Chapter 13: Last Stage (4)

Raidel’s character was flung straight into the middle of the pursuit drones.

The swarm of drones closed in like a pack of hornets, zapping the bald-headed character with electricity.
BZZZZZZZT—!

Whether it was due to the shock effect or not, the screen began flashing rapidly.

“LMAOOOOOOO”

“Zapped and cooked lololol”

“Electric-grilled Raidel, hahaha”

“KYAAAGH! KRAAAHHH!”

“What is even happening hahahaha”

“Wait! Silverhair?! What even…?!”

She couldn’t understand what had just happened.

Getting hit by the buzzsaw and launched into the air — that made sense.

But why had Silverhair thrown her directly into the middle of the drones?

Getting hit by the saw might’ve been a mistake, but tossing her into the drone swarm? That was 100% intentional.

FZZZ—

Raidel’s character, fried by a mass of drones, plummeted to the floor, eyes rolled back, spinning mid-air.

And in the meantime—

Silverhair and Delbung No.3 slipped past the drones without drawing aggro.

Even if the pursuit drones were faster than usual,

the booster pads were faster too.

The danger was in approaching from the front — if you were already ahead, the drones couldn’t catch up.

‘Wait… no way.’

And the stun effect from the shock lasted ten seconds.

Normally, a stun in the middle of the buzzsaw zone was basically a death sentence.

But flipped around — all it did was stun.

You couldn’t move your character, but there was no knockback, no forced slowdown.

‘It’s not like I was doing anything anyway…’

Let’s face it — everything up until now had been thanks to Silverhair.

The only thing she’d done herself was press the forward key.

And ever since hitting the booster, even that hadn’t been necessary.

The speed carried her anyway.

Which is how she’d even been able to type in chat.

“She solved it like this???”

“Did NOT expect a head-on brute force strat.”

“Wasn’t the whole thing that if one person gets stunned, it’s over??”

“What the hell did she even do??”

The pursuit drones were designed to punish any single mistake.

Even with perfect coordination between all three players, if one of them got stunned, it should’ve collapsed like dominos.

But Silverhair had taken full control from the start.

No matter what happened to the other two — stunned, keyboard smashed, didn’t matter.

She still had full control of everything.

Still in a V-formation,

Silverhair dragged the chain from the back like a coachman driving a wagon.

A new swarm of drones approached.

This time, it was Delbung No.3 who got launched into the air.

Silverhair threw the airborne Delbung into the heart of the swarm.

BZZZZZZT—!

Charred pitch black, Delbung crashed into the ground.

It was a pitiful sight — but thanks to Delbung’s sacrifice, they slipped past the swarm again.

Because of the drone AI targeting whoever’s in front, Silverhair, in the back, wasn’t even touched.

‘No way… is that what she meant by “a job you had to do in the middle?”’

Silverhair’s earlier message came back to her.

That Raidel was essential to clearing the stage.

“That’s what she meant?!”

“Literal human shield lmao”

“Hey, she was essential to the clear tho”

“PFFFHAHAHAHAHA”

“You did good, Raidel. You did good.”

“Kyaaahahaha”

It wasn’t meaningless.

If Raidel and Delbung hadn’t taken the hits, there’s no way they could’ve cleared.

Not that she was exactly happy about being a human meat shield.

“Drones incoming!”

“Go, Delbungmon!”

“Is this even how the game is supposed to work?”

“Why are they clearing it by throwing people like dodgeballs lololol”

There was no way this was how the devs designed the game to be played.

But Silverhair couldn’t care less.

To block brake-control strategies, the drones were coming in with staggered timing.

And each time, Silverhair tossed Raidel like bait.

Every time the drones approached, Raidel’s bald avatar would get sliced by buzzsaws or fried with electricity.

At this point, it was genuinely starting to feel pitiful.

“Uuuaaagh… but we still made it!”

The finish line was just ahead.

BZZZZZT—!

A grand finale of buzzsaws erupted from the ground.

But Silverhair zigzagged through the chaos and crossed the line.

[Game Clear!]

[Clear Time: 4 hours 21 minutes]

A loud fanfare echoed as the game clear screen popped up.

“Guys! We did it! Raidel did it!”

Raidel jumped up from her seat.

Her face flushed with excitement, fists clenched tight.

She didn’t mean to be dramatic, but the thrill of clearing the stage had her bouncing with joy.

“GGGGGG”

“Congrats Delbung!”

“nya~”

“She did it. Delbung actually did it.”

“Can’t believe it actually got cleared.”

“This stream’s a legend, fr.”

₩10,000 donation from ‘BabyFish’!

• I was gonna say you just got carried but… I’ll let it slide.

₩5,000 donation from ‘DelLifeMain’!

• I’ve been subbed for 6 months but I can’t defend her this time. Sorry.

