Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 158

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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 158

“Team wealth gap! Dokkaebi smashes with his club and we’re done! GG!”
Arin’s ringing voice announced the game’s end.
“Ah. Wealth gap! Not that I’m upset! We were completely helpless against it!”
Bang Ju spoke as if mocking himself.
“That’s true.”

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Dokkaebi really pushed hard
-Jungle after all!

Then Bang Ju launched into rapid-fire commentary.
“Bottom? Blown up! Jungle? Blown up! Top? While Wind Sword maintained priority due to the skill difference, if we’re talking kills and deaths? Blown up! Yes! The game is blown wide open! Wow!”
As far as laning phase performance goes, Wind Sword is 0 kills, 2 deaths.
Their top laner is 0 kills, 0 deaths, 2 assists.
Wind Sword’s 2 deaths became the foundation for Dokkaebi’s carry.
“Dokkaebi really ganked top relentlessly. Literally nonstop. It’s frightening.”
“So what couldn’t Wind Sword do? He had to play safe against the ganks.”
“And bottom gave up an early kill, so they were behind the whole time and couldn’t recover—then Dokkaebi came back and sealed it.”
The cause of defeat.
“The jungler really did nothing at all. A complete loss. Across every aspect.”
The jungler. Though this was a fact everyone had predicted.
Even that this loss would be this catastrophic.
“The jungler isn’t comfortable yet, and the opponent was quite strong, you could say?”
“That’s right. Still! Today’s match won’t count toward anything, so they can come back stronger next time!”
Arin spoke positively.
It was true. The time given after a scrim ends is long.
Though what they should do during that time to grow stronger, I’m not sure.
“Ah. And in this game, we really can’t avoid talking about this player.”
This was about Seo Jun.
“Really an outrageous player, isn’t he?”
“Yes, absolutely. He chased off Dokkaebi with sheer audacity alone.”
“Hahahaha!”
The analysts all laughed together.
Well, all except Penguin.
“Everyone was really shocked. Dokkaebi suddenly went pale like he’d seen a ghost, and just abandoned the gank!”
“Some are saying Dokkaebi was just hungry. Dokkaebi the food-eater went off to farm jungle camps. Or he made a sacrifice for victory.”
“That’s not it.”
Bang Ju shot that down definitively.
“Then what is it?”
“Seo Jun was either red beans or horse blood!”
“Huh?”
“Because dokkaebi originally hate red things. Right, Penguin?”
Penguin spoke in a tone of resignation.
“Just say he got scared.”
Laughter erupted once more—everyone except Penguin.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ No seriously, he was scared
-You can tell Dokkaebi didn’t even go near mid after that
-Is Seo Jun even someone to be scared of?
-There might be something we can’t see ㄷㄷ
-Dokkaebi could’ve succeeded the gank, but made a strategic choice because the damage might be bigger!!!
-(Strategic choice: happily went to farm jungle camps)
-No, he abandoned mid on purpose to experiment. For later.
-Meanwhile Penguin’s face was rotting ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Neither Dokkaebi nor Seo Jun realized it, but the act of discarding the Hat and choosing jungle camps instead, followed by never ganking mid again afterward, stirred up even more buzz than Seo Jun’s defeat.
In fact, it was only natural.
A jungler avoids ganks for no reason but fear of failure—yet the situation at the time was absolutely nothing like that.
Seo Jun and Dokkaebi’s vision wasn’t shared by the others.

[Teammates < Jungle Camps]
[ㅋㅋ Made Hat a sacrifice to put that monster Seo Jun to sleep]
[Wait, wasn't this a scumbag move—pretending to gank, getting teammates to fight, then bailing himself?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[How hungry was Dokkaebi exactly? Let's investigate]

So plenty of odd theories came up. The karma-cleansing angle about Seo Jun also lost traction.
"Seems like he got deep trauma from the Parachute provocation he suffered at Ground Zero!"
"Yeah. Even I wouldn't have wanted to go in on Seo Jun."
"He's definitely a remarkable player. He showed incredible things this game too, right?"
"Not only did he drive off the same A-rank top-tier jungler with pure guts alone, but he got 9 solo kills total on Hat during laning phase. That's amazing too."
"I think Dokkaebi, who never went over to help even once during that time, is even more impressive."

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ ㄹㅇ
-He died 9 times but blew up all the other lanes, so mitigating circumstances apply
It was just an efficient choice, okay!
-Is there even a Dokkaebi fanclub? Why do you keep defending him?
-But it does make sense? They won in the end anyway. ㅋㅋ Seems like they just tested if they could win while abandoning mid.
-No way. Looking at the end, being scared is admissible too.

"Definitely. I think the 2-person Arbiter's Blade at the end is impressive too. Did anyone see it properly?"
Tae-yang answered Arin's question first.
"It was too tangled up to see properly."
Bang Ju said the same.
Penguin stayed quiet. No one asked him.
"Shall we take a look?"
"Sure."
The observer pulled up the footage.
Teamfight.
A term meaning a large-scale battle where one blow could tip the balance of the entire game.
"5 versus 5, all tangled together! The initiation opening the teamfight is Dokkaebi's skill!"
Each hero's skills intertwine.
Since they were in the late game with gold earned, they'd also bought runes, strengthening their skills.
Wider range.
Flashy effects.
Amid the chaos of skills tangling together and it being impossible to tell who was hitting whom,
Seo Jun was caught.
Yet within that chaos, he moved with absolute freedom, dodging skill fragments flying from all directions while swiftly cutting down enemies' vital points.
"Wow……."
Movement even most Pros would find hard to pull off. Attacking the enemy in front while dodging skills coming from the side and behind, and activating invulnerability when in danger.
But.
"Eventually all his teammates die, and Seo Jun pulls back."
"He doesn't forget the Arbiter's Blade as he pulls back either. In that brief moment, he activated it on two enemies."

