Gwanjongcheonma’s Game Broadcast - Chapter 156

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 156
After the National Team Selection Tournament schedule was made public.
Every night, Joint’s Studio echoed with groans.
“Oh, my…….”
“I’m dying.”
“I can’t go on……!”
Despite not using their physical bodies, the team members who emerged from the Capsule crawled about on the floor.
The exhaustion of mind and senses had reached its absolute limit.
Hae-rang’s personally designed training schedule could be summed up as follows.
‘Even dried squid yields water if you squeeze it hard enough.’
Tailoring the regimen to each of the three’s characteristics and squeezing them to the very last drop,
every day became an endless chain of extremes.
“If Singularity had only done half of this, they’d have been world number one.”
Da-hong’s remark showed just how grueling it had become.
Ma Hyeon-bin nodded vigorously in agreement, still slumped on the floor.
Joint lay prostrate with his nose pressed to the ground, unable to move even a finger.
“I’m heading out first. I want to get home and shower right away.”
With Da-hong leading the way—having only splashed her face with water—Choi Gang-sik and Ma Hyeon-bin filed out of the studio.
Only Hae-rang, who’d just finished washing his face, and Joint remained.
Hae-rang, drying his face with a towel, suddenly spoke.
“Joint.”
“Joint’s dead, so don’t talk to me.”
“Change-Mountain.”
Joint, sprawled on the ground, bolted upright.
“Hey! I told you not to call me by that name!”
“Raising your voice like that—you’ve still got some life in you.”
“Damn it. Why are you still here instead of heading home?”
“I wanted to ask you something.”
“What? How to make the pain even worse?”
“I already know that.”
“You crazy bastard…….”
“Who do you most want to beat?”
“Huh?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Joint’s small eyes blinked.
An opponent he most wanted to beat?
He’d never thought about it.
It seemed like he’d lose no matter who he faced.
“Among Singularity players, isn’t there someone you absolutely have to beat?”
“Someone I absolutely want to beat…….”
Joint smiled bitterly.
There was no need to think long.
He had one gamer who was like an enemy to him.
“Jo Sang-jin. I want to beat that bastard.”
“Jo Sang-jin. We do seem to have quite the troubled history with him.”
“You could say that guy is responsible for my retirement. I lost by being toyed with at every turn. I truly felt the wall I faced as a gamer. I still can’t even properly watch the footage from that day.”
“I see.”
Hae-rang nodded in understanding, then picked up his jacket.
He bowed to Joint and left immediately.
“……What? That’s it?”
Joint found it odd, but didn’t dwell on it much.
He was too drowsy to get caught up in such small things.
Joint collapsed, as if crumbling, sprawled flat on his back on the floor.
* * *
“My goodness! Who is this!”
Even meeting one’s biological parents for the first time in fifty years wouldn’t produce such an expression.
Jo Sang-jin, the vanguard of Singularity Team Seven.
After confirming Joint’s presence, he wore the look of someone wondering what fortune had brought this.
“Joint! It’s really you, Joint? The guy who got trashed by me back then!”
Despite already knowing full well, Jo Sang-jin made a big fuss about it.
Without any particular response, Joint silently stared at the Referee banner.
As if waiting for this moment, a warning message flowed across the screen.
[Please refrain from abusive language. Repeated violations will result in penalties.]
“Tch. Okay, okay! Let’s just start already. I’m itching to fight.”
Deep breath.
Joint steadied his breathing and observed his own body with detachment.
Fortunately, the cramping in his thighs had subsided.
The cramps stemmed from a mental issue.
The trembling of reality bled through into the game as well.
If not for Hae-rang, he would have collapsed against himself rather than against Jo Sang-jin.
‘Acupoint strikes, though. Does that even make sense?’
That was a technique that belonged only in martial arts novels.
Did it become possible when you leaned into the concept hard enough?
Joint couldn’t quite believe it, but regardless—it was fortunate.
