Former Hero, Solo Play Oriented – Chapter 101

‘Astria Online’ entered a balancing patch just two days after the first clear of ‘Ice Palace of the Frozen Land’ came out.

【Developer’s Note】

Hello, ‘Adventurers from the Stars’. This is Director Shin Kyunghoon.

First, I would like to apologize to all users for the fact that we had to inevitably move up the schedule that the development team wanted to patch.

…

The developer’s note, which began with the main director’s greeting, contained an apology for sending such a letter at a time when they should be farming the new dungeon, and what would be focused on in this balancing.

“Still, it’s fortunate that I finished accessory farming yesterday.”

I accelerated farming after the emergency patch notice came up yesterday.

I sold the ‘Ice Palace Mistress’s Soul’ that evolves weapons at a high price, and focused on farming accessories.

I ground all accessories with options I don’t need and turned them into ‘Ice Palace Essence’. Of course, I could get small amounts from daily quests and dungeon clear basic rewards too.

The Ice Palace Essence collected like that was enough to enhance this accessory.

Since I have ‘Astaroth’ as a Legendary weapon, it would be nice if I could get a Legendary accessory with good stats and options too.

There was no need to switch to the ‘Ice Palace Mistress’s Sword’. Astaroth, which has higher attack power and strengthens skills overall, is much better.

At least until this expansion pack, I’ll be able to use the previous season’s Legendary weapon as active.

Anyway, the important thing is.

“Why did they urgently announce such an important balancing patch?”

I sat on the sofa and carefully examined the developer’s note on my smartphone.

The content is that the balancing patch itself was originally planned.

They say they were going to do the final balance including data obtained from users conquering this ‘Ice Palace of the Frozen Land’.

“They say they were going to approach it carefully because they need to create skill sets considering both PVP and PVE…”

The reason stated on the surface was the difficulty of this elite dungeon, ‘Ice Palace of the Frozen Land’. Hana Games moved up the user skill balancing patch schedule instead of lowering the Ice Palace difficulty.

Two days have passed since the first conquest, but there weren’t many clear parties. Considering that most of them were Red-White guild, it means there were no clear parties other than the top advance parties.

The 1st Named boss isn’t that difficult if you know the gimmick. You just need time to establish a damage cycle fitting the patterns.

For the 2nd Named boss, party members just need to coordinate well. Most of the damage is dealt by the reflection damage gimmick.

But the 3rd Named boss, ‘Witch Frederica’.

The patterns are fast, strong and diverse. Performing gimmicks for conquest is difficult too.

The damage is tight up to enrage and invincibility skills need to be used precisely. Area skills explode everywhere constantly, and map weapon-like instant unavoidable skills fly around wildly. There’s even a special pattern blocking approach with ice blades guarding attacks. It’s difficult to burst spheres at desired timing while responding to patterns. Of course, you need to erase cold floor signs created here and there too.

Users might have underestimated it because Rain seemed to take it down easily, but even Rain barely cleared it in her own way. Even if the conquest strategy was revealed, only a few parties could follow it.

“Heh.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Though they might have tried to restrict my actions under the guise of worrying about my body’s condition along with some compensation, the game company had to move quickly once Rain came to the forefront.

Though they said it was balancing to lower difficulty, it’s essentially balancing between ‘Rain’ and ‘ordinary users’.

This is a snowball rolled by the solo play broadcast.

Because it showed a stark difference between Rain and ordinary users.

I briefly recalled ‘Team Leader Han Yeoreum’ who only left meaningful words.

“That’s why you should have told me properly.”

If they decided to turn a blind eye while knowing my synchronization rate, there’s a lot I can do.

Even within ‘Hana Games’ company, there are probably very few people who know the truth of the ‘Astria continent’.

Are they even human? Anyway.

Considering ordinary Swordsman users too, they won’t be able to do patches like lowering Swordsman skill multipliers.

As expected, the patch direction was strengthening and adding skills with invincibility judgment.

“They’re giving about one more invincibility skill overall. And… for ranged classes, increasing the number of resistances for standing invincibility skills, for melee classes, extending the duration of invincibility judgment…”

Even so, they won’t add enough invincibility skills to forcibly break through enrage, but at least patterns requiring multiple consecutive resistances will become easier. Like the Ice Ogre King’s 8 area skills.

If the number of invincibility skills increases, I won’t need to use Astaroth’s cooldown reset for pattern resistance purposes from now on. I can use the cooldown reset function purely as damage output assistance.

