Chapter 96: Solo-Quad. A Chaotic Battle
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 96: Solo-Quad. A Chaotic Battle
Checking the map, Seo-un saw the Blue Dragon’s territory marked over the Central Island.
The moment he saw it, a plan he had been brewing resurfaced. The strategy for raiding an Epic Monster—something he hadn't dared to attempt while burdened by teammates—finally clicked into place.
Based on his observations, the Blue Dragon’s appearances followed a consistent pattern:
1. Once it appeared, it wouldn't manifest again for at least twenty-four hours.
2. It would always vanish exactly thirty minutes after unleashing its lightning-fueled wrath.
3. Wherever it appeared, swarms of Winged Snakes would emerge nearby.
Recalling these three characteristics, Seo-un’s body began to fade, merging with the darkness.
He knew from experience that the monkey could see through his Cloak of Stealth. Furthermore, now that the creature had begun its rampage, Seo-un’s primary objective was simply to survive the next twenty-four hours.
‘If I time this right, I can set off a total clusterfuck of a bomb.’
Living up to his title, the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, sent out constant notifications of his successful hunts throughout the day. Following the massacre of over a hundred players, news of survivors being toyed with by the creature poured in incessantly.
The magnetic field narrowed its borders aggressively, signaling that the game had entered its final stage.
It had been two days since Seo-un started camping while monitoring the shrinking field. Over the course of just two shifts, the boundary had forced more than half of the Central Island into play.
His scouting the previous night revealed that the Twin brothers' squad was currently facing off against sixty allied enemies over the Seondong Stone.
‘What the hell is that monkey thinking?’
For some reason, the monkey had stopped hunting since yesterday.
Moving through the valley terrain, alternating between ponds and forested hills, Seo-un finally spotted what he had been desperately searching for: a swarm of about a dozen Winged Snakes.
He cautiously followed them as they flew low toward their destination, when a voice drifted from beside him.
"I knew we'd meet again."
The moment the voice reached his ears, Seo-un opened his mouth.
"Hum-ni-chin-ya-cha-pa-ha, Hum-ni-chin-ya-cha-pa-ha, Hum-chi-hum-chi..."
Without even turning his head, he reflexively spat out the incantation. The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, who had been flying leisurely beside Seo-un with his head resting on his hand, plummeted to the ground.
"Aaaargh!"
Hearing the creature's scream, Seo-un called out to Hamit.
‘Hamit!’
[Bringing it out. Bringing it out.]
As the roulette wheel appeared and began to spin, Seo-un felt more desperate than ever.
[Rattle, rattle, rattle... Ding! Resurrection. Hehe, it finally showed up! Though it looks like the master is in a situation where one life won't be enough. Use it well.]
The skill Seo-un had actually wanted was Forced Strike. He had hoped to bind the monkey to keep him away, but he had ended up with Resurrection—a skill with an abysmal drop rate among all the roulette options.
‘Fine. Nothing’s better than this for shedding aggro.’
Seo-un realized that his chaotic plan might actually be completed by this very skill.
As he ran after the Winged Snakes, he repeatedly chanted the Headband Tightening Spell. Every time he did, the creature nearby would falter with a scream.
"Grrr! You brat! You don't know what's coming for you!"
The Golden Headband manifested clearly atop the monkey's head. Even as he clutched his skull with both hands, the creature stubbornly pursued Seo-un.
"Are your abilities restricted on the island? You're quite different from how you were outside."
Since he was already prepared for death, Seo-un began to provoke him openly.
"You!!! A mere human dares!!"
Stung by the truth, the creature stomped the ground with explosive force, his figure blurring as he instantly closed the distance.
The moment the creature reached out his hand, the Headband Tightening Spell rang out without fail.
"Gaaah!"
Watching the creature struggle to move while trembling, Seo-un’s face turned pale. He tore a recovery scroll.
The creature had only grazed him, yet his wrist had been torn clean off. He used three recovery scrolls in a row, but the severed wrist refused to regenerate.
