Chapter 111
No matter how realistic World of Arseria was, there were several reasons it still didn’t feel like reality.
For instance, whenever an enemy fell, any gory imagery was automatically blurred, and corpses didn’t remain forever but disappeared on their own after some time.
The same went for conversations with NPCs.
At first, it would have been easy to mistake them for real people, but that was limited to interactions involving specific conversation topics.
They never told their own stories.
Whenever you asked what they had eaten yesterday or who was in their family, they clamped their mouths shut as if they had lagged.
That might have been why she found the NPC named Adela so interesting.
Her reactions were so vivid that it felt as if she were truly duo-queuing with someone, and it was difficult to sense anything strange unless you dug unusually deep into the conversation.
Right—in other words, the difference between a robot implanted with memories and a dementia patient who had lost their memories. Adela was closer to the latter.
Once you came to perceive someone as human, that impression dug firmly into your mind and refused to disappear.
What on earth determined someone’s humanity?
Acting like a human was, in the end, a condition that could easily be fulfilled by imitating humans.
Even I had once grown attached to Lili, the fox merchant who sold worn-out boots and potions in Legacy of Legends, when I was young.
I had no way of knowing how far the technology of this era had advanced, but if a game NPC could reach this level, the advent of the technological singularity couldn’t be far off.
Ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum-!
[‘OVERDOSE’ donated 1,000,000 won!]
-What are you thinking about while you play?
Just as she was catching her breath on the battlefield, a fictional trumpet fanfare rang out, followed by a donation surrounded by a radiant halo.
-??
-Wooooooo
-W;T;F
-Huh?
-Whoa, WTF
-One million won??????
-Is this real?
-A real big spender showed up lol
The amount itself wasn’t particularly surprising, but the message he had sent piqued her interest.
Long ago, in Korea, where mana did not exist, there lived a queen.
She wasn’t literally a queen, but rather an athlete with a status equivalent to one.
In a documentary she appeared in as a child, a producer had asked her the exact same question.
I still remembered it. Back then, she had answered, ‘What am I thinking...? I’m just doing it.’
People who can ‘just do it’ are generally remarkable. That was why the words had resonated with me so deeply that I had even made them my motto in my first life.
Had there been someone just like her in this world’s past, too? I didn’t know, since I had never gone out of my way to look.
In truth, I wasn’t playing the game while thinking about anything particularly special, either.
I could somewhat understand her seemingly detached answer.
“Thank you for the 1,000,000-won donation, Overdose. Thinking... Thinking, huh.”
But saying I wasn’t thinking about anything would be a lie. And it probably wasn’t the answer he wanted, either.
Thoughts themselves were divided into such complicated layers that explaining them in a single sentence was difficult.
After giving it a little more thought, I decided to throw the dual blades I was holding onto the ground to reset the penalty and give the donor a satisfying answer.
“I’ll tell you what I’m thinking about while I play.”
* * *
Name was somewhat smarter than most people.
Intelligence was ultimately a relative concept, and it could only exist if there was something to compare it against.
That was why, having spent so many days in her previous life surrounded by the greatest prodigies on the continent and peerless heroes, she tended to underestimate herself.
“It looks like three shield-bearing knights are charging from the front. Don’t forget to take in everything within the field of vision in a direction you’ve checked once. They appear to be running at the same speed, but since their strides are different, I judge that they’re likely to attack half a beat early or late, so I’ve decided not to respond to them. Instead, I’ll counter the student targeting me from behind. Dispel works in reverse cast order, so...”
Just as Name had said, the knight taking the longest strides was the first to kick off the ground and leap forward, bringing his sword down.
The other knights, who had slowed down in advance, launched an additional assault from both sides.
If she had tried to react after seeing them approach, she would have been trapped in a perfect four-way kill box, unable to move an inch, and killed.
However, by forcibly dispelling the magic of the boy shooting electric sparks from his staff, she transformed a valuable mage into a helpless hostage.
-?????
-Kyaaa
-Whoa, what the hell
-It’s happening exactly as she predicted
-Who solves Dispel with an inverse matrix?!
