Ch.159154 – Early Adopter

[World of Arsheria – Precious and Small]

[Stream Time – 1:10:38]

[Viewers – 37057]

Humans learn from failure.

Looking back at why I had to lose in both the placement exam and showcase, there were valid reasons for all of it.

The NPC growth difference.

I thought too simply that having one more NPC ally was just an extra body on our team.

The events that appear in connection with NPC stories as the game progresses weren’t simply about winning or losing.

In League, there’s a saying that stealing the enemy’s jungle monster is worth double.

Here too, whenever I failed to fulfill these events, I’d ridiculously lose games I was winning, or when already behind, the growth gap would widen even further in these laughable situations.

My intuition that I should farm more in areas without NPCs because I was confident in my skills ultimately proved to be a false premise.

[You have entered the Colosseum.]

[Blue Team (4/6) vs Red Team (3/6)]

“Phew! Just barely made it! Ouch!”

A girl who barely squeezed through the closing iron gate.

Even in that moment, she was broadcasting her clumsy self getting poked by her own weapon.

“What? How did you guys get here…?”

The enemy mage had a considerably bewildered look.

“Haha! You thought you’d have more numbers in this Colosseum, didn’t you!”

Clang-!

Kariri rubbed her sharp claws together, producing a mischievous laugh.

I understood why they were surprised.

Just a minute ago, Kariri and I were on the opposite side of the map.

-What were you thinking not buying any health defense items to join up?

-I want to go all-in on spell power because I hate being slow lol

└ lololololol

-Is this strategy really right? If we win the Colosseum we break even, but if we lose it’s a disaster?

World of Arsheria constantly forces players to make choices.

NPC events that provide beneficial buffs to allied soldiers or debuffs to enemy soldiers.

[That man is my father’s enemy. Not only did he tarnish my father’s honor as a gladiator, he even slandered him! I can never forgive Nahibitan!]

However, participating meant temporarily falling behind in battle.

Therefore, whether to endure a momentary disadvantage for greater gain, or to delay events as much as possible to take geographical advantage, the choice was entirely up to the players.

“This is totally a 4D chess strategy, right? You’re going all-in here?”

I added to the still dumbfounded mage.

“A tank not building health defense is crazy. For a normal tank, that is.”

“That’s right…! Kariri gets stronger as her health gets lower! I’m an assassin!”

-lolololololol

-Right, right lolol

-R…really?

-lolol just sophistry, isn’t it?

Kariri’s character wasn’t something you could call good-looking even as a white lie.

A weapon with extremely short range.

If she could get within range, she could boast extreme lethality and high freedom of movement, but that only matters if she can get close, right?

So before the game started, I had asked Kariri about her build—covered in health-focused growth stats and tank-specific traits.

‘Why did you decide to build an assassin class as a tank from the start?’

‘I thought tanks would be better for prolonged fights than assassins?’

Her claim was that she had one-dimensionally thought “needs to get close to be strong” meant “would be good as a tank.”

Even though her attack power was higher than other weapons, if you built health in-game, it became nothing more than cumbersome trash.

So to somehow transform her into a respectable full-fledged player, I came up with:

“AP tank? Are you messing with me?”

“You’ll find out when we fight, won’t you?”

[Battle begins.]

[60s]

[59s]

Eight doors close in sequence, and the sound of trumpets announces the start of battle.

A knight with a thick shield marched forward at the front.

Against him, Kariri’s body sprang forward quickly, slashing the shield with her massive claws.

Keeeng-!

As metal clashed with metal, the two warriors exerted their strength.

Contrary to expectations of a tedious exchange, Kariri was actually dominating.

“What the… such strength…!”

“Hehe, still not enough! Now, NoName!”

“Keep holding him there.”

The higher one’s health and defense stats, the lower their movement speed.

Conversely, Kariri was wielding nothing but spell power items apart from stats that increased automatically with level-ups.

This was to maximize the effect of one of Kariri’s character traits, “Chimera’s Hunt.”

The trait that gives life-steal to melee attacks happened to have effects proportional to “spell power.”

Considering that most melee attacks are based on “attack power,” this could be considered a garbage-tier effect.