Now he could focus entirely on the fight itself.
Joint’s expression grew notably calmer.
“Kid. Playing it cool, are you.”
Jo Sang-jin muttered quietly, careful not to let the referee hear.
From the start, Joint hadn’t fallen for any provocation, and showed no sign of intimidation.
That composure irritated Jo Sang-jin.
He’d beat that smug look off his face the moment the round started.
Anyway, this kid was just a stepping stone.
The Heavenly Demon Cult team had plenty of people worth crushing.
Exhale.
Joint closed both eyes.
Memories from the past surfaced in sequence.
The day he collapsed so miserably in the National Team Selection.
The day he announced his retirement through tears.
The day he threw down a challenge to the National Team once more.
The days he crawled on all fours through Hae-rang’s training.
At the end of all those days, Joint finally remembered who he was.
Before he became a clown to the viewers,
Joint had been a National Team gamer with more pride than anyone—a real skill broadcaster.
“Roooaarrr!”
A thunderous roar—Joint’s trademark cry.
It erupted as the game began.
<ROUND ONE! FIGHT!>
“This bastard’s really doing it!”
Jo Sang-jin’s Gaiachi strode forward toward Joint.
What was surprising was that Joint’s Briar advanced to meet him without retreat.
“This cocky punk…!”
Jo Sang-jin’s right fist drove toward Briar’s temple.
Joint barely managed to raise his arm and block in time.
“Huh? You blocked?”
But blocking was not all he did.
Joint seized a slim frame advantage and threw a jab.
It was a sharp counterattack, but Jo Sang-jin quickly lowered his torso and slipped it.
As he rose, he unleashed an uppercut.
Crunch!
Thwack!
Crimson droplets burst into the air.
Blood sprayed from Joint’s mouth.
At the same moment, it burst from Jo Sang-jin’s lips as well.
‘Simultaneous hit?’
The damage was definitely heavier on Joint’s side.
Yet Jo Sang-jin’s face twisted in rage.
It was not one-sided violence—the fact that they’d struck each other at the same time grated on him.
Crack.
But the shift didn’t end there.
Close enough to hear his opponent’s breath, Joint pressed in tight to Jo Sang-jin.
In boxing terms, it was practically clinch distance.
Joint showed no sign of backing down, pressing forward with relentless aggression.
Jo Sang-jin’s fury rose to the crown of his head.
“You worthless bastard!”
Thwack!
Crack!
Joint and Jo Sang-jin traded blows once more.
This time, Jo Sang-jin’s damage struck even harder.
No flashy skills, no sophisticated psychological warfare—
only raw, instinctive movement remained, a close-quarters brawl.
To put it simply:
a dogfight.
Thud!
“Ugh!”
Jo Sang-jin’s knee strike folded Joint’s waist in half.
But Joint lunged forward anyway.
“Raaaaaaagh!”
“You insane son of a—!”
Thud!
Boom!
A desperate struggle with both fighters’ health bars hovering under 20%.
Behind the mini sunglasses, sparks flickered in Joint’s eyes.
‘I see it…!’
Jo Sang-jin’s movements crystallized before him with perfect clarity.
Was that why he’d chosen the brawl?
Not at all.
It had only been meant to throw his opponent off balance—by itself, that wouldn’t let him track Jo Sang-jin’s speed.
The words Hae-rang had whispered before entering the game.
The answer lay there.
[Fight as dirty as you can. I’ve embedded every habit of Jo Sang-jin’s into every sparring session with me.]
Joint already knew Hae-rang was good at reading patterns and copying them.
If even Da-hong had asked him to mimic the playstyle of an overseas National Team representative, it was no small feat.
When had it started?
When Hae-rang had begun training Joint by copying Jo Sang-jin’s habits?
‘…Right.’
Only now could Joint understand the conversation from before.
The question of which opponent he desperately wanted to beat.
From that moment, Hae-rang had started tailored training sessions with Joint.
