This is military advisor Shadyna, reporting in from the sky!

After two days of practice, I still have no idea if my crew is ready since I was practicing alone. It couldn't be helped, okay? My task was too dangerous to perform around others, practice or not!

_ Elri (Party): Why are there so many players here?!

_ Hessy (Party): It's weekend. Just send them on their way, by lethal force if necessary.

That is why everyone is evacuating (exterminating) bystanders on Snow Mountain right now. If they surrender, we give them a [Recall] item to go back. Otherwise, stab, shoot, pulverize, depending on which member is talking.

We have to do this quickly, or some may respawn and run back here.

Or that. Please hurry up, everyone~

As for mobs and bosses, we lure them to the foot of the mountain. They respawn too quickly, and we need the place completely clear for at least ten minutes, so no killing those.

Somehow, the mobs are getting better treatment than the players?!

_ Hessy (Party): , are you sure we don't need to place anything for [Recall]?

_ Shadyna (Party): Un, there's no point doing so. I will place them when I get close to the boss.

_ Hessy (Party): Got it.

With this many players, we had no choice but to split into multiple parties. Because we don't have access to guild chat, the supposed party leaders are in same party as me to coordinate.

The first party consists of Elri, Hessy, Mera, , as well as our tanky players. There's also me, the poor party leader who got the role simply because of LDR bonus.

Our next party is filled with ranged players, a.k.a nukes. They will be bombarding the boss from afar while the tanks keep it occupied, or so we planned. Hessy is the actual leader while Nerin is in name only. Do your best, Nerin~

The last party is a bit… unconventional in this kind of game. Yes, it's our (delivery) cavalry unit, including and , with the latter being party lead. Elri is, of course, the real leader. I have no idea if their DPS will exceed the nuke party, but their burst damage is certainly unrivaled.

We do have healers for each party. Even though each player here can craft foods that heal to almost full HP already…

For the main fight, my presence as one of the tanks is the only change to the plan. Otherwise Hessy wouldn't have let me off with just a lecture previously…

My plan for before the battle, however… Un, it's good that I have told no one about it~

____________

Amidst the usual chaotic crowd that is the tavern patrons gossiping and buying hearty meals hand-made by the cute employees of the cafeteria, a group of little girls are struggling to make way to the counter.

Because it's actually the disappointing handsome man that is who is cooking said hearty meals at the moment, the mood has dampened greatly.

As much as she wants to barf just like everyone else in the vicinity upon witnessing the scene, does not have time to spare right now.

_ Vladina: ! Sprout is making trouble at Snow Mountain!

Despite the news, is apparently not interested in the slightest.

_ Olkan: Hope she finishes quickly. I am making a lot of money, yet feeling so empty at the same time…

He wants this temporary job to end as much as the players around him. He wants to be surrounded by ladies with ample chests, not degenerates!

Just thinking about it gives him the dead fish eyes like the rest of the perverts in this place. Makes one wonder if these people ever have anything else better to do, like grinding levels and equipment, for example.

_ Olkan: Besides, isn't in charge of preventing boss raids there?

They don't have to be stronger than to prevent her from killing the boss. Constant disruptions to combat lines are enough to stop most raids completely. In that sense, having more combatants in the area is not necessary either.

And is a guild of crafters in the first place!

_ Vladina: [Goddess's Chosen] has updated again! Do you want her to get materials meant for closed beta players, potentially stronger than [Artifact]?!

[An individual recognized by the Goddess. Granted access to the vision of the future. In addition, beneficial support is provided depending on the visions.

Vision: An encroaching darkness preys on the mountain of eternal winter, threatening all living beings.

Support: Nullify cold damage.]

Of course, there's no guarantee to gain anything at all. However, for these players who were exposed to rare loots, everything looks like new rare loots to them.

_ Olkan: Dear Sateri-chan, WHY?! Is that girl not OP enough for you?!

Due to the urgency of the situation, could only gather the merchants currently eating in the building. Not the strongest bunch, but they can at least be shields for the little girls in combat.

As if that meant anything against their target, but no one wants to make morale drop even lower and stays shut.

