Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 255

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 255

The information they’d gathered from that first 10 HP Lines phase was as follows.
They had 10 seconds to attack the boss.
The Sword Fragments orbiting along the map’s edges dealt damage so high that even with a Shield, one hit meant death.
There was nothing to confirm except at the 6 o’clock position. The Observer could confirm the same.
At 6 o’clock, beyond the Space Debris Zone, there was a new space and three Statues.
The Statues could be destroyed.
Destroying just one made no difference.
The information they’d known beforehand was as follows.
The boss’s health recovered from 10 HP Lines to 20 HP Lines, and a Total Annihilation would trigger if they failed.
Based on this, Seo Jun’s raid team began searching for the Exploit Method.
It was 8:30 PM then.
And their time limit was 10:30 PM.
Two hours remained.
Assuming the team members made minimal mistakes in the standard patterns and didn’t fail all the mechanics,
and assuming Seo Jun didn’t fail his Evasion, they could reach the 10 HP Lines in 12 minutes, giving them roughly 10 more attempts ahead.
Notably, they’d agreed that starting an attempt at 10:29 PM would count toward the First Clear.

-So what, you guys think you can clear this impossible thing by 1 AM? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The tortoise and hare worked because the tortoise was still a tortoise, but you guys are slugs!
-I saw the First Clear yesterday, and with some luck they could catch up, but slugs are just ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Anyway, is the 10 HP Lines all there is? Or should Party Leader just rest like he did yesterday and call it?
-Did he seriously know that and still say it?!

He hadn’t.
It was just the money.
In any case, people were having endless arguments.
About how it would turn out.
Would Seo Jun’s team find the method and then clear whatever comes next, becoming the final winner of the Race?
Or would someone trailing behind seize the arrogance of the leaders as their chance for a stunning reversal victory?
What Seo Jun’s party set as their goal for the second attempt was to destroy all the Statues.
Three would go to the 6 o’clock position and three would stay behind.
In the second attempt, they reached the 10 HP Lines safely and without incident.

-Evasion is actually a cheat code
-The boss pattern really needs a nerf
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Buff the difficulty more? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I’m telling you guys, after First Clear, Red Knight Pain followed by continuous difficulty nerfs is confirmed you crazy people ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-That’s just how amazing the Party Leader is~

The three assigned to go to the 6 o’clock position and destroy the Statues were Dang So, 119, and Tae-woo.
Ppoppi said it’d probably be hard to dodge the fragments flying from the side.
Siksik Corner had to stay since they needed at least one supporter.
Seo Jun naturally stayed because his team argued that after destroying all the Statues inside, they should keep him there as a backup for whatever might happen next.
“Go!”
“Those fragments are pretty threatening, so just think ‘enter in 10 seconds’ and take it slow!”
“Got it.”

[Danger! Red Knight Pain is trying to recover health!]

The boss swung his sword, the Sword Fragments orbited along the edges creating a dangerous zone, and the Statues burst forth.
The three inside waited at a distance from the boss while the 6 o’clock squad charged into the danger zone.
“Aaack!”
Dang So screamed.
He’d died mid-run.
Three seconds had already passed.
Four seconds.
The other two pushed past into the zone.
“Sorry!”
But mistakes like this could happen to anyone, anytime.
They’d already discussed what to do if someone failed.
“Done!”
Tae-woo destroyed two Statues and 119 destroyed one.
“Seo Jun, any changes inside?”
Five seconds.
Nothing.
The boss’s health had started at 20 HP Lines and didn’t climb further anyway.
‘Is the Total Annihilation not coming?’
Six seconds.
Seven seconds.
Eight seconds.
Nine seconds.
Ten seconds.
The Total Annihilation came down.
It couldn’t be that simple.

* * *

On the third attempt, they took too many basic attacks and summoned Geomsin, so they quickly hit retry.
The strat for Red Knight Pain was that it was better to take the floor tiles and attack teammates than to take the boss’s hits directly, and Seo Jun agreed.

-If you enter the 10 HP Lines with Geomsin summoned, wouldn’t something change?
-That’s going too far.
-From 40 HP down it’s Clone Summon, so what if you go into 10 HP with three clones summoned? Wouldn’t something happen?
-Oh! Stupidly genius idea! Let’s do it now!

