CHAPTER 351: 350

Drip. Drip. Tap.

In a dimly lit room, crimson droplets of blood spread across the papers densely filled with writing.

"...Ah, blood."

Shin Se-hee grabbed a tissue from beside her and pinched her nose.

She had been intensely studying strategy and tactics recently.

Before her, holographic displays of Utopia’s party members played in succession, showing detailed information like stats, attack patterns, skills, traits, and personalities.

If even one piece of this information were to leak out, it would cause a massive uproar.

"Sigh..."

Shin Se-hee let out a low sigh as she scanned through the data with her eyes.

Although she hardly attended classes anymore, she still maintained top-tier test scores within the academy.

But even someone like Shin Se-hee couldn’t help but marvel every time she analyzed Jin Yuha’s tactics.

On one wall, footage of Utopia’s battle sequences played.

"...Truly, it’s genius."

The key to party strategy lies in maintaining a flow where each member’s skills don’t overlap.

"You need to account for everyone’s skills, timing, and movements."

Because of this, the 6-member party setup was an established norm in this era—it made it easier to avoid overlap.

"Yet Jin Yuha deviated from that norm and perfected a 7-member party system."

Adding just one more member may seem trivial, but it makes command exponentially harder. It’s easy to underestimate, but the overlap in mana waves between members drastically reduces efficiency.

This is why parties of hundreds or thousands are not organized as single units, even though it’s possible in theory.

Well, there are exceptions, like special circumstances during the first Demon Realm Gate or alliances like the U.S.-U.K.-Africa coalition. But those are rare cases.

However, Jin Yuha masterfully adjusted timing and movement, executing a flawless rotation without a single moment of error.

Even after running countless simulations, there was no strategy superior to Jin Yuha’s solution.

"Jin Yuha managed to come up with and implement this strategy in an unpredictable, unfamiliar situation."

As much as following in Jin Yuha’s footsteps is daunting, I’ve never felt it was impossible.

But this time, I’m honestly unsure.

I’m scared.

Terrified.

One wrong decision in my command could cost my party members their lives.

If Utopia’s first defeat were to happen because of my lack of skill in leading...

Shin Se-hee shook her head, clearing the negative thoughts from her mind.

"Even so, I must do it."

I heard that Jin Yuha couldn’t fully unleash his abilities as a dealer in battle these days.

Especially with his new skill, Mua (No-Self), requiring him to separate from command duties. The fact that he’s not yet showing his full capabilities is astounding.

But since he entrusted me with the responsibility of command, it means he trusts me. And it’s only right for me to rise to that trust.

"Still, theory alone isn’t enough. I need to try commanding in real battle situations."

Shin Se-hee’s gaze grew heavy with determination.

The next day.

Shin Se-hee came to me with a determined expression.

"Jin Yuha, I want to try commanding in real combat."

"Huh? Real combat? All of a sudden?"

"Yes, you said I would be in charge of commanding at the next Demon Realm Gate."

"That’s right."

I nodded.

This time, I asked Lina to add a voice transmission function to the Gate-exclusive camera. Starting from the next Demon Realm Gate, Shin Se-hee would take on the role of commander for our party.

’Hmm, but does she even need practice for that? Especially since it’s Shin Se-hee?’

Before even entering the academy, she had experience commanding a unit from the Shin family. Even now, she manages the Shin family’s Royal guard as if they were extensions of herself. Sometimes, when the party members want a sparring partner but no one is available, Shin Se-hee steps in. At those times, the Shin family’s personal guard moves as a perfectly synchronized unit.

It’s no wonder Kang Do-hee once praised her, saying, "She fights so viciously."

’That just shows how well she understands our party members.’

Knowing her personality, she’s probably already memorized even the subconscious habits I have. It’s precisely because she knows the party members so intimately that I entrusted her with commanding.

"Jumping straight into commanding at the next Demon Realm Gate is too much for me. I... I’m not a genius like you, Jin Yuha."

I tilted my head, not understanding Shin Se-hee’s words.

What? Not a genius? Who? You, Shin Se-hee? Compared to me, a genius?

I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh. How many question marks could fit into one sentence? What kind of image does she even have of me in her mind?

If I had to name the party member who has most amazed and impressed me during my time with the Utopia party, it would undoubtedly be Shin Se-hee.

