Chapter 143
There was no reason to delay. Dragging things out wasn’t going to make anything better and the last thing Do-Jin wanted was to give the enemy more time.
Still, I should at least give a heads-up.
He didn’t care about most guilds, but since a few were technically allied in name only, it was polite to let them know what was coming. Part of him wanted to just charge in and deal with the fallout later. But since they’d all agreed on their assigned territories, if his entire raid up and vanished from their post, it could cause unnecessary problems.
If we’re lucky, maybe some of them will follow after us and draw aggro from behind.
For now, the other guilds seemed content farming monsters on the outskirts. But Do-Jin figured they were already weighing the risks and rewards. Most of them were probably waiting for someone else to charge in, die gloriously, and leave behind useful data. The moment one group made a move, though, the rest would panic, afraid whoever went first might claim all the glory.
Whatever.
Do-Jin sent out a short, simple message to all the guild leaders. “We’re advancing to the impact zone.”
The replies came back fast. Even Shilla, one of the allied guild masters, sent a message that all but screamed panic. Do-Jin didn’t bother reading the rest. He just sent a single automated response saying he was busy and wouldn’t be able to reply further. With that, he turned on the stream.
He pulled out his own scroll and announced, “I’m using my Blessing Scroll.”
One by one, all two hundred raid members used theirs as well. A faint glow began to spread across the group, shimmering like mist around their armor and robes.
└ What’s going on? Is something special happening today?
└ Wait, are they all using Blessing Scrolls? Every single one of them?!
Viewers had been flooding the chat earlier, complaining that the stream hadn’t gone live yet, asking if he’d canceled the broadcast again or broken another event contract. They all fell silent the moment the feed came up.
It was then that realization hit them. Something big was coming. They didn’t know what exactly, but it was obvious. The air itself felt heavier, tenser. And of course, Do-Jin didn’t disappoint.
“From this moment on,” he said calmly, “the real World Boss Raid begins.”
At his signal, the tank line surged forward, and the two-hundred-man raid moved as one. They weren’t circling the outskirts or picking off scattered enemies anymore. This time, they charged straight ahead, like a cavalry unit piercing through enemy lines toward the heart of the battlefield.
Those watching finally understood what Do-Jin meant by the real raid.
└ Holy shit, he’s going straight for the meteor site!
└ Wait, what? Didn’t they say even stepping inside gets you shredded in seconds?
└ Bro, did you forget whose stream this is? This is Do-Jin’s channel, man.
└ Ha! I knew he wouldn’t waste time farming weak mobs on the edge. He’s going straight for the big one, classic Do-Jin!
The chat exploded with cheers and disbelief as the raid charged into the blazing core of the Star of Ruin’s impact crater, and the real battle finally began.
Do-Jin’s focus locked straight ahead. The moment was approaching, the point where the tank line would make contact with the enemy. From beneath the trembling ground, something surged upward. A mass of dark-red slime burst out of the soil, shifting and expanding until it started to resemble an ogre.
“Second raid team, fire!” Do-Jin shouted.
Days of nonstop combat had turned into raw data in his mind. He could now estimate a monster’s defense and vitality just from its size and form. He ordered an attack that was strong enough to kill, but not wastefully excessive.
At his command, a barrage of spells tore through the air and slammed into the slime-ogre. A deafening roar overlapped into a single thunderclap. The creature exploded, scattering chunks of foul, blackened slime in every direction. Without delay, the tightly packed raid formation pushed straight into the heart of the enemy lines.
“Once we start, we don’t stop!” Do-Jin yelled. “Teams Two and Three, keep pushing forward! Other directions will be handled by the other raids!”
Now that they’d committed to a direct breakthrough, halting even for a second was suicide. If they stopped, they’d be surrounded instantly. Do-Jin knew that better than anyone, which was why he assigned nearly half the raid’s total firepower solely to clearing their forward path.
Under his lead, the two-hundred-man raid advanced like a moving fortress with auto-turrets, magical fire pouring from every direction as they plowed ahead. Then, out of nowhere, what seemed like a giant armadillo suddenly rolled into view. Even after taking direct hits from twenty mages, it refused to die and kept charging forward.
“Spare tanks, block right flank!” Do-Jin barked. “Melee, take down the one latching onto the right side first! Mages, eyes forward! Don’t turn, I’ll handle fire support!”
He unleashed the rune he’d been saving. The Spear of Thunder, empowered by the Destruction Rune, shot forward like a lightning bolt and flew right behind the tank line, striking the armadillo square in the chest. The tanks and melee fighters barely had time to move before the creature crumpled instantly, as if its life had been switched off.
Do-Jin had used Red Night to locate the unstable knot of mana inside its body and drove his spell through that point, the destructive power detonating in a perfect critical strike.
“Keep your focus forward! If we lose momentum, we’re dead weight!” he shouted.
The deeper they pushed, the larger the red-black slimes became. Their vitality swelled along with their size. At first, the monsters had popped like balloons the moment they met the tank line. However, they were beginning to hold ground, slowing the raid’s advance with sheer toughness.
Do-Jin joined the fight directly, unleashing his own spells without restraint. When he really let loose, his output rivaled that of ten, possibly even twenty, ordinary mages combined. The moment he started casting, the raid’s advance picked up speed again.
“Anemone!” he called. “Help them out!”
The familiar spirit materialized in a burst of blue light. Even with two hundred players fighting in sync, the battle was so brutally close and intense that Do-Jin would’ve welcomed help from a literal cat, as long as it could cast. That said, Anemone was no cat. Her arrival was a godsend.
