Gwanjongcheonma’s Game Broadcast - Chapter 187

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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 187
The night before.
After his final training session ended, Joint approached Hae-rang and broached the subject.
“Remember that operation we pulled off at the airport?”
“The Nongae Operation, sir?”
“That’s the one. I’m planning to use it again tomorrow.”
Hae-rang tilted his head at Joint’s words.
The Nongae Operation, executed at Incheon Airport.
To breakthrough the throng of fans and reporters crowding Incheon Airport,
Joint had volunteered himself as the bait.
Thanks to the distraction Joint created on one side, Hae-rang had managed to slip through the airport entrance unnoticed.
“It shouldn’t be nearly as chaotic here as it is in Korea, though.”
“This isn’t about avoiding people. Tomorrow, in the semifinals, I’m going to throw myself at the opponent as bait.”
Fubau.
And the opponent.
When those two words left Joint’s lips,
Hae-rang felt no shock.
Instead, he asked with calm eyes.
“Are you certain about this? This is an entirely different scale from the airport operation. If something goes wrong…….”
“I know. Not just Korea—the whole world might ridicule me for it.”
Joint spoke with a wry smile.
But he soon lifted his chin, his resolve clear.
“Still, I think it’s more shameful to cling to some empty possibility and gain nothing at all.”
“Mm.”
Hae-rang nodded slowly.
“What’s Fubau’s skill level?”
“Probably somewhere around Black Tier—maybe not quite Gold Rank, but solid Black. I’ve played every champion in the Iron Fist game imaginable back when I was doing comedy broadcasts.”
“Black Tier, then. So you can at least hit your minimum target.”
“Right. Then even my pathetic loss might create at least a little value.”
“That’s a significant decision. If that’s your resolve, then it’s the right path to take.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
Joint turned away, his expression grim.
Pride as a gamer.
The hunger to put on a strong showing at an international tournament.
Setting those things aside was never easy.
But Joint willingly accepted the role of Nongae.
Embracing the enemy commander and throwing oneself off the cliff together.
For his teammates’ victory,
he was prepared to leap into the abyss again and again.
* * *
“Roooaaarrr!”
Fubau, Joint’s chosen character, throws both arms up and roars with vigor.
[What?! Joint has selected Fubau! Joint’s main character has always been Briar—wouldn’t you say? Joint, the very pioneer of the Provocation Flash Upper! And now he’s suddenly pulling out Fubau!]
-what is this looool
-this is a joke;;:
-why is joint doing this?
-where’d fubau come from out of nowhere?
-has joint ever played fubau in an official match?
-of course not;;joint has only played briar since debut
-did the pressure get to him and make him lose it?lol
-even with briar his chances are slim, but fubau is hopeless;;;
-is the game a joke to you? IS IT?!
-either he’s so nervous his fingers slipped…;;
Most gaming fans could not comprehend Joint’s choice.
Joint clenched his teeth.
‘Fine then. All I have to do is put on a show.’
Not a game to win,
but a game meant to serve as a stepping stone.
It was a shabby goal, unlike anything he’d ever pursued before,
yet Joint was more focused than he’d ever been.
‘There’s a way that crows do things, you know!’

“I thought I’d made a mistake.”
Azar’s face fell into a hollow smile the moment he saw Fubau before him.
He’d been wrong about who the Korean team’s vanguard was.
But the ID in front of him was indeed Joint.
‘His main champion Briar is pathetic…… so he’s switching to a different character?’
From everything he’d analyzed so far, Joint’s skill level was well below average.
Not to mention matching the French Iron Fist National Team—he couldn’t even keep pace with the Gold Tier players on the French server.
Briar?
That champion he’d spent a lifetime perfecting—I play it better myself.
So why had Joint chosen Fubau in a situation like this?
If he had to guess,
‘It’s a gamble.’
Pulling out a different character against an opponent fixated on Briar.
It seemed he was hoping to exploit that variable.
Azar let out a sigh without quite meaning to.
Because his opponent’s mindset was painfully pathetic.
‘Does the Capsule Cup really seem so easy to him that he thinks such a meager gamble will lead to victory?’
Today he’d give him a proper lesson.
With that thought, Azar closed the distance with purposeful strides.
The character he’d chosen was ‘Sahin’.
A wandering assassin born in Saudi Arabia.
