One Plus One Isn't Two
The chat window dripped with incredulity, and laughter came flooding in from both sides.
If even the bystanders watching from the outside reacted like this, how must the one being so brazenly ignored be feeling? No—not a person, but a god.
"What is the meaning of this?!"
The God of Water's radiant divine form shook violently. A being who had ascended to godhood was unable to contain his passion, trembling from head to toe.
It was only natural. He had offered advice out of genuine concern, only to receive this in return—even a god would be furious.
"Stand up at once!"
"No."
Seyul, sprawled on the ground, shook her head. Even lying there in nothing but rags, pressed flat against the floor, she was beautiful to behold—but neither the God of Water nor the viewers had any leisure to appreciate it.
With her already petite frame, she really did look the part. Thanks to that, the God of Water found himself experiencing a feeling he'd likely never encounter in all eternity—like babysitting a bratty five-year-old.
"I am trying to help you, for your own sake—why do you refuse!"
The God of Water fumed. And then Seyul answered.
"Because if it's my grudge, then it's a problem I have to settle myself."
Such a solemn line, delivered from such an undignified posture, made the God of Water flinch.
"What did you say?"
"If the Orc Chieftain is coming to find me, the reason is obvious. He's coming to avenge the minions I killed, isn't he?"
"That is so."
"Then it's only right that I'm the one who faces him."
Seyul recalled the past, still lying flat on her back. The number of people who had died at her hands in the other world was beyond counting. And of course, those people had families and friends. A few of them had actually come for her life, swearing vengeance. What had Seyul done back then?
She hadn't quietly taken it. But neither had she been able to deal with them by her own hand.
'I pushed it off onto my comrades or subordinates instead.'
Because she'd lacked the courage to do it herself. The tear-streaked, rage-twisted faces of those who came for revenge—their resentment, their explosive emotions—had been more than she could bear. Her strength was plentiful, but her heart was not, so she had borrowed other people's hands.
'Looking back now, all that's left is regret.'
She had no intention of offering her neck just because someone came for vengeance. But neither could she turn her face away. Even if it was dirty work, it had happened because of her own choices. It was something that had to be settled by her own hands!
"Begone. My grudge is a problem I must resolve myself."
"Did you not hear me?! I said that one is beyond what your hands can handle!"
"Don't decide that on your own. Whether I can handle it is for me to determine. And if I can't—what, should I run away? No. I absolutely will not run, and I don't want to!"
Begone.
Seyul put into words a phrase she'd long since lost count of how many times she'd uttered.
"I offer to help and you give me this bullshit! You rotten little madwoman, don't you dare live your life like such trash!"
The God of Water, a god no less, spat out a string of curses, his emotions completely uncontained. He vanished mid-tirade, but none of those watching called him out for it.
A god had made a personal appearance to warn her. He'd even tried to get the game back on track. And in response, he'd been told to buzz off—who exactly was supposed to sympathize with her? The chat was flooded all over again with jokes about her clothes flipping.
But not every opinion was the same.
Huuuuh donated ₩10,000!
AerobicExercise donated ₩3,000!
Viewers who didn't know the game simply sent donations, saying she had vibes. Opposing reactions set the chat window on fire. Blissfully unaware of any of it, Seyul stayed right where she was, lying on the ground—waiting to settle, with her own two hands, the grudge that would soon arrive, just as she'd said.
A short while later—
KU-BOOM! KU-BOOM!
Thunderous reports rang out in succession, as if the heavens and earth themselves were being shaken. Reacting to the sound, Seyul quietly rose to her feet. She turned her gaze toward the side of the forest path and saw that a great commotion had broken out there. The trees that formed the forest were toppling one after another—felled by the hand of someone advancing this way.
A massive frame standing a good two meters tall. A rugged, boar-like visage. A gigantic axe gripped in one hand.
The Orc Chieftain. The early boss of Extreme Difficulty was carving his way toward her, mowing down entire trees with single swings of his great axe.
"Absurd."
The Orc Chieftain faltered slightly when he spotted Seyul watching him without a hint of flight. He had been certain she would run—and instead, she had dared to wait for him. Had she lost her mind? Or was it something else?
"...So you're the one who slew my minions."
Abandoning the question, the Orc Chieftain declared it with certainty. Seyul nodded without a moment's hesitation.
"That's right. It was me. I killed them. So you've come for revenge, then?"
