[System: <Hellfire Dash>]
Yeonjun easily dodged BbungBbungBbang’s close-range attack and rushed in with a dash skill.
Stiffness triggered immediately, and the third stage of ignition caught fire. Before BbungBbungBbang could recover his health with a self-healing skill, Ignis’s sword, wrapped in flames, burst out with dazzling effects.
[System: <Flame Slash>]
[System: <Fire Bite>]
With fire-attribute damage applied at a 150% multiplier, the consecutive blows drove down one after another, and BbungBbungBbang’s health melted away in an instant.
He knew this was just taking his anger out.
He knew that no matter what he did, it could not become revenge for the moments that had already passed.
Even so, if he did nothing, he could not endure it.
After driving the final strike of the combo in cleanly, Yeonjun belatedly noticed the cold sweat running down his forehead.
PvP usually turned into a long fight because both sides spent time probing each other.
The basics were to create distance, drag things out, run so the opponent could not attack, recover, and then look for a chance to rush in again.
But Yeonjun’s style had always been to end things in one quick burst.
A player’s body being made of paper was an unchanging fact.
Even if Yeonjun’s attack power was lower than BbungBbungBbang’s, there was no surviving a combo fed in one after another while the third stage of ignition remained lit.
[System: <Flame Blade>]
With the damage multiplier applied, the ultimate combo landed directly, and BbungBbungBbang’s health gauge turned black.
Messages announcing Yeonjun’s victory immediately began to rise one after another.
[System: BbungBbungBbang has become unable to act and ends the 1:1 duel.]
[System: Winner: Ignis]
[System: Ignis has reclaimed the ‘Crown of the Successor of Flame’ from BbungBbungBbang.]
What did I just do?
The 1:1 duel ended in Yeonjun’s victory, the out-of-bounds guideline disappeared, and the surroundings instantly lit up brightly.
Because of the stress drawn by the announcement, his brain, which had been blocked so tightly that he could not see anything else, felt as if blood were finally flowing through it again.
The breath he had been holding all this time finally came out in a long exhale. The cold sweat running beneath his jaw felt not just cool, but cold.
It was the moment when Ignis’s time, which had been stopped for nearly ten years, began to flow again.
***
Meanwhile, Haein had the PC version of Open Messenger open on one side of his monitor, and today as always, he was stuck in an attack and defense war so boring it could make him yawn.
He wanted to finish it quickly and go out into the field.
Since he was inside a special combat field, he could not check where Is-nim was through the real-time friends list.
But looking at his Open Messenger connection status, it seemed he had not ended the game yet.
He’s staying later than usual today. It was still a weekday, so if he was an ordinary office worker, tomorrow would be a day he had to go to work. Haein could not even imagine what Yeonjun was doing.
Then guild chat suddenly began pouring up on his screen.
[Guild/MintChocoJokbal: ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ insane]
[Guild/Farming Theory: Whoa.]
The guild members who were not in today’s attack and defense war lineup were making a noisy fuss about something again, so Haein frowned and typed in guild chat.
[Guild/DoHaesal: ?]
[Guild/DoHaesal: What happened?]
Then Farming Theory, who almost never got excited, answered in an utterly thrilled tone.
[Guild/Farming Theory: Just look at the screenshot.]
[Guild/Farming Theory: Wow, I’m seriously shocked.]
[Guild/MintChocoJokbal: I was so shocked too.]
[Guild/MintChocoJokbal: I almost spilled the iced Americano I was drinking all over my keyboardㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ;;]
[Guild/Farming Theory: What is this? What’s happening?]
[Guild/MintChocoJokbal: I’m wide awake now.]
What kind of bait are they laying this time to try to hook me?
Haein quietly circled around the outskirts, scraped the opposing team’s tower, and slipped back to base. Then he checked the messenger, only to see an unexpected name shining at the bottom of the chat window.
[System: Ignis has reclaimed the ‘Crown of the Successor of Flame’ from BbungBbungBbang.]
“…?”
For a moment, Haein rubbed his eyes with his left hand, the one not holding the mouse.
But no matter how many times he rubbed his eyes and looked again, the contents of the message shining in the chat window did not change.
“…?????”
Haesal, who had been diligently moving around to avoid having his location discovered, suddenly stopped dead in place. The guild members, finding that strange, called out to him.
[Party/Middle-Aged Hunter: What is it?]
[Party/Middle-Aged Hunter: Don’t just stand there blankly.]
[Party/Middle-Aged Hunter: Come farther inside.]
The words Suyeong was about to add were, “or you’ll get caught.” But right now, there was no way that mattered to Haein.
No, fuck, wait. Several possibilities flashed through Haein’s mind.
1. That guy, whether his name was BbungBbungBbang or BbungBbangBbang, admired Ignis-nim and personally handed over the title.
