Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 196

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

Episode 196

The Ban Pick phase ended.

[The very first match of the Group Stage isn’t going as expected! Spoon letting Eric live, and Seo Jun taking Eric to the bottom lane!]

Arin called out in rapid tempo.
They’d already made predictions before the game started, but none of them had come true.

[These players are really clever! How much preparation went into this?]
[Who would’ve thought they’d let Eric through? Ah, since this is something that happened before the tournament, let me explain—Spoon has a history of getting completely destroyed by Seo Jun’s Eric. That’s why people keep making PTSD jokes. We all thought Eric was going to get banned!]
[Right, we didn’t see that coming. But Binbugyeokcha banned Sniping as if they knew all along. I’d really love to know what kind of mind games and conversation happened during the Ban Pick phase!]

-I’d like to know too lol
-Wait, what was Binbugyeokcha actually prepared for?
-Korea’s tactical genius
-Korea’s tactical genius my ass lol, they just let Eric through on purpose. But picking that means they’re short on brains
-Doesn’t matter anyway, the mechanics are insane. If you’re good with both brain and body, you can pick and choose
-Pick and choose lol

[So true! I really want to know as well. Anyway, what do you all think about Eric as an ADC? Penguin?]
[Ah. Yes. Eric as an ADC, you see.]
[Yes.]
[It’s garbage.]
[Right! Got it. Tae Yang?]
[Eric is just garbage.]

They gave their answers decisively.
Truly befitting Travel’s finest commentators, once-legends of the pro scene themselves.
Explaining things so succinctly.

[I see!]
[But they’ve shown something, so we can’t help but have expectations. Everyone’s seen it, right?]

Of course, that was commentary made under the assumption that everyone had seen it.

-I haven’t seen it
-Eric is pure trash
-Like what??? Does he see the future and hit everything within range? If so Eric would be pretty good lmaooo
-Yeah
-????

Regardless, once this game ended, everyone would see it anyway, so they didn’t bother pulling up Seo Jun’s footage again.

[Once you see it, anyone confused will get it! Alright, the game is starting! No Leash? Right, no Leash!]
[The junglers are heading top. Normally the bottom lane gets help with early Jungle Monsters, but this time they’re going the opposite way to help top!]
[Ah! Both of them met at the bottom lane. It’s like they coordinated! Did they plan to meet at the bottom before the minions even arrived?]
[Spoon! He’s closing in!]

-What is this lolol
-Spoon!
-Sees the future? ???

* * *

Chains coiled around Seo Jun’s arm like serpents.
Eric. An escaped convict who uses chains as weapons.
Was there really a problem using this hero as an ADC?
Seo Jun could answer that definitively.
The absence of a ranged dealer who can sustain explosive Basic Attacks in the late game is significant.
That’s why an ADC comes to the bottom lane. No matter how hard they can dominate the enemy bottom in the early game.
Occasionally, overpowered heroes do emerge in Bot Lane Destruction combinations, but they get nerfed and disappear quickly enough.
Yet Eric wasn’t even an overpowered hero, was it?
Of course, the chat that Seo Jun couldn’t see rose up like this:

-Boss Man’s Eric is OP for sure lol
-Can destroy the bot lane and the whole game too
-Why do you need an ADC, can’t even stop Eric lolololol
-But what if it’s Spoon, who prepared so hard?
-Gasp
-Let’s see, Spoon’s here now

Seo Jun lifted his chain-wrapped arm. He imagined channeling formless energy.
Before his hand, blue energy coalesced into a sphere.
A Basic Attack.
Gong Beolre, the support behind Spoon, stepped back, as did Rumi.
If they tried to settle things here, one side would have to sit out anyway, so they were letting them play freely.
The moment Spoon and Seo Jun locked eyes with cheerful smiles, Seo Jun clenched his fist and opened it.
The tautly drawn sphere released the moment his hand opened, launching forward.
Spoon pulled the trigger in sync.
Bang!
Seo Jun’s attack collided mid-flight and was negated. And then.
Bang!
The dual-pistol shooter Lios’s second shot flew toward Seo Jun.
Seo Jun had already read it and stepped back.
The magical bullet unraveled like thread before Seo Jun’s brow, dissolving into nothing in empty air.
And at that moment.
Whoooosh.

[Chains of Destruction]

The skill Seo Jun had generated behind him three seconds ago activated. More precisely, the chains shot forward.
But Spoon wasn’t flustered at all. Rather, as if he’d been waiting, he showed an even deeper smile and eyes full of certainty.
It was a light exchange. A light attack.
But within Seo Jun’s single move lay not just Spoon’s movements that Seo Jun had grasped before the practice match, but a synthesis of every single movement from direct combat and matches within Lios—all of Seo Jun’s predictions combined.
Because the attack had been decided three seconds ago.
‘Will it land?’
The chains shot forward, grazing past Seo Jun’s neck.
The range was sufficient.
The distance was far enough to hit even if he backed away.
Spoon’s body flinched for an instant. Seo Jun could see the extremely subtle tremor of habit—an instinctive attempt to dodge right.
But.
In that brief window, Spoon overcame his instinct and used a skill to the left.
A mobility skill.

