Breaking Up with the Heroine of the Female-Oriented Game - Chapter 114

Chapter 114

The Auction House and the Thieves (4)

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Gimmick-type boss.

In the RPG genre, there’s something called a gimmick-type boss.

A boss monster that can’t be defeated through conventional means, requiring the player to figure out special patterns, mechanics, or weaknesses in order to bring it down.

For example, it might endlessly revive if certain conditions aren’t met, be immune to all attacks, or require a specific item to be used.

Thus, when dealing with a gimmick-type boss, uncovering the gimmick is the top priority.

Once the gimmick is exposed, the boss usually becomes much easier to defeat.

In that sense, John Carter can be considered a gimmick-type boss monster.

Without knowing his gimmick, he’s almost invincible. But the moment you figure it out, he becomes relatively easy to take down.

John is a duplication ability user.

According to his character settings, he can create hundreds of duplicates using shadows, making him incredibly troublesome to face.

In the game, this was represented by his constant summoning of duplicates at regular intervals.

Even if you managed to whittle down his health, he would just create new duplicates, making the fight feel overwhelmingly unfair.

But John’s ability had a fatal weakness.

It was light.

When exposed to strong light, his duplicates would lose their power.

So, in the game, you would either attack him with a light-attribute weapon or use items like flash grenades to neutralize his duplicates.

Without his duplicates, John was no more than a moderately strong villain.

The reason John had such a glaring weakness was probably because he was meant to be defeated by the protagonist’s party.

After all, to make the protagonist shine, there needed to be powerful villains. But if those villains were too strong to defeat, it would be a problem. Hence, a fatal weakness was added to balance things out.

An unavoidable weakness that would ultimately lead to his downfall.

In that regard, John was similar to Han Jihyo.

She, too, had a powerful ability but was easily defeated due to her fatal weakness—water.

‘Phew, thank goodness. I’m really relieved that light is his weakness.’
T h is w as c op i e d f rom k i n gm t l . or g

I let out a sigh of relief in my heart.

I knew the setting of *Romance Hero Academy’s* world was being reflected in reality, but there had always been a small chance that something might go wrong, so I was a bit anxious.

John’s ability was so strong that if his weakness hadn’t worked, I would’ve had no choice but to run for my life immediately.

That guy could create hundreds of duplicates with power almost equal to his own.

How could I possibly deal with all of that?

Ugh, just thinking about it is terrifying.

‘I used a barrier technique in the middle of a crowded street just in case, but I’m glad his weakness worked.’

Using the barrier technique in a busy area was a very deliberate move.

If things went south, I could instantly deactivate the barrier and blend into the crowd to escape.

Honestly, it might sound like I’m using the people as shields, but from Alex’s perspective, he wouldn’t be able to cause a scene in the middle of a busy street.

After all, he was in the process of fleeing with the auction items. There was no need for him to stir up unnecessary trouble while chasing us.

Plus, if he caused too much of a ruckus, he might attract the attention of nearby police, heroes, or mercenaries.

That’s the last thing a thief like him would want.

…Or so I assume.

Ahem.

“Alex, John, So Yuyeong… right?”

I turned my gaze to Alex and his crew.

The moment I called out their names, I saw them flinch.

They seemed puzzled, unsure of how I knew their names.

“Who are you, and how do you know us?”

Alex’s expression was filled with wariness.

It was a short question, but it carried a lot of weight.

Who am I? How did I trap them in a barrier? Why was I targeting them?

Well, from Alex’s perspective, he had every reason to be baffled.

He had probably been expecting to return from his heist without a hitch, only to be suddenly abducted into a barrier.

He likely thought no one would find out.

“You…”

Alex quickly reached into his coat.

It seemed like he was planning to use his Space Pouch.

As a notorious thief, he carried various relics and items in his Space Pouch.

If he pulled out some annoying relic or item, things could get complicated fast.

Alex was already a top-tier fighter even without his items. If he added a bunch of equipment on top of that, he’d become incredibly difficult to deal with.

However, after rummaging through his coat for a moment, he wore a visibly surprised expression.

Because the leather pouch that Alex always carried was missing.

Ah, where did the pouch go, you ask?

It’s right here.

“Phew, they didn’t notice. Here, take this.”

At that moment, a woman’s voice came from beside me.

Soon, the figure of a woman started to appear, as if she had been concealed by some kind of optical camouflage.

She pulled off the invisibility cloak she had been wearing and handed me the leather pouch.

Alex’s Space Pouch.

“This is what you asked me to steal, right?”
Th i s w as c o p i ed f r o m k i n gm t l .o r g

The woman’s name was Aisha Nel Ilyos.

She was a former member of the Execution Division and had aligned herself with Cynthia and Roxanne’s faction.

Publicly, she was known as a top-grade fighter, but her true strength was closer to that of a high-rank hero.

Of course, she would lose in a one-on-one fight with Alex, but she was the only one among us capable of holding her own against him.

She was probably the second-strongest member in Roxanne’s faction.

Thanks to her, we were able to capture Han Jihyo, Joo Jeongseon, and David with ease.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Hehe, don’t mention it. This cloak made it easy.”

Aisha giggled and waved the cloak draped over her shoulders.

Her innocent smile could be deceiving, but according to her character settings, she was quite the sadist.

In other words, she was the type to smile cheerfully while beating someone up.

So, being around her could be a bit intimidating.

She wasn’t as pious as Roxanne or Cynthia; she was more grounded in the secular world.

When she snapped, she wasn’t above beating people senseless.

But, it was precisely because of her personality that I was able to enlist her help in this plan.

Aisha was the kind of person who could be… let’s say, incentivized.

