Shouting Duel at the Center of a Dead Game

The hand gripping the spear tensed, causing the shaft to rotate upward half a turn. I secured the turning shaft with my left hand before thrusting it forward.

The enemy hastily raised their dagger to block, but their speed was insufficient.

—Clang.

The spearhead shattered the dagger, piercing the enemy's neck. A heavy thud echoed as fragments of their armor scattered in all directions.

The sensation in my hand was clear and simple. The enemy's heart was slowing, and the blood it pumped was red and hot.

Soon, they ceased moving and collapsed to the ground.

Now, I had only one thing to do.

I raised the spear above my head. With both hands, without the slightest tremor.

Then, I repeatedly sat and stood over the corpse's head.

Immediately, my vision faded to black, and a familiar sound filled my ears.

[YOU WIN]

The view shifted, showing my character teabagging over the opponent's head. It was always a satisfying sight to behold.

I activated the chat function and claimed the victor's right.

[lol u suck so bad]

A moment later, the loser's reply appeared at the bottom.

[obvious bug user. reported]

[the bug is your skill, lol]

Suppressing the smile that threatened to spread across my face, I skillfully began to provoke my opponent.

[dagger rogue op, huh? this guy who calls himself a pvp god gets rekt by a lancer and cries bug wwwwwww]

[no, does that even make sense without a bug? how can a lancer get behind a dagger rogue? their agility stats are double, makes no sense, right?]

[i guess its not normally possible so u must just suck?]

[no, for real, this XXX won with a bug and is just running his mouth.]

The opponent swore first.

This meant I had achieved victory both in and out of the game.

Having secured a sufficient victory, I ceased typing.

Instead…

—Click.

I took a screenshot and posted it on the community forum.

[Title: 325th Duel Victory Announcement.

Author: AoDaiAshichi.

I hereby announce that 'RabbitBoneSoup,' a toxic user who insisted that PVP dagger rogues are overpowered, has been defeated in a duel against me. Therefore, I declare to the world that dagger rogues are not overpowered in PVP.

P.S. Disagree? Duel me.]

Immediately after the post went up, comments began to appear.

[OatmealIsBoring: Oh, Duelist! I knew you could do it!]

[ChunshikPickPotato: lololol toxic doomsayer gets rekt.]

[└RabbitBoneSoup: No, I'm telling you, it was a bug!]

The loser's pathetic excuses also appeared. He must have been lurking. But unfortunately, the users of the ‘Last Savior’ community were not the type to tolerate a loser's whining.

[ChunshikPickPotato: rekt and crying bug lololol]

[dwkdaa11: gets rekt by a lancer even with a rogue lololol the lancer skill cast time is so long lololol]

[TenMillionElectron: lololol a noob who cant even dodge after seeing the motion]

[└RabbitBoneSoup: no, for real, im saying he used a bug? I couldn't see the motion seriously. This is so frustrating.]

"Heh."

I chuckled as I imagined RabbitBoneSoup's flushed face on the other side of the screen.

"Of course you couldn't see it."

Motion cancel.

A method to reduce the delay of motions that are inevitable in skills, dashes, and attacks.

And because I was kind, I decided to inform him in the comments.

[AoDaiAshichi (Author): Lancer motion cancel is easy. When the normal attack motion reaches your character's head, rotate the spear once, grip the lower third of the spear shaft, and then use the thrust skill at a 30-degree upward angle for a skill without cast time.]

[└ChunshikPickPotato: oh.]

[└TenMillionElectron: oh my god this guy is so good its hard to even get the timing right when hitting a dummy;;]

"That's difficult?"

I genuinely couldn't understand.

But the community's opinion differed from mine.

[StudyingForYears: i also dueled the author before, and they were a mage? but they only hit me with a staff. it seems like they're using a bug where i cant see the motion.]

[└TenMillionElectron: well, it's hard to use motion cancel in a real fight. but you got rekt by a physical mage? what class were u?]

[└StudyingForYears: shield warrior.]

[└RabbitBoneSoup: i could beat that guy lololol]

[CampfirePorkBelly: but this author seems to have a different character for every duel. Is he really playing so many?]

[└TenMillionElectron: probably over ten?]

[└RabbitBoneSoup: what a loser lololol what's the fun in using bugs to level up?]

[└ChunshikPickPotato: not sure if its a bug?]

I scratched my nose and read the incoming comments before leaving one of my own.

[AoDaiAshichi (Author): Anyway, I'm right. Disagree? Duel me.]

