Steel-Eating Player Chapter 29

29. Cheongdam-dong, Red Gate – 2

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The reason Cheongdam-dong’s ‘Red Gate’ became ‘Murder Gate’ was simple.

‘The risk increases as battles with monsters that are highly intelligent and live in groups continue.’

This is because they ‘learn’ over time.

Therefore, increasingly diverse and difficult ‘unexpected patterns’ are used.

In other words, when the first strategy failed, you should have thought a little more and tried the second strategy.

The gnolls inside the gate must have also become more clever as the episode progressed…

‘Especially in the case of some boss monsters, they act much more intelligently.’

Just as human groups achieve completely different results depending on who the leader is, even in the same game, the group led by the ‘Old Alpha Male’ was quite dangerous.

He knew how to observe and think.

They would have watched humans coming in through a certain ‘passage-gate’ through which they had to exit, and they would have come to the conclusion that it would not be a one-time thing.

‘And I worry. The most effective way to kill…’

What he came up with was to launch a ‘concentrated attack’ as soon as he passed the gate.

It may have been a simple idea, but it was very effective.

This was because they maximized the advantage of their overwhelming numbers, and at the same time, due to the nature of this vast wasteland, there was almost no place for players who had just passed through the gate to hide.

That method works until the 5th attack.

But history changed.

It had to be that way.

No matter how clever they are…

‘It hits all at once.’

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba- They

could never have imagined

that the hundreds of arrows, bolts, and crossbows they had fired would stop in the air, split apart, and rain down on their heads like hail .

“Wow…what is that…”

With someone’s admiration, a steel storm swirled along Lee Hyun-wook’s fingertips.

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-

As the storm fell on the hill, a cloud of sand rose up.

Gnoll’s forces swept away in an instant, knocking dozens down in an instant.

That was just the beginning.

They fell vertically and then rose again, this time shooting horizontally.

Like a ‘Locust’, they fly in groups and scratch everything.

and······.

‘······rotation.’

It turned into a black whirlwind and started tearing up the hill.

A blast of metal and sandstorm mingled and made a roaring noise.

Sh-shh-shh-sh-shh-

Although it was a small piece of metal, it stuck to the fur and spun around, causing scratches on the skin. It was quite fatal if it grazed the eyes or the nape of the neck.

Yep! Break-Gang! Yep! Yep!

The sound of a pack of dogs howling echoed through the wilderness.

“uh? “They’re running away!”

Since they were unable to respond, the gnolls began to run away in panic.

‘But the damage does not end here. They will continue to get weaker.’

This is because ‘poison’ was applied to the tip of the arrowhead of that piece of iron.

In other words, if you had suffered even a small injury from the metal storm, you would have been poisoned.

“How do you chase…?”

I know it makes no sense, but Ahn Min-tae asked that question.

Hyunwook Lee shook his head.

Moving recklessly in a dungeon was an act of suicide.

‘There are probably about half of those troops and the other half are waiting in the rear.’

Many more troops and traps would be waiting for them.

“······Bah, what was that just now? what did you do?”

That’s what Park Ki-taek, the leader of the Cheonghwa Guild’s strategy team, asked.

All members of the Cheonghwa Guild turned into surprised rabbit eyes.

Meanwhile, arrows were lodged in Park Ki-taek’s left shoulder and thigh, and the wounds were stained blue. As expected, it was because of the ‘poison’ that was applied to the end of the arrowhead.

‘Poison… It’s not a strong poison, but it’s the blood of the desert mana burn frog that slowly eats away your stamina and mana.’

Old Alpha Male seemed to have realized that the most fearsome weapon that humans wield was ‘skill’, so he was cultivating a large number of frogs containing poison that burns mana.

“I heard that you have the ability to control metal, but I never thought it would be like this…”

Park Ki-taek did not hide his surprise.

The Cheonghwa Guild, including Park Ki-taek, also heard information about the AMT Special Attack Squadron, so they also knew that they were active in the Seoul Station Unlucky Event.

But honestly, deep down, I was ignoring it outright.

