I quite enjoy the battles in this game.
A world that is almost a perfect reflection of reality.
The system, painted in a variety of colors, brings the flavor of combat to life, and the enemy in front of me oozes murderous intent without a hint of hesitation.
What I love is the chill emanating from a well-sharpened blade. And the clear sound when real swords clash.
The thrill of narrowly dodging an enemy’s killing blow has captivated me in this world.
And the pleasure of cutting off an opponent’s breath.
It feels like my brain is flooded with a drug that sends me into a stupor.
[Victory achieved! You’ve gained 18 ranking points.]
[You’ve achieved a 9-win streak. The longer you maintain your winning streak, the more points you can earn.]
[Current record: 9 wins, 0 losses.]
If I can just keep playing a few more matches like this, I should safely enter the safe zone.
From community reactions, it seems the point deduction from losing is more significant than expected.
If I can’t maintain a winning streak, it looks like earning points will be quite difficult.
On the flip side, if I can rack up a lot of wins, I won’t need to play dozens or hundreds of matches.
I simply have to maintain my standing while checking the trends daily.
After all, even during ranking competitions, the score cutoff rarely skyrockets.
When the second qualifiers open, I thought I’d need to focus solely on the preliminaries, but it turns out I’ve gained some time to spare.
Since matchmaking happens regardless of tier, it’s not too hard to rack up victories.
Maybe it was a consideration for the time burden on professional gamers.
Was the participant rate lower than what the developers anticipated?
Anyway, it wasn’t a bad thing for me.
“At this rate, I could handle it alongside my job.”
[Marketplace notification: 1 arrowhead from the Sky Scout has been sold for 15,000,000 Gold.]
[Marketplace notification: 1 light blue crystal gemstone has been sold for 22,000,000 Gold.]
[Marketplace notification: 1 terribly spicy new lemon…]
I had been deeply troubled about money issues.
Inbl is an RPG game.
The game’s goal is to find the “Abyss of Infinity,” which supposedly exists somewhere on the continent.
The name was inspired by someone who saw the abyss for the first time and described it as “endlessly dark…” but I’m not so sure about that.
Honestly, the naming sense is terrible.
It feels like the developer-turned-representative pushed for the name, and the subordinates had to dress it up somehow.
Anyway, I’m not a professional gamer whose sole focus is to do well in ranking matches.
It’s almost the opposite.
Since most of my income comes from the Siege Guild, the dirty battles in the field are more like my hometown.
For someone like me, having good specs is absolutely essential.
In RPGs, equipment is part of your skill.
When the announced patch comes, I’ll need to switch to better gear than I have now.
Since I always have to maintain high-end specs, the amount of money I’ll need to spend is considerable.
I do have some savings, but spending a large sum is never a pleasant thought.
Since I don’t know how things will go from the finals, it seems wise to earn some beforehand.
[Victory achieved! You’ve gained 17 ranking points.]
[You’ve achieved a 10-win streak. The longer you maintain your winning streak…]
[vs Dongjak Station Agent]
“…Hmm?”
It feels oddly familiar.
In the last match, I happened to run into someone I know.
Sure enough, chat messages began popping up.
Since I’ve hidden all unknown players’ messages, it meant this was someone from my friends list.
I’m not sure if “friend” is the right term here.
[Whisper from Dongjak Station Agent]
– Yikes, you startled me.
– So you really joined the Arena.
– I thought you had no interest in these tournaments.
– Why aren’t you responding?
Well, I don’t have to reply if I don’t want to.
Why not treat it as a good connection and engage in friendly conversation?
Dongjak Station Agent was someone active in the ‘SSA’ guild.
SSA wasn’t strong enough to be a large guild, yet they had a strangely strong presence for a mid-tier guild.
In the Siege scene filled with aggressive players, their level of aggressiveness was astonishing.
Among them, if there was a “Bully” who persistently kept an eye on opposing guild members, their character and dignity were needless to elaborate on.
Most of the friendships I accepted were purely for business reasons.
More like a relationship between a hired assassin and a thug. We sometimes fight, but occasionally collaborate…
– I saw that. The Kimchi Ninja video.
– You like that kind of thing?
“Where are you right now? I’ll come over. It’s been a while; let’s catch up!”
