Chapter 159
[Kariri Ch. / NoName]
[World of Arseria – Precious and Tiny]
[Streaming Time - 1:10:38]
[Viewers – 37057]
Humans learn from failure.
Looking back on why I had to lose both in the placement matches and the showcase, there had been valid reasons every time.
Differences in NPC growth.
I had thought far too simply that one NPC was just like adding another ally to our side.
The events tied to the NPCs' stories that appeared as the game progressed weren't simply a matter of winning or losing.
In League, they say stealing the enemy's jungle monsters gives you double value.
Here too, every time we failed to complete one of those events, games we were winning were often turned around absurdly, or when we were losing, the growth gap widened even further in laughable situations.
My intuition that, since I was confident in my own skill, I should make up for it elsewhere without NPCs ultimately proved to be a false premise.
[You have entered the Colosseum.]
[Blue Team (4/6) vs Red Team (3/6)]
“Phew! Made it by the skin of my teeth! Ow!”
A girl who barely squeezed her body through the closing iron gate.
Even then, she was broadcasting far and wide what an inept fool she was by stabbing herself with her own weapon.
“What the hell? How did you guys even get here...?”
The enemy mage looked considerably flustered.
“Ha! You thought you'd have the numbers advantage in this Colosseum!”
Clang-!
Kariri rubbed her sharp claws together, producing an irritatingly smug grin.
I could understand why they were flustered.
Kariri and I had been on opposite sides of the map until just one minute ago.
-What were you thinking, not buying a single HP or defensive item because you wanted to join up!
-I hate being slow, so I'm going all-in on spell powerㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Is this strategy seriously right? Even if we win the Colosseum, we'll only break even, and if we lose, it'll be a total disaster.
In WoA, the game constantly forces players to make choices.
NPC events that provide beneficial buffs to allied soldiers or debuffs to enemy soldiers.
[That man is my father's sworn enemy. It wasn't enough that he besmirched the honor of my father, who was a gladiator—he even slandered him! I will never forgive Nahivitan!]
Participating in them, however, inevitably pushed the frontline back temporarily.
Thus, whether to accept a brief disadvantage in pursuit of a greater gain, or secure a geographical advantage by delaying the event as much as possible, was entirely up to the players.
“Isn't this a total four-drone strategy? You're saying you'll just go all-in here?”
I added this to the mage, who still wore a dazed expression.
“A tank not investing in HP and defense really is crazy. If you're a normal tank, that is.”
“Exactly...! Kariri gets stronger as her HP gets lower! I'm an assassin, after all!”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Right, rightㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Is... is that right?
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Isn't that just sophistry?
Kariri's character wasn't exactly easy on the eyes—not even as a polite compliment.
A weapon with an extremely short range.
If she could just get within range, she could boast extreme killing power and great freedom of movement, but wasn't that meaningless unless she could actually close the distance?
So before the game began, I'd asked Kariri about the build she'd piled high with nothing but HP-oriented growth stats and tank-exclusive traits.
‘Why did you decide to build an assassin class as a tank from the very beginning?’
‘I figured a tank would probably be able to stay stuck in and fight longer than an assassin?’
Her argument was simply that she'd thought in one dimension: the condition “it's strong if it can get close” meant “then it should be good to use as a tank.”
Even its higher attack power than other weapons amounted to nothing more or less than cumbersome garbage once she invested in HP in-game.
So, what I'd devised to somehow disguise her as a respectable full contribution was...
“An AP tank? Are you kidding me?”
“You'll know once you try it.”
[The battle begins.]
[60s]
[59s]
The eight gates closed one after another, and the trumpet blast announcing the start of battle rang out.
A knight holding a thick shield before him came trudging forward at the very front.
In response, Kariri's body shot forward, and she raked the shield with her enormous claws.
Kkiing-!
Metal clashed against metal as the two warriors exerted all their strength.
Contrary to my expectation that a dull back-and-forth would follow, Kariri was instead overwhelming him.
“What the hell? Her strength...!”
“Heehee, we're not done yet! Now, NoName!”
“Keep him pinned down like that.”
The higher the HP and defense stats, the lower the movement speed.
Conversely, apart from the stats that increased automatically with leveling, Kariri was wielding spell-power items across the board.
This was to maximize the effect of one of Kariri's character traits, ‘Chimera's Hunt.’
The trait that granted lifesteal to melee attacks just happened to scale with ‘spell power.’
Considering that most melee attacks were based on ‘attack power,’ it could be considered a worthless effect.