“First-circle magic is weak in power but efficient, and it can drastically reduce casting time. So rather than casting a single spell, using several spells in sequence could create a good opportunity to open an escape route within the limited window of ten seconds.”
No sooner had she said this than Name snatched the boy’s wand and synchronized with the Laurel.
Wand-type weapons that skipped the recording and infusion stages.
Five magic circles formed behind her with a low hum, then beams of light shot out with razor sharpness in every direction except straight ahead.
-This is fucking chilling lol
-How did she draw those without looking at the magic circles?
-Does that make any sense?
-The guy who lost his wand is staring at her with the face of someone who lost his country lol
-Is this what skill looks like...?
“I judged that disarming and taking a weapon from someone with a long reach would carry too much risk, so I decided to target the sword-and-shield knight first, since the shield placed greater restrictions on how he could swing his sword.”
The flashbang that spread in five directions made the disoriented knight’s lower body collapse.
The knight belatedly flailed his arms in a desperate attempt to fight back, but Name lowered her stance to avoid it and planted her left hand on the ground.
Then her right leg drew a large semicircle. Accompanied by the sharp sound of cutting wind, a groan burst from the knight’s mouth.
“Guh...”
“I shouldn’t chase after a follow-up attack when someone loses their balance, only to die to a stray arrow.”
Whoosh-!
She ducked once more to avoid the arrow flying toward the back of her head.
From the first-person perspective, the arrow struck the ground with a crack in a place that wasn’t even visible.
It wasn’t a simple lead arrow. An explosive scroll had been attached to it.
She stomped hard on the shield rolling along the ground, sending it flying up and using it to hide herself.
Boom!
“The need to maintain a wide field of vision became clear in that situation just now, and I was able to avoid the archer targeting me from behind the first knight without suffering much damage. When I hid, I narrowed down the possible ways they could target me to six, and I needed to prepare my stance in advance so I could respond to the most dangerous attack at any time.”
-No, why is she so calm lol
-Watching this in first person nearly stopped my heart...
-So this is how the foreshadowing pays off?
-She’s a sage.
Dark smoke caught the wind and streamed away.
However, as if unwilling to give her even a moment to catch her breath, a greatsword swung by a heavily armored knight savagely swept through the space toward Name, who was hiding behind the shield.
Kagang!
She rotated the shield to block the heavy attack, but the impact made Name’s body stagger violently. An attack with such massive weight always came with recoil.
The greatsword was immediately recovered and brought into a rapid series of horizontal strikes.
[Cast: Shear Coefficient Adjustment]
“I responded quickly to the attack I couldn’t block initially by using a spell I had cast in advance, and by taking the opponent’s attack without suffering much damage, I was able to obtain a good weapon right away.”
[Acceleration Lv. 4]
She closed in on the knight who had lost his grip on the hilt, punched him in the face at point-blank range, then spun halfway around and drove her elbow into his abdomen. He must have been quite durable, because Name delivered a finishing blow by slamming her fist into the space between his eyebrows.
“Dispel can compensate for a healer’s inefficient mana recovery, so I thought it would be best to use skills whenever they came off cooldown. To secure the kill, I used Acceleration instead of Heal.”
The greatsword had excellent reach, but she couldn’t use it for long.
“A greatsword is more vulnerable to blind spots than a one-handed sword, but if I blindly tried to change direction, I could become vulnerable to more varied attacks. So I decided to take some time to assess the situation, as in the current case—”
Clang-!
A sharp metallic sound rang out across the battlefield.
The heavy greatsword swinging over her shoulder broke the sharp rapier thrusting in from behind her.
“The advantage of standing with a streetlamp behind me is that, as just now, I can spot an enemy’s shadow entering my field of vision and prepare for their attack in advance.”
* * *
<Streamer Gallery>
[NoName) Declares She’ll Sue Under the Child Protection Act lol][51]
She gave them hope by saying she’d let them off if they won one-on-one, then utterly crushed them lol
And then her Death Note (a.k.a. the lawsuit) was revealed.
(NoName writing a viewer’s nickname in her Death Note.jpg)
(The manager who felt personally attacked barges in.mp4)
This girl is a legend every single second lol
-Is she #1 on the trending streamers* list right now?
