NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4
I’m well aware that the current situation isn’t exactly normal.
I wake up after binge-drinking, and suddenly I’ve transformed into a character from a game. Not just any character, but the one I frequently play.
What? The god heard my desperate voice and granted my wish? That’s total nonsense.
If I were to hear a friend say something like that, I wouldn’t be able to look at him with a sane perspective in this reality.
This is an incomprehensible, transcendent phenomenon whose cause I can’t fathom. Who could possibly pull off such a stunt?
So the first thing I should doubt is that there’s a problem with my mental state.
I mean, isn’t that a common occurrence? People receiving unexpected shocks and suddenly seeing hallucinations or hearing voices.
The news of the Abyss shutting down was shocking enough for me that I could very well lose my mind like those in movies or dramas.
But I’m completely fine right now. I’ve checked multiple times to ensure this isn’t a dream. I twisted my fingers and pinched my cheeks to confirm it.
Unless I’ve been kidnapped by a mad scientist and my brain is receiving electric shocks in a glass tube, this is definitely reality.
So, what should I do about it?
How do I cope with this bizarre situation where the world and I have transformed overnight?
If I were a normal person, I’d be desperately trying to figure out the cause or at least make plans to live forward.
I shouldn’t just be sitting around gaming in my corner.
But I’m different.
I couldn’t care less where my original body vanished to. I’m not even concerned about what happened to my current body, known as Camilla.
I’m not saying I’ll completely ignore it. Eventually, I’ll care about those things and ponder over them. It’s just that it’s not the time for that now.
Those things are way down on my priority list. Right now, my greatest priority is my comrade and friend, the Abyss, and everything else comes after that.
This changed body and identity fall under the “everything else.” I know they’re not trivial; they are significant. I get that.
Just because I know it doesn’t mean I have to act on it, right?
If I had that kind of drive or planning ability, would I be sitting here in my corner like this?
Getting good grades, entering a prestigious university, landing a job at a big company, making money, and preparing for retirement… I know all that conceptually.
It’s a story I know in my head.
Just not putting it into practice.
So, later, yeah. I’ll do it later.
For now, I’m just going to play some games.
Camilla is calling out to me desperately.
*
Of course, to play Camilla well, you need to know her character concept.
The dancing warrior Camilla on the battlefield. A dance addict who wants to show her moves to more people.
Because of that, she has the somewhat quirky setup of always dancing even in battle.
For now, she’s a melee character. She can wield daggers, dual swords, two-handed swords, rapiers, and can equip all kinds of bladed weapons.
Despite her charming looks, Camilla is quite the macho character. She has no ranged attacks or crowd control abilities, so she has to charge right at the enemies herself.
She’s a damage-tank, or in other words, a bruiser. With her decent utility skills, she sticks to enemy damage dealers like glue. Meanwhile, she bounces aggro around with her passive shield, siphons health, and distracts her opponents.
When she’s well-fed, she can massacre enemies without breaking a sweat. For the so-called ADCs, facing a well-fed Camilla is like walking into hell. Escaping from her isn’t as easy as you might think.
Looking at all this, she truly seems like a complete character. Plus, she’s pretty, so there’s really no reason not to play her.
Now, Abyss has become a top-tier game, but originally, it was the kind of game that only hardcore fans would play, making it more common to prefer female characters over sweaty male ones. Even I got hooked on it thanks to Camilla’s looks.
“Hmm.”
But no matter where I go, my baby always seems cuter.
Right now, it’s time to have a cold, objective mindset like a research director.
Is Camilla objectively a viable hero right now? I asked myself. The answer was yes or no.
“No.”
It’s painful, but the immediate answer is a no. Camilla has a nearly perfect skill set for a bruiser, but unfortunately, there aren’t many places for her to shine anymore.
The term “all-rounder” essentially means that her stats are evenly distributed. In other words, it means there isn’t an outstanding aspect anywhere, which makes her somewhat ambiguous.
Whether in the past or now, Camilla, being a low-tier bruiser, isn’t really threatening to enemies.
She’s just an annoying fly that occasionally delivers a painful sting.
I guess it’s a given.
