If one were to ask what the greatest difference is between the battlefield and a game,

I would say that the battlefield is far more restrictive than a game.

Since every player is not given the same Item combination formula, one must construct their deck according to the formulas they possess.

Because the roster of champions is not fixed, the direction of a deck shifts depending on which champions with specific skills appear.

It is only natural that restrictive circumstances yield limited deck compositions.

The same held true for gold.

With an insufficient gold income, leveling up was difficult, and investing money into the shop was a struggle.

Let me provide an example.

It is certain that 5-Cost Champions exist within the battlefield, but an average player would never have the opportunity to see one.

That is because 5-Cost Champions only appear in the level 9 shop.

When barely any players even reach level 8 before the battlefield concludes, expecting them to reach level 9?

It was nothing short of a polite way of saying it was impossible.

However, since someone had confirmed it, the fact that 5-Cost Champions appeared in the level 9 shop must have been brought to light.

How was this even possible?

As previously stated, the battlefield was by no means a fair fight for everyone.

From Item combination formulas to Original champions, and even Augmentation Bodies.

Ah, right. Augmentation Bodies.

It was something only made possible with an Augmentation Body.

The effects of an Augmentation Body cannot be defined by a single metric.

Some Augmentation Bodies enhanced the abilities of a shieldbearer, others altered the probabilities within the shop, and some even provided additional gold income.

Of course, possessing an Augmentation Body was not unconditionally beneficial.

Lower-grade Augmentation Bodies came with penalties proportional to their benefits, and for those lacking skill, an Augmentation Body was worse than having none at all.

But one thing was certain: with an Augmentation Body, one could formulate new strategies that would otherwise be impossible.

And the greatest advantage was that these strategies possessed far more destructive power compared to others.

In other words, rolling a 5-Cost Champion without an Augmentation Body was an impossible feat.

Then, excluding 5-Cost Champions, what champion could exert the greatest power in the battlefield?

According to conventional wisdom, it would be a 4-Cost champion.

However, standing above even them were 3-star champions.

This held true even if the subject was a 1-Cost champion.

Even excluding the gold required to refresh the shop.

9 gold to purchase nine 1-Cost champions.

9 gold to combine them into three 2-star champions.

And finally, 9 gold to perform the 3-star champion enhancement.

In total, it consumed 27 gold to create a single champion, and the champion forged in this manner possessed unparalleled power.

It meant that simply by appearing, they could become a tempest that would completely overturn the tide of the battlefield.

Boom-!

A storm raged.

A natural phenomenon caused by mana rapidly converging on a single point.

At its center stood ‘Shieldbearer Lee Shin.’

“… …”

Standing at the center of the storm, I stared blankly up at the sky.

Whooosh-!

Even for someone like me who could not sense mana, it was impossible not to feel the natural phenomenon unfolding across the battlefield at this moment.

At this moment, Ariel’s words echoed in my mind.

[“Pure mana possesses no inherent purpose. The name ‘mana’ merely denotes a form of energy; how that energy is utilized depends entirely on the user’s intent.”]

To me, lacking any background knowledge on the subject, those words had only felt perplexing.

I did not know how to manipulate mana.

That was only natural.

I was born and raised in a place devoid of mana. Even if I understood the concept of mana, I could not perceive it.

[“Mana without purpose does not cause any phenomena. It merely exists.”]

Whooosh-!

Boom-!

But now, I understood.

What mana with purpose truly meant.

The mana storm registered vividly against my skin and senses.

The true nature of this storm was mana, and feeling it was synonymous with feeling mana itself.

Yes, for the first time, I perceived the physical form of mana that I had only ever grasped intellectually.

Borrowing this very moment.

[“The easiest way to imbue mana with purpose is by utilizing the mana within your own body. It merely requires a simple procedure of projecting your will.”]

Even now, those words did not resonate with me.

If a fish were to teach a human how to breathe underwater, could the human simply follow along?

It was impossible.

They were simply not born that way.

Even if I could perceive mana, the fact that I could not manipulate it was an absolute truth that would never change.

[“However, Battlefield Mana is a little different.”]

Let me think about it.

The battlefield was a virtual world detached from reality.

It was a space where different rules from reality applied.

[“Unlike natural mana, Battlefield Mana already possesses an assigned purpose.”]

It might resemble reality, but the battlefield was never reality.

A virtual space designed with specific intent.

Therefore, the properties of mana could also be configured virtually.

Humans could not breathe underwater.

But what if, in a virtual world, there was a setting where all living creatures could breathe underwater?

[“A reward for action. That is the property inherent in Battlefield Mana. Every time attacks are exchanged, it serves to restore a certain amount of mana.”]

I had simply failed to notice it because it felt so natural.

I was already manipulating mana.

Even if it was ‘Battlefield Mana,’ slightly different from the mana of reality.

At that moment, a thought occurred to me.

Ariel had said she could feel battlefield Mana within my body.

Battlefield Mana, which should only exist in a virtual space, was present within my real, physical body.

[“It does not pose an issue within the battlefield. As it is a virtual space, the properties of mana naturally change to align with the rules of the battlefield.”]

For battlefield Mana to retain its form in reality was an absurd notion.

It was akin to finding a ‘+9 Executioner’s Sword’ from a game in the real world.

Was such a thing possible?

