After the duel ended, I gave my own condition a quick once-over. The result? Completely unscathed—not even a speck of dust had landed on my clothes.
I had thought it would be a tough fight… well, someone like me, who went into a one-on-one duel in an overwhelmingly powerful state, can’t exactly brag about it. Even if I used it to boast to friends, there’d be no glory in it—come to think of it, I’m not even a player. I don’t have the chance to share achievements or brag about battle records with buddies like a player would.
I sighed deeply, stretched my fingers, and shook my head.
All of this should have ended quickly. But things escalated way too fast. What’s more, those several inspectors standing a few meters away showed absolutely no sign of backing down after losing their leader. Although many of them were already trembling with fear, generally speaking, they had no intention of letting me go.
Had I known this would happen, I would have agreed with that captain just now that winning meant I could leave. A duel like that is actually a rather novel form of transaction… although, not defeating the opponent wasn’t an option, I suppose.
“You lot, are you planning to come at me one by one too?”
Tossing the question out bluntly, I closed my eyes, hoping to hear the panicked sound of footsteps fleeing.
But no, all I got was the numb footsteps of a group of stubborn incompetents putting on a brave front.
They pressed towards me step by step, maintaining their formation, rigidly adhering to protocol. But isn’t this just like those blockheads who only know how to solve a problem by rote, without ever examining the question itself?
I clenched my hand into a small fist, then loosened it, pursing my lips in annoyance.
Were these the kind of small-time mobs that serve as free experience for low-level heroes?
I rubbed my palms together and shook my head in dissatisfaction.
“Such a pity—?”
“That’s enough!”
Suddenly, I was forced to retreat backward by the pressure of a sudden purple magic sphere. Shortly after that voice and the sphere’s afterglow faded, I saw a ripple emerging in midair… to be precise, it was more like a spatial rift, similar to the space magic tunnels Hui Hui had used before.
And before long, I saw a girl’s head “pop out” from within. Then, she seemed to notice the rift was far too high off the ground, so she ducked back in. The rift then steadily descended until it hovered about a meter above the ground.
What’s going on? Have I run into some chivalrous heroine or hero stepping in to right a wrong? Also, the mana contained in that sphere just now wasn’t small. This newcomer doesn’t seem like a lightweight either…
“Hey hey, don’t just go out there so casually!”
“Ahhh, sorry! I’m just used to going straight out the door.”
“Is that something a normal person would say? Even if it’s true that people hitting you doesn’t hurt or itch at all.”
I wasn’t far from the rift, and since I was genuinely curious about what was going on inside, I could hear their conversation crystal clear… So, based on that dialogue, there are two girls, and one of them seems to have an exceptionally high defense stat?
Just as I was speculating, a dazzling purple shield suddenly emerged from that rift, slamming onto the ground with a bang. Then a girl stepped out from inside—looking like the very girl from just now… A status window floated above her head; she was clearly a player.
She wore armor striped in either dazzling purple or pure black (yet for some reason, her upper arms were left bare, and the exposure was even higher than chainmail). Aside from that large, brilliant purple shield, there was also a red, wheel-like object attached to her left gauntlet. There seemed to be a core in the middle—was it a weapon?
As for the rest of her getup, to put it nicely, it would make an excellent cosplay in real life. To put it bluntly, it was just edgy.
“Is that a Great Shield class…”
She seemed to have heard my muttering. The black-haired girl before me nodded with a face radiating pure innocence and said:
“Yes! Because I’m just so scared of getting hurt, I put all my stat points into defense.”
What? What is this… a game player who has never actually played a game before?
You have to know, Art World Online isn’t a game where you win just by being tanky enough. What about penetration, what about magic piercing, what about defense-ignoring weapons… oh wait, the version hasn’t been updated with that stuff yet. Except for relatively rare physical penetration skills and magic spells, it seems no attack can really do much against a Great Shield user with high defense.
“You’re basically revealing your build to the enemy, miss?” I couldn’t hold it in anymore and had to warn her. The girl just tilted her head, looking like she didn’t understand what I was saying.
And on her, I could even see a commemorative medal from the game’s anniversary event that had ended just a few months ago. How can someone still be this naïve and sweet after living in such a dog-eat-dog environment for several months?
Oh wait—to me, this environment is indeed dog-eat-dog… but from the players’ perspective—?
“Hey! Ai Pu Lu, wait for me! You weren’t even ready yet—?!”
