Enjoying the Show?
Enjoying the Show?
Whether a demon resurrected and ran amok.
Whether every official type was on edge because of Lemegeton, or someone kept dropping by to see Yor—whatever.
Time marched on absolutely. No matter how hard life got, tomorrow's sun still rose.
And so time kept flowing, and more than two months had already slipped by.
Going by [Demon's Saga]'s launch date, it had been almost a full year.
And just as games usually dropped a big patch for their first anniversary, this one put something out too.
A game that normally didn't even bother with patches had suddenly posted patch notes.
And not just any notes—exceptionally long ones packed with new content.
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[Ver 02. Patch Notes]
Seere's resurrection, and Otherworlders joining Lemegeton.
As a result, tensions between Otherworlders and the people of Gaia have been escalating lately.
Widespread indiscriminate brawling is causing mounting damage on top of that. Not only property destruction, but the unease among Gaia's people is piercing the heavens.
We are therefore introducing one countermeasure.
GM Gaia has worked tirelessly and succeeded in partially manifesting the Otherworlders' authorities.
Allow us to present a new structure: the 'Arena'.
Henceforth, should unavoidable conflict arise, we ask that you settle it here.
1. Arena entry tickets can be easily obtained from the 'Otherworld Shop'.
2. The same Arena is accessible to Gaia's inhabitants as well.
3. Should a Gaia inhabitant die in the Arena, they can resurrect with a minor penalty, just like Otherworlders.
4. The Arena has various rules. Firstly...
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It was PvP content, plain and simple.
And PvP where even NPCs could join in.
No, since they weren't players, maybe you'd call it mixed PvE.
Anyway, it was a pretty damn solid patch.
Who'd have thought they'd literally build a place to fight just because players kept brawling?
Well, to be fair, the fighting really had gotten excessive.
Otherworlders fought Otherworlders, and Otherworlders and NPCs were all dying to tear each other apart.
The conflict had only gotten worse since Seere descended.
Because a considerable number of Otherworlders had gone over to the Lemegeton faction.
To the NPCs, Lemegeton was a continental enemy linked to their very survival.
But Otherworlders were joining the Cult just because Seere was handsome or because they were curious about a choice option... so from their standpoint, it could hardly sit well.
As a result, NPC hatred for Otherworlders was piercing the heavens. Naturally, innocent players who hadn't joined Lemegeton were left feeling unfairly wronged.
And so, whenever they met, they fought.
Because of that, not a single tavern in [Demon's Saga] had stayed intact lately.
Rumor had it the tavern keepers were shedding tears over it... still, I never imagined they'd go so far as to make this.
Even the Arena entry method was dead simple.
They said you just tore the ticket.
Naturally, for such a game-changing update, the boards were in absolute chaos.
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[oh so this game does patch...?]
nah i mean it's a game so i guess it figures
but the devs act like they don't give a shit about players so i thought patches weren't a thing
so they were actually paying attention to the game...
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[thank you always]
[why would they listen to players? nothing can replace this game lol]
[yup~ if you don't like it you're the ones who have to quit~]
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[genuinely curious about something]
why the hell do these bastards always go full drama mode every time they put up a notice
authorities, people of Gaia... sounds like a total weeb who's way too deep into the game;
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[it's their concept]
[if even that bothers you how do you live in the real world]
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[so when's the arena opening?]
i fucking love dueling so i used to pick fights in taverns all the time but now i don't have to, right? so now we can have life-or-death manly battles in the arena? kkkkkk
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[why the hell were you picking fights you crazy bitch]
[life-or-death manly battle (assimilation rate 15%)]
[↳ utter trash-tier lololol]
[↳ then just strap on a dick already lol]
[when's it opening? starting today lmao]
[↳ fr?]
[↳ i'm at the alhez plateau right now and there's some colosseum i've never seen before—i think that's the arena yeah]
[↳ oh it's there too? i'm at tus plains and there's something similar here]
[↳ patching first, announcing later damn]
[↳ holy shit this company updates first and drops the notice later lmaooo]
The community was incredibly noisy.
With new content out, it was practically a festival atmosphere.
A few quick-footed people had already tried out the Arena and were posting their impressions. That there was a ton to configure, that the duel types were highly varied, and so on.
Still, the majority of reactions were pretty positive.
"Mm-hmm."
Chae-rin nodded as she read.
Honestly, she didn't care much about the Arena. With how busy she was levelling up, there was no need to pick a fight with another person.
Of course, as a streamer, she did have the thought that it'd make for good content later. But that was a problem for a later date.
Right now, there was something far more important.
