Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 120

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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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Chapter 120

Oh Ji-hye, director of the Surface Research and Development Center, watched the monitor intently.
On the screen before her, she could see Seo Jun’s gameplay from inside the Premium Capsule a few meters away.
And on the monitor beside it, his biometric responses were being collected in real time.
This data was also saved and sent to her whenever Seo Jun played the game on the capsule at home.
“Of course it is.”
Normally, Surface could detect any abnormal physical responses from users immediately.
Additionally, data was collected from those who consented to help create safer capsules.
But there was one person from whom data was demanded without any choice in the matter—and that was Seo Jun.
Of course, Oh Ji-hye didn’t actually need to check Seo Jun’s data herself.
“If anything went wrong, even slightly, the system would alert me automatically.”
Yet she reviewed his data every single day.
Safety was a secondary concern; the primary reason was pure curiosity.
“It really is fascinating.”
The test Seo Jun was currently undergoing was called the Combat Simulator.
She was its creator.
Seo Jun was now surrounded by virtual opponents.
The program’s purpose was to observe physical responses across the countless combat scenarios that could arise.
Many virtual reality games involved direct physical combat.
So rather than perform separate exercises, wouldn’t it be better to simply generate combat situations and observe immediate responses? That was the thought behind the program’s creation.
And she was in a state of admiration.
“Peak performance again.”
His other reactions weren’t bad.
Dozens of physical metrics were at appropriate levels, and several brainwave responses were decent relative to his Synchronization Rate.
But his Reaction Speed—the time between seeing an attack and countering it in-game—was different.

[Reaction Speed: Peak]

This was a value that could only appear when someone whose real-world reflexes were in the top 0.01% had the high Synchronization Rate necessary to transmit them without loss.
It shouldn’t be appearing for Seo Jun, who had a low Synchronization Rate.
The baseline itself was set such that Peak appeared only when someone moved faster than the fastest counter a low-Synchronization-Rate person could manage—making it physically impossible.
Yet Peak had appeared.
“Let me just do one final check to make sure it’s working properly.”
Oh Ji-hye typed on her keyboard and deactivated the combat pattern of the program.
This simulator moved according to a specific pattern.
The pattern had a single purpose.
To create complex, numerous scenarios while generating combat appropriate for the player to react to.
Oh Ji-hye disabled the pattern, and once it switched to random, the battle situation quickly descended into chaos.
Of course it did. All possible attacks simply erupted at random, without context.
Not difficult difficulty, not easy difficulty—disorder.
It would be hard to see proper reactions, but with Seo Jun, this was the only way to see his true nature.
Oh Ji-hye turned off the program and checked the final metrics while waiting for Seo Jun to exit.

[Reaction Speed: High]

This was Seo Jun’s true Reaction Speed.
Even this metric was nearly impossible given his Synchronization Rate, which served as evidence that he used his body with extreme efficiency to its limits.
It also meant his physical specs in reality were absolutely exceptional.
So what about the Peak from before?
Seo Jun exited the capsule, and Oh Ji-hye spoke.
“Thank you for today. There are no issues with your body, and I lost again. You know you won, right?”
“There’s no way not to know.”
He’d read the pattern.
In other words, Seo Jun didn’t observe and react—he moved preemptively, which was how he achieved Peak performance.
‘The pattern has purpose, so there must be intent involved.’
With only a handful of possibilities, and yet he reads the next attack!
Even Oh Ji-hye only set the formulas; she couldn’t predict the results at all and left the calculations to the machine. Yet he predicted them?
Admiration was inevitable.
“This means I have to update the pattern again! I’ll need to add far more variables.”
This was a small rivalry between Seo Jun and Oh Ji-hye.
Up until now, Seo Jun was the only one who had ever predicted the next attack, so technically an update wasn’t necessary.
Yet Oh Ji-hye updated it every time—she was someone with considerable competitive spirit.
Seo Jun was equally unwilling to lose.
“Director, there are no other issues?”
“No.”
Oh Ji-hye replied, the one who checked his data every day.
As mentioned before, it wasn’t for safety reasons.
By observing when brainwaves appeared during gameplay through the data, she could determine whether he predicted something or simply reacted to what he saw, and she was curious about this.
The near-precognitive prediction that only Seo Jun could demonstrate!
In the past, knowing of such talent, Oh Ji-hye had hoped Seo Jun would return to this world.
But the problem was price.
‘He seemed well-off before, and his house seemed comfortable.’
But being able to afford something and actually buying it are two different things.
So she dangled bait.
And Oh Ji-hye was certain.
Once he came back in, he wouldn’t want to leave.
That prediction proved correct, and ultimately she felt satisfied that pushing him in was the right call.
“Oh, Seo Jun. The Lios participation application announcement should go up today.”
The reason she’d asked if he could come today.
“Today, then.”
“Yes, and with your current viewer count, you’ll definitely get in? Congratulations.”
Oh Ji-hye was acquainted with someone from Lios and had planned to personally recommend Seo Jun later—as long as he didn’t cause any incidents while streaming.
Once she mentioned his past, they would surely be interested.
But now, succeeding as a streamer this way, there was no need to make any moves.
“Thank you.”
“Still, winning is going to be difficult, right? Since it’s a team game.”
“Well, I know that much. I’ve done it before.”
“Right. So here’s a tip: before the team is assembled, hide your strength just a little.”
“Huh? Why?”
Seo Jun tilted his head in curiosity.
“Lios is structured so team captains Auction team members. The odds of you becoming a team captain are low.”
“I see.”
Team captains were typically selected from streamers with long careers, high recognition among other streamers, and established chemistry—seasoned veterans.
Strictly speaking, Seo Jun was a newcomer.
There wouldn’t be major issues, but certainly the organizers would avoid assigning captaincy to him unless there were no other options.
“So you’ll become Auction merchandise. In the old days, these items used to appeal heavily, trying to sell themselves at high prices.”
“Being recognized is nice, certainly.”
“Yes, but at the very first tournament, everyone learned there was a serious problem with being auctioned off at high prices.”
The issue was that being sold at a high price meant the team captain had fewer Points left to spend on recruiting other team members.
“So the more expensive I am, the less likely it is that other expensive items will join the team?”
“Exactly. That’s why everyone tries to undersell themselves as much as possible. If you hide your strength even a little, you could see significant benefits.”
Looking at it logically, she wondered if Seo Jun would actually pay attention to such advice.
Oh Ji-hye let out a hollow laugh at his next response.
“I see. I’m already in the habit of showing only 30% of my strength, so it should be fine.”
“That doesn’t sound right at all. Oh, and when are you planning to reveal that you’ve played before? I’m curious.”
“Well, how famous was I really? Besides, even back then it was the early days.”
“People who know will probably be more numerous than you think?”
“Surely not.”