Right as she was summoned, a massive explosion of liquid erupted on their flank. Do-Jin turned just in time to see a monstrous shape rising from the chaos, several boss-class creatures merging into one grotesque, towering mass.
“Attack! Attack! Blow it up before it finishes forming!” Do-Jin barely finished shouting before spells were already flying through the air.
Startled mages unleashed whatever they had mid-cast, firing without a second thought. The creature, still mid-fusion, took the full brunt of the bombardment, losing roughly thirty percent of its mass in an instant. But even then, the remaining slime fused together, reshaping itself into the form of a massive grasshopper. In a single leap, it crossed an impossible distance and crashed down toward the raid.
BOOM!
One of the tanks threw himself forward, activating every survival skill he had. The ground cracked beneath him as he took the full force of the strike. If he hadn’t, the shockwave would’ve wiped out not just the melee line but the healers and mages in the back as well.
Fuck... that thing’s huge. If we try to take it down here, we’ll lose too much time.
His Destruction Rune wasn’t fully recharged yet. If they focused too much fire on that thing, the monsters from the flanks would close in. Once their forward firepower dropped, the whole advance would slow to a crawl.
Do-Jin was still calculating options when a voice roared, “GO!!”
As the tank who had intercepted the grasshopper shouted, light burst from his body. From that, Do-Jin immediately recognized that it was Lotus. The paladin raised his spear high, thumb lifted, golden radiance erupting from his armor.
For a second, the black man looked like a saint bathed in divine light. To be fair, it was probably just his paladin skill combined with the fact that he was bald. Either way, he didn’t know how long Lotus could hold out, but they had to use every second he bought them.
“Keep moving! Don’t stop, keep going!” Do-Jin ordered.
Whether or not the grasshopper would eventually catch up, if they started hesitating now, they’d never reach the center. Hence, Do-Jin gave the order to advance, and the raid sprinted forward like madmen. Before long, damage started piling up.
“We’ll hold them off!” someone would yell each time a crisis flared up.
One after the other, they sacrificed themselves to buy a few more precious seconds. Lotus’s stand had lit a fire in everyone, his courage sparking a rush of pure adrenaline. When danger struck, there was no more hesitation. Raid members would grab monsters by the limbs, drag them down, and scream for others to keep pushing forward.
Funny how the most predictable moments still hit the hardest, Do-Jin thought.
The whole place had turned into a scene of collective madness. Two hundred people moved as one mind, forcing their way through a field crawling with monsters. Within the chaos, a battle high surged through their bodies. Every fallen teammate only sent their emotions climbing higher until, finally, someone completely lost it.
“HAAAA! Glory to magic!” a mage shouted while sprinting ahead, overloading his mana, and self-destructing in the middle of the horde.
Where the hell did he even learn that spell? Do-Jin stared, dumbfounded, at the sudden appearance of an explosion spell he’d never even heard of.
The others, however, didn’t seem shocked at all.
“HAAAAAHHH! Charge! Charge! Kill every last bastard!”
He didn’t need to give orders anymore. Tanks, DPS, healers, every single one of them had gone berserk, screaming as they threw themselves forward like rabid berserkers.
This wasn’t a breakthrough anymore. It was a mud-soaked brawl, a chaotic melee where everyone was locked together, slashing, stabbing, and smashing in pure desperation. Tanks blocked incoming blows and pushed forward with their bodies, while melee fighters clung to monsters, hacking, thrusting, and cleaving through whatever flesh was in front of them.
“Die, die, die! Fucking die, you bastards!”
Breathing took a back seat to hacking and slashing. Mages and healers, pushed to their limits, popped whatever dopants they had and started chanting spells with jittery hands. They did it for this moment, not for the backlash that would come later. The whole raid cast caution to the wind and poured everything into survival and offense.
Just a little more...! Do-Jin clenched his jaw, refusing to slow down.
A column of ominous mana loomed dangerously close to his sightline. If they pushed just a bit farther, they would be able to see the fragment of the Star of Ruin with their own eyes. However, the front line suddenly collapsed. A large number of mages had overloaded their Magic Circuits and couldn’t cast anymore.
“Do-Jin! We’ll hold it no matter what. Go forward with whoever’s left!” someone shouted.
Even as their formation crumbled in real time, people shoved him forward.
Do-Jin felt his chest tighten. He had never understood what it meant to be genuinely liked by so many people until now. Subscriber counts had always felt like numbers, nothing more. But in this instant, he felt the weight of their loyalty, their willingness to die so he could reach that center.
“Find out what’s there!” someone yelled.
“Whatever it is, you have to grab it!”
Except for Lotus, every member of the first raid team had survived. Do-Jin readied himself to lead them past the last monster barrier.
The enemy wave pressing from behind suddenly collapsed in disarray. A battered raid staggered into view, worn-out, ragged, but very much alive. Their armor didn’t match, but every piece bore the same sigil: a blue crescent moon. It was the Shilla Guild. They had followed Do-Jin’s path right into the heart of the fight.
Barie: Don’t read this as us riding your coattails. We told you, we owe you one. We’ll repay that debt. Go through and do what you need to do. Just let one of our parties tag along, okay?
It sounded more like claiming a favor than repaying a debt, but there was no time to pick apart semantics. If those filthy slime bastards’ barrier could be broken, Do-Jin would gladly sell his soul to the devil for the chance.
And so, Do-Jin nodded. Even from a distance, Barie, the high-level archer, would see the gesture and know they had permission to move in.
