Chapter 167…
[Time remaining until Field Boss respawn: 00:01:03]
[The Field Boss will respawn shortly.]
“Huh?”
Startled by the unexpected notification, Dohyun paused.
Come to think of it, when he first started searching for monsters, he had seen a message saying there were five minutes left.
Now only one minute remained.
[Conditions met.]
[Trait ‘Slayer’ activates.]
[A corresponding boss is detected nearby.]
[The hidden location of the Field Boss ‘Forest Troll King’ is revealed.]
And right on cue, the Slayer trait activated.
But the location was much closer than he expected.
‘It’s right next to me?’
It really was right next to him.
If he ran, it wouldn’t even take a minute—more like thirty seconds.
Considering how vast the Blue Tree Forest was, it was an unbelievable coincidence. If luck was bad, even with the Slayer trait the boss could spawn twenty or even forty minutes away.
‘Well… can’t help it then.’
At this point, it almost felt like the boss was begging him to kill it.
Originally, he planned to gather Pulsing Tree Root Leaves and Blue Leaves first, but this changed things.
‘I can’t even see those blue leaves anywhere anyway.’
He had to hunt this boss eventually.
Might as well get the Troll King’s fangs first.
Decision made, Dohyun immediately moved. The distance really was short, and by walking at a steady pace he arrived right on time.
[Field Boss ‘Forest Troll King’ has respawned.]
“GRAAAAAAAAH!!!”
The boss appeared right on schedule and roared.
The creature was clearly different from ordinary trolls.
For starters, it had two heads, and its massive, muscular body made normal trolls look like babies in comparison.
“Guess I’m first.”
You’re lucky. I heard the Apostles take turns.
Yeah. If someone cuts the line, they’re basically dead.
Things like this happened occasionally back in Demrock too.
He’d be standing around without expectations and suddenly get lucky.
Whenever that happened he used to complain—why can’t my gacha luck, drop luck, or enhancement luck be this good instead of teasing me like this?
But honestly, if he didn’t at least have moments like that, he might’ve quit the game long ago.
He smirked slightly.
Just as Dohyun gripped Cheonbyeon and prepared to put strength into his legs—
“Huh? Wait, there’s someone here already?”
“What? Weren’t we the closest group? It was only two minutes away.”
“Damn. Must be someone with the Slayer trait closer than us.”
“This is bad. The team leader said we absolutely had to secure the first hit…”
Heavy breathing and hurried voices came from behind him.
Soon the voices turned irritated—apparently annoyed that their run had been for nothing.
“Who the hell got this lucky?”
“Let’s see what kind of face this guy—…huh? That’s Kaiser.”
“What nonsense—…wait, seriously?”
“Those guardians and that dark armor… wow, it really is Kaiser.”
When Dohyun instinctively turned around, the men who made eye contact instantly shut their mouths.
They looked utterly shocked—as if they never imagined it would actually be him.
But Dohyun was just as surprised.
‘…That mark.’
The guild emblem proudly displayed on their chests looked familiar.
It was unavoidable.
A mark depicting a man raising a sword beneath a flag.
It belonged to one of the most prestigious guilds in the Top 100, led by Berze.
The Hero Guild.
‘So the rumors were true.’
He had vaguely heard that the Hero Guild was controlling boss spawns in Pratel.
Many players were uncomfortable with it, but since it wasn’t technically illegal control, players had no real grounds to complain.
‘They assign Slayer-trait users to each team and spread them out.’
Teams scatter around different areas.
When a boss respawns, the closest team arrives first and secures the spot.
Since they were using legitimate methods, no one could really object.
“Ah, what? Someone’s already here?”
“Looks like the Hero Guild got it again. We came fast this time too.”
“How are they always so quick? Maybe I should just join a guild…”
“You’re already in a guild. Jonghyun, you should join ours already.”
“Come on, ‘King-God-General Kaiser Punch’ is too much. Who the hell names a guild like that?”
Behind the Hero Guild members, another group appeared.
Actually, two groups.
“Huh? Oppa, are you guys here for the field boss too?”
“What? Hyuna? Fancy meeting you here. We came to hunt it, but someone already beat us to it.”
“…Who are they?”
“Oh, uh… just some guys I know.”
“Ahh. Hello!”
Behind the familiar group, another equally familiar group joined them.
It couldn’t be helped—they were familiar.
They were the four members of the group chat that prayed for his death, along with Hyuna and her friends, who he felt like punching every time he saw them.
‘…What the hell kind of combination is this?’
Dohyun felt dizzy at the unbelievable gathering and momentarily denied reality.
As some of them turned their heads, Dohyun quickly looked away.
Perhaps that was why he had once ranked #1 in Demrock—his reflexes were incredible, turning his head away within 0.0001 seconds, fast enough to put even Melsal to shame.
But it seemed he was still a little too late.
“Hmm?”
He heard Hyuna’s familiar voice.
The surprised exclamation quickly turned into shock.
“W-wait. Isn’t that guy Kaiser?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? Why would Kaiser suddenly—…holy crap, it really is!”
