1. Damned Possession
The VR rogue-like game, Loof Blood.
A quintessential blend of soul and rogue-like elements evolved into a form of virtual reality.
The cyclical nature of my daily work life left me hungry for something more, and for a while, I lived for this VR game.
The sensation of walking up and down battlefields wearing heavy armor, crossing enemy lines – it was a thrill.
The game’s most appealing feature was its parrying system.
There was an intense satisfaction in deflecting a deadly sword-strike by the skin of your teeth.
And the joy of cleverly exploiting that opening to slaughter your opponent.
The pleasure of reflecting an archer’s arrow with a parry, killing him with his own attack.
In the modern warfare mode, bullets could be parried. The sensation of cutting down soldiers with a blade was outstanding.
“Guess there’s nothing left to do now.”
Excluding mods, I’d cleared the basic storyline more than 90 times.
And the game had only been out for just three months.
The fastest speed-run video floating around on YouTube was 42 minutes and 39 seconds.
My best run was at least 3 minutes faster, at 39 minutes sharp.
Even then, I started a new game.
Nonchalantly, I defeated the final boss monster, the ‘Immortal King’, before clicking on ‘Game Over’.
There was a message in my inbox from the digital game distributor, Stem Site.
The sender was the head developer of Loof Blood, Miyazaki Hideo.
——
We sincerely thank you, User “[Don’t Overdo It]” for continuously enjoying not only our recently released ‘Loof Blood’, but all the Loof series from our company.
You are the first to reach 100 victories.
For our next work, we hope to create our own open world game, eliminating the rogue-like elements that limit the story.
Because you have shown so much love for our game, we would like to offer you a small token of our appreciation.
We’ll send you an invitation when everything is ready.
——
“Oh, that sounds fun.”
After reading the email, I simply felt happy.
The prospect of another awesome game to fill up my time filled me with a simple anticipation.
And a week after receiving the email, I finally understood the meaning behind their promised ‘invitation’.
***
Whooshhh−
A strong wind blew through the forest.
A man lying in the bushes opened his eyes.
“Oh, this guy’s awake.”
His hair was a silvery-grey, his eyes a clear blue and his skin porcelain white.
Anyone who saw him would call him ‘noble-like’ based on his graceful appearance.
“Brother, isn’t this wretch from the nobility? His features are too refined,” the man as thin as an anchovy, Mellaw, spoke up.
Responding to Mellaw’s words, Aaron, a harsh-looking man, shook his head.
“Do you think nobility would walk around in this cheap leather attire? He’s just a good-looking commoner.”
The nobly-appeared man slowly opened his eyes.
“Where is…”
He didn’t even blink an eye at Mellaw and Aaron, who were pointing their short swords at him.
“He’s awake, yet seems to be staring elsewhere.”
The man’s gaze seemed to fixate on thin air.
More precisely, he was staring at the various prompts popping up in front of his eyes.
[Welcome, Mr. Resist-All.]
[Clear the game, and you can return to real life.]
[Check out the rewards for Mr. Resist-All!]
-Power List-
[Skill – Perfect Counterattack(★★★★★★★★): Counterattacks. Activates when a successful parry. Inflicts 10 times the power of the parried attack on the opponent. It does not depend on the enemy’s defense.]
[Skill – Searching Eye(★★★★): Reads information about a character. It gives you the ability to see Lv and status, potential, etc.]
[Skill – Bullet Time(★★★★★★): Once a day, it makes time perceived by the caster slow down for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 24 hours.]
[Special – Noble Dignity(★★★★★): Gives off a noble aura throughout your body. It makes any action seem dignified. You are the most noble being in this world. You won’t bow to oppression.]
Thrown into a ridiculous situation within the game.
However, survival instincts, or perhaps kindly hints given by those who forced him into the game, made him quickly realize the immediate danger.
Perfect Counterattack.
The man was certain of what was the most important skill among those he had received.
It’s the Perfect Counterattack. A reflex skill that can be used after a single parry.
You have to let them strike first.
To counterattack, the attack should be dodged first. Getting attacked and not parrying efficiently, felt like an inconvenient body to him. But the thoughts of not using Perfect Counterattack didn’t pop up.
[Name: None
Lv.1
Alignment: Good Character trait: Coldblooded
Strength: 10 Stamina: 25 Defense: 10 Agility: 30 Growth potential: 0 – Commonplace]
That was because the status window for his character was popping up in front of him.
With no glimpse of growth potential, his stats were terrible.
Parrying.
He was confident in parrying. Regardless of his bad stats. This was true for the Bloodborne loop too. He had done it many times in previous virtual reality games.
