Chapter 384

The morning dawned.

A Moonlight Soul user who was casually enjoying the game posted on the community.

[Oh, this update seems really good?]

I heard they changed the combat algorithm, so I went to clear it on normal difficulty, and the boss’s HP was halved, and it felt like the attack power was weaker, making it much easier to clear.

The clearing time was similar to before, but it gave 135pp instead of 124pp.

Maybe the boss’s patterns became more complicated?

I was just hitting while taking all the hits, and it felt doable.

What do you guys think?

I thought it was great for watching, and personally, I considered it a god patch.

[Comments]

– Ah, normal players are going to get a beating, haha!

– Just look around the community for 10 seconds.

– As long as you’re happy, that’s what matters.

– Don’t you see how the morning round has been annihilated?

– Normal has become easier. I’m jealous, lol.

“What’s wrong with these guys?”

All the comments were sharp.

Usually, the veterans were anxious to help new players, but now they were having a meltdown.

The Moonlight Soul newbie with 200 hours of playtime witnessed a devastating scene.

[Resonance – Moonlight Soul]

[Hey, is this for real?]

[Dragon Slayer Gale Pattern Info]

[What the hell is this? What the hell is this? What the hell?]

[At this moment, re-evaluating this guy]

[“I admit it, you are strong enough.”]

[All because of one person, the country is falling apart, haha.]

[I’ve been stuck on phase 1 for 10 hours, help!]

[In the end, Gale will become a joke sooner or later.]

[‘Gale’ ← If you understand how to defeat a real dragon with bare hands, then thumbs up, lol.]

[Gale Combat Summary.jpg]

[Now, all the puzzles are fitting together.]

[Reasons why there’s absolutely no need to be anxious in the afternoon round, for real.jpg]

(The Dragon Slayer Gale successfully parrying five times in a row.jpg)

Because the morning round was annihilated.

In the end, the starting line is the same, I mean!

[Comments]

– At this point, I can’t tell who the protagonist is, haha!

– Just let yourself be the protagonist, Gale.

– The boss that parries like it’s nothing, what a nightmare, lol!

– Oh, the HP is down; is that a good thing? (x) Oh, even if the HP goes down, I still can’t hit! (o)

– Just thinking about how the afternoon rounds are going to panic makes my heart race.

└ I admit it, I’m a hatchling who died to Gale.

The newbies didn’t feel a huge difference.

Rather, since the instant death patterns decreased, the perceived difficulty of clearing was much lower.

They became addicted to the thrill of casually dominating a boss that looked cool with their sword and magic.

However, hardcore gamers challenging themselves were frustrated.

With patterns that seemed never-ending despite opening a notepad, impossible timing, and psychological warfare more intense than PVP.

Thinking about whether there might be some gains from checking out other games yielded no results; it was no different than here.

[Resonance – Fever Dream]

[I’m scared of Delphoi, I feel like I can’t even look at a full moon nowㅠㅠㅠㅠ]

[Isn’t this a bug character? No damage is being registered!]

[Old Delphoi = mosquito, now Delphoi = ruler of a thousand years]

[Phase 2, I feel like I’m about to go insane;;]

Sometimes, even when news of clearings came in, they were just using shortcuts.

[Resonance – Battlefield New Generation]

[Experiment IRIS 12-hour clear confirmation.jpg]

(10-star Friend Shield.jpg)

After escaping the boss room, they crossed the Atlantic to Washington.

(President Newsom meeting.jpg)

In Chapter 2, they simply dropped the nuclear bomb they’d saved up and cleared it easily.

(Experiment IRIS death.jpg)

I was worried I might get a nuclear immunity judgment, so I was nervous, lol.

Are you sending me some conceptual writings?

[Comments]

– You should try to climb up to Silve, haha!

– You sacrificed all the comrades who saved you throughout the chapter here, lol!

– What a devilish plan. Are you even human after doing that?

– How many days did it take in-game time?

└ (Author): 9 days since escaping the boss room. In the end, the casualties exceeded 50,000.

└ If so, this clear has no meaning, haha!

└ (Author): Yeah, that’s why it only gave 40ppㅠㅠㅠ It was considered hardcore.

– Is there a nuclear immunity assessment?

└ If you dig down at a low probability, you can survive.

– I also thought about dropping a nuclear bomb after getting hit by the boss, but there was an actual crazy person who did it, haha!

Thanks to the rankers dying hundreds of times each, a variety of patterns emerged.

While the differences between games varied, roughly between 50 to 100 variations.

And since not all of them overlapped, it was speculated that the original AI included far more data.

[I think it’s good that true rankers and ranker wannabes were filtered through this opportunity.][95]

It’s almost been a day, and the Puckle still hasn’t been released, so I think the developers all banded together seriously.

I suspect that the headquarters threatened them to make it difficult.

But I think it’s a decent system to prevent those who can’t clear the game at all instead of ranking times simply by anyone clearing it.

