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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: bchen3
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“Valheim, why do you have such a worried face, unlike you? Weren’t you just happy earlier that this human chose you as their sub-class? The other gods all seemed envious too.”
Valheim, the god of sorcery and barbarians, spoke to his friend god with a sour voice.
“…No, I just feel like I’ve been had somehow…”
“You got a contract with such a capable human, even if it’s as a sub-class. Instead of feeling played, you should be happy. Stop thinking useless thoughts and let’s have a drink. There’s quite good alcohol among the offerings that came in.”
“Mmm!”
Valheim quickly forgot what he had been worrying about at the mention of alcohol and followed his friend god.
After all, he wasn’t one to like complex thoughts, even for a god.
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‘I didn’t even need to use the mark.’
I thought about the tattoo engraved on my shoulder, though it was hidden by the uniform.
While I had received it as additional compensation from Valheim, considering the pain that felt like I was actually being branded with fire when it was engraved, it was a bit disappointing that I hadn’t had a chance to use it.
Still, regardless of who might come up, there was one more match left, so it might be fine to use it then.
“…To think you’d really take everyone down alone…”
“Um… will this really be okay?”
“…Well, I’m happy to receive higher rewards, but…”
“Kid-kun! That was so cool! Like a manga character!”
After the match ended, the party members (except one) wore dazed expressions.
Still, they were showing definite improvement compared to ten days ago.
Even without the sub-class advancement and playing like today, we would have won without any special variables.
‘Besides, being good at getting carried is also luck and skill.’
I patted my bewildered-looking party members while descending from the stage.
“Cheater! It’s a cheater!”
As soon as we came down from the stage, Nogi, who had been watching from the audience seats, was making a fuss, having appeared at some point.
“What is it, what is it, what is it, brother? How did you already get a sub-class? Did you perhaps already discover some cheat element? As expected of a pro gamer! You’re not ordinary at all. I’m your party member, right? If there’s no problem, could you tell me how you did it-”
Nogi spewed words like a machine gun, extremely excited and answering his own questions even though I hadn’t replied.
It was impossible to even interject, and he only stopped talking when he started choking from his mouth going dry from spouting so many words.
“…Have you calmed down a bit?”
“No!”
As if that wasn’t enough, Nogi tried to gather saliva in his mouth again to speak, but only calmed down when Saginoya and Hirao stepped in to stop him.
Luna, who was preparing to face Shoenji in the next match, approached with a slightly betrayed expression and opened her mouth.
“So, what’s the real story?”
“What do you mean?”
“…Don’t pretend you don’t know. Did you really find some special method?”
Looking at Luna whose lips were protruding with dissatisfaction, I smiled awkwardly and said.
“…Because this game is trash?”
“…Everyone knows that.”
“That’s my answer though.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
Of course, when I sensed her dissatisfaction turning into sulking, I hurriedly explained.
“I just received a lot of EXP from the start. Everyone received different rewards at the beginning, right?”
“How much did you receive…? Even just the priest skills that Kid-san learned seemed incredible.”
“Quite a lot.”
“…So how much exactly?”
I showed one finger to Luna only.
“…100,000!?”
The number of digits was a bit different, but I didn’t bother correcting it.
While I couldn’t say there was no intention of showing off, it basically felt similar to revealing one’s annual salary or assets.
“What is it? Why are you two talking alone?”
“I-I’m curious too. Aren’t we party members?”
Though Nogi and Fatty showed interest, I cleanly ignored them.
Both of them seemed like they’d be extremely loose-lipped.
Especially Nogi who seemed like he’d gossip everywhere even unprompted, and Fatty who seemed like the type to spill everything if a somewhat pretty girl treated him just a little nicely.
“…Why did you hide it? Your rank isn’t A either, right?”
Luna looked up with a slightly hurt expression.
Even if it wasn’t a particularly significant relationship, honestly, a beautiful woman’s disappointed look was a bit hard to bear for a game nerd whose life had mostly been games.
“It’s an occupational disease. And you’re right that I’m not A rank.”
At my words, Luna seemed to think for a moment before opening her mouth with an “Ah!” exclamation.
Then she nodded and made an expression of understanding.
Come to think of it, she was an internet broadcaster too.
“…If it’s that, I can understand somewhat.”
Popular internet broadcasters. Or professional gamers who communicate with fans along with team promotions.
People whose main content is games experience something at least once as their broadcasting period gets longer.
Malicious users, or stream snipers.
From fighting games to MMORPG games, malicious viewers who appear in various ways to interfere with gameplay.
Sometimes it could create decent content while maintaining appropriate boundaries, but most cases went too far and became problematic.
After such incidents repeat, if it’s a fighting game, the game start sound effects.
During the game, the minimap situation.
If it’s an RPG game, the channel or location information.
Or the current character’s spec status.
It becomes somewhat habitual to be wary of exposing game information while playing.
In my case, I had as many anti-fans as I had fans.
Besides, as I thought earlier, revealing all this information felt somewhat similar to revealing one’s salary or asset status.
Of course, only Luna understood this feeling, while Nogi was making unattractive noises going “Cheater! Cheater! Wooo!” from the side, and the other party members, though not saying anything, wore curious expressions.