They enter the second basement floor to use the [Recall] network. The merchant tending the place lets the two guildmasters in without asking questions. He does collect the service fee though, because he was paid to do the job.

_ Vladina: Tsk, "under maintenance". Who would believe that?!

In the room filled with shelves containing stone tablets, the section for Snow Mountain's tablets has a sign saying "Under maintenance. Do not use." in front of it. Not suspicious at all, thinks nobody ever.

_ Olkan: Let's use it. They probably put it here to deter us.

_ Vladina: Of course! Let's go!!!

Like moths to flame, the Pervert Alliance quickly activate the tablets. They were too busy thinking about whatever boss was fighting, they did not stop to think why the cafeteria crew did not simply put away the items.

…

_ Vladina: …WHERE THE HELL IS THIS!!!

_ Olkan (PM): I'm not seeing you. And this isn't Snow Mountain.

They were sent to random locations on the other side of the world map instead.

____________

_ Miel (Party): , I'm ready.

_ Shadyna (Party): Roger~

Except for , there is no player nor monster left on the mountain. And with this, the next phase begins.

_ Shadyna: [Leap]! [Friendship Engine], full throttle~!

I wasn't just fooling around while everyone was working hard you know? During that time, I was flying to the upper atmosphere. As high as the top of the tower, to be exact.

Turns out, not having to stop to heal made the trip much faster than expected. I was already hovering with [Air Cushion] when everyone was only halfway done. Bonus points please~

_ Shadyna (Party): Beginning run in 3…2…1… [ Kinetic Blasting Excavator]!

---

[ Kinetic Blasting Excavator]

- Creator:

- Quality:

- Type: , , , ,

- Uses: 1/1

- Enhancement:

+

+

- Enchantment:

+

+

- FOC: 17

- MAT: 2000

- Alchemy: Piercing Arrow Lv.13

- Food:

+

+ 174 MP

- Furniture: Engineering Lv.16

---

The excavator series is back~! This time, with a score to settle!

My gauntlet-shaped rune shines brightly as it unleashes a bright arrow downwards. That arrow is packed with every kind of firepower available in the game. The old excavator was state-state of the art for its time, but brought this to another level.

[Overcharge] and [Overdrive] turn it into a one-use fragile cannon which breaks down in many ways after usage. It will be broken, out of ammo, and out of enchantment charges, to be exact. 's long rod looks durable in comparison!

[Engineering] is a combination of bow and arrow together, with unknown attack power. I think they do stack with weapon and rune's bonuses to make a bigger explosion. Because its attack deals damage, I cannot use it against others and had to clear the area first.

Why did I use [Engineering] here if it limits my options? The answer is range.

All other means of attack in the game have a time to live. Arrows and spells disappear once that time is up. Same goes for thrown items.

An exception to this mechanic is siege engines' projectiles. Once fired, a bolt from a siege engine will not stop until it hits something. In practice, it still has a range limit due to gravity pulling it to the ground.

In MY practice, however, that just means I can fire wherever I want if I am at a high enough location, like where I am at the moment.

It's over, bonus boss. I have complete air supremacy!

_ Mera (Party): Our part-timer just called~ He said and had tried to use our own [Recall] network to join us~

For the record, it was Mera's idea to replace the tablets with forgeries. They raise less suspicion for unrelated players, and our pursuers will waste more time going back and forth. Such were the reasons for her proposal.

Personally speaking, I am pretty sure she simply wanted to troll them. She even asked the part-timer to report when someone attempts to use the tablets!

_ Hessy (Party): Can't even rely on that degenerate to tend the store… I'll fire him later.

Why are you acting like a proper human resource manager now?! I do agree with the decision though. He skipped his shift to sabotage our efforts, of all things!

Oops, better not lose focus. What I am doing is monotonous, but I have to be fast and precise.

After firing, the excavator needs to be refilled by using [Creation] again. I organized my inventory a bit to make this as brainless as I possibly could. Fire, activate [Creation], grab materials, finish craft, rinse and repeat. Thanks to my absurdly high crafting speed, I can do this three to four times per second, midflight.

