Easy to the Point of Emptiness (2)

When Taeya first asked to collab, what he'd wanted was a broadcast where the two of us played the Channel side by side while he introduced me. The moment I mentioned I was preparing for Ranked, he flipped the entire direction of the stream.

You can't play Ranked together.

A Placement Test has to judge each person cleanly, so logging in as a pre-made team from the outside is forbidden. Otherwise anyone could cook their rating by leeching points under a stronger player.

The best result Ranked will ordinarily give you is high-tier Iron.

The placement itself still reads Iron, but high-tier Iron means one or two more matches will carry you straight into the Bronze promotion series. Even the players who stood at the top of the world had all started at high-tier Iron, and in Korea, Nam Siwoo of K1 was famous for placing at the very peak of it.

Nam Siwoo.

A name it had been a long time since I'd heard. Around now, he would be serving as K1's captain, and as a representative of the Korean national team.

"…Tsk."

I decided not to think about him. Dwell on worthless crap like that right before something important, and it gets far too easy to botch the work in front of you.

The message surfaced, and light swallowed me whole, bringing with it that particular sensation. The ground dropped out beneath my feet, and the world rearranged itself in an instant.

The dark peeled away, and a city steeped in a mystical hush resolved before my eyes. Gothic buildings, and spires that seemed to cup the Milky Way itself, climbed high enough to pierce the sky.

The Magic City, Astria.

This place, too, was a city built for brawls to break out in every direction. As a Survival map, it left nothing to be desired.

"Hoo…! Let's do this!"

"Finally — the Placement Test!"

People were being summoned in around me, more by the moment. It was a placement, and it showed: every face was packed tight with excitement and nerves.

"Agh — you startled me."

Linking Taeya's broadcast meant the chat was visible on my end too. I couldn't hear him, but out there he was surely calling the match live.

Which means I really ought to show them something, shouldn't I?

As it happened, I knew one thing about this map. Not a hidden quest — just one that hadn't been found yet. Unlike last time, though, this wasn't something you picked up before the start. You had to stack at least ten kills first.

So, before anything else.

A demonstration of skill.

The place was filling, and the start drew near. I settled the massive war hammer across my shoulder and drew from my pocket the thing I'd brought along.

Candy I'd bought before coming here.

"Before a match that actually matters, I chew a piece of candy. Call it a routine."

My body no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠longer needed to crunch mana capsules. Even so, before a fight, it still craved this sensation. I set a piece on my tongue and bit down — crunch — and crushed it flat.

The Ranked Placement Test. It had begun.

The instant it started, attacks came in from every side. Arrows first, then magic, javelins, daggers — and warriors charging in to take me up close.

The moment I looked like I was in trouble, the chat turned on a dime. And they weren't wrong, exactly. Start a solo Survival ringed by enemies, and you die fast.

Flip that around, though—

It also means the kills are that much easier to scoop up!

I took the hammer in both hands.

Tzzzzzt — a violet barrier unfurled around me. The air in the whole stretch went heavy in a single breath, and it crushed down on every other player inside the field.

"Wh-what the—!"

"My body's so heavy…!"

"Grrrk?!"

Dropped without warning into a gravity prison, they crumpled in panic. The arrows and weapons streaking for me, of course, all crashed into the ground just short of arriving.

"It's my skill. I can make the gravity around me stronger."

I explained it plainly, for the viewers who would be lost.

"Ah. That part doesn't matter."

Inside the deepened gravity, I sprang forward light as anything, purely so they could see it.

"I can move just fine!"

The weight did the work for me. A mere tap of my foot against the ground blew out into a heavy tremor, and I took that force and swung it.

"Hup!"

The war hammer.

"W-wait!"

I drove the blow with everything I had into the warrior already gasping under the weight. Mana ran in a fine thread from around my heart all the way out to my fingertips. And laid over that—

A monstrous boom, and his whole body was launched away, as if a freight truck had taken him head-on.

One shot. One kill.

The same kind of blow that had shattered the training room's specially reinforced plates. On top of that, my stats had long since left an ordinary level 10 behind. In a place like this—

"I couldn't lose even if I tried."

I turned with an easy smile, and a player or two were staggering back to their feet.

"Nnngh…! Is my body this heavy because of that guy…!"

"Hoooo!"

They were starting to adapt to Gravity Field. Unless I shrank the range and forced the output up, gravity of this degree was something players — superhuman as they were — could move through once the adjustment finished. For now, it was still only D-grade.

Not that that meant they could beat me.

