Chapter 59

Posted by Kuze, ? Views, Released on March 2, 2025

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The arenas of the World of Arsteria are divided into 1vs1, 3vs3, and 6vs6 formats.

Among them, 3vs3 was an event-type game mode without a ranked system, akin to the “Howling Abyss” in League of Legends, while the one-on-one solo rank and six-on-six arena rank were the main focus of the players.

However, the arena system of World of Arsteria did not have all players starting with identical stats and potential like “League of Legends” or the already defunct “Heroes of the Storm 2.”

The minimum requirement to participate in the arena is a combat power of 10,000.

This means that characters raised in story mode must reach at least 10,000 combat power to enter the arena.

Taking Silver 2, the median rank of the arena, as an example:

Players in this tier usually start the game with characters having combat power between 20,000 and 25,000.

While the detailed stats could vary widely among players, the combat power provided by World of Arsteria became a reasonable indicator to predict win rates in one-on-one scenarios.

Even the same warrior might be born with 1000 attack power in one case and 1150 in another, effectively holding one more sword.

If we assume that these differences grow uniformly, the gap widens significantly with each level up.

Of course, the developers placed various mechanisms to ensure that players’ fatigue wouldn’t be solely focused on character cultivation.

A representative example was a system that automatically adjusted and raised the combat power of characters when players achieved consecutive wins or exceptional performances in ranked games.

Additionally, there were systems in place to ensure that popular but undesirable classes for team play were placed at lower ranks, whereas essential but unpopular classes were placed higher, allowing for point adjustments based on wins or losses.

Yet, limitations existed.

Assuming a player with exceptional physical and intellectual skills managed to break into the top 10% with a character boasting a combat power of 20,000.

This player would still be matched against monsters with 40,000 combat power.

At this point, the player inevitably had to return to story mode to create a new character.

Since they had sufficient potential to be placed in Platinum rank with a combat power of 20,000.

The PvP-trained physical skills would help clear the story smoothly, leading to the creation of characters with higher combat power than before.

And when trying out the new character’s abilities in the arena again,

The stagnated rank score would again rise exponentially.

[Streaming has started: 0:00:01 – No Name]

Indeed, World of Arsteria seemed to thoroughly understand the flaws of AOS and the cognitive biases humans possess.

People enjoy fair competition and winning based on that. But in reality, it isn’t quite so.

People prefer games that “appear fair.”

The reason AOS-type games have become popular is that everyone starts with the same currency at the same time from the same starting line.

Unlike MMORPGs, where after creating a character, one might never have to face hardcore players equipped with a full set of gear worth millions.

But what if, from the game’s early stages, you invaded and scored a “pentakill,” starting the lane with 1,600 gold?

Your smile would reach the sky.

Because it would be a game that everyone acknowledged as fair from the very beginning.

[Broadcast Time – 0:02:14]

[Viewer Count – 147]

The effects of asymmetrical power politics due to combat power had more implications.

It served as a good medium to deflect stress from losses onto external factors.

Games like Go, Shogi, Chess, and StarCraft are perfect one-on-one skill games.

If you lose, it is solely based on one’s skill, which imposes significant stress, especially on highly competitive individuals.

However, because AOS is a team game, players could easily shift blame onto others, allowing them to shake off their frustrations and prompt a return to the next game.

But what if they could also blame combat power?

If you win, it was due to skill, and if you lost, it was because your combat power was low.

[Broadcast Time – 0:03:58]

[Viewer Count – 189]

Finally, the gradual improvement in ranks:

Surprisingly, it’s difficult to visually discern progress in AOS by tier.

A game you thought was Bronzed might actually be a game for Diamonds, or vice versa.

But with the system in World of Arsteria, each tier was clearly distinguished, and people’s ranks could not gradually rise due to inherent limits related to combat power.

In other words, as long as you completed a stronger character than before in story mode,

Progressing in rank was essentially guaranteed.

People are more vulnerable to sudden bursts of pleasure rather than continuous rewards.

Like gambling.

Certainly, to surpass a game that hasn’t moved from its top spot for decades, having an intricate system was indispensable.

Having analyzed this, just how fun is “Resonance”?

I’ve heard it’s a shooting game where you fight while draped in an aura, but that doesn’t seem to be my cup of tea.

After all, it was a languid Sunday afternoon.

Today, I planned merely to learn about World of Arsteria.

The subquests I did with Lara might be enjoyable from a playing perspective, but watching might be quite different.

[Broadcast Time – 0:06:45]

[Viewer Count – 412]

[Welcome to the chatroom! (The early freeze will be released due to timeout.)]

-1111

-1111111111

-1

-ㅎㅇ Long time no see

-This guy freezes the chatroom every time he comes in

-You haven’t been streaming lately, so all the viewers dropped off

“Nice to meet you.”

