Chapter 77 – Physical Ability vs. Experience

Ŕėαԁ өｎ ΚаｔŔҽɑɗɩṅցС​ɑſė

‘This is bad.’

I fell asleep after getting a massage. It felt so good that I slept soundly, but I woke up in the middle of the night.

I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t, so I logged into LEORE and queued for a ranked game.

Even at 3 a.m., LEORE’s popularity is pretty high, so I figured I’d get a match easily enough.

Fortunately, I got a match, and I was excited to see who my first opponent would be after reaching Grandmaster.

But…

The person in front of me had the nickname Lee Jeongjin. Since he was using his real name like me, I wondered who he was, but his identity was displayed above his nickname.

[2023 Championship Winner]

The winner of the Korean Arena Championship, held once a year.

‘Why am I meeting someone like that when I’m only a Grandmaster…?’

“Lee Arang, Lee Arang? Is that the Lee Arang? I guess so? She has the WFK title.”

The man named Lee Jeongjin seemed to know me.

“I’ll seriously face Arangnim, who’s called the strongest physical player in LEORE.”

‘Don’t be serious!’

To think that as soon as I reached Grandmaster, my opponent would be last year’s champion—what kind of situation is this!

First, I quickly assessed my opponent.

Light armor and a one-handed sword in his right hand. But no shield.

Fortunately, his class was a Magic Swordsman.

‘As long as it’s not a Tank, I’m confident I can win.’

The Arena match suddenly started against last year’s champion.

3

2

I took my right foot back and raised my dagger.

1

I ran forward.

START!

The moment it appeared, I crossed the line in less than 0.1 seconds.

Perfect motion. Precise timing. Fast speed.

The Assassin class’s Thrust skill activated perfectly according to my will.

Just as the Thrust was about to hit, I saw my opponent’s foot start to turn slightly. I immediately canceled the skill and stabbed the dagger into the body of the Lee Jeongjin user, who was moving to the side.

“Oh?”

Seeing the gap created, the Lee Jeongjin user also immediately canceled his skill and slashed my right shoulder with his sword, stepping back.

In just two exchanges, I realized that the user in front of me was definitely last year’s champion.

“This time, I’ll come at you.”

Unexpectedly, instead of using magic from behind, the Lee Jeongjin user chose to come straight at me.

Since that was the situation I wanted, I also ran towards the Lee Jeongjin user.

In the situation that suddenly turned into close combat, I focused on what choice the Lee Jeongjin user would make.

A red glowing effect.

Usually, you can tell what skill it is by looking at the light effect on the weapon in LEORE.

If the color is light, it has many hits; if the color is red and dark, it’s a single hit with strong attack power. And black or pure white light feels like a finishing move.

The fact that the Lee Jeongjin user was emitting a red effect meant that he was definitely going to engage in close combat with me.

I used a corresponding skill and Parried the Lee Jeongjin user’s sword—

BANG!!!

‘It’s not bouncing off—!?’

A different situation unfolded than I expected.

I was planning to Parry the Lee Jeongjin user’s attack and engage in a dirty close combat, but the Lee Jeongjin user had no intention of doing that.

Whether he had received a Stun buff without me knowing, his sword didn’t bounce off and clashed with my right dagger.

Creeeaaak.

A sudden tug-of-war.

I immediately realized that I was going to lose and raised my left dagger to clash with the Lee Jeongjin user’s sword, which was about to strike me down.

‘Damn it…! This is not good…!’

I hadn’t noticed that the Lee Jeongjin user was using a Stun Increase buff.

‘When did he cast the buff? I need to get out of this situation!’

The strength fight between an Assassin and a Magic Swordsman is evenly matched. It’s a situation where each other’s physical ability is important.

The moment I put all my strength into trying to push him away.

My whole body leaned forward.

“Huh?”

As my body leaned forward, I grasped the situation.

A one-handed sword falling to the floor.

‘He let go of his sword…!?’

In the evenly matched tug-of-war, the Lee Jeongjin user suddenly let go of his sword, and I, who was pushing, leaned forward with that force.

‘A Magic Swordsman abandoning his sword?’

Thud.

In a state where I had already lost control of my body, the Lee Jeongjin user grabbed my wrist as I was falling, having lost my footing.

‘Damn it…!’

While falling, I forcibly pulled up my right leg to push away the Lee Jeongjin user, but the Lee Jeongjin user’s actions were faster than that.

The Lee Jeongjin user’s hand touched my waist, and I felt a jolt all over my body. I was hit with a Paralysis CC, and he kicked me away.

