LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 9 - The Game is Too Easy (2)
Chapter 9: The Game is Too Easy (2)
After finishing the fourth stage of the tutorial, I headed through the passage to the final tutorial stage.
After passing through a dark and damp corridor, I arrived at a vast cavern lit by torches scattered throughout.
The backdrop of this tutorial stage was a cave located outside Jerusalem.
Passing through the giant stone wall at the end of the cavern would lead to the outside.
That would mark the end of the tutorial.
“The last newbie has arrived.”
As soon as I entered the cavern, a man wearing a hood appeared and spoke in an eerie tone.
The man’s voice echoed off the walls of the cave.
I lightly gripped the dagger in my hand and looked around.
Nine men emerged from the shadows that had settled subtly.
“Only one shadow will leave here to carry out the glorious crusade.”
[Prepare for the final test of the fifth stage.]
– The atmosphere here is always intense.
– So cool.
– Quite a few people quit AOA at this point.
As the viewers in the chat mentioned, the atmosphere inside the cavern was absolutely thrilling.
Even though it was a game, the atmosphere really pushed the player’s tension to the extreme.
The cavern was so silent that even the smallest breath could be heard.
The final stage of the tutorial required becoming the last survivor among the nine assassins.
A battle royale in a confined space.
There’s nothing quite like a battle royale for experiencing real combat.
As befitting a game where assassination is the main content, combat skills and situational awareness were essential for smooth gameplay.
I thought it was a perfect final tutorial.
“Chan-sik, do you want me to give you a tip since you need to complete the no-death mission? This is really tough. Even the best players couldn’t clear it on their first try at nightmare difficulty.”
Dong-su, who was watching me in spectator mode, spoke up for the first time in a while.
He must have been bored.
I nodded my head for now.
Since Dong-su’s advice hadn’t been particularly helpful before, it seemed like a good idea to give him a chance.
As I nodded, Dong-su immediately started talking.
“If you go to the right corner of the stone wall, there’s a hiding spot. If you hide there until you’re one of the last two standing… What are you doing now?”
They say that when people get old, they seek stability.
The Dong-su I knew wasn’t like this.
He was someone who always challenged himself without compromise, but time sure was scary.
At least, I shouldn’t end up like that!
“…Chan-sik?”
“Hyung, hiding to make the game easier isn’t fun.”
“You idiot! That’s the proper way to clear this!”
“Come on, where’s the fun in that? The point is to just clear it, right?”
In fact, the strategy I saw also suggested hiding in the space between the walls.
It said the only strategy was to become one of the last two and then fight.
But honestly, that wasn’t fun.
It didn’t suit my style.
– LOL, he has a point.
– We play games to have fun~
– Why did you bring this frustrating guy as a guest? No matter how good his physical skills are, how can he beat nine people alone? He’s an idiot, lol.
– If he were my brother, I’d turn off his capsule and beat him up.
– Fans are overreacting again, LOL. Please watch the broadcast as just a broadcast.
– Didn’t a famous foreign streamer try to do it that way at quiet difficulty and ended up failing? He’d probably die in a second at nightmare difficulty.
– Yeah, the tutorial originally tells you the hiding method. That’s official from the developers.
The public opinion wasn’t great.
That made sense because, to them, Dong-su’s advice was very reasonable.
To them, it looked like a newbie was being reckless.
It must have felt frustrating.
But I smiled as I looked at Dong-su.
“Hyung.”
“…What is it, you brat?”
“I prepared well for this, trust me this once.”
“I’m worried you’ll waste the mission!”
I appreciated his concern, but I was confident.
I had already analyzed enough through videos.
Moreover, I felt I could execute my plan well with the current mood.
What? What if I failed?
Since there was a limit of three tries for the mission, I could start over from the beginning.
Dong-su sighed at my words and waved his hand.
“Do whatever you want.”
– Just because you prepare, doesn’t mean it will work.
– LOL, just because you prepare for the SAT doesn’t mean everyone gets into Seoul National University.
– So, which university did you go to?
