GRRK, GRRRRK!
Once again, the game came under load, and the surroundings slowed slightly. At the same time, I saw another large group of users newly swarming this way.
And at the center of them was.......
“Ah! The hidden quest baiter!”
The game streamer in the insanely flashy pink outfit from earlier. The moment that streamer arrived, she pointed straight at me.
“Baiter?”
“Ah, well, that’s.......”
She had pointed at me so boldly, but when I looked directly at her and asked back, she suddenly trailed off.
“Excuse me, do you know you’re causing a huge controversy on the community?”
“No?”
What was this about the community now?
“Ah, then the hidden quest. I tried that hidden quest, so what was that?! It didn’t work at all!”
Yang Pinpin raised her voice and challenged me.
“And there’s controversy over whether you used hacks too, so please explain!”
“Right!”
“Do you know how much people suffered because they were baited?”
“Does it feel good making such a mess with hacks?!”
Her followers also huffed angrily. This was a headache of a situation.
“And what’s this about randomly PKing people? PK shouldn’t even be possible in this area!”
Then, while watching the corpses of the nearby fallen players disappear one by one, Yang Pinpin asked back.
“Well, I guess you could call it their own fault.”
Honestly, it was.
“Wow....... Aren’t you being too much? This is a quest area!”
“It’s allowed by the game anyway, isn’t it? Don’t butt into other people’s business. If you have nothing to do here, why don’t you go somewhere else?”
GRRK, GRRK.
With that streamer and her followers crowding around, my VR capsule screamed. It was annoying me to death.
“Y-Yang Pinpin! It’s Yang Pinpin!”
That was when it happened. The last archer player, who had looked like death warmed over, cheered and chanted Yang Pinpin’s name.
“Yang Pinpin! This guy, this guy slaughtered us with PK! We only came here to confront him about using hacks and tricking people with the hidden quest!”
What an unbelievable bastard. He conveniently left out the part where they had tried to Karma Kill me.
I cut the archer player’s neck with the finishing blow.
Slice.
The player’s neck was lightly severed.
Thump. The severed archer player’s head rolled across the ground.
“Urk.”
“Ugh.”
“Wow, he went for the neck of all things.......”
“That’s seriously malicious.......”
Were there many adults here? The surrounding players, having seen the sight of a head rolling around in full detail, let out groans.
“Isn’t destroying the neck part really bad manners?”
At the center of them, Yang Pinpin challenged me.
“What manners are there? It’s something you can do in the game.”
Annoyed, I stopped speaking politely.
In VR games, using honorifics whenever possible was etiquette, but since they had rushed in and started challenging me without rhyme or reason, I did not feel the need to be polite.
“Depending on the settings, there are people who even get motion sickness from having their neck cut off! You had already won anyway, so cutting off his neck there is bad manners!”
“If someone gets motion sick from that, shouldn’t they change their own settings?”
Because VR games affected the five senses strongly, there could be side effects such as motion sickness or headaches depending on the feedback from the sensory simulator.
However, a game was still a game. If you adjusted the VR capsule’s settings, those side effects could be minimized.
“Isn’t it funnier to leave your settings alone and blame someone else?”
Wasn’t it a little ridiculous to ignore options that were clearly there and blame others?
If it was something said out of anger because the game balance was a mess, I might understand a little, but even then, you should complain to the game company.
“Wow, do you really not feel anything at all?”
“Why are you being so stiff over a game?”
“A game is something you play with other people too. You should keep manners with each other!”
I had only turned things around on people who had nearly Karma Killed me. Challenging me like this without knowing the circumstances before and after was not a very well-mannered act either.
“Are you keeping manners with me?”
When I challenged her like that, the surrounding atmosphere froze coldly.
“Wow, Yang Pinpin is being nice, and he’s acting like that.”
“What confidence does he have when all of this is probably being recorded on stream?”
“Excuse me, this is being filmed, you know?”
The followers around Yang Pinpin glared at me with sharp eyes and argued.
