The Trap-Laden Map and the PK Feast

Explanation? 'Didn't he clearly say he was my brother?' But a girl? Something felt off. On top of that, Ha-im had said her older brother was a Returnee. Everything was a giant question mark.

'…Whatever. Let's not overthink it.' It was better to just let this kind of thing slide. Everyone had their own circumstances, and worrying about it wouldn't do any good anyway.

I turned on the stream. In less than a minute, ten thousand viewers flooded in. The number kept skyrocketing until it broke through twenty thousand. 'Whoa….' This had never happened before. Even when I'd collabed with famous celebrities, I'd barely scraped past twenty thousand, but now the viewer count was closing in on thirty thousand.

Rona immediately switched into full broadcast mode.

"Hello, everyone in the RoguDan fandom! As promised beforehand, we've brought on a very special guest today!"

"Alright, let's give them a big round of applause!"

When the camera swung toward the guest, they shyly greeted everyone through the chat.

"Hello. I'm GochuWangYiHa-im, here to clear up the hacking controversy. Please keep calling me Chuwang like usual."

"Okay everyone, from today onward, no more calling them a cheater! This is the moment that title gets stripped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠away! So please head over to the PVP arena."

Just as we were about to move to the PVP arena, an unexpected reply popped up.

"Can we do PK in the field instead? I feel like farming some rice."

"PK?"

Everyone stared at me like I was crazy. Why? Isn't rice farming something you do every day? If you don't, you lose out on rice.

"Hold on a second. This wasn't in the plan, so let me ask the other participants."

Rona asked the RoguDan members she'd pre-recruited, and fortunately the answer that came back was positive.

"They've accepted, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠there's a condition."

"A condition?"

It was embarrassing to say this out loud, but I had no choice.

"Um, yeah. If it's really a hack, they want the ring you took from them back."

"You… don't have to accept if you don't want to, sis."

Seong-a thought about it for a long time. The ring. It hadn't been sold yet, so I could return it, but giving it away for free felt wrong. I should set my own condition.

"Then I'll add a condition too. If I win, tell them to hand over their end-game accessories."

"…They've sent a message saying they accept."

Nice. With that, I could spend on gacha in another game.

"Alright, viewers, please warp over here."

Five characters warped in and appeared before us.

'One warrior, two rogues, two martial artists….'

I'd expected them to all roll the PVP-broken rogue class, but this was a surprisingly fair lineup. This should be doable.

The five users greeted us, and one of them turned on their mic.

"Bro, are you actually a girl?"

'……?'

Everyone was looking at me. They were clearly talking about me. I let out a sigh and reluctantly turned on my mic.

"Yes. Nice to meet you."

Along with the flood of comments praising the voice, the RoguDan members who'd come to spectate all wore shocked expressions. Come on, have you people never seen a female PK player before?

"Alright, where should we set the map?"

"I'm feeling lazy, so I'd like to just use this map. Any objections?"

"Then we'll go with this map. Everyone please move to your assigned positions."

We each moved to our designated spots. I went to the tallest clock tower, while the viewers headed to the massive mansion. The RoguDan members turned on their mics and discussed strategy.

"What are we doing, guys?"

"First, we have to be careful about getting picked off one by one."

"I agree. I've had accessories stolen by that person before. Their magician damage is no joke."

As long as they avoided getting split up, their superior numbers gave them the advantage. With two of the PVP-broken rogue class, there was no way they could lose.

Rona announced the start of the game through chat, and both sides prepared to move.

Boom!

"……!"

The moment the rogue at the front took a single step, a magic circle lit up brightly on the ground and a massive explosion erupted. A notification appeared.

From the top of the tower, I could see the village burning fiercely below.

"They fell for it already."

Today's fortune was a great blessing, so of course my luck was better than usual. 'Are they stupid? Accepting right away like that?' I'd already tested the map during the broadcast prep and planted trap spells and crowd control everywhere. On top of that, rogues were known as glass-cannon classes just like magicians, so even one solid hit could be fatal.

I'd already taken out one of the broken rogue classes, so only four remained.

I quickly checked the shared chat window. Among the viewers, opinions were split on whether this counted as cheating. It didn't matter. My creed was to use every means available to win.

The RoguDan members stood back-to-back and refused to move. Of course they wouldn't. In a situation where they didn't know where the traps were, they couldn't risk moving carelessly.

'But if they don't move, I have no choice but to take that as an invitation to attack, right?'

I immediately fired off Skill: Meteor. When the RoguDan ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠members saw the meteors falling from the sky, they scattered to avoid them. I couldn't miss this chance.

Skill: Mist. This skill normally only lowered a monster's accuracy, so it wasn't used much in real fights. But against regular players, it applied a blindness debuff. I'd picked it up specifically for that.

A thick fog covered the entire map. The RoguDan members panicked and scrambled to find each other, but unfortunately they only ended up drifting further apart.

All preparations were complete. Time to start the hunt.

Lee Ho-seong, a RoguDan member who had successfully joined the spectating party, was incredibly frustrated.

