Gwanjongcheonma’s Game Broadcast - Chapter 173

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

Episode 173
“HA!”
An ornate black maid uniform adorned her frame.
Golden hair cascading to her waist danced above the fabric.

Victory after victory.
Already nine consecutive wins, and she lifted a single finger in the air.
“Ancora una?”
Italy’s Iron Fist player Ravio.
She was Italy’s Singularity and a five-time consecutive Iron Fist National Representative gamer.
Even after reaching Gold Rank, her win rate remained above 90%.
Her defeats came almost exclusively against fellow National Representatives.
-That’s right! Might as well hit ten straight wins!
-Just a few more, please! I won’t be able to stream for days!
-Of course Ravio’s Nini is the best in the world!
-Forza Ravio! Please win the Capsule Cup this time!
Yet despite their words, Ravio showed no hurry to activate the ‘search’ button.
“I can’t just play for nothing. How about making it worth my while?”
-Damn it. Asking for donations again?
-Ravio, take it easy. How many times today?
-She wants a donation for every single match;;
-Last time she just ended the stream when we didn’t sponsor herㅡㅡ
-Stop egging her on. She’ll say she’s not playing again

-Oh! Here comes the savior!
-Thanks AKG!
-Thanks to you we can keep playing instead of ending the stream
-Un pazzo per i soldi!
-Damn it. But we can’t really turn away from this either
-Agreed. She’s so good at the game, we can’t help but watch;;>
In Italy’s gaming streaming market, she was universally recognized as a “money bird.”
That was Ravio.
“You’re all chattering today. If you want what you’re asking for, I need to eat well and train hard, don’t I?”
A Capsule Cup championship.
It was the long-held dream of Italy’s gaming fans.
The national representatives did manage to reach the finals or semifinals most of the time,
but they always fell short at the final hurdle.
This time, they would finally reach the summit.
The Italian National Team players fired up ranked matches even after team training.
But Ravio’s reasons were somewhat different.
‘Right. Donations are rolling in with the Capsule Cup coming up.’
Suppressing the smile that threatened to bloom across her lips,
Ravio activated the ‘match search’ button.
“Thanks for the sponsorship, AKG. I’ll do three more matches.”
-Three? Why only three for 100 euros?
-Is that all 100 euros is worth?
-Even Venezuelan inflation isn’t this bad ahahah
-It says in the broadcast notice, ten matches for 100 euros!
“That was before Capsule Cup season. The donation rates change before and after the Cup. You didn’t check the notice board?”
-Ugh! If I ever meet you, I’m throwing a punch.
-With how much she’s making, she must own at least one building.
-Stingy, stingy. Even the saltiest cheese in Italy would be milder than this stream;;>
-There’s a limit to how much you can mark things up
-Is there another country in the world that price-gouges this badly during peak season?
It was always the ones with the lightest pockets who complained the loudest.
Ravio let out a snort and ignored the chat.
She knew the truth.
Despite what they said, almost no viewers actually left the stream.
The Iron Fist is one of Italy’s most popular competitive categories,
and Ravio stands among the nation’s top three Iron Fist National Representatives.
His gameplay is particularly flashy, which makes him one of the most popular players in the scene.
Brilliant technique paired with an infamous talent for extracting revenue.
Those were the hallmarks everyone associated with Ravio.
Thump!
<Match opponent found!>
“That was fast.”
Ravio, who had been waiting in the Waiting Room, tilted his head slightly.
He’d only activated the search moments ago—an unusual turn of events, if anything.
Curious about his opponent, Ravio checked the player’s ID.
