<785 – Being a Warrior (31)>
As records of defeat accumulate, the human mind wears down.
To protect their wounded hearts, they dismiss what was once precious as nothing and force themselves to act stoically.
For veterans, this is nothing unusual.
Clang!
They have long since numbed their senses, suppressing the natural sensory organs humans possess for ‘efficient progress.’
Thud!
Stepping one step further from sensory deactivation to emotional blockage, players knew all too well what that state entailed.
—If we gain that privilege, we can start stronger and save our kids. Should we just close our eyes and hit that bad ending once?
—Why not? What’s the problem?
—I can’t bear to see my kids die ㅠㅠ
—Why not just use emotional blocking?
—It feels a bit… psychopathic, you know?
Even the chatter about sensory blocking was rampant, concerns about emotional blocking were a frequent topic among veterans.
—If you keep emotional blocking for too long, won’t you really become a psychopath? If you can’t feel emotions, you can’t empathize, and the play itself aimed at the bad ending has to involve outright evil deeds.
Lack of abilities.
Excessive randomness.
To protect the world, a constant and reliable weapon like ‘Ending Privilege’ is necessary.
Blinded by that privilege, they deceive their senses, trick their emotions, and commit evil deeds time and again.
Those who couldn’t withstand the structural problems of “Graduating from Academy by Chance” finally decided to quit the game after much deliberation.
Players who viewed their senses and emotions as more precious than anything else and could not bear even a single deviation belonged to this group.
In fact, most were like that.
Despite social experiments conducted in extreme environments to see the worst of humanity, people tend to choose peaceful options shockingly often when there’s no external intervention.
People aren’t as evil as you might think.
This was proven by an experiment conducted in a small prison at Stanford University in 1981.
The prison assigned 12 guards and 12 prisoners among ordinary college students, aiming to observe the immersion and changes that occurred within those roles.
Prisoners quickly began to riot, and conflicts escalated, while guards suppressed the prisoners physically and mentally.
The professor stopped the experiment ahead of schedule.
The immersion had become too intense, and there were concerns the students might harm each other.
Human roles can change based on the environment they’re given; that’s the essence of this well-known social psychological experiment. However, participants later stated that it was rigged due to deception, acting, and the involvement of the experimenters.
Both the guards’ cruelty and the prisoners’ outbursts were directed by the professor and research team.
—Pathetic fools.
—Why are they in such a fuss over sensory blocking?
—Seriously. Even if you starve a hundred people to death, it’s not worse than the Seonhwang. Why the fuss?
—…….Hundred?
—Wow, I thought I was the craziest person in the world, but there are real lunatics out there;
—True madness ㄷㄷㄷ
Created research results.
Rigged experimental procedures.
In environments without external interference, most players did not reach the veteran stage.
Even among veterans, understanding Oknodie’s play became a significant challenge.
The common perception that everyone is a veteran, fueled by a greater desire to save the world, and that the depth of pain they could endure made them responsible and admirable veterans crumbled with the emergence of the “Major NPC Friend” series.
—Okknodie: I loaded the Revolutionary Soul Bomb and tried it, and it was really good, huh? A finishing move is best when you counter the enemy’s finishing move!
—Mint Chocolate: Eek;;
—Village Resident: You monster! Get out of our community now!!
—I want to be Isabel’s white stockings: Teacher, I’m scared we’ll also be lumped in with the monsters. Please keep those nasty tactics to yourself…
—God of Death: What’s the real problem? It’s innovative and great!
Most veterans displayed a strong aversion and fear, unable to withstand the rigged experimental procedures, just like prisoners asking for the experiment to stop and for their release.
Oknodie felt a gradual sense of alienation, but still had sturdy veteran comrades by his side.
—Golgotha of Execution: Instead of relying on villains, why not just decapitate everyone you see to max out the favorability of noble friends? You might get different results!
—Okknodie: Ooh!
—Atalaxia of Love: Friends are babies… We need to take care of them…
—Praxis of Action: To express that caring feeling, don’t we need to bear the shackles of evil deeds and gather all the Ending Privileges? True goodness shines brightest when it braves the stigma of evil and traverses through the deepest darkness.
—Okknodie: Oooooh!
—Tranqilo of Peace: True peace without envy and jealousy comes from erasing all living beings who harbor envy and jealousy. I recommend experiencing extinction-level peace at least once!
—Okknodie: Ooooooohhh!!
—Atalaxia of Love: Noooo!!!
Seemingly engrossed in concept play, veterans took the Domain of God and names as their community nicknames.
Only the comrades Oknodie called the ‘Man God Squad’ continued to discuss Oknodie and veteran play until the end, presenting new possibilities and helping to enable more diverse gameplay.
In that process, numerous interesting strategies emerged right up until the start of the Major NPC Friend chapter.
‘Strategies that I know only through knowledge, even if not executed by me.’
Overwhelming physical power capable of countering and crushing all enemies in a single blow based on understanding all the opponent’s moves — a strength-focused build.
A prophet build that displays the knowledge gained through experience like a glimpse into the future, acting as humanity’s prophet and hoarding wealth and honor.
A divine punishment build that forcibly induces all divine punishments around, unleashing wide-area divine punishment damage.
