I Became the Goddess of a New World

Basically, Akare’s game difficulty is tough.

To be precise, it took a long time to ‘adapt’ to virtual reality.

Even when I tried to fight thinking it was just a game,

the reality of Akare felt like stepping into another world.

Violence. Combat. Killing. Death. All these fears pierced through.

Most people couldn’t cope with such things.

Of course, Akare isn’t just about combat content.

If you put your mind to it, you could travel to a new world.

Fishing, mining, logging, farming, and so on…

There were even lifestyle activities for those who dislike combat.

Most importantly, as you engage in lifestyle activities and adventures, your experience builds naturally.

Over time, your character’s specs would rise accordingly,

designing it to help overcome the difficulties and fears of combat.

However, this only applied to the early to mid-stages of progression.

As you approached end content, Akare showed a peculiar rise in difficulty.

This was already a discussed issue during the Elder Lich Raid,

and the same problems were emerging in the Twisted World Tree Raid.

[Akashic Record Gallery]

―――

[Title] Did they create the Forest Guardian pattern for fun?

(Twisted World Tree Raid certification pic)

First, I’ll certify the advance team.

It’s been over a day, and we still can’t get past the Forest Guardian’s pattern.

The morale of my party is dropping, and the atmosphere is slowly turning sour.

At this rate, we’ll just disband and all face a dead-end ending.

What makes it worse is that there’s a party that cleared that pattern.

Recommended 2560 Disliked 360

―――

[Comment 1461]

Can’t get past this? Blaming the game!

ㄴ(Author) You idiot!

ㄴHaha!

ㄴScratched? Lol

ㄴThat’s a tasty response!

ㄴTemplate performance is certainly something.

―――

1st checkpoint, Forest Guardian pattern.

Known as the ultimate hellish pattern.

Among the advance teams, the Twisted Forest Guardian pattern was called that.

It was that difficult to break.

Only a handful of parties, including the Major Corporation Party, managed to clear it.

If no party could clear it, we would start forming opinions and rally the community against the developers.

But unfortunately, the most famous party cleared it first,

with hundreds of thousands watching the spectacle,

so no negative sentiment formed like, “Is the Forest Guardian pattern really that hard? Did the developers not even test it?”

Whenever such sentiments started to form, rebukes erupted, saying, “But the Major Corporation Party cleared it, right? Isn’t it a lack of skill on your part?”

There was an insurmountable gap between watching through streams and actually participating in raids.

That gap prevented the community’s opinions from unifying.

―――

[Title] ???: Is Akare really that hard…?

(Aurora with a question mark over her head meme)

“I soloed the Dark Mage’s cradle.”

“I even beat the number one Warrior and Mage in rankings.”

“I received a respect from the number one Warrior.”

“I soloed the Malice-Infested Place.”

“I cleared the Elder Lich Raid with just two players.”

“Is Akare really such an easy game?”

“Is it really that the difficulty is hard?”

(Smirking Aurora meme)

“Isn’t it your skill that’s lacking?”

Recommended 2691 Disliked 1022

―――

[Comment 1245]

Isn’t this about streamer Pera?

ㄴWake up!

ㄴWhat are you talking about?

ㄴYou just…

ㄴStop exaggerating.

Dislike manipulation? What’s that?

ㄴDamn.

ㄴBitch.

ㄴBut is it manipulation?

ㄴThe public sentiment is stirring.

ㄴAdvance team members seem seriously pissed off.

ㄴHonestly, it does look hard. Lol

―――

But perhaps due to the cruel difficulty,

the once easily quelled sentiments of the advance team grew stronger.

In fact, this was somewhat predictable.

Sooner or later, everyone would reach the Twisted World Tree Raid.

Above all, related posts were continuously flaring up in communities outside of the Akagallery,

and of course, few people limited themselves to just one community, so related posts were bound to emerge.

Watching all this unfold, I sighed.

“Ummm… What should I do?”

The reason the advance team was furious was simple.

The twisted Forest Guardian’s horrid difficulty.

A solution for this? Simple.

Normalize the difficulty curve right away.

It was simple but not at all easy.

You can’t just change it like running a notebook RPG.

Let’s say I immediately nerf the pattern.

What happens to those who already cleared the Twisted Forest Guardian’s pattern?

If the developer’s intervention narrows the gap with later joiners, it would ultimately be an act of unfairness.

“No nerfing.”

Muttering that, I moved to the Akashic Record server room.

The scenery within the server room resembled a library.

Though it was called a server room, it was merely a crummy version of the actual Akashic Record.

Everything happening in Akare is recorded here.

I gathered the desired data with the authority of the creator

and visualized countless data into graphs.

What appeared in the graphs contained shocking content.

“Feels dizzy…”

The entry level for the Twisted World Tree Raid is level 80.

Difficulty was designed in accordance with that level.

Meanwhile, the specs of the advance team currently challenging the raid were all below that.

