Chapter 47

It’s been a week since the last season of this expansion was updated.

During that week, I managed to max out my [Assassin].

I didn’t max out [Assassin] by studying it, but rather by just grinding dungeons mindlessly, so I don’t know much about [Assassin]. I just spammed skills and ran through dungeons.

I plan to study the [Assassin] class after I finish the final raid with [Soma] and gear up properly.

The announcement for the final raid of the season has already been made. The raid is coming next Thursday.

Now, it’s time to start checking the raid party for the upcoming raid.

This raid is a 12-player raid.

First, our guild has a total of 10 members going to the raid. Unfortunately, 2 members can’t participate due to real-life commitments, so they won’t be able to join the attempts.

So, the remaining 2 spots will be filled by my friend, Kang Hangeul (Uncle), and his guild member, Mozzawaper, who I ran dungeons with before.

This raid requires a total of 3 parties of 4 players each.

We need 3 tanks, 6 DPS, and 3 healers. Usually, when playing a raid, it’s important to know how many parties are needed based on the 4-player party standard. Once you exceed 2 parties, it becomes a raid group.

Back in Leore, there used to be 16-player, 20-player, and even 24-player raids, but now 12-player and 16-player raids are pretty much the standard.

For this raid group, the main tank is, of course, Sunchoo (Unnie). The main healer is Pinkubelly (Unnie). The main DPS is Kang Hangeul (Uncle).

And naturally, I’ll be the raid leader.

Sure, it’s my guild, and I gathered the members, but honestly, the role of a raid leader is huge, difficult, and important when it comes to raid attempts.

But the fact that they casually handed the raid leader position to a 15-year-old like me without hesitation is both baffling and makes me think everyone’s a bit crazy.

Honestly, our raid group isn’t exactly the best combination. We don’t have many classes with strong party synergy, and we have a lot of pure DPS.

Out of the 6 DPS, 3 are pure DPS, which is a truly *fantastic* combination. Usually, a raid group uses at most 2 pure DPS, with the standard being 1.

But 3? Really?

On top of that, both me and Kang Hangeul (Uncle) are playing [Soma], so our classes overlap.

Usually, in situations like this, there are only two outcomes.

Either the pure DPS players are insanely good and the damage is more than enough, or if even one of them underperforms, the damage falls short.

But this time, I’m not worried.

The current pure DPS are [Grim Reaper] Baedeokgae, [Mage] Mozzawaper, and [Berserker] Shin Chang-seop Jeong Sang-hwa.

All of them are top-tier DPS players in Leore logs, so I’m not worried about damage at all.

The problem is when the raid requires a specific class. If that happens, we’ll deal with it.

Thursday, August 8th. 4 PM.

Right after the Leore raid update ended, we all gathered at the raid starting point.

Of course, I saw countless raid groups gathered to enjoy the raid.

Among them, I also spotted some famous raid groups.

Leore currently has the overwhelmingly largest player base among virtual world RPG games.

And it’s not just in Korea—it has a massive player base globally.

Even though the servers aren’t connected, every patch or update happens on the same day, based on Korean time, across all servers worldwide.

The titles given for 1st to 10th place aren’t per server but are given globally, with only 10 titles across all servers, so raid groups from every country race to earn them.

That’s why so many people watch to see which raid group will get the Perfect Clear or earn the titles.

The viewer count is surprisingly high, so raid groups often stream and receive sponsorships or ads.

Of course, our raid group doesn’t have that!

This is the first raid group formed for this raid, so there’s no way we’d have that.

I’m not aiming for WFK (World First Kill) this time.

WFK isn’t something you can achieve just by wanting it.

Right now, my goal is to make it into the top 10. Usually, the raid groups going for WFK are the ones who go all-in on the game.

They use their 16-hour access time entirely for raid attempts, then spend the remaining time eating and sleeping before jumping back into another 16-hour attempt. They repeat this until they clear.

