Chapter 129 - Chapter 129

Chapter 129

【Read only at hivetoons.org】

The streamer Spoon was a Challenger AD Carry.

Challenger.

The highest tier in The League.

Since The League was a game that players from all kinds of games dipped their toes into, there was a widespread perception that these highest-tier users were the best at gaming.

And it was indeed a fact.

Unless a game had a small player base because of high difficulty, it naturally gathered fewer skilled people.

Gamers, who had seen early-generation professionals fail to survive as the player pool gradually expanded and the tournament level rose, knew this characteristic well.

And The League was a game with the largest player pool, both in name and reality.

It went without saying what kind of talent a Challenger in such a league possessed.

Naturally, the same applied to Grandmasters.

“But Grade A?”

Sitting in his chair, Spoon browsed the community and thought.

Wondering if this was going too far.

There were two things required to become a Challenger.

Physical mechanics and game understanding.

The common consensus was that it was absolutely impossible to reach it without either, and indeed, he had never seen a Challenger who was lacking in either one.

“Hmm. He seems to have some decent talent in terms of physical mechanics.”

He acknowledged that to some extent.

Even if he had only played one hero, he had found the rules of Kael, after all.

“As expected, it's in an uproar.”

The Kael community board, which he entered while looking up his opponent, was running wild.

[Wind Sword certified it. Streamer Seo-jun personally guided him.]

[Rewatch the video. The sword is just already there lolololol. He's a crazy bastard]

[Did he manipulate this too?]

[Is it possible for us to get the hang of it if we get tutored? lol]

[A jobless Kael-addict who hasn't left the house in three years is starting a part-time job now to earn tutoring fees. How's that?]

[Please just go outside!]

[It's amazing that there is a pattern, it's amazing that he discovered it, it's amazing that he personally guided someone else, and it's amazing that they got the hang of it because of that. Fuck.]

“It is impressive indeed.”

Spoon's current League nickname was 'FrustratedSoWentUpperbody'.

Upperbody referred to Mid and Top. Bottom was Lowerbody.

As was typical for team games, if either Upperbody or Lowerbody imploded, the game was lost.

And most Upperbody users probably thought they lost many games because the Lowerbody imploded.

Conversely, Lowerbody users would think that they lost most games because the Upperbody imploded.

Originally, when humans lost a game, they naturally thought they lost because their team was bad, even if it was because of themselves.

And the memories perceived in that way lingered even longer.

When these two facts overlapped, a collective paranoia arose between Upperbody and Lowerbody users, inevitably causing misunderstandings.

A nickname that very typically reflected such blame-shifting and false perception was 'FrustratedSoWentUpperbody'.

Of course, Spoon did not admit this.

And his previous nickname.

'KaelIfNoADCarry'.

It was indeed a terrifyingly threatening nickname.

These two nicknames were the reasons people were misled into thinking his secondary position was Mid.

He actually rarely played Mid and had never played Kael. He had simply used a representative troll character.

“If I can't go AD Carry and have to go somewhere else, I'll go Mid, but.”

It was ambiguous to call it a secondary position.

Even so.

[A custom match announcement suddenly popped up! The board administrator is participating]

-What's this lol out of nowhere

-Did he have a friendship with Yun-ho originally?

-Since LiOS is soon, they must be doing a custom match

└Is the streamer going to participate in LiOS?

└Everyone already had a hunch lololol

└Kyah!

-Holy shit. Kael God's opponent is Spoon *shudder*

└Spoon is a Challenger AD Carry? Honestly, upvote if you think Seo-jun will win lololol

└Ah lol, so did that spoon bastard find Kael's pattern? lololol

└If he just picks Kael, kiting or whatever will be immediately cut. I don't know if that spoon has ever heard of 2 seconds of invulnerability lol

“Wow... seriously.”

Investigating his opponent, Spoon felt dumbfounded. He kept stroking the area around his mouth with his hand and muttered.

“How absurd. This isn't right. Even if it is the Kael board.”

Being good at Kael? He acknowledged that.

Without needing to list other reasons, that streamer was born with immense talent.

He did not know if it was really a genius brain like those seen in dramas, or what kind of talent it was.

“Two seconds of invulnerability? It's true that it's amazing, but who would just stand still and let him slash their vital points? Holy shit.”

The reason he was dumbfounded now.

It was because there was a clear lack of evidence to view Seo-jun as being on a similar level to him.

“Whether he is good with things other than swords, how his mental visualization ability is. None of it has been proven.”

