Survival mode had two styles of victory. First, hunting all the high-value monsters on the map without shying away from combat. Second, leveling up smoothly while encountering as few enemies as possible and hunting only comparatively easy monsters. This second style was what the Nonghyup had originally pursued.
Choosing this style allowed less skilled players to settle at higher rankings than expected, but when the final state of the game inevitably required combat? The price for avoiding combat throughout the game would become clear.
A large gap existed between them and those who'd followed the textbook course in leveling, acquiring items, and setting up runes. Even with favorable Abyss Shadow luck, it was hard to win.
Teams that had taken down the Abyss Shark would even have the gill buff, allowing them to survive in the shadow for a long time.
'On top of that, the team's combat level isn’t good to begin with.'
Even setting aside in-game elements, a team that had only pursued this strategy fundamentally had very low combat ability among teammates. They'd chosen this strategy because their combat ability was low, yet the more they did so, the lower it became. It was ironic.
Sweet Radish widened his eyes upon discovering this irony.
"And yet! You want to pick a raw fight!?" Sweet Radish shouted indignantly.
Such a team wanted to pick a raw fight against the Knight Order. Wasn't that an extremely emotional judgment? It certainly looked that way.
Donuts rallied them not to be intimidated. "It's a bluff! Don't be scared! Their backs are completely exposed! It's a flank! Their thrashing right now is nothing but a dead cat bouncing!"
— Dead cat bounce lol
— lmaooooo
— The analogy lmaooo
— Sounds plausible since Iron Ball's movement looks similar hahaha
The Nonghyup believed they had the Knight Order flanked.
[Rumble!]
Kiiiiing!
Iron Ball was approaching on a terrifying trajectory.
"To the trees!"
"Yes!"
Iron Ball's speed didn't last forever. Even the smallest obstacle ended it. Moving to an area with lots of trees meant it couldn't make contact. Sweet Potato's driving skills had improved enough to now match at least Bubblegum’s level.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Sweet Potato rolled around the corners better than expected and returned at a tremendous speed toward Donuts.
"Oh... holding steady?" Donuts wasn't flustered. "But this is just the buildup."
Donuts gestured behind him.
"Yes!"
Click!
Shield soldier MiddleAgedDetective stepped forward. Moving to the tree-heavy area would make Iron Ball troll against trees.
'Oh oh oh?'
The trees narrowed the path, and that path was simply blocked by their shield.
[First Shield]
[The first projectile or attack received will be nullified. Cooldown: 22 seconds]
Thud...
Sweet Potato's advance was futilely blocked. One of the shield's passives was first attack nullification. No damage or CC would be applied as if it never happened.
'Damn. Done.'
Sweet Potato had no way back after dropping into the middle of enemy territory.
"Oh, oh..."
He was only level two, so he couldn't even use his ultimate skill to make an impact. All he could do was use Rounded and Tough.
[Rounded and Tough]
[Dino abandons all attacks and commits solely to defense. Defense and magic defense will rise greatly. Duration: 3 seconds. Cooldown: 12 seconds.]
Sweet Potato called this skill by his own name. "I’ll use Eat the Hits!"
He raised his guard. That was literally it. This skill did nothing except eat hits.
— LOL
— lmaooo “eating hits”
— Hahaha
— This is honestly not even a skill
— Trash skill wasting a slot lmaooo
Still, it was decent enough to hold out alone in enemy territory. Usually, the worst case for this skill was being ignored. In this situation, being ignored wasn't an option.
Clunk!
Thud!
"Kill! Kill!"
"Here we go!"
The Nonghyup's middle-aged men enthusiastically stomped and attacked with their weapons. Sweet Potato didn't die easily.
Finally, Black Tea and Sweet Radish arrived. Guns started firing.
Bang!
[Headshot]
A direct hit landed on Donuts' head.
"This time, it's not a staff! Old men!"
Tap tap!
Bang!
Indeed, she was a Challenger, firing in rapid succession yet maintaining considerable accuracy.
"Time to make my entrance." Another Challenger, Sweet Radish, emerged from the bushes.
Sweet Radish calmly wielded his spear as he approached. He paid no attention to the dying Sweet Potato.