If someone was to draw my flight path, it would look like a very tall tornado whose center is the summit. It is a carefully calculated path to have all the shots land at roughly the same time. This is not to brag, but when it comes to velocity, I can crunch numbers just as much as any min-maxer in this game!

And it's not indiscriminate bombing if there's no one in the area. True pacifism achieved~

When the "bombs" hit, each will carve a big chunk out of the terrain, just like the old excavator in my secret base. Too bad for Sateri, but I don't care about resources this time.

I only want the mountain to disappear.

…That doesn't sound really pacifist-like, does it?

Still, it's just a logical course of action. If the boss area is too small to fight in, I destroy everything it knows and loves to make room for us. A good strategist makes good use of the terrain, while a brilliant strategist makes good terrain to use!

Feel free to praise me, un~

The number of falling "arrows" around me has increased quite a lot. I wonder if it can give a "rain of fire" feeling when seen from below?

Nevertheless, I have no idea how much terrain this barrage will destroy. If it is not enough, I will do another run and bombard again, and again. There's ammunition for me to do this all~ day~ long~

There are only a few dozen meters left between me and the summit. Time to conclude this run.

_ Shadyna (Party): , jump as high as you can!

_ Miel (Party): Got it.

Was she anticipating something? Because that was a pretty fast reaction time. She had been already in the air before I could finish my sentence.

_ Shadyna: [Leap]!

Don't worry, I do not intend to have a midair collision with her. That would ruin my pacifism.

Steering slightly to the side, I turn head first to the surface, and . As we fly side-by-side in opposite directions, I reach out for her.

By that, I mean grabbing her arm, pulling her sideways to gain momentum, then finally throwing her at the ground again. rocket, go~

_ Miel (Party): Kya.

Monotone voice is out~ You haven't improved at all in that regard huh, .

It would be boring to use the same explosive arrow for the summit, so I used an explosive waitress instead. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that!

Having done my job, I use [Friendship Engine] to get away from ground zero. If I crash into the ground, the explosion will hurt , so let's avoid that at all cost.

Why is she rotating midair like I did to her?

Is… is she seriously going to swing her hammer at the ground to add even more damage?! I didn't even inform her of the plan beforehand!

…Sorry.

_ Miel: Divine…

Today is not a good day to be the ground, that's for sure.

_ Miel: Impact!

The moment her massive hammer slams onto the ground… Time stops.

_ Shadyna (Party): Eh?

_ Miel (Party): , can you move?

_ Shadyna (Party): I can't.

Chat is still functioning, so we have not disconnected. In that case, why did everything halt as if frozen in time?

____________

[Warning: Terrain modification prediction overflowed.]

[Warning: Spawn points loss reached critical level in region.]

[Warning: Condition checker for player is not responding.]

[Warning: Condition checker for player is not responding.]

[Warning: …]

[Warning: Operational errors reached critical level. Suspending global state, effective immediately.]

_ Sateri: Enough already!!!

The governing AI's personality module cries out as she got drowned in error messages from the underlying systems. While there is no one around to hear her out, there is no reason to suppress her expression functionalities either.

It doesn't matter because the whole system is going to crash at this rate!

She was monitoring the abnormal situation in [Winter Mountain] region when broke through [Void] again a few minutes ago for unknown reasons. As per the procedures for dealing with this player, she began accessing players' memory cache to see what was transpiring. During that time, the cheeky girl began dropping in-game equivalent of unguided bombs all over the hunting zone.

There's no problem with her firepower, nor speed, nor terrain destruction. Sateri's processing power has to handle each of them on a daily basis to begin with.

But not all of them, en masse, at the same time!!!

And all of that just because the boss stage is too small for their liking. Do these players even understand the definition of "overkill"?!

Errors have been dealt with and operations can resume normally. However, the Goddess has come to a grievous prediction.

The Avitus Caelicola down there has zero chance.

Creating an unbeatable boss is easy, but it is not a good experience for players. On the other side, a supposedly-dangerous boss that is trivially killed brings satisfaction to no one. While she does not know how the parties will proceed once the fighting begins, 's complete control up to this point indicates a high probability of her destroying the boss with little effort.

