< Chapter 157. Solo. The Art of Hunting. >
"Damn!" Seo-woon was frantically climbing a steep hill in the forest.
***Thud!***
Even though the trees and vines in the forest constantly grabbed his arms and legs, Seo-woon concentrated and fought with all his might to break free.
***Thud!***
As he jumped into the air to escape the vines that were wrapping around his feet, a Flame Bird swooped down, seemingly waiting for him.
***Hoo!***
Seo-woon cut through the Flame Bird's flames; a bow had appeared in his hand. Before he could even land, Seo-woon drew the bowstring and fired the arrow with all his might. Showing a noticeable improvement in his ki usage, Seo-woon's arrow was filled with the sharp energy of ki that was about to transform into physical power.
***Tang!***
The arrow pierced through the enemy's barrier and tore through his leg, lodging in his thigh.
***Thud!***
With a loud bang, the robed young mage fell forward and rolled. When he hurriedly recovered and stood up, Seo-woon was already blocking his way. Seeing the deadly energy radiating from his fingertips, the sorcerer held his staff in front of his chest and gritted his teeth. The moment he felt mana pulsing from his staff, Seo-woon leaped into action.
***Crack!***
The sorcerer's staff shattered into three pieces and fell to the ground. The sorcerer looked at the staff piece in his hand and trembled.
***Tang.*** Only then did the sound of the barrier breaking reach his ears after the staff had fallen to the ground. Seeing that Seo-woon hadn't killed him, the sorcerer swallowed hard.
"I have something to ask you."
"…" Seeing the sorcerer silently frowning at him, Seo-woon continued. "Why did you run away without even trying to fight me?"
Seo-woon thought back to what had happened before the short chase. While chasing the boss monster, he noticed a crooked eye floating in the air. Naturally, he immediately threw an ice spear, destroying the crooked eye in one blow and continuing his advance; but in the distance, he encountered dozen players running away with their backs turned.
More than half of them used teleportation scrolls to escape, while the rest scattered in all directions. In the end, only two players were killed.
After defeating two, he pursued the mage who had entered the forest. Considering their numbers, it didn't make much sense for them to flee from him, who was alone.
"...Unless they're stupid, no player in this game would dare to face a single player."
The mage, who stared fixedly at Seo-woon for a moment, spoke with obvious resignation.
"There's no guarantee that I'm the lone player."
"Even so, as long as you're the one who destroyed a guild of over a hundred people, and there's a chance you're that lone player, no fool would risk their life to catch you."
"That's true."
***Thud.***
As soon as he finished speaking, the mage's head was severed.
"That's a bit problematic." Seo-woon muttered to himself as he gathered items, his thoughts deepening. Since he had no intention of prolonging the game, he wanted multiple players to attack him.
However, the impact of the battle since the start of the game had been so great that everyone was avoiding him; naturally, the game would drag on even longer.
"I haven't even set up my first magnetic field yet…" However, he couldn't immediately start hunting players. If an artifact monster escaped its magnetic field, they would inevitably be eliminated from the game.
From the start, the probability of an artifact monster escaping the magnetic field had been practically zero; but now that he was being targeted by the operator, he couldn't afford to show even the slightest weakness.
Having finished collecting items, Seo-woon stuffed the items he'd obtained into his subspace and began to move, still thinking. As he hurried back to the capital, he pondered how to attract more players to his side.
After running for a while, something interesting caught his eye. It was an open-topped carriage he'd seen once before. The moment he spotted the mana-powered carriage, Seo-woon jumped on it without hesitation.
The carriage sped through the city, emitting waves of mana. Although slightly slower than his own lightness, Seo-woon was glad to be able to move while conserving his energy and radiating mana waves.
"This will draw them in like flies."
Three days had passed since he set out for the boss monster. Seo-woon was starting to get annoyed that his prediction had been wrong.
Aside from one player who jumped on him without realizing what was happening, the journey had been smooth, and there had been no attacks. Finally arriving at the boss monster's territory, Seo-woon sighed and got off the carriage.
"Ugh." Glancing regretfully at the carriage, Seo-woon entered the boss monster's territory, a rugged stone mountain. Hoping that many players were hiding somewhere in this area, Seo-woon began searching for the boss monster.
