The Return of the Genius Ranker of All Times - Chapter 7

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 7

Chapter 7.

Dohyun briefly closed his eyes.

As he slowly took a deep breath and focused, then opened his eyes, the world looked different from just moments before.

Clearer vision and distant noise. Even the creature’s appearance looked more vivid.

The darkness covering its fur-like scales rippled, and even the subtle movements of its fingers trembling slightly were distinct.

“….”

It was so quiet that even breathing seemed to have stopped.

This was a phenomenon that occurred when Dohyun concentrated to the extreme. Feeling his head grow cold, Dohyun objectively checked his physical condition.

‘My condition is good.’

Was it because he played a game after a long time?

Whether his head had cleared or not, it didn’t seem to be this good originally, but today his concentration was particularly sharp.

Kraaaaaah!!

Perhaps sensing an unusual aura from Dohyun.

The creature began roaring more violently.

Being a creature that had lost all reason to an unbelievable degree for a Named Boss, with only instinct remaining, it reacted more sensitively.

Swoosh!

Dohyun was the first to move.

Forget probing attacks – as he quickly lunged forward, the creature immediately reacted. Of course, only its reaction was fast; its speed was slow.

However….

Kwaaaaaang!

Being so massive, the area covered by its arms was ridiculously large.

It was just a simple motion of extending its arm, but that alone was threatening enough to require throwing his body with full force.

[Using basic skill ‘Power Strike’.]

Clang!

As he threw his body almost tumbling and slashed at the arm, it made a sound like striking metal.

That entire sequence flowed like water, as if it were one continuous motion.

Kraah!

Then the creature roared and alternately swung both arms.

Dohyun rolled with all his might in the opposite direction to avoid that brutish attack and swung his sword again.

Still hearing the sound like hitting a steel ball with a plastic sword, Dohyun retreated from the creature’s range and checked the reduced health.

-HP : [999,880 / ???]

‘…120.’

The HP reduced by two attacks.

One of them even used Power Strike.

‘Power Strike does 80, normal attack does 40.’

Considering Power Strike’s cooldown was 12 seconds, he would need to slash roughly 20,000 times to defeat the creature.

Even if he tried to land consecutive hits, the debuff slowed his speed, making two hits the maximum limit.

In contrast, Dohyun would die from just one hit.

He hadn’t been hit yet, but he was certain.

-HP : [200 / 200]

He didn’t think his pitiful level 1 health could withstand that tremendously powerful attack.

He needed to dodge at least 10,000 attacks and land 20,000 attacks.

And that while slowed by debuffs.

To do that, he had to roll with full force to dodge every moment.

While also forcing in attacks, and if he let his guard down even for a moment and failed to roll in time, it would be over.

‘…This is the worst difficulty.’

Did they really leave this as a hidden piece expecting someone to clear it?

They said Godseeker was managed by AI rather than humans, but it seemed like the AI couldn’t consider human standards.

But faced with such hopeless difficulty, Dohyun smiled.

‘This is fun.’

There was one reason why Dohyun never let go of Demroc despite experiencing all sorts of misery in that luck-based trash game.

The insanely high difficulty.

The sense of achievement when clearing that difficulty triumphantly.

Because that was so much fun.

What would that creature drop when it died?

It wouldn’t drop bricks like Demroc.

Even there, they gave something when clearing hidden pieces.

Kraaaaaah!

Glancing ahead, the creature was still roaring and swinging its arms at empty air.

He could feel the killing intent wanting to tear him apart immediately.

In a way, it was just flailing around randomly like a child throwing a tantrum, but when the size reached that level, that alone was the ultimate attack and defense.

Because each of those seemingly random attacks was hell where even a graze meant death.

“Dodge 10,000 times, hit 20,000 times… Let’s give it a try.”

Dohyun steeled his resolve and charged at the creature again.

* * *

Countless posts are uploaded to Godseeker’s official homepage.

From various information to events, and further to updates on the top 10 guilds and veteran users, plus other trivial conversations.

Like other game communities, Godseeker’s official homepage wasn’t much different.

The only differences were its large scale and the fact that newbies kept coming even after a year and six months.

[Godddong started Godseeker for the first time today and it’s seriously insane. Is the tutorial direction really that crazy?]

Therefore, it was common for tutorial-related posts to appear on the homepage.

Because the tutorial was the first thing newbies encountered.

And such posts always received many comments.

-Really fun. This is why they call it Godseeker.

-The direction where the goddess appears just before death and seals the monster again is really wow….

-It’s seriously so fun ㅠㅠ At first, killing monsters felt a bit unsettling, but it really feels like being on a battlefield, so I ended up getting way too immersed myself.

-Isn’t Charlie charming too? He’s pretty prickly and annoying, but he secretly takes good care of people. He’s like a tsundere lol

-Takes care my ass, he just clicks his tongue and makes me want to beat him up.

-That’s because you suck at the game. He’s completely skill-supremacist so if you fight well he doesn’t click his tongue.

-He’s going to die at the end anyway so be nice to him guys.

-Very heartwarming to see the growing sprouts… Those pure kids will soon be crying about luck-based trash game….

Newbies in similar situations could relate, while users who had been playing for a while found newbies excited about the tutorial cute.

The tutorial, which was a hot topic for various reasons, had several common themes.

[Anyone tried raising Charlie’s favorability?]

[Did that guy even have something called favorability?]

[They say if you max out favorability he gives rewards.]

[Is it even possible to max it out?]