-ㄷㄷㄷㄷ
-That's impressive
-So what? They lost anyway ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-So he couldn't win with that physicality either. No matter how hard… it's tough…
-???: If he didn't make mistakes or something

Arin let out a small laugh reading the chat.
"Yes, that's true. He did end up losing. But! Didn't he maybe not give it his all?"
From Arin's perspective, Seo Jun stayed almost entirely in mid. He didn't make plays to open up the game.
In other words, maybe he was holding back? Going through the motions? That was Arin's theory.
"Don't talk nonsense. Understood."
That theory was quickly shot down.
Honestly, if that wasn't his all, it would be terrifying.
Hmm.
"Well then, before we move to the next game! Penguin?"
"Why'd you have to make that bet anyway."
Bang Ju laughed and clicked his tongue.
"Had to be cat speech too. Hahaha."
Tae-yang delighted that he'd accumulated one more embarrassing fact about Penguin.
"Musclecat is mobilizing again!"
Arin shouted, gripping the headband in her hand.
Finally, Penguin cursed himself from an hour ago—the version who'd blindly bet that Seo Jun would win, having made a bet he shouldn't have made.
Why on earth!
"……."
Soon, a hoarse voice echoed through the studio.

* * *

"That last team is fighting well from the start."
"Were those two teams strong teams?"
"Strong teams……."
The atmosphere was funeral.
"Everyone, if other laners grow well, I can cover for them, so don't worry. The jungler blowing everything up isn't something Alpaca can help yet since he's still getting used to it, so it's natural we couldn't stop it."
Seo Jun covered for the bad matchup.
"I didn't play well either."

-Ah ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Look how dejected
-Honestly the boss has responsibility too. He got outmatched in his carry role as an A-ranker
-Couldn't be helped ㄹㅇ
-Yeah, the boss lost?

Of course the effect was minimal.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I definitely read the Jungle Fundamentals Deep Dive section five times, but… sob."
Alpaca kept apologizing.
"I'm a bit embarrassed I couldn't even beat D-class. I should've supported Seo Jun steadily like he does. It's been a while since I've played anything but Kael."
Wind Sword laughed awkwardly, looking sheepish.
"Krahaha!"
Had Ha Yun-ho lost it?
"Seo Jun is right. This game really just had bad luck. But the problem is, I'm worried all the other games will keep having bad luck too."
Finally, Rumi rationally predicted the future.
"So then, how should we train?"
That's when Seo Jun asked. He dangled bait.
"My connections are wide, so infinite scrims!"
Ha Yun-ho spoke up. It definitely seemed they wouldn't have to worry about arranging other private scrims.
"But if we mainly do scrims, it'll be physically exhausting and not very effective anyway. Scrims are mainly for improving teamwork—they don't really help much with building individual skill."
Alpaca objected.
"Then I guess getting a coach would be the right call?"
Wind Sword spoke. This was his first time at Rios.
But as a streamer, he'd seen plenty and often remembered content creators collaborating with coaches.

-Does this team get a coach too?
-They needed one
-Bring in a solution! And please train these guys

"Sometimes A-rankers teach, but they do bring in coaches frequently."
Alpaca affirmed.
You could also use the coaching for broadcast content.
"Then the coach will be whoever has connections—Ha Yun-ho!"
Seo Jun cut off Ha Yun-ho.
"Ah! That won't work."
"Huh?"
"I already found a coach."
"Ah…… really! Haha!"
"Well…… who is it?"
"Are they a streamer?"
The teammates were slightly worried.
Seo Jun is new to Rios and doesn't seem to have seen them before.
With such a short career, he wouldn't know any streamers anyway, so they couldn't tell who he'd bring in.
"I should have mentioned it sooner, but honestly, I was uncertain myself."
"Ah, my apologies."
"Ugh. We must've been so bad……."
"Anyway. I'm just going to reach out to them. If you're uncomfortable with it, just let me know. We don't really start proper training until four days from now anyway."
"Yes!"
"We know the person, right?"
"Um. I'm not sure, but do you know someone called Dong-su? Or Lee Dong-su?"
"Huh?"
Silence descended on the room.
As Seo Jun looked at each teammate's face one by one, their eyes all widened.
And they wore expressions of disbelief.
"What? Everyone knows him?"
Seo Jun tilted his head and asked back.

-Lee Dong-su? You mean Lee Dong-su from Freefall?
-???
-Wait what? Is he bluffing?
-What the hell is the boss doing?
-Does this guy's network even end?
-With just one Lee Dong-su, Ha Yun-ho's connections go straight to retirement ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ They're getting Lee Dong-su as a coach? Pros must be busy?
-What's going on exactly ㅎㄷㄷ

Looking at their faces, they clearly knew something.
'Guess he's pretty famous after all?'
If Lee Dong-su had been present, Seo Jun would have looked at him with that expression of great freshness.
Or maybe he'd tease him, poking his shoulder and saying he was pretty popular.

-Ah Lee Dong-suㅋㅋ How'd the boss get close to him? Lucky ㅋㅋ
-You idiot, this isn't the kind of thing to joke about ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Why is Lee Dong-su?

But.
This statement created far greater ripples than Seo Jun had anticipated.

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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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