Then, I disconnected.

—Click.

The familiar sound echoed, and after blinking once, I saw the ceiling.

"Haa."

I got out of the capsule and drank the zero-calorie cola I had placed on the desk. A refreshing sensation washed over my throat.

Then, I stretched widely.

"Huuuaaah."

The game ‘Last Savior’.

That was the name of the game I was enjoying. And, although it was a bit much to say so myself, I was a veteran.

A very serious one.

‘Last Savior’ was, to put it simply, a well-made game.

Purify the continent tainted by evil!

Diverse builds, creative strategies!

Complete freedom!

Wasn't it the game that dominated the market as soon as it was released, at a time when numerous virtual reality games were flooding the market?

But now, the evaluation has changed somewhat.

"Garbage game."

I scratched my stomach and finished the zero-calorie cola.

It was undeniable that it was a well-made game at the time of its release. But the problem was the lack of updates.

The storyline of this game was simple.

Gates began to appear on the peaceful Hella Continent. Defeat the enemies coming through the gates!

It was a delicious game with open-world, roguelike, and defense elements well blended together. Moreover, the game's 'progress' was easy to see.

In the game's Hella Continent, there was an "Hourglass of Destruction." As the evil god's power grew stronger, the sand flowed faster, and when all the sand ran out, the evil god would descend upon the Hella Continent, resulting in a game over.

So, the player had to conquer the gates created by the evil god and defeat the monsters to slow down the hourglass.

The problem arose here.

It was a time attack where you had to move forward and defeat the final boss before the hourglass ran out of sand, but in ‘Last Savior’, the evil god Aleph was not implemented.

Since there was no boss to defeat, there was no proper ending.

If you endured 20 years of game time without letting the sand in the hourglass run out, the phrase "The Savior appears in the world" would appear, followed by a short cutscene.

The sky would open, and someone engulfed in light would appear. But only the silhouette was visible due to the bright light, and the proper appearance was not implemented.

And then it would connect to the ending credits. It never said who the Savior was, or what happened to Aleph.

In other words, the latter half of the game was incomplete itself.

Still, at first, I played it, expecting an update soon.

After a year, I thought it was just a little late?

I thought so even when my military draft notice came out.

But after returning from the military and seeing that it was still the same, I gave up.

Still, I didn't quit the game. It was easy to play alone because it was a single-player game, and somehow playing this game had become a habit.

I tried everything I could think of and cleared the game by researching all sorts of bizarre builds.

To be exact, I only kept seeing the unfinished ending, but what could I do if it wasn't implemented?

Nevertheless, I couldn't help but run out of things to do.

Still, should I say it was fortunate? This game supported PVP 'duels' through invitation codes. And the veterans like me who gathered in the community competed in duels.

But.

"I should stop doing this now."

I muttered as I plopped down on the bed.

All of the friends in the community who used to research builds and strategies and have heated discussions all night long when I first started PVP had quit the game.

One by one, they disappeared from the community, and now I'm the only one left from those original veteran days.

All that remains in the ’Last Savior’ community are the newbies who have flowed into this trash game.

Beating up children gets boring after a time or two, and it's starting to get old.

And if I overwhelmingly win, they treat me like a bug user, like RabbitBoneSoup did.

"Sigh, things weren't like this back in my day."

I missed those days when we honed our skills by learning all sorts of builds, tricks, and exploits.

"Those were the good old days."

I muttered to myself and got back into the capsule.

—Click.

The capsule closed, and 'Last Savior' reappeared. With a wave of my hand, the screen flipped, and the character window appeared.

[Account Name: AoDaiAshichi. Current Number of Characters: 52.]

"Wow… I've done a lot."

Thirty-seven characters had seen the ending, and I looked at the ten characters at the very top.

"Hall of Fame… I used to stay up all night trying to get on it."

Above the heads of the ten characters were numbers from '1' to '10' in magnificent shapes.

Hall of Fame, or HoF for short.

The global ranking is determined by the total score at the end.

That's right. I succeeded in monopolizing the HoF from 1st to 10th place in this game. I was the first to see the ending, and I was the one who succeeded in lining up the top 10 and kept it that way until now.

"Sigh, but so what?"

The veterans who used to research and challenge me had all gone back to their real lives, and what's the point of bragging about my ranking in an empty house?

I didn't even think about showing off in the community. All I would get was ridicule for being a "loser," like RabbitBoneSoup did.

Haven't I invested too much time in an achievement that won't even get me a line on my resume?

