Chapter 58
Narrow alleys densely winding around the complex city like a spiderweb.
They were barely wide enough for a single person to squeeze through.
A burly man in full plate armor pressed himself tightly against the wall, raised both hands, and crab-walked out.
He checked the end of the road, the rooftops, and every direction around him, preparing for an ambush that could fly in from anywhere at any time.
Just as he was about to sigh in relief, a human shadow sprang out from between the buildings on the opposite side.
The warrior swallowed a hollow laugh as he looked at the shield knight blocking the path to Wigdrasil.
Of all things, a shield knight—
Shield knights belonged to the sword-and-shield warrior class, but in story mode, they were the orthodox counter to warriors, staking everything on defense, health, and shield techniques.
Taking advantage of everyone’s attention being focused on the battle along Apia Boulevard, the man had devised a sharp strategy aimed at the enemy base’s rear, but even that had been read by his opponent.
If they had met in the wilderness, the matchup would have been worth trying for the warrior, but things were different in a space where horizontal movement was restricted.
A knight who only needed to hold up his shield to break even, against a warrior who had to break through no matter what.
The warrior had no other options.
Time was not on his side.
More than anything, he wanted to wipe that leisurely expression off his enemy’s face.
He would break through.
Having made his decision, he swiftly put it into action.
He pulled his greatsword far back and charged at full force into the shield bearing a cross.
Aura Charging, then a Heavy Attack.
He adopted the motion for a vertical head slash (Scheitelhauw).
As he ran, he watched for the shield knight’s reaction.
Immovable.
There was no reason to give up his geographical advantage. It was the textbook response.
But this was something both the greatsword warrior and the shield knight already knew.
The warrior was the first to change his movement.
He canceled the skill even if it meant abandoning the energy he had already spent.
The shield knight still did not change his response. A calmness seemed to show even beyond the shield. He intended to watch until the very end and block it.
It was an unfair game of chicken.
The warrior threw out his trump card.
Upward Slash (Unterhauw).
The knight’s shield trembled.
He was using a technique meant to knock away large attacks from a distance against a shield.
Perhaps because it was an unexpected technique, the shield knight’s response was slow.
A clean strike that began in Nabenhut, passed through Hangen, and ended in Einhorn. Action Assist applied perfectly.
Clang—
As expected, the attack was stopped by the sturdy shield.
But the shield knight did not know that Unterhauw could also be used to pressure an opponent.
The curse of mastery.
It was a dirty trick devised because it was impossible for a human being to master every class.
As the shield tried to bounce upward from the blow, the knight instinctively pulled it back down with his body.
The corners of the warrior’s mouth rose faintly.
When Unterhauw was carried through to the end, the tip of the blade pointed diagonally upward.
The warrior activated a skill.
He cast the skill ‘Lightening’ before using Zornhauw.
The warrior’s body, weighed down by heavy armor, floated about a meter into the air.
Once the sword rose higher than the wall beside the passage, it finally regained horizontal freedom.
He bent his rear leg with the sword pulled far back behind him.
A diagonal downward slash.
It was the sort of move a novice might make instinctively if they knew nothing about swordsmanship, yet it was powerful enough to shatter other slashes with the tip of the blade.
The shield knight was caught by the reversal.
The outcome was already decided.
Boom—
The shield was knocked away in a single powerful blow.
A shield knight without a shield was like a turtle without its shell.
He could not stop here.
While the enemy was at their most defenseless, he used the fastest attack the warrior could unleash once more.
A skill with a timing window he would never even have considered while holding a shield.
It was time to cure shield knights of their nasty habit of watching for and blocking only Heavy Attacks.
Clang—
Boom—
Could a one-handed sword really parry a massive greatsword?
From this moment on, the warrior was already certain of his victory.
The enemy had already fallen into a state of physical and mental weakness.
The knight’s body reeled violently under the repeated attacks. The warrior, however, remained completely unscathed.
‘Should I risk my life and attempt a parry? Or get greedy and fire off a skill with a long casting time?’
Neither was the right answer.
The shield knight’s hand suddenly moved to his waist.
He had belatedly remembered that he did not actually need to win.
