Arena Tournament

,Hey… aren’t you even logging into the game? What are you doing?”

Right after school ended, if it were any other day, I would have logged into the game as Harang said.

I frowned at Harang’s dumb question and answered.

,Studying.”

,S-Studying? Suddenly? At this hour? Why?”

,Because I need to.”

,No, do you have an exam?”

,No, not that kind of studying.”

I answered Harang and tapped on my phone.

The video I was watching wasn’t some ordinary internet lecture for studying. What started playing on the phone screen was a video of players who were quite famous in VRS.

,What is it? Are you going to switch over to that?”

,No, I don’t intend to. They’re the ones who came over here.”

Was he coming out to get a drink of water? Harang made a sullen face at my answer and headed to the refrigerator.

,You said it yourself. That there would be an arena tournament soon.”

,U-Um… I did expect that… Are you going to fight those people?”

,I’m going to completely crush them.”

I recalled the humiliating memory and muttered as if spitting it out.

As I bit down hard on the pen in my hand, Harang, holding a cold glass of water, went and sat across from me.

,Are you angry?”

,Yeah, a lot.”

,Why all of a sudden?”

Seeing Harang ask as if he was genuinely curious, I told him the story of what happened in the infirmary today.

From feeling interested and looking up their broadcasts, to kindly helping them because their play style was wrong.

The arena is a battle of wits. It’s like an extreme game of rock-paper-scissors. The VRS play style isn’t much different, so famous streamers often adapt to the arena quickly.

But it’s different. Even if it’s similar, Deron’s arena has techniques that don’t exist in VRS.

,So you gave them advice?”

,At first, no one listened to me. So I even sponsored them while doing it…”

,And they refunded your sponsorship?”

,Yeah. They wouldn’t listen, so I sent one-line messages for 10,000 won each, but they suddenly refunded and kicked me out. After that, I couldn’t even enter the room.”

,Seriously…”

,I was so frustrated, you know? Those guys who are worse than me. If a master tells you something, shouldn’t you say, ‘Yes, I understand,’ and accept it?”

,Don’t tell me you did that to the VRS pro players too?”

,Are those people any different? They all looked similar to me, of course, there were some who were a bit better… I’m a Silver Sword in the arena.”

,No, Hayeon-ah…”

,I’m a Silver Sword in the arena. I even have the sparkly lamp decoration costume, you know? Even if I tell them that, they don’t understand. Why?”

Even now, I couldn’t understand it.

Why don’t they believe me? If they listened to what I said calmly and incorporated it into their movements, their arena ranking would increase tremendously.

,So, why are you suddenly studying…?”

,To show them. The overwhelming difference in skill. That I’m not some jjammini (kid).”

I answer with my resolve. As if shaking off the anger I had been suppressing.

Harang, who heard my answer, was making a sullen face. Come to think of it, isn’t this guy, who’s supposed to be my closest friend, not believing in me?

As I glared at him with wide eyes, Harang flinched and ran away.

,Do your best~”

I sighed as I watched Harang leave his last words.

His voice didn’t contain any belief.

I have to show them. In the upcoming arena tournament, I will overwhelmingly crush them and show them my skills.

If you know yourself and your enemy, you will win every battle.

I know myself well, so I needed to know about the enemy.

Of course, I was confident in winning even in this state, but I needed to show them an overwhelming difference in skill so that they would feel it deeply.

I check the players’ movements through the videos.

It’s a task where I have to observe with my eyes even the habits and subtle changes contained in their delicate movements.

My head burns white, and simulations start running on how to respond when I stand in front of them.

The hand holding the pen moves tirelessly. I draw the opponent on the white notebook, then draw myself in front of them.

Sword against sword, sometimes swinging the sword towards the shield.

It felt like I had become a grand master creating a martial arts manual.

,Heuheuhik…”

It’s a manual for deciphering the movements of pro players.

If this manual is released, it will definitely spread a huge shock.

Surely, many YouTubers will watch my manual and create videos.

[Are VRS Pros Afraid of Hayeon?]

[Shock! Deciphering Manual Appears in the VRS Pro Industry!]

[The Game Has Overturned the Landscape. The Emergence of a Tremendous Newcomer!]

Imagining that moment, the corners of my mouth started to twitch.

I continued my pleasant imagination and scribbled diligently in the notebook.

How much time had passed like that?

It was the moment when the number of videos I was replaying exceeded 10.

,Hayeon-i (Hayeon) is studying?”

,Ah, Mom.”

I stopped the pen that was moving diligently and raised my head.

There, my mom, dressed in a neat suit, was standing with a smile.

,Aren’t you playing games today?”

,I’ll do it later. I’m studying now.”

,Studying… Is it art study, perhaps?”

It seems like Mom saw my manual notebook.

I nodded. This wasn’t much different from art. This manual is already in the realm of art, no, art.

As expected of my parents. It seems they recognized the true value of this manual at a glance.

,Do they have comics in school exams these days?”

,It’s not a comic. This is art.”

Of course, depending on the perspective, it might look like I’m drawing a comic.

