Chapter 195: Tsukushima Satomi (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 195: Tsukushima Satomi (3)
A hero’s daily routine during a dungeon conquest is nothing if not consistent.
From morning until evening, they raid dungeons. When they have to rest due to magic pollution levels, they spend their personal time relaxing or training.
While the duration of rest between raids varies, most parties follow a similar pattern.
However, tonight, both the heroes who were resting and those who had just finished a raid were gathered in one place late at night.
Haruka, a reasonably famous hero in Japan, had been forced to come straight to the assembly hall after a raid without even a moment’s rest.
Watching the heroes sitting in comfortable clothes with envious eyes, Haruka took a seat in a corner with her party members.
In addition to this location, Japanese heroes were gathering at various branch offices across the country.
Haruka found the whole thing tedious, wondering what was so special that they had to exhaust people like this.
‘Well, they are special...’
Recalling the reason for today’s gathering, Haruka corrected her thoughts.
This was a session to analyze the dungeon conquest footage of Black Unicorn, provided by Square Garden.
Black Unicorn.
They were the only party among those gathered in Japan that had not used a single Jewel of Life.
It wasn't just Japan; heroes from all over the world had flocked here, and yet Black Unicorn shone uniquely even among the most elite parties.
It wasn't as if they were only entering dungeons lower than their rank, either.
On the first day, they entered a B-1 rank dungeon suited to their level, and three days later, they entered a B-2.
Up to that point, it was commendable—attributable to high skill and a strong will to resolve the Dungeon Impact.
However, after clearing B-2, they stepped up again to B-3.
They were raising the rank by one every three days.
Furthermore, Black Unicorn breezed through the "Devil’s Zone"—the second and third stages of a dungeon where the difficulty spike usually requires a period of adaptation—as if it were nothing.
If they had only conquered it once, it wouldn't have caused such a stir.
But they were destroying at least three dungeons at a time.
Dungeons spawned by a Dungeon Impact contain many special individuals, and the excessive mana makes them difficult not just to conquer, but even to destroy.
Normally, one has to defeat the boss multiple times to deplete the dungeon's mana before the dungeon core is revealed. Black Unicorn, however, destroyed them as if they were meeting a daily quota.
Three conquests a day. Other parties were doing the same because of the Dungeon Impact, but even that was no easy feat.
Yet, Black Unicorn was destroying three dungeons a day.
And they were doing it without using a Jewel of Life even once.
"I heard they only went into short dungeons. I could do that too."
A party sitting in front of her spoke disparagingly of Black Unicorn.
Haruka let out a sharp laugh at that.
The party in front turned to glare at her, but upon recognizing it was Haruka, they quickly looked away.
Haruka smiled bitterly.
Even if there were ten parties like that, they couldn't compare to Black Unicorn’s achievements.
Despite it still being the early stages, Black Unicorn had already destroyed fourteen dungeons.
Including parties that prioritized clearing dungeons lower than their rank, Black Unicorn was the only one to have reached double digits in destructions.
Haruka finally understood why Iron Fist of Square Garden had said Black Unicorn alone would be enough.
It was a statement that had been heavily criticized in Japan, but now, no one complained.
"In the end, they went back down to B-1. They realized anything above B-3 is impossible."
"Even reaching B-3 is impressive. It's a low-rank B-class dungeon, but it definitely helps."
‘Stupid bitches...’
Haruka cast a cold gaze at the heroes who could only gossip behind people's backs, unable to acknowledge the excellence of others.
Why would a party that destroyed three B-3 dungeons and completed nine consecutive raids without using a single Jewel of Life be afraid of B-4?
If anything, stopping for a moment to lower pollution levels and reorganize the party was the right move.
When Black Unicorn moved back down to B-1, Haruka realized they weren't just fools blindly charging upward.
She had thought they were reckless for raiding nearly ten times a day, but they were making incredibly rational decisions and moving according to a plan.
‘Jeong Yeon-woo, was it...’
It was strange for a man, and a Supporter at that, to be the party leader, but his ability was beyond doubt.
Haruka remembered when the Japanese Association had tried to arrange a friendly match with him when he first started making a name for himself.
It fell through because Square Garden declined, but the Association had mocked them, saying the Koreans were too scared and ran away.
‘If we had actually fought...’
Haruka had been relieved the match was canceled because she hadn't wanted to do it either.
