Chapter 4

　　Maybe my trash talk got to him, because Heejae paused for a second before planting a hand on the wall and launching himself high into the air.

　　The next moment, his character came crashing down toward me with both hands clasped over his head. I knew the attack would wipe out half my HP if it landed, but I held my ground.

　　[Crush Attack]

　　[Water Hold]

　　With a heavy thud, my screen flashed red. The blow caught me in the shoulder, sending me staggering backward and nearly knocking me down. Just as I’d expected, half my HP vanished.

　　But taking the hit let me bind Heejae with a stream of water the moment he landed. With him pinned in place, I hit R.

　　I used [Paranoma], the same ultimate I’d fired off in the clan room earlier. Except this time, it wasn’t just for show.

　　Boom!

　　A massive wave surged across the arena like a tsunami, swallowing Heejae whole and blasting him all the way into the wall.

　　Now he had barely a tenth of his HP left. But instead of jumping back to his feet, the bastard suddenly burst out laughing.

　　[Heejae]: LMAOOOOOO

　　[Heejae]: f**k thats embarrassing lololol

　　Then he leaped high into the air again.

　　I couldn’t tell if the bastard was taunting me or just being an idiot, but either way, this was the perfect opening. Once you were airborne, you couldn’t change course. That was PvP 101.

　　I fired another [Water Arrow].

　　But then…

　　[Rush]

　　To my shock, Heejae suddenly vanished.

　　Barely a second later, my screen started flashing red again. My character had taken serious damage.

　　Figuring the attack had come from behind, I rolled forward. Sure enough, with a sharp rush of wind, Heejae’s hand skimmed past my character.

　　[Heejae]: so close lol

　　Shin Heejae snickered as I slipped out of his grasp. I didn’t even have time to type, let alone answer his taunt. Cold sweat ran down my back.

　　That left me with three bars of HP and Heejae with one. The match was neck and neck again.

　　And yet the bastard still looked weirdly relaxed.

　　I scattered [Water Ball] traps all around myself to keep him from closing in. I had no idea what he was planning.

　　“Fuck, I can’t believe he used Rush there…”

　　I’d never imagined Heejae would play that aggressively with only one bar of HP left.

　　If I’d been him, I would’ve tried to create distance, not close it. It was the kind of gutsy play I could never pull off, and I was having trouble keeping my cool.

　　Then Shin Heejae used [Accelerate], acting like the [Water Ball] traps around me didn’t even exist. I aimed [Water Arrow] at him as he came weaving toward me.

　　“How the hell is he planning to dodge this?”

　　It looked like he was charging in without a plan, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was only doing it because there was something I’d missed.

　　In the end, I cracked under the pressure and backed away.

　　That was my mistake. The instant I stepped outside the range of my [Water Ball] traps, Shin Heejae leaped high into the air like he’d been waiting for that exact moment.

　　I tried firing [Water Arrow], but it was already too late. He was too close. My rushed shot went wide, and the next thing I knew, Heejae had my character by the throat, leaving me dangling helplessly in midair.

　　[Heejae]: o_o Noona…

　　[Heejae]: ur such a scaredy cat lol

　　[Heejae]: dats cute

　　I trembled with rage, feeling like absolute shit and wanting to hurl every curse I knew at him.

　　But before I could even type a message, Heejae snapped my character’s neck with a sharp crack.

　　[You have been defeated.]

　　And so, I lost to Heejae again after a year.

　　It was miserable.

* * *

　　After that, I was so crushed that I couldn’t bring myself to log into the game for several days. No matter how many times I went over the fight, I kept coming back to the same conclusion: if I’d just landed that last [Water Arrow] properly, I could’ve won.

　　“Shin Heejae, just fucking die already…!”

　　I was pacing around my room with my murderous rage flaring up all over again when Hyejin suddenly texted me.

　　—Hyejin: Dude

　　—Hyejin: Is this you?

　　—Hyejin: The skill rotation and timing are SO you lmaooo

　　—Hyejin: (Link)

　　—Me: ?