His eyes narrowed immediately.
“Thousand Horse?”
Translated literally: a thousand horses.
It was an English combination that made no sense whatsoever.
But Ravio didn’t think much of it.
He used his real name because he was part of Singularity,
but there were countless users who slapped together nicknames carelessly.
“What the—”
This time, however, he couldn’t brush it aside so easily.
It was the rank of the player he’d be facing, Thousand Horse.
“Black Belt?”
He’d never seen this ID before, and the rank certainly wasn’t Gold Rank.
Black Belt, no less.
Ravio turned to the Chat Window with a question.
“Did I queue into a regular game by mistake?”
-No. It’s definitely a ranked match.
-How does a Gold Rank get matched with a Black Tier?
-I heard the server’s been packed lately. Must be a bug from the server crash. ahahah
-Thousand Horse ^^^^^^^
-With a nickname like that, what a joke.
-Where’d this Black Tier come from, waltzing into a Gold Rank ranked match?
Ravio couldn’t make sense of it.
When he asked in the chat, it was confirmed—it really was a ranked match.
Then someone in the Chat Window dropped something shocking.
-Damn it! What is this guy?
-Everyone search Thousand Horse’s match history!
-100 percent win rate! All the way up to Black Tier!
“100 percent?”
Ravio’s expression twisted as if he’d just heard nonsense.
Blue Rank or Red Rank might be possible,
but climbing to Black Tier without a single loss was nearly impossible.
He wasn’t a machine.
Human focus always wanes at some point,
and everyone experiences unexpected defeats.
“Let me see.”
Ravio turned the screen and activated the Match History Search.
Then he let out an exclamation of disbelief.
“Damn!”
It was true.
This Thousand Horse was genuinely recording a 100 percent win rate.
And the number of games wasn’t small either.
Reaching Black Tier requires hundreds of matches, even with a perfect record.
But what was even more astounding:
“He’s already beating Gold Ranks?”
Checking recent matches, Thousand Horse had faced Gold Rank opponents in every recent game.
And won every single one.
The system hadn’t promoted him yet,
but his rating—his MMR—already counted him among the Gold Ranks.
“A winning streak that outpaces the promotion timer?”
I thought there was no way that could be possible.
No.
I didn’t even know such a thing existed.
Ravio turned to the unknown opponent who had materialized before him and asked,
“Who the hell are you?”
……
“I said, who the hell are you?”
Still silence, no matter how many times he asked.
At last, Hae-rang finally spoke,
“I can’t speak English very well.”
……
Ravio’s face twisted into a scowl.
The accent was dreadful.
And why on earth was he answering in English on the Italian Server?
“What a hopeless fool. Not worth a conversation.”
Perhaps that’s why.
The character he’d chosen suited him perfectly.
Sluggish, crude, and therefore appearing dimwitted.
The character Hae-rang had selected was Full Phoenix.
* * *
The champion Hae-rang had chosen made quite an impression on Ravio’s viewers as well.
-Full Phoenix?
-Wow! How long has it been?
-Seeing Full Phoenix in Gold Rank!
Meanwhile, public opinion overwhelmingly expected Full Phoenix to lose.
-I don’t know how good this guy is, but he’s about to record his first defeat!
-Consider it an honor! Your first loss is coming from Ravio himself, after all!
-The matchup is terrible. Just terrible.
-Does Full Phoenix even have a good matchup? AHAHA!
A character that stood shoulder to shoulder with ‘Nini’, the so-called ‘broken’ powerhouse of Iron Fist.
Nini had fast skills and possessed multiple mix-ups that were difficult to defend against.
The most appetizing opponents for Nini were those with sluggish movements and large, telegraphed techniques.
Full Phoenix standing before him was precisely that type.

