Chapter 53: The Greatest Dealer

Following at the rear of the party, Irim diligently picked arugula.

When the arugula finally ran out,

“We’ve arrived.”

Irim heard Aegis’s voice.

What welcomed the eight players was a massive cavern at the end of the tunnel.

The players stepped into the cavern.

There was nothing inside.

For now.

KUGUGUGUGUGUGU!

Suddenly, the entire cavern shook violently as if an earthquake had struck.

Then, from the ground, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peanuts, and other crops surged upward in a rush.

The sight was like farm crops being swept up by a typhoon.

The famine-relief crops that kept rising through the floor tangled together and transformed into the shape of a gigantic giant.

Irim and the players looked up at the giant that stood a full three meters tall.

Above the head of the rock-like boss monster floated the name “Giant Crop.”

“Giant Crop… a crop giant. The name fits perfectly.”

Hearing someone mutter that, Irim checked his satiety.

– Satiety: 222/270

His satiety had dropped about 48 from the maximum. 

Since it was a boss fight, the battle might drag on.

Once combat began, there would be no time to recover satiety.

Irim opened his inventory.

Three Delicious Chicken Skewers remained.

Each Delicious Chicken Skewer restored 15 satiety.

Eating all three would restore 45—just right.

Irim took them out and quickly devoured them.

His satiety rose almost to the maximum, and just as he felt satisfied, an unexpected message appeared.

[Through sufficient intake of chicken meat, the skill ‘Great Chicken’s Strength F’ has been upgraded to ‘Great Chicken’s Strength E’.]

[Great Chicken’s Strength E (Passive)]

When it is night (18:00–05:00), Attack Power increases by 30.

‘Wooow.’

Irim exclaimed in admiration.

Great Chicken’s Strength was a passive skill he had obtained after killing the Great Unicorn Chicken in the newbie zone, Starting Grassland.

Until now, he had no idea how to upgrade it and simply left it alone.

Who would have thought the upgrade condition was eating chicken!

‘I’ll have to keep eating chicken steadily from now on.’

A skill that upgrades just by eating something delicious.

It couldn’t get any better than this.

As the rank rose, the attack bonus at night doubled from 15 to 30.

‘Wait. Then the Lizard’s Strength too… maybe?’

Lizard’s Strength was a skill he had obtained the same way—by defeating the boss monster Claw Lizard Princess in Spider Forest.

Lizard’s Strength allowed Irim to climb walls up to 20 meters above the ground.

Since the names were similar, he wondered if eating a lot of lizard meat would upgrade this one too.

While Irim was lost in thought, Aegis stepped forward and briefed everyone.

“According to the strategy posted on the fan cafe, Giant Crop has no clear weak point. So we all have to rush in together, split its attention, and deal damage at the same time.”

“If we steadily deal damage for about five minutes, we can take it down. I don’t know who will deal the most damage and become the owner of the shared inventory, but if we fail to kill it, everything we did to get here will be for nothing, right? So let’s all work together!”

Aegis spoke as if he cared for the party, but he was confident that he himself would deal the highest damage.

Irim half-listened while searching for Giant Crop’s death point.

‘There it is.’

Fortunately, the death point was visible.

Its body was enormous, yet it was still only a 2-star monster.

On the wall behind Giant Crop, someone had carved large letters:

[Greatest Dealer: Maengho]

‘Maengho?’

A welcome name.

He must have cleared the Cave of Famine-Relief Crops before them.

Maengho had cleared the warrior-class exclusive quest Marina’s Hideout together with Irim and obtained the skill “Earth Splitter.”

It was a one-hit-kill technique that consumed 90% of total satiety and 90% of total health to cast.

If remaining satiety and health were below 90% of maximum, the skill could not even be activated.

Moreover, after using it once, only 10% of health and satiety remained, instantly putting the user in danger.

With that much risk, the destructive power of Earth Splitter was immense.

Earth Splitter added 50% extra damage to the caster’s attack power and dealt area damage to all enemies within a 1-meter radius of the impact point.