Honestly, have the Resonance-type games been all skilled games up until now? No, they haven’t.

It was a luck-based game that was a disaster until you got lucky enough to get a pattern that was favorable for time reduction.

I hope that making hardcore difficult will lead to more users who initially shied away from the challenge or veteran difficulty.

Rankers should refer to Namé’s videos and quickly bring guides!

[WishEZ]

[New Insane Battle AI Preview | Resonance][80 million views]

[Comments]

– During this time, the ranker wannabes have been way too harsh.

– Wow, Namé and Namé have united the ROL gallery, Moon gallery, and now the RGL gallery, close to conquering them all.

– Bringing in winners of national exchanges to train the AI has produced a monster, haha!

– Pure rankers will probably clear it by tomorrow?

– The real-time insert broadcast viewer count was at 40,000; that’s insane, wow.

– It’s not even a DLC, and just changing some boss patterns set the whole community ablaze.

– They clearly don’t care about the storyline, lol! As long as they get lots of PP and equipment, they’re good.

– I watched that video, but it didn’t help much. It’s better to use it just for ideas.

* * *

In Twish, the Resonance wave swept through.

In a world divided into three, it was no surprise that trends would cycle back around.

[Han Yongcheol]

[Resonance (Moonlight Soul) – Dragon Slayer Slayer]

[Broadcast Time – 10:39:07]

[Viewer Count – 22,528]

The game broadcast started at midnight and continued until morning.

Streamer Han Yongcheol, who was now approaching his mid-30s, wasn’t pleased with the popularity of difficult games.

[YOU DIED]

“Ah. Everyone, doesn’t it seem like there’s no answer for veterans, so would it be too much to change it to easy difficulty?”

[‘Magic Conch’ donated 50,000 won!]

– No way.

“Yup…! I’ll do my best as Han Yongcheol, who will become the Dragon Slayer Slayer…!”

An individual couldn’t go against the flow of the times.

On the contrary, if he just rode the current well, he could still hit a viewer count of over 20,000 even at 10 AM on a weekday.

– The difficulty spikes significantly from veteran.

– Easy has become much easier.

– Hardcore is just hopeless.

– Gale is really too strong, haha!

– It seems like it’ll be hard to clear without a brain proxy.

– Why did I freeze up there? So frustrating.

There were nothing special comments from the viewers.

Yongcheol swallowed his tears inside and prepared to hit the retry button again.

[‘What should my ID be’ donated 10,000 won!]

– How about requesting a brain proxy from No Name by phone? You have a contact, right?

In front of the boss room that had brought countless frustrations, a viewer proposed an idea they couldn’t hold back.

“Eh? Why would I contact them…”

Yongcheol shook his hand in surprise.

“Now, I feel like I’m way out of my league to contact that person?”

No Name, who was reigning supreme in South Korea.

Moreover, having gained titles of a high sorcerer and clan leader, they had become someone entirely different in the world.

Viewers exchanged various words.

Some said, “But we’re champions together in the competition, so isn’t it okay to call?” while others disagreed, saying calling was a nuisance.

“But I definitely can’t clear this alone. Should I just be crazy and try calling?”

[‘Mapo Bridge’ donated 10,000 won!]

– Why is the great Han Yongcheol being so talkative?

Groupthink instills optimistic thoughts and confidence.

“Well then, let’s agree to call once, and if it rings three times and they don’t pick up, we’ll hang up immediately. What do you think?”

– Yup.

– Sounds good.

– I agree.

– Seems like we’re keeping some boundaries?

– Smart young man.

The viewers approved of Yongcheol’s clear negotiation.

He stopped the game for a moment and made the call.

Drrrr—

One second felt like an eternity.

Drrrr-tick

“…!”

Before the second tone ended, the call was connected.

[Hello?]

An unmistakably childlike voice flowed through the speaker.

“Ah, this is streamer Han Yongcheol. I’m currently in a broadcast! Can we talk?”

– Why are you being so polite?

– Why is No Name’s voice so cute? Haha!

– It’s really a kid.

– A streamer 24 years younger, wow.

– That’s a double generation gap, insane, haha!

[Oh, yes. I can talk for a moment. Maybe around 10 to 15 minutes?]

Positive news. But the “a moment” raised concern.

[‘Daein’ donated 3,000 won!]

– First, get into the boss room. Then quickly ask the key questions.

With the nudging of the viewers, Yongcheol entered the boss room.

An open Colosseum with a sky ceiling.

The night sky was brilliantly beautiful, as if stars were pouring down, and the artistic sculptures scattered throughout added grandeur.

“I’ll get straight to the point since you’re short on time! I’ve been trying the final boss in Moonlight Soul for 10 hours and can’t clear it at all, so could you please give me some solid strategies or tips? I beg you!”

Clang clang—

The clattering of silver plate armor.

A greatsword embedded with red jewels and shadows of smoke rising up were illuminated one after another.

