Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Venting Frustrations
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The defining feature of the Sky Block map was that standing on the same platform didn't guarantee you could always catch your opponent.
With each player limited to just one rope use, closing the distance also meant they could widen it right back.
If I narrowed the gap by one square against the mage, they could just as easily pull away by one square from me.
In theory, that meant you could keep running forever.
Of course, that would make the game never end, so they added one key variable to mix things up.
Like this—
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Select a card! It didn't cover the whole screen, but three cards of just the right annoying size floated over the skill UI. Each one had a helpful illustration and labels: [Plummet], [Control], [All-Purpose Rope].
I quickly clicked the Control card with my mouse to get it out of my sight.
And without hesitation, I charged straight at the mage.
Ugh, don't get in my way. I'm trying to fight here.
The one-handed sword's strength in PvP lay in its perfect "all-around balance"—no glaring weaknesses anywhere.
Mobility, attack power, defense—all three stats were evenly solid.
But that even spread also meant it had no standout strengths.
Its defense couldn't fully block an attacker's onslaught.
Its mobility couldn't shake a defender.
Its attack power couldn't pin down a mobile foe.
It was the kind of jack-of-all-trades that lost the matchup to every specialized type.
In truth, Ias PvP followed rock-paper-scissors logic, so pulling out this weird in-between gesture was like getting slapped across the face.
Wham!
Whoa, that startled me.
As I closed in on the same platform, the mage—who'd just been spectating until now—finally went on the offensive.
Fireballs came flying my way: one, two, three, four... Geez, so many.
Luckily, they were slow with no homing, so as long as I paid attention, dodging was easy enough.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!
The mage was a textbook ranged attacker.
If you got close, they'd drop an electromagnetic field and flee. If you kept distance, they'd spam fireballs to harass you endlessly.
With the Saintess's soft defense, a few glancing hits would roast her alive, so every single one had to be dodged.
It was an unfair fight: hard to approach, and even harder once you did.
Still, what in life was ever easy? The world was just one big chain of injustices anyway.
Screaming "This is too much!" wouldn't change a thing—no one would listen.
Modern Korea's so-called humanity? People wouldn't lift a finger to help; they'd sooner badmouth the successful ones behind their backs while scrambling for their own cut.
Even if help came, if it crossed gender lines, you'd have to prove no ulterior motives first just to get a hand extended.
Living in a world like that, what was so bad about lobbing a few fireballs from afar that could kill?
Smack!
...Damn, zoning out again, you idiot.
Focus...
Ugh... My stomach hurts...
Even if the mage specialized in ranged harassment, space was limited on this narrow platform.
It wasn't tiny, but it wasn't spacious either.
Boom! Boom!
After dodging countless fireballs—I'd lost count—my mad dash finally brought the mage's doll into view.
Red hair, outfit mixing black and red. Hmm... What do you call that, martial robes?
Didn't really suit a mage... Oh, right, their team was Heavenly Demon God Cult.
Wouldn't it have fit better if they'd gone martial artist instead?
Even yelling "Supremacy of the Heavenly Demon!" during dashes would nail the concept perfectly. Kinda disappointing—
Smack!!
"Eek..."
The platform was cramped, making it hard to create distance, but the mage still had their rope to escape.
Of course, that'd mean ceding territory to us, but survival trumped that.
No reason for a ranged class to fight up close.
The moment distance closed, just safely rope back out.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Saintess Nice has activated the Control Card in D4 zone. ⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ All entry and exit to D4 zone is temporarily restricted. (30 sec) But I had no intention of just watching that happen.
The Control card's effect blocked all entry or exit from the zone I was in for a set time.
For the next 30 seconds, that mage couldn't rope out of this zone, and no one else could come in to help.
In essence, I'd slapped a no-entry sign on that cultist mage.
Wham!
Of course, it didn't stop movement skills entirely, so I still had to chase the annoying fireball-spamming mage around.
Man, this is getting frustrating... How do I take this jerk down?
...The platform's small, so it's not impossible.
[Hah!]
To test the waters, I burned a dash to close the gap without holding back.
.....!
The mage visibly panicked, then placed a hand crackling with blue electricity on the platform.
The moment I saw it, I reflexively deployed my divine shield.
Crackle-crackle-crack!
[Hot!]
"Goddess's Shield" ⟨ Prayer: Divine Shield ⟩
Thankfully, the Goddess's holy shield protected the fragile Saintess's body from the currents rippling across the floor before they could reach her.
Mages are such cheats with that thing... That damn electromagnetic field.
Flash!
From close range, you had to approach to attack, but once you did, they'd blast the field and teleport away, leaving you chasing shadows like a dog after a chicken.
Wham!
And with stun on top of the field effect, they'd follow up with fireballs for a ridiculous combo.
How do they run a tournament without nerfing a class like this? What were they thinking?
Though, a Saintess with a short-cooldown conditional invincibility skill as a basic probably shouldn't complain.
Control Card Duration: 20 sec Ten seconds had passed in that exchange. They'd teleported away again, resetting us to square one.
They'd used their field; I'd used my shield. Skill cooldowns were even.
Damn, if I half-ass this catch, I'll never get 'em.
Bloodlust had spurred her body into action, but with the situation not ideal, Min-ji quickly regained her composure.
No matter how furious she felt or how badly she wanted to vent, thoughts of that shiny custom PC calmed her down.
