Ch.384379 – Break Time

# Morning dawned.

A casual Moonlight Soul player posted on the community forum.

[Oh, this update seems sweet?]

I tried the normal difficulty since they changed the combat algorithm. Boss HP is halved, and they seem weaker too, making it much easier to clear.

Clear time is similar to before, but it gives 135pp instead of 124pp.

Maybe because the boss patterns are more complex?

I just tanked everything while attacking and it was pretty manageable.

What do you all think?

Personally, I thought it looked good too. God-tier patch imo.

[Comments]

-Ugh, I want to smack these normal mode casuals lol

-Just take 10 seconds to look around the community.

-Whatever makes you happy, I guess.

-You didn’t see the morning group getting wiped out?

-Normal probably got easier. Lucky you haha

“What’s with these people?”

Every comment was razor-sharp.

Usually these veteran players would be desperate to share strategies with newbies, but now they were having collective hysteria.

The Moonlight Soul player with 200 hours of gameplay witnessed a devastating scene as he read through the popular posts.

[Resonance – Moonlight Soul]

[Is this for real wtf?]

[Dragon Slayer Gale Pattern Info]

[What is this what is this what is this]

[This guy getting reevaluated now]

[“I acknowledge it, you are strong enough.”]

[One person ruins the whole country lmao, they said]

[I’ve been stuck in phase 1 for 10 hours now T_T]

[Gale will be easy meat soon anyway.]

[‘Gale’ ← Like if you understand why he literally beat a dragon with his bare hands lmao]

[Gale combat summary.jpg]

[Now all the puzzle pieces fit together]

[Why the afternoon group doesn’t need to rush at all fr.jpg]

[Why the afternoon group doesn’t need to rush at all fr.jpg][46]

(Dragon Slayer Gale successfully parrying 5 consecutive hits.jpg)

Because the morning group was completely wiped out.

We’re all at the same starting line now~

[Comments]

-At this point I don’t even know who the protagonist is anymore lmao

-Just be the protagonist yourself, Gale.

-A boss that parries like it’s nothing is so damn annoying lol

-Oh, HP reduced, sweet? (x) Oh, even with reduced HP I still can’t hit it! (o)

-My heart’s racing just thinking about the afternoon group having meltdowns soon.

└ I died to Gale and I agree.

Newbies didn’t notice much difference.

In fact, the perceived difficulty actually decreased because there were fewer one-shot patterns.

They became addicted to the satisfaction of destroying cool-looking bosses with swords and magic.

But hardcore gamers were furious.

Endless patterns that required spreadsheets, non-existent damage windows, and mind games tougher than PVP.

Looking at other games for relief yielded similar results.

[Resonance – Fever Dream]

[I’m so scared of Delphoi I can’t even look at the full moon anymore T_T]

[Is this a bug character? My damage isn’t registering at all!]

[Old Delphoi = mosquito, Current Delphoi = 1000-year ruler]

[Phase 2 is driving me insane;;]

Even the occasional clear reports were just exploits.

[Resonance – Battlefield New Generation]

[Experimental Subject IRIS 12-hour clear proof.jpg]

(10-stack Friend Shield.jpg)

Escaped the boss room and crossed the Atlantic all the way to Washington.

(Meeting President Newsom.jpg)

Dropped the nuke I’d been saving since Chapter 2 and cleared it easily.

(Experimental Subject IRIS death.jpg)

I was nervous it might have nuclear immunity.

Can I get featured?

[Comments]

-You should be promoted to Silver lmao

-You sacrificed all the companions you rescued throughout the chapter lol

-That’s diabolical thinking. Are you even human?

-How many in-game days did it take?

└ (Author): 9 days from boss room escape. Over 50,000 casualties.

└ But that makes the clear meaningless lol

└ (Author): Yeah, that’s why I only got 40pp T_T Even though it was hardcore.

-Is there nuclear immunity too?

└ Low chance it survives by digging underground.

-I also thought about dropping a nuke after getting hit once, but there’s actually a madman who did it lmao

Thanks to rankers dying hundreds of times each, the number of patterns was revealed.

Varying by game, but roughly between 50 and 100 patterns.

And since they don’t all overlap, the original AI was estimated to contain much more data.

[I think it’s good that this separates real rankers from pretenders.][95]

It’s been almost a full day and there’s still no perfect clear, which makes me think the developers are in on this together.

I suspect someone at headquarters threatened them with a knife to make it harder.

But I think it’s a decent system to prevent clears for those lacking skill, rather than ranking everyone by time attack.

Honestly, Resonance games haven’t always been about skill.

