NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2
Abyss Gallery.
As the game expands globally beyond the domestic scene, this community is where discussions about the Abyss are the most active.
It started off weak, but now many people are constantly present, maintaining the top gallery position most of the time.
Any discussion related to the Abyss is allowed in this gallery.
“This character is OP, that character is OP. This person is a pro, that person is a pro. Who does it better?”
Internet broadcasts, Abyss Champions League. Analysis and strategy posts about specific characters. Just chaos.
Amidst various posts flying around, someone’s post popped up.
“Is Kayak not playing the game anymore?”
“I just came back recently to see what happened to the people I used to play with, but I can’t see Kayak at all.”
“Where did that person go?”
“Did they go to the army or something? Suddenly gone.”
“That person must be already military.”
“True, they disappeared suddenly since Season 5.”
“Ever since the notice about server shutdown, they probably thought the game died, lol.”
“Who’s Kayak??”
“Dude, they were around since the game was super garbage.”
“But they only played Camilla.”
“Wait, are you saying they play Camilla?”
“Oh, is that the Camilla ranked number one in artisan rankings?”
“Yup, they’re still preserved as a legend even if they don’t play anymore.”
Weak Camilla. Shortened nickname: Kayak.
A top-tier challenger user. Camilla master. Camilla one-trick.
Camilla was originally a character nobody dared to touch. More accurately, people would try her and then give up.
Her beautiful appearance captivated Abyss players, but her character performance just didn’t match up.
The performance was way too weak for the difficulty. High risk, low return. Hence, Camilla was considered a pretty trash character that newbies would toy with once and then quit.
Except for one person.
“Kayak truly mastered Camilla like no other.”
A user named Weak Camilla suddenly appeared like a comet, proposing a new theory about Camilla. People couldn’t help but focus on this abruptly emerged master.
Well, they were a user that hadn’t existed until now. How could they achieve challenger status and maintain it using Camilla, a character that even pros deemed trash?
“How about it? Quite easy, right?”
Of course, users couldn’t truly grasp the strategies and theories he proposed. Even if they understood, they wouldn’t accept it.
It was because, rather than pouring my heart and soul into a character like Weak Camilla, it would be more beneficial to level up other characters’ skill levels.
However, the names Weak Camilla and Kayak remained vividly etched in the minds of some users.
Back in the day when there were hardly any players around, I was a rare romantic user.
But now that the game has overwhelmingly grown, for some unknown reason, he seems to have vanished.
It was a time when those in the gallery who remembered him expressed their disappointment in the comments.
A new comment appeared on a post about Kayak:
-? Kayak is currently playing the game?
*
There’s a kind of unwritten law in the world.
For instance, if you’re holding an apple and let it go, it falls to the ground, or if a person gets shot, they die.
Those obvious laws of nature.
Laws that don’t really need to be explained to others. We decided to call those ‘common sense.’
And the common sense I have is generally like this.
A transformed beautiful girl should be unusually good at the game, breathtakingly beautiful, and have physical abilities that can compete with pros, so when the broadcast starts, they receive praise from everyone.
It’s a bonus if sponsorships keep pouring in, and a beautiful editor should naturally stick around to manage the YouTube channel.
Yeah, that’s ‘common sense.’ It’s only natural for a TS beautiful girl to be loved by people and pampered, right?
Because of that, I was planning to start streaming someday as well. Since I won’t have difficulty making a living, I could just play the game and level up my tier.
At the very least, I should aim for Diamond. No, surpassing that would allow me to save a bit of face when I start streaming.
As someone who aims for a skill-based stream, I wouldn’t want to show others a mere rock-like tier.
When the world flipped upside down, did something change along with it? My account, which should be parked at a top-ranking status, hadn’t even seen a placement match.
The last time I played the game was three seasons back. A whopping three years ago. Because of that, I struggled for a while to unfreeze my dormant account.
Well, anyway, that’s not a big problem.
Three years after the game’s shut down declaration, it rose to the ranks of a top-tier game. That’s how the history of this world, Abyss, flowed.
Compared to that, the fact that my account was locked and became unranked? Just a trivial matter. The game hasn’t shut down, and in any case, I can just rank back up again.
