14. A 'Newbie' Who Slaughters Newbies
14. A 'Newbie' Who Slaughters Newbies
***
'PVP.'
One of those words every user inevitably hears when playing an online game.
Unless you were a gamer who only enjoyed solo games, it was a word virtually every user knew.
And it was also one of the game systems that nearly every game company pursued—whether by choice or necessity—to keep users from burning through content too quickly.
Not the fixed framework of user versus game, where everything is predetermined.
But user versus user. In a way, that one small fact alone created truly limitless, vast content.
Patterns that would exist in monsters were completely different for every individual user, and with skills, classes, matchups, gear specs, and so many other factors to consider, it was filled with staggering variables—so perhaps it was only natural.
On top of that,
starting with 1v1 duels,
then 2v2, 3v3, and depending on the game, 5v5. Looking even bigger, things like siege battles with 20v20 or more.
And now.
Another World was currently the number one game of this era, supporting PVP at all of those scales.
The explanation had gotten long-winded, but to sum it up simply: users beat the hell out of each other and killed each other.
......
After Seoyun left, Han Serin took a quick shower and then hurriedly logged into Another World. The moment she connected, she entered the Arena and immediately started queueing for ranked matches.
She'd considered slaughtering monsters, but honestly, the difference in hit feedback between PVP and PVE was so huge that she didn't really feel like killing monsters even inside this game.
So now she was inside the Colosseum.
"...This system totally reminds me of 'that game.'"
Queueing for a match—just “queueing up,” in other words.
It was an exact copy of a system from a game she'd enjoyed in the past.
While waiting in queue, there was a distinctive background track, and once the search for an opponent ended and the queue popped—
—Ding!
Along with that distinctive, satisfying queue-pop sound, the words 'Accept OR Decline' appeared.
As she pressed the Accept button displayed as a hologram, a laugh slipped out without her meaning to.
"Seriously... when you get down to it, all games are the same."
She swung her Crescent-Moon Weight through the air a few times, and just as she was getting used to its feel, a burst of light appeared inside the Colosseum.
That meant the opposing user had appeared.
And from the opponent’s perspective, they probably saw her materialize as a burst of light inside the Colosseum they were already standing in.
"Wait... this is placements."
A female character blurted that out the moment she saw me. At a glance, she looked like some kind of elf.
'Their character customization is really... godawful.'
Maybe because I had plenty of breathing room right now, the opponent’s appearance caught my eye before things like their weapon did.
I had always taken quite a bit of pride in character customization, so whenever I saw another character’s appearance, I instinctively started judging that first. It was an old habit of mine.
In fact, even Rin had been a hot topic in the community for her character customization in the past. It was my own unique customization, one I had never shared no matter how much other users begged.
"Oh, are you in placements right now?"
"Yes..."
The woman answered my question with a face that already looked defeated.
Judging by her reaction, she had probably seen me on NewTube or some other community, but there was no reason for me to care about that.
As the opponent said, the current matchmaking level was definitely placements.
Meaning it was a level where people playing ranked for the first time ran into each other.
For someone like me, who had faced outlaws and streamers—even if only once each—being wary at the placements stage? The very idea of feeling any tension was laughable.
—The duel will begin shortly.
Before long, along with a hologram announcing the start of the duel, I felt a sensation as if my body were being restrained.
It seemed they'd made it so neither side could move beyond a certain area until the duel began.
Which made sense—if you were a ranged class, keeping distance would give you an advantage against a melee class, and conversely, a melee class would want to close the gap early. So it was a necessary system.
Soon the countdown began.
—3. 2. 1.
Without paying it much mind, the moment the countdown ended, I leaped and swung my Crescent-Moon Weight.
With just a single leap, my Crescent-Moon Weight reached the opponent standing some distance away.
"Ah!?"
The woman panicked at the sight and hurriedly raised what looked like twin swords.
—Thwack!
But my Crescent-Moon Weight was already striking the woman’s head in that instant.
As I watched the Crescent-Moon Weight embed itself and the censored, bizarre lump of gore that resulted, a hollow laugh escaped me.
"No... isn't that even more brutal?"
Something sticking out of a lump of gore brought a certain image to mind.
And weren't humans called creatures of imagination...?
'No, never mind. Stop thinking about it.'
I lightly pulled my right hand back, and the embedded weight came free with a sharp sound before returning naturally to my hand, as always.
My first ranked match felt utterly hollow. I barely felt anything at all.
It ended in just a few seconds.
It felt as effortless to me as pressing a doorbell. The result was that obvious.
—Victory!
Immediately afterward, light firecrackers popped and a polished-looking Victory hologram filled my view.
They had clearly put effort into making the win feel satisfying, but I truly felt nothing.
