Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Music Heals Everything
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Music heals everything.
I'd guess that Ias must have put endless effort into turning this PVP content into one of the game's signature features.
Otherwise, why would a minor content have so many diverse maps and functions crammed into it?
Of course, it looked like they were originally pushing annihilation battles harder than straight-up duels.
Just looking at the map types, there were overwhelmingly more for annihilation than for duels.
— Gallery User Please don't make this shitty stuff and just focus on raids. — Gallery User Did these devs suddenly catch WoW fever? If you're gonna do PVP, I'm fucking out. — Gallery User Don't waste the money users gave you on bullshit. Reinvest in normal content, please. Well... after eating a full year's worth of shit-talking in just one month, they bowed their heads and officially promised to focus on raid content development.
Still, all that development time wasn't wasted, so annihilation battles remained packed with diverse battlefields and features compared to duels.
And among them, the 'Circular Arena' map had a completely unique characteristic unlike any other.
That was...
⚙ DONATION ⚙ Anonymous donated 1,000 won! — Viewer Doing circular? Scary scary — Viewer Confident? Scary — Viewer Lots of PVP users here — Viewer Isn't this a bully map? — Viewer What kind of map is this? — Viewer Don't speak in code only you guys know, explain it, fuck The Circular Arena was a map that played out in a 1v1 tag match format.
Unlike standard 3v3 annihilation, it meant victory or defeat would be decided by individual skill.
⚙ DONATION ⚙ Anonymous donated 1,000 won! — Viewer Doesn't this put us at a disadvantage? They have two Masters. Well, normies might think, "They're higher tier, why pick a physical skill map? That's retarded..."
[Saintess Nice: Saintess/Tambourine]
[Eder: Berserker / Electric Guitar]
[Suha Yam: Bard / Lyre]
Common sense: you think we picked this map without considering that?
⚙ DONATION ⚙ Anonymous donated 5,000 won! — Viewer What the fuck, are you guys putting on a concert? Anyway,
"Everyone, please be quiet."
"...Huh?"
— Viewer ? — Viewer ? — Viewer ? "Noise during the performance may result in ejection."
["Oppa, just ignore her. Saintess-nim does this a lot."]
— Viewer Performance bullshit lol — Viewer Sticking to the concept again — Viewer Better than that counselor concept — Viewer What crazy shit is this bitch planning now — Viewer Fine for her, but Eder and Suha agreeing to this is funnier lol Right now, in this moment, I was the conductor.
This Circular Arena was the heart of the orchestra.
The harmony created by me and my teammates would soon become the triumphant march of victory!
⚙ DONATION ⚙ Anonymous donated 5,000 won! — Viewer Crazy bitch FIRST Saintess Nice VS Premeno Weakling Seat Demolisher — Freedom (Party) What the? — Freedom (Party) Instruments wtf lol "Huh?"
Lee Young-jun couldn't hide his bewilderment upon checking the weapons equipped by the opposing team.
Most of what they brought as "weapons" were Easter egg items made for music performance content.
Hell, could you even call those things weapons in the first place?
— Raid Demon Iron Gang (Party) Bard lyre is normal at least — Raid Demon Iron Gang (Party) But Saintess and Berserker with tambourine and guitar? What lol In Ias, they were categorized under weapons, but no one in the world seriously thought tambourines and guitars were actual weapons.
— Freedom (Party) Still, be careful with those — Freedom (Party) Tambourine basic attacks stiffen on hit — Freedom (Party) Mess up and you could fall to your death "Be careful?"
With that?
Lee Young-jun was well aware of the stories surrounding Saintess Nice's tambourine.
If you hung out in the Ias gallery, there was no way you hadn't heard them.
On the day of Saintess Nice's PVP stream, the gallery's pinned posts were plastered with nothing but Saintess Nice threads.
Not only that, but for a brief time, users bringing instruments to duels spiked.
No need to explain further how big the impact was.
And Lee Young-jun—
"Anyone who loses to that crap has to be retarded, right?"
—genuinely despised the 20 players who had fallen victim to her.
White Dragon Pavilion had an instrument too, and it wasn't serious, so a draw was understandable.
But what the hell were the rest doing to get completely owned by such a baseless build?
He could take down idiots like that too.
"Why is my stream tanking...!"
Your stream is doing fine, though?
— Me (Party) I'll take vanguard Overcome by surging inferiority, Lee Young-jun volunteered for vanguard.
He planned to smash Saintess right now and vent this sticky, dark feeling.
The Circular Arena was a 1v1 tag match that only ended after downing all three opponents.
Who took vanguard—who seized momentum first—was the most crucial factor.
— Freedom (Party) OK OK — Raid Demon Iron Gang (Party) What's with the enthusiasm lol His team lead, thinking it was just a practice match, readily put him up front.
FIRST Saintess Nice: Saintess/Tambourine VS Premeno Weakling Seat Demolisher: Fighter/Knuckles Once loading finished, the screen showed the map's namesake: a circular arena.
A vast round battlefield, surrounded by an abyss so deep the bottom was invisible.
One misstep, and you'd plummet into endless darkness—a space built solely for combat.
— Freedom (Party) Watch for falls Falling to death.
The Circular Arena's unique trait, and its most vital core mechanic.
No matter the HP gap or effective hits landed,
one mistake sending you off the map meant instant death and defeat.
At the same time, it was the only way weapons dealing 1 damage—like instruments—could aim for victory.
