Chapter 2: Brand new world

Three years ago, the game Magical Fight, which I enjoyed, was a minor game that hardly anyone knew, no matter how hard I tried to package it.

It wasn’t even an independent title.

It was a custom map for another famous title, a method that was somewhat unfamiliar to the general public.

The cherry on top was that it was a fan-made game, a secondary creation of a magical girl anime.

No matter how you look at it, the conditions for popularity were impossible.

But the passion I poured into that game and the joy I felt were never lies.

Seeing that such a game had completely disappeared, not overnight but over the course of three years, made my chest ache with a twinge of sorrow.

Goodbye, my beautiful memories.

“Is this really the end?”

I loved the game too much to neatly part with it and bury it in my memories.

It felt like the kind of reluctant breakup you get when you’re forced to separate from something or someone you truly loved.

A feeling of regret and longing remained in my heart, just like a person who never got to see their best friend before their passing.

Wasn’t there the Viscord channel?

Viscord, a game messenger that supports voice, video chat, and screen sharing.

I remembered that I had created a chat channel with the people I used to play the game with.

I installed it and logged in. Alright, the channel is still there.

[Legendary vs Winner]

Online: 2, Offline: 9.

Good! There’s one person!

And it’s the guy who was my favorite rival.

Guess I’m lucky today. The game may be dead, but…

I quickly sent a DM.

Legender-<ᄒᄋ>

Legender-<Hey, did the game die????>

Victory-<?>

Victory-<What’s up? Where have you been?>

Victory-<Did you go to the military???>

Legender-<Don’t answer a question with a question.>

Legender-<Did the game die or not?>

Victory-<It’s over.>

Victory-

Victory-<But seriously, you didn’t know? Everyone’s playing TeamA these days.>

Victory-<Did you hide in the mountains and train your martial arts or something?>

Legender-

Legender-<But the game really died, huh.>

Legender-<Aaaaah! My little god-tier game!>

Legender-<It’s gone! Kuuuueeek!!!!!!>

Victory-

Legender-<Is there any way we can get just 10 people together for one last match?>

Legender-

Legender-<I miss the game!!!!>

Victory-<No, it’s impossible, we can’t gather enough people. Go back.>

Victory-<If you want to do it like we used to with clan battles, it’s never going to happen.>

Victory-<You don’t want to just stomp on noobs, right? You hate that.>

Legender-<I guess that’s true.>

Legender-<But still, I feel so disappointed.>

Victory-<Don’t be like that, try TeamA for once.>

Victory-<With your skills, I’m sure you’ll just rank up to Challenger.>

Legender-<Is TeamA really that similar to my game? Since you said everyone switched to it.>

Victory-<It’s a little different.>

Victory-<But you’ll get hooked once you start playing.>

Victory-<I’ll show you how to share the screen.>

Legender-<Kekeke.>

As time passed, and the old things disappeared, I was inevitably swept along with the current of the new era, and I began downloading Team Fight Arena.

Who knows? Maybe this game will suit my taste.

Though it’s different from my game, it’s extremely popular, so it must have many strengths…

“What the hell is this trash game!”

After 20 minutes, I muttered an expletive.

Was this really the game that caused my beloved Magical Fight to fail?

Did they lose all their players?

Why?

“What the hell is this trash game!”

Victory, Jeon Woo-seung, was smiling as he heard the voice coming through the headset.

It was the kind of reaction he had expected, which made it even more amusing.

—”If it’s this boring, what the hell is the appeal of mass-market games?!”

The game Magical Fight that Victory and Legender had enjoyed together.

It was undoubtedly a well-made game, but it was horrifically difficult.

The difficulty, while frustrating, did create a sense of accomplishment, but as the gap between the experienced players and newcomers grew too wide, player influx stopped, and the game eventually failed.

It was one of the common patterns for skill-based games to fade away.

In contrast, Team Fight Arena was a much easier game.

Easy to learn, hard to master.

It was one of the most important conditions for creating a game that had mass-market appeal.

It should be easy to get into, but there should still be room for deep exploration.

Magical Fight was hard to learn, hardest to master.

It was a game that was incredibly difficult unless you were a total enthusiast.

Woo-seung thought about it.

“You used to be really good, right? Why are you playing this baby game now?”

Legender, the opponent in the voice chat, seemed pretty pissed off.

“This is just Magical Fight made easier, right? Is this the reason Magical Fight disappeared?”

Memories of playing the game three years ago with him came rushing back.

Magical Fight was definitely fun.

But that was their own little league.

No one else appreciated it.

That doesn’t mean the memories faded, though.

‘Want to try getting here?’

Victory, Jeon Woo-seung.

A living legend of Team Fight Arena, and its pinnacle.

Genius, monster, demon, god, Team A itself.

All the cringeworthy adjectives belong to this man.

4-time national champion, 2-time world champion, and undefeated in every tournament he entered.

The game Team Fight Arena, the overwhelming number one game worldwide.

