Matan’s Shooter

But why just one month? It seemed the nuance was that it’d be enough to only block the Virtue Knights for a month. Did that mean he was confident in blocking any other knight orders whenever? Or, what was his plan once I started moving again after a month? As Lark recalled a clause from the contract, he thought of someone’s name.

Remembering what the golden carp had said… Leeha.

Did it mean that if Lark goes around with Virtue to acquire “Subjugation” achievement after the contract period, Leeha intended to come and block him then?

‘It feels like she’s saying I have been ‘overlooked’ so far.’

Lark frowned.

“What happened, captain?”

“Retreat. It’s all ruined because of one woman.”

“What, what? What are you talking about?”

Though Pung looked confused at Lark’s words, he had nothing more to say. Shin Nara’s swift movements without any buff skills, the tricks she had prepared, and her thorough immobilization…

“It means I’ve realized that a smart and pretty woman isn’t necessarily a good thing… Well, now that I think about it, she was quite pretty, wasn’t she? Does that guy, Leeha, like her?”

“What?”

Pung’s eyes widened in surprise, and Lark just shrugged, remembering Shin Nara. The top users from the capital defense knight orders of Fibiel and Minis had all been focused on Leeha, who even at that moment, was still pursuing Toon. It had been over 16 hours since he began the pursuit.

※

[Rumble Rumble Rumble!]

“Damn, again? Alright, ease it down.”

[Rumble!]

Swoosh!

Jellypong retracted his arm.

Using Jellypong for fast maneuvers was definitely an advantage for Leeha, but it wasn’t something that could be relied on indefinitely.

“Damn it, how am I supposed to manage in such an open terrain!”

Leeha wanted to maintain the distance to Toon as much as possible, but the gap inevitably widened whenever such terrains appeared.

No matter how fast Leeha moved, she couldn’t match Toon’s stride.

“This is why you can’t keep tweaking specs suddenly and continuously.”

If it had been possible to allocate all agility into speed increase anywhere and anytime, Leeha could have easily caught up with Toon, but that was impossible in her current state.

The best she could do now was to run so that the distance wouldn’t grow further apart.

Leeha ran with all her might, observing Toon’s disproportionate physique from a distance.

“His arm hasn’t regenerated. My attack definitely hit.”

How was Toon’s body structured?

Leeha remembered the last battle near the [Divine Staff].

“Even when I blew a hole in his eye socket area, he didn’t flinch, but he screamed when his arm froze over.”

What was the difference between the two attacks? The difference between the hit to the head near the source of evil and the arm hit with the [Divine Staff]?

“Thinking his arm is a weakness seems too simplistic…”

Toon, who effortlessly swept away users with his arm like a whip in every attack, wouldn’t have used it so freely if it were a weakness. Toon had also stood firm against the joint attack from Alexander, Lee Jiwon, and Pei Wu.

“But when Ram Hwajung froze it and I struck, there was a reaction. Kijung did manage to weaken him… but I don’t fully understand what ‘weakening’ means in this context. Was it just reducing HP? Or decreasing defense? Maybe both?

“Kijung, when you used [Sacrifice] on Toon, you said you weakened him, right?

Kijung: Everyone, follow me! Paladins, don’t worry about that and start from this side- Oh, what’s this, a trick? Huh? Leeha hyung?

-…~ Busy, huh?

Kijung: Ah, right now a giant rhino is charging at us, trying to stop it. What’s up? Need something?

Leeha: You make it sound easy.

Kijung: Just one rhino or so, yeah. A bit of exercise after a meal.

Leeha felt power draining from his ankles. The giant monsters that swarmed during the wave had been strong enough to cause significant damage, but now, the idea that one or two of such giant monsters wouldn’t even make Kijung tense was astonishing.

Leeha: Cough, it’s not about that…

Leeha asked Kijung.

What are the conditions for activating [Sacrifice], and when used on an opponent, what kind of and scale of damage could it inflict? Kijung momentarily closed his mouth.

However, it wasn’t because he was reluctant to talk to Leeha. It was because he needed to concentrate on dealing with a hoard of monsters.

Shin Nara had informed Lark about the penalties of the Alter Cabaret to a certain extent, confident that he would never be caught by that skill again. Except for such special cases, the information on the skills they possessed was virtually top secret among the Middle Earth players.

But the relationship between Kijung and Leeha was ‘such a special case’ or even more. It wasn’t just because Leeha was the one who had secured the sword with [Sacrifice] for Kijung.

It was due to Kijung’s pure admiration for Leeha. It was beyond mere friendship or astonishment; it was the fruition of pure respect.

Leeha: Hmm, that’s interesting. Even though the skill’s name is ‘Self-Sacrifice’, it seems there are still opportunities?”

Kijung: Well, that’s about right. Although my health drops to 1 after using the skill… the enemy’s defense drops drastically by 80, so there’s a chance of surviving if the final attack succeeds.”

Leeha: It wouldn’t have worked on Toon, though.”

Kijung: Do you really have to say that? Even if I use my all, it wouldn’t weaken a monster like Toon significantly.”

During the skill activation, neither the caster nor the target is allowed any movement—an absolute skill.

The condition targets all of the caster’s 10, drastically reducing the target’s 140 along with both physical and magical defenses.

Leeha: Even with you worrying this much, Kijung is top-level in Middle Earth. Combining that with the forfeited defenses and Ram Hwajung’s freezing… a sweet deal.”

Ram Hwajung’s freezing wasn’t just about icing over. It restricted movement and seized control of the body, providing defense only in the thickness of the ice but plundering all other special defenses within the body.

Leeha remembered Kidd mentioning something similar when he fought alongside Ram Hwajung against a golem, a mad alchemist’s creation.

