Parrying is one of the most powerful techniques.
The concept of deflecting an attack with this skill means that no matter how big the gap between you and your opponent is, if you succeed, you can completely defend against their attack and even give them a brief moment of stiffness.
That’s why I never expected such a convenient technique to break through the system’s walls and actually exist.
“What? Weren’t you losing just now? How are you suddenly winning?”
“Wait, were you going easy on the kids who are basically guaranteed to be in the advanced class?”
“Wow, this is insane. At this rate, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be the top of our grade.”
It seems like some misunderstandings are piling up, but that’s not what’s important right now.
While the fact that parrying exists is shocking, the counter after a parry is a national combo ingrained in my instincts. If I miss this, forget being an Experienced Player, even the title of “gamer” would weep in despair.
So, I immediately rushed in and swung my shield.
Why a shield and not a fist? Who said shields are only for blocking? The sleek part of this hefty buddy is super useful for striking too.
Thanks to moving without hesitation, I managed to land a hit before Harold could recover his stance.
*Whack! Whack!*
After smacking his face twice, Harold started swinging his hammer around in pain.
It was clearly an unparriable pattern, so I quickly jumped back to dodge.
I got lucky earlier, but parrying isn’t a universal solution. It only works on specific patterns, and most boss-level enemies are unparriable to begin with.
To explain the situation earlier… Harold’s hammer combo has five motions, and only the second and fourth motions are parriable. I parried the fourth one.
But still… if you succeed, the payoff is huge, so I’ve memorized all the possible and impossible patterns.
That’s why, difficulty aside, the fact that it’s possible at all is what matters. There’s a world of difference between something being hard and something being impossible.
While I was thinking this, Harold had already recovered and was back in position. His nose was bleeding, but I pretended not to notice.
Maybe because of the strange situation, he seemed more cautious, but my mind was already elsewhere.
‘But if this works, maybe other things could too.’
Maybe it’s because the parry succeeded, but I suddenly felt confident that dodging would work too.
I heard.
There’s no rule that says you can’t parry without invincibility, right?
So, I deliberately lured Harold’s attack.
Instead of rushing in first, I kept circling around, and when I judged it was the right time to strike, I dashed forward.
At the same time, I performed the dodge motion I saw in the game, and my body momentarily blurred, passing right through Harold’s hammer.
It was exactly like the dodge I saw in the game, where you pass through attacks… just graphics.
“What the?!”
The attack that was supposed to hit sliced through the air, and the target that should have been hit passed through the attack like it was nothing.
It was only natural that it was something beyond common sense.
“What did I just see?”
“What? I was too busy looking at a girl passing by.”
“No, I saw someone pass through the attack.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Like a ghost, they just passed through the swinging hammer and dodged it.”
“You must have seen wrong. If you’re going to talk nonsense, just look at the girls passing by like me!”
I don’t know what they’re saying, but judging by the commotion in the audience, it seems the spectacle was indeed shocking.
Of course. Unlike parrying, which can somehow be understood as a deflection, dodging was absurd not only for the person experiencing it but also for those watching.
Anyway, in this situation where everyone is bewildered, I even tried dash canceling just in case. It’s a basic skill for experienced players, simple but harder than it looks… canceling the dash acceleration with another motion and then canceling that motion back into a dash…
Whoosh—
In an instant, my view shifted right next to Harold.
It worked. So easily.
It looked just like the funny stance I saw in the game, but unlike a normal dash that accelerates momentarily and then runs normally, this one repeatedly accelerates, so its performance was undeniable.
To the point where even Harold, who easily countered my openings, couldn’t keep up.
It was only natural since it practically doubled my agility stat.
Anyway, perhaps startled by my bizarre movement, he tried to swing his hammer again, but at this close range, he might as well have just punched.
Of course, I kicked him. A light tap on the shin, and he went down.
“Argh! You vicious brat!”
“Language. You’re the one swinging a hammer around.”
“Trying to trip Ram, huh?”
