15. A 'Newbie' Who Punishes the Newbie Slaughterer
15. A 'Newbie' Who Punishes the Newbie Slaughterer
***
—The duel will begin shortly.
As I turned my gaze from the hologram settled in the corner of my vision, I saw a user who had gone beyond begging to full-on groveling.
And no matter how I looked at it, there was something about that user that didn't seem like a newbie. That bizarre character customization of theirs kept nagging at me strangely.
'...There's never a normal one among those types.'
Customizing a character was definitely up to the person doing it.
Honestly, no matter how grotesquely they dressed it up, whether it was underwear-only, or a male character polluted with pink—all that nonsense was still personal freedom.
Come to think of it, weren't those the kinds of characters made by people who'd toy with newbies and pull toxic shit in fighting games?
Serin suddenly found herself thinking that.
—3. 2. 1.
The moment the count ended, the strange sensation that had gripped Serin vanished, and the duel began.
Whoosh!
Slowly spinning her Crescent-Moon Weight, she stared at that infuriating user and wondered what to do with them. Then, dumbfounded, she stopped the weight without even realizing it and spoke.
"You're not taking out your weapon?"
"I know I can't beat you."
'What's that supposed to mean?'
She scowled deeply and glared at her opponent with disgust.
"So?"
"Just, let me win this once. I'm begging you. This is my first time going to Bronze, and I only need to win once, just once... If I lose this, I have to win two more."
Whoosh.
The moment she heard those words, her Crescent-Moon Weight shot through the air almost on instinct.
Following her perfectly straight right arm, the weight shot forward like a beam of light without even tracing its usual crescent arc.
Feeling the golden cord tied to her arm rapidly unfurl with a whirring sound, she simply stood in place and glared coldly at her opponent.
"...Ack!?"
The moment her weight shot toward them, they flinched and scrambled backward in a panic.
Seeing that, Serin extended her arm a little further and gave it a single motion.
Judging by how they pulled back, they definitely wouldn't die from that.
Serin watched the retreating figure to the very end, her eyes gone cold.
Even in that moment, she couldn't stand the sight of that user.
Their entire body was a pinkish skin tone, and every facial feature had apparently been set to the extreme ends of the sliders, leaving it horribly distorted—just looking at it was revolting.
And so, her Crescent-Moon Weight, which had shot out as if to tear through that character's heart, ultimately fell short, leaving only a light scratch near the chest before stopping in midair and slowly descending toward the floor.
And before the weight touched the ground.
She yanked hard with her right hand, manipulating the golden cord to control the weight.
Whir!
At the same time, the Crescent-Moon Weight returned to her right hand.
"You're not going to Bronze for the first time... You're not going to Bronze at all, are you?"
Serin spoke in a cold voice, slowly spinning her Crescent-Moon Weight as she stepped closer.
Serin had become certain of something in that exchange.
'This isn't a newbie.'
What she had felt through seven rank matchmaking games. The newbies in this score range couldn't even react to the movement of her weight.
Where her weight was coming from,
or how to block it.
In other words, newbies in this score range couldn't even conceive of seeing it and dodging.
But that grotesquely customized bastard had just reacted to her weight, even if late.
At the very least, they had shown movement to pull back.
'...Trash.'
Even if that hadn't been her full power, she had extended the weight at a level newbies shouldn't have been able to react to. It didn't make sense.
And the fact that she had extended the weight while standing in place, without stepping forward or leaping, was deliberate—she knew it wouldn't reach.
Simply put.
She had been testing them.
Whether that bastard was a newbie or not.
'Bronze Tier?'
She guessed that someone like that could reach that tier easily.
Someone who could react to her weight, even belatedly, in this score range couldn't reach Bronze? It was just absurd.
"...Ha."
The bastard gave a short laugh at her words, then suddenly pulled out a weapon.
A massive black pillar.
It was hard to believe that thing could even be called a weapon. That absurdly thick black pillar appeared to be their weapon.
Unable to hold it one-handed, they hefted it with both arms as if hugging it and slung it over their shoulder. Combined with the character’s grotesque customization, the whole display was genuinely intimidating.
At the same time, as if the panicked flailing from moments ago had been a lie, their expression went eerily blank.
