CH 130

The Arena was a huge dimensional space composed of three massive subspaces where the participants could duke it out with each other.

Siegfried ended up arriving at the ‘Hall of Balance’ where beginners fought to take their first steps into the martial path.

[Alert: You have entered the ‘Hall of Balance’!]

[Alert: The ‘Aura of Balance’ is active in this field!]

A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes after he arrived at the Hall of Balance.

[Aura of Balance]

[An aura that balances the stat, level, skill cooldown, etc., of all participants at the Hall of Balance. Skills are sealed with a three-minute-long initial cooldown. Skill cooldowns are also significantly increased.]

[Only those with a solid combat foundation and innate combat sense will be able to survive in this place as long as Aura of Balance is active.]

Every newbie could use the Hall of Balance, and since it was fair to everyone, the Adventurers could test their mettle and see how great their skills were against others.

In short, this place was sort of the same as the game ‘Virtual Fighter’ that Siegfried played against the rich spoiled kid with the Ogre on the line.

‘I need to reach the Total Expert rank, so I should do my best so I can get out of this place as soon as possible,’ Siegfried thought as he took his first steps into the Arena.

He did not have to be at the top of the rankings or anything like that. His sole purpose in coming here was to gain a high enough rank so that he could be allowed access to dungeons.

Siegfried casually walked over to the place where he could start the matchmaking process.

However, the Adventurers gathered at the lounge all started talking about Siegfried.

Siegfried felt as if he were aggroing a herd of monsters…

“Who the hell is that bastard?”

“Keke!”

“Cansomeonepleasebeatme? Has he gone insane?”

“Won’t he be embarrassed if he loses with that ring name?”

It seemed that his ring name was attracting a lot of attention, just as the female priest feared and warned him about beforehand.

‘Oh… Perhaps I should’ve chosen a different ring name…?’ 

Siegfried slightly regretted his decision, but it was too late for him to change it.

A player was only allowed one ring name, and they couldn’t change it afterward.

‘Ah… This is embarrassing… Let’s just hurry up and go…’ Siegfried thought as the numerous hostile gazes of the Adventurers pierced him.

He went over to the ‘Door of Infinity’ which was the automatic matching system here. The door basically allowed anyone who entered it to match against someone on the same level as them.

Click… Clack…!

Siegfried opened the Door of Infinity.

[Gamzadori (Ring Name)]

[Level: 150]

[Rank: Total Newbie]

[Match Results: 2W 1L (66.6%)]

Siegfried was matched with an Adventurer whose level was roughly the same as his.

[Alert: You will be promoted from ‘Total Newbie’ to ‘Newbie’ upon winning three battles! (Remaining Wins: 3)]

[Alert: The Martial God, Ares, wishes you victory!]

Siegfried completely ignored the message in front of his eyes.

What mattered more to him than victory or defeat was to place a bet on his match.

[Alert: Please input the amount you wish to bet on your victory!]

[Experience Points: 50,000 (minimum)]

[Gold: N/A]

[Level: N/A]

[Item: N/A]

Siegfried decided to bet the minimum required fifty thousand experience points because this was his first time fighting in the Arena after a long while. Fifty thousand experience points were equivalent to three percent of his experience bar.

[Alert: Please check your opponent’s bet and accept it!]

As expected, Siegfried’s opponent bet the same amount.

It seemed that his opponent was a newbie as well.

“I hope you will teach me a thing or two,” Siegfried greeted his opponent.

“Sure~ I’ll beat you while I’m at it since you’re begging for it~”

His first opponent gave off the stench of an elementary school kid judging by the way he spoke, and Siegfried could easily tell that his opponent had a DPS-type class thanks to the blade his opponent was wielding.

[3… 2… 1…]

[Fight!]

The battle started, and Gamzadori dashed and swung his blade in a flurry.

“Watch out for your head, or you’ll lose it!” Gamzadori shouted while excitedly swinging his blade.

Puk!

Siegfried smashed his hammer into Gamzadori’s side.

“Keuk!”

“Please watch your head,” Siegfried warned before slamming his hammer into Gamzadori’s head as the latter staggered from the very attack.

Thud…!

Gamzadori fell to the ground.

Puk! Puk! Puk!

