Hello There
Well, that seal held up beautifully, didn't it.
Baekseol's spear punched clean through Choco's body. Choco twisted her half-frozen frame as far as it would go and struck back, but there was simply nothing left in her arms to swing with.
Crazy…
Where Baekseol charged like a runaway freight train, Choco was already thinking about the next round. If she burned herself out the way she had at the Mock Siege Battle, the damage might prove catastrophic. In the end, the choice Choco made was surrender. Losing the way she had in her debut match was something she'd rather die than endure again — but a championship? That was worth giving up this round for.
WAAAAAAAH!!
"…And the match is over! The winner is WoW!"
"No real upsets in this one. WoW overpowered CO to force a one-on-one situation! A very different picture from the last round, wouldn't you say?"
"Absolutely! Whereas the first round was a real slugfest, this one felt less like a team fight and more like a captains' duel from start to finish. What's your read on it, commentator Crack?"
"…I would have to say she was stronger than the Baekseol I usually watch. Considerably so, in fact. Her ice was never that solid before."
"That's certainly true. Baekseol has always specialized in debuffs and offense rather than defense."
The pros are all rankers. And among them, Baekseol and Choco stood close to the very peak — beings beyond the heavens. On a regular open field rather than a pro tournament, either one could win a hundred-versus-one fight, never mind five-versus-one. Even though pro matches were balanced with considerable care, the nature of an MMORPG meant perfect parity was impossible.
And yet this pro showdown had been praised as near-flawlessly balanced — a genuine golden balance.
The problem was that some rankers' skills had been rising at a staggering pace lately.
Nobody knew that better than Crack, Rank 6, and he nodded slowly.
"A fourfold enhancement buff from four overlapping magic circles. Because of it, she concentrated her defense purely into walls of ice instead of protective shields, and blocked most of the incoming attacks… or so one would say. The fact that she took not so much as a scratch is what puzzles me."
"A puzzle, you say?"
"I suspect it is simply another card up her sleeve."
Just like Rater, who had unveiled a hidden technique in Round 1.
"Baekseol's hand turned bone-white and froze solid at the very end. I suspect that is a side effect of mastering a new ability. A 'Penalty' for wielding such power."
"Powerful abilities do come with penalties, don't they. The classic example being Leo, yes?"
"Exactly. Her very personality was rendered childlike through her race change. Beyond her, countless rankers carry their own special penalties."
This game was unfair even as it searched for fairness.
One person held power enough to overturn a nation — and became a little girl for it. Another became the one and only champion nobody could surpass — and was eventually devoured by the very sword she mastered, falling to ruin.
Granted, some might argue the price was light compared to the power gained. But then again—
That's just how this world has always been.
Balance had never existed here to begin with. From the very start, it was a world that birthed monsters by the thousands who tore open the heavens and crushed mountains without paying a single price. Turning it into a game couldn't change that foundation.
That said, it wasn't as though the balance system had simply failed to work. Right up through Round 1, the fight had stayed genuinely even, and the techniques Choco used weren't game-breaking by any means. The trouble began the moment Baekseol released the 'limit' the system had imposed.
The line the system draws.
A powerful law: skills may be used only as skills, while all other applications of mana or special abilities are restricted. That was why users had always been confined to techniques within their limits — everyone, that is, until I came along.
Until I started broadcasting those lectures.
Wait a second.
"Then… is this my fault?"
"Ehba… sorry, what?"
"Baekseol getting that strong. I think it's because of me."
I had taught a whole range of ways to wield mana through my lectures. Someone who'd only caught the broadcast without attending a live session would have picked up just the basics of mana control — but for someone with real talent, that alone was enough to awaken something. Unlike the old days when you had to build everything from the ground up, these people already had more than enough power to work with. Yena stared at me as if her brain had completely crashed, then her eyes lit up in an instant.
"Whoa."
"…All that happened is that a talented person's flower finally bloomed. This one's on the system."
Yeah, good job sealing that away. Who told you to seal it so carelessly?
The debt I'm owed for everything that bastard put me through is still stacked sky-high. It worked me like a mule for thirty years and then, after my return, tossed me a measly twenty million won. If my body were still the same in the real world, I'd be storming Neutri Company headquarters this very minute.
"…That said, what she did is genuinely dangerous."
"Baekseol, you mean?"
"Yes. Pushing herself like that will bleed into reality. It has to."
The system drew that boundary not because users were supposed to be weak. It was a 'safety line' built so their souls could endure. Within it, users could use their abilities without restriction or interference — and the penalty was the price of stepping past that line and claiming greater power. Of course, even that price sat within yet another safety net of its own. But when someone like Baekseol tore free of the net from the inside, the strain reached into reality itself.
