Chapter 10: Panic and Power Plays

“Whoa, over 50%?”

The reason the goblin was trembling and unable to stand was because it had fallen into a ‘Panic’ state.

A monster enters Panic when a single attack reduces its health by over 50%.

In other words, that last attack had blown away more than half of the stone goblin’s health.

Two factors contributed to this: Acceleration Damage and Attribute Shackles.

Acceleration Damage, as the name suggests, was additional damage dealt when attacking while moving at high speed, such as during a run or the ‘Charge’ skill.

Additionally, Attribute Shackles had an effect where, if the target was attacked before the shackles’ duration ended, the shackles would explode, dealing extra damage.

The stone goblin’s massive health loss was clearly due to the combined power of Acceleration Damage and the exploding Attribute Shackles.

“Not a bad way to start by taking one out like this.”

Kang Juho shifted his focus from the panicked goblin and turned to the two nearby goblins.

The water streams binding them were thinning.

-!@$#%

-@!%%

The water shackles soon vanished completely, and the two goblins, gripping their iron clubs, charged at Kang Juho with guttural roars.

Whoosh!

The first goblin to arrive swung its club. Kang Juho raised his shield to block it while countering with his hammer.

“Guess I’ll have to take some hits to kill them.”

Having landed a counterattack, Kang Juho swung his hammer again at the recoiling goblin.

In a 1v2 situation, taking fewer hits was possible, but avoiding all damage was not.

And minimizing hits would take too much time.

Not that he planned to completely ignore the attacks.

Kang Juho circled the first goblin, dodging the second goblin’s delayed attack as much as possible.

Thud!

The seventh hammer strike landed, and the first goblin collapsed.

No time to rest.

Kang Juho immediately engaged the second goblin.

Just then—

“Hyung, the Panic wore off!” Kim Seokju  shouted.

Kang Juho glanced back.

The goblin that had been knocked into Panic by his shield charge was now charging toward him.

He quickly shoved the second goblin with his shield, knocking it down.

“Mana Ball on this one!” he shouted to Kim Seokju, then turned and rushed toward the panicked goblin.

There was no need to focus on the second goblin, which still had plenty of health.

The panicked goblin had less than half its health left—two or three hits would finish it.

Reducing their numbers quickly was the priority.

“Mana Ball!”

Kim Seokju cast the spell immediately.

His current attribute was water.

A blue orb shot from his staff, heading for the second goblin.

Boom!

The Mana Bolt exploded, triggering its special effect and drastically slowing the second goblin’s movements.

Kang Juho glanced at the sluggish goblin, now confident he could focus on the panicked one without worry.

It barely qualified as a fight.

Thwack!!

[Critical Hit!]

Thud!

The first strike landed a critical hit, and the goblin dropped dead instantly.

Kang Juho, not expecting it to die so quickly, was momentarily stunned.

“Stronger than I thought.”

The combined power of Acceleration Damage and Attribute Shackles was greater than anticipated.

“A critical hit could one-shot them.”

Kang Juho turned to face the final goblin.

Perhaps because aggro hadn’t been properly secured when it was hit by the Mana Ball, the goblin was heading toward Kim Seokju.

Thanks to the water Mana Ball’s slowing effect, it moved sluggishly, and Kang Juho quickly closed the distance.

Upon reaching it, he swung his hammer at the goblin’s head.

Heads had a 20% higher chance of landing critical hits.

The goblin, distracted by Kim Seokju, couldn’t dodge or block.

[Critical Hit!]

Another critical hit landed.

-!@%!

The goblin stumbled forward with a scream, turning back toward Kang Juho as the aggro shifted.

But it couldn’t swing its club.

As it turned, it came face-to-face with Kang Juho’s iron shield.

Thud!

The goblin fell again.

“Mana Bolt!”

With only one goblin left, Kim Seokju cast his spell without hesitation.

Under their combined assault, the goblin soon met its end.

After the battle, Kang Juho checked the drop window.

-Stone Goblin’s stone skin x1

-Stone Goblin’s Blood x1

A hint of disappointment crossed his face.

“Less than I expected…”

The value of byproducts mattered, but so did quantity.

Only two items from four goblins?

“How many did you get?”

Kang Juho asked Kim Seokju after confirming the drops.

“One Stone Skin, one Blood. You, hyung?”

“Same.”

“The drop rate’s pretty low.”

“Yeah, one per goblin on average? They’d better be valuable…”

Trailing off, Kang Juho opened his character window.

