One Man Army

Chapter 154 [Episode 79] Diamond Cut Diamond 2

* * * *

In the “World of StarCraft”, which is a classic Nuclear-age game, the goblin NPC used to say these words.

“Time is gold, my friend!”

This statement prevailed, whether it was in reality or in a game.

Sang Hyuk’s party used their time as if it was as precious as gold.

The storm zone that started at the end of the windless zone definitely allowed them to experience a different level of difficulty than ever before.

Not only the fourth grade Sky Whales and pirate ships which appeared from time to time but the insect troops which also floated on the Sky-sea were so powerful that they couldn’t get distracted.

Not only that, if the helmsman was distracted even for a bit, they could be caught up in a storm, and suffer great damage, or be pushed badly off-course.

If you’re talking about the results, ‘Team Rush’ overcame hardships.

Of course it wasn’t easy.

In particular, the 4th grade Sky Whale and pirate ships that appeared in the early storm zone were tough opponents even for Sang Hyuk. Even Sang Hyuk was shaken by the difficulty of the battle, and Gye Baek and Dark Knight, who couldn’t be protected by Sang Hyuk, would be pushed to the brink of death.

A single misstep would have caused their team to fall apart, and that level of tension lasted a long time, but the three of them remained focused until the end, and eventually reached the finish line.

After holding on so many times, the three of them gradually reached a plateau. As their level increased and their experiences grew, their limits grew greater and greater and in the end their road didn’t seem so precarious.

These were difficult trials for Team Rush.

They survived the Storm Zone, proving that humans are adaptable animals.

So after passing through the storms, it’s already been six months since they entered the Middle Layer.

The blessing of Sky-sea ended a week ago.

And the levels of three of them were 74 for Sang Hyuk, 61 for Gye Baek, and 60 for Dark Knight.

Dark Knight would be out of the stagnant levels in a day or two, so they were going to level up in the last area of Middle Layer, the Red Zone.

“Actually, the Red Zone itself is smaller compared to the previous areas. Was it about half of the Windless zone or Storm Zone? It’s not accurate, but it’s probably about that.”

Sang Hyuk stopped the boat in the border area between the Storm Zone and the Red Zone and briefed Gye Baek and Dark Knight on the information about the Red Zone he knew.

“So, how about running the booster constantly and breaking through it as quickly as possible?”

“If it is possible that wouldn’t be a bad idea, but the problem is that it’s impossible to break though like that.”

“Huh? Impossible?”

“Yes, the end of the Sky-sea, the Red Zone and the Continent of the Sun aren’t that simple, you know.”

The exit of the Red Zone. This was the biggest problem.

“So how does it work then?”

“The final boss of the Middle Layer exists deep in the Red Zone…. The ‘Red Bearded Whale’, if you defeat that second grade Sky Whale and activate the warp gate that exists in its mouth, you can move to the Continent of the Sun through it.”

“Hooooo….”

“Hmmm….”

Gye Baek and Dark Knight, who had heard the secret of the Red Zone, nodded with a serious expression.

They thought they could simply break through the Sky-sea and get to the Continent of the Sun. Of course, they shouldn’t have expected to get out of the Sky-sea in this way.

In fact, this information alone was what users could only get by collecting the clues from various Sky Islands and also after clearing various linked quests. But as usual, Sang Hyuk, who already knew the right answer, skipped the process and immediately gave the answers to the two of them.

“Well, you know that we can’t catch him with our condition now, right? Now we have to grind third grade Sky Whales or pirate ships in the Red Zone to level up. It’s a familiar story but this job will never be easy. But if we can get over it and get enough levels and upgrade our equipment, the Red Bearded Whale won’t be out of our reach forever.”

In fact, even in Sang Hyuk’s previous life, many users caught the Red Bearded Whale without going through this task. They had used the ‘Power of Numbers’, or zerg tactics to overcome the limitations of levels and equipment.

However, all the users who entered the Continent of the Sun forcefully like that were crushed on the Continent of the Sun.

Since then the users understood the role of the Red Bearded Whale.

Red Bearded Whale was a kind of a measuring device.

If they couldn’t catch it with a team of 25 people maximum, it is not right to go to the Continent of the Sun.

If they increased the number of people to catch it, once they arrived on the Continent of the Sun, they wouldn’t be able to do anything and would be killed uselessly, so after many of them failed, exploits for catching the Red Bearded Whale were forbidden.

The users, who couldn’t pass over the Red Bearded Whale by standard procedure, who went to the Continent of the Sun, even breathing was too much for them.

“Hyuu, how many levels do we need to raise if we’re going to catch it?”

“I think we need to guess while we do some hunting… but I don’t think we need to get past level 80 and all the equipment needs to be high level unique grade items.”

“That is a long way to go, then.”

“The blessing of the Sky-sea is over, but the Red Zone itself is an area where the acquisition of karma is doubled and amplified, and the third grade Sky Whales or pirate ships gives bountiful karma so there is no better place to level up.”

“But it would be dangerous, right?”

Gye Baek picked up an important fact that was not included in Sang Hyuk’s words.

“Hoohoo, you know me well. It’s probably two or three times harder than the Storm Zone.”

“Huh….. Three, three times? Then, it would be the same as telling us to die, isn’t it?”

“Don’t worry. It would be hard for the other things, but I’ll make sure to keep you from dying.”

Sang Hyuk meant for them to endure all the sufferings unto death.

Naturally, Gye Baek and Dark Knight understood exactly what Sang Hyuk meant.

