Former Hero, Solo Play Oriented

Chapter 101

‘Astra Online’ went through a balancing patch just two days after the first clear of ‘Frozen Palace.’

【Developer Notes】

Hello, Adventurers from the Stars. This is Director Shin Kyunghun.

First, we apologize to the players for having to move up the patch schedule that we had planned to implement later...

The developer notes, which began with the greeting from the main director, contained an apology for releasing this letter during a time when players should be farming the new dungeon. It also outlined the key areas the balance patch would address.

"Still, it's a relief that I finished farming accessories yesterday."

After the emergency patch was announced, I doubled down on farming.

I sold the *Frozen Palace Master’s Soul*, which evolves weapons, for a high price and focused on farming accessories.

Any accessories with unnecessary options were dismantled and converted into *Frozen Palace Essence*. Of course, I also earned a small amount from daily quests and dungeon completion rewards.

The accumulated *Frozen Palace Essence* was enough to upgrade the accessories this time.

Since I already have the legendary weapon *Astaroth*, it would be nice to get legendary accessories with good stats and options, too.

There was no need to switch to the *Frozen Palace Master’s Sword*. *Astaroth* has higher attack power and enhances all my skills overall.

At least until this expansion is over, I’ll be able to continue using last season’s legendary weapon.

But the important thing is—

"Why did they announce such an important balancing patch so urgently?"

I sat on the sofa, carefully examining the developer notes on my smartphone.

According to the notes, the balancing patch had always been planned.

They wanted to finalize the balance, including the data obtained from players clearing the *Frozen Palace*.

"They mentioned they needed to carefully consider both PvP and PvE skill sets..."

On the surface, the reason they provided was the difficulty of the latest elite dungeon, *Frozen Palace*. Hanagames decided to lower the difficulty while moving up the skill balancing patch.

Even though two days had passed since the first clear, only a few parties had completed the dungeon. Considering that most of them were from the Hongbaek Guild, it meant that aside from the top pioneering parties, no other groups had succeeded.@@@@

The first boss isn’t too difficult once you understand its mechanics. It just takes time to establish the right damage cycle according to the pattern.

The second boss is all about coordination among party members. Most of the damage comes from the reflection damage gimmick.

However, the third boss, *Witch Frederica*—

Her patterns are fast, strong, and varied. Executing the mechanics to defeat her is tough.

Her enraged state deals insane damage, and invincibility skills have to be used with precision. Her AoE attacks go off constantly, and her near-instant kill moves fly around like crazy. There’s even a special phase where ice blades make her untouchable, and she guards herself with them. On top of that, it’s tough to destroy the orbs at the right time while dealing with her other mechanics. And let’s not forget about the cold aura fields that constantly appear and need to be removed.

Just because Rain cleared the dungeon easily, some players might have underestimated it, but Rain had his own life-or-death struggles. Even after the strategy was shared, only a few parties could follow it.

“Heh.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Even if they pretended to care about my health and tried to limit my actions with some compensation, once Rain took the spotlight, the game developers had no choice but to act quickly.

They claim the balance patch is to lower the difficulty, but it’s actually a balancing act between *Rain* and regular players.

This is the snowball effect caused by solo play streaming.

It showed a stark difference between Rain and the general player base.

I briefly recalled the cryptic words left by Team Leader Han.

“You should’ve given a proper explanation.”

If they chose to ignore my synchronization rate, then there’s a lot more I can do.

Only a handful of people in *Hanagames* likely know the truth about the *Astra Continent*.

Are they even human? Well, anyway.

If they take regular players into account, they can’t patch skills like reducing the scaling of sword techniques.

As expected, the patch focused on enhancing invincibility skills and adding more of them.

“They’re giving out one more invincibility skill for everyone. And... For ranged classes, they’re increasing the resistance count for standing invincibility skills, and for melee classes, they’re extending the duration of invincibility frames...”

Though they’re not adding enough invincibility skills to forcefully break through enrage modes, at least the patterns that require consecutive resistances will be easier to deal with. Like the *Ice Ogre King’s* eight-hit AoE attack.

---

I smirked slightly.

Honestly, I had aimed for this.

Rain in the *Astra Continent* is more reserved than I am.

Communicating through live broadcasts was a burden for her, but simply streaming gameplay videos was something she could handle.

As for showing my face, well, that’s something I can deal with over here.

I’ll make money through *Astra Online* in every way possible.

After saving the world, I didn’t get properly rewarded, so I deserve to earn this much. Although I’ve already made good money through expansion pack ads, it’s still not enough.

I need to finish paying off Chris, spend freely in the *Astra Continent*, and make my life here even more comfortable.

I can’t live off Chris forever.

I’ll eventually move out, so I need to save up.

“Hmm...”

Of course, logically, moving out makes sense.

But I don’t want to be separated from Chris unnie.

I glanced around the spacious penthouse.

How much is this apartment worth?

Can I earn enough to live right below Chris unnie?

After applying for monetization, I checked the comments under the stream replay video.

---

[Huff... Huff... LOL]

---

There were many comments, but the top one was a strange onomatopoeia.

Every time I read comments about myself, that weird sound effect appeared.

I tilted my head, puzzled.

“Is it trendy to write breathless sound effects in comments these days?”

It’s tough keeping up with the latest trends.

---

Beep, clunk.

“Rain~! I’m home from work! The patch isn’t done yet, right? Why is it taking so long? I brought chicken!”

Just hearing Chris’s voice lifted my spirits.

“Unnie, thank you for your hard work!”

Smiling, I greeted Chris as she returned home. The smell of freshly fried chicken wafted from the bag she was holding.

I picked up

a brush next to me and handed it to Chris.

“Unnie, could you brush my hair for me?”

“Huh? Sure, sure. Your hair is long, so it must be hard to brush by yourself, right?”

With a beaming smile, Chris took off her coat and sat on the sofa. I sat between her legs and relaxed, letting her brush my hair.

*Swish, swish.*

It felt nice.

Even after I save up enough money to move out, maybe I’ll stick around for a little while longer.