"10 Squad. This ti, it’s the sea."
Thank you for participating in Cloyd Survival.
1,000 users connected. Starting Cloyd Survival.
Language sync rate... 73%... 90%... 100% complete.
The ga will now begin. Difficulty: Upper-Mid. Please rank within the Top 400. In the current lobby, attacks between players are disabled.
The designated map is Sea of Plunder. Rewards are given from the Top 100 and up on a tiered basis.
This ga will run for 200 days, and each day the map available for play will be limited.
The boundary fields restricting maps will grow stronger day by day, so please be careful not to suffer outside the field.
If you subrge into deep sea areas on this map, it will result in Ga Over, so please be careful.
This ga is version 10 Squad. You may look at a player of your choice and request to form a squad.
The ga continues until only one final squad remains. Players who are eliminated or when the ga ends will return to their original world.
If you fail to rank within the Top 400, you will never be able to access Cloyd Survival again. The total number of participants is 1,000.
We wish all players success.
Please find teammates to proceed with the ga. Ti limit: 100 minutes. If you do not form a team within that ti, you will continue the ga as a solo player.
"Haah. First the sky, now the sea?"
With a sigh, Seowoon looked out at the endless ocean, calm and without a single wave. Then he heard a familiar clear voice.
"Hyung!"
As expected, as soon as the summoning ended, Lyle ca running and jumped into Seowoon’s arms first.
He pushed past Juriel and Lilingwi, who had been approaching Seowoon, making them both hesitate and miss their timing.
As always, Seowoon roughly tousled Lyle’s hair, who looked up at him with big, round eyes.
"Hyung, did the guild war go well? I got all the items you sent !"
"Yeah. Wrapped it up cleanly without a scratch."
Just as Seowoon was detaching Lyle, the two won approached him—but in that mont, Seowoon’s gaze completely changed.
"Focus on the ga. We’re on a battlefield where survival is at stake."
His sudden change in expression made the two won flinch and take a step back.
This was a stark contrast from Seowoon’s usual laid-back and slightly clumsy deanor, which made Kichan smirk knowingly.
’He flipped the switch.’
That was how Kichan, who had seen Seowoon up close, described it.
It was like flipping a switch—the way Seowoon transford. In a way, it resembled the behavior of heavy gars, whose personalities could shift between online and offline modes.
"Priest. Are we going with a full squad? Or sticking with this?"
"It would be good to fill the last spot with a Knight, Warrior, or Witch. Let’s scout around."
Players who hadn’t found a team yet still had the ranking symbol floating above their heads and were busily roaming around.
Teams that had already ford were shouting out to recruit final mbers.
A subtle competition began among solo players, checking out different squads like they were shopping.
Just as Seowoon was about to look for one more teammate, a familiar woman approached him.
"Would you accept into your team?"
Her stiff tone and cold expression didn’t quite match her appearance. Wearing a familiar black suit, Jung Suhwa’s presence made Seowoon raise an eyebrow.
"You got pulled into this ga too?"
"It seems so."
"Your main class?"
"Hybrid: Warrior and Witch."
"Witch?"
The unexpected choice made Seowoon tilt his head.
In response, she pulled a crystal orb from her subspace and answered:
"I have a wide-area debuff, a synchronized curse on targets, and I can also apply regional and item-based curses. My martial arts are about what you’d expect."
She understood all too well the intensity in Seowoon’s gaze—as if he were peering straight into her essence.
Looking at the wine-colored orb she pulled out, Juriel spoke:
"You can gauge a witch’s level based on their crystal orb. The deeper the crimson from a once-transparent orb, the higher the witch’s rank. Unlike mages, witches aren’t graded in clear circles, so their crystal color is a good indicator."
Lyle followed up with a clear voice:
"My teacher said that high-level witches can disguise their dark, murky orbs to appear clear, but not the other way around."
From the combined information, it seed Jung Suhwa was just beyond the beginner level as a witch.
"You can use magic too, right?"
"About 3rd Circle level."
Third Circle was, frankly, nearly negligible in this ga.
"Still, having a witch is always helpful."
With that, Seowoon accepted Jung Suhwa into his squad.
"Thank you."
