Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 246

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

Chapter 246

[So now I’m really the one eating the game, the community, everything? No complaints, right?]
==
(Screenshot of Seo Jun looking down arrogantly)
==

-We were already done for the moment he showed up, GOAT
└Fact) Facts
-Just take it all
-For Rakle users, this guy’s a whole new world. Everything just works!
└Another fact to that, no matter what game he went to, the streamer was always a new world.
└Ugh… that one hit different

[So all you Demonic Cult fans who want to see what the Blunt Sword really is, hit that upvote ㅋㅋㅋ]
==
If you don’t know this, you shouldn’t even call yourself a streamer ㅋㅋㅋ
==

-For real ㅋㅋ The foundation of swordcraft, the very foundation
-The most inefficient because of that, a technique only the masters can do
└What even is that? Sounds like hype ㅋㅋㅋ
└Actually what he showed today wasn’t quite that, but anyway it’s the Blunt Sword
└If Geomsin said so, it’s gotta be right ㅇㅇ
-The master’s blade is blunt. Tap-tap-tap.

[All you Kael fanboys who want a taste of five-target Judgment Sword, upvote ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
==
Who cares about the Blunt Sword?
The best is dropping five Judgment Swords with the Extreme Speed Sword
==

-For real ㅋㅋ
-I’m a Kael guy, and I literally got chills during that five-target Judgment Sword. Honestly, if he wasn’t a bully, I’d forgive everything
└The bully thing matters ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Old-timer viewers getting excited bragging about stuff only they know]
==
So jealous! ㅜㅜ
Today was pure physical dominance, and I’m only seeing it now.
Lost half my life
I’m seriously jealous!
==

-For real ㅋㅋ
-For real ㅋㅋ
-Instant regret!

[Didn’t even need proof, but deliberately imprinted the physical gap so clearly on these clueless RPG randoms…]
==
Heuk Wol Geom Je!
And this kind of Heuk Wol Geom Je getting beaten down so thoroughly by a streamer with no seniority privileges — suddenly feels amazing
==

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Respect worship reverence
-Worship the reversal!
-But we’re not old enough for seniority yet, we’re students ^^ Delete the comment
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ We’re students too? Like, we’re in our 20s and 30s, unemployed?

[Screenshot of the monster on the city wall gritting its teeth after getting countered ten times in a row]
==
(Screenshot matching the title)
(Screenshot of rushing in anger, then getting Deflected and falling on his face)
(Screenshot of Seo Jun looking down asking if there’s a support player coming up to heal the monster, when the monster sneaking from behind gets Deflected and falls off the wall)
(Screenshot of the monster falling and losing half its health even from weak fall damage)
==

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Absolute legend ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The monster must be so humiliated ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└The kids and the streamer ganged up on him for real ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└That’s why he ran at the end ㅋㅋ
└Getting ganged up on is really that hard. Humans are social creatures after all ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└That bad mannered bastard deserved it ㅋㅋ

[Monster: <–What even are these guys?]
==
Situational judgment seems insane. Realizing he was losing at the end and giving up.
Thought that would be the take?
Should've gone down fighting, you bastard!!!!
If you end like that, everything you endured through those ten counters becomes meaningless! ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
==

-Phew. Ah, that's refreshing. Ah, that's good.
-So Solar Line got totally outclassed by these kids?
└Lunar On adds another win!
-That's a monster? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Guess we're laughing at them now
-Breaking news! Mi-on climbs to first place! They fought both Jijon Gunju and the monster, had Geomsin's crew backing them up, and won — got a lot of points from that!
└Ah, not just making himself successful but lifting his guild members up with him — worshipping the true GOAT…
└You gotta worship!

The community kept spreading memes about a legendary pro gamer pulling off their fourth championship.
And there was someone watching the community with a satisfied smile.
"So what's the current user count for Lunar On?"
"Three hundred and ten thousand."
"If I remember right, it was one hundred and seventy thousand before that streamer arrived, yeah?"
"One moment, let me verify. Let's see the dates… Yes, that's correct."
Lim Kang-san was impressed by what he heard.
"Nearly doubled by the original account count."
"Yes. Twenty percent came back from inactive accounts, seventy percent are new players, and about ten percent made new characters from Solar Line."
"Either way, we can safely say all three happened because of that streamer, right?"
"That's probably it. There's no other explanation."
The event had been running continuously from before.
Advertising too.
The only difference was whether one streamer came or not.
"The influence… Hmm."
Lim Kang-san let out a low murmur, thinking about how much a game company would pay to increase their user count by fifty percent.
"We basically got free everything."
The user count of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand might not seem that large.
Some might say this was expected since the original scale was small anyway.
But you had to remember that the RPG genre was no longer a major game market.
In an era where entertaining games overflow, how much advertising budget would it take to gather this many users?
Unless massive waves of refugees poured in during an RPG boom, this was an impossible number to dream of.
Of course, if massive waves did come, the scale would be even bigger, but still.
"So now we have more than enough players flowing in exactly as the director wanted."
"That's how it is."
The content director and overall director both smiled pleasantly.
"But the average viewers weren't even one hundred thousand, and this many came in. Practically means all hundred percent of the viewers followed over, right?"
"Those hundred thousand don't always watch. Back in the old PC days, one streamer had over a million followers, but their live viewers were usually around fifteen to twenty thousand. Of course they set records every time they did major content."
This comment was meant to convey that you shouldn't judge a streamer's influence solely by their live viewer count.
If you wanted to measure that streamer's true influence, you'd need to multiply by several times.
After all, if two hundred thousand watch, those won't be the exact same two hundred thousand for the entire duration.
And when you factor in reruns, YouTube, and so on, the number of people a streamer could influence was larger than it appeared.
Yet a streamer pulling in several tens of thousands live viewers.
A streamer capable of bringing over one hundred thousand people into a game.
'There aren't many.'
They were remarkable individuals.
Despite being at such a position at a young age, they didn't seem to feel any pressure.
Rather, they seemed to be enjoying it.
'Because enjoying it is all they can be doing…'
Lim Kang-san shook off the unnecessary thought and spoke to the director.
"Then let's finish this well. This is the start of the game's revival."
"Yes, but it doesn't really feel like we got anything free…"
"Why?"
"Considering how busy we were re-adjusting the difficulty all this time…"
"Ah."

