Guild Raid
-That was some wild talk, damn...
-For real, no way all the stat boosts would actually pop up.
-And then they really do.
-You just had to jinx it.
"Even if they do show up, it’s fine. The first party is already massively overgeared."
I was a little worried about the second and third parties, but if I went to support them, that problem solved itself. Meanwhile, starting with Haru, the rest of the guild members started firing questions at me one after another.
"Yes, this is Jeong-yong. I’ve got a question too. Wouldn’t it be enough to just kill all the named monsters first and then smash that Moon Crystal thing?"
-Huh, yeah?
-Damn.
-Master Jeong-yong
-Shot down on the spot, holy crap;;
"Unfortunately, no. You have to break the Moon Crystal first, and then kill the named monsters that gain boosted stats if you want the reward rate to go up."
"Ah, that’s a shame. Well, they did build Unknown Universe by scraping together every monster and genius they could find, so I guess I shouldn’t expect the smart guys to miss something like that."
"Exactly. Those bastards are always dead-set on blocking anything that benefits the players."
I nearly let an obscenity slip, but just barely held it back. I was a professional broadcaster now, after all.
"Son of a bitch."
-Gasp.
-Gasp.
-Haruru is scary T_TTTT
-For real.
-Streamer scares me...
-Haruru’s real personality is showing, lol.
"I-I said that without thinking. If there are no more questions, I’ll start assigning parties."
Just then, a clean, bright donation sound rang out.
I’m not a money grubber, but that message looked like it was worth at least fifty thousand won.
"Oh, MuchaeNamul-nim, you could’ve just asked in-game! Of course it’s okay. It’s definitely not okay just because you threw me fifty thousand won. This is your first time, so of course you might not understand or know how to do it. If anyone gives you a hard time during the raid, tell me immediately."
-Lmao.
-Money grubber.
-Seriously, she’s like a zoologist of the wealthy.
-For real lol
-For real lol
"All right, all right. The first party is, needless to say, led by me. The members are..."
Mone, Napo, and Clear Sky. I put together the 0-tank, 1-DPS, 3-support composition I’d mentioned earlier.
"The ding ding ding ding I pulled last time, and the Cosmic Energy Charge I learned from the skill book, will be getting a flashy debut in today’s raid."
-Damn.
-Damn.
-Something huge is coming!!!
-I’m excited...
-She’ll probably just stomp everything, right?
And so we moved on to the second party.
The second party had to make its way through a dungeon packed with monsters and gimmicks on the road to the Moon Crystal, and especially after breaking the crystal, they’d have to survive a barrage of simultaneous explosions and escape cleanly. The party leader had to be someone who could watch everything properly and call the shots. Might as well ask.
"Anyone want to lead the second party?"
-...
-Chilly silence...
-Anyone want to take command?
Since MuchaeNamul-nim said he didn’t understand any of this, he absolutely couldn’t be party leader. So who? That person? Or this person... Just then, a cow’s confident bellow came over voice chat.
"Are you saying Heogu-nim wants to lead the party?"
"Moo."
-Damn.
-Damn.
-Moooo~
-Great Heogu
-It’s always the cow who handles the big jobs.
-Both party leaders are cows, huh.
"But how are you going to brief the explosions..."
"Moo!"
-That’s a loud one.
-Might actually work?
-The moo briefing, lol.
-We’re all going to die, lol.
"All right, then. For the explosions, all you really need to know is that they explode. Maybe replacing the word ‘explosion’ with ‘moo’ will actually stick in our heads better. Understood. I’m counting on you, Heogu-nim."
"Moo."
-The first one, obviously.
-The first one, obviously.
-First-party Heogu is the strongest Heogu in the world...
-Comparing the wrong things here.
"As for the third party..."
"I’ll do it. If you think it’s you, you’ve gotta step up fast. That’s what I learned."
-Damn.
-Damn.
-Steel Jeong-yong
-As expected of Steel Dragon.
"Thank you for your overwhelming support, everyone. I’ll protect our forward base with my life if I have to."
Jeong-yong-hyung. He was going all-in again. But this time, I had to reel him in.
"If it looks like you’re going to die, you can afford to be a little cowardly. Dead people don’t get raid rewards."
Unknown Universe’s raid system was brutal to the core. If you died during the raid, you lost that week’s rewards and clears on the spot.
"But isn’t that true if we fail too?"
"It is, but..."
The reason they made it this ruthless was one thing and one thing only: the worse they made it, the more money people spent. Incredible, really. A game that sold better the more awful it became? Even economists would have to sit down and take notes.
