I sorted out my tactics in my head and first called out to the mage.
"Junior."
Upon being called, Junior quickly nodded, and I drew a halo in the air with my hand.
"When I give the signal, cast your ultimate skill [Elemental Disassembly] on that monster."
"Understood."
"How long will it take to cast?"
"15 minutes."
That’s actually reduced quite a bit. Junior was in a relatively good condition and had continually optimized the casting according to her own words.
"I’m counting on you."
"Got it!"
"Punishment Squad, and the Dragonblood Knights."
I called out to Kuilan’s party and Dusk Bringar’s party, pointing to the slowly approaching Troll King.
"Stop her."
"Um... is it even possible to stop her?"
Even as they prepared to move out, Dusk Bringar broke into a cold sweat.
"Our attacks don’t even work on her, she’s just walking straight at us."
"Do it anyway. Use whatever means necessary."
If she gets any closer, it’ll be too close to our forward base.
That would make it difficult for us to unleash our firepower. She must not be allowed to advance any further.
"Fine, let’s go! It’d be embarrassing for dragons to be pushed back by a mere troll! Forward!"
Mounted on their steeds, Dusk Bringar and her knights rushed out through the open gate,
"Uh? So we’re going on foot?"
Following behind, a flustered Kuilan and members of the Punishment Squad ran out as well. They should be able to buy us some time.
"Godhand, Bodybag."
I called out to the Metal Mage and Telekinetic Mage, pointing to the obstructing squad that had gone ahead.
"Follow them and set up a barricade. If our line gets broken, you’ll use the barricade to buy time while the line is reestablished."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Both Elven mages ran out without further ado.
"Burnout, prepare for ranged attacks. Lilly, get all the attack artifacts ready."
The bombardment archer had already finished preparing and was on standby. Nodding, Lilly hurriedly wheeled herself toward the artifacts set up on the wall.
After giving orders to the Punishment Squad, Dragonblood Knights, and Shadow Squad, I called out to my two knights.
"Lucas, Evangeline."
I briefly instructed the two knights who quickly approached me.
"Use the Holy Weapons in this battle."
The weapons I had crafted for Stage 5 against the Vampire Army—Holy Weapons.
Both knights immediately drew their Holy Weapons without questioning.
Lucas unsheathed his Holy Sword, and Evangeline fitted her spear with Holy Parts.
"Go out but don’t join the obstructing squad; conserve your energy. When I give the signal, drive those Holy Weapons into its body."
I already saw the obstruction squad clashing with the Troll King.
Dusk Bringar and Kuilan both charged toward the Troll King, screaming. Their knights and beast-men spread out to encircle the monster.
They rained attacks on the Troll King from all directions.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The monster simply ignored them and kept walking.
Kuilan’s fist arts and Dusk Bringar’s magical torrents may destroy its body, but they can’t stop it.
Have I ever seen such a tough bastard?
I continued to explain to Lucas and Evangeline, holding back my internal expletives.
"You have to inflict the deepest wounds possible with your weapons. Its skin is thicker than most armor... Attack it as if you’re delivering the killing blow. I trust you."
"Your Honor."
"Leave it to me~!"
Both knights, too, mounted up and rushed out.
I took a deep breath and looked back. I felt the gaze of the other two party members, who looked at me with tense faces.
Right.
They are the core of this operation.
"Damien. And Saintess."
Healers.
To those who could wield divine power through the Goddess’s blessings, I gave a simple command.
"When I signal, cast your strongest healing magic on that troll."
Both looked at me with widened eyes.
"Huh? Yo-Your Highness, what are you..."
Damien stammered,
"Healing magic? You want us to... heal that monster?"
Saintess Margarita pointed at the Troll King, who was approaching from a distance.
Even now, the Troll King was effortlessly ignoring the defense line that was desperately attacking her, and steadily advancing toward our base.
I nodded silently.
"With all your might. As if you were trying to bring someone back from the dead. Squeeze out every last bit of your power— and heal that troll."