At that moment, a hypothesis came to mind.

– The battlefield and reality exist on the exact same world line.

If the battlefield was not a completely virtual space, but rather a dimension connected to reality, then the statement held true.

However, there was one aspect I could not comprehend.

Was it not strange that this only happened to me?

There had to be more than one or two people who had experienced the battlefield, yet this phenomenon occurred solely for me?

Statistically, it made no sense.

Which meant there had to be another reason…

The single, solitary difference between me and everyone else.

The fact that I was a player while simultaneously being a champion.

It seemed that this uniqueness was what had generated such a phenomenon.

Why, out of the countless people in the world, did this only happen to me?

The memory of discovering Hans’s death.

I recalled the day I became a player.

That day, a message had appeared before me.

<You have been logged out. Would you like to log in again?>

Upon seeing the message, I had pressed the ‘Yes’ button as if possessed by something.

Without a moment’s hesitation.

And that day, I learned in what format a Player’s qualification existed.

Imagine there was a game called ‘Battlefield.’

To connect to the game, one would need to create an ID.

The true identity of this ID was the Player’s qualification.

And that ID was a unique identification number assigned to an individual.

As the player named Hans died, Hans’s ID was naturally logged out.

If logged out, one would need to log back in.

However, because Hans’s Device was damaged, connecting to the battlefield was impossible.

From Hans’s wrist. Light spilled from the broken Device and flowed toward my Device.

And then, this message appeared.

<Connection unavailable. Searching for an accessible device.>

<Synchronizing…>

Since connection was impossible through Hans’s Device, it sought out a functional Device nearby.

It was the process of the game called ‘Battlefield’ installing itself onto my Device.

Under normal circumstances, this would not have been an issue.

Even if the game installed, without an ID, one could not connect.

However, an event occurred that even the architect of the battlefield had failed to anticipate.

<An accessible ID has been found.>

The fact that an ID already existed within me.

How was this possible?

A game was not reality.

But the person playing the game was.

Me, in reality.

Then, in a world where the game had become reality, what was the current me?

None other than a player.

At first, I thought I had entered the world within the game.

But I soon had to abandon that thought.

There were far too many differences between the battlefield and a game to consider them the same.

Thus, I was left with no choice but to reach a conclusion.

This world was merely another world that masqueraded as a game.

But I was wrong.

That day, I was able to realize the truth.

That this was not simply a world similar to a game…

But a future world where countless things had changed in the process.

That it was a world of the future.

<Updating…>

The Update could be seen as a process of synchronizing my existence with this world.

In this world, there existed a virtual world called the ‘Battlefield,’ distinct from reality.

However, if during the Update process, my existence had been synchronized with both reality and the battlefield.

Then it explained how I had become both a champion and a player.

In reality, I was the 1-Cost Shieldbearer Lee Shin.

And in the battlefield, I was the player Lee Shin.

Because two entities that should have been separate merged into one, such a phenomenon could occur.

– The battlefield and reality exist on the exact same world line.

That was a statement that applied exclusively to me.

‘You said there was battlefield Mana within my body.’

I did not know how to manipulate mana.

But within the battlefield, I was an exception.

In the battlefield, mana filled my body just by exchanging attacks. Because battlefield Mana itself was imbued with that specific purpose.

Then, would the same not hold true for reality?

Somehow, I felt like I knew how to utilize battlefield Mana.

Boom-!

The storm was subsiding.

The process of becoming a 3-star champion was also a form of enlightenment, which allowed me to feel and comprehend many things during the transition.

‘Did other champions also gain such enlightenment?’

Probably not.

Because something from a virtual world should not have any influence on reality.

But I was a player and a champion.

Because I was an entity where what should have been separate was merged into one, I was able to attain this enlightenment.

I had reached a realm I normally could not access, and thus gained enlightenment fitting of that realm.

Even if it was temporary power, an amount of power like this would leave some remnants even after the battlefield concluded.

‘So this is what remained in my body.’

The remnants of power that had not fully dissipated even after the battlefield ended.

That was the source of the battlefield Mana Ariel had discovered within my body.

Being able to trace the cause and effect of all these events was also because my cognitive abilities had surged dramatically upon becoming a 3-star champion.

The sensation was vastly different from when I had become a 2-star champion.

Even with my eyes closed, I could feel everything around me.

The movements of the champions, their gazes, their pulses.

Every flow of the battlefield was felt against my skin and senses.

Glint.

A blue light blazed fiercely within my eyes.

Shhhh-

A red heat haze rose from my body.

It was a phenomenon caused by uncontrolled mana leaking outward, but it had its own charm.

I had succeeded in creating the 3-star champion I had so desperately desired.

But the first thought that crossed my mind was worry.

If the remnants of mana left behind when I was a 2-star champion had been difficult to endure, how much power would remain now that I was a 3-star champion?

Would I truly be able to withstand it?

I checked my status through my Device.

Lee Shin (★★★) – 9G

– Shieldbearer

– Health: 625/625

– Mana: 0/80

– Skill: Solid Exoskeleton (★★★): Obtains a shield that absorbs damage for 15 seconds. The shield applies 100% of maximum health.

Because my base stats were abysmal, becoming a 3-star champion did not bring about any dramatic changes.

However, stats could not represent everything.

Now that I had become a 3-star champion, many changes had occurred within me.