Netkama Punch!!!

Perfect Healing.
Blessing.
Absolute Shield.

The white light from my staff stretched out like a ribbon and struck Shin Heejae square in the back. In an instant, more than half of his HP—previously reduced—was fully restored.
Immediately afterward, a translucent shield began forming around him. The blue flames fizzled ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) out before they could even singe a strand of his hair. The ominous eye trailing behind him flickered like a glitched-out screen before vanishing.
I had successfully blocked all the incoming skills!

“Whew…”
I finally let out a breath of relief, dodging the suppression fire aimed at me and continuing to cast buffs on Shin Heejae as I followed him.
Thanks to my help, Shin Heejae closed the distance with the ranged attackers without a scratch. And the moment he entered skill range, the one-sided slaughter began.

He feinted a charge straight at them, then vaulted off a wall with his spear and decapitated the Earth Spirit Healer standing in front.
‘Heejae’ has defeated ‘39’!
Then, he dodged a [Fireball] that had been launched low to the ground, leapt up, used [Swift Step], and landed right in front of the mage who had cast it.

The mage froze in shock when Heejae appeared out of nowhere. That moment of hesitation sealed their fate.
Amazing! ‘Heejae’ has scored a Double Kill! …‘Ridi’ is down cold!
A martial artist beside them threw a punch with a gauntlet, but Heejae jumped, avoided the blow, and brought his spear down like an axe. The thwack rang clearly through my headset.

Incredible! ‘Heejae’ has taken out ‘Hanyeongi’ as well. That’s a ferocious Triple Kill!
All three of them were down in under a minute. The little summoner nearby panicked and turned to flee.
Of course, that was a mistake.

Unbelievable! It’s ‘Heejae’s day today! ‘Gaesalgu’ went down without even resisting!
An alchemist, having seen the massacre, gave up on running and summoned a stone golem in defense. But Heejae leapt onto the golem’s massive arm and cut down the alchemist hiding behind it.
It’s terrifying at this point. ‘Heejae’s strike landed again. ‘Ruru’ has fallen.
[Battlefield Butcher] condition fulfilled. For the next 10 minutes, ‘Heejae’s skill damage is increased by 10%!

It took less than three minutes for Shin Heejae to kill five people...
W-Heejae: lolololololol ㅇ_ㅇv
W-Heejae: I popped off, right?
He rubbed it in, basking in his victory.

Honestly, he didn’t look cool—he looked like a clown… but even acting like a dumbass, no one dared approach him. Because he’d earned the [Battlefield Butcher] buff for scoring five consecutive kills.
In [Arcadia], any player who managed to kill five enemy players in succession in PVP received a special buff that drastically increased their offensive power.
Normally it’s near impossible to get this buff, but Heejae did it effortlessly and began walking straight toward Siben. Seeing how visibly nervous Siben looked, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him.

“This bastard... seriously... he's good.”
While Heejae approached, Siben looked completely focused on buffing up, supported by Yuven.
Meanwhile, I had already finished applying buffs, so I sent a [Water Ball] flying at Yuven’s head. Yuven dodged the attack, but in doing so, one of his buff casts got canceled.

The guy went nuts and swore in rage.
W-Yuven: ffs you’ve got shit manners
“What’s he on about.”

What is this, some kind of magical girl transformation? Are we supposed to wait until he finishes changing outfits?
I laughed off Yuven’s complaint and kept disrupting his buffs. Certain skills cancel if you move even slightly while casting. That was exactly what I was aiming for.
As a result, Yuven managed to cast only five of the eight key buffs. Heejae, meanwhile, charged toward the disoriented pair.

Swift Step.
Shin Heejae began running with frightening speed.
Watching the distance between Heejae and Yuven shrink rapidly, I trailed after him with a slight delay.

Apparently, Siben and Yuven had made their decision too—rather than fussing over incomplete buffs, Yuven boldly stepped in front of Heejae. Since Siben was a mage, he needed casting time for his skills, and it looked like Yuven was trying to buy him that time.
Reverse Turn.
As expected, Yuven swung his staff in a wide arc, releasing a burst of red light.

