Chapter 60
Magi.
In WoA, it was used with a meaning slightly different from its meaning in my previous life.
The Magi here was the driving force behind monsters and demonkin.
Since monsters were born from Magi, it wasn't entirely wrong, but considering how vulnerable demonkin actually were to Magi, it was laughable.
Depending on whether you completed the quest to defeat the Hydra in the prologue, the game's ‘Magi difficulty’ is set.
The higher the Magi, the more ferocious the monsters become, and the more vicious black magic grows.
However, clearing the game at a high Magi difficulty grants a later bonus to Attack Power or Spell Power.
Next was Exploration.
The Labyrinth of the Inexplicable was so short that it took only an hour to clear when I went through it with Laura.
I had thought the game was easy overall, from the Hydra to the labyrinth, but this hadn't even been official content in the first place.
As with Magi, the higher the Exploration difficulty, the lower the drop rates for field items and weapons.
It grants the final character a bonus to Health.
The last one was Infamy.
Laura could obtain it by completely overwhelming the Knight Commander she encountered in the capital.
The higher the Infamy, the fewer NPCs you can form alliances with, and the stronger your opponents appear in combat against other players.
The Infamy sub-option later granted a growth bonus to the character's ki or mana.
Each of these options made the character stronger, but the price was far from small.
And most importantly,
[‘PressCameraSixTimesWhenJumping’ donated 10,000 won!]
-Nightmare sub-options 10/10/10 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
was the fact that I had entered the Nightmare branch.
[I’ll enroll through the proper procedure. / We don’t have much time.]
[▶We don’t have much time.]
‘Were the choices in the past actually branch points?’
A bar belonging to an Abyss-affiliated branch in District 15.
Only after drawing all the curtains and thoroughly setting up a mana barrier did the branch chief explain the academy invasion operation to us.
I paused the story and checked the chat.
“What’s different about Nightmare difficulty?”
It was information I absolutely had to know while playing the game.
-First of all, you absolutely must not die on Nightmare
-You basically have to clear it deathless
“So it means game over if I die...”
-Nope
-It’s not game over, but you go back to the beginning of each main story; Part 1’s checkpoint is exactly here
-And every single one of them gets insanely strong
-To the point that clearing it becomes nearly impossible
-Even the trash mobs and bosses seem to have subtly different patterns every time?
-Right, since pattern guides don’t work except for first clears, you can really feel the difficulty increasing
-So if you die, you just delete your account and go back after creating a save point during the branch chief quest in the prologue
-I don’t know why they made it such a pain; either way, you’re resetting
-For real, I lose my mind every time I redo the three subquests for the sub-optionsㅋㅋㅋㅋ I must’ve killed the Hydra a hundred times by now?
-Maybe the intention was to stop people from clearing it by memorizing the patterns?
-No chance, ‘Again!’ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[‘PunchKingPriest’ donated 1,000 won!]
-WoA is a game where you have to keep raising your Combat Power without pause based on your initial stats, through equipping weapons and accessories, unlocking circles, unlocking skills, and so on. But in Nightmare, every time you die, you start with your stats reduced as a penalty. So the final boss later requires at least 10,000 Combat Power, but if your stats are reduced at the beginning, you can never reach that figure, since most growth values are multiplicative. Nightmare is even more demanding than that.
He added that he had chosen Nightmare to receive better Combat Power than other players, but if his stats were cut in half, there would be no point in choosing it.
That made perfect sense.
Growth in WoA wasn’t a matter of adding 2,000 Health to 1,000 and ending up with 3,000; it was a matter of multiplying 1,000 by three to reach 3,000.
Then even if you tripled 500, you would only get 1,500.
If you entered an area with a minimum Combat Power requirement of 2,000, you would have a high chance of dying.
“I understand.”
The ‘Nightmare’ difficulty was also the company’s consideration for Arena players.
It was a way to drastically shorten the story, extract only the most important parts, and minimize the time required for character development.
It relieved players of the burden of watching the same story every time they raised a new character.
However, it also came with the prerequisite that users arrive with the qualifications to match. You couldn’t clear it through sheer persistence and pattern memorization.
You were allowed no more than one or two deaths at most.
[Resuming game.]
“Alpherion and Cisciela will wait at the academy’s east gate with six members.”
The old knight and the young bear beastkin solemnly nodded.
“And you, NoName, I won’t entrust you with a difficult operation. You’re a novice, after all, and you haven’t had your feet in our Abyss for long. You understand, yes?”
The branch chief’s operation had no obvious gaps, even to me, who knew nothing about the circumstances before or after it.
“What do I need to do?”
“Go to the academy’s rear gate, draw the soldiers’ attention, and then run away.”
But once again, I was given a choice.