Unable to settle in his native land and always drifting from country to country—it was a character that resembled him far too closely.
Which was precisely why he couldn’t forgive Joint.
The ‘reason’ behind his character selection felt far too shallow.
‘Don’t even think about making a dignified exit.’
It was the moment Sahin and Fubau’s distance narrowed further.
“Crack!”
A thunderous Double Upper exploded from Fubau.
Sahin, who’d only been thinking of a pounding, hastily raised his guard.
Pow! Bang!
Deep creases furrowed Azar’s brow.
Fubau’s Double Upper had been quite sharp indeed.
‘So they said he wasn’t the main champion…… but this Double Upper has some bite to it.’
Indeed.
So there was some skill after all.
Sahin revised his assessment of Joint—ever so slightly.
But nothing changed.
Whether he brought out Briar or Fubau,
the victor of this match was a certainty.
Joint, his opponent, didn’t intend to argue the point.
Rather,
A quiet grin spread across his face.
Joint wore a triumphant smile that no one else could see.
‘All right. I’ve bought myself five seconds with this.’
The reason Joint’s Double Upper had been so smooth.
It was thanks to Ma Hyeon-bin’s relentless feedback on his movements all through the previous night.
With time short, he couldn’t polish any other techniques,
but this Double Upper alone—he’d managed to sculpt it into movements that rivaled the Gold Tier.
Those five seconds he’d bought with the result.
Joint displayed his sense of achievement without filter.
“Woo-ooooooh!”
* * *
[There! Sahin’s Sliding attack connects again! The Joint player simply can’t mount an offense! What a shame! After Round One’s troubles, Round Two sees him pinned against the wall once more!]
-I knew it would be like this lol
-Was that Double Upper all he had at the start? lololol
-Stop hitting him… it hurts just watching
-Human sandbag, or rather—panda sandbag :'(
-Joint! Get up! You can still do this!
—Wake up, hero!
—You chose Fubau just to show this? Come on.
—Hoping for a miracle in the Capsule Cup, huh? Tsk tsk tsk.
—But seriously, this bastard just won’t die lol.
—Real talk, when Sahin and Fubau go at it, matches just drag on. Lol.
—Who knew you could get hit by this many different patterns? (nods)
—Any other match would’ve ended thirty seconds ago. Lol.
There is a weariness that comes even to the one striking the blows.
Sahin was learning this truth in his own bones.
Sweat beaded across his forehead,
and his breathing had grown ragged since the opening sequence.
They were only one match into the bracket, yet it felt as though he’d fought three.
‘Damn it, this bastard just won’t go down.’
Sahin piloted a classic assassin-type character.
Swift and nimble, but lacking raw damage output.
Fubau was the inverse—ponderous in movement, but built to absorb punishment.
With that massive frame came a ten-percent reduction in damage taken compared to standard fighters.
Victory was never in doubt,
but it would take a relentless barrage to reach the knockout.
‘Does this fool even want to win, or is he just here to waste my time?’
No matter how weak the opposition, pure defense alone could never secure a match.
His opponent had to know that, yet his attack frequency was abysmal.
Save for the occasional Double Upper or spacing tool,
he looked like someone who’d wandered in off the street just to take a beating.
“Fall already!”
Crack!
A deliberate, measured straight punch.
Sahin’s vicious strike drove home against Fubau’s forehead.
Above Fubau’s head, an exclamation mark flared into being.
A Hyper Motion had activated.
And yet—
Wobble, wobble.
The stalwart panda stood firm.
Fubau was still on his feet.
His health bar had dwindled to nothing,
but somehow he remained standing.
To any observer, Fubau was a shattered ruin.
If not for the panda’s blank face, the livid bruising around his eyes would have been laid bare for all to see.
“Still… still fighting…”
Joint raised both hands with visible strain.
No threat in the gesture—only a pitiable, wretched figure.
At this level of impact, even a virtual body could register the shock.
Yet still, Joint let out a roar.
“Hrrrraaaaaagh!”
“Shut your mouth, you dying wretch!”
Crack!
Another punishing straight drove deep.
The giant panda staggered once—and finally crumpled to the ground.
Boom!
<K.O.!>
<Sahin WINS!>
<French team secures match victory!>
<South Korea 0 : 1 France>
“Phew… tedious bastard.”
The capsule pod’s hatch slid open.