Seeing that, she couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
"...You're laughing even after seeing this?"
"Yeah, because you look ridiculous."
My opponent scowled as if they didn't like seeing me laugh.
That grotesque customization, combined with that oppressive weapon, was genuinely revolting just to look at.
Then a thought struck me.
Ah, right. So that's how they'd been dealing with newbies.
So that's how it was.
The more I thought about it, the more disgusted I became, until I couldn’t stop laughing.
Whoosh.
The Crescent-Moon Weight swept through the air once and coiled around my hand.
"Was my acting that bad?"
At some point, even their way of speaking had changed.
They grinned with that grotesque character face as they spoke, and it was genuinely revolting.
'Garbage that makes me want to puke.'
Users who hit a wall in the higher ranks, then create alt characters to deliberately drop their score, or deliberately stay in the lower ranks.
Users who stay in the lower ranks on purpose even though they don't belong there, playing with other people.
Commonly called "alt-character smurfing."
It was shorthand for toxic users who enjoyed slaughtering low-rank players on alt characters.
While keeping their main character's tier intact, these scumbags created alts and repeated this kind of bullshit.
Because they couldn't beat actual high-level players, they went after users worse than themselves.
For example, toying with newbies who had just started the game, playing with them.
Users who repeatedly pulled toxic shit on the newbies gathered in the placement match range I was currently in.
They were truly the root of all evil in the game.
"If it weren't for that filthy customization, I might have been fooled."
"I made it like this to gross people out. Hiding the customization would defeat the purpose, wouldn't it?"
They spoke with a greasy smile, and I, who had been slowly walking toward them, was now only about three meters away.
And at that moment, Serin abruptly stopped walking.
"Hey. Try attacking."
At some point, Serin had dropped the formalities and switched to casual speech.
At Serin’s cold smile, the opposing user’s lips curled upward.
"...Just so you know, I'm Diamond Tier 2."
She still didn’t know this game’s tier system precisely, but Diamond meant a high tier in almost every game.
Thinking about that made her feel even more disgusted.
If you're going to climb, climb fast and stop bothering newbies.
A Diamond Tier player was messing around down here?
"Oh yeah? So Diamond Tier is supposed to be high?"
"It's high enough. Still, kind of a shame—if I'd ambushed you while you let your guard down, I think I could've won."
They spoke slowly while putting strength into their hands, as if preparing something.
And soon, a dense green glow began bursting from the hands of the bastard holding that pillar-like thing. They were probably preparing a character skill.
Even so.
She didn’t move a single step and simply watched her opponent.
As if to say, do whatever you can.
Slowly swinging the Crescent-Moon Weight coiled around her right hand, she let it hang lower bit by bit.
She simply stood there and watched.
"How hard did you hit the wall in the higher tiers to be playing around in a place like this? I'm getting sad for you. Hey."
She muttered coldly, almost mockingly.
Loud enough that the bastard could clearly hear her.
And it seemed to be working.
The green glow in their hands grew visibly darker, clear even to her eyes.
"So relaxed... aren't you. Getting all high and mighty just because you got lucky with a video."
"Me, high and mighty... I wish I really were. Then the little tricks you pull would be entertaining, wouldn't they?"
At my continued provocation, they scowled fiercely—even from the outside, they looked thoroughly pissed.
At the same time, the green glow in their hands burst outward as they leaped toward me with considerable speed.
A grotesquely customized appearance.
A weapon with the oppressive shape of a massive pillar.
Launching their body high into the air like that, trying to bring that massive pillar down on me—even I had to admit it looked fairly impressive.
......
Judging purely by appearances, it was a situation where a hundred out of a hundred people would feel Serin was in danger.
But even then, Serin kept laughing coldly.
As if she had all the time in the world.
The moment the massive pillar was about to come crashing down on Serin.
Step.
Han Serin suddenly stepped forward instead.
Her long silver hair swayed slightly, and for a moment, it seemed to obscure even her vision.
"You think you can manage being that slow?"
Serin spat coldly and swung her right arm with ease.
Swish!
At the same time, with the sound of the cord whipping through the air, the Crescent-Moon Weight shot out rapidly.