Chapter 71
“Kieeek!”
The Poison Beetle screamed and plummeted to the ground.
Jeong-hoon shot three more arrows at it, ending its life.
“What an ugly creature.”
Anima was perched on Jeong-hoon’s shoulder, looking down at the Poison Beetle.
[Resisting poison.]
[Not poisoned.]
The epic-grade Hundred Poison Immunity skill had activated.
No matter how strong the Poison Beetle’s poison was, it couldn’t penetrate the hard-earned Hundred Poison Immunity.
“Not yet.”
One Poison Beetle was down.
The remaining 29 were flapping their wings desperately, trying to escape Namsan.
The poison gas they spread in the process quickly engulfed entirity of Namsan.
The trees and grass withered instantly from the poison gas.
[The base is being destroyed!]
[Damage: 0.025%]
The base wasn’t just the buildings, but the entire natural environment.
[The base is being destroyed!]
[Damage: 0.028%]
The wider the poison gas spread, the faster the base’s damage increased.
“Cough…”
Meanwhile, Ha-jin was coughing and gasping for breath, seemingly poisoned.
“Ha!”
On the other hand, Yeo Min-ji swung her fists in the air, casting Wind Fist.
Although it wasn’t a very powerful skill for a 3rd class advancement, it was enough to hunt the Poison Beetles.
The Wind Fist’s shockwave hit the Poison Beetles directly, and two more fell.
Also, her body was well-trained up to the 4th class advancement, so she had no problem enduring the Poison Beetle’s poison.
“Here’s the antidote! Drink it!”
Jeong-hoon threw the antidote to Ha-jin and drew his bowstring.
He had to stop the Poison Beetles from escaping Namsan.
“Kill them all!”
Anima shouted, pulling Jeong-hoon’s hair.
‘Shut up, I know.’
Thanks to the skill, Anima’s actions were mitigated, but it was still annoying.
He aimed at a Poison Beetle and released the drawn bowstring.
Fwoosh!
The arrow shot out and accurately pierced the Poison Beetle’s torso.
Poison Beetles were fast but had ridiculously low defense.
That’s why they had six vital points.
Since its torso was hit, the Poison Beetle crashed to the ground.
Jeong-hoon didn’t stop there and aimed at the next Poison Beetle, shooting another arrow.
“@!#!”
Every time an arrow was shot, a Poison Beetle would scream an incomprehensible sound and crash to the ground, and in the meantime, Yeo Min-ji also chased after a flying Poison Beetle and knocked it down with Wind Fist.
It took only 10 minutes to deal with them all.
“Are you okay?!”
After the remaining 10 Poison Beetles were killed, Yeo Min-ji approached Ha-jin.
“Phew, I’m okay.”
Ha-jin used the antidote Jeong-hoon gave him to detoxify the Poison Beetle’s venom.
It seemed to be a pretty good antidote, as he received an additional detoxification buff.
“That buff will last for an hour, so you should be fine.”
Jeong-hoon also approached Ha-jin and checked his condition.
Perhaps because he took the antidote immediately after being poisoned, his health hadn’t decreased much.
‘It seems like healing won’t be necessary.’
[The 2nd Monster Wave has ended.]
[Current base damage: 0.042%]
As the second wave ended, the thick poison gas disappeared instantly.
“The users really can’t get close, can they?”
“Yes. He’s quite useful.”
“It seems so…”
Yeo Min-ji recalled what had just happened.
Right after the first wave ended, Jeong-hoon summoned a tamed monster.
And it was a monster in human form.
‘I learned taming. That monster is my subordinate, created with that skill.’
Yeo Min-ji and Ha-jin were shocked by his bombshell announcement.
Yeo Min-ji’s pupils, in particular, were trembling madly.
To think that he, a martial artist, had even learned taming.
Was it possible to extend [Steadfast Will], which was practically blocked by the system, to such a wide range?
Just how much potential did Jeong-hoon have?
She shivered all over.
‘Greetings! My name is Michael.’
However, she couldn’t help but feel disgusted by the monster’s introduction.
The summoned Michael approached her with a greasy expression.
With his greasy face and greasy expression, she felt her whole body cringe.