Fourth attempt.
They reached the 10 HP Lines safely and the three rushed out again.
This time all three shed their urgency and made it safely to the Statue location, destroying them one by one.
“Anything changing inside?”
“Nothing.”
They waited.
The viewers expected changes since all three had destroyed one each.
The raid team felt the same.
But the Total Annihilation came down.
“Dammit!”
“What else do we need to do?”
“When we destroy a Statue, a Red Aura wraps around you, so do we need to bring that back inside?”
“That seemed to spread when they came back, actually.”
Frustration wasn’t the right word.
To exploit a mechanic, you had to match specific conditions, and countless failures were part of finding those conditions.
And Seo Jun enjoyed this process.
“What change should we try?”
Fifth attempt.
Forty minutes had been spent.
Time spent deliberating wasn’t worth wasting.

-Let’s try going into 10 HP with 3 clones summoned ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The clones take out the Sword Fragments!
-You guys are going too far

When they dropped below 40 HP, Siksik Corner and Tae-woo made mistakes in succession and the clones summoned.

[MartSiksikCornerSurvivesBy: Right, surprisingly you mess up too. You’re only human too]

‘Insane.’
Seo Jun thought.

-Yeah ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ no one was surprised
-Now he’s pretending it’s his first mistake ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

They fought on even with clones summoned and reached the 10 HP Lines.
The clones’ movements were duller and their attacks limited to swings and downstrokes, so even with just Seo Jun immobilizing the boss, those at half-decent skill or higher could play smoothly.
“Who was the one going on about how something would change if we brought clones into 10 HP? Step up. Nothing’s different in here.”
Tae-woo complained while giving the briefing.
Of course, there was no need.
The entire raid team had moved inside the 6 o’clock area to avoid the wandering clones.
The Aura spread.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The chat thought it was a master detective but it’s actually child detective level ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Maybe if they bring three clones it’d be different!

This time they tried having all six members go inside and destroy the Statues while standing by.
By the way, Seo Jun watched whether the clones would do something special from inside until 4 seconds remained, then casually crossed over with hands behind his back.
For him, dodging the incoming fragments and crossing over was easy and fast.
The result was Total Annihilation regardless.
Sixth attempt.
This time they decided to have the remaining inside members attack the boss. The result was the same—Total Annihilation.
But.
“Found it.”
Seo Jun’s eyes went bright.
“Found what?”
“There was a point where we were attacking and a change occurred.”
“What change? I didn’t feel anything.”
Ppoppi, another Dealer inside, asked.
“The damage suddenly started dealing double. There was a specific point where it switched. You know when?”
There was only one timing to infer.
Right then.
“When all the Statues broke?”
Tae-woo spoke aloud the thought that flashed through everyone’s mind.
“Yeah. From then on damage was Double Damage.”
“So that means?”
“Probably we destroy the Statues as fast as possible……”
“And use that increased damage to drop the boss’s health as far below a certain level as we can.”
“Yeah. The question is how low we need to drop it.”
One hour remained.
They swapped Seo Jun and Dang So’s positions.
Having a mage who could pump one powerful burst of damage under Double Damage inside, and sending Seo Jun—who had weak damage but could traverse the danger zone fastest—to the 6 o’clock position was the obvious choice.
Everyone else stayed the same.
The supporter’s Damage Buff was strong enough that one person’s worth of damage, so there was no need to add another Dealer inside.
Seventh attempt.
Four seconds after the pattern started, the three Statues shattered and the inside team unleashed burst damage.
From 20 HP Lines, they dropped it to 16 lines in one go.
But the Total Annihilation triggered.
Eighth attempt.
The same—four seconds later the three Statues broke and the result was identical.
Last time 119 hesitated slightly and came in late; this time Tae-woo paused for a step and arrived late.
“My apologies.”
“We need to come in earlier and the timing needs to align better.”
If we drop 5 lines, is that the exploit?
Ninth attempt.
119 hesitated slightly this time and arrived at the Statue location, producing the same result.
There’s no helping it.
Dodging perfectly and entering was definitely a high difficulty hurdle.
Twenty-four minutes remained, and Seo Jun tried one more time with the original composition.
The tenth challenge.
And this time Tae-woo and 119 got hit by fragments and died.
Seo Jun, waiting for them, destroyed the three Statues the moment they died, but at that point it was 5 seconds.
At that moment Seo Jun tried coming back inside as an experiment.
He could spread the Aura to one person. Of course, Total Annihilation followed.

