Visitor clad in Darkness
Number of raid attempts: 560.
Number of annihilated raid teams: 1,274.
All these numbers pointed to one thing: failed attempts to conquer the new event boss of Dreamland Fantasy, the world's most popular VRMMORPG. A god-tier game.
[Time Limit- 0h: 43m: 13s]
The dim status window flickered. Time was running out.
– uwu chan: Sigh… Looks like there are no more challengers.
– black popsicle: Even the large clans gave up. Too many have died.
– THE NERD: This season's end is really anticlimactic.
– The Stateman: What are you doing here? Go party or watch some prn instead of stating facts.*
– fairies got tail?: Lol, a basement dweller got excited. Never even spoken to a girl and you're talking about AVs?
[Current number of viewers: 139]
The chat room had barely 100 viewers left—unironically. After countless failures, people had lost interest in the latest update of the game:
Collab event: Harbinger of End.
The event boasted the hardest difficulties and the strangest Easter eggs from the devs—much to the players' frustration. The mission's ambiguity and the penalty for not being cleared in the time limit were outrageous:
'Total deletion of account data.'
Players panicked. The company didn't. They seemed confident in some mysterious plan for success. Yet people lost interest—except for critics and hardcore players.
Even the rankers, who maintained their top spots, had given up due to the sheer difficulty of the boss raid. It wasn't just the field boss; even the event mobs were ridiculously tough.
Popular opinion was that a field effect to lower difficulty or offer buffs was needed, but no one had found one yet. This season was a total waste. Everyone thought the company had killed the game.
That's when it happened.
Whooosh!
A blue light began to emerge in the desolate field. There was only one thing that could cause this phenomenon:
[A challenger has appeared in the field area. Activating field effect.]
Only when a new challenger entered did such an effect occur. A man clad in a full black attire appeared in the field.
His masked face was well known to the viewers.
– black popsicle: Oooh!
– The Stateman: There's still someone willing to challenge!
– uwu chan: Wow, is this for real? A challenger at a time like this?
– fairies got tail?: Here comes Mr. Right Time. Hang up your keyboard for an hour.
The chat room came alive with the sudden turn of events. How long had it been since a new challenger appeared?
[Current number of viewers connected: 7,132]
_____
"Guwooo…"
The White Whale growled lowly at the entrance of the intruder into its territory. Its massive, 50-meter-long body floated in the air.
Just being in front of it was enough to make one's hair stand on end.
A magic circle on its head glowed an eerie pink, emitting a low humming sound typical of whales before ascending toward the sky. From that position, it could look down on the intruder and spam attacks endlessly.
It was a field boss no one could defeat yet.
All living beings were beneath it, destined to end up in its stomach. That was the concept of the White Whale, a 400-year-old monster from the anime [ReZero– Starting Life in Another World].
Players had done their research on the boss but failed to clear the raid. Yet…
"Time to cook a carp. Oops, you're not a carp, lolol", the man casually mocked his opponent.
As if in response to his taunt, the whale emitted a series of blood-curdling clicks, summoning three clones.
At the same time-
"HISSSS…!"
thick fog covered the ground—the White Whale's activated its field debuff. it reduced mental endurance. Soon it would lead to hallucinations, lack of motor control, reduced agility, and impaired vision, turning the area into a death trap.
The summoned clones swam in harmony, circled their blinded and flustered prey from above- like a group of sharks targeting a meal.
The clones would troll and play with the prey before slowly tearing it down bit by bit.
Then, one by one, they dived down at breakneck speed.
Blinded, the man reached his hand into his storage.
"Come on! Where's the stuff? come on....
My trash luck…
Gotcha!"
Grabbing hold of the item, he steadied himself and-
VR... VR... VROOOM!
With the sound of a roaring engine, the player tore through the fog as he flew straight toward the moon—or rather, towards the main body of the whale blocking the moonlight.
"Not very whale-like. Shitty anime, shitty fish. Here I come!"
