Field Boss.

Pure white room, pure white mannequin.

As always, I grabbed the one-handed straight sword in my right hand, lifted it, and aimed it at the mannequin.

The mannequin struck the same pose as me, as if it were a mirror.

Saaakㅡ

And then, starting from its feet, its body began to change, and it appeared in front of me.

“Brings back memories.”

The mannequin, transformed to look exactly like me in my Field Boss state, brought back vivid memories of the old 1-on-1 match gimmick.

The thrill of severing its head at the end was so electrifying that the sensation still lingered in my hands.

“Alright, let’s see what you’ve gotㅡ!”

I kicked off the ground and moved forward, and the Field Boss [Iarang] in front of me emitted a light that dyed the pure white room purple, and swung its one-handed sword.

A clean and crisp parrying sound echoed through the room, and both [Iarang] and I were pushed back by the stiffness.

“Ooh…”

I attacked with all my might, but it was blocked cleanly. More precisely, it was negated.

The pleasure of our Sword Master [Pentagon] skills clashing with the exact same speed, same power, same timing, and same path was considerable. It was so satisfying to see everything click into place.

As soon as the stiffness ended, we charged at each other again.

This time, [Iarang]’s skill was the same as mine. We were both fully charged with 5 stacks of the Sword Master’s flower and most important skill, [Continuous Strike].

In that state, we both used the Sword Master’s dash skill, [Combined Assault].

As expected, [Iarang] made the best attack again. But this time, I intentionally didn’t reduce the pre-delay.

Of course, that would mean I would get hit first, but I intentionally increased the pre-delay even more than a normal dash.

With that small difference that ordinary users would never notice, [Iarang]’s sword was swung slightly faster than mine.

And the moment that sword was about to strike my head, the sword with my dash skill strongly struck the front of [Iarang]’s sword.

Pawang!

Clean parry. This time, it wasn’t negated, and only [Iarang] was stunned.

And I cleanly slit [Iarang]’s neck.

Kungㅡ!

Its head disappeared in a dazzling display of particles, and the body, having lost its head, fell forward and vanished.

‘AI is weak against this kind of thing.’

The speed and power were the same, but this time, the timing and path were different.

The timing was later for me, and the path was completely different as well.

There are various reasons, but to put it simply, I intentionally made the AI attack my head, and when it attacked in the direction I predicted, I parried it.

My sword struck the side of [Iarang]’s sword accurately.

This happened because the weak part of [Iarang]’s sword collided with the strong part of my sword.

Kkirik. Kkirik.

The headless [Iarang] raised its body like a marionette with broken strings, and then, as if a “Sharrarang~” sound effect would play, its head reappeared.

“O…oo…yah…”

==

[Iarang]’s basic strength was about the level of the boss that copied my appearance in the final 1-on-1 match gimmick in the old raid.

Just an honest [Iarang] that uses skills in the fastest and most accurate way that the AI can think of. Just like the old me.

Just trying to overwhelm with overwhelming physical stats.

‘In this state, I can’t win against numerous users.’

Especially against top-tier raid parties that have perfect teamwork and thoroughly analyze and strategize, it will collapse quickly.

Because it’s too weak against variables.

Like when I was a Hero, and with my limb-severing secret techniques, weapon dropping, and momentary erratic behavior, the AI becomes slightly stupid.

By “stupid,” I don’t mean it stops, but rather it feels like it’s excluding things. Even if it recognizes something, it can’t derive a result from it.

No matter how high-performance the AI is, it ultimately can’t respond to things it hasn’t learned. Of course, humans are the same, but humans sometimes use bizarre methods in those moments.

So, I frantically beat up [Iarang] with the most erratic movements possible.

The more I beat up [Iarang], the more it started to resemble me.

At first, [Iarang], who couldn’t even be compared to me, gradually started to follow my movements and my attacks, and from about the 20th time, it started to show the same movements as me.

It felt like fighting a mirror.

Good, good. In this state, I won’t lose against a normal 8-person raid party or a small-scale group of about 20 people.

But.

“Hamburger.”

Ttuk.

As soon as I said the safe word I had set before entering, [Iarang] stopped abruptly.

I stroked the head of [Iarang], who had stopped as if paused while trying to attack me.

[Iarang], who looks exactly like me.

It feels strange, like I’m stroking myself.