-Total Annihilation!
-GG
-Only one try left now ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Guess they both cracked under the pressure ㅋㅋㅋㅋ look at their faces when the shards nailed their ribs ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Only the final chance remained.
Instead of starting immediately, they took a brief breather.
Starting now or in 11 minutes made no difference.
The viewers, incidentally, were laughing it up.

-What happened to the rabbit again?
-The Party Leader really is just a rabbit ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The height of arrogance!!!
-Losing the First Clear trying to make money is pretty rare ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Yay we’re getting the mission fee back!
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Get some rest buddy, I’ll pull off the First Clear for you

They had a rough sense of the pattern, but the issue was the team’s mechanic proficiency.
There was no way they’d clear like this.
So they needed to make a change, but there was something to confirm first.
“So the Double Damage stays applied regardless?”
“Yeah. Looks like whoever destroys them doesn’t matter—as long as they all break, Double Damage applies.”
Good.
We can give up on doing it textbook style.
“Ah. Everyone? I’m going to clear this now. I’ll happily take the four million won in good faith.”
That is to say.
Clearing it alone.
That’s definitely the surest way, isn’t it?
Seo Jun smiled.

* * *

The developers heard Seo Jun’s strategy and sighed collectively.
“That method works?”
“Doing it that way really does solve the 10 HP Lines mechanic easily.”
There’s one condition that weakens the Total Annihilation in the 10 HP Lines phase.
Drop the boss’s health to 15 HP Lines or below within 10 seconds.
To deal that damage, you need to destroy the Statues.
But is that all? Is that enough? No.
Three people with the Red Aura have to go and come back.
But the method Seo Jun described made that impossible.
Therefore.
“Success in the overall raid will be difficult. The First Clear will be pushed past 1 AM. Another party might even get lucky and steal it.”
“Why not. It could still end here.”
“Clear it in one shot from here? There’s no team mechanic so theoretically possible, but…”
The Raid Team Leader paused.
It wouldn’t be late to speak after seeing the result.

* * *

Seo Jun’s method was simple.
He alone would rush quickly to the Statue area and destroy all three Statues.
Two seconds to clear it. Five people inside dealing damage.
Therefore.
“10 HP Lines!”
“If it doesn’t work at 10 HP Lines, we’re done!”
“Is the mechanic exploited?”
He was certain the mechanic would be exploited.
But.
‘Probably….’
Boom!
The weakened Total Annihilation came down and they died. Except Seo Jun, who’d destroyed the Statues.

-???
-He’s alone now ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

“Huh?”
“Seo Jun, you’re going to be alone?”
“Hey! You didn’t come back inside on purpose! You’re trying to solo clear!”
Seo Jun didn’t bother voicing his thought that having one extra person probably wouldn’t make much difference anyway.
The textbook method was probably three people rushing in quickly to destroy the Statues, coming back out, and spreading the Red Aura to keep all six alive.
But with only one chance and his team’s mechanic execution lacking, Seo Jun chose to stay alone.
Solo, he’d definitely face difficulty in dropping the remaining health.
But look.
A timer appeared. One minute.
Still, the tight timer confirmed that there was basically no further mechanic to exploit.
So then?
“I’ll clear it as is now. Going full throttle.”
Sure enough.
Being alone made it.
Actually reassuring.

* * *

“Yes. So, Team Leader? We’ve made it to one-on-one blocking.”
“Look. Job is beginner-level, and it’s not six people but just him alone? The map’s shrinking progressively, damage is insufficient, so Berserk Mode coming after the timer runs out is confirmed. The timer’s one minute. One minute. If he can survive all of Berserk Mode and clear 10 HP Lines on the first shot with beginner damage…… that person is a god……”
The Raid Team Leader, who’d praised Seo Jun highly yesterday, now demurred.
That’s because it was the final phase he’d devoted the most care to adjusting difficulty.
“He’s the Sword God.”
“……….”
The Raid Team Leader’s words caught.
“Right then, Director? What do you think, Director?”
“Team Leader. Let’s get ready to display a congratulations message.”
His words caught once more.
“I’ll prepare it, Director! Let’s go!”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————