[Creating your account.]
[To proceed, additional data is required. Would you like to download it? – Wi-Fi usage is recommended.]
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[Tips/The waiting room where heroes gather is called a lobby.]
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[Tips/Heroes can be summoned through the summoning facility.]
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[Tips/Heroes act autonomously in battle.]
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[Tips/After completing the tutorial, you will receive great rewards.]
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[Tips/Heroes can level up through clearing the tower stages or synthesis]
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[Downloading… 537/537: Complete!]
I had never really played mobile games before.
PC and console games were more my style. And between the two, I would say PC suited me better.
Yeah…
Considering I managed to become the number 1 player in a competitive PC game, I would say PC-gaming was more my style.
Mobile games were completely new territory to me.
I had been planning to find a portable game that could occupy my time. And mobile games seemed to suit that purpose.
But why did I have to choose such a hardcore game?
It must be because of that article.
[Top 10 Gamers in Korea! The Best of the Best!]
A local gaming site made a list of pro gamers across various platforms that managed to gain worldwide recognition.
I was featured in their article.
[(#2) 3MPR3SS a.k.a. T1RANT (Warmonger Lords II)]
[Undisputed top player of the award-winning classic rts game Warmonger Lords II. Nicknamed T1RANT, 3MPR3SS has retained their world number 1 spot for the fourth consecutive year.
[…]
Warmonger Lords, or just Warmonger in short, was known for its vast unit rosters, intricate base-building, and complex command system. Warmonger II expanded all the three aspects even more.
Countless strategies were involved in the gameplay, with players kept discovering new meta which made the game remain popular even after 15 years since it launched.
I managed to become the top player because I was able to utilize some of the most difficult units to control in the game.
My best specialty was the Tirannous unit, or Tiran in short, which the gaming community labeled as 'unusable' or 'absolute trash' before I arrived to the Warmonger stage.
Once I massacred all the top rankers with my new Tirannous strat and became the world number 1, people started calling me the 'T1RANT', which also referenced how I used numbers for my username.
I hated when people used that horrible nickname instead of the beautiful '3MPR3SS' that I spent hours to think of.
Anyway, as I went past the feature about me and looked through the article, I found another feature that caught my interest.
[(#5) Loki a.k.a. Master of Masters (Pick Me Up)]
[The number one player in Korea for the hardcore mobile gacha game. Loki is the fifth player in the entire world, first in Korea, that managed to clear the 80th stage of Pick Me Up.
[Approaching its second anniversary, Pick Me Up has become a global phenomenon that…]
For some reason I became fixated in reading that feature of this mobile game called 'Pick Me Up' and its famous player, Loki.
I was so engrossed in reading Loki's experience.
The story of how he became a top ranker in Pick Me Up intrigued me about the game so much that I did not bother to read the rest of the article and began looking this mobile game up in the internet.
And I could see why this game took all my attention to it.
The more I learned about Pick Me Up the more I was fascinated about the game.
Special summoning algorithm where no summoned heroes were copies of one another. Autonomous battle with barely any control from the player. Hardcore stages unique to each account.
As a competitive gamer myself, this Pick Me Up game immediately piqued my interest.
This actually was not the first time I heard of this mobile game.
I was a content creator for Warmonger and my subscribers would occasionally comment about Pick Me Up on my videos and posts.
They would say that I should try Pick Me Up, that I would love it.
Some mentioned how this game was as complex as Warmonger and I would enjoy the game a lot. Some would say it was even way more complex than Warmonger and it might be my new favorite thing.
I did not pay much attention to them since I was still focused with Warmonger and I thought they were simply overhyping this gacha game.
But after actually reading through what I could about Pick Me Up, it seemed there was some merit to their words.
I was at least interested enough that I was willing to download the game.
[Choose your name.]
[2 to 6 characters, spaces/special characters are not allowed.]
[_ ]
A username.
I did not want to use my Warmonger title. Some of my subscribers playing Pick Me Up might recognize me.
They said Pick Me Up was also a hardcore PVP game and could be very harsh to newcomers.
Some of their rankers might come after me because of my reputation in Warmonger.
So I wanted to keep a low profile.
Since that article feature about Loki was the thing that actually made me download Pick Me Up, I better pay an homage to that name.
[Choose your name.]
[2 to 6 characters, spaces/special characters are not allowed.]
[si ]
Sigyn, a friend of victory to Loki.
That would be perfect.
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[Choose your name.]
[2 to 6 characters, spaces/special characters are not allowed.]
[sigyn]
[This name already exists.]
Apparently I was not the only one who thought of this name before.
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[Choose your name.]
[2 to 6 characters, spaces/special characters are not allowed.]
[SIGYN]
[This name already exists.]
Uppercasing the letters were not enough, huh.
Either this Sigyn entity was that popular or there were simply that many fans of Loki.
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[Choose your name.]
[2 to 6 characters, spaces/special characters are not allowed.]
[S1GYN]
[This name is available. Would you like to use it?]
[Yes / No]
I kind of hated that this username resembled my awful nickname in Warmonger.
But I wanted to hold on to that 'sigyn' name. Weirdly enough, I was already attached to it.
So this should do.
[Yes (selected)/ No]
[S1GYN, welcome to the world of Pick Me Up!]
Alright.
Let's see what the hype was all about.
[Would you like to start the tutorial? Upon completion, you will receive a predetermined reward.]
I actually had been reading so much about Pick Me Up that I felt I no longer needed a tutorial.
All the beginner posts in the Pick Me Up forum. All of the early game guide in Ragnar-Loki website.
I had read through all of them while I was learning about the game.
As a gamer, I was aware that a poor start could ruin your entire playthrough.
Warmonger was an rts game where the first few minutes could determine the result of your match. In rankers' duel, the first thirty seconds was already crucial.