"Fuck, I can't see shit…!"

The fog made it impossible to see anything in front of him. No matter how hard he tried to find his teammates, they were nowhere to be seen.

'If I'd known this would happen, I would've brought a debuff removal skill.'

"Where is everyone? Let's share our locations."

"I'm on the west side of the village."

"I'm on the east side of the village."

They each called out their positions, but the fog made the map useless and they couldn't even see the position of the sun. It was driving him insane.

'Huh? That's…'

A human-shaped shadow appeared through the fog. Teammate? Or enemy?

Two seconds later, three fireballs came flying at him.

'It's the enemy!'

Lee Ho-seong activated Skill: High-Speed Movement to dodge the attack and quickly closed in on the opponent.

'This is too easy…?'

He could already picture the countless viewers praising him as a hero.

Skill: Poison Stab

He activated the skill and attacked with a poison-coated dagger.

"……!"

But what the hell? The enemy vanished right before his eyes.

"What? The skill definitely hit, and again…!"

A lightning chain flew in from the rooftop of a nearby building. He dodged it lightly with a movement skill again and activated another attack. But just like before, the enemy had disappeared and the skill missed completely.

He understood that it had to be some kind of skill, but he had no idea what it was.

"Hah, you wanna go? Fine…?"

Lee Ho-seong was confident. He was a rogue—the ultimate PVP broken class. There was no way he would lose to a mere magician.

He kept going. Whenever the enemy's attack came, he would dodge with a movement skill and counter. But as time passed, cold sweat began to drip down his back. His movement skills were running out.

"Where the hell are you…!"

Now he only had one movement skill left, and the rest were all on cooldown. This was his last chance.

"There…!"

A shadow appeared right in front of him. He didn't know what trick they'd used, but he had to catch them now.

Skill: Ambush

This skill instantly teleported behind a monster or player. It was the number one reason rogues were called the ultimate PVP broken class.

"Found you!"

This time the enemy didn't disappear like the others. He quickly stabbed his dagger toward their neck.

"……."

"…Why isn't this moving?"

Something was wrong. His body wouldn't move. He could kill the enemy right in front of him with the slightest movement, but he couldn't even twitch.

"…Puhahaha!!!"

"……?"

The cheater in front of him turned on their mic and burst out laughing. Had they developed schizophrenia or something?

"How do you attack an illusion clone? You're so fucking stupid."

"Shut up…!"

Being mocked like this hurt his pride. He'd gone easy because they were a girl, but clearly she didn't know the meaning of fear.

"Why don't you look down?"

"……!"

Thick, overgrown vines had wrapped around his body. The classic crowd control.

"How did you know I'd use Ambush…!"

Ambush was a skill that attacked from behind. So the enemy must have predicted his final Ambush, lured him in, and planted crowd control behind him. That made sense.

"Simple. I know every single rogue skill."

Skill: Volcano

"……!"

A red magic circle formed beneath him, and flames erupted upward.

In the end, unlike his own delusions, Lee Ho-seong met his demise with his entire body burned to ash.

Unlike the ones who had gotten separated, some of the spectators had managed to meet up.

"We meet here, huh."

"What a pleasant surprise."

The two martial artists shook hands and quickly became friendly. Meeting in a situation like this was definitely a welcome event.

"You saw the notification earlier, right?"

"Yeah, both the rogues ended up…."

Two of the PVP-broken rogue class had already been taken out. They couldn't let their guard down anymore.

Step. Step.

Footsteps approached. The two immediately got into combat stance. Enemy? Or ally?

What emerged from the fog was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠none other than their teammate, the warrior. Only then did the two relax their expressions and let go of their tension.

"Nice to see you. Now there's no way we can lose."

"Exactly."

With two martial artists—the easy-to-play, close-combat broken class—and an all-rounder warrior who excelled in every category, this was an unbeatable combination.

"By the way, where is that person?"

"Right? Maybe they got scared and hid?"

While the two martial artists looked around, the warrior suddenly activated a knockback skill from his greatsword.

Skill: Gust Wind

"What the…!"

"Warrior, what are you doing!"

The two martial artists, caught off guard by the sudden knockback, were pushed away from the warrior and unfortunately stepped on traps.

Boom! Boom!

Fortunately, since they weren't glass cannons like rogues or magicians, they survived.

The warrior canceled their transformation and returned to their original appearance. The warrior's true identity was none other than GochuWangYiHa-im, who had used Skill: Doppelganger to disguise themselves.

'Tsk, they're martial artists so they didn't die in one hit.'

I slowly approached them from between the two. When the two martial artists came at me with confident expressions and activated their skills at the same time, I used the skill I'd prepared.

Skill: Trick

A square cube appeared in my hand and covered the entire area. It was a magician's only movement skill, which swapped the positions of a designated enemy and ally.

It happened right as the trap magic was about to activate beneath my feet. As a result…

Boom! Boom!

The positions of the two martial artists and GochuWangYiHa-im were swapped, and the trap magic activated, causing a massive explosion.

The two martial artists were dead. Now only one enemy remained—the warrior.