Season 4: Chapter 54. Cult Leader vs. Shaman (3)

[Real-time update: Blessed Almond’s current situation lol]

==== ====

He’s already at the final boss lol

==== ====

Meanwhile, posts began popping up in community forums that Almond had already reached the boss stage. Those who hadn’t been watching the stream felt baffled.

— ??

— Already at the final boss????

— WTF how did he get there? LOL

— What is happening?

— Napoleon crying in a corner lol

The confusion didn’t last long.

[Big: Would you believe me if I said he used Dimensional Step into a toilet and arrived directly at the boss?]

— WHY IS THAT 100% BELIEVABLE?

— There’s nothing wrong with the title, but everything wrong with the situation

— What the hell? LOL

— This is LEGENDARY

— Is this real?? Not a hoax??

└ Surprisingly, it’s the truth...

— The Glitch God

The bizarre story of Almond getting sucked into a toilet and arriving at the final boss spread like wildfire. The situation grabbed attention just by stating the basic facts. As rumors spread, the lore only grew weirder and more detailed.

[Apparently, he went into a septic tank to purify the world. Is this true?]

[It’s the third stall from the left.]

[Wait, is there a timing trick?]

[Apparently, their cult worships the Poop Demon]

[Dude, I wanna try this too LOL]

Gamers felt eager to recreate the weird route. Everyone wanted to know how to enter that stall. The unexpected surge in interest became a huge PR win for

Ghostwo Busters

.

However, it was still a living nightmare for some.

“Ah.”

“Y-You’ve gotta be kidding.”

“This is insane.”

The modeling department members, who had been summoned for the emergency earlier, now sat at home and gasped in disbelief.

[NewType: So, uh, which department is getting blamed for this one? Lol]

[Broeh: Dev team for sure. I think the lights are staying on tonight.]

[NewType: Are we about to become the scapegoat again?]

[OhSoYi: I’m packing a month’s worth of clothes and moving into the office.]

They called it a glitch, but this was a serious high-visibility catastrophe. It would absolutely have to be patched.

[NewType: So... does anyone actually know how he got in?]

[Broeh: That’s the thing... we can’t figure it out. You can’t get in using just Dimensional Step.]

Even the devs didn’t know how it had happened. They rewatched the footage dozens of times, but it remained a mystery.

[Broeh: Do you think you have to get hit by Wind Bubble while using Dimensional Step?]

[NewType: Just cut the connection between that toilet and the boss stage.]

[Broeh: That’s the thing... I don’t think they’re connected. He just... dropped.]

[NewType: Ah... It’s one of those.]

[Broeh: Yeah, most glitches are like that.]

If Almond fell in through the toilet, they would just have to block access to it? However, the game’s structure wasn’t that simple.

Almond hadn’t literally traveled through pipes. He had slipped into a dimensional crack that happened to be inside the toilet zone. Figuring out exactly where that crack was would take some time. They didn’t even know the conditions that triggered it.

[OhSoYi: Nothing happened even when I tried getting hit by Wind Bubble while using Dimensional Step. It might’ve just been a one-time glitch.]

No one else had been able to recreate it.

[NewType: Then I guess Bubblegum won’t get in either?]

[OhSoYi: Even after everything we tried—yeah, no chance. He doesn’t even have Dimensional Step.]

[NewType: True, true.]

They placed fixing the bug on hold. If Bubblegum couldn’t join Almond, the fight would still have to be done solo. A one-time glitch wasn’t urgent. For now, they would just watch and wait.

***

Meanwhile, a fierce battle raged on somewhere far underground in the depths of

Ghostwo Busters

.

BOOOOM!

Black lightning and wind slashed through the earth like razors.

Fwoosh!

Almond flickered and vanished just before the cult leader’s blow landed. Despite the demon being over four times larger, Almond was overwhelming him with just a single sword and Dimensional Step.

— Whoa

— Blessed Almond is cracked

— This battle is insane

— After all that time off, he’s still THIS good??

From the moment they clashed until now, Almond had completely dominated the damage exchanges. Normally, players started strong and began to slip as their focus wavered and boss patterns grew more complex.

[HP: 41%]

SLASH!

Almond landed a clean and brutal hit again with his sword. Instead of slowing down, he only accelerated.

“DIIIIE!!”

The cult leader’s eyes flashed as he unleashed a reactive counterattack. The explosion of dark magic could turn a body into ashes.

[Dimensional Step]

POP!

The attack struck nothing as Almond had already disappeared. It went exactly as planned. Almond had figured out the cult leader’s pattern of reaction-based counters, so he didn’t use Dimensional Step before attacking. He only used it afterward to dodge the counter.

‘This guy...’

Assistant Manager Kim could only stare in stunned silence.

‘It’s fully calculated.’

He had assumed Almond was just a wild brawler charging in recklessly, but he realized that Almond was dissecting the boss with surgical precision. Almond was analyzing the patterns, adapting on the fly, and perfectly executing a game plan.

SLASH!

