Chapter 168
CHAPTER 168
The world moves more busily than one might think.
“Everyone’s pretty diligent.”
What kind of work are all these people out doing right now?
Ha Yoonho gazed through the car window and thought.
Countless cars beginning their day along the riverside road by the Han River, and people waking their bodies up through exercise in the parks.
It was a fascinating sight.
Something he had never really thought about before.
If he was late, he would stream until four or five in the morning before going to sleep.
Normally, he slept a bit earlier and then slept in.
In other words, this time of day was one he hadn’t been awake for during the past several years of being a streamer.
As a result, he had forgotten that so many people started their mornings this early.
“Well, at least there’s no traffic.”
It wasn’t exactly normal commuting hours yet.
Then why were all these people already out and about?
Because their jobs required them to start early?
Or because they were working on self-improvement?
If it was because they hated getting stuck in traffic during rush hour, that would make a lot of sense.
There had to be all sorts of reasons.
“Whatever the case, the important thing is…”
He felt refreshed.
It wasn’t simply because he was about to meet player Lee Dongsu.
Yesterday, he had gone to bed about three hours earlier than usual and woke up seven hours earlier today.
Thinking about it this way, I really used to sleep an absurd amount.
Since everyone around him lived the same way, he had thought it was normal to go to bed at dawn and wake up at noon or one in the afternoon.
Apparently, it wasn’t.
People said that even six hours was technically too little to be considered adequate sleep, but regardless, his body felt light and refreshed.
“Maybe I should move my streaming schedule forward and start waking up earlier.”
He needed to think about his health.
He wasn’t in his thirties yet, but people said that if you already felt like you were getting old before even reaching your thirties, then your health was probably just bad.
Ha Yoonho was exactly in that state.
Of course, this might end up being another three-day resolution.
But at least because of the tournament preparations, he’d definitely keep it up for longer than three days.
And if he did it together with the others, a three-day resolution could easily become a month.
If it became a habit, it could even last a year.
And what would he do by waking up so early?
“Seojun seems to like working out. Getting closer to him wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
There was no downside, was there?
“Was it here?”
Before he knew it, he had arrived.
The drive had taken about twenty minutes, which was reasonable.
“Wow, they’re using two entire floors of the building?”
The gym he saw through the glass from outside looked impressive at a glance.
It seemed they were renting two floors of a fairly large building.
“Nice, underground parking.”
After parking, he took the elevator upstairs.
“He told me to come to the fourth floor.”
Apparently, the third floor was for general members, while the fourth floor still had some regular members but served a somewhat different purpose.
While watching the floor numbers change above the elevator doors, Ha Yoonho imagined what awaited him.
They must have incredible facilities.
It was well known that each professional team had its own dedicated fitness center.
Specialized facilities that managed everything from physical conditioning in reality to one’s condition when connecting to virtual reality.
But if player Lee Dongsu chose to come here instead of using those facilities, then there had to be something special about this place.
Maybe it even had some absurd custom equipment that cost far more than the hundred-million-won capsule awarded as the championship prize.
Or perhaps, unexpectedly, it housed a martial arts dojo for those who preferred a more old-fashioned atmosphere.
After all, it was common knowledge that martial arts had become even more influential after the advent of virtual reality.
And that was the sort of thing teams couldn’t easily provide.
That was why Ha Yoonho was excited.
The elevator reached the fourth floor, and the doors opened.
Bang! Bang!
The first thing he noticed was how clean everything looked.
Various kinds of exercise equipment—he wasn’t knowledgeable enough about fitness to know what they all did—were lined up in neat rows, and quite a few people were already there.
There was even a young man working out incredibly hard.
I feel like I’ve seen that guy on a broadcast before...
Not sure.
And there was none of the special something he had been expecting.
Bang! Bang!
Other than the sounds echoing through the space.
As he moved farther in, another area separated by glass walls came into view.
