◈ Episode 16. Another Whale Joins the Whale Fight (4)
I never thought I, a humanities guy, would ever say something like this.
Science is the best.
The unending stream of messages was proof of that.
They were monsters at a staggering level 350.
The destructive power behind that charge must have been tremendous.
Literally.
Even a graze would mean certain death for me.
However, the greater the destructive power, the greater the recoil had to be.[“Stun” has occurred on the Knight of Count Askyura.][“Stun” has occurred on the Knight of Count Askyura.][“Stun” has occurred on the Knight of Count Askyura.]……
Around then, I recalled the battle with the soldiers.‘Back then, I collapsed the wall with reversal magic from here.’But in the current situation……
It didn’t seem like a very good decision.
More than anything, there were far too many players.
Since I had built a larger, thicker stone wall to withstand the knights’ charge,
the aftermath when it collapsed would inevitably be huge as well.
“I don’t know what that is, but……! Just attack!”
“It’s our chance! Finish them off for good!!”
The players tangled with the knights.
I didn’t possess some advanced technique that would let me collapse the stone wall while avoiding the players.
If I could do something like that,
I would’ve swept them away without going through the trouble of building a stone wall.‘So…….’I thought about it a little differently.
The most disadvantageous factor right now was the terrain.‘An open battlefield favors cavalry.’Indeed, except for the direction where I had raised the stone wall.
Clatter, clatter—!
“Damn it! They’re coming again! Everyone, grit your teeth!!”
Charge, retreat, charge again.
The mounted knights were running rampant.
Thanks to that, the players’ formation was also rapidly falling apart.
“What an arrogant display.”
So I couldn’t just stand by and watch that.
Yes, I intended to change the terrain that favored the enemy.
There was no hesitation.
Search, interference, manifestation.
That series of processes was faster than ever.
Rumble—!
Stone pillars shot up from the ground.
Before long, stone pillars had risen all across the plaza.
Neighhh—!
I could see the horses becoming agitated.
It was because their movement had been restricted.
It hadn’t been my aim, but some of the stone pillars even directly harmed the knights.[“Fracture” has occurred on the Knight of Count Askyura.][“Stun” has occurred on the Knight of Count Askyura.]……
I checked how much mana I had left.‘Of course this would happen.’The talk about high efficiency only applied under ordinary circumstances.Level 91.
My mana was a mere 42 points.
With that much, I had completely overturned the battlefield.
That meant I only had enough mana left to brew a single cup of green tea.
From now on, all I could do was use reversal magic to collapse walls and pillars in a way that wouldn’t drag the players into it.
But that wasn’t bad.
I didn’t know what Granfell’s pride would think.
But from the beginning, I had no intention of getting tangled up and fighting those knights.
No, to be precise, I had intended to……
but it would be more accurate to say that intention had disappeared.
“These bastards are ridiculously tough, aren’t they? Persistent too.”
“Damn it. I got Bleeding. Someone heal me!”
“These monster bastards. Even after falling off their horses, they’re no joke.”
They were all at least over level 300, right?
Even players like that were struggling.
It was a scene that showed just how strong the knights were.
Could I get tangled up and fight knights like that?[Natural Enemy Relationship]
Considering the effect of that……
Maybe one-on-one would be possible.
But this was a battlefield.
A battlefield where my opponent changed every second.
And I was alone on such a battlefield with no allies.
So it wasn’t bad.
No, investing all my mana to change the terrain of the battlefield.
That was the best decision I could make.
The evidence for that was likewise appearing in the form of messages.[Your contribution to defeating the Knight of Count Askyura has been acknowledged.][Your contribution to defeating the Knight of Count Askyura has been acknowledged.][Your contribution to defeating the Knight of Count Askyura has been acknowledged.]……
Arcana’s experience system.
Players gained experience according to their contribution in defeating an enemy.
The reason Arcana had been able to maintain its top popularity for over ten years
was probably because it was backed by a system that made sense, as you could see.
My contribution would be high if anything.
It would never be low.
I had inflicted decisive status abnormalities on the knights.
And I had visibly broken their momentum.
The evidence of that also appeared as a message.[You have leveled up.]
One line each time the players defeated an enemy.
That proof continued to be added.[You have leveled up.]
I was observing this proving battlefield.
Even at this moment, when my mana had run dry.‘I might be able to imitate that in a similar way…….’I was struggling diligently.[You have leveled up.][You have leveled up.]…….*
Level 376.
Player ranking 6th.
The Lightning Spear, Hisagi Kazuma, thought,‘Where did that monster pop out from?’First of all, even his appearance was far from ordinary.
