Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 259

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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 259

“Why don’t you think about it one more time, whatever it is?”
“What are you talking about, Tae-woo?”
Seo Jun watched Tae-woo’s theatrical reaction with sympathy.
Tae-woo wasn’t entirely wrong about everything, but he had a tendency to overdo it.
“I don’t like that look in your eyes.”
“Shut up. Anyway, you did a good job showing me. Now I’m going out for exercise.”
Seo Jun pushed himself up from the veranda floor where he’d been meditating, pulled on the winter coat he’d tossed onto the sofa, and headed out the door.
Tae-woo watched him go and silently thanked the heavens that Seo Jun hadn’t brought him along on today’s workout.
Then he recalled what he’d been fussing about just moments before and heaved a sigh so deep the floor might have given way, muttering to himself.
“Ugh… All right, I’ve warned you all I can, you global types. Since you’re the ones who woke him up, good luck.”
In truth, it was hard to say he was truly awake yet.
Seo Jun was the kind of person who jumped into action the moment something scratched an itch or seemed entertaining.
His perspective on situations that involved him was fundamentally different from that of ordinary people.
Most people get annoyed or try to avoid it when someone provokes them or starts trouble.
But strange people like Seo Jun? They actually enjoyed it.
And they’d provoke their opponent even further in return.
“That’s why he’s so successful as a streamer. It’s his calling.”
Tae-woo shook his head slowly.
Hopefully.
It’ll just blow over.
For the sake of world peace.

* * *

[But I’m saying this with the understanding that even if our Game Company were to intervene with a Snipe Patch, Korean public opinion should be fine. Other problems could arise, so I can’t fully support it. So let me just say that Korean public opinion shouldn’t have an issue even if we intervene.]

As this team leader continued speaking, Goto Ginshiro, the History Book team leader from the Japanese side, thought to himself.
‘That’s just passing the buck.’
If Korean public opinion would be fine, then that settles it. What other problems could possibly arise?
‘How exasperating.’
Could he really be doing this just for a definitive Korean one-digit ranking?
Goto narrowed his eyes, staring at the team leader’s face displayed in the video conference.
Generally, competitive content at the global level naturally becomes an international competition.
But with History Book, such a structure was difficult to create.
First of all, each hero belonged to a different faction.
And it was nearly impossible to fill each faction with users only from a specific country.
Was it possible?
Even if it were possible, who would bother doing it and for what reason?
History Book was best understood as purely individual content.
‘Of course, when famous players or pros from each country perform well, national pride does surge up.’
In that sense, pushing an individual made some sense.
They were humans, after all, unable to escape the constraints of nationality.
As long as there were no problems, wasn’t it natural to support one’s own famous players?
Since the development team was divided by nation, this kind of thinking was inevitable.

[So what’s the conclusion?]

The Chinese team leader spoke bluntly.
Goto nodded in agreement.
Kael had originally been a three-way competition between South Korea’s Wind Sword, Italy’s Pineapple Pizza, and China’s Geomsin.
Of course, Kael hadn’t appeared in History Book in nearly two years.

[Ah… I’ll just have to oppose it.]

‘Changing his stance… Does he really want that user to get Kael that badly?’

[But I’ll say this clearly: there’s no way public opinion will turn negative from Korea’s intervention.]

‘Is that so?’
It was such a confusing response that it was impossible to discern his true intent.
That made sense.
Team Leader Goto hadn’t even considered that this team leader might genuinely be worried about some other problem arising.
The other team leaders felt the same way.
After all, now that this team leader had asserted that Korean public opinion would be fine, everyone judged it simply as not protecting their own famous players.
And since there were no problems, it was natural that the scale would tip toward those who supported intervention rather than those who opposed it.

[Then let’s change Kael’s pattern formula, but only for this Trial and History Book.]
[We’ll use adaptability as the justification. Adaptability is really an essential skill at any point in life, so however we attach it to History Book, it shouldn’t be unreasonable.]
[But wouldn’t that be a nerf to Kael? Getting thrown into History Book with proficiency instantly reduced?]
[Then should we only change it in the Trial?]
[That might actually be better.]
[No. Once the Trial opens and champions are selected for each hero during the competition, champions would become familiar enough with it. Then to switch back to the original? Wouldn’t that be even harder?]

Goto let out a quiet laugh at the Chinese team leader’s remark.
‘Ha-ha-ha. Containing Geomsin, are they.’
Of course they’d all seen it.
Kael’s five-man Ultimate Judge Judgment technique.
How terrified they’d all been at the sight.
A tremendous player.
However.
The prevailing logic of the current situation was this:
The current Kael pattern and that player’s compatibility happened to align perfectly, making such a play possible.
There had been talk of changing the pattern long ago, but that user wasn’t even playing The League anymore, and all current Kael users would be thrown into chaos, so they’d left it as is.
‘If that Kael drops into History Book, it’ll be dangerous.’
The Chinese team leader was trying to prevent Geomsin’s Kael from dropping into History Book by losing to China’s Geomsin.
And Goto agreed with this.
‘Yamada Yasuo.’
Japan’s rising Kael master.
He would be comparable to China’s Geomsin, Korea’s Wind Sword, and Italy’s Pineapple Pizza.
Geomsin?
‘Let’s see what happens when we change the pattern.’
He’d probably collapse, obviously.
Being so perfectly suited to one situation meant that when a different situation arose, adapting would be equally difficult.
A creature that thrived in the desert couldn’t survive in a tropical rainforest.
It had just been good fortune.