But with her claws providing a decent level of attack power, and her HP rivaling that of a tank, what if Kariri activated Chimera’s Hunt?

While it might be trash on its own, combined with an ally healer’s health regeneration increase, it could create multiplicative synergy.

I could be this confident because I had personally worked out the complex formulas for all levels in advance and verified them once in practice mode.

A wolverine—no, badger—with a gold necklace.

A wolverine—no, badger—girl with gold rings.

It was quite jarring to see a young girl sporting fashion that would be more at home in a Harlem hood, but Kariri was excellently fulfilling her role of containing the enemy captain.

However,

“Aaaaargh! I think I’m about to die! My health is dropping too fast! When are you coming, NoName? Aaaaaaah!”

Her advantage was short-lived.

The enemies, who had mistaken her initial burst of speed-enhanced strikes as her true strength, began to objectively assess the situation again.

Her initial momentum had vanished somewhere, and her feet were gradually being pushed back.

Without something to turn the tide, I could only see a future where the claws on her fists would be completely shattered.

But our team had one more person than theirs—four members.

In other words, while there was a tense 3v3 standoff, I remained completely free to move.

I immediately drew my secondary weapon.

A cool silver line extending from the scabbard sliced through the air.

Thanks to Kariri pulling back at the perfect moment, the knight who had been exerting all his strength lurched forward.

Even though he tried to raise his guard when he realized his mistake, it was already too late.

I pulled my blade from the properly pierced shoulder, accepting the shield knight’s last words wondering how this could happen.

Simultaneously, I cast a recovery skill on Kariri.

[Intermediate Heal]

[Chimera’s Hunt stacks.]

Even while in the process of health recovery, the assassin who had once entered a near-death state entered an “awakened” state like a berserker.

Red aura swirled around Kariri, radiating heat.

“You bastard! You scared me by suddenly stabbing my side with your shield! Take this, this, this!”

Kariri finished the job with wild slashes, and the brief Colosseum battle came to an end.

[‘Lunatic’ donated ₩10,000!]

-Tsk, Kariri, watch your language!

“Hup! NoName, did you hear that?”

Kariri cupped her hands over her mouth and looked at me with trembling eyes.

“Sis, I’ve played League for years, you know.”

“Hey, what’s this? You’re an experienced player! Everyone, why are you making such a fuss? NoName asked not to be treated like a kid!”

“I didn’t say that…”

-League experience is legit lol

-The final destination of all demons… what kind of place is League anyway?

-The top lane is full of people like Kim Young-kwang

-Kariri, let’s unleash one fastball

-It’s more surprising that League is rated 7+ than World of Arsheria Nightmare being 15+ lol

[‘HoneyChyupa’ donated ₩50,000!]

-Kariri early adopter mode ON?

“Aaaaaaah! I told you not to use that phrase! Why are you doing this?!”

“Early adopter?”

“Ah… never mind! Don’t worry about it!”

“I know what it means. It’s from Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory.”

It refers to people who adopt new products earlier than others based on consumer tendencies.

I was glad to hear a familiar term in Kariri’s conversation with viewers.

Kids these days create all sorts of strange neologisms, so I often can’t understand just from hearing the syllables.

“Ahaha… is that so…?”

It’s not?

* * *

[‘Vegeta’ donated ₩5,000!]

-Disgust Stack: Currently at 4 stacks

[‘Faceless (Manager)’ donated ₩20,000!]

-On behalf of all Kariri fans, we sincerely apologize to NoName.

The metaphor was shocking enough to almost make me dizzy, but I could dismiss this as just kids fooling around.

-Make donations while respecting boundaries

-Kariri’s the one actually enjoying this though?

-Is this person’s imagination seriously messed up? lol

-Early adopter LMAO

“I have no intention of judging others’ sexual preferences, but I’d appreciate if people stayed within the boundaries of the law.”

“It’s a misunderstanding! It’s not true! I’m really not a lolicon!”

Caring for children and being sexually attracted to them are completely different things—one is unacceptable behavior.

[Video Share – ‘Asantia’ shared for ₩20,000!]

(Kariri’s whisper harassment statement.mp4)

[I want to make NoName my knight. Ah, I want to trap her in a dakimakura and hug her every night. Guys, don’t call me a lolicon, would you call me an early adopter instead?]

