Chapter 143: Raid Battle.

The day before the last day of the Water Land event.

In the no-conflict zone, people walked through the undersea tunnel to explore the underwater world, rode subs to venture beneath the sea, or spent peaceful time with the Water Land residents. For them, it was just a day to regret that the event was ending.

Meanwhile, in the conflict-allowed zone, tension was in the air.

“Aren’t you staring a bit too much?”

The captain of the gamer pirate crew asked with a sly grin.

In response, the captain of the hunter mercenary group glared at the captain and answered.

“Just thinking about what you did makes my teeth grind.”

“If you take what happens in the game too seriously, life gets exhausting, you know?”

“Want me to make your life exhausting too?”

“Is it okay to say things like that? Slime-nim might get angry, you know?”

“You… better watch your back when we fight.”

“If you can even get the chance, that is.”

“That’s enough, you two.”

At the trading company boss’s words, the hunter captain grumbled but closed his mouth.

The gamer captain also straightened up.

There wasn’t just one faction participating in today’s raid battle.

All the factions currently climbing the tower had gathered.

With rivalries like the hunter mercenary group and the gamer pirate crew, conflicts often broke out.

Even so, there were three reasons they managed to maintain a single group.

One was the overwhelming presence of the raid boss, Lily.

Contrary to her cute name, Lily displayed terrifying strength.

It had already been concluded that a single faction or two couldn’t take down that sea dragon.

The ragtag groups who crashed their boats into Lily hoping for a last-minute turnaround proved it.

They were wiped out without even clearing the first phase.

Another reason was the boss’s leadership.

The boss had earned credit for stopping the Star Festival rain.

Not stopping there, he revitalized stalled facilities through trade and raised the weapon upgrade level. He generously spent the loot he’d gathered to strengthen the group’s armaments.

He gathered information scattered across Water Land and even figured out Lily’s attack patterns.

With the influence he gained, he suggested roles for each faction.

Since the division of labor made sense, the boss naturally rose to the position of leader.

And finally, everyone wanted to finish this event successfully.

“Would they really end the event without clearing the raid?” After the Star Festival event’s surprise twist, no one was so sure.

According to the residents’ stories and the ancient books they found, there had been times when the rain lasted over a week.

If no one went to stop it, it meant the heavy rain could continue until the event ended.

Other game companies would worry about the forums catching fire and wouldn’t end the event with a raid failure.

But Alchemy Slime might just say, “Didn’t hunt Lily? Too bad,” and end the event right there.

There was a reason the raid was scheduled for Saturday.

If they postponed it to the last day, who knew what variables might arise.

A sudden storm could sweep across the entire sea, drastically increasing the difficulty.

Or, conversely, the raid difficulty could drop drastically.

Like if the Seagull Slime Pirates joined in.

Or if lightning suddenly struck Lily out of nowhere.

Or if a whale suddenly attacked Lily.

With all the preparation they’d done, they didn’t want the event to end anticlimactically with a GM’s help.

Something unexpected might happen unless it was caused by Alchemy Slime.

The person in a key role might suddenly have something urgent come up or get sick.

If they kept postponing, they wouldn’t be able to respond when something did happen.

That’s why they decided to hold the raid battle the day before the event ended, leaving some breathing room.

“Is everyone ready?”

“No one’s missing.”

“Of course. Leave the undersea to us.”

“We’re ready.”

The boss nodded.

“Then let’s go.”

The boats all set out at once for the sea god’s domain.

***

Deep in the sea, the sea dragon sensed the presence of boats invading its territory and opened its eyes.

It loosened up and headed for the surface.

It was about to target the boat at the very front when it caught the scent of treasure.

Instinctively, it opened its mouth, swallowed the treasure, and raised its head above the surface.

At that moment, bombardment poured in from all sides.

The boat at the very front was one Lily was familiar with.

Knowing that attacking it was pointless, she turned her head toward another boat.

The moment she tried to charge at it, the front boat loaded treasure into its cannon and fired.

It was treasure with a scent too tempting to ignore.

Instinctively, she turned her body toward it.

Meanwhile, bombardment continued to rain down on Lily.

After a few rounds, cracks appeared in the scales covering Lily’s entire body.

The first phase pattern of weaving across the surface and swallowing boats came to an end.

When new treasure was launched, Lily, realizing she could get hurt, suppressed her instincts.

Instead of chasing the treasure, she howled toward the sky.

