The Undefeated Champion

Looking at the eyes that glanced at me expressionlessly, I could tell the man was already in a bad mood.
It was obvious he had no intention of helping.

“Haa, fine. Then it can’t be helped.”

I took out a parchment that said ‘Coliseum Application’ from my inventory, fluttered it ostentatiously, and turned around.

“Coliseum Applicant. Shin. Bi.”

Then I strode over to the desk, dipped my pen nib fully in ink, and began to write my name.

“Part. Ner. None.”

As I wrote my name while purposefully speaking loudly, I heard the sound of the man standing up with a creak.

“Ah, I should submit this then!”

“…….”

“I even turned down Loktis’s offer to participate with me, I guess I’ll just fight lonely and alone.”

I met his dark, gloomy eyes against the backlight, but I still pretended not to notice, fluttering the paper and turning around to walk towards the door.

Like the man had done once before, I walked purposefully as if I had no lingering attachments, and just as I grabbed the doorknob.

“…Really, you’re quite clever at times like this.”

A large hand covered mine holding the doorknob.
Following the veined back of the hand up, I saw his veined Adam’s apple bobbing.

“You’ve learned well how to grab and shake a leash in this short time.”

“You taught me. So are you going to go with me?”

“…….”

“If you’re not going, could you move aside? So I can go submit the application.”

“…….”

“Ugh, there’s not much time until the deadline! I have no time!”

Even though I yelled angrily, instead of moving aside, he crossed his arms, leaned his back against the door, and looked down at me askew.

It was a silent pressure and protest, staying true to his words that he wouldn’t let me go. So I couldn’t lose either.

“By the way, why did you say you wouldn’t participate together? Are you perhaps scared?”

“…….”

“You were sooo! imposing against the Urfs and at the Igra nest! I guess you’re scared to actually face an Awakener?!”

I threw back the very words he had used to provoke me at the Igra nest, but the man just snorted and closed his eyes.

“Did I look like it.”

…No. Honestly, even that notorious Skollcat is disgusted by him, so there’s no way he’d be scared of mere Awakeners.

Ugh, then it’s time for the ultimate skill.

“I’m not asking you to help for nothing. I can just pay the price!”

“What price.”

Surprisingly, it was highly effective.

The man, who had his arms crossed and eyes closed as if he couldn’t hear anything, opened one eye and looked at me.

“If you help me win in the Coliseum, I won’t treat you like a s*ave anymore! I’ll prepare a private room for you, take off that pet collar….”

“I like my current life.”

I made this pledge with great resolve, but what returned was an indifferent voice and even more firmly crossed arms.
He looked ready not to budge until a satisfactory condition came out.

‘…They said the submission is before sunset today!’
I bit my lip hard as I looked out the window, which was slowly turning red, and shouted randomly.
I couldn’t let the Suras, who were like family, die like this.

“Anyway, I just have to give you a price, right! I’ll give you anything!”

I was more desperate for his help than ever. But the man seemed to find my desperation merely amusing.

“So, what is it.”

He asked back so indifferently it was cruel.

“…S-something good!”

“Something good.”

Only then did he slowly repeat my words with an expression that showed his interest was piqued.

“Sounds good.”

At the same time, the body as big as a door moved aside, and click, the door opened.
He tilted his head toward the open door as if asking what I was waiting for.

“Didn’t you say you had no time?”

‘…Damn it. I feel like I’ve been hooked again.’

The moment I met the eyes that looked like they had snatched prey they had been patiently waiting for, I bit my lip hard.

Anyway, I ended up participating in the Coliseum with Karvan.

【Midvalen Coliseum: ‘Nameless Monster and 1 other’ have been successfully registered. Please follow the instructions and enter promptly.】

‘This is too much!’ I was outraged seeing our ‘team name’ flash on the hologram and slowly fade away.

To be treated as ‘mobs and others’ of all things!
I flared up but soon accepted it.

…Actually, it’s not wrong. I’m now a being whose name isn’t even properly displayed to the Awakeners.

“Listen carefully, Karvan. In the Coliseum, we’re treated as a team, and if even one of us becomes incapacitated, we’ll immediately return to the waiting room, got it?”

Looking gloomily at the electronic board, I pulled slightly on the arm of the man standing expressionlessly next to me and whispered.

“So, if it looks like we’re going to be wiped out, I’ll die first. Because I’m not sure if you can respawn. Understood?”

“…Do you think I’d let you die?”

“I-I mean, if! If! If, in an emergency!”

I told him a bunch of important things, but he just fixated on the word ‘die’ and glared fiercely.

“Why make an assumption that won’t happen in the first place?”

Karvan seemed to be in a very bad mood since earlier.

‘Oh? Unknown!’
‘Wow, damn. Finally met her!’
‘Shinbi-jui. Aren’t you going to give us any pro-tips today? We were waiting only for you!’

It was clear he was upset because a few Awakeners we ran into on the way grouped us together as bugged entities and whispered about us.

He had been in a foul mood ever since I barely stopped him from glaring as if he would kill those Awakeners right then and there.