Now with a full squad, Seowoon’s team sat down right on the white sand to begin a strategy eting.
As Kichan quickly cast a silence barrier around them, Seowoon opened his mouth to speak.
"We’ll need to play with deeper strategy from now on."
At Seowoon’s words, a few team mbers seed to feel sothing and gave small nods.
Of course, there were also people like Dump and Namsagwang who looked confused, as if asking, What are you talking about?
Jeong Suhwa, who had been standing awkwardly and hadn’t even had a chance to greet the team due to the sudden strategy eting, quietly took a seat.
"When have our strategies ever been shallow?"
Dump’s comnt was picked up by Namsagwang.
"Strategy and all that... it’s just tricks used by the powerless. Real power doesn’t fall for a scher’s ploys."
Seowoon ignored the two cleanly and asked,
"Before we begin planning, has anyone here ever experienced this map or sothing similar?"
While everyone stared blankly at each other, Jeong Suhwa hesitantly raised her hand.
Naturally, all eyes turned to her.
Even Seowoon looked at her, and she quickly stood up and began to speak.
"I experienced a similar map in the previous round. Though the na was different. The map I played on was called Sea of Death."
"How did the ga play out?"
"It was a four-squad ga. We were given small boats and started the ga by sailing between many islands, looting as we went. Battles took place as naval combat when squads encountered each other on the sea."
She paused briefly, pulled a magic canteen from subspace, took a sip, and looked around the open sea surrounding them before continuing.
"As you can see, on calm days with no wind, you could see enemies far in the distance, so when naval battles broke out, it was common for others to interfere. That’s why many chose to stay on their islands and not venture out."
"So there was hardly any lee combat?"
In response to Seowoon’s question, she shook her head.
"Not exactly. So items like water boards or magical water wheels gave players high mobility, and so used those to rush enemies and take them out."
"What happened next?"
"While we were looting the islands, a squad finished looting one called Island of Death, and then an epic monster called Curse of the Sea appeared. After that, the pace of the ga sped up drastically. A giant octopus, like sothing out of a movie, appeared and wiped out most of the players. That’s how the ga ended."
The team mbers who had been listening to her story began to look grim, as if sothing had clicked.
Dump, of course, was the exception.
"Island of Death, huh? Must’ve been full of great loot."
Thinking if he’s this simple, I guess I have to let it go, Seowoon ignored Dump and spoke.
"If you combine what we know from previous gas with what she just told us, you’ll notice a common thread."
"Epic monsters."
Even Namsagwang picked up on it and muttered heavily.
"Exactly. Especially in the last ga, the situation was designed to guarantee the summoning of an epic monster. As a result, the ga ended in just two weeks."
Looking troubled, Dump finally spoke.
"Then are you saying sothing similar will happen in this ga too, because of an epic monster?"
"We can’t say for sure yet. But what we can say is that from now on, we need to always factor in epic monsters as variables in our strategy."
Everyone nodded at Seowoon’s words.
It was true—the influence of epic monsters on the ga had been growing for so ti now.
"But even if we know that, how can we prepare for sothing we haven’t experienced yet?"
Jinryung’s question was reasonable.
"That’s why we need to make predictions. More importantly, we must be careful with the main quests. If a main quest affects the ga itself, we have to think hard before taking it on."
"Predictions, huh? How exactly do we do that?"
This ti, Juriel asked.
"We can’t make specific predictions. That would likely just backfire. All we can do is share what we know about similar maps and try to infer the conditions under which epic monsters appear."
"Ah!"
Limin suddenly gasped in realization.
"It’s the greed and the na of the map!"
At Limin’s words, Seowoon smiled and nodded.
Hearing that, Juriel and kichan also nodded in agreent, while Dump, frustrated, complained.
"Would soone please clue in?"
Giving in to his whining, Limin began explaining it in a way everyone could understand.
"So far, every epic monster we’ve t has been connected to the na of the map."
Only then did Dump clap his hands in realization.
Clap!
"Right! That’s it! The Wraith of Kutrapa, that was tied to the na. And the thing called Wonyoungshin had sothing to do with immortals, and even that monkey guy was related to Earth’s celestial realm or sothing."
