Bang!
Baran's body shattered into fragments and vanished. Lillian pulled back the sword he had driven in for the final strike, steadying his breathing as he waited for the arrival of the final boss—Taurus King Asterius.
Earlier, he had deliberately controlled his attack rhythm. The moment Baran's HP dropped into the yellow zone on its final bar, he unleashed everything he had, killing it within five seconds.
That ensured he wouldn't have to face Baran and the boss at the same time.
Thud. Thud. Thud!
Heavy, muffled sounds echoed through the chamber, accompanied by faint cracking noises.
The sound seemed to be coming from… above?
Lillian instinctively retreated a few steps before looking up.
Cracks were spreading rapidly across the ceiling. Debris and dust poured down in sheets.
It's coming.
Lillian lowered his stance slightly, ready to sprint at any moment. He had no idea where exactly the boss would fall from.
Roooooom—!!
A deafening crash erupted as countless stones flew downward. Lillian raised his greatsword in front of him, shielding himself as he looked on.
A massive figure descended through the collapsing ceiling and landed heavily in the center of the room.
"Mooaaarrrrghhh!!"
The enormous bull head lifted as it let out a thunderous roar, the shockwave scattering the dust in the air. The bone necklace hanging from its neck bounced violently with the movement.
"Taurys King Asterius." Lillian tightened his grip on the greatsword as he stared at the ferocious-looking monster.
Its skin was blood-red, metal armor wrapped around its joints, and in its massive hands was a double-headed hammer taller than Lillian himself—covered in sharp iron spikes, radiating menace. Its cruel, pale eyes locked onto Lillian.
Buzz—
The HP bar appeared.
The battle officially began.
Boom! Boom! Crash!!
The Taurus King's movements were simple and brutal. He took two long strides forward and swung the hammer straight down at Lillian.
Lillian dashed aside to evade, glancing back at the impact. One hit like that would likely drop him straight into the red—if it didn't kill him outright.
Whoosh!
The hammer followed with a sweeping horizontal swing as the king twisted his body—but again, it missed.
Lillian widened the distance between them. He wasn't in a hurry to attack yet. First, he needed to observe the boss's behavior patterns.
Even though the guidebook described its skills and movements in detail, the first-floor Boss had already demonstrated altered attack patterns. Who knew what changes this boss might have?
Compared to the Taurus King, the Kobold King was practically a warm-up.
Boom! Boom!
The hammer slammed into the floor again and again. Thankfully, the floor was designated as [Indestructible], or it would have been reduced to rubble by now.
For about ten minutes, Lillian focused entirely on evasion—occasionally moving in to bait attacks. Once he had a clear grasp of the Taurus King's patterns, he finally began his offense.
He dashed behind the boss—then immediately circled back to the front.
As expected, the Taurus King twisted its body to perform a sweeping attack toward its rear, locking itself into that motion. Unable to turn back in time, it left its front exposed.
Lillian seized the opening, slashing several times before retreating again.
One of the boss's fixed behaviors was clear now: whenever an enemy appeared behind it, its programmed response was always a turning horizontal sweep. There were no variations.
That meant that players with high agility could exploit this—dash behind, trigger the sweep, then rush to the front to deal damage during the rotation.
Naturally, Lillian didn't get greedy. He struck only four times before retreating as the boss's recovery ended.
Sure enough, the next moment the Taurus King lifted its massive foot and stomped forward.
"Predictable."
Lillian looped back in again.
Each of his attacks shaved off roughly one-twentieth of a bar of the boss's HP. That meant he'd need at least 120 clean hits to bring it down.
A lot—but unavoidable.
This was a boss designed for forty-eight players. Soloing it naturally meant longer fight times and far less room for error. One mistake could easily mean getting wiped out in a single combo.
Methodically exploiting the boss's inertia and fixed actions, Lillian continued his assault.
Ten minutes later, two-thirds of the boss's six HP bars were gone—only two remained.
At this stage, according to the guidebook, the boss would begin using sword skills.
Buzz—!
Sure enough, after one of Lillian's attacks, the Taurus King didn't follow its usual counter pattern.
Instead, it raised the massive hammer high overhead, spun once with both hands gripping it, and slammed it straight down—
Not at Lillian.
At the floor.
Without hesitation, Lillian jumped at the precise moment of impact.
The next instant, a shockwave exploded outward from the ground, spreading seven to eight meters in all directions.
This was the sword skill [Paralyzing Blast]—a wide-area attack.
The only way to avoid it was to jump. Anyone caught by the shockwave would take damage and be inflicted with paralysis.