But what if, thanks to her claws, she had attack power up to a certain level and, with HP comparable to a tank's, activated Chimera's Hunt?
It might be garbage on its own, but together with her allied healer's increased HP regeneration, it could produce multiplicative synergy.
The reason I could be so confident was that I'd personally finished all the complicated formulas in advance for every level and even verified them once in practice mode.
Wolverine wearing a gold necklace—or rather, a honey badger.
Wolverine wearing a gold ring—or rather, a honey-badger girl.
Seeing a young girl dressed in Harlem-style fashion was jarring, but Kariri was doing an excellent job of keeping the enemy commander trapped.
However,
“Aaaaargh! I think I'm about to die! My HP's dropping way too fast! When are you coming, NoName? Aaaaaaaargh!”
Her advantage lasted only a moment.
The enemies, who had mistaken the blow enhanced by her speed for her innate strength, began to assess the situation objectively again.
Whatever momentum she'd had at the start had vanished, and her feet were gradually being pushed backward.
Unless something changed the tide, all I could see ahead was a future where every claw on her fists got smashed to pieces.
But we had four people, one more than them.
In other words, with a tense 3v3 standoff taking place elsewhere, I remained free to act.
I immediately drew my secondary weapon.
A chilly silver line extending from the scabbard sliced through the air.
Thanks to Kariri pulling her body back at exactly the right moment, the knight, who had been exerting all his strength, lurched forward.
Even though he belatedly raised his guard, it was already too late.
Taking in the shield knight's final words—an incredulous “What the hell is this?”—I pulled the blade free from the shoulder I'd pierced clean through.
At the same time, a healing skill landed on Kariri.
[Intermediate Heal]
[Chimera's Hunt stacks up.]
Even while her HP was in the process of recovering, the assassin, once she'd entered a near-death state, entered an ‘Awakened’ state like a berserker.
A red aura swirled around Kariri, radiating heat.
“You little bastard! You suddenly stabbed me in the side with your shield and scared the crap out of me! Bad, bad, bad!”
Kariri finished off even the cleanup with a frenzied flurry of slashes, bringing the brief Colosseum to an end.
[‘Lunatic’ donated 10,000 won!]
-Tsk, Kariri, watch your language!
“Gasp! You didn't hear that, Name, did you?”
Kariri clasped both hands over her mouth and looked at me with trembling eyes.
“Unnie, I've played League for years, you know.”
“Oh, what the—so you were an experienced player! Everyone, why are you making such a fuss? NoName said not to treat her like a baby!”
“That's not what I meant...”
-A League veteran gets a passㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The final destination of all demons... What on earth is League?
-There are tons of guys like Kim Young-gwang in top lane.
-Kariri, let's take off one of those restraints already.
-It's more amazing that League is rated for ages 7 than that WoA Nightmare is rated for 15ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[‘HoneyChyupa’ donated 50,000 won!]
-Kariri Early Adopter mode ON?
“Aaaah! I told you not to use words like that! What is wrong with you people!”
“Early adopter?”
“Ah... No! Don't worry about it!”
“I know what it means too. It's a term from Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory, right?”
It refers to people who adopt new products earlier than others when they are released, based on their consumer tendencies.
I was glad that a familiar word had finally come up in Kariri's conversation with her viewers after a long time.
Kids these days kept inventing bizarre slang, and there were so many things I couldn't understand from the syllables alone.
“Ahaha... Was that it...?”
Wasn't it?
* * *
[‘Vegeta’ donated 5,000 won!]
-Hate stack: currently 4 stacks
[‘No-Face (Manager)’ donated 20,000 won!]
-We, the Kariri fandom as a whole, would like to offer NoName our sincerest apologies.
It was a rather shocking metaphor, and it nearly made me dizzy, but at least this could be brushed off as a childish prank.
-Watch your language when donating.
-But Kariri's the one enjoying it, isn't she?
-Is this guy's mind seriously insaneㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Early adopter my assㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“I have no intention of commenting on other people's sexual preferences, but I'd at least like you to respect the boundaries set by the law.”
“It's a misunderstanding! Nooo! I'm really not a lolicon!”
Caring about children and being sexually attracted to them are entirely separate things—no, the latter is closer to an act that simply cannot be tolerated.
[Video Share - ‘Asantia’ shared this for 20,000 won!]
(Things Kariri said during the whisper-message raid.mp4)
[I want to make NoName my knight. Ah, I want to lock NoName in a dakimakura and sleep while hugging NoName every night. Guys, don't call me a lolicon—wouldn't you call me an early adopter instead?]
