Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 139

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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 139

Arin, positioned at the center, called out forcefully from her seat.
“The auction is complete! All the teams are now formed, and while each team’s members are gathering and greeting one another, we have our work to do as well, don’t we?”
“That’s right.”
“Well then, shall we take a look at which teams performed well?”
The auction system guarantees one thing and one thing only: the player tier distribution. Not the position distribution.
In other words, each team captain had to scout their teammates’ positions carefully during the auction themselves.
From the organizers’ perspective, they could view this as an invisible hand that placed the burden of balance on the participants.
Unfortunately.
Humans were not creatures governed by rationality and self-interest alone.
“Hahahaha! Let’s start by looking at Mental’s team!”
Arin smiled and shifted her gaze to Bang Ju, seated on her right.
The reason she was smiling was simple—Mental’s team composition was solid.
The screen displayed Mental’s final team roster.
“Yes. We can say Mental’s team achieved remarkably well-balanced composition. Quite surprising, actually.”
“Haha, indeed. There was a critical moment early on, but someone took the bullet for him. And from that point on, the auction proceeded smoothly in an unusual way, didn’t it?”
“Yes. It seems he lost his composure after losing Seo Jun, and was perhaps more tentative than usual. Thanks to that, he avoided aggressive bidding wars and made measured bids instead—which turned out to be remarkably successful. You could say he ended up with the strongest team and the best balance overall.”
Arin called out the next team.
It was a team that boasted the same golden balance as Mental’s.
“These two captains can be said to have concluded their auctions quite successfully, wouldn’t you say?”
“Well, they brought in team members without overlapping positions, after all.”
“But not everyone can come out clean, right?”
The commentary continued with the remaining teams.
To be precise, they weren’t categorizing strong teams versus weak teams.
What they evaluated was each captain’s apparent success or failure in bidding and the chemistry among the members.
“In truth, only the captains themselves will know if their bids were truly successful. And I see some of the captains are starting to turn on their broadcasts now.”
“Then shall we discuss the next team while watching their broadcast?”
There was a possibility that some of what they’d deemed problematic was intentional.
If so, what was this captain’s true intention?
Arin heightened the sense of intrigue as she continued.
“It just came on. Right around the end—
let’s look at Kim Tae-woo’s team, who made a choice that has everyone scratching their heads.”

[Kim Tae-woo’s broadcast is starting.]
[Hey! Why’d you pick me from there! You should’ve picked Baram Geom! Seriously. Seriously, there’s no one whose main position is Mid on this team! If I come in, it’s bad for you and bad for me!]
[I don’t know.]

Tae-woo’s team members gathered in the Lobby. And there, visible immediately, was an argument.
“Yes, let’s stop watching that.”
Arin made a quick decision.

-Hahahaha
-I don’t know lol hahahahahaha
-Lol
-Still, since there’s a Sub Mid it’s kinda okay
-But is that worth giving up Baram Geom? Just gonna eat the hit?

“Haha. Kim Tae-woo has appeared in Lirios multiple times, but this is his first time as a captain. So he was probably just nervous, don’t you think?”
“That’s possible.”
“What do you two think, Penguin and Taeyang?”
“I suspect he deliberately avoided it because Baram Geom pretty much only plays Kael. Even if the position fit perfectly in that situation, when you weigh it against other alternatives, the scales could tip the other way. Though I don’t think that’s the case here!”
“A unique perspective, Taeyang.”
They didn’t know.
It was simply that he’d managed to check Seo Jun while still constructing a decent team—so he took the opportunity.
“Penguin, what do you think?”
“I’ve actually decided to give up trying to predict what streamers will do.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because of the last remaining team. I realized there might be something I’m missing.”
“I see!”
Satisfied, Arin introduced the final team.
“Well! This team spent all their points securing the first player and filled the remaining B, C, and D positions—three players—with those who went unsold right until the end!”
“Aside from Baram Geom, this team consists entirely of people who’ve done collaboration streams together. The man giving orders, Seo Jun, has done collabs with everyone.”
A—Seo Jun
B—Baram Geom
C—Alpaca
D—Rumi
E—Ha Yun-ho
“The team chemistry might actually be the best of all. So they could pull off an upset!”
Bang Ju spoke, recalling Seo Jun’s personality.
In his assessment, Seo Jun had surprisingly good social skills.
“Why don’t we take a look at what this team is talking about?”