Unarmed inside a rift.
Even he couldn’t afford to let his guard down in a new rift.
Because there was no telling what kind of threats might be lurking.
Moreover, demons had appeared in this new rift.‘Accessories related to mental strength should be essential……?’And yet, likewise,
there wasn’t an earring, necklace, or ring to be found.
Flutter—the long coat rippled in the wind.
Click—that dignified sound of shoe heels spoke for him.
As if saying he didn’t need such things.
A face that seemed to fear nothing.
A posture that showed not even the slightest hint of tension.
Indeed, the man’s confidence was backed by plenty of proof.
“!”
To think he blocked the enemy charge by raising a wall.
No, as if that wasn’t enough, he was raising pillars all throughout the plaza.
Hisagi immediately grasped the man’s intent.‘……He’s trying to neutralize the cavalry’s mobility.’Just as the man intended, the knights’ movements became restricted.
As if that wasn’t enough, some of the knights had fallen into status abnormalities.
Hisagi was still full of questions.‘Just what is he?’His class, his name, his amount of mana, even his level.
None of them were easy to guess.‘At least that’s a relief.’If that monster belonged to Gaon……‘Just imagining it is horrifying.’The most important thing was that the man didn’t seem to belong to Gaon.
If he were a member of Gaon, he wouldn’t have been moving separately.
Above all, Gaon’s bewildered attitude, just like their own, was visible.‘In any case, it’s an opportunity.’Hisagi did not miss that opportunity.
Class, Magic Spearman.
Crackle—!
Lightning coiled around Hisagi’s spear.
The Lightning Spear.
Just like that nickname, Hisagi crossed the battlefield.
“Grrr……”
The Barbarian’s unique skill, [Berserk].
Under its effect, Nam Taemin was breathing like a beast.
Gaon’s guild members looked at Nam Taemin and said,
“This environment has become perfect for the Master to go wild, hasn’t it?”
“I don’t know who that is, but shouldn’t we at least thank him?”
“Thank him? Worry about surviving first, why don’t you?!”
Gaon’s players, each and every one of them renowned.
Naturally, their levels were as high as their fame.
And as their levels were high, so was their experience.
Through that experience, they had developed discerning eyes.
Indeed, it was just as they said.
The walls and pillars that had suddenly risen.
Because of them, the knights’ formation had collapsed.
It was truly a chaotic melee.
And in such a melee, Nam Taemin was second to none.
Swish—!
All that remained was wildness.
Nam Taemin moved purely by instinct.
Not only did he swing a massive greatsword with one hand,
he even climbed the rising pillars and pounced on the knights.
In Nam Taemin’s ear, Nam Cheolmin’s voice was ringing.
—Taemin. Right now, you probably can’t hear anything I say, but still.
Even if it meant going through the trouble of saying the same thing again,
his mouth itched so badly that he couldn’t hold it in.—……That’s the man I told you about!
At first, he had been half in doubt.
No, it couldn’t be, that couldn’t be possible.
In that short time, he repeated it to himself countless times.
But he had no choice but to acknowledge it.
—How could I forget that face?
The man who had saved him when a demon had stolen his body.
No matter how he looked at him, it was definitely the face of his benefactor.
Furthermore, just like back then,
even his attire was as formal as could be.—……But, honestly, I still don’t understand.
……How is that possible?
He couldn’t even begin to guess the man’s class.In the Line 4 rift, the man had clearly hunted imps with a dagger.
Of course, he had also used a bow.
Yes, he could understand that much.
Both depended on physical ability.
In other words, they were affected by the [Strength]
and [Agility] stats.
—But suddenly magic? What in the world is this……?
This time, however, the story was different.
Magic was affected by the [Mana] stat.
A class that required Strength, Agility, and Mana all at once?
He had never heard of one, and even if such a thing existed, there was no way its performance would be good.
After all, stat points were limited.
—He was fine in front of imps, so I just thought his Mental Strength was high. I never imagined he could actually use magic!
And could that even be called ordinary magic?
He was watching through the screen, but the plaza seemed to be at least twice the size of a soccer field.
The man had filled that plaza.
He had raised gigantic walls and pillars!
As if that wasn’t enough,
Rumble—!
he was even collapsing the pillars at appropriate moments to attack the knights.
—What do you all think?
Nam Cheolmin mobilized all the knowledge he had as an analyst.
From the Arcana knowledge he possessed
to the opinions of his fellow analysts watching the same screen.
But no matter how much they pooled their thoughts, they couldn’t even make a guess.
—This isn’t something an analyst should say, but I don’t know, Taemin.
However, one thing was certain.—……You have to recruit him no matter what, little brother.
