Chapter 129

CHAPTER 129

Streamer Spon was a Challenger ADC.

The highest tier in League.

Since League was the game that attracted players from practically every other game, Challenger players were generally regarded as the very best gamers around.

And that was true.

In games with smaller player bases, low population wasn't usually because the game was harder—it was because fewer skilled people gathered there.

Veterans had seen it happen countless times: as a game's player pool grew and competition intensified, early pros who once dominated could no longer keep up.

League was, without question, the game with the largest player base.

There was no need to explain what it meant to be a Challenger in a game like that.

The same applied to Grandmasters.

"But still..."

Spon sat in his chair browsing community forums.

The more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed.

To become Challenger, two things were required:

Mechanical skill.

Game knowledge.

The common consensus was that lacking either one made Challenger impossible.

And in all his time playing, Spon had never seen a Challenger who was deficient in either area.

"Hmm. His mechanics are decent, I'll give him that."

He acknowledged that much.

Even if Seo Jun had only played one champion, he had still figured out Kael's mechanics.

"Yep. The community's completely lost its mind."

While researching his upcoming opponent, Spon ended up on the Kael forums.

The place was in complete chaos.

[Baramgeom officially confirmed it. Seo Jun personally taught him.]

[Watch the video. The sword is literally already there LOLLLLL]

[Is this even human?]

[If we get lessons too, can we learn it? LOL]

[A three-year unemployed shut-in Kael player is finally getting a job as a part-time instructor LOL]

[Please go outside.]

[Finding the account issue is amazing. Teaching it to someone else is amazing. Them actually understanding it is amazing too.]

"Pretty impressive."

Spon's current League nickname was:

"TopGapBecauseTopLost."

"Top" referred to top lane.

"Bot" referred to the bottom lane.

As in every team game, if either side collapsed, the game was usually lost.

Top players believed bot lane was always the reason they lost.

Bot players believed top lane was always the problem.

When people lose, they naturally blame their teammates.

Even when it was their own fault.

And those memories always stuck longer.

Put those two tendencies together and you ended up with collective delusions and endless arguments between top-side and bot-side players.

His nickname was essentially a parody of that phenomenon.

Of course, Spon himself didn't actually believe it.

His previous nickname had been even worse.

"IfYouDon'tGiveADCImPlayingKael."

An absolutely terrifying hostage-taking nickname.

Those two names were why people often assumed Mid was his secondary role.

In reality, he barely played Mid at all.

And he'd never seriously played Kael.

He had simply used popular champions in the nickname.

"If I couldn't play ADC, I'd probably play Mid."

Calling it a secondary role was still debatable.

Even so—

[A sudden scrim announcement just dropped! The forum owner is participating!]

• LOL out of nowhere
• Was Woon-ho always friends with him?
• Probably because of LoL
• Is Baramgeom joining the tournament?
• Everyone already figured that out LOL
• Holy crap. Kael God vs. Spon.
• Spon is a Challenger ADC. If you think Seo Jun wins, upvote LOL
• So is he gonna discover Kael's account exploit too? LOL
• Does he even know Kael gets two seconds of invulnerability?

"Seriously..."

After reading discussions about his opponent, Spon couldn't help rubbing his face.

"This is ridiculous. No, seriously."

Sure, it was the Kael community.

But still.

Being good at Kael?

Fine.

He acknowledged that.

No need to make excuses—the guy was obviously talented.

Whether it was genius-level intelligence or simply extraordinary talent, Spon wasn't sure.

"Two seconds of invulnerability? Sure, that's impressive. But did people think I'd just stand there and let him hit my vital points? Seriously..."

The reason he was so dumbfounded was simple.

The evidence placing Seo Jun anywhere near his level was still far too weak.

"Can he play champions other than Kael? How good is his prediction ability? None of that's been proven."

Prediction.

One of the most important concepts in virtual reality games.

Moving your body wasn't difficult.

You simply moved as naturally as you did in reality.

Calling it "thinking" was almost funny.

