Episode 200
2.
The reaction was explosive.
—My queen, please freeze too.
—Haah. I want to watch that again.
People were going wild over the Ice Lord's appearance.
—Holy crap. A 5-star status ailnt? And it's Freeze? How are we supposed to kill her?
—Are there even any accessories with that kind of status ailnt resistance on the market?
—Even Fly is underleveled for this, and you're slapping a status ailnt on top of that? That's way too unfair.
—Items with Freeze immunity are skyrocketing.
—There aren't any listings at all. Anything above 4-star?
—Even 3-star ones have tripled in price, minimum.
And so players ignored the lord's looks and focused on analyzing other aspects.
As expected, the hottest topic was the 5-star "Freeze" status ailnt the Ice Lord had displayed.
It was a new kind of pattern, sothing players had never experienced before.
In truth, the top rankers had more or less anticipated sothing like this and were already preparing.
Starting from 6-Star dungeons, it wasn't uncommon to see 2-star and 3-star status ailnts.
That was why high-level dungeons were so difficult.
Just clearing them was hard enough, with five or more clear conditions to deal with. Adding status ailnts on top of that was the beginning of hell.
That was why items with immunity or resistance to any kind of status ailnt were so expensive.
It was just like in a ga.
And the more expensive they were, the more they were worth the price.
—On the flip side, if you can just get Freeze resistance or immunity, this dungeon isn't that different from the others, right?
—Aside from the level-86 boss.
—Just from her vibe, it feels like that 5-star Freeze is all she's got.
—If her combat stats were high on top of that, it wouldn't make sense.
—If she were truly on another level, they wouldn't have listed the recomnded difficulty as 8-Star. There's gotta be an angle for players to exploit.
—The best way to establish dominance is to open with your strongest skill, right? My guess is that Ice Lord chick doesn't have much else.
—There's a reason Freeze-related items are going up in price.
It was clearly a threat and an act of intimidation aid at humanity.
Still, people were scouring that very footage for answers.
From the top-tier rankers all the way down.
Right now, they didn't even dare set foot in the Ice Castle's territory, but there was no guarantee it would stay that way forever.
In the end, the Ice Castle would also be conquered by humans soday.
Just like all the other dungeons that had appeared on Earth.
No matter how threatening sothing was, humans would overco it one way or another.
The question was whether you could get your foot in the door at that historic and highly profitable mont.
It was the kind of turning point that could define a player's entire career.
They were all preparing for that mont, which was why they were buying up related accessories at heavily inflated prices.
And naturally, attention turned to the player most closely associated with these kinds of issues.
—What's Fly saying?
—Is he going to attempt a clear now?
—Can he?
—If it's the Fly Guild, they probably already scooped up all the intel and cleaned out the market.
—He might've stockpiled stuff in advance.
The only guild and player considered even remotely capable of taking on the Ice Castle.
He opened his mouth.
"The Fly Guild and I consider the Ice Castle that appeared in the Arctic to be just another dungeon. It clearly has a powerful boss and a tricky 5-star status ailnt, but we do not believe it is impossible to clear. We are also taking into account the possibility that this dungeon could trigger a Dungeon Break and move south out of the Arctic. However, given the current global situation, we have judged that forcing a clear of the Ice Castle would be more dangerous than beneficial in many ways, and have therefore decided to postpone any attempts."
For people who loved to tear others down, his statent was perfect fodder.
He had phrased it diplomatically for a massive audience, but it was no different from saying that, at the mont, they lacked the ability to clear it and would just leave it alone.
Naturally, criticism and condemnation poured in.
Could they really afford to leave a cancer that might lead to humanity's extinction alone just because it was dangerous?
Fly's answer to that was firm.
"There will be no Ice Castle attempts until we are confident in our ability to clear it."
If they were the type to be swayed by public opinion, they would have been swayed long ago.
Fly had the power and prestige that ca with their position, giving them the strength to shrug off the hateful comnts people spewed out of jealousy.
As public interest in them naturally cooled, people moved on to their next target.
—Can't we get Kim Buja to do sothing?
He was only level 35.
If it had been any other player, the comnts would have told him to go grind in a 3-Star dungeon, yet all eyes were on him.
* * *
"This is kind of a lot of pressure."
Kim Buja scratched his head at the flood of attention.
He had more or less expected it.
"It's worse than I thought."
That was just how these people operated.
They were shut-ins who spent all day on community boards, acting like they were level-70-plus mbers of Fly.
The kind of people who publicly roasted top-tier rankers in front of hundreds of millions of viewers and dogpiled them, trying to shove them into dangerous dungeons without a shred of guilt.
Of course, the important thing was not to get swept up in it.
But it was impossible not to be affected at all.
Fly could ignore it because they were at that level, with that much power and prestige, but for players whose livelihoods depended on their image, the community's power was not sothing they could casually dismiss.
