Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 168

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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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Episode 168

The world moves faster than you’d think.
“Everyone’s so industrious.”
What could all these people pouring out be doing?
Ha Yun-ho gazed beyond the car window, wondering.
Along Hangang Boulevard, countless cars beginning their day, and in the parks, people waking their bodies with exercise.
It was a strange sight.
He’d never given it much thought before.
Usually he broadcast until four or five in the morning, then slept.
Normally he went to bed a bit earlier and slept in.
In other words, this time of day was something he hadn’t experienced in the last few years of his streaming career.
That’s why he’d forgotten that so many people were already awake and greeting the morning.
“Well, at least there’s no traffic.”
It’s not exactly rush hour, after all.
So what were these people moving around for?
Their jobs required early starts?
Or were they doing self-improvement?
If it was just to avoid traffic during commute time, that’d actually be pretty funny.
There had to be something else.
“Anyway, what matters is.”
He felt refreshed.
Not just because he was going to meet Lee Dong-su.
He’d gone to bed about three hours earlier than usual yesterday and woken seven hours earlier today.
‘When I think about it like this, I’ve been sleeping like a pig normally.’
Everyone around him lived that way, so he’d figured sleeping in the early morning and waking at noon or one in the afternoon was normal. But it wasn’t.
Though some said six hours wasn’t enough for proper rest, his body felt light and refreshed regardless.
“Should I move my broadcast time earlier and wake up sooner from now on?”
He needed to think about his health.
He wasn’t even in his thirties yet, but lately he’d been feeling old. People said that when you feel worn out before thirty, it just meant your health wasn’t good—and that was exactly Ha Yun-ho’s state.
This could just turn into Three-Day Determination.
But for the tournament prep, he’d easily last three days.
And if he did it with other people, Three-Day Determination would stretch into a week, then a month.
Once it became a habit, it’d last a year.
And getting up that early—what for?
“Seo Jun seems to like exercise, so maybe getting to know him better wouldn’t be bad, right?”
There was nothing wrong with it.
“Was it here?”
He’d arrived without realizing it.
The drive took about twenty minutes, which was reasonable.
“Wow, using two floors of a building?”
The gymnasium he saw through the glass from outside clearly had significant scale.
It looked like they’d leased two floors of a pretty large building.
“Underground Parking Lot’s nice.”
After parking, he took the elevator up.
“They said the fourth floor, right?”
Generally the third floor is for regular members, and the fourth floor isn’t without regular members, but it has a different character, they’d said.

