What’s funny is, most of the people who snipe names that early don’t actually stand out in-game.
If you’re just going to quietly play and quit, you should’ve left me that name, fuck. Then I wouldn’t be stuck with “kk1234,” the pain-in-the-ass one that forced me into English. I could’ve picked something easier, right?
Anyway, 『rainfall』 is a rare nick. And what stood out wasn’t just the rare nick.
No wonder. 『rainfall』 was a truly rare, truly bizarre bastard.
We had a few people in our guild who dressed their characters in pure eye-rot, but 『rainfall』 was on a whole different level of horrific. Easily the worst look I’d ever seen.
The first thing that hit you was the fluorescent pink skin. Just looking at it made your eyes hurt. Well, I could maybe handwave weird-ass skin color as “personal taste.” Sure. There are those boomer-latte types who insist green skin is so sexy because of that Picc*lo-looking guy or whatever and refuse to use anything else.
But that outfit that looked like he’d upended an entire tub of lightly rinsed napa kimchi over himself? That was something else. It was [K-Food Warrior Set – Kimchi], the untradeable avatar set they gave out as an event reward in the early days of the game.
Those free avatars are usually defined by the fact that they don’t really do anything…
[K-Food Warrior Set] was an avatar Serity had made back when they were even more braindead than they are now, so when the rare-avatar fusion system came out, it turned out you could use it as fusion material.
If you can fuse something that every single player got for free in an event, the price of the rare items you make from fusion tanks straight into the dirt, so normal companies make those “event for everyone” avatars non-fusible. Shittyrity made a very Shittyrity-like mistake.
By the time they thought about rolling it back, it was too late. Only the [K-Food Warrior Set] from the event avatars was usable as fusion material, and when there weren’t enough rare avatars circulating early on, everyone threw theirs into the grinder.
Thanks to that, [K-Food Warrior Set] ended up becoming rare in the opposite way. Of course, no matter how rare it was, I didn’t want to wear that crap, so I tossed mine in without a second thought… but 『rainfall』 was wearing it.
The crystallization of a very particular kind of stagnant-water freak, 『rainfall』, walked up to me.
[General]『rainfall』: Hey
[General]『rainfall』: kk1234
[General]kk1234: ?
It was the first time anyone had ever typed out my whole name like that.
There were plenty of people who called me K, or 1234, or “the English guy,” and after I got a bit famous there were idiots calling me K-K, but “kk1234” isn’t exactly a name you lovingly type out syllable by syllable.
Anyway, 『rainfall』 had taken the trouble to call me by name so carefully and then…
[General]『rainfall』: Die
[General]kk1234: ??
He suddenly pulled aggro and then—
『rainfall』 [Thunder Calling!]
—just went straight for me.
The Archmage skill [Thunder Calling] slammed right into the top of my head. I got stunned and blinded, but one status-recovery potion would clear that right up. The damage, though, was no joke. For all the freak-show cosmetics, this bastard had dropped some serious cash on his gear.
Not that it matters. Of all things, he picked Archmage—already a class with a coffin ticket booked.
[General]kk1234: this Archmage got a fukkin death wish or what
[General]kk1234: u go nuts cuz ur class going to hell next patch lol
It’s not like Archmage got nerfed straight into oblivion. But that’s only talking about farming—PvE. When it comes to PvP, fighting other players, it’s a weak class.
That’s the common problem with magic-type ranged DPS. Low HP, and most of their skills have cast times, so there’s no way they dominate PvP. Not just in Aurora. It’s the same in every game.
On the flip side, Holy Knight is a tank-slash-melee DPS. Most people build into tank skills, but I’m closer to DPS. And a Holy Knight built into the damage tree is a top-tier PvP class.
kk1234 [Chains of Judgment]
kk1234 [Inquisitorial Trial]
And with that class, you dare pick a fight with me in PvP? Are you trying to fucking die?
I didn’t even bother running my mouth further—I just started casting. But 『rainfall』 dodged [Chains of Judgment] by the slightest margin and blocked [Inquisitorial Trial] with a basic, no-cooldown skill.
Dodging Chains of Judgment is one thing, but avoiding the follow-up Inquisitorial Trial, too? I hadn’t expected that.
The bastard knew PvP. I’d been wanting to beat up some Archmages in celebration of the nerfs anyway, and one just waltzed right up to me.
And seriously, for an Archmage to approach a Holy Knight in full plate—are you insane? No matter how much they jump around, they’re still fucked. With a guy like this, you finish it before his skills even come off cooldown.
It should have been over.
But 『rainfall』 dodged or deflected every one of my attacks like it was nothing. Not just blocking—he threaded in these perfect counters and used that signature Archmage burst damage to steadily shave away my HP.
[General]kk1234: ??
[General]kk1234: the hell is this shit
[General]『rainfall』: Whatever. Just die.
Every time this psycho opened his mouth, it was “die.” What is he, some NPC with only one line of dialogue programmed in?
