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“Huh? What do you mean?”
At Ye Hyeonseong’s words, the Awakened wore a bewildered face again.
“No, I just said something weird for a second—”
While Ye Hyeonseong was answering the Awakened, another message flew in.
“No, if you’ve been watching this whole time, you should know, shouldn’t you?”
Ye Hyeonseong could not help snapping back at ‘Prankster of the Beginning.’
Just as Ha Seongchan had pointed out, this was not the Ten Thousand Swords Guild. There was no way Ye Hyeonseong herself would be properly acknowledged as having the right to speak up.
Seeing the message, Ye Hyeonseong swallowed the curse she had almost spat out. The infuriating part was that he did not even try to hide how obviously he was playing dumb.
‘Should I just pretend I didn’t see the messages too?’
From the looks of it, ‘Prankster of the Beginning’ wanted to see Ye Hyeonseong take the commander role.
But that was an unreasonable demand. No matter how she looked at it, Ye Hyeonseong had no grounds to claim the commander’s seat.
‘This isn’t even a local base, and my rank here is basically dead weight.’
He was a Constellation that often sponsored her even with small amounts, so she could not ignore him lightly—but impossible was impossible.
‘Thanks for telling me why the mages suddenly went crazy.’
Reading the continuing messages, Ye Hyeonseong snarked inwardly.
She had wondered why the mages had thrown away all defense and support buffs and competed to dump out raw firepower—turns out the reason was painfully obvious.
‘Yeah. When something weird happens for no reason, it’s almost always those guys.’
“Um…… but right now, it kind of seems like we don’t need a commander anyway?”
The Awakened who had been talking with Ye Hyeonseong spoke again.
“……True.”
Ye Hyeonseong agreed. In the meantime, Do-ol had been torn up pretty badly.
Paaak!
Keureureu…….
While they watched, Song Jiwoo fired another streak of red aura slash. It carved yet another large wound into Do-ol’s torso.
‘He really drove it into the ground in that short time.’
Ye Hyeonseong quickly scanned the wounds left on Do-ol’s body.
Most were gashes from Song Jiwoo’s aura blade. But here and there she also saw scorch marks, wet-looking stains, and even arrows embedded in it.
‘Even with lousy coordination, they still managed to land hits one by one, somehow.’
Whatever she said, these were S-rank combatants, and apparently raid guilds that had been doing well in this area for a while.
‘In this state, it does look like there’s no need to bind the raid teams together or anything. It’ll probably end soon.’
Even as she thought that, Ye Hyeonseong frowned. It was not the first time something had happened right when she thought things were about to end.
‘If they’re going to stab us in the back, now would be the most effective timing.’
Ye Hyeonseong kept her eyes on the message window, where the Constellations’ petty chatter refreshed constantly.
Sure enough, there was a Constellation that looked unwilling to end it like this. Ye Hyeonseong could only lament how perfectly predictable they were.
“By the way. Do you think it’ll really end soon?”
Ye Hyeonseong spoke again to the Awakened she had been talking with.
“Huh?”
“Come on. Just look at the messages coming in.”
“Messages? ……Ah.”
After staring into the air for a moment, the Awakened looked flustered.
“Right. If we leave it like this, it could shift into a second phase—or a different boss could come out.”
From what the Awakened said, it seemed he had received similar Constellation messages.
“What do we do?”
The Awakened asked Ye Hyeonseong.
“Even if you ask me…….”
Ye Hyeonseong pinched the bridge of her nose. The biggest problem with Constellation pranks was that even if you knew, there often was no way to stop them.
‘Unless they set a condition like “we’ll go easy if the humans do well,” in a situation like this…… persuasion won’t work at all. They’ve already decided to do it—they’re just choosing how.’
“Those people over there saw the messages too, right?”
“Right. If you and I got similar ones, then everyone around here probably did too.”
As Ye Hyeonseong answered, she checked the atmosphere among the other Awakened.
“Someone, hit its flank one more time!”
“Watch the head!”
“Guildmaster! Just a little faster—!”
“If it relaxes like that, won’t things get bad?”
“Yeah. We should probably prepare for a second round…….”
“Can’t we ask them not to?”
“Looks difficult…….”
Mixed into the loud chatter were voices of concern about the Constellations’ interference. It sounded like no one would be surprised if Do-ol suddenly evolved or a new monster popped out.
‘Then the real question is how they’re going to open a second round.’
Ye Hyeonseong shifted her gaze back to the Constellation-chat messages.
‘Right. So it’s going to be two or more boss-class monsters.’