“I know.”
“And you’re still acting like that?”
“If it’s not your business, why don’t you just go on your way?”
At that, the other players must have become angry too, because they immediately began acting.
[Another player has lowered your reputation!]
[Reputation decreased.]
The players whose reputation system had opened all began lowering my reputation wildly.
Since there were so many streamer followers, far more messages appeared than when the bastards trying to induce a Karma Kill had done it.
At this rate, it might take quite a while to recover my reputation again.
“Wow, seriously....... I was going to overlook the damage you caused people with fake hidden quest information unless it was too much. But you really won’t do.”
SLAAASH!
As my reputation plummeted like mad, Yang Pinpin, standing at the center, drew her weapon. They were dual swords that looked fairly high grade for the early game.
Yang Pinpin tilted the dual swords in her right hand toward me.
“If you’re that good at the game and that confident, fight me too. PVP.”
It was a PVP declaration.
“And if you lose to me, apologize for baiting people with the quest and attacking other players with PVP.”
“Ha.”
“Why? Are you not confident? Against a real expert?”
Yang Pinpin challenged me further in a bold voice.
Hm, to be honest.......
‘She doesn’t seem that strong.’
Between the amount of knowledge she had and the fact that she concluded my hidden route was a trap, her skill was not particularly good. I was confident I would win a hundred times if we fought a hundred times.
There was only one problem.
“Are you really sure?”
“About what?”
“You’re a streamer. If you lose, you’ll be humiliated.”
I would simply win in a game and be done with it, but my opponent might not be the same. If game streaming was her main job, this was a matter tied to her livelihood.
Still, wouldn’t it be right to give her one chance?
“Ha. Ha. Ha....... Hahaha, hahahaha......!”
“Puhaha!”
At that, Yang Pinpin laughed as if she found it unbelievable. And as if following her, Yang Pinpin’s followers burst into laughter too.
“Wow, he really is a crazy bastard.”
“Some nobody thinks he can challenge Yang Pinpin because he’s holding one piece of hidden information?”
“Yang Pinpin, who’s made it to the top four in the Streamer Cup?”
“Wow, this guy really lives without watching a single stream.”
“Insane. He’s insane.”
“Now, if he didn’t know, it’s time to teach him a lesson, right?”
Judging by her followers’ reactions, if she lost to me, the backlash really would be severe.
“You don’t seem like someone who needs to worry about that. Why? Are you afraid of losing?”
Perhaps not understanding my final warning, Yang Pinpin provoked me.
“I warned you.”
“Don’t run away and just accept the PVP!”
I had given her the last chance. Not running was that idiot Yang Pinpin’s choice.
And by default, I did not refuse PVP that came to me.
“I’m in PK Mode right now, so if you’re going to do it, attack however you like.”
“You won’t use hacks after agreeing to fight, will you?”
“Why would I use something like that? Everyone’s weak.”
“Really?”
She asked back once more with suspicious eyes.
“Let’s see if that’s true!”
THUMP!
Yang Pinpin kicked off the ground and rushed in. Attacking first without even checking my stance. She seemed to be quite the aggressive type.
WHOOSH!
The first attack was a downward strike from above. Considering her level, it was fairly fast.
But to me, it was ultimately slow enough to make me yawn.
CLANG!
I lightly knocked away the attack with a parry. Then,
WHOOOSH!
the sword Yang Pinpin was holding in her other hand suddenly rushed in, aiming for my chest.
‘Oh-ho.’
It was quite a decent movement. She induced a block, and even if the block succeeded, she immediately connected into a second attack.
It was a continuous attack method unique to classes using dual swords. If she attacked continuously like this, she would stab through the gaps between defenses and continuously drain HP.
However.
‘There’s more than enough opening to block the second attack too.’
WHOOSH, CLANG!
I swiftly moved my sword and knocked away the second thrust with another parry.
“Ugh?!”
When I neatly knocked away even the second attack with a parry, Yang Pinpin’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“No way!”