[HP: 36%]

Almond systematically dismantled the boss faster and faster.

SLASH!

[HP: 31%]

The strategy was simple, but brutally efficient.

SLASH!

[HP: 27%]

He left out any unnecessary variables since he only needed his sword and Dimensional Step.

SLASH!

[HP: 21%]

All the chaos had turned into a single elegant equation. This was Almond’s way of fighting.

SLASH!

[HP: 15%]

As the boss’s health dipped into the teens, Assistant Manager Kim clasped his hands together.

‘Right before Phase One ends...’

Almond had completely dismantled every pattern the cult leader had shown so far, but one last sliver of hope still existed.

‘There’s a rage phase.’

Bosses often unleashed some unheard-of power when their health dropped to near death. This final, desperate burst always killed first-timers. The cult leader had such a rage pattern at the end of Phase One.

‘Even if it’s just one hit... I need it to land.’

Assistant Kim didn’t expect Almond to die from it. Phase Two had a built-in mechanic that forced type-switching. He knew Almond would be soft-locked soon enough. Even so, his gut screamed that they had to land at least one hit now.

‘Now.’

Almond’s sword carved into the cult leader once again.

[HP: 9%]

As soon as the boss’s HP dropped below 10%, Assistant Manager Kim shot to his feet.

“Let’s go. Rage attack!!”

“

Krrrrrraaaak!

”

All the demonic energy that had been quietly simmering exploded in the center of the chamber. This was the boss’s one-frame nuke. The cult leader’s eyes gleamed like a beast.

Almond’s blade flared again and again.

SLASH-SLASH-SLAAASH!

In contrast to his usual rhythm, he jammed in three consecutive strikes in a single turn.

[HP: 0%]

Naturally, the cult leader’s health hit zero before doing anything.

“

Eh?

” Assistant Manager Kim, still standing, now wore an expression of complete disbelief.

“What the hell... Rage what?” Manager Kim turned to him in confusion.

Assistant Manager Kim’s face flushed bright red.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me...’

“Hey. What’s wrong with you? Why’s your face red?”

“N-No, it’s just—!”

“Stop talking crap and sit down.”

“Yes, sir.”

Almond, that demonic bastard, had the nerve to suddenly change his attack pattern.

‘Argh...’

Assistant Manager Kim clenched his jaw.

***

To finish things with flair, Almond had squeezed in a triple combo. He didn’t do it for any strategic reasons, but just for style points.

— Siiiiiick

— WTF that finish

— He’s nuts

— That was glorious

— Waaah!!

— He just shoved in the damage like a god

Almond glanced at the chat with a pleased grin. That combo was exactly just for this. Naturally, donations came flooding in.

Ding!

[OhYeah has donated 5,000 won.]

[Pretty sure the boss was trying to do something... but died confused lol]

— LOL fr

— Was that really the final boss?!

— I swear he was about to do something

Ding!

[Godmond has donated 10,000 won.]

[All praise Almond...]

Almond finally checked his backlog of donations. Big donors like BigSon, RubySword, Xiaolongbao, and ShyNapoleon had all come out in force because of the non-stop stream and his official comeback.

DUN-DUN!

[MeowMeowPunch has donated a whopping 1,000,000 won!]

[Did you just beat the game!? Amazing, meow!]

— Whoa

— The donation war is getting serious

— WTF

— Wait wait, is it actually over? I feel like there's more coming

— I accept the nya-speech now

— Today’s support is next level

— Dang!

“Thanks so much. I didn’t even realize how many of you showed up. Ruby Sword, Xiaolongbao...”

Almond went down the list and thanked each donor by name.

“How amusing.”

FWOOSH!

Black energy surged, and the cult leader stood back up. He looked nothing like before with a long snout, enormous fangs, and wicked claws. He now stood on all fours and growled like a beast.

[High Priest of Evil – Yokai]

He had fully succumbed to corruption.

‘Oh.’

He had become a yokai, which meant Bubblegum had to be the one dealing damage as the monk.

Almond tilted his head.

‘Didn’t see that coming.’

Even Almond couldn’t overcome the type immunity when the system outright rejected damage based on class due to

Ghostwo Busters

’ hardcoded co-op mechanic.

‘Now what?’

Would he have to just stall until Bubblegum got here? He could only dodge for so long.

“Huh?”

DUN-DUN!

[Quest "The Weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings" cleared!]

A quest notification flashed.

[Spiritual Power has increased]

[Spirit Ability Unlocked]

Suddenly, he had gained new powers.

[Shadow Clone Technique]

— ???

— What is happening right now?

— WTF

— What kind of plot twist is this? lmao

— Wait, is this from killing Oh Sang-Gi?? Back at the top floor??

— Huh??

— Yo Bubblegum, we believed in you!!

— Wait... did Bubblegum kill Oh Sang-Gi!?

Bubblegum had defeated all those wraiths and Oh Sang-Gi.

‘No way...’

Even Almond’s eyes widened in disbelief.

‘How?!’