Chapter 51: Ian’s Performance (1)
TL: Haku
Editor: Hungry Panda
Sponsor: VT
“Hello, viewers! This is YTBC reporter Lucia!”
“Nice to meet you, viewers. This is reporter Hines.”
There was no way that Korea’s game broadcast representative YTBC would overlook an event as big as the arena.
A female and male YTBC reporter stood side by side at the scene of the arena and were emceeing the broadcast.
“Lucia, there are certainly a lot of people here, right?”
“That’s right. The excitement of the arena seems to be hotter compared to a month ago. Especially when this isn’t even the major league, but the rookie league instead.”
The two people continued emceeing skillfully.
“Wouldn’t that be because it’s the first arena that opened since the new classes became accessible?”
At Lucia’s words, Hines naturally took it and transferred it to the viewers.
“That’s right. It seems that, because this is the first arena that opened since the new classes became accessible, there is a lot of interest towards the ‘rookie league’ than ever before. It’s almost equivalent to the major league, where the best rankers compete for supremacy!”
“Yes, that’s right. As you can see from your screen, the arena is packed with thousands of people!”
It was exactly as the two reporters’ words.
The seating area around the stadium, where the competition for the rookie league was being held, was completely packed to the point where it was impossible to step foot in there.
This was, as expected, the proof of the interest towards the new classes.
While the crystal ball sending out the broadcast shone on the stadium, the two people collected their breaths and read the script once more.
And as the screen changed, Lucia’s emceeing naturally continued.
“Hines, if there is a class amongst the new classes that would show the strongest fighting power in the arena, which class would you point out?”
At Lucia’s words, Hines’ explanation began.
“As expected, the class that is being analyzed as the strongest class for an arena, where its matches are 1v1, is the ‘Assassin’.”
“Why’s that?”
“That’s because it’s generally a class with incredibly high attacking ability compared to Black Magicians and Summoners.”
“Is that so? However, Summoners and Black Magicians can manage a lot of undeads and strong Familiars, wouldn’t an Assassin that’s alone be at a disadvantage?”
The two’s friendly explanation in the form of a question continued.
“Haha, you do you have a valid point, Lucia , but a larger number isn’t a big advantage when going against an Assassin class.”
Hines momentarily paused to catch his breath as he had spoken a lot before he continued his words.
“The Assassin class has a lot of skills, such as moving short distances instantly or turning invisible for a short period of time, that could dishevel their opponent’s focus. On top of that, their movements are incredibly agile, so they can close the gap between their opponent in an instant!”
Lucia nodded her head.
“Ah-ha, so in the situation of the Assassin, they can just avoid the Familiars of the Black Magicians and Summoners, approach their opponent user in an instant and send them off with a single, powerful blow!”
“That’s exactly it, Lucia. That’s why many analysts think Assassins will be a strong candidate for this rookie league’s winner.”
Hines mainly explained, while Lucia stood in place for the viewers and asked questions that the viewers would most likely be curious about.
“Oh? But Hines. I have something else I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
“Although the Assassin has unbelievable approachability and personal Offensive Power, I think that it could be weak to classes that already existed like the Warrior class or the Knight class.”
Hines waited momentarily for Lucia’s next words, and Lucia’s words continued.
“Although Assassins have an unbelievable one-hit Offensive Power, once they pour out everything into an attack, they have a characteristic of their strength being drained. In that case, I think they would obviously be weak to Warrior classes that have both equally excellent Defensive and Offensive Power, or Knight classes that specialize in tanking.”
Hines’ explanation continued again.
“That’s absolutely right, Lucia. Just like you said, the Assassin class isn’t good against Warrior or Knight classes.”
“Then how is the Assassin the strongest winning candidate of the rookie league?”
“That’s because it has been analyzed that all of the exceptional users in the already existing classes are over lv 50, and cannot participate in the rookie league. On the other hand, the top users amongst the new class users are close to lv 50.”
The explanation made to meet the level of understanding of the viewers continued.
Of course, there were a lot of viewers that were hardcore gamers, who had high knowledges about games, but there were a ton more people that weren’t like that in comparison.
That’s why YTBC Media, where their explanations were excellent and their intelligibility towards games were high, boasted an incredible amount of shares that was incomparable to other game broadcasts.
“Oh, Hines, while you were talking, the preliminary rounds are finally starting!”
Just like Lucia said, the first match in the arena was about to begin.
“Oh! It even looks like a new class is appearing for the first match!”
“Hines, that user wearing a black uniform on the other side is an Assassin-class, right?”
“That’s right. Their ID is ‘Limlong’. The person opposing Limlong is Warrior ‘Flio’.”
Lucia let out a commentary as she turned to the crystal ball.
“Alright, an exciting match! Viewers, please also turn your attention that way!”
Along with her words, the crystal ball began to show the arena again, and the first preliminary match began.
‘Hm, an Assassin… There isn’t a lot of information I know about on Assassins.’
Flio was an average, lv 48 Warrior-class user. He loved Kailran as much as anybody else, but he was just a normal user that enjoyed it as a hobby.
Just before he hit lv 50, the Luspel Empire’s arena opened, so to participate in the rookie league, he came to Myuran.
‘Still, isn’t it rather a relief that it’s a new class? Since there shouldn’t be many users that are close to lv 50.’
Three days ago, the Tower of Assassins, the last of all of the new class’ towers, was finally built in Myuran.
That meant that it was only now that Summoners, Black Magicians and Assassins all had users that were lv 50.
However, the fact that the very first lv 50 Assassin appeared 3 days ago meant that there was a high chance that most general Assassin users hadn’t even reached lv 40.
And he didn’t want to think that the opponent in front of him was the highest-level Assassin.
“Hoo.”
Flio fixed his grip on his sword.