From the updated messages, Ye Hyeonseong extracted what she needed. With the talk about whose “child” was better made, she could guess the level of the next monster.
“Hyeonseong, what are you going to do?”
The Awakened asked Ye Hyeonseong again.
“We stay here. Looks like new ones will come out soon.”
“No, I mean—when a new monster comes out.”
What the Awakened was asking was what Ye Hyeonseong would actually do if a second round broke out.
Before Ye Hyeonseong could even think, a message flew in.
‘What the hell did that old man Loki get hooked on, and why’s he been like this?’
‘Yeah, you sure made a show of it, giving out pocket change.’
Ye Hyeonseong did not forget the word “handout.” And while she was glaring at the Constellation messages—
Paaang——!
With a huge tearing boom, red light flashed. Song Jiwoo attempted a finishing blow on Do-ol.
A sharp red aura surged toward Do-ol.
Right before the red aura reached Do-ol, the warning message appeared. Immediately after it printed, the red aura struck Do-ol.
Paak—
Ke-eok……!
As the aura pierced its massive torso, Do-ol let out a dying scream.
But Do-ol did not collapse. There was no message announcing the monster’s death.
That was only natural. The penetrating wound the aura made was sealing cleanly, as if time itself were rewinding.
‘A Super Regeneration buff. Just like the name says, it dramatically accelerates recovery. Depending on the buff’s strength, it can even revive a body after the brain or heart is pierced, and keep it moving.’
“Damn it……!”
“Do we keep hitting it?”
“Hit what? Fall back!”
Not only the puncture wound but every injury Do-ol had taken so far was being erased. The Awakened who had been stacking small wounds all retreated at once.
“Tch, it was basically over.”
Song Jiwoo also had to widen the distance from Do-ol. The way he swung his greatsword roughly made his dissatisfaction obvious.
Next to the rapidly refreshing Constellation messages, an Interstellar Network guidance message appeared. Just as the Constellations had said, they were adding another boss-class monster.
Ureureung…….
The ground rumbled again, like when Do-ol first appeared. And from the spot where the dungeon entrance stood, a new monster revealed itself.
Seeing a red horse slightly smaller than Do-ol, and a giant riding atop it, Ye Hyeonseong checked the information.
‘This time it’s the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?’
Again, it was a monster with an unmistakable motif. It seemed to be the Constellations’ taste.
“Red horse…… the Red Horseman of War?”
“If it’s the Four Horsemen, there’s no idiot here who doesn’t know the info, right?”
“But that thing’s species is…….”
“Do-ol also copies the main traits as-is. That one probably…….”
“Is this the time to space out? The attack restriction will be lifted soon—get ready!”
The Awakened who had backed off from Do-ol to catch their breath prepared to fight again. The ones who had half-stepped out of combat did the same.
Up to that point, everyone reacted smoothly. The problem came after.
“Um, but…… which one are we supposed to fight?”
A few Awakened voiced doubts.
“What?”
“No, we’ve got two bosses right now. Splitting teams is awkward…….”
Similar words flowed out from each raid team. Considering the Red Horseman’s traits, it was not a question they could avoid.
‘If it’s the Red Horseman, there’s a high chance it uses a mental-type debuff that makes allies fight each other.’
The number of buffers who could block or remove such a debuff was limited. If they split teams carelessly, one side might end up without support from buffers.
‘They could just mix everyone together regardless of affiliation and re-split…….’
Ye Hyeonseong checked the mood among the other raid teams. Quite a few people seemed to have arrived at the same idea.
But unfortunately, no one spoke it aloud. They only traded glances with others who seemed to be thinking the same thing.
‘Right. It’d be burdensome to be the first to say it. Because after that comes: how do we split again, and who becomes the leader?’
And to begin with, it was hard for people who had to fight on the front lines to do that. They were already pressed to deal with the monsters—when would they have time to assess everyone’s abilities and divide manpower properly?
“Damn it, the attack restriction is off!”
“Nothing’s decided?”
“Just because we have buffers, go to the Red Horseman—”
In the end, the fight resumed without the raid-team restructuring problem solved.
‘So for now, they decided based on whether you have buff skills.’
The raid teams split toward the two bosses. Teams that had reliable means to counter the Red Horseman’s debuff went to the Red Horseman, while teams that didn’t went to Do-ol.
‘Then what am I supposed to do now…….’
The Awakened Ye Hyeonseong had been talking with also ran off to hunt a boss. Left alone in the rear, Ye Hyeonseong hesitated.
‘A quest?’
At the new message, Ye Hyeonseong narrowed her eyes.
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