Chapter 6: The saint who has become modest smashes heads

Dim lighting filled the narrow, enclosed space, which was crowded with dozens of computers.

The counter, housing a part-time worker yawning out of boredom with head bowed, sat enclosed nearby.

Every now and then, loud shouts from customers echoed throughout.

In a far corner, a small smoking room sat tucked away.

It was a PC bang.

There was a man.

His dark brown hair, falling just over his eyebrows, had a natural wave as if it had recently felt the touch of a stylist.

Though his clothes were neatly kept, a few piercings lining his ear in stark contrast flowed along his earlobe.

A look of suppressed rage contorted his sharp eyes and intense features, fully embodying his current emotion.

Suddenly, he began to tremble and shouted with a voice completely stripped of reason.

“This damn girl keeps disconnecting today!”

The loudness of his voice, combined with its crudeness, had a startling effect; the lively atmosphere around him went silent as if doused with cold water. People’s attention turned to him immediately.

“Looks like he really lives up to his looks…” muttered someone, voicing the disdain in their gaze.

The man’s friend, pale with embarrassment, tried to calm him down.

“Hey, man, keep it down. Chill out.”

“I can’t chill out! I won’t!”

“Then just vent already.”

“That’s what I’m doing!”

A message alert chimed on his screen from the front counter.

• Please be quiet.

The man’s friend shot him a look, as if to say, “I told you.”

Though he usually didn’t care much about the opinions of others, the prospect of getting thrown out was a different story entirely.

To top it off, his friend remarked, “This makes three PC bangs you’re banned from now.”

He managed to regain control of himself and turned back to his screen.

A lightly armored, agile warrior character appeared on it.

Without a helmet or headgear, his short, dull blonde hair was plainly visible.

Muscles peeked through the spaces in his armor, and his skin, deeply tanned to a dark bronze, gave the impression he’d spent time surfing on a tropical coast.

The man stared absentmindedly at the back of his character.

More precisely, at the back of his head.

The skull that had been so thoroughly smashed last time was now perfectly restored.

“Damn. So it was a dream, right? Just my imagination?”

He kept muttering to himself, barely audible, while guiding his resurrected character back to the battlefield and typing furiously.

[Gold Sun: What the hell is wrong, damn it? You have to have a reason, don’t you?]

[Saint: …]

[Gold Sun: Answer me, damn it. Don’t just send dots.]

[Saint: Please stop.]

[Gold Sun: Huh? Stop what? We were good together, weren’t we?]

[Gold Sun: What’s going on?]

[Gold Sun: Did I do something wrong?]

“Are you dating Saint or something? Like, some kind of online romance?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Why are you whining like an abandoned dog?”

His reunion with Saint was going terribly.

[Gold Sun: Chiyiko! Chiyiko! Don’t you recognize me???]

[Cardinal Albert: Sir, who’s Chiyiko again?]

[Medieval Mage: That idiot keeps calling Saint ‘Chiyiko’—no one knows why.]

[Basic Mechanics Position Changer: Someone report Gold Sun. He keeps asking for a one-on-one to go after Saint, and now he’s getting beat up by a priest.]

[Cardinal Albert: Losing doesn’t justify a report, though.]

[I’mRightBehindYouNow: Dude, it’d be one thing if it happened once, but this is the fourth time—0/4/0 at 10 minutes? That’s not normal stats!]

[Peon: At this point, is he trolling on purpose?]

[YourShield: What dumbass paid for boosting? Damn.]

[SoundsLikeCrap: Nope, you’re just bad~]

“Ugh, damn, Chiyiko’s changed,” he whimpered.

“A gaming addict who actually says ‘ugh’ while crying out loud—is there anything sadder?” said his friend mockingly.

“Not like you’re one to talk.”

Despite the chat filling with messages and his banter with his friend, his character, Gold Sun, moved swiftly toward Saint.

Though Gold Sun had been defeated in the previous skirmish, his team managed a miraculous comeback, leaving only Saint’s character alive.

And Gold Sun was dashing right toward Saint.

At an impossible speed for a typical warrior.

This speed was achievable by using stealth-focused movement skills, like ‘Shadow Walking’ and ‘Stealthy Footwork’ to mask his presence from small fry; ‘Martial Arts’ to reduce stamina consumption; ‘March’ to increase speed outside combat; and ‘Tracking,’ which marked his target, showing them on the map and granting a movement boost when heading in their direction.

Gold Sun’s setup, with five attribute points in movement skills typically favored by rogues, was a custom Saint-countering build he used every time he faced Saint.

Gold Sun reached Saint in a flash. Yet, despite his rapid approach, he didn’t recklessly engage but maintained his distance.

Even a thick-headed guy like Gold Sun could learn a thing or two.

The man gritted his teeth, staring at the weapon in Saint’s right hand.

The mace was coated with dried black blood, crushed bone fragments, and some grisly brain matter—a menacing sight.

It was already the fourth time his head had been smashed by that mace.

[Gold Sun: I was wrong, okay? I’m sorry.]

[Gold Sun: I seriously don’t know what’s going on.]

[Gold Sun: Remember last time? When we walked around naked, barking? That was fun, right?]

[Gold Sun: So why are you acting like this all of a sudden?]

