Chapter 20: Chaos at Herum

The club strike landed hard, and Levant immediately swung his club at Amthosrin’s right leg.

Then, thunder roared and rocks seemed to shatter as Amthosrin slowly began to lean to one side.

“Sssk.”

Levant smirked bitterly as he watched Amthosrin tilt.

Amthosrin was a monster born from the fusion of multiple Amthos.

Because of this, it was not a single entity but several entities acting as one, making it easier to take down by dismantling each part.

As proof, Amthosrin had lost one of its Amthos, reducing its health by ten percent.

Nine more times like this!

After repeating the process nine more times, the boss raid would finally be over.

Levant tossed the cube he had cast earlier at the leaning Amthosrin.

[Hold activated.]

A strengthened hold infused with 33 layers of magic.

If it were a normal hold, like the one used on Bubeat, the boss penalty would shorten the duration to about three seconds.

But since this was a reinforced hold, it lasted a full five seconds.

Before Amthosrin could fall, Levant closed in and started swinging his club like a sewing machine on the suspended figure.

Flash! Bang! Flash! Flash!

No matter how high an Amthos’s defense was, it inevitably had a limit.

So if you hit it with an attack stronger than its defense, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Levant thus defeated another Amthos.

Boom!

Even when one part of the body was shattered, the hold applied to the entire body prevented any shards from scattering freely.

Amthosrin collapsed right after the hold’s duration expired.

Levant had deliberately aimed for the opposite leg, ensuring Amthosrin would fall thoroughly.

True to his prediction, Amthosrin collapsed pathetically, and Levant immediately climbed onto its core.

Raising his club, Najim shouted,

“Thunder Strike!”

Krrrrr...!

With the startup sound came a dark energy pooling in the club.

Electric currents crackled within the charged aura.

*How powerful could it be?*

Until now, Amthosrin had never been revealed to the world, and no one had ever acquired the secret skill Thunder Strike.

With that level of completeness, Levant thought this would be the perfect opponent to test the might of Thunder Strike.

*Watch carefully.*

Levant’s Thunder Strike slammed into Amthosrin.

~

“Are you sure this will work?”

“Of course, Ankardna. It’s decided. Since we’re already here, let’s just test it.”

Dunkin and Dranas.

The two, having overheard Levant and Belkan’s conversation, bought petrified charcoal at the auction house and stepped outside the village.

They found a suitable spot and planted the charcoal on the ground.

“Dranas.”

“Yes, oppa?”

“You know, right? Our goal isn’t the raid at all. We just have to fish out those War Tube clips.”

“Got it. So if things go south, we run?”

“Exactly. You got it perfectly.”

Preparations complete, warrior player Dunkin warned his girlfriend several times before lighting the charcoal.

A stench like a sewer rose from the burning charcoal.

Dunkin covered his nose, grimacing.

“Wow, that smells disgusting.”

“It literally says ‘sewer’ on the description. What did you expect? Now hurry up and come back, oppa.”

“Okay, I’m coming.”

After lighting the charcoal, the two quickly put some distance between themselves, as planned.

Soon, the unique scent of the petrified charcoal began to spread.

Ga ga ga gak?

Ga ga ga ga...

Amthos began to frantically sniff the charcoal, one or two at a time, and started to be drawn toward it.

“One, two, three, four… wow, how many are there? Even at the lowest estimate, over twenty.”

“Twenty’s nothing. It’s easily more than thirty. But this is fine, right? Belkan said the more Amthos gather, the stronger Amthosrin becomes.”

“So what? We’re not the ones who’ll fight it anyway. We just have to stay here and be the first to upload the War Tube clip.”

It was then.

[Amthos are communicating with each other.]

[Amthosrin summoning conditions have been met.]

A message, identical to the one Levant received, appeared before the two.

The news excited them.

But then, a message appeared that Levant had never seen before.

[Amthosrin is being summoned.]

[Amthosrin is absorbing the maximum number of Amthos it can allow.]

[Amthosrin is being strengthened.]

This was a warning: a fully powered Amthosrin was about to be summoned.

Of course, the two didn’t realize how serious this was.

They just thought they had to fish for War Tube clips.

A stronger, reinforced Amthosrin was summoned onto the field.

Kaaaaaang!

The club strike landed hard, and Levant immediately swung his club at Amthosrin’s right leg.

Then, thunder roared and rocks seemed to shatter as Amthosrin slowly began to lean to one side.

“Sssk.”

Levant smirked bitterly as he watched Amthosrin tilt.

Amthosrin was a monster born from the fusion of multiple Amthos.

Suddenly—

“Uh, uh! Wh-why am I here?”

“Huh? Oppa, no matter how I look at it, that’s Jae...”

“Hey, Hyun Kyung, run!”

Amthosrin was a preemptive attack-type monster, programmed to attack the summoner first.

Outrageous!

Unaware of this fact, the two were soon struck down by the club swings of Amthosrin.

~

“Ah, damn it!”

A capsule opened, and a man cursed as he stood up.

Dunkin was dead from Amthosrin’s first strike—his real name was Choi Sung Woo.

Then, a capsule opened beside him, and someone else screamed in pain.

It was none other than Dranas, Kim Hyun Kyung.

Both Dunkin and Dranas—Choi Sung Woo and Kim Hyun Kyung in real life—had died in turn to Amthosrin.

Despite having enough remaining playtime, they were forcibly logged out due to death penalties.

Kim Hyun Kyung emerged from the capsule and asked Choi Sung Woo,

“Oppa, what do we do now?”

“Where to? We need to immediately upload the replay to War Tube. Hyun Kyung, make the channel first!”