└ Yeah, I think it’s NoName
*(Popular Rising Streamer)
-She barely interacts with people, and the stream is so quiet that I couldn’t watch it
└ You should turn it back on and watch again. It’s absolutely not like that lol
└ It’s seriously fucking hilarious right now lol
└ A broadcasting genius who doesn’t even realize it
[NoName Giving a Lecture in Nightmare 10/10/10][31]
(Three-minute full-audio mad movie.mp4)
Do top-tier players really consider details this fine-grained in ranked games? I have nothing but respect for them.
-NoName isn’t top-tier though lol
└ Then what is she?
└ She’s a brand-new newbie who hasn’t even played a single normal match yet
└ Quit talking bullshit
-Is she playing a game or studying? My head hurts just watching lol
-I’m a Grandmaster player who mains sword-and-shield in WoA, and I can roughly follow about half of her thought process. One-on-one situations don’t come up often in high elo, but measuring strides and using them to time attacks is incredibly important.
└ Was this game really that complicated? Then what about the other half?
└ Do you seriously think it makes sense to pay attention to shadows too in a situation that tense, bro;;
-Why isn’t this a featured post?
└ Everyone’s probably watching the stream lol
└ If you know that, leave some comments!
<World of Arseria Gallery>
<Featured Post>
[Tournament > Count Solo Queue and Upvote lol][286]
(Six-player team kill from a Challenger solo-queue game.gif)
(Player who wasted four movement abilities trying to get over one wall.gif)
(NoName 1 vs 1000.gif)
Whether it’s a tournament or solo queue, they’re so fucking bad it makes my eyes hurt. What are you idiots even comparing? lol
Just memorize this. Story >>>>> Tournament = Solo Queue.
[Upvotes] 607 [Downvotes] 13
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-What the hell is this now lol
-Now she’s even beating a story-mode streamer lol
-Is this a downward standardization or an upward one?
-Three wall-humps in one second in a tournament lol Are they really pros?
└ Guess they were really desperate~
└ Triplets lol
└ I thought that six-person suicide was even more amazing. Isn’t that abuse?
└ Amazingly, ‘Avenue,’ the Challenger with 1,000 points who just trolled, is a genuine top-tier player who plays every match seriously
-You can really see WoA dying too
└ The certificate proving it’s a god-tier game has arrived lol
└ It would be disappointing if people didn’t say stuff like this, too
└ Nope, it’s never going to die~ FPS fans, get wrecked!
└ Those League Gallery guys are sneaky lol
[These Days, WoA Gallery Seems to Have Returned to Season 2, When It Was Full of Old-School Spirit][103]
I quit the gallery after watching the League Gallery idiots infect it, start flame wars every single day, and personally attack pro players.
But recently I came back after seeing WoA mentioned here and there by VTubers, and I was moved to find that everyone was talking about nothing but the game.
[Upvotes] 386 [Downvotes] 8
-It’s a game gallery, but people treat you like a weirdo if you actually talk about the game lol
└ Abnormal became normal, and normal became abnormal
-I don’t know or care about any of this, but NoName is freaking adorable
└ Seriously lol
└ Seriously lol
└ Peasant peasant peasant ooooh lol
└ How can anyone resist a super-high-school-level beauty playing WoA lol
[I Just Want NoName to Stay Trapped in Act 1 Forever and Keep Playing with Adela][90]
I’m terrified of what will happen when she takes this talent into ranked games...
Won’t she hit rank one in a week, debut as a pro, win the championship, run for president, and get elected with an approval rating of 1,800%?
[Upvotes] 82 [Downvotes] 116
-Why would NoName run for president lol
└ It’s a venerable traditional template
└ Then please don’t drag out stuff like this
-Rank one seems possible, if she has an endgame character
└ Is that really how highly you rate her?
└ Go watch her soloing Dynasty Warriors. Then it won’t seem worth making such a fuss
-What the hell is she, anyway? It’s kind of fascinating how she suddenly blew up
└ Does anyone know?lu
└ The only thing known is that she’s a high school girl who dropped out of the Academy and went dark
└ That’s just headcanon
└ If one more Korean high school girl goes dark, the Earth is doomed lol