Chapter 258

The way to clear the Pit of the Undying Serpent more easily wasn’t actually inside the dungeon itself. The trick was hidden in the quest.

Instead of grabbing the “Undying Serpent” extermination quest and running straight into the dungeon, players had to dig a little deeper into the quest line. Doing that unlocked a new chain quest.

—In that quest, if you gather all the items that this shaman NPC on the mountain asks for, he makes you a talisman. Enter the dungeon with that talisman, and the no-mana-recovery debuff disappears. On top of that, every time you destroy a Life Stone, the boss gets weakened and you get a buff too.

Just like the strategy video showed, a new mechanic appeared where the boss grew weaker while the player stacked buffs at the same time. People loved the new strategy because it made the Pit of the Undying Serpent, which had recently become a must-do quest and dungeon, way easier and safer to clear.

└ Now I get why they slapped that no-mana-recovery debuff on us that basically locked certain classes out completely... there was hidden shit like this all along, holy fuck.

└ Casters might finally get a chance to breathe now. Healers were suffering like crazy too.

└ Only healers? Hell no. The moment you entered the dungeon, your number of heal and buff casts got limited, so DPS players were getting fucked just as hard.

└ DPS was straight-up manual labor, man. We kept breaking Life Stones and the boss still would not die, and it turns out we were missing the player buff this whole time.

└ So we were climbing onto the ceiling and beating the shit out of a boss that was literally not meant to be killed normally? Human stubbornness is terrifying.

└ Am I the only one pissed off by the title though? Solo clear possible my ass. Hey, Archmage sir, listen carefully. Even if you stack all that shit on us, we still can’t solo that damn thing. Got it?

└ Lol, did Do-Jin not even activate all his movement skills on purpose while soloing that? And he still one-shot it.

└ Fuck... are there no mages in this comment section? That bastard Do-Jin just used Blink! That fire spell is on the same damn tier as Blink too! How the fuck is he already casting eight-star magic? Most players are barely scraping by with Tier 7 spells right now.

└ The moment I saw that spell, my whole body started shaking. If he broke the limit with pure Intelligence stats... holy shit, how high is that number?

└ Exactly. If he really filled the gap with raw Intelligence, it makes sense he sent the boss straight to fucking hell in one hit.

└ Hey you mages up in this comment section, stop talking bullshit and come throw some damn fireballs already. With the mana recovery buff, you guys are top-tier DPS in this dungeon now.

└ For real? We’re finally useful again?

└ Yeah, but only in the pit, you lucky bastards.

The stone Do-Jin had thrown sent out massive ripples. Not only did the Pit of the Undying Serpent become far easier to clear, it also saved classes that had been ignored and gave a lifeline to the ones that had been suffering like hell. On top of that, instead of the old strategy where players skipped most mobs and rushed straight to the boss, full clears became viable, which meant way more experience gains.

└ So even if you just kill one named monster and break one Life Stone, the mobs become easy as fuck. Leveling is insanely fast now.

A brand new leveling dungeon had just been born. It was basically like Do-Jin had single-handedly rewritten the growth curve for a specific level bracket.

└ I seriously can’t tell how much that guy is dragging up the average player level by himself. Between the exp events he opened before and all these leveling tricks he keeps dropping directly and indirectly, it is so wild.

└ Watching Do-Jin’s videos has seriously leveled up how players approach fights too, lol. Even if it is not the exact same monster, people use it as a reference for how to deal with similar types.

└ This is how it should be. Only dumbasses sit there whining how the fuck are we supposed to copy that. The smart ones watch, pick out what they can apply, and actually improve. Mages especially should be damn grateful.

└ For real, lol. Amateur athletes don’t watch legendary pro players for no reason. You copy what you can and it still helps like crazy.

└ Fuck... yeah, I know, I get it... but try watching that shit from a mage’s perspective and you get hit with a reality check.

In the end, Do-Jin had completely changed the progression formula for that level range.

***

At Rael Entertainment, the departments that got tangled up with Do-Jin the most were content and marketing. Both teams constantly brainstormed what kind of content they should create, and they were also responsible for producing it and figuring out how to squeeze extra value and profit out of it. That didn’t mean they only worked on projects related to Do-Jin.

“Fuck... I am seriously dying over here.”

The content team leader, Oh Young-Sik, spoke in a voice that sounded like it was already halfway to the grave. And he wasn’t exaggerating. The guy genuinely looked like death warmed over. He had poured his soul into preparing videos for Do-Jin’s channel, and now the other content they had been planning was suddenly right around the corner with no time left to breathe.

“Team Leader, should you maybe go get yourself checked out or something?” Kim Young-Hee asked with genuine concern as she stared at his ashen face. She had come in to talk about work, yet he looked like he needed to be rushed straight to the ER.

“Man, I am desperate for sleep, but what choice do I have? We have shit hitting us right now.”

“You could still push the schedule back a bit. It is not like anything has been officially announced yet.”

“No, we can’t. If we delay again, it would be unfair to the people who agreed to work with us on this. We have already postponed it several times for different reasons.”

