Chapter 30: A Solo Performance

The broadcast was going smoothly.

[Sukeot-udumeori] He came all this way without dying
[ORA] He barely drank any potions either ㄷㄷ
[Myeongryanghotdog] I wonder if he’ll clear the boss too lol

Ban-ye was still at ease by the time he reached the boss room.

And when he stood in front of the boss room, he briefly took his hands off the keyboard.

Then he interlocked his fingers and stretched his hands.

Watching his long fingers, I got nervous for no reason and gulped.

“Well then, I’ll take on the boss.”

Ban-ye said lightly and went straight into the boss room.

The boss mob, [Demigod Pramena], who was much larger than the regular soldier mobs, stood imposingly in the center.

And as soon as Ban-ye entered, it immediately turned its head and targeted the Ah-ang character.

[iok998] You need a tank here

Pramena is difficult to solo because it deals high damage in a single hit and also has the characteristic of unleashing continuous combos without rest.

It’s a dungeon where even with a tank drawing aggro, it’s easy for the dealer to get hit, so taking it on alone was close to madness.

[T.one] Oh, he’s dodging all of that

However, Ban-ye leisurely dodged while dealing damage at the same time.

When Lilith’s skill [Bloody Moon] launched a red moon and struck Pramena, the continuous combo that had been going on paused for a moment.

Normally, one would use this brief moment to dodge the next attack, but Ban-ye used skills back-to-back.

[dkdus] He’s gonna die
[Aki] Only scrubs die lol

As soon as the brief stun wore off, Pramena slammed its weapon onto the ground!

It was a skill with almost no wind-up, making it difficult to time, but Ban-ye dodged it with a short backstep.

And, the ensuing damage.

[Baeksan] His movement is insane ㄷㄷ
[Baeksan] brb changing my pants
[nononon] Lilith is OP
[sr0920] came here after seeing it on the forums

When I peeked at the forums, I saw several titles like [Soloing the Pantheon ㄷㄷ].

There were some Sisi channel promotions and idle chatter in between, but perhaps because I was more relaxed, it was less bothersome than before.

[HeyYam] He’s good, yam lmaoooo
[Daramji] He’s barely using any potions
[Shams] How much of your real life do you have to throw away to play the game at this level?
[BG] Everything
[Youngmyeong] lmaooooooo

While the guild members also chimed in on the chat, Ban-ye took down Pramena.

As expected, due to the high difficulty, he spoke less, but he had enough composure (or was relaxed enough)  to answer game-related questions from time to time.

And.

[Sukeot-udumeori] nice nice nice nice
[T.one] He got it
[kimjh] Amazing

In the end, Ban-ye cleared the Pantheon with dignity, without using a single resurrection scroll.

“Ban-ye, congratulations!”

I congratulated Ban-ye by just moving my lips so my voice wouldn’t be heard.

But, Ban-ye looked at me with a slightly sullen face, then left the dungeon and said.

“Next, I’m going to run a slightly more difficult dungeon.”

[Daramji] More than this?

“I think it’ll be difficult on my own… so I’ll run it with Ban-yeStorage-nim as support.”

“Eek?!”

I was so surprised that I let out a sound without realizing it.

At that, the chat window filled up with chats from people who were surprised to hear my voice.

[Baeksan] Was someone next to him?
[sr0920] Ah, you scared me
[nononon] What the ㄷㄷ;
[BG] A ghost
[Daramji] who?
[HeyYam] It’s Ban-yeStorage-nim lol

“Wh-why me all of a sudden…!”

I protested Ban-ye’s decision by just mouthing my words, but Ban-ye just ignored me and parked his character in front of the [Basilisk’s Theater] dungeon, which could be called the current final dungeon.

He looked like he was going to stay there for hours until I came, so I had no choice but to log in as Ban-yeStorage and bring him next to Ah-ang.

The hand pressing the arrow keys felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

‘I can’t even run this place well normally…!’

In fact, it was safer to run this dungeon with max-level experts like HugMeRaiseMe or HeyYam.

I wasn’t even at the max level yet, so in the [Basilisk’s Theater], even if I dealt damage, I could only deal 80 percent of my normal damage due to the damage reduction effect, so I couldn’t fulfill my role as a dealer.

In that case, the only thing left was to perform my character’s class, [Alchemist]’s, buffer role….

‘I’m even less confident as a buffer….’

In Chaos Online, buffers are usually played by people with good sense and some level of control, so it’s common for people to raise a buffer as a sub-character, not their main.

This means it’s difficult for a complete beginner to do.

