Chapter 215

The quest was completed the moment Do-Jin finished his conversation with Karin and witnessed the vampires gathering together. However, he had disabled all system messages at that point. Only after spending nearly two additional days did he finally check the backlog of messages. A long list filled his view, all related to the Fate Quest, quest completion, and quest rewards.

Do-Jin erased them quickly. Right now, he didn’t need gold-star stickers saying things like “Great job!” or “You’ve achieved great things!” Under normal circumstances, he would have read each one carefully and felt a sense of pride. This time, he didn’t feel like doing that at all.

Instead, Do-Jin filtered for the messages he absolutely needed to see and skimmed them. He started with the messages about the magic and True Blood he had inherited from the duke, which he had already read.

I don’t have the capacity to properly make use of this stuff yet anyway.

He skipped past the smaller rewards like EXP points and gold without hesitation. Then, his eyes stopped on one particular line.

[You have obtained the party-wide reward: Bloodbound Cursed Stone.]

Even based solely on Do-Jin’s personal rewards, this Fate Quest had been massive in scale. For that reason, it made sense that the rewards given to the other party members, who had technically only participated, would still hold considerable value. Do-Jin had expected that much. Even so, the party reward listed here far exceeded his expectations.

“This is crazy. They’re giving out a relic-grade material?”

The item description clearly stated that the Bloodbound Cursed Stone was a relic-grade crafting material. Of course, even if one possessed the material, crafting could still fail if there was no artisan capable of handling it properly. The result could also end up being low-grade. Still, a relic-grade material was an absurd reward at the current stage of the game, and relic items were extremely scarce at the moment.

If this is a party-wide reward, that means everyone got one... So that’s four relic materials released into the game at once, holy shit. At this point, this is basically halfway to being a world event.

As that thought crossed his mind, the message directly beneath it naturally caught his eye.

“What the fuck? A World Boss Raid?” Do-Jin’s expression twisted immediately.

Why is this suddenly popping up now? He skimmed through the message quickly. It’s happening at the Floating Continent? Like right now, at this place?

Theresa had sent several messages. Each one was disorganized on its own, but when he read them together, they painted a fairly detailed picture of what had happened.

So that’s why the rewards were so damn generous. If this thing had escaped here, it would’ve evolved into a World Boss. A chill ran down Do-Jin’s spine. Yeah. If it had actually broken free and reached the ocean, a large-scale disaster would’ve been guaranteed. And that would’ve triggered a whole chain of other problems too.

Judging purely by the scale of the catastrophe it could have caused, classifying it as a World Boss wasn’t an exaggeration.

Either way, things outside seem to be going completely nuts. I should head out.

After several days, Do-Jin finally returned to the real world.

***

When Do-Jin came out, Theresa and Soso were already at his place. They both looked like they had a lot to say, or rather, Theresa did.

Finishing the fight alone was one thing, but staying inside afterward and worrying them the whole time was another. With the death penalty preventing them from even logging in, it made sense that she would feel frustrated and hurt.

Do-Jin apologized the moment he saw them, but their reaction wasn’t what he expected.

Even though Theresa had been frowning, she instead asked him, “Are you okay?”

For a moment, Do-Jin froze, and he wasn’t sure what she meant by that.

Soso casually added, “We saw the ending part after the fight.”

“Oh.”

He had died once, and they must have been worried sick. Whether they watched the live screen or the recording, it was obvious they would have seen everything. He had even unlocked access so they could watch it. Even so, he hadn’t expected that to be the reason she asked if he was okay.

Do-Jin smiled at Theresa. “I’m fine. Thanks for worrying about me.”

He had to be fine. There were still far too many hurdles ahead. What he received from Duke Tirund wasn’t merely magic and traits whose seals would slowly be released to add to his strength. It was a means to an end. He received it so Lostania could greet a better future, and he received it as the means to make that future real.

With that in mind, Do-Jin put on his usual expression. “More importantly, I heard things went to hell because of us. What happened?”

“Oh! You read everything I sent, right? It’s exactly what I said. It looks like what we were fighting was supposed to become a World Boss. But you finished it off before that happened, so...”

“So they assumed it would escape, announced a World Boss Raid, then had to walk it back,” Soso finished.

Theresa nodded, still looking a little dazed.

Soso tugged at the corner of her mouth and smiled. It was hard to tell whether she felt proud or was just laughing at Möbius for screwing up their announcement. “They must be getting absolutely roasted.”

“Totally. People are losing their minds over it. Who the hell announces an event and then cancels it? On top of that, everyone’s talking about retrying an expedition to the Floating Continent.”

“People already figured out that something weird was happening in the north. Once screenshots started coming in, it became public knowledge that the World Boss bait came from the Floating Continent,” Soso said.

And then Möbius dropped a sudden cancellation notice. Anyone who needed closure would lose their mind over that. It didn’t help that LOST was the kind of game where poking around blindly sometimes paid off with insane rewards.

“Given current player levels, a straight-up assault would still be rough...”

Watching players slam into an invisible wall and die screaming en masse would also be a problem. If it came out that Do-Jin was involved, the noise would only get worse. At that point, uploading a video and explaining what actually happened there felt like the lesser evil.

“Oh, wait. Where’s Chun Ji-Hyun?” Do-Jin asked.

“She waited until dawn and then went to work.”