He had completely dropped the somewhat smiling face he wore to pretend to be a s*ave and had the expression I always saw in Bahalgras.
Cold eyes that looked as if eternal snow had settled in them.

“…Karvan? Come here, the Coliseum is this way.”

He looked like he would grab and kill someone if left alone, so I held tightly onto the hem of his clothes and led him to the waiting room.

The one-eyed clocks installed throughout the Coliseum blinked, displaying the time.

【AM 3:34】

I purposely chose an awkward dawn hour to come.

Because when there are few people, if we’re lucky, we might get ‘expanded matching’.
It means we could be matched with a weak or inexperienced newbie player with lower combat power than ours.

【Awakener ‘BerserkerCriesAriver’ has entered the Coliseum.】

…However, there was one fact I overlooked.

It could be the other way around.

The player who seemed to be our opponent this time was sitting in the waiting room looking into the air.
Seeing his black eyes moving busily, he seemed to be checking his skill tree with eye tracking.

Seeing his shabby equipment and lack of a weapon, he looked like a newbie, but strangely, his nickname flashed in rainbow colors like an SL-grade item.

【Challenger: ‘BerserkerCriesAriver’ (1)】

‘What’s that number next to it.’

I stared blankly at the number ‘1’ floating next to his nickname like an unread message, then gasped, swallowing my breath.

‘…Crazy. That’s the 1st place ranker!’

I purposely came at dawn to avoid veterans, and of all people, I ran into the most rotten water of all.

I thought the nickname was familiar; it was the man who had crushed Loktis like jam a few days ago.
The one they said, ‘That Awakener can never be beaten’!

‘Who is this person ‘BerserkerCriesAriver’?’

Above all, even though he was a ‘Berserker’, a class where machismo is considered a virtue, his pretty boy customization resembling a certain celebrity suddenly brought back memories.

Title: Who is this person BerserkerCriesAriver?
Author: DarkNewbie
Content: How does he set a new record every time a new boss comes out??

[1,325 Comments]
▷SomethingFierceCameOut: So you’ve seen him. The true Awakener >BerserkerCries<.
▷DemonBloodHunter: He has never stepped down from 1st place in all classes since the release of Legacyth. He’s not just stagnant water, he’s rotten water, our big bro.
▷LifeIsUnfair: Whenever I think about having to sell all my items and change classes because the Berserker kept getting targeted nerfs because of that bastard, my blood still boils~ And yet he’s still 1st place for 10,000 years, that fucker, I hope he steps on a Lego when he wakes up.
▷SerialSympathizer: Honestly, from a newbie’s perspective, I can see why they’d wonder if he’s hacking lol. Everywhere you look on the electronic boards, it’s plastered with BerserkerCries.
▷TerminalSkepticism: No matter how you look at it, he seems like a hacker. If you agree, upvote.
└ SpitWithASmile: Please speak after you’ve seen the bodycam verification on BerserkerCries-nim’s official iTube^^ He’s not a cheater, if you don’t know, just shut up^^
▷BellOfTruth: Actually, he’s a regressor shiver never approach the truth shiver
▷CoolGuy: Except for Janus, he holds all the new records. A cool person. A cool class.
▷YoureSoFuckingM: Fucknus Lartis came out and is totally washed up, so why doesn’t he hunt it
└ WhyAreYouWhiningAgain: It disappears all the time because of bugs, how are you supposed to hunt it T_T It doesn’t even drop Demon Blood and has the most bugs T_T

I only now remembered seeing him a few times on the official iTube.

【Incarnate Outcast ‘Letusha’ Strategy Guide with Rank 1 ‘BerserkerCriesAriver’!】

BerserkerCries.
A user so rotten he’s stagnant, setting new records every time new content is released, to the point where people whisper if he’s a regressor.

To be matched with such a ranker of all people. I have terrible luck.

“Why are you so restless?”

“Shh! Cover me.”

Fearing he might recognize me, I ducked my head like a turtle, but of all things, I made eye contact with the man closing his equipment window.

Hic.
I quickly lowered my eyes as if I’d seen a ghost, but BerserkerCries stared at me, then jumped up and approached the glass barrier.

• …‘Shinbi-jui’? This must be that Unknown bug.

Tilting his head as if he’d discovered a rare item through a shop window while walking down the street, he peered at me from the player waiting room.

“…….”

That action seemed to have provoked Karvan’s temper.
As he strode over and blocked my front, I quickly grabbed his collar and whispered.

“Karvan, let’s just forfeit and come back next time.”

“Why.”

“You can absolutely never win against that person.”

Having been confident the whole way here, saying things like ‘If I come to the Coliseum with you, I’ll have nothing to fear’ and ‘Aren’t you a cheat character, you’ll beat up anyone who comes’, my sudden wilting like blanched spinach must have seemed strange to him.

“What is that guy.”

Karvan, raising his eyebrows aslant, turned his head and looked him up and down.

• …What are you glaring at, punk.

The Awakener ‘BerserkerCries’ also looked at us dubiously.

• Are you a couple? Why are you two whispering to each other. Being mere NPCs.