8. Ghost Dance.
8. Ghost Dance.
***
"......I'm not a cheater."
At Han Serin's words, which seemed to speak carefully on her own behalf, Hana snapped back to her senses and, for a moment, tried to collect her emotions.
'Calm down... I need to stay calm.'
Hana carefully steadied her breathing and began quickly sorting through her thoughts.
First of all, she was live right now. It still hadn't been definitively proven that this user called Rin was a cheater, and if it ever came out later that she had shown an attitude of wrongly accusing someone, she could end up taking all the fallout for having gone after the user called Rin.
On top of that, Another World's company was strict about security, and the fact that this person was openly connected to the game right now meant she had to seriously consider the possibility that they weren't a cheater at all.
Just from the hologram window rising far too quickly at the edge of her vision, she could tell without even checking chat that things had blown up.
'Right. You always have to be careful in streaming. There's a reason people say one mistake can take you down in an instant.'
Honestly, because of the chats the user called "Rin" had sent earlier, she had already privately written them off as a toxic viewer.
But with that unusual appearance and even the cautious way they spoke, there was something about the user called Rin that made it hard to simply dismiss them as a "cheater."
"Ah, ahem. Ahem!"
After clearing her throat for a moment and steadying her emotions, Hana carefully opened her mouth again.
"Um, 'Rin'?"
Han Serin simply stared blankly at Hana without any particular response to being addressed.
Had the word "cheater" upset them? Their expression seemed faintly stiff, and Hana felt an anxious, burning impatience for no good reason.
"If what I said a moment ago... upset you, I apologize. So, with that said, do you happen to know that a video related to you, Rin, is currently a hot topic on major communities and NewTube?"
"If it's that, isn't it the video of me catching an outlaw called '...JustDieThen'?"
Han Serin couldn't bring herself to say the first part of the username, so she glossed over it. What kind of username was "AhFuckJustDieThen"? She wondered if this game didn't even do basic censorship like that.
Seeing Han Serin's reaction, Hana thought, 'So they do know about it,' and spoke again.
"Yes, that's right. In that video, the control you showed, Rin, and the way you dodged projectiles—um, it was too... uh, how should I put it. Oh, right! It was so amazing that everyone is misunderstanding the situation right now."
Hana couldn't bring herself to say to their face that the dodging looked "too much like a cheater," so she hedged. But Han Serin picked up on the meaning behind Hana's words.
Still, seeing Hana making an effort to talk with her, Han Serin gave a small nod and looked at Hana as if to say, go on.
"Looking at you now, Rin, I get the feeling you're not a user who uses cheats... So even if you hear what I say next, I hope you won't get too upset or misunderstand! Is that okay so far?"
"Yes... well, I actually wanted to prove I'm not a cheater too. Please continue."
When the user called Rin, who had only been nodding along, answered with a slightly more relaxed expression, Hana's face brightened considerably. She swallowed and began speaking again.
"Th-then, I'm really just asking to confirm, so please don't misunderstand, Rin. You didn't use so-called 'cheats' or an 'unauthorized program'—what we saw in that video really is your 'skill,' correct?"
"Yes. That's right."
An immediate answer without a moment's hesitation.
At that, Hana briefly thought, 'Could they really not be a cheater?'
But only for a moment, and then she continued speaking.
"Is there a decisive reason someone with such incredible skill hasn't played Arena? Or if you'd done PVE parties, I feel like you would've become pretty famous."
What Hana asked was a truly fundamental question, and the most crucial one.
Setting aside whether that unbelievably outstanding skill was real, how had someone with such a striking appearance not become famous?
Unlike the immediate answer to the previous question, Han Serin hesitated for a few seconds this time, then answered after a brief deliberation.
"...I just liked hunting monsters alone."
Honestly, even as she said it, she wondered if she herself would believe that.
But since that was actually the truth, there really wasn't... anything else to say.
Even in the world of Black Ark, she had been someone who did nothing but slaughter monsters day in and day out.
And hadn't she just started this game today? So being asked why she hadn't become famous before now—no matter how she thought about it, there was no good answer.
"Ah, oh, I see."
As expected, Hana replied with a dumbfounded expression.
No matter how you looked at it, she didn't seem to believe it.
'...Well, whatever happens, happens.'
Even if it was a cheat verification, it would probably just be live PVP, and no matter what happened there, she was confident she could prove her skill.
Even if her words sounded a little strange, proving it through skill would be enough—that was what Han Serin thought.
"Hmm..."
Hana agonized over whether to believe it or not, then finally asked the easiest question.
Somehow this had turned from a place for dealing with a toxic viewer or doing Arena into a place for interviewing the user called Rin. But it didn't matter.
The viewers would be curious about the same things she was curious about.
"Um, 'Rin,' what's your Arena Tier? You said you don't play Arena, but you can tell me your previous season's Tier too!"
If their Tier was high, she could honestly understand all of it.
"It says I have no Arena record, so I don't have a Tier at all. No previous season Tier either."
Another immediate answer. It was as if they had anticipated her question.
Hana blinked with a dumb expression, taking in the user called Rin.
Looking again, the silver-haired female character was customized so well that she wanted to ask how they did it.
'Right. They're not a cheater. They never play Arena PVP at all, and they just hunted monsters alone the whole time.'
But in the video, they had so easily subdued a PK user notorious as an outlaw.
They had landed four consecutive parries, something even top-tier players struggled to time.
