Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 129

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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 129

Spoon was a Challenger-tier ADC streamer.
Challenger.
The highest tier in The League.
Since The League was the game that users from all sorts of games dipped a toe into, the perception had taken root that users at this highest tier were simply the best at gaming.
And it was actually true.
Unless the small number of players was due to high difficulty, places with fewer users simply had fewer highly skilled people gathered there.
Gamers who had watched the early pros gradually disappear as the player pool grew and tournament standards climbed knew this characteristic well.
And The League was the game with by far the largest player pool in reality.
There was no need to say twice what caliber of talent a Challenger in such a league possessed.
The same naturally held true for Grandmasters.
“But an A?”
Spoon sat in his chair, scrolling through the community, and thought to himself.
Wasn’t this pushing it a bit far?
There were two things needed to reach Challenger.
Physical Performance and game understanding.
It was the common consensus that without either one, you could never achieve it, and in fact, he’d never seen a Challenger player who lacked one or the other.
“Hmm. The physical performance seems decent enough, talent-wise.”
He gave some recognition.
After all, even if the guy had only played one hero, he’d still found the Kaelth rules.
“Yeah, it’s gone crazy.”
The Kaelth bulletin board he’d wandered into while searching for information on his opponent was practically losing its mind.

[Wind Sword confirmed legitimate. Streamer Seo Jun led it directly]
[Watch the video. The sword just goes there lol. Insane]
[Is this being manipulated too?]
[Can we get the hang of it if we take lessons lmao]
[A NEET Kaelth scrub who hasn’t left his house in 3 years is now working part-time to earn tutoring fees ㅁㅌㅊ?]
[Please go outside!]
[It’s weird that there’s a pattern, weird that they found it, weird that they teach it directly to others, weird that someone then gets the hang of it, seriously]

“That’s impressive, I’ll give him that.”
Spoon—his current League nickname was “Frustrated Upper Team Player.”
Upper team meant Mid and Top. Bottom was the Lower team.
As with any team game, if either the Upper or Lower team collapsed, you lost the game.
And most Upper team players would think they lost because the Lower team fed.
Conversely, Lower team players would think they lost because the Upper team got crushed.
People naturally assume they lost because their team couldn’t perform, even if they were the reason. That’s just how people are.
And memories retained with such false beliefs lasted even longer.
When these two facts overlapped, collective persecution complexes formed between Upper and Lower team players, inevitably breeding misunderstanding.
The nickname “Frustrated Upper Team Player” was a textbook example of such blame-shifting and warped perception.
Of course, Spoon didn’t acknowledge this.
And his previous nickname.
“No ADC = Kaelth Int.”
A truly menacing threat of a name.
These two nicknames had made people mistakenly think his secondary position was Mid.
He almost never played Mid and had never played Kaelth. He just threw in a stereotypical troll champion to make a point.
“If I can’t play ADC and have to go somewhere else, I’ll go Mid.”
It’s awkward to even call it a secondary position.
But still.

[Sudden intra-team tournament notice! Board owner participating]

-What the lmao out of nowhere
-Did he already know Yun-ho?
-Riots coming up soon so we get one scrim
└Wait, is the boss actually leaving?
└Everyone already picked up on it lmao
└Yesss!
-Holy shit. Spoon is facing the Kaelth god
└If Spoon is Challenger ADC, I’d honestly bet Seo Jun wins lmaooo
└Ah lmao so that’s why the spoon guy found the Kaelth pattern? lmao
└Does spoon even know Kaelth has 2 seconds of invulnerability? Or does he think kiting and stuff matters? lmao

