Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 183

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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 183

While Seo Jun saw to it that the viewers got their fill of entertainment until the very end, and then, with no small reluctance, offered some stern advice about not falling for such tricks next time.
No matter what other content was being streamed elsewhere, the impatient viewers couldn’t help themselves—they cried out “We can’t let this slide!” and spread the word to other channels.
Truly exemplary messengers, they were.
And among those who heard the news through these messengers—especially the professionals—reactions varied.
“What? The maximum number of Orbs is two?”
“What? A Harmony Rate of ten?”
“What? A newbie at the game? Less than six months?”
The two pro players who hadn’t known much about Seo Jun, watching from a distance what unfolded at the Training Ground, reacted this way.
And then there was Taker, the one defeated.
‘Two is enough to crack the rankings, so what.’
Without bothering to check the details, he already predicted Seo Jun’s victory.
Quietly, to himself.

-Is Taker getting PTSD or something?
-Just don’t mention him, lol
-You all gonna take responsibility if Taker disappears starting next broadcast?
-lmaooo
-Still, how gracious of such an esteemed person to appear in this humble place. Everyone be careful!
-I mean, sure, he made that big claim about needing to prove himself first, and yeah, he got stomped by an AI, not even a real person. You gotta imagine how embarrassed and humiliated he felt. Let’s not keep making him relive that moment

And so sympathy and misunderstanding were sown.
Finally, Baek Do-yul.
He pretended to show little interest, but his mind was churning through information about Seo Jun.
‘If the Harmony Rate is that low, it really does show up as a weakness in the game like this. I might be able to put that to good use.’
Moreover, his teammates’ skill levels were supposedly below expectations.
That was quite encouraging news.
‘I used Eric before, didn’t I?’
The difficulty of Eric doesn’t come from association.
According to the developer’s design, Eric as a hero clearly divides proficiency through Prediction.
Kael, by contrast, relies on Reaction rather than Prediction.
‘That’s something I can’t do either.’
Now that he thought about it, there was one more thing he couldn’t seem to do.
But it stirred no competitive fire in him whatsoever.
Well, when something is so absurd—like identifying a song by looking at the grooves on a vinyl record—even competitive spirit doesn’t come, let alone any other emotion.
In any case.
‘The characteristic of a hero with one difficult element like Eric is that other actions are set to relatively easy difficulty as compensation.’
He didn’t know the first thing about game design, so he couldn’t be certain of the exact degree.
But tracing twenty chain trajectories in your mind might actually be easier than imagining a single Orb.
Of course, the ability to set the paths of those twenty chains all at once without tangling them, or so the enemy can’t escape, is a different matter entirely—but the act of imagining itself isn’t that difficult.
It’s not as though you need to imagine each individual link of the chains shooting out from the magic circle with perfect precision.
‘Just imagining the trajectory as a line is enough.’
The Orb isn’t like that. You have to imagine its interior—complex and truly, genuinely pointless structure—with exact accuracy.
And finally.
‘Next year’s event.’
Baek Do-yul—the rival who had just risen to prominence in his sights—was a natural streamer by temperament.
He loved attention, and sure, he’d readily sell an honor like being called the Heavenly Demon for five million won.
But if the viewers wanted something, whatever it was, he’d take on the challenge.
So then.
‘He’ll definitely try to come. And regardless of which hero, he’ll find a way and get qualified.’
For now, this fight was a proxy match—he was fighting through Heavy Mental, a team proxy.
But Seo Jun fought directly himself.
He was bound to be at a disadvantage. He could lose here.
And if so?
That’s where the beautiful rule of best-of-three comes in handy.
And for the third battlefield.
‘I should give next year’s event a try myself.’
Korean professionals who need to manage their conditioning generally don’t participate, but it’s not like they never do.
He’d heard that foreigners try to participate whenever possible.
Incidentally, he had no thought whatsoever of losing twice before reaching the third battlefield.
No matter how many defeats he accumulated, they’d amount to little more than this proxy match.
And even that might be circumvented by exploiting his weaknesses.
‘This is fun.’
The moment Baek Do-yul reignited his competitive fire and clenched his fist.
“……ch?”
A voice entered his ear.
“Coach?”
The sound grew gradually clearer.
“Cooooach?”
Baek Do-yul snapped to attention.
He’d been lost in thought far too long.
His teammates, seeing he wasn’t responding, had resisted their curiosity and ignored the chat playing messenger, but here they were calling again.

