Project GB is an official initiative by Re:Library.

Author’s Note: Countless bosses across countless worldlines… those who know, know. Hahaha.
Translator’s Note: I don’t know the reference sorry, but hey, the author deem to include an illustration! Maybe it was stolen from some Chinese games, based on their comment and all.

***

The man-eating flower that slammed into the railing had far poorer rotational agility than ordinary monsters. Maybe it was possible to abuse its line of sight? On second thought, though, the razor-sharp branches lining both sides were hardly just for decoration.

The massive body had only just begun to turn around when a Meteor Arrow, trailing a blazing stream of light, crashed directly into its enormous eyeball.

With weak point damage, a critical hit, and Meteor Arrow’s inherent piercing effect stacked together, the attack instantly wiped out one-eighth of the monster’s HP.

“Holy crap… that damage…” Ink was so stunned that his jaw practically dropped.

Zane, however, wasn’t particularly surprised. Windblossom already had excellent equipment, so under multiple damage multipliers, dealing five-digit damage wasn’t impossible. After all, Starry had once produced numbers that were even more absurd.

After taking a hit to its eye, the Greatblade Flower seemed to enter a frenzied state. It completely lost its sense of direction and began wildly attacking everything around it.

For a melee class, this would probably have been a nightmare. But the Twilight Ranger excelled at both close-quarters and ranged combat, making it one of the rare all-purpose classes in the game.

Being “all-purpose” meant having a bit of everything. It could fight in melee or at range, use physical or magical attacks, deal damage or provide healing, and even had access to mobility and crowd control.¹　

Naturally, the tradeoff was that every specialty was a step weaker than that of the dedicated classes, often resulting in the class being mediocre at everything. Players jokingly referred to it as “all-purpose equals all-useless.”

That weakness, however, simply didn’t exist in the hands of a truly skilled player backed by strong equipment.

Facing the man-eating flower as it staggered toward her in confusion, Windblossom showed not the slightest trace of fear. Her gaze remained icy and composed as she aimed through the narrow gaps between its branches.

One arrow.

Then another.

Once the flower closed its petals, striking its weak point became much more difficult. Windblossom’s DPS would likely drop to around half of what it had been. It hardly mattered, though, because the man-eating flower had already become nothing more than a living target.

Whenever it managed to close the distance, Windblossom would slip past it at point-blank range before widening the gap again until an entire arena’s length separated them.

Watching her movements was like watching someone dance on a tightrope. One misstep would send her straight into the monster’s bottomless maw. Even Zane felt his heart race just watching. If he had been the one fighting, he would have played it as safely and cautiously as possible.

Eighty thousand HP wasn’t exactly a lot, nor was it particularly little. By the fifth minute, however, the final arrow completely emptied the monster’s health bar.

“She actually won without taking a single hit!?!” Ink’s eyes widened. “Starry, Zanny, did you see that? That was a Level 40 Epic Boss!”

“We saw…”

The Greatblade Flower’s greatest threat lay in its Consume attack after getting close, followed by its relentless Blade Dance. Of course, all of that depended on it actually reaching its target.

Against Windblossom’s graceful footwork and pinpoint archery, it could only perish with lingering resentment.

With that, the first battle had already been secured. As long as she won two more… but silence blanketed the arena. Not a single person made a move for the next two full minutes.

Speaking of which, weren’t the monsters around this arena unusually weak? Ever since they arrived, Zane hadn’t seen a single monster above the Unique rank nearby.

“I never imagined… that a brown bear could possess such exquisite archery skills,” the red-haired lady beside him murmured.

Zane nodded. “I was surprised too.”

“Heh, little one, didn’t you say you could sweep through the competition? Since no one dares challenge the arena champion, this is the perfect opportunity to prove yourself.”

“A true expert always makes their entrance at the climax. I’ll wait until she wins four matches before stepping in.”

“…” The red-haired lady was speechless. He obviously wanted to take advantage as the fifth opponent, waiting until the arena holder was in the worst possible condition, yet he somehow managed to make it sound so noble and righteous.

“Oh, right, Miss…”
“My name is Scarlet.”
“Oh, Miss Scarlet. I noticed that around this arena… I haven’t really seen any… strong opponents?”
“Oh? You noticed?” Scarlet glanced at him. “It seems you’re not all talk after all.”
“Of course. Back in my tribe, the Chief called me the Pride of the Wolf Clan. The goblins hailed me as their hero, and even the Phantomwing Empress called me Big Brother.”

“…” Her red lips parted slightly as she found herself at a complete loss for words. Couldn’t he take the hint and stop while he was ahead? Was it really impossible to have a normal conversation with him?²　

“Th-That’s… quite impressive…”

“Right? And that’s not even all…” Zane was about to continue when—

**Clack.**

An unusual sound echoed from the arena. He turned toward the stage. A towering skeleton soldier had climbed onto the platform. Unlike ordinary Skeleton Warriors, its posture was perfectly upright. A black spear stood planted upside down in the ground beside it.

Its upper and lower jawbones clacked repeatedly as it actually spoke in a hoarse voice. “You… make me… feel… very uncomfortable.”

Windblossom said nothing and inspected the skeleton’s attributes!

“…” She hadn’t expected such a powerful monster to appear in only the second match.

Judging from its words, she couldn’t tell whether her identity as a Twilight Ranger had already been exposed. It might only have been suspicious. At the very least, the system hadn’t issued any notification.

If she refrained from using those particular skills… this battle would likely be extremely difficult.

This wasn’t her first encounter with the undead. Back in Saintbloom Village, the Death Knight had even taken the initiative to expose Windblossom’s position.

Without another word, she drew an arrow and aimed at the Skeleton Warlord. Guardbreak Arrow shot forward in a flash. She would strip away its defenses first, then deal with everything else.

***

* **Mysterious Cave.**

**Slash! Slash! Slash!**

The light from a combo attack illuminated the dim cavern as three massive damage numbers popped up from the battered Undead Boss.

A single skill rotation dealt over 5,000 damage. The swordsman calmly dashed to the right, narrowly avoiding a lethal spell. Then he followed up with another sharp basic attack into the boss’ back.

Shiu watched as the Undead Boss’s HP steadily dropped from 100% to 76%. During that entire time, the swordsman hadn’t been hit even once.

‘Jesus… if everyone played at this level, wouldn’t healers end up unemployed?’

Even Dukeette and Stupid Orange had started attacking with their staves. Things couldn’t have been any more comfortable.

The only thing that gave Shiu some consolation was that his DPS still edged out the swordsman’s by a small margin. With Pyrestorm and Thundercloud providing sustained damage over time, combined with an uninterrupted stream of smaller skills, his damage output was enough to keep pace with hidden classes of the same level.

51%

“Be careful. Summoners, get ready with Whiplash. If your pets have crowd control, throw it in as well. Priests, prepare to dispel. At 50% HP, there’s a good chance it’ll trigger a hidden mechanic,” the swordsman called over his shoulder as he circled behind the Undead Boss.

“Our HP’s all full. We should be fine, right?” Shiu asked uncertainly.

“Hard to say.”

The next moment, the boss froze in place as an intense surge of mana erupted from its body. Countless Mana Bolts blasted outward in every direction. The swordsman, being the closest, bore the brunt of the attack.

…

Eight Mana Bolts slammed into his face in rapid succession, dealing nearly 8,000 damage in total. Fortunately, Dukeette and Yoyo’s Electrobunny restored his HP in time, preventing the party from suffering any casualties.

At the same time, the boss showed no sign of stopping. Judging by its movements, there was a second wave coming!

“Lock it down, now!” Forgotten Memories shouted urgently.