Then another girl dashed out of the rift. The moment she laid eyes on me, she immediately drew her weapons… two hunting knives with water-ripple patterns. Hmm… if I’m not mistaken, this one probably specializes in speed. Don’t tell me both of them dumped all their stat points into a single attribute, and then happened to luck into some amazing gear, making it this far?
Why does this trope feel so overused in light novels…
The brown-haired girl was dressed all in white, an outfit perfectly suited for an assassin’s movements, along with various rare cosmetics I’d never even seen in the shop… Truly worthy of a gacha luck goddess. Of course, all gacha luck gods must die——just kidding.
But right now, at this very moment, I really want to loudly curse:
I **! These two are ** insane! And this world is ** insane too.
With a headache forcing me to hold my forehead, I sighed again, yet found myself unintentionally smiling. The reasons were countless and tangled; I couldn’t quite put my finger on it…
Perhaps it was because I had finally encountered opponents worth fighting seriously?
The girl in white pulled the great shield girl aside and whispered a few words, probably informing her of my identity and the purpose of this trip. After all, in this heated atmosphere, who else would deliberately step out of that trance to pay attention to me?
Well then, let me take a look —【Appraisal】!
Hmm, hmm… aside from Defense being “?”, everything else is D rank, huh? …And apart from Agility being EX and Attack being A, the rest are also D, huh? Seems like… no big deal. The only thing that would surprise me is that Defense “?”… Just what kind of existence is this, that even their defense stat becomes unquantifiable?
Most players I’ve met before usually average out their points first, then specialize in suitable attributes based on their class tendencies. However, I’ve never seen anyone specialize their points to this extreme.
“I’m sorry! We… we’re going to defeat you, you know!”
“Ai Pu Lu, no need to reason with her. Let’s go!”
Oh? No problem. I like people who don’t waste words.
“Hey! Do you see that?”
“Of course, of course, that’s a bug-level existence, Ai Pu Lu!”
“Seriously?! I heard she won first place in the [Immortal Cup] competition without losing a single drop of health!”
“What?! That cup themed around brutality?! Even the strongest in our guild got taken down.”
Before I knew it, the surroundings grew noisy and chaotic. It seems I… no, the girls before me were even more attractive than the festival itself.
The crowd of people surrounded us, forming a decent-sized arena. If a battle broke out recklessly now, there would probably be some extraordinary consequences—my figure would be recorded, and I’d never have another peaceful day…
Don’t play it like this, come on.
“If you want to fight, then fight. Save us all some time… Do you want a duel, or a team battle?”
I stared intently at the black-haired girl’s large shield, well aware in my heart what that thing was… It could absorb all frontal damage and drastically reduce the attack coefficient. If I didn’t have 【Sanction】 to block its excessive locked skill bonuses, I would also take reflected damage.
“A duel? …A little girl like you, I wouldn’t feel right dueling you—?”
Probably spurred by this sentence, the entire crowd began to riot with excitement.
“Duel! Duel!”
“We’ve got a good show to watch!” That was the genuine sentiment, wasn’t it.
People’s hearts are fickle; I figured the girl would waver soon enough.
Sure enough, after what seemed like an internal struggle, the girl in white gracefully pointed her hunting knives at me.
“Very well then! Little girl, let’s duel!”
I considered it for a moment. It seemed there was no disadvantage to me in this. So I quietly picked up the Flowing Wind Sword that had been tossed aside, held it high above my head, and poured into it the magic power named 【Honesty】 and 【Mercy】.
It wouldn’t break, and it would be even sharper. I was confident it could contend with those monstrous twin blades of hers.
Bathed in the reflections of emerald green and azure blue, I pointed it at the girl.
“Let me end this battle in a single moment!”
The girl murmured to herself, then flashed a wicked smile and began chanting under her breath.
It couldn’t be magic. Following this assassin’s class inclination, she was probably using a skill. The stupid game mechanics almost always require players to call out the skill name to activate it.
Well, occasionally disregarding martial honor shouldn’t hurt, right?
I stretched out my left hand towards the girl, suddenly exerted force, making my Force manifest instantly, and restrained her movements. Meanwhile, the right hand gripping the sword hilt swung without hesitation to the side—
Clang! Just as I thought, she wouldn’t be subdued so easily.
The girl, who was almost prone on the ground, and I had put several meters between us, her face full of unease. As for the “her” I had just pinned with Force, it was merely a shadow clone…
“Impressive that you could notice that, little girl.”
“Don’t call me ‘little girl.’ I’m not much younger than you, you know.” Those words slipped out, because I really couldn’t stand being called that all the time.
It seems things are getting more and more interesting.
“Your speed… is quite fast. But if I get serious, can you match me?”