— Freedom (Party) That guy's got instrument, just avoid falls and won't lose "I know! Who do you think I am...?"
Despite his team lead's advice, Lee Young-jun snapped irritably.
The silver lining: they weren't on voice chat right now.
Knowing they couldn't hear, he freely spewed curses laced with swears.
Even knowing that, using profanity so casually toward teammates meant—
Lee Young-jun was excessively hyped up at the moment.
⚙ SYSTEM ⚙ 3... 2... 1... Start the battle! As the countdown ended, the iron bars caging the fighter and saintess slowly rose.
The rest of the team stayed locked in their cages.
The doors wouldn't open until one of the two fell.
The moment he burst out of the cage, Lee Young-jun dashed at Saintess with his movement skill.
His class was fighter.
Excelling in nimble mobility and fast attack speed, but knuckles' pitiful range was a disadvantage in this circular arena.
If the opponent poked from afar with skills, it'd be bad—but Saintess had a tambourine, no skills possible.
"Die, you little shit."
Once he closed the gap, all Saintess could do was eat knuckles to the face.
The instant before his fist smashed into Saintess's face, he smirked triumphantly.
Fighters in PVP boasted infamous infinite combos.
The moment you got hit once, it was over.
Ting♪
"...Ting?"
Not a thud, but ting.
Didn't sound like a knuckle hit, did it?
[Gah!]
And Saintess class was fixed female gender,
so why was the hit sound a guy's voice?
Ting♪ Ting♪ Ting♪ Ting♪
[Urk!]
What? Sound bug?
Five times in a row? Not once?
Typical trash game—couldn't even fix bugs like this.
Yeah, Ias was a trash game after all.
"Fuck this trash game!"
Clearly landing the first hit, yet his character got smacked by the tambourine.
— Freedom (Party) Whoa fuck — Freedom (Party) Thought he was falling And that tambourine—why such a long stun? Nearly fell off the cliff.
A tiny bit more pushback, and it'd have been a fall death for sure.
[Hup!]
Downed near the abyss was too risky.
Judging so, Lee Young-jun used his wakeup move and warily watched Saintess's next action.
"Okay... stay calm, Lee Young-jun. Got too hyped."
Just stay calm, and no way he'd lose to that—
"Huh?"
Saintess, who'd only defended until now, suddenly charged with a movement skill.
Cooldown on wakeup—he figured she'd go all-in now?
"Retard?"
Against Ias's top-tier attack speed fighter, that choice was suicide.
Saintess rushed right up in a flash,
Lee Young-jun reflexively threw a punch.
Among fighter skills, the fastest cast: Breaking Iron Fist.
He was sure this time he'd plant his fist in that disgusting character's face.
And—
Ting♪
What reached Lee Young-jun's ears wasn't the crunch of shattering bone.
It was that hated tambourine sound again.
"No fuck why again!"
Ting♪ Ting♪ Ting♪ Ting♪
The moment Saintess approached, he landed a perfect counter with Breaking Iron Fist.
Definitely— so why was he the one hit again?
Of course, his teammates kindly explained.
— Freedom (Party) Oh right, watch that — Freedom (Party) Tambourine basic has priority, can cancel basic + dash — Raid Demon Iron Gang (Party) Why the fuck do they have dash cancel on tambourine? — Freedom (Party) Dunno "Can...?"
Ias had one quirky technique.
Input movement right after a skill to briefly extend range—the so-called 'dash cancel'.
Why it worked on tambourines, who knows—but it explained what just happened.
"Then I'll just dash cancel in too."
If both dash canceled, knuckles' superior speed would likely win the clash.
"And..."
After eating ten hits already, he'd learned: the tambourine made a faint jingle right before attacking.
Skill at that jingle moment = perfect counter this time.
— Freedom (Party) Wakeup on cooldown I guess — Freedom (Party) Didn't fall somehow scary — Raid Demon Iron Gang (Party) One more hit and he'll drop Tearing his eyes from the chat—now basically commentary—Lee Young-jun focused all senses on his ears.
To never miss that tambourine jingle.
And what reached those ears was...
Screee♪ Ziiing! ♫
Ding ding ding~ ♫
The screeching electric guitar and the lyre's soft melody.
"Fuck, can't hear it!"
Suha and Eder, waiting in their cages, had their performance sounds perfectly ruining his audio cues.
And what followed was,
Ting♪
The cheerful tambourine,
and
[Aaaargh!]
the fighter's wretched scream plummeting to the abyss.
⚔ VICTORY ⚔ Saintess Nice Wins! [1] [VS] [0] "N-no fuck... it's tag match... d-don't interfere, right? And why can you play instruments in the cage?"
T-this... c-cheating... right?
The Saintess who'd shoved him off the cliff quietly walked to the arena center.
She set her weapon down briefly and looked toward where he was beyond the monitor.
Then she stepped one foot back and bowed deeply.
Like a conductor greeting the audience after the finale.
Saintess Nice (All): La musica guarisce tutto... — Freedom (All) ?? — Raid Demon Iron Gang (All) What does that mean? — Suha Yam (All) Sorry sorry sorry sorry. — Suha Yam (All) Just ignore it! — Eder (All) Accidental all-chat! Ignore please! Watching that, Lee Young-jun's patience finally hit its limit.
"Fuuuuck!"
Bam!
The flesh-rending knuckle impact he'd longed for echoed from his keyboard instead.