Recently, Hanbyeol had been having a rather fulfilling day.
Of course, by her own standards.
It wasn’t like her experience points were increasing significantly day by day, nor was there any noticeable growth in her abilities.
But... she had recently had more chances to et the NPC she had been carefully observing.
She had been wondering how she could et him naturally, and now that opportunity was presenting itself.
To be honest, she and Yor weren't particularly close.
Their first eting had started with a fight, and the reason for that fight wasn't particularly friendly either.
She had wanted to try fighting just once, but it was also because of the bounty hunting mission. It was bound to be awkward.
Still, under the pretext of exchanging holy water, they started eting regularly, but... recently, that reason was becoming increasingly irrelevant.
He had recently started hanging out with the knights and was replenishing his own supply of holy water.
Thus, the excuse of ‘holy water exchange’ was gradually losing its aning.
So, Hanbyeol had been thinking about how to et him more often...
She hadn’t expected the casual suggestion of a sparring match to turn into such a long-standing arrangent. She was a little surprised herself.
Thanks to that, Hanbyeol had been going to the arena with him every day recently.
Originally, one could buy several tickets for the arena, and they could transfer them.
But she didn’t do that.
Doing so would only reduce the frequency of their etings, after all.
It was a bit of a hassle to have to visit the cave every day, but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make.
Of course, when making the round trip, there were tis when she felt a bit disillusioned.
‘What the hell am I doing… just because of an NPC...’
It was hard to believe she was going through all this trouble for just an NPC.
What would soone who knew her think if they saw this?
They would probably think she was a total weirdo, soone way too imrsed in a ga.
Even if the NPCs felt almost as real as humans, to most people, they were still just fake characters in a computer ga.
Of course, there were people who spoke about the ga's realistic world like it was so other world, but... Hanbyeol wasn't foolish enough to believe in such nonsense.
But even so, there was no denying it.
When she was with him, her lower abdon tingled, and her cheeks often flushed.
Looking at his face brought back mories of when she was held captive and stroked by him, being called "Happy" back then.
And strangely enough, those sensations often felt pleasantly warm.
So, this situation, going to the arena together, was one Hanbyeol couldn’t resist.
Of course, there was one thing that bothered her.
‘When will the barehanded combat co out?’
Even though he was gruff and had a rather unpleasant personality, Hanbyeol was still a ‘woman.’
A woman in her twenties, full of vitality. She had desires within her.
When he first ca out to the arena and pressured his opponent with his body, Hanbyeol felt sothing inside her tingle.
The sight of him without even removing his clothes was more stimulating than any adult video she had seen. She had even imagined herself in such a scenario, replaying videos and placing herself in his position.
What would it feel like to make such close contact with him?
What would it feel like to be bound by him like that?
Would the pain co first, or would so mysterious sensation take over her before that?
Though she often felt like a pervert for thinking such things, she couldn’t stop her aroused imagination.
Since then, Hanbyeol had been working hard at the arena.
She had t him many tis, but... unfortunately, the barehanded combat still hadn’t co up.
Lately, the arena had been crowded with people, so getting a match with him was already difficult, and it was even rarer to get barehanded combat at the sa ti.
‘Sigh…’
Thinking about it always made her sigh, but she didn’t show it outwardly. It would be odd if he noticed.
Right now, there was no ti to waste thinking about that.
"Where are you looking?"
Screech—!
Even though she had limited her stats, he was not soone to let his guard down against. He was the kind of person where, to even have a chance of winning, she had to go all out.
With two curved swords wrapped in energy, she blocked the incoming spear.
Clang—!
A clear sound echoed as a heavy shock hit her body.
It was ti to focus on the fight.
Clash—! Clang—!
Weapons collided, and blades cut through each other.
This wasn’t the first ti she had faced him in the arena. In fact, it had already been more than three tis.
Every ti, the conclusion was the sa—it wasn’t easy.
‘So this is what it’s like to be ranked number one.’
His flashy techniques, sharp judgnt, and dual wielding were all part of his skill.
He was quick and flexible. And, perhaps because his hair was long, there were tis when his movents were disorienting.
‘I heard he used to do gymnastics.’
That seed to have been a huge help.
It wasn’t a big difference now, with her physical abilities being restricted. She was at a level where the gap was hardly noticeable anymore.
Because of that, there were tis she was at a disadvantage in the battle.
Perhaps she was a quick learner because she adapted fast during the fight.
Actually, there was a ti when she had to forfeit after being weighted down with sandbags. In short, he was a tough opponent.
But that didn’t an she couldn’t win.
Unfortunately, she felt like her spear skills hadn't improved much.
