SANN | Chapter 2.3

Phase 3 began, and the background changed. Phase 1 was outside the castle, Phase 2 was the castle corridors, and Phase 3 was the garden atop the castle where the Maze Queen resided.

A distinctive feature of Phase 3 was the immediate activation of the one-hit-kill skill, Queen’s Wrath. Gureum quickly deployed a shield, blocking the attack. All six party members survived.

[Party] Hong Jalla: Nice.
[Party] King-ga: Phew ㅇ.ㅇb
[Party] Chaesyongsyong: Two thumbs up~ d^^b
[Party] Miss Cutie Hee: That’s such a boomer thing to sayㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Party] 1st Base 2nd Frame: d^^b ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Gureum appreciated how his party members celebrated even the smallest moments. As he supported his teammates while dealing damage, a new pattern began. It was one they had encountered before in practice mode.

Unlike Phase 2, Phase 3 didn’t require intricate strategies, but there were more tasks to handle, making it arguably more difficult.

First, thorny vines sprouted periodically under their feet and had to be removed promptly. If they weren’t, the trapped player would become immobile until freed by a teammate, unable to use skills or items.

Second, there was the venomous snake attack pattern. When the message “The Maze Queen’s snake approaches” appeared, the snake had to be immediately defeated. If someone got bitten, their HP would steadily decline for 30 seconds, requiring dedicated care from a support class.

While these two patterns weren’t inherently hard, their constant recurrence throughout Phase 3 made them burdensome for main damage dealers. As such, Gureum often handled the vines and snakes himself to minimize the burden on his teammates.

Lastly, there was the Hide-and-Seek pattern that triggered every five minutes. The garden had three wooden boxes, and during this phase, players had to hide inside them. Each box fit two players, but there was a catch—some boxes had holes. Hiding in a damaged box would trigger a one-hit-kill attack at the end of the pattern. While this could be blocked with invincibility skills, it was risky.

To fix a damaged box, players needed wooden planks harvested from trees at the field’s edges. These trees had surprisingly high HP, so normally Miss Cutie Hee would handle the harvesting while Gureum supported the others. But today was different.

[Party] hazeee: Miss Cutie Hee! I’ll gather the planks this time.
[Party] Miss Cutie Hee: Okay~ ㅇㅅㅇ/

Gureum quickly cast a shield around the dealers and darted towards a tree. After hitting it a few times, the tree spat out wooden planks. Feeling a sense of accomplishment, he picked up the planks and ran to the chest. Rapidly pressing the space bar, the planks adhered to the chest, and a message popped up: “Repair complete.” Gureum repeated this process three times. It took less than a minute to repair all the chests.

[Party] hazeee: Repairs are done!!
[Party] King-ga: Wow, now even Heize can handle this, huh?

King-ga marveled. Shortly after, a message appeared, signaling the start of the hide-and-seek pattern.

[The Maze Queen begins searching the garden.]

Everyone gathered inside the chests, cramming themselves in. Miss Cutie Hee and Hong Jalla hid together, while Gureum and King-ga shared a chest. The last chest housed 1st Base 2nd Frame. Yet, Chaesyongsyong stood idly in front of Gureum and King-ga’s chest, refusing to hide.

“Chaesyong, what are you doing?”

King-ga scolded Chaesyongsyong, who remained rooted to the spot. The pattern was about to start in less than ten seconds.

[Party] Chaesyongsyong: Get out. This is my spot.
[Party] King-ga: …?
[Party] Chaesyongsyong: I said, get out.
[Party] Hong Jalla: Is this guy crazy? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

“Does that even matter right now? The pattern’s about to start. Just get into a chest already!”

King-ga raised his voice, but Chaesyongsyong didn’t budge. When the instant-kill skill activated, Chaesyongsyong survived by using an invincible skill. He then calmly gave King-ga some advice.

[Party] Chaesyongsyong: From now on, this is my spot.

“Is that guy insane?!”

Unable to hold back, King-ga roared in frustration.