They were RNG-dependent games where you’d reset endlessly until you got patterns favorable for speedruns.

Making hardcore mode difficult might encourage more players to try the challenging or veteran difficulties that were relatively ignored.

Rankers should quickly bring strategies by referencing NoName’s videos!

[WishEZ]

[New Insane Battle AI Preview | Resonance][800K views]

[Comments]

-The ranker pretenders have been too toxic lately.

-Wow, NoName is about to complete the triple crown by conquering the Resonance community after LoL and World of Arsheria.

-They brought in the National Exchange Competition winner to train the AI, and it’s become a monster lol

-Pure rankers will probably clear it by tomorrow?

-Insert’s live stream has 40K viewers, the engagement is insane

-The whole community is on fire just because boss patterns changed, not even for DLC.

-These people don’t care about story at all lol. They just want more PP and equipment.

-I watched that video but it wasn’t very helpful. Better to just use it for ideas.

* * *

Twissy was swept up in Resonance fever.

It wasn’t surprising, as trends cycle through the three-way divided world.

[Han Yong-cheol]

[Resonance(Moonlight Soul) – Dragon Slayer Slayer]

[Broadcast Time – 10:39:07]

[Viewers – 22528]

A gaming stream that started at midnight and continued until morning.

Streamer Han Yong-cheol, approaching his mid-30s, wasn’t pleased with the trend of difficult games.

[YOU DIED]

“Sigh. Everyone, can we switch to Challenging difficulty? Veteran is impossible.”

[‘Magic Conch Shell’ donated 50,000 won!]

-No

“Yes sir…! Han Yong-cheol, future Dragon Slayer Slayer, will do his best…!”

An individual couldn’t go against the flow of the times.

Conversely, by riding the wave, he could attract 22,000 viewers even at 10 AM on a weekday.

-Difficulty jumps dramatically at Veteran.

-Challenging is much easier.

-Hardcore is just impossible.

-Gale is way too strong lol

-You need a brain transplant to clear this.

-Why did you dodge there? So frustrating.

Just ordinary viewer backseat gaming.

Yong-cheol swallowed his tears and was about to press the retry button.

[‘WhatShouldMyIDbe’ donated 10,000 won!]

-How about calling NoName for a brain transplant? Don’t you have her contact?

At the boss room entrance that had caused countless failures, an impatient viewer made a suggestion.

“What? No, why would I contact someone like that…”

Yong-cheol waved his hands in embarrassment.

“I think she’s way beyond my league now?”

NoName was at the peak of her popularity in South Korea.

Moreover, she had earned the titles of High Mage and Clan Leader, living in a completely different world now.

Viewers exchanged various opinions.

Some said he could at least call since they won the National Exchange Competition together, while others thought even a call would be intrusive.

‘But I’ll never clear this alone. Should I just go crazy and call her?’

[‘Mapo Bridge’ donated 10,000 won!]

-Why is the great Han Yong-cheol being so timid?

Group thinking instills optimistic thoughts and confidence.

“How about I let it ring three times, and if she doesn’t answer, I’ll hang up right away. What do you think?”

-Yeah

-Sounds good

-Agree

-Seems like a reasonable boundary?

-Smart young man.

Viewers approved of his balanced approach.

Yong-cheol paused the game and made the call.

Ring ring ring-

One second felt like eternity.

Ring ri-click

“…!”

The call connected before the second ring finished.

[He-llo?]

An unmistakably childlike voice came through the speaker.

“Ah, this is streamer Han Yong-cheol. I’m currently streaming! Can we talk on the phone?”

-Why is he being so formal?

-NoName’s voice is so cuuute lol

-She really is a kid.

-A streamer 24 years younger than him

-Double the age gap, insane lol

[Oh, yes. I can talk briefly. About 10 to 15 minutes?]

Positive news. But the “briefly” part was concerning.

[‘Great Person’ donated 3,000 won!]

-Enter the boss room first. Then ask the essential questions quickly.

Under viewer pressure, Yong-cheol entered the boss room.

A colosseum with an open ceiling.

The night sky displayed a breathtaking spectacle of stars, while artistic statues placed throughout added to the grandeur.

“Since you don’t have much time, I’ll get straight to the point! I’ve been trying to beat the Moonlight Soul final boss for 10 hours but can’t do it. Could you give me some strategies or advice? Please!”

Clink clink-

The sound of rattling silver plate armor.

A greatsword with red gems, black smoke rising from the shadows, all illuminated in sequence.

[Dragon Slayer Gale]

The cursed knight flashed his ominous eyes and readied his blade.

“PleaseWatchTheStreamOnTwissy! Waaah!”

