The Tutorial Is Too Hard Chapter 258:
[Hochi]
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[In 100 seconds, the duel will begin . Both participants are asked to get ready for the duel, and please stand by . ]
[Tournament – Duel Stage, Round 1 will begin shortly]
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The duel stage consisted of very easy-to-understand rules . Before the start of the first round, the list of participants would be made public . All participants would choose their opponents from the list, and a duel would take place under a bilateral agreement . The winner would advance to the second round, where participants who advanced would pick each other, and the second round would begin with a deal .
It was impressive that they knew who the opponent was in advance and agreed to compete with each other following the pretence of a duel . If we wanted to distinguish our opponents, we had to be able to build a stable multiplier . Of course, it’d take more time to get into the higher rounds, and eventually, you’d have to go to the end and meet the strongest opponent . The duel was like a luck-based game, assuming that the participants were well acquainted . It wasn’t difficult to avoid strong players and bad-tempered opponents if you had the right connections .
In that sense, I had to wait for a very long time .
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[Waiting time: 4 hours 13 minutes]
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The others participated in the first round, advanced to the second and third rounds, and I wasn’t even starting the first round yet . The reason was, of course, easily understood .
[Challenger: Lee Ho-jae]
It was obvious why other challengers didn’t ask me to duel . When the challenger’s name was written as Lee Ho-jae, which crazy person would want to fight? They had enough sense not to fight with Lee Ho-jae . If they considered their life precious, it was best not to get entangled at all .
Damn it . Why wasn’t my name listed instead?
I didn’t have many regrets about being a clone . I couldn’t blame Ho-jae for being born like that in the first place, and I was satisfied with my situation right now . However, I felt terrible about being treated like an entirely different person . The fact that the system judged me to be Lee Ho-jae made me upset .
Couldn’t it tell the difference between us? If I wasn’t him, why was it treating me the same as Ho-jae? Either way, it was unpleasant .
I felt uncomfortable, but I was more depressed because I was spending time in a daze . It was not like I was waiting for someone . What was going on? I hoped I didn’t have to be alone until the end of the stage like this . That would make me look so funny . I’d be an unselected loner .
Suddenly, I wondered why Park Jung-ah put me on the stage . No matter how much I had been drinking, I had said that I’d do anything for Park Jung-ah and made a promise . The next day Park Jung-ah asked me to join the stage, so I accepted it . I had meant to do her a favour instead of apologizing for the inconvenience that Ho-jae had caused her .
But now, I wondered how my wasted time here would help her . What was Yong-yong doing?
Bald Su… *shakes head* Baek Sung-woong must be having a hard time . Yong-yong had vowed to make money in the market from today onwards, and I hoped that he wouldn’t do anything ridiculous .
I thought about it for a long time when a message came to my mind with a loud noise .
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[Mr . Mike Benderop has asked Lee Ho-jae to fight a duel . Will you accept it?]
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“Yes,” I answered reflexively, relieved at the thought of finally getting out of this boredom, but on the other hand, I was anxious . The other side saw the name Lee Ho-jae and asked for a duel . It was evident that the opponent was a lunatic . I didn’t know their strength, but it wasn’t very relaxing to face a madman regardless of their power .
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[In 100 seconds, the duel will begin . Both participants are asked to get ready for the duel, and please stand by . ]
[Competition – Duel Stage, Round 1 will begin shortly]
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After a while, my body teleported to the duel stage . There were a lot of people outside the massive stadium, which was the stage . Looking at the large crowd, it was a little understandable why Park Jung-ah asked me to participate . If so, many people were concentrating enthusiastically on the duel, and I could effectively imprint myself on them . The problem was that I didn’t know how I should act .
[Suit yourself . ] I heard Ho-jae’s voice through the ring I had put inside my pocket . While I was drinking with Park Jung-ah yesterday, the ring I had given her split in two . One was for her, and the other for me, but its performance remained the same . Of course, Park Jung-ah’s was something I could only use if I were nearby .
However, there were many differences in design . Park Jung-ah’s ring was a pretty ring with a diamond in it, while mine was just a plain yellow ring . It was a ring design that I hated the most . At my complaint, Ho-jae once again replied that this would be most familiar to me, which was a very unpleasant answer .
“So I can do whatever I want? You won’t scold me later?”
[Yes . ]
I tried to reach out a little to Ho-jae’s insensitive voice, but he didn’t seem to care about the rest .
“What if I cause some accidents here and there?”
[Just do whatever you want . ]
Tch . I tried to intimidate him by saying I’d make trouble with his name, but I didn’t think it worked .
I looked at the summoned opponent in the stadium . The opponent whom I thought was a genuine lunatic was an unexpectedly handsome man . Perhaps because I was with Baek Sung-woong all day yesterday, I had compared the two subconsciously . There was a big difference, of course, visually . Oh, of course, Baek Sung-woong was manly and good-looking, but his bald head deducted some points .
