└Anon: ?
└Anon: Is this for real?
└Anon: It is, right?
└DobangWarrior: Wow lol, so he was a gallery user
└Anon: It’s real?
The users who saw the post from the mysterious veteran swarmed in instantly.
└Anon: Fuck, the room’s already full lol
└Anon: Is it a fight? I’m getting in too!!
└Anon: Did Hanami accept the friend request?
└Valkyrie20: Is this your alt? Why haven’t I seen you in Týr?
└Anon: Gotta show Grandpa a taste of Modern
The mood in the Odinsson Minor Gallery began to boil over.
└Anon: You could smell the mold just from this guy’s movement lol
└Anon: Is this the big one?
└Anon: Big event on a boring evening
└Anon: Someone run a relay
└Anon: Did Hanami accept the friend request?
After all, the one who had just appeared was the “rotten water” who had been the star of Omagal for the past few days, and the Modern-is-useless vs. Classic-is-useless debate currently raging had branched off from that.
Even the users who had been in the middle of arguing rushed over and took their seats. The atmosphere heated up in an instant.
└Anon: Any Valkyries in the room?
└Anon: Two Modern Valkyries got into the room lol
└Anon: Fuck, even their clicking speed is Valkyrie-tier?
Even if the argument itself was the usual WWE, the claim that “at the very top level, Modern doesn’t work,” using Purple Guy’s play as an example, had been UFC.
And the rebuttal from all the users opposing it—that “as time passes, even the very top ranks will be eaten by Modern”—was sincere too.
The man who ran to his computer the moment he saw the UID, entered the room, and took a matchmaking slot was one of them.
He was a gallery user with the nickname “ClassicHater,” a fairly high-tier Modern control user.
In truth, he didn’t hate Classic as much as his nickname suggested.
The people around him had more or less noticed that too.
Because ClassicHater was a high-tier user climbing Master.
At Master, you were recognized as high-tier anywhere.
What did it mean that he had quickly climbed to Master when the game hadn’t been out for long?
That’s right. He wasn’t a new player.
He was a veteran who had played Arena in the previous title and had experience climbing as high as Diamond.
Naturally, he could use a few techniques called standard combos.
To climb to Diamond in that sewer, there was no way you could avoid using Zanshin.
He was fairly confident in his physical skills, and even now, if he raised an alt with Classic, he was confident he could park it around Diamond.
It might sound strange, but this sort of thing wasn’t rare.
Until just a few years ago, they had practiced combos by beating up training NPCs, so why had they changed like this now?
It wasn’t simply because they enjoyed trolling. Though that wasn’t entirely absent.
It was because they seriously believed Classic was a system that put you at a disadvantage.
In reality, unlike the previous title where he had barely managed to reach Diamond, in the new title he had started with Modern and had already hit Master.
If you could reach high tier with Classic, then if you switched to Modern and adapted, you could climb even higher.
That was his true belief, one hundred percent pure.
‘No matter how used to the combo your hands are, it can’t be more convenient than one click.’
Because he had spent so long floundering in Classic, he could tell at a glance.
What it meant for Modern to occupy such advantageous ground.
Even combos coded into your hands so thoroughly you could press them with your eyes closed would still nibble away at your concentration, little by little.
The side that could focus every nerve on the mind game was bound to have the advantage.
Making full use of Modern’s unique strengths, he had advanced triumphantly all the way to Master.
Now, with Grandmaster right before his eyes, he was brimming with confidence.
At this pace, entering Grandmaster was guaranteed, and he thought even Valhalla was within reach.
In truth, in a corner of his heart, he already considered Valkyrie a certainty.
Even “ModernHater,” who trolled alongside him, was a Grandmaster with five times his playtime, yet their record remained fifty-fifty.
The confidence that he had been Valkyrie material all along!! could only grow stronger.
Of course, that Purple Guy over there didn’t seem like someone who had only been stewing for a day or two, but judging from the screenshot, he would need more time to adapt to the new title.
And the more of a veteran someone was, the longer they had played the game, the stronger the cognitive dissonance would be when facing Modern for the first time.
If he exploited that opening and took a first-to-ten?
The expectation that he could claim the position of Omagal’s star for a while settled in his chest.
ClassicHater entered confidently, then pondered his setup.
First, [Hound Straight Sword]. From the look of it, the opponent seemed to be a straight sword user too, but fighting under the same conditions wasn’t good.
Then [Frost Giant Axe]. It was a top-tier weapon currently in vogue, but it had been a regular since the previous title. Chances were high that he already knew all its motions.
He chose [Hellfire Hammer]. Since it was a weapon introduced in the new title, there was a high chance the opponent still didn’t know its motions.
He equipped armor to match the weapon, and for his rune setup, he inserted [Thunderbolt Hammer], which would drag the game into a short match with surprise damage.
It was a heretical build that was hard to deal with on first sight.
Some might call it cheap, but winning was all that mattered. That was what a first-to-ten was.
Having finished all preparations, he entered with full confidence.
And within twenty seconds, his head flew off.
***
The Hellfire Hammer’s upper Modern key was a charge attack chained from an upward swing.
This technique, which made the character stride forward and smash down the hammer, had a fairly tricky command in Classic.
