Operation Rice Ball

A crumbly sensation remained beneath her feet.

The plains, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠carpeted in dark soil, exuded a gloomy atmosphere.

Depending on the Geas, this field could transform into an incredibly hazardous zone, but fortunately, that didn't apply to this match.

Without a Geas, the Weeping Plains was a place that failed to live up to its name.

No special gimmicks inherent to the battlefield. Therefore, no environmental hazards.

The stage for this match was simply a field with somewhat messy dirt ground.

If the battlefield wasn't causing trouble...

...then the rules of this game dictated that the opponents would.

Just as the law of conservation of energy existed in reality, the law of conservation of bullshit held true in Infinity Realm.

For this game, Eunha Gaming had drafted three mages.

Two highly sustainable tanks in the vanguard. A versatile Bard as their support.

It was the classic European-style "Knight and Mage" strategy—building a sturdy wall of defense in the front while raining down high firepower from behind.

There was just one problem... one of those three mages was a bizarre outlier.

Earth Mages are common enough, but a Necromancer? I'm already getting a bad feeling about this.

The Necromancer class in Infinity Realm was equivalent to the necromancers commonly seen in fiction.

The difference was that instead of ghosts or skeletons, they specialized strictly in corpse-based undead like zombies and ghouls.

In terms of commanding a horde of undead and ultimately detonating them, it wasn't much different from the typical trope.

However, Infinity Realm was strictly a game.

And in a game, everyone had to be the protagonist.

In a world where players could shatter boulders with their bare hands and slash the wind with their swords, a few zombies showing up was hardly a threat.

But they couldn't exactly give a player an army of thousands or tens of thousands of undead either.

Thus, the class was designed to focus on a few high-tier summons while unleashing various magic attacks... until a certain European Necromancer shifted the meta.

Transporting ghouls directly via Gryphons and dropping them.

By aggressively utilizing Corpse Explosion, a sort of "bomber meta" had once been established.

Although the Gryphons themselves were quickly nerfed, the aftermath left Necromancers with the reputation of being pyromaniacs.

Now, people saw a ghoul and immediately thought of a bomb.

Besides, the Necromancer itself was an incredibly off-meta class.

In a game where all five senses were fully realized, it was rare to find anyone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who wanted to hang around rotting corpses all the time.

A summoner class whose limits were quickly reached in higher tiers. Pulling out a Necromancer of all things could only mean one thing.

In this match...

...Eunha Gaming had drawn their closely guarded joker card.

...Suddenly?

It was a rather baffling system message.

That warning only appeared when detected by an enemy undead.

Unlike simply being spotted by an enemy player, that message only popped up when an undead confirmed her presence.

Yet, looking around, there were no enemies in sight.

A typical summon's detection range was set narrower than a player's field of vision.

That left two possibilities.

Either an undead was hiding somewhere out of her sight, or a detection-specialized undead had been summoned.

She couldn't be sure of either at the moment.

The opponent's composition had three mages.

It wouldn't be strange if they had used a wide-area warp right at the start to claim this zone.

Since they were vulnerable to flank and rear attacks, putting effort into detection was a reasonable decision.

Retreating now that her location was compromised was an option, but there were no visible threats to justify it.

She could push in just a bit deeper to see what the opponents were up to.

The moment she took a few more steps toward the enemy camp...

...the dirt beneath her feet began to bubble.

No. That wasn't it.

A sharp, intense sense of crisis pierced her mind!

Without time to think, she threw her body in the opposite direction.

Holy crap.

If they can't bomb me, they're using landmines?

"Player 75's Corpse Explosion lands a clean hit on Nabi!"

"It blows away a whopping 40% of her health in one go! That was a perfect hit!"

"Nabi's reaction certainly wasn't slow, but there was already a substantial amount of corpses buried beneath her."

"Since Nabi runs a low-defense build, the damage likely hit her even harder."

"The Weeping Plains is a chaotic battlefield in many ways. Because the ground is in such poor condition, it's hard to tell if the earth has been dug up or not."

Flames, flesh fragments, and sticky blood.

Amidst the aftermath of the explosion, Yu Nabi quickly chose to retreat.

Having lured her so deep inside, there was no way the explosion would end with just one.

Though Yu Nabi could never have known, from the moment the system message appeared...

...she had already been standing on a minefield.

The ground shuddered with every step she took.

To make matters worse, the earth surged as if to bind her.

The pre-buried corpses detonating one after another was no different from a highly coordinated barrage.

She had no time to save her precious defensive skills.

Yu Nabi's signature, razor-thin survival ability was only possible because of data and calculations.

But right now, she hadn't even pinpointed the enemy's location.

How could she calculate anything? Since she couldn't lifesteal through attacks either, her top priority was to survive by burning through everything she had.

Fortunately, there was no ambush waiting behind her.

Eunha Gaming hadn't had enough time for that, and Yu Nabi hadn't neglected her surroundings on her way here.

Thanks to that, Yu Nabi managed to escape the danger zone with barely 23% of her health remaining.

Of course, that didn't mean SnowWitch held the advantage.

The Berserker who had been flanking was forced to retreat after taking critical damage.

This meant the pressure on the flanks had been relieved.

In the previous match, Yu Nabi had carried the game by draining the resources of the enemy's main force.

Naturally, the reverse could also hold true.

In a standard head-to-head, few compositions were as powerful as Knights and Mages.

Now, it was the SnowWitch main force's turn to endure the pressure.

Dirt and rocks clumped together around a ghoul.

The corpse crumpled under the immense ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mass.

A shield enveloped the lump of flesh that was on the verge of being pulverized into nothingness, barely saving it from destruction.

The boulder created in this manner flew toward the enemy lines.

The Necromancer moved next.

Just as the boulder reached the end of its arc and began to descend, Corpse Explosion was cast.

During the pre-delay right before the detonation, the boulder slammed into the ground.

The ghoul triggered a secondary explosion, violently sweeping the surrounding area.

"Eunha Gaming's composition is incredibly well-structured."

"Internally, they call it 'Operation Rice Ball'. I've seen them practice it before. Isn't the name cute?"

"Ah, because they pack it tightly like that, it's a rice ball?"

"Visually, it doesn't look appetizing at all, but the name certainly makes sense."

"And tactically, it's highly effective. The burden on Endure seems immense."

SnowWitch was on the weaker side when it came to defense.

When a ranged standoff began against so many mages, a tank's life became miserable.

Their attempt to force a close-quarters fight had been shut down by the landmines.

The corpses wouldn't be infinite, but if they forced their way in and died, it would be game over.

Right now, Endure was essentially SnowWitch's lifeline.

Diving into the enemy ranks carried too high of a risk.

Yet, continuing the ranged standoff would lead to an obvious conclusion.

Not just Endure, but Yu Nabi as well racked her brain with everything she had.

Fortunately, the enemy composition lacked the means to end the game in a single blow.

If they held on tenaciously, they could buy some time.

They had to find a countermeasure within that window.

There was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no strategy without a weakness in this game.

There had to be a weak link somewhere.

Yu Nabi bit her lip.

What is the enemy's most critical resource? Mana, remaining corpses, the tanks' guard gauges, and...