"Yeah. And the triggers that awakened them were deeply tied to the players’ greed. Except for Kutrapa, maybe."
"Even Kutrapa might have been summoned because soone fulfilled a hidden condition."
When Seowoon added that, the team mbers who’d experienced that ga nodded.
"Co to think of it, the seal on Wonyoungshin was broken by a squad that was obsessed with epic monsters."
Namsagwang also nodded as he muttered.
"Then ultimately, it’s safe to assu that an epic monster related to this ’Sea of Plunder’ map will appear."
"Yes."
As the strategy eting moved forward rapidly, Jeong Suhwa was in shock.
In a squad ga, a strategy eting like this is to be expected.
But she had never seen such a detailed eting that analyzed the entire ga at this level in any other squad.
"He’s not just so lucky player."
He had good luck, got good items, and made it to the top ranks.
Naturally, with more coin rewards than others, he secured a major advantage in the next ga.
Within that positive cycle, he rose to a dominant position through luck.
It was true that, deep down, she had judged Seowoon that way.
Especially since she knew Cloyd Survival was a ga with a significant elent of luck.
But less than 30 minutes after joining a squad with him, that prejudice crumbled into pieces.
They used every minute of the 100-minute prep ti down to the last second, wrapping up a ticulous strategy eting—just as a notification chid.
– The ga is about to begin. Here are the main prizes of this round.
[Right to Leave the World] [Player’s Right to Revival] [Bracelet of the Whole Body] [Azure Dragon’s Lost Dragon Pearl] [Dice of Unstable Movent]
At the ga-start notification and the announcent of the main prizes, the players began to stir.
– Announcing the main quest. Drrrrrrrrr. Ding! Find the Treasure Island hidden sowhere in the Sea of Plunder and claim its treasure.
At the cryptic quest, Seowoon and his team grimaced.
Before they could even figure out the intent of the quest, the next notification followed imdiately.
– You will soon share a vision through the Eye of Argas. By using Argas’s view, which scans the skies, you can say "descend" at the location of your choice to land safely. We hope you acquire many items from your chosen spot. If you don’t descend by the end, you will automatically land at the final point. Please be careful.
– Preparing to start the ga...
At the sa ti, a familiar sensation ca over them and their vision shifted.
A countless number of islands, scattered like stars in the night sky, floated above the vast ocean.
– Ding! When the squad leader descends, all team mbers will be forcibly brought down together.
At that alert, Seowoon calmly scanned for a place to land, as if he had already expected it.
As the ga began, about twenty squads that had lost the initial mind ga dropped rapidly.
– Twenty-three squads descending.
With kichan’s briefing, Seowoon spotted a fairly large island surrounded by smaller ones and shouted:
"Descend!"
Unlike usual, Seowoon’s squad descended as a single massive fireball.
As expected, they were dropping together with a sizable sailing ship.
– One squad descending below us. Two squads above!
At kichan’s report, Seowoon gave the order:
"Everyone, prepare for combat!"
As mana waves pulsed through the air, mages stored spells in their staves, and the team smoothly assud the positions they had planned during the strategy eting.
– Poooaang!
With a loud splash, the ship landed on the sea, throwing up a massive spray of water.
– Fwoooosh!
Suddenly, a searing-hot red boulder flew through the air, engulfed in flas, heading straight for the ship’s mast.
"I’ll take it!"
Pushing aside the mages setting up barriers, Namsagwang jumped forward.
Apparently, he judged that the spell wasn’t sothing a barrier could stop.
– Ssschh!
With a swift slice, the boulder split in half. It barely grazed Namsagwang, but thanks to his intervention, the mast remained intact.
He quickly waved his arms, extinguishing the flas clinging to them.
"Brother!"
At that call, Jinryung reacted instantly. Together with Seowoon, he leapt forward to deflect the two falling halves of the boulder that were about to crash onto the deck.
– Sssszzzhhh.
With a hiss, the pieces dropped into the sea and sank beneath the waves.
– Poooom.
– Poooom.
At that mont, two more ships dropped down on either side of them.
[T/L: Read extra Chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : sko-fi/pokemon1920 ]
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