* * *

Guild Wars are held the day before the update.
That's when players have had the most time to adapt to minor balance patches and other changes.
And this meant that now that the Siege War was over, in about two hours when the day changes, they'd be able to see the new update announcement.
The actual patch goes live between 5 and 6 AM, but the update banner changes the moment the day turns.
"So we're just waiting?"
"Yeah!"
"Dang So."
"What is it!"
"What did you even do today?"
"……."
"Do you have any right to speak?"
"Listen, Celestial Demon! Your character right now is way too rough! I'm not some monstrous bad mannered player! Get over your obsession with the Siege War!"
Seo Jun could very easily point out the things Dang So had gotten wrong.
First.
His character wasn't rough. He was just a little special when dealing with Dang So. So he wasn't obsessed either.
Second.
Dang So really was a monstrous bad mannered player.
Genuinely.
Of course, explaining wouldn't make him understand, so he dropped it.
"Joking aside. So what do we do for two hours?"

-Just don't end the stream
-The viewers unanimously support Dang So's statement!
-Don't go idle
-Just don't

As Seo Jun read the chat of viewers who uniformly hated idle streams but would leave whenever they wanted, someone approached him.
"Want to hang out with us old guys?"
They were Jijon Gunju users.
Heuk Wol Geom Je spoke first as he came over.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Dangerous thing to say?
-"Old guys" ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ You keep talking back, huh? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Just charming hyung types ㅋㅋㅋ
-They're more like bosses ㅋㅋ

"That Dang So kid fights really well. Seems like he'd have the right to speak, yeah? Gehehehe."
"You guys did great work."
"Geomsin, you did great too. But you fought really well — how come you're not going pro?"
"Oh, well. Just don't feel like it?"

-So they're saying they like us?
-That's how I'm taking it
-Seems right?
-Yeah

"I see, haha."
"Didn't think it'd be a fit anyway."
"So you shutting down now? Or waiting for the update too?"
"Tae-woo, what about you?"
"Me… Hmm. Want to wait?"
The update banner they were waiting for was the Four Heavenly Kings Raid Preview.
A week away, they'd be slowly releasing information ahead of time.
"Yeah, let's just wait together."
Better to just see what they're talking about.

-Kya
-Wow!
-Two-hour standby stream on ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

For two hours, Seo Jun and the Jijon Gunju guys chatted and fooled around.
Like, for example.
When viewers asked if the old guy was actually a company president.
"Hehehe. When one of my guild members said they needed a job, I even hired them at my company, you know. The kid's nice, so there's that too."
Pa Cheon Do Hwang said proudly.
"Is it food service by any chance? Franchising? Good prices?"
So Tae-woo asked.
"No? We're in construction."
"Ah, I understand."
They were chatting like that when midnight rolled around.

-Update video dropped!
-Official site! Official site! Official site! Official site!
-Let's check the preview! Let's go preview! Let's go preview! Let's go preview!

"Yeah, it's ready."
Seo Jun opened a window and refreshed.
The people next to him seemed leisurely, as if they'd just check it through his stream, and showed no hurry.
"I'll play it now."
Seo Jun clicked the first page of the official site, scrolled down, and started the video.

[Lim Kang-san! Discussing the first of the Four Heavenly Kings.]
[Hello, Rakle users. I'm Lim Kang-san.]

-How does someone's name become "Lim Kang-san" ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-River and Mountain — lovely ring to it!
-Hmm!

[First, I have a lot I want to say, but I think we covered it plenty at the showcase, so I'll get right into talking about the Four Heavenly Kings Raid.]
[First! I need to apologize.]
[About the sufficiently high difficulty we mentioned at the previous showcase — our production team held meetings, and since many people were aiming for Perfect Clear, we decided that "sufficiently high" just wasn't enough. So.]
[We're going record-breaking difficulty.]

-Oh?
-Kya ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The director just said record-breaking difficulty? This thing's not getting stopped

[Whether we dial back difficulty later or not, we've decided to make it so that until the best party achieves Perfect Clear, no one else can easily clear and claim the glory.]
[But of course, with difficulty that high, the rewards need to match, right?]

-So the director's taking shots at the streamer? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ "No one can easily claim the glory" <–Isn't that targeting?
-That's being way too self-conscious, isn't it?
-Exactly ㅋㅋ What if they saw the streamer using Deflection to free-win, rushed to raise the difficulty and boosted the rewards to dress it up like this? ㅋㅋㅋ
-I'm Lim Kang-san and I hit upvote.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

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