[Party] Miss Cutie Hee: He’s your one and only little groom, thoughㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Party] Miss Cutie Hee: King-ahjussi, this is on youㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Party] Hong Jalla: It’s about time for an old bachelor’s tantrum, isn’t it….
[Party] 1st Base 2nd Frame: OMGㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Having learned his lesson, King-ga avoided Gureum for the second round of hide-and-seek and hid with 1st Base 2nd Frame instead. Claiming his rightful spot, Chaesyongsyong proudly entered Gureum’s chest, appearing delighted as he performed a heart-emitting motion—one of those paid motions from the cash shop.

“Why does he even buy stuff like that?”

“He probably got it to use with Heize.”

“Yeah, asking was dumb of me.”

As the third phase progressed, the frequency of thorn vine and poison snake patterns increased. The fight grew so intense that Gureum couldn’t handle everything alone, and the other party members started helping to fend off the vines and snakes.

[Party] Miss Cutie Hee: Wow, this is turning into hell, huh? ㅇㅅ;ㅇ
[Party] 1st Base 2nd Frame: I got tied up ㅠㅠ
[Party] Hong Jalla: Damn it, can you stop getting tied up? Do you enjoy being restrained or what?
[Party] 1st Base 2nd Frame: What are you even saying, lawyer-nim? Help meㅠㅠ

Hong Jalla rescued 1st Base 2nd Frame from the vines, only to get bitten by a poison snake in the process. Hong Jalla screamed about dying, and Gureum quickly cast a shield and healed her. However, since healing wasn’t instantaneous, focusing on one dealer meant cries for help erupted elsewhere.

“King-ga, King-ga! Heize, stop caring about them and save me instead!”

“Look at this brat’s tone. Heize, just focus on me instead of that guy.”

A second victim of the poison snake appeared, and chaos ensued. The difficulty of the third phase wasn’t in its patterns but in the overwhelming intensity. As the phase progressed, the sheer number of vines and snakes made them nearly impossible to handle. Gureum was overwhelmed, trying to care for everyone, but he only had two hands.

Then, a snake slithered toward a distracted hazeee.

[Party] Chaesyongsyong: Gasp
[Party] Chaesyongsyong: My little groom~

Using the agility of his rogue class, Chaesyongsyong dashed to Gureum’s side and took the snake bite for him. Gureum, who had just finished healing Hong Jalla, was taken aback by Chaesyongsyong’s selfless act.

[Party] Chaesyongsyong: Ouchㅠ.ㅠ
[Party] hazeee: Oh no… you should’ve let it bite meㅠㅠ
[Party] King-ga: Who brought up the little groom thing? Damn it, now he’s milking it. Want me to end you?
[Party] Miss Cutie Hee: OMG… ㅇㅅ;ㅇ You can’t even drink cold water in front of elders…

Gureum focused on healing Chaesyongsyong, but in the meantime, King-ga, who had just been bitten, ended up dying.

[Party] King-ga: This is tragic…. I need Heize too…. Ah, so lonely….
[Party] hazeee: I’m really sorryㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
[Party] Chaesyongsyong: Don’t guilt-trip. Just go to the waiting room~^^

As the battle wore on, the support couldn’t keep up with everyone, and party members’ death counts skyrocketed. Following Chaesyongsyong’s suggestion, it wasn’t long before King-ga was out and sent to the boss waiting room.

[Party] King-ga: Chunba, did you finally get your wish?
[Party] Chaesyongsyong: .
[Party] Miss Cutie Hee: Where’d you learn to send just a single dot?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Party] Hong Jalla: Playing Cloud Online has made you youngerㅋㅋ
[Party] 1st Base 2nd Frame: Oh no…;;; I’m out too.

Starting with King-ga, the dealers began to drop out one by one. As usual, Gureum, who was always the last to exhaust his death count, checked the remaining HP of the Maze Queen. About 30% of the third phase’s HP bar remained. It was an incredible achievement.

[Party] King-ga: How much HP is left?
[Party] hazeee: About 30 percent!
[Party] 1st Base 2nd Frame: Holy crap, you’re almost done.
[Party] Hong Jalla: For real. We’ll probably see phase 4 next week.