[…….]
[…….]
[…….]
[…….]

“A warm and harmonious atmosphere… they understand each other without words, and there’s no awkwardness……”
“It looks like the captain is putting on a show right now……”
“Shall we cut?”
“Yes!”
Once again, the decision was swift.

-Yes!
-Wow! Really such a warm vibe hahahaha
-Ha Yun-ho lol he’s holding his hand up hahahaha
-If it looks doomed we upvote lol

* * *

When the auction ends, teams fall into two categories: those that are messy and those that aren’t.
And usually, there’s never just one messy team. If one captain trolls, it inevitably affects the other teams as well.
It wasn’t for nothing that Mental had earned notoriety as the biggest variable in the auction.
Considering that in the last tournament, Mental’s choices left every single team at least somewhat compromised, you could argue his reputation was actually understated.
‘After all, they divided exactly six players per tier, but not by position, so there had to be teams that failed.’
It wasn’t absolute, but for example, lower tiers were typically distributed more toward the bottom lane.
And as for Top and Mid, since statistically the most users play both of these roles simultaneously, many professional players could play both as secondary positions.
In such circumstances, captains bid as they saw fit.
And someone trolls and ruins things.
But Ha Yun-ho.
‘Couldn’t even ruin anything.’
From the start, he had no choice but to dump all his points on Seo Jun when he came up first, and instead had to beg, ‘Please, don’t take that asset—leave it for us!’ So he couldn’t ruin anyone else’s draft.
He just sank alone.
Perhaps that’s why—except for Seo Jun’s team, everyone else’s situation seemed fine.
Even Tae-woo’s team, if you looked at past tournaments, was actually on the better side. The only team that could truly be called ruined was his.
‘Let’s just go in.’
Seo Jun entered the Lobby where his teammates had gathered, at Ha Yun-ho’s invitation.
The first thing that caught his eye was Ha Yun-ho standing with his hand raised, and his teammates glaring at him.
‘Everyone’s doing just fine.’

-The captain arrived last
-Access to the capsule seems to be the slowest? Is this an immersion rate thing?
-This looks like a tech-incompetence issue lol
-Ah lol tech incompetence lol

He was right. Connection speed wasn’t much different. He was just a bit slow switching from his computer broadcast to the capsule stream.
Sharp observation.
When Seo Jun arrived, the silence broke.
“Seo Jun! It’s been so long! It’s strange meeting like this, but having you on the same team makes me feel so secure!”
Alpaca was the first to rush over and greet him.

-Alpaca only tried Mid according to what he himself said
-Entered his 30s, looks awkwardly ugly like Alpaca, an Assassination main, ranks low for a C-tier player. This guy’s done for!
-No wonder he went unsold lol

Hmm.
The viewers were being harsh.
Seo Jun thought about it again—actually, since these were all teammates he knew, it wasn’t entirely bad.
“Wow, I get to meet you as a teammate, Seo Jun. I thought we’d only face off since we play the same position.”
Next was Baram Geom.
And the viewers, with no mercy, began reciting his profile again.

-Was originally a Challenger Mid but two years ago met Kael and dropped vertically
-Has 48% win rate and 64% pick rate on Kael in Master tier
-One-trick Kael. And when he loses and drops points on Kael, he climbs back on other heroes lol
-Actually Baram Geom might have huge potential, but realistically he’s a skip. He deserved to be unsold lol
-Now that I look at it, they all deserved to go unsold lol
-Wow! Team is insane! Crazy!

Come on, you all.
Even if they’re people who were left unsold, the players themselves can’t be at fault, can they?
The real fault lies elsewhere.
“…….”
With the captain who’s subtly avoiding Seo Jun’s gaze while on his knees with his hand raised.
“Rumi, good to see you again.”
“Hello!”
He greeted Rumi, who was keeping watch beside Ha Yun-ho.
In any case, the atmosphere was warm and friendly. Except for Ha Yun-ho.
But again, the teammates had done nothing wrong, did they?
“Listen, this is virtual reality, so we won’t feel any physical fatigue anyway—just some mental exhaustion. Can’t I just put my hand down?”
“Then you can just keep it up forever, Yun-ho.”
Rumi said.

-Rumi is pretty harmless
-Seems like she went unsold not because of flaws but because there was just no matching team
-Sorry but D and E tier don’t matter if they’re good or trolls anyway
-Really the problem is the three Mid-laners!
-Is this a loss?

