyang Guild and the solid support of the Taeyang Group.
Counted among the world’s best? Yeo Eun-seo was certain. The Taeyang Guild would definitely be among those counted fingers.
Although our victory was tainted by that unfortunate incident, this time we’ll show them properly.
Let’s have a real fight.
The Guardian Yeo Eun-seo’s eyes sparkled as she thought of Lee Shin.
And so time passed, and the morning of the 14th round dawned.
In Yeongdo’s Mir City.
A spectacular scene was unfolding on restaurant street. Various standing signs and banners hung at the entrance of every restaurant.
……
…
·
It wasn’t just Mir City.
The bustling streets of Busan, including Seomyeon, were in a similar state.
……
…
.
Even across Incheon and the entirety of Seoul.
……
…
.
If versus matches had street cheering, then competitive raids had lunch cheering!!
If versus matches delighted the eyes with the brilliant plays of star hunters, competitive raids set hearts ablaze with the heavy fighting spirit of guilds.
The competitive raid, which allowed fans to enjoy both, had been called the greatest hit item of the previous season and caused a syndrome. Now it had become a fully established culture.
And if, for the first time, all four major guilds were clashing?
It was over.
Right on time for lunch, office workers poured out of buildings.
The competitive raid was about to begin. They hurried with quick steps toward the restaurant street lined with flashy standing signs and banners.
And in the middle of the bustling street, one group was being jostled from all directions.
“Stop pushing. Seriously. Wow, look at these people. What’s going on?”
“You don’t know? It’s competitive raid week.”
“I know that, but is it really worth making such a fuss?”
What exactly was the competitive raid that everyone’s eyes were bloodshot like this?
The woman couldn’t understand it, and neither could her colleagues.
“Do the guilds give them food? Money? Why are they risking their lives like this? I just can’t understand it.”
“I feel the same as you, sunbae. Can’t we just comfortably watch the stream? Why are they making such a big deal?”
“Let’s just finish this quickly and go back. Right, Manager…?”
“Manager?”
“Manager~~??”
But here’s the thing.
Did they know that among those who couldn’t understand, the ‘realest of the real’ was none other than their own manager?
The manager entered the restaurant.
“Boss, one stone-pot doenjang stew please.”
Even while ordering, his eyes were already fixed on the screen.
When he drank water and wiped his hands with a napkin, his gaze remained glued to the screen. The interesting part was that everyone sitting here was the same.
It made sense. This was the restaurant he had searched for since dawn, comparing screens and audio equipment. The top priority in his consideration had been atmosphere.
Some might call it excessive.
They might ask if the guilds gave them food or money.
But it gave a sense of satisfaction that food couldn’t fill. It gifted emotions that money couldn’t buy.
At least here, Manager Park Seong-cheol (36. Toegail-jwa) had definitely inherited it. From his guild, which was now appearing on the screen.