As much as this was his first time participating in the arena, he didn’t want to be defeated so easily.
‘Let’s not worry. It’s not like I will die when I lose, I only get eliminated from the arena.’
Users didn’t die inside the arena.
This was because if their Vitality dropped below 5%, as soon as the verdict in accordance with that, they were eliminated to outside the arena and all their Vitality is recovered.
Aside from the fixed cost when participating, he realized that there was no risk, so Flio felt he slightly calmed his heart.
“Heup…!”
As Flio let out a small shout, he inwardly collected his heart.
He let go of some of his worries, but he couldn’t do anything about his nervousness. On top of this being his first time participating in the arena, he was also part of the first match.
While he was thinking of these things, a system message popped up for all the users inside the arena.
In 5 seconds, the match will begin.
5… 4… 3…
Flio wrapped his fingers around the handle of his sword and raised it, positioning himself in order to lunge forward immediately.
‘That’s right, it’s the majority opinion that the Assassin class isn’t good against the Warrior class. There’s nothing to be afraid of.’
It bothered him that his opponent’s expression looked incredibly calm, but he needed to rid of all stray thoughts in this moment and focus on the battle.
2… 1… Start!
As soon as the countdown ended, Flio let out a shout as he ran forward as if he had been waiting.
“Heuaaaaat!”
However, the Assassin opponent, whom Flio thought would surely throw his body towards him, stood still and just gazed at him.
‘What the hell?’
As Flio felt something was weird, the body of the opponent that was in front of him disappeared like a lie.
‘Is this the Assassin’s representative technique, Transparency?’
Transparency allowed you to hide yourself for 10 seconds, and was a basic skill you learned as soon as you class-changed to Assassin, even being the class’ representative skill.
If the Assassin made an attacking motion or cast a skill, or even received some sort of damage from their enemy within the 10 seconds they were transparent, they would become visible.
‘He’s surely waiting for a chance nearby!’
Flio, who concluded on his own, swung his sword around widely.
It was a calculation to attempt a pre-emptive strike without giving the invisible enemy 10 seconds.
Whooosh-.
However, Flio’s sword only sliced through the air along with the loud noise of the wind.
However, just then, a black shadow unexpectedly appeared in front of Flio.
Chwa-ra-rak-!
Limlong was waiting for a chance to counter-attack Flio while he swung his sword.
And catching that chance, Limlong scratched his side with his daggers.
“Keuk-!”
And that wasn’t the end.
Almost as if he had read Flio’s movements, he succeeded another attack by moving fluidly like water to Flio’s back.
“Gasp-, gasp-!”
It was a battle that happened within the blink of an eye. No, truthfully, it couldn’t even be called a battle.
As it was a situation where Flio was being one-sidedly beaten up by Assassin Limlong.
‘This crazy… I lost almost half my Vitality!’
He was dumbfounded.
He wasn’t even an Offensive Power-based Warrior.
He evenly raised his Offensive Power and endurance, and in fact, he was a tanking-based Warrior.
However, no matter how strong of a personal attack an Assassin had, he had never imagined that he would lose close to 7 thousand Vitality unknowingly.
‘This is a dude that was born with a sense for fighting…!’
Cold sweat rolled down Flio’s spine.
As you played Kailran, you could sometimes see gifted fighters that showed Offensive Power that was multiple times higher than the stats that they received.
He felt that kind of gifted sense of a gamer from his Assassin opponent.
‘Still, I can’t give up!’
Flio got into position in order to cast his strongest skill ‘Pok-ryu-cham’.
In order to get the skill book for this skill, he had given up close to 500,000 gold.
Even though his opponent’s Offensive Power was strong, their Vitality as an Assassin would be as light as a scrap piece of paper.
If he was hit once by Pok-ryu-cham, Flio could turn the tables.
If Flio was lucky and hit him squarely, he felt he could turn the Assassin into dust with one hit.
“Heuaaab-!”
Flio swung his sword diagonally and drew a slightly tilted cross shape.
As he did that, a red energy began to gather on his sword.
And ‘Limlong’ watched him with an indifferent expression.
“Die!”
Flio spread his hand holding the sword forward.
As he did that, his large sword fired towards Limlong at an incredible speed.
And a red energy began to condense around the sword.
It was a moment that everybody watched in dead silence.
Surprisingly, Limlong didn’t avoid the sword and ran straight towards it.
“Oh…Ohh…!”
All of the spectators without a doubt were watching the middle of the arena with gaping mouths.
Tat- Ta-tat-!
Surprisingly, Limlong stepped on top of the face of the sword that Flio shot with a light leap and jumped up high.
It was an unbelievable movement that truly happened in that instant. The spectators, who saw an incredible scene that was closer to acrobatics, couldn’t close their mouths.
And Limlong spread his two hands towards Flio.
Swiiiiish-!
A sharp sound that split through the air rang out.
With three silver daggers in each hand, Limlong shot a total of six daggers that rushed towards the defenseless Flio.
Pak Pa-pak-!
And there was no way that Flio could react to the unpredictable, almost acrobatic, attack.
User Flio’s Vitality has reached below 5%, and has been eliminated from the arena.
User Limlong has won the match.
As Limlong has won with a perfect score, he will gain two times the points.
The match finished and system messages rang out, but the place was as still as death.
This was because everybody had received a big shock.
The most shocking thing was the fact that Assassin ‘Limlong’ hadn’t used any special skills.
The skills he showed in this match were skills ‘Transparency’ and ‘Flying Knives’, skills that any Assassin had, and nothing else.
And shortly after, a large shout began to break out as if the arena was going to leave because of someone.
“Woooow…!”
Within everybody’s enthusiastic cries.
The first preliminary match of the rookie league finished within 2 minutes since it started.
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