It was the same for raising my class, [Alchemist], for a buffer role instead of a damage dealer.

I had only ever raised my [Alchemist] for a damage dealer role and had never run a dungeon as a buffer.

I chewed on my lip nervously and accepted the party invitation from Ah-ang.

‘He probably just asked me to party with him because of the marriage buff, right…?’

[The special marriage buff is now stacked.]

But Ban-ye didn’t give me any signal and, ignoring my desperate gaze, entered the dungeon right away.

“Going in.”

“Y-yep!”

I answered, completely frozen, and peeked at the number of viewers for Ban-ye’s broadcast.

‘Oh my god… there are already 250 people watching!’

[The Basilisk’s laughter echoes…]

While the dungeon was loading, I clenched my fists.

My hands were trembling so much that I couldn’t help it.

‘If I mess up here, I’m screwed….’

250 people are watching.

I followed behind Ban-ye, constantly licking my dry lips.

My heart was pounding, and I mindlessly spammed my skills at the appearing mobs.

I was too anxious to calculate skill cooldowns and use them properly.

Ban-ye glanced at me, but he didn’t say anything.

Is it okay?

Am I doing well?

“W-woah!”

But at that moment, a mid-boss appeared.

I was using a skill with a long delay, so I couldn’t dodge the mid-boss’s very simple AoE attack and died.

Ban-ye dodged it immediately and didn’t die, and I quickly used a resurrection scroll to get up.

When you use a resurrection scroll, your body flashes for a few seconds and you become invincible, and the viewers who saw that laughed, typing [lol].

[BG] close one
[Kkureogi] The alche is a hand b@stard

“….”

[‘Kkureogi’ has been removed from the room.]

And Ban-ye immediately blocked the person who insulted me and kicked them out of the room.

My eyes widened when I saw that.

However, Ban-ye saw my expression and continued the broadcast nonchalantly.

Since the mid-boss had appeared, he confidently said that he would now show how to defeat it.

“I’ll show you how to not get hit even once by the mid-boss.”

“….”

[Aki] It’d be hilarious if he gets hit now

“I’ve almost never been hit except when I was first learning the strategy… but there are people who keep getting hit. Was it HugMeRaiseMe-nim…. It was a bit pitiful since it happens to him every time.”

[Aki] fck lol why are you suddenly mentioning me?
[HeyYam] You’re a j*rk, yam lol

“I’ll take it down slowly for Aki-nim’s sake.”

[Aki] f*ck off lmaooo

And Ban-ye really did take down the monster slowly.

In between, he even added comments like, “Aki-nim, do you understand now?”

It was a clearly teasing tone, so HugMeRaiseMe was about to die from being teased, but it was also fun, and the explanation made even a slow person like me want to try it out, so I forgot that I was even in the dungeon with him and became completely engrossed in the broadcast.

Besides, since the mid-boss mainly attacked the target with aggro, I, who was far away, only had to put in some long-range attacks, which was very easy, so I was able to avoid dying more.

[Kimera] Wow, but he’s really good at this
[Titi] Everyone, Sisi-nim is singing right now, please visit Sisi-nim’s broadcast too~(Link)

[‘Titi’ has been removed from the room]

[Seyeong-ahSaranghae] Clean
[Takkari] Interrupting the skill with a kiss is insane, his judgment is crazy
[Ingwan-ilji] I’m going to raise a Lilith

And so, Ban-ye, who had easily defeated the mid-boss and, as promised, hadn’t been hit even once, didn’t even pick up the items that dropped from the mid-boss and went straight to the next map.

I also felt too self-conscious to pick them up and hurriedly followed Ban-ye.

“People have a hard time luring mobs on this map… but there are luring points.”

Ban-ye said that and pointed out three points.

As Ban-ye said, after drawing aggro from just those three points and making a U-turn, the mobs gathered just right, not too excessively, making them easy to deal with.

My memory of spending several minutes here was rendered meaningless as Ban-ye, who had annihilated the mobs in just a few tens of seconds, similarly cleared the next map by only killing the key point monsters and moving on.

And, finally, the boss map.

“Ban-yeStorage-nim, buffs please.”

“Yes!”

I looked at Ban-ye with eyes full of respect and diligently poured various blessing potions on his head.

“Wait here, and come in when I tell you to.”

“Yep!”

[Aki] Why did he even bring him then?
[Sukeot-udumeori] Isn’t he a cheerleader?
[HeyYam] lmaooooooooooooooooo

HugMeRaiseMe sneered, but Ban-ye just received the buffs from me and entered the boss room alone.