“So this is what it looks like when diving in right after hitting entry level…”

If they hit level 80, they should have equipped suitable gear

and also inherit stat boosts, right?

Yet, most of the parties currently trialing only reached level 80 but essentially stayed within the level 70 range for specs.

And they complain that the difficulty of the Twisted World Tree is too hard.

“How deceitful…”

No, that’s not it.

I should be patient.

It’s true, the difficulty is hard, isn’t it?

But this problem could be solved over time.

If the statistics for the Forest Guardian’s pattern remain abnormal, it would still be appropriate to adjust the difficulty later.

“A stream like that would be nice.”

While reviewing the overall stats, an idea suddenly struck me.

Pagu.

Like a single user elevating the performance of an entire team of Warriors.

If I conduct a guided stream or something similar,

I could offer help to countless users, right?

Yeah, this is it.

No matter how I think about it, it was a brilliant idea.

“I have the talent for teaching.”

Although my mentor often told me something like, “Don’t take on disciples,” until the point where my ears got callused,

that was merely a reflection of my lack of knowledge and experience back then.

But now? I’m a creator’s authority owner.

I’ve got as much confidence in knowledge as anyone,

and seeing how Sweet’s magic skills drastically improved in no time with just a few pointers last time,

it was clear I had an extraordinary talent for teaching.

“It would be an international waste to leave such talent unused.”

That said, I didn’t plan to start streaming immediately.

I didn’t have the time to spare anyway, and it didn’t seem like the right moment.

“Ugh… It’s tomorrow.”

Global service.

Tomorrow, the service is set to launch in the USA and a few European countries.

Of course, due to it being global service,

these would be independent servers separate from the domestic server.

Still, once things progressed to the same point in time, I planned to push for server consolidation.

Imagining the sight of people from around the world facing the new raid together and competing,

for now, it was merely a thought.

But I looked forward to the day when imagination would become reality.

As I reached for the towering pile of documents, I took a brief rest.

***

Day 5 of the Twisted World Tree Raid.

Though the Major Corporation Party had already cleared the first checkpoint long ago,

their tension was half shattered once they entered the ‘real’ checkpoint.

“Let’s take a break for a bit.”

With Master Kim’s declaration of a break, Suzuka and Pagu slumped down.

“Master, I’ve been thinking…”

With the leader, Master Kim sitting, Sweet, who remained standing, approached and continued,

“I think the premise was faulty from the start.”

“The premise was faulty?”

Currently, the Major Corporation Party was stuck

at the ‘Twisted Nightmare’ pattern.

In this pattern, each party member was banished to a different space

and had to defeat the doppelgangers waiting there.

The problem was that the specs of the doppelgangers were set slightly higher than the players,

and in the same environment, you could never win against your doppelganger.

“Before the pattern started, I swapped some gear with a cursed item.”

Cursed items, a.k.a. cursed gear,

refers to items that impose debuffs on the wearer.

“But the doppelganger wasn’t affected by any curses?”

The cursed item Sweet wore was the ‘Cloak of the Slayer.’

It inflicted the debuff ‘Guilt’ on the wearer,

which dealt fixed damage of 1% of max health each second.

Meaning, Sweet could recover health with potions while dodging,

and once she ran low, she planned to finish it all with a single spell.

Unfortunately, the doppelganger remained unaffected by the debuff.

“My first hypothesis: It’s immune to debuffs.”

This is incorrect.

Debuffs like freeze, burn, stun, or blindness are already proven to apply to doppelgangers.

“My second hypothesis: It only copies appearances.”

If the doppelganger’s specs were fixed and simply copied appearances without effect,

“That holds some truth.”

Pagu, who had been quietly watching, reinforced Sweet’s hypothesis.

“The doppelganger has never been stronger.”

Once, due to Suzuka’s blunder, Pagu did not receive a buff.

If the doppelganger had copied everything from a player,

it would normal for it to weaken if not granted a buff.

Yet doppelgangers that Pagu faced remained exactly the same regardless.

With the arguments from Sweet and Pagu, Master Kim pondered deeply.

Then suddenly, one fact struck him hard.

“What gear is everyone wearing?”

At Master Kim’s question, the party members named their gear.

“The highest is 80-level gear. The lowest is 65-level gear…”

Currently, 80-level gear was very rare.

Even the Major Corporation Party had no 80-level gear other than the ‘Nature’s Form’ that Master Kim obtained.

In fact, Master Kim, wearing Nature’s Form, sometimes did manage to win against the doppelganger.

“It was just a pure size difference…”

The place where Master Kim obtained Nature’s Form was near the center of Elderheim.

‘Nature’s Habitat’ was a hunting ground for corrupted spirits.

The level of the corrupted spirits was fixed at level 75.

Applying the appropriate level range meant between levels 70 to 80,

meaning gear items within that level range could drop.

“It seems we need at least two pieces of 80-level gear to even give it a good shot.”

Convinced that he had found a solution, Master Kim halted the raid.