Then she gripped her dual swords in reverse and spun her body widely, unleashing a storm of consecutive slashes. Judging by the form, it resembled the skill [Cyclone], but.......
‘It isn’t a skill.’
We were both in a low-level section. No class could learn [Cyclone] yet. She was simply moving like a skill through her actions.
In that case,
‘it means I can counter it the same way.’
I began countering Yang Pinpin’s slashes that came rushing one after another.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLAAANG! CLANG!
Once, twice, three times, four times, five times.
The slashes rushing in like a storm were being neutralized not by parries this time, but by clashes.
‘Good, good, good......!’
The game was slowing little by little because there were many players, but I could block as much as I wanted. Every time I blocked, I felt my concentration hitting its stride.
‘This is enough to move into offense.’
I was still behind in level correction, but perhaps thanks to the Top-Grade Supply Sword, even when clashing at similar timing, I was not losing in judgment.
With this, unlike with KingdomOldHand, I could play more aggressively.
CLANG!
All that remained was the question of how long each of us could continue attacking.
However, both of us were low level. There was a limit to the stamina that allowed us to attack consecutively.
“Hh, huff......!”
Sure enough, I could see Yang Pinpin’s face gradually flushing red and her breathing growing ragged as she poured out slashes like a storm.
“Why, how, are you still......!”
Yang Pinpin muttered that as if she could not believe it.
It made some sense for her to wonder.
Yang Pinpin, who was attacking, and I, who was countering with parries. The amount of movement on both sides was almost similar.
On top of that, I was still level 1.
Judging by the fact that she proposed PVP, and that she had somehow opened it on her own, Yang Pinpin was probably higher level.
And considering the stat increases from levels, Yang Pinpin should have more stamina than me.
However.
CLAAANG!
“Huff, huff......!”
The longer the offense and defense continued, the more obvious Yang Pinpin’s exhaustion became, while I, receiving her attacks, remained composed.
This was another advantage of parrying.
If you succeeded in a parry, you could recover a certain amount of the stamina consumed for the parry.
Likewise, clashes could also recover a certain amount of resources like stamina.
And during our exchange, the one freely securing clashes and parries was me.
In other words.
CLAAAANG!
I, who had received attacks from the defensive side since the beginning, was taking the greater advantage.
“Hrrrgh......!”
In the end, the one whose stamina ran out first was Yang Pinpin.
Yang Pinpin could no longer maintain the spinning slash and roughly swung her swords with weakened hands to widen the distance.
Like that, our offense and defense entered a lull again.
“Wow, insane.......”
“Was that exchange real?”
“They barely have any skills, but the level is.......”
“What is this? It doesn’t even look like hacks.”
“Right, there’s no sign of that.”
When the sound of clashing swords died down, the voices of the surrounding gallery reached me. The jeers directed at me had stopped before I knew it, and admiration for the fight continued.
Were that streamer’s followers the kind of people who had played the game quite a bit? It did seem like they had fairly good eyes.
“But it was a similar exchange, so why is only Yang Pinpin out of breath......?”
“Stamina difference?”
“No, would there be a stamina difference between them?”
“You recover stamina if you block with a parry, don’t you?”
“Ah! Did he block that with parries?”
“The sound effect was a parry! He didn’t only clash!”
“And he recovered stamina with parries?”
“No, but right now, don’t you only recover stamina with Perfect? This is classic.......”
“Is that why the hack talk came out.......?”
“Considering that, his movements weren’t strange, were they?”
“What the hell is it? Some kind of skill?”
While the watching players murmured, a light skill effect flickered in my vision.
[You have been analyzed by a skill!]
It seemed someone had analyzed me.
[You have been analyzed by a skill!]
[You have been analyzed by a skill!]
[You have been analyzed by a skill!]
......And not just one person, but quite a few. With this many people around, there would naturally be many classes with the [Analyze] skill.
But well, it was not a situation where I would lose anything even if I was exposed.