Since I can’t tank, I can’t stand on the front line. Getting focused and suddenly dying while trying to engage is just a daily occurrence; taking down the ADC? The assassin can do that better.
“There’s absolutely no reason to use you…”
I channeled the director selecting players, clicking my tongue in disappointment. Unfortunately, this was the reality for Camilla.
It seemed like Camilla on the screen was making a sad face. But I shook my head.
“Don’t worry, Camilla. I’m not going to abandon you.”
As long as the game doesn’t fail or I don’t quit playing, I probably won’t stop using Camilla.
With the more likely issue of the former resolved, it practically meant I wouldn’t be abandoning her.
Did she understand those words? Camilla on the screen smiled gently. I awkwardly smiled back.
“Let’s start with this for now…”
A changed meta, newly created items, and various possibilities that Camilla possessed.
Considering all of those factors, I had prepared dozens of builds. Each meticulously crafted build had different play styles and goals, with items all matching accordingly.
And so, the build that I would play and that would take the honor of its first appearance was none other than…
“I’ve decided on Zombie Camilla MK.1!”
It was a grandly named build for Zombie Camilla.
*
Words can become seeds.
Streamer Nicang was currently feeling that deeply.
“Stop chasing me! Stop! How far are you going to chase me!”
[That’s just embarrassing]
[You’re really bad at this, huh? Nicang… just watching is making my chest feel heavy]
[Yeah, it’s shocking but it’s all true, Nicang feels the wall at Platinum 4]
[You just got steamrolled as soon as you entered, is this real?]
[But seriously, why is the opponent chasing so intensely? Why is it only you, Nicang?]
[Well… if the broadcast host gets taken out, there’s a profit in it]
[Ah… this feels familiar]
[Nicang can actually do some fighting, huh?]
[Camilla just won’t go down]
[The opponent doesn’t seem local]
“Want to dance with me?”
“What the heck, dance? You crazy woman!”
[Whoa]
[That’s harsh ㅠㅠ]
[Camilla, cover your ears!]
Cursing at the female figure chasing behind him, Nicang briefly reminisced about the past. Well, it was just a moment ago, really.
As a woman-shaped entity chased after her, Nicang spat out curses and briefly reminisced about the past. Well, “past” was just a moment ago.
First things first, Nicang had smoothly climbed to Platinum, but she was still a newbie who hadn’t been in the Abyss for long.
Maybe because of her surprisingly high tier for a newbie, people didn’t really notice, but she, like any newbie, didn’t know all the skills of the heroes in the Abyss.
Like most users, Nicang had been mastering the skills of the major heroes while playing the game. In fact, having reached this far, she was somewhat familiar with the skills of the heroes she frequently encountered, and had a vague sense of when to use them.
However, today was different. From the start of the game, the loading screen showed a character she had never seen before on the opposing side.
With silver hair and a pretty face, this character was someone Nicang had never encountered while playing the Abyss.
Camilla, as the viewers liked to call her, was the “pretty trash.” The name came from her great looks, which couldn’t keep up with her performance.
“Well, I guess I don’t need to worry about her that much.”
That was her thought, and it was true until the early stage of the game.
Camilla was hard to spot during the match; even when she occasionally appeared, she didn’t seem like a threat at all.
That situation started to tilt as the game reached its mid-point.
“What the hell, why won’t she die?”
Camilla, looking all soft and harmless as a pretty dancer, for some reason, just wouldn’t die.
Dodging some of Nicang’s skills while tanking others, Camilla approached with a rather bizarre demeanor.
It was like a senile old man regaining his memory, stuttering yet mixing subtle experience and sharpness, making it incredibly difficult for Nicang to respond.
“What the hell is this…?!”
Among all the bruisers she had encountered so far, Nicang could unequivocally say Camilla was the trickiest.
Not just in skill but also mentally.
“The basics of dance are the steps. Let me teach you one at a time.”
Seeing her pursuer bleeding profusely while delivering such lines was enough to freak Nicang out.
In front of the grotesque and chilling scene, she forgot all about the broadcast and screamed in genuine horror.
“I don’t need this! Aah!”