Plague City Pest

If I had to pick the biggest downside of VR games, it’s that people get tired easily.

Naturally, the longer the raid went on, the more people’s concentration dropped.

It was almost 10 PM. Our Chewy-Squishy Guild was still stuck on the 2nd named boss, [Vile Rat-Man Katos].

I said it when we formed the raid party: try time’s until 10 PM.

Even though the shutdown law that used to hold me back is gone, I can’t just change the time we initially agreed on.

We have to move as a team of 40. Just because I have more free time doesn’t mean I can extend the try time and mess with the other guild members’ schedules.

“Let’s do one last try and meet up again tomorrow.”

I start the last try of the day with the guild members.

[Vile Rat-Man Katos] was a named boss I didn’t remember from my past life.

It wasn’t even surprising anymore. I was taking it for granted that this version of Deron was different from the original.

As Dogric slowly moved forward with his massive shield in hand, the battle began.

Katos, with his huge rat head, let out a horrifying shriek and charged.

[Kkieeeeeeek!]

Katos’s attacks inflict severe bleeding.

Even with a shield, you couldn’t avoid the bleeding if you got hit by his attacks.

The moment red blood started gushing from Dogric’s body, giant plague rats swarmed out from all directions and charged at Dogric.

It was Katos’s most basic pattern.

The ranged dealers had to deal with the endlessly spawning giant plague rats throughout the entire fight.

Status effect: [Bleeding]

This meant a stackable debuff that continuously drained the target’s HP.

The basic strategy for Katos was to keep the number of bleeding stacks as low as possible.

Use the priest’s Cure skill and bleeding recovery potions to hold out as long as possible.

If the party members coordinated well, it wasn’t a particularly difficult strategy.

That’s what everyone thought, until Katos started using his pattern.

The real hell began when Katos’s HP dropped to 50%.

If a giant rat that spawned from somewhere on the map stayed alive for more than 5 seconds, Katos would teleport behind that rat and devour it.

After eating a rat, Katos would recover 10% of his HP and his stats would increase dramatically, then he’d charge at the nearest player.

Other than that, there weren’t any special patterns.

But the problem was the spawn rate of the giant plague rats that poured out from all over the map.

The longer the fight went on, the shorter the plague rats’ spawn cycle became.

This try wasn’t much different.

Everyone was wiped out by Katos, who devoured the waves of rats that swarmed in from all directions.

“Alright, disband for today!”

I raised both arms in the air and shouted as soon as it hit 10 PM.

The guild members started leaving, looking disappointed.

We only managed to clear the first named boss on the first day.

It was hard not to feel drained.

I didn’t show it in front of the guild members, but I felt like a deep sigh was about to escape me.

In front of the raid dungeon.

I was sitting on a large boulder, refilling my depleted potions.

Helena, who hadn’t left yet, approached me.

“Yeona.”

“Yeah?”

“Katos. I think we can clear him.”

“Katos… really?”

“Yeah.”

Helena nodded at my question and used Blink to move next to me.

I scooted over a bit to make it easier for Helena to sit down.

“What is it? What do we need to do?”

“Katos teleports when his HP drops to 50%, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What if we target that moment?”

“That moment?”

“Yeah, Katos has a brief opening before he eats the rat.”

I nodded at Helena’s words.

She was right, Katos did have a brief opening before eating the rat.

It’s just that he moved so suddenly that there was no time to do anything about it.

“We attack the rat at that moment and blow it up.”

“Blow up the rat?”

“Yeah. Then Katos won’t be able to eat the rat.”

“But is that even possible while dealing with the rats? He teleports so suddenly, we don’t know where he’ll pop up.”

“I don’t think we should catch the rats.”

“Not catch the rats…?”

Helena nodded and began to explain the strategy she had in mind.

Until Katos’s teleport pattern appeared, we’d maintain the current strategy, but the moment his HP dropped to 50%, we wouldn’t deal with the plague rats.

The unkilled plague rats would start running towards the tank with bleeding, and Katos would teleport behind that plague rat.

At that moment, the ranged dealers would aim precisely and blow up the plague rat in Katos’s hand, dealing damage.

Katos, unable to recover HP, would teleport again and grab another plague rat.

Then the ranged dealers would attack Katos again, along with the plague rat.

We’d just repeat that.

“Would that… would that even work?”

I asked with a trembling voice, but I felt like my mind was clearing up.

I could already picture it in my head.

“We’ll have to try it tomorrow.”

Helena said with a light smile.

It was a really pretty smile.

***

The next day.

Many other raid parties besides ours had challenged the raid, but there were still no reports of anyone clearing it.

From what I heard on the Deron Gallery, most guilds were stuck on the 2nd named boss, [Vile Rat-Man Katos].

5 PM.

It was time for our Chewy-Squishy Guild.

Before entering the dungeon, I checked the faces of the guild members.

I hadn’t told them about the strategy Helena had told me yesterday, just in case.

“2nd named boss, Katos. We’re changing tactics. I’ll explain inside the dungeon.”

The guild members nodded obediently.

They must all realize it too: we can’t clear it with a normal strategy.

Feeling the gazes of the guild members before entering the raid dungeon, I hopped and jumped into the dungeon.

It was to the point where my body reacted before I even told it to.

“Wow, how can she jump like that?”

“She’s not the Blood Demon King, she’s a complete rabbit.”

These guild members just say the most embarrassing things without a care in the world.

I turned my head slightly, frowned, and cleared my throat.

“Ahem… everyone, focus.”

I began to explain Helena’s strategy to the guild members.

After hearing my explanation, everyone was impressed and said it sounded plausible.

“Hwarang.”

“Me, me?”

“Yeah. You’re the most important.”

Among the ranged dealers I knew, Hwarang boasted the highest accuracy and reaction speed.

“I need you to target the rats.”

“Uh, I’ll try…”

Following the path that hadn’t been reset, we reached Rat-Man Katos once again.

Dogric seemed to be feeling a lot of pressure, swallowing nervously as he checked his weapon.

“Mages, please don’t use AoE skills.”

I warned the mages before entering the battle.

If they accidentally detonated all the plague rats at once, the main tank in front would melt instantly.

“Engaging.”

The battle began with Dogric’s words.

The start was no different from yesterday.

Everyone diligently moved according to the tactics we had discussed.

It was the moment when Katos’s HP dropped to 52%.

It was time to slowly stop dealing damage and gather the rats.

“Everyone, don’t catch the rats!”

The moment I finished speaking, giant plague rats poured out from all directions.

The giant rats began to run towards Dogric, who was afflicted with bleeding.

The moment the plague rats reached Dogric’s side, the ranged dealers’ skills began to pour in.

Fireballs, ice arrows, and other basic attack skills, as well as skills that could deal massive damage to a single target, began to fly.