A New Event (2)
“Huff… huff….”
After the battle with the drakes ended, Seon Yul collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily.
‘That was exhausting. Seriously exhausting.’
This had not been an easy fight for him either.
One small mistake could have put him in danger.
‘But I really fought too boldly again… This feels like I’m losing my restraint little by little….’
Now that the battle was over, regret crept in once more.
‘This isn’t good. I need to find a solution.’
Seon Yul didn’t want to make excuses like blaming it on the influence of mana.
If he truly was changing because of mana’s influence, then he would simply account for that change and secure his safety accordingly.
‘In the end… there’s only one answer.’
The answer had already been there from the beginning.
‘Gain enough power that even if I become more reckless, it won’t be a problem at all… That’s the only way.’
If you could cross the bridge effortlessly anyway, there would be no need to tap the stone bridge first to test it.
When you possessed overwhelming power, absolute safety naturally followed.
So if he couldn’t stop himself from changing, then he needed to grow strong enough that his change wouldn’t matter.
‘But for now… I need some rest.’
He had already defeated three Five-Color Elite Drakes and 150 ordinary elite drakes, earning a considerable amount of experience and loot.
Resting a bit now was more than justified.
However, while Seon Yul was resting…
Elsewhere, fierce battles were still raging.
***
Crunch! Rrrrk!
Dandan combined two invisible hands into one massive hand and used it to grab an ordinary elite drake in front of him.
Crack-Kieeek!
Using the immense grip strength of what he called his ‘Inviible Hand,’ Dandan crushed the drake’s body, shattering its bones.
Then he hurled the limp, near-corpse forward with full force.
The target was a large blue drake that his other teammates were fighting.
Swish! KWAANG!
But the blue drake immediately flew upward, evading the thrown projectile. The ordinary drake that hit the ground vanished into smoke as its vitality dropped to zero.
‘Tch.’
Dandan had been trying to catch the blue drake that had been irritating him, but it wasn’t going as smoothly as he’d hoped.
The problem was the powerful cold aura radiating from the blue drake’s entire body, which happened to have poor compatibility with his invisible hands.
The biggest advantage of the ‘Invisible Hand’ was precisely that it was invisible. But near the blue drake, frost naturally formed along the invisible hands, partially revealing their outline.
The hands themselves had strong defense and resistance, so he could simply ignore the cold and attack directly.
But Dandan had no intention of exposing his Invisible Hand to anyone… so he deliberately avoided doing that.
Which made it all the more irritating.
If he couldn’t strike the blue drake directly, he had no choice but to throw objects at it.
But the Drake’s cold aura, like an aura wrapped around its body, even slowed projectiles as they approached.
Annoyed from every angle, Dandan decided to postpone dealing with the blue drake and instead began picking off the easier ordinary elite drakes nearby.
Since his teammates were continuously pressuring the blue drake anyway, he planned to clear the pawns first and defeat the blue drake together at the end.
Right then…
A large group of users suddenly appeared from behind.
“The Bureau.”
It was a strike team from the Administration Bureau.
“We’ll provide immediate support.”
No one had requested reinforcements, nor had they intended to… but the Bureau’s strike team immediately began assisting Dandan’s raid team.
Dandan frowned deeply at the sight.
But he couldn’t stop them. From the moment he agreed to cooperate, such support had essentially been authorized.
‘Damn it….’
With the Bureau’s large-scale arrival, the battle would end easily… but the easier it became, the less experience and loot he would gain.
That was what frustrated him.
And on the opposite side, a similar situation unfolded.
Han-woong of the Hero Guild also looked displeased at the Bureau’s strike team that arrived claiming to assist.
He didn’t hate the Bureau as much as Dandan did, but this battle had been manageable with just him and his guild members.
He understood the Bureau wanted to settle things quickly, but that didn’t mean he liked it.
Three drakes were taken down by Seon Yul.
And two more here.
In the end, all Five-Color Drakes were eliminated.
Considering how much effort the Elite Drake Queen had invested in preparing them, it was an unexpectedly hollow conclusion.