* * *

After finishing his streaming preparations, Seo Jun pressed the back button just before hitting the broadcast start button.
He then navigated to Trawel.
Specifically, The League category.

– 1,185,000 viewers

Over a million viewers—a number that translated to a 4% viewership share.
This meant a single streaming platform category matched the viewership of a top-performing television entertainment program.
A direct example of how much influence it held.
As such, naturally countless streamers flocked to this category.
‘They said the number of streamers alone easily reaches ten thousand, right?’
And that wasn’t all.
Major corporations—the biggest of the big—sometimes had multiple streams running simultaneously here.
And mid-tier companies always filled in the gaps densely.
Such was the ecosystem.
With so many viewers came even more streamers—a fiercely competitive ecology.
And now, at last, Seo Jun was stepping into that arena.
Seo Jun set his broadcast category and hit the start button.

[Beginning stream]

-Seo-ha
-SH
-Master’s here
-SH

Quick-thinking viewers with sharp reflexes started flooding the chat with greetings the moment the notification hit.
“Hello everyone. Nice to see you. Yes, today is The League.”

-New game lol
-Wonder what kind of trolling we’ll see this time ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Newbie ruin everything again
-If he gets support he’ll probably eat all the minions ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-No way he probably won’t know where to go and abandons his own lane ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Spoiler-adjacent chat appeared.
But this time, he really wasn’t a newbie.
So Seo Jun said this:
“Everyone, I’ve studied. And you all already decided on my nickname?”
Seo Jun launched The League.

-No way!
-Why do you keep deciding such important things on your own?
-Right lol a streamer should spin the wheel
-It’s the Heavenly Demon right? It’s the Heavenly Demon right? It’s the Heavenly Demon right?
-Really wondering what he picked ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

This time, he had actually intended to choose his nickname in consultation with his viewers.
Choosing a nickname was always the hardest part, after all!
When would he get a better chance to borrow the collective wisdom of the masses?
But yesterday, while checking his email, Han Ji-min had contacted him.
Someone had bought a nickname for The League and was giving it to Seo Jun.
‘He said they spent a million won on it.’
Out of gratitude, he decided to check it out, and once he saw the nickname, Seo Jun liked it, immediately contacted Han Ji-min, and entered the game.
The method for acquiring a nickname was simple.
You’d synchronize the moment the previous owner switched to a different nickname, then create an account with that name.
The account he obtained this way was:

[Sword God]

-Rare nickname…?
-Wow! Sword God!
-Did you buy it?
-How much does something like that cost ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-So you betrayed the Demonic Cult after all! You bastard!

Seo Jun immediately corrected them. Not the fact about betraying the Demonic Cult—he clarified the other misunderstanding.
“I didn’t buy it. A viewer generously gave it to me as a gift, so I decided to use it. Thank you again to the person who gave it to me.”

-Oh…
-Demonic Cult bastards, you won and didn’t even give the Heavenly Demon nickname?
-You really should reflect
-So you’re drawing a sword again this game ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-With a nickname like that, you can’t play a mage, right? You know that?
-Walking the martial path then?

He wasn’t necessarily limited to sword-wielding characters.
But since he was back after such a long time, he’d decided to pick the character he used to play.
“Then let’s start the game right away. The tutorial isn’t necessary—I’ve already studied. Really.”
His character was ready.

-Of course not
-Skip mercilessly ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-It’s because of people like this that the tutorial has to be mandatory ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Nah, he probably did the tutorial while making the nickname yesterday!
-You trust the Master? ㅋㅋㅋ
-Ah ㅋㅋ reading the manual wouldn’t have made him tech-savvy ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Trolling on

This time he really didn’t need it, they said.

* * *

Meanwhile.
In the largest Lios community for the Adventure game, a post had been uploaded.

[Who the hell is this guy pulling 20,000 viewers? First time seeing him]

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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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