[The finals for the individual matches will begin soon.]
"It looks like it is finally going to start."
I nodded to Kim Min-hyuk's words. I got up and stretched my body.
Unlike the main matches and semi-final matches, which took place through the evening, the final match took place after the suppertime.
Because of this, it was hard for me to wait.
I wanted to go get in the action right away, but it was to be held after the dinner time.
[Would you like to move to the arena?]
"I'll be back."
I was about to get on the stage, but Kim Min-hyuk grabbed me from the back. He whispered,
"Hey, I know what Big Bro Jong-shik said earlier, but you need keep it under reasonable extent. You must not destroy him too brutally."
"I got it."
Depending on how he does.
"Teleport."
[Please wait.]
Is it going to start when Lee Jun-suk also enters the arena?
As soon as I moved to the arena, even at a glance, I could see everyone's excitement and antic.i.p.ation for the match.
Almost all seats were completely full.
Actually, during the tournaments through yesterday and today, people were more focused on walking around to meet people or have conversations than watching the matches.
It was obvious. After all, they had been trapped in confining s.p.a.ces for dozens of days.
However, it seemed they all saw the message about the final match being held. Even the people who were playing outside the building came inside to see the match.
Thanks to all these people, I think the Order will be having an incredibly hard time since they love to check people's movements.
I can understand why Park Jung-ah couldn't even show the tip of her nose outside throughout yesterday and today when the tournament was being held.
However, if that's the case, why is Kim Min-hyuk sitting around there?
If he has nothing to do, he should go help Jung-ah a little.
[The match will begin in 180 seconds.]
Lee Jun-suk appeared on the arena.
He appears to be full of confidence.
Actually, I can see why he would be.
His blitz skills' performances were overwhelming in destructive power and speed. Against them, long-range fighters were not able to put up much fight.
Also, close range fighters were not even able to get close to him because they were blocked by his blitz field.
He could achieve flawless victories yawning if he just used the right skills at the right times.
He got up all the way here with such easy victories. I can see why he thinks he stands a chance against me.
"We meet at last."
"I see."
"I wanted to meet you at the final match, but if I knew I had to wait this long, I think it would had been better if we ran into each other during the preliminaries instead."
His att.i.tude is completely different from how it was when I met him last time during the day of the great harmony.
He is like a different person.
"Why? Were you bored?"
"Yes."
Lee Jun-suk relaxed his shoulder in an exaggerated motion and said,
"Honestly, it was not just a little disappointing. My body itched because I was forced to move my body to deal with small fry. It was no different from torture. Wasn't it like that for you too, Big Bro?"
It's a little different for me.
My body doesn't even itch from doing that.
"I'm not sure."
"Looks like I'll finally be able to demonstrate my real skills. Do you have any idea how much I had been waiting for this since yesterday? Ugh. I wish the people could just be rated based on their abilities by the system and the system could automatically disqualify anyone who are weak. It was just a waste of time."
It looks like you still have a very long way to go.
From him rambling about ranking people based on abilities, I could tell that he is still lacking in experience.
We are in a world where the opponents are wielding weapons and skills are used without any prior indications.
A step or two difference in abilities are meaningless in this place.
In this world, it does not matter who. As long as a blade is pierced through the neck, anyone could die just the same.
Could it be that he is thinking this place is like a game?
The main people of the Korean server, the Order of Vigilance included, were following the mood in the community and intentionally treating the world inside the Tutorial like being inside a video game.
NPC, player, cla.s.s, profession, rooting, farming… They borrowed terms from video games and encouraged such impressions.
They just wanted to help the newbies adjust to the environment more easily.
However, if a ranker like Lee Jun-suk is living in the Tutorial believing it is a video game, then that was a problem.
At the rate of growth that he has, I'm sure he has never had any serious danger since the early days.
It is not like I cannot understand that.
[The match will begin in 30 seconds.]
Lee Jun-suk continued to loudly babble on.
He bashed the opponents he met so far, saying that they were pathetically weak. He complained that the tournament was boring. Indirectly, he was boasting just how strong he was in comparison.
As I thought and as Park Jong-shik said, Lee Jun-suk was drunk on his own power.
I think it would be best to make him shut up.
What he was saying was being broadcasted to the entire audience in the arena building.
It seemed he was not even thinking about this. Perhaps he just didn't care if others who were weaker than him heard it. Anyway…
I brought out the Trans.m.u.table Thousand Arms from the inventory and formed a longsword.
That alone made Lee Jun-suk stop talking.
I think it would be definitely a good idea to crush him here once.
He is not just drunk on his own growth and power.
He is giving too much weight and value to strength.
He is thinking that those who are strong should be obviously respected and those who are weak should be patronized and trivialized.
He is a.s.serting his views onto the people.
It was not my job to correct his way of thinking.
That was Park Jong-shik's job.
My job was, before Park Jong-shik lulls the man after this, firmly stepping on him once.
"Big Bro Jong-shik said this."
Slowly, I spoke.
I was speaking slowly, but clearly.
When I was a professional gamer, I remember going up against new players who were on the stage for the first time.
I relaxed my right hand that was holding the long sword.