It’s not like it matters anyway; I can just rank up again.
Once again, I’ll say that winning the game and raising my rank is as easy as pie for me.
Why? Because I’m a TS Beautiful Girl. I’ve always become a ranker as casually as eating, and now I’ve got the TS buff? From here on, it’s already game over.
Who dares to block my path? A TS Beautiful Girl is a god and invincible!
…I knew it would turn out like this.
– I’ve been ambushed by the enemy.
“Huh?”
How could this happen…?
I could only stare blankly at the words that appeared on the screen.
Wait, does this mean I’m dying?
[Master’s Step to the Top (Nixon) has targeted Weak Camilla (Camilla)!]
[Master’s Step to the Top (Nixon) has informed that the enemy has disappeared!]
[Master’s Step to the Top (Nixon): Weak Camilla – 24 seconds until resurrection]
[Master’s Step to the Top (Nixon): Why did you get hit, you idiot?]
[Master’s Step to the Top (Nixon): Are you a total moron?]
With a sharp ping, my teammates’ furious chat messages rapidly flooded in.
This was as unfamiliar as my changed appearance.
There used to be no players like this at all. Since each user and newbie was precious, people didn’t get mad at minor mistakes.
The worst insults were just casual “oh well, lol” or “I wish it had gone like this?” That was all there was to it.
[Master’s Step to the Top (Nixon): Why do I only get hit by this stupid idiot? What the hell?]
[If You Empty Your Heart You’ll Be Happy (Ran): Stop swearing and focus.]
[Master’s Step to the Top (Nixon): Focus? Holy crap, the game’s already over!]
Despite Nixon’s rough insults, he was quite right.
The game already seemed to be doomed. My few blunders, combined with my teammates’ mistakes, had turned into a giant snowball rolling downhill.
Still, Nixon’s attitude made me feel uneasy.
There really were hardly any players like that before.
If there were, they would quickly get hit by sniper posts in the gallery or be beaten by the rest of the team until they quieted down.
However, judging by Nixon’s unreserved attitude and Ran’s reactions, it seemed like players like Nixon were now the norm. Would we call him just another typical Abyss player?
As my precious garbage game turned into a divine game and attracted more players, it seemed the quality had gotten worse too.
It’s an inevitable situation. After all, the divine games in my original world also often had players with strangely deranged minds.
It often happened.
In a game where only 1 in 10 players is normal, this was just the fate one had to bear if it was a great game.
[Clear your mind and you’ll be happy (Ran): I’m screwed, haha]
[Pacquiao (Nox): GG]
Meanwhile, as I continued to think while playing the game, our failure was slowly looming.
Ran, who had been comforting the team members, now seemed lost, and even the ADC Nox, who hadn’t typed a single message until now, appeared demoralized.
[One step to Master (Nixon): We’re losing because of one idiot]
[One step to Master (Nixon): Wasn’t Camilla a Season 5 Challenger? Did you buy your account? Why are you doing so badly?]
[Sick Game (Haven): I don’t even get why we’re playing with a character like Camilla; it’s a dumpster fire that no one plays.]
Even Haven, who had been diligently playing, started to rant against me, mixing in criticisms about Camilla.
But at this point, a question arose.
Sure, I wasn’t doing great, and I made mistakes, but does that mean it’s fair to collectively curse me out like this?
Definitely not. If I looked at it objectively, I wasn’t the reason for our loss. If we had to find a culprit, it had to be Nixon, who had died the most.
“Ah.”
At that point, I realized something.
It wasn’t that; I had been a victim of political maneuvering!
This guy, before taking the heat himself, chose the easy target of me and shifted the blame my way!
This was a malicious scheme you wouldn’t find in the old clean games.
Instead of focusing on the game, Nixon was manipulating public opinion through chat, and on top of that, the other team members were subtly agreeing with him in silence.
In total, I was shocked not once, but twice.
-Defeat
Of course, in the meantime, the opposing team diligently advanced and successfully broke through our defenses.
[One step to Master (Nixon): Just give up, lol]
As Nixon’s chat came up near the end of the game, I trembled a bit from shame.
Shaking.
The reunion with the game after just one day was the worst.