As a game designer, Sateri has a duty to throw metaphorical spanners in players' plans. That is not to mention her bet the other day. What is the point of making such a bet if it doesn't faze the opponent in the slightest?

That is why, she has to take matters into her own virtual hands.

_ Sateri: Disable AI routine. Manual control interface, initialize!

It can also be said that she is just being petty, but again, there is no one here to call her out.

____________

_ Hessy (Party): What were you doing to end up like this anyway?

_ Shadyna (Party): How mean~ It could have been something else!

Because no one can move a single muscle, we can only chat to kill time. Everyone is already blaming me for what happened however.

That's unfounded prejudice, I'm telling you~

_ Miel (Party): I would like to mention that I did not give consent for to…

_ Elri (Party): Spare me your delusions, please!

[Warning: Spatial anomaly detected. Caution is advised.]

With a mysterious message from the system, everything springs back to life.

*BLAM*

's hammer creates a deafening sound as it collides with the surface. At the point of contact, explosions from [Divine Impact], [Mancannon] and [Warhead] shatter the top of the mountain into countless chunks of ice. We are experiencing a horrible hail made of said chunks that got blasted away in all directions, including upwards.

Was that supposed to happen? I never had flying debris in my secret base…

Before I can question further, the rest of my attacks arrive. Shining arrows come crashing down around us. Every one of them result in a massive explosion underground, blowing up the ice in similar fashion to 's strike.

_ Elri (Party): WHAT. THE. HELL!!!

In a few seconds, all arrows landed. I can't see the damage on the surface because of all the icy fragments blocking my view, many of which hit me relentlessly. The density is way too thick to evade! I wonder if I'm taking damage from it…

From below, there is a loud rumbling that I did not expect for this bombing run. Not that I expected a hailstorm created by heavy bombardment, mind you, but these kinds of sounds are usually heard in bad situations.

_ Hessy (Party): The mountain!

Yup, bad situation, confirmed.

The sounds of ice cracking overtake the rumbling. It feels like everything is breaking apart, judging from all the noises around. The earth is not breaking, right?

*BOOM*

Then, it was an explosion. One that is way too big to be one of my arrows, followed by a very big window being smashed by kids throwing baseball. That was just my imagination, based on what I just heard. I can't see anything out of this light presumably from the explosion anyway.

The light subsides, but I still can't find it.

Snow Mountain… is gone, along with the hail that was here moments ago.

There is no sign of the huge literal iceberg that once resided on this flatland. Only a plain covered in snow remains in its place. No animals, no trees, just a big empty plot of land that spans several kilometers everywhere I look.

Actually, scratch that. I spotted movements below us.

A rectangular box that is apparently made of old iron sheets. Several blueish lines run across the surface resemble the traces on a circuit board, glowing lightly. One side in particular has a circle of the same blue material. A line run from top to bottom, splitting that side into two equal areas.

Beneath the box, an iron ring slowly rotates counterclockwise. It doesn't look like it is for flying around and throwing spells at me, but the support platform for the box to float on top instead.

I am too far to use [Inspect], but I know what it is. After all, I have seen it many times in and 's footages.

That "box" is [Executioner God Tremire Husan], our target today. Another weird boss, if I may add…

The side with the circle is its "front", and it's facing me. Is it a coincidence, or…

*Zzzzt zzzzt*

DIVE!!!

A red sphere appeared in front of the circle, and it started making electrical static noises, so I immediately take evasive maneuvers. I do not know how it targeted me despite our distance, but I will not take chances against that attack.

We are about six to seven kilometers apart by the by. It's way past the maximum range for our weapons to begin with!

*FWOOSH*

A red laser beam pierces through the air where I was seconds ago. This is one of its main attacks, but why is it not limited by range like players' weapons?! Foul play, this is foul play!

The 30-minute timer has started counting down. Sateri said it would when the boss aimed at me. I suppose it really can see me from that distance huh.

This boss fight is going to be a pain, isn’t it…