While flying, I could see the Lee Jeongjin user’s actions.

He kicked the sword that had fallen to the ground, picked it up, and started chanting.

A different jet-black effect than before.

It’s a finishing move.

Probably the Magic Swordsman’s max level magic skill.

I need to move to cancel that skill right now, but I’m flying in the air with Paralysis, so I can’t do anything.

As soon as I fell to the ground and the Paralysis CC was released, the Magic Swordsman’s max level magic skill, [Dance of Swords], was activated.

Large swords made of magic were embedded in my body.

My health was dropping without stopping.

‘Is this for real…’

My health dropped by 40% with just one skill.

I started in a very disadvantageous position against last year’s champion, when I should have started with an advantage.

‘There’s still a lot of time left. I’ll win!’

As soon as the Stun was released, I rushed towards the magic flying towards me, having finished casting all the magic during the Stun time.

I can’t avoid magic coming at me in close range, but if it’s this far away…!

I ran, dodging, parrying, and cutting through the magic that was rushing at me to kill me.

“Wow… is this for real?”

The Lee Jeongjin user laughed in disbelief as he saw me breaking through the magic.

That’s what I want to say…

My physical ability is overwhelming.

Close combat, where we’re within each other’s range like now, is definitely dominated by me.

My attacks are clearly hitting, and I’m definitely blocking the Lee Jeongjin user’s attacks.

But I get flustered by the Lee Jeongjin user’s occasional unexpected actions.

‘This person definitely learned swordsmanship.’

I can feel that he’s different from me, who’s just been playing the game relying on my physical ability.

He’s not using blocking or Parrying to block my attacks, but using them as his own attacks.

The way he naturally makes my dagger flow elsewhere the moment the sword and sword collide and attacks my body is no joke.

I’m clearly attacking, and I’m clearly in an advantageous situation, but I’m steadily taking damage.

‘Is this last year’s champion user? He’s very skilled.’

He knows the direction of power so well.

It’s hard to find a way to deal with him.

My reaction is faster, my physical ability is better, and I perfectly execute the pre-delay and post-delay, but the Lee Jeongjin user in front of me is pushing me.

==

‘What is this kid?’

Lee Jeongjin was dumbfounded as he watched Arang, who was attacking him as if to kill him.

In the binding state, where the sword and sword are stuck together, she was overwhelmingly stronger.

Frankly, he could feel that the user Arang herself had no knowledge of what was needed in a sword-to-sword battle.

If it were a real fight, she would be weak enough to be killed immediately.

But this is a game world.

It’s not just a place where swords and swords fight, but a place where the game’s correction and the game’s physics engine are applied.

‘Reflexes, physical ability, situational awareness—she doesn’t lack anything. It would have been dangerous if I hadn’t hit [Dance of Swords] at the beginning.’

-Wow… what’s with their fight

-Arangnim is like a berserker?

-I can’t even see it well lololol

-It doesn’t make sense that Jeongjin is countering this

-It seems like it would have been chaotic if you hadn’t started advantageously at first?

She’s just a kid who relies on her body’s physical ability and has no knowledge of swords, just swinging two daggers.

At first, she was just an easy-to-deal-with kid, but as time goes by, she’s changing.

‘She’s learning my attack and defense methods.’

Each attack is becoming more careful and sharp, and she’s even putting in fakes, predicting how to defend.

She’s fighting to definitely avoid the binding state where the sword and sword stick together.

‘She’s a genius. If she only did Arena for a month or two, she’d have the talent to rise to the top of Challenger.’

No matter how you look at it, she’s a girl who doesn’t even look 15 years old, but how much talent does she have that she’s stronger than most adults at her current level.

‘But she’s still young.’

Even if she has good physical ability, which is the realm of knowledge and talent for the game, she’s not weak enough to lose to a young girl who knows nothing about PVP and actual swordsmanship.

Lee Jeongjin, who blocked Arang’s attack with his sword as she revealed her killing intent and attacked him, took the strength out of his sword and greatly turned Arang’s body, which had lost its balance, and knocked Arang down.

He was about to plunge it into Arang’s body, which was slammed into the ground—!

“!?”

As if she had predicted it, Arang disappeared as soon as she was knocked down to the ground.

‘Could it be that she was knocked down with the pre-delay posture of a movement skill…!? But…’

The place where the movement skill arrived was wrong.

I can see Arang’s shadow besides my shadow.

Lee Jeongjin strongly gave strength to the one-handed sword he had raised towards Arang, who was on the floor, and pierced his abdomen.

He felt the sensation of his abdomen being pierced and the sensation of something else being pierced.