Chapter 5: Red Strike ? Is That All ?
Hana, who had just started playing and didn't understand what was happening, asked.
Lady Lam went on to explain the basic knowledge of animation canceling.
About the thing No One had just done.
The way Animation Cancel works is by overwriting.
Imagine the sword slash animation as [1 2 3 X 5 6 7 8]
Damage is dealt at position [4].
If the action is fully executed, the damage dealt will be:
1 2 3 X 5 6 7 8 | 9 10 11 X
However, if the animation is canceled immediately after dealing damage, it will be:
1 2 3 X 5 6 7 X 9 10 11 X ....
The speed of dealing damage will be significantly faster. In the same amount of time, much more damage is dealt.
Lady Lam pointed to No One's other hand.
He was holding a healing potion.
The sequence No One was performing was Slash - Drink Potion right after the sword energy was created - Slash
Slash - Drink - Slash - Drink - Slash.
Drinking a healing potion takes 1.5 seconds to execute. So he hadn't actually drunk any potion.
He only needed the action in between to cancel the sword energy animation.
Then directly canceled the potion drinking action with the next slash.
That's the theory, but No One was doing it very quickly, with almost no wasted time.
"Frame Perfect." Lady Lam smiled.
This is a term referring to perfectly timing actions down to each frame.
"Not bad, still a bit behind your Big Bro." Sword of Love laughed.
Lady Lam looked at Sword of Love with a weary expression, then shook her head in acceptance.
Alright. Fine. You're good. You have the right to be arrogant.
The reason Sword of Love is the highest DPS in the guild is because of techniques like this.
With equipment at the same level and almost identical stats, what determines the highest damage output is due to skills like this.
"Isn't this considered a game glitch?" Hana innocently asked.
"No, it's a feature," Lady Lam confidently replied.
"Some might think it's a bug, but animation canceling has long been considered a feature in many games."
"It's just that animation canceling in virtual reality is less known. People often stick to the idea that an action has to be performed exactly like in real life."
The Ogre, though taking damage from No One's sword energy, wasn't hurt too badly, only losing about 20% of its health.
Melee attacks are more likely to be critical hits and cause more damage.
It charged straight at No One, ready to swing its club down on him.
No One continued singing, hastily avoiding the attack.
Red Attack.
Dodge.
Red Attack.
Dodge.
Another Red Attack.In this berserk phase, every attack is a red attack.
Normally, if the boss’s difficulty level is easy, it gives players some breathing room with 1 or 2 yellow attacks before dishing out a red attack so they have time to recover their invincibility skill.
But in Hell difficulty, the boss's every attack is red. You can only dodge, you can't block the attack.
Even one strike from it, and No One is surely done for.
He sighed.
A bit annoyed.
Hana watched worriedly.
"Is he about to lose? He seems worried."
"No, that idiot is just annoyed."
"Huh?"
Just as those words were spoken, No One's irritated voice could be heard from the stage.
"Damn it."
"Make it a bit more interesting, will you?"
"This is supposed to be Hell difficulty? Hell!?"
"Compared to the last dungeon, this deserves to be called Hell? Are the game developers trying to lower the difficulty to pander to the masses? I scoff at that!"
"Here he goes again," Sword of Love chuckled wryly.
The NPCs in the game were all astonished at this point.
"Red attack, a bunch of red attacks, and that's supposed to be hard?"
"Damn it, last dungeon, I spent several nights struggling with the guild. And this boss, is it really all just red attacks?"
"From watching previous battles, I thought close-range players would have some special skill challenges. Turns out it's just charging and then another red attack?"
The NPCs were all left with their mouths agape.
Are you complaining that it is too easy?
"Damn it. Lost all the excitement."
No One cursed, as the Ogre launched another attack.
Red Attack.
CLANG
So what if it's a Red Attack?
Sword of Love burst out laughing.
Parried
"Go to hell."
CLANG
CLANG
The situation unexpectedly reversed.
Every time the Ogre's Red Attack struck, No One would directly counter it. This left the Ogre stunned in return.
Lady Lam once again explained to Hana.
1 2 3 X
A counterattack is a technique executed right when the attack is activated.
At damage point [4], if another attack is perfectly triggered at that exact spot, the user will activate a counterattack.
They won't take damage and will stun the enemy briefly.
This technique also requires perfect timing, which is even harder than animation canceling.
It's a more legitimate technique than animation canceling, documented within the game, but typically only the most skilled players use it frequently.
Especially in PVP, many people are renowned for their counterattack abilities.
No One continued to counter every Red Attack the Boss unleashed.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it."
"Are you kidding me? Even the timing of all three attacks is exactly the same?"
"1 2 3 4 CLANG! 1 2 3 4 CLANG!"
No One shouted "CLANG" almost in sync with the sound effect in the game.
He memorized the intervals between each Red Attack.
In no time, the Enraged Ogre was defeated just like that.
✧【No 11 - COMPLETED - 01:49:42】✧
Hana was bewildered.
Can the game really be played like this?
Everyone in the arena was stunned. Completely shocked by Sword of Love and No One.
One set a record, and the other directly cursed at the test for making the boss too easy?
A notification appeared in front of No One.
✧【An invite from the NPC will be sent to you in 10 minutes. Please be ready to make your choice.】✧
Sword of Love had just finished as well, so he was waiting for the time to pass.
Based on what was known, Sword of Love thought it was likely he would get the Berserker or Knight class. Both are related to melee combat.
If he only received those classes, he might choose Berserker for better damage output. The Knight is a class leaning towards tanking.
No One, on the other hand, was hoping for a new class besides Musician.
Though Musician seems kind of overpowered...But it's a class entirely focused on ranged combat.
(* OP = Overpowered, referring to something in the game being too strong compared to other things.)
No One was used to engaging in melee combat, so switching to ranged felt quite awkward.
Hopefully, the Bard can transition to a better melee class.
Otherwise, he might have to consider choosing Knight or Berserker like Sword of Love.
As for Hana, she's most likely to receive the Musician class.
No One had heard yesterday about how Sword of Love and Hana teamed up to pass a dungeon. Her class choice was quite clear.
Their guild is actually in desperate need of Bards for the upcoming dungeons.
Lack of players is truly a burden. One could only blame the Bard class for being too selective with its players.
No One calmly turned on the music player in the game, starting to listen to music by himself.
Indeed, he played Bard just to listen to his playlist while gaming.