Kuaaah!

With the storm approaching, sea monsters that heard her cry rose from the depths and began attacking the boats.

Lily dove underwater.

“Torpedo delivery incoming!”

The gamer pirate crew’s attacks rained down.

The initial battle started at the center of the sea god’s area, but before they knew it, the fighting had shifted to the edge of the waters, right up against the rapid current sea zone.

It was a location the boss had guided them to by adjusting where the treasure was fired.

Human torpedoes, accelerated by the rapid current, battered Lily’s body.

True to the tactics they’d steadily developed since the start of the game, the impact was enough to shake Lily’s massive form.

“Retreat!”

The human torpedoes quickly fled.

A moment later, the bombs they had attached to Lily’s body exploded, inflicting massive damage.

While she was disoriented by the blasts, underwater weapons rained down on Lily.

Lily swam swiftly, dodging the attacks, and headed for the gamer pirate crew’s ship, which had dealt the biggest blow.

Just as she tried to swallow it whole, the hunter mercenary group’s ship cut in and was eaten instead.

The hunter mercenary group’s ship was no ordinary vessel.

It was a special ship obtained while raiding a dungeon.

A ghost ship.

It wasn’t much affected by the water’s flow and didn’t shake much either.

It even had a function to ignore a certain amount of damage to the ship.

The protrusions inside Lily’s body couldn’t do much to the ghost ship and passed right by.

The tentacles extending from the walls were sliced off by the hunters’ weapons.

“How much would all that cost if you added it up?”

“Stop fooling around and focus!”

This time, instead of being expelled mixed with debris as before, the hunter mercenaries succeeded in penetrating deep inside.

There, they discovered crystals that seemed to be an important organ.

“Everyone, attack!”

The tentacles bursting from the walls resisted desperately, but the hunters finally succeeded in destroying the crystals.

The water flowing inside Lily’s body reversed its course.

Along with the fragments of the crystals, Lily spat out the ghost ship.

As the crystals shattered, the storm Lily had summoned stopped, and the monsters that had gathered fled.

Since the fleet was focused on defense, it didn’t suffer much damage.

Phase 2 ended.

Lily headed back to the surface, breaking through the sea level and soaring into the sky.

Lily flew through the air, looking down at the ships with eyes that had turned red.

A sense of pressure weighed down on everyone aboard the ships.

“Wow…. That presence is no joke.”

The gigantic sea dragon flying in the sky opened its mouth.

A discharging sphere formed between its jaws.

Just before it was fired.

Boom.

A huge bullet pierced through Lily’s eye.

Lily writhed in pain, and the energy gathered in its mouth exploded, injuring it further.

“Attack!”

Lily, bleeding from its eye, glared at the humanoid weapon floating in the sky.

A chase began.

“I’m not exactly a specialist in giant monster battles!”

The FPS gamer dodged Lily’s attacks with flashy movements.

Not only did he guide the raid boss to a position where his teammates could easily bombard it.

He also poured gunfire on it whenever there was an opening.

While his teammates suffered no damage, wounds continued to pile up on Lily’s body.

“This is easier than I thought.”

“Hey! Don’t say stuff like that!”

Speaking from an out-of-game perspective, it was natural for it to be easy.

The raid in the Water Land event isn’t structured to allow multiple attempts after dying.

Even if you knew that, there were no brutal patterns that forced you to start over from the beginning if you made a mistake.

Because you can’t start over from the beginning.

That’s why information about the raid boss was provided in detail beforehand.

If you had the means to counter the patterns Lily displayed, you could get through them easily.

Because it was designed to be cleared in one go.

However, there are things in this world you should never say.

If you say something like ‘Is it over?’ in front of a dying enemy, the enemy will resurrect.

If you say things like ‘This is easy,’ ‘Pathetic,’ or ‘What a waste of time’ while winning, dismissing your opponent?

The enemy awakens.

Lily suddenly stopped moving.

And then, light began to emanate from the wounds on its body.

“Everyone, brace for impact!”

Lily exploded.

The scales on its body shot out all at once, tearing through the ships.

The flagship, the strongest ship of the event, was unscathed, but the other ships suffered severe damage.

“….”

Glares were directed at the guy who had spoken carelessly.

“S-Sorry.”

“Is this the time for that? Focus on the enemy!”

“Yes!!!”

Having shed its scales, Lily moved with much greater agility, rampaging through the sky.

It swung its tail, bit down, and simply rammed into things.