She felt like she could throw a punch at any moment, but she couldn’t do so with Jeong-hoon right beside her.
‘It’s the first time I’ve met such a beautiful woman. Perhaps I’ve lived until now just to see you. If you don’t mind, would you like to join me…’
‘Come back quietly if you don’t want to die.’
‘Yes, sir!’
Fortunately, Jeong-hoon interrupted in the middle.
Afterwards, Michael followed his instructions and went down to check the surroundings, and soon, a noisy sound came from outside.
And soon after, the noisy sound slowly stopped.
Michael had driven away the users.
The reason being that if there were too many people, it would be easy to defeat the monsters, but there would surely be a commotion as they all tried to take the credit.
“They’ll be back soon. And then they’ll definitely break through.”
The number of users participating from Seoul alone easily exceeded tens of thousands.
Surely, there would be a truckload of users rushing towards Namsan right now.
At that time, it would be impossible to stop them with just Michael.
‘I need to solidify my first place ranking before that.’
Jeong-hoon had two reasons to take first place in this siege.
One was the capsule.
And the other was the heavenly energy.
He couldn’t miss out on taking first place when they were offering an additional 5%.
‘If we can hold out until the third wave, securing first place will be a done deal.’
Jeong-hoon knew that this siege would have four waves.
The third wave would bring forth monsters around level 150, and the final wave would feature a massive boss monster at level 170.
The problem was that the first and second waves were just a warm-up, and the real challenge started from the third wave.
Therefore, they had to hunt as many monsters as possible during the third wave. Only then could they secure first place even if other users joined in.
“Jeong-hoon.”
At that moment, Yeo Min-ji approached Jeong-hoon and spoke to him.
“Yes?”
Her face was more serious than ever.
“I’d like to ask you again. I still wish you would take me as your disciple.”
“Hmm?”
“Please!”
“…Just like that?”
Jeong-hoon didn’t readily accept.
But Yeo Min-ji saw hope.
When she first met him, she was rejected without a chance, but now there was a possibility.
That alone was enough.
She spoke with the determination not to get anything for free.
“Of course not! A deal! Let’s make a deal!”
“Hmm…”
Jeong-hoon fell into thought for a moment.
That was when it happened.
[Gyeonggi Yangju 1% damage! The siege ends!]
[Jeonbuk Jeongeup 1% damage! The siege ends!]
[Gyeongnam Gimhae 1% damage! The siege ends!]
[Chungbuk Okcheon 1% damage! The siege ends!]
[Jeonnam Hwasun 1% damage! The siege ends!]
[Gyeonggi Paju 1% damage! The siege ends!]
[TL/N: These are locations in Korea]
…
14 regions were breached before the third wave even started.
Since it was only 1%, the areas were bound to be breached if they didn’t start hunting as soon as the wave began.
In that situation, everyone was focusing on defending the outskirts, so it was natural for them to be blindsided and breached.
“Wow… Jeong-hoon, we would have been screwed if we hadn’t come to Namsan like you said…”
Ha-jin gave Jeong-hoon a thumbs up.
If they had opposed Jeong-hoon’s opinion and gone to the outskirts, Seoul wouldn’t have been safe either.
Instead of 0.042, the damage might have quickly exceeded 1% and ended the game.
“It was just luck.”
“To say it was luck… It seems like you knew it would appear in Namsan.”
Jeong-hoon had strongly insisted on bringing the party to Namsan, as if he had foreseen that the gate would open there.
So the word “luck” didn’t fit here.
“I kind of knew it would open in the center.”
“Huh…”
“Is that really true?”
Yeo Min-ji’s eyes widened at his bombshell statement.
The details of the event weren’t shared anywhere.
How did Jeong-hoon get that information?
“Remember the NPC who sent us to the event location?”
“…Yes.”
It was a level 700 event NPC.
“That NPC was the one who guided me during the 2nd class advancement event.”
“Oh? Really?”
She had never heard of an event NPC appearing consecutively.
Usually, the NPCs who guided events in New World were one-time occurrences.
Meaning they would never appear again once they had appeared once.
“Yes. That’s why they gave me a hint. To try aiming for the center.”
“…No way.”
An event NPC favoring a user?
Was that even possible?
