Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 172

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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 172

“One!”
His legs bent and his body descended.
“Two!”
With a shout, he overcame gravity. It was a simple Bodyweight Squat, the kind a beginner could do without a barbell.
“One!”
But if it went past fifty, things changed.
“Two!”
And if the person doing those squats was a streamer who barely left the house on normal days and didn’t even take walks.
“Ugh… huh-huh-huh! I’m dying.”
Rumi’s legs trembled violently.
Even the Gym Manager, watching from a distance as he swapped in a new Sandbag, could see the tremor clearly.
‘Is she about to collapse?’
Regardless, Seo Jun pressed on.
“You’re fine. One.”
“…….”
“One.”
“I’m not fine……”
“One.”
“Ooooone!”
Since it was the first day, Seo Jun was going one-on-one to supervise her.
‘There’s no actual trainer here.’
He’d thrown everything he had at her beforehand to seize the initiative, and starting from that awkward first moment made it hard for her to refuse—so he was pushing her to the limit with a smiling face. The difference was subtle but significant.
“One more rep is seriously not happening. Seriously. At this rate I’ll be defecating in virtual reality. Seo Jun? Seo Jun?”
If you’re close, you can curse and talk back, but if there’s even a hint of awkwardness, once you’ve said something, it’s hard to take it back.
‘It’s already over.’
The Gym Manager shook his head slowly.
Seo Jun examined Rumi carefully and then spoke.
“Just one more. Come on.”
Crazy bastard.
It looked like she’d already hit her limit ages ago, and he wanted one more rep?
But the Gym Manager knew.
Seo Jun’s eye was more accurate than anyone else’s.
“Go on. You can do it.”
That last one would truly be her absolute limit.
Seo Jun’s expression, as he pushed her to that extreme, was serene. His good looks made him seem kind, even.
Which only made it worse for the person on the receiving end.
‘Just like I’m doing with this Sandbag right now.’
There.
The Gym Manager, finally finished replacing it with a new one, patted the Sandbag.
The Sandbag Seo Jun had burst was already worn.
But it could’ve lasted another year or so.
It might’ve sounded funny to say not to use the Sandbag roughly, but if handled moderately, it could’ve gone two years.
Yet that bastard Seo Jun.

—Ugh, how worn does a Sandbag have to be before it bursts? Replace it ahead of time, will you? And you make money fine too.

He played dumb about it.
Yeah.
If it’d been once or twice, the Gym Manager might’ve thought Seo Jun was right, that he was at fault.
It might’ve even made him reconsider himself for not replacing it when he could have.
But Seo Jun had burst over eight Sandbags by now.
‘That damned fool. Is he some kind of American captain? What? Calling me a cheapskate? Anyone can see this is just intimidation for the team.’
Did he not understand Seo Jun’s personality?
Ugh.
His irritation flared up again, and he glared at Seo Jun.
“One!”
Finally, Rumi who’d held on through the end collapsed.
With this, Seo Jun had successfully pushed all his team members to their limits.
But the Gym Manager knew.
This was just the beginning.
“Rumi, rest a bit. And Ha Yun-ho? You’ve recovered, right?”

* * *

The hellish rotation had ended.
No one had put up any resistance.
Why was that?
“Well, if he can burst a Sandbag, surely we could too……”
Alpaca said.
Seo Jun had briefly stepped onto the ring to spar with Lee Dong-su, while they lay half-sprawled on the mat, nearly delirious with exhaustion, watching the action above them.
“Uhhh… uh… uuh.”
Rumi had words she wanted to say, but even moving her tongue to speak them cost too much effort, so she just exhaled.
“What did you say?”
“She says she feels like she’s dying.”
“Uuh.”
Rumi nodded.
“That’s right.”
“I think I understood that one too. But Wind Sword, you don’t even have the energy to speak like Rumi does?”
Wind Sword stared straight ahead like someone whose soul had left their body.
Then, very faintly, Wind Sword’s head moved.
So subtle it was hard to tell, but probably it did.
A fierce fight was happening in the ring, and watching it, Alpaca asked.
“Will everyone come back tomorrow?”
“…….”
“…….”
The team’s hearts became one.
They could feel their teamwork improving in real-time.
“What happens if we don’t come?”
“What do you think happens?”
Ha Yun-ho pointed at the ring.
There, a fist was driving into Lee Dong-su’s face.
“Pros show no mercy.”
“And us?”
“Uuh, uuh-uuh-uuh, uh, uuh-uuh.”
“What did she say?”
Ha Yun-ho failed to interpret this time too.
Rumi took a moment to catch her breath, then spoke.
“Ah. Ahem. I just asked if we’re really becoming closer like this.”
They’d fallen into a trap: get closer and everything makes sense; stay distant and you can’t refuse.