CRASH!

Yong-cheol threw himself sideways before finishing his sentence.

The massive metal sword came rushing in.

A greatsword beyond human limits.

[Oh yes, please wait a moment.]

“This is urgent…! Please explain how to hit this bastard!”

A boss that breaks the 1-pattern-1-damage-window formula.

You had to dodge at least 5 to 10 patterns just to get a single attack opportunity.

There wasn’t even time to reload ranged weapons.

As Han Yong-cheol continued rolling, a saving voice came through.

[I don’t know this game well. Do you have any skills you can use? Or just basic attacks?]

“I have a tornado spell that pushes enemies away, a gravity spell that pulls enemies in, a lightning charge for my sword, and an ice shotgun that slows enemies from a distance.”

[Shotgun?]

“Yes, but the shotgun has a charge time of over 5 seconds, so in boss fights it’s not-“

BOOM!

Yong-cheol threw himself behind a rock for cover.

As Gale lowered his arm, the immense magical power in the greatsword split the ground in a straight line.

The solid rock shattered into pieces, with fragments raining down.

After a silence, NoName spoke.

[Viewers just told me about the pre-attack delay in chat… Let’s focus on just the tornado for now. First, close the distance with your sword.]

“What? Not running away?”

[Block the downward strike, then counter the right horizontal slash.]

Tap tap tap-

No time to think.

Yong-cheol blocked the Dragon Slayer’s sword head-on.

[You can ignore the second attack.]

Normally he would prepare for the follow-up combo, but he desperately followed NoName’s advice.

Closing his eyes out of fear was a bonus.

“Hyaaah!”

Clang-!

A satisfying hit sound after so long.

“Oh!”

-Wow that’s insane lol

-A Souls game with brain transplant?

-So it was possible to interrupt patterns!

-NoName! NoName! NoName! NoName!

[Block again after recovering. Oh, he’s going to strike upward, so grip your handle tightly.]

“What? Wait…!”

Ching-!

The sword was deflected upward.

“Whoa!”

[Just wait. Upper right corner is open now.]

“Where? What?”

[Stop. Block again.]

“Wait, I can’t keep up, teacher!”

The command transitions were too fast.

Han Yong-cheol, who could barely control his own body, kept complaining.

[Hmm…]

NoName made a low nasal sound.

[Okay. Get ready to parry on the next pattern. Block the 3-hit combo as best you can, and if the 4th hit has an off-beat timing, try to parry then. But it might not happen.]

As Yong-cheol couldn’t follow as expected, the range of predicted futures widened.

Gaining confidence from the magical predictions, Yong-cheol deflected the boss’s sword strikes.

Squinting his eyes, he focused all his attention on Gale’s hands.

The 4th strike was…

Off-beat.

[Now.]

“Now!”

CLANG-!

Gale’s mountain-like sword wobbled greatly.

He lost his balance so much that one foot lifted off the ground.

[Use your strongest attack, any one.]

“Hahaha, roger that, sensei!”

Zzzzzap-!

Powerful electricity gathered at the sword tip and plunged into Gale’s solar plexus.

The boss’s HP bar decreased in chunks at unprecedented speed.

The cycle repeated: charge, defend, parry, and strong attack.

Yong-cheol couldn’t help but smile.

He had hope that with NoName, he could finally end this frustrating boss.

Phase 1 complete.

Gale’s greatsword fell to the ground, and he finally knelt.

“Wooow we did it! NoName, what kind of sorcery is this! It’s like a legal cheat code!”

[…]

“NoName? Hello, NoName?”

[&@#*!@#]

Suddenly the noise cancellation on NoName’s end disappeared, and the sound of children chattering came through.

A bad feeling crept in.

[My break time is over.]

“What? What did you say? Break time…?”

[I’ll be back in 40 minutes.]

Click-

With those words, the 10-minute legal cheat pass expired.

“No…!”

-LMAO

-Wait, NoName was at school? lol

-Haha! Kids started school today

-Break time lol

-Run away again!!!!!

-You… you’re not NoName?

“Grrrrrr…!”

Dragon Slayer Gale’s helmet came off, revealing long white hair flowing in the wind.

Cracks appeared all over the full plate armor, with dragon scales emerging from the gaps.

“Oh shit!”

Gale gripped the greatsword and leaped, landing right in front of Yong-cheol in a single bound.

Whoosh-!

A strike that cut through space.

Yong-cheol met his cold and familiar death without even having time to scream.

[YOU DIED]

“Elementary school classes are 40 minutes? Sigh…”

Han Yong-cheol rubbed his face, overwhelmed by belated self-loathing.