I’d underestimated him because he wasn’t famous, and my reaction was a second too late. That tiny delay was fatal. The momentum shifted to 『rainfall』, and the next thing I knew, my character had hit the dirt.
When it comes to instantaneous burst, no class can match an Archmage. In that ugly bastard’s eyes I could practically see the blue killing intent flaring up…
Well. I was fucked.
<‘『rainfall』’ has defeated ‘kk1234’!>
With that chirpy field message, I dropped on the spot. It’d been a while since I’d gotten PKed out of nowhere by some random player. I was lying there in helpless disbelief when 『rainfall』 walked up.
[General]kk1234: ?
<‘『rainfall』’ laughs at ‘kk1234’.>
『rainfall』 used an emote on me, then immediately popped an item and blinked away to somewhere else.
…What is this bastard?
I don’t hold grudges just because I get hit once, but this guy went out of his way to mock me on the way out. He’s not someone you can just let slide.
I memorized that name. 『rainfall』.
Run if you want. I’ll slap a bounty on you and grind you into paste somehow….
And the one who got ground down was me.
****
They say happiness doubles when shared, and misfortune is halved when you split it.
[Guild]Rete: lololololololololololololololololololol
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: lol
[Guild]Rete: lololololololololololololololololololololol
Even if you can’t literally cut misfortune in half, you’d think guildmates who eat from the same pot would at least comfort you a little. These bastards were gleefully smashing mine to pieces.
What kind of brain damage does it take to treat a guildmate’s misfortune like your own personal happiness? Humans are supposed to be social animals. These guys have to be social rejects, right? At the very least, it’s obvious their personalities are completely fucked.
A guild full of assholes who cackle at other people’s suffering. I clearly joined the wrong guild.
Lately, my misfortune could be summed up in a single word.
『rainfall』.
That insane Archmage bastard.
When I first thought about getting back at 『rainfall』, I only meant to beat him up once and be done with it. That time, I actually prepared for it properly and did manage to knock him flat.
I was pissed off, so I thought about shit-talking him into the ground… but the way he rushed me out of nowhere was so unhinged that even I felt like I’d look crazy if I overdid it.
[General]kk1234: feel good you won that one? lol
[General]kk1234: big bro came back to give you some life experience
[General]kk1234: miracles don’t happen that often, y’know lol
[General]kk1234: don’t start more shit and turn your life into a tragedy
[General]kk1234: let’s just go our own ways ok?
[General]kk1234: later^^
I was pretty sure I’d been perfectly gentlemanly about wrapping things up nicely between us.
Naive little me really thought that’d be the end of my bad blood with 『rainfall』.
What a massive mistake.
I don’t know what switch I flipped, but every time 『rainfall』 logged in, he came to find me. And then he would just relentlessly beat the crap out of me.
Of course, I didn’t just stand there and take it. But in spite of all my past PvP records, our win rate ended up six-four. Humiliatingly, I was the four.
Honestly, the win rate itself didn’t matter that much. If someone wants to hit you, you can let them get a shot or two in. The number was trending up for me anyway. It’s not like he was hitting me on some field with heavy death penalties—I wasn’t actually losing much of anything.
That wasn’t the issue.
The issue was:
This bastard spent all day doing nothing but chasing me down and beating me up.
So no matter what I tried to do, I couldn’t do shit because he’d be on my ass.
I play this game all day. And 『rainfall』 followed me around for every single minute I was logged in.
In that sense, 『rainfall』 was truly… a tenacious son of a bitch.
[Guild]kk1234: ffs
[Guild]kk1234: stop fucking laughing
[Guild]kk1234: get your asses to the back alley in Frondia then, fuckers
[Guild]Rete: you already climbed the wall and ran away there lol
[Guild]Rete: if you go back you’re just gonna get wrecked by rainfall again lololololol
[Guild]kk1234: I didn’t run, I was avoiding a fucking lunatic
[Guild]Rete: lolololololololol
[Guild]Rete: mchchmngffngzz,,
Rete, who normally hangs out with me the most, was having the time of his life. Pissing me off even more…
[Guild]kk1234: oh
[Guild]kk1234: I’m starting by taking Rete’s head off
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: hey, K
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: don’t be like that, chill for a sec
[Guild]kk1234: do I look like I’m about to chill?
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: great men always turn crises into opportunities
[Guild]kk1234: what opportunity
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: hehe how about you do a live stream of you getting stomped just once?
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: I’ll cut you in on the revenue
Not even worth replying to. The damn revenant of TwitX and YouTube… all he thinks about is using other people’s misery as firewood for views.
[Guild]kk1234: unsubscribing
[Guild]Rete: lolololololololololololololololol
[Guild]Rete: you even subbed to Straight’s channel?
[Guild]Rete: I didn’t lol
[Guild]SignalOnAndGoStraight: -_-
Honestly, I hadn’t subscribed either. I even checked, just in case, but of course I hadn’t. And I never would.