I quite enjoy the combat in this game.
A world nearly perfect in its simulation of reality. The vibrant system enhances the taste of battle, and the enemy before me shows no hesitation in exuding murderous intent. What I love most is the cold sharpness that a well-forged blade gives off and the crisp sound when two real swords clash. The thrill of narrowly avoiding a deadly strike from the opponent is what captivated me and drew me into this world.
And then, thereâs the pure exhilaration of cutting off your opponentâs lifeline. It felt like my brain was drenched in the kind of euphoria only drugs could induce.
[Victory! You have earned 18 points.]
[You are on a 9-win streak. The longer you maintain your win streak, the more points you earn.]
[Current record: 9 wins, 0 losses.]
A few more matches like this, and I should be safely within the zone. From the reactions in the community, it seemed like the penalty for losing was harsher than expected. If you couldnât keep up a winning streak, earning points became much harder.
On the flip side, as long as you racked up enough wins, you wouldnât need to grind through dozens or hundreds of matches. As long as you kept an eye on the trend each day and stayed within a safe margin, youâd be fine. After all, when competing for rank in ranked games, there werenât many cases where the score cutoffs suddenly skyrocketed.
I had expected the second preliminaries to consume all my time, but it turned out I had some breathing room. Since matches were set up regardless of tier, it wasnât too hard to accumulate victories.
Maybe this was the developersâ way of considering the time constraints of pro gamers. Could it be that the participation rate was lower than they had expected? Either way, it wasnât bad news for me.
âAt this rate, I could manage this alongside my other work.â
[Marketplace Notification: 1 Sky Scout Arrowhead has sold for 15,000,000 Gold.]
[Marketplace Notification: 1 Azure Crystal Gem has sold for 22,000,000 Gold.]
[Marketplace Notification: 1 Horribly Sour Lemon has sold forâ¦]
I had been stressing over financial matters as it was.
Infinity Black is an RPG game. The objective, at least according to the lore, is to find the "Abyss of Infinity" hidden somewhere on the continent. Supposedly, the person who first saw it said, "It was endless blackness spreading out forever," hence the name⦠Iâm not really sure.
Honestly, the name lacks creativity. It feels like the lower ranks tried to polish up a name the lead developer insisted on pushing through.
In any case, I wasnât just a pro gamer who could get by solely within the ranked game environment. Quite the opposite, actually.@@novelbin@@
Most of my income came from siege guilds, so scrappy field fights were my bread and butter. For someone like me, having good equipment was essential. In RPGs, gear is part of your skillset.
With the announced patch coming soon, Iâd have to upgrade to even better gear. Since I needed to maintain high-end specs, my expenses were always significant. Sure, I had some money saved up, but no one ever likes dipping into their savings.
With the finals approaching, itâd be smart to earn some extra now.
[Victory! You have earned 17 points.]
[You are on a 10-win streak. The longer you maintain your win streak...]
[vs DongjakAgent]
ââ¦Hmm?â
There was something oddly familiar about the name. Sure enough, I had just matched with someone I knew. And, as expected, text began to appear in the chat.
Since I had all unfamiliar playersâ chats hidden, it had to be someone from my friends list. Not that I was sure calling this person a "friend" was entirely accurate.
[Whisper from DongjakAgent]
Whoa, you startled me!
So you really joined the Arena, huh?
I thought you werenât interested in these kinds of events.
Why arenât you replying?
Well, I didnât have to answer. Why should I engage in conversation with someone like him?
DongjakAgent was part of the "SSA" guild. SSA wasnât quite big enough to be considered a major guild, but it was a bit too strong to be considered mid-tier either. It was known for its aggression, even within the field of siege-focused players.
And among them, DongjakAgent was part of the harassment squadâthose who targeted enemy guild members relentlessly. I didnât need to explain what kind of person that made him. I had added him to my friends list mostly for business reasons. Our relationship was more like that between a contract killer and a hired thug. We fought each other at times, but occasionally, we cooperated...
"I saw that KimchiNinja video."
"Is that really your thing?"
âWhere are you now? Iâll come over. Itâs been a while since we last met face-to-face.â
"Now you answer, huh, Tenryun?"
