The Word Is A Game: Rise Of The Limping King

Boss Pattern Prediction

"I’m starving. It feels like my stomach’s about to explode," Budi complained, clutching his growling belly.

Rian glanced at the law student with a flat expression. "Hold it in. If you can’t handle hunger, you’ll end up as food for whatever’s waiting ahead."

Siska, limping beside Rian, pointed toward a wrecked convenience store at the end of the intersection. "There... there’s an Alfamidi over there. But something’s weird. Why are the doors shut tight when all the glass is already shattered?"

Pak Kus wiped the sweat from his forehead with a grimy towel. "Maybe someone’s hiding inside?"

"Not someone," Rian replied coldly. He stopped, narrowing his eyes, which could now see faint lines of energy thanks to his Player status. "Something big is behind the cashier counter. I can smell the stench from here."

"Shouldn’t we just find somewhere else?" Dodi asked, his voice trembling. "We just need bread and water."

"Every convenience store within a two-kilometer radius already has a ‘keeper,’" Rian said as he started walking forward again, his limp dragging rhythmically against the asphalt. "If we want to eat, we pay the price. Get your weapons ready."

The five of them approached the crooked automatic glass door. The smell of rotting meat mixed with spilled instant coffee hit them immediately. The moment Rian stepped onto the tiled floor, a deep roar shook the display shelves.

Grawrr!

A massive figure, nearly eight feet tall, rose from behind the cashier counter. Its skin was pale gray, its bloated stomach split open to reveal blackened organs. Most horrifying of all, it wore the torn remains of a red-and-blue uniform, and in its hand it gripped a massive iron club made from fused queue barriers.

Ting!

[Mini-Boss: Gluttonous Ogre Clerk - Level 10]

[Status: Extremely Hungry and Aggressive.]

"Level ten?!" Budi shouted. "Rian, what level are we even? Are you crazy?!"

"Don’t look at the level!" Rian cut in quickly. "Listen to me. It’s not as fast as the Shadow Wolf, but its attack range is wide. Budi, Dodi, take the right flank. Throw anything from the shelves to draw its attention!"

"I don’t want to die like this!" Dodi cried, starting to turn and run.

"Dodi!" Siska snapped. "Look outside! There are hundreds of monsters out there ready to eat you if you’re alone. There’s only one choice. Follow Rian or die right now!"

Dodi swallowed hard, his face pale, but he grabbed several glass bottles of syrup from a toppled shelf.

"Siska, you have the Glass Shard skill, right?" Rian asked without turning.

"Yeah, but I can only use it twice before I run out of mana," Siska answered honestly.

"Save it for its eyes. Wait for my signal." Rian tightened his grip on his iron pipe. "Now, go!"

Budi and Dodi began hurling syrup bottles at the Ogre.

Crash!

Thick red liquid splattered across the giant’s body. The Ogre Clerk growled, its yellow eyes locking onto the two trembling young men. It raised its iron club and swung with monstrous force.

Bang!

A detergent rack exploded into pieces. Budi rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding having his head crushed. "That thing hits insanely hard!"

"Pak Kus, now! Throw that cooking oil at its feet!" Rian shouted.

With what courage he had left, Pak Kus rolled two large bottles of cooking oil across the floor, their caps already loosened. The ground in front of the counter became slick. As the Ogre stepped forward to chase Budi, its foot slipped, throwing it off balance for a moment.

"Analysis complete," Rian murmured. Wind-up animation, three seconds. Horizontal swing from right to left. Classic tank boss pattern.

"Siska, hit its eyes now!"

Siska extended her hand. A faint blue glow gathered at her fingertips, then a sharp shard of glass shot forward at high speed.

Thud!

The shard buried itself in the Ogre’s left eye.

"Arghhhhh!"

The monster’s roar of pain made their ears ring.

"Everyone, get down!" Rian activated Phantom Step.

His once-limp left leg burst with blue kinetic energy. He no longer dragged it. He glided, crossing the slick oil with perfect balance. As the Ogre clutched its bleeding eye, Rian leaped onto the cashier counter, using the momentum to propel himself higher.

"This is for every time I got bullied my whole life!" Rian shouted.

He drove the iron pipe down with all his strength into the Ogre’s nape, the central nerve point that was often a weakness in giant-type enemies in every game he had ever played. The pipe pierced through the thick hide and plunged into the spinal cord.

Craaaack!

The massive body froze instantly. Its iron club slipped from its grasp and crashed onto the floor, followed by the Ogre’s heavy collapse. Black particles of light began to rise from its body.

[Target Eliminated: Gluttonous Ogre Clerk (Mini-Boss).]

[Obtained 3,500 EXP.]

[Item Drop Acquired: ‘Store Manager Key’ and ‘Heavy Iron Club’.]

[Level Up!]

Silence settled over the convenience store. Only the sound of their ragged breathing remained.

"We... we won?" Budi asked, as if he could not believe he was still alive.

"We won," Siska replied softly as she sank to the floor, exhausted. "Rian... you’re really insane. But your strategy worked."

Rian stepped down from the counter, his left leg dragging again as the system’s energy faded. He picked up a golden key that had dropped from the monster’s body. "Grab anything you can eat. Bread, canned meat, bottled water. Put it in your bags. We don’t know when we’ll find a place like this again."

Without needing to be told twice, Budi and Dodi rushed the food shelves. They ate greedily, tearing open bread packages with trembling hands. Pak Kus handed a bottle of water to Rian.

"Drink, Rian. You did the most work," Pak Kus said sincerely.

Rian accepted the bottle, staring at the water inside. A strange warmth stirred in his chest, something he had not felt in a long time since he had shut himself off from the world. The feeling of being acknowledged. The feeling of being needed.

"Thanks, Pak," Rian said quietly.

"Rian, look at this!" Siska called from the corner near the back storage room. "There’s a steel door here, locked. And there’s a system message above it."

Rian approached. A notification appeared before him.

[Warning: Entrance to ‘Secret Dungeon: Warehouse of Shadows’ detected.]

[Recommended Level: 15.]

[Would you like to use ‘Store Manager Key’?]

"Don’t open it yet," Rian muttered. "Our level isn’t high enough. We need to"

Suddenly, a thunderous impact far greater than the Ogre’s attack shook the area. The entire convenience store trembled as if struck by a powerful earthquake. The remaining glass shattered into pieces.

"What was that?!" Dodi shouted in terror.

Rian ran to the shattered front window. In the distance, among Jakarta’s collapsing high-rises, a colossal black-armored hand gripped the top of a thirty-story office building.

The creature was as tall as a mountain. Each step it took made the ground quake violently. Above its head, a blood-red name blazed brightly in the dark sky.

[Field Boss: Ironclad Ogre - The City Crusher.]

"That... that’s the boss the system announced earlier?" Siska whispered, her face drained of color.

Rian clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. "It’s not just moving. It’s heading... straight toward us."

At that moment, the system sounded again, but this time its tone felt far colder and more menacing.

[Emergency Warning: High-Level Player detected near the Field Boss.]

[Hidden Quest Activated: Become the Bait or Be Destroyed with the City.]

[Time Remaining: 10 Minutes.]

"Bait?" Budi trembled. "You’re saying we have to lure that walking mountain?!"

Rian looked at his companions, who now stared at him with a mixture of hope and fear. He knew one wrong move would erase them all from existence. And in the distance, he saw something else, the flashing lights of military helicopters and a group of fully armed figures moving toward the same direction.

"This isn’t about finding food anymore," Rian murmured, his eyes glowing a sharp blue. "This is about who survives when the giants start fighting."