Was it the composure that frightened them?
Horn Ramen screamed, "Don't come! Come any closer and I’ll kill Sweet Potato!"
— lmaooooooooooo
— lmaooo is that going to work
— LOL
— You're going to kill him anyway haha
— lmaooooo
— The old men are funny~
— Still hitting while saying it lmaooo
Sweet Radish didn't care. "He's trash anyway."
— lmaooooooooo
— LOL
— That was agreed upon
— True~
Sweet Radish gradually sped up, and Black Tea's gunfire intensified.
"Partners! Deploy!"
The young blood, Green Tea and White Chicken, had no choice but to go contain them.
Sweet Potato's HP had nearly depleted.
"Oh, ahhhh!"
He began his last act by hitting anyone a few more times.
"Oh oh oh!?"
"Why is this one still kicking!?"
The middle-aged men leaped back as if they'd encountered a disgusting bug.
— “Why are you still kicking” lmaooo
— Why are they going back lol
— Hm?
— Legendary movement
It was just a split second in that brief moment of surprise from Sweet Potato's kicking. In LIL, seconds determined close-range combat.
"Here!" Sweet Potato found an opening to land one more hit on Donuts.
Clunk!
[Donuts]
[HP: 33%]
Donuts had already eaten several headshots from Black Tea. His HP had dropped quite low.
[Fireball]
CRASHHHHH!
A fireball suddenly came from behind.
"Wh-what!?"
"Damn, behind!"
"Kill! Kill!"
The Nonghyup's middle-aged trio realized that Almond and Lemon had arrived from behind.
"Kill!"
Suddenly, eating a fireball caused an enormous sense of threat. It made Donuts want to chase whoever had threatened him. This was a very instinctive and basic reaction like actual monsters attracted to aggro.
'Th-they're actually chasing.'
When the Nonghyup's middle-aged trio began chasing Lemon, Lemon was actually the one who grew flustered.
''Pull them to my side like you're luring monsters.''
Almond's words literally came true.
''Will that work, Lord? These are people...''
''Those old men aren't people in this game.''
Those three sharp-witted old men scrambled after her because of one Fireball. It had always been this way. Even the sharpest people could become stupid when urgent situations arose.
Somehow, certain less-sharp people became peculiarly sharp in exactly these situations.
[DumbYoungMan]
Flash!
For example, Almond now emerged from the bushes. He was precisely aiming at the three old men following Lemon.
Creeeek...
'Three shots and they're dead.'
Checking Donuts' HP, three shots would be sufficient. To fire these three shots as quickly as possible, Almond's preferred rapid-fire method was good. However, LIL had an even better method.
'Basic attack.'
Bang!
[Donuts]
[HP: 19%]
Donuts took one headshot first.
"Oh oh oh!?"
The moment he registered getting hit, Almond activated a skill.
'Multishot.'
[Multishot]
Whooooooosh!
Arrows fanned out in a semicircle, dealing AoE damage to everyone.
[Donuts]
[HP: 10%]
Multishot fired directly without having to draw the string, like magic, which meant there had been time to draw the string in between.
'Basic attack again.'
Bang!
Another shot pierced Donuts' head.
[First Blood!]
[DumbYoungMan → Donuts]
Donuts died instantly.
— Basic-multi-attack
— Oh this kind of advanced trick
— Basic cancel
— Wow
— What???
— Instant kill
It looked like one shot at a glance, but it had been a combination of three attacks using basic attack motion cancel. Almond had skipped the motion of drawing the bowstring, which was done before a basic attack, and went straight to dealing damage. This was very easy to do in the PC game days, but quite difficult in virtual reality. The concept was also slightly different.
'Actually, it's not a basic attack motion cancel, but a skill motion cancel.'
LIL veterans like ForeverAlone frequently used this trick, hence why everyone was so surprised.
— Did you learn from ForeverAlone after getting beaten?
— Someone who barely plays LIL doing this lmaooo
— The Lazy Soldier is back!
— That frame-skip form from before is back
The Nonghyup's other two old men finally realized Donuts had died and turned around.
"Oh, ahhhh! Hyung!?"
"Ins-insane! Pick up the rune spirit!"