"If that moment ever comes, I’ll sacrifice my own life so the other guild members can clear the raid. That’s what a tanker does."
"Damn..."
-Whew...
-Master Jeong-yong
-A genuine tank like that is rare as hell.
-Steel Jeong-yong
"Come to think of it, the third party has two guild members with special titles, huh. Imda the More Immortal, and Steel Jeong-yong."
-Ugh, it’s so cringe lol.
-Isn’t that just roasting them?
-At this rate he’s going to quit the guild soon.
And so, so they wouldn’t feel left out, I also called out the other two members of the third party by name.
"I’m leaving the forward base in your hands, everyone."
"Wooooo!!!"
"Waaah..."
-You startled me, lol.
-Damn, Jeong-yong-hyung, calm down a little.
-Lol.
-Who was the one quietly shouting along? Was that Imda?
"Let’s get moving. Everyone, please remember your positions."
"I already told you the first-phase clear conditions, right? Kill the two named monsters at the Black Moon altar, and kill the named monster attacking the forward base."
The Black Moon is steeped in madness and grows dense. Cosmic Malice seeps in. Even breathing has become a burden. Some stats have decreased.
"Forget that malice crap! We’ve got Imda, who farms for twenty-four hours and still runs his fields. Everyone drink the Grand Peach Juice! It’s tier four, no less."
The Cosmic Malice curse affecting you is reduced by 40% for 100 seconds.
-Holy crap lol.
-You already crafted a tier 4 combination?
-Master Imda
-What even is he? Does he have two bodies?
-No, seriously, don’t waste that talent on Unknown Universe, lol.
"First party enters the Black Moon altar. Second party enters the Moon Crystal Corridor. Third party, please take care of anyone coming toward the forward base."
"Yes, sir!"
Everyone moved in perfect sync with my orders. This raid really did seem like it was going to go smoothly. As long as the crystal buff gave us something easy, that was.
-Let’s go!
-Damn, Haruru’s leadership is insane.
The Black Moon altar we entered.
It was literally shaped like an altar. The problem was that it was so black it was hard to see anything. But by now, it was almost too obvious to bother saying.
Flash!
◈ Defeated successfully.
◈ Defeated successfully.
...
...
"Ah. Right. The weak ones get swept away along with Mika’s light."
-Damn.
-Damn.
-Mika, what can’t you do!
But the important thing was the named monsters. This was a boss-hunting dungeon where only one party, usually four people though it could vary depending on the hunt, could enter. The last time, with the Elementals or Black Fox, there were no levels, so my damage went through at full strength without any level reduction. But named monsters and bosses were different. And just in time, one appeared.
[Lv. 29]
[Named Monster]
[B+ Grade]
Wolf Born from the Claw of the Lunatic Rabbit
Because it had an actual level, if you fell short of that level your damage would be cut accordingly, and the damage you took from it would go up.
The damage reduction wasn’t a problem since I was already massively overgeared, but the increased damage taken was. I didn’t have dodge gear or defense gear on right now, so one wrong move could turn into a ridiculous, sudden-death catastrophe. I had to be careful at all times. I told the viewers that, then added another reminder.
"And I told you earlier, right? Don’t kill the named monsters until after the Moon Crystal is broken. Trust the second party and keep dodging the patterns."
-Go, go, go.
-Is Haruru about to show off her control?
-Let’s go~
-Be careful not to die.
-So that’s why she brought three supports? Dodging should be easy as hell.
"If you don’t enter the named-monster room, the crystal room won’t open."
-Lol.
-Unknown Universe truly allows not a single ounce of cheesing...
"Pattern incoming! Hold on, I’m focusing."
Dodging wasn’t difficult. No lie, it was something I did as naturally as breathing in Unknown Universe.
-Damn.
-Great Haruru
-She’s really good at control.
-Oh...
What worried me, though, were the other party members aside from Mone. As expected, their HP had chipped down a bit.
"Should we drink a potion?"
There were potion limits in raids, so conserving each one was important. That must be why Haru asked me right away.
"No. Hold out. You’ll need them when we take down the rabbit in phase two."
"Got it!"
Then, to ease the strain on my party members for a little while, I decided to take on the tank role myself.
"You there. You’re in the way. Only look at me."
-Is this a voice-recognition game or what, lol.
-Haruru is so cute.
-Just like that.
While swinging my sword through empty air, I stacked Mika’s effects and drew the aggro onto myself.