It could only be used after changing stance following the upward swing, but the startup was far too long.
If you didn’t input Zanshin with perfect timing, it was practically advertising, I’m going to use a charge attack now!
But in Modern controls?
Since it came out with one click, there was no better poke.
The damage or stamina that suffered from the Modern penalty could simply be supplemented with runes.
If the opponent knew how to respond, the awkward startup that made it hard to use at close range, or the high stamina cost for its damage, would stand out.
But when seen for the first time, it was an infamous combo that naturally made people shout, “That’s fucking broken.”
It was what they called a “heretical” build—tricky on first encounter, and if you didn’t catch on to the counterplay, it could bully you mercilessly.
—Boom!!
Look. Even that veteran couldn’t react properly.
He had somehow managed to guard, but it was already a favorable exchange for this side.
The opponent wasn’t holding a shield; he had guarded with a straight sword.
The attack he had failed to fully block must have eaten away at both his health bar and stamina bar.
And it wasn’t even a two-handed weapon, but a one-handed one. With its lower defensive performance, there must have been considerable bleed-through.
The corners of his mouth rose without him realizing.
Without giving his opponent time to breathe, he transitioned into the next attack. He could feel the odds of victory swinging to his side all at once.
Purple Guy rolled backward to avoid the following chip damage, but his landing point was far too obvious.
Getting startled by a light poke and rolling backward?
That wasn’t the kind of mistake a veteran should make.
“That’s it!”
As expected, he seemed flustered by the speed he hadn’t anticipated.
Well, so what if he was a veteran? If you didn’t know, you had to get hit.
His mind spun rapidly.
While wondering what command he needed to input to smash the hammer down there, he grinned.
As it happened, the range of the low Modern attack lined up perfectly.
He immediately placed his hand on the Modern key.
If it had been Classic, he might have twisted his fingers trying to mind the command amid complicated calculations.
But this was Modern.
“Have a taste of Modern, you bastard!!”
—Clang!!
“?”
A metallic sound reached the ears of the man who had already been certain of victory and was waiting for the KO sound.
The Hellfire Hammer was deflected, and the straight sword swept through the gaps in his armor.
—Clang!!
His health was cleanly carved away.
Startled, he retreated and threw out a poking attack.
He was shaken, but rotten or not, he was still a Master.
The command that came out quickly was reflexive, but the intention of laying down a hard-to-answer move to stop pursuit wasn’t bad.
If only Purple Guy hadn’t just stood still and watched.
Dumbfounded, he stared blankly at the opponent his hammer couldn’t reach.
The opponent was smiling, following right behind the weapon that had brushed past just in front of his nose.
Then he swung his sword into the wide-open torso.
—1/0
After regaining his senses, he brought the Hellfire Hammer again.
He unfolded the plan he hadn’t been able to use in the first round because he had panicked, but it was smashed apart from the very first step.
—2/0
Still, focusing on the fact that his first surprise attack had succeeded, he brought out a new pattern.
It seemed to work only the first time, and after that, no clean hits came out.
—3/0
He changed his runes and armor and went with a hybrid build.
He desperately threw out win-or-lose gambits, but nothing landed properly.
Meanwhile, every light attack the opponent tossed out casually hit him, and he died.
—4/0
He brought out an archer build, which had been massively buffed in the new title.
He planned to widen the distance with backward movement and lay down suppressive fire.
The guy deflected everything without taking a single hit.
At the very least, if he took a charged shot, his stamina should have been suffering, but he looked perfectly fine.
Was he deflecting all of that with Zanshin?
Did that even make sense?
—5/0
This time, he changed his race to dwarf and brought the Raven Dagger. He felt like he could only do anything if he at least took advantageous ground in stamina.
There was no way for him to know it, but this was the most efficient countermeasure against Back, the conclusion Belly Uncle had reached after years of facing him.
Of course, he didn’t have Belly Uncle’s physical ability.
He was shattered by a chain of attacks that clung to him like a leech.
—6/0
In a mood of desperation, he took out his main weapon build: human — Hound Straight Sword.
He was crushed in the most horrific way yet.
Purple Guy wasn’t even rolling anymore.
If he thrust with the distance barely in range, Purple Guy took exactly one step back and dodged; if he thrust with enough distance secured, his attack was casually interrupted by pokes.
And when he backed off to recover some stamina?
Purple Guy pounced on him like a madman and carved him to pieces.
Like that, the seventh, the eighth, all the way to the final tenth round passed.
There was no upset.
He was dumbstruck.
It felt as though his mind had been read completely.
Just what kind of monster was this?
At the end, it looked as if the guy was standing still and laughing at him as he slashed at empty air.
He was overwhelmed. Even though the opponent wasn’t actually beside him barking him down, the pressure crushed his momentum.
In the end, he rolled around on the ground until his stamina ran out, leaving him unable to move, and he was executed.
—GG. Looks like you’ll climb up soon?
Seeing the chat message that appeared, he started to type something in response, then stopped. He was at a loss for words.
Leaving only a GG behind as if fleeing, he exited the room, and only after a long while did he mutter in a drained voice.
“…Should I quit?”
Fuuuck… some “soon,” seriously.
Valkyrie material, my ass. What kind of bullshit was that…