“That is true. It got pushed back again recently because of Mr. Do-Jin too.”

The project they were talking about was a LOST event Rael Entertainment had been preparing to run on their own. Any event needed attention and buzz to mean anything, but Do-Jin kept causing one massive incident after another and pulling all the players’ focus toward himself. They hadn’t even dared to step into the spotlight, so they had no choice but to keep postponing it.

“Well... it still doesn’t feel like the perfect timing, but if we wait any longer, this might never happen at all.”

LOST was currently shaking with excitement because of a gate connected to a brand-new region, another world entirely.

The moment someone pulled a Columbus and discovered it first, all the attention would shift there. Once that happened, any interest their own event could attract, along with the profits they hoped to pull in, would plummet.

“He’s right. Maybe we have already overthought the timing way too much... but there is nothing else we can do. We just have to push forward and make it work.”

In Kim Young-Hee’s hands was a document labeled “Rael Group LOST Creator PvP Tournament.” That was the content they had been stressing over together.

“Let’s stick to the plan. We post the announcement tomorrow and start accepting applications.”

“So the idea of talking to him ahead of time is officially off the table, huh?”

“We needed an opening for that.”

There was another reason they had kept dragging things out. Rael Entertainment’s ultimate aggro cheat code was Do-Jin. They had wanted to ask him to participate first and adjust the schedule around him.

The problem was that Do-Jin never rested. To be more accurate, his breaks barely lasted long enough to count. He sprinted at full speed, caught his breath for a moment, and then ran again. He just kept going, and even when he stopped for a second, the next time anyone checked, he was already at it again.

“We should still bring it up to him. Even if he can’t officially join, just doing one exhibition match would blow up the entire event. Honestly, though, I am a little worried Chun Ji-Hyun might start hating us. Every time I see her, she looks seriously concerned that Do-Jin keeps pushing himself too hard.”

Kim Young-Hee laughed and shook her head at Oh Young-Sik’s comment.

“I doubt it. She actually talked to me once about hoping he would get some offline schedules so he would go outside more. She said, ‘He stays at home way too much. No, scratch that. He basically lives inside the capsule.’”

Oh Young-Sik chuckled as he imagined her expression.

***

“A PvP tournament? Me?”

Do-Jin’s eyes widened at Kim Young-Hee’s voice coming through his phone. He had just been planning to rest a little longer before going back to his endless search for the gate, only for this random event to pop up out of nowhere.

—It is not some ultra-serious competition. We are gathering LOST creators and running a tournament-style PvP event, and honestly, even if you just do an exhibition match, it would help the whole event a lot.

“So I just have to fight once and that is it?”

—That would already be great. If possible, maybe a few more matches...

When Do-Jin sounded like he was taking it lightly, Kim Young-Hee carefully nudged the idea further.

“My channel subscribers would probably love it too. It’s not like I have to be there from start to finish. An exhibition match sounds doable.”

—Really? Wow, that is a relief. I felt bad asking you because you barely get any rest after those crazy grind sessions, so I kept hesitating.

“There is no need to feel that... Well, I guess I have been playing like a maniac lately, so I can’t really say that with a straight face.”

—We are grateful that you work so hard, but it is starting to get worrying. You know Chun Ji-Hyun has been really concerned too, right?

“I was already thinking about slowing down a bit.” Do-Jin let out a bitter smile at all the concern coming at him from every direction.

—Ah... maybe I crossed a line. I am sorry.

Kim Young-Hee stepped back a little, worried that she might have pushed too far, but Do-Jin wasn’t offended at all.

“It’s fine. Honestly, it feels good to have people around me who give a shit.”

Every time someone worried about him, it left him in a strangely good mood. Some people might find that kind of attention annoying, yet Do-Jin knew well that it was a luxury. After living a life without any human warmth, every bit of that kindness felt precious to him.

“So anyway, I just fight whoever is assigned to me and that is it, right? Send me the schedule and I will get ready.”

—Yes. And if you need to adjust anything, just let us know. We will try to match your schedule as much as possible.

The call ended after a brief exchange of goodbyes. It was his first time being part of a casual event tournament with other streamers.

In his previous life, he had been stuck in the shadows, watching stuff like this from the sidelines. He had always believed it was a world that had nothing to do with him. It really did feel like a cozy little neighborhood festival, and maybe that was why he had deliberately looked away from things like that before.

Getting too close might have made him feel even more miserable. Maybe that was why, even though he was only joining as an exhibition participant, Do-Jin found himself actually looking forward to the PvP tournament Kim Young-Hee had mentioned.

The next day, Rael Entertainment posted the official event announcement. The notice invited LOST creators as well as streamers who played LOST to apply for the tournament. At the very end of the announcement, there was also a line about Do-Jin’s exhibition match. People went crazy over the sudden promise of something fun to watch.

Of course, not everyone reacted that way. There were always people who found something to complain about, and they started nitpicking and tearing into the announcement even though it was the kind of thing most players would have been perfectly happy just enjoying.