What followed next was a one-sided beating that only targeted Gamzadori’s head.

It was quite a brutal sight.

There was no way Gamzadori could beat Siegfried, even if he used all his skills.

Gamzadori’s HP quickly reached zero, and a message popped up in front of Siegfried.

[Alert: ‘Cansomeonepleasebeatme?’-nim has won!]

[Alert: You have gained 50,000 experience points!]

[Alert: You have two wins remaining for your promotion!]

[Alert: You have gained 1x ‘Battle Coin’ for your victory!]

Siegfried nonchalantly left after beating Gamzadori.

He opened the Door of Infinity once again and fought once more

[Alert: ‘Cansomeonepleasebeatme?’-nim has won!]

[Alert: You have gained 50,000 experience points!]

[Alert: You have one win remaining for your promotion!]

[Alert: You have gained 1x ‘Battle Coin’ for your victory!]

[Alert: ‘Cansomeonepleasebeatme?’-nim has won!]

[Alert: You have gained 50,000 experience points!]

[Alert: You have gained 1x ‘Battle Coin’ for your victory!]

[Alert: You have cleared the Arena Quest!]

[Alert: ‘Cansomeonepleasebeatme?’-nim has been promoted from Total Newbie to Newbie!]

He easily obtained three victories—no, three consecutive victories.

‘What the hell…? Why are they so bad? Are the players here really this weak…?’ 

This novel is available on bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

Siegfried was surprised after winning three consecutive matches. It wasn’t strange that he was surprised because the Martial God Temple was only accessible to those Level 150 and above, so he expected his opponents to be pretty strong.

‘Hmm… I think I just got lucky,’ Siegfried inwardly concluded before opening the automatic matching door once again.

***

Three days later, Siegfried continued to fight again and again, and from his point of view, he kept on getting ‘lucky’ because the opponents he faced so far were weak in his eyes.

[Cansomeonepleasebeatme? (Ring Name)]

[Level: 163]

[Rank: Intermediate]

[Match Results: 77W 0L (100%)]

He reached the ‘Intermediate’ rank after winning seventy-seven matches with a 100% win rate in just three days.

The rankings in the Arena were Total Newbie, Newbie, Low, Intermediate, Expert, and Total Expert, and this meant that he went up three ranks in just three days. On top of that, he gained eight levels since he bet experience points in every match.

‘They are getting better the more I fight, but… isn’t this still too easy…? Maybe I’m just strong?’ he wondered.

He knew that he had undoubtedly become stronger after meeting Deus, but he still found it difficult to believe that he was strong enough to win every single match he fought in the Arena.

Moreover, he rarely fought PVP with other users because he was mostly focused on hunting monsters, which made it even more difficult for him to believe what was going on.

Of course, he did achieve a ridiculous five hundred victory record at the arena in Dondegiri, but the participants there were just a ragtag bunch looking to earn a quick buck, so they wouldn’t be appropriate to be used as measuring sticks.

In short, Siegfried still hadn’t an Adventurer who was strong enough to make him realize just how strong he had become.

‘No… I must have gotten extremely lucky with my matches so far. Yes, I shouldn’t let my victories get to my head…’ he thought in disbelief as he opened the Door of Infinity once again.

And finally, he was matched with another Adventurer who seemed to be quite strong.

[Fighting Cock]

[Level: 187]

[Rank: Total Expert (Veteran)]

[Match History: 899W 11D 521L (63.3%)]

This Adventurer with the ID ‘Fighting Cock’ had fought over 1,400 matches and won 63.3% out of them, which could be considered a decent win rate. On a side note, the Arena didn’t take into consideration draws whenever it calculated the win rate.

However, the most important part was that Fighting Cock’s rank was Total Expert.

High win rate…

More than a thousand matches…

High Arena rank…

These three factors made Siegfried look forward to fighting him.

‘Oh, this looks fun?’ Siegfried was finally happy with the matchmaking.

“Cansomeonepleasebeatme? Pffft! Wow! You have balls. I give you that.” Fighting Cock sneered upon seeing Siegfried’s ring name.

“Haha…” Siegfried let out an awkward laugh before he explained, “I just wrote whatever came to my mind, but yes, it is pretty embarrassing…”

“It happens~ GG~”

“Yes, GG.”

