The MMORPG Arc Road had a wide variety of PvP content.
There was field PvP, which you could enjoy anywhere by enabling PvP mode starting from level 50; the arena, where you fought in parties; the free duel arena, where entering and leaving was relatively unrestricted; faction wars, where players split into opposing sides; and finally, the crown jewel of PvP—guild wars.
Among them, guild wars were by far the most brutal and intense, since each guild’s pride was on the line. Whenever famous guilds clashed, it always became a hot topic.
[B Team is all here too.]
[Make sure the healer and buffer positions are set properly.]
Listening to my guild members through the headset, I laced my fingers together and gave myself a light stretch.
I’d been playing Arc Road for two years now, and I was the guild master of Yoil. Since we were one of the top two guilds on the server, our scale was pretty large, and we had plenty of solid members.
And there was one other guild on our level.
The guild directly in front of us right now—Another.
Another was, without question, our greatest rival in all of Arc Road. Ever since it was founded a year ago, we’d been clashing and fighting whenever we got the chance. Of course, we hadn’t started out on such terrible terms, but… what was the point of thinking about that now?
[Ah, I’m nervous.]
[Starting now.]
As I took a sip from the energy drink I’d prepared beforehand, a red system message appeared in the center of the screen.
The guild war will begin shortly! Prepare yourselves!
This was it.
I placed my hands on the keyboard and spoke.
“Focus their healer and buffer first. If they’re hard to kill, call me or keep briefing.”
[Okay.]
[Yep!]
Across from us, the Another guild members were also waiting for the war to begin.
Among them, one player standing at the very front—just like me—immediately caught my eye.
Sky-blue hair. Eastern-style clothing. A longsword with a blue ornament hanging at his waist. The blade shimmered with a vivid blue glow, proof that it was a fully optimized endgame weapon.
[All] heunjeok: hehe
[All] heunjeok: (emote)
As if he somehow noticed I was looking, he popped a waving emote over his head.
That fucking lunatic.
What kind of guild master greets the enemy guild master like that right before a guild war?
Heunjeok, Another’s guild master, was infamous for being a complete psycho, and I’d suffered enough because of him to know it well. Still, every time he pulled something like this, it was impressive in its own way.
[Guild] MovieIsSoSo: lmaoooo
[Guild] MovieIsSoSo: Sunday, Heunjeok’s saying hi
[Guild] MovieIsSoSo: why aren’t you respondingㅠ
[Guild] LookAtOurTeamPersonality: don’t respondㅡㅡ
[Guild] LookAtOurTeamPersonality: Sunday’s charm is being aloofㅡㅡ
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: stfu
[Guild] Yeoyeorang: wow so cold;
[Guild] Ryupe: LMAO
At this point, I was already used to this kind of teasing, since Heunjeok talked to me like this every single time he saw me.
The dignity of being guild master had long since crumbled into dust, so it wasn’t really irritating anymore.
Still, the fact that the source of all this messing around was Another’s guild master annoyed me a little.
The guild war begins!
5
4
3
2
1
Earn kill points and seize victory!
The war had officially begun.
The moment the system message disappeared, two gauges appeared at the top of the screen. The first guild to kill enough enemy members and reach 100 points would win.
“Ugh, how many holy knights did they stack on the frontline? No healer or buffer at 7 o’clock for now.”
[One healer at 5 o’clock! Still no sign of the buffer!]
Maha, leader of Team A and our vice master, and GoodWeather, leader of Team B, relayed their reports one after another.
Since no buffer was visible near the frontline clash, they’d probably stationed them all the way in the back. Not a bad strategy, considering healer and buffer roles were the most important in large-scale PvP.
I cut down the enemies charging at me and quickly pushed toward the center.
If a regular guild member killed the opposing guild master, it was worth 15 points.
If a guild master killed the enemy guild master, it was worth 20.
I glanced up to check how fast the gauge was filling.
With forty players crashing into each other, the point gauge was rising much faster than usual.
That meant whoever landed the bigger score would have the advantage.
And obviously, I wasn’t the only one thinking that.
As expected.
The moment I reached the center, I saw Heunjeok already waiting there.
After mowing down the guys blocking my path and arriving in front of him, he typed exactly as if he’d been expecting me.
[All] heunjeok: (emote)
The exact same waving emote as before.
The big smiling face and cheerful wave was unbelievably punchable.
Instead of responding, I activated a buff skill that boosted my attack speed and attack power. My character spun the staff in a wide arc and settled into stance.
Seeing that, Heunjeok raised the tip of his sword.
He’d mirrored me and activated his own buff.
I made the first move.
I chained a dash skill into an attack skill, instantly closed the gap, and swung my staff in a long horizontal sweep.
Clang!
A sharp metallic shriek rang out as staff and sword collided.
His blue blade, fully optimized for attack speed, smashed against my crimson staff, built purely for attack power.
A. Then Z, X. Which means his next skill is either W or Q.
I knew everything about Heunjeok’s Blade class—his skills, his attack flow, all of it—so I widened the distance ahead of time.
W was Blade’s signature counter skill.
Q was its attack deflection.
Neither was good news for me, so it was better to burn a turn and wait it out.
The moment I stepped back, Heunjeok burned his dash without hesitation and stuck right to me.
He’d predicted I would retreat at that exact timing.
Just like I knew his polearm matchup, he knew my staff-fighter skills and attack habits too.
Flowing forward like water, Heunjeok slashed sharply with his sword.