————
[Iron Tier 5]
—1000 LP —> 1050 LP
————
And then another hologram followed.
LP stood for League Points—points representing your tier and stage. Since that one win had given me 50 points during placements, 50 was apparently the boosted placement reward.
"Wait, if I start from Iron..."
More than anything else, seeing the tier made me frown without meaning to.
It wasn’t because I thought climbing tiers would be hard or the points were stingy.
More than anything, thinking about what would happen along the way made me feel uneasy.
If you'd just done placements for the first time, it was only natural to start from the lowest tier. Denying that would be ridiculous—starting from a high tier wouldn't be fair.
But... as far as PVP went, I was already at a level where you could safely say I had mastered this game.
'What do I do about the newbies?'
How many newbies would she have to kill before she reached a tier matching her skill? More than anything else, that was what bothered Serin.
In the past, no matter what game she picked up, she quickly reached the stage people jokingly called a “Veteran Player”—an expert who had been around forever.
“Veteran Player” wasn’t exactly a positive term, however you looked at it; it implied shutting out newbies and raising the game’s barrier to entry.
"...Well, there are plenty of users."
But Han Serin's worry didn't last long.
Another World was currently the undisputed number-one game—the game everyone was playing.
Did she really need to worry about that in a game like this? It was nothing like Black Ark, the game people had crudely called a “fucking dead game” back then.
Another World wasn't some outdated keyboard-and-mouse game, and when you started comparing the game's management, scale, user pool, and futuristic virtual reality system one by one, there were many differences.
So the version of herself who'd cooed over every newbie she saw while playing 'Black Ark' was gone.
In that slowly dying game, she had treasured every guild member, answering questions from newbies on the verge of quitting and helping them with things like transportation in the beginner channel. That version of her was gone now.
Thinking about it now, her behavior back then was funny.
It wasn't like people who were going to quit wouldn't quit just because she did that. The game company had fucked up the management, and there she was, a mere user desperately clinging to the game however she could.
'It really was all pointless.'
"So grow up strong, newbies. I'm actually a newbie too."
Having spouted that nonsense(?), Han Serin began queueing for ranked matches without hesitation.
......
Not long after she started queueing for ranked matches, she'd blown through six games in no time.
And the result was a 7-win streak.
It was no exaggeration to call it unstoppable momentum.
Whenever Han Serin swung her arm, the result was a censored skewer of gore(?).
Including the first match, a total of seven ranked matches had ended, and every single result was the same: an overwhelming, one-sided victory for Han Serin.
Even with six additional games, barely about ten minutes had passed.
And every one of them was a clean hit from a single swing.
Han Serin was pulling off the absurd feat of 'one-hit one-kill' in 'Another World,' a game that was ostensibly an RPG, and she was literally slaughtering newbies.
Another World was definitely a game where 'specs' existed, but this was possible because, in PVP only, dealing damage to the head above a certain threshold triggered 'instant death'—a strangely realistic system.
————
[Iron Tier 4 —> Iron Tier 2]
—1050 LP —> 1350 LP
————
Before she knew it, she was at Iron Tier 1.
Seeing that the tier stage rose by one every 100 points, if she won three more times here, she'd probably reach Bronze Tier.
—Ding!
As she was thinking that, Han Serin heard the queue-pop sound again and naturally pressed Accept.
Another burst of light erupted, and a user entered her Colosseum.
"...?"
Han Serin naturally turned her gaze and started by looking at the newly arrived user's customization, then unconsciously clenched her fist.
No, how could someone decorate their character with such a garbage appearance?
'Do they have that little affection for their own character?'
"...No way, Rin?"
Yet another voice calling out to her, just like several opponents before.
Han Serin wondered if she was even more famous than she'd thought.
Every opponent she met in this Colosseum kept going 'Rin?' 'Rin?'—if she could, she'd want to change her nickname.
"Ah, yes, well... do you know me?"
Despite those thoughts, Han Serin still answered.
"Yes, yes!! Of course I know you, you're so famous on the community and NewTube...! No, that's not the point—ah, why did I have to run into you here, ugh. Seriously."
The opposing user suddenly kept muttering to themselves and hesitating.
"Rin, I'm really sorry, but could you please let me win just this once?"
"...Excuse me?"
Suddenly asking her to lose—what was that supposed to mean?
For a moment, Han Serin wondered if she'd misheard.
And then, visibly enough for anyone to notice, Han Serin's expression twisted into a small frown.
"...I'm really sorry, but I'm in my promotion series right now. I really want to get to Bronze... Could you maybe do me this favor?"
At those words, Han Serin stared blankly at the opponent with the bizarre customization.
Across all her time gaming, she had just heard the most absurd thing ever.
Asking her to lose because they were in their promotion series.