Even her own brother, "StopDyingSoMuch," who was definitely a ranker in Another World, couldn't hide his admiration the first time he saw the video.
And after rewatching the video countless times, because he had never once heard of or met them, her brother had essentially concluded that the user called "Rin" was a cheater.
'So... you expect me to believe this?'
Even so, Hana couldn't bring herself to voice the countless doubts she held inside.
The confident attitude of the user called Rin, the immediate answers—all of it combined to keep her from making an easy judgment.
'Ugh... I don't know. I don't know.'
She was even starting to wonder what kind of chats were flooding up at the edge of her vision right now.
As Hana sank into thought like that and silence settled over the space, Han Serin eventually spoke first.
"Hana? So aren't you going to do Arena with me?"
"Suddenly... Ah, Arena?"
Startled by Han Serin's sudden address, Hana snapped out of her reverie and asked back with a blank expression, as if wondering what she meant.
"What do you mean, suddenly? Wasn't the reason you invited me in the first place to do Arena with me? You said you wanted to see my skill."
"W-well, yes. You, um... typed in chat so... roughly."
Hana looked at Han Serin with eyes that asked whether she had any guilty conscience about the chat, but Han Serin didn't seem bothered in the slightest.
"The fastest way to prove I'm not a cheater is for you to experience it yourself, Hana."
"...Okay."
Nodding blankly, Hana barely even knew what she was answering.
Her head was just so jumbled that she was answering on autopilot.
Ding!
An icon of two crossed swords appeared at the edge of her vision, and Hana accepted the duel request from the user named Han Serin.
......
Fiddling with her hands, Han Serin was lightly reacquainting herself with the sensations of her body.
Familiar, yet still a little unfamiliar—that was how it felt.
Before filling her stomach with delivery food, she had spent about five hours slaughtering monsters and had come to know the skills her character possessed.
And even those skills were practically identical to the world of Black Ark. The Crescent-Moon Weight techniques were all ones she already knew.
And then there was Hana, who kept swinging her twin swords as if testing the waters.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
She simply swung her Crescent-Moon Weight and lightly deflected them.
Judging by that suspicious look, Hana still seemed to suspect her of cheating.
From the Q&A just now, she honestly thought even she would have felt the same way.
Which was why she needed to show her real "skill" now.
An overwhelming victory that crushed the opponent with raw power—if she showed something like that, it would obviously just invite more suspicion of cheating.
So instead. The sight of her wielding technique, the true weapon.
Showing that.
Finishing the thought, Han Serin let out a small smirk and took one step forward, twisting the trajectory of her Crescent-Moon Weight as it traced through the air.
"Huh?"
Hana let out a startled sound at the sudden movement and swung her twin swords at empty air.
Watching that, Han Serin stepped back again and pulled on her right arm.
At that, the golden cord connecting her right arm to the Crescent-Moon Weight pulled taut and began wrapping around Hana’s right arm.
As Hana belatedly tried to pull her arm free, Han Serin kicked off the ground and leaped backward with force.
"Ah?!"
The bound arm was naturally dragged along, and the woman called Hana tumbled to the floor.
As Hana's face flushed and she tried to get up immediately, Han Serin pulled the cord wrapped around her right arm even harder and soon used a skill.
Definitely far too familiar. Yet a skill that felt unfamiliar in this virtual-reality character's body.
—Ghost Dance.
Moving in perfect rhythm with her will, she began taking light step after light step, tracing graceful patterns through the space around her.
A red energy, clearly different from her memories, bloomed from her toes as she unfolded the skill at a very slow speed.
Not with overwhelming power, but showing her skill through technique alone.
Which was why she didn't unleash the skill with killing intent.
Soon the red energy spread along the connected golden cord, and at its end, the Crescent-Moon Weight began to tremble faintly.
And then, through the arm bound by the golden cord, the woman called Hana began to move in a strange form, like a marionette dancing.
Even as she watched it, Han Serin found herself thinking, 'Can it actually be used like this?'
Deliberately using a skill that was originally meant to kill the opponent at reduced strength gave it a strange feel.
"Uwah, ah? S-stop. R-Rin?!"
Ignoring Hana’s voice, she continued moving slowly in every direction, tracing graceful patterns through the arena.
The skill called Ghost Dance, true to its name, was originally a fairly brutal technique that involved moving rapidly in all directions while swinging the Crescent-Moon Weight quickly, shredding the target opponent.
But right now, she was using that skill infinitely slowly.
Firmly controlling her body, which unconsciously wanted to execute the skill quickly, she moved only according to her will.
"Please stop!! Stop it!! Uwah, ah? I'm really, really scared!!"
She moved slowly, dancing as if embroidering the space on all sides. At the sound of a scream, she stopped in place.
Had she unconsciously been too focused? Only then did she take another look at the woman called Hana.
"...Um, Hana?"
Seeing the woman called Hana slumped on the ground with a half-entranced expression, Han Serin thought... this wasn't right.
'No. I didn't mean to make her look that terrified.'
When Hana looked at her, she began babbling as if she had laid eyes on something she should never have faced.
"...Wh-what is this? Wh-what on earth is this? It was s-so, so scary... R-Rin!! I-I lost. So please stop, really... I was so scared!!"
She had tried to clear her name as a cheater, but somehow she felt like she had just shown something even stranger.
She had already entered Hana's room when she connected to Another World—the top streamer broadcast slot in the menu. So she quietly brought up the hologram window and tapped the chat window.
The reactions she saw were every bit as ridiculous as she'd expected.