“What the hell…….”
Spoon, who had been gathering information on his opponent, felt flabbergasted. He kept muttering while running his hand over his mouth.
“This is ridiculous. This shouldn’t be happening. Even for a Kaelth forum.”
Being good at Kaelth? Fine, he acknowledges it.
That streamer has tremendous talent—no need to make excuses for that.
Whether it’s that dramatic genius-level intellect you only see in dramas or some other talent, I couldn’t say.
“Two seconds of invulnerability? That’s impressive, sure. But who just stands still and lets someone slash their vital points? Come on.”
The reason he’s so flabbergasted right now.
There simply isn’t enough clear evidence that Seo Jun could be considered anywhere near his level.
“Whether he’s good with other weapons, how his Mental Projection ability is—none of it’s been proven.”
Mental Projection.
An essential concept in virtual reality where everything moves through thought.
Moving your body is something you can think of the same way as in reality. Truth be told, even calling it “thought” is a stretch. You just move naturally the way you always do.
But when there’s a third hand that transcends the physical body, or some kind of aura in the game?
Such sensations are inevitably unfamiliar at first.
As awkward and difficult as a baby taking its first steps.
That’s why games rarely feature avatar changes.
If players had to relearn how to move their bodies like a baby learning to walk every time they started a game, it would be easier to just not buy those games at all.
So the avatar—the sensation of moving the body—is mostly standardized across games.
But in-game skills are different.
The act of thinking, feeling, and manifesting sensations that don’t exist in reality as if they were real.
Gamers called this Mental Projection, and it was one of the essential elements that made up Physical Performance.
“So, let me see why a Challenger is a Challenger. Show me Kaelth too, will you?”
Kaelth was a hero based on sword and body movement.
The reworked skill and ultimate can be activated simply by thinking the words, without needing complex Mental Projection.
So he should show that movement-based play doesn’t work either.
“I’m not sure how good his Mental Projection is, but I’ll show him it’s the same thing regardless.”
He burned with zeal and hostility at the thought of proving why a Challenger was a Challenger.
Seo Jun had succeeded in provoking him without even trying!

* * *

The next day.
Seo Jun, sitting at his desk doing a broadcast, glanced at the taskbar on the right side of the screen to check the time.
6:29 PM.
“It’s about time for everyone to gather. I’m sure you all know what for?”

-You announced it in the stream title
-Intra-team tournament!
-But the roster hasn’t been announced, so why so early?
-Looks like he applied for Riots lmao
-Since he’s new and unranked, they probably won’t accept him, so he’s putting on this scrimmage to show his stuff—so cute boss
-Were you that desperate for the prize money lmao we can buy it for you

Seo Jun read the comments and let out an amused chuckle.
‘I really wish you would.’
The viewers were curious why Ha Yun-ho had suddenly opened an intra-team tournament.
And they reached the conclusion that it was to appeal to the management team!
First, there was the connection through Tae-woo.
And Seo Jun had a track record of joining For the Sect right before a Battlefield.
There was no reason it couldn’t happen again, so it had to be targeting Riots.
But what if he was under threat of rejection? Maybe he’s trying to draw attention?
An intra-team tournament would certainly attract a lot of eyes.
Could the Kaelth vital point discovery be for the same reason?!
Seo Jun looked at the chat full of viewers who had made this deduction with an impressed expression.
‘At least they got something partly right.’
Admirable!
Setting aside the viewers who’d gotten off to a wrong start, Seo Jun entered the group call he’d been invited to.
Ding.
The scheduled meetup time was 6:30, so he’d arrived right on time.
When Seo Jun entered the chat, five people were already there.
But within seconds, four more were added, filling the room to exactly ten people.
Everyone had arrived right on schedule.

[Hi everyone! No one’s late!]

Ha Yun-ho’s voice came through the speaker, and immediately the other streamers began chiming in with comments.

[Hello everyone.]
[Woohoo!]
[Yes! Love the scrimmage!]
[Ha Yun-ho is ugly!]
[Agreed.]
[Hello. Pleased to meet you.]
[Hello, Seo Jun!]

A mess of disconnected conversation.
The viewers, apparently used to such chaos, just laughed.

[Who just called me ugly?! We need to establish some discipline around here.]

Discipline out of nowhere?
Ha Yun-ho continued talking.
As the host, he let others speak without interrupting or interfering.

[Now, some of you might not know each other or be meeting for the first time, so I’d like everyone to do a quick self-introduction, three lines describing your main traits…….]

Letting others speak was Seo Jun’s misunderstanding.

[Nooo! Shut up!]
[Just skip it!]
[Hahaha.]
[Ugh, I really hate that stuff]
[Same.]
[Can’t we just say hi? Or like, not say anything?]

Seo Jun laughed as he listened to the various voices erupting in protest through the speaker.

[Then just one line…….]

Ha Yun-ho, like Seo Jun, seemed to be enjoying himself.

[You bastard…….]
[Can we just start the tournament, boss?]
[Please. Grrrrgh!]

