114 – The Auction House and Thieves (4)
113.
Gimmick-type boss.
In the RPG genre, there is something called a gimmick-type boss.
It refers to a boss monster that cannot be defeated by ordinary means and requires knowledge of special patterns, structures, weaknesses, and so on to defeat.
For example, they might endlessly revive if certain conditions are not met, be impervious to any attack, or require the use of specific items, and so on.
Therefore, when facing a gimmick-type boss, the top priority is to overcome the gimmick.
Generally, gimmick-type bosses can be easily defeated once their gimmicks are exposed.
In that sense, NPC John Kader can be considered one of those gimmick-type boss monsters.
Because when you don’t know the gimmick, he’s almost invincible, but once you grasp the gimmick, you can take him down without much difficulty.
John is a telekinetic.
In terms of character settings, being able to create hundreds of shadow-based clones isn’t something easy to deal with.
In the game, this was implemented as him endlessly summoning these clones at regular intervals.
Even though it was exhausting to chip away at his health, he could create a new clone in no time, which could be seen as the pinnacle of unfairness.
However, John’s telekinetic ability had a very fatal weakness.
That was none other than light.
If exposed to intense light, his clones would lose their power.
So, during the game, we either attacked his clones with light-based weapons or used items like flash grenades to neutralize them.
With John’s ability to summon clones blocked, he was just one of the moderately powerful villains.
It’s probably because he was meant to be defeated by the protagonist and their group, playing the role of someone who needed to fall.
It makes sense considering that to make the protagonist shine, they needed a strong villain, but if they were too powerful and couldn’t be defeated, it would be problematic, so they created fatal weaknesses like this.
A very fatal weakness that inevitably led to defeat for the protagonist’s group.
In a way, it could be compared to Han Jihyo’s similar type.
She also had a strong telekinetic ability but could be easily defeated due to her fatal weakness: water.
“Phew, but thankfully, light is his weakness.”
I let out a relieved sigh in my mind.
I knew that the world-building in the Romance Hero Academy was reflected as reality, but there was always a slight unease about the possibility of something I didn’t know.
John’s extraordinary ability was so powerful that if his weakness didn’t work, there was no choice but to quickly escape without further thought.
That guy can create hundreds of clones with power similar to his main body.
How do you deal with that?
Oh, just imagining it is terrifying.
“Just in case, we used magic barriers in a crowded area, but our weakness was exposed.”
Using magic barriers in a crowded place was a deliberate action.
If things went wrong, the plan was to immediately release the barriers and escape into the crowd.
Honestly, it doesn’t feel like using people as shields, but from Alex’s perspective, causing chaos in the middle of the street is not an option.
And there’s no need for him to track us down by causing unnecessary trouble while fleeing with stolen auction items.
Besides, if we make a fuss, we could be attacked by nearby police, heroes, mercenaries, and so on.
It’s definitely not the situation the auction thief wants.
…Ah, maybe.
Ahem.
“Alex, John, Soyoung… right?”
I turned my gaze towards Alex and his group.
I saw them flinch slightly when I accurately called out their names.
They seemed to be completely puzzled as to how I knew their names.
“What are you, how do you know us?”
Alex’s expression became guarded.
It was a short question, but it carried a lot of meaning.
Who I am, how I got trapped in the barrier, why they are targeting themselves, and so on…
Well, it must be quite perplexing from Alex’s perspective.
After committing a solo burglary and heading back, he was suddenly kidnapped into the barrier out of the blue.
It would have been even more bewildering, considering he thought no one would notice.
“You…”
Quickly, Alex reached into his pocket.
It seemed like he planned to respond using some sort of pocket dimension.
True to his nickname of a rogue, he carried various artifacts and items in his pocket dimension.
It might get quite annoying if he were to pull out troublesome items or artifacts.
Even with his bare hands, Alex was already a top-tier expert, and adding various items made it incredibly challenging.
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However, after rummaging through his pocket a few times, Alex only wore a perplexed expression.
Because the leather pouch Alex had was already gone.
Ah, then where did the leather pouch go?
Here, right here.
“Phew, it wasn’t seen. Well, take this.”
At that moment.
A woman’s voice was heard beside me.
Gradually, the woman’s silhouette began to reveal itself.
It was as if she had hidden her body with some optical camouflage and now appeared.
After completely removing the stealth cloak she was wearing, she handed me the leather pouch.
It was Alex’s pocket of non-space.
“Is this what I told you to steal earlier?”
This woman’s name was Aisha Nell Ilios.
Originally from the execution unit, she joined the Roxanne faction alongside Cynthia.
Externally recognized as a skilled individual, her true strength was said to be close to that of a top-tier hero.
Of course, facing Alex one-on-one would result in defeat, but she was the only one among us who could stand alone against Alex and actually compete.
Shall we call her the second strongest figure in the current Roxanne faction?
Thanks to her, we could easily apprehend Han Ji-hyo, Joo Jung-seon, and David.
“Yes. Thank you.”
“hehehehe, don’t mention it. It was easy with this cloak.”
Aisha laughed lightly, fluttering the cloak draped over her shoulders.
Always smiling like a fool, she could be deceiving, but her character setting reveals her to be a considerable sadist.
A woman who smiles and deceives people with her hood on.
So, being with her can be a bit intimidating.
She isn’t as faithful as Roxanne and Cynthia, slightly immersed in worldly affairs.
So, when her eyes turn cold, people tend to get scared.
