World Boss? No Thanks! 1: So This is a Big Brother?!

Within the Ancient Plains, there stood a lone, blood red altar. Around it, the earth quaked and a river of magma and blood boiled. High above, a gigantic black dragon blotted out the skies as it roared a roar so loud even the deaf could hear it. All throughout the shrine, the air trembled from the aura of death exuded by the mere shout of the black dragon.

It was announcing to the puny intruders, I...am the real overlord of this shrine!

"That should be enough showboating for that dragon. On my command, skip the cutscene and then it's time for us to show that dragon who's boss." I said, finger pointing at the gigantic dragon with the poise and aura expected of a holy knight cum raid leader.

"Bo...Boss, can't we just let this cutscene play out, that dragon's pretty cool looking, *gulp*." Said one of the gnonism warriors in a trembling voice.

Hearing that, I immediately turned my character around and gave that gnomish warrior an emperor-class scolding.

"Daf*ck do you mean by wait, once that cutscene is over, that dragon will throw on an area wide debuff ---Death's Breath, a spell which causes massive percentage HP loss---, at that time I think even our hotkey spamming priests will get carpal tunnel syndrome."

'Do you think a world boss is something you can take on just because you say so?! You're taking things too lightly!'

"Later, I want the fighters to charge in first and get rid of the boss's armored status right away with a Divine Dragon's Tail Whip. If possible, I want his Death's Breath interrupted before it reaches 50%."

The fighters nodded their heads.

"Got it, Boss."

"Warriors, I want you all to be ready to follow up with a Violent Shield Smash to stun the boss. Mages, make sure not to cast your Light Aria more than three times or you'll grab aggro off the tanks."

"Once the boss has been CCed (crowd control), I want the assassins to open up with a burst combo and smash your faces into that lizard. Once that's done, make sure to retreat immediately or the boss might send you flying with a roar. Wait til your CDs (cooldowns) are over before charging in with another combo."

"The rest of the holy knights, you all are with me in holding aggro on the boss. Make sure to have your Divine Light invincibility buff ready to fend off that Death's Breath at the 50% HP mark."

The singled out occupations all nodded their heads in unison.

"Priests…"

The priests eagerly awaited their instructions with bated breaths.

"Don't...press anything."

Jeez, are you sure we're fighting a boss here and not doing hard labor!?

Naturally no one said that to the raid leader or else…

"A world boss isn't something you take on willy nilly, don'cha know!?" As a raid leader, that was a catchphrase of sorts.

Jeebus, was that some kind of meme amongst the raid leaders in this game, sounds so familiar.

As the priests stared at their still pristine fingers, they couldn't help but pat themselves on their backs…

These days, it's really not easy being a priest!

Thus, the boss fight started with a thunderous landing. The raid members cycled through their duties as told and after a single rotation…

Two Death's Breath were unleashed. One got to the halfway point and was interrupted while the other never left the dragon's mouth at all and was stuck in its throat like  day old phlegm that refused to budge.

"Death...it is only the beginning. Once this king returns, we swear to return all of you to dust! We will remember this!" After being defeated by the players, the boss threw out the typical villain threat and flew off into the blood red skies.

"Phew." Still seated in my LAN cafe chair, I gave my back a good stretching.

'Weird, that line from that black dragon seemed a little strange, normally there shouldn't be any last words at all. Was that hotfixed into the event?' I mused to myself.

"Boss, it's time to split the loot! There's a drop for holy knights. If you don't want, I'm giving it away!" The sounds of my raid comrades clearly rang out in my ears.

"Hey! Who said I don't want it, I do! If you give it to someone else, I'll f**king murder you!"

'Well, changing the event shouldn't be too much of an issue, right?' Thus, that matter was swiftly thrown to the back of my head.

In the distant black dragon nest…

The solitary figure of a gigantic dragon could be seen perched within amidst a backdrop of gory red and lacquered blackness. It slowly opened up its lacquered black wings after which its blood red pupils turned towards a distant location…

……….

"By the way, Boss, how many times have you beaten this world boss, why do you seem so familiar with its tactics?!" Asked one of the elven mages.

"Hmm, this should be my hundredth time." I shrugged my shoulders as I said that.

"100 times?!" The elf's eyes were as wide as saucers right now.

"Well, if I'm not wrong, it should roughly be that number."

"But isn't that a world boss! A world boss that takes a 100 man raid one hour to complete?!" By now, his elven eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.

"Well, that used to take a lot longer in the past when I still had to iron out my tactics." I said with a hint of nostalgia in my voice.

"I...bow before big brother!" The elven mage fell to the ground with a thump.

"Wahh, what are you doing?" His sudden kowtowing truly came as a shock to me. Dude, that instant kowtow of yours, exactly what level was it at for you to be so proficient in it!?

"Then...what about arena, what's your winrate in arena like?!" He continued asking, disregarding whatever damage he dealt to his beautiful eyes by doing so.

'I swear those eyes of yours are going to pop out soon…'

"90% I guess. I lost a few matches in the start since I still hadn't picked up on the trick then."

"Wha--what---the f**k! You're the one they call the [Player Boss]?!"

'Ah, there goes his eyeballs.'

'That's probably an emote. I always wondered why they designed such a useless function into the game!'

The elven mage quietly knelt down and plopped his eyeballs back into their sockets…

'This...might really be a big brother.' The elven mage muttered to himself.

"Actually...I work in the advertising department for the game [Fan Tian]" Said the mage.

'Fan Tian huh…' I vaguely remembered some of its advertisements. 'Something about the new era of Chinese holographic gaming, right? I remember wanting to play that pretty badly but the headgear required for the internal testing phase was too expensive so I ended up not playing.'

"If it's possible, I would like for you to become one of our company's core players and give us feedback on our games!"

'A core player for [Fan Tian]? Not to mention free as well?'

'Well sh*t, there's such thing as a free lunch from heaven after all!"

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Footnotes:

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Credits:

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Special thanks to Kaung Thant Win Naing!!

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