‘Kidd said the same when he killed the golem made by the mad alchemist. Meaning, when I broke Toon’s arm at that time, it was under double defense reduction.’

Breaking that arm required three bullets. Then what approach should one take under normal circumstances? Leeha pondered.

‘Definitely pierced its skin. In contrast to dragons which nullify attacks with their ‘scales’, Toon’s skin was clearly breached.’

Leeha had seen the blood flowing unmistakably.

“But there was no damage… because of the thick flesh inside—no, the muscles?

“Muscles… If the bullets won’t do, maybe it’s like a wall…”

On the matter of monsters, dragon scales were the prime example of a natural defense.

Trolls? Rather than defense, trolls substitute it with regenerative abilities.

Ogres replace it with the thickness of their hide.

Orcs, Kobolds, Goblins, and such lack these natural defenses, hence they resort to makeshift armor. Then what about Toon?

“Of course, its hide would be tough! Its muscles incredibly dense and springy! But still! My attack managed to penetrate through that!”

If Leeha’s bullets couldn’t make it further, then there was only one structure left.

“Dragon bone tough indeed…”

Literally, the toughness and defense of the bones couldn’t even be compared with regular monsters.

“Probably so. To maintain such a 440m body mass, its bones aren’t ordinary to protect the organs rolling inside—Jellypong!”

[“Mongmong!”]

Thinking of Toon, Leeha instructed Jellypong to move in a terrain where woods and forests emerged.

“That uneasy premonition I faintly felt was exactly that.”

Swooosh–

Feeling the breeze brushing his cheeks, Leeha realized the nature of the ominous premonition he had been harboring since encountering Toon.

Why was it inevitable to face 69 losses out of 69 simulations? Because he faintly anticipated that regular shooting would be ineffective against it.

“If that’s the source of its defense… then it must be pained in the bones for its 10 to truly decrease. Before that, shooting several times wouldn’t make a significant impact.”

Then where would be the most efficient place to target?

As Jellypong moved, Leeha contemplated Toon’s attack patterns.

If there was anything Toon excelled at, it was its sweeping attack first and foremost. Pulling back its arms and then slashing forward in a whip-like motion, sweeping everything in front of it!

“And…? What else is there? A body slam?”

Among Toon’s attack patterns, what could Leeha possibly exploit? It surely wouldn’t expose its weakness in everyday situations.

For a boss-level creature like Toon, that’s a given.

A weakness would only be exposed, very briefly and slightly, during some kind of action. No matter how perfect the surrounding terrain might be, even if one were to precisely embed bullets into both eyes of Toon, there’s no guarantee that it would kill him. In other words, what I must aim for is – ah, that very brief, momentarily exposed gap.

It was still an undiscovered “instant kill point” of Toon.

Kijung: We’ve finally taken down a whole group. Ah,-hyung! Will that thing from earlier be of any help?

Leeha: Yeah, mhm. It should be.

Kijung: Since I taught you [Sacrifice], it’s your turn to help me out.

Leeha: What is it? I’ve said before, I can’t go there right now—

Kijung: You don’t need to come. Just lend me a hand.

Leeha: A hand?

Kijung: Yeah. Ask Rubini to get in touch with me.

Leeha slightly tilted his head. Rubini was a user he hadn’t seen in ages.

Of course, it was unlikely that she, known by her nickname Doctor Doom, was idly passing time, but it was true that there had been few opportunities to encounter her.

“All of a sudden Rubini? The Holy Knight profession quest and Rubini… Ah!?”

Kijung: Did you put some thought into it?! Wow, you got it in one. Tell me quickly why that is.

If they use Rubini’s map? It would be like a fishing trawler with a radar, finding schools of fish wandering the ocean and lifting them aboard. Kijung’s force, led by him, would be able to continuously subdue groups of monsters that Rubini finds.

Compared to scouring with our eyes and effortfully gathering information from users passing by, the efficiency is expected to improve by more than a hundredfold.

Knowing this, there was no reason for Leeha to hesitate.

Leeha: Okay! She’s not logged in right now, but as soon as she is, I’ll talk to her and get her to contact you.

Kijung: Cooool~! I need to sleep now. Yaaawn… Take care, then, hyung.

Hearing Leeha’s assurance, Kijung, perhaps relieved, gave a big yawn.

The moment Kijung lazily yawned, something sparked in Leeha’s mind.

Leeha: Kijung!

Kijung: Aiiee, you scared me! Why scream like that? You woke me up!

Leeha: Right, right. The! Perfect plan!

Kijung: What, what are you talking about? Why are you being scary all of a sudden?

Leeha: You’ll hear some good news soon, just wait for it!

Kijung: Eh? Are you getting married? Ah, right, Bobae said to take care of Shin Nara—

Ignoring Kijung’s nonsensical blabber, Leeha planned his strategy.

“It’s clear. This is definitely going to work. The problem is managing everything perfectly to create such a situation.

“Jellypong, let’s get ahead a bit. We need to check if there’s an appropriate terrain.”

[Mongmong!]

Swooosh, swooosh, swooosh—!

Toon, unaware he was being followed, wouldn’t suddenly speed up.

Leeha urged Jellypong, moving ahead to scout Toon’s path. It wasn’t an easy task.

Even if something came to mind, it’s not as if the perfect place and conditions would be set like a table. It’s not about following Toon, but moving ahead of him. That alone increased the risk.

In the meantime, Leeha had to select a battlefield where he could execute his strategy without Toon noticing his movements.

Moreover, he had to consider Toon’s possible routes as Toon wouldn’t move in a straight line forever. Paying attention to all these things and proceeding with the task was certainly not a simple job for Leeha.

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