CH 143

As he listened to Sparrow and the others, Merlin started to understand the general power level of those aboard the motorboat. Of course, in terms of level alone, Merlin was inferior to them. Even so, he could use Aura Vision to gain a general idea of their levels at a glance.

‘Scorpion is Level 8… no, Level 9? And the rest are mostly around Level 7.’

Though Merlin was unaware, this group was a relatively high-leveled party. As Bear said, it was rare for there to be more than one Level 7 user in a city of 500,000 or more residents. Additionally, there’d only be a handful of Masters, or Level 10 users, in an entire country, and that was if there were any at all. In Korea, there were currently three users who had reached the Master level, which could be seen as an unprecedented number.

“Yeah, but Sooyoung is an archer! She has a strong foundation and understanding, so once she gets used to battle, she’ll quickly become a high-level player!”

“Hmph! Speaking of archers, do you know how many professional archers are playing DIO? If combat ability were solely based on hitting a target, there would be an abundance of Master level archers in Korea!”

While professional archers did have an advantage in leveling up relatively easily in-game, after a certain point, they’d understand that accuracy wasn’t the only skill required to succeed in leveling up. Merlin didn’t know this, but DIO’s level-up tests were designed to place users in the most unideal setting, and it also paired them with an enemy that took advantage of their weaknesses.

For example, if a mage took a level-up test, a monster with a melee combat ability would appear near the user. If it were a warrior, monsters with ranged sniping or magic abilities would spawn from afar. In addition, single-use consumables and Rank 5 items or higher were forbidden during a level-up test, so the enemy would need to be subdued solely based on the user’s skills and abilities. Even Master skills or Master weapons were prohibited. The Level 9 Ilyia could only defeat a Level 12 monster during the event’s assessment testing because this restriction did not exist there. If the circumstances were favorable, it wasn’t impossible for a lower-level being to beat a higher-level foe; hence Ilyia defeated a much higher-leveled enemy.

To sum it up, it would be difficult to level up with only ranged sniping skills unless a user had an excellent close-range archery technique or any other methods to fight nearby enemies. At the very least, a well-developed lightness skill was necessary to create distance from an enemy. It didn’t matter if ranged attacks could defeat a higher-leveled monster on the field; the level-up test was an entirely different story. However, it seemed that Sparrow wasn’t willing to face the truth. Bear didn’t know anything about Sparrow’s friend, so how could Bear be certain?

“Y-you’ve gone too far! Why are you belittling a woman you don’t even know well in the first place?”

“That’s because….”

When Bear stuttered for a moment, Sparrow swooped in to stress his point.

“You’re just saying stuff because you don’t have a girlfriend, right?”

“W-what?”

“My friends say that if someone doesn’t have a girlfriend for over 30 years, they become a forever solo general. Come to think of it, Bear, you’re hitting year 30 this year, right? A Five Star forever-solo general!”

“Hey! Someone, grab this cheeky bastard and hit him hard!”

It was raucous atop the motorboat. In addition, after listening to their entire conversation, Merlin concluded that none of these ten users had a girlfriend. DIO’s high-level users weren’t just game junkies but individuals that possessed real-life skills. They were formidable and relatively successful, but this also meant that they lacked certain skills and achievements in other areas.

“Hmph! I don’t care anymore! Even if I need to make the items myself, I’m going to make sure she gets them! Also, I’ll become the only guy who has a girlfriend in this stinky male-only guild!”

“W-what! Traitor!”

“A traitor in our midst!”

“Don’t belittle us solo men! Training needs to be conducted as a solo so that one can better concentrate, and hunting must be done in a solo setting to truly develop one’s skills and abilities!”

“Oh, gosh…”

Scorpion sighed as he watched his guild members bicker. However, Bear found an issue with his comment.

“Why are you commenting like it doesn’t concern you? You’re a solo too!”

“S-shut up! At least I’ve had a girlfriend before!”

“What!”

The guild members continued their quarrel. Though the motorboat should have flipped many times due to their chaotic movements, the guild members were all skilled users, so they wouldn’t make any careless mistakes. Furthermore, Merlin was also providing his assistance.

‘They’re interesting and entertaining people.’

As he listened to the other players, Merlin fell into thought, and a single person popped into his mind.

‘I wonder if Eunhye is doing well.’

A month had already passed since Eunhye left to pursue her studies overseas. Of course, while it was a month in real time, Merlin had experienced close to half a year inside DIO. In other words, he hadn’t seen her in a while.

‘Come to think of it, she hasn’t even called. Well, I guess she’s not the type of person to call.’

In his mind, Merlin recalled Eunhye’s image. Perhaps it was due to her youth athletics, but Eunhye had grown to be 175 centimeters tall. This was enough to look down on most boys her age, and though she had a slim and attractive figure, her cold demeanor and icy expression usually dissuaded anyone from approaching her.

