Chapter 23: Raid (3)

Second Gate, commonly known as Golden Butterfly Hell.

Unlike the easy first gate, the second gate was tightly bundled with team mechanics, so it was called field training by users.

‘Hmph, let’s just do as before…’

It seemed that the game company created this mechanic to test the coordination and teamwork among raid parties, but it actually had the opposite effect.

Users developed distrust and hatred towards humans due to boosting and smurfs, and learned the lesson that they could only rely on themselves.

[Alright, everyone knows the main patterns, right? Mage-nim, if a mechanic you don’t know comes up, just follow me.]

“Yes, understood.”

Of course, I had memorized all the patterns for the second gate as well, but I was afraid of making a mistake, and my shoulders felt much lighter.

[Hehehe, you’ve come this far, quite impressive!]

Upon entering the second gate, countless golden butterflies briefly obscured my vision, and the second gate boss appeared.

Its dirty fur around its neck, golden wings, and even its antennae that were also tentacles and the sharp teeth scattered throughout its mouth when it opened.

It looked more like a moth than a butterfly.

You absolutely couldn’t call it a butterfly.

-F*cking disgusting.

-Why is it a moth when it’s called a golden butterfly? LOL

-F*ck, what kind of thing is this?

-Do we really have to raid?

Some viewers complained of suffering.

That meant the boss’s appearance was that disgusting.

Golden butterflies were scattering dust in the air.

[You have been affected by the Golden Butterfly’s pollen, ‘Flamagic’.]

‘This is truly F*cked up…!’

The most F*cked up thing about this guy is that it starts by inflicting debuffs.

If you are affected by the debuff, your health is slowly reduced, and your movement speed slows down.

It doesn’t end there; as time passes and it stacks up, the effect becomes even stronger.

Even if there was a Priest’s debuff removal skill, you had to use it at the right time so that it wouldn’t reach maximum stacks, so it was truly hell for supporters.

Soon after, the boss took out its tentacles and swung them towards us, and all the raid members dodged the tentacles.

[Mage-nim, be careful. If you are touched by this tentacle, you will enter the maximum stack state, so—]

“Yes.”

If you reach the maximum stack state, your health is naturally reduced drastically, and your body becomes completely unable to move.

As a squishy mage, I absolutely had to avoid this.

The first mechanic appeared.

Eight circles were drawn on the field.

[Everyone, please go to your designated circle according to your number.]

We moved clockwise according to the party order, and I stood in the 6th circle.

The boss’s tentacle antennae gradually rose into the sky, grew into multiple branches, and began to attack everywhere except the circular areas.

[Alright, let’s prepare for the next mechanic.]

The mechanic was not over yet.

As soon as the boss finished its tentacle antennae attack, it immediately implemented the next mechanic.

[Impressive! Then try to stop this too!]

Eggs began to be generated on the field.

Time limit 30 seconds.

The time limit began to appear.

All the raid members unleashed skills towards the eggs.

‘It’s going to be close…!’

If they didn’t break these eggs, the golden butterflies would multiply by two, and the pollen stacking speed would also double.

Fortunately, all the eggs were broken with 3 seconds remaining.

[My lovely children…! I will not forgive you!]

[The boss enters the ‘Mother’s Rage’ state.]

Is it the heart of a mother who witnessed her child die firsthand?

If this mechanic is successfully completed, the monster’s critical damage, critical hit chance, and attack speed will increase tremendously.

-She laid the eggs on her own, you know

-Mother’s Rage

-You said try to stop it

The viewers’ reaction was heated.

It couldn’t be helped, as even a warrior who brought a shield skill set would be two-shotted by this pattern.

[Priest-nim, I’m stacked!]

[Me too!]

People called out to the Priest, having reached maximum stacks everywhere, and the Priests quickly removed the raid members’ debuffs with their skills as if responding to the call.

After that, we dodged the minor patterns and other mechanics and applied skills little by little, and the stun gauge below the health bar was completely depleted.

Then the moth, as if losing strength, sank to the ground.

[How frustrating…!]

[Alright, everyone, it’s damage time!]

At the raid leader’s words, the Priest applied attack buffs, and the raid members, including me, drank the potions we brought.

As we unleashed all the raid members’ skills on the boss, its health bar began to decrease rapidly.

We couldn’t miss this moment.

If we didn’t defeat it now, the boss’s health would regenerate by half, and we would have to perform the mechanics again.

[Ah, I’m at maximum stacks now! I feel like I’m going to die!]

[Me too, what should we do?!]

‘What…?’

I was startled at the mention of maximum stacks.

It hadn’t been long since the debuffs were removed, had it?

The ones who reached maximum stacks were the Brawler and Warrior from Party 1, who had been hit by minor patterns multiple times.

The Priests had just finished removing the debuffs of other party members, so their skill cooldowns wouldn’t have ended yet.

[‘Kimjjajjangppong’ has died from pollen poisoning.]

[‘Gwakchundong Horido’ has died from pollen poisoning.]

‘It seems like we won’t have enough damage…!’

Already two people had died.

