Hero, Arise!
"Hah… hah… Cleared it…!"
"Ooooooh…."
I gave Lee Yebin a round of applause, and the second she heard it she started snapping at me.
"Hey! Get in here right now!"
"Don't wanna."
"You lunatic…!"
"Fine, fine, I'm coming in."
I spun up a multiplayer room and immediately sent Yebin the invite code.
She joined the second she got it, and the very first thing out of her mouth was a question.
"What the hell is that weapon."
"It's called a blade. Only veterans get to use it."
"Why can't I use it?"
"You haven't unlocked it yet, sweethear~t. Clear enough content and you can. So get grinding."
"Son of a…!"
Yebin was fuming, but there was nothing I could do about it.
The game hands you three starter weapons and only lets you equip the rest once you've unlocked them.
"Alright, we're starting."
"Okey."
Our first dungeon run together. And inside it, Yebin said something surprisingly sharp.
"Hey, these things feel a little tankier than before."
"They scale up a bit when you add more players. Would be boring if the monsters stayed the same durability with extra people."
"Okay, fair."
Sefirot really does balance difficulty by bumping monster specs as the player count goes up.
Of course it isn't a straight x2 or x3 multiplier per person, so having more players still makes things easier overall.
-Bababababam!
-Babababababam!
-Shraaaak!
While Yebin was frantically stabbing monsters with her daggers, I was casually mowing everything down with the blade.
"Why is your range so huge? Okay, I seriously want a blade too."
"Unlock it later and use it then. And daggers are good, you know."
"No they're not. These suck. I'm switching to blade later."
She wanted to use the blade? Yebin?
"You won't even be able to use it properly."
"I know how to use it, okay?"
"You have to dodge dangerous patterns with the brief invincibility frames you get every time you switch modes, and pick the right weapon mode for the situation. And you're telling me you can do that?"
"I can too!"
The more she insisted, the more my urge to mess with her grew.
"Aww, our little Bini can do it~"
"Ugh… I said I can! Are you seriously looking down on me that much!?"
"Your gaming skill is absolutely something I'm allowed to look down on. That's my final verdict."
"AAAAAGH! I hate you so much!!"
Hate me so much? And what exactly was she going to do about it?
Even while we bickered back and forth, I diligently wiped out the monsters, then decided to drag Yebin to the next map.
"We're going left."
"You're trying to trick me again. That's the path with two mid-bosses. Do we really have to go there?"
Sharp instincts. But this wasn't a trick — I was being completely sincere.
"Bini-bini, mid-bosses drop better loot. That's just how it is."
"But they're hard."
"Hard? With me here?"
Yebin shut her mouth for a second at that.
And then….
"You're right and it pisses me off so much."
She unloaded every vicious line she had.
I shrugged at the chat's reaction and said to Yebin,
"Just hop on the bus. I'll carry you."
"You said it."
With that, Yebin followed me down the path I'd chosen, and from there the two of us kept getting stronger — upgrading weapons, buying items, stacking enhancements as we went.
Then we ran into the first boss: a leopard-looking monster. The distinctive part was….
"Is that a ninja?"
"Yep. Ninja."
A ninja.
One of the mid-bosses she might have run into earlier if she hadn't rage-quit and quit out.
"The patterns aren't that hard, right?"
"Not really. Especially easy if you're on a high-mobility weapon like daggers."
"If things get dicey, just parry. You can parry its stuff too."
Daggers are defined by their speed and their parry.
Yeah — parry. The thing some games call parrying.
Deflecting an enemy's attack and turning it into a counter.
That's where the dagger's real merit comes from, but….
"I've never used parrying before…."
Yebin was saying something weird.
"You've never used parry?"
"Nope. I've never done parrying."
Whether she'd genuinely never parried in Sefirot or not, she was using the more common gaming term — parrying — instead.
Fine, I'd call it parrying too. Not like that was the important part.
Come to think of it, I really had never once seen her use a parry.
"Then why are you even using daggers."
"Because they're fast!"
"If that's your only reason, just use sword-and-board."
"Isn't sword-and-board clunky?"
"It's pretty quick, actually. It's got dash attacks too."
The second she heard that, Yebin clamped her mouth shut, and then….
"Why are you only telling me this now!"
Suddenly it was all my fault.
Even the viewers were siding against me.
"This is a scam! A scam!"
"Scam? I didn't do anything wrong?"
"It's your fault anyway! Your fault!!"
As Yebin screeched and pinned everything on me, I spoke from the heart.
"Bini-bini, look at my cute little rabbit character. Looking into those soft, pure little eyes — and you can still say that?"
"The rabbit is cute. You're not. I'm cuter than you."
The second I heard that, I decided to just agree.
"Yeah. You're cute."
"…… What?"
The chat's reaction. Yeah. This was exactly it.
Buildup complete. Time to launch.
"If by 'cute' you mean something that makes you furious and gets under your skin in the worst way possible, then yes."
Yebin caught on instantly.
"You mean disgusting."
"Of course, yeah."
"You bastard."
Judging by how the chat reacted to that one line from Yebin, her cute image really must have been what kept her afloat.
And even that image was in shambles now.
Still, it was kind of amazing. How were the viewers still sticking around? Once the cute image was completely wrecked, shouldn't more people have left?
Of course, I already knew the answer. Yebin's real streaming weapon wasn't cuteness — it was her excellent banter, her solid hit feedback, and those pure gremlin gamer movements of hers.
That stuff hit the audience even harder.
"Yeah, I was wondering why you agreed so easily."
"Want me to agree for real?"
"No. If you did I'd get full-body goosebumps."
"Right? You should be thanking me."
"You maniac."
That conversation wrapped, and we jumped straight into the mid-boss fight.
The mid-boss threw out all kinds of patterns.
Clones, shuriken, rapid dash attacks.
I handled them the textbook way — eating one with invincibility frames here, dodging and tapping it for chip damage there.
And Yebin was….
"Kyaah! Kyaaaah! KYAAAAAAAH! Help me! Help meeeee!!"
Screaming for her life right out of the gate.
"Just try sticking behind me."
"I don't knooow! This thing is way too faaast!!"
It was fast, sure — but it telegraphed every attack path. Just dodge reasonably.
I was about to say that, but Yebin had already tanked every single shuriken.
-Babababam! Bababam!
-Bam!!
"KYAAAAAH!"
The rabbit Yebin was controlling flopped flat on its back, and all I could do was let out a long sigh.
"Aigoo, Bini-bini… If you keep this up, I'm basically the one playing the penalty game."
"Uuuuuugh…!"
While she stewed in frustration, I ran over and revived her once.
As long as I stayed alive, I could keep bringing her back anyway.
But then….
"Eekyaah!"
"Mom!?"
"How do I dooodge!"
"I parrie— why isn't it woooorking!!!"
She was dying in every variety imaginable.
I revived her four more times and she died all four. What exactly did she want me to do?
I was seriously in full log-carry mode when Yebin made a request.
"Hey, Dodo. I'm at my limit… just beat it for me…."
…….
Don't wanna?
I ran over and woke Yebin back up.
"Hero, arise!"
"I don't wanna get uuup!"
And so, every time Yebin went down, I dodged the attack patterns and kept bringing her back. The result:
-Babababam! Shraak!
-KABOOOOOM!!!
I finally managed to set her up for the last hit.
"NIIIIICE! KYAAAAAAAH!"
Yebin screamed with pure joy.
"…… I have been… white-hot burned out."
And I quietly typed GG in my head.
This was seriously exhausting.