Chapter 77: The Trial of the Sky: Taking on the Ultimate Risk

The time when an office worker returns home after work, takes a shower, and puts on their VR headset.

The time when the legendary Rank 0 players wake up, eat delivery food, and pat their stomachs in satisfaction.

The Eternal World Olympics.

The quarterfinals had begun.

“Wow. I’ve been broadcasting the Eternal World Olympics for several years now, and this year feels especially heated.”

“That’s probably because there are a lot of newcomers. Expectations are naturally high.”

“The matches haven’t even started yet, and already there are 200,000 viewers in the streaming room. Pyeon Murang, what are your thoughts on the ‘IronSavesTheWorld’ team versus the ‘FluffySpecialForces’ team?”

“They’re both incredibly interesting teams. Both live up to their nicknames, don’t they? Especially the ‘IronSavesTheWorld’ team—they’ve really shown how Iron saves the world.”

“We’ve prepared a clip of that fiery moment. Let’s take a quick look.”

The screen shifted, and a video began to play.

It showcased a 6v6 team fight.

Han Yurim had plunged into the center, splitting the enemy formation and locking their feet in place with Thierry’s Darkness Element-derived ultimate skill, [Black Hole].

Right after, Chae Narin, who had been launched into the air by PaePae’s skill, came crashing down onto the enemy formation, swinging her fist.

She parried the attacks of a startled enemy main carry and landed an empowered punch straight to their face.

The viewers went wild over the satisfying one-two punch.

“It’s hard to believe she’s an Iron player with moves like that.”

“She’s definitely an outlier. While other aspects might be lacking, her combat mechanics are at a level that would surprise even Challenger-tier players.”

“Even Chocofulppang, another Iron-tier defender, has showered her with praise, hasn’t he?”

“Yes. Everyone is amazed by her optimization skills, which are far from what you’d expect from an Iron player.”

Commentator Bigi used his skill No Lies Told as Pyeon Murang analyzed the ‘FluffySpecialForces’ team’s capabilities.

“If Han Yurim is the key player for the ‘IronSavesTheWorld’ team, then Arina is the key player for the ‘FluffySpecialForces’ team.”

The screen now displayed Arina’s gameplay.

She sliced through her enemies effortlessly using Amano Yukiko.

Pyeon Murang added, “As expected of a former Challenger-tier player, her mechanics are outstanding.

While some criticize her narrow champion pool as an Amano Yukiko main, that’s a meaningless frame to put on a Challenger-tier player.

It’s not that she can’t play other champions—she’s just exceptionally skilled with Amano Yukiko.”

“One team has a Thierry specialist, and the other has an Amano Yukiko specialist. What do you think will happen during the ban-pick phase?”

“I think it’s obvious that both teams will target each other’s main champions. There’s no reason to leave their signature picks open.”

“I see. Ah, the ban-pick phase is starting!”

The first ban from the ‘FluffySpecialForces’ team was Thierry.

The ‘IronSavesTheWorld’ team’s ban that followed was…

“Huh?”

“They banned Noah Weber! It makes sense, though. The FluffySpecialForces team’s defender is famous for their Noah Weber gameplay. It’s a team filled with specialists.”

The next ban from the ‘FluffySpecialForces’ team was Ormal, while ‘IronSavesTheWorld’ banned another high-mobility defender.

The next ban from ‘FluffySpecialForces’ was Kakeyama Ryo, and ‘IronSavesTheWorld’ followed up by banning… yet another high-mobility defender.

“Wow.”

“They’re practically saying, ‘We don’t consider Amano Yukiko to be a threat.’”

“Arina immediately locks in Amano Yukiko.”

“It’s a matter of pride. There’s no reason not to pick her main champion here. Avoiding it would affect the rest of the matches.”

“What will Han Yurim pick in response? Oh?”

“She chooses Celestial Vanguard. That’s an interesting pick.”

Celestial Vanguard is the protagonist of a popular Chinese martial arts novel, beloved by many Chinese players.

While beloved, the character is avoided due to their high difficulty.

“That’s Han Yurim for you—she’s known for mastering difficult characters as if they were an extension of her own body. I’m curious to see if she’ll excel with Celestial Vanguard as well.”

“The game is starting!”

As Arina entered the urban battlefield, she frowned.

Celestial Vanguard.

A highly unique character.

Their playstyle shifts drastically depending on which cultivation method is chosen.

Unlike Thierry, who can freely use a variety of methods as needed, Celestial Vanguard is locked into one cultivation method until their base is destroyed.

With ten different methods to choose from, the character is anything but simple.

‘Which method did they pick?’

The five basic methods based on the five elements—Fire, Water, Wood, Earth, and Metal—can be chosen without any conditions.

Aside from these, there are five unique methods: Thunder, Heaven, Moon, Void, and Star.

However, these require specific conditions and are generally less effective than the elemental methods.

Considering the ‘IronSavesTheWorld’ team’s tendency, it was most likely that they chose the Fire element method for its burst damage potential.

But… this was Han Yurim.

Something told Arina she might have chosen one of the unique methods.

Thunder, Heaven, Moon, Void, or Star—among these, which one would Han Yurim most likely choose?

Currently, Han Yurim was tasked with being both the late-game carry and the team’s backbone in the early and mid-game.