The unlock event for those below level 15 will be lower level than this Red Gate dungeon anyway, and no matter how good the AMT soldier is, he is at the bottom…

But that didn’t seem to be the case.

Lee Hyun-wook reached out to Chunghwa team leader Park Ki-taek.

Park Ki-taek tried to hold his hand, thinking he was trying to help him up, but Lee Hyun-wook shook his head.

“No, let’s borrow that shield.”

A shield…

Embarrassed, Park Ki-taek dropped his hand and made a confused expression.

“yes? Why am I giving you my shield?”

“Well… if you don’t want to leave here, I’ll bury you with that shield someday.”

“······.”

Park Ki-taek could not question it.

Although there was a healer, 11 of the 14 people were hit by arrows, including the healer.

And two people were in critical condition and required intensive care.

In other words, it was difficult for Cheonghwa’s attack team to play an active role anymore.

‘Even if you have suffered damage, taking time to recover is one way.’

As a team leader, Park Ki-taek constantly sought ways.

But well…

When night comes, I can already see what kind of attack that vicious group of gnolls will carry out in the future and how I should lead this wounded army to respond…

‘Something must be done before night falls.’

If I spent the night in this wasteland, I would experience an even deeper hell.

In that case, there is only one way

– to trust the AMT Special Attack Platoon…

‘Damn, if this goes on, even if I get out alive, I don’t think I’ll see anything good…’

Even if he had already disgraced the guild, he had made it solid.

But for now, surviving was the priority.

“······Here, take it.”

Lee Hyeon-wook accepted the brass-colored round shield that Park Ki-taek held out.

“Is it a mithril alloy? It is quite light.”

“······.”

As expected, the Cheonghwa Guild seemed to have spent some money.

“A few gnolls might attack here, but you can handle that much, right?”

“······Sure.”

“Then we have no choice but to attack on our own. “This is a situation where we have to do everything without help from start to finish, so after the strategy is over, don’t say anything and testify straight.”

“······yes.”

Park Ki-taek nodded bitterly.

The distribution of rewards obtained from dungeon raids is determined by agreement between both parties, and the agreement was reached at a strategy meeting held between the people in charge of both sides just before entering the gate.

As a result, the Cheonghwa guild, which is currently evaluated to have a relative power advantage, was contracted to own a whopping 70%, and also held the so-called ‘seed right’ to select items first.

‘But if this happens, we may only have about 20% or 100%…’

But that is literally a prior agreement.

It can change depending on the attack situation.

Even if we somehow managed to conquer this dungeon, it was essentially the same as conquering AMT alone.

In other words, the prior agreement had no choice but to be overturned.

‘In effect, AMT takes over everything…’

Lee Hyun-wook’s voice added a wedge to Park Ki-taek’s concerns.

“Listen carefully, the Cheonghwa Guild attack team is actually out. “We do it just between us.”

Actually out…

That was correct.

And at the same time as it started…

However, the atmosphere on the AMT side was not good.

“Hmm… So what should I do now?”

“Can we attack this on our own?”

No matter how great Lee Hyeon-wook was, half of his allies were neutralized.

And as clever as the gnolls were, they wouldn’t be fooled a second time if they had been fooled once.

“uh? Corporal Lee Hyun-wook, look over there!”

Sure enough, several gnolls holding large ‘wooden shields’ appeared on the sand dune.

They protected themselves with shields and dragged their fallen comrades down the hill.

“If that happens… Corporal Lee Hyun-wook’s attack won’t work well, right?”

If someone showed up with a bunch of shields like that, the effectiveness of the metal attack would inevitably decrease drastically.

Pieces of metal fly like a storm and damage the skin by scratching it countless times.

However, the moment it got stuck somewhere, the speed slowed down and its destructive power had no choice but to plummet.

next······.

Ah-ooh!

A howling was heard from somewhere.

“What the hell is this…?”

This was a way for gnolls to exchange messages over long distances.

In other words, they were systematically moving to prey on intruders entering their territory.

Only then did it feel real again.

Standing in the territory of those beasts…

Everyone looked at Lee Hyun-wook with eyes full of worry.

“Yes, honestly, we are overwhelmingly outnumbered.”

