The moment I saw those eight letters, a cold sweat ran down my spine.
“Rotten water, huh…….”
“Huh?”
……I decided not to dwell on why my (former) account name popped up here.
No way.
Could it be some kind of development like, “The heroines of the world I left behind are obsessed with me”?
That can’t be.
It’s already unrealistic enough to be possessed by a game.
But that deck is a real mess.
It’s a deck I poured all my know-how into, my masterpiece…………
Dark clouds loom over the future of 1-hit-and-run.
Still, the only saving grace is.
The group my (former) account belonged to was one that had just undergone a ‘shuffle.’
What’s a shuffle?
It’s a system to prevent the old-timers from rotting away by randomly mixing up the groups.
In other words.
The upper ranks are teeming with monsters, but the mid-tier is still manageable!
“Phew.”
Still, it’s fun to beat up bots and reap the rewards.
Sigh.
Swallowing my disappointment.
“Focus! Let me explain the rules of the Dimension Arena to our first-time visitor, the Revelator!”
Through the announcer’s voice.
I was able to understand the differences between the in-game world and the current situation a bit more clearly.
The battles here are fought using ‘avatars’ that replicate the appearance of the heroes.
Since they exist in different dimensions, they can’t coexist in the same dimension simultaneously, or so the announcer explained.
He went on about paradoxes, doppelgangers, and other strange things, but I wasn’t interested in those settings.
In conclusion.
The good news is.
Since we fight with avatars.
Our heroes won’t get hurt in the Dimension Arena.
The bad news is.
I can’t directly command them like in Pokémon.
“Go, Lumimon! Tackle!”
………I can’t give commands like that from the sidelines.
So, I decided to dive into the first match to see how things would go.
[Battle Result]
[Winner: aaa]
[Loser: Tina Mallang Belly Button Kkang Ka]
[Your rank has risen to 9532!]
“Hmm, this might work.”
I glimpsed potential.
In the arena, the avatars of our heroes moved with a clear sense of ‘self.’
“Johanna, how did it feel?”
“Hmm. It felt like putting my thoughts into a doll and moving it? It wasn’t much different from moving my actual body. I didn’t feel any pain.”
That’s a relief.
Earlier, she got hit by a fireball and was sizzling.
“Ari?”
“It’s a bit ambiguous! It felt like imagining shooting an arrow?”
“Rumi?”
“Woof! Bite! Woof! Hit!”
Good, good.
Well done.
“……Aren’t you going to ask me?”
“Oh……… Saha, well, you’ve been holding the front line so solidly, so…”
“Ughhhhhhh…………”
What’s with the deep breath?
Anyway.
I formed a hypothesis.
With my current roster of heroes, I can’t afford to counter or match attributes based on the situation.
But.
If I implant strategies for dealing with the tricky opponents they usually face?
Wouldn’t their autonomous performance improve?
“Everyone, shall we study for a bit?”
“Ehhhhhh………! The Ogre’s Hammer costs 115 gold………! Ehhhhhh………!”
Tina had a fit at the word ‘study,’ but.
Life is a continuous study.
Hard work, hard study—if you don’t keep up, you’ll be left behind in this harsh society!
You might fall for scams like, ‘Once you get into college, you can do whatever you want,’ and end up in ruins………!
Sniff.
Let me wipe my tears for a moment.
“You don’t have to memorize everything at once, let’s take it step by step.”
If I diagram the flow of the Dimension Arena:
Choose an opponent’s deck from the list of other Revelators.
Our heroes enter the waiting room to prepare for battle.
I get summoned to the Revelator’s exclusive viewing room.
Finally, we watch the avatars duke it out.
Later, as your rank rises, you’ll face ‘Blind’ matches—you won’t be able to see the opponent’s deck.
But for now, with my brilliant mind, I can give instructions on how to tackle them!
Whisper whisper.
Explain explain.
“Alright, Lumi. If the blue-haired swordsman raises his sword high?”
“Woof woof! Bark!”
“Good. Ari, who do you target first?”
“Johanna first!”
“……This feels a bit weird.”
“The fake Johanna from another dimension!”
Aha!
After formulating the strategy, the second match.
[Battle Result]
[Winner: aaa]
[Loser: The God Of Normalization]
[Your rank has risen to 9104!]
The hypothesis was perfectly validated.
Q.E.D.
Games are easy, right?
The blueprint is complete! Let’s go win!
And so, we kept winning.
“Breath! Sound of Money! That’s it! Lumi, you’re the best!”
“……Can you please be quiet?”
“Is this how it feels to lose…………… This is the voice of defeat…………..”
“Ah…”
“Ugh……!”
………In the process, I found it surprisingly fun to meet other Revelators and tease them.
I wanted to ask, ‘Did you also get possessed?’ but.
Every time I tried to bring up anything related to reality.
It was as if a taboo was in place—I could only make goldfish noises.
Sigh.
Enjoy.
Those who enjoy are the best.
***
“No, no… how is this possible?”
The Revelator ‘SunPDOUT’ was furious.
He had fought countless battles in the Dimension Arena, but.
The scene before him was utterly nonsensical.
“Ari, you’re the best! Ari’s the best! They’re all dead! That’s it! From behind!”
‘SunPDOUT’ locked eyes with the opposing Revelator, a blond youth.
It was a face he had never seen before.
But there was no sense of incongruity.
The mint-haired mechanical girl spinning her spear with gusto.