[Dragon Slayer Gale]

The damned knight flashed a ruthless gaze and sharpened his sword.

“Thank you for watching the Twish broadcast! Hraaah!”

Kwahhh—!

Before Yongcheol finished speaking, he threw his body to the side.

The massive metal sword came crashing down.

The great sword beyond what a human can handle.

[Oh, yes, please wait a moment.]

“Time is running out…! How am I supposed to hit this thing? Please explain!”

A boss that shatters the one-hit, one-timing formula.

To just land a single hit, he had to avoid at least 5 to as many as 10 patterns.

There was no time to load ranged weapons.

Yongcheol continued rolling, and a voice of salvation came to him.

[Well, I don’t know the game well. Do you have any skills you can use? Or just regular attacks?]

“I have a tornado magic that pushes back opponents, a gravitational magic that pulls them in, lightning-charging magic for my sword, and an ice shotgun that slows the enemy from a distance.”

[Shotgun?]

“Yes, but the shotgun takes over 5 seconds to charge, so I can’t use it during the boss fight—”

Paah—

Yongcheol dodged again, hiding behind a rock.

As Gale lowered his arm, the immense magical power contained in the great sword sliced the ground in a straight line.

The solid rock shattered into pieces, raining down like debris.

After the silence, Namé spoke up.

[The viewers just told me in the chat about its lead-in timing… Let’s fight while keeping one tornado in mind. First, close the distance with your sword.]

“Eh? Not running away?”

[Defend against the downward strike, then slash from the right with the sword.]

Thud thud thud thud—

There was no room to think.

Yongcheol braced himself against the Dragon Slayer’s sword head-on.

[You can ignore the second attack.]

Normally, he would need to prepare for the follow-up attacks, but he followed Namé’s advice, throwing caution to the wind.

Closing his eyes in fear was a bonus.

“Hraaah!”

Thud—

A satisfying hit sound he hadn’t heard in a while rang out.

“Oh!”

– Wow, that was sick, haha!

– Soul-like games can be played with a brain proxy?

– It was possible to break the pattern!

– No Name! No Name! No Name! No Name!

[Recapture and defend. I’m going to go up now, so hold the handle tight.]

“What? Wait a minute…!”

Clang—

The sword bounced upward.

“Whoa!”

[Hold on. The upper left is vacant now.]

“Where? Huh?”

[Stop. Defend again.]

“Wait! I can’t keep up, teacher!”

The rapid switching of commands was too fast.

Han Yongcheol, who struggled to control his body, kept murmuring weakly.

[Um…ehem…]

A low nasal sound came from Namé.

[Got it. Be ready to parry on the next pattern. You can block the three consecutive hits with your sensitivity, and if a timing mismatch occurs on the fourth, let’s try to parry then. But it might not happen.]

As Yongcheol didn’t follow his thoughts, the predicted future of what would happen began to widen.

With Namé’s amazing foresight, Yongcheol gained confidence and deflected the boss’s sword strike.

He squinted, focusing all his senses on Gale’s hand.

The fourth strike.

A timing mismatch.

[Now.]

“Now!”

Zheng—

Gale’s once-mighty sword staggered considerably.

One foot was almost lifted off the ground as if it had lost balance along with him.

[Just execute whatever your strongest attack is.]

“Haha, Roger that, Sensei!”

Zzziizzz—

A powerful electric charge gathered at the sword’s tip and slammed into Gale’s solar plexus.

At an unprecedented speed, the boss’s HP was being significantly reduced.

Again, they repeated the rush and defense, parries and strong attacks.

Yongcheol couldn’t help but smile.

With Namé by his side, there was hope that they could finally conquer this pesky boss.

Phase 1 finished.

Gale’s great sword fell to the ground, making him kneel down.

“Wow, we did it! Wait, Namé-sensei, what’s going on? This is like a legal cheat!”

[…]

“Namé? Hello, No Name?”

[&@#*!@#]

Suddenly, the noise-canceling from Namé disappeared, replaced by the sound of children chattering.

A bad feeling crept in.

[I’ve just finished my break.]

“Huh? What? Break…?”

[I’ll be back in 40 minutes.]

Click—

With that, the 10-minute legal cheat usage expired.

“No…!”

– Hahaha!

– Was No Name in school, haha!

– Ah, the kids just started school today.

– Break time, lol!

– Partition again!!!!!

– You… you aren’t No Name, are you?

“Kurrrr!”

Gale the Dragon Slayer’s helmet came off, revealing flowing white hair that danced in the wind.

The full plate armor cracked, and dragon scales emerged in between.

“This is bad!”

Gale jumped in front of Yongcheol in one leap, holding the great sword.

Whoooosh—

A strike that sliced through space.

Before Yongcheol could even scream out, he was met with a cold, familiar death.

[YOU DIED]

“40 minutes of elementary school class time? Haaa…”

Han Yongcheol washed his face with cold water, getting overwhelmed by overwhelming feelings of self-reproach.