The Arena of Honorable Combat (9)
There was no upset in the rematch against Nok Amata.
Perhaps because he had taken some time to rest, Amata came at Myeong-yun even sharper than in their previous encounter. Yet the result remained unchanged.
Myeong-yun repaid the true warrior’s spirit Amata had shown him with martial arts worthy of that display.
Faced with a profound mystery that transcended the very concept of ‘martial arts,’ Amata collapsed with a smile on his face.
And so, without allowing a single defeat or even a single clean hit against him, Myeong-yun achieved the feat of becoming the world’s first player to reach 100 consecutive wins in For Honor.
Countless congratulations and praises poured in from every direction.
Mission: 100 Consecutive Wins
▶NewbieLifeInTheDivineCultStartingFromTheBottom: I was foolish to think this was a safe investment. Please continue to show us great things in the future! Congratulations!
In a single moment, the donations alone easily surpassed ten million won. And that wasn’t even counting the mission completion reward.
Myeong-yun was honestly a little stunned by the enormous sums. Did everyone really have that much money to throw around?
“Thank you, everyone. I shall express my proper gratitude for the donations once the broadcast ends.”
Having said that, he was about to wrap up For Honor when—
Suddenly, a majestic background music he had never heard before began to play.
The sound of countless trumpets and pounding drums.
As the triumphant melody that seemed to celebrate a hero’s return played, Myeong-yun turned around. There, a path covered in a red carpet had appeared at some point.
“Hmm?”
The blatantly obvious red carpet seemed to be inviting him forward. Myeong-yun clasped his hands behind his back and began walking slowly.
As he walked, countless afterimages rose on both sides of the path.
They were the figures of every opponent he had defeated so far.
The viewers were stunned.
Just what was going on?
The developers were way too perverted.
How could they have known that someone would actually achieve 100 consecutive wins in unlimited combat and prepared something like this?
“…The end is in sight.”
Myeong-yun continued walking, leisurely taking in the spectacle, until he reached the end of the red carpet. There stood a single altar encircled by massive pillars.
At the center of it was an old man draped in a golden cloak.
As Myeong-yun drew closer, the old man opened his mouth.
“The one who has seized the honor of honor has finally arrived… A king of the last remaining speck of land on this earth has been born…”
“I have waited a long, long time for someone like you. Someone who would dance the final dance with me…”
The moment the old man finished speaking, a mission completion alert appeared before Myeong-yun’s eyes.
Achievement: Master of Honor
— Achieve 100 consecutive wins in Normal, Ranked, and Unlimited combat without quitting the game even once.
It was an absurdly difficult achievement.
One hundred consecutive wins without ever closing the game.
It was practically impossible.
No matter how iron-willed a person was, humans eventually wore down.
A single mistake or loss would reset everything.
It was hard to believe this was an achievement actually designed for humans to clear.
“Final dance?”
“The comrades who set out for the sea never returned. The only island that may remain on this earth… that place is Honor.”
The old man ignored Myeong-yun’s question and continued speaking as if following a script. He seemed to be an NPC with pre-written dialogue rather than true artificial intelligence.
“In the arena of Honor, the only ones to have reached the great feat of one hundred consecutive wins are you and I. Therefore, let us dance the final dance. Let us test our skills against each other!”
The old man grabbed his cloak, tore it off, and hurled it high into the air.
At the same time, his previously frail body swelled into a hulking mass of muscle, growing a full head taller than Myeong-yun.
“This is a sacred altar where only the Master of Honor may stand. Challenge! Struggle! For honor is everything, I am honor, and honor is me!”
“Oh?”
“Warrior who achieved one hundred consecutive wins in the arena of Honor, prove that you are the true strongest! What stands before you is the honor of the past—!!”
The rate at which those muscles had expanded was unbelievable for someone who had looked so frail just moments ago.
Was there such a demonic art—? As Myeong-yun searched his memories, the old man roared once more.
“Skull Crusher! Knight Slayer! Arch-nemesis of the Vikings! I, Fortis, am your final foe!”
The final boss of the online 1v1 PVP game For Honor was none other than Fortis, the tutorial character who had guided countless warriors.
For Honor was a pure physical skill game.
The virtual body’s physical abilities were based on the player’s real-life physical abilities.
Moreover, unlike other games, For Honor had no stat enhancement elements, so pure physical ability alone decided victory or defeat.