　　To my disbelief, the link preview Hyejin had sent was from Shin Heejae’s YouTube channel. I was halfway through typing, “Why would you watch…” when the video thumbnail made me freeze.

　　[HeejaeTV] I Got SCHOOLED by a Newbie…

　　The thumbnail showed a 2D drawing of Sesam, my character, standing with one foot on the waist of a similarly drawn Heejae. The video already had over a hundred thousand views.

　　Almost in a trance, I hit play. Just as I’d suspected, it was a recording of my PvP match against Heejae in Bloody Rain.

　　From Heejae’s POV, my plays had been edited to look surprisingly clean and sharp. Even the part at the end where Heejae grabbed and killed me had been edited so cleverly that the finish looked almost simultaneous.

　　In reality, I’d gotten wrecked. But in this video, I was the star, not Shin Heejae. And judging by the hundreds of comments below, the edit had worked. Most of them were praising my play.

　　@Poojae When I play heal Ele, I’m basically a watering can… T_T 367 likes

　　@BunnyTail That’s actually a newbie?? holy shit theyre so good with water ball… 112 likes

　　@Hamgyeongi That heal Ele arrow placement… No way this isnt some ancient veteran lmaooo 201 likes

　　@Arcain If THATS a newbie then what have I been doing for the last 4 years… 32 likes

　　@Heejunk Heejae is washed now lolololololololol 3 likes

　　I eagerly read through the comments, and it wasn’t until I liked the very last one that I came to my senses. I had no idea how I was going to explain this to Hyejin.

　　I’d mocked her for being insane when she told me she’d started playing Arcadia again. And now here I was appearing in a video with Heejae like we were buddies or something…

　　I’d done the unthinkable.

　　I hurriedly texted Hyejin back.

　　—Me: No wait this isn’t

　　—Me: i just made a new character and ended up partying with some people

　　—Me: No fuck I really had no idea!! if I knew it was Heejaes clan I never wouldve joined

　　—Hyejin: Oppa^[1] just calm down and tell me what happened

　　—Me: Umm

　　I’d started rambling all over the place out of habit, but Hyejin got me to slow down, and I finally managed to explain what had happened a few days ago.

　　At first, Hyejin seemed to listen quietly. Then somewhere along the way, she started laughing her ass off at practically every sentence.

　　—Me: You think this is funny?

　　—Hyejin: No but lololol why does he call you Noona?

　　—Me: Probably cuz I’m playing a female character..

　　—Hyejin: LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

　　—Hyejin: He seems WAY too interested in you though. Actually, I watched his livestream yesterday and that dumbass lol

　　—Hyejin: Suddenly started spamming server megaphones going “Anyone know Sesam?” lol

　　—Hyejin: I wondered what kind of bully shit he was pulling this time, but then the PvP vid came out and I knew it was you lol I was so shocked

　　—Me: He was looking for me?

　　—Hyejin: YEA! hes been spamming that shit over megaphones like ten times a day

　　Hearing that made me wonder what the hell that bastard was up to. He’d edited the video pretty favorably toward me, so it didn’t look like he held a grudge. If anything, it seemed more like he was trying to hype me up.

　　Then one of Hyejin’s jokes suddenly stuck in my head.

　　—Hyejin: Maybe he has a crush on you or something lol

　　—Hyejin: Oppa why dont you just date him and clean him out of all his gear lmaooo

　　I knew she was only kidding.

　　But it was like a lightbulb switched on in my head.

　　Obviously, I wasn’t actually going to date Shin Heejae. But the moment Hyejin said that, I remembered something that had happened in my old clan.

　　Yeongil, the clan I’d founded and Heejae had destroyed, had all kinds of people in it. Some were decent, but plenty were jerks almost as bad as Shin Heejae.

　　And one of the worst of them was Yatta. A total girl-crazy creep. Literally obsessed with women.

　　Then I remembered the time that asshole got completely screwed over by a netkama^[2].

Translator’s Note

[1] Oppa: A Korean term used by a younger female to address an older male.

[2] netkama: Internet slang for a man who presents himself as a woman online.