Well, what’s done is done. Rather than give up, there was no need to catastrophize before they even tried.
Seo Jun spoke.
“Let’s decide on a team name.”
“Sounds good.”
“How about Ha Yun-ho and the Victims?”
Rumi offered the first suggestion.
“That works too. Or, going to extremes: The Chosen and the Unchosen?”
Baram Geom spoke as well.
“That’s too sad. And long.”
“Then… Comprehensive Chaos?”
“Hopeless.”
Alpaca chimed in.
“Wait—are you talking about team names? Not critiquing my naming sense?”
Baram Geom, feeling unnecessarily called out, asked back.
“Yes, of course. Hahaha.”
Really, the vibe is so warm and pleasant.
Seo Jun smiled with satisfaction.
“I’ve also come up with a good idea!”
Ha Yun-ho opened his mouth, and everyone froze—but only for a moment.
“Go on, let’s hear it.”
As Rumi crossed her arms and watched intently to see how well he’d done with the naming, Ha Yun-ho’s mouth opened again.
“Wealth Gap.”
Oh.
Well.
That fit pretty well, didn’t it?
“This bastard! Are you mocking us for going unsold?”
“Stomp him! Stomp that bastard!”
“I… I’m not close enough to him to do that……”
“Baram Geom! I’ll give you permission! Go ahead and stomp him!”
Rumi.
She was surprisingly violent.
Just as Seo Jun was starting to feel a bit intimidated, Rumi—who had been enthusiastically stomping on Ha Yun-ho—suddenly turned her head toward Seo Jun.
“Seo Jun, why aren’t you stomping? Is it because you’re the 995-pointer?”
“Ha. I’ll stomp him.”
He’d actually wanted to anyway.
It wasn’t because he was intimidated. Really.

* * *

In the end, the team name was settled as Wealth Gap. It fit perfectly.
The viewers say that for a capitalist celestial demon, wealth gap is only natural.
Seo Jun had no idea what they meant by that.
As a side note, Tae-woo’s team name is apparently leaning toward “Your Own Fate Is of Your Own Making.” Everyone agrees except Tae-woo.
Anyway, the team names would be announced tomorrow.
“So what do we do today?”
“Why don’t we play a simple game?”
“The team that wins today’s game will get the benefit of selecting the groups in the Group Stage.”
“I see.”
“Last time, they had a running game. I’m curious what we’ll get this time.”
They looked at the official streaming window right in front of them.
The advertisement was about to end and Part 2 was about to begin.

[Alright! You’ve waited long enough. Let’s jump right into Part 2. I’m Arin, the caster for Lirios.]

-Waaaaah!
-Tsk tsk tsk

[So, the warm-up games to determine group selection today are two in total. First, an E-tier team battle in a fighting PC game—Beast Cartel!]

-So it’s scrub showdown
-What’s the remaining game for the other four?
-They’re bringing a PC game here lol
-The characters are so fluid in that game that PC does bring out the flavor lol

[Yes! And the second is a VR Battle Royale game—Ground Zero! Four-player squad, single match format. Players other than E-tier will participate. If you don’t have the game, the organizers just sent a gift—just check it and download it!]
[Ah! So Ground Zero and Beast Cartel!]
[Bang Ju, why are you acting surprised?]
[……The script said to act shocked. Why are you doing this to me?]
[Haha. Just kidding. Then please continue with the explanation.]

“Ground Zero?”
“Yes, Seo Jun. Do you happen to know it?”
“Well, I think I’d figure out how to play it.”
“Oh! Really?”
Anticipation crossed the faces of his teammates.
They knew Seo Jun’s physicality well. But he knows strategy too?
Naturally, they couldn’t help but picture Seo Jun commanding the team to victory.
In that moment when all eyes focused on him—
Seo Jun spoke with casual nonchalance.
“You just kill enemies when you see them, right? That’s how it works?”
Alpaca quickly made an ‘of course’ expression.
He’d been teasing them.
“Ah… but that’s true for every game.”
And Baram Geom, not yet familiar with Seo Jun, answered earnestly.
“Haha… well, let’s just watch Yun-ho and see how it goes.”
At that moment, Rumi clenched her teeth and decided to get closer to Seo Jun quickly.
Otherwise, she’d spend the whole tournament awkwardly unable to counter his jabs like this!

[Alright! So, first, E-tier members from each team, please install the game on your PCs!]

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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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