I completely relaxed my arm.
With the tip of the fingers, I grabbed the handle of the sword and swung it forward and backwards.
I swung it like a bag of groceries.
The new players were usually the same when it came to their conditions during their stage debut.
Extreme excitement and nervousness.
Once they stepped on the stage, all the practice and advice from the coaching staffs went down the drain.
They moved like stupid robots following the scenarios that they became accustomed to.
They never came prepared with a gamble.
It was a debut stage. No player ever brought a move that bet it all on luck. No coach advised people to do that either.
So, it was so simple to fight newbies like that.
First, draw the opponent's attention.
"Of all Hard Difficulty challengers, you are…"
I picked a line that would make Lee Jun-suk react to.
It seemed like Lee Jun-suk found satisfaction in constantly comparing himself to others and putting himself above others.
In that case, Korean server's Hard Difficulty, the place that he belongs and where all of his compet.i.tors are, would be the one that would matter the most to him.
A newbie player whose vision had narrowed due to excitement and nervousness falls for an unexpected attempt at drawing attention.
They are taught not to fall for this, but they don't remember. What they do know regarding this won't come to their minds either.
They just focus on that trivial attempt at drawing their attention.
[The match will begin.]
If I succeeded in drawing his attention, then…
Cheese rush.
After I said "you are," at an odd timing, the message appeared to signal the start of the match.
It is obvious.
I had been counting the remaining time mentally as I said those words.
Lee Jun-suk is so focused on what I'm going to say next. His response is slow.
The longsword was swinging from my fingers like a swing set. The sword was tossed toward Lee Jun-suk's face in a fluid motion.
It was flying through the air like how a longsword should.
The swinging motion of the long sword, the line I recited just before and up to the start of the match, and the match time counting were all executed perfectly.
It was a small accomplishment, but I felt pretty good about this. It was like brewing tea perfectly by timing it to perfection.
It was a surprise attack, but the longsword was flying toward him slowly. There was no way that Lee Jun-suk would not be able to stop it.
He was a breath too slow. No, he was half a breath slower, but he will stop it.
So, what I should do next is charging forward.
I charged in like an arrow that was just launched from the bow and grabbed the handle of the longsword midair.
Lee Jun-suk just brought out a spear from the inventory to block the long sword. I swung my sword at him.
Kang!
Our weapons clashed.
Although I didn't put much strength into the strike, his spear was pushed way down.
As this case demonstrated, one's stance is important.
With his spear lowered, Lee Jun-suk's face was defenselessly exposed. I headb.u.t.ted him.
This is the end.
It was the end when the cheese rush succeeded.
Newbie players never expect that the opponent would use extreme tactics from the start.
Although they obviously could use such, the newbie players are convinced that their opponents would never use them.
It is the power of the prejudiced thinking.
They probably won't, right? A veteran at the top won't go for an all-in tactic at the start of the game against some newbie, right? The newbies think like this.
Lee Jun-suk is thinking the same.
He was thinking that I would never do this.
Would I suddenly drop the conversation and throw a surprise attack as soon as the start message comes up?
Newbies who are stabbed in their weak point like this try hard afterwards to put out the fire.
After that, with the game's lead handed to the opponents, they are dragged around by the collar and lose.
After the headb.u.t.t, Lee Jun-suk's head rapidly bobbed backwards.
This rascal is closing his eyes.
He is focused on long-range attacks. Is he lacking in close-range experience because of this?
I placed my hand at his chest. I put weight on my hand and pushed him to the back of the arena.
Lee Jun-suk took a step back and held on so he won't fall. However, he just ended up moving to the perfect position for me to attack.
He was still defenseless. I kicked his knee.
I didn't hear any bone-cracking noise, but I am sure that I dislocated his knee.
Lee Jun-suk fell down, but it seemed he still used a skill. A lightning sphere was formed midair.
Lee Jun-suk didn't even recover his sight yet. There is no way I would get hit.
I dodged his blind attacks and positioned myself behind Lee Jun-suk.
He was still defenseless. I struck his back with the handle of the long sword.
Enduring the pain, he reactively turned around and tried to use the same skill again.
Of course, I could watch him do all that slowly. When he turned around, at the right timing, I kicked him right in the pit of the stomach.
He rolled and rolled towards the edge of the arena.
I think that should do it.
"Jun-suk."
"Kuhek. Kek."
He sounded like a typical individual who just got struck at the pit of the stomach.
"You lost, right?"
"Kek. Uuhek."
He was still almost but not quite throwing up, so there was no response.
It meant he didn't receive enough of a beating.
I should give him a stronger beating and then ask again.
Lee Jun-suk diligently resisted.
Unlike the beginning, where I just shook him while grabbing him by the collar, I gave him chances to counter attack. This was why he could.
However, his range attacks were blocked by the Talaria's Wings. As for the blitz field which usually prevented the opponent from approaching, I ignored it and charged in. Lee Jun-suk didn't have any way of fighting me.
Despite this, Lee Jun-suk tried all sorts of methods to turn the tide of the match. However, in the end, they were all for naught.
"… I lost. I surrender."
In the end, he lay on the ground with all of his arms and legs fully stretched out and declared surrender.