Once I started thinking like that, I realized it was time to leave 'Last Savior'.

"Should I quit now?"

I've killed enough newbies, and there are no updates. I've tried every concept, combination, and build I can think of.

I thought it was the right time to leave.

—Tick.

I raised my hand and scrolled through the list of characters, staring at the "Delete" button above one character's head for a long time.

And as I moved my finger to press that button, I said to myself.

"...It was fun."

Each character had my time fully invested in it. The characteristics, items, and routes I used.

The time I spent agonizing over every build.

When I remembered the passion I had when I was challenging the possibilities in the game, I felt reluctant to press delete.

"...Okay, let's do it after I get some sleep."

This isn't fair to my characters. I need to wash my hair and get my head in the right space before I delete them.

With that in mind, I opened the capsule and headed back to bed.

I put my head on the fluffy pillow and turned on the air conditioner. The cool breeze made me sleepy.

When I wake up, I'll delete the game and sign up for English classes. I should go back to school too.

I should start living my real life soon.

With that thought, I closed my eyes. I had stayed up all night last night, so I fell asleep quickly.

***

"...Hey!"

I felt someone shaking me awake.

'What?'

When I opened my eyes, I saw a strange woman.

"Hey!"

"Huh?"

I blinked as I opened my eyes. Then the woman said,

"Seriously, how can you sleep so soundly? I've woken you up so many times!"

"...Who are you?"

That was all I could say.

I had definitely fallen asleep in my room, and this woman I was seeing for the first time was definitely not supposed to be there.

'Huh?'

Come to think of it, this wasn't my room.

...It was somewhere dark and humid. Like a dungeon from a movie.

"Where… am I?"

"That's what I want to know! How can you sleep so soundly when you don't even know where you are!"

What's going on?

I looked around and saw three more people besides this woman. Two men and one woman, they were gathered together talking about something.

"No, I'm telling you, I definitely fell asleep at my house in Busan!"

"I live in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do!"

"I'm from Jeju Island…"

"Then where are we?"

A balding man who looked a bit older frowned.

"I have to go to work tomorrow, where are we!"

Then the woman who woke me up said.

"We all woke up here. Do you know where this is?"

I looked around. Torches on the walls, old brick walls illuminated by the fire, and visible through the window cracks… two moons?

"Ah, it's a dream."

"It's not a dream."

The woman frowned.

"You're talking about the moons, right? I'm telling you, it's not a dream. We've already been talking about it. But this isn't a dream."

What is she talking about?

There's only one moon on Earth. I wasn't the best student, but I know that much.

"You're saying this isn't Earth? Did aliens kidnap us or something?"

"I don't know. Really… I miss my mom. Where is this…"

The woman was almost in tears.

At that moment.

—Whoosh.

A heavy sound echoed, and suddenly something appeared in the air.

"G-G-Ghost! Mom!"

"Aaaaaah!"

The others were freaking out, but not me.

'That…'

The white smoke slowly taking shape was a face I knew well.

'…Deia?'

The goddess of Hella Continent, Deia.

'Wait, two moons?'

If you looked at the night sky in the game, there were two moons.

'Could it be…'

Then, Deia's face opened its mouth.

[Summoners.]

The large, soft voice was Deia's, the one I had heard when receiving revelations in the game.

[Thank you for stepping forward to save this world.]

'Huh?'

I never did that?

[This is the Hella Continent, the Stage of Trials. You, the Summoners, must start here and move forward to save the continent.]

"W-W-What are you talking about!"

The balding man shouted.

"I have to go to work tomorrow! Isn't this kidnapping?"

[This is not kidnapping. Did you not all… agree to the terms and conditions?]

"Terms and conditions?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I never did!"

Then Deia's face answered calmly.

[Game 'Last Savior', Article 31, Paragraph 4 of the Terms and Conditions, "Would you like to help save the world?" You have all agreed to this.]

Crap.

"No one reads the terms and conditions before playing a game! And I didn't even play that game properly, I quit!"

A man who looked about my age shouted in an agitated voice. But Deia's expression did not change.

[The Goddess's promise is sacred, I am simply fulfilling it.]

"This is crazy!"

"This is ridiculous…!"

[I understand your desire to return. If you save this world, your wishes will also be fulfilled.]

'Ha.'

This was absurd.

Kidnapping us and spewing this nonsense?

I was about to open my mouth to say something.

[But by any chance, is there anyone among you who used the account name 'AoDaiAshichi'?]

I closed my mouth at Deia's question.