No matter how successful he was, a friendly match against a Supporter? Haruka had been embarrassed by the Association’s arrogance, thinking they had something to be proud of.
It wasn't that she looked down on Jeong Yeon-woo, but the roles of a Supporter and an Attacker were fundamentally different. To suggest a contest of martial strength was a match she would have been ashamed of even if she won.
Watching Black Unicorn, who were currently showing the most prominent performance, Haruka looked forward to the footage the Association was about to show.
Just what kind of tactics did they use, and how did they raid to produce such unbelievable records?
She was curious about the combat of Black Unicorn, a group that had gathered Supporters and Defenders who were treated poorly elsewhere.
The reason for showing the footage to the Japanese heroes before using it for promotional purposes was simple.
It was partly to help their own heroes, but also because the consumption of Jewels of Life was astronomical.
The Japanese heroes, mostly melee Attackers armed with an unyielding samurai spirit, were overusing Jewels of Life under the sense of duty to resolve the Dungeon Impact.
The Association couldn't tell the heroes to stop using the Jewels, but they decided to show the video in the hopes that it would at least reduce the consumption rate.
Having received permission from Square Garden, the Association quickly gathered all the heroes and began the screening.
On the large screen, a dungeon appeared featuring Meltrocks—monsters that Japanese heroes, with their many melee Attackers, preferred to avoid.
"Oh..."
Exclamations escaped the heroes as the video showed Black Unicorn preparing for the raid.
They were equipping the latest gear, ranging from aerial observation gliders to augmented reality goggles.
"Perhaps because they're young, they're quick to use the latest technology."
"One shouldn't rely on such things. In the end, a hero must trust only the sword in their hand."
Haruka glanced at the older heroes speaking before turning her eyes back to the screen.
She, too, had lived with the conviction that she must trust her sword, inheriting the samurai spirit.
That pride as a warrior had made Haruka a top prospect, and now she had risen to a position responsible for the future of Japanese heroes.
However, she had recently begun to harbor doubts.
It wasn't that her faith in the sword had wavered.
But while strategy and tactics should be approached from various angles, she couldn't understand why Japanese parties were so obsessed with melee Attackers alone.
Haruka began to have these doubts because of Satomi, her friend who was now a member of Black Unicorn.
When Black Unicorn first became world-famous, Satomi had taken an interest in Supporters.
At first, Haruka thought Satomi was just interested because it was a fresh, new attempt, but Satomi became increasingly obsessed with the concepts of Supporters and Defenders.
Obsession.
That was what Haruka had thought at the time.
But now, Black Unicorn was proving that Satomi had been right all along.
Even the United States, the world's number one hero power, was investing in Supporters. How long would Japan persist with only melee Attackers?
Satomi’s pioneering opinions had not been reflected by the Association.
The old men at the Association, with their rigid minds and samurai pride, could not accept that the world was changing. In the end, Satomi left Japan for Black Unicorn, the absolute pinnacle of Supporter tactics.
"Huh? Why is Jeong Yeon-woo the Attacker? I thought he was a Supporter."
At the words of other heroes, Haruka snapped out of her thoughts and looked at the screen.
Jeong Yeon-woo was holding a massive gun.
No, calling it a cannon would be more accurate; it looked like something out of an anime.
"Gundam!"
Mei, a fellow party member who loved robots, had eyes sparkling with excitement.
Haruka smiled slightly at her childlike behavior and focused on the video.
Boom—!
With a thunderous sound, a Meltrock fell every time Jeong Yeon-woo fired the cannon.
The blue-haired hero and Jeong Yeon-woo took down the monsters while the others merely acted as decoys, wrapping up the battle with ease.
"Haha... the melee Attackers are pathetic."
"How unreliable must they be for a Supporter to step up and attack?"
The other members were criticized as Jeong Yeon-woo and Hornet dominated from a distance.
However, Haruka’s eyes widened as she stared blankly at the screen.
‘They swapped roles...? Does that mean everyone in Black Unicorn can perform multiple roles?’
Of course, certain conditions had to be met.
Meltrocks are difficult to handle in close combat, but since they aren't fast, they were advantageous targets for Jeong Yeon-woo’s sniping.
The melee Attackers seemed to be constantly retreating to avoid the Meltrocks, but they were actually positioning themselves perfectly to allow Jeong Yeon-woo and Hornet to excel.