[Quick Shot]

And the chains.
Thunk.
Lodged into the ground slightly to the right of where Spoon had been standing, passing through empty air.
It looked so natural, as if he’d always planned to dodge left, that only Seo Jun grasped the shift.
To everyone else, Spoon had perfectly evaded Seo Jun’s attack.
“That’s it!”
“Ah.”
Gong Beolre, watching from behind, cheered, while Rumi’s composure faded from her face.
True, they’d succeeded in dodging a few times before. Even Seo Jun couldn’t hit every attack every time.
So he mixed in bait attacks and direct strikes appropriately.
But just now was clearly a failure of Seo Jun’s prediction.
The Eric’s chains had always tracked to at least the tips of an opponent’s hair, even if they barely managed to dodge.
But this time.
“50% Gamble. Failed, didn’t you?”
Just as Spoon said, Seo Jun’s prediction had failed.
The most basic directional prediction.
That meant something significant.
“50% Gamble, you say?”
Seo Jun laughed.
He remembered their first meeting.
Back then, Seo Jun had fired predictions left and right, and Spoon had dodged using a skill just like now.
At the time, if Seo Jun had only fired one chain, he’d called that a 50% gamble, and Spoon was alluding to that.
“Technically, this one was 33%, wasn’t it?”
Straight ahead, left, right—wasn’t that the breakdown?
“Ah. I see. Then want to try another 33% Gamble?”

-33% is technically right lol
-Either way, he failed, right?
-Huh, collecting big data as we speak
-Boss Man, if you can see chat, can you explain? You read his evasion just now by watching his body, right?

“Once the minions arrive, we’ll resume that gamble.”
Naturally, Seo Jun, who couldn’t see the chat, answered Spoon and pulled back slightly, then reflected.
‘Looks like he was originally trying to dodge without using a skill…’
Hmm.
Was it a small mistake from using it in actual combat for the first time?
He’d need to observe more, but he could tell his opponent had found a method.
‘Overcoming his instinct?’
That was intriguing.
Seo Jun read his every instinct, habit, and pattern—and now Spoon had found a way to counter that by going against them.
Was there an easy method? And even if one existed, would it be easy to learn?
“Spoon, you’re really something else, everyone.”
Seo Jun spoke to the viewers out of habit.
“Huh? What is it? Is this actually dangerous?”
“Ah. Well. Don’t worry. Rumi, all you need to do is land your grabs.”

[Minions spawn.]

Rumi and Gong Beolre.
Both shared the common trait of being D-Rank supports.
Gong Beolre was the team leader, but that wasn’t the important part.
So in a way, this was a purely clean ADC matchup.
A Challenger ADC.
And Seo Jun bringing Bot Lane Destruction.
And a Revenge Match.
The structure was perfectly suited for broadcast.
Rumi’s hero was Soul Reaver.
She had a skill that threw a chained scythe to bind enemies.
Her passive allowed her to collect the souls that appeared when minions died, pulling them in with her chain scythe as a weapon.
When souls were collected, they persisted as soul stacks for up to 30 seconds—up to three—and depending on the number of stacks, the skill’s range and size, meaning its area of effect, changed.

-Chain duo lol
-Gong Beolre is the mom
-Mom ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

The support hero Gong Beolre chose was Mother Lea.
A selfless hero who swapped her own health with her team’s. Accordingly, she didn’t step forward but stayed behind, providing continuous healing and support.
Mother Lea’s Basic Attack created a Ground Effect on the floor.
While standing on it, enemies took some damage and she could drain their health.

-So what’s the Boss Man gonna do?
-Ah man, Spoon and Gong Beolre both muted their mics so this is boring, that’s why I’m here
-So that’s why he’s so good at Eric?
-Yeah he’s a prophet. Literally a seer himself

The minions approached.
And they met in the middle of the lane and started fighting.
The melee minions clashed with each other, forming a line down the center.
Behind each side, ranged minions formed another line, creating three lines total.
Seo Jun began using skills from behind the ranged minions, while Rumi moved between ranged and melee.
Bang, bang!
Whoooosh.
Clack, clack.
Spoon stood at the end, alternating between hitting minions and hitting Rumi.
Rumi tried moving around to draw Spoon out, but a Challenger like Spoon wouldn’t give angles to a D-Rank like Rumi.
Gong Beolre was further back anyway, so she wasn’t a concern.
Bullets and spheres eyed each other warily before flying at minions.
And then.
‘Let me check once more.’
Seo Jun abruptly shifted the direction his arm was pointing from the minions to Spoon.
Spoon’s second Basic Attack had just finished. There was no way to counter it.
From Seo Jun’s perspective, Spoon would choose to dodge.
With Gong Beolre healing from behind without major risk, the choice to dodge was Spoon’s instinct—what he’d been doing all along.
Whoooosh!

[Chains of Destruction]

And aimed at the endpoint of that evasion move.
A magic circle flared as chains shot forward, threading subtly between allied and enemy minions.
And at that moment.
Another shift occurred.
Normally it would have hit Spoon’s face, but instead Spoon took a Basic Attack without dodging.

[Sacrifice]

Gong Beolre immediately healed the shallow damage.
And Spoon, concentrating, resumed attacking minions and began Wave Management.
‘Definitely…’
The chains had sliced through empty air twice in a row.
‘This time he didn’t go the opposite direction, just stayed put. I don’t understand what he’s doing.’
Seo Jun found himself puzzled.
Should he figure out how to overcome his own instinct?
Or should he play like other Erics?

-Sees the future, huh?
-Just an ordinary Eric?
-Real talk lol
-Ugh, someone play the replay. Show how Spoon got hit
-Since Spoon and Gong Beolre have mics off right now, chat’s ignoring the Boss Man. Some of you are definitely typing this knowing exactly what’s happening lol
-So did Spoon really awaken or something?
-Game’s over then
-We’re done
-The Prophet losing his prophetic power temporarily is a common trope. He’ll probably get it back soon lol
-Stop talking nonsense lol

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