Looking at his missing left hand, Seo-un regained some color in his face and grit his teeth.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Seo-un checked the map and changed direction, sprinting toward the center where the Seondong Stone was located.
The players preparing for the final battle over the Seondong Stone looked at Seo-un’s approach with confusion, only to see the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, following close behind.
Seo-un ran with all his might as he watched the faces of the remaining survivors turn gaunt with terror.
The monkey also seemed to be gradually adapting to the first half of the Headband Tightening Spell; though he staggered, he began to close the gap.
"Maybe we should pull out now..."
Just as Verus was about to nod at his teammate's suggestion, Skus spoke up.
"Doesn't that look a bit strange?"
He had intuitively understood the situation: the Great Sage was ignoring all other players to chase only Seo-un.
"Hehe. It looks like he tried to pay back what he owed but got bitten instead."
Just as a sneer spread across Verus's face, Seo-un sprinted right between the two opposing factions. Both sides stood frozen, simply watching the scene unfold.
"How desperate must he be to flee into the Blue Dragon's range? Has he lost his mind enough to stop checking the map?"
Someone’s mocking laughter followed.
Every player instinctively felt that the game was reaching its climax. The two groups were just about to clash in a 60-versus-8 battle.
The moment Seo-un entered the Blue Dragon's range, which was barely hanging onto the edge of the magnetic field, Son Oh-gong shouted.
"Do you think you can hide behind the Blue Dragon!"
"You talk too much for a monkey!"
As soon as Seo-un finished speaking, the surroundings grew dark, and the air crackled with the static of an impending lightning strike.
Simultaneously, the Winged Snakes that had been hiding everywhere took to the sky fiercely.
The Great Sage leaped into the air, following Seo-un, who had climbed onto the back of one of the snakes. The snake, which had been trying to buck Seo-un off, suddenly became docile when Seo-un’s appearance transformed into that of the Great Sage.
"Fly toward the Blue Dragon!"
The creature trembled with primal fear but did not dare refuse the Great Sage's command, soaring higher into the sky.
Rumble!
The Blue Dragon's wrath began.
Seo-un’s eyes narrowed as he flew upward, praying the lightning wouldn't strike him. His heart hammered against his ribs as he pierced through the thick mist and saw the massive body of the Blue Dragon coiling and twisting in the air.
An instinctive terror gripped his entire body.
‘I’ve come too far to stop now.’
Holding Hamit, who had transformed into the Ruyi Staff, Seo-un dove toward the Blue Dragon's head. Even the Great Sage, who had barely managed to keep up, stopped and screamed in fury.
"What are you trying to do! You madman!"
When he was about twenty meters above the Blue Dragon's head, Seo-un’s eyes moved frantically. Amidst the mane fluttering behind the dragon's neck, a single scale growing in the opposite direction—the Reverse Scale—caught his eye.
In that instant, Hamit extended and struck the back of the Blue Dragon's neck.
Boom!
The moment the Ruyi Staff, infused with all of Seo-un’s internal energy, accurately struck the Reverse Scale, the Blue Dragon twisted its body and let out a monstrous shriek.
KUHAAAAAAA!
The roar was so immense that even the players in the middle of their battle cast startled glances toward the Blue Dragon's territory.
"You're just a green lizard! What are you going to do about it?!!!"
Despite the roar that froze his entire body, Seo-un squeezed out his internal energy and shouted at the top of his lungs. Then, turning the Winged Snake's head, he said urgently:
"Run for it. Both our lives depend on this."
The battle that had been heating up toward its conclusion came to a sudden halt. One by one, the players lowered their weapons and looked in one direction, their faces turning pale.
"N-no way..."
It was rare for warriors to lose their will to fight in the middle of a life-or-death struggle. However, it was impossible to focus on a fight after hearing a heart-shrinking roar and seeing the Blue Dragon emerge from the mist.
"T-that's..."
"What on earth is happening?"
As Seo-un led the Blue Dragon toward the cluster of players, the faces of Skus and the Verus brothers turned white.
"That lunatic..."
"R-run—"
Before Verus could finish his order, Seo-un shouted.
