193. A Choice in Desperate Straits (絶體絶命)
193. A Choice in Desperate Straits (絶體絶命)
***
Berserker, Knight, Thief, Assassin, Archer, Gunner, Vampire, Warrior, Samurai, Brawler, Wizard, Dancer—Another World had a truly countless number of classes spanning every genre and era.
Classes ranging across medieval, modern, and futuristic settings were part of Another World's charm, but by the same token, there was that much more to learn, which raised the barrier to entry for PVP relative to Another World's massive user base.
And with that many classes, achieving perfect balance across all of them was practically impossible.
Among them, there were popular mainstream classes like Gunner and Knight, and then there were unpopular classes like Dancer and Brawler.
When it came to the biggest factors separating mainstream from non-mainstream classes, a few representative traits stood out.
- High skill difficulty.
- Class traits.
- Whether it was flashy.
- Gender restrictions.
There were other factors as well, but these four were the main ones.
Since the game presented itself as virtual reality, players had to physically move their bodies, so skill difficulty mattered above all else, and class traits were also quite important.
Each class had various traits, but the one that drew the most talk was the 'Dancer.'
The Dancer's class traits were 'Agility Bonus' and 'Crescent-Moon Weight Proficiency Adjustment.'
The 'Crescent-Moon Weight' was an unusual weapon that even people who had played games a fair amount had rarely encountered.
Even with the adjustment, its difficulty of use was notoriously brutal, and if you swung the Crescent-Moon Weight and failed to hit your target, the weapon's sharp blade would come flying back at the Dancer herself.
To put it another way, it was like gripping a sword blade with no hilt and fighting an opponent with it.
So the Dancer, saddled with restriction after restriction, was ultimately doomed to non-mainstream status.
And then there was an existence that had a major impact on the perception of that non-mainstream Dancer.
—Rin.
A Dancer who appeared out of nowhere like a comet one day and went toe-to-toe with Challenger Tier rankers of various classes—or showed even more than that.
A beautiful character appearance.
Actively wielding the Crescent-Moon Weight, a weapon that had effectively been abandoned.
And the skill to duel top-tier Challenger rankers and seize victory.
Moreover, her videos were a pleasure to watch, to the point that people said every casual play of hers looked like watching a match.
The Dancer class, which had never managed to exceed 1% in the monthly-updated overall class share, breaking past 1% thanks to a single user named Rin was a truly astonishing thing.
......
—Viewers, what do you all think of the Dancer class?
At Rin's sudden question, chat filled with various opinions.
[Honestly isn't it just that it looks good because it's Rin?]
[Because it's Rin yeah]
[I think you can explain it with just the words 'because it's Rin']
[Even now people avoid Dancers in raids and party hunting]
[Because of Rin the low-level zones are crawling with Dancer fanatics]
[When Rin asks how Dancer is, it's really awkward to answer lololol]
[Honestly, it's kind of trash?]
[If Dancer players were even half as good as Rin they'd be tier 1, seriously]
[That's the same as expecting Knight class players to play like Jeanne d'Arc]
[Most Knights are at least above average, comparing them to Dancer is ridiculous lol]
Minha, who had been watching the rapidly scrolling chat, suddenly looked at Minseong.
"Minseong, what do you think of Dancer?"
"Well...? Looking at Rin, it does seem good."
The moment Minseong answered with an ambiguous expression.
Rin on the screen also parted her lips.
—Is the perception of Dancer really that bad?
Rin could be seen speaking as if surprised by chat's reaction.
As if she hadn't known about the Dancer class's reputation, she fiddled with her Crescent-Moon Weight, and that sight of Rin was inexplicably funny.
'Because not every Dancer is like Rin.'
The class trait of Agility Bonus was certainly not bad.
However, the frail body and weak Strength stat were stats utterly unsuited for a melee class.
And if you were going to pick up a light dagger instead, there was absolutely no merit to choosing Dancer over Assassin or Thief.
"That skill Rin just used was really incredible too. Honestly, depending on the player's level, isn't the Dancer's reputation something that could rise enough?"
When Minha spoke as if her curiosity had been piqued, Minseong shook his head slightly.
"You've never used a Crescent-Moon Weight, right?"
"Well, I've never used any melee weapons. They say the Crescent-Moon Weight is especially hard, right?"
"That's right. That's why no pro actually uses the Crescent-Moon Weight. If a weapon's difficulty is high, the return has to be proportionally high, but the Crescent-Moon Weight is a weapon where it's hard to say the return is that great."
A melee class needed an advantage in its base stats or skills, but the Crescent-Moon Weight occupied a position that was far too ambiguous.
It did have the special advantage of being melee while also covering ranged combat, but in Minseong's experience, if you were going to use a Crescent-Moon Weight, you were far better off just handling a bow.
There were many overlapping reasons why Rin drew that much attention and popularity.
A user who proved herself with absurd skill using a weapon no one else had ever used.
On top of that, her character's appearance and even her voice were more than enough to draw people in. And setting all of that aside, Rin's reflexes, with parrying as her signature, were beyond what the word monster could describe.
Parrying with a Crescent-Moon Weight was like striking the blade of a greatsword mid-swing with an arrow you'd fired, timed perfectly.
"Is the Crescent-Moon Weight really that hard?"
Minha, who had never used one, asked uncertainly, and Minseong let out a small laugh.
"You know there's exactly one Dancer class in Challenger right now, right?"
"Yeah, I know."
"That person was originally stuck in Diamond while using the Crescent-Moon Weight. Then they switched to daggers and shot straight up to Challenger."
"Really?"