‘Hehehe, she followed me like a puppy when we were younger… she looked so cute back then….’

Then, a scene played in his mind.

‘D-don’t leave… Don’t leave… Yongno… Yongno… Yongno….”

She was crying. That cute and small girl was looking at him and crying. With guilty expressions, the rest of his family stood behind her.

Flash!

For a moment, Merlin flinched due to a sharp headache. Another scene played in his mind.

“It’ll probably be for the best if this memory is erased, right?”

A middle-aged man was speaking. Merlin couldn’t make out his face. Though Merlin couldn’t recall anything about the middle-aged man, he looked and felt familiar.

‘W-what is this? Also, was there a time when Eunhye followed me like a puppy? Didn’t Eunhye always have an expressionless face, even when she was young….’

Merlin was confounded by the scenes in his mind. However, those memories quickly faded, and Merlin’s expression relaxed.

‘… Hmm? What was I just thinking?’

The memories that had popped into his mind had completely disappeared without a trace. After some thought, Merlin smacked his hands together.

‘Oh, right. I was thinking about Eunhye. Now that I think of it, if Eunhye plays DIO, then I can meet her regardless of where she is in real life, no?’

This was true. DIO had become a worldwide phenomenon that wasn’t restricted to just Korea. If he knew her ID, he could meet with her.

‘The problem is that she doesn’t even call, and I’m not sure if she’s willing to see me….’

While he was thinking this, the motorboat arrived at its destination.

“I see a school of fish ahead!”

“Wow! What is that?”

Scorpion and his guild members stopped arguing as they all looked towards a specific area in the sea. Merlin also looked towards that faraway point.

The entire sea seemed to be teaming with activity.

‘Woah! Such an immense number!’

With Enhanced Eyesight, Merlin spotted a school of hundreds of thousands of fish approaching him. They were made of gems, so rather than living beings, it would be more apt to call them golem-type magic beings. Although Merlin couldn’t understand how they could swim, let alone float, with such heavy bodies, the school approached rapidly. They ranged from palm-sized fish to ones that were close to three meters long.

“Catch them!”

“I thought it was fishing, but it turned out to be hunting!”

“We can’t lose to the others!”

Whoosh!

Along with various shouts, the many motorboats started racing towards the school of fish.

Boom!

The first team to make contact with the school of fish was a mage team. They seemed to have allied together with the express purpose of hunting monsters in this event, and they started shooting fire-based spells. Due to their spells’ scorching heat, the surface seawater instantly evaporated. The fish near the surface were immediately swept away.

Whoosh!

“Huh?!”

However, only a few fish died and turned into gems, and most had only been pushed away. The fish that survived the mages’ attack started attacking their motorboat.

Boom!

“Ack! What the hell!”

“These bastards! They’re powerful!”

The mages were flung in every direction as their motorboat was destroyed. However, none of the gathered users paid any attention to them. Instead, they were fixated on the gems that appeared after the fish were killed.

“The gems float!”

“I see! That’s how we need to collect the gems.”

“They’re really tough monsters, though! They were hit by a barrage of Class 3 spells, but only a few died!”

Boom!

“Ack! What kind of sick event is this!”

“Ugh! The fish are starting their attack!”

The fish started attacking the gathered motorboats, and soon, the vessels started crumbling into pieces. There were hundreds of thousands of fish, but even a small group of a thousand presented a formidable force.

Bam! Boom!

Soon, deafening sounds started ringing out everywhere. Fish and seawater were being flung in every direction. Despite the fish’s sturdy bodies, they were slowly succumbing to the gathered users’ formidable skill and abilities.

Whoosh!

A water column rose and knocked one fish onto a nearby motorboat. With a size of 50 centimeters, the relatively large fish was caught by an unassuming user.

Boom!

Once he caught the fish, it instantly turned into a large gem. The fish had turned into a ruby as large as two fists combined.

“Huh? Wait, the fish turn into gems as soon as you touch them!”

“What? Really?”

After hearing this, users started jumping into the sea with their arms outstretched or bent down from their boat, putting their hands in the water as they tried to touch the fish. Of course, this was silly. It wouldn’t be easy to catch fish in the sea. However, since these gathered users weren’t ordinary people, their efforts slowly bore fruit.

Boom! Boom!

“I caught some!”

“Let’s round them up!”

Bam!

“Watch out! Mages, use your spells to restrict their movement! Freezing them would work as well!”

Utter chaos ensued on the surface. Fish and users collided with gems and motorboat shrapnel flying everywhere as countless users dove into the sea. Since the gathered players were experienced in combat and had excellent reaction speed, the tides soon turned; there were now more fish turning into gems than motorboats being destroyed.

And at the bottom of the sea….

‘Nice! Jackpot!’

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