‘Well, it’s only been a week.’
In such a short ti, it was hard to feel much improvent.
But, in return, she had learned a few tricks.
Actually, it wasn’t even fair to call them tricks.
They were pretty useful techniques, ones that could actually be used in real combat.
With that thought, she quickly thrust her arm into the path of the attacking sword.
"!?"
For a mont, Hanbyeol’s eyes widened in shock. She hesitated, wondering if she should pull her sword back.
Even though it was a sparring match and her life was guaranteed, feeling pain was still very much a possibility.
If she was unlucky, she could get seriously injured.
In that sense, pushing her arm into the path of his sword was like asking for her arm to be chopped off.
It was clearly a dangerous move, but, of course, she hadn’t done it recklessly.
Swish—!
Hanbyeol’s sword dug into her arm. After a brief mont of hesitation, she chose to strike.
She trusted herself to handle it. In a sense, that was the trust she had in herself.
With a sharp pain, red blood started to spill from the split skin.
Seeing that, she imdiately used her blood technique to harden her blood.
It created a kind of shield made from her own blood.
Though it took so effort, it was a very practical shield with a remarkably fast formation speed.
It would block any half-hearted attack.
Clang—!
Right after, her sword ca to a stop at her forearm.
Without hesitation, she drove her spear toward her opponent’s body. The dark, sharp spearhead lunged toward her opponent’s neck.
“Ha, I surrender!”
Realizing she couldn’t escape, Hanbyeol quickly declared her surrender.
As soon as her form vanished, the spear passed through the air.
Another victory for her.
“…Phew.”
She let out a light sigh.
[Every ti I watch, I think the way he fights is so damn reckless.]
[Why the hell is he sticking his arm out in front of a sword with energy?]
[Can he also adjust his integration rate like us?]
[They say virtual characters can't feel pain!]
[Really now?]
[Tough guy, our big bro... He’s kind of cool, but sotis he can be really scary...]
[Today, barehanded combat ca up... once…]
After the fight with Hanbyeol, Yor imdiately left the arena.
He had fought enough for the day and was ready to head back to the cave.
Upon returning to the cave, he saw Chaerin sitting there, looking displeased.
While many players enjoyed Yor's sudden arena tours, there were also so who viewed it negatively. Chaerin was one of them.
She imdiately asked him,
“Looks like you’ve been enjoying the arena lately. You've been there for a long ti.”
“Of course. Want to try it out? It’s fun.”
“Wow, you’re recomnding it so casually! At least turn off the barehanded combat option.”
Honestly, she was a little worried.
Fighting in the arena was fine, but that barehanded combat...
She could see that the intentions of the participants were a little... suspicious.
No matter how much of a ga it was, seeing a ‘man’ and a ‘woman’ fighting so closely wasn’t sothing she felt comfortable with.
If they were complete strangers, maybe it would be fine, but the two of them had gone through the '19 mode' together...
It didn’t seem like he minded the close contact, though.
Yor innocently asked,
“Was it possible to block that?”
[Fact) Impossible.]
[You can choose the match type, but you can't block the match itself.]
[This ga doesn’t have that feature, haha~]
[It's a small ga, so they didn't make such a feature~]
[Small ga) A ga played by more than half of the world's population.]
[What will you do if there’s no such feature? Just quit the ga if you’re mad, haha.]
“Sigh...”
Chaerin let out a small sigh.
Well, since he wasn’t bothered by it, she couldn’t say much.
She figured if he felt sothing was too much, he would quit on his own.
For now, Chaerin decided to watch from the sidelines. The first-place player was a bit annoying, but she’d let it go for now.
“What’s going on, though?”
After thinking for a mont, Yor asked.
Chaerin replied,
“There’s an update coming soon, so I thought you should return a bit earlier.”
It was almost the second anniversary. Most gas had big updates once a year, so players were expecting sothing big.
Though the ga company hadn’t made any official announcents, there were plenty of players who were eagerly anticipating it.
“You could go to the arena, right?”
“There are too many people there, so I doubt we’ll be able to et. ...But I’ll think about it.”
Yor nodded casually.
Chaerin chatted a bit more before returning to the city.
A few days passed.
As expected, there was an update, but it wasn’t the exciting one players were hoping for.
“Wait, hold on, this is a bit surprising...”
Chaerin hurried to tell Yor. It was an unexpected bit of news.
“Did you hear? The Russian server went down...”
“...Huh?”
In Demons Saga, “server” refers to a country where otherworldly beings reside.
So, when a server goes down, it ans sothing more significant.
The ga had been open for two years.
One of the countries, sowhere out there, had fallen.
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