Instead of wasting my long-cooldown dodge, I blocked with a defensive skill, but my HP dropped way more than expected.
A critical hit.
Lucky bastard.
That one hit instantly turned the situation against me.
Clicking my tongue, I sped up my skill chain even further.
As fast as my fingers hammered the keyboard, my character moved just as fast on-screen.
Heunjeok had spent his turn.
Now it was mine.
I chained a repositioning movement skill with two consecutive attacks.
My character planted the staff into the ground, used the momentum to whip half a turn, and instantly moved behind Heunjeok.
The follow-up attacks connected in succession, launching his character into the air from the impact.
While airborne, he couldn’t use any counter or dodge skill.
I took the chance and immediately used my ultimate.
My character erupted in crimson aura, leaped high, pinned Heunjeok beneath the staff, and slammed him violently into the ground.
Boom.
The earth split apart with a massive tremor effect.
By luck, I crit too, and a huge chunk of Heunjeok’s HP disappeared.
After taking the strongest-damage ultimate as a critical, his HP dropped below half.
At the same time, the kill-point gauge on-screen had just passed 80%.
Between me and Heunjeok, whoever survived would decide the war.
I currently had a little over half HP, so I had the edge for now.
But I couldn’t relax.
From here on out, I somehow had to survive his ultimate.
The instant he got back up after taking mine, Heunjeok activated his ultimate and vanished.
I swallowed dryly and whipped my mouse around with chilled fingers to locate him.
Blade’s ultimate allowed three consecutive teleports within a 5-meter radius.
Its attack power and speed buffs were leagues above normal buffs.
The only weakness was its absurdly short duration.
If I just endured a little longer—
“Ah.”
The moment I thought that, a bright hit effect flashed across the screen and my HP plummeted.
Before I even realized it, Heunjeok was already beside me, and my character was sent rolling across the ground.
Then the second hit landed before I could even recover from the stagger.
Now my HP was almost equal to his.
If I took the final hit of his ultimate, I’d most likely lose.
No way I’m going down that easily.
I narrowed my eyes, dragged every ounce of focus together, and hit the keyboard like I was grabbing the last straw left to me.
I used the dodge skill I’d been saving this whole time and immediately activated the hidden skill with a counter effect.
Clang!
A brilliant white flash exploded in the center of the screen.
And what appeared next left me unable to hide my shock.
Heunjeok’s final ultimate strike was blocked perfectly.
At the same time, the rest of his HP vanished in one blow.
The counter effect had reflected the damage I should have taken back onto him instead.
Heunjeok collapsed in a spray of blood.
At the same moment, triumphant fanfare rang out and the guild war victory message appeared.
The guild war has ended! Winning guild: Yoil
Congratulations! You have won the guild war!
[Oh, nice!]
[Good work, everyone.]
[Guild] Ryupe: LET’S GOOOOOO
[Guild] Astaroth: holy shit niceeee
[Guild] TurnTheLightsOn: gg everyone~~
[Guild] rxrx78: gjgj
[Guild] MovieIsSoSo: nice
“Hoo…”
Only then did it really sink in that I’d won, and I let out a long breath of relief.
I actually won this.
The staff-fighter hidden skill had such absurd activation conditions that it might as well not exist, so I hadn’t expected much even as I used it.
Still, it felt incredible.
I’d completely flipped a fight I was moments away from losing with a single counter.
[All] heunjeok: wow
Heunjeok typed from right in front of me while lying there dead.
He didn’t seem bitter or frustrated at all despite the loss.
Then again, after fighting fifteen wars by now, we’d won and lost in turns so many times that there was no reason to get mad.
I won today, sure.
But next war, Heunjeok could just as easily win.
Still, after clawing out a win like this, letting it pass quietly would be a waste.
A slow grin spread across my face as I typed.
[All] TodayIsSunday: hehe
[All] TodayIsSunday: (emote)
[All] heunjeok: ?
[All] heunjeok: lmfao
I copied the exact same emote and chat message he’d used earlier.
He burst out laughing like he couldn’t believe it.
Mad, aren’t you, asshole?
Today, I was the winner.
I let the thrill of victory swell in my chest.
***
A week had passed since our fifteenth war against Another.
The moment I got home from my part-time job, I turned on my computer.
Maybe because we’d won the guild war, the game had been extra fun lately.
Maybe I should gather the guild and run a raid today.
Humming to myself, I logged in.
[Guild] Ryupe: hihii
[Guild] LookAtOurTeamPersonality: hi Sunday
[Guild] Maha: hi
[Guild] Yeoyeorang: hii guild master~
[Guild] rxrx78: no but does this even make sense
[Guild] GoodWeather: seriously absurd lol
[Guild] IHave6000Won: the hacked thing is kinda…
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: hi
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: what happened?
[Guild] GoodWeather: um....
The guild atmosphere felt strangely unsettled.
When I asked what was going on, GoodWeather hesitated awkwardly before finally explaining.
[Guild] GoodWeather: Another changed guild masters
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: ??
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: suddenly? why?
[Guild] GoodWeather: looks like the guild master disappeared
[Guild] Maha: seems like Heunjeok deleted his account entirely
[Guild] Maha: he’s gone from the solo PvP rankings too
[Guild] Maha: one of Another’s members posted on the board saying he suddenly vanished
“What?”
I’d been reading the guild chat absentmindedly, but the unexpected news instantly made me frown.