176. Another World
176. Another World
***
The lingering aftereffects—if they could even be called that—left by the scrim against the pros had all resolved themselves before I knew it, as if time itself had been the answer.
The apathy I'd felt toward Solo Queue had vanished like a lie.
I couldn't say whether the scrim this Friday against the team called Charlemagne would bring those aftereffects back. Even so, right now I had completely recovered my feel for Solo Queue.
Like a palate that had gone numb after tasting something too exquisite gradually returning to normal and adapting.
It wasn't a sense for skill itself that I'd regained—it was the sensation of being able to feel interest again.
Serin's appearance as she connected to Another World right after a brief Just Chatting segment at the start of the stream was proof of that.
"Don't ask why I'm starting Another World so early today. It's just because I want to. There's no other reason."
Opening my mouth slowly, I immediately adjusted the stream settings and headed for the Another World capsule.
Maybe it was because I'd spent yesterday with Eunha in such a calm, sentimental haze—maybe the blandness of it all made me want to play even more.
Soon, with the familiar sensation of being enveloped, my vision darkened once again.
————————
The moment my vision went dark, a brilliant font embroidered in gold on a pure white background appeared.
[To a Wider World of Adventure.]
For once, I took the time to appreciate the flashy opening, the kind that looked like it should have the words "Press Any Key" written across it.
Lava fields, glaciers, islands in the sky, and even a city with a steampunk feel that looked modern—no, futuristic.
The dazzling backdrops of countless worlds snatched at my vision, but only for a moment.
When the fantastical scenery ended and I felt warm sunlight shining down on me, I found myself standing in a space that was now quite familiar.
The entrance to the Tomb of the Frozen Knight, the cave where I'd hunted last time.
The densely packed vegetation and the cave entrance.
The warm sunlight pouring down was unreal, yet it reached me as vividly as reality.
Having logged out to the Arena after that last hunt, I was still standing in front of that entrance.
Manipulating the hologram, I immediately connected to the stream.
"Can everyone see me okay?"
As soon as I said the familiar words, a green chat window decorated one side of my vision.
[Ahhh, so goooood!]
[wtf she's playing Another World right as the stream starts?]
[Rin! Rin! Rin! Rin! Rin! Rin! Rin! Rin!]
[wish she did this every day for no reason lolololol]
[taking weekends off seems like a really bad habit how about fixing it?]
[fr how about streaming every day?]
[no but Rin is pretty diligent for her size, look at everyone talking lolololol]
The lively viewers greeted me as they always did. The unique atmosphere of a personal stream now felt like a familiar part of my daily life.
And rather than complaining about me jumping straight into Another World, the viewers seemed far more welcoming.
Well, my main content had always been Another World, so maybe this reaction was only natural.
"Then I'll head straight to the Arena."
Amid the welcoming chat, I manipulated the hologram and entered the Arena.
The scenery around me transformed into light and shifted in an instant.
Fwoosh!
A circular arena styled after a medieval colosseum. As I stood alone in it, I immediately worked the hologram.
I displayed the Arena status window on one side of the screen so the viewers could see it too, and habitually queued for a match.
—Vrrrm!
The changed rank queue sound echoed like something resonating from the deep sea.
Listening to it, I looked at the status window displayed in one corner of the space.
*
————
Rin (rinhh)
Solo Rank: Diamond Tier 1 『91 LP』
Free Rank Tier: -
Win Rate: 100%
Dancer of the Remaining Blood
————
*
Diamond Tier 1 『91 LP』
Before I knew it, I'd climbed to a tier with Master Tier right in front of me.
It felt like only a few days ago that I'd been disappointed by the level of players in the D4-D5 range, the so-called Yeti zone.
`Time really does fly everywhere.`
As I was savoring that thought, a sound rang out.
—Ding!
『Neet Hiki donated 50,000 won!』
《I really enjoyed your collab with Jeanne d'Arc!》
『Prura donated 50,000 won!』
《How long are you going to play Another World? Do you have a schedule?》
At the ringing donations, I smiled with now-practiced ease and expressed my thanks.
"Neet Hiki and Prura, thank you both for the 50,000 won donations. I'm glad you enjoyed it. As for my Another World schedule... I'll probably be in the Arena until I get sick of it."
[wow seeing it again, Rin's tier climb speed is insane, she's only been Diamond for how long]
[lololol still undefeated??]
[win rate in the triple digits is actually insane]
[thinking about Rin's class in the collab with Jeanne d'Arc, being stuck in Diamond is crazy...?]
[isn't it weird that she beat a ranker like Plea and a top player and her tier is still Diamond?]
[Rin started with fresh placements]
[she went from Iron to Diamond 1 in less than a month, that's fast]
[for Rin's skill level, fresh placements really are ridiculous]
Even in the chat I glanced at, the win rate on the status window was sparking all sorts of discussion.
Watching it, I casually spoke up.
"Is there no pro player who's hit Challenger with a 100% win rate?"
I was half-cheating based on the real combat experience I'd gone through in Black Ark, but I wondered if a pro player might be able to pull it off.