Minseong nodded at Minha's response, which sounded like she was hearing it for the first time.
"It's true. I heard it directly from them when we met before."
While they were exchanging conversation, Rin happened to open her mouth.
—Honestly, I'd rather viewers not try to play Dancer just because of me. As a recommendation, the perception isn't good, as you can see in chat right now, and the difficulty is high. And if you're playing Dancer because of me, you'll probably want to use the Crescent-Moon Weight more than anything else. Even as empty words, it's not easy at all. I've never once recommended the Crescent-Moon Weight on stream, right?
As she said this, she flicked her Crescent-Moon Weight back and forth. The sight almost looked like she was telling people not to do it.
"If Rin says it's hard, do you get now just how difficult a weapon it is?"
As Minseong added on, as if piling onto Rin's words, Minha nodded awkwardly.
"I suppose... if it were good, there'd be pros playing Dancer."
As Minha said that, she thought to herself anew.
Among current pro players, there wasn't a single one who lacked talent or didn't put in effort.
Each of them had the mechanics or pure talent to reach Challenger Tier. And yet even among such players, no one played Dancer.
In the end, it was right to see Rin as exceptional.
Rin made the Dancer class look good by showing only the advantages of the Crescent-Moon Weight, but non-mainstream classes were non-mainstream for a reason.
......
After some time passed, Rin moved on and soon entered the third fork in the road.
And at the choices displayed on the screen, Minha blinked, then suddenly looked at Minseong.
"Minseong, have you ever seen choices like this while doing the Cave of Trials?"
"No. I've never seen them either... but this isn't a monster that should appear here."
Minseong also tilted his head as he looked at the screen.
"Right? Maybe it's because I haven't done the Cave of Trials recently. This is really weird."
Even to them, as pro players, a choice of this difficulty appearing on screen made no sense.
***
*
————
Left.
Desperate Straits (絶體絶命): Final reward item count increases by 3x. 'Grim Reaper' will appear in the next round.
Right.
Acrobatics of Death: Final reward item count increases by 2x. The passable path becomes extremely narrow, and the ground occasionally collapses. Falling below results in instant death.
————
*
Upon seeing the choices, Serin no longer felt like taking a viewer vote.
"From here on, it'll be hard to take votes."
After murmuring a single calm sentence, she immediately stepped onto the left path, where the Grim Reaper would appear.
A 3x increase in reward item count looked like an incredible benefit. But in truth, the difficulty right now was absurdly high beyond that.
Even so, the 'Acrobatics of Death' choice was the kind of choice she knew from experiencing it in Black Ark that she absolutely should not take.
It was literally an 'acrobatics of death.'
You never knew when or what kind of trap or monster would appear, and on top of that, having to advance through the cave while accounting for the possibility of the ground collapsing was no different from signing up to be stressed for the entire rest of the Cave of Trials.
[Grim Reaper????]
[Isn't this difficulty insane?]
[No but how does the Grim Reaper show up here lololol]
[A raid monster appears at the third fork? Boom shakalaka!?]
[lololol this is actually absurd]
[Even I feel how unfair this is just watching, holy shit lololol]
[I know Rin's level is high, but her gear wasn't this high when I saw it last time]
[Doesn't she have zero Mythic-grade gear?]
[fr what is this???]
[Isn't this seriously a bug?]
Looking at the chat reeling from the difficulty, Serin realized she wasn't the only one who felt the difficulty was strange.
"It's definitely high difficulty. But maybe the criteria are a little different?"
By my standards, it wasn't at a level I'd call impossible, but even so, I had a strong feeling that something didn't add up.
'So they measured additional factors besides level and gear.'
And she didn't know what those were right now.
My current level was certainly high, even from the viewers' perspective.
—Level 65.
But aside from her Legendary Crescent-Moon Weight, her armor was stuck at Unique grade.
Considering the standard five-tier item grade system of 【Mythic - Legendary - Unique - Rare - Normal】, the Grim Reaper appearing at the Cave of Trials Stage 3 choice was truly absurd.
As she thought about it, she did have the 'Treasure Grade' Dwarf's Ring in her inventory.
'But even with that one thing, the Grim Reaper appearing still makes no sense.'
'In theory,' it wasn't an unclearable difficulty, but that was really just wordplay.
With words, you could say anything. With words, you could say to predict and dodge bullets, and it could be done. Because those were just 'words.'
If another user with my gear level had faced this difficulty, they'd have had every right to feel it was unfair, just as chat said.
Step, step.
As she walked through the newly reconfigured cave after entering the left path, Serin felt it again.
Just like when the Orc Lord had appeared, no monsters or traps had shown up for several minutes now.
Staying on guard, she recalled her memories of the Grim Reaper.
—Grim Reaper.
A named entity she had encountered in the mid-game of Black Ark's main story. It was essentially a type of boss monster.
Its defining features were a massive scythe and the appearance of an undead draped in a jet-black robe, exuding an utterly eerie atmosphere.
It also closely resembled the commonly known image of a 'grim reaper.'
It was the monster she had last faced in the Great Demonic Beast underground dungeon known as the Hell of the Abyss.
With her current item state, it was also a monster that promised a clearly difficult battle.
Flicker.
In an instant, the light softly illuminating the cave dimmed, and darkness began to wash over everything.
Serin slowly came to a stop as well.
"Looks like it's coming out right away?"
The Grim Reaper's greatest trait was striking first.
No one could land the first blow after facing the Grim Reaper.
—Swift.
A bleak red haze rose over Serin's entire body, radiating a faint aura.
It was like a battle stance declaring that she would never allow the first strike.