A Playground for Monsters
Encouraged by Carbanog's heartwarming consolation, Tae-hyun found his strength again. That's right! I just need to spread more plagues in the Demon Realm, seize more castles, and blow up more demons!
The system messages weren't over yet. They kept popping up one after another.
The Demon Realm was truly a land of opportunity. Tae-hyun had no choice but to admit it. It's such an easy place to level up...!
Carbanog asks if you would like to just live here permanently.
Well, I would have lived here if the guys who call themselves kings around here weren't all trying to kill me.
The Demon Realm had one fatal flaw: every single demon absolutely detested Tae-hyun.
Hmm. Anyway, I managed to drag myself up to level 182. Reaching 200 before the Arena League is out of the question, but I should be more than grateful for this.
The Arena League was now just around the corner. Hosted directly by Pan-On, it was a league of elite rankers where only the most thoroughly vetted teams from around the world competed.
The previous Arena Tournament hosted by a Korean broadcasting station had garnered explosive popularity, despite being a domestic-only event. The executives of the broadcasting station who organized it had even received massive promotions because of it! Such was the power of Pan-On, which was taking the world by storm.
In any case, because of that first tournament, the developers at Pan-On had learned several valuable lessons while preparing for the official Arena League. As a result, the detailed rules of the Arena League had undergone significant changes.
"First of all, we must provide Arena Teleport Scrolls to all participating players, including the substitutes on the roster."
"Agreed. Otherwise, too many rankers will suffer collateral damage, and some might even drop out of the tournament entirely."
"What about the logout penalty rule?"
"We can't change that, can we? It's a fundamental rule of Pan-On."
Once a player was forced to log out, they couldn't log back in for several days. Pan-On wasn't a game built piece-by-piece by human developers; it was a world generated by an AI they had constructed. To modify anything within Pan-On, they had to logically persuade the AI, asking questions like, 'Isn't this part flawed?'
There was a limit to what the developers could touch. Rules regarding logouts were things the AI utterly refused to listen to.
"But isn't it too risky if players can't participate?"
"But isn't that a risk present in real-world sports as well? That's why we have substitutes. Personal management is also a player's responsibility. If we postpone the tournament every time a player is missing, the schedule will fall into complete chaos."
"What if we ban PK among the participating players?"
"That's highly unrealistic. Do you know how many rankers are in Pan-On? To prevent them from clashing at all..."
"Mmm, but letting things play out like they did in the Korean tournament is a bit..."
The employees recalled that bizarre, unprecedented match. Tae-hyun had attacked and eliminated an opposing player right before the match even started!
"..."
"Well... personal management is the player's responsibility, after all!"
"Exactly! Hahaha!"
Unable to find a perfect solution, the employees simply glossed over it. It couldn't be helped. If you were a ranker, you had to look out for your own life!
"We have the substitutes... the teams are all set... I'm really looking forward to this."
"Team Leader, you're a fan of Team KL, aren't you?"
"Ahem. I am a fan, but I remain completely unbiased."
"Oh, please. I'm a Team KL fan too."
Warm glances, shared only among fans of the same team, passed between them.
"Hahaha. I'm a fan of the Shanghai Pandas."
"..."
"..."
A fleeting look of pity, reserved only for fans of weak teams, quickly swept across the room.
Stung by the silence, the team leader who spoke up blurted out, "Hey, the Shanghai Pandas are a strong team too!"
"We didn't say anything..."
"They even recruited the High Paladin, Gonzalez! They might lack a bit of name value, but they're a powerhouse!"
"Sure, sure. The Shanghai Pandas are a great team."
"Y-yes, I saw an article about them. 'How can the Shanghai Pandas become a top-tier team?' When you look into it, they really do seem like a good team..."
As the other team leaders patted him on the back consolingly, the Shanghai Pandas fan only grew sadder. Don't pity me...! It only makes it worse!
"S-still, you never know until the lid is opened."
"Though we can already guess the outcome..."
"Ah, shut up. What if he cries?"
You never know until the lid is opened. It was a fair point. The league hadn't started yet. However, the media and fans were already predicting the strong and weak teams, and these predictions were bound to be highly accurate.
Tae-hyun's Team KL was currently pouring all their energy into quests, acting as if practice matches were some foreign concept they'd never heard of. In contrast, other gaming organizations had been actively playing scrims against each other before the league's official start.
For these organizations, it was a golden opportunity to advertise themselves and capture the public's attention, so there was no reason not to do it. Plus, it served as excellent practice.
The problem was that even in these practice matches, there were clear winners and losers.
Before the league started, every organization naturally thought, Heh, our team is going to dominate, but once the matches began, reality set in. And the Shanghai Pandas...
They had lost every single practice match!
Winning every match was difficult, but losing every single one was an equally impressive feat. Furthermore, thanks to a massive influx of Chinese capital, the Shanghai Pandas enjoyed some of the most lavish support among all gaming organizations. Even the parent company's high-level executives were keeping a close eye on them, making the shock of their consecutive losses even more devastating. Rumor had it that several executives had already been fired...
"But still, everyone knows the Shanghai Pandas!"
"Exactly! Brand recognition is what matters most!"
...Just stop comforting me...!
The Shanghai Pandas fan had to swallow his tears. From now on, he would just pretend to be a fan of another team!
"You don't have to worry too much. Scrims are completely different from the actual league matches."