For example, Jeanne d'Arc—Eunha, who received special treatment even among pros—maybe she could.
[isn't there none?]
[Jeanne d'Arc probably hit Master with 100%]
[none]
[even Jeanne d'Arc was in the high 90s when she first hit Challenger, and people went crazy back then too]
[Rin declaring she'll keep a 100% win rate until Challenger, OMG]
[no but 100% win rate is just impossible in the first place lololol]
[even Jeanne d'Arc is in the 90s so Rin's win rate really is insane]
[where does this confidence come from lololol]
The chat scrolling up suggested that no pro player had ever hit Challenger with a 100% win rate.
Then, in an instant, I realized the flaw in my thinking.
No matter how talented a pro player was, they'd built their experience through the Arena. None of them had accumulated real combat experience like I had.
It was only natural—no one is perfect from the start.
A 100% win rate Challenger was nothing more than a ridiculous notion.
'Wait... then isn't Eunha even more absurd than me?'
The chat was full of talk about Jeanne d'Arc. Maybe because we'd collabed just two days ago, the proportion of mentions about Eunha seemed especially high.
Master Tier with a 100% win rate, a win rate in the high 90s—seeing it again, she really did seem like a monster.
I had countless real combat experiences from Black Ark, so to others my skill looked like cheating.
But Eunha hadn't had any of that—she'd purely played Another World as a game and maintained a monstrous win rate.
Seeing it again, wasn't that even more absurd?
She'd achieved that through 'pure talent' alone.
"A 100% win rate up to Master—Jeanne d'Arc really is a monster. I at least hunted hundreds of thousands of monsters to build up my skill proficiencies. But Jeanne d'Arc kept that win rate through the Arena, right?"
As I chatted during the longer-than-usual matchmaking time, a small laugh escaped me.
It was ironic, really—passing off all those Black Ark experiences as having hunted hundreds of thousands of monsters in Another World to explain my skill.
But if I didn't say something like that, the viewers would never understand me no matter how they looked at it.
[what hunting ground do you even farm to pull that off?]
[thinking about Rin's level, hunting hundreds of thousands is probably true lololol]
[what's more surprising is that she never touched the Arena until level 65;]
[Jeanne d'Arc and Rin are both insane monsters lololol]
[so hunting hundreds of thousands of monsters and raising skill proficiency makes Rin's skill possible?]
[then all the cash-farming grinders would be top rankers, Rin's just flexing right now]
[fr lol]
Ding!!
With the sound of the queue popping, a burst of light erupted from one side of the colosseum.
"Ah, I'll focus on the match now."
With that, I minimized the chat window and turned my gaze.
The matched opponent had a rather distinctive appearance.
A woman with a beautiful appearance, as if draped in a pure white kimono, with a massive great katana strapped to her back.
Her hair, white as silver, was pinned up with an accessory like a hair stick, and the sight was as beautiful as a painting.
However, her pointed ears revealed that she'd chosen the elf race, giving her an enigmatic feminine appearance.
Swordsman, samurai—or maybe the same type of class as the quick-draw user I'd met just before? Even Serin couldn't tell the exact distinction at a glance.
—The duel will begin shortly.
"Oh, could it be... are you Rin?"
The opponent also seemed a little surprised as she looked at Serin and spoke.
"Yes. I'll let you have the first move."
Serin simply smiled softly and answered, as if it were a set response by now.
"I'm... I'm a real fan of yours, Rin."
—3.
Whoosh!
As the opponent beamed and spoke, Serin answered by swinging Red Moon once through the empty air.
Shing...
In response, the opponent readied herself as well, drawing the great katana from its massive sheath with a natural posture, revealing the elegant form of the huge single-edged blade.
'A great katana, huh...'
Looking at the enormous great katana, nearly two meters long, I thought about how many types of swords there were—and that it was a pretty cool weapon.
Even the opponent holding the jet-black great katana possessed an unreal beauty, and the weapon suited her well.
For a moment, I thought about trying out a different weapon myself.
Creeeak.
With the sound of the crimson cord pulling taut, I swung the Crescent-Moon Weight lightly as a warm-up, and as it traced a red arc, it strangely felt like the weapon was whining at me.
Telling me not to let my eyes wander.
—1.
The moment the countdown ended, the opponent gripped the great katana with both hands and brought it down in a massive vertical slash.
—Serpent's Fang.
A sinister black light sheathed the enormous single-edged blade, and the strike seemed to carve through the ground itself. At the end of its path, the black light churned and shot forward, disrupting its own trajectory.
Serin couldn't help but smile.
Facing users with such different styles was always refreshing. In fact, the higher her tier climbed, the more varied the classes of her opponents seemed to become.
Serin quietly lowered the hand holding the Crescent-Moon Weight and activated a skill.
—Dark Moon Weight.
The Crescent-Moon Weight, descending slowly, was sheathed in blood-red light and plummeted toward the ground as if in freefall. The weapon, which seemed about to slam into the earth, stopped eerily and then shot forward.
The blood-red trajectory collided head-on with the black strike, unleashing a thunderous crash.
Clang!!