-[damage] HP
"You just dodge every pattern without defense gear or dodge gear."
-Damn.
-Isn’t that easy for you to say, lol.
This guy’s claw attacks hurt like hell. I wasn’t reading the story, but as the name implied, maybe that was because he was derived from claws. In other words, if you just watched the feet and dodged properly, it was free loot.
"Like this. And like this! You all can do it too. Just copy me."
-Damn.
-Damn.
-Whoa.
-That movement is insane.
-((
-))
-Those are some wild footwork patterns.
-What is this, Taebo? lol
Not long after that, an alert arrived saying the Moon Crystal had been destroyed.
"Oh? That was way faster than I expected. As expected of our proud Shining Parade Guild."
The crystal compressing the Black Moon has been destroyed.
Madness and rage begin to mix and spread.
"All right. What’s going to come out? Enemy movement speed up? Attack speed up?"
All stats of the Black Moon’s monsters increase.
"Damn it. Who made this trash game."
-Damn lol.
-What a disaster lol.
-Great Haruru even overpowered the 25% chance.
-Emergency! Emergency! Emergency!
-It really came true the moment you said it...
"No, it’s fine. I’m a genius to begin with, but I’m even stronger in crisis situations—Haruru, the crisis-type genius!"
-A genius to begin with?
-The second half sounds about right, but the first half...
Thwip!
[Defeated the creature born from the claws of the Lunatic Rabbit.]
[Over Kill]
-Damn.
-Damn.
-Look at that damage, lol.
-She’s just eating the level penalty alive.
"One named monster left in the altar. Let’s take it down quickly. I was trying to do this a little more leisurely, but... honestly."
***
At the same time, the forward base defended by the third party.
At first, things had been so easy that everyone thought they could relax, but once the crystal shattered and enemies strengthened by all their boosted stats started flooding in, the difficulty shot up hard. In a flustered voice, Imda spoke up.
"What do we do? Should we request support?"
"Even if we ask for support, the second party is still escaping, so that won’t help. And the first party will need some time to get here from the altar."
What’s more, once they were in the middle of killing named monsters, they couldn’t return to the forward base, and I’d seen on NewTube that they’d even deliberately built in lots of time-wasting patterns.
"Then what do we do? If the forward base gets destroyed, the raid fails outright..."
In theory, it made no sense for the first party to come help right now. No matter how strong their damage was, how were they supposed to rush through all the time-wasting named monsters the system had thrown at them?
So what now?
If the forward base was destroyed here, the raid would fail. A whole week, gone. Silence fell for a moment. Then Jeong-yong spoke.
"Like I said earlier, I’ll sacrifice myself. If I pull every monster’s aggro and run in the opposite direction of the base, I can buy us some time."
"Then Jeong-yong-nim, you’ll..."
"The second-phase damage should be enough without me, so if I sacrifice myself and let eleven people get their rewards, that’s a profit in my book. All right, I’m going."
Jeong-yong drew the aggro of the monsters approaching the forward base with a thunderous shout. And just as he started running in the opposite direction to buy time—
[Lv. 31 (Level-enhancement +2 applied)]
[Named Monster]
[Boar Derived from the Rib Bones of the Lunatic Rabbit]
"Oh, hell. Even the named monster’s spawning faster. Probably because the movement-speed boost is applied too."
"Then I’ll sacrifice myself too. That’d make me feel better."
"More Immortal Imda..."
"Um, I’m embarrassed, so could you leave off the ‘immortal’ part?"
"More Imda..."
"Please, drop the ‘more’ too."
And so, the third party decided that Jeong-yong and Imda would draw aggro and change the monsters’ direction to buy time. Even if the two of them died, as long as they bought time, the first party could surely finish off the named monsters and come to support them.
[Remaining shield: 70...50...10...]
Surrounded and battered by countless monsters, the shield bar plummeted almost immediately.
Crash!
Before long, the shield broke, and HP began to drain away.
"Still, thanks to the shield, we bought a few dozen more seconds."
[HP: 5000...300...20...]
"Is this the end?"
Yeah. That was enough.
As long as he died after the raid was cleared, that was fine. That was the tank’s job.
BOOM!
At that moment, a violet-black shockwave swept across the area and flattened every monster nearby.
Defeated the creature derived from a B-grade rib fragment.
Defeated the creature derived from a B-grade rib fragment.
Defeated the creature derived from a B-grade rib fragment.
...
...
And then, at last, a familiar voice rang out.
"I save everyone. That’s what a guild master does."
---