* * *

“You know that thing?”
“What.”
Lee Dong-su’s fist flew in.
Sharper than before.
With the talent to absorb everything around him, he was growing steadily.
Thanks to his talent especially, his growth was fast enough that he could now be considered semi-professional in Hand-to-hand Combat.
Of course, even with extraordinary talent, this was only possible because he had the experience of fighting in virtual reality from the start.
“I heard other pro players are also getting interested in Rios. So he might appear.”
“Oh, really?”
Yet that fist never reached Seo Jun.
Not once since their first meeting.
But Lee Dong-su didn’t grow discouraged.
He’d simply accepted that this was the kind of person Seo Jun was.
“Yeah. Apparently Lee Chae-rin from Griffin got interested after seeing him and made contact. I don’t know who she teamed up with though.”
“Any other players?”
“Not sure. But there could be more.”
“Is that so? Wasn’t this the first time a pro competed in this tournament?”
“That’s right. I guess I opened the floodgates pretty well. Honestly, a lot of pros are interested in trying streaming.”
“That so? You guys stream too, don’t you?”
Even as they talked, they kept their focus on the fight.
Seo Jun’s fist connected.
“Well, we do stream, but it’s not like we interact and put on a show the way streamers do.”
“That so?”
“Plus we have to focus on the game. And we don’t spend that much time doing broadcasts of games that are safe for public streams. So that’s why.”
Thud.
“Ow! Easy! Anyway, it’s just that the environment itself makes it hard to stream like actual streamers do. So there’s a lot of interest. But to actually participate in a tournament where you’re preparing carefully and competing alongside streamers? That’s something you can’t resist……”
Thud.
“Ow! Stop hitting! I’m talking!”
Since when was he being particular about such things?
He was just complaining because he kept getting hit.
“That’ll do.”
Seo Jun laughed quietly and lowered his guard.
“Good work.”
“Thanks.”
“By the way, what happens if a bunch of players from different teams show up as coaches?”
“What do you think? It’ll be chaos. It naturally becomes a pride thing.”
“By viewer count? Or by the results of the teams they coach?”
“Both. Ah, now I’m suddenly nervous about this. Please, just one person! Please!”
Seo Jun chuckled and headed toward where his team was sitting.
From the exercise just now, he’d grasped everyone’s level.
Strength, stamina. Endurance and even athletic coordination.
The assessment was:
‘The fundamentals are falling short quite a bit.’
Even Wind Sword, who looked decent enough, fell short of what Seo Jun expected.
He couldn’t call them pitiful without seeing the other teams’ streamers, but compared to Lee Dong-su or Tae-woo, who’d naturally picked up a lot from being around Seo Jun, they were definitely lacking.
But it was fine.
He could fill in the gaps using the method he did best.
Practical training.
“Ha Yun-ho, you’re fully recovered, right? Come on up.”
He’d inject it directly into their bodies.
“Ugh……”
The minds of all four team members connected like a hive mind again.
Teamwork leveled up one more time.
Save us.

* * *

[Lol so which broadcast are you watching today?]

Posts like this were going up on Riven in real-time.
League of Streaming wasn’t primarily about seeing which streamer team played the game best.
League of Streaming was a tournament where you watched streamers clash with each other through competition and saw what stories emerged.
So during the practice period, which streaming broadcast viewers chose to watch was a pretty significant choice for the chat.
The most important value was entertainment.
Ultimately, entertaining joint broadcasts got talked about more and drew in more viewers.
And a pro playing alongside streamers in a broadcast couldn’t help but be entertaining.