She grinned to herself, thinking,
'I've got more to talk about.'
Meaning she'd just gotten another story to spin for Yor!
She'd been running low on things to talk about with how often she visited lately, and the game had practically handed her fresh material.
Sure, it was a story that had nothing to do with him, but he liked hearing about how the world was turning.
'I'll head over first thing tomorrow.'
She settled on it with a broad smile.
Without the faintest clue what she'd see first thing in the morning.
Before sleep, she glanced briefly at the night sky. There was no moon hanging up there.
In other words, it was the new moon.
*
It had already been two months since the Holy Water drought began.
And during those two months, I'd been forced to confront a shocking reality.
The fact that I was completely out of Holy Water.
And today, of all days, was the day Berserk A erupted.
What did that mean?
Shuk—! Shushuk—! Cr-crack—!
"Nngh...!"
It meant I was carving up my own body for the first time in months.
I used the dagger in my hand to slice open my left shoulder.
Blood spurted from the gaping wound like a fountain. A searing, burning pain came with it. I grimaced at the sight.
'Goddamn, the timing is such fucking bullshit...'
Lately, Berserk A had been triggering back-to-back, and my Holy Water had run low. Of course the moment it was completely empty, A just had to trigger again.
Maybe because it had been so long since I'd felt this pain, it felt harder to endure than usual.
Naturally, just because it was hard to bear didn't mean the berserk state would kindly ease the pain for me.
The world, by its nature, simply moved on regardless of my wishes.
Therefore, I had only one option.
Just endure tonight and pray for the pain to end. No matter how crushing it was, I had no choice.
Of course, the option of surrendering my body to the demon did exist... but I forcibly erased that one from the list.
The fate of those who turned into Demonkin was too obvious to need spelling out.
So I crawled deep into the cave and writhed on the dirt floor.
"Guhh, ngh. Hhhgh..."
Bones compressed and skin lifted. Each time, an agony too hard to put into words hounded me.
I kept working the dagger, bleeding out the rampaging blood.
The thought that always came to me at times like this was that I wished someone were beside me.
It didn't matter who. They didn't even need to help. Just being there would've been enough.
Because enduring this viscous stretch of time alone was, however I looked at it, too much.
Lying sick and alone in this endlessly dark cave, I sometimes felt as if I'd been left utterly abandoned in the world. Then useless dread would wash over me.
Of course, it was a ridiculous wish.
Revealing the berserk state was tricky to begin with, and it wasn't a spectacle meant to be shown to anyone anyway.
But regardless, time passed.
"Huff... huff..."
After enduring a long while, I finally felt the blood settling down.
The long night was over, and morning had come at last.
I glanced around for a moment. It was a blood-soaked scene that felt like I hadn't seen it in ages.
The floor was awash with red blood, and naturally, my body was drenched crimson too, as if I'd showered in it. A sticky, clammy sensation clung all over me.
They said blood normally smelled like iron, but only up to a point.
Once it passed a certain threshold, all that was left was a rank, repulsive stench of gore.
I forced my heavy body upright and headed out of the cave.
I wanted to see sunlight first. Cleaning up, as always, got shoved to the back burner.
As I made my way out, a host of negative thoughts surfaced.
'How long do I have to keep doing this?'
That was the first one that came to mind. Sure, I'd survived this month's pain, but this wasn't the last berserk state of my life.
Next month too, next year too, maybe even decades later. I'd have to endure this agony month after month.
If there were a definitive way to stop the berserk state, that'd be great, but I wasn't even sure if such a thing existed.
Thinking about that exhausted me, inevitably. Was a life like this even worth living...?
Usually, I tried my best not to think about it, but I was human too. At times like this, thoughts like that surfaced on their own.
A person's mind, after all, tended to follow their physical condition to some degree.
"Hah..."
Whatever the case, it was a truly shitty morning for the first time in a while.
Maybe because it was the first Berserk A I'd felt in months, the shittiness felt doubled.
Irritation rose on its own, and pointless annoyance surged up.
In that state, I stepped outside. And there, I ran into one person.
A regular who'd been visiting my place often lately. Yoo Chae-rin.
"Uh, uhh...?"
The moment she saw me, her face hardened severely.
Thud.
Her main weapon dropped from her hand. That was how startled she was—enough to drop what she was holding.
Because right now, I was caked in blood.
"Uh, what is this..."
Normally, I would've greeted her warmly, but at the moment I was in a seriously foul mood.
So the words that left my mouth came out somewhat impulsive and sharp.
"What're you looking at, got an eyeful, the fuck? Blood-drenched person that fascinating to you?"
...After I said it, I felt a little sorry.