“······.”

“But it can be overturned. “Do you remember Spider, the boss monster queen at Seoul Station?”

Everyone nodded.

A queen spider with overwhelming majesty that can never be defeated…

Although Han Taesan appeared and turned him into a mess, he had used the Water-Metal-Electricity-Ice combination to stun him, bind him, and then remove his shell.

If we had had a little more time, we could have caught it without Han Tae-san.

“Raids have to go beyond everything they have and use everything around them, namely the terrain.”

“Are you talking about the terrain?”

“Okay, this time we have to use the terrain.”

But they did not understand the meaning of the words.

“Topography… what do you mean?”

Park Jun-mo asked.

“Park Jun-mo, what do you see in your eyes right now?”

“uh······.”

Park Jun-mo looked around once.

The place where they stood was like a desolate wilderness, and from there the sand dunes were desert.

“It’s just sand and dead trees…”

Hyunwook Lee nodded.

“Yes, I use that.”

······Do you use sand?

Until then, no one understood what Hyunwook Lee said.

***

Lee Hyun-wook favored a ‘bead’ type weapon.

‘The center of gravity is perfect, so it’s easy to control.’

Weapons such as long spears show a wide variety of movements depending on where the metal control is placed.

However, controlling the orb was very clear.

You just need to put your strength into the ‘center’.

‘Moreover, there is no fear of getting caught somewhere.’

In the future, if hundreds or thousands of weapons were to be controlled simultaneously, it would inevitably become difficult to make delicate movements.

Like a swarm of sardines or a swarm of wasps, the best thing to do was to just control it with a certain flow, but every time that was done, things would get caught somewhere and ‘break away’.

But the marbles were different.

It’s small, circular, and smooth, so even if it gets caught somewhere, it will come out in no time.

It was like that even now.

Sussssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss…

Lee Hyun-wook’s 20 iron balls were moving around out of sight, but they didn’t get caught anywhere.

Ssssss…

In the desert sand, they were moving under the sand like desert beetles.

Whoo-ooh-uh-uh-

A gust of sandstorm blew.

“… ugh!”

Except for Hyunwook Lee, they were walking through the desert for the first time in their lives. Since I was born in Korea, I had never experienced the desert, so it was difficult to adapt in many ways.

It was hot, dry and blinding.

‘Still, this level of environment can be said to be fortunate.’

As you get to higher dungeons, the level of hell that you can’t even imagine unfolds…

“······stop.”

Ahn Min-tae, the leader, raised his hand and pointed somewhere.

It was a thick pile of sand.

Lee Hyun-wook warned me in advance that gnolls can lurk in places like that.

In response, archer Private Taeyong Choi stepped forward.

Peek –

The arrow he shot got stuck there, the sand was disturbed, and something was revealed.

It was a corpse to play.

It seemed like he was injured by Lee Hyun-wook and died while retreating.

“I suddenly thought a real gnoll had appeared…”

Even before Ahn Min-tae finished complaining,

Ah-Woo-Woo!

Not far away came the cry of a real gnoll.

This was not a good sign.

“The horse…is turning into a seed…”

Everyone lowered their posture and looked around.

“Corporal Lee Hyun-wook! “It’s coming out from behind the stone over there!”

Park Jun-mo’s shout

As he said, a group of gnolls rose up from behind a pile of stones all at once.

Crrrrrrr······.

About 20 of them were holding wooden clubs rather than swords or spears.

Even the arrows had their tips removed and their shafts sharpened.

‘As expected, Old Alpha Male… you clearly sensed my abilities.’

It seemed like he immediately realized that he was going to break the metal rather than just manipulate it and prepared for it.

In addition, as they had suffered a lot in the past, they wore wooden shields and thick hoods.

If you prepare like that, you can avoid fatal damage to the metal pieces.

“······Be careful of poison arrows and hide behind your shield.”

The three tanks, including Ahn Min-tae, raised their shields and stepped forward.

Lee Hyun-wook also lifted the mithril alloy shield he had ripped from Park Ki-taek.

The rest moved at an angle where they could be protected by the tanker’s shield and lowered their stance.