Baek Sung-woong said he shaved because he liked being neat, but I knew that he had started balding from the centre of his head . Of course, he tried to hide it, but it was evident to me .
Before the duel began, the opponent introduced himself and asked me to address him as Mike . In response, I also briefly introduced myself .
Mike was surprised that I was Lee Ho-jae’s clone, and not him . He had an astonished look on his face .
“So, what’s your deal?” I asked, thinking that he likely wanted to strike a deal with me . Mike wasn’t as crazy as expected, and if he weren’t crazy, he wouldn’t be dueling with a challenger named Lee Ho-jae for fun unless there was anything he needed to talk about .
“We need information from the 31st to 34th floors . ”
Oh, he was an American challenger . I was well aware that the American challengers were struggling with the demon stages, which started from the 31st to the 34th floor . The stages were also quite tricky . Ho-jae on the 61st floor was comparable to the American challengers on the 31st floor .
The most significant feature of the demon stages, which started from the 31st floor, involved party play, but the number of parties decreased as you went up the floor . And when facing the most powerful enemy on the 34th floor, the challenger must fight it off and win .
Come to think of it, the design was incredibly stupid, but the 31st floor was an easy stage . By avoiding strong demons and searching for easy demons and collecting vouchers, it was easy to clear off on your own and not with a party . However, on the 32nd floor, only strong demons appeared, so the level of difficulty rose exponentially . It was even more complicated than the 33rd floor . Nevertheless, the number of party players got reduced . In the end, you had to challenge the demon king by yourself .
The Tutorial up to the 30th floor encouraged party play as if to announce its usefulness . In a solo stage, one was usually focused on testing one’s navigation, survival, reasoning, and social abilities . Naturally, challengers become more accustomed to role-sharing battles that aligned with party members rather than single combat .
However, the Tutorial suddenly asked the challenger to fight alone . It was not hard to guess why American challengers had been struggling there for years .
Thinking of stages preceding the 60th floor, the Tutorial required one to break through everything and get through it by themselves . There was a stage that saved and protected many people, but only one challenger was the right fighter . He alone must carry out judgments and battles that control people’s lives . However, the 61st-floor stage could not proceed without team members . The stages after the residential area always tried to force down the challenger in a similar manner .
“What should I do?”
[Do as you please . ] Ho-jae answered nonchalantly and so, I did as he said .
I gave the American challenger the information I know, and Mike was very pleased with my information . Previously, Ho-jae’s report was heard through the words of a challenger who graduated from the Korean server’s Tutorial, so the Korean government added a Newbie level to the U . S . server . There were many errors and omissions . I gave him the information that I knew, and he asked questions like a child who was excited to get a toy . In some parts that I didn’t know well, I asked Ho-jae .
“When you meet demons, do you lose your fighting power? What do you do if that happens? Did you lose yours too?” Mike asked .
“No . Try to remember . Did that ever happen? If you meet demons and your combat power decreases, you can stop them to some extent by being resistant to fear or to mental attacks . it’sIt’s most important not to be intimidated by the demon king, but most people aren’t able to do that . ”
That was obvious . The demon king didn’t get his title by doing nothing . Of course, as soon as one first saw doppelgangers of the top demon species, they wouldn’t think of a monster that Ho-jae had caught and forced to write down information .
After I gave the information, Mike repeatedly thanked me with a look of gratitude on his face . I, somehow, stopped him from paying me back . It was too difficult for me to get satisfied with material compensation . Instead, I asked for a meal before the tournament ended . Mike said he had a famous chef in the U . S . server, and that he would visit the Korean server area with him .
Not long after I entered the tournament, I got to make another good friend . I was as satisfied with Mike .
The crowd wondered why Mike and I sat together on the duel stage and urged us by asking, “Why aren’t you fighting?”, but we ignored the buzz .
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[Lee Yeon-hee]
“I can’t . ” The man standing in front of me answered briefly . He was the only Asian-looking man in that group . Judging from the accent, I assumed he was Chinese .
“Why?”
“Your request was accepted, and the committee is reviewing it . Now that the review is unfinished, we cannot let you move on to another level . ”
They wanted me to wait? The problem was how long it’d take to get approved . Even if I was sure the request would be accepted, I had no intention of wasting my time .
“Of course, the principles are important, but we still don’t have enough information about other dimensions . I can’t let you go alone now that we’ve just been in touch with them . If things go wrong, there may be new disputes, and in the worst case, there could be inter-dimensional conflicts . ”
I stared at the Chinese man who kept rambling . Now, I could see how misleading Park Jung-ah’s response was . She was straightforward and explained the things I could do but didn’t say what I couldn’t . Oh, of course, it wasn’t like I liked her . But this old man was more irritating than she was .
The man talked with a stubborn look on his face, but his words made no difference to me . Instead of wasting time pointlessly, I decided it was better to strike them out . As soon as I finished my judgment, I launched an attack .