For the Sake of Raid Clears

Time really flies when you’re engrossed in something.

Sohee-ssi forbade me from doing strength training, but I was allowed to do stamina training, so I spent the past week running around the neighborhood all day.

Of course, working out for just a week didn’t bring about any major changes.

At best, I could last a little longer against Sohee-ssi, that’s all I could feel.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s cold today. Dress warmly.”

“It’s okay!”

I replied to Sohee-ssi and immediately got into the car.

The current time is 7:10 PM.

With the raid appointment not far off, I had to head to that schoolyard soon.

My designated seat is, of course, on Sohee-ssi’s lap.

I plopped down on it and then manipulated the navigation system to set the destination.

After setting the destination on the navigation, as the car started to move, I took out my phone and started looking for raid videos from other parties.

I’m talking about augmented reality raids using D.R, not Deron.

Currently, the difficulty of the raids prepared on the test server wasn’t very high.

Considering the character’s specs, it meant it was at a level that could be cleared without much difficulty.

But that was only within the world of Deron.

There’s one problem that all the testers on the test server are talking about.

That’s mobility.

Unlike the virtual Deron, with a real body, all the testers had to move slowly.

The physical stamina issue was secondary.

With such a problem, could you easily clear a raid that’s been adjusted based on the speed of the game character?

Absolutely not.

A week isn’t a short time. During that time, countless parties were formed and disbanded repeatedly.

There were various complex reasons for the parties disbanding, but the biggest problem was, of course, mobility.

Since they couldn’t avoid patterns with their slow bodies, the party’s wipeouts happened too frequently.

But while so many parties were tasting the bitterness of defeat, a party that cleared the raid appeared.

The party’s name was SSOP, a raid team formed by users from the French server.

Their biggest characteristic was that everyone participating in the raid wore inline skates.

That’s right. They secured the lacking mobility by using inline skates.

Of course, just wearing inline skates didn’t mean they could clear it right away.

The SSOP party had been consistently uploading videos of trying the raid while wearing inline skates for the past week.

The first attempt was a wipeout, showing even more miserable results than moving with sneakers.

But they didn’t give up.

It was because of the party leader’s stubbornness.

“Hmm…”

The SSOP team’s attempt was innovative.

Naturally, after the video was uploaded, many parties started to follow them, and some parties even attacked the raid boss while riding bikes.

The tester users cleared the raid.

In a normal situation, they should have been cheered by the users playing Deron, but the parties that cleared it that way started to receive ridicule and contempt.

It was obvious. Watching the video naturally made you laugh.

The appearance that D.R. implements as a hologram is basically limited to the data in the game.

That means external factors like bikes or inline skates aren’t implemented.

Looking at the videos of the raid being conducted while riding bikes, most of the party members could be seen circling around the raid boss while sitting on something transparent.

How could you not laugh at that sight?

They were just trying to clear the raid, but they became the subject of ridicule on the internet for riding transparent bikes.

It was truly unfortunate.

“Sigh…”

I shake off the negative emotions with a sigh.

I’m the party leader. If such a party leader shows a drooping appearance, how would the party members below feel?

Even if the situation wasn’t good, the party leader always had to maintain their usual appearance.

“Hayeon-ah. We’ve arrived.”

“Ah, yeah.”

Have we arrived already?

I took my eyes off the phone screen and looked outside.

I shifted my gaze along the dark night sky and the brilliant neon signs shining brightly beneath it.

“We’ve arrived…!”

With a nervous expression, I got out of the car and started manipulating the D.R.

The current time is 7:30 PM.

I had to start inviting the party members and secure a spot in a suitable place.

Inside the schoolyard.

The schoolyard, which was empty without a single light, began to scatter bright light and form the raid terrain the moment Sohee-ssi and I entered.

“Hey, Sohee-ssi.”

“Yeah?”

“What do you think about this?”

“About what?”

“About Deron. This D.R.”

“Ah…”

I started inviting the party members and asked Sohee-ssi for her opinion.

Well, my brain is so broken that I like anything related to Deron, so it was hard to objectively judge what kind of game this was.

That’s why I’m asking Sohee-ssi.

Sohee-ssi plays Deron, but she doesn’t particularly like the game Deron.

It just felt like she was doing it consistently because the person she loved was playing Deron.

Sohee-ssi, who had been lost in thought for a moment at my question, opened her mouth.

“An opinion as a gamer? Or my personal opinion?”

“I, I want to hear both.”

