A Basement-Dwelling Loser, the Inquisitor – Chapter 211

[Ga-eun]

[Proceeding with New Dimension World Quest]

[New Dimension | 17,624 viewers online | 03:59:14]

“…Can we even break this?”

─This really feels like a bug.

─Even for a World Quest, this is pushing it too far;

─It’s nonsense that after an hour, we haven’t even touched 5% of the HP.

As Ga-eun spat out a disgruntled remark just after her resurrection, everyone in the chat window agreed.

No.

We had no choice but to agree.

It had been an hour since the start of the final chapter of the first World Quest in New Dimension.

Despite 60 minutes of battling Great Demon Tagirion, not a single percent of his HP had dropped.

It felt absurd to think that most of the participating players had end-game specs.

〔World Quest – Hunt of Tagirion〕

〔The Great Demon Tagirion embodies the absolute evil with his mere existence.〕

〔Remaining time: 22 hours 38 minutes〕

‘No matter how I think about it, something’s off….’

The second half of the World Quest against Tagirion was supposed to last 48 hours.

Yet, with just one hour passing, we hadn’t managed to deal even 1% damage.

Just doing the math simply showed that time was running out.

At least, there was no penalty for resurrection.

Thanks to that, Ga-eun could keep joining the hunt against Tagirion despite dying multiple times.

‘…But what does that mean?’

She attacked Tagirion anew after being revived, but he remained steadfast.

It was a feeling of despair, akin to wandering through an endless maze.

If the broadcast had been off, Ga-eun would probably have been cursing vocally.

“Ugh….”

After catching her breath, Ga-eun set off again toward Tagirion’s location.

Of course, there was an inconceivable number of players gathered there, making even the journey to Tagirion quite time-consuming.

Even though the players recognizing her as Ga-eun parted the way, it still took over five minutes.

But even after finally arriving at Tagirion, they weren’t able to land a single solid hit before dying.

It felt as if Tagirion was saying that their struggles were utterly meaningless.

“How should I even fight this time…?”

Ga-eun was confident she had played all her cards.

Yet, compared to Tagirion, the players standing before him, herself included, felt too weak.

─Isn’t New Haven’s difficulty setting just broken?

─The suggestion board is going wild right now.

─It’s a situation where I don’t even want to argue, but I have to…

Naturally, Ga-eun didn’t receive any satisfactory answers to her question.

It was a hollow hope that someone might’ve discovered something while battling Tagirion, especially when Ga-eun herself was struggling to last.

‘Do I really have to keep wasting time like this?’

About 22 hours and 30 minutes were left.

No matter that tomorrow was Sunday, not many would be able to stay logged into New Dimension for 22 hours straight.

That meant, as time went on, fewer players would be able to challenge Tagirion.

Even with so many players around, no substantial damage had been dealt.

And now, to have even fewer people participating?

Even if she wanted to hold onto hope, the word ‘give up’ naturally circled through Ga-eun’s mind.

[Let me deliver despair!]

With that thought, as she reached Tagirion once more, a powerful gale swept through, and numerous doors opened behind him.

The red flashes shot out, piercing through many players, and in the blink of an eye, about 30 players fell dead.

“Seriously….”

Our attacks barely inflict any damage on him.

But his attacks cause overwhelming amounts of damage to us.

What a ridiculous situation this was.

Yet, despite everything, she couldn’t just stand still.

In the end, Ga-eun took a step forward, but nothing changed.

★

Something feels off, right?

That was the conclusion I reached after watching Ga-eun’s stream for an hour.

Even if it’s a World Quest, it just doesn’t seem right for it to progress like this….

─This feels way too unreasonable.

In the chat of the stream, complaints about the unfairness continued to flood in.

But in my opinion, it didn’t feel appropriate to call this situation “unfair.”

If there was a problem, it was hard to articulate what exactly was strange about it.

The situation certainly felt odd. It constantly created a sense of dissonance.

But I couldn’t pinpoint what part of it felt wrong.

Understanding the boss’s patterns and exploiting the gaps that arise afterward is fundamental to a raid.

And what Ga-eun and the other players were showing in the stream… well, they were following that basic premise quite firmly.

Of course, given the sheer number of players, many died, but that couldn’t be considered a problem.

It’d be even more bizarre if no one died in a brand-new World Quest.

So then, what exactly feels wrong?

[With so many players, how is this even logical? New Haven, you suck!]

“…Huh?”

As I was caught up in those thoughts, that voice rang in my ears.

