Atop the northern wall of Stellar, Iori stared down at the battlefield in disbelief.

  She’d seen her fair share of powerful magic growing up in her homeland.

  But this?

  What Frostina was doing couldn’t be called normal. Not by any stretch.

  Even among the elite mages of her homeland, no one could cast like that. The only ones who might come close would be the High Elves or the Dark High Elves, specifically their royal bloodlines. And even then, they would have stronger raw output thanks to their racial affinity with magic.

  And yet here was a human.

  Frostina’s scale and precision put her on par with the Royal Court Mages who once served the human king.

  And those were all long gone.

  Which meant, at this moment, no one else in the world could carry a battlefield like she did.

  What made it more terrifying…

  Frostina was nowhere near her peak.

  She was limited, both by stamina and by the undeveloped state of her mana core. In her past life, she had been far stronger.

  And still… she was enough to turn the tide alone.

  Iori shook herself and refocused. She still had her job: to observe and assess.

  Her brow furrowed.

  “Without her… could the other battlefields even survive?”

  The goblins flooding out of the dungeon gate were endless. Even with perfect coordination, even if the players on other fronts were just as skilled as those here… Iori still doubted their chances.

  She raised her communication crystal to her lips.

  “How’s the situation?” she asked.

  Yuki responded first, her tone calm as ever.

  “Western front. One hasn’t died. Others have gone down once or twice, but they’re holding.”

  A moment later, Glacia answered from the east.

  “Same here. Each has died at least once. One guy died four times, though… but he was being overly kind, and ran off to help others. So I’ll let it slide.”

  Iori frowned and thought to herself.

  “Am I… underestimating the players?”

  Still, the doubt didn’t last.

  Frostina had told her that, aside from herself, only two other players in Stellar had combat potential high enough to stand out. One of them was on the northern side, and Iori already knew who Frostina meant by ‘her target’.

  That meant the second outlier must be on the western front.

  But if the western outlier was only on par with that red-haired brute, FireFlame… then even with solid coordination, survival still shouldn’t be easy.

  And yet, the east was holding too. Without a standout player.

  Her brows knit deeper.

  Something wasn’t adding up.

  So she followed up.

  “What’s the monster rate on your ends?”

  Glacia responded first.

  “In the east? A hundred goblins per minute in the first five minutes. Then two hundred per minute on the second wave.”

  Yuki followed.

  “Same on the west. First wave had only dagger-types. Second wave added archers and fire casters.”

  Iori’s eyes widened.

  It wasn’t just the scale, but it was the tempo.

  She took a breath, then gave her own report.

  “...In the north, the first wave lasted fifteen minutes. After that, the second wave hit us with three hundred monsters per minute.”

  Silence followed.

  Then, twenty-five minutes after the battle had begun, the monsters stopped coming.

  Across the world, in every battlefield, the same thing happened at the same time.

  The final count was exact: 4,500 monsters total.

  But the pacing?

  The distribution?

  Only three people in the world knew the truth.

  The north in Stellar had been overloaded.

  And the only reason it hadn’t collapsed…

  Was her presence.

  Frostina.

  Then—

  KRAAARRGGKK!!

  A deafening roar shattered the air across all three fronts in Stellar.

  The next stage had arrived.

  The boss battle had begun.

  ……

  In the northern battlefield of Stellar, things had briefly quieted down.

  Not long after FireFlame’s second death, a few others had followed. Even some swordsmen from Frostina’s team had finally fallen, dying for the first time since the event began.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Not because the goblins overwhelmed them.

  But because Frostina… just couldn’t afford to help anymore.

  She’d done everything she could.

  Fortunately, the dungeon had stopped spawning monsters.

  And the remaining players managed to clear the last of the goblins on their own, and the respawned players returned to the battlefield soon after.

  Behind her, Cryssa hovered with wide eyes and a hopeful gasp.

  (“I-Is it over?”)

  Frostina replied mentally, her voice dry and tired.

  “...No. The third wave’s the boss battle.”

  Then—

  KRAAARRGGKK!!

  A roar like a mountain tearing in half shook the battlefield.

  From the dungeon entrance, four massive figures emerged.

  Goblin Generals.

  Each stood twice the size of a normal goblin, their bodies clad in rusted iron and wielding axes so large they could cleave a man in half with one swing.

  And behind them…

  A monstrous figure stomped out.

  The Goblin King.

  Three times the size of the standard goblin, with shoulders wide as siege gates, dragging a massive greatsword that left a scar across the ground as he walked.

  And right on cue, FireFlame’s voice echoed across the field.

  “I’ll take the Goblin King! Buff me! One tank, help me out! I need to at least climb the Total Damage leaderboard!”

  There were no commands for formation.

  No coordination with other teams.

  Just pure, selfish ambition.

  Cryssa let out a little chuckle.

  (“Looks like he’s given up on the Kill Count leaderboard.”)

  He had to. Five bosses weren’t enough to climb back into that race. But Total Damage? Maybe, if the other battlefield teams ignored their bosses entirely.

  It was leaderboard ambition dressed up in desperation.

  The three priests hesitated.

  Then turned to look at Frostina.

  She blinked at them.