After all, my level was still 1.
“This is insane.......”
“What......?”
“Level 1......?”
“That guy is matching Yang Pinpin while he’s level 1?”
The players who analyzed my level with skills could not hide their shock.
“What??”
“That person is level 1?”
“No, what kind of level 1 does that.......”
“Huh? He’s really level 1? How did he get to this supply base?”
“Isn’t there no way to get here while level 1?”
“Did he really break through with hacks?”
“What the hell.......”
While the surrounding players’ shock continued like that.
“......Just what are you hiding?”
Yang Pinpin, who had just recovered stamina, asked me after her breathing returned.
“There’s nothing to hide. I told you everything from the start.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I told you. If you kill the boss in the tutorial and come here, you end up like this.”
“Ugh, you’re still spreading that false information.......”
Judging by the onlookers’ reactions too, it seemed they did not believe at all in the hidden route where you came here at level 1, which I had told them about earlier.
When they left, they had at least pretended to believe it roughly....... Had something happened over the last hour that made them unable to believe me?
“You really know nothing about games.”
“What did you say?!”
Yang Pinpin shouted angrily.
“You really think old hands are a joke......! Now I seriously won’t go easy on you!”
“Do whatever you want.”
Neither of us had many skills, so the situation was not very interesting. Her skill seemed better than KingdomOldHand’s, but her progression somehow seemed worse.
‘Let’s end this quickly.’
This time, I decided to go on the offensive rather than receiving her from the front, and I advanced toward Yang Pinpin.
THUMP!
The moment our timing overlapped as we stepped toward each other.
VWOOOM!
A skill effect flickered near the players nearby.
‘That is......!’
It was not something like the analysis skills the nearby onlookers had used earlier.
SLAAASH!
A mana effect condensed into a sphere in the air. It was the magic skill learned at low levels, [Energy Bolt].
Someone seemed to have tried to interfere in the PVP and launch a coordinated attack.
PAAANG!
Before long, [Energy Bolt] was fired. Judging by the direction it was shot, the target was, of course, me.
‘One of her followers?’
They had deliberately intervened at this timing to help Yang Pinpin and were aiming at me.
‘Damn it!’
Normally, I could have dodged it lightly, but the timing of the shot was truly the worst.
I was already in the middle of moving after kicking off the ground.
In a VR game, movements that had already been made could not be forcibly canceled unless it was with a “skill.”
Therefore, the way to break through this crisis was.......
‘Counter it and continue into an attack.’
Knock away the [Energy Bolt] flying toward me, then immediately respond to Yang Pinpin’s attack again.
That was the only way.
‘Can I do it......?’
It was close, but it seemed possible. I focused as much as I could on both the incoming [Energy Bolt] and Yang Pinpin.
But right at that moment.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Other magic spheres began condensing above several nearby players. It seemed more bastards who intended to interfere and help Yang Pinpin had appeared.
It was not a big problem.
[Energy Bolts] fired later without misaligned timing were not especially frightening.
But the real problem was.
GRRK, GRRRK, GRRK─!
My VR capsule, which had already been slowing down repeatedly because of the number of players gathered nearby, suffered another delay now that magic skills had entered the mix.
I was in a situation where I had to counter both [Energy Bolt] and Yang Pinpin’s attack at precise timing.
This kind of processing delay, which made it hard to know the timing to counter the attacks, was fatal.
‘I’ll lose?’
Even if someone had interfered midway, losing against a player as unremarkable as that?
That would be a bit humiliating. I would have to try a little.
‘The methods I can use right now are.......’
How should I handle this crisis?
In that truly fleeting instant.
‘Ah.’
Fortunately, something flashed through my mind.
That was right. I still had,
‘one more weapon.’
If it was hard to counter them in succession, then I only had to counter them at the same time.
[Activating ‘Regenerated Requiem Sword’ from inventory!]
I immediately operated my inventory and took out the other weapon I had obtained from the quest.