NOVEL WEB Chapter 43
The demon has revived and is causing chaos.
All the management is on edge because of Lemegaton, someone keeps visiting Yor, and whatever else.
Time flows absolutely. Whether life is tough or not, the sun will rise tomorrow.
Thanks to that, time has passed, and it’s been over two months now.
In terms of the release date for [Demon’s Saga], it’s nearly been a year.
And just like how big patches are rolled out on a game’s first anniversary, this game has something to announce.
Out of nowhere, they released a patch note when they usually don’t even do that.
And it’s a long patch note filled with new content.
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[Ver 02. Patch Notes]
Seere’s resurrection and the entry of Otherworlders into Lemegaton.
As a result, tensions between the Otherworlders and the Gaia folk have been escalating recently.
Due to indiscriminate fights everywhere, the damage is increasing – from property destruction to the anxiety levels of the Gaia folk hitting the roof.
In response, a measure has been prepared.
GM Gaia has put in a lot of effort and succeeded in partially implementing the powers of the Otherworlders.
Introducing a new building, the “Arena.”
In the future, if conflicts arise, please resolve them here.
1. Arena entry tickets can be easily obtained from the ‘Otherworld Shop.’
2. The Arena is also accessible to Gaia folk.
3. If a Gaia folk dies in the Arena, they can respawn with a slight penalty, just like the Otherworlders.
4. The Arena has various rules. First…
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It’s PvP content!
Even NPCs can participate in PvP.
Well, since they’re not users, can it be mixed with PvE too?
In any case, it was a pretty good patch note.
Who would have thought they would create a fighting ground because the users were brawling?
Though, to be fair, they were kind of going overboard with the fighting.
The Otherworlders were fighting amongst themselves and couldn’t get enough of picking on the NPCs.
Especially since Seere’s arrival made their conflicts even worse.
Many of the Otherworlders switched to Lemegaton, after all.
For NPCs, Lemegaton is an enemy of their very life and death.
But for Otherworlders, well, they just thought Seere was handsome. So they joined the cult for ridiculous reasons like being curious about the choices…
It’s no wonder they view them unfavorably.
Thanks to that, the NPCs’ hatred for Otherworlders was off the charts. Naturally, innocent users who didn’t join Lemegaton were feeling quite unjust.
Thus, they fought every time they crossed paths.
As a result, the tavern in [Demon’s Saga] has been mostly empty lately.
So I heard the tavern owners were crying… who knew it would come to this?
Oh, and going into the Arena is pretty simple.
You can just rip up the entry ticket to enter.
Such a groundbreaking update, so the bulletin board was in absolute chaos.
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[Wait, this game is getting patched…?]
Well, it seems natural since it’s a game.
I thought the devs completely ignored the users, so I assumed there wouldn’t be any patches.
So they’ve been maintaining the game…
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[Thank you as always]
[Why listen to user feedback? There’s nothing to replace this game with, lol]
[Then again, if we’re mad about it, we’ll just stop playing~]
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[I’m always curious though]
Why does the atmosphere get so tense whenever they post announcements?
Powers and Gaia folk, they really seem way too immersed in this game; it’s hilarious.
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[It’s a concept]
[If that bothers you, how do you live in the world?]
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[So when does the Arena open?]
I love dueling and have been picking fights at the tavern every day, but now I don’t need to? I can have high-stakes battles in the Arena now? Lol
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[Why are you picking fights, you crazy?]
[High-stakes battle (fairy tale probability 15%)]
[Shut up, you lesbo, lol]
[If that’s the case, just get some balls, lol]
[When does the Arena open? Immediately, starting today!]
[Really?]
[I’m currently in the Alhez Plateau and saw this brand new Colosseum being built. That must be the Arena, yeah.]
[Oh, there’s one there too? I’m in the Tus Plain, and there’s something similar here as well.]
[First check the patch, then check out your surroundings, whoa.]
[Wow, the developers update and post announcements ahead of time, lol]
The community is really loud.
With new content, it feels almost like a festival.
A few quick individuals have already experienced the Arena and are posting their reviews. They mentioned tons of settings and a variety of duel types.
But overall, the reactions have been quite positive.
“Mm-hmm.”
Chaerin nodded as she took a look.
Honestly, she wasn’t that interested in the Arena. She was too busy leveling up to really need to fight others.
Of course, being a streamer, she thought it’d be nice to use it as content later on—but that was a problem for the future.
