Chapter 139
The worst gatekeeper, Brakin, had already massacred countless players the moment the quest began. Anyone caught in the wipe was instantly booted into spectator mode.
└ TANTO’s still alive. Dude’s stealth is busted.
└ Tank classes got buffed hard, huh? They’re doing more damage than DPS now.
└ What about mages? Are we not even considered human anymore? I know it’s a solo-only quest, but seriously. If healers can deal damage with healing spells, what the hell are mages supposed to do, roll over and die?
└ Shut up, idiot. Even if they buffed heal damage, it still wouldn’t come close to mage burst. Stop the copium.
By the second day of the pre-raid quest, the player base had started to figure things out. Dozens of wipes, experiments, and test runs later, someone finally posted the first viable strategy against Brakin.
└ Don’t fight outside the city, dumbasses. Drag him back inside and run laps through the narrow alleys. The idiot goes full demolition mode and smashes everything while chasing you, then gets tired as shit and just stops moving for a second. That’s when you unload everything and nuke ‘em.
Apparently, some poor streamer had kited Brakin for half an hour straight before noticing the boss briefly stopped moving. That discovery spread across every forum and Discord server like wildfire. More and more players began clearing Brakin, though they were still a tiny fraction of the player base.
└ Someone’s gonna get it eventually. My bet’s on the tank mains. They’re too damn stable now.
└ Nah, TANTO’s taking it. Dude was the first to clear before the strat even dropped.
└ Feels like Brakin’s dying way faster now though. Stealth patch nerf, maybe?
└ Probably just the new strat working.
Once people realized the difficulty wasn’t completely impossible to crack, curiosity naturally shifted toward who’d end up claiming the first clear. Public interest played its part, but the announcement made things even more tempting, since it flat-out promised a bigger reward for whoever pulled it off first.
With that kind of bait dangling in front of them, it was only natural for things to turn ugly fast. Players confident in their skills started itching to prove themselves, streamers who lived off fame smelled a massive spike in views, and guilds looking to grow their power saw a golden chance to swing big. With that many egos and ambitions colliding, the whole scene was bound to turn into a bloody mess sooner or later.
└ Look at those big guilds acting all silent. Fuckers are secretly watching every stream and copying strats while pretending they’re ‘discovering’ things themselves.
└ Even the streamers are logging off mid-run now. ‘Too tired,’ my ass. They’re all playing mind games.
└ Honestly, can’t blame them. Remember the Tower of Trials? Everyone screamed it was impossible, then someone cracked the strat and it turned easy mode overnight. Better to hang back and collect info, then cash in on it.
└ Yeah but then you don’t get the ‘first clear’ glory, dumbass.
└ Who cares? It’s not like the first one to see the final boss is the first one to kill it. The smart ones wait and let others die figuring it out.
When the so-called “pioneers” started hesitating, stopping just before the next checkpoint, the entire community turned on them.
└ Jesus, what happened to the romance of first clears? Everything’s just spreadsheets and meta bullshit now.
└ Still, being first pays. Even if they don’t get it, waiting for full guides means smoother runs later and better loot efficiency.
└ True. In events like this, how much you can milk the system literally decides your future growth. But yeah, can’t deny that romance is dead.
With that, the forums burned hotter than ever. Nobody was clearing Brakin. Nobody was progressing. It was endless flaming, theory-crafting, and complaint posts. Unbeknown to them, one player was already far ahead, silent and unseen.
While everyone else was busy chasing the dying illusion of “romance,” a video had popped up on Do-Jin’s channel, scheduled for premiere in fifteen minutes.
[(Spoilers) Hero Matthew Quest: Full Clear Guide]
└ Wait, what the hell? A guide video? It hasn’t even been that long since the event started.hose clickbait leeches are, they splice together other people’s clips, farm views, and call it
└ Probably just Brakin stuff. You know how those clickbait leeches are: they splice together other people’s clips, farm views, and call it “exclusive footage.”
└ Who the fuck taught Do-Jin how to schedule premieres?
└ Nah, that can’t be right. He never posts unless he actually clears something.
└ Come on, be serious. No way he beat that quest as a mage. Probably just compiling his death highlights like usual.
└ Shut the fuck up, y’all. If anyone could do it, it’d be our Do-Jin, the one and only God-tier mage in this shitty game!
└ Even his fanboys don’t sound convinced. “Could’ve done it” my ass.
The forums, especially Lotranet, erupted instantly. It was already a madhouse before, but now it looked like someone had poured gasoline on it. Every discussion board was flooded with speculation, jokes, and flat-out screaming matches.
Fifteen minutes passed in a blur. Then, the video went live. It was simple, almost unnervingly so. The footage followed Do-Jin’s full run of Hero Matthew’s Quest, side by side with the ghost of the fallen hero.
There was no commentary, no gimmicks, no edits meant to make him look cooler than he already was. The focus was entirely on what mattered: how he cleared it. The video ended the moment Lemain’s head hit the ground.
└ Fuck yes! Now that’s what I call romance!
└ Holy shit, he actually did it. Everyone else’s out there playing peek-a-boo and dying like idiots, and this man just went in solo and cleared it.
└ Didn’t wait for guides. Didn’t wait for patch notes. Just booted up after the update and wrecked the whole damn quest.
└ Wait, hold on. That’s a mage? Why the hell is he moving like that?
└ Bro, what kind of reaction time is that? He didn’t take a single hit!
└ No, forget that. How’s he casting while sprinting like that? And what the fuck is that split-casting method? Is he actually chunking a Tier 5 spell mid-dodge?!