The face of Gye Baek and Dark Knight stiffened sharply.

This place is scary even for two people who are confident in enduring more than anyone else. This place seemed to fit the words “living hell”.

* * * *

The Sky Whale’s patterns were very diverse. Because all of the giant creatures in the sky-sea are classified as Sky Whales so even within the same species, there was a great deal of diversity.

However, if you have dealt with a lot of Sky Whales, you were able to learn some good tricks regardless of the patterns.

One of the most common tricks was ‘Sky Jumping’.

Sky Jumping was the act of jumping from the Sky-grade ship into the Sky-sea in order to pull the agro of the Sky Whale.

Of course, if you jump into the sky-sea when the Sky-grade ship was operating normally, then you are pulled up by the Sky-grade ship’s attraction field so there was no way for you to sink into the sky sea.

If you use Sky Jumping while matching the timing properly with your weapon then not only you were able to pull the agro but you can even interrupt the Sky Whale’s skills.

Of course, if they were unable to match the timing, then the jumper is left defenseless, which could lead to terrible consequences, but at least Gye Baek and Dark Knight used it skillfully enough to match the timing even with their eyes closed.

In addition, the techniques used by Team Rush are ‘Magic Bullet Reset’ or ‘Harpoon Milestone’ which were tricks for rapidly closing the distance between the Ink-Black Dragon and their target as well as  ‘Quick Release’, which let them disengage from harpoon chain and rapidly advance in a retrograde motion in order to live.(run away)

It was an obvious case, but the reason why they can escape using quick release was because ‘Ink-Black Dragon’ was an extraordinarily high-speed ship.

They had to use the quick release three times before entering the Red Zone, but the first two times they used it because Gye Baek thought they were going to die and the last time because Gye Baek and of course Dark Knight thought that Ink-Black Dragon was about to be sunk.

But since they entered the Red Zone, they used the quick release an average of five times a week. There were many dangerous moments.

Sang Hyuk ran away using quick release from a third grade Sky Whale and a pirate ship which were used as experimental subjects.  He wanted to know if they could endure a Ragna Blade hit.

It seemed like they could catch a third grade Sky Whale or Pirate ship that was weakened because of Ragna Blade, but it didn’t mean much if they couldn’t use this technique, because not only was the reward slashed, much of the karma earned was reduced due to Ragna Blade.

If they can’t use quick release when it seems really dangerous, all they have to do is use Ragna Blade to escape the crisis.

Anyway, the enemies they faced were so powerful, so it was really hard to manage with only three people.

Gye Baek and Dark Knight were able to squeeze out all of their abilities, and Sang Hyuk borrowing the maneuverability of the Ink-Black Dragon, which he pushed close to its limit, they barely managed to succeed in their attacks 20-30% of the time.

If they were mobbed by multiple whale or pirates, then they calculated the odds and if their estimate didn’t come out right then they ran away or fought a bit and use quick release when it got dangerous.

When dealing with the third grade Sky Whales or Pirate Ships, the three of them picked their targets and battlefields with care and exploited tactics to create that 20-30% probability of success.  Normally a three man crew should have had less than 5% chance of winning.

The Red Zone became a hunting ground for Team Rush, so it was possible to hunt like this.

Sky Whale didn’t respawn for at least 6 months after they were killed, so if it wasn’t for their monopolizing the Red Zone, then their hunting method would have been impossible.

Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk.

The fifth third-grade Sky Whale caught on the Red Zone by Team Rush spurt out a huge amount of bubbles and revealed its massive body on the Sky-sea.

Kwagwagwagwagwa!

It created a large Sky Island with its death, but because of its hard, crab like exoskeleton then the sky island it made looked and felt like a hard rocky island.

“Gasp…gasp….Wow, I thought I was going to die at the last minute.”

Gye Baek moaned and stretched out on the deck of the Ink-Black Dragon. At this time, his health is only at 12% and both his vitality and magic power are zero.

“I told you that I’d keep you alive.”

At the last minute, Sang Hyuk threw himself and took the last shot of the Sky Whale on behalf of Gye Baek.

If Sang Hyuk didn’t block it with his body, then Gye Baek would have been helplessly game over.

“Yeah, you’re the best.”

Gye Baek smiled as he gave a thumbs up towards Sang Hyuk.

“Even if it is powerful, it has a simple pattern, so it’s doable. If we catch these guys, it’s worth it….”

Dark Knight also sat down on the floor with a weary look.

“The problem is that there are more complicated guys than this guy.”

Gye Baek, who had recovered his health and vitaliy after a few seconds, muttered with a dark look.

“It doesn’t matter. We just have to choose the easy ones. It is true that the Red Zone is smaller than the Storm Zone or Windless Zone, but it is basically a wide ocean. How many third grade Sky Whales do you think are living in this ocean? We can’t know the exact number but there is at least more than 500. So, if we can choose and catch only 50 of them, we can achieve what we’re aiming for.”

Unlike Gye Baek and Dark Knight, Sang Hyuk was not worried at all.

“Well, that’s the case. Oh! But if we hunt only the easy prey like this, then the people who come after us will helplessly have to deal with the powerful third grade Sky Whales we couldn’t handle.”

“I think so. But…..”

Sang Hyuk smiled widely while alternately looking at Gye Baek and Dark Knight after he paused. Then he continued his words.

“Who cares?”

The important things were ‘Me’ and ‘Us’ anyway.

The late comers? Their life was theirs to live.

Chapter 154 [Episode 79] Diamond Cut Diamond 2  – End

Edited by Userunfriendly