295. Bloody Night
295. Bloody Night
***
*
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Nickname: Bloody Night
Class: Vampire
Title: Princess of the Night.
Level: 65.
Guild: -
Total Equipped Attack Power: 2207.
Top 0.27% of all users
Total Equipped Defense: 2095.
Top 0.43% of all users
Arena Ranking 19th. Equipment Ranking 229th.
......
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*
Honestly, the status window of the user called Bloody Night didn't look particularly special on its own.
The stats of users she'd seen before had been high, and when she'd already encountered a True Ancestor, a Vampire class honestly just felt so-so.
'Isn't she just average?'
But that thought completely changed the moment footage of Bloody Night's gameplay started playing.
...
A skintight suit fitted to her body revealed every curve, radiating sensuality, and she was surrounded by dozens of wolf-like monsters that appeared to be lycanthropes.
As the monsters rushed in simultaneously, the woman began evading every attack with fluid movements.
After lightly dodging the claws of a lycanthrope charging at her fiercely, the woman suddenly bared sharp fangs toward the lycanthrope's exposed neck.
'What?'
When the footage showed her sinking her fangs in and draining blood, Serin's eyes instantly widened.
Having personally witnessed vampires feeding in Black Ark, she found it astonishing that Another World had even implemented this properly.
'She's sucking blood like a real vampire?'
Contrary to expectations, the woman's bloodsucking wasn't awkward at all.
The moment she sank her fangs into the lycanthrope's neck and consumed the blood that flowed from the wound, a massive change came over the woman.
A bewitching blood-red aura settled over her curvaceous body, and she displayed movements far more overwhelming than before. Weaving swiftly between the werewolves thrusting their sharp claws at her, she simply lashed out with her sharply grown nails, and the slaughter began.
The movements the woman displayed after just a single feeding were far from ordinary even in Serin's eyes.
It wasn't parrying, but her reflexes for momentarily evading or deflecting monster attacks were impressive, and compared to the pro players she'd seen so far, her movements were in no way lacking.......
'...If we're just looking at movement, pro-player level?'
No, she seemed to surpass most pro players, which was genuinely fascinating.
It wasn't simply that she had good reflexes or good physical ability. The woman wasn't being overwhelmed by that incredible speed at all.
—Equal character growth values, item performance, ability enhancements from additional skills, and so on.
Even with hidden classes in Another World, a certain degree of "equal growth" was possible.
If you put in the effort to build weapon and skill proficiency, and matched your item values to a ranker's, then in theory, other people could display similar movements.
But even with characters of identical performance, the movements inevitably differed completely depending on the user.
No matter how identical the tools and given environment, the one wielding them was ultimately the "user."
The proficiency system allowed people to adapt to their stats, but there were still plenty of users who simply couldn't do it.
Some people instinctively recoiled from PVP, and although it was the dominant game, there were surprisingly many people who couldn't adapt to Another World's systems.
Afterward, it took the woman in the footage only a few minutes to deal with all the lycanthropes that had surrounded her.
"What do you think of this person, Serin?"
When Sua naturally spoke up, Serin nodded without hesitation.
"Let's go with her."
When she gave a rare satisfied answer, Sua blinked.
"You like this one?"
"Yeah. She seems like the best option."
Setting aside gear and build, she simply liked the physical aspect, plain and simple.
And since this Five Million project was aimed at 3-person raids, at the very least, even if not on my level, someone comparable to Sua.
She'd thought they needed a user of that caliber to be satisfied.
The woman just now exceeded those conditions.
While other users had stood out for their specs and classes, this woman was the only one who'd caught her eye through movement alone.
While Serin was lost in those thoughts, Sua was also a little surprised.
'Did she have the exact same thought as me?'
Sua, who'd been sorting through rankers, had also thought Bloody Night was the best option. It felt like they were on the same wavelength even about something like this.
"Then I'll reach out to her and discuss terms."
"If we pick her, it's not confirmed that she'll join?"
When Serin asked with a slightly disappointed look, Sua let out a small laugh.
"It's not confirmed, but you can still be plenty hopeful. Your name carries weight, and I don't lose out on name value anywhere either, so if we offer a big enough appearance fee, she'll probably accept."
"Then, I'll leave it to you."
"Yes, leave it to me. Anyway, isn't it kind of amazing? I'd actually already had my eye on her too, and you had the exact same thought as me."
"Really? Guess you and I have similar taste."
Serin replied with a small smile, and after a bit more small talk, their meeting came to an end.