Character Name: Kang Juho

Nation: Paraville Kingdom

Class: Blacksmith

Level: 20

EXP: 47%

Health: 2750

Mana: 200

Satiety: 89%

Strength: 60

Agility: 10

Stamina: 55

Wisdom: 10

Bonus Stats: 0

“47%?”

Kang Juho was shocked. His EXP was at 9% before the fight.

Killing just four goblins had boosted it by 38%—and that was split with Kim Seokju.

“Seokju, check your EXP.”

Kang Juho closed his window and watched Kim Seokju’s reaction.

As expected, Kim Seokju looked equally shocked.

“This is huge! At this rate, we could hit level 30 by 4 a.m.!”

“Need a break?”

“Nah, I can chug mana potions. You good, hyung?”

Kang Juho checked his health.

“I could go three more rounds without resting.”

“Then let’s hit the group on the right next.”

“Sounds good.”

They headed right.

“If they’re in Taunt mode, we’ll do it like before. If they all rush us, use Shackles immediately,” Kang Juho instructed.

“Take one out first like last time?” Kim Seokju asked, recalling the goblin sent flying earlier.

“Yeah, the damage was better than expected. One critical hit took it out.”

“Seriously?”

Kim Seokju, who hadn’t noticed due to focusing on the other goblins, asked in surprise.

“Yup. I think we can delete one to start.”

As they talked and moved, they spotted another group of goblins and stopped simultaneously, as if by agreement.

“Check the left,” Kang Juho said.

Kim Seokju headed left, and Kang Juho went right.

Soon, Kang Juho confirmed no other groups were nearby and returned to their meeting point.

“Nothing here,” Kim Seokju reported upon returning.

“Let’s do this.”

Kang Juho approached the goblin group.

-!@#$%

-@!$

-!%#%!

The goblins soon spotted him and roared.

One broke from the group and charged.

Kang Juho grinned at the lone goblin.

***

Meanwhile, Jang Seokho, the operations manager for the virtual reality game Murim, bowed deeply.

“I’ll find a solution somehow.”

“Get out.”

A deep voice echoed in the room.

Jang Seokho straightened, bowed again to the voice’s owner, and left.

“Phew…”

Outside, Jang Seokho  let out a heavy sigh, his face contorted.

“Damn Earth bastards.”

As he headed to his office, he cursed the newly launched Earth game in his mind.

Even if it was launch day, how could it tank their connection rate like this?

Murim had claimed the top market share within three days of release and hit 30% within a month, doubling the gap with second place.

Countless VR games had challenged them since, but Murim crushed them all.

Jang Seokho had been confident they’d hold the top spot for years.

That confidence shattered today.

Not just shattered—obliterated.

“60%…”

He recalled today’s connection rate.

It wasn’t that 60% of total users logged in—only 60% of their usual players did.

That meant 40% of their regular players were gone, likely to Earth.

The VR version of Earth, a game that dominated the PC era, naturally drew attention.

But a 60% connection rate was unthinkable. How could it drop so drastically overnight?

“It’s only going to get worse…”

The problem was just beginning.

User reviews for Earth were overwhelmingly positive: “Didn’t disappoint,” “Lived up to expectations.”

The few negative posts were mild, expressing nostalgia for the PC version.

Harshly negative posts were drowned out by comments like, “You a shill?”

“Who’s paying you to post this?”

“Have you even played it?”—and were either deleted or buried under downvotes.

If left unchecked, Murim’s connection rate would keep falling, their top spot would be lost, and Jang Seokho’s hard-earned position as general manager would be at risk.

He had no intention of giving up his role.

There was a way to turn this around.

They’d fended off threats to their market share before.

“Will he pick up?”

At his office, Jang Seokho went to his desk and opened a safe beneath it.

Inside were cash, a secret ledger, and a burner phone.

He grabbed the phone and pressed speed dial 1.

–Ring… Ring…

The call went unanswered.

“He’s probably playing…”

Just then—

“Hello! This is Dark Gamer Kim Jun!”

The voice came through, but it was a recording.

“Leave a message if you need something…”

Jang Seokho frowned and hung up.

“When did he set this up?”

He sent a text to Kim jun.

-Long time, got a job for you. 50 million. I’ll also void the contract. Details over call. Text me when you’re free.

After sending the message, Jang Seokho stashed the burner phone in a drawer, leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and thought…

‘How long will it take?’