His voice, infused with internal energy, rang out like thunder as he kicked off the desperately flapping snake and charged head-on at the Blue Dragon.
"I'm a clone! You stupid lizard!"
CRACKLE!
As he swung the Ruyi Staff, Seo-un was electrocuted right in front of the Blue Dragon's nose, his entire body charred black instantly.
No one paid any attention to his corpse as it plummeted to the ground. The enraged Blue Dragon's gaze fixed on the nearby Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, who was gripping his own Ruyi Staff with a grim expression, cursing the now-dead Seo-un.
KUHAAAAAAA!
"I told you it wasn't me! What? Monkey?! You lizard piece of shit!"
The Great Sage, who had been covering his ears against the roar, seemed to understand the dragon's words and shouted back as he charged at the beast.
"E-everyone, get away! Get out of the range!"
Red lightning began to rain down like a deluge. As the clash of titans began, the players tried to scatter, but it was futile. With the massive Blue Dragon sweeping across the ground while fighting the Great Sage, they couldn't tell which direction was safe.
Furthermore, the intermittent rain of red lightning from the sky only added to the chaos.
"Guh!"
In the midst of it all, Seo-un, resurrected in his original form, rolled across the ground and pulled on his Cloak of Stealth.
[Master. It's a complete asura realm of chaos.]
Just as Hamit said, the sight of the massive Blue Dragon upending everything was pure pandemonium. Even then, Seo-un kept his eyes on the Seondong Stone.
‘It’s not over yet.’
Risking his life to approach, a notification rang out the moment Seo-un touched the Seondong Stone.
[Ding! The Seondong Stone is beginning to activate. You are a squad that has activated another Seondong Stone. Activation time for the Seondong Stone is reduced.]
"Who is it! Protect the Seondong Stone!"
Someone shouted, but in a situation where even escaping was difficult, protecting the stone was impossible.
*
"Whoa... He's actually doing that?"
At Gi-chan's words, his colleagues watching the screen swallowed hard.
"It's insane. No matter how you look at it, it's a suicide mission with no chance of winning!" Dump shouted, sounding agitated. Every team member nodded in agreement.
Yet, no one could take their eyes off Seo-un’s play. They watched with sweaty palms, drawn in by the sight of him unhesitatingly committing an act everyone deemed insane.
When he finally resurrected and touched the Seondong Stone, Li Min’s eyes widened to their limits.
"This is unbelievable..."
"If I knew it would turn out like this, we should have taken one more auxiliary island!" Dump shouted regretfully, but it was already in the past. No one had expected things to unfold this way.
*
"Skus! We have to go toward the Seondong Stone!"
"Are you crazy? We'll all die if we go now!"
"Our survival rate is low even if we run away like this!"
BOOM!
The Blue Dragon's head slammed into the ground right next to the two men, creating a deafening roar. Skus, struck by the dragon's horn, was sent tumbling violently across the ground, while Verus grimaced and turned toward the Seondong Stone.
Amidst the pitch-black surroundings, the glowing Seondong Stone caught his eye. Though he flinched at the flashing lightning, he stared toward the stone, but he couldn't see any players.
Inevitably thinking of the Cloak of Stealth, he drew his flaming sword and began to run.
Seo-un’s figure was spat out of the darkness as he blocked a sword strike aimed to cleave him in half.
Clang!
Holding the Seondong Stone firmly with one hand and barely blocking with the other, his entire body shook, and he was blown sideways like a leaf in the wind. He only managed to avoid being thrown far away because he was gripping the stone so tightly.
"Cough!"
His internal energy recoiled, and he vomited a mouthful of blood.
"You lunatic! It was you!" Verus glared at Seo-un with eyes filled with rage.
"An eye for an eye, you son of a bitch." Even as he spat out blood, Seo-un smirked.
"You're laughing after causing all this mess? I'll split you in two!"
Seo-un didn't close his eyes, even as he stared straight at the glowing sword descending toward his head. It wasn't over until it was over.
Clang!
With a clear metallic ring, the sword that seemed destined to bisect Seo-un was deflected.
