Chapter 184 - Effect of the Strategy Video (1)

[The servant of Deception is giving you an order. You must deactivate every magic circle, but you must do it in the correct order.]

- Mission Goal: Take control of all magic circles! You should deactivate the Western one last.

- Fail Condition: Death or failure to deactivate the magic circles in the correct order.

Since it was considered a History Quest, Hyun expected for Deception's name to appear.

Some of the most important Transcendents were probably involved in the Main and History Quests.

'There's a condition.'

Hyun realized something unexpected.

Lattice had to turn off the magic circle to the west at the last moment.

That just happened to also be the city Louise was hidden in.

'Was Lattice's quest like this, or did the History Quest change somehow?'

The History Quest and real history were different in a sense.

Just like Louise had been replaced with an unknown girl, there was a chance that other quests had also been changed.

'Louise’s city is last.'

If the quest was exactly the same as the one Lattice received, it was probably Deception who ordered him to turn off the one at the west at last.

'Did Keidrial know Louise's location?'

The memories of the past were coming back, but Hyun didn't have time to think about them too deeply.

At the moment, he was borrowing Ain's body to make a strategy video.

'I'll think about it later.'

Iluna's Quest was a very famous one, even in Asra.

Thankfully, after he turned off one place's magic circle, the scenery changed immediately, so Hyun didn't need to wander around.

'Still, that guy is quite impressive.'

Hyun was surprised by Lattice.

After doing it himself, this quest required you to know the weak point of each magic circle and make an effective strategy. If you couldn't do that, it was nearly impossible to complete it.

Lattice had never played Asra Online and was able to complete such a quest before hitting level 200.

'Is it until here?'

After the sixth magic circle, the battles were easy.

He was able to turn off the seventh magic circle after a lot of events and the quest ended.

[You've cleared the real difficulty of 'The Dying Candles of Iluna'!]

[You've gained 3 stat points as a reward!]

Paf-!

Hyun returned to the palace with the 12 sculptures.

It took two more hours to complete the other episodes with Ain's body.

It took him so long because he hadn't skipped any of the story.

'Haa, I'm also starting to feel tired…'

What was left was to send the recorded footage to TarrTarr.

Taking into consideration the time difference, TarrTarr should have been awake.

'It's the first time sending him so much at once… I'm sure he'll still do well, right?'

TarrTarr had never missed a deadline, so he was sure that, once again, he'd be able to do it.

「Edit it by tomorrow. Don't touch the battle parts that much… It's only editing the story, so I guess it will be easy…? Once you do it, don't forget to upload them.」

Hyun calculated the amount of money he'd be able to earn based on previous experience.

'I don't think I'll need to upload something else for a while after the History Quest.'

The money was just a means to an end, after all.

His personal goal wasn't to become famous or a millionaire—he was trying to get to the top of Asrian's world.

He had earned enough to live comfortably, so from then on, he was planning to focus more on the game.

After sending more than 10 hours of footage with a message, Hyun logged off.

* * *

It had been four days since the History Quests were released.

As professional gaming teams and rankers uploaded strategy videos, the number of users clearing the hard difficulty increased, and because of that, most started to pay attention to the real difficulty, and the streams of rankers trying to clear the real difficulty quests had become really popular.

- Bishop Man has passed the middle part of the 1st episode!

- Woah, more than 100K people are watching.

- Ah, he just died at the part where you must go up stairs.

- Level 200 humanoid elite NPCs… I'm not sure how someone is supposed to beat this.

- From the 1st episode, the difficulty is ridiculous.

The users gave each episode a number.

The one that happened earliest was number 1, and the last was the 12. People talked on the internet about which ranker had reached which part of which episode.

As they did that, they began wondering about something.

- What does real difficulty mean?

Lots of people started to wonder about that, but the most popular theory was the following:

Wasn't the real difficulty a recreation of a certain player’s gameplay?

There were two episodes that made users think that.

[Iluna Crash Landing!], [Run through the snow-covered plains]

The protagonist of one was Ain, and the other one was Salon. They'd caused a great sensation for quite some time, and the background of the History Quests resembled the videos they'd shown!

It was the most popular theory since the levels of the enemies that appeared and the skills they used were similar.

- Is that even possible? They fought enemies like this? Not even current rankers can beat them.

- They could've increased the level of the enemies based on the current growth of users.

- I think that makes the most sense.

- Everyone got trapped by the word 'real.'

The opposing theory said that the opponent's level had increased by the same % as the users.

Most people couldn't dismiss that theory because the users who'd done the real difficulty had felt the huge wall.

- If real really meant real, Salon and Ain should be able to beat those quests again, right?

- Then why haven't they uploaded it for the past three days? Lol.

- Maybe they find it too bothersome.

- There are many episodes easier than the one Salon did. Do you really think that attention whore wouldn't upload a video? Lol.

