kscans

Chapter 470 - Final Day: Morning

The fourth and final day of the event.

Unlike the strangely quiet third day, no one could fail to notice the different atmosphere, the blatant rustling of the forest. Without exception, we all woke up with a 'bad feeling.'

And in this world, such feelings are rarely just needless anxiety.

Is it something our five senses, far surpassing those of the real world, can perceive... or are we unknowingly receiving some kind of 'notice' from the system?

We have no way of knowing, but in the end, there is only one thing we players, who must fundamentally obey the laws of the world (the system), can do.

Whether it be good fortune or misfortune that befalls us, we simply—

Embrace it as part of the 'festival' (event).

"—Damn, I'm pulling out! Hold the line!"

The sound of a piercing whistle reached my ears, and with those terse words that were barely an instruction, I spun on my heel.

A thumbs-up flickered at the edge of my vision. I returned the gesture with a good luck of my own as I launched my avatar, already glowing with crimson light and at full power, into the air.

As I soared upwards, I glanced towards the source of the whistle. As expected, the three artisans were on the rooftop, ensuring what little safety they could. Two of them, the girls, were pointing in the same direction. I set that as my destination, kicked off a Rabbit Dagger I'd already thrown ahead of me, changed direction, and leaped with all my might.

Belatedly getting a good look at the situation ahead, I saw it was a hell of a mess...!

I activated Lumina Raygust and Reflect Explode in parallel. As I rushed towards the first squad, who were being mercilessly pushed back by one large beast while being harassed by a swarm of smaller ones, I maintained my momentum and,

"Hraaaah!"

I slid to a halt, carving up the earth in a wide arc to disperse the energy from my turn.

Less a block and more a strike, I swung the gauntlet of my [An=Lu Galta (Hypothesis: The Wedge-Armor that Sings of the Royal Path)] in a backhand—the moment my fist and its sharp claws met, the guard held. The crimson effect that exploded sent the massive beast, which looked to be a 'boar,' flying straight up.

I glanced over my shoulder for a second. The person I'd rescued was on their butt, but in one piece. Okay, one mission complete.

As a follow-up, the [Alv Stella] I fired from my right pierced the throat of a 'tiger.' Unable to withstand the continuous heavy damage, it died and exploded. It dropped a Stardust Relic, larger and brighter than those from the smaller fry, signaling my victory—and there it was again, the sound of the whistle.

Damn it... not even a moment to catch my breath!

It was 9:00 AM, the morning after the no-holds-barred fireworks display.

Whether it was a scheduled event before the finale or karmic retribution for someone who had gone too wild, the morning raid, which overturned all previous patterns with its boisterousness, had enveloped the final day's morning in an unprecedented clamor.

...Even for a wake-up call, isn't this a little much?

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"Man... I'm glad that ended quickly."

The sudden morning raid didn't last until 10:00 AM, concluding in about twenty minutes.

While working on repairing the damage that had occurred in various parts of the base due to the emergency response, the foreman, Oaks-shi, uttered words that indicated a 'silver lining.'

However, on his face, as he worked to reset the damaged defensive walls... or rather, on the faces of all the group members, a similar expression could be seen.

In short, everyone was thinking, Something was off about that, wasn't it?

Because of this, even though I was helping the foreman by carrying materials, I couldn't just give a casual, "Yeah, you're right." It took me a moment to gather my thoughts before I could answer.

"Those Stardust Beasts, they moved differently than before, didn't they?"

"...So it looked that way to a ranker's eyes too, huh."

When I cut straight to the conclusion, he scratched his cheek as if to say, "This is bad."

...His face and build are nothing alike, but his generally calm way of speaking and default worried expression sometimes overlap with my father's. That's a secret, though.

"Everyone keeps talking about how experienced I am, but the truth is, I'm a newcomer who's only been in Arcadia for a few months, you know? When faced with an unknown situation, what comes out of my mouth is mostly just a hunch."

"Even if you haven't been playing long, you've been through a hell of a lot more scrapes than we have, so it can't be helped."

"You're too modest."

Over these three days, I'd gotten to know everyone so well that trading light-hearted banter was as easy as breathing—well, we'd already had breakfast before the raid, so it was post-breakfast now.

But this was no time for silly thoughts.

"They were coordinated, or maybe smarter... It was like their movements had tactics behind them."

"Yeah. It was completely different from their usual mindless, one-track pattern of swarming and avalanching us."

Compared to the sudden increase in their overall intelligence, the appearance of the new 'tiger' type was a minor change... By the way, the fact that one player managed to tame one of those giant tigers is making me super jealous, but let's set that aside. Congratulations, Beckett-shi.

In any case, the mix of large and small enemies, with small 'squads' chipping away at us, made this raid style a real pain.

No matter how fast I could race across the battlefield, I ultimately only have one body. If they came at us in a single 'ring,' I could just sweep around once and be done with it. But when they staggered their timing and launched a continuous offensive that left no time to breathe, it was a bit tough.

Inevitably, there were moments when I couldn't react in time.

"The only reason we managed was because the scale of the attack was restrained... I guess."

In terms of numbers, it was nowhere near the level of the night raids. If they had stuck to their usual pattern, it wouldn't have been surprising if we had finished them off in a little over five minutes, let alone twenty.

But they had prolonged it with military-like tactics... Rephrasing my speculation, it meant that someone had forced us to expend unnecessary resources.

My own intuition, which I personally have a fair amount of confidence in despite my own modesty, was now confidently telling me one thing—

"For now, let's wrap up these repairs quickly and have a strategy meeting."

"I couldn't agree more. It seems we're not going to be allowed a peaceful survival experience after all."

It was the grand final day. And my intuition was telling me something I already knew without being told: the last night raid to cap off the finale was going to be insane.