Sitting high on the rocky mountain, eating a light sandwich and looking around, he called out to Hamit. "Hamit."
"Tell me."
"Do you feel any eyes on you?"
"All I feel are hostile gazes. I don't think there's anyone here who would look at the master like that."
Seo-woon nodded at his words. "From now on… we should be careful not to reveal ourselves too much." One of the main reasons he was careful not to reveal himself in real life was the risk of being targeted.
He knew that as long as there was an interdimensional guild community among the players, once his face was recognized, it would instantly spread throughout the community.
After a light meal, Seo-woon set out again, and as the rising sun was welling up, he spotted the boss monster. It was about 4-5 meters tall and wielded a unique combination of weapons, holding a massive scimitar in one hand and a pair of armored gauntlets in the other.
At first glance, it gave the impression of a true boss monster. Its most striking feature was the wings on its back. The pure white wings, resembling angel wings, were unique, but one side had been torn off, leaving only one wing. As it hopped across the rough terrain on its legs, bent backwards like a deer, a thought flashed through Seo-woon's mind.
Seo-woon pursed his lips, transformed Hamit into a chain sword, gripped it securely in his hand, and grabbed a suitable shield he'd pulled from the void. He chose a suitable breastplate to protect his chest, put it on, and donned a helmet that crudely covered his head and face, assuming the full warrior's appearance.
***Smash!***
Seo-woon leaped towards the enemy and, squinting his left eye, swung his chain sword. The enemy blocked Seo-woon's attack with his massive scimitar and glared at him with pure white pupilless eyes, roaring.
"KRAAAAH!" The creature unfurled its single folded wing, its long, yellow teeth bared, and let out a screech. Looking tense, Seo-woon held his square shield close to his body and began to fight the creature. Seo-woon was pushed dangerously back by the unstable terrain, and he parried the creature's enraged sword with his shield.
***Tang! Tang! Tang!***
Enraged by Seo-woon's skillful parries, the monster swung its armored, gloved fist at the shield, sending Seo-woon flying backward.
***Thud!***
Seo-woon slammed into the wall, wincing in pain; just then, he blocked the monster's sword that descended from above.
***Bang!***
Cracks spread across the shield, and Seo-woon fell to one knee. The attack was so powerful that the ground beneath him caved in. But despite blocking the attack, Seo-woon didn't give in. He swung his chainsword at the enemy's ankle.
***Crack!***
Blood seeped from the severed ankle, clearly possessing the regenerative ability of a boss monster.
***Tang! Crack!***
The battle between Seo-woon and the monster continued for a while. The monster unleashed powerful attacks, but Seo-woon blocked them and struck its weak points, causing its shield to crack in multiple places.
The boss monster also suffered countless small wounds, healing itself repeatedly, and its body was covered in blood. Enraged by Seo-woon's relentless attacks with his chainsword, the monster roared and leaped into the air as if trying to fly.
Just as it was about to plummet to the ground, Seo-woon threw aside his cracked shield and drew a new one.
***Boom-Boom!***
The creature's entire body emitted a red aura as it fell, and the ground cracked as immense energy exploded around it.
The force was so intense that cracks appeared in the nearby stone mountain and walls collapsed. Just before the monster hit the ground, Seo-woon activated the shield's unique ability, thus shielding himself from the monster's ability.
This was thanks to the ability called "Solid Pillar," which enveloped his entire body in a golden light. As long as he kept both feet firmly planted on the ground and remained still, this ability granted him immunity to enemy attacks for a set period. It would have been the best ability available, if only it didn't have a stat limiting its use to three times per day.
Seeing Seo-woon lower his stance and stand firmly with his shield raised, the monster seemed even more enraged and charged towards him. Somehow, the monster managed to maintain their balance in the air with one wing and engaged Seo-woon in a fierce battle again. Seo-woon, who had already broken and thrown aside his new shield, saw that his third shield had also shattered. The monster's wings and legs were bleeding heavily. Seo-woon was also limping along on one leg, tearing and using healing scrolls whenever he could. He could feel the battle slowly drawing to a close.
That was when they launched their final attacks at each other.
"I sense a foul gaze." A burst of magic followed Hamit's warning.
