Chapter 6
4.
In God Wars, when you clear a quest, hunt powerful monsters with exceptional ability, or discover something new , and make an achievement, a title is given and a rune comes as a title reward.
The rune that’s given permanently raises a player’s stats.
This was the decisive reason God Wars became a game for top level players, those with something special to them. They were able to use their skills to reach the top.
They didn’t allow the challenge of late starters as they had already achieved stats far superior to those at the same level through those runes early on.
Going further, the top level players exchanged information among each other on how to receive stats which made their stronghold at the top impregnable.
They had secret trades with information and items that only they knew of.
‘Tutorial Master?’
But, one of these secrets had appeared in front of Midas’ eyes.
‘There was something like this?’
Tutorial Master.
It was a title that even Midas who played God Wars quite a bit longer than average had heard for the first time.
What was more surprising was the effect it granted.
‘All stat rune? On top of that 10 points each?’
The bonus points given for one level is 5 points in God Wars.
Thinking about that, it was an unbelievable merit.
‘Physical aspect points are vital to magician types.’
Especially to magician classes, Strength and Endurance were more precious because they had low health by default, and due to the fact that they needed to invest in intelligence so they could be effective in a fight.
To the magician classes that had no choice but to use bonus points from leveling up to raise Intelligence and Magic Power, the Endurance and Strength stats they received through runes like this often had a large influence on their survival.
Of course, the conditions for obtaining them were also extremely stringent.
‘More importantly, surviving for 71 minutes huh……’
Surviving for 71 minutes in tutorial mode was very difficult.
As said before, the tutorial mode was designed to make the players experience game over.
It meant that they had no choice but to die even if they struggle.
In reality, normal players would only be able to survive for about 10 minutes even if they try to survive to the best of their abilities.
Surviving for 71 minutes wasn’t easy.
‘It’s really cheap.’
On top of that, the number 71 minutes itself was pretty evil.
‘Maybe if it was an hour…’
Let’s try surviving for an hour since there’s a possibility there’s a title.
However, a reward doesn’t appear after an hour.
‘Even if one were to stay for another 10 minutes, 11 minutes is a bit wrong.’
Even if one were to survive for those cruel 10 minutes, a reward wouldn’t appear in front of the hard-working player.
They would have to survive for another minute for the reward.
Something everyone would try to receive with all their might if they knew.
However, it was something no one would try if they didn’t.
‘Okay.’
That was why Midas prepared.
‘Let’s try it.’
At that moment, a message could be heard.
With that message, the walls that were trapping the 30 players broke down and light started pouring in.
A lush, green forest could be seen across the light.
It was the moment the field appeared.
It was also the moment orcs appeared.
5.
An era where God Wars became the standard of all human values in the world.
In such an era, many wanted to play God Wars with each of their own hopes, dreams, or objectives and they were always told the same thing.
“God Wars, it’s insanely difficult.”
“Hey, don’t do it. You would just be wasting your parent’s hard-earned money.”
The moment they realize this fact first is in the Tutorial Mode.
A stage where the real game would only start once you die.
On that stage, the players realize how difficult it is to survive from monsters that have overwhelming stats.
“Fuck, this is crazy!”
Also, they realize that dying is incredibly difficult as well.
One wouldn’t be able to survive easily, nor would be able to let oneself get killed easily. It was similar to a hell for the new players.
“You want me to die from this kind of monster?”
Orc.
With a height of over 180cm, a mass of ripped muscle that makes anyone with a similar height ashamed of themselves…
It was a monster quite familiar to modern people.
Orcs were more well known through movies, games, novels and various other media than dinosaurs (Note: what about zero two) that actually existed after all.
However, getting killed by such a familiar monster was a completely different story.
“Damn it! I can’t do it!”
“M-me too……”
It couldn’t be helped that those who came across this fact become overwhelmed by fear and dread unconsciously.
“Ahh!”
Beginners ran away like that.
On the contrary, the experienced people were different.
“Let’s hurry up.”
“There’s no need to waste time.”
They had already experienced this game and ran towards the orcs without hesitation as they had seen the Game Over screen several times already.