“The channel? What should I name it?”

“Anything! You can change the name later. That doesn’t matter now.”

“Ah, you’re so annoying! Fine.”

They had roughly anticipated that Amthosrin would be strong.

But they never expected to be the first target of its aggro.

No, rather, they had no accurate information from the start, so they were caught off guard.

Because Dranas’s eavesdropping skill was only common rank and low level, perfect spying was impossible.

Still, they succeeded in spying on the summoning ritual, so despite the risk, they plunged into action.

“Hurry. We have to upload this as fast as possible. That’s how I make money.”

The two hurriedly uploaded the video to their War Tube channel, as planned.

Though the video was less than a minute long, it soon began to attract massive aggro, just as Choi Sung Woo had predicted.

“Done! Done!”

The view count rapidly climbed.

At this rate, the hot clip would soon be featured on War Tube’s main page.

But Choi Sung Woo still didn’t know what the fully summoned Amthosrin was doing now...

Shortly after the video went up, department head Lee Sung Mi, who was monitoring Levant in real time, saw the Amthosrin footage on War Tube and sensed something was wrong.

Immediately, she gathered the relevant data and sought out deputy director Oh Jae Hyun.

“Director! You have to see this quickly.”

“Why? What is it?”

Lee Sung Mi handed over the footage.

It was a comparison video of Levant hunting Amthosrin and the fully summoned Amthosrin near Herum massacring novice warrior users.

That was all she showed.

But as soon as Oh Jae Hyun saw the two simultaneous videos, he instantly understood what Lee Sung Mi meant.

“What the? Why are there two of them at once?”

“Replay analysis shows that a couple with the eavesdropping skill overheard Choi Sung Woo’s quest details and caused this mess.”

“What? How can you eavesdrop on a hidden quest like Amthosrin?”

“…Apparently, that’s how it worked.”

“Even if that’s an issue, does that mean Choi Sung Woo doesn’t know there’s a fully summoned Amthosrin near the village?”

“That’s right.”

*The users must be panicked by suddenly encountering a boss.*

“Dozens of casualties have already occurred, and complaints are flooding in.”

“What are their names?”

“Their nicknames are Dunkin and Dranas. Their real names are Choi Sung Woo and Kim Hyun Kyung.”

“Impressive. Not only did they secretly steal info by eavesdropping, but they had the nerve to mess with us?”

Oh Jae Hyun sighed with mixed feelings.

But now was no time to just be amazed.

If this continued, more casualties would happen, and the company would bear the brunt of the blame.

“Annoying. Back in the online game days, you could just reset.”

In fact, releasing high-level monsters near newbies wasn’t a big problem.

There had been trolls like that in online gaming history.

But unfortunately, that only worked in online games—not in hyper-realistic games with death penalties.

In Warlord, when a character dies, they lose some of their items and, more severely, drop several levels.

Unlike old online games, compensation wasn’t easy.

Because hyper-realistic games ran on supercomputers and were almost impossible for operators to manipulate directly.

Meaning, even if the company wasn’t at fault, it would still face public backlash and damage to its image.

And that wasn’t the only problem.

*Forget compensation—if Choi Sung Woo files a complaint, it could be a huge deal.*

The real problem was Choi Sung Woo himself.

Because Warlord dominated the global game market, everything circulating within the game had considerable real-world value.

Hidden quests like Amthosrin, obtained through complex steps, were especially valuable, meaning compensation amounts would be large.

This was what Oh Jae Hyun and Lee Sung Mi were worried about.

Lee Sung Mi asked,

“What should we do?”

“Choi Sung Woo doesn’t know the truth yet, right?”

“Right?”

“Then let’s just wait it out for now. Since they’re still playing, they probably haven’t seen the War Tube video yet. Let’s hold on and deal with it if a problem arises. For now, assign staff to create public opinion as if Amthosrin were just an event boss. We can reveal the truth later.”

“Understood.”

Oh Jae Hyun gave the order smoothly, and Lee Sung Mi immediately began handling it.

Meanwhile, inside Warlord—

“Hey, did you hear? There’s an event boss appearing in Herum?”

“It’s not an event boss. They say it’s a real boss.”

“Someone we’ve never seen before.”

“Right?”

“What are you waiting for? Go kill it! Hurry up and prepare a taxi!”

…Players who heard the rumors about Amthosrin rushed to Herum faster than anyone else.

~

[You have successfully hunted Amthosrin.]

[Level up.]

Meanwhile, Levant succeeded in hunting Amthosrin.

“Item loot.”

[You have obtained the Soul of the Rock Spirit.]

[You have obtained the Stone Shield.]

He also obtained the quest items and equipment he was aiming for.

Levant checked the details of the loot.

[Stone Shield]

[Grade: Rare, Boss]

[Requirement: Strength 50 or higher]

[Durability: 150/150]

[Options:]

[Physical Defense +50]

[Usable for Rock Knights]

[# Rock Knight]

[Effect: The shield strikes the opponent, creating a shockwave that stuns the target for 3 seconds.]

[Cooldown: 20 seconds]

Wow.

As expected from a boss rare item.

Levant blew away the cold wind from the item’s effects.

Then, to finish the quest, he headed toward Herum.

But as he approached the village entrance, Levant caught sight of something strange.

“Ahhhh!”

Bang!!

“Disaster! What the hell is that?”

*“Aaaaah! Healer! Healer!”*

Screams erupted everywhere.

Dust filled the air.

Amidst the dust stood none other than—

“Amthosrin?”

…the same Amthosrin Levant had just hunted.