Yeo Min-ji was still suspicious, but Jeong-hoon shrugged nonchalantly.
“How else do you think I would have suggested going to Namsan?”
“That’s true, but…”
“Anyway, let’s prepare for the third wave. We need to finish this before the users flock here.”
[The 3rd Monster Wave begins.]
Soon after, the third wave began.
Once again, a gate was created above Namsan, and this time, level 150 moon bears poured out.
Meanwhile.
The third wave monsters were moon bears.
A whopping 1,000 of them.
Hundreds of moon bears poured out and descended towards the barricade where Michael and Kim Bong-goo were.
“Damn, moon bears? We’re screwed. Shouldn’t we run away?!”
Kim Bong-goo bit his lip and looked at Michael.
“There are too many of them for the two of us to handle…”
Michael muttered blankly.
[Lv.150 Moon Bear]
They were all level 150.
This was a real mess.
How could they stop them?
He wanted to run away, barricades be damned, but he couldn’t because of Jeong-hoon’s order.
“No… Be reasonable. I don’t know!”
It was a fight with no chance of winning.
Kim Bong-goo gave up on fighting head-on and turned around.
At that moment, he saw numerous vehicles rushing towards Namsan.
‘We’re saved!’
If all those users joined in, defeating the moon bears wouldn’t be impossible.
“What? Those moon bears?”
“It’s already the third wave! If we don’t catch them quickly, we’ll be at the bottom of the rankings!”
The users hurriedly got out of their vehicles and rushed towards the moon bears.
“Uwaaaaah!”
[The Moon Bears use ‘Intimidation’.]
Over 300 moon bears roared and unleashed their abilities.
The users’ bodies froze for a moment as they used Intimidation.
Their muscles were paralyzed by the sudden fear.
In that moment, the moon bears pounced on the users.
Did bears tear people apart?
[Health is rapidly decreasing!]
[Health is below 80%. Healing is required.]
As the moon bears bit them, the users’ health began to drain rapidly.
“These damn bears!”
“Heal! Heal!”
The healers hurriedly cast their healing spells, and the users who were freed from paralysis fought back against the moon bears.
At first, the users were outnumbered, but as time passed and more users joined in, the moon bears began to fall one by one.
[The base is being destroyed!]
[Damage: 0.212%]
The damage to the base exceeded 0.2% as they fought.
Just a small part of Seoul, Namsan, being in chaos caused the damage to exceed 0.2%.
The reason was that with the wave occurring in Namsan, the range of the base had narrowed, centering around the gate.
The same was true for other regions.
That’s why the 1% mark was reached so quickly.
“Kuwok…!”
The battle finally ended when the corpses of the moon bears filled Namsan.
“Phew, that was tough.”
“A bear is a bear, I guess.”
“That was really damn hard.”
The users’ breathing was rough.
They had competed to take down as many moon bears as possible.
[Damage: 0.233%]
The current damage to the base was 0.233%.
“Phew, shall we go up now?”
“…Let’s do that. Hey, walk a little further away.”
Kim Bong-goo and Michael tactfully moved their steps.
Since they had been breached, they had to report to Jeong-hoon.
At that moment, a user shouted angrily.
“Hey? You bastard! Don’t you have something to say to me?”
He was the user who had been cursed out by Kim Bong-goo earlier.
“You idiot, go f*ck yourself!”
Kim Bong-goo gave him the middle finger again and quickly ran up.
“You son of a bitch! Stop right there!”
The user chased after Kim Bong-goo.
Seeing this, the rest of the users also rushed up.
There was a mountain of moon bear corpses on top.
“What is all this?”
There seemed to be hundreds of them at a glance.
Who on earth had hunted all these monsters?
At that moment, a user shouted loudly.
“It’s Yeo Min-ji!”
At those words, everyone’s eyes turned to Yeo Min-ji.
She was currently facing off against a moon bear.
It seemed she was the one who had hunted all these moon bears.
“Amazing…”
“As expected of a ranker, huh?”
“But she caught all these by herself?”
Even for a ranker, everyone’s level was adjusted to 150 here.
It was unbelievable that she had defeated so many moon bears in such a short time.
“Kuweaaak!”
Just then, a martial artist was seen beating a moon bear.
“What’s that?”
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