One thought alone occupied Ravio’s mind.
Beat him down as flashily as possible.
That’s when the donations would pour in.
“HAHA!”
The moment the match began, Ravio charged forward toward Full Phoenix.
In many respects, the two characters’ images were completely different.
A woman in an ornate maid costume, and
a middle-aged man in a weathered red martial arts uniform.
The only thing they had in common was their blonde hair.
Just as Ravio confirmed the closing distance and was about to throw a jab,
Smack!
“…What?”
A sharp vibration transmitted through Ravio’s nose.
Ravio froze in place like a toy whose batteries had run dry.
‘Did I get hit? Me?’
Ravio, whose entire mindset had been on one-sidedly pummeling his opponent,
only recognized he’d been struck after feeling the vibration.
The opponent’s jab had been that sharp.
“Ha. This is ridiculous.”
Ravio closed the distance again, as if everything was beneath him.
The eyes of his Nini grew coldly murderous.
Smack!
And once more.
This time, Ravio’s head snapped backward.
Full Phoenix had merely extended a simple Light Punch,
but the Counter Hit judgment applied a stronger impact.
“Cazzo!”
Ravio spat out a curse,
and his viewers all erupted in question marks.
-What are you doing?
-Why do you keep letting jabs through?
-Are you taking hits on purpose?
-Stop the nonsense, Ravio!
“Shut up and watch!”
A sharp edge cut through Ravio’s voice.
Taking hits on purpose? Not a chance.
Ravio had been fighting with complete sincerity from the start.
He needed a flawless victory to expect sponsorships.
‘But…….’
Whenever he tried to launch an attack,
Full Phoenix’s light punch invariably came flying.
A light punch was the most basic of fundamentals.
Even someone who’d just started playing—not just Gold Rank players—could throw one.
But,
‘This guy is different……!’
Ravio knew it.
Even the same straight punch varied in perfection depending on how many times you’d trained it.
Full Phoenix’s light punch right now felt like that of someone who’d done nothing but train light punches for a long time.
‘Stay sharp. Think about why you’re losing the fundamentals exchange!’
As befitting an Italian National Representative,
Ravio coldly compared the data Full Phoenix possessed.
Nini’s light punch and Full Phoenix’s light punch.
That is, comparing the jabs, Nini’s was faster.
In terms of startup speed and input detection, Nini held a clear advantage.
There was just one thing Full Phoenix did better…….
‘Reach……?’
Reach.
Or to put it differently, range.
True to his larger frame, Full Phoenix’s arms were longer.
His range extended a full fist-length beyond Nini’s light punch.
But looking at it another way,
‘You’re saying I can exploit just one fist-length of range difference?’
A single fist-length was only a few centimeters at best.
He could control something that small fluidly in-game?
Maybe if you were an Italian National Representative,
but it wasn’t territory an ordinary user could reach.
He couldn’t believe it.
Ravio threw all his concentration into managing the distance.
Not Nini’s jab range, but right up to the edge of Full Phoenix’s range, he pressed in.
Whoosh!
Full Phoenix’s jab stopped just short of Ravio’s face.
His heart lurched in his chest.
The possibility he’d half-suspected was now confirmed completely.
This distance that Ravio himself had entered with wavering uncertainty,
Full Phoenix had sensed with mechanical precision.
‘What…… is this AI?’
This level of distance control was something even the National Representatives he trained with couldn’t manage.
Italy’s Iron Fist National Team—whenever they compete, they’re guaranteed a semifinal berth.
Was this man in front of him possessed of a ‘sense’ superior even to that?
“Bullshit.”
Ravio bit down on his lower lip with his front teeth and charged.
It was a habit he showed when entering true ‘battle mode.’
Bang! Crack!
Boom!
In an instant, a multidirectional offense-and-defense exchange unfolds.
Sometimes spinning vertically, sometimes horizontally, Ravio’s Nini continues the Wave Chain Attack without distinguishing between hands and feet.
Full Phoenix primarily held the defense, but occasionally delivered counterattacks that sent chills down the spine.
“Ah!”
This was precisely one of those moments.
A tiny opening had appeared in Nini’s assault.
A needle’s-eye gap—the kind you’d need to squint to spot.
But Hae-rang drove his fist through that impossibly narrow space anyway.
“Oooh-ah!”
Crack!
“Gah!”
Nini’s maid dress billowed spectacularly as she plummeted to the ground.

Full Phoenix was a fighter so rare that glimpsing him even in the Heavenly Realm was a privilege.
Witnessing his victory, needless to say, was rarer still.
Hae-rang, descending upon the Italian Server in person.
This was the moment his sphere of influence took its first step into Europe.

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