The cat-girl shouting incomprehensible gibberish.
The middle-schooler with ‘gears’ in his eyes, full of pretentious bravado.
The idiot wearing a straw hat with chopsticks stuck in his nostrils.
And many others, the result of various collaborations with other ‘worlds.’
The appearances of the Revelators had become extremely diverse.
So.
Well, there must be someone like that guy, he thought, accepting it.
“This is cheating!”
By all accounts, it was a battle he should have won.
But watching his heroes start to lose, ‘SunPDOUT’ felt a sense of emptiness.
The avatars couldn’t hear the Revelator’s voice.
Naturally, he couldn’t give commands.
The battlefield was where the avatars moved according to the heroes’ judgments and thoughts.
They were supposed to act based on set patterns and logic.
“That’s it! Lumi! Use Provoke there! Nice!”
But.
That Revelator’s heroes, and their avatars, were different.
They flitted about restlessly, chattering and moving their mouths energetically.
The opposing Revelator’s voice, which shouldn’t have reached them, seemed to be heard by the avatars—
《Fall into hellfire》
《Woof! Woof!》
They used their skills with impeccable timing, grinding his heroes to dust.
‘SunPDOUT’ could only swallow his frustration.
“Are you… communicating with your heroes right now? How is that possible?”
He asked, hoping to uncover the secret.
“Is that so. You don’t know…….. It seems it’s too early for you to know that…….. There’s a taboo preventing me from revealing it……………. You’re not ready to know yet…………”
“Tch.”
Even though he only caught a few syllables, a deep-seated anger welled up within him.
“Sigh, I give up.”
[Battle Result]
[Winner: aaa]
[Loser: SunPDOUT]
[Your rank has dropped to 2377!]
In the end, ‘SunPDOUT’ admitted defeat.
Our angel is just…
Trying to defend is so stressful.
I’m so pissed, I should go post on the Revelator community.
***
[Battle Result]
[Winner: Beep Beep Punishment]
[Loser: aaa]
[Your rank remains at 1943.]
“Tch, sigh.”
Starting from 10,000th place.
I climbed steadily to 1943rd place, but.
“We lost…”
“Woof…….”
“Even with strategy, the difference in ability was too great. I’m sorry, Revelator.” It’s frustrating, but.
Since it’s not a newbie group.
There’s a limit to how far our hero party, which just opened the Dimension Arena, can climb.
The opponents are now at least level 60.
The rank difference is more than two tiers.
Naturally, there’s a gap in equipment, skills, and more.
Damage, skill cooldowns—there’s an insurmountable gap.
Unless we steadily climb the tower, it’ll be tough to rise further for a while.
…….A rotten game for old-timers, a cesspool of a game.
If I climb a bit more, there are people who will open their decks for newbie welfare.
Sigh.
“Good job, everyone. You must be tired. Let’s call it a day.”
Still.
A calm and warm smile on my lips.
In my pocket, jingling—no, sloshing—Divine Stones!
Composure creates dignity.
Climbing to around 2,000th place alone allowed me to snatch a third of the first-time rank achievement rewards.
Even after chewing through some for battle resets.
A whopping 1,300 Divine Stones!
Enough for 70 pulls and more!
But I’ve firmly made up my mind after the previous incident.
Especially since if I fail to manage my expressions, our saintess, Johanna, gets hurt emotionally…………
“Tina? Don’t sneak away. Time to work.”
“Devil, devil………! Master is a devil…….! Tina is hurt………!”
I’ll save up enough to guarantee the pity pull before rolling.
There’s still the first clear reward for the tower.
Daily, weekly Divine Stones from the shop.
And two-thirds of the Dimension Arena mine is still left.
… ….
Ah.
***
I want to roll the gacha!
“……Again today.”
The Revelator ‘Flame Joa Saha Joa’ sighed.
“Revelator?”
“……Saha? Just call me by my name.”
I guess ‘Flame Joa Saha Joa’ is a bit much to say out loud………..” But,
Yeah, I get it.
It’s a bit much………
The Revelator scratched his head, watching Saha, now confidently striding around in a swimsuit.
“It’s been two weeks already, and there’s still no news.”
“Yes……”
As Saha said.
It had already been two weeks since the Revelator last heard the angel’s voice.
This had never happened before.
No matter how quiet the day was.
The angel would always whisper for at least ten minutes about which direction to take.
And following those words always led to victory.
But now.
With the angel’s voice gone.
The Revelator had lost his sense of direction.
[WARNING: An attack has been launched in the Dimension Arena.]
[Prepare for defense.]
“Let’s go defend for today.”
“I guess we have to.”
Actually, I have a bit of a guess.
The Dimension Arena.
In this battlefield where Revelators and heroes from other dimensions duel——
The angel, along with us, launched a whopping 84 attacks to seize first place.
We were defeated, and defeated again, but.
In the end, we claimed victory.
But perhaps because we expended so much mental energy in the process.
The angel hasn’t returned since.
Looking at the four heroes gathered around Saha.
“Alright, let’s go.”
The Revelator, ‘Flame Joa Saha Joa,’ whispered softly.
They head to the Dimension Arena to fight.
To prove they are still the best when the angel returns.
To hold onto the first place with pride, to prove their worth.
In doing so.
They will meet the angel again.
They will hear the voice again.
No matter who the opponent is.
Even if it’s a newbie, show no mercy.
In reverence to the sacred teachings of the angel!