In a professional tournament, such a role distribution would be criticized as absurd, but this was the Eternal World Olympics.

The focus was on how well players could carry lower-tier teammates.

Even so, Han Yurim’s role was exceedingly demanding. But it was her team composition, after all—she had to manage.

No matter how well Chae Narin and Chocofulppang performed, their limitations were evident.

For instance, Chocofulppang’s best effort might place him at a Bronze IV skill level.

While Iron-tier players might not perform well, Bronze-tier players had their own severe limitations.

And Chae Narin, oddly enough, didn’t seem to have a lot of active time in the game.

While her impact was significant, her overall contribution to the game wasn’t as enormous as it seemed.

This put more pressure on Han Yurim.

In such circumstances, she sometimes picked characters that were strong in the early game but weaker in the late game.

Other times, she chose characters weak in the early game but strong in the late game.

At first glance, it seemed like she was selecting various characters, but her criterion for choosing was always the same:

A clear concept.

Whether she dominated the game early or picked a weak character to gain kills and overgrow, Han Yurim always went with characters that promised a definitive return.

If late-game power was the priority, then Void attributes were undoubtedly the best choice.

The Void attribute was themed around summoning monsters from a dimension of illusions.

Since there was no limit to the number of monsters one could summon, its potential ceiling was infinite.

Of course, the downside was that the monsters summoned were random, they wouldn’t revive if killed, and low-tier monsters summoned early on were too weak to use throughout the game.

Still, despite these drawbacks, it was undeniably a strong late-game attribute.

However, it required a long time to grow and an even longer time to gather enough monsters after growth.

Sure, Han Yurim could probably manage a character with such a concept, but honestly, the Void attribute didn’t suit her.

After all, Void was a summoner type—relying partially on AI to control summoned monsters.

Even with manual control, it wouldn’t be as precise as controlling the main character.

That would mean abandoning one of Han Yurim’s strongest advantages: her physical skills. There was no reason for her to choose it.

Considering all these conditions, the optimal choice for Han Yurim became clear:

Heaven. The Heaven attribute.

It was late-game oriented, but as a melee damage dealer, it allowed Han Yurim to fully utilize her physical skills, making it a perfect fit.

Arina unsheathed her katana and defeated a Tier 5 object.

At that moment—

Deng—.

A bell chimed from the sky.

Simultaneously, Han Yurim’s location appeared as a black dot on the minimap.

This was the [Trial of Heaven], a rite of passage required to master the Heaven attribute.

The intensity of the [Trial of Heaven] could be determined by the individual.

For the first trial, one could decide how long their location would remain visible.

The minimum was 1 second, but the usual choice was around 5 seconds.

Keeping it visible for too short a time yielded too little return, making it an undesirable choice.

Five seconds passed. Han Yurim’s location was still visible on the minimap.

Did she set it to 10 seconds? Well, given her weighty role, it made sense.

Rather than settling for a middling 5 seconds, stacking it up with 10 seconds was a better choice.

Ten seconds passed. Han Yurim’s location remained visible.

Fifteen seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty seconds.

…One minute.

Deng.

The bell rang again. But this time, there was no change on the minimap.

Naturally.

Since her location had been visible the entire time, there was no need for it to disappear.

Was she seriously taking the full risk?

Was this for real?

Especially since the first [Trial of Heaven] had diminishing returns after 18 seconds, this wasn’t a great choice.

Even though the second trial would begin after 5 minutes, leaving her location visible throughout the entire early phase for 5 minutes was a significant disadvantage in many ways.

Fine. She must be confident.

Arina summoned her allied Guardian.

No matter how weak “Amano Yukiko” was in the early game, there were limits.

If someone overexposed themselves like that, punishment was the only proper response.

I chose the Heaven attribute through Celestial Ascension and decided to take on the full risk of the [Trial of Heaven] for a simple reason:

Because it seemed like the only way to win.

The main carry and downtown core of the Fluffy Squad were Challenger-tier players.

On top of that, their scout was a former pro at Diamond rank, their Guardian was an extraordinarily efficient Gold-tier player whose rank didn’t reflect their abilities, and their outer perimeter specialist was another solid Gold-tier player.

Their supporter? Well, they were just there to cast supporting skills from the back, so their tier didn’t matter much.

In contrast, our team?

Forget the Iron-tier players for now—even the others weren’t in great shape.

Moss: A former Grandmaster who was skilled but out of their prime due to work commitments and lack of playtime.

Bunnyrun: Showed potential in team games but wasn’t particularly impressive. Even if they understood the game intellectually, it was unrealistic to expect them to adapt seamlessly to the intense coordination required in tournaments.

Paepae: Well… currently playing as a supporter.
And then there were the two Iron players, the icing on the cake:

Chocobread: Still tripped after using three consecutive skills.

Chae Narin: While her Yurimization duration had increased to 10 seconds, failing to use it properly meant an immediate end. The risks were far too high.

In this situation, winning through conventional methods wasn’t an option.

Taking on such a high risk was necessary.

Sure, losing wouldn’t be the end of the world, but wouldn’t it be great to win?

Besides, if I lost, Bbangbbang would be ridiculed for failing to coach a championship-winning team…!

Step.

Hearing footsteps, I stopped farming the object and looked up.

At the entrance of the building stood Arina and the enemy Guardian.