Chapter 47 - The Day One of the Veils Fell Off (2)
Ain rapidly went back to the lobby and went to the matching portal.
'Register for a duel!'
The map at that time resembled a circus because they were standing on top of numerous dangerous pillars.
[vs. Dwen (Diamond. 5)]
[The opponent has won four consecutive matches!]
Ain was solely focused on her opponent.
It didn't matter on what map the fight was on.
She just ran toward her opponent to slaughter him.
The opponent was a Thief whose ranking was Diamond 5.
The Thief job was great at PvP because of its speed, but…
Smash-!
Almost instantly, Ain's claws slashed the opponent's body and destroyed him.
[11th Consecutive Victory!]
[You've obtained 21 x 2 battle coins!]
Just like the message that she'd received previously said, thanks to the 'Battle Aura,' Ain had received double the amount of Battle Coins, but in exchange, all her stats had been decreased.
Even after her Agility was decreased by 10%, she was still faster than her opponent.
Thanks to the achievement hunting she'd done, her stats were much higher than the average user.
'Register!'
Once again, another duel began. That time the scenery was an endless meadow.
An opponent who looked like a Warrior was standing on top of a hill. He had a shield in front of him.
[vs. Lyrak (Diamond. 5)]
[The opponent has achieved three consecutive victories!]
Because the placing matches had ended, the speed at which the tier increased had slowed down, so she wouldn't be able to rank up as fast as before.
Ain clenched her fists.
That was better.
If her rank increased slowly, that meant that she'd meet the stronger opponents later on, so she'd be able to more easily keep the consecutive wins.
Smash!
Ain's flame claws penetrated the Shield Warrior's defense.
The opponent tried to resist, but he couldn't do anything against Ain, who moved extremely fast while doing feints.
There was an overwhelming difference in their mobility!
Ain kept constantly moving from the front to the rear of the Shield Warrior.
It was hard to even keep up with her movements.
It probably would've been better if he had thrown up the shield on the floor.
It didn't take long before the Shield Warrior became light and scattered away.
[12th consecutive victory!]
[You've obtained 21 x 2 battle coins!]
'The couple ring...'
Ain didn't take a rest and kept dueling.
[vs. Rewrite (Diamond. 3)]
[You've won!]
[vs. Kakar (Diamond. 4)]
[You've won!]
[vs. Datra (Diamond. 3)]
[You've won!]
...
Ain kept dueling as if she was someone that was crazy about fighting.
Some matches ended very easily, in other matches, the opponent used their ultimate attack, so the battle dragged on a little bit, but every single one ended up with Ain's victory.
She was in a kind of trance.
The only thing she cared about was defeating the opponent in front of her.
[20th consecutive victory!]
Ain got the system message at the same time the energy surrounding her became yellow.
[The 'Battle Aura' has become stronger!]
[The amount of Battle Coins you can obtain has increased by another 3 times, and all your stats are decreased by another 10%!]
The number of battle coins she could obtain was six times the amount, and all her stats would be decreased by 20%.
The risk had increased, but the rewards had risen too.
"Hmm? What...?"
Everyone had turned their heads around because a yellow aura had suddenly appeared, but when everyone had noticed it, Ain had already disappeared.
"Didn't something shine next to us?"
"Yes, I also noticed it!"
"Did someone level up? But this isn't a hunting ground..."
While there was a little bit of disturbance in the lobby, Ain had appeared in a place that resembled a palace and was facing her opponent.
[vs. X-Kaiji (Diamond. 2)]
Now her opponents were among the top Diamond rank users.
Even though they were part of the top 1% of players, the lower the number became, the stronger they were compared to others.
[Three, Two, One, fight!]
The opponent was an axe-wielding Warrior.
The axe had high base damage, but because of their weight, getting back to a fighting position after using them was hard.
Ain used that point to her advantage.
The moment she pretended to charge forward and then moved to the side…
Swing- The ax flew across the air while making a loud noise.
'Now!'
Through a feint, she made the opponent move first.
Once he fell for the trap, she leaped toward him!
[Critical Hit! You've dealt 333 damage!]
