Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 151

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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 151

Penguin.
In his mid-to-late twenties, he had quit the professional circuit just three years after graduating, sensing he’d reached the ceiling of his abilities.
More precisely, he’d concluded he could never reach the top. His skill was middling at that level—solid enough, but always someone clawing up from below, and he didn’t have the resolve to withstand that pressure.
Still, when he’d retired, he was at least performing at an average standard.
So his sudden retirement sparked endless speculation among fans. Of course, no one guessed the truth.

[Sounds sketchy, but could it be some incurable disease?]
[You people curse and compare him every time he loses—no wonder Penguin’s leaving!]
[Yeah, the dude’s stacked, so just go live your best life, Penguin. We loved you!]

The most absurd part was a post that had taken off because he’d gained weight from stress at the time.

[Yo Penguin, you little bastard!!! Are you pregnant? Congrats! Live well!]

Years later, that post was still lodged deep in Penguin’s mind.
Telling a guy who’s 190 centimeters tall that he’s pregnant. Talk about refreshing open-mindedness.
So the day after retiring, Penguin resurrected himself as a streamer and put the whole mess to rest.
Because of that post, he’d impulsively gone public right away instead of following his original plan, and launched his streaming career.
‘Anyway, it was a good choice. I left while the applause was still ringing, and I found a new path.’
He hadn’t chosen this profession because he thought he could be the best in the streaming world.
Back in competitive gaming, he’d had that hunger to win, but streaming held no such appeal.
Who was there to beat, and who would acknowledge victory anyway?
It wasn’t about money either.
As long as he didn’t indulge in luxury, he’d already made enough to live comfortably—barring gambling or drug addiction, he was fine.
Even if the market hadn’t reached the scale of American major sports, it had grown plenty large. Three years in the top tier meant astronomical earnings.
It simply suited him. He couldn’t spend his whole life as a jobless gamer, could he?
Though honestly, the latter appealed to him too, he had to admit.
In any case, today Penguin was deep in thought about whether to hang up his entertaining streaming career or carry on.
‘Has the end of days come for the streamer profession too?’

-Supply with no demand on ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-What? What? What?
-Go ahead and meow already!
-What meow!
-What Danang ㄷㄷㄷ This is Danang travel viral

Penguin weighed whether, if he left the industry now, he’d receive applause or be booed off stage. Eventually, he decided against it.
That’s it.
‘From now on, I’m only singing the praises of this player Seo Jun.’
Done.
“……meow.”
At 190 centimeters tall,
perhaps unconsciously harboring a grudge from past ridicule, the muscular giant that Penguin had become through years of dedicated training finally broke down and cried.
And that weeping sound reached the ears of the three other commentators and hundreds of thousands of viewers with a distinctly raspy quality.
“Whew…….”
“Ugh…….”
“Haha!”
Penguin thought once more.
‘From now on, I’m only simping for Seo Jun.’

* * *

Objectively speaking, Penguin had a truly ordinary-looking face.
The problem was his massive frame. His jaw was angular.
The real issue was.
That this kind of person was now greeting Seo Jun for an interview, attaching “meow” to every word.

[Seo Jun. How are you doing……. ……. ……. ……meow.]

Raspy and authoritative.
A low, cavernous voice. The cat’s authority was unmistakable.
Because he hesitated so much with each utterance, those characteristics of his voice stood out far more than his usual tone.
“Hello.”
On the central upper screen of the broadcast, Seo Jun, visible through video call, maintained his usual poker face.

[Seo Jun! Are you feeling a lot of pressure?]

Bang Ju asked with a playful grin.
More amusing than pressurizing.
If he were closer to the others here, he’d laugh. Even if they’d met as enemies in-game.
“No. Heh.”
He couldn’t suppress the laughter.
Even Seo Jun, who had supposedly reached the state of Mirror-Like Mind, utterly failed to hold it back.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Desperate laugh suppression fails ㅋㅋㅋ
-Ah ㅋㅋ If only that headband wasn’t there, he would’ve held it in ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㄹㅇㅋㅋ
-The production team is amazing. They got it that fast

[Good. Let’s show you now, Penguin commentator.]
[Thank you! Really, thank you!]
[What?]
[……..]
[Haha, anyway! This is going to be difficult to moderate, so I’m only showing it this once. I think even this much is enough to be memorialized. In any case! Seo Jun, it’s been a while!]
[I want to say hello too! Hello!]

“Yes, it has been a while. Hello, caster.”

[Th-then, me too? Hello. I’m Tae-yang, one of the commentators.]

“Hello.”

-No ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Is this a fan meeting or something ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Our captain’s popularity is something ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Everyone’s queuing up to greet the likely tournament champion ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-A predetermined conglomerate!
-Not sure about conglomerate status, but he’s definitely raking in the cash
-He already is, though?

[Alright! Looks like things are settled now. Let me proceed as planned. Seo Jun, this is your first streamer tournament, and you’ve already been named MVP in your very first game. How are you feeling about that…….?]

Arin organized the situation and attempted an interview with Seo Jun.
The question was textbook, safe. There was nothing to criticize, no reason for scandal.
All she needed was his answer, but the official broadcast chat had gone wild.