‘If I don’t do something…!’

Someone had to suppress the raid boss’s movements.

To avoid missing the few remaining bullets, the FPS gamer approached Lily.

‘From here, I won’t miss.’

As he raised his gun, Lily suddenly stopped and opened its mouth toward the gamer.

There was no time to react.

From its gaping mouth, all sorts of weapons were fired.

Each and every one of them was a powerful weapon brought by those who had tried to defeat Lily in the past.

The humanoid giant weapon that was hit plummeted to the ground.

With the most dangerous enemy gone, Lily rampaged even more fiercely.

The ships sank one after another.

“Get the people who fell into the sea onto the flagship!”

In the end, the other ships were abandoned.

“Just hold on a little longer! Look at the blood it’s shedding! This is its final struggle!”

They switched to a strategy of holding out with the unsinkable flagship at the center, trying to deal damage however they could.

But Lily’s frenzy showed no signs of stopping.

In the end, all the ships except the flagship sank.

With only the flagship left, the problem became even more serious.

They had run out of cannonballs.

To attack, they had to go out onto the deck, but the raid boss tirelessly unleashed its breath.

‘Can we really win if we just hold on?’

‘Are we going to lose?’

The atmosphere grew heavier by the moment.

Everyone’s eyes turned to the boss.

Just as he was about to speak.

“Look at that!”

The ghost ship broke through the surface of the water and emerged.

On that ship stood a barbarian warrior gripping a giant bow.

The barbarian warrior held the bow horizontally, revealing the true power of an ancient mythology axe.

No, it was an ancient mythology arrow that he had nocked.

“Uwaaaah!”

The barbarian warrior let out a shout as he drew the bow.

The light emanating from the powerful bow, which Lily had devoured long ago, enveloped the arrow.

If it was that, they could end this raid.

Such hope blossomed in the hearts of those watching.

However, the barbarian warrior, trembling in his arms, did not release the bowstring.

Lily, too, felt the power of that arrow.

Lily darted through the sky at high speed, preparing to dodge the arrow.

“Humanoid weapon delivery!”

The humanoid weapon that had crashed burst out of the sea, blocking Lily’s path.

Thrown up by the combined efforts of the hunter mercenary group and the gamer pirate crew, it was packed with all the remaining bombs inside.

Boom!

The humanoid weapon exploded, stopping Lily’s movements.

A flash pierced through the sky.

A rain of treasure began to fall from the heavens.

“Uwaaaaaa!!!”

“We won!!!”

***

The raid was over.

Well, since we got that unsinkable ship, we could have won just by holding out.

Because Lily self-destructs once its frenzy ends.

Instead, the ending might have felt a bit anticlimactic.

Thanks for decorating it so impressively.

Achievement rewards were distributed to everyone who participated in the raid.

Of course, the distribution was likely differentiated based on the feats shown.

Ah, and there were also people trying to stir up trouble.

Those aiming to profit from others’ efforts.

That could, in its own way, be part of the game’s fun.

But since I didn’t like it, I sent the Seagull Slime Pirates to clean things up neatly.

The last day of the event is a festival.

Just eat, drink, and have fun.

A happy ending, isn’t it?

“Hmm….”

Though I put a lot of ambition into organizing this event.

My attention keeps drifting not to inside Slime Land, but to outside Slime Land.

Tasks I need to deal with keep catching my eye.

Originally, I planned to participate in the event myself and do various things.keyboard.

Somehow, I ended up keeping my distance.

The Water Land event was running smoothly on its own anyway.

I was thinking of holding a Sky Land event, but it seems I’ll have to postpone it.

In just a few days, Frame Slime has properly settled in.

Beyond just settling, it started gaining groundbreaking popularity in Korea.

The start of that popularity was this post.

—

[The reason Frame Slime is getting harsh reviews only in Korea right now.]

It’s because parents are driving public opinion.

They want only their own kids to use it.

—

This post received a formidable number of downvotes and exploded.

That actually boosted the post’s credibility.

Frame Slime started gaining popularity as a study chair.

No matter how strong the passion for education is, where did 27 million won suddenly come from to buy Frame Slime?

They started savings accounts.

Many people borrowed money from me to buy Frame Slime.

Debt in money leads to debt in the heart.

Cheap interest is seen as a favor.

The more they’re tied to me through money, the less they’ll be able to resist what I intend to do.

Now, what kind of premium Slime should I release next?