-What kind of brain thinks lolicon = early adopter?
-How does she even know jokes from the depths of the abyss like thatㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Just assume she stakes her life on browsing the forumsㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Our Kariri doesn't miss a thing.
-What does that mean?
└You don't need to know, kid.
-This is fucking dizzyingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-So this really was her holding back? Wow... wow... wooooow...
-Dizzying, right?
-Our streamer is embarrassing no matter where you put herㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
“Hweeeeeeng... It's ruined... I worked so hard preparing for this collab, and it's all ruined!”
Kariri dropped to her knees on the floor and wailed.
The atmosphere had grown distinctly uncomfortable.
It had only been the first game, yet after it ended, we were at a complete loss for what to say to one another.
“You guys know! I stayed up all night watching every VTube video to prepare for my collab with NoName! I even joined NoName's fan café! And I promoted her on the NoName minor gallery under my regular username! Hweeeeeeng!”
-Why did you need to use your regular username...?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Ugh, what a fake cry.
-She's crying as part of the act. NoName, you don't have to pay attention to her, okay? No no.
-She looks like she's grinning as she loads up another jokeㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Enough already, let's play the next game.
-I thought we'd do at least four games, but looks like we're ending after two.
“Kariri?”
“Ueeeeee...”
This wouldn't do.
I too thought Kariri was probably crying as a joke, but it seemed that at least half of it was genuine.
I took a quick peek at the chat window, then whispered to the viewers without her noticing.
“How about you show everyone how cool Unnie Kariri was?”
-Kyaa
-Her heart is so kindㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-NoName! NoName! NoName!
-Our Kariri may look like this, but she's actually really kind and innocent.
-All right, I'm loading up a donationㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Kariri's a total master at milking donations!
-There are already plenty of highlight reels.
“No, no, NoName...! I was joking! I'm really fine, huh?”
Kariri belatedly got to her feet and grabbed my shoulder.
My gaze shifted behind me.
At the same time, a huge rectangular donation window appeared beside us.
[Video Share - ‘HoneyChyupa’ shared this for 300,000 won!]
(Kariri's 2049 year-end concert.mp4) - ‘Wild Chrysanthemum / LK’
“Hey, why would you play something like this?”
A peculiar light flickered in her eyes.
And reflected in her round irises was her former self.
My head turned to the right along with hers.
In the video, she held the microphone tightly in both hands, looking a little shy. Then she hesitated, made a cute little “ahem” sound, and cleared her throat.
When she opened her mouth and began to sing, countless cheering-light-stick emoticons formed endless waves in the chat window.
But the waves were gentle, lapping like ripples rather than rough and turbulent.
What emotion was held in those pale, sunset-colored eyes, now larger than before and rippling like waves?
As her gentle voice stretched out,
when I fell under the illusion that this moment might last forever,
“...the memories I miss, the wistful feelings too.”
At the point when the emotions in the song began to build, Kariri quietly whispered the lyrics along with the video.
“Beneath the low stone wall you passed, I wait for you alone.”
Her softly trembling vocal cords released a gentle tone that added another voice to the air.
“Just enough to shake it off, just enough to endure.”
Her anxious gaze turned toward me once. When I gave a small nod, the tremble in her eyes slowly settled.
“In the trembling soaked through with tears, I will make blue leaves bloom.”
After letting out a deep breath, Kariri finished singing with her past self. But the video continued to play.
“You sing really well.”
“Huh? Oh...”
Kariri flinched at the compliment I tossed out casually.
-Kariri is a god! Kariri is a god!
-She knows how to salvage itㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-A veteran really is different.
-She's fucking incredible.
-Kyaaahhhhhhhhh
-She really sings fucking well.
-This is Katchi the Rock, all rightㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-THIS IS LEGEND
-I played this song for a flower, and it ran off saying it was going to become a wild chrysanthemum.
-10 points... Ten points.
-I just went to search Kariri's VTube channel.
└For real, it's binge-watch time.
-She looks like a completely different personㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The greatest florist of this era.
-Kariri really is a legend...
“Will you sing it for me again later?”
“Heehee... You fell for me, didn't you, NoName? It's perfectly natural to love a honey badger!”
Kariri patted my back a couple of times and smiled so brightly that her white fangs showed.
She returned to her usual mischievous voice, and for some reason, I felt relieved.
She's quite a charming friend.
I could understand why her viewers liked her.