* * *

‘What kind of place could it be?’
Ha Yun-ho imagined as he watched the floor numbers change on the elevator display.
‘It must have incredible facilities.’
It’s well-known that each team has its own dedicated health center.
Dedicated facilities that can care for everything—from real-world physical condition to status when logged into virtual reality.
But if Lee Dong-su had abandoned that place and come here instead, there had to be something special about it.
Maybe it even had custom equipment at urban-legend price levels, worth far more than the championship prize—a one-hundred-million-won Capsule.
Or perhaps, surprisingly, it had a martial arts dojo with an analog sensibility.
Wasn’t it famous how martial arts had grown far more influential once virtual reality came around?
And that kind of thing was a specialness even teams had trouble preparing.
So Ha Yun-ho had been hopeful.
And the elevator reached the fourth floor, the doors opened, and he stepped out.
Bang! Bang!
The facility that came into view was clean.
All sorts of machines (Ha Yun-ho didn’t know their purposes since he wasn’t familiar with gyms) were arranged in neat rows and columns, and there were already quite a few people around.
A very, really very diligent young man working out was visible too.
‘I feel like I’ve seen that guy on a broadcast somewhere…’
He wasn’t sure.
And the special something he’d been expecting wasn’t there.
Bang! Bang!
Except for some sound echoing through the space.
Moving a bit further, a glass-separated space for a different purpose appeared.
That space was as large as the gym itself, and it was crowded with several rings, people—no, older gentlemen.
Regardless of their actual age, anyone with that kind of appearance was definitely a senior. They had to be.
And.
Bang! Bang!
‘Is that Seo Jun?’
Still unable to approach through the glass wall, assessing the situation, Ha Yun-ho realized the person in the ring was handsome.
Those distinctive sharp features and bearing were identifiable even from a distance.
‘It’s really the same in person too. I only touched him just a tiny bit.’
His conscience pricked him a little, and during the offline broadcast he’d really only touched him slightly.
Anyway, who was he sparring with this early in the morning?
After figuring out it was Seo Jun, he approached closer and went inside.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound came from someone hitting Seo Jun. It echoed louder now that he was inside the space.
It was brutal.
The opponent looked like they were preparing as a hand-to-hand combat athlete.
But where was Lee Dong-su? They’d definitely planned to meet today.
Just as Ha Yun-ho was looking around.
“Hello.”
Some bandit of a man approached him with a rough voice.
“Hello?”
“You’re that guy’s—I mean, Seo Jun’s fellow streamer, aren’t you?”
“Oh! Yes, that’s right.”
The bandit’s gaze moved to the autograph paper and pen in Ha Yun-ho’s hands.
Then returned to him, looking at him with unexpected pity.
What was that?
Why was he looking at him like he was so pitiful?
The bandit seemed about to say something, then stopped and turned his head.
“That… no, that’s not it. Hey, you! Your colleague’s here! Stop it!”
Bang!
“Ah. Thank you, Manager. Hello, Yun-ho.”
But Seo Jun didn’t stop.
“I said stop! You’re wasting hands a hundred times more precious than mine!”
“Hands more precious than yours, you say?”
Precious hands? What was that about?
So the opponent really was a hand-to-hand combat athlete.
“Stop now!”
“Yes.”
The person sparring with Seo Jun collapsed as soon as he heard that.
“Phew. Barely made it through today without getting knocked out.”
So he did get knocked out sometimes.
“Twenty-four valid hits—you did well.”
“I couldn’t land a single one?”
“Right.”
“Twenty-four hits in three minutes and I couldn’t even land one?”
“You did well.”
“Hehe. I suppose I did!”
What was that otherworldly conversation?
Ha Yun-ho approached where Seo Jun was.
Seo Jun, leaning against the ring, welcomed him.
“You came early. Very commendable. Just like a team leader.”
“Ha. I’m not getting criticized just for coming first, right?”
At Ha Yun-ho’s words, Seo Jun smiled gently.
And someone lying beside him just laughed.
“Hehe. Hehe. Hehehehe.”
What. Unpleasant.
Like he was being mocked, or like he’d gone insane.
“I don’t think there’s anything to criticize?”
“Is that so.”
“Of course. The team leader sets an example first by training ahead of time—who would dislike that?”
“Hehehehe. Hehe.”
The guy kept laughing.
“But where is Lee Dong-su?”
Ha Yun-ho finally got to ask Seo Jun what he was curious about.
The facilities and everything else didn’t matter.
If he could just meet Lee Dong-su!
Only then did Seo Jun step back slightly. And he spoke.
“Ah, let me introduce you. This is Lee Dong-su.”
Seo Jun pointed to the person who’d been lying down, and when that laughing man got up and removed his headgear, a familiar face appeared.
“Hehe. Hello, Yun-ho! It’s Coach Lee Dong-su! Thanks for coming. Really thanks for coming…”
What?
Wait.
The person who’d been getting hit this whole time was Lee Dong-su?
Seo Jun smiled broadly at the bewildered Ha Yun-ho.
“I’ll go easy on you today.”
Pardon?
Wasn’t the coach Lee Dong-su?
“Yun-ho. We’re comrades now from here on.”
What in the world.
Soon after, Seo Jun came down from the ring.