-Durumi just bit down on something lmao
-I can pick out Rumi’s voice in all that chaos. Are you even human?
-Total chaos
-It’s chaos from the start lmao
-This is the good stuff lmao

So Seo Jun’s first impression of a three-or-more-person collab was definitively chaotic.
Not that it was bad.

[Ah. The pushback is too strong, so we’ll just do a simple greeting then. So to start…….!]

* * *

After they finished their introductions, they launched The League.
Since Seo Jun was participating in the call from outside, he first had to enter a capsule.

[Will you participate in Ha Yun-ho’s Private Game?]

The moment he clicked accept, an interface appeared.
And Ha Yun-ho’s voice came through.

[Going in now!]

He must have been the last one.
The teams had been decided beforehand, balanced by the organizer, so everyone’s roles were already set.
It seemed they’d divided the teams before Seo Jun even entered the Private Game, because the game started immediately as soon as he got in.
Seo Jun’s body moved.
“Alright, let’s do the Ban/Pick phase. I’m trusting you, Malang!”
His teammates materialized on either side of him. Ha Yun-ho was among them.
Ha Yun-ho wasn’t standing right next to Seo Jun, but since team chat allowed voice transmission, it didn’t matter.
And even now, it was possible to direct communication just to Seo Jun.
“By the way, Seo Jun. Wasn’t your self-introduction a bit bland? Just a new streamer, you said.”
“I thought it was just right.”
“Come on. You know, like slayer this, slayer that.”

-lmao already going for the bait
-This is so Ha Yun-ho lmao
-A formidable opponent
-Boss, you just gonna let that slide?
-Our boss is actually pretty good at this stuff too?

Ha Yun-ho’s secret to becoming close with so many streamers lay in his thorough information gathering like this.
“You mean Ruler, Orthofaction, and Heterodox Sect slayer, obviously.”
He’d apparently read through AiTube completely.
Seo Jun didn’t feel particularly inclined to counter.
‘Can’t banter with someone this valuable.’
He was a viewer who’d boosted the view count. Besides, Ha Yun-ho was the team captain who’d pick him.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t bothered to research Ha Yun-ho beforehand and thus lacked material to counter with—definitely not.
“Shall we talk strategy for a moment?”
“Sure, let’s do that.”
Seo Jun muted the broadcast audio.
“The opponent is a Challenger ADC, right? They’ll probably pick a ranged hero in Mid too.”
“I see.”
“Do you have another hero prepared besides Kaelth?”
Ha Yun-ho had already instructed Malang, who was handling the Ban/Pick phase, not to ban Mid heroes.
So he asked with interest, curious what hero Seo Jun might have prepared.
“No.”
Ha Yun-ho was momentarily at a loss for words at Seo Jun’s composed response.
“…Ah. Well, thank god Kaelth didn’t get banned, then? Since we’re playing twice anyway, it might be fine to go Kaelth first.”
Ha Yun-ho thought it was fortunate, but Seo Jun didn’t see it that way.
‘Hmm.’
Even with the situation explained, leaving Kaelth unbanned was clearly a provocation, wasn’t it?
“No, it’s fine. I can decide now.”
Besides, viewers had sent enough heroes as gifts that his shop had nothing left to buy.
“What do you mean?”
“Well. How about we try Eric this round? Seemed fun.”
Ha Yun-ho’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.
Eric the Escaped Convict?
The hero who shoots chains with magical delays?
Not a sword-wielding character, and Mental Projection is crucial for that hero, isn’t it?
Ha Yun-ho had apparently read through every video.
So he knew this would be the first time Seo Jun was showing Physical Performance with this kind of hero.
“What’s your Synchronization Rate with that one?”
It must be pretty high, right?
If so, then even with a hero he was playing for the first time, he might quickly adapt and show something—
“10.”
“Sorry?”
Was he serious?
“Ah, it’s our turn to pick.”
“Wait, give me a moment to think…”
There’s still time to pick someone else’s hero first and think more!
Unfortunately, it was already too late to stop Seo Jun’s fingers moving without hesitation.

[Blade – Escaped Convict Eric]

“Wow!”
Experiencing this reckless play directly was a different feeling than watching it on AiTube!
‘A Synchronization Rate of 10? That’s gotta be a joke. How could a human have a sync rate of 10? Haha!’
Since Ha Yun-ho was a casual player at heart, he immediately grasped how to handle Seo Jun.
Just enjoy it!

[Game start.]

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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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