They lured the Meltrocks to make them easier to hit or kept them from straying too far.
And the hero with the bow was giving orders in Jeong Yeon-woo’s stead.
"Why doesn't Poltsmith sell that?"
Mei, sitting next to her, spoke with regret.
Her hands were already on the Poltsmith website, searching for the product.
Haruka’s party had been the first in Japan to use the JP-12, known as the hero-exclusive handgun.
Mei, who loved guns, had bought it with her own money to test it out when the clan wouldn't adopt it.
Because of the magic-engraved bullets, its use was limited, but it had definitely been helpful.
Mei, in particular, found it very useful in battle.
"If you contact them, wouldn't they sell it to you?"
"I think it might be a custom-made piece, like the gun Jeong Yeon-woo is using."
"Damn, I want to use it too."
Haruka wondered what she would do with a sniper rifle so large it would be difficult even to carry. Leaving the disappointed Mei behind, Haruka watched the video.
Black Unicorn was terrifying.
She didn't mean their skills were "terrible," but watching their perfect combat sent shivers down her spine.
A few clueless heroes were still making casual remarks about the melee Attackers or how easy it looked to just snipe, but more and more heroes were falling silent, focusing intently on the screen.
It wasn't just a matter of being slightly better.
The entire paradigm of combat was different.
From start to finish, it didn't feel like a simple dungeon raid; it felt like an army conducting a war.
The Situation Room, chattering away like mad, relayed a mountain of information to the heroes.
The number of drones in the air was more than double that of other parties, and they even had gliders up.
Heat detection, tracking, AR—Black Unicorn was utilizing every piece of technology available to them.
Even the Situation Room was actively participating in the battle as members of Black Unicorn, integrating all information on the battlefield to move according to Jeong Yeon-woo’s instructions.
The highlight was when the boss, a giant Meltrock, appeared.
Abandoning his sniping and joining the party, Jeong Yeon-woo showed his true worth as a Supporter.
He deflected every fireball erupting from the Meltrock’s body while providing an endless stream of buffs to the members.
"...Why... aren't they overlapping...?"
Even Mei, who had only been interested in the gun, stared blankly at the high-level combat and muttered.
Support magic doesn't overlap, so you have to wait until one ends before casting it again.
However, Jeong Yeon-woo’s buffs never broke.
"...I think he’s counting the seconds..."
"...He’s keeping time in that situation?"
It was only for a split second, but Haruka saw the buff end just before Jeong Yeon-woo’s bullet hit.
It was natural for Mei to find it absurd.
Calculating time while firing frantically into the air like an assault rifle, rather than a handgun, felt impossible even to Haruka.
But there was no other explanation.
While Jeong Yeon-woo was the most incomprehensible, he wasn't the only one who stood out.
The support from the hero with the bow was also excellent.
She infused her arrows with magic to suppress the heat rising from the ground, and even attacked in between to destroy the Meltrock’s core.
Unlike before, the heroes who aggressively closed in during the boss fight silenced those who had claimed the melee Attackers were weak.
The Defender blocking the giant Meltrock’s fist head-on, the silver-haired hero who looked like an Attacker but was acting as a frontline Supporter to kill the heat, the blonde Attacker with doll-like looks but a incredibly tough fighting style—not a single one of them was lacking.
And finally, as Satomi slashed through the core, the Meltrock’s form began to crumble.
Flash—!
Arrows fired from Lee Yu-na’s bow, which had been loaded with several at once, embedded themselves in the Meltrock-turned-lava and emitted a freezing chill.
Watching the lava turn black and harden, one might wonder if such a thing was necessary after already defeating it, but the members of Black Unicorn looked on as if it were only natural.
"Satomi... she looks happy."
Mei muttered as she saw Satomi’s face on the screen.
She was someone who always wore a serious expression, but a subtle smile was playing on her lips.
When the video ended and the lights came up, the heroes remained silent.
Atsuko, an Association staff member, stepped onto the podium and spoke casually.
"Was that helpful?"
‘As if it could be.’
The very concept of combat was different. Even if they tried to copy it, they couldn't.
To do that, they would have to tear down their entire foundation and undergo training just to even pretend to be similar.
Haruka, and every other hero there, was thinking the same thing, but Atsuko just smiled brightly and told them to do their best.