NOVEL WEB Chapter 20
Title: Skill-Oriented Healing Broadcast
[‘Elderin’ is currently streaming.]
A moment of silence passed.
Normally, as a streamer, she should be vigilant in situations like this.
On the quiet screen, only system messages were floating around against a black backdrop.
[You have been killed by an unknown adventurer.]
[Death Penalty: Connection Restriction (4 hours)]
[You will be able to reconnect in 3 hours, 56 minutes, and 43 seconds.]
She needed to say something, anything.
It took her a while to reach that thought.
“Uh… I, uh… I died. That person just now must have been Gawol, right?”
Elderin scratched her head lightly.
The chat was mostly filled with messages expressing concern for her.
Fortunately, there was no mention of the brief audio silence.
However, it turned out that Gawol had become quite the target for criticism.
Elderin’s streaming style was one that allowed viewers to deeply invest in her experiences.
She may not have drawn in a massive audience like a corporate streamer, but she had a loyal following.
So, it was natural for viewers to be outraged when a streamer who usually leads the hunt suddenly became a victim.
“Um, everyone, please calm down. Anyway, I think we should wrap up Infinity Black here for today. Or maybe just chat a bit and then call it a night?”
Elderin slowly began to soothe her viewers.
In fact, she didn’t feel much regret about this death.
Dying during a hunt wasn’t particularly pleasing, but she had been considering ending the stream anyway.
Even if Gawol hadn’t come along, she would have probably logged off soon.
Moreover, upon reflection, it wasn’t a particularly painful memory.
At first, she felt a tightness in her throat and panicked, but her pain integration setting was at 25%.
Even in that, she had lowered the sensitivity for pain, so what she felt was merely a slight discomfort in her throat.
So, oddly enough, other sensations stood out more vividly.
For instance, she could distinctly feel the breath coming from the back of her neck.
‘First, I should switch the broadcast screen, and I need to erase the past broadcasts, right?’
It probably hadn’t come through on the stream very clearly.
Yet, the slight heat she felt from that breath was hard to forget.
The subtle laughter had a certain allure to it as well.
And in the final moments… well, wasn’t it an embrace?
It wouldn’t have been surprising if it felt somewhat unpleasant.
It might be an odd thought, but she felt more pity than discomfort.
Is it too much to think like this? If she said the wrong thing, it might sound weird.
“I feel like I met Gawol for the first time, but he’s definitely skilled. They say the top players have different ways of playing, and it was true. He felt like someone from an entirely different world! I really couldn’t do anything!”
– He does play well.
– If he only PKs all day, it’s a bigger problem if he can’t.
– I heard he did pretty well when he was in that siege mercenary team.
– They said he’d be top-tier if he debuted professionally, who was that again?
– Still, there are a lot of cases where solo queue warriors fall apart once they turn pro, so it feels a bit like wishful thinking.
– Anyway, he beat a Traveler in a 1v1, so…
“Oh, I think I’ve heard about Traveler. Right, Gawol was an assassin, right? Sigh, an assassin… I wanted to do well too, but I found it too hard.”
Elderin said with a tinge of jealousy.
Though she was currently a Mage, she had actually been focusing on an Assassin just a few months ago.
She simply couldn’t see that path as viable and gave up.
Combat in Infinity Black is based on movement.
That means players have to control characters that are close to superhuman abilities directly.
The system does give various enhancements, but it’s still not an easy task.
Especially for the Assassin class, it was even more so.
When Elderin first tried playing as an Assassin,
she painfully realized how difficult it could be to focus on “dodging” and “speed” in this game.
Her cognitive abilities couldn’t keep up with her body’s speed, if that makes sense.
It felt like her body was out of control and flailing wildly.
“I saw you were using a Chain Scythe earlier, right? It’s the first time I’ve seen someone use one. Have I used one? Of course. I tried it in the training ground, and just thought, ‘No way,’ and tossed it aside.”
– I think she’s the only one using a Chain Scythe in the country.
– There are a few players using them in the Japanese League, and you see them occasionally in North America or Europe.
– The Assassin scene in the Japanese League is pretty fun.
– It’s the land of ninjas! laughs
[Byouwa and Ssalbeuri donated 5,000 won]
[It was a highlight during the Japan and England international match; I was totally captivated watching it.]
[(Attached video)]
Time for a little watching session with a video sent by a viewer.
The video showed a ninja-like character performing dazzling movements to assassinate an enemy Mage.
As expected of a top-tier pro gamer, it was a scene that felt straight out of a movie.
However, what caught Elderin’s attention more was a different chat message.
– I heard Gawol is also good with swords.