If it weren’t for the fact that my parry actually worked against that hammer swing, I’d have been knocked out cold by now. But no, you’re making a big fuss over just one kick to the shin.
What, your attacks are all noble, and mine are just vicious? Man, you’re one selfish dude.
Anyway, I dodged, and you got hit, so I won, right?
“…Damn it. Fine, I lost.”
“I like how cleanly you admit it. Still, thanks to you, I learned a lot. Appreciate it.”
“Kid, you suck at comforting people. You think I’d believe that?”
No, seriously.
Thanks to you, I realized something really important. I’ll treat you big time later.
“Sorry for ignoring you. And… I’ll make up for the pathetic display I showed this time, no doubt.”
Harold didn’t believe me till the end and left on his own, but honestly, whether he believed me or not didn’t matter.
Thanks to his basic tutorial, I got through a tough spot, and it’s eased a lot of my worries moving forward.
Ah, Master Crop Top Belt… thank you.
“…But seriously, why does this even work?”
Still, I couldn’t help but wonder.
The parries, the dodges, even the dash cancels. From the reactions, it seems like no one else can do this but me. What’s going on?
In the game, I just accepted it, but in this place that’s become so realistic, it doesn’t make sense.
“Ah. No way.”
After thinking for a while, something suddenly clicked.
[Irregular]
[Experimental feature. Please ensure that actual players do not acquire this trait.]
My Irregular trait. Maybe this had something to do with it?
There’s no functional description, but if I had to guess based on the current situation, wasn’t it meant to test giving player-like traits to NPCs? Like for PVP bots or NPCs that players could directly control…?
If the goal was to limit variables in a game with diverse growth conditions and stat restrictions, it would make sense.
Well, I came up with all sorts of guesses, but in the end, it was pointless. If I don’t know, it probably means it never appeared in the game.
If it didn’t appear, it must’ve been a failure.
So, to sum it up… I was created as an experiment but ended up discarded and left as a dummy extra.
I got possessed, and for some reason, thanks to the experimental trait the extra had, I could utilize the game’s system.
Hmm. This is really forced. Even fiction gets roasted for writing like this these days.
‘But it actually happened.’
For real? Is it okay for things to go this well?
But come to think of it, if it weren’t for this trait, I could’ve just grown normally and pulled off some insane moves. Thinking about it, it’s like giving poison and then the antidote. Ugh.
Still, it’s better than nothing. Honestly, this trait? I was confident I could use it better than anyone else.
Dodging in this game isn’t omnipotent. It’s not like you become invincible just by using it; you have to dodge at the exact right timing to activate the ‘Just Dodge’ system.
If you mindlessly spam the dodge like in other games with generous dodge mechanics, you’ll likely get hit mid-dodge and sent flying. Thanks to that, the game’s difficulty was pretty high, and a lot of players quit.
But that wasn’t a problem for me at all.
Who do you think analyzed every attack pattern in this game frame by frame and even made an Excel file for dodge timings?
When I shared that file on the game site, the reaction was literally sensational.
[Are you actually insane?]
[This was a dodgeable pattern?]
[The game company responded.]
ㄴ[What did they say?]
ㄴ[They said he’s crazy.]
ㄴ[True though.]
ㄴ[LOL the game company acknowledged the madman LOLOLOL]
It was really tough, but it caused such a huge impact that I don’t think it was a waste of time.
Now that I’m in this possession situation and have realized that dodging works, even more so.
I’ve regained all the confidence of an experienced player that I had lost earlier. Now, no matter who comes, I’ll win.
So, who’s next?
“Wow, who’s that? She’s ridiculously pretty.”
“Rumor has it she’s from another country. She’s from a fallen royal family.”
“Wow… Rubetia and her, royals really have a different art style.”
Why is she here?
I really don’t get it at all.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Lilith Raphi… no, just Lilith.”
Shouldn’t you be hiding in a convent waiting for the Saintess awakening?
What happened to the special admission for the Saintess? Why are you here taking the entrance exam?