[That sounds reasonable; I accept. / Is that really the level of operation a bald man can come up with?]
“...?”
What was this supposed to be now?
My eyes were drawn to the choice that would turn me into a complete asshole.
Until I chose an option, all the NPCs strangely stopped moving and waited for my answer.
-It doesn’t matter what you chooseㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Pick anything
-I’m suddenly pissed as hell. I’m going to refund the game
-Yeah, it’s free anyway
-What even is WoA’s monetization model?
So there were choices that didn’t affect the story.
This made things complicated.
I restrained the hand that was trying to move right and, regretfully, chose the option on the left.
“That sounds reasonable; I accept.”
“I like how quickly you decided. Then you can go with Adella tonight. It’s a simple pincer operation, so it should be easy, right?”
The branch chief pointed at a small cat-eared girl standing alone by another pillar.
She glanced toward me as well, and we exchanged glances.
“Daniel and I will go around to each group and explain the details of the operation. In the meantime, introduce yourselves.”
* * *
The first floor was a bar, and the second and third floors were an inn, so the only place we could meet was in each person’s room.
Since everyone had decided to carry out the operation from the start, none of them could leave the building until nightfall.
But Adella went upstairs before the branch chief had even finished speaking, so I missed my chance to accompany her.
And so a quest appeared: Find Adella’s Room.
This was truly a game, turning every little thing into a quest.
For now, let’s grab someone and talk to them.
“Sir Alpherion?”
“Oh, aren’t you the Forest Keeper of Arseria I’ve only heard rumors about? So, what business do you have with me?”
“I’m looking for Adella’s room.”
“Oh, that one? They’ve given you a difficult mission right from the start. Unfortunately, I don’t know her room.”
The old knight gave his bland, preprogrammed response.
I asked the bear beastkin beside him as well.
“Miss Cisciela, do you know which room Adella is in?”
“Why would I know her room? She’s the type who likes to hole up in some corner, so her room is probably in a corner too.”
No one knew exactly which room she was in.
Besides, Adella wasn’t treated particularly well within the Abyss.
Still, clues began to emerge one by one from various people.
Third floor, corner, beside the stairs.
Without hesitation, I knocked on room 302.
“Come in.”
A sharp voice came from beyond the door.
The layout of the room was exactly the same as mine.
However, underwear and trash were strewn haphazardly from the entrance onward, making it difficult to find anywhere to put my feet.
“Adella.”
I called her name, but she still didn’t answer.
In the end, did I have to go in myself?
I had no idea where she had gotten it, but Adella had been lying down and drinking beer since morning.
Her grayish hair was caked with black grime, giving her a gloomy air.
With a bored look in her eyes, she hung her face upside down over the edge of the bed and looked up at me.
“Buurp. Ah, I’m drunk.”
Then she blinked her narrow, vertically slit pupils.
“You think physiognomy is all a lie?”
No, physiognomy was science.
Not pseudoscience, but real science.
Otherwise, I couldn’t possibly already be feeling so overwhelmed by the missions ahead.
I see. You were the nightmare.
* * *
“Adella.”
“...”
“Adella.”
“...”
This game was more unfriendly in its interactions than I had expected.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Adella’s true colors are already showingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-WoA really does have great characters and story, but the early-game filter is way too harsh
-Pure toxicity
I didn’t know whether NPCs normally refused to respond to me or whether Adella was simply like this, but she didn’t even seem willing to answer.
Ah, I already didn’t feel like playing anymore.
I missed Lili, the fox beastkin in Legacy of Legends who sold worn-out boots and potions every time.
When I stroked her fluffy fur, she would shiver all over while going, ‘Hooe...’ It was adorable.
Compared to her, there wasn’t a single redeeming quality to Adella.
Her hair was dirty and coarse, and although her face was rather cute, it was flushed bright red from being steeped in alcohol, so I couldn’t bring myself to show her even forced goodwill.
The viewers seemed to think Adella was normally this kind of character.
“Forest Keeper, what’s your name, nya?”
It was the first time Adella had spoken.
“NoName.”
“Whoever named you, that’s a shitty name.”
Adella casually picked her nose.
“What did you say? Say it again.”
“...”
“I said, say it again?”
Mana energy escaped me before I realized it.
I clenched my fist and tried to control my emotions, but my inner anger showed in the trembling of my lips and my harsh breathing.
‘Do I really have to give her a pass just because she’s a game character?’
The trash in the room swirled into a vortex and floated gently upward.
Without realizing it, I thrust my fist toward her face—or almost did.
But I managed to stop it at the last possible moment, by a paper’s breadth, and
she still didn’t blink as she calmly drank the beer she had left.
[‘Randoseru’ donated 5,000 won!]
-This stream sure knows how to get a reaction.