Chapter 58
Chapter 58.
Arena.
In the circular arena, facing enemies one-on-one.
A map where you cannot leave until you accumulate 10 victories.
The reason this was designated as a competitive map was because 50% of the enemies encountered in the arena were fellow 'Players'.
-People who got stuck in the Bronze Arena today are totally unlucky haha
-As long as you don't get matched with Heavenly Demon, it's fine...
-Who knows? Maybe a player who can beat Heavenly Demon will appear
-It's not even a 1:100 gang-up, how can you beat Heavenly Demon in a 1:1;
Chat messages already worrying about the players who would face Heavenly Demon.
[You are entering the Arena waiting room.]
The usual space for waiting and preparing in towers was the '0th floor'.
But in the arena, it was named the waiting room from the start.
And unlike the 0th floor where he was alone.
"Ugh... what is this."
"Don't tell me that's Heavenly Demon?"
Inside the vast waiting room space.
About thirty players were staying together.
"Please, just don't get matched with Heavenly Demon..."
"Ah, I deliberately entered the tower avoiding Heavenly Demon's playing time...!"
Players showing strong wariness while looking at Lee Ganghan.
It made sense since a monster with a 100% guaranteed defeat rate upon matching had entered.
-Already losing the will to fight
-I'd be like that too haha Feel bad for the person who played avoiding the matching time
-How can you predict that Heavenly Demon's matching time would change after going to America haha
Viewers understand such players.
Then a message appeared before Lee Ganghan.
[Arena matching is in progress.]
[Your arena grade is '1-Star'.]
A golden star appeared on his left chest.
The star attached like a medal was semi-transparent and didn't feel physically heavy.
'1-Star, huh...'
As Lee Ganghan glanced at the star.
"Ah, I'm also 1-Star..."
"Even Heavenly Demon starts at 1-Star if it's his first time."
"Please just let me avoid Heavenly Demon, please..."
Many other players also seemed to be 1-Star.
Looking at Lee Ganghan's star, they were praying not to get matched with him.
-The treatment is too harsh haha Who gave the accessory slot +1
-If you get matched, it's a guaranteed 1 loss haha
-Was it elimination after 5 losses?
-Yeah, you need to secure 5 wins before getting 5 losses, but if you can't even secure 5 wins, your level actually goes down haha
An arena where if you have more losses than wins, you get 0 TP.
Your level also goes down.
If you meet Heavenly Demon by chance and already start with 1 loss accumulated.
It was understandable why players were avoiding him like this.
However, contrary to their wishes.
[Player 'Julian' has been matched as your opponent.]
"Aaaahhh! Why me!"
One out of 30 people.
Eventually got matched with Lee Ganghan.
Julian, a man with blonde hair and blue eyes, grabbed his head in agony.
'Whew...'
'Thank goodness. I didn't get picked.'
'Anyway, someone like Heavenly Demon will win in one go, so we won't get matched after that, right? The battle ending times will be different.'
The surrounding players showed noticeably relieved expressions.
"Good grief."
They're treating me like some kind of plague.
As Lee Ganghan smiled bitterly.
Flash!
His and Julian's bodies were engulfed in light and disappeared from the waiting room.
And soon.
[Battle will begin in 10 seconds.]
In a circular arena with a dirt floor.
The two faced each other in confrontation.
Julian, who seemed to have already lost his fighting spirit after being matched against Lee Ganghan.
Perhaps because they were given 10 seconds.
A blue light barrier was stretched between them in semi-transparent form.
'Honestly, he doesn't seem like a difficult opponent.'
Lee Ganghan briefly looked at his opponent trembling in fear.
Swish.
He looked around.
Since it was called a circular arena, he wondered if they'd be summoned to something like a Colosseum.
"The arena isn't that big."
This would be about half the size of an elementary school playground.
The audience seats also had about 3 tiers.
Not a single spectator was visible.
For something called an arena, it was quite a small size.
-1-Star arenas are originally like this
-When stars increase, the arena gets bigger
-Around 5-Star, there are spectators too haha
So it's a structure where as stars increase, the arena scale grows and spectators appear.