One of them was the Knight Order captain, Charlie.

Unlike other games where characters act according to set patterns, Godseeker’s AI was hardly different from humans.

As a result, their behavior toward newbies differed based on favorability, and people began taking interest in this thing called favorability.

However, what started as interest gradually transformed into something more.

[This is Red Fingers Guild. Anyone whose favorability rose twice or more during the tutorial, please contact us. We promise sufficient treatment.]

[Recruiting those with favorability raised three times or more. We’ll treat you with the best conditions.]

[We’ll reference simple tests and tutorial videos.]

How much Charlie praised during the tutorial.

How much they raised that picky guy’s favorability.

This became proof of skill, and numerous medium and large guilds wanting skilled players used this as reference to treat users accordingly.

It became a kind of career credential.

As a result, even among regular users, raising Charlie’s favorability became something worth bragging about to friends, and this was why not only newbies but even veterans showed such interest in the tutorial.

-Who were the ones that maxed out their affection levels?

-Don’t you know? Probably all the top 10 guild masters filled them up.

-The owner of the armory probably couldn’t fill it.

-That guy’s a bit suspicious. He’s the type to just push through with money.

-These days there’s no one who’s maxed out their affection.

-The skilled players already started long ago, so it can’t be helped.

But compared to the early-mid period when skilled players emerged in droves, at this point 1 year and 6 months later, no one who maxed out their affection had appeared.

Well, it was only natural.

Those who were quite good at games had already started Godseeker, and among them, those who maxed out their affection could be counted on one hand.

Out of 1 billion users, at most around ten thousand.

Now those who had secured their positions all said the same thing.

“Can you defeat the tutorial boss? Are you crazy?”

“Absolutely impossible. That wasn’t made to be defeated.”

“Don’t even mention the Iron-Blooded Demon Dragon or whatever the hell it is. It gives me chills.”

For some reason, they despised the tutorial boss even more intensely than regular users.

Since they wouldn’t answer when asked for detailed reasons, users could only speculate that it was related to maxing out affection levels.

“…The Iron-Blooded Demon Dragon, you say? It wasn’t exactly a pleasant memory.”

Even the famous Demroc was included among them.

Though it was an ambiguous answer, seeing him who was always confident hesitate was a huge shock, and users had no choice but to accept it.

[The tutorial boss is not a monster made to be defeated.]

[It’s just a show-and-tell event to demonstrate that such monsters exist to users.]

The tutorial boss, Iron-Blooded Demon Dragon.

That it wasn’t a boss monster made to be defeated.

[Can’t the tutorial boss be defeated? Damage does seem to go through though.]

-Yeah, can’t defeat it. Even Demroc couldn’t beat it.

-That seems to be just for realism, making damage register.

-Wow, but you actually thought to attack it. I just stood there dazed and died.

This was why when clueless newbies occasionally asked such questions after seeing that damage did register, veterans would unanimously answer ‘impossible’.

[Huh? What’s this? Its name changed?]

-??

-What do you mean?

-No, it should be Iron-Blooded Demon Dragon but it’s changed to Slothful Demon Dragon.

-?? What? What the hell, it’s real?

-Do names change too?

However, today, for the first time since launch, cracks appeared in that consensus that had solidified into common knowledge.

-Why did the name change on its own?

-Isn’t it a bug?

-What bug in Godseeker? It’s managed by an AI dozens of times superior to AlphaGo.

-Then what? Don’t tell me someone defeated it?

-Holy shit… really?

And for good reason, as this was the first change to occur to the tutorial boss that had shown no variation since launch.

Some put forward the opinion that the boss had finally been defeated after 1 year and 6 months.

But that opinion was quickly buried.

-Come on… that’s going too far.

-How could a level 1 possibly defeat that?

-Something even Demroc couldn’t beat, and now someone defeated it? Who?

-If they defeated it, they would’ve uploaded a video by now.

-First of all, there’s no proof it was defeated, right?

-If it was really defeated and the name changed, that would make it a Named Boss… but doesn’t it look exactly the same as usual except for the name?

No matter how you thought about it, it was an unreasonable situation.

In a situation where even direct evidence would be called fake, speculation without any evidence couldn’t have credibility.

“The tutorial boss’s name changed?”

“…It’s an error.”

“They do regular updates… there was an update today, so it might be the effect of that.”

“Defeating that thing… that doesn’t make sense. Well, it might be possible if you brought Kaiser’s party from back then.”

“So Kaiser could do it? Didn’t you hear me? I said you’d need to bring his party. Kaiser or whatever, ‘that thing’ absolutely cannot be defeated alone.”

When even the high rankers who had maxed out Charlie’s affection said this, people no longer raised objections.

Only Demroc remained silent, but he didn’t particularly deny it either, and with so many rankers saying this, regular users had no choice but to accept it.

Of course, that was that, but honestly they were curious.

-But if someone really defeats it, what would they get as a reward?

-This game’s difficulty is fucking insane sometimes… but whenever that happens, the rewards are pretty generous, right?

-True, just when I think this RNG shitty game sucks, I end up calling it a god-tier game again.

If someone really defeated that horrible boss that no one could beat…

What would they actually obtain?

-Well. I don’t know for sure, but wouldn’t they get the greatest reward in Godseeker history?

It was talk bordering on fantasy, and users quickly dismissed it as a joke.

Therefore, they couldn’t even imagine.

That what they had dismissed as absurd talk was actually happening.

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