I clearly asked where he was, but why wasnât he answering? Did he think I was easy?
Maybe it was time to reestablish the hierarchy. For people like us, killing each other wasnât that big of a deal. The reason? âYou pissed me offâ was not only acceptable but the perfect excuse for murder.
"Iâm kidding. Chill out, okay?"
"I am chill. So where are you? I swear I wonât come. I mean it. Iâll bet my balls on it.â
"You donât have balls, you crazy girl."
"Now youâre just blatantly lying."
Itâs a bit sad. I used to have them, you know. Back in the day, swearing on your balls was like a sign of trust between men. Not that I ever made a promise I intended to keep, but still.
If you can take them, go ahead. Beat me with a bamboo sword, if you can.
There was a time when I could have said things like that.
"Hey, actually, this is perfect timing. Are you free?"
"Looks like youâre racking up Arena points with no problem."
"Iâve got a job for us to work on together."
I frowned at his words. I didnât even think before replying.
âNo.â
"Why? Got too much work?"
âYou know, that line you just used is from one of my favorite movies. You putting that filthy mouth on it is a serious offense. Iâm disgusted now.â
"Goddamn you, really..."
As much as I said that, I decided to hear him out. There was too much money on the line to reject him outright. And honestly, the job didnât sound too bad.
"Donât worry, Iâm not going to drag you into a field war."
"Not that youâd do it anyway, right?"
âYou know me too well. I donât plan on getting too deep into that mess.â
I rarely accepted requests to participate in sieges or wars. Once you aligned yourself with one faction, it became hard to raise your value, and playing both sides like a bat could make you a target.
Guild wars in this game had a strong sense of camaraderie. If you were being harassed and a guildmate dropped what they were doing to help you, it felt heartwarming. Once you joined a guild, you accepted your fellow members as comrades.
That emotional connection naturally fueled strong hostility toward enemies. If you overdid it and became too hated, it would only make things difficult for you in the future. It was better to show up occasionally, making an impression without causing too much trouble. That was the most profitable strategy.
Still, exceptions could be made if the offer was good enough.
"Youâll just be farming with our rookie."
"The drops will be split equally, just like any other party hunt. And, of course, youâll get paid extra."
âWhat if the enemy harassment squad shows up?â
"The deal includes responding to the first fight. And if our rookie doesnât die, weâll throw in an extra 2,000."
Sometimes, this sort of thing happened. If a guild wanted to intervene in a dispute, theyâd start a party hunt to create an excuse to fight.
In MMORPGs, parties were an essential feature. But you couldnât always fill a party with guild members alone, and some of the people you gathered might belong to warring guilds. If an enemy guild interrupted your hunt, that gave the other party members a reason to declare war.
It was a bit like covering your eyes and pretending not to see, but surprisingly, even in game wars, justification mattered. It prevented screenshots from being posted in the community, discouraged guild members from leaving, and strengthened internal bonds. There was always a reason behind these tedious actions.
âSo whatâs the endgame? What are you trying to do here? Let me warn you, if I feel the least bit uneasy, Iâll walk away immediately.â
And if I walked away, I wasnât giving the deposit back. Just because someone was a client didnât mean they were trustworthy. I had almost been stabbed in the back more times than I could count.
I had even fought against DongjakAgent as an enemy a few times. Sure, it was all for money, but that made him even less trustworthy. He could easily betray me at any moment, depending on the situation.
The reason I had managed to survive despite my reputation as a villain was because of this caution. There wasnât a single easy thing in this world.
"Thereâs this streamer called âDongmicham,â have you heard of him?"
âI think Iâve seen the name once or twice. Never watched his streams, though.â
"No need to. His contentâs trash. He grabs players and takes screenshots as his main bit."
âYouâve got to be kidding me.â
I was so shocked, I couldnât even close my mouth. DongjakAgent seemed surprised by my reaction.
"Whatâs with the surprise? Thereâs no shortage of weirdos in this industry."
âNo, thatâs not it. I just canât believe you used the words âtrash content.ââ
"Should I hand this job over to someone else?"
âSorry, go on.â