-lol Getting scared again?
-Coward Doo-yul
-Hey lol just summon him right now and try if you’re so sure
-What the hell, I already said he was just yielding to move the content along!
-Relax man. Who doesn’t know that? We’re just poking fun at the champ lol lol lol Can you go right now or not?

Baek Do-yul’s current location was the Training Ground.
And for what it’s worth, Baek Do-yul was a rather sharp-minded person.
“Ah. I just figured out how to counter him. Thanks for the info.”
He deliberately didn’t say who.

-Nice!
-Pado, learn well—even a pro can be beaten if you find the right counter strategy
-fr fr
-The champ’s the champ for a reason

* * *

-Guys lol bankruptcy lol happening lol
-Did you see US bonds collapse? You see that?lol lol
-This mission’s safety is miles away from that market crash lol lol lol
-It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance lol lol lol lol lol

A once-in-a-lifetime chance.
That nagged at Seo Jun a little.
“You really want me to shout ‘challenge’? Why’s that?”
Anyway, plenty of chat messages were coming in telling him to shout the word.
When Seo Jun said that, even more messages of agreement flooded in.
What’s going on?
“It seems like they’re worried you might claim you didn’t challenge if you don’t say it out loud?”
His teammates seemed to understand.
But even after hearing the explanation, Seo Jun couldn’t make sense of it.
“Why would I lie and say I didn’t challenge?”

-This guy’s unreal!
-I’m begging you—go to a good university with that pretty face of yours, and instead of staying home playing games, go out and have some fun!
-Wait, isn’t he playing games at home?
-A few months ago he wasn’t, right? He was living so diligently. It’s infuriating
-lmaooo

“I’ll just start right away.”
Seo Jun took his place at the starting line.

[Begin the Trial?]

-Hurry and shout challenge
-Challenge!
-I think we’ve done our due diligence. Even that Mudan or whoever will admit it. So if the leader tries to weasel out of it, we just don’t accept it
-But if you guys have any conscience, shouldn’t we give him a few practice runs to train?
-Nah, that guy might actually pull it off if he gets a few more chances
-Nah no way

With a few more chances, it would be a lot smoother.
If he had to pull it off on the first try.
‘It’d be cutting it close.’
His calculation could be wrong.
Even if he was right, it would be close.
But that was fine.
It’s not a battlefield where failure means death—so light of heart, yet sincere in effort.
“Challenge. Like this?”
Seo Jun called out the word without much enthusiasm, then took his first step.

-lmaooo he actually did it lmaooo
-feels like he’s humoring the kids, like “fine, I’ll do it once” lol lol lol lol lol

Whiiirrrr.
The buzz of a swarm of insects, heard more clearly now than before—far more distinct.
Targets burst from the grassland on both sides, and the Orbs spawned in front of Seo Jun began to move.
Shrieeek!
Two of them.
The moment he saw the targets, he instantly found the fastest path to clear four targets with two Orbs.
If he could summon four Orbs, he’d only need to focus on hitting them without thought—but since he couldn’t, the instant he saw the targets, he had to chart his trajectory.
‘At least moving the Orbs isn’t giving me any trouble.’
They follow the path smoothly. He pierces the first target he strikes and aims for the next.
The arc he traces is parabolic—the shortest and fastest path to clear them.
0.06 seconds. Or maybe 0.05? It feels a bit slow.
Thinking that, Seo Jun summoned another Orb without hesitation and cleared the remaining four targets while moving into his next step.
‘This matters too.’
Even if you haven’t cleared all the targets, your body must keep moving. If you wait until all targets are gone before moving, you’ll be late.
Unless you clear everything perfectly within a second.
Whiiirrrr.
The buzz draws closer, and targets appear at the same time.
Thud.
Seo Jun’s second footfall hitting the ground.
Whoosh.
Yet ever so slightly—but noticeably—late, two Orbs spawn in the space before him.
Shrieeek!
The Orbs trace a parabolic arc through the air, systematically clearing eight targets.

