The suicide goblins - nicknamed "huggers" or "mutant goblins" by viewers - stretched their long arms to grab my waist.
Despite growing bigger with longer limbs, their faces had only gotten uglier. One flashed its crooked teeth in a creepy grin. While other knights pushed them away before they could get close, I let myself get grabbed right away, which must have looked pretty stupid.
Their goblin intelligence couldn''t comprehend that I''d let them grab me rather than being caught. Finding their simple-mindedness both nostalgic and familiar, I firmly gripped the ugly head clinging to my waist.
''Back then, didn''t I throw a goblin when Han Se-ah asked me to show her something?''
That was on the plains floor - not floor 51, but floor 1. I''d caught a goblin and given it a tour of Seoul.
With a "kyaaak!" it had soared so high it vanished from the camera''s view. That gif became the first viral meme from Han Se-ah''s stream. Before that she was just a lucky broadcaster, but after the goblin throw, viewers saw her as someone who made isekai power fantasy content.
Remembering that, I gripped the goblin head clinging to me and whirled-!
This time instead of throwing it skyward, I hurled it toward its companions waiting in the barracks for a chance to self-destruct. Its face, which had been smugly grinning despite completely wrapping around my waist with interlocked fingers, twisted in bewilderment at being so easily removed.
"Watch out for the exploding goblin!"
"Hey! Don''t throw it this way!"
Screeeee--!!!
The stupid goblin''s face disappeared in a flash of purple light with that distinctive sound. Though it failed to take me with it despite clinging to my waist, it took about five companions to the afterlife, so at least it wouldn''t be lonely.
The destroyed catapult, sliced-up allies, and even the orc scrambling to grab close combat gear after abandoning everything - all vanished together in that purple flash.
The fight got easier after that. The goblins tried to avoid me, having sensed something was wrong, but I just caught them and threw them in all directions, letting them clear the area themselves.
"Looks like Roland''s getting a taste for bombs too!"
-Oh no, teacher learned something bad lololololol
-Spreading the saying "close to ink gets you stained" to a fantasy world, what a madman lololololol
-Are you saying being near black makes you black? Fucking Kimchi-men''s discriminatory remarks, I''m appalled. Being black isn''t a disease and isn''t contagious
-Hey, isn''t that just a Korean pretending to be foreign?
-Someone catch that guy and dissect him alive
It felt oddly satisfying to take out four or five at once with exploding goblins instead of methodically smashing them one by one with my hammer.
Come to think of it, before reincarnating into this world, when I played games in modern society, I preferred AOE skills over single target burst damage. Though I hate to admit it, I was starting to understand why Han Se-ah was so obsessed with bombs over magic.
Mid-tier magic felt more like CC than AOE skills. Just look at Earth Control - it was nicknamed "road paver" since it wasn''t used offensively.
-At this point the monster army must be hunting ogres to build outposts? lol No way they just don''t appear
-TBH don''t care about Han Se-ah whining but would like to see Grace sniping with enhanced arrows
While viewers and Han Se-ah made a fuss about enhancement stones, the others discussed the suicide goblins.
"These guys seem to have bomb belts - wonder if we could shoot them with arrows to set them off?"
"Don''t know exactly what they are, but they explode a bit after pressing them, so probably?"
They seemed envious of how I threw goblins to handle enemies, thinking about detonating goblins from range or throwing them elsewhere.
But as always with tower monsters, everything related to goblins disappeared when they died. Unless they were named elites or boss monsters, even their equipment completely vanished into mana.
The goblin infantry''s armor and shields, orc javelineers'' rod-shaped grenades, centaur cavalry''s spears and swords - when they died, everything vanished leaving just a single mana stone. So even if we killed suicide goblins, we''d only get purple mana stones, not their bomb belts.
"Roland? Roland!"
"Hm? What is it, Katie?"
Lost in thought while enjoying the dual spectacle of Ice Cross Knights scheming to pair up Olek and Alisa alongside Han Se-ah''s passionate complaints, Katie approached me.
Her expression so clearly said "I want to throw bombs too" that Grace and Irene following her wore strained smiles. Though the idea was to handle enemies more easily and efficiently, somehow it came across as childish.
"Next fight, could we maybe capture a goblin alive?"
"Because of the bombs on their waists?"
"Yeah. With the mines and orcs too, explosives seem to be their main weapons. Shouldn''t we send samples to the Magic Tower? It might help when hunting the boss monster."
Thinking about it, Katie had a point.
The orc javelineers throwing various grenades alongside goblin infantry, magitech mines planted under earthen walls, even the suicide belts goblins wore as backup.
Maybe because they were an army, their main gimmick seemed to increasingly revolve around explosives. Honestly, if they used rod grenades, mines, and suicide belts, why wouldn''t they load explosives in their catapults and ballistas?
Everyone was focused on the subtle monster enhancements from dark magic and resulting purple mana stones, but their explosives were worth researching too.
"That''s true. If we research their bombs, maybe we could use them our-"
And that was more than enough to catch our bomb fanatic''s interest.
She''d been collecting donations from viewers over there, but suddenly appeared to join the conversation. Yet after grabbing my shoulder, she jumped back a step, startled by her own touch.
Not exactly reassuring behavior for someone called a hero.