However, if used as a single-target skill instead of area, it added a whopping 200% extra damage to the caster’s attack power.

Maengho had landed the finishing blow with this very Earth Splitter, defeating Giant Crop and etching his name as the Greatest Dealer.

Those words on the wall would automatically change when a player dealt more damage to Giant Crop than Maengho.

‘I don’t know about becoming the overall Greatest Dealer, but at least first in this group would be nice.’

Irim desperately wanted the three types of famine-relief crops and the beginner fishing tool package.

So he took out all five Attack Buff Eggs.

[Attack Buff Egg]

– Grants +5 Attack for 10 minutes upon consumption

Stackable

These were items obtained by gutting the Great Unicorn Chicken.

They were all that remained after using up every Agility Buff Egg and Defense Buff Egg.

Irim swallowed all five Attack Buff Eggs.

His base attack power was currently 73.

With item bonuses adding 55, and since it was around 3 a.m., Great Chicken’s Strength added another 30, plus 25 more from the Attack Buff Eggs.

That brought his current total attack power to 183.

Furthermore, when using One-Point Thrust, damage increased by 25% on hit, meaning he could deal roughly 229 damage in a single strike.

Yet that was only when stabbing anywhere.

If he struck the death point precisely, the damage could explode far beyond calculation.

‘Should I make it even more certain?’

Just as Irim rummaged through his inventory with some idea in mind,

“Here we go!”

Aegis and the players charged at Giant Crop all at once.

And from the back, Irim chugged a refreshing glass of beer.

Glug! Glug! Glug!

“Phew. Perfect.”

After emptying the beer in one go and wiping his mouth, a message appeared.

[You have consumed Delicious Paltau Beer. For 5 minutes, Attack +10, Defense -10.]

Confirming the message, Irim checked Giant Crop’s death point once more.

The monster’s death point was right between its brows.

But it was too tall to strike properly.

So Irim activated Lizard’s Strength and climbed five meters up the cavern wall.

The players reached striking distance of Giant Crop and tried to unleash simultaneous attacks, but it wasn’t easy.

Giant Crop stomped the ground hard, triggering an area-of-effect skill, and five players were stunned.

“Damn it!”

Aegis, who barely dodged outside the skill’s range, groaned.

Giant Crop’s eyes glowed red as it glared at the players.

It raised one massive fist high.

At this rate, they could be wiped out in an instant!

‘Now!’

At that moment, Irim leaped from the wall and spread his luxury Kill Queen cloak wide.

Glider mode activated, and he adjusted his trajectory to land on Giant Crop’s forehead.

But the monster suddenly bent at the waist.

It was trying to crush a stunned player with its fist.

This was bad for Irim.

He wasn’t yet skilled enough at flying to drastically change the glider’s path.

‘I need to draw its attention!’

Irim stretched one hand forward, and a watermelon-sized fireball formed in front of it.

It was Fire Artisan, obtained by clearing Marina’s hidden quest.

FWEEEEEEEEEE!

The fireball left Irim’s hand and slammed into Giant Crop’s shoulder.

BOOM!

KROOOOOAR!

Giant Crop straightened up, abandoning its punch, and fixed its gaze on Irim.

At the sudden magic, the players gasped in shock.

“What the—? We had a mage among us?”

“I-I’m alive!”

“But who… holy shit, that guy?”

Every eye turned to Irim.

“Don’t get distracted—attack!”

Aegis shouted at the stunned players.

Truthfully, Aegis was just as shocked.

He never dreamed that pathetic-looking loser was a mage.

A mage’s spells dealt massive damage.

That was an immutable law in every game.

If things continued like this, he might lose the title of top dealer.

‘Where the hell did he learn magic that lets him fly?’

Aegis never even considered that Irim’s flight was thanks to an item.

Now everyone saw him as a perfect mage.

Meanwhile, snapping out of their daze at Aegis’s shout, the players attacked Giant Crop.

Giant Crop’s health decreased little by little, but not noticeably.