I checked the time and closed the manual.

Studying is over. Now, I was going to go into practice and move my body directly.

Of course, I couldn’t meet the players who were currently playing in the arena.

Because my arena ranking ended as Silver Sword last season, I wasn’t matched with them.

To get matched properly, I had to create a smurf account or wait for them to come up.

Of course, I had no intention of going to meet them directly.

To reveal my strategy to the enemy, that’s a stupid idea.

I will hide my appearance until the end and then appear at the last moment to overwhelmingly defeat them.

***

The weekend passed, and on Monday morning, more than a week after the streamers started playing Deron, a notice was posted on Deron’s website.

[Guidance on Holding the World’s Greatest Arena Tournament]

Hello. This is Deron Online.

Ahead of this global service, an arena tournament to determine the strongest in Deron will be held.

The arena tournament will be held in three stages: preliminary, main, and final rounds, over a total of 5 days. All matches from the final round will be broadcast live on the internet.

A prediction event where you can bet arena tournament points will also be held, so we ask for the interest and participation of all adventurers.

The 1st World’s Greatest Arena Tournament

1. Tournament Schedule: October 12th ~ October 16th

2. Detailed Schedule.

Preliminary: October 12th (Wed) 19:00 ~ 21:00 [2 hours]

You can participate in a total of 10 tournament matches during the preliminary round, and you will advance to the main round if you achieve 5 or more wins.

Main Round: October 13th (Thu) 19:00 ~ 21:00 [2 hours]

You can participate in a total of 15 tournament matches during the main round, and the top 128 players with the highest number of wins will advance to the final round.

Final Round Day 1: October 14th (Fri) 19:00 ~ 21:00 [2 hours]

The Final Round Day 1 (Round of 128 ~ Round of 64) will be held in a best-of-three tournament format.

-Round of 128: 19:00 ~ 19:50 [50 minutes]

-Round of 64: 20:00 ~ 20:50 [50 minutes]

Final Round Day 2: October 15th (Sat) 19:00 ~ 21:00 [2 hours]

The Final Round Day 2 (Round of 32 ~ Round of 16) will be held in a best-of-three tournament format.

-Round of 32: 19:00 ~ 19:50 [50 minutes]

-Round of 16: 20:00 ~ 20:50 [50 minutes]

Final Round Day 3: October 16th (Sun) 19:00 ~ 21:30 [2 hours 30 minutes]

The Final Round Day 3 (Quarterfinals ~ Finals) will be held in a best-of-five tournament format.

-Quarterfinals: 19:00 ~ 19:50 [50 minutes]

-Semifinals: 20:00 ~ 20:50 [50 minutes]

-Finals: 21:00 ~ 21:30 [30 minutes]

※Arena ranking matches will be unavailable during the tournament period.

Reward Information.

1. Final Round Ranking Rewards.

The winner of the arena tournament / top 4 / top 16 will receive a special title and a Hell Demon Wing costume according to their ranking.

(Super cool and huge demon wing image)

Winner: Pronos’ Wing, Master of the Demon Sword, Title: Invincible

(Demon wing image)

Top 4: Wing of the High-Grade Demon Race.

(Small demon wing image)

Top 16: Wing of the Mid-Grade Demon Race.

It was as Harang had predicted.

The arena tournament had begun.

A place has been prepared to showcase all of my skills that I have prepared for the past week.

As news spread that users from VRS would be participating in the arena tournament, some users protested, but Deron’s game company didn’t even blink an eye.

They were just pushing the event straight ahead.

It seemed like they were planning to continuously hold these kinds of collaboration events to infuse new blood into the world of Deron.

To participate in the arena tournament, you needed at least the One Sword arena rank.

It was a minimum device to filter out the riff-raff.

The streamers who came over from playing VRS had been playing arena broadcasts all day, so everyone had reached the Sword rank.

I focused on the winning prize that could be found at the very bottom of the notice.

A demon wing costume, this was something I absolutely couldn’t give up.

Pronos’ Wing, Master of the Demon Sword. This was definitely a costume prepared for me.

I stood in front of a large mirror in the game and examined my appearance.

The small girl took out her demon sword and struck a cool pose.

The cape she was wearing on her back was also cool, but the completion of a coordi (outfit) had to be finished with wings.

And demon wings on top of that, I can’t stand it.

It will be really cool.

It’s not just the demon wings.

The video I uploaded as a commemorative event for the global launch is certain to win the grand prize.

The owner of the video that is selected in a high ranking in that event receives an angel wing costume.

Worrying about which one would suit me better was also a task.

I was looking into the mirror and imagining my wonderful future.

[The Preliminary Round of the World’s Greatest Arena Tournament Has Begun!]

The arena tournament has begun. Although it’s just the preliminary round, I can’t let my guard down.

I calmly took a breath and applied for a match.

It’s the preliminary round. That means there were a lot of people participating.

Although I wasn’t matched with the people I was expecting, I was able to achieve satisfactory results.

10 wins, 0 losses.

That was my preliminary round result.