"Asshole. I popped a buff."
[All basic stats increase by 5x. Special stats increase by 2x.]
The sword falling toward his head didn't exactly move in slow motion, but it felt so agonizingly slow that he felt he could have dodged it three times over.
Rip!
As he thrust out his Blood Bone Claw, he tore through the armor and the arm of the man who had barely managed to react.
"Verus!!!"
Skus belatedly rushed in, swinging his sword at Seo-un.
Clang!
Seo-un, who had been knocked back in a single blow last time, stood firm like a great tree rooted in the earth, causing Skus's expression to freeze.
Crack!
When Seo-un grabbed the blocked sword with his hand and snapped it, Skus's face hardened into a mask of shock.
Verus, glancing briefly at his bleeding arm, shook his head. "That's not a buff, it's a cheat."
No more words were needed.
Instead of answering, Seo-un launched himself forward. Feeling as if he had become a gust of wind, he moved so fast that the two men could barely track him.
Crack! Rip!
A helmet was shattered, and Verus's breastplate was sharply torn. It was a simple stat increase, yet Seo-un felt a surge of exhilaration as if his very realm of existence had ascended several stages.
Just as he passed the two brothers and prepared to turn back and strike them, a deep shadow fell over him.
BOOOOOOM!
The two men stood dazed as the massive body of the Blue Dragon crashed down upon the enemy who had been charging at them.
"He's dead, right?"
"You're not human if you survive being crushed by that."
As the thrashing Blue Dragon moved on and no trace of Seo-un remained, the two men tensed up, only for a killing intent to drop onto their heads.
Clang!
The two men barely managed to raise their swords to defend their heads, their knees slamming into the ground. The technique that hadn't worked on Skus before landed perfectly this time.
Screeeech!
As his fingertips turned crimson, the two men's swords shrieked under the pressure.
"Now!"
The two men simultaneously extended their legs to push Seo-un away, but Seo-un flipped in mid-air and kicked both of them in the chest.
As they staggered back, he lunged forward with Gale Step, flying like the wind.
Clang!
Once he unleashed the Muryeong Phantom Step, the two were helpless. It was hard enough to deal with one person, but with twelve blurred figures of Seo-un passing by them, they couldn't react.
Rip!
Every time the real body passed, their armor was shattered or torn, yet they had no way to stop him.
Realizing this couldn't continue, Verus leaped into the air, radiating a blue light. He intended to crash down and plunge his sword into the ground, but Seo-un appeared before him in an instant and threw a punch at his sword.
‘Spinning Strike.’
Now that he was certain he could overwhelm his opponent with pure strength, he felt Spinning Strike would be more than effective.
Sure enough, the sword he was driving into the ground with all his might was knocked aside, leaving Verus's chest wide open as he fell.
Thwack!
With a sickening sound, Seo-un’s fist pierced through Verus's chest and emerged from his back. Vomiting thick blood, Verus's head slumped.
Whoosh!
When Seo-un used Spinning Strike again to knock away the falling sword, shock spread across Skus's face.
Crunch!
Without listening to whatever Skus was trying to stammer, Seo-un crushed his head.
Seeing Seo-un’s brutal efficiency, several nearby players hesitated, simply watching him. In the meantime, the magnetic field was shrinking, leaving nowhere left to run.
And then, the 2-on-1 match began.
Leaping off the Blue Dragon's body, Seo-un threw a punch at the Great Sage. At first, the Blue Dragon seemed to want to shake Seo-un off, but realizing they shared a common enemy, it actually moved its body to assist him.
"Hum-ni-chin-ya-cha-pa-ha..."
Chanting the Headband Tightening Spell, he rained attacks down on the creature's sturdy body.
Crack! Thud!
After striking the creature suspended in the air and landing back on the prepared body of the Blue Dragon, the creature began to go berserk.
"You damned human!!!"
CRACKLE!
A bolt of red lightning struck the Great Sage squarely. White smoke began to drift from his scorched fur. One didn't need words to know he had lost his reason to pure rage.