Maybe it’s because [Iarang] has changed to look like me, but its skin and hair feel just like touching a real person.

I squished its cheeks and touched its face here and there.

Was my skin always this good?

“Sseu-eup…”

I even smelled its hair.

It smells nice, but I don’t know if it’s the smell of my own hair.

Since it’s a capsule type, they probably measured my scent and replicated it, but I can’t judge because I don’t know my own scent.

[Arang-nim? Is there a problem?]

“It’s not that, but when I looked before entering, there were several capsules, can Pinku-unni and Bellyblanket-unni also enter here?”

[Yes, it’s possible. This is a place used by the QA team to check the balance and difficulty. Up to 8 people can enter.]

“Then, would it be okay to fight together with my unnis?”

[Hmm…]

Kim Ji-hoon-ajusshi started to contemplate.

Well, just looking at [Iarang]’s current skills, it has grown enough to beat the Arena practice PVP Challenger AI.

If the AI gets any stronger here, it will become more like a raid boss than a field boss, which would cause problems.

If a field boss that everyone is supposed to gang up on suddenly goes crazy and wipes everyone out, users would have reason to complain.

While I’ve been active as a field boss for over a month, there have been many not-so-nice comments about me in the gallery.

Are you trying to hog the rewards? Arang-i is a field boss, so she already received the rewards and is trying to screw us over so we don’t get them, etc. There were many such comments.

But maybe because of my position, they complained but didn’t criticize me.

Actually, screwing around is right. But I just didn’t want to die, so I couldn’t help it.

I kept stroking the [Iarang] that had learned from me in front of me.

If the AI is growing this fast, can’t they just create one without me?

No, is it because it’s different from my behavior? Kim Ji-hoon-ajusshi must have tried to make the field boss look like me and be like me, right? I don’t know much about this kind of thing, so I’m not sure.

[I understand. It seems like the difficulty is increasing more than I thought, but we can increase the rewards and drop rates accordingly. You can do as much as you want, Arang-nim.]

While I was thinking, Kim Ji-hoon-ajusshi said he would allow it. I like how decisive he is.

As expected of the chief manager, he quickly gave his permission.

[That Arang-nim. If it’s not too much to ask, would it be okay for our QA team to come and observe the learning process?]

“Of course.”

Before Pinku and Bellyblanket came in, I stroked [Iarang] once more and then looked down.

Flat chest.

Sigh…

I touched my own chest. As expected, I feel nothing.

And I put my hand on [Iarang]’s chest as well.

Sigh…

There’s no hope.

With this chest at 16… is there no hope?

It seems too late to grow as big as Anna.

Anyway, the sensation of touching my own chest is definitely different from the sensation of touching someone else’s chest. Even though the person in front of me has the same body as me.

[Ah, Arang-nim!?]

Oh right. They were watching this from outside, weren’t they?

==

“Wow… this feeling is… no joke?”

As soon as Bellyblanket entered the room, she was moving her body and loosening up, marveling at the competition-exclusive capsule connector.

I saw it in the gallery before, and they said there are slight differences between the connector used by ordinary people, the capsule connector, and the connector I use.

I don’t know much about it because I started with the highest-performance device for the connector from the beginning.

I used capsules and sometimes choker-type connectors in the last event competition, but I didn’t feel a big difference.

No, I didn’t feel any difference at all.

Am I just insensitive? But my senses and physical abilities are so great that I think I’ve surpassed humans.

I even feel like time is flowing slowly…

No. Is it because I’m not interested unless it’s a game?

Anyway, Pinku Berry, Bellyblanket, and the QA team and Kim Ji-hoon-ajusshi outside all gathered.

I am a Sword Master who plays the role of a one-handed sword straight sword tank and dealer.

Pinku Berry is a White Mage who is a healer and commander.

Bellyblanket is a Grim Reaper who is a dealer and disruptor.

It’s not a perfect party, but they are people who can easily do the work of two people each.

Pinku Berry used to be just an ordinary healer, but now she has become so skilled that she can make most rankers run away.

She lost a lot of confidence in the early days of the raid party, but after rolling around with me, she eventually gained excellent skills. And Bellyblanket? What more is there to say? She’s simply one of the top 10 dealers in all of LORE.

Then what about me? Of course, I’m confident that I’m number one.

Ah, of course, that’s excluding PVP and number one in PVE.