The reactions were immediate and explosive. People weren’t just impressed; they were dumbfounded. The community had seen Do-Jin pull off impossible things before, but this time was different. This wasn’t just top-tier gameplay anymore. It was “What the fuck did I just watch?” Mages, of course, had it the worst. The thread on the mage board was pure existential crisis.
└ I’m sorry for maining mage with my potato reflexes. I’ll be selling ice now. It’s a better business than this garbage.
└ I have a job at a magic workshop. Boss pays me to craft enchanted trinkets. Not as exciting, but at least my blood pressure’s normal.
Do-Jin had basically nuked the forums by uploading a full clear before anyone else even reached halfway. It was pure chaos, exactly the kind he wanted. He leaned back in his chair, watching the notifications spike.
The first clear’s already spreading. That means everyone who wanted that title has their eyes on me now.
That was the moment he’d been waiting for. He posted a new message on his channel.
[Hello, this is Do-Jin.]
[I’m planning to organize a large-scale raid group for the upcoming World Boss event. The idea is to bring together solo players like me so we can enjoy the event properly and, at the same time, minimize casualties when the World Boss launches.]
It was a polished, professional, and irresistible bait. Within seconds, the replies exploded.
└ Are there any requirements to join?!
└ Level 105 healer here. I’ll work for free, just please take me.
└ Damn, should’ve leveled harder. I’m 86... probably too low...
└ Screw it. If it turns into some high-level-only private club, I hope you just solo everything again, king.
It wasn’t just commenters who flocked to his post. Rael Entertainment’s communication systems went nuclear as phone lines jammed and email inboxes overflowed. Every marketing and PR manager in the company was losing their minds. The chaos had spread beyond the game, and the sharks smelled blood in the water.
“Mr. Do-Jin! What did you do?! This is insane! We’re getting sponsorship offers, ad deals, everything! It’s blowing up!” The marketing lead’s voice practically cracked with excitement over the phone.
The company’s servers were drowning in partnership requests. Do-Jin, meanwhile, just smiled faintly at the monitor. The whole world was losing its mind, and that was exactly how he liked it.
***
Even though Do-Jin had called it a large-scale raid group, what he was actually building was closer to a flexible alliance. To put it bluntly, his goal wasn’t to form a strict guild coalition but to create a temporary truce. During the World Boss Raid period, all he wanted was for players to stop sabotaging each other and focus on the real threat.
The monster faction always fights as one, but we humans spend half our time fighting each other for better loot. That kind of bullshit ruins everything.
He wasn’t about to let history repeat itself, so he sought to gather players under his banner, grow the influence of his own group, and use that size and visibility to force cooperation between rival factions. He’d make sure the whole event became monsters versus humanity, not monsters versus players.
“Filling the numbers isn’t hard. I’ll just sort by level and cut off the bottom ranks. The real issue is the strike team at the heart of the raid... I’ll have to be careful with that one.”
Do-Jin began going through the spreadsheets his company staff had organized, pages full of applications, stat summaries, and raid records.
As he filtered the list, he muttered to himself, “Okay, apply a level filter... then restrict it to players who’ve cleared the pre-quest...”
With every added condition, the candidate list shrank fast. Then, a familiar name caught his eye.
“Tanto... I guess he’s been popping off since way back then.” A smirk tugged at his lips. “Didn’t expect this one. He’s a lone-wolf type too, yet he actually applied for something like this?”
Tanto was the legendary thief. His ranking had bounced up and down over the seasons, but he’d been top-ten material at his peak. With someone like him on board, Do-Jin felt more confident.
“Now, where the hell’s a solid tank...”
He scrolled through a dozen more names but didn’t find a single qualified tank who’d cleared the pre-quest. It wasn’t surprising. Good tanks were almost always tied to big guilds. It made him think of Teresa again. She wasn’t quite there yet, not as a reliable front-liner.
“I guess this is the event where she grows up, then.” Do-Jin sighed.
Left with no other option, he decided to build a defensive unit around the high-level tanks and healers who had applied, pairing them up to form a specialized front line.
He started piecing together the rest of the raid force, using every bit of manpower available. Instead of aiming for a dozen perfect parties, he focused on efficiency, assigning each squad a single, specialized role. If one team could kite, another could burst, and another could block lines of fire, the raid would move like a machine.
“One more ranged-DPS party, and that should do it. I’ll redistribute the rest to support and defense.”
He was in the middle of adjusting the final roster when his phone rang. The caller ID read Chun Ji-Hyun.
“Hey, Chun Ji-Hyun.”
—Do-Jin, about those alliance invites you sent out, responses are coming in. The first one’s from the Shilla Guild. They’ve confirmed participation.
“Shilla, huh? That’s solid.”
Back in his past life, Shilla had been one of the few guilds that didn’t implode under pressure. In fact, it eventually rose to become one of the most powerful organizations in the game. Forging ties with them now was a smart move.
—Hold on, I’m getting another call. It looks like more guilds are joining in.
One after another, messages and confirmations rolled in. Guilds that had been wary of working together were suddenly eager to join Do-Jin’s alliance. He leaned back, scanning the growing list with satisfaction.
Once this side’s big enough, the rest won’t have a choice. They’ll have to cooperate or get left behind. And when that happens, friendly-fire disasters and griefing will drop to zero.
Everything was going exactly as he planned. The preparations for the coming catastrophe were underway, and, for once, humanity might actually stand a chance.
