Chapter 81

Chapter 81: Counterattack (1)

In the game, everything up to the American Collapse was called the Prologue.

That was how special the American Collapse had been—an event that dramatically shifted the game's atmosphere and balance of power.

Yet the player couldn't intervene in any way.

It appeared without any warning whatsoever, and since it was an event that jacked up the game's difficulty in one fell swoop, users mocked it for having zero narrative logic.

─What kind of game even is this? It's on the level of a dinosaur survival game suddenly going 'A meteor has fallen and survival is now harder.' Same bs. Zero logic, total sh*t game, gtfo
─? Is the above commenter a company shill? That's historically accurate though

After the Prologue, the Main Story split into chapters.

However, depending on the character the player chose and the choices they made, the story diverged, so the criteria for classifying chapters varied slightly from user to user.

But there was one thing everyone agreed on.

'The first chapter ends with the Academy Collapse Event.'

The Academy Collapse Event had an enormous impact on game progression just like the American Collapse, yet unlike it, the player's actions created numerous variables.

Depending on the character the player picked and their track record, the event's timing and content changed.

On top of that, the event's outcome—rise or ruin—hinged on how the player moved.

It was the polar opposite of the American Collapse, which had only been shown through Cutscenes.

The problem was that the difficulty was absolutely bullshit-level insane.

─lmao total sh*t game, who's supposed to clear this?
─Just show us a video and skip it already!!
─Tsk.. newbies these days don't put in the effoooort. Back in my day, dumping 50 tries on the Academy Collapse Event alone while searching for guides was the baseline.. Walkthroughs for everything exist now, so what's the problem??

According to statistics, half of all users who purchased the game quit during the Prologue.

And of the remaining users, seventy percent quit at this Academy Collapse Event.

Among all individual events, the Academy Collapse Event was the only one that drove away this many users.

That was why the community commonly gave the Academy Collapse Event the nickname "newbie filter."

What was even more infuriating was that surviving the event didn't mean it was over.

─Guys, all my companions died, what do I do??
─They're saying Academy repairs alone take 6 months, is this run screwed?

How you ended the Academy Collapse Event drastically changed the game environment going forward.

The worst case was, needless to say, the Academy's collapse.

If you did nothing and focused solely on your own survival, you'd end up on this route.

Taking the collapse route severely hindered future growth and made recruiting companions far more difficult.

Most critically, after the event ended, 'that thing's' seal would break, and the subsequent difficulty increased exponentially.

In that case, unless you were a veteran like me, seeing the ending was out of the question.

Even I could count on one hand the number of times I'd reached an ending after taking the collapse route.

The best outcome was, needless to say, protecting the Academy and all key NPCs while defeating the Evil God Kultung.

Then you'd receive Chancellor Ryu Jeonga's patronage and Fortuitous Encounters in full, grow safely, and build a solid foundation for the story ahead.

"So far, we've exceeded perfection."

It was an event I'd played through countless times in the game, but I could say with certainty that the results had never been this good.

I'd protected what needed to be protected.

That alone meant the event was more than half cleared.

What remained were the red Gates proliferating across the Academy, spewing out monsters.

It was time to drive them out.

To eliminate the Gates, we ultimately had to eliminate the one who created them.

Evil God Kultung.

Kultung was the king piece on a chessboard.

Capture the king? The game ends right there.

So the king hides behind other pieces as shields, tucking itself away.

In chess, capturing every piece is one way to win.

But to minimize our own casualties and end things quickly, we had to go straight for the king.

The key to discovering where the king was hiding was Ryu Jeonga's ability.

"Chancellor, you have a spell that can surveil the entire Academy, don't you?"

Ryu Jeonga answered with an uncertain expression.

"It's hazy. It's not that I can't see anything at all, but... I can't see everything clearly."

"That's more than enough. That must be one of the Evil God's abilities—preventing its location from being exposed."

"Then finding the creature's location won't be easy."

"No. It'll actually serve as a signpost."

"A signpost?"

Kultung's ability was useful, but it didn't work against Ryu Jeonga.

