LS 115

— I told you to eat it and die, but you really ate it and died…

Yeojin’s baffled voice came through, followed by laughter from Yeohoo on the other end of the headset. Just as the other raid members started to speak up in confusion, a system alert appeared.

[System] Momba’s Echo now takes 50% less damage.

[System] Removing the shield will lift the debuff.

A 50% damage reduction. Dohee could only stare in disbelief. Objectively speaking, the specs of the Human raid team weren’t bad, not by a long shot. As someone who raided with them regularly, Dohee knew that better than anyone.

There were several rankers in the Human raid team, including players who competed for 1st and 2nd place in job rankings. It was a powerhouse group. And even with all their buffs and potions activated, the boss’s HP was falling slower than expected. Meaning, the boss had a much larger HP pool than anticipated. Now with an additional 50% damage reduction? Were they seriously meant to beat this?

In the end, it meant they had to remove the shield. And to do that, they probably had to clear that minigame Yeohoo just went through.

Dohee was the first to speak.

“So what was it? That minigame?”

The reply came from Yeojin.

— I was watching next to him, it looked like a matching game. You know, like pairing the same images?

— What kind of random-ass minigame is this now…

Yeohoo’s exasperated voice followed.

boandokutoolcheck: ?? Matching game? lol

healing22: Why did they even make a minigame out of nowhere…? So random

919102445: Those damn devs ran out of ideas so now it’s matching games, huh

thirtyfiveK: Honestly wtf lol… kinda curious though

[MyCalfIsFluffyCalf donated ₩8,000!] Is it a minigame or what? Can’t GoSupp go in and show us? lol Let us see~~

Glancing at the chat, Dohee asked,

“So what’s it like exactly?”

— Like, you remember those old games

Just as Yeohoo began to explain, a dark smoke began rising from the boss’s hunched form inside the shield. Then another orb dropped from Momba’s Echo.

— Oh, that’s the same orb I picked up earlier?

Yeohoo muttered. Dohee moved his character closer to the boss. As GoSupp neared the orb, a system popup appeared.

[System] Use the Orb of Illusion to lift Momba’s Echo’s debuff.

“Yeohoo, did you see this popup earlier too?”

Yeohoo groaned.

— I don’t really remember.

“It says you can lift the debuff using the Orb of Illusion. Looks like we might get multiple chances to enter the minigame?”

Just then, PrettyHealerHyung’s character hovered near Dohee. A message followed.

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: Should I go in and try it??

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: I’m pretty decent at memory matching games…

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: But honestly not confidentㅠㅠㅠㅠㅋㅋ….[crying emoji]

Dohee paused for a moment. Ideally, like the donor suggested, he should go in and record what the minigame looks like to show the viewers. But–

“Let Healer try it.”

Right now, the full clear was more important than the stream. Some people might say he didn’t seize the moment, or that he wasn’t cut out to be a streamer. But he cleanly passed the turn to PrettyHealerHyung. They could always stream better content later, but a first clear was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Every second mattered.

PrettyHealerHyung stood next to the orb and asked Yeohoo,

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: Do I die instantly if I fail…?

Yeohoo quickly explained.

— When you enter, a bunch of tiles flip over and show you images for a few seconds, maybe half of them? Then they flip back, and you have to match them from memory. There’s a time limit, three minutes. If you don’t finish in time, it’s instant death. My screen went black and white and I dropped dead the moment time ran out.

[Raid] RiceCake: If you fail, we’ll just retry. Go for it.

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: Ugh… how did I end up doing thisㅠㅠ lol here goes!!