What was more important was the fact that.
She smiled as she thought.
‘Now I’ve got more to talk about.’
She now had another story to share with Yor!
She had been visiting him often lately but was running out of things to discuss. Then, by chance, new material just dropped.
Of course, it didn’t relate to him at all, but he loved hearing these kinds of worldly stories.
‘I’ll visit him first thing tomorrow morning.’
She confirmed her decision with a beaming smile.
Not even knowing what she’d see by tomorrow morning.
Before going to sleep, she glanced at the night sky. There was no moon shining down.
In other words, it was a New Moon.
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It’s already been two months since the Holy Water drought began.
And during those two months, I had to confront a shocking reality.
I had completely run out of Holy Water.
And today just happened to be the day when Rage A kicked in.
What does that mean?
Pufshuk-! Pufshuk-! Bbaddeu-!
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“Ugh…”
I found myself self-harming for the first time in months.
I sliced my left shoulder with the dagger in my hand.
Blood gushed out of the gash like a fountain. The searing pain was just an extra bonus. I grimaced at the sight.
‘Damn, the timing really sucks…’
Recently, having Rage A trigger in succession was already making me short on Holy Water, but to have it all run out right at that moment was just… come on.
After so long, the pain felt more unbearable than usual.
Of course, just because I was struggling didn’t mean Rage would go easy on me.
The world flows on, completely indifferent to my feelings.
So I had only one choice given to me.
I just had to hope that this pain would end and endure through tonight. I had no choice but to do so despite the heaviness.
Sure, there’s also the option of giving my body to a demon… but that one I purposely crossed off my list.
It was obvious what would happen to those who became a Mine.
So, I crawled deep into the cave and writhed on the ground.
“Ughhh, argh…”
My bones felt crushed and my skin felt raw. With each sensation, a kind of unspeakable pain followed suit.
I held my dagger tight, desperately extracting the blood from my body.
Whenever this happened, all I could think was how nice it would be if someone was here with me.
Anyone would do. They didn’t even have to help. Just their presence would suffice.
It was too hard to endure this dreary time alone.
In this endlessly dark cave, my solitude often made me feel like the only person left in the world. It would invoke an unnecessary fear.
Of course, it was a ridiculous thought.
In the first place, it was hard to even reveal the Rage, let alone show someone the spectacle of it.
But nonetheless, time passed.
“Haah… Haah…”
After enduring for a while, I began to feel my blood simmering down.
Finally, the long night had come to an end, and morning had arrived.
I glanced around. It was a familiar scene stained in crimson.
The ground was pooled with red blood, and, needless to say, my body was soaked in it too. I felt a sticky and wet sensation all over me.
It’s said that blood smells like iron, but that’s only to an extent.
Once it exceeds a certain limit, only the rancid stench of blood and gore lingers.
I forced my heavy body up and made my way outside the cave.
First, I wanted to see the sunlight. Cleaning up could always wait.
As I moved outside, several negative thoughts popped into my head.
‘How long must I endure this?’
The first thought that came to mind was that. Even though I survived this month’s pain, this wouldn’t be my last episode of Rage.
Next month, next year, maybe even decades from now. I’ll have to endure this pain every single month.
It would be nice if there was a clear way to prevent Rage, but I wasn’t even sure if such a thing existed.
Thinking about that made me so exhausted. Was living like this even worth it…?
Normally, I tried my best not to think about these things, but being human, thoughts like this crept in during times like these.
The human mind tends to follow the condition of the body to some degree.
“Haah…”
No matter what, this was an incredibly miserable morning.
After months of feeling Rage A, this wretchedness felt amplified.
I was irritable, and just plain frustrative anger bubbled up inside.
In that state, I stepped outside. And there, I encountered a familiar face.
One of my regular visitors who has been stopping by my place a lot lately. Yoo Chaerin.
“Wha… wha…?”
She turned pale upon seeing me, her face hardening seriously.
Thud.
The weapon she was holding dropped to the ground. She was so shocked she dropped whatever she had in hand.
Well, considering I was covered in blood…
“Uh, what is this…?”
Under normal circumstances, I would have greeted her warmly, but right now I was in a rather foul mood.
Because of that, my words came out impulsive and aggressive.
“What are you staring at, huh? Is it that amazing to see someone covered in blood?”
…Saying that, I felt a tinge of regret.