There's No Such Thing as Common Sense

That kind of common sense doesn't exist anywhere. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Plenty of New Dimension users share a common misconception. They believe that since New Dimension is ultimately just a game, the most important thing is knowing when and how to use your skills. But that misunderstanding stems from failing to properly grasp the game's system. In New Dimension, using a skill in an obvious situation only makes it easier for your opponent to read you. In other words, the moments when you don't use skills—when your movements can't be predicted—are far more crucial. And that importance skyrockets in PVP or AOS modes.

How does your opponent move? What are they watching for? What situations are they preparing against? The timing of their skill use, which hand holds their weapon? You have to gather all that information, reassemble it within the framework of combat, and read their thoughts—or you'll lose. Just like right now.

"Hah!" With a battle cry, a golden aura erupted from the heretic's body. It was one of the skills available to heretics, self-proclaimed Blessing. The effect was a massive boost to all stats. Realizing he couldn't escape me, he seemed determined to continue the fight in close quarters. And in that instant, he had already lost.

Someone wielding a warhammer like me naturally needs to close the distance, so if he understood that, he should've turned and run without looking back from the very start. If he'd kept spamming long-range bombardment skills while fleeing, he might've had a slim chance. Of course, I had no intention of letting my guard down until the end. I knew better than anyone that carelessness leads straight to death.

Once I'd closed the distance he couldn't escape, I raised the heavy weight in my right hand toward the sky. It was time for judgment.

Guuuuung!

My old friend the warhammer tore through the air itself without hesitation, advancing to crush every enemy before me. A heavy impact rang out, and a cloud of sand dust billowed upward.

"Hup!" An attack came flying toward my neck from behind. It was sharp for a heretic, but unfortunately, it was an easy read. I tilted my neck to dodge it and swung the warhammer once more.

Kwaaang!

Along with the sharp sound came a heavy sensation. What just happened? I didn't have time to question it. I had to retreat slightly while dodging another follow-up attack beyond the sand cloud.

The dust slowly settled. When the heretic reappeared, he was holding a round shield in his left hand and an arming sword in his right for some reason.

…So that's what it was. By default, you can't swap weapons mid-PVP. But the user settings allow you to remove that restriction, and this heretic had clearly aimed for that. He'd started with a staff to force me into melee, used the fact that warhammers easily kick up sand to block my vision, activated the Backstab skill to slip behind me the moment my sight was obstructed, switched to the arming sword and round shield at the same time, and then followed up with a silent ambush the instant I was caught off guard. It was a clever plan and a clever attack. It was almost a shame that someone this smart had fallen into the path of heresy.

"That's dirty~!"

Yet for some reason, the spectators were all condemning the heretic. Why? In battle, you're supposed to use every tool at your disposal to win. If anything, I wanted to applaud him. Not that I planned on losing to him, of course.

A warhammer can strike from much ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠farther ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠away than an arming sword, but its movements are far slower. Maintaining distance while fighting is nearly impossible. So the way to win was simple.

Acceleration

I activated the Acceleration skill and dove straight into the heretic's guard. While Blessing massively increases all stats, it can't match the raw numbers of buffs that focus on a single stat.

"What?!"

The heretic's movements momentarily dulled, as if he'd expected me to keep my distance. Even so, he thrust his round shield forward. He really did have a solid understanding of PVP. If ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I swung the warhammer like this, the attack would bounce off the shield and the recoil would push me back. So there was only one thing to do.

Don't swing the warhammer.

I twisted my body to fake a swing, tricking him, then slammed straight into the round shield the moment he lowered his stance.

"Ugh?"

The heretic was shoved backward. He tried to regain his balance, but I had no intention of allowing it. Even with an arming sword and round shield, he was still wearing light armor. There was no way he could withstand the combined weight of a warhammer and full plate.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Again and again, without pause, I kept ramming into the round shield. Eventually the heretic's center of gravity collapsed and he fell backward. I immediately swung the warhammer in a wide horizontal arc, sending his round shield flying far away. No matter how tightly he'd been gripping it, there was no way to hold on while off-balance and unable to recover his stance.

"Kgh?!"

But the heretic refused to give up until the very end and swung his arming sword toward my neck. It didn't work, of course.

"Repent."

Clang!

I brought the warhammer down on the heretic's head with all my strength. A clear, crisp sound rang out, and the battle ended.

A perfect victory.

"She was actually really good…"

Marariko stepped out of the reverse capsule and let out a sigh. He'd already known winning would be difficult before the match even started. But the fact that he hadn't landed a single proper attack was a pretty big shock to someone who took pride in his PVP rank. On top of that, his opponent hadn't used any skills besides Acceleration until the very end. That realization made him feel like he'd run into an insurmountable wall.

And now he had to buy twenty burger sets. He had the money, of course, but that didn't mean it didn't sting. Still, if he ran away now, it would obviously damage the image he'd built up so far. Marariko didn't want to further tarnish the already poor reputation of PVP users.

"…Yeah. Well, losing happens."

Being able to admit defeat was what made a true manly gamer. Comforting himself with that thought, Marariko logged into the gallery to post about the burgers.

More than ten comments appeared within ten seconds of the post going up. It showed just how long the regulars had been waiting for this moment.

"That aside…"

While waiting until the thirty-minute mark, Marariko suddenly recalled the PVP match from earlier.

"Repent."

The woman's voice he'd heard right before the warhammer came crashing down. High, clear, and youthful. That languid whisper brushing against his ear definitely hadn't belonged to a man, no matter how many times he replayed it in his head.

"That concept-obsessed weirdo… was a girl?"

He hadn't recorded any footage, so there was no evidence. The replay wouldn't help either since it removed voice chat. In other words, if he brought it up in the gallery, he'd just get laughed at for saying something ridiculous. But no matter how much he thought about it…

"…?"

Then Marariko noticed a familiar floating IP in the comments.

"Ha, damn it."

Yeah. There's no way that crazy bastard was a girl.

"My ears must've glitched for a second after getting completely destroyed."

Marariko let out a hollow laugh and deleted the IP he'd been about to add to the "Excluded IPs" field on the burger raffle. It wasn't because he was afraid of the backlash. Absolutely not.

"Heh heh…"

Today's haul: eleven burger sets. Thanks to that, he could save eleven days' worth of food expenses. Voice chat had been enabled for some reason, but it didn't seem to be a problem. What a jackpot.