2. Farming Theory, who knew how to use Photoshop, manipulated the chat screen to bait him.
3. Ignis-nim defeated BbungBbungBbang fair and square in a duel.
The most likely of the three was…
Blasphemously, number 2.
Haein rubbed his eyes again and zoomed in on the screen, examining it closely for signs of manipulation.
It was not as if Haein had professional expertise in detecting edits, but there were no pixels clumping in the middle, no fonts that looked different. It was smooth.
Either Farming Theory’s compositing skills had improved by leaps and bounds day by day, or it was not edited.
Just as Haein continued doubting his eyes, the enemy team’s Wind Breaker did not miss the opening and threw a dagger at Haesal.
“Come on, I’m trying to look at something!!”
Haesal irritably dodged the incoming attack, quickly landed a stiffness skill, and dragged the opponent toward their base.
[System: <Whiz Whispering>]
While PleaseScoldMe, who had been waiting beside him, diligently burned the enemy Wind Breaker, Haesal checked the screenshot Farming Theory had sent once again and hurriedly sent a message to Ignis-nim.
[Dohyun] Hyung???? 1:21 AM
[Dohyun] What happened? 1:22 AM
He was in such a hurry that he made a typo, but he did not even have the presence of mind to correct it.
You told me you don’t do PvP. You’ve been showing off your ambition for weeks, saying you had nothing to do, that you wouldn’t do anything, and that you were going to run around as a fisherman. And now you’re still awake? Suddenly?
Haein asked as if dumbfounded, but there was not even a read receipt. It was left completely unread.
[Dohyun] Hyung, no, lol. 1:24 AM
[Dohyun] Please say something. 1:24 AM
You told me you would never have anything to do with high-end content, and you’re still awake?
For each class, the Successor title was basically an honor given to the previous season’s number one in RP.
Every quarter, when ranking points were reset, the title was first given to the previous season’s number one, and the defending champion had to protect that title on their own throughout the season.
There was only one way for a challenger to take the title from the defending champion.
They had to win in a 1:1 duel. Even if real-time RP points and ranking dropped, the title belonged only to the previous season’s number one and to the user who defeated that number one.
[Dohye] Hyung, what is this? 1:26 AM
[Dohye] You said you weren’t doing high-end content??? 1:26 AM
Haein grew urgent. Attack and defense war or whatever, he had to get out of here quickly.
[Party/Green Onion Check: What is it ♡♡]
[Party/Green Onion Check: ♡♡ What happened?]
Because Haein had suddenly stopped in the middle of center and was drawing aggro without anyone knowing what he was doing, the rest of the guild members all fell into a state of tension.
Did he get confirmation that Ignis had joined another guild or something? Just as that question rose, Haein immediately typed.
[Party/DoHaesal: Wrap this up within 5 minutes ㄱㄱ]
What are you talking about? They had only just pushed two towers.
Suyeong’s eyebrows twitched as he glared at the timer. Today, the opposing team was playing far too defensively, and time was just dragging on.
[Party/Middle-Aged Hunter: All of a sudden?]
[Party/DoHaesal: Yeah, totally possible.]
[Party/DoHaesal: Hon-nim, hurry over here.]
Right now, he was in such a rush that something like Siege War did not matter.
He had to get out quickly and confirm what had happened before Ignis-nim slipped away, as he always did, like he was quietly pulling his foot back and disappearing.
Naturally, PleaseScoldMe was soon dragged around while screaming, wondering whether the guild master had gone insane.
A moment ago, he had kept standing frozen, and now suddenly, what was this?
***
While Haein was rampaging around to finish the attack and defense war in five minutes,
Yeonjun stood dumbfounded, looking down at BbungBbungBbang lying on the ground.
Ah, don’t tell me this guy was number one?
Yeonjun blinked as he looked at the title, which had been grayed out and then reactivated.
If it were a user who had never been number one before, the title would have gone into unacquired titles and been displayed as [???].
But Ignis had once held first place before the season reset confiscated the title, so the title had remained visible with its detailed description, only deactivated so he could not use it.
It seemed that, after reclaiming the title, it had become active again.
[Whisper/Ignis: Uh…]
Yeonjun, flustered by the situation himself, ended up touching BbungBbungBbang’s pride one more time.
[Whisper/Ignis: Were you rank 1, by any chance?]
Was he asking if he was rank 1?
To BbungBbungBbang, who had taken pride in being fairly famous among players, even if he was still not on par with peak-era Ignis, it was a remark that did more than crush his pride. It burned it to ash.
How did that attack come in like that? How did he not get hit even once? How did not a single one of his hits miss? Is that possible?
The answer to the questions BbungBbungBbang thought of in humiliation was only one thing.
It was possible because he was that “Ignis.”
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