After receiving a dispatch that the main force had won the five-on-five battle, the shield knight chose to move completely away from his shield.
He first took a step back.
He had no shield, but he could either deflect every attack or, if he did not feel like it, simply take the hits without much pain as long as they did not become critical hits.
The shield knight unfurled a scroll with a rustle, but what he wanted to happen did not.
The warrior’s ominous eyes flashed as he sneered at him.
When people are cornered, whether they are Bronze or Master, they reach for a ‘Blink’ scroll first.
“You’re too scared to parry.”
The warrior had already anticipated this and countered with a magic-nullification field.
Then the warrior let out a roar.
“Pleaaaaaase! If I beat you, I’ll be a Challenger! Challenger!”
The warrior raised his weapon high into the sky.
The lustrous greatsword absorbed the sun’s heat and transformed into a guillotine that would take a life.
The strength slowly left the warrior’s wrist.
The hilt rotated sluggishly, but the blade at its end screamed through the air with the sound of a fierce wind.
The opponent’s stance had collapsed completely, and resignation was plain in his eyes.
A stream of blood erupted across the screen.
* * *
[I said Challengerrrrrrrr!!! I did it!]
After watching the entire touching saga, I turned off the screen and rested.
‘He sure knows how to make it entertaining.’
It was impossible to easily understand all the interfaces, the player’s actions, and his intentions from a single viewing.
Still, the man’s intense longing for the Challenger tier came through to me in full.
It was a little different from the games I had imagined before.
I couldn’t implement magic in multiplayer, though.
Apparently, the magic used by synchronizing that so-called ‘laurel’ was limited to single-player mode.
It seemed scrolls could not be used to cast every type of magic, either.
The game stated that players could choose and carry one spell from among 128 kinds, but despite that huge number, all twelve players, allies and enemies alike, had brought the ‘Blink’ spell, making it difficult to judge how effective magic really was.
“Nom.”
I put the strawberry Professor Cheon had personally speared with a fork into my mouth.
“Is that a game? It looks rather brutal.”
Certainly, the scenes of limbs being severed and blood spurting had not been completely censored, so it would be somewhat uncomfortable for the faint of heart to watch.
When I played, all I had to do was change a few settings.
“It looks different for those fifteen and under. See? It turns into bubbles like this.”
I waved both hands this way and that and wiggled my fingers, recreating the shape of bubbles.
"Bubble bubble bubble bubble."
“You can even pop them like this, you know?”
Cute little soap bubbles pop out instead of blood.
The arms and legs are not severed, either; they just look transparent, as if they have become incorporeal.
But Professor Cheon still looked distinctly displeased.
“If Professor Cheon is opposed to it, I won’t play multiplayer.”
I replied in a trailing voice, but Professor Cheon was adamant.
“Still, isn’t story mode all-ages? It should be fine, shouldn’t it? I had no problems when I played it with Laura, either.”
It was a game even seven-year-old Laura had played without any problems.
And even then, the background had been charming and the difficulty easy, so I had never once thought it was a particularly brutal game.
Professor Cheon pointed at the screen and asked.
“What did you say this game was called?”
“WoA. World of Arseria.”
“Ah, I think I’ve heard of it a lot, too. All the middle and high school students play it these days, don’t they?”
As a last resort, I decided to show him an all-ages trailer.
“Apparently, it’s originally a game about exploring like this. You enroll in an academy, make friends, go hunting together, and look at stars at an observatory...”
The video showed an elf protagonist gazing at constellations embroidered across the night sky with friends from the academy.
It was ironic that you could not see stars in the city, while the game had such a clear night sky.
“Ooh... The scenery is certainly beautiful.”
“Right? Right?”
“But what fun is it alone? It seems like it would be more fun with a friend.”
“I’m fine playing by myself. Then, could I go try it for a bit, just until I go to bed tonight?”
“Then only until exactly twelve o’clock at the latest.”
“Yes, understood.”
In any case, staying up any later would interfere with going to school tomorrow.
Just as I rose and started toward my room, Professor Cheon pressed another fruit fork into my hand.
“Here, eat one last strawberry before you go play.”
“Aaam-”