-Huh? Seems a bit slow???
-Even this early on there’s some delay, right? What do we do
-0.1 seconds? 0.05? Who knows, but it’s done anyway lol lol lol
-Safe asset confirmed!!!
-One win for the streaming viewers~!
-That’s not “one more win”—that’s the first win lol lol lol lol lol lol

No surprises came in the third wave either.
The delay accumulated. It built up, ever more noticeable.
To begin with, Seo Jun was confident he was clearing targets in the fastest time he was capable of.
But his maximum effort had its limits with two Orbs, and so there was no reversal to hope for.
‘As long as I keep this pace, at least.’
Anticipating this situation, Seo Jun continued unflinching, clearing targets in the minimum time possible.
Before long.
‘The sound has changed quite a bit.’
The sound.
From the moment Seo Jun first watched the video, it was what he’d paid attention to.
On the fifth step, targets appear. This never changes.
But the delay that had been accumulating was now stacked so visibly that viewers could perceive it.
When six targets appeared in front, the Orbs hadn’t finished spawning yet.
Even such a microscopic difference being noticeable was itself a serious problem.

-Now they’re appearing from behind too
-That’s exactly why lol lol lol this much has already built up even before they start appearing from behind
-It hasn’t slowed down that much though?
-The problem is he’s only at five steps. The problem is this gap can’t close. The biggest problem is the goal is top ten on the Ranking? lol lol lol lol lol

Right.
At least up to this moment, the Rankers hadn’t accumulated any delay whatsoever.
Whether it was 0.1 seconds or 0.01 seconds.
They’d come this far through mechanical play, generating and summoning four Orbs.
But Seo Jun had already accumulated delay, falling that much further behind the Rankers’ records.
There was no way to overturn this.
Thinking so, the viewers predicted his defeat.
But.
‘There is a way.’
Perhaps.
With two targets in front and two behind, Seo Jun moved one Orb to clear the front pair, then turned to look back.
And then.
Seeing the targets’ positions, a knowing smile crossed his face.
“Can’t you hear it?”
He’d regained his composure.
Though in truth he had no time for leisure—he’d have to take some risks starting with the next wave.
“What’s my other strong suit?”
The sixth step. Only after the sixth wave’s targets appeared and settled did the fifth-wave targets finally break.
And so two Orbs spawned, even slightly later than before.
“It’s Korean language comprehension, isn’t it? From now on, we’ll close the gap with the Rankers.”
Of course, Seo Jun still had no way to clear everything within a second. Not even with targets appearing only in front.
But in the waves to come where the Rankers would increasingly accumulate delay in handling targets.
He was confident he’d accumulate less than they would.
Close the gap that way.
Shrieeek!
The four in front shattered.
And in the moment two targets remained both front and back.
Seo Jun’s viewers witnessed something.
Seo Jun take his next step with ease, without even turning to look back.
And an Orb spawned around him, shooting in both directions.

-What’s with the Korean thing lol lol lol lol lol
-Naturally he was good, so he must’ve gotten into a top university
-But why didn’t he turn around?
-?? Could it be

Shrieeek!
And Ha Yun-ho’s viewers witnessed.
The Orb that Seo Jun threw without even looking back.
Tracing a parabola through the air, piercing two targets.

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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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