He never missed a parry, maintaining 100% accuracy even when fighting nearly naked, wearing only underwear to imitate a legend.
“Hey, you. It’s disrespectful to ignore people like this. Empty out whatever you have in your pockets. Money, valuables. If you have nothing else, strip off that ragged clothing”.
Aaron pointed a knife at the man’s neck.
Coldblooded as a character, he remained calm.
Is that knife just for show?
He managed to tease him while showing his readiness to fight.
“…What?”
“Why do you carry something you wouldn’t dare use?”
It was a provocation as he checked the item hidden in the pouch hooked on his waistband.
With a touch, he was able to check the information of the dagger before his eyes.
[Black Dragon Veronak’s Fang
Dagger
Durability: 1,000,000
Attack Power: 500]
Bloodshot eyes filled with fury were visible in Aaron after the man’s provocation.
“You son of a b*tch, you look like a noble’s servant!”
Shweeek!
The short sword plunged towards the man’s torso. ‘Bullet Time’, didn’t even come to mind. [Lv.10], floating above Aaron’s head.
If regarded as a monster, he was only at a minor level.
The skill, which could only be used once a day and seemed to be a lifesaving measure, was not worthy of such an opponent.
The trajectory of the opponent’s attacking strike was glaringly visible.
It was the trajectory he had seen hundreds, thousands of times in ‘Rope Blood’.
Whirl-!
He swung with the dagger held reversed.
Kaang!
The short sword, hit by the dagger, was greatly pushed back.
A golden light burst out, signaling that he successfully parried the attack.
And at the same time.
Seuruk-!
From the tip of the dagger held by the man, a purple aura unfolded like a scythe, grazing Aaron’s neck.
＜Absolute Counter＞
Aaron’s head plummeted to the ground.
Blood erupted like a fountain.
“Ahhhhh!”
Mellow, the thin-as-an-anchovy man, screamed in horror at the sight of the man who was leading him being killed.
Jubeok
The man moved forward.
With an arrogant look, chin raised, as if belittling Mellow.
“Aren’t you going to attack?”
“I, I will…!”
Mellow could not calm his throbbing heart.
From the start, he never wanted to mess with this man. He was just quietly laying in the grass, sleeping peacefully. However, he was giving off an extraordinary aura unlike an ordinary human.
“Well, then, I’ll go.”
The man raised his right arm holding the dagger and threw his arm very loosely at an unmatched angle.
“sh*t, sh*t!!!”
Mellow, in the end, moved his arm. His attacking trajectory was much more perfected than the man’s.
Just before Mellow’s short sword reached the man’s neck.
Kaang!
The man had managed to parry again successfully. The movement of the ‘parry’ far surpassed that of an ordinary man.
Again, at the end of the short sword, a purple aura was whirled like a scythe.
＜Absolute Counterattack＞
– Zing-
Mellau’s head fell.
Mellau’s eyes were bulging. As if he couldn’t accept his death until the very end.
“…..”
The man looked at the beheaded corpse with an expressionless face.
“Dammit.”
But he couldn’t hold back an expletive that welled up in his throat.
“What kind of game did they throw me into?”
The man opened his status window again.
The name section was blank.
‘”Don’t be surprised” is not useable.’
Though it may suit the situation better than any other name.
Now that the game has become reality.
He had to pick a somewhat fitting name here.
“Yuma.”
Yuma.
He picked a name that looked fairly good from his old usernames.
As soon as he set the name to ‘Yuma’, it was engraved in the status window.
[Name: Yuma
Lv.1
Disposition: Good Character Trait: Cool-headed
Strength: 10 Stamina: 25 Defense: 10 Agility: 30 Growth Potential: 0 – Ordinary Man]
There was no change in the lousy status.
Why is his disposition still good despite beheading two people?
The man, Yuma, could easily guess the reason.
The tendencies of the two guys he had assessed as ‘Pursuit Targets’ were evil. Killing someone with an evil tendency doesn’t affect your own disposition. That’s the conclusion Yuma came to.
‘I should head to the village.’
Once the tension subsided to a certain extent, he was struck by intense hunger.
Yuma ransacked the two men’s pockets. In total, he found 1300 cents.
Yuma could guess how much 1300 cents amounted to.
The unit ‘cents’ was also used in ‘Rouge Blood’. It was enough to cover accommodations at an inn for about a week.
‘I also need to buy decent clothes.’
He had to discard these worn-out leather clothes.
Once Yuma had his thoughts in order, he slowly began descending the mountain.
His very noble steps radiated an unconscious confidence due to the ‘Nobility’ trait.