***
Wednesday, September 1st, exactly 10:00 PM.
A woman with a bright impression had neatly tied back her waist-length black hair and was calmly steadying her breathing as she moved her mouse.
Click!
At the same moment, a notification popped up on her smartphone that a NewTube video had been uploaded, and the woman shook her head slightly, murmuring in an excited voice.
"Uploading videos is always the most nerve-wracking thing ever."
Her name was Park Soyul. She was one of Serin's editors.
She then hoped the next ten minutes would pass quickly so she could see the reaction.
Click.
She forced herself to browse various websites or check the comment reactions on previous RinTube videos to pass the time, but only briefly.
After about ten minutes, she quickly connected to NewTube and opened the uploaded video.
[Jeanne d'Arc vs Plea! Which woman will be chosen by Rin?]
Views: 70,228.
└Likes 5.7K Dislikes 63.
The eighth RinTube video she'd opened had recorded 70,000 views in just ten minutes since going up.
"Haa..."
The moment she checked the view count, Soyul's expression completely relaxed, and she just smiled blankly, bringing a hand to her cheek.
The number of comments posted in just ten minutes had already passed 300, and the reaction was explosive.
With a melting expression, she checked the comments.
[Has Jeanne d'Arc really gotten that famous? She even got a ring as a gift from Rin...]
└Likes 844
▽ View 37 replies.
[lol no but Rin's going to end up giving rings to both of them anyway]
└Likes 566
▽ View 18 replies.
[Plea's stream was even more legendary lmaooo she got a whisper from Rin and got all excited by herself and even bought a Jeremian ring, then when she heard Rin went to meet Jeanne d'Arc she got disappointed all by herself, it was seriously ridiculously cute lmaooo]
└Likes 475
▽ View 21 replies.
Refreshing in real time, checking newly posted comments or replies on popular comments, she was busy gauging the video's reaction.
'The growth is insane...'
RinTube had already surpassed 400,000 subscribers.
She still couldn't claim to have a lot of editing experience, but she had done video work under a million-subscriber NewTuber, so she could tell at a glance how good or bad the current reaction was.
And right now, it was beyond a hit—it was a massive hit.
More than anything, surpassing 70,000 views in ten minutes meant an absurd number of dedicated fans had formed.
Soyul absently brought a hand to her cheek.
"Ow."
Letting out a small groan at the slight pain she felt, she couldn't help but laugh.
The past month had felt like a dream.
People often said NewTubers and streamers lived off attention, and it wasn't much different for editors.
The fact that the videos she uploaded, the work she produced, was receiving this much attention from countless people brought her incomparable happiness and joy.
"Rin is seriously... why is she so pretty? Isn't she getting prettier by the day?"
Praising Rin in the video for no particular reason, Soyul couldn't hide her excited heart and simply wore a bright smile.
Recently, she'd come to feel firsthand what the word workaholic meant.
These days she focused on RinTube so much that she forgot how time passed, and she'd even started watching all of Serin's streams, to the point that the small hobbies Soyul had essentially disappeared completely.
On days Rin had a live broadcast, she'd watch the entire stream as a viewer at broadcast time, and she'd become completely immersed in deciding which parts of the stream to upload to RinTube and which points got good viewer reactions.
During all the remaining time, editing videos for RinTube and exchanging BaTalk messages for business email management meant 24 hours wasn't enough.
BaTalk!
Kim Hayoon.
[No but how did you make the video like this!? I was seriously just admiring it the whole time, you know?]
"Seriously, Hayoon..."
Soyul smiled softly and sent a reply, unable to contain the excitement swelling in her chest.
Spending time alone like this every upload day felt a little lacking, and she wanted to talk with someone.
Me.
[Thanks, Hayoon. And just imagining how fast the subscribers will grow from Rin's collab stream today... it's seriously so exciting, you know? Oh, do you want to meet up now? My treat!]
She was sending messages with an excited heart, chatting back and forth with Hayoon, when.
Rin.
[That hurts... are you two meeting up without me?]
It was none other than a message from Rin.
"...Huh?"
Soyul blinked at the unexpected message, then hurriedly began typing a reply.
Honestly, their schedules had been busy, and for various reasons she'd even wondered whether Rin might be deliberately avoiding real-life meetings. But that message just now seemed to suggest they could actually meet.
Park Soyul.
[Then would you like to join us for drinks, Rin!? Seriously, without you, Rin—the main character all this time—even when Hayoon and I get together, it feels a little lacking, you know?]