Of course, I’ve been impressed by the growth of the other party members too. For instance, Kang Puppy’s "Avatar of Fire" or Soup’s "Shield of Conviction."

But since I had already seen their peak abilities through the Velvets game and had either directly or indirectly experienced their special skills, my amazement was more like, "Wow! They’ve grown this much in a world without gacha pulls!"

’But Shin Se-hee was different.’

In the game, Shin Se-hee was a combatant with low potential. Unless it was a special situation like clearing a "mob wave" or exploiting a "fire attribute weakness," she wasn’t particularly welcomed. Even so, she had enough charm as a character to be one of the more popular ones, despite her distinct weaknesses.

’But now that the game has turned into reality, where retries are impossible, performance naturally becomes a priority.’

When I first formed the party, I hesitated to include Shin Se-hee, partly because of this.

That’s why I created a role for her that didn’t exist in the game: "Operator," to handle the game’s interface and management systems on behalf of the party.

And the results were astonishing.

Even just listing her current responsibilities is overwhelming:

’Managing party assets, scheduling and checking members’ conditions, monitoring growth progress and development, overseeing operations, negotiating externally for Utopia, handling media and public opinion, and even image-making.’

If Shin Se-hee were to collapse from overwork, there’d be more than a few cracks in the system. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if all of Utopia came to a grinding halt, like a citywide blackout.

Utopia’s rapid growth over the past year was, of course, thanks to the remarkable efforts of the combatants. But it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that 80% of the credit belonged to Shin Se-hee.

’What do you mean you’re not a genius? You’re practically transcending reality with just your brain.’

And yet, here was Shin Se-hee, claiming she wasn’t a genius.

’...Between Shin Se-hee and my master, isn’t this deception going too far?’

Why are there so many people around me pretending to be ordinary?

With this kind of environment, how am I, Jin Yuha, who isn’t even remotely near "ordinary," supposed to survive?

Big business deceivers will ruin small businesses at this rate. For real.

Jin Yuha, holding in thoughts like, "It’s all your fault!" managed not to voice such frustrations.

’Things always get weird whenever I bring this up.’

Instead, I nodded.

"Well, sure. There’s no harm in preparing beforehand. Alright, I’ll gather everyone."

.

.

.

For the first time in a long while, we headed out to a regular Gate.

The Gate we were targeting this time was:

"The Cave of the Raging Howler."

It’s actually quite popular among other hunters. It drops decent-grade mana stones and, if cleared carefully and safely, yields a nice supplementary income.

But once you venture deeper into the dungeon’s unknown territory, the story changes.

’There’s no better place to assess a commander’s skills than the unknown territory of this Gate.’

Still, at our current level, this is a bit of an over-spec. If we’re not careful, we might accidentally clear the Gate entirely and ruin everything.

If we were to do that, the hunters who depend on this place for their livelihood would lose their jobs overnight.

So, we decided to set some restrictions. First, we all wore mana-limiting artifacts custommodified by Lina.

"Lee Yoo-ri, you’re limited to three taunts. Kang Do-hee, no Avatar of Fire. Ichika, no Shadow copy. Sophia, focus only on healing and no attacks. Alice, no breakthroughs. Hmm... Senior Ga-eul, let’s keep it as is for you."

"Junior! Why me?!"

"...Then how about banning acceleration?"

"Then I’ll only have slow-motion left!"

"Exactly."

"...Fine. I’ll do both."

Senior Ga-eul puffed out her cheeks and mumbled in a sulky voice. I chuckled and said:

"I’m kidding, Senior. Instead, let’s limit you to using just ten regular mana stones instead of white mana stones."

"...Then I won’t be able to use many skills."

"That’s because you’re the most overpowered one."

"...Me? Overpowered?"

"Yes, your skills boost the attack and evasion of all party members. If you go all out, it’s game over."

"Heh! So it’s because I’m awesome, right?!"

Senior Ga-eul soon seemed to cheer up, puffing up with pride and lifting her chin high. She was simple-minded enough to be amusing to tease.

I turned my head toward Shin Se-hee.

"Shin Se-hee. Have you checked all the changes?"

"Yes, I’ve confirmed everything."

Shin Se-hee nodded slightly, looking a bit tense.

"Alright. Then let’s go."

With that, we entered the teleportation device.

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