"Correct. I care little what becomes of those wretches, but blood must be paid in blood—that is the law of us orc warriors."
"A fiery law. I like it. Then what are you standing around for? Fight me, instead of talking."
The words were barely out of her mouth before her spear was already leveled.
The vast majority of viewers expected Seyul to lose. The stat gap was simply too extreme. There was no conceivable way she could win; the moment the Orc Chieftain swung that axe, she would die. That was what everyone believed.
"..."
And yet, astonishingly, the Orc Chieftain did not swing his axe. He held his silence as if taking the measure of the moment, then at last opened his mouth as though he'd finally steeled himself.
"Human. Before we fight, I have a question."
"What?"
"Why did you refuse the power of a god?"
Everyone she met asked the same thing. The Orc Chieftain, too, brought it up.
"I heard it from the slaves who survived. That a god descended before you and offered you its power—and still you refused."
"This is driving me insane. Why does everyone ask about this? Hey, if some suspicious god popped up in front of you offering power, would you just take it without a second thought?"
The topic kept causing problems no matter where she went, and an irritated Seyul snapped at him—but—
"Of course!"
The Orc Chieftain's unhesitating answer made this Seyul's turn to be surprised.
"Of course I would accept it. For in the world of us monsters, power is everything! And I have never gained enough of it."
The Orc Chieftain went on, his voice laced with cynicism.
"The powerful monsters wield mana as they please, and possess unique abilities besides. But we orcs? We do not."
Orcs were low-tier monsters. The Orc Chieftain, orc-born and orc-raised, was ultimately nothing more than an early boss.
"Cursing the fate that denied me birth into a strong race, I stole even the mana cultivation arts that humans used, and only then did I barely grasp mana. ...But that was my limit. I stopped at merely handling it. Beyond that, there was nothing more I could do."
At the quiet voice laying bare his past, the viewers were thrown into confusion.
A story that in four years, no one had ever heard. Faced with the Orc Chieftain's hidden story, those who knew the game sat dumbfounded. Every one of them leaned in to listen.
"But if power comes from a god, the story changes. The mana I barely gained through a lifetime of mad training would come bundled in as a base. The gods would back you, and humans would sing your praises as an apostle of the divine. You could rise above even the high-ranked demonkin in a single step. Why—why—would you refuse?"
"Because I refuse to live according to someone else's will."
"That is no reason at all! And according to the slaves, you possess extraordinary spear arts as well. Spear arts, and the power of a god on top of that. Given time, you might become stronger than anyone alive. Why in the world?"
Seyul listened in silence to the Orc Chieftain's unending questions. Spear arts, plus the power of a god—yes, that might well make one stronger than anyone. His doubts were, by and large, simply the truth. Seyul herself was living proof of what it meant to hold both such power and such skill at once.
When she had first arrived in the other world, her raw specs alone had been enough to crush nearly anyone. Then martial arts and magic were layered on top of that—wings on a tiger, icing on the cake. There was nothing more one could ask for.
And yet.
If, coveting yet another power to stack upon what she already had, she surrendered her own will to obtain it—could that truly be called gaining anything at all?
"Because one plus one isn't necessarily two."
That was why Seyul answered as she did. One plus one was not two.
In that instant, the Orc Chieftain's eyes went wide. He grasped her meaning in a heartbeat.
"Kuhk... so that's it! It isn't necessarily two."
If gaining power meant losing the ability to assert your own will, then it was worth less than gaining nothing at all. That was what she meant—the Orc Chieftain understood it. He understood, and yet he still could not accept it.
"You mad fool! Even that stubbornness of yours only exists because you have strength. You are nothing more than one drunk on an ideal! I will show you—that before overwhelming power, such convictions are meaningless!"
The Orc Chieftain, who had known the despair of crashing against reality's wall even while carrying his own resolve, could not accept her words. Treating Seyul's declaration as empty bravado, he roared in fury—burning with misdirected rage at the one who had squandered an opportunity he himself could never have had, and he raised his axe.
"Come, then."
Seyul raised her spear to meet him, and at last, the battle began.
And—
A returnee from another world, and a monster inside a fantasy game. There was no way people from the real world could hope to understand the sensibilities of a fantasy-world native. The two of them were being perfectly earnest—through anyone else's eyes, it was nothing but a trainwreck.
The viewers found themselves adrift in a sea of endless questions.