And what the community players wanted this ti was, as always, one thing.
"They probably just want more screenshots of the Ice Lord to save, right?"
Individual desires might differ, but what most people wanted boiled down to that.
Whether they had fallen for the Ice Lord's looks or were impressed by her abilities.
Either way, the reason the Ice Castle was getting this much attention right now was ultimately thanks to the Ice Lord's overwhelming, spectacular debut.
"Hm."
He fell into thought.
He was torn.
He was also curious.
'Does she really not have any other abilities?'
The na "The Ice Castle" even sounded appealing.
Above all, what interested players most was the reward for killing the Ice Lord.
"Becoming the owner of the Ice Castle."
Kim Buja had already experienced sothing similar.
The Castle of Nightmares.
He'd once had the chance to beco its lord but had passed on the opportunity because he didn't particularly need it.
This ti was different.
That had been inside a dungeon, but this was on Earth—a massive castle built in a place uninhabitable by humans.
How cool was that?
The Lord of the Arctic.
It was a title no one else could have.
More than anything, in this era, owning your own land and your own castle carried even more weight.
It might even feel like becoming the king of a country.
"Hmm."
That was why he had to be even more cautious.
The bigger the reward, the greater the risk.
'What if what the Ice Lord showed isn't all she has?'
Most people assud she had opened with her strongest skill to establish dominance, pretending to let the remaining players go after exhausting her power.
But Buja looked at it from a different angle.
'She's level 86.'
A 5-star Freeze status ailnt.
It was undeniably powerful.
Considering his own Legendary item, the Nightmare Bracelet, granted immunity to 4-star status ailnts, it would take at least a 5-star Legendary item to counter it—or sothing of equivalent rarity with an option specific to Freeze.
Either way, it wasn't sothing one could easily prepare for, so people assud that was all she had.
But given the dungeon's 8-Star difficulty and the boss's level, there was no way that was all she had.
'I can't rule out the possibility that it's just a penalty applied to the dungeon itself.'
It was powerful, but not impossible to counter.
While it might be an insurmountable wall for ordinary players, it was a different story for soone like Fly, who possessed countless items. For that matter, even Kim Buja, who was only immune to status ailnts up to 4-star, could still resist effects one tier higher.
If he only had to block it once, how much of a threat could a boss be whose entire strategy revolved around that single attack?
Level wasn't a huge factor in high-level fights. Unless there was an overwhelming stat gap, one could compensate with party composition and items.
In the end, he needed more.
More information.
So of the top rankers were likely hiding among the masses on the forums, subtly muddying the waters and steering public opinion, which was why the topic continued to rage. He even wondered if Fly might be pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Kim Buja refused to get dragged into it.
However, that didn't an he completely ignored the flood of attention. He had carefully cultivated his image, competing with Fly by taking a distinctly different path.
"It feels a little strange to volunteer myself, but here we go."
Kim Buja started his stream.
4.
"In response to all the interest, I'll go check it out myself."
With that one calm sentence, the chat exploded. So people tried to stop him, while others accused him of lying.
Everyone reacted differently, but one thing was certain: he had their full attention.
Countless news outlets began relaying his stream in real ti, and articles poured out. That was the world now—a world where a single comnt from a random player could beco an official news story, broadcast live. It was a world where players were the most important social issue.
In such a world, knowing how to sway public opinion was a basic survival skill.
Of course, it wasn't like Kim Buja had ever formally studied the subject.
"I'm sure everyone's curious and looking for soone willing to take one for the team, right? Naturally, no one actually thought I'd go in there to clear it. I don't either. My level? I'm 35. I'll be lucky if I don't get slapped by so random monster on the way and knocked out cold."
But he had learned through experience.
He knew how to play the ga.
He knew what people wanted.
"I'll go and check it out. I can't promise I'll clear the Ice Castle, but I'll go take a look around. However!"
And he knew exactly what he could gain by satisfying their desires.
"Among the currently revealed information, the most solid fact we have about the Ice Castle is the 5-star Freeze status ailnt. If you can't deal with that, you can't even step inside, right? Unfortunately, I don't have an item that can counter it. I tried to find one, but there are literally none on the market. So here's my proposal: if soone provides with that item, I'll risk my life to bring back information on the Ice Castle."
Beyond that, he didn't particularly want anything.
He just needed a pretext. A reason to bow out, taking the public's attention with him.
Of course, people would curse him out.
—So you never planned on going in from the start!
—Knew it. Figures.
The chat was flooded with ssages, but Kim Buja just laughed. Compared to indifference, this kind of attention gave him strength. More importantly, this wasn't so shaless excuse; it was just common sense.
It looked like things would end there. The interest directed at him would simply fade.
—I'll provide it.
If not for Fly's firm and cheerful reply.
* * *
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