26. Challenger Rank 8, Plea - (2)
26. Challenger Rank 8, Plea - (2)
***
A pleasant tension.
As I shut down the PC, I stretched lightly and slowly loosened up.
Sure, she was a popular streamer, and a woman I'd met a few days ago, but more than any of that, what mattered was that my opponent was Challenger Tier, ranked 8th.
That fact alone filled my head.
I'd only watched her stream moments ago and seen the briefest fragments of her movement, but instinctively I felt she was on a completely different level from anyone I'd faced before.
The talent to grasp the core of the Crescent-Moon Weight in an instant, the first time she'd ever handled one.
The thought of facing a genius who had reached the absolute top.
Would I really be able to hold my own against an opponent like that? It was the first time I'd ever felt this kind of tension.
The highest tier I'd faced so far was Diamond.
And considering that guy had just been smurfing on an alt character, I wasn't even sure his real tier was actually Diamond.
"Well, it'll be fun."
Whirrr.
As I powered on the capsule connector, a laugh escaped me before I knew it.
Along with the familiar sensation of the capsule device enveloping me, my vision darkened once again.
————————
The moment I felt that familiar sensation of my vision flipping, I existed as Rin in Another World.
A faint sense of omnipotence.
Myself, gripping the Crescent-Moon Weight connected to the golden cord bound around my right arm.
Then a hologram filled my vision.
—During your previous session, a forced disconnection was confirmed due to accumulated user fatigue. Excessive game use may interfere with normal daily life.
"Yeah, I got it."
I figured this message appeared because my last session had been forcibly disconnected, so I dismissed the hologram without much thought.
While operating the menu, I opened the streamer Plea's broadcast in a corner of my vision, and at the same time sent a friend request to the ID Plea had given me in the whisper.
—Friend request sent to user 'Plea'.
The moment the hologram confirming the friend request appeared.
—User 'Plea' has accepted your friend request.
The message confirming the acceptance appeared.
"...She accepted it instantly."
Given how far Plea had gone just to get a friend request accepted, her lightning-fast response made me chuckle. I opened my equipment window and checked my current gear.
*
————————
Bloodstained Crescent-Moon Weight.
Grade: Rare.
Base Effect: Attack Power +375.
Additional Effect: +60% damage when attacking vital points, -20% damage when attacking other areas.
Hat Imbued with a Former Dancer's Memories.
Grade: Rare.
Base Effect: HP +463, Defense 75.
Additional Effect: 5% damage reduction from monsters.
(Dancer's Memory Set 1/5)
......
Shoes Imbued with a Former Dancer's Memories.
Grade: Rare.
Base Effect: HP +403, Defense +70.
Additional Effect: 5% increased damage dealt to monsters.
(Dancer's Memory Set 5/5)
(Set Effect: 15% bonus damage to monsters, 10% damage reduction)
Faintly Glowing Ruby Necklace.
Grade: Rare.
Base Effect: Attack Power 57.
Additional Effect: +10% damage when attacking vital points.
(Bloodstained Accessory Set 1/5)
......
Faintly Glowing Ruby Ring.
Grade: Rare.
Base Effect: Attack Power 25.
Additional Effect: +5% damage when attacking vital points.
(Bloodstained Accessory Set 5/5)
(Set Effect: +30% damage when attacking vital points, -15% damage when attacking other areas)
————————
*
Every piece was Rare, and the options looked decent at first glance, but the closer I looked, the more mediocre the gear seemed.
Truthfully, I'd never looked into what genuinely good items were like, so I had no sense of how good these actually were.
My attack power shown in the status window seemed respectable, placing me in the top 23 percent of users.
But considering my defense was in the top 78 percent of all users, it was definitely nothing special.
—Arena invitation received from user 'Plea'.
She'd said she'd give me a Unique set, so I'd figured buying it would take a bit more time, but the arena invitation arrived faster than I expected.
The moment I accepted, I felt the background shift to the familiar Colosseum.
