It’s not that kind of malicious broadcast

『Author: Anonymous』

『Title: Breaking News) CravingWarmAmericano surpasses 90,000 viewers ㄷㄷㄷ』

『Mind-blowing, seriously.

Is this worth 90,000 viewers?』

– Why attach ‘CravingWarmAmericano’ to this, call it ‘DevourWarm’ instead.

– Practically an English broadcast now, worldwide viewers are flooding in.

– ㄴ Hardly any Korean in the chat, damn LOLOLOL

– There are no borders or languages in front of the chest.

– ㄴ Honestly, that body is too much to contain in Korea alone.

– ㄴㄴ Did you already forget the lawsuit warning?

– A master rogue summoned the CEO of Faraday to issue a nerf complaint, then started beating him with a priest. How can you not watch this?

– ㄴ For real.

– ㄴ It’s insanely satisfying to watch LOL LOLOLOL

『Author: Anonymouse.』

『Title: Oh, the 2nd match beginse.』

『They’re fighting keyboard-mouse against keyboard-mouse.

Looks like they understood it as a comedy battle.

Doesn’t that CEO usually not know about mouse and keyboard genetics?

She’s really pitiful.』

– How could she know such a crazy woman exists……

『Author: Anonymous』

『Title: Breaking News: Our favorite player picks priest again』

『They clearly made up their minds.

Don’t be surprised when KoK gets IP banned tomorrow.』

* * * *

It’s called “Reverse Scale”. A term for a dragon’s scaled throat which if touched, always results in death.

It wasn’t a brag, but I had a lot of “Reverse Scale”.

Really, it wasn’t a brag.

The phrase stems from the wrath of a dragon, but honestly, using the term “trigger button” would be more suitable. If you asked whether it was always like this… I don’t think so.

By now, it’s all just an excuse.

In any case, this is how it is now. The excuse, “I wasn’t originally like this.” just feels pathetic. So, I didn’t want to bother dragging it out and telling that story.

I just tried to reduce my distractions. I pressed the button until it felt like it broke… so that it wouldn’t respond anymore.

I thought I was somewhat successful.

However… there were still some buttons that just wouldn’t break, no matter what. Like matters concerning the people who had become precious to me or certain events related to my previous life.

But this is…

-Swish!

The dagger in my right hand shot out like a jab. Though it was just a light feint, it was timed so perfectly that it would be tough for a slow-moving priest to avoid.

Especially when other thoughts kept creeping into my mind.

-Voom!

Once again, my right hand struck. This time, it was a slashing strike. I was trying to meticulously control the tempo… seems he’s decided to play dirty.

I could feel his sincerity, so… I also wanted to respond with my fullest effort. But, I found my concentration faltering to the point it was pitiful. Back when it was VR, I just assumed it was because I was left-handed.

Even when using keyboard and mouse, I maintained a southpaw style. Extending the dagger in my right hand like a lead hand in boxing, while subtly hiding my left hand from view.

It’s a really, truly rare style in KoK. Really.

While its unfamiliarity is an advantage from the opponent’s perspective… it’s almost an impossible choice for a beginner.

Beyond the difficulty of management, more than 95% of rogue guides were based on standard setups. The game was already hard enough. Easy to get into but hard to master.

Even so, there were those who believed pioneering without a guide was the true essence of the game—yet the path upward without the markers painstakingly written by pioneers was undeniably arduous.

Typically, after struggling in the bronze-silver tiers, players would come to their senses and refer to the guides written by predecessors who climbed with Orthodox methods.

After shedding the novice label, they would be so accustomed there would be no reason to change. Changing ingrained habits was harder than one might think, so—

In the end, only a weirdo or lunatic would try to incorporate a boxing southpaw stance into a rogue’s gameplay because they were left-handed. A person who enjoyed establishing builds more than playing the game.

But…

Here is another lunatic, walking the thorny path by altering the basic setup.

-Swish! Swish!

Moreover, this… combination style. Hitting quickly with light attacks, swiftly retracting, and stepping out before the counterattack…

A movement quite familiar with the southpaw stance. Not something experimented with once or twice for fun, but consistently played.

I recalled a one-eyed person’s explanation that using dual daggers was structurally similar to boxing, so it was only natural to apply boxing techniques… but no, it couldn’t be.

Logically.

Anyway… the speech wasn’t that fluent, and the voice…

-Thwack!

A hit.

The screen turned red. I had mistaken the rogue’s twitching shoulder movement as a feint. Had I quickly used a survival skill upon realization, I could have counteracted.

It had been a long time since I had suffered a loss in a battle of reaction speed. Although it was true that I was momentarily distracted—very briefly—it couldn’t be dismissed as a mere “lucky punch”.

The attack was skillfully set up, rendering it quite a high-level maneuver. I couldn’t afford to be complacent.

I watched my health bar rapidly deplete, and my stamina vanish in chunks. Having equipped three survival skills but unable to use any of them, the consequences were naturally dire. I had not only lost all the advantages I had accumulated but had even incurred additional losses.

… Focus.

—Booong!