It was nearly as large as the gym itself, filled with several rings and crowds of people—no, not people.
Hyungs.
Regardless of their actual ages, anyone with those physiques was definitely a hyung.
There was no way they weren’t.
And then—
Bang! Bang!
Is that Seojun?
While standing on the other side of the glass wall, unable to approach immediately, Ha Yoonho realized that the man in the ring was handsome.
His distinct facial features and natural bearing made him recognizable even from a distance.
He really looks exactly the same in real life. I only touched mine up a tiiiny bit.
His conscience pricked him.
He had only made very minor adjustments because of offline broadcasts.
Still, who was Seojun sparring with this early in the morning?
Once he confirmed it was Seojun, he approached and stepped inside.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound turned out to be someone getting hit by Seojun.
It became much louder once he entered the area.
Brutal.
His opponent looked like an aspiring professional fighter.
Where was player Lee Dongsu?
They were definitely supposed to meet today.
Just as Ha Yoonho looked around—
“Hello.”
A mountain-bandit-looking man approached him with a rough voice.
“Hello?”
“You’re that bastard—I mean, Seojun’s fellow streamer, right?”
“Ah! Yes, that’s right.”
The mountain man’s gaze fell on the autograph paper and pen in Ha Yoonho’s hand.
Then it returned to him.
With a look of pity.
What?
Why was he looking at him like he was pitiful enough to recognize instantly?
The mountain man seemed about to say something, then stopped and turned his head.
“Uh... never mind. Hey, you bastard! Your coworker’s here! Cut it out already!”
Bang!
“Ah. Thank you, Coach. Hello, Mr. Yoonho.”
But Seojun didn’t stop.
“Stop already! No, those hands are a hundred times more valuable than yours!”
“More valuable than mine?”
Whose valuable hands?
His opponent really was a fighter after all, it seemed.
“Now stop!”
“Yes, sir.”
The moment those words were spoken, the man sparring with Seojun collapsed onto the mat.
“Whew. Barely survived today too. Stayed conscious, at least.”
He loses consciousness from this?
“Twenty-four clean hits. Not bad.”
“I didn’t land a single one.”
“True.”
“I spent three minutes getting beaten up and took twenty-four hits.”
“Still did well.”
“Hehehe. Right?”
What was this bizarre conversation?
Ha Yoonho walked over to Seojun.
Leaning against the ring, Seojun welcomed him.
“You came early. Very admirable. As expected of our team leader.”
“Haha. I’m not going to be the only one who gets criticized for arriving early, right?”
At those words, Seojun smiled.
Meanwhile, the guy lying beside him simply laughed.
“Hehehe. Heheheh. Hehehehehe.”
What the heck?
That laugh was unsettling.
It almost sounded like he was laughing, but also like he had completely lost his mind.
“Nobody’s going to criticize you.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Who would dislike the team leader taking the initiative and coming early to train?”
“88...88...”
That guy keeps laughing.
Seriously, what’s with him?
“By the way, where is player Lee Dongsu?”
At last, Ha Yoonho was able to ask Seojun what he had been curious about.
The facility and everything else didn’t matter.
As long as he could meet Lee Dongsu!
Only then did Seojun take a step back and say,
“Ah, let me introduce you. This is player Lee Dongsu.”
Seojun pointed at the guy lying next to him.
As the apparently insane man stood up and removed his headgear, a familiar face appeared.
“Hehehe. Hello, Yoonho hyung! Coach Lee Dongsu here! Glad you came. Really glad you came...”
What?
Wait a second.
The guy who had been getting beaten up this whole time was Lee Dongsu?
Seojun smiled brightly at the bewildered Ha Yoonho.
“I’ll go easy on you today.”
Excuse me?
Wasn’t Coach Lee Dongsu supposed to be Lee Dongsu?
“Yoonho hyung. From now on, we’re comrades.”
What on earth was going on?
After saying that, Seojun climbed down from the ring.