Soso’s reply hit like an uppercut straight to the jaw. Do-Jin quietly picked up his phone. He decided he would handle everything himself and let Chun Ji-Hyun rest.

“Yes, Team Lead. Oh, yes. You already heard about it? Right, about that. No, I didn’t screw anything up. It was just... a quest.”

The content team lead’s energy was absurdly high. He hadn’t even watched the footage yet and was already talking about turning it into a full-blown cinematic.

“Yes. I’ll send it right...” Do-Jin stopped halfway. “I’ll send it by today.”

He didn’t want to send the raw footage. Do-Jin went back into his room and didn’t turn on the lights. He quietly edited the video, cutting out almost everything related to the vampires. He left only the manifestation of the curse and the fight against it. The video ended with him destroying the final core of the curse. Aside from that, he only included the part where he and the party fought.

After sending the edited video, Do-Jin stepped back out of the room.

Right. I still don’t even know what rewards came in because of the death penalty.

As he was just about to say more, the exhaustion hit him like a bursting dam. Theresa panicked when she saw him wobble slightly from the dizziness.

“Do-Jin!”

Soso also looked so startled that her eyebrow twitched upward.

Of course he was exhausted. The physical and mental drain had been brutal. All he could do was smile and reassure them, “I’m fine. You know how it is. I get a little dizzy after coming out of the capsule if it’s been a while. Sorry, but... I’m gonna crash.”

Do-Jin didn’t hear what Theresa or Soso said after that. Exhaustion and sleep were coming for him, and these were enemies he couldn’t fight.

***

Just as everything had blown up outside while Do-Jin remained in virtual reality, things exploded again in the real world while he was fast asleep.

[World Boss (Do-Jin)]

The footage he had sent, trimmed down to only the combat scenes and only the parts he personally fought in, was edited almost instantly before going up on the channel.

└ Holy shit.

└ You again?

└ It’s fucking YOU again?

At this point, people were not even angry anymore. They were just dumbfounded.

└ Holy shit, that thing is massive. Guys, what the hell is that supposed to be?

└ That’s a depressed wannabe World Boss that fumbled the promotion and is coping in public.

└ So let me get this straight. Those four psychos deleted the world boss, so the event got nuked early.

└ Nah, it’s even funnier. They killed it before it could even become a World Boss. The notice literally said it was “scheduled to open,” and these fuckers really said not today.

└ Before, they were out here popping a World Boss Raid in the middle of a random quest like it was a damn party trick. Now they are slam-closing the door right when it is about to open. This game is a circus, and the clowns are getting paid in loot.

Once it became clear that Möbius hadn’t arbitrarily canceled the event, but that the boss had actually appeared in-game and then vanished at record speed, people who had been furious started to deflate.

└ What the fuck do you even call this? Möbius has been eating shit nonstop, and now I almost feel bad for those poor bastards.

└ LMAOOOO the devs are absolutely speechless. They built that thing as a world boss and four assholes just deleted it. Imagine clocking in to work and seeing this shit.

└ I rewatched the video again and it’s still unreal. They brawled with that giant piece of shit for FOREVER and then popped nine goddamn hearts. The size, the scale, the mechanics, everything about it screams this is meant for hundreds of people and these crazy bastards really said fuck that.

└ HP scales down when you run small parties. That is basic shit. How do you not know this, you absolute moron.

└ Holy fuck, you definitely have no friends. Nobody is talking about the HP, dumbfuck. People are talking about the clear method itself. Learn how to fucking read before you start yapping, moron.

Because the whole world boss cancellation had set the boards on fire, all kinds of people flooded into Do-Jin’s channel the moment the news broke. As a result, the comment section filled up with people venting their frustration.

└ Honestly, this feels kinda fucked up. They should release in-game content everyone can enjoy. Content that only a handful of people ever get to touch just looks bad, whether it’s the devs who made it or the users who keep monopolizing it.

└ The amount of time and money dumped in isn’t even on the same planet, and the gap in raw talent is even worse. How the hell are you supposed to balance that? Also, if you somehow balanced all of that, would the game even be fun anymore?

└ Do NOT feed this troll.

└ So jealous bro. Calm the fuck down.

Comments like that didn’t last long. They got dogpiled by Do-Jin’s overwhelming fanbase and sank without a trace.

└ LOST lacks content. That is the dumbest fucking take I have ever heard. If all you do is grind levels in whatever hunting spot is rumored to be safe and efficient, following guides step by step, then yeah, that is all you are ever going to see. If you are jealous of Do-Jin, go find your own shit instead of whining.

└ Man... I am seriously jealous of those three. I am going to keep grinding my ass off too, and if they ever recruit for a large-scale raid again, I am applying no matter what.

└ Same here. I have no idea when they might recruit again, so I’m nonstop leveling and decking myself out in top-tier gear. One day I am definitely hunting with Do-Jin, falling in love, and getting married.

└ Woah back up. What was that last part?

People kept bitching about losing a massive event like a World Boss Raid, and some of them kept redirecting their frustration at Do-Jin for no good reason. Though, that all vanished the moment Möbius dropped a surprise announcement.

[A massive flower of calamity was about to bloom but withered before it could open, cut down by a group of brave adventurers.]

[In honor of their great adventure, we will begin a bonus event granting 50% additional EXP for one full month, starting from the moment this notice is posted.]

Just like that, all the noise died down.