It wasn’t Ga-eun’s voice.

It was likely someone dissatisfied with the World Quest shouting angrily on the stream.

And that furious remark provided the answer to the dissonance I had been feeling all along.

“There are too many people….”

The raid boss Tagirion was just one creature.

And the players who could challenge Tagirion were all those who had cleared the “Room of Evil Dream.”

I didn’t know the exact number, but it must’ve been far over 100.

Yet for just that one boss, so many players flocking to take him down seemed… odd, right?

Just watching Ga-eun’s stream made it clear.

The time taken to move back to Tagirion after reviving was already over five minutes.

In other words, there was some sort of mechanic that required dividing players up to do something.

Well, what that mechanic was, I couldn’t say either.

“Ahhh….”

Having been watching the stream on my phone’s little screen for too long, my eyes were starting to tire.

Plus, maybe because Bora had been cuddled up to me today, I felt pretty sweaty…

So let’s wash up first.

“Hmm….”

Before heading to wash up, shouldn’t I tell Ga-eun about the ‘mechanic that requires dividing up players’ I just thought of?

…Well, she might catch on quickly anyway.

★

[Ga-eun]

[Proceeding with New Dimension World Quest]

[New Dimension | 17,954 viewers online | 05:03:33]

〔World Quest – Hunt of Tagirion〕

〔The Great Demon Tagirion embodies the absolute evil with his mere existence.〕

〔Remaining time: 21 hours 34 minutes〕

“Ugh….”

After dying once again, Ga-eun let out a deep sigh.

How many times had this been now?

She didn’t have the strength left to calculate or voice complaints.

She was only filled with doubts about what she was even doing.

Meanwhile, Tagirion’s HP had dropped just a tiny bit, so minute it was hard to notice unless one looked closely.

After 2 hours of uninterrupted attacks, and that was all.

As a result, players around her began to withdraw, deeming it hopeless.

─I think it’s better to just give up ㅠㅠ

─The fact that they prepared for this situation even before we started makes it an omen, huh;

─This genuinely feels like a waste of time…

The mood in the chat window began to turn sour, which was only natural.

Ideally, a streamer suffering while playing a game would make for a sort of content, but this situation was entirely different.

First, Ga-eun wasn’t just a streamer; she was a pro gamer.

Most importantly, people enjoy watching a streamer struggle in a game because it highlights the streamer’s lack of skill in something they should be able to clear.

But nobody could attribute her situation to a lack of skill right now.

Continued deaths.

And yet no progress.

Considering that the viewers watching Ga-eun’s stream also had no solutions for escaping this situation, it was natural for the mood to become heavier.

‘Should I just give up….’

Just as that thought reached Ga-eun’s throat.

─Isn’t this not how you’re supposed to do it?

─Can’t you see what the problem is at a glance?

─You’ve been at this challenge for two hours already.

─I’m disappointed in you, Ga-eun.

As those messages flashed before her eyes.

“…Wait a minute. Um… ‘2A’? Have you maybe discovered something? If so, could you teach me about it?”

─Seems like just trolling…

Of course, Ga-eun didn’t really expect that ‘2A’ actually knew something.

But the current situation was so dire that she was willing to latch onto even a message like that.

─Isn’t there just the one Tagirion we need to take down, and yet there are way too many players challenging him?

“…Oh!”

At that moment, she realized.

In a quest to take down just one Tagirion, why in the world were so many players clustered together?

It was only natural that the crowded movement would lead to getting caught by attacks that could have been easily dodged.

But swallowed up by the pressure of the word “World Quest” and the thought that they had to defeat Tagirion, nobody thought the situation was odd.

‘Maybe everyone just thought a boss like this needed so many players.’

Of course, it might be true that a number of players was required.

It wasn’t necessary for all of them to face Tagirion directly.

As her mind progressed to that point, Ga-eun began to analyze the situation step by step.

‘The abyss hell Tartarus. The Astria Empire. Capital Libra. The remnants of Tagirion….’

“Could that be it…?”

She wasn’t entirely sure.

But to change the unchanging situation, she had to make a move.

“Excuse me, coming through!”

With that, Ga-eun began to run.

★

After washing up and checking Remagal, she realized that quite a few Rebongi were participating in the World Quest.

Yet, not a single one of them, including Ga-eun, had noticed anything strange.

While having called me a fool every time.

“Puhuhu…”

I will definitely have to tell them when I go live later.

How they’re all bigger fools than I am.

“Tehe…”