And they willingly gave their life to the incoming orc’s fist.
There were even some that aimed their own heads exactly on the incoming fist as to achieve a clean Game Over.
“Wow, he aimed at the head properly.”
“He’s pretty skilled huh?”
There were a few that let out exclamations at that fact.
That was the scene of the tutorial.
At the stage where one could only leave by dying, the experienced died faster than anyone while the beginners faced inevitable death after running around.
Of course, that was only the difference between the experienced and non-experienced.
The talent and skills one possessed usually appeared in a different way.
“Huh? Look at that person! It seems he’s trying to fight the orcs?”
“He’s fighting the orcs in tutorial mode?”
This was about the players that took a posture to get ready for battle against the orcs that appeared, rather than running away.
“Is that possible?”
It was a retarded thing to do.
The players starting the tutorial were all level 1, they had no stats or skills.
“That orc is a level 20 monster right?”
On the other hand, the normal orcs that appeared in front of them were monsters that could only be killed by players that were at least over level 20.
It was a difference similar to that of a cat and a tiger.
This was why it was the best method to show the difference in skill.
“I will have my debut battle. I will show my skills.”
To put it differently, it was a method one could use to prove one’s worth.
“It seems he’s recording.”
“Looks like it’s a professional player wannabe.”
The eyes of the people gathered towards the orc that was currently appearing in front of the wannabe-pro.
‘What’s this?’
Midas was the same.
‘A professional player wannabe?’
Midas’ eyes sparkled at the appearance of the wannabe-pro, a person that lives off of being a God Wars player.
Pages:
‘Certainly, there’s no better business card than killing an orc in Tutorial Mode.’
There were three methods to survive in God Wars.
Having excellent talent, having a lot of money, or having good luck.
Money or luck couldn’t really be verified or shown separately.
That left talent to be the only thing that could be shown.
The most befitting stage for that was indeed this Tutorial Mode.
A video record of hunting an orc in tutorial mode would become a great plus to be added to your CVs when applying for a guild or a company.
In reality, there were players that got into famous guilds or companies by hunting orcs in the tutorial.
There were standards though.
‘It’s possible to enter any guild by killing one, the moment you kill two one would receive support in obtaining items, and one’s three main needs would be supported if three were killed.’
The treatment was different depending on how many orcs were killed.
If one were to kill three immediately, they would receive treatment as the greatest potential candidate in any guild.
‘If five are killed then one would immediately debut.’
Also, if more than five are killed by chance, one wouldn’t be a candidate but could debut through a guild or game company that always has a channel to showcase their rising and top ranks in Wartube.
To compare it to celebrities, it would be like appearing as the main supporting character in a billion-dollar Hollywood Blockbuster.
Killing an orc in Tutorial Mode was that amazing of an achievement.
‘Well, he wouldn’t be able to though.’
Of course, to put it differently, most would only end as an attempt to reach fame, as obtaining success was highly rare.
Since facing an orc was incomparable to learning martial arts or fighting a person in reality after all.
“Gah!”
As Midas had expected, the player that stood in front of the orc shouted without even being able to properly respond to the orc’s sudden charge.
The player’s face seemed to be full of surprise.
Midas who had seen the faces smiled to himself.
‘As expected, he was a guy that didn’t know about the orc’s patterns.’
As said before, monsters were different from humans.
The appearance as a matter of course, but their fighting style as well!
Against such monsters, one had to use an attack method fit for them.
‘The basic attack pattern of an orc’s attack is a frontal charge. What are you trying to do by trying to battle it by outright standing in front of it?’
In the first place, the orc’s massive body made elaborate battle in a melee fight impossible.
That’s how the charging appeared.
‘For now, it enters the next pattern after slamming its body.’
That was why, the beginning of all of the orc’s attacks was a collision.
‘After the collision, the orc starts attacking randomly and so lies an impossible to predict dogfight.’
It was pretty much impossible to read the orc’s attacks and dodge them.
The only choice was to use inborn talent, the reflex of that inborn talent to dodge.
‘It’s basically over after the collision.’