‘I was always wondering about that. Sparring with me shouldn’t have given him anything to gain, yet he kept coming back.’
Day after day, Hae-rang had pitted Joint against a simulation of Jo Sang-jin.
Though the character model in front of him was Geyachi, the feel was unmistakably that of facing Hae-rang’s Full Phoenix.
The shell might be a different character, but the habits and patterns were purely, entirely Jo Sang-jin’s.
That’s why an even match had become possible.
“Damn it!”
[Warning! Jo Sang-jin. Please mind your language.]
“Shut up! Shut your mouth!”
Jo Sang-jin roared as if penalties meant nothing to him.
By health bar standards, Jo Sang-jin still held the edge.
But blind rage had seized control of his mind.
He had no choice.
Joint had never even been on his radar—he’d only cared about crushing the other members of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
And yet here was this ‘even’ fight.
The fact that he was locked in close combat with someone he’d dismissed as worthless gnawed at his sanity.
‘That bastard saw it all coming.’
Joint grasped Hae-rang’s intention.
The advance warning about Jo Sang-jin’s habits.
This close-range brawling.
Simultaneous strikes from unexpected angles.
All these variables working in concert were proving their worth.
If Jo Sang-jin had kept his composure and countered methodically, he’d have been overmatched,
but this man was poor at controlling his emotions.
He must have factored that in as well.
‘Perhaps…….’
Was that Hae-rang’s most terrifying quality—this kind of insight?
Joint tracked Jo Sang-jin’s movements with quiet admiration.
Remarkably, he was growing familiar with the man’s patterns.
Behind the sunglasses, Joint’s eyes blazed with intensity.
The very stance he’d fought Hae-rang with during their high-level exchange in Break the Joint—
that was the form Jo Sang-jin was now showing.
Whoosh!
“Close one!”
Joint barely slipped Jo Sang-jin’s Upper.
A note of panic escaped Jo Sang-jin’s lips.
A wasted strike meant frame disadvantage—there was no getting around it.
Defense came first.
Jo Sang-jin quickly raised his guard.
“You forgot.”
Joint pressed close, his voice low and quiet.
Was it anger that made him overlook it?
Jo Sang-jin had forgotten something crucial.
In this tight, sealed space,
Briar—the character Joint controlled—
possessed a skill that could shatter an opponent’s guard.
Pop!
Joint planted a crisp step forward, closing the distance further.
As Briar’s shoulder jerked, Jo Sang-jin’s guard shattered forcibly.
Bolt upright!
Ma Hyeon-bin, who had been fidgeting nervously at the bench, could no longer contain himself and shot to his feet.
What Joint was about to do blazed across his vision with perfect clarity.
“That’s it!”
Crash!
Briar’s—
no, Joint’s signature technique, his trademark move.
Taunt-Flash Upper.
The legendary ‘Do-seom’ had just erupted across the screen in all its brilliance.
Boom!
“Agh!”
Jo Sang-jin’s body rocketed skyward.
A sharp, stinging vibration rippled through his jaw.
But the real pain was only beginning.
Thud!
Smack!
Crash!
Against the airborne Jo Sang-jin, Joint’s Air Combo landed cleanly, link by link.
Neither player had much health left to begin with.
Before Joint’s combo string even concluded, Jo Sang-jin’s health bar vanished entirely.
Boom!
Jo Sang-jin’s Geyachi lay sprawled on the ground in a spread eagle.
“Huff. Hah……!”
Joint stared down at his fallen opponent, his breath ragged.
The man who had once trampled his dreams now lay broken beneath him.
Surge.
Behind the dark lenses, tears flooded his small eyes.
How long had he waited for this moment?
Breaking Singularity.
Avenging himself against Jo Sang-jin.
It had been Joint’s dream his entire life, a wish he thought he could never reach.
“Uu…….”
Since the broadcast began—
no, since the day he was born, the greatest roar of his life tore free inside the Capsule.
“Uwoooooooo!”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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