And at the pinnacle of that game, Victory, Jeon Woo-seung.

‘If it’s you, you can at least match me, right?’

He had one rival who was recognized as the best in his gaming career.

Legender had never played Team Fight Arena.

Although he was at the top of Magical Fight, the predecessor to Team Fight Arena.

What would happen if that kind of pinnacle moved to this new battlefield?

Woo-seung smiled slightly, excited for what might come next.

‘This will be fun.’

“Consumables are just potions and wards!? Blink has a 3-minute cooldown!? Why isn’t there a spellbook! If you’re going to copy something, at least do it right!”

Improvement.

It was improvement.

Team Fight Arena, with mostly equipment items, was easier than Magical Fight, which had all items as consumables.

Blink—teleportation that could be used all the time in Magical Fight—was easier to handle in Team Fight Arena, where it could only be used once every 3 minutes.

The spellbook system, where you exchanged character growth points for useful abilities, was the reason Magical Fight became a nightmare difficulty.

Team Fight Arena didn’t have anything like that.

That’s why it became a popular game. It was easy to get into. Anyone could enjoy it.

But Woo-seung’s old rival clearly wasn’t too happy about that.

“It’s trash! Ugh, what a garbage game!”

‘Is this guy seriously playing Team A for the first time? Doesn’t he even know who I am?’

I couldn’t say everyone knows.

But most gamers probably know who Victory, Jeon Woo-seung is.

Why did Legender, who had passionately played games as a core gamer, not know about Woo-seung?

Why hadn’t he tried Team A, the game that’s dominated the global market for the past three years?

I had no idea, but…

‘I’ll just let him figure it out for himself.’

With a playful thought, Woo-seung grinned.

He would never say it himself.

It was sort of a game.

The protagonist hiding their identity, that kind of feeling.

‘Seems like both of us have a lot of secrets.’

There was a faint mechanical noise in Legender’s voice.

Victory quickly realized that Legender was using a voice changer.

He didn’t bother asking why.

There must have been a reason for it.

“Victory! What are you doing!”

Someone called from behind him.

Victory immediately switched his mic to mute as the sound came from outside his headset.

The place he was at was the team’s practice room.

He couldn’t risk ruining this fun game because he’d been discovered as a pro gamer.

“I was just teaching a friend Team A.”

The other person, Choi Joo-an, was quite a bit older than him.

However, after living together in the dorms for a while, they had become close, and for practical reasons, Victory had dropped the honorifics with him.

“Are you teaching Victory Team A? Is he aiming for the top challenger ranks? But Victory’s physical skills are something no one can match, right?”

“I don’t think that’s the case.”

“Is he that talented? Let me see.”

Joo-an looked at the game screen.

The player on the screen currently had a score of 20 kills and 0 deaths.

But the numbers alone didn’t matter as much as the stage of the game.

For top-tier challenger players, they could easily crush diamond-level users, who were in the top 3%, while even gold users, who were only in the top 30%, could easily massacre players in the bronze tier.

“What stage is it?”

“Bot game.”

“Bot game?”

Victory’s response was deflated.

In a bot game, which served as a beginner’s tutorial, whether you scored 20 kills or 100 kills with no deaths didn’t prove skill.

The term ‘bot’ was commonly used to insult bad players, and the AI’s skill was pathetic.

So, the top player of Team A, Victory, was helping out a complete beginner?

“Isn’t that just a waste of time? It’s like a college student tutoring a kindergartner!”

“Do friends really care about that stuff? Also, this guy is… a little different.”

“A little different? Is he destined to be king or something? Is that what you’re saying?”

Joo-an laughed, but at the same time, his curiosity was piqued.

Who was this person that Victory valued so much?

How far could they go?

So, Joo-an decided to remember the ID of the player on the screen.

Jeon Jeon-seol.

The nickname was easy to remember.

“Ah, so boring. Is it really worth playing this game? Did this trash kill Magical Fight?”

“Hyung, quiet for a sec.”

Victory asked Joo-an to mute, then turned his mic back on to try to calm down the irritated Legender.

“It’s still just the tutorial. Once you start playing with real people, it’ll be different.”

In reality, it would take quite a while before they got into ranked games.

But there was no need to discourage the eager newbie right away.

“Hey, Victory.”

When Joo-an called out, Victory muted again.

“Looks like you really want to play. Is it your girlfriend?”

“No, hyung. This guy’s a guy.”

Three years ago, Victory and Legender played a lot of games together and talked about many things.

They even had some dirty talks back then.

It was just a guy thing during their prime.

“Then, are you into that kind of thing? No wonder you keep blocking female fans!”

With a teasing expression, Joo-an poked fun at Victory.

“It’s not that. It’s just that this guy…”

What exactly was Legender to Victory?

Victory grinned and answered.

“He’s the kind of rival who makes me want to fight.”

Legender, the newcomer to Team Fight Arena.

His new ID was Jeon Jeon-seol.