"Hoo..."
The mage's harassment kit had three moves.
Fireball 1 (Hellfire), Fireball 2 (Blazing Orb), Fireball 3 (Flame Burst).
Fireball 1 was the nastiest—grazing it alone could leave you near death with its brutal damage.
It was slow enough to dodge easily, but with 2s and 3s alternating, it got confusing.
Some fast, some slow, some in between.
Different sizes, shapes, numbers, but identical casts made it a nightmare to track.
Time to cut losses.
No way I'd catch them dodging everything in 20 seconds.
Being ranged skills, fireballs took a moment to reach.
So the mage predicted my movement and fired preemptively.
Retreating? They'd aim behind. Charging? Up front.
Pre-calculating and lobbing accordingly.
To dodge, I'd have to halt briefly.
Let's see... Can't take a 1... A 3 should be fine.
Not instant death anyway.
Not textbook, but trading bone for flesh seemed viable enough.
...Or was it flesh for bone?
Whatever.
Control Card Duration: 17 sec Seventeen seconds until the Control ended.
I had to settle this somehow within that window.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Yeom Su-min (not his real name), Guild Master Heavenly Demon of the Heavenly Demon God Cult guild, was in a foul mood right now.
They'd entered this tournament to spread the cult's prestige across the world.
But that heretic cult wench—the Saintess—was rampaging like a wild foal, humiliating his Supreme One (mage).
"Supreme One, shall I assist?"
"No need. I'll handle this. Hurry and expand our forces to crush the enemy's morale."
"As you command."
Yes, the Heavenly Demon God Cult didn't just customize appearances—they nailed the speech patterns too. The real deal.
If Min-ji had seen, she'd have clapped standing, muttering "Wow, they really commit." But no way to eavesdrop on other teams' voice chat.
So their antics stayed buried.
Unless they beat Nice Squad and reached finals, exposing their voice lines to the world.
Frankly, grown men LARPing like that would be a laughingstock if leaked—
They owed Min-ji a debt of gratitude, really.
Though for now, she was just the enemy since they hadn't lost yet.
"That vile Kunlun hag..."
Her pitch-black skin hid any facial features, bald head without a single hair.
That vulgar figure—ugly no matter how you spun it.
Yeom Su-min had tried burning the freak away, but her movements were no joke, dragging it into a prolonged fight.
No matter. Her lightness skill is godly, preventing a quick win, but the Supreme One holds the advantage.
It was true.
With rope uses left, no need for Yeom to overextend.
Control Card Duration: 17 sec The sealing array lasts less than four breaths. Just endure, and victory's mine.
She'd wasted a precious divine relic (card).
Hold out a bit, then rope to allies with her conserved relic and flank the other side—
Victory was assured.
Arrogant wench. Admirable courage to target the Supreme One first, but a fatal misstep.
Of course, if Min-ji heard those inner thoughts, she'd marvel "Even his internal monologue sticks to the bit."
Her real plan hadn't even started, so she'd snort "Why's he acting like he already won?"
"...Huh?"
But truth be told, Min-ji had no real retort—
What the hell is that maniac doing...!
Did charging while selectively tanking lethal vs. non-lethal hits to minimize damage even count as a "plan"?
Wham! Wham!
As the Supreme One (mage) unleashed killing blows (skills), Yeom watched her force through the barrage. A sinister smile crept across his face.
Now that's different. Think you can face the Supreme One after burning that much qi (HP)?
The Kunlun wretch's (Saintess's) frail class would ascend to paradise from a mere graze of the Supreme One's true strikes. Utter folly.
[Hmph!]
Her reckless charge closed the gap, but at the cost of hits—their remaining qi gap was massive.
Yeom could tank a couple; Min-ji couldn't afford even one.
As the heretic closed to point-blank, Yeom gathered inner power and slammed it into the platform.
Supremacy of the Heavenly Demon! (Electromagnetic Field)
Cooldown up on the mage class's close-range move: electromagnetic field.
Crackle-crack!
Currents surged toward the Saintess—but
Flash!
Reacting again!
The Saintess blocked with her divine shield like it was nothing.
And simultaneously—
Stab!
"Grk...!"
A thrust landed.
HP gap still huge, so he had margin, but he'd taken a hit regardless.
This bitch...!
A vein popped in the head of the nutcase who truly believed himself the cult's Supreme One—
The mage loaded Hellfire and blasted it point-blank at the Saintess.
Far deadlier up close than from range.
Flash!
In an instant, she'd dashed behind the mage.
Stab!
And again.
"W-Wait, shit—"
Only then did Yeom realize something was off.
Until now, he'd been on the offensive; she'd been on the defensive—
How'd it flip like this?
But contrary to Yeom's delusion, of all the spells he'd flung, few had truly landed on Min-ji.
Except the ones she'd "deliberately taken."
The skill gap was that wide.
And in the midst of it, his arrogance—"Her HP's low anyway, so letting her close in is fine"—had cost him dearly.
Much like the typical fates of Heavenly Demons in wuxia novels.
The one difference? Those were usually skilled; this one was just a poser.
"W-Wait. Sh-Shit, rope, rope!"
Concept shattered, Yeom panicked to switch platforms—but
Stab!
All that followed was the sound of blade piercing flesh.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Ugh, that was exhausting."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Saintess Nice has eliminated Yeom Su-min! Still, it felt good to vent a little.