Seeming to think I had gone mad, the two healers continued to look at me with disbelief.
I grinned.
After nearly a year working with me, shouldn’t our healers have gotten a good sense of my style?
I’ve always been a fan of crazy strategies!
***
There’s something called Overflow.
It’s an error that occurs when a program’s numerical value exceeds its maximum limit.
A simple example would be the famous ’Y2K problem’ that occurred when the year transitioned from 1999 to 2000.
At that time, there was already widespread millennial-end doom and gloom. Then the ’Millennium Bug’ struck, causing panic that the world would come to a standstill and civilization would collapse.
Because of system limitations at the time, the year after 1999 was recognized as 1900 instead of 2000.
This happened because when the initial year system was programmed, it was done so that only the last two digits would change.
According to the rule, 99 was followed by 00. And so, computer systems recognized the year 2000 as 1900, causing global computational paralysis and a wave of myths.
In reality, a rapid global response prevented any serious issues, but still.
Anyway, that’s the famous Year 2000 Problem.
A prime example of Overflow trouble.
Why am I suddenly talking about programming terms? Because it’s key to defeating the Troll King.
’In the game, the Troll King’s health regeneration rate is 999% per second.’
999 is the limit for character stats in the game.
In the case of Damien’s [Far-Sight], the game provides a sight range of +50 tiles and an accuracy score of +999.
Here, 999 means that it corrects up to the limit of 999, it’s not literally adding 999 to the stat.
’So what if we could force this number to Overflow?’
In a system where 999 is the limit, what if we could forcibly add 1?
Then what would the value be?
1000?
No. The correct answer is ’000.’
A number that exceeds the system’s calculation range ’overflows,’ causing an error and starting to count from 0 again.
I had verified this theory in the game before.
By stacking dozens of attack buff mages and attack buff artifacts on a single person, their attack power dropped to a single digit after exceeding 999.
During my game strategy days, I incorporated this into my plans against the Troll King.
By forcibly applying a health regeneration buff to the Troll King.
The Overflowed health regeneration rate would exceed 999%, dropping to a single digit, and we could easily kill the Troll King who lost his monstrous health regen. It was a strategy exploiting a system loophole.
’Of course, that was in the game.’
The place I’m in now is harsh reality.
Killing the Troll King using an Overflow bug like in the game is impossible.
However, the tactics I had prepared provided me with enough hints for the current situation.
’The Troll King possesses the highest regenerative abilities allowed in this world.’
So what if I could stimulate that already-maxed-out regenerative ability even further?
What if, beyond mere recovery, I could push it to go berserk?
What would happen?
The boiling blood, bodily fluids, and cells of the troll. The system of regeneration and self-repair engraved into its genes.
What if they overflowed beyond their limit?
Wouldn’t excessive regenerative ability turn into poison, causing its own body to collapse?
’It’s worth a try.’
There’s no other immediate viable option anyway.
The surefire way to kill this brute with such ridiculous stamina regeneration would be a one-shot kill, but that’s practically impossible.
I’d have to employ all my defensive-breaking methods and land maximum damage without a single misstep, which is an absurd idea, realistically speaking.
Even a slight miss would allow her to recover through overwhelming health regeneration.
So, both in theory and in practice, I had to try my original ’Overflow Strategy’.
More than anything, my gamer’s intuition told me, ’This is the way!’
The path to victory.
Within a set number of turns, using the limited resources at hand, find the single solution. This is what I had done in my last 742 strategies.
I felt the certainty of success that I had always felt whenever a strategy worked.
’Games exist to be beaten.’
There’s always a way out, a path to survival in any situation.
If I found a way, I had to walk it...!
***
"...So, in essence, cast healing magic on it," I explained the outline of the ’Overflow Strategy’, and Damien and Saintess Margarita nodded, although apprehensively.
"Alright. Damien, you stay here and use your magic gun to shoot healing magic at maximum output. Saintess? Move with me."