The clones, sensing their prey rush past them, flinched. But by the time they shook off their confusion, the man was already nearing the main body, high in the sky.
Panic set in.
As the man cleared the fog field, his silhouette became visible. He was riding a nuclear-powered hoverboard. Its engine was made from salvaged components of the Mammoth Golem and the scale of the Ancient Serpent from past events.
This was one of the keys to clearing the event.
Casually ascending like a pro-surfer riding tsunami waves, the man summoned a fiery blazing sword in his left hand and a grand ice magic circle in his right.
– uwu chan: That's HellSword, isn't it? An intermediate-level skill used by magic swordsmen! And the other spell is Absolute Zero!
– The analyst: So that guy's one of the "hardcore types"? I heard that job class is only accessible after maxing out both 'Warlord' and 'Archmage' jobs.
– black popsicle: Good heavens… There are only a handful of them in the entire community!
– The Stateman: So what? Spam S-rank magic swordsman skills all you want; they won't work against this thing.
– fairies got tail?: I had hope, but this guy's going to die at this rate.
– milf hunter: Lolol. I'm outta here.
Viewers began logging off the channel rapidly.
It wasn't surprising. Neither HellSword nor Absolute Zero could harm the whale's tough, anti-magic skin, which reduced the effectiveness of any magic attack by 50%. It was a proven fact after countless failures and a part of the common lore.
The whale sneered, waiting for its prey to approach. Another easy meal.
But then, the player did something unexpected by coating the sword with the magic circle.
[The skill 'HellSword(S)' is fusing with the skill 'Absolute Zero(S)'.]
[The fusion was successful!]
[You have acquired 'Calamity Destroyer (SSS)'!]
Gripped the now 3-meter-long sword with both hands, he took a deep breath. He stepped back with his left foot and forward with his right, preparing for a reversal strike.
A violent wave of energy crackled through the air, approaching the whale at terrifying speed. The beast shrieked in fear, its eyes glowing red as its body exuded more fog to conceal itself.
"Omaewa mou shindeiru!"
In one swift motion, the sword rose in an ascending arc, glowing with a blinding light.
BOOOOM!
A thunderous sound shook the sky as smoke scattered, forming a mushroom cloud. The three whale clones dissipated into the air, and chunks of meat rained down as the massive body struck the ground.
– uwu chan: Did he cook?
– black popsicle: Takoyaki?
– THE NERD: Sushi?
– The Stateman: The clear notification isn't here yet.
– fairies got tail?: That was just a suicide attempt. He also had a alchemist job. Maybe? how did he fuse two skills?
_____
"Achi! Feels like someone's talking shit about me."
As the smoke cleared, the figure of the man emerged—clad in the tattered remains of his combat attire.
At the same time, a message appeared for all players in the community:
[Boss Stage cleared.]
[Contributors: Frederick Von Raymond (100%).]
[Congratulations, player, for your hard work and dedication! ]
Shaking off the dust, he looked around.
He reached out to the streaming drone floating in front of him and looked into its lens.
"Fred, logging off."
Crash!
The drone shattered under his grip. Removing his mask, he sighed.
"Hard work, my ass. Time to claim the bounty and get the cash."
For the first time since the event began, the sun rose over the area. 'Must've been part of the event', he thought.
Whistling, he navigated through the status window and started calculating his gains.
'huh?'
He looked up, sensing something wrong. The reverberations of the explosion had suddenly gone all-silent.
Looking at the horizon, the sun was nowhere to be seen now.
Pitch-black darkness surrounded him. He could hear nothing but the beating of his heart.
Standing a few feet away, a figure cloaked in shadows emerged—darker than the darkness itself.
Despite the pitch blackness, he could somehow see it.
He flicked his hands to check the figure's info, but nothing appeared. The status window was unavailable.
Uncertainty creeped in his mind.
Slowly, unsettling murmurs of countless voices filled the air, growing louder until they clawed at his nerves. He felt an overwhelming urge to act, to buy time, to decide his next course of action.
He asked.
"Who are you?"