With a determined farewell, PrettyHealerHyung picked up the orb and disappeared from view. Not being able to see what was happening made the whole team anxious. Three minutes suddenly felt like three hours. As they waited, Dohee skimmed the chat.

mielle: ugh GoSupp should’ve gone in!!!

everybodyHongsam: lol if it’s a memory game, just record the tile reveal at the start and rewind it later??

whyAreYouAtMyHouse: You think the devs are that dumb? When will you have time to rewind and match in 3 mins lmao

beautifulnyangnyang: It probably has way more tiles than we expect. Even good players like Yeohoo failed, you really think these mouth gamers can do better?

mixmix: Let’s be accurate. It’s not “mouth gamers,” it’s “chatroom gamers” lol

dischargeMarch18: Isn’t being good at RPGs totally different from being good at memory minigames?

dragonFromYeonghwan: 100% different.

likeALiar: Is Human still first?

spiritStriker: Yeah. Xeno hasn’t hit the minigame yet, but they’re closing in.

booboo0102: This boss is taking longer than expected. I’m starving, making ramen lol

mixmix: Bro really just making ramen alone ㅠㅠ lol

booboo0102: ?? Wanna eat together, babe~? ^0^

mixmix: you’re insane;;;

[1004Priest donated ₩2,000!] Let’s go!!! Show them the power of priests~!!

[ControlV donated ₩10,000!] It’s okay hyung…. The National Priest Alliance is cheering for PrettyHealerHyung,,,,,, (pressure)

Dohee wondered if any other raids had figured this out faster. Luckily, it still seemed like Human raid was in the lead. There were a lot of raid streams going on, but he didn’t have the mental bandwidth to check them.

Back when Dohee first said he’d stream the Demon Hunter full clear, RiceCake had asked, “What if other raids watch and copy our clears?” Dohee had snorted. “If they’ve got the bandwidth to do that mid-raid, then they’re impressive in their own right.”

Once you’re in a raid, you barely have time to look at chat. Even for Dohee, who was a veteran streamer, the most he could do was glance at donation alerts. And even if someone did peek at another stream to get unstuck, the raid that cleared it first was already long gone.

Besides, competing for a first clear was a matter of pride. Not many raids would throw that away to copy someone else. Sometimes viewers watching multiple streams would spoil mechanics in chat, but those people usually got banned. It was considered taboo.

Of course, there were always shameless ones. Back when they streamed the Snow Witch first clear, another raid blatantly watched Yapdeuk’s stream and tried to mimic everything. But in the end, it was Xeno who secured the clear, and the copycats got flamed hard.

Dohee, at least, was confident. Not many raids had gear like the Human team. Most members, excluding Healer, RiceCake, and Moonhyuk, had previous full clear experience. Even those three had outstanding raid sense. And despite their playful bickering, the raid had great chemistry and relentless tenacity. He’d already felt it during the Snow Witch clear.

And so far, Human raid team was doing well.

[System] PrettyHealerHyung has died.

…Until three minutes ago.

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: [crying emoji] Sorry…ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: The time’s tighter than I thought

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: I swear I’m usually good at this…ㅠㅠ

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: LOL… sigh… the loser has no words

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

As Healer spammed tear emojis in chat, jokingly chastised by RiceCake, another system alert popped up.

[System] Momba’s Echo now takes 75% less damage.

[System] Removing the shield will lift the debuff.

So failing didn’t lead to a wipe. Yet. But the boss now took 75% reduced damage, and the shield still needed to be removed. It meant they still had a chance. Dohee muttered,

“How many chances do we get?”

— Are the SoGod devs insane? Why would they add this kind of crap?

Yeojin grumbled. Tando followed up.

— First it was 50%, now it’s 75%. We probably have one, maybe two more chances. If we fail again, I bet the next one is 100% damage reduction,?no damage at all. It’s stacking up fast.

Before he even finished, the boss spat out another orb. This might be the last chance. If they failed, they’d have to re-enter the raid and start over from full HP. Repeated wipes would only make fatigue worse. That was the hardest part of heading parties.

This time, no one volunteered. Dohee hesitated, then stepped forward.

“I’ll go.”

A matching tile game? He’d never played one before. Had zero confidence. But someone had to do it. He steeled himself and reached for the orb.

That’s when Moonhyuk grabbed his arm. The sudden warmth of Moonhyuk’s hand startled Dohee. He turned, surprised, to see Moonhyuk’s eyes meeting his. Moonhyuk spoke.

“Would it… be okay if I try?”