[Congratulations. You won the individual part of the tournament.]
[As the reward, you acquired 7800 points.]
[G.o.d of Adventure is overjoyed.]
[G.o.d of Slowness is watching you.]
[G.o.d of Duel is intrigued to watch you.]
[G.o.d of Death is disappointed.]
[G.o.d of Goodwill is feeling bad about someone.]
[You acquired a mysterious medicine. Please check your inventory.]
The congratulatory message was brief. However, my view was filled with messages about the G.o.ds' responses.
Unlike when I won the tournament last time, the G.o.d of Duel, G.o.d of Death and G.o.d of Goodwill were all present.
Who is G.o.d of Goodwill feeling bad about this time?
I wonder why that G.o.d is always feeling bad about someone?
I checked all of the messages and looked at Lee Jun-suk.
Unlike the usual, the loser was not sent to the spectator seats. Instead, he remained at the arena.
It's probably because the loser is also getting rewards for being the runner-up.
"Jun-suk, you still have a long way to go, right?"
"… Yes."
His voice was lacking sincerity.
Still, the att.i.tude is not bad considering that it's his first beating in a while.
At the very end, I gave him opportunities to put up proper resistance using all of his strength. Despite that, he lost. Is that why his tone of voice sounds despondent?
"Jun-suk, if this was a real battle, then you would have died when you got headb.u.t.ted in the beginning. Also, that was something that anyone could have done. I didn't even use any skill. I didn't use much more strength in particular either. I could have done that much even when I just cleared the First Floor. Actually, the end result would have been similar if you fought the version of me from that time."
Ah, of course, the version of me from that time would not have beaten the c.r.a.p out of someone without an ounce of hesitation like this. Anyway…
I lowered my back and used my sleeve to wipe off the blood from his face. I continued.
"The battle is not decided by the power of skills alone, especially against opponents like you who completely let go of their minds and are completely careless. You see that, right?"
Lee Jun-suk nodded as if he just chewed on something unpleasant.
The sides of his cheeks were swelled up, so he actually did look like he was chewing on something.
"Jun-suk, you still have a long way to go. Try harder and be more careful. You can't afford to die so easily and pointlessly, right?"
"Okay…"
I think that should do it.
Park Jong-shik will console him and talk to him about the rest.
I thought I lulled him pretty well. I looked at the spectator seats.
I am not expecting praises, but I think they will tell me that I did pretty well.
However, the look on Kim Min-hyuk and Park Jong-shik's faces were not very good.
[TL: This section is in Park Jung-ah's perspective.]
It seemed our visitor was feeling a little anxious about the situation. The visitor was shaking a little. To calm the visitor, I asked Lee Yuu-jung to get us some tea.
Lee Yuu-jung was sitting next to me. She brought out the utensils for the tea and started to boil water.
I was thinking perhaps we should bring out some snacks and fruits as well, but a message came.
"Please wait for a bit."
I asked for understanding from the visitor and then checked the message.
It was from Kim Min-hyuk.
He was asking how the conversation went with the person who came to report crimes.
[Park Jung-ah, 44th Floor: Yes, we are going to start talking about it now. There aren't any problems at the arena, right?]
[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: Nothing big. Your boyfriend is beating Lee Jun-suk to pulp, and that is a problem, but…]
There was a pretty serious problem.
[Park Jung-ah, 44th Floor: Can you stop them?]
[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: How are we supposed to stop someone who is on the arena? Also, it seems he must be thinking that he is going easy on Lee Jun-suk's discipline. It is just that, that Ho-jae rascal's standard is too tough, so…]
[Park Jung-ah, 44th Floor: Just how bad is it?]
[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: The spectators left the seats, saying they could not bear to watch it anymore. That bad.]
It was a serious problem.
[Park Jung-ah, 44th Floor: Were there any movements from anyone? Complaints from the j.a.panese people perhaps?]
If the people from the j.a.panese server saw this and judged that it was excessively cruel, then it would become a serious problem.
It is an act that the Order of Vigilance forbid, yet the Order committed the act.
[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: Fortunately, there hasn't been any. That lunatic… Ho-jae b.a.s.t.a.r.d is beating the c.r.a.p out of the kid, but instead, they were saying advisory stuff like focus, watch the steps, skill distribution order is wrong, and the movement is too big. So, instead of thinking that he was attacking with malicious intent, they think he is just insane. Lee Jun-suk is not surrendering and foolishly hanging on too. It would be easier if he just surrendered quickly, but that guy's head is not right either.]
It worked out well. It was not a big problem.
[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: Ah, also, Lee Hyung-jin said he wants to help you guys.]
[Park Jung-ah, 44th Floor: Lee Hyung-jin, one of the h.e.l.l Difficulty challengers? Why all of the sudden? I remember him being not all that interested in the Order's business?]
[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: Ho-jae won't be partic.i.p.ating in the group round. So, it looks like he was going to give lessons to Lee Hyung-jin whenever he finds the time. I think Lee Hyung-jin is scared of this and trying to make a run to your side.]
[Park Jung-ah, 44th Floor: I see. Please tell him no.]