In other words, as long as she was given a reward she deemed satisfactory, she didn’t mind participating in illegal activities, as long as they didn’t cause too much harm.

Roxanne might have been uncomfortable with my plan to hijack the auction items, but Aisha didn’t seem to mind at all.

It was almost like she didn’t care one way or another.

“This cloak is really amazing! How did you even get your hands on something like this?”

The cloak I had lent her was a relic.

It was something I had picked up during a raid on the Spider’s Nest. It had the power to conceal the wearer’s presence, including their scent, body heat, and even their physical appearance.

Rather than just making the wearer invisible, it erased them from people’s perception.

Thanks to that cloak, Aisha had been able to sneak up on Alex and his crew and steal the Space Pouch during the brief moment when the flash grenade blinded them.

Oh, and why didn’t we attack Alex and his crew at that moment, you ask?

Th is wa s c o p ie d f r om k i n g m t l. o r g
Wouldn’t it have been easier to defeat them with a surprise attack?
T h i s wa s c o p ied f r o m ki ng m tl .o rg

Well, I’d answer that it wouldn’t have worked.

Why? Because the moment you attack while wearing the cloak, the concealment effect is instantly nullified.

You know that trope in games, right?

Where if you use an invisibility cloak, monsters can’t detect the player.

But as soon as you attack, the invisibility wears off.

It’s a common mechanic.
Th i s wa s co p i e d fr o m k i n g m t l .o rg

And the same rule applied to this invisibility cloak.

The moment the wearer made a move to attack, the concealment effect would be undone.

Well, that was just the way the item worked.

If you could use the cloak’s concealment with no penalties, it would be an overpowered item.

That’s probably why the item’s description specifically included the note: “The concealment effect will be removed upon attempting an attack.”

‘Still, it might have been worth a shot to sneak right up to them and attack, even if the invisibility would’ve worn off.’

If we had launched a surprise attack from right in front of them, would it have mattered if the invisibility wore off?

Most people wouldn’t be able to react in time to a sudden attack, even if the cloak’s concealment was undone.

But with Alex, it was uncertain.
Th i s wa s co p i e d f r o m k i n g mtl. or g

Alex’s senses were so sharp that he might have seen through the concealment, even to some degree, in his heightened state of alert.

Successfully ambushing someone like him wouldn’t have been easy.

Moreover, the cloak drained a lot of mana and stamina. If the concealment was forcibly dispelled, the cloak couldn’t be used again for a certain period of time.

Since we were in a live combat situation, I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks, so I decided to go with a more reliable strategy.

That strategy was to target Alex’s Space Pouch.

The Space Pouch was essentially a vault containing Alex’s various tools, items, equipment, and relics.

Stealing it meant severely crippling Alex’s combat potential.

Alex was someone who could create countless variables using the items in his Space Pouch, just like me.

But not anymore.

Now he was as good as hunted.

By none other than me.

‘This cloak is seriously useful.’

Thanks to this invisibility cloak, I was able to secretly extract Aisha from the church.

With some excuses to Roxanne and Cynthia, I could have brought her out anyway, but the real concern was someone like Isabelle.

If Isabelle were using her observation ability, she could have been monitoring the church’s key members.

But with the invisibility cloak, even observation abilities couldn’t detect us.

The church also had its own duplication ability user.

He could only create one or two duplicates, but they were perfect copies of the original person.

With his help and the invisibility cloak, we managed to sneak Aisha out.

We then used the cloak to approach the target within range and asked a barrier specialist to trap Alex’s crew.

In order to activate the barrier, we needed to stay within a 4-meter radius for a certain amount of time. Without the cloak, we would have been caught long ago.

This cloak really had a lot of practical uses.

“You… you bastard… my pouch… Did you know what it was all along?”

“Who knows?”

I shrugged nonchalantly.

I had gathered the right people, tools, and items to deal with Alex and his crew today.

The invisibility cloak, the flash grenade, large sunglasses for resisting magic, Aisha, the barrier specialist, the eavesdropper, the defense specialist, and the heroes from Yoo Seolhyun’s faction.

If it had been just me alone, I wouldn’t have been able to pull all of this together. But thanks to Yoo Seolhyun’s help, it had been quite easy.

With time, money, and connections, it wasn’t hard to come up with a perfect combination to counter Alex and his crew.

After all, this wasn’t a game; it was reality.

If I couldn’t take down a foe by myself, I could just enlist help.

There were plenty of strong people in this world. With enough money, connections, and the promise of rewards, it was possible to recruit them to my side.

Given how much time they had given me to prepare, I was confident that I could capture Alex, John, and So Yuyeong without much danger.
T h i s w as co p i e d f ro m k i n g m t l . o r g

In fact, John’s ability had already been neutralized, So Yuyeong wasn’t much of a threat, and Alex’s power would soon be neutralized as well.

As long as no major unexpected variables occurred, we’d be able to bring down Alex’s team without any problems.

Unless someone like Yoo Dahee suddenly barged in.

But judging by their reactions, it didn’t seem like they had come to Busan with Yoo Dahee.

T h i s w a s cop i e d f r o m k i ng m tl.o r g
And even if Yoo Dahee did come, I doubted she could break through this barrier alone in such a short time.

Unless, of course, she had help from someone like the observer Isabelle or the Crusher Ryan.

T h i s w a s c o p i e d f r om k ing m t l . o r g
But really, would they all be here?

I don’t think so.

***
T hi s w as c o p i e d fro m kin g m t l.o r g

“Yoo Dahee, it looks like Alex’s group has been ambushed. It seems they’ve been dragged into a barrier.”

“Huh? Really?”

And completely unbeknownst to us, Yoo Dahee’s team, having just arrived in Busan, was quietly watching the entire situation unfold.

End of Chapter.