"Wheeze! Bam! Shhh!" A dense plume of flames rose from beneath the stone mountain, engulfing Seo-woon in a wind shadow. When the two spells exploded simultaneously, an even larger ball of flame enveloped Seo-woon, causing the attacking creature to hastily flap its wings and retreat.
***Bang.***
Narrowly escaping the flames and falling to one knee, Seo-woon realized that the items in his hands had been burned black.
"Hah… Hah…" Sixteen players appeared before Seo-woon, who breathed heavily and shrugged as if exhausted.
"You should be thankful you're alive."
"You're a knight with a strong foundation. Your defensive abilities are strong, and your mental strength to challenge Nephrim alone is admirable."
As if conducting an examination, each of them commented on Seo-woon, and the boss monster roared angrily before Seo-woon.
***KRAAAAH!***
"You with low healing power, Nephrim!"
Just as the knights and mages finished their speech and were about to attack the monster, the creature's neck was slit, and blood sprayed into the air. As the blood, gushing out like a fountain of hot water, weakened, the creature's body tilted sideways and collapsed. The players, who weren't able to grasp what had just happened, noticed Seo-woon, covered in Nephrim blood, standing behind the fallen creature.
Just as everyone's eyes widened in shock, a warning voice resounded, and all the color drained from their faces.
[Ding! Boss monster defeated! Victory to Jin Seo-woon!]
"Jin… Seo-woon?!!"
"Everyone, run!"
Seo-woon's figure blurred as a knight let out a guttural scream. He wasn't far away, and the terrain wasn't the most passable, so there was no way they could escape.
***Whoosh.***
The first knight to shout was pierced through with his heart, his shield and armor shattered into pieces. Three more players turned around and were knocked down, and only then did the other players start to move away from Seo-woon. He began hunting down the highly mobile units that were trying to spread out in all directions, and thanks to the terrain making it difficult to use airboards properly, he quickly neutralized all the mages.
"They're fewer than I expected." Still, since this was a boss monster hunt, I expected more players to watch from the sidelines, but that wasn't the case. Perhaps because it was still early in the game, players seemed more interested in collecting items than hunting the boss monster.
"So this is a solo game? Ugh." Actually, if it were truly a single-player game, many more players would cluster around the boss monster. Apparently, teammates playing together influenced their decision to consistently collect items rather than risk survival and crossing a dangerous bridge when fighting a boss that only drops one or two items. In fact, in team games, players often favor reinforcement monsters over bosses and wouldn't even consider defeating the boss.
"There's a good chance that will drop." Seo-woon shook his head as he showed the item dropped by the boss monster, Nephrim. A pure white scroll. Seo-woon sighed as he looked at the scroll, which emitted a pale silver light. Despite being a boss monster, he'd expected at least one useful item, but all he got was a scroll. A scroll is a single-use item, after all.
***Ting!*** You've obtained the Holy Spirit Strengthening Scroll.
Holy Spirit Strengthening. Grants the user blessings for 3 hours.
"What's this... Hah." Seo-woon trailed off and sighed. "Is the operator manipulating item drops too?" If that were the case, he would have to bear significant losses in future item collections, which was a serious matter. He placed this seemingly useless item in his subspace and looked at the others. A silver rod, about 30 centimeters long.
***Ting!*** You've obtained a Protection Barrier.
A Protection Barrier. It's placed on the ground to create a sacred barrier around himself.
"You're at least a little better than me." With that, Seo-woon stood up and began collecting items from the boxes left behind by other players. As expected, he quickly collected items of similar quality and continued on his way.
Behind Seo-woon, who had disappeared from the arena, a sphere of green light lingered on the dead boss monster for a moment before vanishing.
Seo-woon entered a quiet forest, gazing around for a moment before flipping his hair back. He pulled out three strands of his hair, flung them into the air, and created clones. Seo-woon began to pull out items from his subspace and equipped them.
He gave one a robe and a staff, another a suit of armor and a large axe. He gave the last one armor and a spear, and one by one, the clones donned their gear. Seo-woon also put on his red armor and took off a black hooded jacket to cover his face. With his bow slung across his back and a quiver of arrows strapped to his thigh, he looked like an archer.
"Let's go. Let's try again."
Now two of the three punishment rules had been completed. The only thing left was to end this damn punishment game as quickly as possible.
Day 4 of the game. The number of remaining survivors was 279.