That Day (4)

……

I ran Arena for as long as time allowed. The competition had clearly leveled up — the preliminaries really were winding down. Everyone who'd signed up just for fun had probably already been weeded out. You couldn't survive at this stage unless you were dead serious about the game.

This phase had barely a day left, and the next one would be the final round of the second preliminaries. The number of eliminations was overwhelming, as if the organizers were determined to leave only the real contenders. Spectating would unlock after that, too… though I doubted that had anything to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠do with me.

From the final phase onward, the games were going to be genuinely high-level. Which was another way of saying that, for now, things still felt a little lacking. The opponents I'd faced today weren't bad, exactly. They had the fundamentals down, and each of them had some kind of strength. But compared to pro-level play, they were still a long way off.

Which meant I'd enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Opponents skilled enough that stomping them didn't leave me with any guilt — and a gap wide enough that any stunt I pulled was fair game. Those conditions collided with the turbulence in my mood, and the trolling got a little… excessive.

"Pffft…"

Honestly, what was I supposed to do? It was funny. Personally, hanging the archer off the side of the ship had been the highlight. I'd worried she might just forfeit and leave, but apparently she'd been just as curious about my antics. I dunked her in the ocean dozens of times, and she stayed until she died.

The silver lining was that most of them had been foreigners. Their nationalities barely overlapped, so they'd probably just write it off as running into one weird girl and move on. Skill grows through getting hit, after all. It would've been a good experience for them.

Anyway, my body wasn't in great shape anymore — PvP was out of the question. My head felt hot and dizzy; I probably had a slight fever. Against the kind of people I'd been matching with, maybe. Against a pro, I couldn't guarantee the outcome. My score was already safely in the clear, so I decided to kill time with the lifestyle content I'd been putting off. When your body hurts, you have to let yourself rest like this.

As if on cue, good ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠news found me. I pulled up the stream on my screen, and the corners of my mouth curled up on their own. Luce was so good about streaming consistently — I loved that about her. I hunted streamers often enough, sure, but that didn't mean I didn't watch streams. If anything, I watched a lot of them. Solo gaming got lonelier than you'd expect.

As long as Infinity Black was an RPG, leveling and basic resource farming never stopped. I mostly hunted alone, and grinding the same routes couldn't always be fun. When I started craving the presence of other people, I'd put on a stream like this.

"You're asking how I think Arena will go? Hmm, well."

"Winning… of course I want to win. My goal is the championship, so please keep watching."

"The odds? Mmm, it's a tough goal, which just makes achieving it more rewarding, right?"

"The Paladin buffs came through, so I'm feeling pretty hopeful."

Luce, now live, was dismantling her opponents even more smoothly than before. Early in Arena, her matchmaking luck had been terrible, and Paladins had been in a deep slump back then. With the buff patch live, she was stacking wins like she'd grown wings. The skill gap against every opponent she drew was obvious. Before, she'd had to overturn unfavorable matchups. Now the games were completely one-sided. Even Luce seemed a little flustered — she hadn't expected it to be this good.

"The guard gauge really is a lot sturdier now. At this rate, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠might be able to drop a few defensive traits?"

"A nerf?! Until yesterday this class was in the dark ages."

"Who would I want to face in the group stage if I make it to the main tournament? Hmm, I'd be happy as long as I avoid my own teammates."

"Ah… a rematch. Yeah. I'd definitely want to take that opportunity if I got it."

Luce's voice dropped a little. Last year, Luce and Sigma e-Sports had been crushed by a European pro team in the international tournament. It had been a complete defeat — no real resistance to speak of — and their season had ended in the round of sixteen. What made it even more devastating for domestic league fans was that her performance that year had been a career high for the Korean league.

The Korean Infinity Black league simply couldn't hold its own on the international stage. Plenty of people had tried to analyze why. Pro teams were going in the wrong direction. The overheated siege meta was the problem. The Assassin line was too thin. The absolute player population was just too small. I didn't know what the real cause was either, but one thing was certain: it still hadn't been fixed.

"The Arena survivor list just went up? Well, yeah — the top ranks are basically locked in at this point."

"Want to take a quick look, then? I'm curious who I might end up facing, too."

"The compiled link is… ah, here it is."

Luce stopped queuing. Even if she kept playing, the content of the matches wouldn't change. In the final phase, win points would become meaningless anyway, and her score wasn't anywhere near the danger zone. Continuing to play right now would just be a giant stepping on bugs.

Before long, the stream switched screens. The familiar site banner belonged to the most popular strategy site in the country. The post listed every pro gamer, famous streamer, and Korean player who had secured a safe spot in Arena. Starting from the top, Luce slowly shared her thoughts on each player.

"A lot of familiar nicknames here."

"I think a pro gamer is going to win Arena in the end… yeah, I feel roughly the same way."

"The practice volume alone is different. The quality of internal coaching and analysis will be different, too."

"But I don't think a pro is guaranteed to win. You never know what kind of dark horse might show up."

"Isn't that the charm of eSports? You can never predict it for sure."

She'd probably only say nice things about everyone. Luce was pretty careful about how she treated other people. It wasn't like she was trash-talking ahead of a match — badmouthing other players off the record would only land her in controversy. So I didn't care much about her evaluations of the pros. To me, pro gamers were just opponents with a good feel to them. Nothing more, nothing less.

The reason I kept listening anyway… was because if she kept scrolling like that, my nickname would come up any second now. My favorite mentioning my nickname! That electric little thrill of anticipation.

And then, as the scroll continued, the characters for Gawol appeared on screen. I turned up the stream volume.

"Gawol is on the list, too. And she's ranked pretty high."

"That's impressive. Among domestic amateurs, there really aren't many people left."

"I can see what Traveler meant. She must be really strong in one-on-ones."

"Come to think of it, she still hasn't accepted Traveler's friend request, right?"

"Maybe she just doesn't like him personally?"

My head tilted to the side as I listened. Traveler had sent me a friend request? What was she talking about?