Of course, the reason it had become so anticlimactic was that Seon Yul had single-handedly and swiftly eliminated three of them.
Without him, the Hero Guild and Hell Raid Team might have faced a dangerous joint assault from two or more Five-Color Drakes.
But no one knew that.
Instead, they simply thought the Elite Drake Queen had been weaker than expected. No one imagined someone had already cut down three at the forefront.
Thus, the Five-Color Drakes were cleared far more quickly than anticipated.
And that became a snowball, causing the situation to roll in a strange direction.
***
[The conditions for a new event have been met. The ‘Birth Event’ has begun.]
How long had it been since the Invasion Event appeared? And yet another event announcement was broadcast to all users inside Jeju’s mana field.
Users hated events the most.
In truth, they were events in name only… more like punishments.
Some even claimed the System openly supported gates and monsters under the guise of ‘events.’
Regardless, not a single event so far had benefited users… or humanity.
From the very first ‘Chain Event,’ to the ‘Raid Event,’ to the recent ‘Invasion Event’… all of them had been disastrous.
The Chain Event had created the ‘Northern Dungeon Zone’ in the former North Korean territory and the ‘Death Field’ in central Australia.
Raid Events still occurred around the world, tormenting people.
And recently, the Invasion Event had nearly destroyed Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
Now, suddenly… another new event.
Naturally, panic followed.
But the event had begun.
And as with all System-announced events, the outcome would be one of two:
Clear it and prevent catastrophe…
Or fail, and catastrophe would occur.
So what mattered most was the details.
[The Elite Drake Queen’s lair has entered a ‘complete’ sealed state.]
[You must break through the fortified lair and eliminate the Elite Drake Queen within 24 hours.]
[If the mission fails, after 24 hours, a powerful SS-rank raid monster, ‘Drake King,’ will be born.]
[Upon its birth, the Drake King will declare Jeju Island—where the lair is located—as its raid territory. Preparing to face this king will require extensive effort.]
[Be careful. The Drake King is a calamity-class monster far beyond your imagination.]
[If the Drake King is born, the Birth Event will escalate into a Calamity Event. Additional notices will follow in that case.]
[If the Birth Event is cleared, the Drake King will not be born, and the Calamity Event will not occur. Furthermore, participants will receive exceptionally special and remarkable rewards based on their contributions. We encourage your participation.]
It was a message saturated with terrifying warnings.
The highest-ranked raid monster humanity had faced so far was S-rank.
But this Drake King was SS-rank.
Even S-rank monsters required the Bureau and countless top-tier users to cooperate just to clear them.
The strength of an SS-rank monster was beyond imagination.
They absolutely had to break through the sealed lair within 24 hours and prevent Drake King’s birth.
But time was the problem.
Twenty-four hours was… too short.
No one knew how sturdy the lair was. If it proved difficult to breach, they would need to recruit powerful users from outside… but 24 hours was far too little time for that.
Ultimately, breaking through with only the forces already present in Jeju was the best bet.
But there was no guarantee.
No one even cared about the promised special rewards.
The Bureau, of course, was the most pressed.
With time so short, they immediately summoned the Hero Guild, the Hell Raid Team, and all other users to Baengnokdam and launched an immediate advance on the lair.
Every second mattered.
Seon Yul also saw the event notice… and the Bureau’s emergency summons.
But instead of responding, he climbed Baengnokdam alone from the opposite direction.
He had no intention of acting alongside the Bureau or other users.
He would attempt to break the lair himself.
Two hours later.
Director Jeong and Cha Seong Hyeon were receiving a report from Go Won-tae, who was commanding on-site.
[It’s impossible. Even if all the Twelve Heaven ranks came, I doubt we could break this. Dandan and Han-woong agree.]
The situation was deteriorating.
“There are still over twenty hours left. Is it truly impossible to make even gradual progress?” Director Jeong asked.
[We’ve tried nearly every method for over an hour now, and we’ve only managed to penetrate a few centimeters. We can’t even step into Baengnokdam’s interior, let alone reach the center where the Elite Drake Queen is expected.]