Hong Jalla pulled a wine glass out of her miscellaneous inventory and tossed it onto the field. It was a junk item dropped by regular monsters.

[Party] Hong Jalla: Raise your glasses for a toast!
[Party] Miss Cutie Hee: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Gulp~
[Party] King-ga: Let’s save the toast for when we actually beat itㅎ
[Party] Hong Jalla: Says the first one to drop out. Telling us what to do is pretty funny.
[Party] King-ga: Haha… Miss Ham, cheers~ ^ㅅ;^

Clearly flustered, King-ga reluctantly picked up the wine glass. Watching the usual banter among the party members, Gureum’s gaze drifted to theCheongsimhwan¹ sitting on his desk. It was something he had secretly taken from the medicine cabinet when his father wasn’t home. Just looking at it gave him a strange sense of calm.

He had a feeling that this week, the boss would be cleared without much trouble.

* * *

Gahyeon casually stretched his hands. Today was the day to turn on the camera, so he lit up the small light, neatened his hair, and started the live broadcast. It didn’t take long before viewers started flooding in. Clearing his throat, Gahyeon greeted them energetically.

“Hello, King Family! Today’s live stream is our second attempt at the Maze Queen!”

As usual, Gahyeon chatted easily with the viewers. Once the live audience was sufficiently large, he sent a message to the party member he was most worried about. Thanks to dragging the messenger window off the broadcast screen, the viewers couldn’t see the conversation.

Me: Heize, how are you feeling today?
Me: Can we go gg (start)?
Me: If you’re nervous, we can delay it, so don’t feel pressured.
Heize: I’m good today!!
Heize: You can enter hehe.

The reply came quickly. Seeing the fast response, it seemed there wouldn’t be any issues to worry about. Gahyeon notified the party members to get ready and glanced at the chat room out of habit. Sure enough, there were viewers making nonsensical comments.

Kimppakjiok: Why did you include Heize again?
Warrior: This rice-eater doesn’t even match the specs, the willpower though…
Ppurippusyeo: Just say you’re jealous of Heize LOL.

Gahyeon scoffed at them internally. Soon, these guys would be flipping out over hazeee’s damage. Although he was a broadcaster too, keeping such viewers around made him uncomfortable. Forcing a smile, he spoke up.

“Okay, we’re entering now!”

As soon as phase one started, hazeee wrapped the Maze Queen in chains without hesitation, and the timing for the follow-up stun was perfect. Phase one ended in an instant: 15 seconds of chains and a 2-second stun, all thanks to the significantly stronger hazeee. As expected, the chat went wild.

RedTuruMedic: What??? Heize’s damage????
LeBuk: The support’s damage is way different from last week?
Huruup: Crazy, one phase chain cut;;

“Everyone’s Angel Howling didn’t get reduced, right?” Gahyeon asked, knowing full well. The party members quickly responded.

[Party] 1st Base 2nd Frame: Yep
[Party] Hong Jalla: Yes
[Party] Miss Cutie Her: All entered phase 2 with 11 lives each ~ <O_O/

The next phase started. Everyone seemed familiar with phase 2, having done it several times. Although the cooldown for the chains wasn’t up yet due to quickly finishing phase 1, hazeee’s quick briefing ensured that everyone was smoothly dealing damage. Because hazeee briefed everyone on the Maze Queen’s Rose Storm and Spear patterns, their effects were even more pronounced.

[Party] hazeee: <<<
[Party] 1st Base 2nd Frame: This is it
[Party] Miss Cutie Her: Brainless hehe, so comfy

Then, during the Spear Pattern, hazeee quickly read the Maze Queen’s gestures. Even as everyone was busy dealing damage, hazeee was quick to assess the situation.

[Party] hazeee: Dodge the spear
[Party] Hong Jalla: Yes, big bro T_T

Seeing the Maze Queen turn her hands counter-clockwise indicated it was time to dodge the spears. Gahyeon confidently declared.

“See? We can’t do without Heize.”