– Why are you bringing that up here, you ****?
– Message deleted by the administrator.
The chat was filled with viewers expressing their frustration as if they’d swallowed a mouthful of sweet potatoes.
Not long ago, these same people were cheering for my gameplay, and now they were united in criticizing me.
This fickle crowd, really.
But I didn’t care much.
If I was truly destined to succeed, I had to show a twist here.
Having experienced this many times during
I tightened my grip on the dagger and smirked.
As soon as I finished preparing, a message appeared before my eyes.
[The final test is now officially starting!]
[Become the last survivor.]
Time to show the power of preparation.
Last night, before going to bed, I was fortunate enough to watch a video by a perverted streamer who analyzed this game’s tutorial.
He had hidden in the spot that Dong-su mentioned earlier, recorded the game, and meticulously analyzed each assassin’s characteristics.
From Assassin 1 to Assassin 9.
It was a video that analyzed everything from their weapons to all their patterns in detail.
It was so long and boring that even hardcore users would get tired of it, so the video didn’t have many views.
Who in their right mind would pour such passion into a tutorial designed to hide?
Of course, excluding a pervert like me.
Swish.
As soon as the test began, the first assassin, who was closest to me, immediately threw a dagger at me.
Soon, the second assassin, positioned behind, also rushed towards me, muffling his footsteps.
Surprisingly, I couldn’t sense their presence.
Maybe because they weren’t designed to be cleared easily, I couldn’t even distinguish how they were attacking.
However, these guys had a fundamental weakness.
As tutorial NPCs, their AI wasn’t very good.
In other words, they fought strictly according to the patterns pre-programmed by the game developers.
Exactly 1.2 seconds after the test started, I quickly ducked my head.
Thunk.
I heard a chilling sound of flesh being pierced behind me.
“Urgh.”
With a dying scream, one of the assassins fell to the ground, a dagger lodged in his neck.
The dagger I had dodged had hit him squarely in the neck.
I was glad I had calculated the timing of the first dagger attack yesterday.
One down.
[Current survivors: 9]
The other assassins’ attacks followed smoothly.
Was it because I didn’t hide?
Instead of fighting each other, the assassins were blatantly charging at me.
But their attack patterns hadn’t changed.
So, there was no need to revise my plan.
The core of my plan was the first assassin who had thrown the dagger at me.
He was the only one in this cavern carrying a throwing weapon.
He had a total of four daggers.
Due to the game’s settings, even a scratch from the highly toxic daggers would be fatal.
He had used one just now, so three daggers remained.
The time it took to throw another dagger was five seconds.
Unless I cut his throat, he would continue to throw daggers until he exhausted them all.
I slid towards the ground while ducking my head.
Whoosh.
I heard the sound of weapons slicing through the air above my head.
And soon, the sound of another dagger slicing through the air reached my ears again.
Swish.
The sound of the flying dagger was so faint that it was almost impossible to detect without concentrating.
Or rather, you had to focus to just barely notice it?
Anyway, as soon as I anticipated the dagger, I ducked again, and another victim, pierced by the dagger, fell to the ground.
[Current survivors: 8]
The one who had just fallen was Assassin 4. And this guy had a very special item.
A very lethal and effective item.
[You have obtained the special item ‘Bottle of Poisonous Gas’!]
[You have obtained the special equipment ‘Gas Mask’!]
According to the original tutorial, Assassin 4 would use this poison gas to instantly kill four other assassins.
That’s how lethal the toxin was.
As expected of the assassins, they carried terrifying items.
Anyway, I immediately picked up the bottle and threw it forward. Then I quickly put on the gas mask and moved away from my spot.
Soon, several message windows popped up before my eyes.
[Current survivors: 7]
[Current survivors: 6]
[Current survivors: 5]
[Current survivors: 4]
Oh! Four down in one go.
It seemed that the assassin with the daggers, Number 1, had died from the poison, as no more daggers were being thrown.
It was unfortunate, but now there were only four assassins left, including me.
In other words, there were only three enemies remaining.