Unlike other detection abilities, Ryu Jeonga's ability could survey the entire Academy at once, making petty tricks ineffective.

"Please tell me the areas that appear so hazy even your ability can't distinguish them. The creature will be hiding in one of those places."

"Oho, that's a sound argument."

Ryu Jeonga closed her eyes and used her magic.

After a moment, she murmured the locations presumed to be Kultung's position.

"Let me see... two places to the south, one to the north, one to the east. Four locations in total."

"It'll be hiding inside a dungeon at one of those."

Kultung was now nothing more than a rat trapped in a jar.

Now that we knew the king's position, there was no reason to play with the pawns.

We'd go capture the king immediately.

The strongest pieces for capturing the king.

I deployed all of them.

We promptly formed a strike team composed of professors.

Leading them was the strongest Hero, Lie Xiao.

"Lie Xiao, I'm sorry for dragging you into our affairs."

We'd already reaped enormous benefits from having brought Lie Xiao to Korea.

Lie Xiao had killed more monsters than anyone else and rescued countless students.

"Not at all. It's only natural for a Hero to save people."

On top of that, his mindset was as admirable as his skill, making him extremely easy to work with.

I'd felt it before, but Lie Xiao and I had great compatibility.

"You've already done so much, but I have one more request. I'd like Lie Xiao to lead a party and handle the dungeons to the south."

"Understood."

Since Kultung's power extended strongly to wherever it was hiding, only the highest-difficulty dungeons in the Academy would be found there.

But they weren't enough to threaten an expedition led by Lie Xiao, who ranked among the strongest even among S-rank Heroes.

With Lie Xiao going in person, flushing Kultung out was only a matter of time.

However, even Lie Xiao couldn't fully clear Kultung's dungeon.

Because the final battle against Kultung wasn't the domain of outside forces or professors—it belonged solely to the player.

***

"What's happening......"

Inside the Main Auditorium.

Every student's expression was dark.

The sudden monster assault was something an ordinary person couldn't endure.

The upperclassmen had built up some resistance, but the freshmen were struggling to hold themselves together.

Some freshmen in particular had never seen a monster with their own eyes before.

"Blurgh! Bwaaagh!"

The upperclassmen watched the vomiting freshmen with pity.

It was bad enough that they were suffering right now, but it was worse thinking about how today would become a trauma that would torment them for years to come.

Perhaps a significant number of those kids would give up the dream of becoming a Hero because of today.

"Hah... how can something like this even happen?"

"It's not like one or two dungeons popped up. From what the professors were saying, the Gates that have opened already exceed a hundred. And they're still increasing."

"Insane. Might as well be a demonic realm."

Every piece of news that trickled in was grim.

The only consolation for the students was watching the professors run around tirelessly and believing they'd somehow handle it.

Of course, not every student had given up and collapsed.

Some students were burning with fighting spirit.

"Looks like they're accepting volunteers. Hey, let's go too."

"If we do this, we'll get credit for it, right?"

"That's one more talking point for guild interviews."

"Everyone's having a hard time. If even I can step up and help the others......"

It was mostly upperclassmen with both skill and motivation, but a few freshmen were burning with enthusiasm as well.

That Cha Eunwoo's students were among them was only natural.

Without anyone leading the way, they all gathered with one mind.

An Seri spoke.

"Come to think of it, we never settled who was first last time, did we? That number one the professor left without announcing—want to settle it here?"

"You'll regret it."

Baek Seolhwa answered with a murderous aura.

Their gazes clashed in midair.

Park Seohu mediated between them.

"Now, now—this isn't the time to fight each other. We should be fighting the monsters. Let's cool it and think about clearing dungeons first."

"Hmph."

Baek Seolhwa whipped around.

An Seri likewise headed off toward her party members.

Caught between them, only Park Seohu smiled awkwardly.

A-team's assassin, Na Jinsu, called out to Park Seohu.

"Seohu, who cares—we've got to take first to save our pride. Let's go too."

"Yeah."

To clear the dungeons, the elite of Florian Academy—the institution that produced Korea's greatest Heroes—had assembled.

