The Perfect Guard Grudge

Right on cue, huh?

Aigoo, my head. I woke up, right? I must have. But why can't I see anything in front of me? My head… my head hurts so much. And my heart's racing like crazy… Ugh, am I gonna die like this? Urgh.

Seongna, the sole survivor who cleared Bolekia, felt not a rush of triumph but a splitting headache. Her already fragile body had been pushed to its absolute limit, and now the backlash was hitting her all at once.

Even with thousands of viewers who came to watch the first clear live and massive donations pouring in right in front of her, all she could do was clutch her head and groan.

"Ah, guys… just a sec… my head's killing me… urgh…"

Of course, even with all this aggro being drawn, Minji's personality meant she wasn't about to make a big fuss about it.

"Nah… I'm just tired. I'll be fine after a little rest."

The one silver lining was that the wave of satisfaction from the clear was slowly pushing back the headache that had hit once the tension finally released. There's a reason people say extreme happiness makes you forget pain. Minji was starting to feel it.

Man… I actually did it. I cleared it. It feels… really good.

Her head still throbbed and her heart was still racing, but her mood had definitely lifted.

While Minji basked in the sweet taste of victory—

The final cutscene of the Bolekia raid was playing on screen. Most of the Nice Squad, caught up in the thrill of the first clear and worry for Minji, weren't paying attention to it at all. But then a scene appeared that instantly grabbed everyone's focus—

The face Bolekia had so stubbornly hidden was finally being revealed.

Bolekia was in terrible shape. Her armor, except for the helmet, had been completely torn away, exposing her feminine form. The sword in her hand was broken in half. Even the remaining pieces of her helmet were crumbling, fragments falling to the ground.

And then—

Thud, thud—

The last fragments of the helmet shattered completely, revealing Bolekia's bare face. From the hair peeking out, they'd guessed she was blonde, but no one expected what was underneath.

Her face was so delicate that it was hard to believe she was the nightmare who had caused all this carnage. Though covered in dust, her golden hair still shone brilliantly. Her blue eyes had lost their light, appearing emotionless, and her expression was blank—neither smiling nor crying.

One thing was certain: Bolekia's true face was…

She was a charming female character fully deserving of the players' praise.

In that moment, Bolekia's reputation flipped 180 degrees. Everyone suddenly felt more sorry for Bolekia, who had no choice but to kill, than for the dead kingdom soldiers.

"Bolekia was a soldier too. Soldiers follow orders. How is this her fault? Bolekia is innocent, dammit!"

Even though she spoke in the same tone as before her face was revealed—

Just her revealed face and voice were enough to completely change everyone's impression of her.

With those final words, Bolekia turned and began to disappear.

"Huh? She's running away?"

The player characters trying to stop her were too badly injured to move properly themselves.

Just as the players wondered if they were about to be abandoned right at the empire's border—

With Bolekia's retreat, communications were restored. Thanks to the kingdom's rapid dispatch of a rescue team, the players narrowly escaped danger. If the empire had sent pursuers, the player characters would have met their end right there. But this was classic RPG plot armor—no killing the protagonists.

Vroooooom—

Soon enough, the rescue ship arrived. The players boarded to the enthusiastic cheers of soldiers celebrating the operation's success and began their return to the kingdom.

On screen, the words [Dungeon Clear] appeared once more, signaling that everything was truly over.

The Nice Squad achieves the first clear of the Bolekia Raid…!

As expected, the MVP went to Minji. She had performed at a level worthy of MVP in both the first and second phases, but those contributions weren't easily quantifiable. The only metric for DPS MVP was damage output, and Minji had always lost out to Baek Ryong-gak in that regard. In fact, he had the highest damage share across the entire raid.

But if you asked who performed the best overall in this raid attempt, it clearly wasn't Baek Ryong-gak.

Who was it then? Well, everyone already knew.

"Aigoo… thank you all for the donations."

While everyone savored the joy of victory and Minji enjoyed the sweetness of donations—

Not only that, Jeon Gangseop made it clear he was watching the live stream. For both players and streamers, it was a meaningful moment they wouldn't soon forget.

Well, not for everyone.

"Oh."

Minji's thoughts were different.

That guy only shows up after the clear. He's been communicating a lot more lately. Is he trying to copy the previous director? Well, frequent communication is good. I don't really have complaints about that… but if communication is going to mean anything, he should at least listen to some criticism, right?

The moment she heard that, an idea flashed in Minji's mind.

We cleared it, but don't we have a lot to say to each other?

Minji liked to call herself a magnanimous person, but in reality she was petty and vindictive. It wasn't strange that she held a grudge against the game company that had completely scrapped her one-handed sword saint build and dropped the patch notes the same day without any warning.

"Um… everyone, can I say something?"

The party leader Eder readily handed over the floor to Seongna, who volunteered to speak. If no one else stepped up, he would have had to, but speaking in front of so many people was a burden even for him.

Those who knew exactly what kind of person Minji was began to feel anxious the moment she stepped forward. They worried she was about to say something weird again.

Naturally, Director Jeon Gangseop also grew nervous when Seongna volunteered. He knew she had been holding a grudge. Had he dug his own grave by appearing?

Fortunately—

"First of all… thank you so much to the development team for creating such a fun and cool raid. Thanks to you, I lost track of time and really enjoyed it."

Minji began with a perfectly normal comment.

"I could really feel how much thought went into improving the raid structure that had been criticized as 'cyber guerilla warfare,' and even aside from the difficulty, it was a genuinely enjoyable time."

Jeon Gangseop's tension eased, and a smile appeared on his face. After all, as a developer, nothing was more rewarding than players enjoying the game he made.

"Ah, but there's one thing."

Minji had no intention of only saying nice things about Bolekia.

"The core mechanic of this raid was Perfect Guard… but it was a bit disappointing that you changed its function without any prior notice."

Gangseop hyung. I was going to come find you, but you came to me instead?

"On top of that, the balance issues for certain classes are also a big problem."

So I guess you'll have to take it, right?