[Critical Hit! You've dealt 352 damage!]
[Critical Hit! You've dealt 317 damage!]
[Critical Hit! You've dealt 351 damage!]
[Because you've attacked the same body part in a row, you've dealt more than 33% of its HP as damage!]
[You've melted down his leg!]
After she attacked the leg four consecutive times, she melted it down.
She could see the astonishment in the eyes of the opponent who was falling down.
He had thought that his attack had been a success, yet he could feel his body falling.
Even after looking at the status window, he didn't know what had happened.
He couldn't understand why his attack had failed.
He also couldn't understand how his opponent had been able to attack the same body part four times in a row in that short time frame.
"Ugh... Damn it!"
The fact that he was missing a leg meant that he couldn't fight anymore.
He soon became light and scattered away.
[21st consecutive victory!]
[You've obtained 28 x 6 battle coins!]
* * *
Paf-!
Another match.
At the top of a very high tower, Ain faced a new opponent.
[vs. Telepass (Diamond. 2)]
[The opponent has achieved three consecutive victories!]
The wind was blowing.
The top of the tower was too narrow for the two of them to move freely.
It felt as if they were on top of a boxing ring.
The only difference was that there was a cliff on the edge of the ring.
"..."
The user Telepass was pointing his great sword toward Ain.
Ain could feel that the opponent in front of her was stiff.
The opponent also could see how many consecutive victories she had achieved... So he wouldn't rush in without thinking about it twice.
If you won against an opponent with a Battle Aura, you could obtain extra Battle Coins.
For example, if you could win against an opponent that had won 20 consecutive times, you could earn 1000 extra bonus coins.
So it wasn't just the user who had achieved the consecutive victories that had to be serious; the opponent had to be, too.
The opponent probably really wanted to win against her.
'I can't lose against someone like him!'
Ain couldn't afford to lose even once if she wanted to buy the item she'd been longing for.
Whoosh-!
A red aura began coming out from the opponent's body.
It was an ultimate attack that increased attack and speed instantly.
Swing-!
The greatsword covered with a blood-red light cut some of Ain's hair.
Next, it brushed her ribs.
After that, he tried to cut her body, but Ain wasn't there.
Swoosh! Once again, he leaped toward her, but he missed that attack too.
He couldn't hit her.
She wasn't dodging after looking at his attack.
With a user’s 'Agility,' it was impossible to look at an attack and dodge it from a short distance.
She was using her own movements to limit the opponent's attack path. Thanks to that, she was able to guess the next attack path.
That's how she was dodging and then hitting him with flames.
When the opponent took a defensive stance, she had already landed three attacks on him.
Ain smiled maliciously.
"This is too obvious."
"Ugh...! This damn brat!"
Swing!
It didn't matter how much he swung the greatsword. He couldn't land a single attack.
Whenever the opponent missed an attack, she landed one or two attacks on him and then backed off.
Continuing the cycle of attacking and then backing off was the best way to take advantage of one's superior Agility.
The Warrior kept trying to resist until his HP dropped to zero, became light, and scattered away.
[22nd consecutive victory!]
[You've gained 28 x 6 battle coins!]
Suddenly, her opponents began using ultimate attacks with a long cooldown time.
They all wanted to cut her consecutive win strike.
Ain preferred that.
Because even after that, the results wouldn't change at all.
She had the most fun when the skillful opponents did everything they could, yet she still found it easy.
[25th consecutive victory!]
[26th consecutive victory!]
[You've won against 'Izuna Haruko' who had won 12 consecutive times. You've earned 200 x 6 Battle Coins as extra!]
From time to time, she won against users that had won more than 10 consecutive times, so she earned a lot of bonus coins.
Ain's smile deepened when she won against a user on a winning streak.
And then, the color of the aura that was surrounding Ain changed.
[30th consecutive victory!]
[The amount of Battle Coins you can obtain has increased by another 4 times, and all your stats are decreased by another 10%!]
The aura surrounding Ain became green. At the same time, her category increased.
[You've obtained the category 'Master'!]
[You're currently among the top 0.053% of players.]
The system message kept going for a while.