Their combined fighting power would hold its own against any major guild.

With Florian's professors and elite students stepping up, the dungeons were cleared one by one.

The dungeon raids progressed far more smoothly than the rescue operations had.

***

The northern sector.

A second-year student and a third-year student were discussing in front of a massive Gate.

"At this level... it's definitely not F-rank or E-rank."

Based on the mana readings coming from the dungeon, it wasn't a difficulty they could handle.

"Which party do we send in here? Is there any party nearby that can handle this?"

"How about calling the graduate seniors?"

"Tch, that's probably best."

Just as they were about to settle on that plan, a party stepped forward with confidence.

"We'll go."

"Huh? First-years......?"

The second-year student couldn't believe his eyes.

The party that had stepped up so boldly was composed entirely of first-years.

The second-year boy eyed them with suspicion.

Confidence in one's ability was fine, but too much of anything becomes poison.

When even the upperclassmen were anxiously pacing because they lacked confidence, what gave first-years the nerve to volunteer?

If the first-years went in recklessly and something went wrong, the blame would obviously fall on him.

The second-year waved his hand dismissively.

"I can't allow it. You're still......"

Just as he was about to refuse, the third-year student beside him gave approval.

"Alright. Go in."

"Huh, what?"

The second-year student asked again in shock.

It was an incomprehensible decision.

"Okay~."

The first-years walked into the dungeon with light steps.

The second-year reached out to stop them, but they were all already inside.

"Why on earth did you let them go?"

"You don't know who the girl at the front was?"

"The girl at the front? Who is she?"

"That's An Seri."

"An Seri, from the Geumok Guild?"

The second-year blurted out in surprise.

An Seri.

Was there a student in the Academy who didn't know that name?

She stood at a different starting line from every other student.

She was the child of none other than the Guild Master of Geumok, one of Korea's Big Three guilds—what they called a child born with a uranium spoon in her mouth.

Geumok Guild was essentially the goal every Florian Academy student aimed for after graduation.

That meant An Seri might one day become their superior.

An Seri's talent was also overwhelming, placing her in contention for the top class among this year's freshman cohort—a generation already called the greatest in history.

No wonder she'd given off that extraordinary air—so it was the An Seri.

With that, the third-year's decision made sense.

Shortly after, An Seri's party cleared the dungeon with flying colors.

The time it took them to finish was barely under fifteen minutes.

"That's insane... how are they this fast? That was a dungeon that would take graduating seniors thirty minutes......"

"Don't try to understand it by our standards. There's a reason geniuses are called geniuses."

The second-year student fully grasped what overwhelming talent meant.

They were simply on a different level from the other students.

Meanwhile, oblivious to those thoughts, An Seri was voicing her dissatisfaction.

"Huu, I don't like it. At this sluggish pace, aren't we going to lose to them?"

"I agree. Let's go faster!"

"Yeah."

Nam Hyeju and Gam Miseong were fired up just like An Seri.

While some Heroes froze up in real combat, C-team was the opposite type—they burned even hotter.

Seo Dayun tried to rein in her party members with an uneasy smile.

"If you push too hard, someone's going to get hurt."

"Do not worry, Sister. The Lord will heal all who are injured."

"Ugh... Abraham, don't encourage them."

"Dayun, stop dragging your feet and keep up. We're heading to the next dungeon."

"Hiing, fine."

"Breaking news!"

What stopped C-team just as they were about to depart for the next dungeon was the voice of a fourth-year student.

That student had been receiving orders directly from Cha Eunwoo in the Main Auditorium and was in charge of overseeing the nearby sector.

"Breaking news?"

"What happened?"

The fourth-year student spoke.

"Orders came down for everyone to gather at Yeongse Hall. They're saying the monster that created the Gates is there."

"Really?"

"Finally, this nightmare's over!"

The monster that created the Gates.

Elated by the news the fourth-year brought, everyone set off for Yeongse Hall in high spirits.

"Let's go too."

An Seri's party also headed for Yeongse Hall.