Last updated on August 23rd, 2023 at 05:15 pm
The Challenger is a series based on Park Neo, who has been a coward in real life but somehow managed to summon up the courage and step out of his shell in the game Heroes of the Time.
The game is the most popular worldwide and has millions of fans and players worldwide; various agencies are hiring players to play for them, compete, and win prizes.
Fairytale Academy is the goal of every gamer who wishes to excel in esports and wants to become a player who is well-known around the globe. However, less than 1% of active players can be cut.
Park, whose parents passed away when he was a child, has lived a life of tremendous difficulties and finally has a chance to break his sh*t life and make a name for himself.
The series has 52 chapters, which are collectible and known as Season 1, and Season 2 is already in production and can be expected soon.
Table of Contents
The Challenger Wiki:
| Name: | The Challenger |
| Writer: | Toono Nooto |
| First Serialization: | 2021 |
| Status: | Hiatus |
| Genre: | Gaming, Action |
In the 2000s, a new virtual reality system called Metaverse was introduced, vastly changing future events in gaming, business, medicine, and other industries. Financial, arts and other industries also saw a tremendous boom.
In all of this, a particular game was creating waves in the community, and that was none other than the famous MMORPG game Heroes of the Time. It also had a short form, “H.O.T.,” which the players often used.
Lee Hyunjoong is the latest prodigy in the game and is often referred to as the best middle schooler and one of the best players ever to play the game. However, he is filled with ego and hatred for the weak.
Instead of helping them to get stronger, he picks on and bullies them without breaking them to the point where they break and stop believing in themselves and becoming his servants.
Due to his personality, he does not have many friends, and the ones he has are there only for his money and would leave instantly if he ever did something stupid or stopped splashing out the cash.
Result
On the other hand, there is one person that Lee wants to crush completely: the number 2 player in the game, Ark, who is making a name for himself in the community as one of the best talents.
Seeing someone else get the spotlight has rattled his ego, and he wishes to humiliate him in the upcoming 1v1 tournament, where the finals are set for Ark vs. Skull Crusher, a.k.a. Lee.
The final begins with Lee being overconfident in his abilities and attacking without any break; to his surprise, Ark is not baffled by it even a bit and is smiling the whole time, making him feel inferior.
Ark attacks him for the first time and ends up sealing the victory. As multiple clan owners and investors watch the tournament, Ark becomes famous while every organization tries to secure him.
Now that he has defeated the prodigy, he knows he will be a hot topic in the world and tries to keep a low profile so that nobody finds out his true identity or where he lives and studies.
Difficulties
The professor of the world-renewed fairy tale academy takes an interest in his profile and visits him personally in the game to see whether he is a prodigy or is using illegal methods.
As he spots Ark, he attacks him from his blind spot, but due to Ark’s high synchro rate with the game, he reacts with light speed but lacks the physical methods to stop him from getting hit.
After thoroughly examining him, the professor recommends him for the particular exam to gain entry into the fairytale academy and personally trains him for three months.
His training partner is Carrie, a likewise recommended student by the professor. Now that Noa has finally gotten the chance to prove his worth, he decides to take the exam and give it his all.
However, he competes with 19 other students trained physically and mentally to become e-sports players. In contrast, Ark has just started playing seriously.
The Challenger Characters:
1)Lee Hyunjoong
Lee Hyunjoong is the most well-known middle schooler in the game Heroes of the Time and is known as a skull crusher in the gaming world.
He holds the record for not getting hit once in his fights. He is also super rich and good in sports and academics, and his only flaw is his habit of bullying the weak and looking down on people who don’t like him.
His ego broke when Ark humiliated him in the biggest tournament in front of millions of viewers and treated him like he treated others.
2) Park Noa
Park Noa is the series’ main character and is also known in-game as Ark. Before participating in the tournament; he was a nobody. However, after he defeated Lee in the tournament final and became the world’s best middle schooler, he was all over the media. He is timid and constantly bullied, but he has decided to change his thinking.
However, due to his fantastic talent and high synchro rate, he has a chance of becoming the greatest Heroes of the Time player ever.
3) Professor
The professor is one of the teachers at the most well-reputed school in the world for gaming, known for its excellence in creating some of the world’s best e-sports players.
Every gamer in the world dreams of joining the fairytale academy, but only a handful are even allowed to take the exam. The academy has five professors, and each can only take two students as their disciples.
4) T-1
The creation of the metaverse has benefited not only gaming but also artificial intelligence and other industry sectors. T-1 is a robot that has been Park’s guardian for more than ten years and has always looked out for him.
After his parents passed away, he had no one to talk to, and despite being a robot, T-1 stepped up and did his best to make sure he did not feel lonely.
Despite being a robot, he shows so many emotions, whether anger towards Park for being a coward or resentment towards all the people who bully him.
5) Carrie
Carrie is the second student of the professor and a fellow teammate of Ark. Her in-game personality is very aggressive. She always beats up Ark whenever she sees an opening.
She is a hard worker and dedicates her whole day to training and improving herself. She is one of the highest-potential gamers in the world and has a bright future.
6) Ta Kim
Also known as Planet Man, Kim is the game’s most famous commentator and is always a permanent member of all tournaments.
Everyone likes him, and he is a very happening person who makes everyone around him happy.
He is also a playboy who flirts with various women and constantly looks for girls to hang out with. He is also very trusted by the professor.
The Challenger Plot Review:
The introduction of the Metaverse changed the functioning of the world to a vast extent, and most civilians started using it in their daily lives.
Across the millions of games in the Metaverse, the most popular game was Heroes of the Time, where the strongest competed and played tournaments to earn money in real life.
One such high school student named Park Noa also joined this game to relieve his stress, unaware that this game would change his life completely and make him the best player in the world.
But his journey to the top will be one of the hardest, and even a slight slip-up will cost him his dreams. He must be aware of his surroundings, as most friends await an opportunity to strike.
Is The Challenger Worth Reading?
The Challenger is a fascinating series and should be checked out; the series’ plot is very well executed, and the characters are hilarious and exciting. The pace of the series is also decent. It is neither fast nor slow but maintains the same speed throughout the story.
The art of the series is perfect, and in general, the storyline is filled with good fights and fantastic plot twists, which will make you addicted to the story. The author makes sure that all the characters get enough screen time.
Conclusion:
The story is fundamental and something you might have yet to read, but the plot twist and the characters make up for the lack of a good storyline. The first few chapters might feel slow and tedious, but if you stick around for longer, the series becomes good.
The excellent point of the series is the art and the character development of all the characters. The series is not the best, but it is an excellent pick to read if you want to try something different from your usual taste.
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I am a first-year student pursuing Data Science and Artificial intelligence and have always been mesmerised by AI and wish to build one for my own in future. In my free time, I like to watch Romance Anime or read Seinen Manga.