- Lattice has always been silent, but not a single top 10 ranker, including Mayday, has been able to upload a video. Does that mean Salon is better than them?

Was the real difficulty the same as the real history? Was it different?

Every side of the discussion had solid arguments, so it seemed like the discussion would never come to an end, at least until someone puts an end to the fight.

- Someone posted a real-difficulty clear! (Link)

- The link is 100% a virus.

- No, it really is the real deal.

- But it's real? Lol

- It's real. Lol

TarrTarr had finished editing in just a day.

How could he deal with such a huge amount of footage so fast?

The first reason was that Hyun told him not to touch the battle parts. Thanks to that, TarrTarr could save a lot of time.

The second reason was thanks to someone who'd been around TarrTarr those past few days.

'I'm definitely not used to the world inside the game.'

Director Steven was an expert in directing, producing, and editing movies, but he was a newbie in things related to Asrian.

How would he edit and produce content that had a speed beyond a normal human's capabilities?

TarrTarr received 10 pieces of footage at once, and director Steven could watch TarrTarr editing right next to him.

There was something Director Steven felt after watching him edit.

TarrTarr exclaimed in surprise after looking at battle scenes that looked like nothing much to him.

"What was impressive about that?"

"Ah, that…? It's a bit hard to explain, but the theory behind that move is…"

The footage Hyun had sent had basic moves that worked as a strategy. For a newbie like Director Steven, there was no better resource than that.

The longer TarrTarr's explanation became, the more Director Steven nodded as if he was inspired.

After talking for about five minutes, TarrTarr apologized and gripped his head.

"Director, I'm going to be busy for a while!"

"Huh?"

"I have to finish this today!"

The explanation was cut short, but Director Steven couldn't resist his urges.

Why did he feel different although they'd both watched the same thing?

It seemed like he wouldn't be able to move on to the next stage until he figured that out.

There were many users that were at the level of rankers, and there were many people that were good at editing videos, but there weren't many people who understood both sides as much as Steven wanted.

For Director Steven, TarrTarr was like a diamond. He couldn't help but think he wanted him to stay by his side.

"It's just editing the story? That's my specialty. Can I help you?"

"What? Really?"

"You helped me. I'm going to ask a few more people to help, but instead, once we're done, give me some time. The talks might get a bit long."

"O-of course. That much…!"

Director Steven had lived most of his life editing movies, so to him, YouTube video editing was easy.

That was how TarrTarr was able to edit the story videos so fast.

[A real difficulty clear video appeared!]

The first time a thread like that appeared, everyone thought it was clickbait, but after they realized that the channel that had posted the video was AIN and they looked at the video, they couldn't help but be impressed. Most were so surprised that they couldn’t even close their mouths.

- What???

- What the… is it all solo play?

Most people thought a user capable of clearing some of the easiest episodes might appear.

After all, the rankers were at a level beyond a normal human, but no one imagined that someone capable of clearing most episodes alone might appear.

AIN.

In game-related sites, that ID was mentioned countless times, and it was also mentioned on TV.

It was the first time one user had caused such a sensation since Asrian's servers opened their doors.

Many of the strategy videos have received huge reactions all around the world.

Even rankers and professional gamers were unable to hide their surprise.

While everyone was in an uproar, someone who had been becoming popular, Practice, JaeHoon, was also looking at the videos.

A few minutes after the battles began, JaeHoon realized a hidden truth about the videos.

'This is SeoHyun's playstyle!'

He knew about «Assimilation» and Hyun's style, so he wasn't deceived by the outer appearance.

They were flawless movements—a playstyle that sought the maximum efficiency possible and was the complete opposite of Ain's, who used small movements on purpose.

'Impressive…'

JaeHoon remembered when he was taught how to move from Hyun.

"With this, you should have learned enough of the basics. I think you're ready for harder movements."

After hearing that from Hyun, he’d tried to do more complex movements, but after looking at the videos posted, JaeHoon had time to reflect on himself.

'Haha. This makes it look as if anyone could do it.'

All the moves used in the real difficulty video were ones he and other rankers could do without issue, but depending on who used the equipment, the results could be completely different.

How far someone could take the basics… JaeHoon was able to see it through the screen.

Also, he learned his direction for training in order to reach a higher place as a professional gamer.

Ring!

JaeHoon was looking at the videos when he received a call.

"Noona…?"

It was Jini, and he thought he knew why she was calling.

After a short greeting, Jini began explaining herself.

JaeHoon talked about SeoHyun as if he were proud he was his friend.

"Noona, you saw it, right? As expected of Lee SeoHyun!"

"I saw it, of course…"

Jini also realized that the person in the video was Hyun and not Ain.

"That's why I'm calling."

"Huh?"

"Professional gaming… I'm thinking about giving up…" Jini said in a tired voice.

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