You just moved.

But what about a third arm?

A supernatural force?

An ability that didn't exist in real life?

Those sensations felt alien at first.

Like a baby learning to walk.

Awkward.

Difficult.

That was why game developers generally avoided constantly changing avatars.

If players had to relearn movement from scratch every time they played, nobody would buy those games.

Basic movement was standardized.

Skills were different.

Imagining and controlling sensations that didn't exist in reality.

Gamers called that prediction training, and it was a major part of mechanical skill.

"Hah. Guess I'll show him why Challengers are Challengers."

First by crushing him with Kael.

Kael was fundamentally a champion built around swordplay and body movement.

Aside from a few skills and the ultimate, most of his kit didn't require advanced prediction.

Movement alone would be enough.

"And no matter how good his prediction skills are, I'll prove the same thing there too."

The thought of demonstrating exactly why Challengers sat at the top filled Spon with enthusiasm.

And hostility.

Seo Jun hadn't done anything.

Yet somehow he'd successfully provoked him.

The next day.

While streaming from his desk, Seo Jun glanced at the clock in the corner of his vision.

6:29 PM.

"Looks like it's time. Everyone knows why we're here, right?"

• You literally explained it already.
• Scrim!
• But the lineup isn't even out yet. Why already?
• He probably applied for LoL LOL
• He's unranked so they're making him prove himself first.
• Our streamer is adorable.
• Are you really that desperate for the prize money? LOL Want us to buy it for you?

Seo Jun smirked as he read the comments.

Honestly, it would be nice if they bought it for me.

The viewers were curious why Ha Woon-ho had arranged the scrim.

Eventually, they reached a conclusion.

Seo Jun was trying to advertise himself to the tournament organizers.

The logic wasn't entirely unreasonable.

There was Tae-woo as a connection.

And Seo Jun had already appeared in For the Sake of the Sword before.

There was no reason it couldn't happen again.

Which meant he was targeting the LoL tournament.

Then perhaps, when he realized he might not get accepted, he had intentionally attracted attention.

A scrim meant plenty of spectators.

Maybe even the Kael weak-point discovery was part of the plan?!

Watching the increasingly wild theories scroll by, Seo Jun nodded approvingly.

They got at least a tiny bit of it right.

How admirable.

Leaving behind his viewers, who had completely missed the point from the very beginning, Seo Jun entered the voice chat he had been invited to.

The scheduled time was 6:30.

He arrived exactly on time.

When he joined, five people were already inside.

A few seconds later, four more joined.

The channel now contained all ten participants.

Everyone had arrived right on schedule.

"Ah, hello everyone! Looks like nobody was late."

Ha Woon-ho's voice came through the speakers, and the other streamers immediately began chiming in.

"Hello, everyone."

"Woohoo!"

"Wow! A scrim! This is exciting!"

"Ha Woon-ho is ugly!"

"Agreed."

"Hello. Nice to meet you all."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Seo Jun!"

The voice chat instantly descended into chaos.

The viewers, already used to seeing things like this, simply laughed.

[Who just called Ha Woon-ho ugly? I think we need to establish discipline here.]

Suddenly a military atmosphere?

Ha Woon-ho continued.

As the organizer, he listened instead of interrupting.

"Since some of you may not know each other, or might be meeting for the first time, let's do a brief self-introduction and share one unique characteristic about ourselves—"

Listening turned out to be Seo Jun's misunderstanding.

"NOOO!"

"Skip it!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Ah, I seriously hate those."

"Same."

"Can't we just say hi? Actually, can we not do it at all?"

Seo Jun listened to the various voices erupting from the speakers and laughed.

"Then maybe just one sentence—"

Much like Seo Jun, Ha Woon-ho seemed to be having fun.

"This bastard..."

"Let's just finish the scrim, boss."

"Please. Have mercy!"

• Did Durumi just break character? LOL
• I somehow recognized his voice in that mess.
• This is a disaster.
• Complete chaos from the start LOL
• This is exactly why it's fun LOL

And just like that, Seo Jun's first impression of more than three streamers at once was officially:

Absolute chaos.

