For a moment, my vision went black, and then I caught the salty scent of the ocean.

Before I even regained my sight, I felt the rain hitting my skin. The ground beneath me swayed, and I heard the groaning of wood as if it were screaming in pain. Even before the system message appeared, my senses told me exactly where I was.

Sure enough, as soon as my vision cleared, I was greeted by the gloomy dark blue sky.

[Infinity Arena 1st Round Qualifier – Round 3]
[Battlefield: Where the Storm Sleeps]
[Opponent: Unknown Adventurer (Witch)]

[The battle will begin in 3 minutes.]
[Reminder: Check your equipment, traits, and skills. Changes cannot be made once the battle begins.]

‘Where the Storm Sleeps’ was a battlefield set on the wreckage of sunken ships. Waves constantly crashed against the field, and the debris shifted often, causing the ground to tilt unpredictably.

The pouring rain and the pre-dawn darkness made it difficult to spot a hidden enemy.

This wasn’t a bad environment for an assassin. The more senses were restricted, the easier it was to ambush. The problem, though, was that my opponent also had significant advantages here.

‘Of all things, why did I have to face a witch here?’

On a different battlefield, this matchup would have been heavily in my favor. But this stormy sea was essentially the witch’s home turf.

I stood on a piece of wreckage, and the rain had already soaked through my clothes. If I got hit by one of the witch’s signature lightning spells in this condition, my health bar would evaporate in an instant. Assassins, already frail, couldn’t afford to take a single heavy hit.

‘As always, if I don’t score a hit with my first ambush, this will get rough.’

Still, this might be the perfect opportunity.

I had something I wanted to test out.

[Title: Catching the Last Train to the Black League!]
[‘SylphieRose’ is live streaming.]
[Notice: Auto-translation is enabled.]

Splash. Splash.

Every step the girl took left ripples in the water.

The light at the tip of her staff glided smoothly across the ship's deck. No one seemed to be around on the decrepit ship, but her sharp blue eyes scanned her surroundings, making sure nothing had gone unnoticed. After securing her flanks and rear, she finally spoke.

“Looks like the battlefield is in my favor. The spawn point isn’t bad either. First, let’s scout for a better position.”

— "As long as you watch for the assassin’s stealth timing, you should be fine."
— "If she sets up her summons, she probably won’t lose."
— "Haven’t all the good assassins already moved up to the next round?"
— "Sylphie, explain the 'empty house' controversy!"

“Empty house? How could it be empty when I’m here? Now it’s a full house.”

She giggled. A light-hearted, playful laugh spread through the air. Even though she wasn’t completely letting her guard down, there was no trace of concern in her demeanor. The slight smirk on her lips radiated confidence.

And it wasn’t without reason.

Sylphie, the "Witch Master" of the European league.

Although she hadn’t always been a main player due to the limitations of her character pool, whenever she had the chance to use the witch, she performed as expected.

When it came to playing a witch, she was considered world-class.

Moreover, most pro gamers and streamers had already advanced to the second round of qualifiers. None of her viewers even considered the possibility of her losing.

— "In a stormy sea, it’s not so bad facing an assassin."
— "3-0, straight to the next round!"
— "Who’s her opponent? Some no-name?"
— "Can’t find anything on global streams—probably just testing the waters with a casual game."
— "Bad luck to face Sylphie in the qualifiers. LOL."

Despite the supportive atmosphere, Sylphie began to feel a strange sense of unease.

Where the Storm Sleeps wasn’t a large map. The wrecks generated randomly, but the overall size of the battlefield remained constant. Given an assassin’s mobility and scouting abilities, she should have been spotted by now.

The assassin should have made their move by now, but the opponent was eerily quiet.

“This is strange. Why haven’t they come yet?”

In this kind of matchup, the longer the fight dragged on, the worse it was for the assassin. Unless her opponent was a complete newbie unfamiliar with the witch-versus-assassin dynamic, there was only one conclusion: they were planning something suspicious.

Of course. Everyone has a clever plan—until they get hit.

Sylphie pointed her staff toward the ship’s bow.

[Summon No. 3 has died. The death location is now marked.]

She didn’t need the system’s notification. She had already been keeping track of her summons’ health and positions. Even before the red marker appeared on her HUD, lightning crashed down on the area.

— "The opponent reacted quickly!"
— "No damage, right?"
— "Looks like they killed the summon and dodged immediately."