Even if they couldn’t recruit him,
they absolutely had to avoid becoming hostile.
There would be nothing good about antagonizing a player of that caliber.
Why, even now, wasn’t that the case?
—For both brothers to receive his help. What do we even call this?
If the man hadn’t appeared,
casualties would surely have been pouring out by now.
Regardless of whether it was Gaon or Inazuma.
But through the man’s actions, the tide of battle had changed.
That meant the man was a player who could change the course of battle alone.
His value would be beyond words.
—But of all people, the ones who saw it with us are those Inazuma bastards.
Inazuma had many Korean players.
Among them were quite a few players whom Gaon had lost.
It wasn’t a matter of conditions.
Because Inazuma was aggressively recruiting South Korean players, even if it meant bleeding money.
It was an open secret that those were terms they could offer with the backing of the Japanese government.
That was also why Nam Taemin ground his teeth at Hisagi.
—So that means we absolutely can’t yield.
The moment Nam Cheolmin said that,
“!”
Nam Taemin’s reason returned.
We absolutely can’t yield.
That was the only thing he heard while sane,
but he immediately understood what they couldn’t yield.
Nam Taemin lifted the corner of his mouth in a grin.
“Ten to zero? Call. Let’s think about what else we can throw on top of that.”
At the same time,
the NetTuber Park Hwigang’s chat window was going berserk.—LMFAOOOOOOOOO—Is this for real??? What the hell is that class???
—The shrimp that barged into the whale fight is way too big lol—Heard the rumors and came. They said this was the holy site?
Gaon and Inazuma.
A mysterious player who had intruded between the two guilds.
And there was a NetTuber who had broadcast that player from the very beginning.──────Title: A Broadcast as Persistent as a Cockroach! Hwigang’s Livestream~Current viewers: 68,923──────Thanks to those rumors spreading, nearly 70,000 viewers had gathered in Park Hwigang’s stream.
It was a number that would have made him faint from shock, and yet—
“Waaah……!!”
Park Hwigang himself didn’t even have the presence of mind to check the viewer count.
The scene unfolding before his eyes
was far harder to believe than his number of viewers.
“Can you all see this? I think they’ve almost won!”
There were only a few knights remaining.
Even they looked unmistakably like defeated soldiers.
The players had won.
“I thought from the first time I saw him that he wouldn’t be ordinary, but……”
To think it would be to this extent!
On top of that, Park Hwigang and the viewers who had watched the man from the very beginning knew.
That in this battle at the plaza, the man had not gone all out.
—Ah lol the newcomers haven’t even seen the Ego Sword~—Ego Sword?? What’s that now??
—Don’t know what it is, but the name alone sounds insane.
—If you haven’t seen it, go watch the replay lololol—Fr lol it was stylish as hell back then.Yes, because the man had not even drawn his own weapon.
That weapon that had taken down Count Askyura’s soldier in a single blow.
Park Hwigang cautiously opened his mouth.
“……Doesn’t it feel like he’s watching over things?”
That was right.
After raising the walls and pillars, the man showed no particular movement.
His attitude was as though immediate experience and loot were of no importance to him.
—That’s weird. If it were me, I would’ve just swept them all away lol—I watched the Ego Sword, what the hell? That’s crazy.
—Its shape keeps changing lol Minimum Unique, I’m calling it.
—With that sword, wouldn’t the knights go down in one hit too? ㄷㄷㄷㄷ……Just what was his identity?
It was only natural that all attention focused on the man.
Thud—Before long, the final knight fell.
Then, as if everyone had coordinated it in advance,‘Could he be Korean? If so……’‘Do you think I’m going to lose him again? I’ll never let go.’‘At least I’d like to ask his name.’Everyone’s gaze turned to one place.
Toward the man standing alone in the center of the plaza.
There was not the slightest change in the man’s expression.
As if the immense attention pouring onto him at this moment
was utterly natural.*
Amid the flood of questions, I thought,‘……I’m tired.’From now on, I should refrain from squeezing my mana down to the last drop.
It seemed the aftereffects were considerable.
Probably because I didn’t have a single piece of equipment related to mana recovery.
What was my name?
Did I belong to a guild?
Was I Korean by any chance?
In truth, answering that much wasn’t difficult.
But I couldn’t permit it.
Leaving aside Granfell’s prickly personality,
I myself felt so tired I wanted to collapse on the spot.
And yet, because I didn’t have any proper equipment,
and I was staggering from mana exhaustion,
did they really have to hold me up like this?
“There is not a trace of decorum to be found.”
I added in a cold voice.
“Therefore, I will not take questions.”