They had to break through the massive white barrier enveloping the entire crater… but they hadn’t moved an inch inward.
“Hu…”
[Worse yet, we have no idea how many layers there are. It may be better to abandon breaking it and prepare for the Raid Event instead.]
“It’s not just a Raid Event. It’s a Calamity Event,” Cha Seong Hyeon said, shaking his head. “No one knows what catastrophic consequences that might bring. Preparing for that instead isn’t the right move.”
He understood the dire situation… but this had to be stopped at the Birth Event stage.
‘The System never exists for users.’
That was the truth.
So the best strategy was to prevent its events from activating at all.
“Is it a firepower issue?” Director Jeong asked.
His thoughts were similar. Somehow, they had to stop this within 24 hours.
[Yes. Even S-rank attack-specialized abilities barely leave a mark. It’s too sturdy. Frankly, it feels like the System deliberately created an unbeatable event just to trigger the Calamity Event afterward.]
This wasn’t just Go Won-tae’s opinion.
Every user gathered at Baengnokdam thought the same.
“An unbeatable event… Fine. Just keep trying something,” Director Jeong said.
There was no point in discussing further.
He ended the call and looked at Cha Seong Hyeon.
“You know what I’m about to suggest.”
“…You mean AbsoluteSafetyFirst?”
Yes. Contact him. Tell him we’ll prepare anything he needs, any reward he wants, just ask him to break the lair.”
“Understood. But even if it’s AbsoluteSafetyFirst… wouldn’t this be difficult?”
“Perhaps. But if he couldn’t break Mountain Turtle’s defensive stance during the Invasion Event, then no one could. If he can’t break this… who could?”
“…You’re right.”
Cha Seong Hyeon opened the community mail system to contact Seon Yul.
***
Before the mail was even sent, Seon Yul had already arrived at the lair and tested multiple approaches with his abilities.
But it felt fundamentally different from the Mountain Turtle.
Unlike before, where breaking one layer had seemed promising, this lair felt as if no matter how many layers he shattered, he might never find the Drake Queen.
‘This feels deliberately designed to be unbreakable.’
It seemed crafted to ensure Drake King’s birth and smoothly transition into a Calamity Event.
Seon Yul felt the System’s malice all over again.
‘Ah… the more it’s set up like this, the more competitive I feel.’
His competitive spirit hadn’t been that strong before awakening.
But after awakening, whenever someone said something couldn’t be done, he felt compelled to shatter that claim.
Just like with Mountain Turtle.
He thought perhaps this was simply a manifestation of desires long buried within him.
The boldness he’d suppressed for safety’s sake. The competitive drive he’d forgotten by avoiding rivalry altogether.
Perhaps this was who he had always been.
‘Fine. I’ll admit it. This is me too.’
He no longer intended to deny or worry about it.
People change for many reasons.
And changing doesn’t make you a different person.
Strangely, organizing those thoughts brought him peace.
And made him want to clear this ‘impossible’ event even more.
At that moment, a message from Cha Seong Hyeon arrived.
“They’ll grant any request if I clear this event, is that it?” Seon Yul muttered, summarizing the content in one sentence.
Even through the mail, he could feel the Bureau’s desperation.
‘Wait… if that’s the case, I should seriously think this through.’
He’d already wanted to clear it out of pride. Now, with the Bureau’s extraordinary reward added in, he felt one hundred percent committed.
‘Method… method….’
He ran through countless possibilities in his head.
While the Bureau and others focused solely on breaking into the lair, Seon Yul considered every possible approach.
Since he had always thought deeply about maximizing his awakened abilities, he combined that mindset with the current problem.
For roughly two hours, he analyzed and simulated.
And among numerous possibilities, he finally found one strategy that seemed highly plausible, with a high chance of success.
“This will work!”
He slapped his fist into his palm and stood up.
He had even looked up precise figures online to calculate it.
The conclusion he reached was firm:
‘This will definitely work.’
‘But the problem is….’
Though he was over 90% confident in its success…
There was one enormous issue with this plan.
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