The assassin’s silhouette briefly flickered in the darkness.

They were faster than she’d anticipated. Was it a purely stat-based build? Or were they focusing on mobility? Either way, it was far from the standard setup.

Sylphie raised her internal alert level.

She adjusted her position slightly, casting magic to match the assassin’s speed. A powerful electromagnetic field spread through the air, and the cold mist began to freeze the rainwater pooling on the deck.

There wasn’t much to gain.

It seemed she had been a beat too late. The assassin moved between the debris, slipping through without taking much damage. The way they glided across the frozen ground was downright annoying.

“Your movements aren’t bad. Who are you? I’ll have to check your name after this.”

Sylphie moved further back.

Maintaining distance from an assassin was basic strategy. The key wasn’t to think, ‘This distance should be enough,’ but to keep her opponent at the very edge of her attack range.

Especially with this particular opponent, whose movements were unnaturally quick.

With stealth lasting anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds, depending on their build, she couldn’t afford to measure distances optimistically. Sylphie was taking no chances.

“They’ve gone into stealth. I’ll shoot as soon as they reappear.”

A person’s senses rely heavily on sight. Stealth, which rendered a player invisible, was one of the most powerful utilities in the game. However, with enough concentration, there were ways to detect it.

For instance, in this rainy environment, the way the raindrops bounced off the invisible figure allowed Sylphie to pinpoint the assassin’s location. While it was too far to land an accurate spell, she knew they were there.

All she had to do was maintain distance and survive this stealth phase. With the shipwreck’s narrow decks and lack of cover, there weren’t many places for the assassin to hide. At most, she had about four more seconds… three. Sylphie smiled with satisfaction.

Magic gathered at the tip of her staff, ready to be unleashed. One second left. No matter how heavily invested in stealth, the duration had to be running out.

Sylphie’s eyes widened.

“What? Where are they?”

The assassin, who should have reappeared by now, was nowhere to be seen.

Had she been wrong about when they used stealth? No, that couldn’t be it. Sylphie wasn’t called a Witch Master for nothing. She had faced assassins on this very map plenty of times before. She didn’t make mistakes like that.

If they weren’t in the place they should be, that meant they were somewhere they shouldn’t be.

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, Sylphie frantically scanned her surroundings. Her eyes moved skyward, and at that moment, she felt something tighten around her throat as the world flipped upside down.

“Kugh… Kaak?”

She was being dragged by a powerful force.

Under normal circumstances, her body would have been scraped against the ground, causing intense pain, but Infinity Black’s system filtered out excessive sensations, allowing Sylphie to assess the situation calmly.

The sensation in her hands… was it a chain?

So, someone had wrapped a chain around her neck and was dragging her along.

The more she understood, the more confused she became.

Before she could finish processing the situation, she was thrown overboard. The last thing she saw before her body was hurled out of the ship was the silver hair of an assassin about the same height as her.

At the end of the chain, a scythe’s blade glinted, descending toward her.

[You have been defeated.]
[vs Gawol]

Gawol? Who on earth was that?

Sylphie spent over an hour scouring the pro gamer databases and internet streaming platforms.

She found no satisfying results.

There were a few mentions, but it seemed this player wasn’t involved in any professional leagues or streams.

So, the only thing left to do was watch the replay and figure out where she went wrong.

“Hah, that was clever. I didn’t know a chain scythe could be used like that.”

From the start, the assassin hadn’t been walking on the deck.

After drawing Sylphie’s attention with the initial move, they had anchored the chain scythe to the ship’s side and climbed along the hull.

Once stealth ran out, they had used centrifugal force to leap high into the air, completely out of Sylphie’s line of sight, before wrapping the chain around her neck.

The rest, she knew all too well.

As the chain unraveled, the scythe at the end sliced through her weak spot, instantly depleting her health bar.

“This is interesting. I didn’t know there were still hidden masters in this game. I’m sure this player will make it to the finals. I’d love to face them again.”

— And at the same time, Da-eun was watching the footage of Gawol.

“What the hell is this…?”

Whether on galleries or general strategy sites, one particular video had shot to the top of the most popular posts.

It was the clip of her, seemingly flirting on top of a male character’s corpse. In fact, the same video had been posted multiple times, each one garnering hundreds of comments.

Da-eun’s eyelid twitched as she scrolled through the endless remarks.