—-

Similar to Altair, the others felt some dread after witnessing the information regarding the Colossal Scarlet Wolf. It truly had a startling amount of Health that made players wonder how its other attribute fared against these nonsensical numbers. How could they expect Lv.15 players to slay this boss with this frightening amount of Health?

Perhaps even Tier 1 characters would struggle to slay such a monster in a short amount of time. Still, unlike the rest, Kieran remained unaffected by this revelation. In fact, he even displayed a faint smile while glancing at his party members.

“Don’t worry. That’s only its stats for the moment,” Kieran revealed.

Some of the party members didn’t understand what he meant by that, so Kieran explained it. “All World Bosses have a special innate trait that separates them from simple Field Bosses. It isn’t displayed on their status screen, but simply put, the more people who challenge a World Boss, the higher its attributes.”

“Woah… seriously?” Sithik muttered in amazement. Up until now, all games that he played made the bosses easier to raid with higher numbers. Evidently, that wasn’t the case with Zenith Online. More manpower didn’t translate into a higher probability of clearing a difficult task.

Rather than support the idea of tackling everything with overwhelming numbers, Zenith Online was designed to promote quality over quantity. Therefore, there were more benefits in increasing one’s skill and strength than mooching off others.

Alas, some would only learn this the hard way in the future.

“Yeah, and it’s not a small increase either. It’s essentially exponential growth depending on how many people are present,” Kieran nodded.

“Is that why you had us hold back for now? Lord knows I don’t have any more death wishes. I lost too much,” Sithik shuddered with a grimace after recalling the losses he incurred from death.

Joining the fight now would be signing their death warrants.

Kieran could tell from the emanations surrounding the boss alone that its attributes should be on par with a Lv.25 World Bosses default attributes. There was simply zero chance of any of the current attacker’s survival.

Every newcomer contributed to a slight increase in the boss’s overall strength. However, it would experience a massive increase in power for every five hundred attackers in its vicinity. Conversely, after their death, the temporary surplus of strength would revert to its former state.

That’s the period Kieran selected as the time to strike.

As long as he could dwindle the numbers far below five hundred, there was a good chance he could implement his plan seamlessly.

After a short moment, Kieran withdrew the Novice Greatsword while sliding his hand across the air before him. The stream menu immediately appeared before his face as he adjusted the settings with a wicked grin. Occasionally, he would glance to the corner of his vision to monitor the battle’s current situation.

…

Meanwhile, near the Colossal Scarlet Wolf…

“Guild Leader Despot, what’s wrong with this boss? Why is it so damn strong? Even the Dungeon’s Very Difficult mode boss wasn’t this powerful,” A tall and staunch Knight beside Despot exclaimed. He went by the name of Suave Shield.

Similar to Bastion, it appeared he favored Strength and Endurance over Agility. Coupled with the fact that Knights wore Plate Armor whereas Warrior wore Heavy Armor, he was exceptionally sturdy.

Despite his high Defense, he wore a look of despair after witnessing the Colossal Scarlet Wolf kill tens of players with a single swipe of its claws.

Some of those killed were also Knight who should’ve specialized in Defense! Suave Shield just couldn’t see how this boss raid was in the least bit possible to clear.

On the other hand, Despot silently narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t like the rest, who immediately dashed into the battle. Because of his experience with targeting people, he understood that gathering information was paramount when seeking to obtain victory or complete a difficult mission.

Therefore, Despot sat back and let the other foolish parties rush to their demise to passively acquire the information he needed. Eventually, Despot revealed the traits that allowed him to rise to a third-class organization.

Because of his reputation in the real world, barely any organizations were willing to work with a party tied to the treacherous entities in the underworld. Thus, Despot was forced to personally fund his gaming endeavors. Fortunately, he experienced slight success in his earlier endeavors with other earlier VRMMORPG titles with less potential.

At most, they were limited to entertainment circles. None of those games were backed by the entity that had created Zenith Online. Additionally, none of them presented any benefits to players after playing for a long time because their realism remained locked at seventy to eighty percent.