Not in a bad way.

"Alright. The resistance is too strong, so let's just do simple greetings. Then first up..."

After the introductions ended, everyone launched League.

Since Seo Jun had joined the voice chat from outside the capsule, he first needed to enter the VR pod.

[Join Ha Woon-ho's Custom Game?]

He pressed Accept.

The interface appeared.

Then Ha Woon-ho's voice followed.

"Alright, let's get started!"

Apparently Seo Jun had been the last person.

The teams had already been balanced and arranged beforehand.

As soon as he entered, the game immediately started.

Seo Jun's body was transported.

"Then let's start the ban-pick phase. Malrang, I'm counting on you!"

Teammates appeared around Seo Jun.

Ha Woon-ho was among them.

They weren't standing directly beside each other, but voice communication through team chat made distance irrelevant.

Private communication like this was also possible.

"By the way, Mr. Seo Jun. Wasn't your introduction a little too plain? Just saying you're a rookie streamer."

"It was appropriate."

"No, but you know. That thing. The Slayer or whatever."

• LOL he's immediately teasing him.
• That's Ha Woon-ho for you.
• Professional instigator.
• Is he going to keep this up?
• He's actually pretty good at trolling.

Ha Woon-ho's secret to becoming friends with so many streamers was his thorough information gathering.

"Obviously I'm talking about the Conqueror, Slayer, and Cult Slayer."

Apparently he'd watched every single video.

Seo Jun didn't feel any desire to retaliate.

I can't bully someone this precious.

After all, Ha Woon-ho was one of the reasons his view count had increased.

More importantly, Ha Woon-ho was a captain willing to draft him.

Definitely not because Seo Jun hadn't researched him beforehand and therefore lacked any material to use against him.

Definitely not.

"Should we discuss strategy?"

"Sure."

Seo Jun muted the stream audio.

"The opponent is a Challenger ADC, right? He'll probably pick a champion that can function in Mid."

"I see."

"You prepared something besides Kael, right?"

Ha Woon-ho had already instructed Malrang not to ban Mid champions.

He was curious what Seo Jun had prepared.

"Not really."

Seo Jun's casual answer left Ha Woon-ho speechless.

"...Ah. I see. Well, fortunately Kael wasn't banned. Since you're playing two games anyway, maybe playing Kael in the first one would be fine."

Ha Woon-ho thought that was fortunate.

Seo Jun disagreed.

Even after all the explanations, saving Kael until now felt like an obvious provocation.

"Ah, it's fine. We can start now."

The viewers had already donated enough in advance that Seo Jun lacked nothing in terms of champion ownership.

"What are you picking?"

"Hmm. How about Derek this game? He looked fun."

Ha Woon-ho's eyebrows shot up.

Derek the Escaped Convict?

The champion that fired delayed chains from magic circles?

Wasn't that a character heavily dependent on prediction rather than swordplay?

As Seo Jun guessed, Ha Woon-ho had watched all of his videos.

So he knew this would be the first time Seo Jun demonstrated this type of skill.

"What's your synchronization rate, by the way?"

It had to be fairly high, right?

If so, even with a first-time champion, maybe he could quickly adapt and show something impressive—

"Ten."

"...What?"

Was he serious?

"Ah, looks like it's my turn to pick."

"Wait, wait! Think about it a little more—"

He could've selected another teammate's champion first and bought more time to think!

Unfortunately, it was already too late to stop Seo Jun's unstoppable fingers.

[Sword God - Derek the Escaped Convict]

"Wow!"

Watching this reckless behavior in videos was one thing.

Experiencing it firsthand felt completely different.

Synchronization rate ten? That has to be a joke. How can someone's synchronization rate be only ten? Hahaha!

Since Ha Woon-ho was the type who enjoyed everything, he quickly figured out how he should approach Seo Jun.

Just enjoy the ride.

[The game is starting.]