[Obviously the rich vs poor match lol]
[How do you even deal with Lee Dong-su?]
[Does Dong-su stream too? Does he read chat and respond to Donations?]
[A pro who actually streams properly is pretty rare]

A pro player appearing as a tournament coach.
It was powerful Aggro, and the viewers judged before anything even started that it couldn’t fail to be entertaining.
And.
“Just do what you normally do, right?”
“Just do what you’d do normally. Don’t worry too much. It’ll be way easier than the actual tournament for the players, trust me.”
Alpaca was giving Lee Dong-su, who was slightly nervous, some advice.
They’d just met today, but somehow they’d already grown close.
Seo Jun, the one who’d instilled the camaraderie that bonded them, watched them curiously without realizing it.
“It’s not a play or anything; it’s streaming. A personal broadcast doesn’t need to show anything particular. When you’re playing, you play, when you’re annoyed, you get annoyed. Just like hanging out with friends.”
“I see. I’ve got the hang of it now. This should be fun.”
Alpaca was right.
Streaming was just something you did however you wanted.
“But are all the teams starting at 6? Right now there’s only one team broadcasting.”
“Probably they’ll start around the same time.”
The current time was 5:45.
And the only team that had started broadcasting at 5 was Lain’s.

[But seriously, our team really doesn’t have a coach?]
[If it’s me… that’s enough.]
[Hwang So, if you’re really going to coach, why not declare this to the Lee Dong-su player too? You already did to Seo Jun anyway.]
[……..]

A broadcast was playing on the large TV in the Lobby by Ha Yun-ho.
That team had been chatting for 50 minutes, and Hwang So suddenly looked visibly flustered.
“Is Lain’s team really going without a coach?”
And Lee Dong-su was muttering to himself while focusing on the other broadcast.
Despite pretending to be fine, his nervousness showed.
“You never know. They could suddenly reveal a surprise coach. A pro player, even.”
Seo Jun spoke without much thought.
Well, anything was possible.
“Is that so? Did Lee Chae-rin go over there? Is that why they started broadcasting early?”
Then it happened.

[Hwang So, actually you don’t need to declare it! We have a coach too!]
[Oh?]
[Who is it that you kept hidden even from your own team members?]
[Hehe. Let’s see their face!]

The moment Lain finished speaking, someone was summoned to the Lobby.
“Huh?”
And Lee Dong-su shouted.
“Taker?”
“What.”
“He’s a player like us?”
Taker, real name Park Beom-su.
Like Lee Dong-su, a pro player.

[I was going to say, “Does only the rich vs poor team have connections with pros? We do too!” but honestly it’s our first time meeting. Hehe. Nice to meet you, Taker!]

The moment Lain revealed her coach, that side’s chat exploded.
They said they believed in her.
Posts like “I was going to go watch the rich vs poor match but I guess I won’t” started appearing.
But.
This was only the beginning.

[Kim Tae-woo has started streaming.]
[You say it’s cheap to bring in a pro player? So we brought one.]

[Dokkaebi has started streaming.]
[Day 1. Training with Lee Chae-rin.]

The moment Lain revealed her coach, it was as if the other teams had been waiting—they too started broadcasting.
They probably weren’t rigging it.

[Team Lead Tae-woo! You said 6! Why are you streaming early!]
[Quiet! Huh? What? Why is Dokkaebi’s team—??]

The team leads were probably just flustered by Lain’s sudden reveal.
They’d prepared a pro player as their trump card, and suddenly the other team pulls one out too.
“Wow. They’re really showing up in droves.”
Even Seo Jun was surprised.
Three teams had already revealed coaches. With Seo Jun’s team included, four.
That was more than half.
For some reason, Lee Dong-su seemed very nervous.
“Hey, you alright? Four teams is a lot.”
“No… And it’s not four. It’s five. Another one just started.”
Lee Dong-su’s face twisted into an expression of despair.

[Mental has started streaming.]
[Current champion Baek Do-yul. Isn’t that explanation enough? hehe]

It was an arrogant Broadcast Title.
But it was justified.
Because he was the current world champion.
‘Why the hell is this guy even showing up?!’
Jesus.
“Should we just start streaming right now?”
“No. Wait. Please, just a minute.”
Lee Dong-su needed time to clear his head.
Honestly, even if he couldn’t have predicted this, he wouldn’t have been this flustered even if pros showed up on every team.
The reason.
‘Ah. Today I’d prepared a content broadcast from the Training Facility…’
Other players didn’t matter.
Even if it was other players from his team, or even Shin Ha-yeon, he would’ve been fine.
But.
‘Is today’s level 10 AI supposed to be that guy? This is definitely…’
They would clash. One way or another.
‘That champion.’
Lee Dong-su’s head turned to the side.
“Actually, this is good. Dong-su, don’t worry. Just do what we prepared.”
‘With this crazy bastard right here.’

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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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