To put it differently, it was possible to predict the charge itself and its path.
1 hour and 11 minutes.
During that long amount of time, this was the only choice Midas could choose in order to survive in a forest full of an unknown number of orcs.
‘Avoiding as much as possible.’
Dodging the orc’s charge no matter what!
There was only one mission that rose in Midas’ head when he determined that.
‘The problem is the timing. If I could just catch the orc recognizing me and the signal of its attack……’
It was at that moment.
‘Hmm?’
A green light could be seen above the orc’s head in Midas’ eyes.
Also, that light started turning red at some point.
‘Huh?’
At that moment, the orc started dashing towards Midas.
.
Someone had once said.
“There is a clearing method to all games.”
That applies to God Wars as well.
There was a pattern to all monsters that existed in God Wars.
Going deeper, the phase of the monster changes depending on the situation, different patterns exist for each phase, and several irregularities exist for each pattern but it was more or less the same. One could make out a basic pattern.
In other words, all monsters of God Wars had a certain exploit to their pattern and hence the method of killing it would obviously exist as well.
“Of course, that didn’t mean you could kill that monster.”
The problem was that it was incredibly difficult.
The reason it was difficult was simple.
It was because the control in God Wars was incredibly difficult.
Logically, there was no way moving one’s body in virtual reality would be like controlling through a mouse and keyboard or through a game-pad.
If one had to kill monsters that they had only seen in their imagination on top of that?
The experiences and knowledge built up from reality up to that point would become useless.
“In the end, only the talented can kill them.”
In the end, only those with talent, or those that can replace that talent with something else, such as those that have an item or skill that make that control seem pointless would be able to leave a result.
Midas, the reason he could not leave a proper result in the 5 years he had played the game was exactly because of this.
However, there was not a single instance Midas had given up despite the lukewarm treatment he received.
He had done his utmost to be able to reach at least the tip of their toes despite not having talent, money, or luck.
Of course, there was only one thing such a Midas could do.
‘There is a total of 3 phases depending on the health of the orc.’
He had analyzed and researched as many attack patterns of monsters as possible, created a method to counter it that suited him and embedded that into his mind.
‘Among them, the Phase 1 attack that comes when its health is above 80% is always a charge when the distance to the target is more than 4 meters.’
Midas had put in effort to the point that the imprint in his mind was worn.
‘It lowers its posture the moment the distance to the target is 4 meters.’
Especially to Midas who only had the talent of hitting the target well, he held conviction that he had put in the most amount of time into grasping and analyzing the pattern of monsters amongst all the God Wars players.
‘I had a nosebleed the first day of memorizing the method of the orc colony attack.’
It had been a miserable investment.
It was an investment that had proven the fact that Midas was talentless more definitely than anything.
An investment he couldn’t boast to anyone about.
‘To think that it would help me like this.’
However, that investment was becoming a great help at the moment.
30 minutes since the tutorial started, Midas was running away perfectly from four orcs.
What made that possible was none other than the signal light above the head of the orcs.
A light that couldn’t have been seen normally, that signal was giving Midas information in real time.
‘The green light is when there is no aggression.’
When the light was green, they did not show any signs of attacking and maintained a peaceful state as long as he didn’t enter their perception range.
‘The yellow light is an agitated state where they have found their attack target.’
In the case of the yellow light, their perception range got wider since they were moving around to find their attack target.
‘The red light is proof that they have seen their attack target.’
The final red light signalled the onset of the attack.
What was interesting was that that wasn’t all.
‘Also, the number above its head should be its HP value.’
Through Midas’ eyes, he could confirm the orc’s attack pattern situation as a matter of course and could confirm its stats on top of that.
‘The only item in its possession is leather.’
He was even looking through the loot item list that could be obtained through killing an orc.
A situation where the monster’s real time information was being transferred to Midas.
Also, Midas’ head was full of methods he could use to deal with it.
That was why Midas could say with certainty.
‘I can do this.’
That he could do what he wanted to today.
‘I can do it.’
For Midas, this was the moment where he had complete certainty for the first time in his long life.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m