[Then we’ve decided to change it only for the Trial and History Book. We’ll leave the specifics of how to change it to the balance team, and let’s end the meeting here.]

The meeting was over.
Even those who had opposed it would be satisfied.
It was clear that if that person had come in as Kael, they’d be a threat.
The value of a hero depends on what the user does with it.
They could be eliminated early or ultimately write history the way they wanted.
Once the meeting ended, Goto spent the rest of his time on remaining tasks.
When quitting time came and he left the office to head home, he suddenly remembered something and turned on Trabol.
He set the country setting to Korea instead of Japan.
With countless broadcast titles instantly translating into Japanese above the search bar, he searched for Seo Jun.
It wasn’t that he wanted to watch the broadcast.
Unless someone was a pro, most people didn’t watch overseas streams.
Even if streamers went to the trouble of saving audio files and using automatic dubbing, they didn’t translate the game screen itself, and every country had different memes and humor.
Besides, one’s own country’s streamers were more than enough.
He’d just suddenly thought of it and decided to check.
‘He’s streaming. Let’s see… the game category is The League? The broadcast title is…’
Hmm.
Why did this feel unsettling?

[Starting today, I’m playing one round with every hero in The League. Just like that.]

He ignored the warning, closed the window, and switched the setting back to Japan.

* * *

After that day, Seo Jun played The League continuously for over a week.
While streaming his signature Tutorial commentary in real time.
Actually, he was fairly familiar with most of the heroes.
He’d played them before and prepared for tournaments.
Still, he turned on the Tutorial anyway.
During that time, he also encountered members from his old Wealth Gap team.

[Seo Jun, been a while! How’s the scrim going?]

Ha Yun-ho, consistent as always.

[Congrats on the first clear!]

And Rumi, just being herself.

[Kael is just Seo Jun himself. I’ll try other heroes. Won’t work, ha-ha-ha.]

And Wind Sword, solemn and proclaiming his worship every time he met Seo Jun.
They’d meet in threes or pairs, doing duos—it was all repetitive.
But throughout it all, Seo Jun steadily picked only heroes he hadn’t played before and carried the games.

[This guy’s good at everything ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

-The room master’s back in Riven!
-Finally, The League is his first choice again!!! This is a historic day!
└You know that? He’s gonna suck the juice out of History Book and get abandoned like a dog
└Going around honey-sucking like a bee ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[What’s this guy going on about for days now. Every time this hour comes around, it’s all about him]

-This newbie who hasn’t seen Rio deserves 10 hours of watching Kael’s five-man Ultimate as punishment
-How is watching Kael’s five-man Ultimate punishment? That’s a reward
└true
-For a second I thought this was the Kael forum ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Crazy people

[So why keep playing new heroes?]
==
Looking for another life hero?
==

-Like I’m the only one who’d know ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Could it be ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└But we have the five-man Ultimate Kael anyway, and it’s confirmed Kael’s in History Book

[Overseas community opinion]
==
(screenshot)
(screenshot)
(screenshot)

To summarize, they’re saying the room master’s just a lucky nobody?
And they’re saying this after seeing the five-man Ultimate ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
==

-?? Why just a lucky nobody?
└Saying it’s not skill but just that the pattern happened to align with something psychological, making that play possible
└Based on what?
└What basis would there be ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└You guys are just overseas Rivens ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Stop looking for a basis
└But they’re pretty creative ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-But I feel like it really might be luck? It’s sort of reasonable?
└We said overseas Rivens, right? There it is

[Slander ㄴ]
[Overseas Rivens sound plausible so they get upvoted ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[Right now it’s half trolls who originally wanted to bash the room master, just waiting for the moment, and half Kael fanatics ㅋㅋㅋ]
==
Kael fanatics’ loyalty is more impressive than expected?
==

-Regular people are just spectating ㅋㅋㅋ
-Trolls and supporters are evenly matched! True original troll Kael fanatics!
-I dunno but the room master is one body with the Kael fanatics
└I thought about that but it’s pretty disturbing ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Ugh, if you’re bothered, show and prove
└It depends on what the Game Company does

A week after the photo was released on Monday, and then three days later on Thursday morning.
Patch notes related to the Trial came out with the update.
The moment a notice appeared that Kael’s pattern had changed.

[China’s Kael master ‘Geomsin’ mentioned the room master!]
[This is definitely a Game Company snipe]
[Hmm……]
[Troll fanatics who want to go bait Pineapple Pizza, gather here ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[Why go that far overseas? Just go bait Geomsin]

-Is that even possible?
-Didn’t you see the room master do well with every hero?
└But if he can’t get first in the Kael Trial here, in the end he’s just an ordinary person no matter how good he is
└Facts. In fact, they’ll bash it more. The five-man Ultimate and the championship were all because of this ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Predictable, so predictable
└You know it well ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

News about provocations toward Seo Jun kept pouring in.
“Wow, look at that bastard laughing while staring at his phone. Ugh, I’m getting chills. I don’t know. I swear I don’t know.”
Tae-woo shuddered and went into the room.

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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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