Mental visualization.

It was an important concept in virtual reality, where everything was moved by thought.

Moving the body could be thought of with the same sensation as in reality. Actually, it was funny to even call it thought, since one just naturally moved as they always did.

However, what about when there was a third hand that surpassed the physical body, or some kind of energy in the game?

This kind of sensation was bound to be unfamiliar when encountered for the first time.

It was as alien and difficult as a baby taking its first steps.

This was the reason they rarely made games where the avatars changed.

If one had to learn the act of moving the body like learning to walk all over again every time they started a game, it would be more convenient not to purchase such games at all.

Therefore, they kept at least the avatar—the sensation of moving the body—unified for the most part.

However, skills within the game were different.

The act of thinking, feeling, and manifesting a sensation that did not exist in reality as if it were real.

Gamers called such an act mental visualization, and it was one of the crucial elements that constituted physical mechanics.

“Ha, should I show him why a Challenger is a Challenger? I'll suppress him with Kael too.”

Kael was a hero based on the movements of the sword and body.

The reworked skills and ultimate ability were activated simply by thinking of the words, without needing to perform difficult mental visualizations.

So he would show him that even with movements, it wouldn't work, and

“I don't know how outstanding his mental visualization will be, but I must show him that it will be the same anyway.”

He burned with enthusiasm and hostility at the thought of proving why a Challenger was a Challenger.

Seo-jun had succeeded in provoking him without even doing anything!

***

The next day.

As he sat at his desk streaming, Seo-jun's eyes drifted to the bottom right of the taskbar to check the time.

6:29 PM.

“It's time to gather now. You all know what we are doing, right?”

-You told us in the stream title

-Custom match!

-But the list of participants hasn't even come out yet, so why are you doing it already?

-Looks like he applied for LiOS lololol

-He's a rookie and unranked, so he probably thought they wouldn't accept him, which is why he set this up to show something in the custom match lololol. You're cute, Mr. Streamer

-Were you that greedy for the championship prize? lolol. Shall we buy it for you?

Seo-jun let out a chuckle as he read the comments.

'I'd really like it if you bought it for me.'

The viewers wondered why Ha Yun-ho had suddenly hosted the custom match.

And they reached the conclusion that it was to appeal Seo-jun to the operations team!

First of all, there was the link called Tae-woo.

And Seo-jun had a history of coming to For Chivalry right before the Battleground.

There was no reason it wouldn't be the same this time, which meant he was aiming for LiOS.

But because he was in danger of not being accepted, was he trying to draw attention?

If it was a custom match, there would be many eyes watching.

Maybe that was why he did the Kael vital points too?!

Seo-jun looked at the chat window—filled with viewers who made such deductions—as if proud of them.

'At least they got a little bit of it right.'

Good for them!

Leaving behind the viewers who had started on the wrong foot, Seo-jun entered the invited chat room.

Ding.

The time they agreed to gather was 6:30, so he arrived just in time.

When Seo-jun entered, five people were in the chat room.

However, in less than a few seconds, four more were added, filling the room to its capacity of ten.

Everyone had arrived exactly on time.

[Ah, ah. Hello, everyone! None of you were late.]

Ha Yun-ho's voice came through the speaker, and then the other streamers began to add their own words one by one.

[Hello, everyone.]

[Woo, woo!]

[Wow! A custom match is so exciting!]

[Ha Yun-ho is ugly!]

[Agreed.]

[Hello. Nice to meet you for the first time.]

[Hello, Seo-jun!]

With contextless conversations.

The viewers simply laughed, perhaps because they saw such sights often.

[Who just said Ha Yun-ho is ugly! I think I need to establish some discipline here.]

Establish discipline all of a sudden?

Ha Yun-ho continued speaking.

Since he was the host, he did not interrupt or interfere, but listened.

[Some of you probably don't know each other or are meeting for the first time, right? So, let's do a brief self-introduction of your characteristics in three lines...]

That they were listening to him was Seo-jun's illusion.

[Ahhh! Shut up!]

[Just skip it!]

[Haha-haha.]

[Ah, I really hate that kind of thing]

[Me too.]

[Can't we just greet each other? No, actually, can we just not do it?]

Seo-jun smiled as he listened to the various voices bursting out in this crisis situation from the speaker.

[Then, one line...]

Just like Seo-jun, Ha Yun-ho also seemed amused.

[You son of a...]

[Let's just end the custom match, President?]

[Please. I told you not to do it!]