And Pick Me Up apparently was quite unforgiving to players that committed mistakes in the beginning of their playthrough. Most of the early game guides mentioned this often.
Apparently a lot of players had to abandon the game at the very beginning because of such fatal early-game mistakes. And they could not simply reset their playthrough since their Pick Me Up account was linked to their device.
So that was why I spent a lot of time watching videos and reading guide blogs from Pick Me Up content creators.
[10 things I wish I knew before playing Pick Me Up]
[20 things I wish I knew before playing Pick Me Up]
[50 things I wish….]
[100 things I wish…]
[1000 things I wish…]
There were hours of videos and dozens of blog posts covering that theme made by Pick Me Up veterans.
It took me a whole week to go over them all.
That Loki player was the one that created the 50, 100, and 1000 items blog posts in the official forum.
I learned a lot from their guide articles compared to the other content creators.
The official forum mentioned Loki was the one to go to for advices about Pick Me Up. Apparently no other player knew the game better than this guy.
Would definitely refer to their guide from this point on.
Anyway, even though I had learned what I needed to know to start my account, I was still interested with that tutorial reward.
So let's just do that.
[Would you like to start the tutorial? Upon completion, you will receive a predetermined reward.]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
A cinematic of a burning village started playing on my phone screen.
[In a small village of the Shalju region, there was a young man named 'Jonah Brohm.']
The graphics for Pick Me Up was quite standard for a mobile game.
It had this neat style unique to the crpg genre.
The forum said all the accounts in the Korean server had the typical fantasy Middle-Ages european theme.
But I saw a screenshot once from an account in the Chinese server. Apparently their Pick Me Up had a wuxia theme which revolves around martial arts and eastern culture.
I wondered why we could not choose the theme ourselves.
Granted, I was more accustomed to western culture since Warmonger was mainly influenced by it as well.
But it would be nice to have the option.
[Dunia, the continent where humans lived alongside other species.]
[An unknown enemy was invading this land!]
[You, Master! If you wish to save the world, climb the tower!]
[Many heroes will join you!]
The screen suddenly displayed a ruined square with burning huts all around.
A plain swordsman and a goblin stood in the square.
And the game began.
[Tutorial Quest 1]
[Defeat the goblin invading the village!]
So the objective was for my hero, which I assumed to be that man with the sword, to kill that goblin over there.
[Combat will automatically proceed.]
[Watch a high class battle performed by the hero's AI!]
The posts in the official forum were not kidding when they said players could not directly control the heroes.
There were no control or command tabs whatsoever.
Do I really just watch the battle unfold?
[Goblin Lv.1]
It was just a level one creature. Typical tutorial enemy.
But could my hero take it down?
He did not seem to have any armor.
Frankly he did not seem like a hero at all. Just a regular villager armed with a sword.
['Jonah (★)' has fallen into the state of fear. All stats decreased by 30%!]
The guides did say we would begin the game with a weak 1-star hero.
Apparently it was normal for a low-rank hero to feel afraid during battle. That was just how they were programmed to behave.
['Jonah (★)' is no longer in a state of fear.]
Ooh, nice!
Loki made a mention in his guide to look out for 1-star heroes that could get themselves out of a mental debuff state.
It was an indicator that they were a cut above the other 1-stars.
We shall see how much truth there was to his words.
The hero Jonah immediately charged toward the goblin.
He engaged the creature and swung his sword around.
The battle was not as magnificent and straightforward as I thought it would be, however.
Tutorial battle usually ended quickly in a flashy manner.
But this hero fought against the goblin for quite a while.
His attacks missed the monster quite often. He did not seem very good handling the sword.
His skill level must be very low. Another important parameter of Pick Me Up.
But I supposed it was to be expected from a 1-star unit.
['Jonah (★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. His stamina will be reduced for a period of time.]
The goblin managed to wound the hero.
I read a number of times that heroes could heal themselves if they had healing potions with them.
But apparently this hero did not have any. Or he would've used it by now.
Thankfully the hero managed to kill the goblin despite his injured state.
[Stage Clear!]
['Jonah (★)' levelled up!]
[MVP – 'Jonah (★)']
[Rewards have been given. Please check your mailbox.]
We managed to clear the first hurdle.
Though it was truly all the hero's doing. I did not do anything in that battle earlier.
Loki said a master could involve themselves in battle by using a special facility in the game.
That being said, he warned a master's involvement might make things worse for the heroes if they did not know what they were doing.
Even though I was known for my expertise in Warmonger's complex command system, it would be foolish to disregard a veteran's advice in this entirely new game.
So I would just sit back and observe the battles for now.
Anyway, what did we get from the first tutorial quest?
A hundred thousand gold and five hundred gems.
According to the guides, this much resources could get me ten regular summoning and one advanced summoning.
[Master, will you summon a comrade before the next stage?]
Just as I was thinking about it.
Summoning was one of the main features of Pick Me Up.
I was quite looking forward to this myself.
[Touch the 'Summon' tab in the menu!]
[The first summoning is free! 500 gems for one advanced summoning have been given!]
Usually in gacha games, the first summoning was rigged to summon a high-ranked hero to interest new players.
Comments in the official forum said Pick Me Up was the same.
Click!
[I'm excited to see what hero will appear!]
[DRRRRRR…]
I wondered what kind of hero I would obtain.
Some guide posts said the first advanced hero a player obtained would determine their entire run in Pick Me Up.
It was very true for Loki since apparently he only managed to summon one 4-star hero in his entire playthrough. He never obtained another 4-star or higher-ranked heroes through his summoning.
I hoped I was not as unlucky.
[Clack! Thud! Boom!]
[Wait, this feeling?]
[!★!Super!★!Rare!★!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Serafina (★★★★)'!]