– Yeah, he sometimes uses them in sieges or ranked games.
– His stats are no joke if you look up his record.
– Is this for real?
“Hmm… I see.”
Elderin’s interest in Gawol began to grow within her.
*
Menstruation is unpleasant by itself, but it’s also the dreaded period of inconvenience.
That’s because, with blood constantly flowing from her body, she has to change her pads regularly.
While there are other hygiene products besides pads,
that option is too off-putting for her to even consider.
Even now, as she was changing her pad, she felt somewhat embarrassed about it.
However, it would be quite problematic if something happened to her precious connection device.
There’s no place to buy a new one, so there’s no alternative but to take good care of it.
[The timer will alert in 3 – 04:59:57.]
At least she had just changed it, so she had a few hours of relief ahead.
As she wandered through the broadcasting platform, she couldn’t see any appetizing hunts available.
The ebb and flow of her feelings kept her eye on her dagger, causing her to fidget with it.
Ultimately, there was only one choice left for her.
[Infinity Arena 2nd Qualifier – 4th Phase]
[Starting random matching.]
[Searching for opponents… Estimated time required: 02:40]
Personally, she preferred field fights with lots of variables,
but if there’s no opponent, she had no choice but to look for one like this.
As time passed, the number of survivors in Infinity Arena significantly dwindled.
This was inevitable since a chunk of players would be eliminated at the end of each phase.
From what she’s heard, it seemed there was a high chance of encountering foreign players if she matched now.
They said the last phase would open in a few days, after which the finals would begin.
[Infinity Arena 2nd Qualifier – Final Phase matching completed.]
[Do you accept the match? Y/N]
[… You will be transported to the battlefield in 20 seconds.]
From then on, it was time to start anticipating her match against Luce.
Since the number of players had decreased, it felt like there was a possibility.
If she was going to stream, she thought about letting ‘viewer participation’ be an option.
It seemed a bit too early for that, but she wasn’t sure she would meet them again later on.
Since she wasn’t doing it for malicious intent, it wouldn’t be considered targeting.
Since it was something a famous person said, it was probably true.
She felt it might be okay to come to a conclusion about the arena a little later.
[Infinity Arena 2nd Qualifier – 4th Phase]
[Battlefield: Sanctuary of the Dead]
[vs Unknown Adventurer (Protector)]
Now, should she focus on the fight.
Her current opponent was quite the nuisance.
The Protector class has the highest defense in the game.
It was not an unfavorable matchup, but it still took time to bring them down.
Normally, it would become a long and tedious game, but…
A faint smile naturally appeared on her lips.
She had come up with a way to enjoy this game.
“Hehe.”
In the battlefield ‘Sanctuary of the Dead’, numerous undead monsters appeared as one would expect.
The appearing undead didn’t provide any advantages and moved sluggishly to hinder the players.
It was a battlefield designed for users to continue moving and fighting.
And the Protector belongs to the slowest class in this game.
Her steps led towards the high ground.
*
About 10 minutes later.
The Protector, kicked fiercely, rolled down the hillside.
As the undead clung to his body, he had to writhe to shake them off.
Pushing the undead away with his shield, his hand was crushed by the divine hammer as he tried to grab at their legs.
As soon as he took a step forward—an Assassin came out of nowhere, giving him a kick to the back of his head before running away.
No, it didn’t stop there.
[You have been poisoned by neurotoxin.]
[The strong divine power resisted the poison.]
[You’re immune to poison damage but your movement speed is reduced by 10%.]
The Assassin ceaselessly hindered him.
As he tried to take a slow step forward or finally shove off the undead,
the silvery-haired Assassin appeared once more, pushing him back into the sea of undead and vanishing.
Seemingly delighted, she laughed heartily.
“Puhahaha!”
While he might have been able to kill him if he fully committed, he never dealt any fatal damage.
By now, even the biggest fool would realize he was being toyed with.
When he was kicked in the back of the head for the fourth time, the Protector felt his patience hit its limit.
You are a dreadful person!
Playing a game like this is an unbelievably rude act.
If this continued, one could not help but question your upbringing—she wanted to express this sentiment in somewhat raw terms.
Thus, the Protector boldly declared:
“You’re a bad kid! Enjoying a game! You came to check on how I was doing!”
The system filtered out the foul language, resulting in a calamity that made the translator unable to decipher the original meaning.
Ignoring the zombies biting at him, the Protector furiously shouted for a while.
However, perhaps realizing his words were falling on deaf ears, his head hung low.
“Farewell with sadness…”
[The opponent forfeited.]
[You have won! You have gained 28 victory points.]