Chapter 35

The entire party wiped out due to the last raid boss’s desperate pattern.

This boss is seriously annoying. A mechanic that wipes the party at 1% HP? That means if we fail during farming later, we have to start all over again.

This kind of raid is just plain tedious.

First, let’s think about the boss’s mechanics.

A maggot-like boss made of tree roots suddenly scattered seeds everywhere, and flowers sprouted from them.

But these weren’t just ordinary flowers—the roots started moving and headed toward the boss.

It seemed obvious that the flowers shouldn’t reach the boss, so I told the party members to take care of them.

But as they attacked the flowers, they suddenly started dropping dead one by one.

Wait, are we not supposed to kill the flowers? But it really looked like we had to.

I couldn’t figure it out in the current situation, so I decided to check the recorded footage.

But instead of stopping the recording and playing back the saved video, there’s something much more convenient.

I ran over to Uncle Kang Hangeul.

“Uncle.”

“Yeah? Need something?”

“Can I check the live stream footage for a bit?”

“Sure, I’ll give you access.”

When you’re live-streaming, it’s super easy to rewind a few seconds or minutes, which is really convenient.

I grabbed the camera above Uncle Kang Hangeul and pulled it toward me.

– Arang! Arang! Arang! Arang! Arang!

– Wow, Da Arang!

– LOL, she’s so cute!

– Just looking at her makes me laugh LOL

– From now on, this stream belongs to Arang! LOL

– Good good

– Arang, marry me!

– Today’s the day! LOL

– Her face is unreal.

My face filled the screen, and the viewers’ chat exploded in an instant.

“Hello, everyone~ Long time no see?”

– Yes!

– Hi, Arang~

– Hello!

– Arang, I love you Arang, I love you Arang, I love you!

After a quick greeting to Uncle’s viewers, I opened the stream menu and rewound the footage.

I went back to the moment the last mechanic happened and examined it closely.

The moment the seeds were scattered, a faint aura-like effect burst from the boss.

Then, I noticed a debuff appearing on Uncle Kang Hangeul’s status window at the 11 o’clock position of his screen. I nodded.

This is it.

The funny thing is, Uncle Kang Hangeul kindly checked the debuff and opened the debuff window on the screen.

[Abyssal Red]

[Death upon reaching 3 stacks.]

A simple and concise debuff description: die at 3 stacks. As I kept watching, I realized the flowers the boss scattered were red and blue.

Uncle Kang Hangeul attacked one red flower following my command.

[Abyssal Red] X2

The debuff increased, and after attacking another red flower, it reached 3 stacks, and he died instantly.

I immediately put down the camera, stopped my recording, and checked the footage.

Looking at the timing of the debuff, I noticed a blue debuff appeared on my status window, different from Uncle’s.

As I thought, my debuff stacks increased when I killed blue flowers, and the debuff disappeared when I killed red flowers.

In other words, this mechanic requires you to only attack flowers of the opposite color.

You can attack flowers of the same color as your debuff, but only twice.

At least you don’t die immediately.

I explained the mechanic’s counter-strategy to the party members and started another raid attempt.

We were already familiar with the boss’s minor attack patterns, so we smoothly progressed to 1% HP.

The boss used the same wipe mechanic again, and I quickly checked my debuff, then started eliminating the flowers of the opposite color.

The party members followed suit, and we prevented any flowers from reaching the boss.

As soon as the mechanic ended, the boss collapsed to the ground.

“Did we do it? Ah…!”

I immediately covered my mouth with my left hand. As if responding to my words, the boss started squirming and rapidly extended tree roots in all directions.

‘Wow, the flag retrieval is lightning fast!’

“Everyone, defend!”

I immediately drew my beloved sword, Tashim Sword.

Even though the boss was far away, its tree root attacks surged toward me in an instant.

I bent my knees slightly, lowering my center of gravity, and firmly planted my feet on the solid ground, just like Arang’s favorite footrest.

The boss’s tree roots attacked me.

“Huuu…!”

I took a deep breath and clenched my right hand tightly. As the roots reached me, I focused my eyes.

Time seemed to slow down, and detailed information flooded my brain.

The sheer amount of information made my head throb, but I wasn’t about to give up.

I moved my body sharply to the right, dodging the mass of roots, and forcefully wedged Tashim Sword into the attack trajectory of the root right in front of me.

KAAAAANG! A deafening parry sound and effect shook my brain. As I tried to parry the next attack,

My right arm wouldn’t move due to the vibration.

‘Ah, right. The stun system…!’

I panicked as my right arm froze, and the next attack came rushing in.

In this state, if I tried to dodge or sacrifice my limbs like I usually do, I’d die without avoiding the boss’s attack.

In short, I’d die.

Even though they announced changes to the stun system, I recklessly tried to handle the boss’s attack alone.

With my newbie gear, the spec difference with the boss was too big, and the stun wasn’t wearing off.

As I watched the tree roots coming to kill me and was about to close my eyes, a holy and warm light enveloped me.

KWAHHHHHHHHH!!!

At the moment I thought I’d die, Uncle Palgili’s skill saved me.

My HP didn’t drop at all, but Uncle Palgili lost half of his. He must have used a Paladin skill that takes damage for others.

Thanks to that, I survived and charged at the boss.

A blue impact enveloped Tashim Sword, and I used the remaining Vengeance buff from the forced parry to stab the sword into the boss’s body.

Unlike before, the weakened boss withered instantly as its remaining 1% HP disappeared, and it exploded.

[Entrance to the Abyss] Cleared.

The first raid ended more anticlimactically than I expected.

Even though it’s the first raid, it felt too easy. But then again, it’s the first raid in a virtual world game, so making it too hard would be strange.

I think I need to change my mindset.

No matter how much I pretend not to know, the party members have done this raid so many times that they naturally dodge patterns, attack well, and follow my commands too perfectly, making it feel boring.

At this rate, it’d be more fun to do a raid where no one knows anything.

I originally planned to take it step by step from the first raid, but I think we should just go straight to the latest raid.

==

Beyond the glass wall, visible only from the outside, a massive rectangular access device reached the ceiling, integrated with a bed in the hospital room.

Ian-na looked at her younger sister, Arang, lying on the bed connected to the access device.

Numerous monitoring electrodes checked Arang’s condition, and the access device covered her eyes and neck.

To anyone else, Arang looked like she could die at any moment, but Ian-na was happier than ever.

In the virtual world, Arang had been in a blank, white space, motionless like a doll all day.

But starting with Leore, Arang opened her eyes and began to move. Not just moving, but gradually regaining her former self.

At some point, she started wanting to go outside and has been diligently doing rehabilitation training.

On the large screen hanging on the wall, Arang was seen laughing and talking with people, nestled in the arms of her friend Eunji.

Seeing Eunji patting Arang’s head or hugging her tightly made Anna slightly angry.

When she meets Arang, it’s only outside the virtual world. In reality, Arang isn’t used to her limbless state, making her gloomy and unable to act like that.

‘Arang is my sister…’

Looking at the screen, it seemed like Eunji was the older sister, not her, and Anna felt a bit jealous.

‘Should I play Leore too…’

But she had too much to do right now.

To ensure Arang could live happily in that world without worries, Anna had a lot of responsibilities.

‘Just… just for a little while.’

Anna quickly finished her work, determined to reclaim Arang, and left the hospital room after imprinting the image of the happy Arang in her mind.