All sorts of bizarre strategies existed.
Unfortunately, there was no capacity to execute all that knowledge individually.
However, right now, the distinguished high-level undead Lich A accompanies Major NPC Friend.
“Lich A. Go. Induce the divine punishment and charge at Oknodie!”
“Uwwww…”
Lich A hesitated, unable to commit such an act as Major NPC Friend produced a blasphemous tool summoned from their unique subspace.
That tool, containing two lenses caught in a frame, was known as glasses.
When Lich A flinched, unable to do such a thing, Major NPC Friend, possessing absolute dominion over the Lich, inflicted pain on them.
Effect: The despair when realizing they ate a magic stone that only works below a stat of 70, despite having over 70.
Effect: The despair of realizing they gave an absolute increase item, capable of raising favorability by 1 at 99, to a character with a favorability of 69 by mistake.
Effect: The despair when attempting to view an alternative ending privilege by loading the ending privilege, but accidentally overwriting the save;
“Uwwww!!!”
Lich A wept, pleading to just stop tormenting them after their mistake.
Eventually, giving up rebellion, Lich A rubbed the lenses of the glasses with their bones, dirtying the view, and prayed to the gods.
As one unique Lich A, now at an incredibly high level, prayed, the gods who descended to observe this promising believer’s potential took notice of Lich A’s view.
Thus it spread before the gods.
The view of filthy glasses covered with fingerprints.
The gods roared with fury.
[This filthy trash dares to toy with the divine; you shall receive divine punishment to regain your senses!!]
[How dare you attempt to block the eyes of a god? Your eyes shall also be subjected to that filthy sight!!!]
[Even a millennium of love can be ruined by grime-riddled glasses; a horrible being like you should not exist in this world!!!]
From numerous realms, a multitude of mana disasters manifested centered around Lich A.
Lich A, possessing the divine punishment, charged as if propelled by divine punishment, even Oknodie, who usually had no fear of the world, knit their brows.
“Ugh. So disgusting. What kind of crazy build have they dug up again?
With arms crossed, pressed against their chest, Oknodie flicked their finger, summoning an item from the pitiful backpack lying on the ground.
The summoned item immediately flew toward Lich A through exquisite mana manipulation.
━━━
[Shield] + [Solid] + [Diamond] + [Iron Rod] + [Resistance] + [Fortification] + [Bestowal]
7-part defense linkage [Absolute Defense Bestowal]
━━━
Absolute Defense Bestowal with lethal resistance and reflection effects to all attacks attempted to halt Oknodie’s spatial shift; however, that material effortlessly pierced through absolute defense and infiltrated Lich A’s surroundings.
Utilizing the system’s characteristic that non-attack buffs cannot be blocked by defensive magic.
[Multi-Buff Bestowal!]
Feeling a sense of crisis, the Director threw out every buff type imaginable from behind.
By applying the system’s ‘no stacking effects’ and ‘maximum stacking limits’ to prevent the act of buffing itself, Oknodie attempted to counter Oknodie’s maneuver.
Yet, despite the collaborative block from the Major NPC Friend and the Director, the spatial shift item inevitably fulfilled its mission.
Click!
[The exchange of the cash item has been completed.]
[Cash items can only be exchanged once when not equipped for the first time.]
[That item has been assigned to Lich A of Major NPC Friend.]
[Due to the item’s unique effect, it has been automatically equipped.]
[[Cash Item: Special Gear - Glasses Lock] has been equipped successfully.]
The abhorrent glasses alone evoked disgust and now added a lock on it after soiling the lenses with fingerprints.
Having personally experienced that dreadful sensation, the gods became angrier than ever, like dragons provoked by a sudden irritation, unleashing an unprecedented level of divine punishment.
Boom!
Space ripples.
Dimensions crush and, before the mana can seep through the openings, space is compressed and reverse-drawn into the mana of the Middle Realm.
On the other side of dimensions.
A space untouched anywhere.
Lich A’s soul plummeted into the void beyond the haze of empty space.
Before Lich A could even approach Oknodie, they disintegrated without leaving a trace behind.
“Gah, the meta of divine punishment wasn’t invincible…”
Major NPC Friend couldn’t hide their frustration.
“Well, this is the result of comparing the processing of something like the Major NPC Friend series with me. I know every possible counter and weakness you can imagine.”
Under the relentless counterattack of Oknodie’s ironclad defense, Major NPC Friend had to admit they could not surpass her with just existing knowledge.
At the same time, they considered that any meta they could think of would likely already be a thing of the past for Oknodie.
They couldn’t break through this situation by their own power.
“Director. Tell me the most dreadful meta or build you can think of. Whatever it is, I will realize it.”
So, they aimed to create a new meta right then.
Through the hidden world raid boss NPC, First Wahyhiemhai, unknown even to themselves.
“Ha ha. Seeing such audacious attack methods using divine punishment, I would like to recommend a particular idea. Would you like to hear it?”
Major NPC Friend’s judgment was spot on.
The one who introduced the spirit bomb build to the revolutionary.
The one wielding all kinds of deadly aoe attack patterns.
The Director, well-versed in meta structuring and build development.
The most likely individual to create a new build to oppose Oknodie isn’t this failed player but First Wahyhiemhai.
