I didn't log in right away.

After what I've heard… what I've seen and jerked off to. I lay in bed for an hour, face buried in my pillow, my brain doing that static-buzz thing where it tries to process something way above its paygrade.

My whole body wanted to scream, laugh, cry, and vomit all at the same time, so instead I just stared at the wall, drooled a little, and then decided, yep, I'm logging in, sleep is for the weak.

So at 12:30 A.M—30 mins until the raid—,with the house still as silent as a graveyard and my nerves fried, I slipped back into Darkmoon Adventure VR.

The world blinked into existence around me as I took a deep breathe.

The forest air was cool and damp as ever, the moonlight glittering off leaves, the faint, constant murmur of players setting up their camps a few clicks ahead like ants in the undergrowth amused thou.

And me, standing there I realize that you're just like me trying to ♪… Ahem, still feeling like I'd walked in on a world much more beautiful than the real one.

Alright, let's focus.

The Titan of Ashen Bark, Phase Three.

Shouldn't be any different from Phase 1 and 2, just the same amount of health bar, skills and RNG (Random Number Generator)…

Wait…

RNG…?

I looked at the wristwatch that I borrowed from LyraBell, the Lion's Parade healer… Seems like it's mine now that she forgot to ask it back (and I technically basically probably could have forgot to give it back)

I wondered if Eirlys patched the bug I emailed her? Let's just wait and see… No way they can build a different RNG algorithm that fast.

Welp, only one way to find out, but for now, let's focus on what's at hand.

The boss had already revealed five of its six tricks back in the morning.

- The fist slam that opened pits to swallow players alive.

- The clap that shredded backlines with that Internal Bleeding debuff.

- The red glow where it nearly exploded like a faulty nuke unless we cut into it fast enough.

- The brutal consecutive ground-pounding that rippled shockwaves out like tsunamis (and killed PyroPuff).

- And the endless spawn of bark-things, little wood-carved nightmares that swarmed like roaches.

Five out of six, which meant the there's one that hadn't surfaced yet, and I'm glad it didn't. Because out of 60 seconds in a minute, only 5 seconds would trigger that one, mostly because it's annoying, not because it's OP or anything.

The dome barrier.

I shivered just thinking about it.

That damned dome.

See, on the PC version it was already busted… Bad enough that whole guilds put together special strategies just to account for it.

But here, in VR? With clumsy full-body movements and half the raid not even used to their own gear, full of uncoordinated low levels? It was basically a death sentence.

The mechanic was simple, but cruel. The Titan would slam its fists together, forms this massive translucent dome of bark and roots, and everyone caught inside gets locked in.

For every person trapped, the Titan gains 200 shield permanently until broken.

AND, if there were at least 40 players in that dome, it increased the value to 500 per person.

What the fuck do you mean, devs?

Everyone dreaded this, not just me.

Outside people can't attack until the dome is gone, upside is, the boss wouldn't do any attacks either, but it's just fucking… God, too much resources wasted.

Let's do the math.

I sat down on a mossy stump, pulling my longsword across my knees, letting the numbers roll in my head.

Say forty players get trapped in that dome. That's 40 x 500. Twenty thousand, 20-fucking-000 extra shield, slapped onto a boss that already had too much HP for these poor souls.

And realistically, half of those 40 stuck in the dome? Supports, tanks, healers, randoms who barely knew their hotkeys. So it's down to the ~20 damage dealers to break the barrier, that's me being generous.

At this stage of the game, the average damage dealer—assuming they had a decent build—could maybe, maybe pump out 50 damage per second, or DPS… For mages, it would be something like 200 damage burst every 5 seconds, but again, being generous.

So… 20 players x 50 DPS = 1000 damage per second.

20.000 shield / 1000 DPS =~ 20 seconds.

Twenty seconds of everyone going full throttle, assuming zero mistakes, no confusion and screaming as to "why are we stuck?!" no one runs dry on mana, none of the trolls attacking the damage dealers.

My eye twitched, I hated numbers when they weren't stacked in my favor.

If the Titan cast that in this third phase and I was in the dome? Well let's see…

My Attack stat sat at a pathetic 75 at lv. 42, which meant every slash I made with my shiny new sword will do 75 damage, flat.

That was unless I crit, which was entirely up to chance with the Titan of Ashen Bark… I haven't study its crit conditions yet. Or unless I had a buff, which I didn't right now.

Yeah it's not the worst thing in the world, I guess.

Unless.

Unless some mage waddled in with a shield-breaker enchant, but that ain't really an option at this level.

I caught myself grinding my teeth.

This is the part of my brain I hated, the spiral. I couldn't stop the "what ifs." Couldn't stop the calculations. I ran them again, and again, changing the numbers like pulling slot machine handles.

Of course, no one would die in these situations, but still, it was second nature of me to ponder about it.

I rubbed my temples.

"God, I sound like a math teacher."

I shook my head, groaned, dropped my forehead against the pommel of my sword. I was tired, I was still dazed from the sight of Eirlys and T… no. Don't think about it, focus. Let's kill something to get my mind off it.

By the time my thoughts slowed down, I realized I'd already got up and wandered into the clearing again.

It was crowded, way more than before. Camps dotted the ground, clusters of players whispering strategies, others silently sharpening their swords or lining up potions on the grass.

A hundred voices blending into a tense hum, like cicadas at night

I dragged myself toward a random log by the treeline and sat down, sword point buried into the dirt, its hilt propped against my collarbone.

I tilted my head back. The midnight stars spread across the sky… Clear, distant, and perfect.

And for a second, I just… stared.

"I wish they'll allow me to sit and watch."

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