Space Wars

I’m screwed. I’m so screwed…

Seriously, Arang-nim, why aren’t you logging in…!

Not particularly famous in LORE, but with skills that could easily be called top-tier in Korea, the user clutched at their hair as if trying to tear it out.

Until recently, the male user, who had been enjoying LORE without being particularly famous, suddenly became a named user.

Becoming a named user in LORE is something most LORE users desire.

Because LORE is famous worldwide and has a huge number of users. Because of this, LORE-related streaming is always popular, famous guilds have sponsors, and they earn money comparable to large corporations.

Making money while playing a game you love? Who wouldn’t want that?

To become a named user, you either have to be exceptionally good at LORE, have a lot of money to spend on content, or create content that is very entertaining for viewers. There are various methods.

But the male user became a named user too easily and suddenly.

Suddenly a quest appeared, then suddenly he became a field boss, and suddenly he appeared as a field boss with a pounding heart, only to be met with the anger of all the users in front of him, thus becoming a named user.

At first, the man thought several field bosses were being created. Because Arang was starting to work as a field boss, he thought there would be several field bosses, so he became one, but it turned out he was replacing Arang as the field boss.

As a result, the users who had gathered to see Arang were suddenly faced not with the cute and adorable Arang, but with a slightly chubby, not-so-handsome male user, earning him the nickname Otaku Field Boss, or [Ofibo], and a barrage of insults.

At first, the man didn’t think much of it and even changed his nickname to [Ofibo] as he became famous, trying to work as a named user.

But as [Ofibo] worked as a named user to some extent, he recalled those words.

‘I wish no one knew me and I had a lot of money.’

It wasn’t just fame, it was fame filled with anger.

The only place where regular users could see Arang once a week was the field boss spawn location.

But since [Ofibo] appeared instead of Arang, the users couldn’t help but be angry.

He managed to continue his activities thanks to Arang’s mediation, but another problem arose.

The World Boss.

Five days. Arang hadn’t logged into LORE for five days.

For about three days, users didn’t think much of Arang not logging in.

Because Arang doesn’t log in for about three days once a month. Unlike before, her menstrual cycle is now regular, so some users who know Arang’s menstrual cycle weren’t too concerned about her not logging in.

Until that 3 days turned into almost 5 days.

Today is the World Boss event day from last week.

The war between the 1st-4th world alliance and the 5th world. It’s an event where you have to hold out while the administrators prepare magic against the World Boss Marang and Arang.

But Arang hasn’t logged in even on the World Boss event day.

Because of that, the authority automatically passed to [Ofibo].

In other words, he has to appear as the World Boss instead of Arang.

The [Ofibo] user, who had barely calmed down from the field boss incident and was working as a moderately named user, began to seriously contemplate.

If he appears as the World Boss, he can receive the attention of the entire world at once. But it was clear that this would also create several problems.

It’s literally a poisoned chalice.

But the man knows. It’s a chalice he has to drink.

Even if it’s poisoned.

==

Reina was in a very bad mood.

Because Arang doesn’t exist in this world of LORE right now.

Moreover, although Marang appears as the World Boss, she is aware that Marang’s original form is a chubby one, and that a user named Ofibo will appear instead of Arang.

Basically, they live on opposite sides of the Earth, so there haven’t been many encounters with Arang recently.

When Arang used to be in LORE for 16 hours a day, there were many opportunities to meet, but since Arang started going to school, her LORE playtime has been halved to 8 hours, and their activity times are also opposite, making it quite difficult to meet.

Furthermore, Reina currently has a mountain of things to do in LORE as the Third World Administrator’s shaman.

“This sucks!”

Reina shouted with frustration while fighting Marang.

“Oh my, why is our Reina Queen so angry!?”

The moment a belly-covering monster popped out of Reina’s shadow and held a scythe to Reina’s neck, the knight’s cover skill protected Reina.

Kang!

“Tsk. With those reflexes, you shouldn’t be a knight, you should be a dealer!”

“Hmph. It’s too obvious. You have no talent for PVP.”

“What? You have no talent for seeing Arang.”

“What are you talking about! I can explain how pretty and cute Arang is!”

“That’s not what I mean. I saw Arang in real life yesterday~ We even had dinner together~ You’re on the opposite side of the Earth from Arang~”

“Dieeeee!”

==

At that moment, Arang was immersed in the Space Wars game.

The virtual world Space Wars was not much different from the old Space Wars 1. It’s the same game, but the controls and some additional features have changed.

First of all, since it’s a virtual world game rather than a PC game, the controls have changed significantly.

In the old PC version, you controlled with a keyboard and mouse, but in the virtual world due to the access device, you have to use voice and gestures.

A place that looks like the inside of a monster’s stomach.

With disgusting flesh wriggling all around and monsters teeming around, she commanded the battlefield from a chair in the center, moving the large view in front of her with her thoughts.

“Hirari and Ulari attack at 1 o’clock, Dipa continues to replenish mana while eating Glingi, the Queen casts magic at the tanks, the 2nd unit of Glingi attacks the 12 o’clock multi, Lurker lurks in the middle, and Colji defends the main base with drops.”

The screen of the battlefield moved back and forth in her hands without a single hitch, to the point where an ordinary person wouldn’t even know what was happening, and Arang commanded the monsters she was controlling.

She looked like a commander directing a battle from the flagship.

==

Bbibik.

[You fucking suck at this game, you son of a bitch]

With the opponent’s compliment, I exited the game and stretched my hands up.

“Wow. This is much more fun than the computer days.”

In the computer days, it was a top-down view, but Space Wars 5 was different.

You could see everything from any perspective. You could even check from the first-person perspective of certain monsters, making for much more thrilling gameplay.

In particular, the thrill of slaughtering human marines from Ulari’s first-person perspective showed a level of excitement that rivaled any SF movie.

It’s a completely different kind of fun from LORE.

RPG is about cooperating with everyone, chatting with everyone, and adventuring in the world together like a family, while RTS is about clashing with the opponent with all your might and winning.

Especially when the opponent is less skilled than you, so they work incredibly hard and do all sorts of things to win, but nothing works against you, that feeling of omnipotence is a real dopamine rush.

When the opponent curses you out like just now, the dopamine is no joke.

“Hoo… I hit Ladder S with this.”

Since there weren’t many major differences from Space Wars 1, it didn’t take me a day to adapt.

It felt a little strange to control with voice and gestures instead of a mouse and keyboard, but that sensation that I couldn’t feel with a mouse and keyboard was so much fun.

It really felt like I was a commander directing a war to win.

I used to have a semi-pro license and was good enough to beat pros, so I quickly adapted and climbed to Ladder S without losing many times.

Sometimes I have to lose to a bullshit cheese rush, but that’s one of the fun things about RTS.

Now that Space Wars has moved to a virtual world game, it seems to require more physicality than the old computer game.

Of course, physicality has become important, but RTS is ultimately about strategy.

No matter how good your physicality is, it’s hard to win a war that you’re already losing. For example, if the opponent has a unit with permanent stealth, also known as cloaking ability, and I have no way to see that stealth, I have no choice but to lose, no matter how good my physicality is.

Of course, with my level of brainpower, I can easily predict that!