Yena shuddered, as if remembering the pain of that day.
"Ugh. That one hurts."
"It's the kind of pain that makes you want to stop existing. But it absolutely will not kill you."
"…You sound awfully sure about that?"
"I'd hardly be the one using it if I didn't know."
Pain that shreds the soul is my specialty. I've experienced my soul being torn into tens of thousands of strands. Compared to that, this much is a rounding error.
"Anyway, I've been wondering about something."
"What would that be?"
"The team brawl had no time limit, right? So if both sides just stand off against each other forever, does the match never end?"
Baekseol unleashing beyond-limit power had been the surprise, but setting that aside, CO had no real reason to advance into enemy territory. WoW was desperate for the win, sure — but nothing obliged CO to yield ground.
"Aigoo~" Yena shook her head and took a long slurp from the drink resting in her armrest's cup holder. "Pros don't stand around staring at each other for eternity. Obviously they fight, and after a while the map starts shrinking."
"The map does?"
"Yep. And here's the thing — the field WoW laid down can move too."
So the map shrinks as time passes. But WoW's magic field could be repositioned, and so could the walls of ice. In the end, being 'forced' closer after time ran out and closing the distance right away made no practical difference — so CO chose the latter. WoW simply held the favorable matchup from the start. Nothing to be done about it.
It might look invincible, but that's just a matter of shifting your frame of reference.
If Choco had shattered her own limits the same way, consequences be damned — or had been an even stronger ranker from the start.
Leo would have flipped those magic circles with a flick of her earth spirits. Before losing her sword, Sword God would have cleaved straight through that wall of ice without breaking stride.
And me? I'd have flattened the whole magic circle while it was still being drawn.
In the face of overwhelming power, there's nothing to be done.
The Round 3 match that followed the break was the deathmatch. With all communication severed, one player from each team was dropped into a random location every five minutes. Each fighter got two lives, and the last team standing won. Everyone expected them to pick the relay battle, but Choco chose the deathmatch — and won by an overwhelming margin.
"Round 3 goes to CO! Once again, no dramatic twists to speak of."
"Indeed. In particular, Baekseol barely featured, moving as though she were conceding the round on purpose."
"It appears the 'Penalty' she suffered last round hasn't fully recovered. Health, mana, and cooldowns reset between rounds, but a Penalty is its own independent debuff."
Just as Leo's 'personality' never recovered even with treatment, Baekseol moved as though half-frozen — sluggish, dull — and simply handed the round over.
The score now stood at 1 to 2. CO needed only one more round to take the match, and the right to choose the next game passed back to WoW.
The game they'd pick was…
"They won't pick it, will they?"
"You're saying they lose if they pick the relay battle."
Only two options remained: the Boss Annihilation and the relay battle. One was pure luck; the other favored CO by a country mile. The gap was even more brutal than the one in the team brawl they'd lost so decisively.
Fourteen matches. Two wins. Twelve losses.
That was CO's record in relay battles. The reason for such a lopsided gap was simple: unlike Rounds 1 and 2, where you could 'prepare' before the match even began, a one-on-one duel happened face to face at arm's length. No preparation possible. An unprepared mage does not beat a battlemage, a gunner, or a spearman. Even Baekseol, matched against Choco in a pure one-on-one, loses nine times out of ten.
"WoW has elected to play the Boss Annihilation."
So in the end, they had to gamble everything on luck. After that, they'd have to claw their strength back somehow and push past the 'limit' one more time in the duel against Choco.
That was WoW's winning strategy.
"WoW has chosen the Boss Annihilation! The first team to take down the summoned boss claims victory!"
The two teams were moved to separate maps.
"What do you think will show up?"
"Hard to say… it's a mode you almost never see. And with pro players this strong now, who knows what it'll generate…"
"Still, I'd guess a low-grade World Boss at most, right?"
That was Yena's take, and I was nodding along — until my head turned on its own.
Low-grade World Boss?
I only know of one.
"…Hold on."
"What is it?"
"This is that place."
The village looked familiar. A tidily kept, deeply gloomy village with a formation of crimson hexography drawn across its grounds. And then, over the broadcast, it wasn't the commentators' voices that rang out, but the voice of the system itself.
All designated players' stats will be aggregated to generate the most suitable monster.
The boss of this match is…
Before the players with their weapons raised, a small girl made her appearance. Neatly dressed, carrying a grimoire of crimson-soaked curse magic in her hands.
LV. 110 — Hungry Mimic (?? ????)
LV. 110 — Hungry Mimic (?? ????) has appeared. Hello there?