The match was about to start when Fighting Cock suddenly tilted his head in confusion.

‘What the hell is wrong with his match history? Seventy-seven wins and zero losses…?’ 

He squinted as he read Siegfried’s details.

“Excuse me, did you really win all of your matches?” Fighting Cock asked.

“Pardon me?”

“Are you on a seventy-seven-win streak?”

“Ah, yes… it somehow turned out that way…” Siegfried replied nonchalantly.

“Are you an Abuser by any chance?”

“Abuser? No?”

Abusers were wintraders who would fix matches to boost their win rate, and Siegfried wasn’t the type to do something so despicable like wintrading.

“I just kept winning for some reason…”

“Are you telling me that you won seventy-seven matches out of pure luck…? Do you really expect me to believe that…?”

“Yeah… I find it hard to believe, too… Haha…”

“You must be hacking, then. Ha! What a world we live in! Who knew that BNW was going to get compromised as well? I thought this game was going to last forever, but I guess it’s going to close down soon,” Fighting Cock scoffed and started to say whatever fantasy was in his mind. “Hey, don’t do this kind of shit…”

”Why are you wasting your time boosting your rank with a hack when you’ll eventually get discovered the moment you fought the big boys?”

”You will just be a nuisance if you join dungeon raid parties once you get your rank boosted with your pathetic skills… Tsk tsk… I feel sorry for you. Have fun crying in your closet once your account gets banned.”

“Why don’t you go write a novel since you seem to be pretty good at coming up with stories? If you’re not going to fight, get lost and stop wasting my time. Stop accusing me of being a hacker before I lose it,” Siegfried retorted.

“Oooh~ I’m so scared~ Did you expect me to react like this?” Fighting Cock sneered as he pressed the ready button. He even revealed a confident smile before saying, “Your hack is working against newbies, I guess, but it’s not going to work against me.”

“…”

“Get lost if you don’t want to lose your precious, filthy win rate.”

Fighting Cock seemed to be pretty confident in his skills. It was evidenced by the fact that he seemed sure of his victory even against someone who was apparently a hacker.

‘You’re confident in your own skills, is that it?’ Siegfried was in awe of Fighting Cock’s fighting spirit.

Then, he pressed the ready button as well.

Badump! Badump! 

Siegfried’s heart started to beat wildly in excitement. The fact that he had gotten accused of being a hacker didn’t feel that good, but the thought of fighting a strong Adventurer greatly excited him.

[3… 2… 1…]

[Fight!]

The fight started!

***

Fighting Cock took the initiative.

Whoosh! Whoosh! 

The sound of something cutting through the air resounded across the arena as Fighting Cock pressured Siegfried with his flashy footwork.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! 

He threw three consecutive jabs.

Fighting Cock showed off flashy movements resembling pro boxers, and he threw consecutive punches with his gauntlet.

‘Wow…’ Siegfried exclaimed inwardly in awe.

Fighting Cock was indeed on a different level compared to those he had been fighting against here at the Arena, but the problem was the fact that he could still easily read Fighting Cock’s every single move.

‘One… Two… Hook… This one is a feint. He is just trying to throw my balance off… I should block this, and he should throw a straight afterward…’ 

Siegfried easily avoided Fighting Cock’s straight punch.

‘Now’s my turn!’ Siegfried swung his hammer.

Bam!

The hammer smashed into Fighting Cock’s head.

***

Five minutes later…

“I was a bit nervous because you were a Total Expert, but what the hell is this…?” Siegfried grumbled while looking severely disappointed.

[Cansomeonepleasebeatme?]

[HP: ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜]

Siegfried still had ninety percent of his HP remaining.

[Fighting Cock]

[HP: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜]

However, Fighting Cock was already dead.

[Alert: ‘Cansomeonepleasebeatme?’-nim has won!]

[Alert: You have gained 1x ‘Battle Coin’ for your victory!]

Even the Arena veteran Fighting Cock didn’t stand a chance against Siegfried.

“Excuse me… Are you an abuser?” Siegfried asked.

“A-an Abuser?!” Fighting Cock exclaimed as his blood pressure shot up.

He nearly had a stroke in real life upon hearing Siegfriend’s taunt.