The only exceptions were Kinoshita who didn’t seem particularly interested in such things, and School Lunch Kid who wore a complicated expression while looking at me.
“As I said, I didn’t discover anything special, it’s just that this game is trash so what we started with was different. All of you started with different ranks and EXP distributed unfairly too, right? Mine was just a bit more extreme.”
Though Nogi still wore an expression of disbelief until the end, I didn’t need to convince him one by one so the conversation ended there.
I patted Luna’s back and looked at her party members including Hanai while speaking.
“Let’s meet in the finals after you win.”
At those words, the slightly floating atmosphere of Luna’s party after watching my match turned a bit serious.
Oh, this youth sports-like atmosphere wasn’t bad.
“Today’s second semifinals match. Would Hero Shoenji Ageha’s party and Hero Saionji Luna’s party please come up to the stage!”
“I’m off! Let’s go, everyone!”
“Good luck! Luna-neesama!”
“See you in the finals, Kid-san.”
Luna greeted those around her with a confident expression before climbing onto the stage with her party.
“…Kid-hyungnim? Why is that right hand so awkwardly positioned?”
“Ah…um.”
I retrieved my right hand that had been frozen in an awkward spread position while clearing my throat.
…Earlier when I patted her back for encouragement, I touched her bra strap.
Honestly, I was a bit surprised.
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“…Huk!”
As Luna’s gaze wavered, Shoenji’s body brushed past Luna’s side.
It was an exquisite sense of distance.
A precise distance just beyond the reach of Luna’s hands or skills meant to hold down opponents.
Though she extended her hand along with skills toward the most threatening enemy who was ignoring her and fleeing, Luna’s hand just futilely swept through empty air.
And while regaining her lost balance, as Luna tried to retreat and reorganize formation, the opponent’s tank and one vanguard stuck to Luna simultaneously to interfere.
Though her feet were caught for just a moment, the result was fatally decisive.
“[Smash]!”
“[Moonlight Slash]!”
Though Luna’s vanguards were bewildered seeing Shoenji who had passed through Luna without taking her down and entered the battle line, they extended their weapons reinforced with skill corrections along with battle cries.
‘You shouldn’t activate close-range skills by speaking them.’
The vanguards’ reaction to Shoenji breaking through the line was passable but lacking in detail.
Skills, upon activation, forcibly correct movement actions.
Like auto-hunting or macros.
However, the moment you speak the activation words, what the opponent is aiming for becomes clear and it becomes easier to predict the forcibly corrected actions.
What’s needed for this is mixing skill attacks without activation words between normal attacks, like Saito had done.
Speaking in terms of master-level fighting, it’s like mixing subtle killing moves among feints.
Most vanguard skills don’t require casting anyway, and that “silent casting” that Japanese people are crazy about is possible.
This isn’t a martial arts novel, and opening your mouth to say technique names while fighting in reality is a bit… no, is it kind of cool?
Come to think of it, it might be cool even if it’s a bit embarrassing and stupid.
Shoenji’s gaze lowered to quickly scan the foot positions of the two approaching vanguards before stepping in response to their swinging shoulders.
Then their waist bent slightly.
By a hair’s breadth.
Shoenji’s sense of distance that could be called exquisite avoided the attacking vanguards’ strikes by paper-thin margins right before their eyes.
The movement that seemed perfectly calculated, with neither excess nor deficiency, maintained perfect balance even while avoiding attacks.
In contrast, Luna’s two vanguards had just finished their forced skill movement corrections and were showing huge openings.
“Huk-!”
“Kkeuk-!”
With two flash-like thrusts, both vanguards clutched their solar plexuses and crumpled on the spot.
It was clean.
‘…When I first saw them, they weren’t quite this good.’
It could be called innate talent.
Honestly, I thought School Lunch Kid’s talent was incredible, but this Shoenji person was genius level.
Especially considering she was a woman in her early-mid twenties, it was astonishing.
The most threatening enemy was rampaging inside, and Shoenji’s line was slowly pushing in while restricting Luna’s movements.
‘…It’s over.’
The rest was just a matter of time.
Though Hanai showed quite impressive accuracy with her shooting while maintaining maximum distance from the rear, Shoenji easily avoided the arrows while closing distance and subduing Hanai.
The match ended as Shoenji’s thrust destroyed the fruit.
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“…Please get revenge.”
“…Well, I wasn’t planning to lose anyway.”
“Don’t worry Luna-gong! I’ll take care of it papapapapat! …mainly Kid-gong will.”
Perhaps frustrated at failing to mark Shoenji at the start and letting her pass through, Luna made her request with slightly watery eyes.
Honestly, I didn’t think she had just lost.
If Shoenji could maintain the performance she had just shown consistently, it wouldn’t be wrong to consider her professional level that would work anywhere in the world.
Compared to others excluding myself, I thought she was on a different level entirely.
Luna descended from the stage while receiving consolation from Hanai and other party members, and after Shoenji’s side took a brief rest after finishing their match, both sides climbed onto the stage.
“Fufu. As expected.”
Shoenji made a meaningful expression while seeming to measure something after seeing the same formation as with Saito, then.
“I forfeit.”
She declared her forfeit while raising one hand with a fresh expression.
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Shoenji: the power level is beyond 9000