Episode 71

― “……Honey Bread is certainly no slouch when it comes to his record! He’s been famous since the early days for his monster-like reaction speed and instantaneous judgment, and he’s currently the number one Divine Knight across all servers…… And since Dusk opened, not once! Not once has he ever missed the number one spot for a Divine Knight season.”

― “That’s right. That’s why, among Divine Knight users, he’s already praised as something of a living legend. His understanding of the Divine Knight class and his skill in operating it are absolutely second to none! There’s a great deal of anticipation over whether the pinnacle of Divine Knights will show the same unwavering performance in the Arena as well.”

― “Because Honey Bread is such an impressive player, there was also a lot of debate about his identity. Contrary to expectations, a very young player appeared, so quite a few people were surprised. Since he’s been playing Dusk long enough to maintain the number one Divine Knight rank, people had assumed someone with solid support behind him would show up.”

― “To be honest, I’m not that surprised. The older you get, the harder it is to display godlike physical ability like Honey Bread’s.”

It was a shame to hear that so many people had been curious about my identity. Most of them had probably expected some unremarkable, older unemployed guy to appear. Instead, contrary to their expectations, a young bastard who did amount to something had shown up, so it must have been quite an eyesore.

I pushed the commentators’ chatter, which was gradually entering small-talk territory, to the back of my mind and fiddled with the headset that felt heavy in my hands. Now that I had come this far, I was getting nervous again. It was only that I was sickeningly facing off here, too, against Retake, whom I fought day in and day out, but simply because the venue had changed, it felt strangely new.

I tried to regain my composure and put on the headset. The noisy sounds inside the stadium blurred out and died away.

Using the game sounds coming through the headset as white noise, I went over the Arena rules once more.

Three weights worth 2, 5, and 8 points respectively are given as one pair for each race. The Jeoba race and the Bia race can only acquire weights that symbolize their own race, and these six weights respawn at designated locations around the outer edge of the map.

The moment a weight is acquired, it is placed on the scales at the center of the map. Until the time limit ends, both players continue fighting and placing weights on the scales. The rules are simple, if you want to call them simple: the first user to reach 40 points wins, or when time runs out, the user whose side of the scale is heavier wins.

Of course, it would be best to take the heaviest weight, but the 8-point weight was located near the opponent’s respawn area. In other words, if you got greedy without thinking, your opponent might finish respawning while you were interacting to obtain the weight, preventing you from gaining an advantage and forcing you right back into the fight.

Therefore, it was important either to score enough kills to collect even the 2-point weights in quantity, or to pressure your opponent into an advantageous position from the start of the fight so you could leisurely secure the 8-point or 5-point weights.

The time limit is 10 minutes. There are three rounds in total. During that time, the round and map change every three minutes, adding variation to the battle. Each map has its own unique traits, so whether or not you can make good use of them also affects victory or defeat.

That was also the part I was most worried about. Gang Jegyeong was the kind of guy who was good at exploiting those things.

As long as I handled it calmly somehow, I could win. I hit the scarecrow prepared on the game screen and loosened up my hands, getting used to the unfamiliar keyboard and mouse sensitivity.

An alert appeared in the in-game chat window saying that the match would begin soon. Not long after that, I entered the Arena waiting room and had a brief waiting period.

[General] Retake : .

While I was quietly waiting for the match to start, a single line appeared in chat. I didn’t know what his intent was, but for now, I copied him exactly.

[General] Honey Bread : .

[General] Retake : !

[General] Retake : <- <|0

[General] Retake : '-`)9!!

As soon as he realized we could chat with each other, Gang Jegyeong sent an emoticon as expected. From the looks of it, he seemed to be provoking me by saying he was going to win.

It was cute, but this wouldn’t go out on broadcast, right? After hesitating a little, I tapped at the keyboard.

[General] Honey Bread : 7 | 0=| 9-| ^^

[General] Retake : ..

[General] Retake : %...

I wondered what that was, and it turned out to be “Yeah……” Seeing how he seemed appalled by being called cute, my heart swelled with immense satisfaction.

After another notification appeared in chat, the waiting room background disappeared and a new map appeared. The map selected for Round 1 was terrain that was fairly good for a straightforward fight.