“From a gamer’s perspective, this game can never succeed. I don’t know if it would work if it was made into a different game other than the Deron IP…”

“I see…”

As expected, Sohee-ssi seemed to think similarly to others.

I thought it was quite fun though.

Think about it, the game is taking care of your real-life health.

You can get healthy just by playing the game, what a great game this is.

Of course, that’s just my personal opinion.

I slipped this thought into the Deron gallery as a floater, but I was treated as an attention seeker and received a bomb of downvotes.

Not only the testers but most of the Deron users seemed to have similar thoughts to Sohee-ssi.

Rather, the users in the FPS genre were very envious of the features that this D.R. had.

“Then what’s your personal opinion?”

“Hmm… I want to use this technology in other places besides the game? That’s about it for now?”

“You’re not going to tell me exactly?”

“There are too many things that come to mind… Isn’t the raid start time coming up soon?”

“I guess so…”

I nodded and looked at the party members who were starting to arrive one by one.

Familiar faces I had seen a week ago.

But the appearance of the party members was somehow a little strange.

Some people were floating in the air in a seated position as if they were riding something transparent, while others were standing slightly higher than the ground.

“Looks like everyone wants to clear the raid?”

“Ah…”

I ran my dry face as I looked at the party members.

As the party leader, I didn’t say anything in particular, but it seemed like they had each prepared something in their own way because they wanted to clear the raid.

[Long time no see. Blood Demon King-isiyeo!]

Sseu-euk-

A small female paladin sliding in from the air.

Jupiter was flapping her angel wings and approaching me.

She looks about a hand’s breadth taller than she was before.

Sure enough. When I lowered my gaze slightly, Jupiter’s feet were slightly off the ground.

What the hell is this kid riding?

“What are you riding?”

[Wh, what are you talking about! I’m not riding anything!]

“Your, your feet are floating.”

[My feet…?]

Jupiter looked down at her legs at my words.

But there’s no way she could know that way.

In Jupiter’s eyes, her feet would be touching the ground normally.

[Hmm… It doesn’t seem to be a problem…]

I muttered in a small voice and looked at the other party members, leaving Jupiter, who was watching me carefully, behind.

About 10 people had their feet slightly off the ground like Jupiter.

Besides that, there were 5 people who looked like they were riding bikes or bicycles.

Among them, there was someone I knew well.

[Blood Demon King-nim!]

The opponent sliding in while riding something transparent was Snow Mage.

Judging by the fact that her legs weren’t moving, it seemed to be a bike.

If it was a bicycle, her legs would be flailing as she pedaled.

The Snow Mage, who had come riding a transparent bike without the unique sound of a bike, stopped in front of me and touched the ground with only one leg.

“Are you riding a bike…?”

[Yes!]

“Wow…”

[H, is it not allowed to ride it?]

“No. It’s not that…”

I shook my head. Since the party members had prepared it themselves, I had no intention of questioning it.

I just wanted to let them know how their appearance looked.

To be honest, it was a little funny.

[Ah, should I give you a ride?]

“Ah, no…”

I quickly rejected Snow Mage’s offer.

Because the gaze of Sohee-ssi, who was standing next to me, was shining a little dangerously.

“You must like bikes. Snow-ssi.”

[Ah. Helena-nim…! That’s right. I like bikes!]

“Bikes… You should be careful… I heard that bike accidents happen more often than general car accidents…”

[Gasp…!]

I left the two of them alone and approached the party members.

I was worried that one or two people might suddenly quit the party, but thankfully, everyone came as they were.

The current time is 7:55 PM.

I had to finish preparing to start the raid soon.

“Everyone, please pay attention!”

The party members, who were talking and chattering mindlessly, started to focus.

In the silence, I called out the names of the party members who were slightly different from the ordinary party members.

“… The 15 people above. Can you tell me what you’re riding? I’m not particularly making an issue of it.”

The 15 party members who were called out separately.

They started to tell me what they were riding.

Inline skates.

Skateboard.

Bicycles, kickboards, bikes, etc.

Really diverse rides appeared and surprised the party members and me.

“Uh… Okay, that’s good. Shall we start then?”

[Yes!]

The energetic answer was, of course, Snow Mage.

She looked very excited as she pulled the handle buang buang while riding on the bike.

I looked at Snow Mage with a worried gaze.

“Okay… Let’s start. Main tanker. Enter!”

[Hiyayaat!]

The moment my order ended, Jupiter shot forward at an incredibly fast speed.

The sight of her sliding without moving her legs was quite strange, but the speed was so fast that it reminded me of Deron’s Jupiter.