Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 105

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

Chapter 105

Shin Ha-yeon had held the throne of the Tier 10 AI at the Training Grounds for five years.
But that didn’t mean no one had ever defeated her AI.
The AI mimics a person by synthesizing accumulated data.
However, it was impossible for the AI to fully capture a person’s complete skill level by gathering only two hours’ worth of reaction and movement data from a newly defeated opponent.
Of course, as the throne at Tier 10 kept changing hands, the accumulated data meant the current Tier 10 AI had come close to the level of top-ranked players.
Because of this, even ordinary people who had beaten the Tier 9 AI found the Tier 10 AI nearly impossible to challenge.
But what if the highest-level professional players made a concerted effort to fight repeatedly?
They could win.
And every time this happened, Shin Ha-yeon would retake her seat.
“Without exception, every single time over the last five years.”
Baek Do-yul recalled her habit, something he’d heard about from her former teammate.
Shin Ha-yeon enjoyed fighting the AI whenever a new person appeared, using it as practice.
During the data registration process, the AI would select responses it deemed necessary, and she would go in and acquire those techniques whenever she thought of them.
In a sense, it was the ultimate training machine.
Fighting the person directly would be ideal, but there was no one of comparable skill willing to spar with her as much as she wanted.
Especially if it was a pure swordsmanship match.
“Swordsmanship,” he murmured.
He had some expertise in it himself.
It wasn’t as though his family ran a swordsmanship dojo or his parents were martial arts masters.
His parents ran an ordinary small business.
But.
“The first game was For the Sect.”
Baek Wi-gang.
An NPC who evaluated your skill display whenever you showed him a technique form.
Baek Wi-gang had been the first NPC he met in the virtual reality world he’d first entered.
He found enjoyment in displaying technique forms and being evaluated, and over several weeks he experimented with various forms before that NPC, gradually deepening his intuitive insight into swordsmanship.
Then, at some point, a server-first achievement notification appeared and he obtained the Grand Master title—though he didn’t actually equip it—and as he played the game in earnest, he realized he possessed overwhelming talent.
After that, he was discovered by the current team director and threw himself into the world of professional gaming, eventually becoming a champion.

[Shin Ha-yeon: That’s not it]

But recently, he learned that the Grand Master title—which he thought had been lost—had reappeared, and when he logged back into For the Sect for the first time in years, he discovered his title had been stolen.
Why?
Was it a title that could only exist once on the server?
If so, had that streamer displayed a technique form so extraordinary on just a single viewing?
It was hard to accept even though he hadn’t logged into For the Sect for years.
He challenged Baek Wi-gang again to reclaim it, but the Grand Master title never appeared.
Even watching the video of someone receiving the Grand Master title, he couldn’t understand it.
What could possibly be different?

[Baek Do-yul: You fought that streamer at the Training Grounds too, right?]

So his interest turned to the Training Grounds—something he would normally have ignored—and he summoned the Tier 10 AI to face it.
And the moment his sword clashed with theirs, he understood.
The depth of swordsmanship embedded in each move was different.
How to receive and parry, how to extend one’s arm, how to occupy an advantageous position beforehand.
To parry in situations where it seemed impossible to parry, to strike in situations where striking would invite a counter.
He learned moves that, if he’d been alone, might have taken quite some time to grasp.

[Shin Ha-yeon: So what?]
[Baek Do-yul: Why are you upset?]
[Shin Ha-yeon: Because you’re interrupting my free time]
[Baek Do-yul: lol]

Writing only two consonants, he smiled.
Was this the composure of a victor?
Shin Ha-yeon’s standing wasn’t without reason.
In this tournament, they’d been fortunate and she’d been unlucky.
The meta, the team coordination had aligned just a bit better.
Countless small coincidences had accumulated to give them the win.
If they’d fought again, they might have lost.
But wasn’t this concept applicable to every match?
So they were legitimate victors.
And that victory carried its own weight and composure.

[Shin Ha-yeon: This is so annoying I’m blocking you.]
[Baek Do-yul: Wait]
[Baek Do-yul: .]
[Baek Do-yul: Stop!!]
[Baek Do-yul: Just a moment.]
[Baek Do-yul: You’re really blocking me?]
[Baek Do-yul: No wait, you can still see this, right? If I was blocked, I couldn’t even send messages.]
[Baek Do-yul: Hello?]

His composure vanished in an instant.
He’d nearly ended up unable to ask anything by offending her.

[Shin Ha-yeon: Get to the point already]

What he was curious about.
Usually, it took Shin Ha-yeon only a day or two to reclaim her seat.
At most, it never took more than a week.
But this was taking much longer?
Actually, he’d already resolved this question.
There was that much to learn—to extract—and he was entering the Training Grounds every self-training session.
What he was really curious about.

[Baek Do-yul: Do you know anything about that person? Since you’ve been playing since the beginning of virtual reality, you might know something.]

Shin Ha-yeon was a famous user who’d started from the very dawn of virtual reality, not just from the early days of game competitions.
A living fossil, you might say!
Though she was young in age, even if he were older than her despite starting games later.
Either way, Shin Ha-yeon was a fossil, an elder.

[Shin Ha-yeon: Why?]
[Baek Do-yul: Just looking at them, they’re clearly not someone playing for the first time.]
[Baek Do-yul: Do Surface sometimes give secondary accounts to regular people? If not, they’re a returning user, and I have a feeling someone like you might know who they are.]