And yet they had designed a muscle monster over two meters tall for players to defeat with nothing but human physicality?
No matter how good one’s technique was, weight classes could not be ignored.
In that sense, the Fortis before him looked like he easily exceeded two hundred kilograms. Even for Myeong-yun, it seemed questionable whether it was possible.
Amid the viewers’ worried chatter, the corners of Myeong-yun’s mouth slowly curved upward.
“My body has finally warmed up properly. How fortunate.”
* * *
“Wow, Fortis actually showed up!! One hundred wins was already insane, but Fortis appeared!!”
The developers at Labisoft had gathered in the conference room and had been watching Myeong-yun’s broadcast for a little over two hours ever since his 100-win challenge began.
“This is an unprecedented record! His physical ability is astonishing, but he’s also the first person in the years since the game’s launch to face Fortis’s ‘true form’!”
“Heavenly Demon Descent! Ten Thousand Demons Prostrate! Heavenly Demon Descent! Ten Thousand Demons Prostrate!”
“Oh! Mitchell! You’ve finally become a true member of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult!”
“Heavenly Demon Reigns! Divine Cult Invincible! Heavenly Demon Immortal! Divine Cult Unrivaled!”
The slogan of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult echoed through a foreign game company’s office.
But it was understandable. Fortis, the hidden boss unlocked after one hundred consecutive wins, was something the developers had added while wondering if anyone would ever actually achieve it.
According to the development team’s predictions, the probability of Fortis appearing as a boss was less than 0.001 percent.
It was the kind of easter egg that sometimes took decades to be discovered.
That was exactly how Labisoft had viewed Fortis.
After all, ‘one hundred consecutive wins without quitting the game’ was an achievement so close to impossible.
“Heavenly Demon Descent! Ten Thousand Demons Prostrate!”
“Heavenly Demon Descent! Ten Thousand Demons Prostrate!”
The developers shouted the Korean phrases without even knowing what they meant, simply copying the sounds.
“Everyone, stop! It looks like the most important battle against Fortis is about to begin!”
“Oh! Let’s put the worship on hold for a moment! I absolutely must witness with my own eyes the moment he defeats Fortis!”
“But can he really defeat Fortis? Fortis’s specs are at a superhuman level.”
Fortis was an ultra-high-tier combat AI created by Labisoft.
He was twice as fast and twice as strong as the ‘War God’ puppet provided by default in New World.
Built on combat data accumulated in For Honor, Fortis excelled in both physical ability and martial technique.
Even if you brought a martial arts champion before him, they would not be able to win.
That was how unreasonably he had been designed.
“…Perhaps.”
“Maybe it really is possible!”
But the Heavenly Demon—Myeong-yun—made them hold onto that faint hope of ‘maybe.’
And now, the battle between the Heavenly Demon, Myeong-yun, and the legend of Honor, Fortis, had just begun.
* * *
“For Honor—!!”
Fortis charged at Myeong-yun while shouting the familiar phrase.
There was no weapon in his hands, but his enormous fists were weapons in themselves.
A single punch was no different from a mace.
Myeong-yun lightly stepped using footwork to evade Fortis’s fist.
Every time the fist swung, it sounded like an axe cutting through the air.
Terrifying speed and power.
Just the wind pressure from a fist grazing the skin would be enough to make an ordinary person stagger.
‘If Sang-hyun took a hit, his head would shatter instantly.’
Myeong-yun’s standard for an ‘ordinary person’ was based on Lee Sang-hyun.
After all, the only faces he saw regularly were his parents’ and Sang-hyun’s.
“Clash with me! If you are a true warrior, then compete with me and seize honor!”
“What nonsense.”
The viewers watched the newly begun battle between Fortis and Myeong-yun with sweaty palms.
Although the chat was lighthearted, everyone wanted Myeong-yun to defeat Fortis more than anyone else.
Because Myeong-yun alone was showing them a new world that no one had ever seen before.
At some point, the number of viewers had reached one hundred thousand.
Thanks to Labisoft’s official account quoting Myeong-yun’s stream, the influx of foreign viewers had exploded.
English chat messages flooded in.
People from all over the world who usually played Labisoft games had gathered.
Everyone had come to watch Myeong-yun’s battle against Fortis.
And so, under the expectant gazes of countless people, Myeong-yun finally began to move.