-Why did Arin suddenly decide to do the interview herself?
-Wasn’t that Penguin’s job ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-A natural interview interception has arrived
-It’s not because he’s handsome, right? She’s just dedicated to her work, right?
-Since Penguin’s covering her work, isn’t it good? But why is she intercepting him!]

And mid-conversation, Arin glanced at the chat and spoke.

[Honestly, Seo Jun appeared a lot in the dramatic moments, so it was great to see him. Yes or no? You’re asking? Haha. I’d say yes because I got to watch some incredible plays. Anyway, how are you feeling about all this, Seo Jun?]

Arin had slipped out of that one smoothly. Though no one believed her.
Seo Jun paused to think before answering.
“It was fun.”

[Could you elaborate on why it was fun?]

“The new game was entertaining. It’s my first time playing Battle Royale as a genre.”
Yes.
Games truly are fun, Seo Jun nodded to himself.

[Ah! So you were having fun because it was a new game. I see. Yes. I see!]

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ She’s broken
-Captain, you can’t interview like that—how’s anyone supposed to react ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Actually, Captain does seem really excited whenever he plays something new ㅋㅋㅋ
-Everything he does is so easy he can’t help but have fun
-ㄹㅇㅋㅋ Back in the day I played Nin10 with cheats on the TT chip and it was actually fun

Seo Jun caught sight of his own stream chat and suddenly snapped back to attention.
“Ah, the question was about how I feel being named MVP, wasn’t it?”

[Haha. Yes, exactly. It’s your first tournament, right? And so many viewers watched from the start, but Seo Jun didn’t show any nerves—you went beyond just performing at your level and pulled off super plays! How does that feel?]

Arin explained it properly this time.
The pressure of hundreds of thousands watching, the pressure of teammates and rival streamers all present.
It’s impossible not to feel nervous.
So asking about feelings from someone performing at this level from the start was natural.
The problem was.
Seo Jun wasn’t an ordinary person.
“It was easy, though?”
Seo Jun gave his honest impression.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-He’s always like this. Please don’t hate him. He’s always like this. Please don’t hate him. <–Someone go spam this asap, guys ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Psycho. Psycho. Psycho. Psycho. Psycho.
-Please just talk normally for once ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Captain's socialization seems really underdeveloped, upvote if agree ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Socialization?
'The strong don't need such things.'
Whether that applies in modern society is irrelevant.
At least in streamer society, it seemed to hold true.
Seo Jun smiled slyly, letting his mouth curve upward, and continued.
"There were no real crises. So I basically won easily."
Smiling innocently. His eyes held no malice or intention to provoke—just an expression of pure kindness.
Among the teammates watching quietly, Rumi, who was quick to catch on, let out a sigh first.
And naturally, the rest of the team began shooting laser glares at Seo Jun with their eyes.
They had a sense of what he was doing, and they desperately hoped it wasn't that.
If it was, they prayed he'd stop here.

[Ah. So you're saying there were no crisis moments?]

"That's correct."
But Seo Jun nodded and continued with the interview.

[Not even when you failed to deploy the parachute at the start?]

"Ah, that was intentional."
It wasn't. He simply didn't know the criteria for deploying it, so he just fell and let things play out.

[Because of that deliberate choice, you ended up in a pretty close call during the hand-to-hand combat, didn't you?]

"Well, all attacks either connect or they don't—it's one or the other. Whether I dodge ten steps back or barely scrape by, it's the same result. But… was it close? It felt like I won pretty easily."
He shrugs his shoulders.
The screen captured that gesture perfectly.

-This is annoying ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-But you didn't get hit, right? Anyway, didn't get hit, right? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Captain, are you trying to pile up Karma here? ㅋㅋㅋ

[What about when you faced off against Hwang-so? At that moment, if you hadn't had the frying pan, or if you'd made even one mistake, wouldn't that have been a close call? And that was your first time deflecting bullets with a frying pan!]

"That wasn't really a difficult play, so I wouldn't call it a crisis."

-Whaatㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Did look easy though
-It wouldn't be hard for you ㅅㅍㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wait, thinking about it, the bullet Parrying was just improvised too ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Karma.
The retribution for misdeeds in past lives.
In other words, a concept entirely unrelated to Seo Jun.
He remembered his past life, and he knew full well that he had no karmic debt to accumulate.
However, this concept of karma isn't used according to its dictionary definition here.
It's not about past lives—when accidents happen, people bring up past conduct and invoke this term.
And in tournaments like this.

-I know what Captain's trying to do right now
-Is he trying to become the villain of this tournament? Seo Jun!
-This is what the Heavenly Demon does ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Ah yes, the Assassination Guild GOAT ㅋㅋㅋ

They call it accumulating karma to act like you've already won the tournament before it's even over.
Because those who act that way almost always fail to win, and their words come back to haunt them like karma itself.

[Haha!]

Arin seemed to have caught on to at least the gist of it.
What concept Seo Jun was going for.
Some people genuinely disliked this sort of thing, but most enjoyed it.
Not because they were excited about Seo Jun himself—the tournament itself became more entertaining.
Now that Trash Talking had become part of the culture.

[So! Do you have any goals for the rest of the tournament?]

"Championship."

[And at this point, which team do you think is most likely to stand in the way of that championship?]

"Well. As you've seen today,"
Seo Jun let his mouth curve upward as he began to accumulate karma.
"none seem to exist."

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