"Hello! Rin!"
"Yes. Hello."
A blonde woman beamed at me.
I knew her real appearance was that of a college student with refined features, but her Another World character was a different, glamorous blonde female character.
Every piece of equipment she wore sparkled and glittered, utterly dazzling.
If I had to compare, she looked like a princess from some country.
In one hand she held a thin one-handed sword that looked like a rapier, and the hilt as well as the blade were decorated with all sorts of gems—clearly no ordinary weapon.
In reality, you'd call it a decorative sword and dismiss it as useless, but in-game, the more ornate a weapon or armor was, the better its options—that was practically common sense.
Actually, thinking about it, it would've been stranger if the rank 8 user didn't have good gear.
"Then first, let me give you the items I prepared."
Ding.
—Trade request from 'Plea'.
When the hologram showing accept or decline appeared, I pressed accept without any hesitation.
At the same time, a blue light rippled through the air. A massive blue window settled between Plea and me.
And immediately, Plea began placing the prepared items into the trade window.
*
————
—Ancient Dragon-Slaying Crescent-Moon Weight.
—Blood-Soaked Dancer's Hat.
—Blood-Soaked Dancer's Top.
—Blood-Soaked Dancer's Bottoms.
—Blood-Soaked Dancer's Gloves.
—Blood-Soaked Dancer's Shoes.
—Radiant Tyr's Necklace.
—Radiant Tyr's Earring.
—Radiant Tyr's Ring.
—Radiant Tyr's Ring.
—Radiant Tyr's Bracelet.
————
*
Without even having time to examine each item one by one, I was startled as she dumped a whole pile of items into the window all at once.
Each one had a name that was already on a completely different level from the items I'd just been looking at.
"If there's any equipment that seems lacking to you, Rin, please check and let me know!"
"...Okay."
She just came out and said that, and honestly, even looking at the items in the trade window, I was dazed.
I'd definitely expected something when she said she'd put together a Unique item set, but I never imagined she'd boldly put together every single item like this.
It even looked like she'd completed full sets for each and every item.
My trade window was completely empty, while hers looked packed to the brim, and seeing that made me feel a little guilty.
'Can I really just accept all of this...?'
She seemed to be waiting for me to check the items, so I examined the Crescent-Moon Weight first in the trade window.
*
————
Ancient Dragon-Slaying Crescent-Moon Weight.
Grade: Legendary.
Base Effect: Attack Power +854.
Additional Effect: +150% damage on vital-point attacks, negates knockback when Parry activates (effect does not apply in PvP)
- Description: The ancient dragon Valua once drove the Chaldea Empire to the brink of destruction. This Crescent-Moon Weight is said to have been used by the Dancer who slew Valua.
————
*
It was such an incredible weapon that even its description read like a record of achievements.
Accept.
Accept.
Before I knew it, I'd pressed the accept button twice.
The 'Confirmed' message disappeared when I pressed Accept again.
I slowly pressed the accept button once more.
My hand was trembling without me realizing it.
The moment I checked the Crescent-Moon Weight, I'd unconsciously pressed the accept button on the trade window.
She'd said she'd give me Unique items, but there was a Legendary-grade item in the trade window that I'd never even imagined.
The instant I saw the Legendary grade, I completely lost my composure.
Was there any reason to waste time checking everything? If someone was giving me gear like this, I should just take it.
I didn't need to check the other items separately—I could instinctively feel they were good items.
I mean, would a ranker really give away items carelessly?
"Rin... you already finished checking everything?"
Seeing Serin like that, Plea wondered if she'd already finished checking the items. But after confirming that Rin had pressed accept in the trade window, she pressed accept herself.
—Trade completed.
As the hologram decorated Serin's vision, Serin let out a small exclamation of admiration.
She'd handed over equipment like that without a moment's hesitation.
Serin opened her equipment window and began swapping in the items she'd received, one by one.
***
Honestly, even Plea's hands trembled at the thought of putting together entire sets rather than giving just one item.