Well, thanks to Aisha’s character, I was able to involve her in this plan.
It’s because Aisha is a character who is appropriately corrupted (?) and readily accepts things like bribes.
If it were Roxanne, she would have strongly opposed my plan to intercept the auction item, but Aisha seemed to have no particular aversion.
Should I say it feels like I don’t care whether he says it or not?
“This cloak is amazing. How did you get something like this?”
The cloak I lent her was a kind of relic.
It had the ability to hide presence, appearance, smell, body temperature, and more, obtained from farming relics in the spider’s lair we conquered last time.
It wasn’t just about making it transparent, but rather erasing it from perception.
Thanks to that, when I used a flashbang to block Alex and his group’s line of sight and approached them secretly, I was able to take the extra-dimensional pocket without them noticing.
Oh, then why didn’t I attack Alex and his group at that time?
If you ask why I didn’t ambush them then, saying that it would have been easy to knock them down, this is how I would answer.
It was impossible.
Because if I attacked while wearing this cloak, the effect of perception nullification would be completely lifted.
Why? It’s a common setting in games, isn’t it?
When you use a cloak of invisibility, monsters can’t perceive the player at all.
If you attack a monster while using a cloak of invisibility, it immediately becomes visible again.
It can be said to be a very common setting.
And this cloak of concealment also follows the cliché setting.
It faithfully adheres to the setting that the ability to hinder perception is released the moment you decide to attack an enemy.
Well, that was an unavoidable setting.
If you could use the ability to hinder perception without any penalties, it would be a cheat item.
So, they probably deliberately included the setting that “perception hindrance is released when you decide to attack the target” in the item description.
“Still, it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to use the cloak of concealment to approach them and attack them up close.”
Right in front of my nose, whether the concealment is revealed or not, what does it mean to be aware of a surprise attack?
Most would be helpless, unable to respond to the sudden ambush even if the concealment was exposed.
But whether it will work on Alex is unknown.
Alex’s senses are very sharp, and in a situation where he is on high alert, he might even be able to penetrate cognitive impairment abilities.
It’s quite challenging to successfully surprise him.
Moreover, this cloak not only consumes magic and stamina extensively but also has the disadvantage of being unable to use it for a certain period if stealth is forcibly released.
In a real situation, I wanted to avoid unnecessary risks, so I chose a method that could more reliably gain a preemptive advantage.
That method was to target Alex’s pocket dimension.
This pocket dimension was a universal warehouse where Alex stored numerous tools, items, equipment, artifacts, and more.
Intercepting the pocket dimension meant significantly depleting Alex’s power.
He, like me, could create numerous variables using items within the pocket dimension.
But not anymore.
He seemed to be hunted down without a chance to resist.
By none other than me.
“By the way, this stealth cloak is really useful.”
Thanks to this invisible cloak, I could secretly bring Aisha out of the church.
With Roxanne and Cynthia, I could have offered some excuses to bring Aisha out, but there might be someone like Isabella, who could be monitoring the church.
If it were her, she could use observation abilities to effectively monitor the church’s key members.
However, using this stealth cloak would go unnoticed by observation abilities.
Moreover, there was a doppelganger ability user in the church.
At best, one could create only one or two doppelgangers, but he was an adept who could create doppelgangers identical to the opponent.
With his help and the use of the invisibility cloak, I succeeded in secretly bringing Aisha.
Moreover, using this transparent cloak, I managed to approach Alex and his group to an appropriate distance, asking the boundary mage to confine them with boundary magic.
To activate boundary magic, one needed to stay within a radius of 4 meters for a certain period, and without this cloak, we would have been detected much earlier.
Truly, the invisibility cloak was invaluable.
“This, this brat, my pocket… Could you have known what this is?”
“Well, who knows.”
I shrugged my shoulders, shaking off the suspicion.
Today, in order to defeat Alex and his group safely, I had collected suitable individuals, tools, and items under the circumstances.
Including this invisibility cloak, flash grenades, high-level magic sunglasses, Aisha, boundary mage, eavesdropping mage, defense mage, and heroes under Yuseolhyun, and so on.
If I were alone, I could never have gathered such a lineup of personnel and items, but thanks to Yuseolhyun, it was effortlessly achievable.
With time, money, and connections, devising the best combination to deal with Alex and his group was not a difficult task.
After all, this wasn’t a game, but reality.
If there was an opponent I couldn’t defeat alone, I could seek help from others.
In this world, there were truly many strong people, and as long as they had connections, money, and sufficient rewards, they could be allies at any time.
Given the time I had for preparation, Alex, along with John, Sooyoung, and others, was confident in apprehending them without significant risks.
In fact, John’s abilities had already been neutralized, Sooyoung posed no threat, and Alex’s abilities were also scheduled to be nullified.
Therefore, as long as there were no sudden and significant variables, I should be able to bring down Alex and his group without any major issues.
Unless someone like Yudahee suddenly barges in, that is.
However, judging by their reactions, it didn’t seem like they had come to Busan with Yudahee after all.
And even if Yudahee were to come, it seems unlikely that she could break through this barrier and enter alone in a short time.
Unless she receives help from the observer Isabelle and the crusher Ryan.
But did they all come here?
Isn’t that so?
***
“Yudahee, Alex and the others were attacked by someone. It seems like they were dragged into the barrier.”
“Huh? Really?”
And Yudahee’s group, who arrived in Busan, was secretly watching all of this situation.