-What kind of brain structure makes someone think lolicon=early adopter?

-How does she even know these deep-cut jokes? lol

└Just assume she’s dedicated her life to forum browsing lol. Our Kariri knows everything

-What does that mean?

└ Little one, you don’t need to know

-This is so confusing lol

-So this was her actually holding back wow… wow… wooow…

-Feeling dizzy?

-A streamer we can be embarrassed about anywhere ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

“Hueeeeeeeh… I’m ruined… I worked so hard to prepare for this collab and now it’s all ruined!”

Kariri fell to her knees on the floor and wailed loudly.

The atmosphere had become quite uncomfortable.

This was only our first match, and it was truly awkward not knowing what to say to each other after the game ended.

“You guys should know! I stayed up all night watching VTube videos to prepare for this collab with NoName! I even joined NoName’s fan cafe! And promoted with a verified account on NoName’s gallery! Hueeeeeeeh!”

-Why a verified account though…? lol

-Ugh, such fake crying

-Even her crying now is just an act, NoName, don’t worry about it

-She’s probably secretly grinning, loading up another joke lol

-Let’s take it easy, we need to move on quickly

-I thought we’d play at least 4 matches, but looks like we’ll end after 2

“Kariri?”

“Uuuuuuu…”

This isn’t working.

I also thought Kariri was crying as a joke, but it seemed half-sincere.

I quickly glanced at the chat and whispered to the viewers without her noticing.

“Come on, show me some cool moments of Kariri.”

-Nice

-You’re so kind ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-NoName! NoName! NoName!

-Our Kariri may seem like this, but she’s really kind and pure

-Perfect timing, just loaded up a donation lol

-Kariri is a master at collecting donations!

-We already have plenty of highlight videos

“No no, NoName…! I was just kidding, I’m really fine, huh?”

Kariri belatedly got up and grabbed my shoulder.

My gaze turned behind us.

Simultaneously, a large rectangular donation window appeared beside us.

[Video Share – ‘HoneyChyupa’ shared for ₩300,000!]

(Kariri 2049 Year-End Concert.mp4) – ‘Wild Flower / LK’

“Hey, why this one?”

A different light flashed in her eyes.

And reflected in her circular iris was her past self.

My head turned to the right along with hers.

In the video, she was holding the microphone tightly with both hands, somewhat shyly, then hesitating before clearing her throat with a cute sound.

As she opened her mouth and began singing, the chat filled with endless waves of light stick emoticons.

But the waves weren’t rough—they rippled gently like small wavelets.

What emotion was contained in those pale sunset-colored eyes, larger now and undulating like waves?

As the gentle timbre stretched out,

When it felt like this moment might last forever,

“…memories, and faint feelings.”

At the emotional peak of the song, Kariri softly whispered the lyrics along with the video.

“Beneath the stone wall you passed, I wait for you alone.”

A soft timbre flowed from her slightly trembling vocal cords, adding sound to the air.

“Just enough to shake off, just enough to endure.”

Her anxious gaze turned to me once. When I nodded slightly, her trembling eyes calmed down.

“In the trembling soaked with tears, I will bloom green leaves.”

Kariri finished her duet with her past self, exhaling a deep breath. However, the video was still continuing.

“You sing really well.”

“Huh? Oh…”

Kariri flinched at my casual compliment.

-Kariri is a goddess! Kariri is a goddess!

-Emotional damage lol

-As expected, experienced singers are different

-Damn good

-Wooooow

-She’s seriously amazing

-This is catch the rock! lol

-THIS IS LEGEND

-I played this song for a flower and it ran away saying it would become a wild flower

-10 points… 10 points…

-Just went to search for Kariri’s VTube right now

└ Definitely worth watching all her content

-She looks like a different person lol

-The greatest florist of this era

-Kariri is truly a legend…

“Will you sing for me again sometime?”

“Hehe… you’ve fallen for me, NoName friend? It’s okay, loving the honey badger is a very natural feeling!”

Kariri patted my back a couple of times and smiled brightly, showing her white canines.

Returning to her playful voice somehow made me feel relieved.

She’s quite charming.

I understood why viewers liked her.