Who were they really?
He could say with certainty that their skill was absolutely not that of a beginner.
The streaming concept seemed to be about remembering a past life.
Fine, good.
Even stretching credulity a hundred times, if they really did remember a past life, he could accept that they might have that skill.
But remembering a past life? That he couldn’t accept even a thousand times over.
One thing was certain: they weren’t a pro.
Even with cosmetic surgery, modern medicine couldn’t produce someone that good-looking—he was quite sure of that.
That was a little enviable.
Anyway, that’s how he deduced they were a regular person who’d played games in the past.
They probably made their old avatar look different from their real appearance.
“Actually, I don’t really care.”
There was another reason he was truly curious.

[Shin Ha-yeon: I’m not telling you lol]
[Baek Do-yul: …]
[Shin Ha-yeon: I don’t know their identity either]
[Baek Do-yul: That doesn’t seem right at all.]
[Baek Do-yul: Anyway, I need information. We’re thinking of testing that person on our end, and if they’re good enough, we might scout them.]
[Shin Ha-yeon: Pffft]
[Baek Do-yul: ??]

Sure enough, she definitely knew something.
But why was she laughing?

[Shin Ha-yeon: Anyway I really don’t know so bye]
[Baek Do-yul: Ok]

Tsk.
Should he just enter the Training Grounds one more time?
It was 7 PM.
Self-training time.
With the tournament over, things were a bit more relaxed, but even so, a pro gamer’s schedule was packed with practice.
Practice, practice, and more practice.
And yet it was enjoyable.
Partly because it was a game, but he truly enjoyed competing and winning.
Competitive spirit.
That was the real reason he’d asked about Seo Jun.
“It’s a bit frustrating, I admit.”
Baek Do-yul’s pride was wounded by the fact that in pure swordsmanship alone, he fell short of Seo Jun.
His most confident character in The League carried a sword, and swordsmanship was his confident field.
Probably thanks to the influence of that first game, it had naturally become his main weapon and his greatest strength.
But an opponent had emerged who surpassed him in that one area.
How could he not be curious?
“When it comes to overall game skill, I should be better.”
Combat in virtual reality gaming isn’t limited to melee weapons alone.
There are far more diverse forms of combat, and since becoming a pro, instead of training swordsmanship, he’d trained in all the comprehensive combat methods.
That was surely the reason he fell short compared to that streamer.
He had many other things to focus on.
Probably most pros were like that too.
Which is why Shin Ha-yeon, doing what she does at the Training Grounds, was unusual.
‘I heard someone goes to a gym to learn combat sports. Hmm.’
Knock, knock.
Someone rapped on the door of his room.
“Come in.”
Creak.
The door opened, and the person who entered was the team Coach.
“Do-yul, how’s the training going at the Training Grounds?”
“It’s going well.”
“Good. Anyway, I got a reply to that thing you asked for.”
“Oh, finally?”
Sending an email proposing that the team test Seo Jun.
That had been Baek Do-yul’s request.
The Coach had seemed somewhat reluctant but agreed, thinking there was no harm in at least testing them.
The Director had given the order anyway.
“Yeah. That streamer said they’re not interested in taking the test.”
“Hmm. Understood.”
“Right.”
The Coach left after he’d said all he needed to say, and alone in his room, Baek Do-yul turned on the streamer’s broadcast.
Their team was currently the champion.
The compensation was good and the contract renewal was already done.
That’s why the Coach had seemed displeased.
He felt the same way.
He didn’t actually want to recruit that streamer to the team.
His true intention was.
“I just wanted to face off against them once.”
Would he lose if they fought in the Training Grounds?
He had no idea.
Absurdly, fighting Seo Jun’s AI, he’d absorbed an enormous amount in an instant and grown rapidly.
So he wanted to test themselves against each other.
“I wonder if they’ve even played The League? It’d be good to know.”
That’s why he’d probed Shin Ha-yeon.
But got nothing, and failed to get them to come take the test.
Baek Do-yul had no intention of pushing further.
It was too much of a hassle.
“If I keep existing in this world, we’ll inevitably meet someday.”
That was the biggest factor.
As a streamer, it would be hard to avoid The League entirely.
With that level of skill, they’d obviously climb to Challenger, the highest tier, in no time.
When that happened, they’d naturally meet.
“Ah, or maybe I should contact Muvi Soft instead?”
A fun picture was beginning to form in his mind.
Heh heh.
“Let’s settle who the real Heavenly Demon is in a fight.”
He remembered the concept he’d been playing around with back in For the Sect.
On impulse, he sent a donation to Seo Jun’s stream.

[‘True Heavenly Demon’ has donated 2,000,000 won!]
[Let’s have a match to decide who truly holds the title of Heavenly Demon!]

A sum of money at least this substantial should grab their attention, right?

[Oh… The true Heavenly Demon has finally appeared. Then I suppose I shall return to my homeland, the Orthofaction.]

-For the Sect you’re not gonna play it anymore anyway ㅠㅠㅠ
-Orthofaction, do you believe that?
-The episode title literally says ‘Final For the Sect Retrospective Broadcast’ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-This guy isn’t even logging in just sitting in a stream chair collecting money ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Ah ㅋㅋ spending 2 million won you should respectfully hand over the Heavenly Demon seat ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Was that not it?

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