– Tenryen finally replies.
I clearly asked for his location, but why isn’t he answering?
Do I look easy?
Maybe it’s time for a little sorting of ranks after a long time.
Killing each other isn’t that big of a deal among people like us anyway.
“Fouled mood” is a perfectly valid and textbook motive for murder.
– Just kidding, chill for a moment.
“I am calm. So where are you? I won’t go. Seriously. I swear on my… well, I don’t have any!”
– You don’t have any, you crazy idiot.
– Now you’re openly trying to scam me.
How rude. I used to have some.
When a promise was made by a man to another man, it was practically a token of trust.
Of course, I never intended to uphold such a promise.
Go ahead and try to take it if you can.
Only if you can beat me with a wooden sword, that is.
…There was a time I could say that.
– Hey, by the way, this is perfect timing. Do you have a free schedule?
– I just checked, and it looks like the Arena will earn points easily.
– Let’s just do one job together.
Dongjak’s words made me furrow my brows.
They came out without filtering through thought, like a reflex.
“No.”
– Why? Are you busy lately?
“That line you just said is from my favorite movie. How dare you use such a dirty line? That’s a serious insult. I’m not happy about it.”
– You rotten b.
*
Even though I said that, I decided to at least hear out the proposal before making a decision.
Refusing would mean passing up an enormous sum of money.
The request didn’t seem awful at a glance either.
– I know your style, so I won’t ask you to get involved in field fights.
– Besides, you wouldn’t do it even if I told you to, right?
“You know me well. I have no plans to step too deeply into that side.”
Basically, I seldom accept requests to join in on sieges or wars.
Once I get involved with one side, it’s hard to increase my worth, and if I flutter between both sides like a bat, I’ll just be a thorn in their side.
This game features wars between guilds, so bonds within the guild are substantial.
When you’re being bullied, having a guild member drop everything to come to support you is touching.
Once you belong to the same guild, you immediately accept one another as comrades or allies.
Given that you emotionally invest, it’s only natural that your feelings against the enemy become strong.
If you get too riled up and provoke hatred, things can get tedious moving forward.
Sometimes, it’s more profitable to merely showcase your presence on the battlefield, avoiding any instance where you could attract trouble.
But if the request conditions are favorable enough, I can make exceptions.
– All you have to do is farm with our newbie.
– The items dropped during hunting will be divided just like normal party hunts, separate from the payment, of course.
“What if the rival Bully shows up?”
– The commission conditions cover response until the first battle. But if the newbie doesn’t die, I’ll add an extra 2,000.
This kind of situation happened occasionally.
When wanting to intervene in disputes between guilds, they would hold party hunts to secure a justification.
Parties are an essential content in MMORPGs.
But you can’t fill all parties exclusively with guild members, and some of the gathered party members may belong to rival guilds.
If hunting is disrupted by a rival guild, that could serve as a pretext for declaring war from the other party members.
It’s a rather ridiculous guise, but… surprisingly, justification plays an important role even in wars within games.
Preventing community disruptions, retaining guild members, maintaining internal bonds.
There are reasons behind every cumbersome endeavor.
“So what exactly are you trying to do with this? I’ll tell you now, if it feels off, I’ll back out right away.”
In that case, of course, I wouldn’t return the advance payment.
You couldn’t trust an employer just because they’re a client.
I’d lost count of the times I’d almost been double-crossed.
Let alone the fact that I’ve fought as an enemy against Dongjak Station more than a few times.
We’re both in it for the money, which is why I trust him even less.
That guy is someone who could betray me at any moment depending on the situation.
Even if I’m constantly called a nasty person, I’ve been lasting this long thanks to this caution.
Nothing in this world is easy.
– Do you know the streamer called Dongmi-cham?
“I think I’ve seen the name once or twice. Never watched his stream, though.”
– You don’t have to. The quality of his streams is terrible. He apparently just uses grabs and takes screenshots for content?
“Goodness, I can’t believe it.”
I was so shocked that my mouth dropped open.
Dongjak seemed surprised by my reaction.
– Why are you surprised by that? There are plenty of weirdos in this industry.
“No, not that. I can’t believe those words came out of your mouth.”
– Can I pass the request to someone else?
“Sorry. Keep talking.”
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