[Gold Sun: Was it not enough? Do I need to do more?]

[Gold Sun: Is that why you keep ghosting me?]

[Saint: …This is harassment…]

[Gold Sun: What? Why do you keep calling it harassment?]

[Saint: Please…just stop…]

[Gold Sun: Hey.]

[Saint: …]

His friend gave him a disapproving look, as if pitying him.

“I can see why you don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Like you’re one to talk—you don’t have one either.”

“At least I’m not a virgin loser like you.”

“…”

The man was momentarily stunned, hit by his friend’s brutal honesty.

It was a mistake.

Somehow, Saint’s nun’s habit was now fluttering dangerously close on the screen.

The man panicked, slamming the keyboard.

With a swoosh, the mace swung right over Gold Sun’s lowered head.

“Damn it, are you really trying to go at it now?”

Although his score was an embarrassing 0/4/0, he took pride in his skill. He’d achieved over 100 points in the orange rank purely through his own ability—no boosting, no cheating.

Even with five non-combat traits loaded onto his current character build, there was no way he’d go down against some low-ranked Yellow1 priest.

Gone was the overconfident 0/4/0 Gold Sun who underestimated his opponent just because she was a Saint.

The man’s fighting spirit reignited.

The battle began.

Gold Sun’s fist, encased in knuckles, punched right toward Saint’s face.

It was a deeply spiteful attack.

Saint dodged with skilled movements, as if anticipating the blow, but Gold Sun’s knuckles were made for close-range combat, maximizing their advantage.

His fists unleashed a seemingly endless barrage.

By timing each button press perfectly, his knuckles gained a bonus that reduced stamina consumption.

With his ‘Martial Arts’ skill, he didn’t need to save stamina for dodging incoming arrows or spells.

Gold Sun maintained his onslaught, refusing to let up once he gained momentum.

Saint appeared to dodge well, but that wouldn’t last forever.

As Gold Sun’s stamina waned, he saw Saint flinch after taking a few hits, her movement impaired from pain.

The man quickly executed a command.

An uppercut.

Starting from Saint’s abdomen, his fist rose to strike her chin.

“Huh? No stun effect, just part break?”

“Look again. She dodged. Not perfectly, but she dodged.”

Part breaking usually referred to severing a tail, breaking a horn, or disabling specific abilities that emerged from those areas. For human opponents, it typically only happened when a limb was lost or a piece of armor broke.

This was one of those cases.

Saint’s armor—her flowing nun’s habit—had split straight down from the chest, exposing her pale skin. A critical hit must have landed, as even the undergarments, which weren’t supposed to come off, were shredded, causing her ample chest to bounce.

Gold Sun cheered!

“The breast physics are outstanding!”

“Pervert.”

For some reason, the Saint wasn’t moving.

Was she in shock?

Did she really think she’d keep winning just because he’d gone easy on her a few times?

As he looked at her bowed head, he thought to himself that she really was a beautiful character from every angle, and he prepared for the final blow.

Gold Sun pulled back one arm and twisted his waist, then released his fist like an arrow from a bowstring.

A powerful energy surged through his knuckles.

He had poured nearly all his remaining mana into wrapping his fist in fighting energy.

This was an attack that could nearly kill even a character wearing heavy armor if it landed on a critical spot.

There was no way that a battered nun’s outfit with zero physical defense could withstand this kind of damage.

If she had just listened and behaved like usual, she wouldn’t be getting killed so brutally.

Just as Gold Sun’s knuckles aimed for the Saint’s solar plexus, at the very last moment, the mace—which had remained still as if asleep since the first attack—moved.

The knuckles and mace collided, and a sound rang out through the speakers.

Ting—

The sound didn’t quite match the clash of metal against metal.

It was more like the clear chime of thin glass hitting glass.

No Rainbow Tales player would fail to recognize what that sound meant.

“A parry?!”

“Wait, she parried knuckles with a mace?”

A powerful attack always left a massive opening.

Gold Sun staggered as one of his knuckles was flung away.

Realizing what the Saint was doing, he frantically raised his other hand to defend his head, but unfortunately, his stance had crumbled, and his arm was a bit too low.

The downward swing of the mace smashed his head.

[Mage of the Middle Ages: This chick went all out on her chest, too.]

[Mage of the Middle Ages: Damn, just how far is she planning to take this seriously?]

[Gandalf (Physical): lmao]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]
[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[Saint: This is harassment…]

[응홋누나쌀거같아: I think I’ll go out for lunch.]

[Initial Dynamics Position Changer: Dude, what the hell, did you rent out the global chat??]

[Peon: Why haven’t you blocked her yet?]

[Initial Dynamics Position Changer: But it’s kind of funny, lol]

[I’m Behind You Right Now: What’s so funny about her spamming ‘this is harassment’ like a broken record?]

[Cardinal Albert: Why is the Saint like…like… why is she like this?]

[Cardinal Albert: Why isn’t she on the Saint-Knight path instead of being a damn healer…?]

[Gold Sun: This isn’t right… this is weird… give me back my sexy Saint…]

[Your Shield: The Saint you knew? Ahhh…are you talking about…‘this’?]

[Gold Sun: KISAMAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]