If Damien excels in instant healing with his magic gun, Saintess Margarita has a high overall continuous healing rate. Both could be key cards in this strategy.
Damien ran up to the ramparts with his magic gun, and Margarita followed me.
I had Margarita climb onto my horse first, then I got on in front of her. She awkwardly grabbed my shoulder for support.
"I thought I had seen all kinds of dangers after being assigned to this front line, but I never thought I would be casting healing spells on a monster..."
"Haha. Well, there will be even stranger things down the road."
When I jokingly said this, Margarita’s complexion worsened. Seriously, why does everyone take my jokes so seriously?
"Let’s go, to the battlefield!"
With a light kick, my horse broke into a gallop.
Margarita let out a small scream from behind, but I ignored it and accelerated even more.
The battlefield where the defense forces and the Troll King were engaged in a chaotic fight rapidly closed in.
"What a mess..."
The defensive line was in shambles.
"Waaaaaaah-!"
Kuilan and the Penal Squad were the first to charge in, but—
Thwack! Thud!
It didn’t work.
Annoyed, the Troll King casually grabbed them one by one and flung them aside.
Even if her attack power was considered ’low’ for a boss monster, the sheer physical strength of that hulking mass of muscles was never going to be low.
Members of the Penal Squad were rolling on the ground, screaming.
"Dragonblood Knights!"
At Dusk Bringar’s command, her four knights instantly readied their weapons and formed up behind her.
"Draw your swords! Defensive formation!"
"As you command!"
An SSR-ranked party of five skillfully set up their defensive formation to block the creature.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Despite being assaulted by magic, swords, and spears, the creature simply continued walking forward. The knights, flustered by this unprecedented situation, lost their defensive capabilities, breaking their formation and scattering in all directions.
"Grrrrah!"
Dusk Bringar, who had somehow clung to the front of the Troll King with her small body, let out a scream as she struggled to hold the monster back, her face turning red.
"Is this bastard insane?!"
"Yeah, definitely insane."
Just based on its stats, it possessed regenerative abilities comparable to Damien’s ’Far-Sight.’
If Damien’s Far-Sight was described as a ’mistake by the gods,’ then this creature was on the same level.
While Dusk Bringar held it back, Godhand and Bodybag completed setting up the barricade.
Grinding her teeth, Dusk Bringar retreated, and the Troll King nonchalantly advanced, pushing aside the iron-barred barricade as if it were a mere inconvenience.
Wiping the sweat from her chin, Dusk Bringar ground her teeth again.
"Have you always been dealing with monsters like this?"
"No, not always. Sometimes we get these hellishly difficult ones."
If you’re already having a hard time with this one, you’re in for a treat. We’ve dealt with crazier ones in the past.
When I briefly explained about the monsters we had faced, including Celendion, Jormungandr, and Lunared, Dusk Bringar let out a squawk.
"Is the Monster Frontline some kind of insane place?!"
"Yes."
Not really surprising. Haha.
"Your Highness!"
A voice echoed from the wall at that moment.
Turning around, I saw a geometric magic circle spread out above the wall.
Dozens of colored magical elements were swirling around in a complex spell formula.
Beneath it, Junior, looking more relaxed than before, grinned like a fox.
"Preparation complete!"
"Great! Let’s start!"
I stretched out my hand forward and yelled.
"Operation ’Overflow’! Commence!"
Simultaneously, Junior’s ’Elemental Disassembly’ erupted.
Above the Troll King’s head, a halo-like ring appeared, shining brightly, and a dazzling beam of light poured over the area.
The next moment, a crack appeared in thin air, as if a mirror had shattered,
Craaack-!
It burst into pieces.
At the same time, all the magical elements surrounding the Troll King were ’disassembled’ at once.
Witnessing this spectacle, Dusk Bringar screamed in astonishment.
"What kind of magic is this?!"
Come on, if you’re going to be surprised at every single thing, we’re going to have a problem here!
--TL Notes--
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