I slipped a bolt of magic with nothing to spare in the motion, cut around to the flank, and cleared the three mages in the rear all at once. Boom, crash, crash — every time ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the hammer came down, the ground shook as if an earthquake had rolled through.

"You bastard!"

One swordsman triggered a skill and lunged, an attempt, such as it was, to catch me in a gap.

"You think that's going to be enough?"

A flimsy slip of a blade. Before a hammer that size, it was nothing but paper.

The hammer tore a violet arc, and the sword shattered whole.

"Huh…?"

"Thank you for your ser—"

I caught the dumbfounded swordsman by the neck.

"—vice!"

And drove him straight down with everything I had. The ground cratered, and his eyes rolled white.

"Gaaaaah…!"

The strength ran out of him, and he scattered into a drift of light.

Five players, in under a minute. I dusted off my hands and straightened.

"Ah… aaaah…!"

"M-monster!"

All around me, players flinched back in open horror, shuffling away a step at a time.

Why is everyone leaving me all alone?

If they won't come to me, there's nothing for it.

"Come give me a hug."

I'd just have to go to them.

Clearing out that whole crowd by myself didn't even take ten minutes.

"This side's all cleaned up."

Honestly, even I was past what I'd expected. The constitution took blows that were already heavy and fast and amplified their destructive force on top of that, and players at this level had become simple to handle.

"Anyway. Right about now…"

I tipped my head back. Overhead, a vast crimson magic circle was slowly knitting itself together.

"First up is Flame."

This map, the Magic City Astria, had a special gimmick. At set intervals, enormous magic poured down over the entire field — Flame, Lightning, or Tempest. To weather it, you stepped into the safe zones that formed around the spires standing all across the map. Not just any spire. The zone appeared only around the one engraved with the constellation of the matching element.

This round was Flame, so the sensible move was the spire marked with a flame. I went the other way entirely.

What waited at the end of my steps was the spire marked with a tempest.

"A special piece of information, just for everyone who came to watch today's stream."

I grinned and set my hand on the spire.

"Be the first in Astria to reach ten kills, then touch a spire engraved with a constellation that doesn't match the magic coming down, and…"

"…you can receive a quest."

It wasn't a hidden quest, so the reward wasn't as fat as last time. Even so, a guaranteed 500 Credits and an item was staggering information all on its own.

Fwaaat — the moment I accepted it, blue spheres bloomed into being all across the city.

"I'll have to pick those up and rack up kills while I'm at it."

Drawing Astria was lucky in more ways than one. There was an undiscovered quest, and besides—

Walk into a safe zone, and the players will have kindly bunched themselves up for me!

I poured mana into my legs and kicked off with everything I had. Boom — the view opened wide beneath me. A Flame spire stood right beside one of the Soul Flames, and the players who'd arrived first were already tearing into one another.

"Gravity Field."

I intensified the gravity at once and dropped toward them in something closer to a fall than a leap. My hand reached for the Soul Flame, and it rushed straight into my body.

"Soul Flame successfully collected, so—"

Next, obviously—

"—it's kill collection, wouldn't you saaaay!"

Right on cue, the rain of fire ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠began to fall. The players caught in this stretch could no longer step outside.

"Kyahahahaha! This is exactly why I love this map!"

"What the hell is that?! Some maniac— GYAAAAH!"

"AAAAH! Ghk!"

A safe zone, is it?

Bullshit. Why would anywhere I'm standing be safe?

I started sweeping up kills the way a lion starved for days falls on prey. The hammer came down on the earth, and everyone who lost their footing staggered; into that gap I triggered the gravity and began finishing them one by one.

"S-stop that thing!"

"Is that guy really level 10?!"

A bleak little scene did unfold, in the end — several of them banding together to swing at me alone. It never became so much as a sliver of a threat.

"My body's too heavy…!"

"Grrrrgh!"

"Kehk!"

A little soothing from the hammer, and every one of them turned into my points. Their tear-jerking spirit of sacrifice moved me so deeply I could hardly keep from wailing.

"Keheheheheh!"

Still, better a man laughing than a man in tears.

Once that long stretch of kills practically duplicating themselves had run its course, right around the time the flame rain beyond the safe zone let up—

"This spot's about wrapped up too."

Not a single living, breathing thing remained there but me.

I gave the chat a casual once-over, then looked around. A fresh Soul Flame happened to be in sight. I smacked my lips.

"This time, I'll head over there."

Despite every plea they threw up, my hammer did not stop.

The result.

The first match of the Ranked Placement Test ended there, in a record: half of every player who had entered, swept away by me alone.