'I need to get more stars.'
As he thought that.
Ding.
[Battle begins.]
Along with the message announcing the start of battle.
The blue barrier disappeared.
Now they're telling us to fight?
When Lee Ganghan was about to approach Julian.
"Defense stance!"
Julian had already taken out a longsword and large shield from his inventory.
He hid his body behind the shield.
Was he planning to block first and see?
Whether he had used a skill, a golden protective barrier also spread around the shield.
'That won't be much of a problem.'
Shield and protective barrier.
Even seeing the two defensive measures, Lee Ganghan wasn't particularly concerned.
If he put his mind to it, he could easily smash them.
The opponent's defense level was far below Lee Ganghan's power.
Rather than that.
'The problem is how to get SSS+.'
SSS+ clear reward that can only be obtained by satisfying special conditions.
Since the arena is also a type of tower, there must be conditions.
But he had no clue at the moment.
'Just subduing the opponent is something anyone would have tried...'
But investigating inside this small arena wouldn't yield much.
"If I go to the spectator seats, is that a ring-out defeat?"
-Yeah, it's a ring-out defeat
-When it's 1-Star, the arena is small so ring-out defeats happen quite often
-1-Star arenas have low spectator seat heights too, so sudden ring-out defeats occur sometimes
The spectator seats surrounding the arena.
With the first tier of spectator seats installed at about 1 meter height.
It would be possible to get bounced into the spectator seats during intense fighting.
'Then there's no point in me going out to search the arena...'
Swish.
Lee Ganghan approached Julian.
Grab!
He grabbed his neck.
"Guh, guhhhh...!"
The defensive stance's protective barrier disappeared as if it had never existed.
Julian was caught by Lee Ganghan just like that.
'What, what? Where did my barrier go...!'
He knew there was an extreme difference in power.
But to disappear with just one gesture...!
As Julian, who had fallen into panic, tried to move around.
"Farewell."
Swoosh!
Lee Ganghan lifted him and threw him directly into the spectator seats.
Then.
"Aaaahhh...!"
Flailing his arms and legs in the air.
Julian fell into the spectator seats just like that.
Right before he completely fell.
Faaaash...!
Light flickered on Julian's body, and his figure disappeared.
-I thought he wouldn't be a match but...
-Well, just a one-hit ring-out defeat haha
-Making Bronze face Heavenly Demon is too cruel
-Still, isn't this considered sending him off cleanly?
Viewers who preferred him throwing cleanly rather than smashing the body like breaking a wall with fists.
He had thrown him to find the SSS+ grade conditions though.
'Hmm. I should try throwing everyone out of the ring in this match.'
As Lee Ganghan made that resolution.
[You have subdued your opponent within 1 minute.]
[You can raise your arena grade. Would you like to raise your grade?]
Whether subduing the opponent in 1 minute was the grade upgrade condition.
Before the second battle was even fought, a message asking if he wanted to raise his grade immediately appeared.
'I should raise it.'
1-Star is too easy, right?
When Lee Ganghan raised his grade like that.
Flash...!
On his left chest.
Another golden star appeared.
Then.
-Huh? Did he raise his grade?
-Ah...
-He shouldn't have raised it...
A unanimous regretful reaction flowed from the viewers.
***
Arena grades.
The grades consisting of 10 levels from 1-Star to 10-Star were famous for being something players tried their best not to raise.
-Why don't they raise it? Each grade increase gives 5% additional experience and TP acquisition
-Yeah, and the defeat probability becomes much higher ^^
-It's important to meet easy opponents and not accumulate losses, not some measly additional buff...
Compared to the difficulty increase felt with each 1-Star rise.
5% was a meager reward level.
So players tried to endure at lower grades as much as possible.
[The player's level does not match the current grade.]
[Arena grade is being raised.]
Only when the system collected the player's combat data and forcibly pulled them up like this.
They reluctantly accepted the grade upgrade.
But contrary to such 'common sense'.
To raise the grade immediately after just 1 victory...
-You shouldn't raise it before forced upgrade sob
-Then strong enemies will appear soon!!!