  "...?"

  Cryssa floated closer and translated.

  (“They’re asking if it’s okay to buff him.”)

  “Oh.”

  Frostina gave a small nod.

  The priests were momentarily stunned, each has their own imagination.

  “She’s letting him climb the leaderboard? After he insulted her?”

  “Her expression is cold, but she’s so kind!”

  “So… generous!”

  She wasn’t.

  She was just out of energy.

  She was just trying to conserve the bare minimum stamina to stay upright until this stupid event ended.

  But the priests didn’t know that.

  And she didn’t know what they were thinking.

  After a second’s delay, the priests turned back to FireFlame and cast their spells.

  Bright rings of light swirled around him.

  FireFlame grinned wide and charged the Goblin King like a man possessed.

  Meanwhile, the tanks paired off with the remaining four Goblin Generals.

  The rest, swordsmen and mages alike, hesitated.

  They didn’t move forward right away.

  Instead, they looked back at the one who’d carried them until now.

  At Frostina.

  Waiting.

  Cryssa tilted her head.

  (“They’re wondering which General you want to take. Or if you’re gonna solo all of them.”)

  Frostina’s mouth twitched. It sounded like a joke to her.

  “...I don’t even have the energy to cast a single spell.”

  But to the others, seeing that tiny smile on her lips, it looked like confidence, as if she could stay #1 even without attacking the boss.

  She turned toward them and simply said:

  “You guys take care of the rest.”

  Their eyes widened as they thought to themselves.

  “She’s giving us the chance!”

  “She’s letting us climb the leaderboard!”

  “She’s the best carry ever!”

  Some bowed. Some shouted “Thank you!” before sprinting off to battle.

  Frostina blinked, watching them go.

  “…What was that about?”

  Cryssa held back a laugh.

  Cryssa wasn’t sure what was funnier, their complete misunderstanding, or the fact that Frostina wasn't even aware of it.

  But Cryssa didn’t explain it to Frostina. She just snickered.

  (“Who knows?”)

  And so the boss battle began.

  Frostina stood at the rear, watching them fight with a quiet stare.

  Then her thoughts drifted…

  “I miss popcorn.”

  Cryssa perked up.

  (“Oh! The maid finished perfecting the recipe last night. I slipped a portion into your magic bag while you were asleep.”)

  Frostina’s eyes lit up.

  She turned, rummaged beneath her robe, and pulled out a small sealed pouch from a hidden magic bag.

  She opened it.

  The smell hit instantly, warm, buttery, slightly sweet.

  “You’re the best!”

  With that, she sat down atop a pile of goblin corpses, still steaming from frost and flame. She crossed one leg over the other and popped a kernel into her mouth.

  And from her icy throne of monster corpses, Frostina sat chewing popcorn while watching the others fight.

  Crunch. Crunch.

  It was, finally, someone else’s turn to work.

  …Or so Frostina thought.

  Just as the last Goblin General and the Goblin King fell, a strange pulse rippled through the air.

  Zzzzrrrshhhh!

  The dungeon entrance began to shift, its glowing blue vortex distorting, flickering wildly, then snapping into a deep, ominous violet.

  Cryssa’s eyes widened. Frostina stopped mid-bite, her last popcorn kernel paused halfway to her mouth.

  “...I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  A second later, a system window blinked into view before her dark eyes, one she’d only seen once before.

  It wasn’t her player interface.

  It wasn’t Cryssa’s NPC management screen.

  It was the world’s own system.

  ? SYSTEM ALERT! ?

  ? A problem has been detected. ?

  ? Mana disturbance detected in 3 dimensional gates. ?

  ? Attempting to repair damage... ?

  Frostina swallowed hard, standing slowly from her seat atop the goblin corpses. The popcorn bag vanished into her magic bag beneath her robe.

  Then—

  ? Repair failed. ?

  ? Solution received from Administrator. ?

  ? Attempting to deploy specific byproduct creatures to 42 locations. ?

  Frostina narrowed her eyes.

  Forty-two.

  That was the number of active player battlefields across the world, excluding the three in Stellar.

  So this wasn’t just Stellar’s problem anymore.

  ? Success. ?

  A second system window slid into view.

  > ? Message from Administrator ?

  Without hesitation, Frostina sighed and muttered:

  “...Open the message.”

  Text appeared across the screen in a familiar, too-casual font.

  【Hey, Frostina. Just a heads-up, one monster in each of the three battlefields in Stellar is going to go a little berserk.】

  【But Stelluna should be able to handle it, don’t worry.】

  【So, I figured it’s a good time to spawn a monster of equal strength in the other 42 battlefields too. Gotta keep things fair, right?】

  【Let’s treat it as a global special boss.】

  【Have fun.】

  【—Administrator】

  Frostina’s brow twitched.

  “…‘Have fun’ my ass.”

  Then, with a reverberating chime, the next system window appeared.

  ? World Announcement! ?

  ? A special event boss has appeared in every battlefield. ?

  ? A new global leaderboard has been unlocked. ?

  ? Special rewards will be given to players in the top-performing battlefield based on Total Damage dealt to the boss. ?

  ? Objective: Kill it before it reaches your town. ?