Seo-un could clearly see the creature flying toward him, swinging the Ruyi Staff. It was incredible speed, but he could react to it.
CLANG!
A long resonance spread from the Ruyi Staff as it struck Seo-un’s arm. The expressions of the two clashing atop the Blue Dragon were polar opposites. Seo-un, who had blocked the staff, was smirking, while the Great Sage looked wide-eyed and shocked.
‘This buff high is incredible.’
Rip!
The Great Sage's armor was torn away, exposing his shoulder. For the first time, the Great Sage retreated a significant distance and screamed.
"If only it weren't for the suppression!"
The creature vented his frustration at not being able to exert his full power due to the island's restrictions, but for Seo-un, it was a blessing.
The Blue Dragon's massive tail slammed down like a whip onto the screaming creature's head.
Boom!
Seo-un dropped down toward the creature who had been slammed into the ground. He drove his fist into him, but the creature sprang back up even after taking the hit.
"You're tough as hell."
Seo-un clenched and unclenched his aching fist before waving his hand and stepping back.
"I'll devour you!"
Clang! Clang!
Every time he blocked the Ruyi Staff, Seo-un’s bones vibrated along with the staff. The pain was intensifying, and the internal injuries he had suppressed with the temporary boost in internal energy began to flare up again.
Just then, lightning struck the Great Sage once more, and Seo-un moved his lips instead of his body.
"Hum-ni-chin-ya-cha-pa-ha..."
"Aaaaaargh!"
The moment the fur on the creature's exposed shoulder was scorched, mysterious characters flickered briefly on his skin. Simultaneously, Seo-un’s Blood Bone Claw lunged toward that shoulder.
Crunch!
For the first time, his attack dug into the Great Sage's body. Instead of red blood, petrification began to spread from the shoulder through the creature's body, and Seo-un intuitively knew the fight was over.
As the creature collapsed to the ground, his body hardening, the Blue Dragon looked down at Seo-un, who had fought alongside it for a moment. After a brief, awkward eye contact, the dragon turned its head as if conceding the finishing blow.
As the Blue Dragon roared toward the sky and ascended with its wounded body, the Great Sage remained stubborn to the end.
"How dare a mere human! Place me beneath your feet?!"
"How dare a mere monkey keep flapping your gums? You almost got me killed because of your antics."
Boom!
He drove the Blood Bone Claw into the Great Sage's head with his maximum power, but his hand only vibrated painfully; the creature didn't have a single scratch.
‘This monster really wasn't meant to be caught.’
Seo-un quickly used his foot to block the creature's moving mouth and drove his fist into the already petrified torso.
"Mmph! Mmph!!"
Crack!
As he drove the Boundless Fist Penetrating Strike into the torso of the struggling creature, the body shattered instantly, and the creature vanished in a cloud of white smoke.
[Ding! A clone of the Epic Monster, Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, has been hunted. Glory to Jin Seo-un’s squad!]
With the hunt over, the enemies who had gathered together were eyeing the items dropped by the Great Sage with greedy eyes instead of running away.
20-on-1.
Was it because they were blinded by the items? They seemed to think they had a chance. Their intention was clear: if there was nowhere left to run, they might as well grab the items.
In the ensuing fierce battle, Seo-un killed everyone, leaving only one person barely alive.
[You have obtained a fragment of the Great Sage's Soul Stone.]
[You have obtained the latter half of the Headband Tightening Spell.]
[You have obtained the Great Sage's Yoseonsul.]
After tucking the three items into his subspace, he began to leisurely farm, opening the boxes scattered around one by one.
"Oh! A martial art like this?"
As he walked through the chaotic surroundings opening boxes, the player whose limbs were twisted in every direction watched him piteously.
"This looks like something Gi-chan could use..."
After farming and picking up numerous items one by one, Seo-un stepped on and crushed the head of the last remaining enemy.
[Ding-ding-ding-ding! Cloyd Survival has ended.]
[Ta-da-da-da-da-da! Congratulations on becoming the final squad!]
You have qualified for the next game.
You receive the primary reward for this game.