No matter how strong the mage’s damage was, covering for 3 people, not even 2, was impossible.

[Hehehe! I am not dead yet!]

As we couldn’t kill it, the sunken moth mocked us and flew into the air again.

“Ah, F*ck…!”

-One more time

-You couldn’t even kill that one thing

-Hang in there!

‘Right, calm down…’

People can make mistakes.

And damage can be applied again.

As time passed and I squeezed out all the damage, the boss’s stun gauge depleted faster than before.

Since there’s no revival on the second attempt, I can just deal damage comfortably.

And the final pattern at 0 health.

It’s one of the mechanics considered most frustrating by raid users; if you fail this, a wipe skill activates, killing everyone and making you start over.

[Everyone, you mustn’t make a mistake here!]

With the raid leader’s warning, the final desperate pattern began.

Red and blue circular areas appeared on the field, and odd numbers had to move to blue, while even numbers had to move to red.

Being an even number, I quickly moved to the red circle, and all the raid members stood in the cardinal directions.

Since 2 people had already died, there were two empty spots, but that was within a manageable range.

Cocoons began to sprout from the circles.

[Alright, everyone, move in a clockwise zigzag.]

Raid members with red could move to the right and break the cocoons in the blue circles, and raid members with blue could also move in the same direction and break the cocoons in the inner red circles.

As we were doing well, someone made a mistake.

“…I’m sorry.”

The Paladin guy, who had kept his microphone off, turned it on.

Just by hearing his voice, I could tell his throat was not in good condition.

But that was a problem for later.

While the Paladin’s cocoon was still alive, another Warrior next to him moved out of the circle.

[Hehehe! Foolish ones, you can never approach that person!]

Perhaps because we failed, the boss’s flapping wings seemed to be mocking us.

Bang!

The party was wiped out by the wipe skill.

[Party has been defeated by the boss.]

-You’re struggling 

-It’s just the beginning LOL

-The Paladin was the troll LOL

‘Hmph, let’s be patient….’

I didn’t want to get angry at the Paladin who had invited me.

Besides, there was still a lot of time left.

Isn’t failing like this part of the fun of raiding?

‘How many times will I get to raid in my life?’

Let’s treat repeated challenges as experience.

However, this determination crumbled within a few tens of minutes.

[Party has been defeated by the boss.]

[Party has been defeated by the boss.]

[Party has been defeated by the boss.]

.
.
.
[Party has been defeated by the boss.]

The broadcast had already been going on for 3 hours, and no matter how many times we challenged it, we just couldn’t clear the second gate.

There were various reasons.

Sometimes the damage was insufficient because some people died after reaching maximum stacks, and other times, even when things were going well, the final mechanic would be failed like before.

The reasons were diverse.

Of course, I wasn’t particularly angry about failing.

The problem was the immense impact of it.

The raid members’ motivation and concentration also decreased, and now they were hitting a physical limit as well.

And there was the biggest problem that surpassed all of that.

[No, F*ck, I can’t do this anymore!]

Everyone had become extremely sensitive.

As a result, the raid atmosphere turned into a sh*tshow, and a fight broke out.

[No! Why did you move from there? You should have just stayed still!]

[I’m a Berserker skill set!! My damage increases when my health is low!!]

[Shall I Fck your Fcking mom’s Fcking **** with my Fcking ******!!!!]

[Then I’ll Fck your mom and Fck you after F*cking you and then show you.]

Before I knew it, the sensitive raid members began to spew mindless slurs at each other.

-Hmph, how frustrating.

-When do we start?

-Should we report them?

The viewers were initially amused by the unexpected fight, but as it kept repeating, they seemed to have had enough.

[Alright, alright, everyone calm down. If we pass this time, that’s it, right? Isn’t it?]

The raid leader tried her best to mediate between the two, but she had no idea that it wouldn’t work on them.

[No, don’t stop me! I’ll end this with that guy too!]

[Ha! Alright! Same here!]

It ended up instigating the fight even further.

[In the first place, is it normal to bring a Berserker skill set to the second gate?!]

[T-that…!]

The rogue was gradually running out of things to say.

And then suddenly, he started looking for something with his head.

[The Paladin-nim also made quite a few mistakes, so why are you only picking on me?!]

“……?”

The topic of conversation suddenly changed.

The arrow of blame flew towards the Paladin.

[That Warrior guy made as many mistakes as I did!]

“…….”

That’s a lie.

The Paladin only made mistakes exactly 3 times, significantly fewer than the two of them.

[Indeed….]

[You did make a lot of mistakes, though….]

The Brawler and Priest, who died the most after the Rogue and Warrior, began to agree with the Rogue’s words.

‘Haaa… it seems like it won’t end.’

The fight showed no signs of stopping, and my eyes were gradually closing.

‘Shall I sleep for a bit….’

Just as I bent over and was about to fall asleep for a moment, I heard them talking about me.

[Besides, that person who the Party 2 Paladin-ssi brought, that mage, is also at fault!]

At those words, my eyes snapped open.

Suddenly, me?