By then, the distance between Irim and Giant Crop had closed considerably.

Giant Crop was now completely ignoring the other players.

Because the damage Irim dealt was the highest, all aggro had switched to him.

Normally, Aegis should have used his “Taunt” skill to pull aggro onto himself.

He had that skill.

But he didn’t.

He wanted Irim to die to Giant Crop right here.

That way, he could monopolize the title of top dealer and all the items!

KROOOOOOOOOAR!

Giant Crop roared and reached for Irim with its clenched fist.

Irim aimed at the shoulder of its raised right arm and cast the Frost Shield skill “Frostbite.”

CRACKLE!

Giant Crop’s shoulder froze over, slowing the incoming fist.

In the end,

WHOOSH!

The fist sliced through empty air.

Giant Crop’s forehead appeared right in front of Irim.

‘There!’

The boning sword in Irim’s hand glowed with cold light.

The instant the death point between its brows entered range!

[One-Point Thrust!]

White letters exploded in midair as the boning sword shot forward at terrifying speed.

It pierced Giant Crop’s death point perfectly.

KABOOOOOM!

“Hnngh!”

Irim gripped the sword tighter.

KROOOOOOOOOOOOAR!

Giant Crop threw its head back and screamed.

The boning sword mercilessly bored through its forehead until only the hilt remained visible.

At that moment,

Giant Crop’s body froze in place.

And more than 80% of its remaining health drained away in an instant.

Yet a tiny sliver of health still remained!

Giant Crop had three phases that activated based on remaining health.

The higher the phase, the greater its attack power and agility, and the more complex its patterns became.

Giant Crop skipped Phase 2 and jumped straight into Phase 3.

In this state, berserk mode activated, turning it into a monster with monstrous agility and attack power.

FWIIIIIIISH!

A gust of wind came from Irim’s right.

Giant Crop had spread its left hand wide, trying to crush Irim clinging to its forehead.

‘If that hits, I’m dead.’

Irim thought.

But he had no time to react.

Giant Crop’s attack was too fast, and right now he was dangling from his sword, unable to do anything.

All he could do was let go and fall.

Yet with Giant Crop’s current agility, it could swat a falling Irim instantly.

The other players were too stunned by Irim’s performance to even think of attacking.

Just when everything seemed hopeless,

MEEOOOW~!

With a loud yowl, Mio leaped from Irim’s head, extended her fluffy paws into claws, and SMACK! slapped Giant Crop right in the eye socket.

Then she immediately activated her skill.

[Nyang-Nyang Punch!]

Nyang-Nyang Punch struck the target 20 times in 1 second.

PAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPA!

KROOOOOOOOAR!

After being hit in the eye twenty times, the last sliver of Giant Crop’s health vanished instantly, dropping to 0.

“No way…”

Aegis, watching the scene, spoke with a hollow expression.

Giant Crop’s scream faded, and silence fell over the cavern.

KUic

KUUUUUUUUM!

As all strength left its body and Giant Crop collapsed to its knees,

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

The hundreds of famine-relief crops that formed its body scattered and poured onto the floor.

Irim had defeated Giant Crop.

Meeoow~!

Mio spun gracefully in midair like a swallow and landed back on Irim’s head.

“As expected of our Mio!”

Irim enthusiastically scratched Mio’s chin.

Mio rubbed her fluffy cheeks against her owner’s hand, clearly enjoying it.

At that moment, the writing on the wall changed.

[Greatest Dealer: Rice]

Seeing that name, every player’s mouth fell open.

As if on cue, all eyes turned to Irim, who had lightly landed on the ground.

“T-that person… is Rice?”

“The one who taught recipes to the Pig Restaurant.”

“The benefactor of the Real Korean server…”

“Oh my goodness.”

“Where did all the people who were badmouthing him just now go?”

“We’re screwed, holy shit. Goosebumps. That was insanely cool.”

The moment the most pathetic-looking player in the party was reborn as the benefactor of the Korean server.