-Durumi just grit her teeth lolol

-You caught Durumi's voice in that chaos. Are you a Durumi-simp?

-It's a mess

-A mess right from the start lolol

-This is the flavor lolololol

In this way, Seo-jun's first impression of a collab stream with three or more people was finalized as a mess.

It did not mean it was bad.

[Ah, the backlash is too severe, so let's just stick to greetings. Well then, first...]

***

After finishing the self-introductions, they ran The League.

Since Seo-jun had joined the chat room from the outside, he had to enter the capsule first.

[Would you like to join the custom game of Ha Yun-ho?]

Upon pressing accept, the interface popped up.

And Ha Yun-ho's voice was heard.

[We're going in right away!]

He must have been the last one.

The team members were predetermined, as they had gathered people to balance the teams from the start.

And as if they had divided the teams in advance before Seo-jun entered the custom game, the match started immediately upon his entry.

Seo-jun's body was teleported.

“Now, let's do the ban-pick phase. Malang, I'll trust you!”

Team members were summoned on both sides of Seo-jun. Among them was Ha Yun-ho.

He was not right next to Seo-jun, but it did not matter since voice transmission was possible through team chat.

And it was also possible to transmit voice only to Seo-jun individually, like now.

“By the way, Seo-jun. Wasn't your self-introduction too bland earlier? Just calling yourself a rookie streamer.”

“It was just right.”

“No, you know, that thing. Like the Slayer, or the Slayer.”

-lololol trying to roast him right away

-That's Ha Yun-ho for you lolol

-He is a formidable opponent

-Broadcaster, are you going to just take this?

-Our streamer is also quite good at public executions, though?

In the secret of Ha Yun-ho becoming close with many streamers was this thorough information gathering.

“Naturally, I mean the Ruler, Orthodox Faction, and Unorthodox Faction Slayer.”

He must have thoroughly read through all of his ITube videos.

Seo-jun did not really feel like counterattacking.

'I can't roast such a precious person.'

He was a viewer who increased his view count, after all. Above all, Ha Yun-ho was a team leader who would draft him.

It was absolutely not because he, unlike Ha Yun-ho, had not searched in advance and had no information to roast him with.

“Shall we talk about strategy for a moment?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

Seo-jun muted the audio going out to his stream.

“You know the opponent is a Challenger AD Carry, right? They will probably choose a ranged hero in Mid as well.”

“I see.”

“You have other heroes prepared besides Kael, right?”

Ha Yun-ho had already told Malang, who was doing the ban-picks, not to ban Mid heroes.

So he asked in anticipation of what hero he had prepared, but.

“No.”

At Seo-jun's confident manner, Ha Yun-ho was momentarily lost for words.

“...Uh. I see. Ah, fortunately they didn't ban Kael? Then since we'll fight twice anyway, it might be good to play Kael in the first match.”

Ha Yun-ho thought it was fortunate, but Seo-jun did not think so.

'Hmm.'

Leaving Kael open despite having already explained the circumstances was a clear provocation, even if there was a next match.

“Ah, it's fine. I can just choose now.”

Anyway, since the viewers had sent the heroes as gifts, there was nothing left for Seo-jun to buy in his shop.

“Which one?”

“Hmm. Shall I try Eric this match? He looked fun.”

Ha Yun-ho floated a question mark over his head.

The Escaped Prisoner Eric?

The hero who shoots chains with a delay through a magic circle?

He isn't a character holding a sword, and isn't he a character where mental visualization is important?

Ha Yun-ho had thoroughly read through all of his videos, just as Seo-jun guessed.

Thus, he knew that this was the first time Seo-jun would show his physical mechanics in this aspect.

“What is your assimilation rate, by the way?”

It must be high, right?

If so, even with a character he was playing for the first time, he could quickly grasp the feeling and show something...

“10.”

“Pardon?”

Was he serious?

“Ah, it's my turn to pick.”

“Wait, just a moment, let's think a bit more...”

They could have pre-picked a hero for the person choosing later to buy more time to think!

Unfortunately, it was too late to stop Seo-jun's unhindered finger.

[Sword God - Escaped Prisoner Eric]

“Wow!”

Experiencing such reckless play—which he had only seen on ITube—firsthand brought a fresh feeling!

'An assimilation rate of 10 must be a joke, right? How could a human's assimilation rate be 10? Hahaha!'

Ha Yun-ho was a for-fun gamer, so he instantly got the hang of how to deal with Seo-jun.

He just had to enjoy it!

[The game is starting.]