She just ignored it and began dueling again.
[33rd consecutive victory!]
[34th consecutive victory!]
[35th consecutive victory!]
The more her tier increased, the harder it became to win.
Most battles began taking more than one minute, and some even took her three minutes.
She was starting to feel the debuff.
Because her Agility had decreased, her speed had become slower too.
And because her Magical Damage had decreased, the amount of damage she dealt had been reduced together with it.
Not only that, but her HP had also decreased because of her Vitality going down.
Even after all these debuffs, her stats were still higher than the rest... But once she reached the 40th consecutive victory, she wouldn't be able to overwhelm the rest with her stats.
[38th consecutive victory!]
[39th consecutive victory!]
[You've won against 'Level Max' who had won 11 consecutive times. You've won 200 x 24 battle coins as extra!]
And finally…
[40th consecutive victory!]
[The amount of Battle Coins you can obtain has increased by another 5 times, and all your stats are decreased by another 10%!]
[The amount of Battle Coins you can earn has maxed out and won't increase anymore!]
Whir-
Ain's body was covered by an intense blue light.
Up until then, the aura had shone as intensely as a lamp, but that one was reminiscent of a sun.
As Ain, who had finally achieved 40 consecutive victories, appeared in the lobby, everyone's attention became focused on her.
—A girl that looked like a sun.
"Woah, what's that?"
"That's a Battle Aura. But it's my first time seeing a blue one!"
"That's crazy! She's won 40 consecutive times?"
A few people realized something after analyzing Ain for a while.
Ain's face had been shown on The Gamez's broadcast. That's why some people recognized her.
"Wait, isn't she the Dark Priest?"
"Oh, now that you say it...!"
By the time someone clapped and turned around, Ain had already disappeared.
* * *
Those days, JaeHoon had spent a lot of time in the Duel Arena.
Except for the team's basic schedule, he spent all his time at the Duel Arena.
He was so immersed in it that he reached the Master Tier.
JaeHoon... No, Practice's skill had improved a lot after analyzing the Dark Priest's video.
The more he used what he had practiced in the Duel Arena, the more polished they became. And with that, his victory rate increased too.
'If things go on like this, I should be able to reach Grand Master. Right?'
That wasn't a vain delusion.
After all, Practice had won on the Master Tier 21 consecutive times!
As he entered the city's Duel Arena, his body got covered by a yellow aura.
That was the 'Battle Aura' he had obtained after winning more than 20 consecutive times.
"Woah, yellow!"
"20 consecutive wins, that's amazing... Weren't you in Master Tier?"
Practice had become someone well known in that city's Battle Arena.
It's not that he wanted to brag about it, but because he kept dueling constantly, many people had started to recognize him.
He had also received some offers to join different parties or guilds, but he had to refuse them all because he was already part of a professional gaming team.
'Okay, should I duel today too?'
As soon as the opponent was decided, a map was picked randomly.
Transparent tiles had been laid on an infinite floor.
It was a map called 'Endless Plane.'
Just like its name indicated, it was somewhere that resembled a space where there were an endless amount of transparent tiles on the floor.
'Oh, this map is great.'
That was Practice's favorite map.
The empty place that didn't have any obstacles was perfect for trying out new techniques.
While he was thinking that, the opponent appeared.
[vs. Ain (Master.)]
[The opponent has won 47 consecutive times!]
What?
Practice thought that he had misread it.
Was it even possible to win 47 consecutive times in the Master category?
No, based on the consecutive wins, that person probably came straight from the lower categories.
Even so, it just didn’t make sense.
'Ranker...? It's an ID I've never seen in the Hall of Fame.'
He had been lucky to achieve 20 consecutive wins. It was in part thanks to his skill improving a lot. The opponent's jobs helped out too.
Also, from then onwards, all his stats would be decreased by 20%, so he wasn't sure he would be able to keep up the winning streak.
But this person had won 47 consecutive times...
"Ah...!"
His pupils widened after looking at the opponent who was covered by a blue aura.
A small height and black robes…
And a slight smile on her face.
In front of him, there stood a girl whose sight he knew very well.