That skill, if it hits, reverses your directional controls. Most people get disoriented when their character suddenly moves backwards.
But Shin Heejae only took two steps back before instantly adapting and charging at Yuven—in reverse.
You could just feel the veteran instincts. The animation looked exactly like one of those middle-aged joggers clapping their hands as they run backwards through the park at dawn...

“Maybe it’s cause he’s young… his reaction time is insane.”
Honestly, if it had been me, I couldn’t have pulled a 180 that quickly. I was straight-up jealous.
Yuven must have felt the same—he froze for a second and didn’t even attack, then snapped back to his senses and cast again.

Water Ball.
Divine Aura.
Of course, I didn’t just stand by. I immediately cast the ‘magic immunity’ skill on Heejae.
Normally I’d use a shield, but I had the best staff on the server. According to my calculations, equipping this staff greatly boosts the effectiveness of immunity-type spells.

Usually, increased immunity means reduced damage by a certain percentage, and while this was a bit of a gamble… just as expected, Heejae’s HP dropped only slightly.
In short, he tanked the damage successfully.
Even Heejae sounded surprised the [Divine Aura] worked, and asked me directly through his mic.

“This… this is Divine Aura, right?”
W-Sesam: yeah, staff has +50 immunity on it
“Huh? Oh... so it does work?”

Even with just that much info, Heejae immediately understood and sounded genuinely impressed. Then he started flattering me in a way that made my shoulders rise without meaning to.
“You really are a genius, noona…”
“……”

“Look at Yuven panic.”
“……”
“Starting tomorrow, the whole server’s gonna copy noona.”

“Guh…!”
I tried to keep my wide, dumb grin in check, but honestly, I felt amazing. The most famous guy in [Arcadia] was praising me—live—before thousands of viewers…
I’ve watched Heejae’s streams enough to know: he rarely praises others, usually just mocks them. So hearing him acknowledge me like this made me feel genuinely proud.

On top of that, a few of his viewers joined in, swept up in the hype, calling me a genius and singing my praises too…
My heart feels colossal…
Is this why people cozy up to streamers? Either way, the truth was, I was in a very good mood, so—

C: Looks like 1% immunity cuts damage by about 0.5 per…
—I started rambling what I’d figured out, but snapped back to my senses when Yuven suddenly lunged, and quickly deleted the message.
W-Sesam: h.hv

And left it at that, cool as hell.
I did get a little annoyed when Heejae asked if I had just copied him… but I held back the insults and let it slide.
* * *

“Hey noona, I think Siben rage quit. I heard his account’s up on Mania.”
Unsurprisingly, we won the siege.
And the MVP was, of course, me. In PVP, most Spirit Healers don’t even bother using [Divine Aura], but I developed this ridiculous infinite shield method, making it so neither Yuven nor Siben could bring Heejae down.

Yuven tried copying [Divine Aura] later on, but since he didn’t have the [Great Staff of Atlika the Wise], his immunity was too low to matter. He wasted time rearranging his skill tree, and in the end, Siben got his head sliced clean off by Heejae’s spear.
After that, it seemed like Yuven and Siben had a falling-out. Yuven changed his nickname to Minbyeol, left the guild, and joined another.
Apparently, it wasn’t just Minbyeol—after that siege, [Argo] started hemorrhaging about 20 members a day, and now rumor has it no one remains but Siben.

Watching the fall of [Argo] left me with a strange mix of emotions.
I lost everything too, once…
It’s not like I felt sympathy for Siben, but for some reason, it brought up memories of my own past. Left me unsettled.

Come to think of it, he and I really are similar. I heard he spent a lot prepping for this siege… Just like I used to, pouring money into a losing game. And now, all those old emotions welled up unexpectedly.
W-Sesam: If I were Siben, I’d have stabbed you
“Should we meet up then? I’ll let you stab me.”

W-Sesam: lol
Instead of replying, I just walked over and smacked him on the head with my staff.