* * *

“We’ll train together…”
“Ooh!”
“No, together means we…”
“Ooooh!”
“No, we really will train together, so…”
“Oooooh!”
Looking at his teammates who’d all gone stupid, Ha Yun-ho squeezed his eyes shut.
He couldn’t say another word.
Seo Jun was watching him. If he said more, he’d definitely get hit harder next time.
Seo Jun had deliberately displayed his brutal sparring style with others today, showing it after training ended.
He’d silenced Ha Yun-ho wordlessly.
‘Or was that not it?’
The other seniors there had been perfectly calm, so maybe it was just a normal thing?
Anyway, it was terrifying.
So Ha Yun-ho just hoped his teammates would understand.
The problem was.
“An opportunity to train with none other than Lee Dong-su!”
“Yun-ho, I’m a bit jealous you met him first, but you’re the team leader so I’ll allow it. This means we’ll all eventually meet him too.”
“No matter how much work piles up, here I am on time—Wind Sword! From now on, no matter what happens, I will wake up at six sharp every day and head out!”
Even though he was in virtual reality, his whole body ached. His arms felt sore and numb.
Phantom pain. Real phantom pain.
High-intensity training for athletes? Compared to today’s workout, that was nothing, Ha Yun-ho could swear.
Most of all.
That training.
“No, training together means…”
More precisely, receiving training together.
“Ah. How many times do I have to say it? We’re planning to do this properly anyway, so please stop.”
“So is this some kind of sense of duty as team leader?”
“Can’t I just start going tomorrow instead?”
Ah.
Deciding the conversation was futile, Ha Yun-ho immediately pulled out an item from the lobby.
A Carrot Doll.
And he shook it.
He’d judged that Seo Jun, at least, wouldn’t understand this kind of meme or joke, and this was his call for rescue.

-Why is Ha Yun-ho acting like an idiot like that lol
-Where’d the carrot come from lol
-Shaking the carrot with no soul is hilarious lol

* * *

Hmm.
Seo Jun watched Ha Yun-ho shaking the carrot earnestly.
‘His body felt okay, then?’
If it were harder, he wouldn’t be thinking like that.
In Seo Jun’s view, the first step to raising skill was becoming more acutely aware of the sensation of moving the real body.
In his past life, there was a training method of swinging a sword very slowly.
Swinging slowly was easier than swinging lightly; swinging fast and precisely was harder.
And swinging fast and precisely was many times harder than swinging infinitely slowly but without tremor.
The reason for that training was simple.
It was to slow down the body’s movements and examine each motion carefully.
‘I’m not asking for that much—even simple Repetitive Exercise would be good.’
He needed to perceive the body’s movements.
And it was clear he hadn’t gotten there yet.
And building basic stamina too—wouldn’t that be good? So he’d given him simple Repetitive Exercise.
Just by focusing on precise form, similar effects could be achieved.
Of course, objectively and from Ha Yun-ho’s perspective, it had been a bit excessive.
‘It wasn’t enough.’
But Seo Jun’s own assessment thought otherwise.
“Then let’s wrap up! Good luck in tomorrow’s match!”
Ha Yun-ho stayed until the very last moment shaking the carrot, then ended the broadcast.

* * *

Tae-woo was waiting for Seo Jun as he stepped out of the Capsule.
Scattering snack crumbs as he usually did.
Seo Jun’s expression hardened.
“What. Why are you waiting here?”
Actually, it was fine. He could just have it cleaned.
“Did you order the chicken?”
He’d tell him to clean while eating.
“I did. But why do I always have to order it, huh?”
“Because I’m not making you go pick up delivery to save on the fee.”
“Yeah, that’s fair.”
Tae-woo was quick to see reason this time too.
“……….”
“Hey. Got a strategy for tomorrow?”
Out of nowhere, what strategy was he talking about?
“I talked it over with our team.”
“And?”
“Our team decided.”
“What.”
“To extract information from you.”
“I see.”
“You must have come up with a strategy for how to attack when facing our team. Mind sharing that?”
“Why would I?”
“Well. You’re going to win anyway, right?”
“That’s true.”
“So tell us. We’re a weak team and need all the information we can get.”
“You’re 0-2?”
“Yeah. And if we lose tomorrow, that’s 0-3. But regardless of tomorrow’s match, I just think we should know what the opposing team is thinking. So help us out.”
“All right.”
“Yes!”
“Our team’s strategy is to shut down your mid and collapse your game.”
“……….”
“Like I said yesterday, my target is you, Tae-woo.”
Heh.
Heheheh.
Tae-woo cursed silently with his eyes for a moment, then spoke.
“That’s my line, you bastard!”

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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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