“Wow, jackpot! We finally get to see Kaiser in person?”
“Move, move! I wanna see his face. Copyright and portrait rights are so strict we’ve never seen it properly.”
“Can’t help it. Since it’s VR, customization has limits, so they hide faces to prevent retaliation.”
Even Doohyeong and Jonghyun’s group joined the commotion.
Dohyun squeezed his eyes shut.
‘Ah…’
Is this it? Am I finally getting caught?
At the same time, he felt it was unfair.
What crime had he committed that he needed to hide?
It wasn’t like he tried to hide being Kaiser—they were the ones who worshipped him on their own!
‘Yeah, I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of—damn it. Whatever.’
Just as he was half ready to accept fate and half terrified of the aftermath—
“Hmm?”
His eyes met theirs.
Dohyun tried to speak first, but Hyuna beat him to it.
“Oh… what? His face is covered.”
“Yeah. Too bad. Did he always wear a mask?”
“That looks like a mask sold by Pratel merchants. He must’ve gotten it recently.”
“Well… he’s insanely famous. Makes sense he’d hide his face.”
Dohyun froze, then slowly raised a hand to his face.
He felt the rough texture of a crude mask.
Only then did he remember he was wearing one.
He sighed in relief.
‘Wow… buying this mask was the right call.’
Honestly, when he bought it, he did imagine a situation like this.
His friends and Hyuna were all in Pratel, so running into them sooner or later was inevitable.
If anything, it was strange they hadn’t met in the past few days.
That was why he bought the mask the moment he hit Level 58, the level that allowed mask equipment.
If he hadn’t…
‘Ugh… that’s terrifying.’
He shuddered just imagining it.
Almost as if agreeing with him—
“GRAAAAAAAAH!!!”
[Field Boss ‘Forest Troll King’ uses ‘Fear’.]
[You have heard the Fear of a king of a race.]
[All stats decrease by 10%.]
[All speeds decrease by 10%.]
[Due to the effect of trait ‘Hero’, you are immune to mental contamination.]
[Fear is nullified.]
The Troll King unleashed a thunderous roar of Fear, but the Hero trait blocked it.
At last, people stopped staring at Kaiser and focused on the boss.
“Looks like it’s starting.”
They realized the fight with the field boss had begun.
Thanks to that, Dohyun also felt much more at ease and gripped Cheonbyeon, now transformed into a blue sword.
‘Let’s deal with this guy first.’
The situation was extremely awkward, but now was the time to focus on battle.
* * *
The battle wasn’t difficult.
“GRAAAAAAAH!!!”
[Field Boss ‘Forest Troll King’ uses ‘Rage Assault’.]
[Perfect Parry succeeded.]
[Rage Assault completely deflected.]
The Forest Troll King was a close-combat type boss.
More specifically, it was like a mix between a berserker that had lost its sanity and an axe warrior.
It felt similar to Karuk, the hidden field boss from Raven.
You could basically consider it Karuk’s superior version.
‘Enemies like this are easy.’
And the person best at dealing with opponents like that was Kaiser.
Creatures like this only had one thought:
Destroy.
Their entire combat style revolved around that.
Because of that, their patterns were so predictable that Dohyun could see three moves ahead.
[Perfect Parry succeeded!]
[Fury Strike completely deflected.]
He was parrying attacks as casually as if he were eating a meal.
No need to retreat.
He’d lightly duck to avoid attacks, step forward or diagonally to counter.
And whenever a powerful attack couldn’t simply be deflected—
Parry.
“GRAAAAH!!”
[Field Boss ‘Forest Troll King’ HP below 50%.]
The Troll King practically screamed with joy while being one-sidedly beaten.
[Phase 2 activated.]
[Trait ‘Warrior’ activated.]
[Field Boss ‘Forest Troll King’ physical abilities greatly increase.]
The classic “Warrior” trait—so common it was nicknamed “Torrior”—activated.
But even in Phase 2, nothing really changed.
No matter how fast the boss became, it was still slower than Dohyun.
No matter how powerful its attacks were, they’d never land.
To him, it was just a slightly faster punching bag.
At this rate, the fight could end in under five minutes.
It should have been an easy battle.
However—
“Waaah! That’s insane! His control is crazy!”
“So cool… I’m going to brag in the Kaiser Church today that I saw Kaiser fight in person.”
“Me too!”
“Why’s Hyuna so quiet—pfft, look at her. She said she’d never join that fan café but can’t take her eyes off him.”
From Hyuna and her friends’ loud reactions—
“Damn… that’s insane. How is that even human control? He’s not following any strategy guides.”
“Would a god follow human strategies, foolish Jaeyeol?”
“Wow, Jonghyun actually said something smart for once. See? Now you understand the greatness of my guild name. Wanna join?”
“M-maybe…”
“Man… Dohyun would be so sad to miss this.”
Even his friends were praising him.
Many players had gathered around, but the familiar voices stood out the most.
Every little thing he did made them gasp or worship him.
Maybe it was because those voices belonged to people he knew, but hearing them praise him like that made him feel strangely nauseous.
‘…Let’s finish this quickly and get out.’