Rune spirits were slower than players, so they had to carry it and run to revive quickly. They bent down to pick him up.
Bang!
An arrow directly pierced their crown.
Lemon, who'd been running, also interfered. "Hehe!"
[Air Bomb]
Crash!
The two old men took a wind bomb to their backs and fell toward Almond.
— Wow... genuinely bad fr LOL
— Is this a slapstick comedy??
— lmaooooo
— This is what Sweet Radish trusted in to pick a fight lmaooo
Almond shot at their heads repeatedly.
Bang!
Bang!
[Double Kill!]
[DumbYoungMan → HornRamen]
Another enemy died.
"D-damn!" Only MiddleAgedDetective remained. He finally understood the problem. "Ah... I don't want to grow old!"
— lmaooooooooooo
— lmaooooo
— fr...
— Too slow...
Bang!
Hit by Lemon's magical basic attack from behind, he too became a rune spirit.
[Enemy Defeated!]
[Lemon → MiddleAgedDetective]
More death notices followed.
[An Ally Has Fallen!]
[GreenTea → SweetPotato]
[Enemy Defeated!]
[SweetRadish → GreenTea]
The moment Sweet Potato died, Sweet Radish thrust his spear and paid them back immediately.
"Damn Sweet Radish!" White Chicken swung his sword.
Whoooosh!
Sweet Radish didn't bother blocking or dodging and just ran. "Black Tea, run!"
"Okay!"
They left White Chicken and broke through the opening.
"W-wait!? What, what!? Fight me! Fight, I said!" White Chicken called out helplessly.
In the end, he just went to embrace his own team's rune spirits.
"Sigh, might as well revive them..."
Slide.
A shadow fell over him.
"Hm?"
[Zelo]
It was Zelo, who had been targeting the Knight Order.
"What are you doing!? Zelo, let's go!!" Bubblegum urged Zelo to quickly chase after them.
Zelo just stood there and blankly stared at the remaining White Chicken.
'No, this is too good a target.'
Knight Order or whatever, he could eliminate a whole team right here. Did he even need to chase?
Had White Chicken sensed it? He was reflected in Zelo’s sunglasses and shook his head.
"I-I have a family! Our Nonghyup is a family!"
He was clutching four rabbit-like rune spirits and crying.
"No, wait, so people without a family can die? Single men can all~ die? Does that mean ForeverAlone should have died long ago!"
These were his last words.
"Gi-Chan, kill him."
"HYAAAAH!"
Whoooooosh!
Enraged, ForeverAlone slashed White Chicken to pieces with his sword.
[Nonghyup Out!]
— Some kind of Pokemon lmaooo
— Gi-Chan used Body Slam!
— lmaooooo
— Reasonable to be mad fr
— Gi-Chan: “HYAAAAH” LOL
Can't Can't Can't eliminated the Nonghyup. In an instant, four rune spirits burst out and produced a rune box even without a champion.
"Okay~!"
"Nice!"
"THIS is politics! THIS is Survival mode!"
Can't Can't Can't high-fived each other in celebration. They had taken out the Nonghyup instead. Either way, whatever way, the result was good. Only one person seemed dissatisfied.
"Oh... but my Iron Ball..."
It was Bubblegum. For Iron Ball to reappear, the Knight Order had to be eliminated for Sweet Potato's contract to be cancelled. Now, Bubblegum would have to pick a different champion.
Zelo consoled Bubblegum. "No, Bubblegum hyung, it's fine without Iron Ball. We're not even doing a split... Hm?"
Kiiiiiiiiing...!
The sound of Iron Ball, who had clearly turned into a rune spirit, was audible.
"I-Iron Ball!?"
"Damn...!"
The fight with the Knight Order wasn't over.
"W-weren't we done here by agreement!? Coming back again!?" Zelo protested in bewilderment, but it was already too late.
Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!
The sound was already too close.
— Coming back again???
— Wow these tenacious guys lmaooo
— Why is Bubblegum looking happy lol
— Almond is level 4 right now!! Lose that rune box and everyone dies
— Then again the Lord wouldn't just let a flanking teaming go lmaooo
— The Lord always repays double.

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