[Would you like to connect to the World of Arsteria?]

[The current broadcast has been ongoing for 0:07:13. Would you like to continue?]

[May the blessing of the World Tree be with you.]

-World of Arsteria?

-You said you weren’t playing games?

-For real? How long has it been?

-Let’s change tags to gather viewers

[‘Save the Grad Student’ donated 1,000 won!]

-Wow No Name, it’s been a long time!! Are you actually playing World of Arsteria today?

“Yes, I decided to start playing from today.”

I didn’t forget to change the tags.

The moment “World of Arsteria” was added to the originally just chatting description, the viewers’ reactions were heated.

-LOL was a total mess, haahahaha

-You’re not playing LOL anymore? I set alarms to watch Arsteria.

-Can someone who has only been playing LOL all their life adapt to a fantasy setting?

-Newbie, newbie

-I’m already drooling at the thought of offering advice.

-What class will you choose?

-Tank? Assassin?

-At the root, I’m a warrior or mage.

“Today, I’m just going to have a taste. Also, I’ve completed the prologue.”

I figured I’d find out if I could switch to solo in the middle once I entered the game.

Since I wasn’t proceeding with the main story yet, it might be fine, right?

[‘Save the Grad Student’ donated 10,000 won!]

-Because of you, No Name, the arena meta has become chaotic. There are so many paladins, it’s no joke.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

Neither I nor the viewers understood what was said.

Multiple question marks filled the chat window.

-I used to be a World of Arsteria user, so I wrote a guide for paladins previously.

-I made a scroll of the dimensional descent method you introduced in an earlier broadcast.

-If you have just one of those, anyone can raise their magic levels by one circle.

-Combat power is dramatically inflated across all classes, and even the healer class has become usable.

-The arena has turned into total mayhem, sometimes it’s 6 tanks vs 6 healers.

-I figured it would be blocked, but they didn’t even implement an emergency patch.

I followed the link sent by a viewer.

[World of Arsteria New Meta ‘I Alone Am a Paladin’ (serious/long post)]

As he mentioned, there was an incomplete scroll with a dimension descent formula that was similar to what I had previously shown in a broadcast.

Its download count was already in the hundreds of thousands.

-Wait, there was this?

-While hundreds of thousands are downloading this, what were you doing? Haha

-No wonder I’m in Silver in World of Arsteria, but whenever I try the arena, everyone’s combat power is ridiculously high.

-For real, that’s why I thought the new story must have been released.

-It seems no one has truly experienced World of Arsteria; only LOL players are left here, haha.

Feeling curious, I entered the stat search site and associated it with the viewer’s nickname.

[Search: Save the Grad Student]

[Save the Grad Student Challenger / Arena Ranking 70 / Top 0.00074%]

“You’re doing great. I’ll be counting on you a lot when I play.”

Having an expert in my stream felt like an incredible stroke of luck, as if I had recruited a free teaching assistant.

From now on, whenever there’s something I don’t know while gaming, I should keep asking that person.

-Challenger???

-You immediately checked the stat search, that’s scary.

-Twish, you need to remove this quickly; advising should be live, or it ruins the vibe of the chatroom.

-That’s because you’re in Bronze, Silver, or Gold, ^^.

-So, is Bronze, Silver, or Gold a chatroom issue?

“By the way, can you use the scrolls in the game?”

Isn’t that a bit too overpowered?

-You can initially carry only one, and there’s a cooldown.

-Still, since it raises the level by a full circle, even if I have to memorize and use the other spells, I have to use it.

-Those studying and struggling kids will be forced to study magic now instead of just using Blink. Haha.

-This is what makes the game correct.

The scroll slot was fixed to one from the very beginning.

Well, who has the time to draw magic circles while in combat?

The game needed to be treated as a game.

The creator’s original intent was to include spells needed for future battles at save points to introduce variability, but players already identified the usefulness of the spell “Flash” in LOL, and it ended up being saturated with first-circle “Blink” spells.

So much so that the majority would refer to it not as a scroll slot but as a “Blink” slot.

In fact, “Blink” boasted extreme efficiency for a first-circle spell in the game, so even holding up to three laurel leaves often left the slot unused.

[Duos are released: ‘Warrior Aura’]

[Warning: Once you enter the main story, you cannot reconnect to the party. Do you still wish to disband the party?]

[The party has been disbanded.]

[This character can now be used in rank matches.]

What did the viewers want, the story or the arena?

I would only know by trying. I couldn’t foresee everything.

[‘Save the Grad Student’ donated 10,000 won!]

-No Name, it’s your first game, but how did you set the difficulty?

“Can you set the difficulty separately?”

I had never seen such a line.

Due to previously forcing the game to close, I found myself waking up at the checkpoint lodging.

Opening the slightly creaky old door, the people of “Abyss” focused their attention on me.