Azar wasn’t heading for the waiting room.
After working up such heat, he simply wanted to feel the bite of cool air.
Through the glass, he saw Joint moving in that pathetic, wobbly gait.
‘Pitiful fool. So this is the price of choosing Fubau.’
In all his time playing Iron Fist, he’d never landed this many strikes in a single match.
Spending the whole day on defense took time, but
we achieved the objective regardless.
The first match exerts tremendous influence over the entire tournament’s atmosphere.
[Knockout! Joint has fallen at last! That was truly painful to watch, a tragic match. Why did Joint choose Fubau in the first place? If he had to lose, wouldn’t the fans have loved it more if he’d shown a spectacular finishing blow with Briar? It seems like a regrettable choice in every way.]
—Exactly what I was thinking
—Lost the game and lost his pride too
—Wow, the commentator’s sharp. He doesn’t usually say things like that
—That’s precisely why it makes no sense
—I can’t accept it! I just can’t!
[But that’s alright! There’s a famous saying from before, wasn’t there? Yes? Joint was never the ace of the Korean National Team! The remaining three players will make up for Joint’s shortcomings! Yes? Absolutely!]
Joint, who went out as vanguard, has fallen.
The truth was, everyone’s attention shifted only because he chose Fubau,
but the result was what everyone on-site had expected.
The real battle begins now.
Unlike Joint, the remaining three were no easy opponents.
Azar’s gaze turns toward the opposite side.
‘Especially….’
Cheon Hae-rang, the Attention-Seeking Heavenly Demon.
He was the top priority on the watch list within the French team.
Evan, who was called “the Reader” for his keen ability to assess enemy strength, had even mentioned that ‘one careless moment and we could end up like Japan,’
‘I need to settle my breathing. In that sense, if he comes out….’
Azar, wiping sweat away, kept his eyes on the Korean team’s waiting room.
Then his lips suddenly stretched wide across his face.
‘Okay.’
The exact opponent Azar had hoped for—
Korea’s second player was Ma Hyeon-bin.
‘He’s the one who still can’t adapt to the stage. Gets flustered in front of crowds.’
There were rumors that his practice-room skills exceeded even Ye Da-hong’s.
But what did it matter.
Real combat was what counted.
The number of cases where a practice-room prodigy becomes a novice in actual competition was countless.
Moreover, Ma Hyeon-bin’s main character was Fubau.
The same character Joint had just played,
so there was no special adaptation required.
Azar believed every condition favored him.
<ROUND ONE! FIGHT!>
Until the Double Upper detonated the moment the match began.
“Kwooh-wang!”
Crash! Bang!
“Kuk?!”
Why was his body shooting up into the air?
It was a Double Upper so swift, so sudden, he hadn’t even time to register it.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Toward the airborne Azar, the vicious Panda drives an Air Combo into him.
“Hah-up!”
With that clear cry, Ma Hyeon-bin maneuvers the massive frame with ferocious control.
His eyes showed not a trace of hesitation.
“An ox’s hind legs catching a mouse, they say….”
“Huh?”
Joint turned his head at Hae-rang’s murmur.
He held an egg in his hand, rubbing it against his face repeatedly.
“It appears to be having more effect than we anticipated.”
“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Hyeon-bin’s biggest problem was stage adaptation. Tension dominated his body, kept him from moving as he wanted.”
“Right. That’s how it looked to me too.”
“Do you know the best emotion to eliminate tension?”
“I’m not sure.”
“To invoke an even stronger emotion. An overwhelming feeling that makes tension itself impossible to perceive.”
“And what… is that?”
Hae-rang pointed his finger at Joint.
“Me? You’re asking about me?”
The sensibility of a young boy who loved animals and chose Fubau.
The innocence of following someone he adored, leaving Singularity without a shred of hesitation.
For Ma Hyeon-bin, Joint’s match just moments ago struck him like a profound bell.
Knowing he would lose.
Knowing he would be mocked, yet offering himself willingly—
“That’s it, then. He looked at the bruise on my face and his expression changed completely.”
Crash! Bang!
Fubau’s possessed strikes continued to press Azar relentlessly.
An emotion that swept away all sense of tension in a single stroke—Ma Hyeon-bin’s feeling.
‘I won’t let this stand!’
The name of that emotion was,
Rage.

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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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