‘Oh? This boss is gradually growing weak. It’s negligible right now, but other parts will notice it soon when the battle becomes easier to deal with. For now, their attention is focused on dodging and surviving the boss’s onslaught. Is this what separates World Bosses from other bosses?’ Despot wondered.

However, his knowledge and familiarity with Zenith Online’s bosses and its grading system were lacking. He couldn’t know for sure until the number of the parties present was reduced to a manageable level.

Regrettably, it seemed like it’d be quite some time before that happened. A new wave of players seeking to earn quick benefits haphazardly rushed forward without minding the general atmosphere of the area. Naturally, this new wave was composed of greedy yet less experienced players.

Conversely, this change allowed many parties in situations identical to Despot to grasp the crux of the matter. At this time, Despot turned towards a nearby party and waved his hand. “Oi, you lot at the Sunset Triad, I have a proposal for you; what do you say?”

Like the Shadow Cartel, the Sunside Triad was another third-class gaming organization with deep ties to the underworld. They were just based in another province to avoid the two entities’ budding heads. Be that as it may, they were close enough geographically to spawn in the same Beginner Village.

A male Hunter seeming to be just over 30 years old, going by the in-game name of Horizon Break, responded to Despot’s call by lifting his mouth into a sneer. “What do you want from me, dammit? Do you really think I’ll trust you dogs from the Shadow Cartel?”

“Oh? Does that mean you don’t want to have a share in the experience this boss will reward? I’m sure if we clear it fast enough, we can even obtain an achievement announcement like that lucky party yesterday,” Despot answered. He seemed to have a cold expression as a malicious gleam passed through his eyes.

‘Didn’t want to share the exclusives? You all got your just desserts,’ Despot inwardly thought.

Finally, Horizon Break’s expression changed, morphing into one of budding interest. “Go on. I’m listening.”

“We need to stop any newcomers from pooling into this place and somehow pick off the threats present in the current attack party. Are you down? If you are, we can split the profits 35-65. The 65% is your portion as long as the Shadow Cartel can take the last attack,” Despot proposed.

Horizon Break rubbed his chin dubiously.

He was somewhat surprised that Despot was willing to give up 30% of the boss’s proceeds to obtain the last hit. Just how valuable was the achievement? Furthermore, would the achievement of a world boss be on par with a dungeon’s highest clear?

Horizon Break was truly curious. So, while the deal appeared sweet, he needed more collateral to truly agree to it. “I’m willing to accept if this 65% includes the first pick at the loot.”

“First pick?” Despot muttered with a frown.

This was sometimes a dangerous deal to make because one could never know when an absolute treasure dropped! Despot wasn’t sure if the achievement was worth losing that probability.

Thus, Despot made a concession. “Only if we go up to 60-40%.”

“Deal.”

“Have some of your middle level players block off the right entrance while we make our move,” Despot said.

Both sides sent approximately one-third of their force to block the two paths one could arrive at this place. Once that matter was settled, Horizon Break and Despot led their forces to quickly pick off some of the weakened parties already present.

Each side had an excess of 300 members present. So, it didn’t take long for the parties to fall to their nefarious ways. It was their fortune that none of the organizations led by Rankers spawned in this village else it would have immediately devolved into a shitshow.

Approximately 20 minutes later, less than 800 people remained in the Fanged Forest’s absolute center zone. As a result, the boss’s information deflated greatly.

「Lv.15 Colossal Scarlet Wolf (Rare)

World Boss

Beast Type, Fire Type

Health: 158,400/165,000 (96%)

Special Traits: «Inferno» «Rage» «Eviscerate» 」

Surprisingly, all these people only managed to lower the boss’s Health by 4% in these 20 minutes. Granted, that wasn’t entirely true. World Bosses recovered Health over time just like a player did.

At this current stage, since it had yet to reach the stat improvement that occurred at Lv.20, a World Boss only recovered 0.5% every minute.

Meanwhile, Kieran finally made his move once there were only 800 participants left.

His stream also went live at that exact moment. Anyone who followed him received a notification that made them immediately migrate to his stream.

Many of the viewers gawked at the title because it was clear that this was some type of retaliation stream! The title was simple: Have A Taste of Your Own Medicine, Scrubs!