“LOL facts”

“Yeah she 100% got carried hahaha”

“A random tryhard pro cleared it, not Delbung”

“BIG SILVERHAIR MOMENT”

“You tanked like a champ. Go get a drink.”

“H-haah… yeah. I mean, yeah, I definitely got carried. Can’t pretend I did much.”

Calming down, Raidel gave an honest nod.

“Silverhair, thank you so much for helping me clear the game.”

There was no mistaking it — this was all thanks to Silverhair.

She’d basically spoon-fed them the victory.

“Honestly, I really did just… yeah. Like chat said, I just stood there.”

The viewership had passed 30,000 and was heading for 40,000.

The highest in Raidel’s streaming career.

All because of Silverhair.

“Thanks to her, this stream was amazing. I really thought today’s stream was going to be a disaster.”

Before Silverhair showed up, she’d been stuck for four hours.

The game was brutal.

But Silverhair turned out to be a high-tier god gamer.

They cleared it in record time.

“Her godlike control was actually healing for my eyes. All I can say is thank you.”

Raidel bowed to the screen.

₩10,000 donation from ‘Boongchan’!

• But I don’t think Silverhair’s even a viewer? She just dropped in randomly…

“Yeah. Doesn’t seem like she is. But still — I need to say thanks. Even if she’s not watching now, she might see a clip or YouTube later, right?”

She probably wasn’t watching at that moment.

But manners were manners.

Just as Raidel was about to continue—

[You cleared the game in the shortest time!]

[Updating the rankings…]

[Update complete.]

“H-huh?!”

She flinched as a new message popped up.

“Shortest clear time?!”

“WR clear?!”

“Delbung is rank #1 now?!”

“Can’t believe this is real…”

“Holy sh*t they actually did it.”

Come to think of it, before they started—

The 3-player record was…

‘It was 4 hours 32 minutes. I remember that clearly.’

Why?

Because…

‘Raidel said she was going to aim for rank 1…’

‘Rank 1 is 4:32, you really think you got this?’

‘She won’t even finish in 14:32, lmao.’

Chat had kept repeating it until it was burned into her memory.

‘And now… 4:21.’

She’d beaten the top time.

Rank 1.

She really did it.

To double-check, she opened the official site.

[Top 3-player team: Chain Roller Rankings]

‘Silverhair’

‘Raidel’

‘Delbung No.3’

It wasn’t a dream. Her name was really there.

₩10,000 donation from ‘DelbungOnlyLife’!

• That noob Delbung is now rank #1? I’m in tears.

₩5,000 donation from ‘DelLifeMain’!

• I honestly thought she’d rage quit after 12 hours.

₩10,000 donation from ‘YellowMaster’!

• Turns out the bus driver was Schumacher all along, lol.

₩10,000 donation from ‘ForestCrackle’!

• Wait, 4:21? It felt way shorter than that.

“Well, I did waste about 4 hours early on…”

Raidel scratched her head awkwardly.

Before Silverhair joined,

She’d spent four hours fumbling around with two viewers.

‘Which makes this even crazier.’

Even with that, the total clear time was 4:21.

Meaning they cleared it in just 21 minutes after Silverhair joined.

‘Wait… and Silverhair took a ramen break too.’

About five minutes of it.

Subtracting that—

They technically cleared the game in around 16 minutes.

₩10,000 donation from ‘ColdChicken’!

• Raidel, I think you forgot to reset the timer?

“Reset the… timer?”

“Yeah.”

“You can do it when creating a new room.”

“If you don’t, it just keeps ticking.”

“Bet Delbung didn’t know cause it was her first time.”

There was a reset feature?

Normally timers reset automatically—

But this being an indie game, you had to do it manually.

When Raidel realized this, she grabbed her head in frustration.

“Ughhh! If I’d just done that, it’d say 21 minutes!”

“Nah, it’s better this way.”

“If it said 21, they’d think you cheated and delete the record.”

“Let’s be real, 21 minutes isn’t even possible.”

“Even I’d delete that if I was a mod.”

“No way even cheats could hit that time.”

“You’re right. Gotta look at the bright side.”

21 minutes was physically impossible.

Unless you skipped straight from floor 2 to 10 using a glitch or something.

The devs would’ve flagged it as cheating.

‘What really matters is the actual time, right?’

The key thing — they cleared it in 21 minutes.

And 40,000 people had watched it happen, live.

Not to mention all the clips and YouTube uploads that would follow.

‘All thanks to her.’

Silverhair.

The game clear screen was up, but she still hadn’t logged out.

‘Is she checking the rankings too?’

Raidel shook her head.

A normal person would be celebrating, refreshing the leaderboard—

But Silverhair? No, she had a different feeling.

‘She’s probably… eating ramen.’

She did say she’d clear it before her ramen got soggy.

She was probably slurping it up while it was still warm.

After a moment’s hesitation, Raidel opened the in-game chat.

[Raidel: Silverhair. Can we talk for a sec?]