When it came to the Crescent-Moon Weight, a Unique-grade one felt far too cheap compared with the other gear she'd assembled into full sets.
Even for Dancer Class item sets, many people didn't actually choose the Crescent-Moon Weight as their weapon.
So the armor sets were priced almost the same as other classes.
But the Crescent-Moon Weight weapon cost less than half of that.
'Well, it's not like I'm only going to be seeing her for a day or two.'
In the end, she decided to splurge and upgraded the weapon to Legendary when putting the set together.
And now. Plea had handed over all the items.
—Trade completed.
[lolololololololololololol]
[watching her frantically smash the accept button is so fucking funny lmaoooooo]
[wait but if you add it all up isn't that over ten million won? she's just giving that away?]
[fuck give me some too]
[i'm so fucking jealous holy shit asdfgh]
[even if it's cheap for a legendary, that Crescent-Moon Weight alone has to be insanely expensive]
[ever since rin's video blew up, merchants bought up all the legendary+ items so prices went up even more lolololol]
Plea smiled softly as she checked the scrolling chat.
This situation wasn't something she'd intended, and it was a sudden arena duel, but it wasn't bad at all.
The viewer count had already passed 30,000, and if she considered it an expense for the stream, it was actually pretty good.
The user Rin had been generating that much buzz lately. Just uploading a few NewTube videos would probably make this expense trivial.
Across from her, she could see the figure repeatedly enveloped in bursts of light as she swapped equipment piece by piece.
They said clothes made the person, and apparently that held true for game characters too.
'No, but Rin's character is her actual appearance.'
Looking at her again, she still couldn't believe it. That silver hair, those mixed-race features.
Whatever she was doing now, if she became a streamer, it looked easy for her to become just as popular as Plea herself.
No, couldn't she just become a celebrity? That thought even crossed her mind.
Once she'd finished swapping all her equipment, her appearance was completely different from when she'd first entered the Colosseum.
Flowing crimson cloth garments, deep as blood. Even though her whole body was covered, there was something strangely alluring about her appearance.
On top of that, the Legendary-grade Crescent-Moon Weight emitted a faint black glow, and the dancer draped in blood-red cloth looked so natural.
Even though she was clearly a game character, she was so beautiful that she didn't feel like a character at all, and Plea couldn't help but admire her.
"It really suits you perfectly!"
"...Can I really just accept all of this?"
Rin finished checking her appearance, then gave Plea a slightly uneasy look.
"It's fine. You watched the stream, so you might know, but I'm not giving this to you without gaining anything myself."
As she said this, Plea subtly indicated that she was currently streaming.
"Well, then I'll accept it gratefully."
Serin, figuring it didn't matter then, checked the chat window of the stream she'd opened separately when she connected to Another World.
[holy shit what is this lolololololololol]
[Rin, you're killing me!!!]
[Rinnnnnnnnnn]
[why are y'all freaking out over a game character lmaoooooo]
[lolololololololololololol]
[wait but can you share the character customization? she's so fucking pretty fr]
And the moment she saw the chat scrolling without pause, Serin immediately closed the chat window.
Seeing that preparations were done, Plea spoke up.
"So, Rin, how should we set the rules?"
"Rules? Does this arena have something like that?"
"No, I mean, even if I gave you decent equipment, PVP is about 20 percent influenced by gear, right?"
"...So?"
"The equipment I'm wearing is actually Mythic-grade... so I thought maybe I should have some kind of handicap for us to be evenly matched."
"..."
She said this while beaming at me, and there wasn't a single trace of malice in her expression.
Which meant she'd genuinely brought it up purely out of consideration for me.
Realizing that, a laugh escaped me before I knew it.
"If it's about 20 percent, then equipment doesn't influence things as much as I thought."
"...What?"
Looking at Plea, who was asking what I meant, Serin smiled just as 'purely'.
"I mean, let's just do this without any handicaps on either side."