And when the number of survivors decreased to this extent, another mechanism installed in the cavern activated.
Flash.
The once dark cavern was suddenly illuminated, and the voice I heard earlier echoed once more.
“Half of the rookies are gone! To achieve the great task, sometimes you must step out of the shadows. Can you still demonstrate your skills in the light?”
I had this thought earlier, but the NPC who could speak in this tutorial really talked too much.
I frowned and looked around the cavern.
My eyes, adapted to the darkness, were now blinded by the sudden light.
The game’s realistic implementation, down to such detailed aspects, was what earned it the title of a masterpiece.
It was a level of realism that couldn’t have been achieved in first-generation virtual reality games.
This level of immersion made me more engaged with the game.
High immersion?
It was beyond that—I felt as if I could hear my heart beating.
My vision soon returned to normal, and the first thing I saw was a sharp dagger.
The assassins, who recovered their sight faster than I did, were charging at me without hesitation.
If four of them had attacked me from all directions, I wouldn’t have had time to dodge and would have died.
Unfortunately for them, there were only three, and I could easily twist my body to one side.
I immediately grabbed the one on my right.
The remaining two assassins’ daggers plunged into the body of the one I held up as a shield.
[Current survivors: 3]
Did they stab too deeply into his muscles?
One of the remaining two assassins couldn’t pull his dagger out of the corpse, and I swiftly slit his throat.
Slash.
[Current survivors: 2]
[The final duel begins.]
Finally, only one assassin remained besides me.
The last survivor, who had been attacking me silently until a moment ago, now sneered and spoke as if on cue.
“I will kill you and become a proud shadow…”
“As if some digital trash could do that.”
No matter how perfect a game is, there are always some flaws.
Didn’t they think a player could be right in front of the assassin’s face?
I casually stabbed the dagger into the last survivor’s neck, who had frozen in place to deliver his line, and dusted off my hands.
“Why do people say this is hard? Geez.”
[Current survivors: 1]
[You have successfully completed the tutorial!]
[You have unlocked the hidden achievement
[You have unlocked the hidden achievement
As it had happened in
“What… did I just witness?”
“See, this is how games should be played. Hyung, do you want to clear it this way next time? I’ll kindly teach you…”
“How… how did you do that? Did you use cheats? Bugs? No, that can’t be.”
Dong-su hyung, stuttering in surprise, stared at me.
I shrugged my shoulders at him and responded nonchalantly.
“The power of preparation.”
“…Turn the dashboard back on.”
For the fifth stage, I had deactivated the dashboard to concentrate better.
When I reactivated it as Dong-su hyung instructed, I couldn’t help but frown at the flood of text on the screen.
– What did we just see?
– I reported it to the headquarters immediately.
– Kan hyung, can you show us the capsule report? Isn’t that bug play?
– Seriously, it seems like a bug or cheat; otherwise, it doesn’t make sense.
– Explain.
– Ab. So. Lute. Ly. Explain.
– Explain!
– Explain!
I had no idea what they wanted me to explain.
But my mouth hung open as I saw the donation that came in next.
‘OfficialAOA’ has donated 1,000,000 won!
[Who’s that fucking awesome player??!?!?!?]
– Wow, LOL, a million won?
– Isn’t that the official account of AOA’s developers?
– Insane, LOL.
– If the official account is donating like that, doesn’t that mean they officially recognize Gukgeon’s play?
– Was everything we’ve seen so far legit?
– It must be an impersonation of the official account.
– No, that’s really the official account. I’ve seen it in other broadcasts.
– Anyway, legend. Whatever it is, it’s a legend.
– Hello, future me! How’s it going? I’m still messing up my life watching streams. Hope you’re still into it too…
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but one thing was certain.
“Is this what the thrill of capitalism feels like?”
“Chan-sik.”
“Yes?”
“I’ll introduce you to an MCN company, set up your broadcast equipment… No, just name your conditions. I’ll arrange it. Where should we start?”
Perhaps, just perhaps.
This might indeed be a turning point in my life.