NoveLight ™
I quite enjoy the combat in this game.
A world nearly perfect in its simulation of reality. The vibrant system enhances the taste of battle, and the enemy before me shows no hesitation in exuding murderous intent. What I love most is the cold sharpness that a well-forged blade gives off and the crisp sound when two real swords clash. The thrill of narrowly avoiding a deadly strike from the opponent is what captivated me and drew me into this world.
And then, there’s the pure exhilaration of cutting off your opponent’s lifeline. It felt like my brain was drenched in the kind of euphoria only drugs could induce.
A few more matches like this, and I should be safely within the zone. From the reactions in the community, it seemed like the penalty for losing was harsher than expected. If you couldn’t keep up a winning streak, earning points became much harder.
On the flip side, as long as you racked up enough wins, you wouldn’t need to grind through dozens or hundreds of matches. As long as you kept an eye on the trend each day and stayed within a safe margin, you’d be fine. After all, when competing for rank in ranked games, there weren’t many cases where the score cutoffs suddenly skyrocketed.
I had expected the second preliminaries to consume all my time, but it turned out I had some breathing room. Since matches were set up regardless of tier, it wasn’t too hard to accumulate victories.
Maybe this was the developers’ way of considering the time constraints of pro gamers. Could it be that the participation rate was lower than they had expected? Either way, it wasn’t bad news for me.
“At this rate, I could manage this alongside my other work.”
I had been stressing over financial matters as it was.
Infinity Black is an RPG game. The objective, at least according to the lore, is to find the "Abyss of Infinity" hidden somewhere on the continent. Supposedly, the person who first saw it said, "It was endless blackness spreading out forever," hence the name… I’m not really sure.
Honestly, the name lacks creativity. It feels like the lower ranks tried to polish up a name the lead developer insisted on pushing through.
In any case, I wasn’t just a pro gamer who could get by solely within the ranked game environment. Quite the opposite, actually.
Most of my income came from siege guilds, so scrappy field fights were my bread and butter. For someone like me, having good equipment was essential. In RPGs, gear is part of your skillset.
With the announced patch coming soon, I’d have to upgrade to even better gear. Since I needed to maintain high-end specs, my expenses were always significant. Sure, I had some money saved up, but no one ever likes dipping into their savings.
With the finals approaching, it’d be smart to earn some extra now.
“…Hmm?”
There was something oddly familiar about the name. Sure enough, I had just matched with someone I knew. And, as expected, text began to appear in the chat.
Since I had all unfamiliar players’ chats hidden, it had to be someone from my friends list. Not that I was sure calling this person a "friend" was entirely accurate.
Well, I didn’t have to answer. Why should I engage in conversation with someone like him?
DongjakAgent was part of the "SSA" guild. SSA wasn’t quite big enough to be considered a major guild, but it was a bit too strong to be considered mid-tier either. It was known for its aggression, even within the field of siege-focused players.
And among them, DongjakAgent was part of the harassment squad—those who targeted enemy guild members relentlessly. I didn’t need to explain what kind of person that made him. I had added him to my friends list mostly for business reasons. Our relationship was more like that between a contract killer and a hired thug. We fought each other at times, but occasionally, we cooperated...
“Where are you now? I’ll come over. It’s been a while since we last met face-to-face.”
I clearly asked where he was, but why wasn’t he answering? Did he think I was easy?
Maybe it was time to reestablish the hierarchy. For people like us, killing each other wasn’t that big of a deal. The reason? “You pissed me off” was not only acceptable but the perfect excuse for murder.
"I am chill. So where are you? I swear I won’t come. I mean it. I’ll bet my balls on it.”
It’s a bit sad. I used to have them, you know. Back in the day, swearing on your balls was like a sign of trust between men. Not that I ever made a promise I intended to keep, but still.
If you can take them, go ahead. Beat me with a bamboo sword, if you can.
There was a time when I could have said things like that.
I frowned at his words. I didn’t even think before replying.
“No.”
“You know, that line you just used is from one of my favorite movies. You putting that filthy mouth on it is a serious offense. I’m disgusted now.”
As much as I said that, I decided to hear him out. There was too much money on the line to reject him outright. And honestly, the job didn’t sound too bad.
“You know me too well. I don’t plan on getting too deep into that mess.”
I rarely accepted requests to participate in sieges or wars. Once you aligned yourself with one faction, it became hard to raise your value, and playing both sides like a bat could make you a target.
Guild wars in this game had a strong sense of camaraderie. If you were being harassed and a guildmate dropped what they were doing to help you, it felt heartwarming. Once you joined a guild, you accepted your fellow members as comrades.
That emotional connection naturally fueled strong hostility toward enemies. If you overdid it and became too hated, it would only make things difficult for you in the future. It was better to show up occasionally, making an impression without causing too much trouble. That was the most profitable strategy.
Still, exceptions could be made if the offer was good enough.
“What if the enemy harassment squad shows up?”
Sometimes, this sort of thing happened. If a guild wanted to intervene in a dispute, they’d start a party hunt to create an excuse to fight.
In MMORPGs, parties were an essential feature. But you couldn’t always fill a party with guild members alone, and some of the people you gathered might belong to warring guilds. If an enemy guild interrupted your hunt, that gave the other party members a reason to declare war.
It was a bit like covering your eyes and pretending not to see, but surprisingly, even in game wars, justification mattered. It prevented screenshots from being posted in the community, discouraged guild members from leaving, and strengthened internal bonds. There was always a reason behind these tedious actions.
“So what’s the endgame? What are you trying to do here? Let me warn you, if I feel the least bit uneasy, I’ll walk away immediately.”
And if I walked away, I wasn’t giving the deposit back. Just because someone was a client didn’t mean they were trustworthy. I had almost been stabbed in the back more times than I could count.
I had even fought against DongjakAgent as an enemy a few times. Sure, it was all for money, but that made him even less trustworthy. He could easily betray me at any moment, depending on the situation.
The reason I had managed to survive despite my reputation as a villain was because of this caution. There wasn’t a single easy thing in this world.
“I think I’ve seen the name once or twice. Never watched his streams, though.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I was so shocked, I couldn’t even close my mouth. DongjakAgent seemed surprised by my reaction.
“No, that’s not it. I just can’t believe you used the words ‘trash content.’”
“Sorry, go on.”