The weights respawned on top of a hill, and at the center of it was a deep pit like an antlion’s trap. Because of the hill, even if you inflicted knockback (*a pushed-back state) or groggy (*an incapacitated state), there could be variables where the distance either failed to open up or, conversely, was forcibly widened, making positioning difficult.

For Divine Knights and Medics, both of whom had a relatively high number of skills with status abnormalities like knockback and groggy, a fairly grueling battle was about to continue.

After we were moved to the map, a 15-second waiting period was given.

During the waiting period, Gang Jegyeong, visible in the distance, began layering everything on himself, from doping items to buff skills. Compared to Gang Jegyeong, who looked busy, I had nothing to do besides use doping items, so I tapped the space bar in a steady rhythm and waited for the match to begin.

Gang Jegyeong’s busy movements lasted for only about five seconds. Once he had no more items or skills left to use, he made his character hop around or move left and right like I was doing. The waiting period did feel a bit long. I thought it would be better if they let us start right away once both sides were ready.

As I briefly thought about something else, time quickly passed, and the number on the screen fell to 5. I slowly pressed the W key and prepared to dash out as soon as it began.

Soon, a countdown appeared on the screen. The numbers went down at a steady pace, and after the wait, 1 changed to 0.

[0]

[The shackle cage disappears.]

The character that had been trapped inside the iron bars began to move forward.

[Defeat your enemy and prove your worth to the god Ibria.]

On a stage under countless gazes, the official throwdown with the pride of trash-tier classes at stake began.

(Mom, I’m sorry, Mom’s daughter is going to hell) Adap Stan @dsk_dkekadkqmtkrnla · 1 min

Ahㅠ why are these two being cute even on a live broadcast

RTK: <- Win!

HB: You’re cute^^

RTK: ...yeah,,

Aaaaaaaaauuueeaaaagghㅋ

ㅋ

ㅋ

Kahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Wuhahahahahak

Ha

I’ll try to calm down

* * *

I ran toward Retake on the opposite side and used the hill to glide. That was because, thanks to the Divine Knight’s passive, the speed of charge skills increased noticeably while flying or gliding.

As if he knew I would come, Gang Jegyeong stood there with me selected as his target and waited. In the first place, there was nothing else he could do until I stuck to him.

Without hesitation, I put Retake in my aim and used a charge skill. He, too, used a status abnormality immunity skill in advance, then began casting a DoT skill the moment I entered his range.

There was a high chance that was a fake.

With my shield in front, I watched my character advance toward Retake at high speed, then used Shield Block the instant I had roughly closed in. At the same time, I saw Retake cut off his skill casting and use a self-defense skill on me.

[Combat] You used Shield Block to block Retake’s Snap Break effect.

[Combat] You used Counterattack and dealt 4,911 damage to Retake.

I blocked his self-defense skill by a hair’s breadth, but as if he had expected that, the next skill flew in without fail.

[Combat] You took 1,497 damage from Retake’s Miasma Disposal.

[Combat] Retake took 1,652 damage from Miasma Disposal.

[Combat] Retake removed the Disposed Miasma effect with the Vaccine Disposal effect.

[Combat] Retake recovered 1,360 HP with the Vaccine Disposal effect.

[Combat] Retake evaded the Swordsmanship Form V skill with Emergency Evasion.

Thinking he would widen the distance just like that, I swung a normal attack first, and sure enough, Gang Jegyeong used an evasion skill to create space. Turning my body in the opposite direction according to where my gaze followed, I saw Retake in the distance casting that wretched DoT skill.

There was nothing to be done about DoTs. They were the nuisance you were inevitably saddled with the moment you faced a Medic.

I used a capture skill on Retake, who had widened the distance.

[Combat] You took 736 damage from Retake’s Research Virus IV.

[Combat] You took 790 damage from Retake’s Research Virus VII.

[Combat] Retake was hit by Executor’s Binding.

[Combat] Retake is stunned by the Executor’s Binding effect.

[Combat] You took 1,949 damage from Retake’s continuous damage effect.

Even though he knew a capture skill was coming, Retake, who had already used the skill that would let him dodge it, obediently got caught while stubbornly applying yet another DoT skill to me. Using a follow-up skill, I dragged the stunned Retake in front of me in one go.