-You get matched with monsters as well as players, but opponents gradually get stronger;
Viewers who felt sorry for Lee Ganghan's choice within 'common sense' and gave advice.
However,
"Strong enemies, huh..."
Swoosh!
Second match.
"Ugh, aaaahhh...! Why is Heavenly Demon here!!!"
A 2-Star player flew through the sky.
Another star appeared on Lee Ganghan's left chest.
Third match.
"Grrr, grrrrr...!?"
A giant wolf also immediately flew through the sky.
Lee Ganghan's stars became 4.
-Are those strong enemies?
-That giant wolf was something even Silver players struggled with haha
-He just throws them as soon as it starts haha
It was true that strong enemies appeared as the number of stars increased.
But Lee Ganghan was already the 'Record Achiever' of Iron.
No matter how many more stars were added, no matter what strong enemies appeared.
There was no way they could be a match.
'This is too easy.'
Swooosh...!
In the 4th match.
After finally throwing even a giant mud golem into the spectator seats.
Lee Ganghan's stars increased to 5.
Faaaash...!
The 5 stars combined together, becoming one.
"When 5 combine, it becomes substantial."
The star that had been attached in semi-transparent form until now.
But when 5 combined to resynthesize into one star.
Now he could definitely feel its weight and touch the star.
-Straight to 5-Star in just 4 matches haha
-What strong enemies are supposed to appear...
-He's just throwing even a golem that looks 5 meters tall
-You shouldn't worry about Heavenly Demon haha
-At this rate, he'll be 10-Star by the time he hits 10 victories?
You shouldn't worry about Heavenly Demon.
As viewers felt this to the bone.
Swish, swish, swish...
The scenery of the arena where Lee Ganghan stood began to change.
"Oh. Spectators."
As viewers said, the arena grew larger upon reaching 5-Star.
And spectators began appearing one by one in the spectator seats.
"But the spectators... somehow look like ghosts."
Spectators who didn't have proper substance, made of grayish-white smoke clumped together.
The arena had grown larger, increasing the spectator seats too.
But the ghost spectators filling the seats seemed to be less than even 10.
-They originally look like that, yeah. Other 5-Star players also had ghost forms
-But 10 spectators... that's not many
-??? What are you talking about, this is a lot
-For real, normally even at 5-Star, you get 1 or 2 spectators at most haha
10 spectators was considered a lot.
As Lee Ganghan thought 'I see' while looking at the ghost-formed spectators.
Ding.
[You have encountered beings from your affiliated universe.]
[Equipping the 'Title' Record Achiever.]
Such a message appeared before his eyes.
'Universe appears here again?'
During the promotion battle reward.
Lee Ganghan had received an EX-grade evaluation for breaking the existing 1st place record within his affiliated universe.
After that, despite searching for information about the universe, there wasn't much.
He hadn't expected this message to appear before arena spectators.
'But Record Achiever could also be a title?'
Lee Ganghan, who had become the new Record Achiever by defeating the existing Record Achiever, Heracles.
He had just thought this was about getting his name on a line in the Tower of Infinity.
He didn't know it could be used as a 'title'.
Actually, in the first place.
Title equipment and such didn't seem to exist for other players.
'But do I really need to equip a title?'
There's no need to announce first that I'm the new record achiever, right?
Lee Ganghan thought that while looking at the message asking if he wanted to equip the title.
['Record Achiever' cannot hide their title.]
[Title is being equipped.]
Along with the message that Record Achievers must reveal their titles.
Flash...!
Above Lee Ganghan's head.
[Universe 101 - Record Breaker]
Large white light English letters were generated.
-???
-What's that suddenly haha
-Record Breaker means Record Achiever?
-But what's Universe 101?
Looking at the letters that appeared above Lee Ganghan's head.
As viewers wondered.
Murmur, murmur...
Outside the spectator seats.
The spectator seats with only 10 people suddenly became noisy.
Flash! Flash!
Light burst out here and there.
'The spectators... increased?'
The ghosts in the spectator seats began to rapidly multiply.