“uh! It comes from behind the tree at 3 o’clock!”

“They’re coming from behind!”

Ten of them appeared behind a tree.

And up to 12 from the back…

There were 44 in total.

“We’re damn surrounded!”

It was a trap.

There were ambushes all over the place waiting for players to enter this deep place.

“Park Jun-mo, are you ready for a surprise attack?”

“Yes now I can fire at number 7!”

Until I dealt with kobolds, I said that 4 times was the maximum.

Of course, his abilities did not improve.

It was just that the ability to finely control increased with a lot of practice.

Certainly, all of them have become much stronger since the past few days.

And he was going to keep getting stronger.

“Yes, sand is an insulator, so it hits the gnoll directly.”

“yes!”

Park Jun-mo took a breath and boldly swung his wand.

Whoops!

For a moment, there was a flash of light, and the two arrows were thrown up and landed on a pile of stones.

Wake up!

This is easy to say, but it was a significant hit rate.

“······It was great.”

“They hesitate.”

With that powerful blow, the gnolls who had been narrowing the siege stopped for a moment.

But it was only for a moment.

Ah-ooh!

When the howling sounded again, they started moving again.

It was probably an order from Old Alpha Male.

The guy was watching from somewhere.

Whoosh – whoosh – whoosh – whoosh –

As the distance narrowed, they started shooting arrows.

But arrows without heads were neither very fast nor accurate.

“Concentrate and avoid the arrows and keep them coming to surround you.”

“······.”

“Wait calmly and they won’t attack until the distance is sufficiently closed.”

As he said, the knolls walked in slowly until they were narrowed down to 100m.

Then they started to put their arms around each other’s shoulders.

“uh? What else is that…”

It formed a kind of shield wall like the Testudo square in Rome.

‘I’ve properly devised a way to block my skill.’

The idea was to build shields up to the front, sides, and above the head to almost completely block metal attacks.

I could somehow squeeze a piece of metal through the gap in the shield, but…

‘······If you don’t have speed and volume, you’ll end up just annoying the enemy.’

As mentioned before, the piece of iron was effective only if it was driven like a storm.

A single point of wind actually has no power, but if the winds gather and tangle to form a typhoon, it can uproot trees and collapse buildings.

“Corporal Hyunwook Lee, the distance has been narrowed to about 50m.”

They slowly began to threaten me like a pack of wolves hunting.

Kreur…

The pressure was enormous.

Although they no longer showed fear like before, everyone was trembling.

“after······.”

At this rate, it seemed as if they would be swallowed up by them any moment.

The distance is such that you can feel the unpleasant smell peculiar to wild animals wafting over to the gnolls…

“Okay, keep waiting…”

Everyone held their breath and looked at Lee Hyun-wook’s mouth.

He had his eyes closed and was sensing metal.

Iron beads scattered everywhere…

There…

“······shredded.”

Infused with mana.

Per-billion-! Per-billion! Per-billion!

With a roar, the sand rose up from under their feet as the shield wall of the gnoll group narrowed the siege.

Per-billion! Per-billion! Per-billion!

To be exact, the ‘iron ball’ buried underneath exploded like a landmine.

They had formed a square with shields and were protecting all sides, but it was impossible to defend only one area: under their feet.

And like the first attack, this too was a blow I never expected.

Kke-gang! Kwae!

Dozens of fragments severed the Gnoll’s toes and tore through his calves and thighs.

In that split second, about 20 animals collapsed.

Pieces of iron, sand, fur, and blood – they were tangled together and soared into the air.

Whoo-doo-duh-duk- The

ambitious shield wall designed by Old Alpha Male collapsed so easily.

“It doesn’t mean you just have to look out for the top of your head.”

It was a storm of metal pieces pouring down from above, followed by an explosion of metal pieces rising from under my feet.

This was the method of using the terrain that Hyunwook Lee mentioned.

“No matter how clever they are, they are still beasts.”

Hyunwook Lee said that and raised his left hand.

“······The hunting begins.”

As he promised earlier, Lee Hyun-wook planned to use this Red Gate as a ‘nutrition’.