The guidebook had warned of this, so Lillian evaded it cleanly—and immediately resumed his attack.
When the boss's HP dropped to its final bar, Lillian grew wary. He feared a mutation like the one that had occurred with the Floor One Boss, so he cautiously pulled back to keep some distance. However, he soon realized that the attack pattern hadn't changed.
Just like what was recorded in the strategy guide, the Taurus King merely snapped its double-headed warhammer in half and switched to dual-wielding one-handed hammers.
That wasn't too hard to deal with, Lillian thought. He continued exploiting his speed advantage, focusing his attacks on its feet and lower legs.
But just as the boss's HP was reduced to a sliver—and Lillian was about to deliver the finishing blow—a red glow suddenly erupted from the Taurus King's body.
"What is this?!"
Lillian immediately retreated. There was no mention of this in the guide; it looked like some kind of self-destruction. Yet after the red light flickered briefly, the Taurus King's final HP bar suddenly recovered by one-fifth, leaving Lillian completely stunned.
It can heal too?!
"Moo—!!"
The Taurus King hurled both of its one-handed hammers straight at Lillian. He dove to the ground just in time as the weapons skimmed past his hair and smashed into the wall behind him.
"Since when does it have a ranged attack?"
Lillian looked up. The Taurus King was now unarmed. Aren't bull warriors supposed to never let go of their weapons?!
The very next moment, Lillian realized how wrong he was.
The Taurus King wrapped its massive arms around a stone pillar in the hall. With an enraged roar, it wrenched the pillar loose—twisting it free from both ceiling and floor—then swung the enormous column, rubble flying, straight at Lillian in a furious arc!
Holy hell!
What the hell is going on?! Lillian thought. Even if the attack pattern changed, it shouldn't change this drastically! At this level, even forty-eight players would be wiped out!
Rumble—!
Lillian didn't hesitate and sprinted at full speed. The pillar had been one of the supports holding up the ceiling; with it torn out—and the roof already damaged by the Minotaur King earlier—the entire hall began to tremble violently.
At this point, Lillian could no longer afford to hold back. He glanced at the open exit.
If he abandoned the raid now, he could escape—but after coming this far, giving up would be far too painful.
With his mind made up, he accelerated, circling the hall to get behind the Taurus King. While running, he activated the sword skill [Throwing Sword], hurling his greatsword and embedding it into the boss's body. Then he leapt high into the air and activated the martial skill Flash Strike.
Whoosh—!
The system-enhanced speed let him land squarely on the boss's body. He slammed a punch into its neck and immediately used Flash Strike again. There was no way Lillian was staying on the ground against a seven- or eight-meter-long stone pillar—one hit from that and he'd be finished.
With Lillian clinging to it like this, the boss was momentarily helpless. It clearly had no programmed response for such a situation. Its hands were occupied gripping the pillar, leaving it unable to grab him. All it could do was spin in place wildly.
Naturally, Lillian wasn't about to waste the opportunity. He continuously unleashed Flash Strike attacks. Though each hit was weaker than his greatsword, the speed and convenience made up for it. After a rapid flurry of blows—like a farmer's three-hit combo—the boss's HP finally dropped to zero.
---
"..."
Far away, Kayaba stared at the Taurus King lying motionless on the screen, his expression complicated.
When he detected that Lillian was soloing the Floor Two boss, he had been utterly shocked and immediately began monitoring him. Just before the fight concluded, he secretly modified the boss's parameters—doubling its strength—allowing it to rip pillars from the hall.
His goal was to test Lillian's limits, to see whether he could handle such a sudden and extreme change. As for the result… even Kayaba didn't know what to make of it.
"Just who are you…?"
Kayaba murmured as he watched Lillian sit on the ground to rest. Over the past few days, he had analyzed every surviving player. Among them all, only Lillian's actual stats were abnormal—he was the sole player whose parameters could not be interfered with by the system.
At first, Kayaba suspected Lillian might be a government agent. But what happened earlier on the Bison Plains made him rethink that theory. Kayaba had personally witnessed Lillian killing several players. The government already knew that death in-game meant death in reality—would a government operative kill so recklessly? It didn't add up.
Then… could he be a top-tier lone hacker? An engineer who entered the game without using a NERvGear?
"If that's the case, then even killing him in the game wouldn't destroy his brain in reality. He wouldn't die—and could re-enter the game again using that 'unknown device.' In that case, killing him would be meaningless."
After a moment of thought, Kayaba turned off the surveillance feed.
"It seems I'll have to become a 'player' myself… get close to him, and uncover the truth behind this mysterious young man."