When the oldest team leader offered this comfort, the Shanghai Pandas fan perked up.
"R-really?"
"Of course. I'm a baseball fan, and if practice match results determined the season, my team would have won the championship ten times over by now."
"...Ah, right."
The veteran team leader's words carried a strange, convincing weight.
"Besides, why do you think we worked so hard to draft these Arena rules? Wasn't it to prevent a single team from completely dominating and to keep the league highly competitive?"
If one team dominated, their fans would be thrilled, but it was terrible news for everyone else. A tight, suspenseful race that kept viewers on the edge of their seats from autumn all the way to the end of winter—that was what Pan-On wanted. And the team that needed to be kept in check the most to achieve this balance was none other than Team KL.
In fact, the Pan-On staff had already analyzed Team KL as a separate, special entity.
-If we go with these rules, Team KL might just run away with the whole thing...
-Can't we just give them some handicaps?
-Mr. Choi. Would you mind stepping outside for a moment?
-Sigh. I'll be quiet.
As a result, the following rules were established:
◈ Diverse Maps & Victory Conditions: Matches will feature various objectives, such as territory capture on some maps, object retrieval on others, etc.
◈ Resurrection Allowed: Players can resurrect upon death during matches.
◈ Kill Buffs: Eliminating opponents grants cumulative bonus buffs.
◈ Dynamic Level Scaling: The previous rule fixing levels to 100 and forcing stat adjustments is abolished. Stats will now be adjusted dynamically based on the average level ratio of the participants.
◈ Equipment Restrictions Lifted: All equipment limitations are removed.
The tournament in Korea had forced everyone to level 100 and divided their total stats equally. Everyone fought with the exact same stats and the exact same items!
However, the Pan-On developers believed this method had two major flaws:
1. Players with insane mechanical control, like Tae-hyun, dominated too easily. When it became a pure test of control, there was almost no way to keep them in check.
2. It stripped away the players' individuality. A player's gear was a core part of their identity, and because their stats were so heavily reduced, many of their high-tier skills were locked away.
Thus, the developers lifted the equipment restrictions. Some argued that this would make the game pay-to-win, favoring those with better gear, but at the ranker level, everyone's equipment was already top-tier and highly optimized. If anything, this change would provide a way to keep Team KL in check. Players could now counter them by equipping gear specialized in physical defense or bomb resistance.
Countering through diverse strategies! The developers were highly satisfied with this approach.
However, they were overlooking one crucial detail: Tae-hyun could also bring his own gear!
They had mindlessly assumed that Tae-hyun would bring normally "good" gear, just like any other ranker.
"Phew. I think we designed these rules incredibly well."
"Especially the level scaling. It's brilliant."
The fixed Level 100 rule was gone. Instead, the system would calculate the average level of the participating players and apply buffs or debuffs accordingly. For instance, if the average level was 200, a level 180 player would receive a slight buff, while a level 220 player would receive a slight debuff. This allowed rankers to play exactly as they usually did, showcasing high-level skill clashes while providing various ways to keep mechanically gifted players like Kim Tae-hyun in check!
"I think that's enough for today. Shall we wrap it up?"
"To the Arena League!"
"To the Arena League!"
"Shall we place a bet on who will take first place? The loser works this weekend."
When someone made the joke, the Shanghai Pandas fan was the first to speak up.
"Put me down for Team KL."
"..."
"..."
"Team Leader Wang..."
"Hey, bets should be made rationally! My heart belongs to the Shanghai Pandas, but my brain knows better!"
These rules actually favor high-level players over low-level ones, Tae-hyun analyzed after reviewing the Arena League rules.
Although low-level players received buffs and high-level players received debuffs based on the average level, rankers weren't the type of players to simply gain 5 stats per level and call it a day. They were monsters who would do absolutely anything to squeeze out extra stats! Naturally, higher-level players had accumulated far more stats through various means, so even with a slight debuff to match the average, they were bound to have an advantage.
To put it simply, if a level 1 player had a total stat sum of 5, and a level 3 player had a total stat sum of 15... even if the average was set to level 2, the ratio would end up around 7.5 to 10. Of course, the system wouldn't calculate it that crudely, but being higher level was undeniably advantageous.
In truth, Tae-hyun had no complaints about this rule. After all, being a higher level meant you had put in the effort to grow. It was only natural for the well-nurtured character to be stronger.
The real question was how to fight against those monsters.
Cain and Choi Sang-yun won't fall behind other rankers in terms of level or stats, but I'm worried about Lee Da-bi. I hope she can make up for it with her skills and class...
Tae-hyun was unconsciously overlooking one major detail: his own stats!
Because he was so busy worrying about the high stats of other rankers, he completely forgot that he was the one who would be receiving the low-level buffs in this tournament.
Tae-hyun was a player who habitually overcame level gaps using stats he had raised through skills and hidden quests. He was a freak of nature whose Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Wisdom had all surpassed 1,000!
Typically, rankers who focused heavily on one or two stats would have their primary stats exceed 2,000, so Tae-hyun might lag behind in a direct, single-stat comparison. However, when looking at his total stat sum, he absolutely dominated them. On top of that, he possessed an overwhelming Luck stat that constantly hindered his leveling speed but granted absurd benefits.
It was not the time for Tae-hyun to worry about other rankers coming out in their perfect conditions. It was the other rankers who needed to worry about Tae-hyun.