Honestly, the preparation time for this raid is very short, and this is the first time I’m raiding with this group, so we haven’t even had time to sync up.

Of course, I’m not saying I don’t have any desire for WFK. But not right now.

Currently, most WFKs come from Europe.

Because of that, Korean players feel a lot of regret that WFKs don’t come from Korea, even though it’s a Korean game.

The only time Korea got a WFK was shortly after Leore’s release, when there weren’t many overseas players. Since then, as Leore gained global popularity, Korea hasn’t been able to secure a WFK.

Many Korean raid groups have tried to aim for WFK, but it hasn’t been easy.

Real-life commitments are the biggest hurdle.

Can you make a living off Leore alone? No matter how much the game evolves and gains popularity, Korea hasn’t changed much.

The perception of gaming isn’t that positive.

In Europe, Leore raid groups have basically become professional gaming teams.

They receive sponsorships and play like real pro gamers. But Korean raid groups don’t have sponsors.

Currently, there are quite a few virtual world games with professional gamers.

To name the most famous ones, there’s the RTS genre game *Space War*, which was around when the pro gamer profession first emerged.

Then there’s the AOS genre game *Chaota*, which is still loved by many.

And then there’s the MMORPG, Leore.

*Space War* and *Chaota* have sponsored pro teams in Korea, but Leore doesn’t.

Many people attribute this to the seasonality of Leore.

*Space War* and *Chaota* always have tournaments and leagues.

So, people always enjoy watching teams or pro gamers play through broadcasts.

But Leore?

People only watch from when the raid is released until WFK is achieved, which can be as short as 2 weeks or as long as a month.

Once WFK is achieved by another raid group, interest drops sharply. And once it’s cleared, there’s no reason to watch anymore.

Since raids only come out seasonally and are exposed to people for a short period of a month, Korean sponsors don’t favor Leore.

Because of that, there are very few players in Korea who can set aside a long time to play Leore for WFK.

So, Korean raid groups focus more on enjoying and playing the raid rather than aiming for WFK.

Of course, there are Korean raid groups that aim for WFK, but they haven’t seen much success.

Well, WFK isn’t that important.

What’s important is enjoying the game. Ah, but the titles are a bit tempting.

That’s why my goal is to make it into the top 10.

“Is everyone ready?”

In front of the giant hole made of yellow cordyceps wriggling from the queen ant’s neck.

In front of the members of the newly formed [Arang Arang] raid group, I placed my hands on my hips and puffed out my chest.

“Yes!!!”

The raid members nodded with smiles.

I opened the menu at the raid entrance, where other raid groups had already disappeared to attempt their clears, and pressed the enter button.

==

This raid has a total of 4 bosses, according to the update notes.

Raids reset once a week, so our raid group’s goal this week is to clear 2 bosses.

As soon as we entered the raid, there was a time limit that wasn’t there before.

16:00

15:59

Looking at the time, we have 16 hours, so it doesn’t seem like a problem.

“Why was this added?”

The reactions from the raid members around me.

I think it might have been added because of me.

The first boss immediately revealed itself.

Without any trash mob sections, right after entering the raid, there was a giant tree in the middle of the massive map.

If it weren’t for the boss marker above it, I would’ve thought it was just a tree.

[Parasite Hatchery]

[■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■]

Just looking at it, it’s obvious that inside this seemingly ordinary giant tree, the cordyceps that controlled the queen ant are swarming.

It hasn’t even been 30 minutes since the raid was released.

Of course, there’s no information, and I didn’t bother looking. We’re all on the same starting line anyway.

“Everyone, check your buffs, potions, and food.”

I checked my class buffs, alchemy potions for stat boosts, and food buffs, then pressed the attack preparation button.

Ding.

Once everyone confirmed, Sunchoo set a 15-second countdown.

Tick. Tick.

The timer ticked down in front of everyone’s eyes.

When it hit 1 second, and “START!” appeared, Sunchoo led the charge as everyone rushed toward the boss.