I retreated while swinging my long staff horizontally. This was a so-called “don’t come closer” attack meant to interrupt the opponent’s combo. If it managed to hit, it could cause enough stiffness to potentially chain a counterattack—but there was no reason for the opponent to get hit, and even if they did, the damage would be minimal.

Naturally, it was a flaw-filled attack. The opponent could push forward with a shield, attack from a distance, or counter with a heavier weapon. However, there was no exploitable weakness for someone wielding two short daggers.

In other words, for a rogue, it was a difficult defensive posture to counter. The attack left the lower area exposed, and in VR, one could perhaps dive in with bizarre movements. But with keyboard-and-mouse, the best one could do was retreat or sidestep.

Yet, what if… assuming an equally boxing-obsessed individual with far less experience and skill than back in the day—

Right. A back sway in that motion, and then… charge at this angle. Indeed, it was you. As my lips involuntarily curled up, I drew my staff close to my body—then rooted it into the ground.

At the priest’s feet, a small circle began to glow, and a golden shimmer rose from it.

My third survival skill.

“Prayer of Restoration.”

It was a top-tier trait that restored health and stamina proportionate to the amount lost by allies within the area.

Of course… since I had spent all my points on survival skills, the skill’s effective range was just enough to cover me—but that was sufficient. This was a one-on-one fight, after all. If they felt wronged, they should have suggested a team battle.

As expected, a powerful follow-up attack came. The rogue, with black smoke swirling around his hands, lunged with his entire body, and it seemed to play out in slow motion.

It was the highest trait in the damage amplification tree, “Vicious Strike”. … It seemed he hadn’t had such a trait in the first set.

He must have switched to the damage amplification tree during the transition to keyboard-and-mouse. He aimed for a one-hit kill by exploiting a single momentary lapse…

Though it wasn’t the perfect answer, it was a reasonable choice in terms of direction. After all, it had been a viable strategy for a period. I had to admit, coming up with that in such a short time was impressive. He truly must have designed the game intending to play it himself.

Yes, it was impressive, but… this was over.

One would only learn the hard way if they didn’t know. That’s the way it was in one-on-one Underground matches of KoK. If you didn’t know the strengths and countermeasures for each build, it was better to get used to being humiliated.

Perhaps because of its nature as a duel and the high level of immersion, even after no one cared about the official Hall of Fame anymore, the user-created Hall of Shame was constantly active with threads.

Maybe it was the consensus among KoK players worldwide that even though the game might be dying, the ridicule of losers should continue.

I somewhat agreed. This was something difficult to deny… Once upon a time, I had been so engrossed, both hanging others and being hung myself, like any other specter. It hadn’t just happened once or twice where we had humiliated each other.

At that moment, what did this person say? Something about friendship being the seasoning that amplifies the joy of victory above all else?

-Thwack!

A fierce sound. The intended strong attack penetrated the priest’s abdomen. Blood splattered, rapidly obscuring most of the screen’s view—yet soon, it was swiftly erased along with a golden glow.

The health bar at the top right, which had been diminishing as if disappearing, teetered up and down as if in a tug-of-war—and then stopped at about 20 percent remaining.

Of course, I wasn’t just watching the health bar during all that.

Keeping up with my fast-moving fingers on the keyboard, I cast Crystalization—

“How the f—”

……Well, he stopped that exclamation just in time. Honestly, most people wouldn’t have been able to hold back.

The dagger that had penetrated the priest’s body was still lodged in place. The sound of keyboard mashing came from beside me. Hmm… Someone’s pretty angry.

He might have thought his whole left arm wasn’t moving because of a bug. But unfortunately, it wasn’t a bug. You wouldn’t demonstrate a bug to an audience of 100,000 people.

It was simply due to the armor’s hitbox being linked to the defense calculation formula, which applied not only while stabbing the dagger but also when pulling it out.

In other words, by intentionally allowing a deep attack that barely left me alive, and then casting a counterspell in advance followed by Crystalization, aiming the staff at the rogue’s head while he couldn’t evade—

If the rogue didn’t know the counter-strategy, he’d have to accept his fate of having his head turned into a staff rest. It was the result of joint research. The reason why rogues aiming for a critical blow to take down priests with a single strike had disappeared altogether.

-Bang!

Next, lightly tapping on the staff resting upon the opponent whose vision was obscured—

-Bang!

-Bang!

-Bang!

『IlIlllIIIll (Rogue) has been defeated!』

『GetDevoured (Priest) → IlIlllIIIll (Rogue)』

“F-fate turns, huh?”

The voice declaring the end of the game came alongside the CEO’s voice.

……It felt like at least 10 seconds had passed. Now saying ‘f’ didn’t mean that……

-Sigh.

I didn’t hold back but let out a sigh that naturally wanted to escape. To think that habits from across worlds still persisted… It’s truly frightening.

* * * *

“So, then, let’s print the loser’s photo.”

“No, no, wait a second. This wasn’t about deciding a funeral candidate, was it? We even had agreed-upon photos—”

“The world of competition is ruthless.”

TL’s Corner:

This was a confusing chapter for me. Because it was from Yena’s point of view, I thought she was the one using rogue, but that wasn’t the case, she was just explaining how she plays as a rogue and was comparing herself to JD.