My advantage lies in the damage cycle of constantly attacking while avoiding all avoidable attacks.

Simply put, I hit three or four times while others hit twice.

In a way, this patch can be seen as a patch to reduce the gap between physical monster users and ordinary users.

With this patch, the game will become a little easier for ordinary users.

“It doesn’t matter much.”

I leaned back on the sofa.

Though it was a blatant targeted patch, Rain hasn’t become weaker.

If users become stronger, that’s good in its own way. It’s welcome for users who will pave the way for the hero to become stronger too.

The hero just needs to advance that much further ahead.

They won’t be able to stop Rain’s progress. The dungeons, raids, and even the demonic beings that users ultimately need to defeat that will come in the future.

‘I’ will take care of them in advance.

The ‘Astria continent’ is a world where I’m the protagonist.

Because it’s the world I and my companions saved.

Before closing the developer’s note, I discovered a strange word.

“But, the patch theme is… ‘Normalization’…?”

Is this the right word to use here?

I’m used to being alone in Lee Seulbi’s body, but lately I feel a bit lonely too.

When I’m in Rain’s body, there’s no time to feel lonely. I need to focus on leveling up and quests.

Actually, just enjoying the Astria continent itself and walking with legs that move freely was enjoyable.

“This is all because of Chris unnie.”

I was complaining while fiddling with my smartphone in the spacious living room for no reason.

Chris has been so busy lately that she went to work taking advantage of the gap where users’ farming stopped due to the patch.

Just being with her made me feel good. There was no time to feel lonely or fall into depressing thoughts.

Now I’m in an ambiguous situation, neither in the Astria continent nor with Chris.

I wish the maintenance would end quickly.

I wish Chris unnie would come back quickly.

“Ah.”

Suddenly I remembered the fact that I streamed real-time video two days ago.

Should I check YouTube?

[Real-time Streaming Replay (2 days ago)]

[Ice Palace of the Frozen Land First Clear Run]

[Views 5,471,644]

[Category (Games) – A.O (Astria Online)]

“Wah…!”

It’s only been two days since I streamed the video, but the views have exceeded 5 million.

They said many people play it worldwide, and indeed the firepower was amazing.

I expected it would be watched quite a lot, but I didn’t think it would be watched this much already.

And in the creator function, there was a green light lit up that I hadn’t seen when setting up real-time streaming.

[Monetization Conditions]

[Subscribers O Watch Time O]

I smiled slightly.

Actually, this was somewhat of an intended effect too.

For some reason, Rain in the Astria continent is even more averse to people than me.

Real-time broadcasting to communicate was burdensome for her, but she could at least stream just gameplay videos.

I in this world can endure the embarrassment of showing my face.

I will earn money through ‘Astria Online’ in all sorts of ways.

Since I didn’t get proper rewards after saving the world, I have the right to claim this much. Of course, I earned quite a lot of advertising fees through the expansion pack advertisement too, but it’s still not enough.

I’ll pay back Chris’s money fully, spend gold freely in the Astria continent, and make life here even more affluent.

I can’t live off Chris forever.

Since I’ll live independently later, I need to build up extra money.

“Hmm…”

Of course, it makes sense to live independently.

But I don’t want to be apart from Chris unnie.

I looked around the spacious penthouse once.

How much would this apartment cost?

Can I earn enough money to live right below Chris unnie’s floor?

I finished applying for monetization and checked the comments under the real-time streaming replay video.

[Huff… Huff… kekekeke]

There were various comments, but strange onomatopoeia was eating up the best comment.

It’s the bizarre onomatopoeia that’s always there whenever I see posts related to me.

I tilted my head.

“Is it trendy these days to make breathless onomatopoeia in comments?”

Modern trends are really hard to keep up with.

Beep, click.

“Rain~! Unnie is home from work! The maintenance isn’t over yet, right? Why are they doing it so long. I bought chicken!”

Just hearing Chris’s voice already made me feel good.

“Unnie, good work!”

I greeted Chris who returned home with a smile on my lips. The aroma of freshly fried chicken wafted from the bag in her hand.

I picked up the comb next to me and held it out to Chris.

“Unnie, can you comb my hair?”

“Hm? Sure sure. Rain’s hair is long so it’s hard to comb alone, right?”

Chris sat on the sofa with a bright smile, just taking off her coat. I sat between her knees and entrusted my hair to her with narrowed eyes.

Swish swish.

It feels good.

Even after saving up money to live independently, can I live here a little longer?