“We’re going to train together—”
“Ooooh!”
“No, I said train together—”
“Ooooooh!”
“No, seriously, we’re training together.”
Watching all his teammates collectively become idiots, Ha Yoonho shut his eyes tightly.
He could say no more.
Seojun was watching him.
If he went any further, he was sure he’d get beaten up even worse next time.
Seojun had intentionally sparred with various people today and displayed that terrifying side of himself after training was over.
It was a silent warning for Ha Yoonho to keep his mouth shut.
Or maybe not?
The other hyungs there had looked perfectly calm.
Maybe this was just an everyday occurrence.
Either way, it was scary.
So all Ha Yoonho could do was hope his teammates understood.
The problem was—
“A chance to train with the Lee Dongsu!”
“It stings a little that you got to meet him first, Yoonho, but you’re the team leader, so I’ll allow it! That means we’ll get to meet him eventually too!”
“I, a man who always arrives exactly on time no matter how much work piles up, hereby swear! No matter what happens, from now on I will wake up at six every morning and head out!”
Even though he was currently in virtual reality, his whole body ached.
His arms felt like they were throbbing.
It was phantom pain.
Seriously.
High-intensity training for professional athletes?
Compared to what he had done today, that was nothing.
More importantly...
That training...
“We’re going to train together—”
More accurately, they were going to receive training together.
“Ah, how many times are you going to say it? We’re already planning to take it seriously, so stop.”
“Seriously. Is this some kind of team leader responsibility thing?”
“Can’t I just start coming tomorrow?”
Ah.
Realizing communication was impossible, Ha Yoonho immediately pulled out an item from his inventory.
A carrot doll.
Then he grabbed it and started waving it around.
It was a cry for help.
At the very least, he figured Seojun wouldn’t understand this kind of meme or joke.
- Why is Ha Yoonho acting like an idiot? LOLLLLL
- Why a carrot all of a sudden? LOL
- The way he’s waving that carrot without a soul is killing me LOL
“Hm.”
Seojun watched Ha Yoonho vigorously waving the carrot.
Maybe his body was feeling a bit too comfortable.
If training had been harder, he wouldn’t even have the energy for thoughts like that.
In Seojun’s opinion, the first step toward improving skill was becoming more aware of the sensations of moving one’s real body.
In his previous life, there had been a training method that involved swinging a sword extremely slowly.
Swinging it quickly and accurately was harder than swinging it casually.
And swinging it infinitely slowly without even the slightest shake was several times harder than swinging it quickly and accurately.
There was only one reason for such training.
To magnify every movement of the body through slow motion and examine each one individually.
I’m not expecting anything that extreme. Even simple repetitive exercises are enough.
They needed to become aware of their bodily movements.
It was obvious they weren’t even doing that yet.
And improving their physical foundations wouldn’t hurt either.
That was why he assigned repetitive exercises.
Simply focusing on maintaining proper form could produce a similar effect.
Of course, objectively speaking—and even by Ha Yoonho’s standards—it had been somewhat excessive.
Not enough.
Seojun’s personal assessment was different.
“Alright, let’s call it a day! Good luck in tomorrow’s match!”
Ha Yoonho remained until the very end, waving the carrot right up until he ended his stream.
When Seojun came out of the capsule, Taewoo was waiting for him.
As usual, he was dropping snack crumbs everywhere.
Seojun frowned.
“What. Why are you waiting here?”
Actually, it was fine.
He could just make him clean up afterward.
“Did you order the chicken?”
He could make him clean while they ate.
“I did. But why am I always the one ordering? Huh?”
“At least I’m not making you go pick it up yourself to save on delivery fees.”
“That’s true.”
Taewoo accepted the logic immediately again.
“...”
“Hey. Got any strategy for tomorrow?”
What kind of random question was that?
“I talked it over with my team.”
“And?”
“We came to a conclusion.”
“What?”
“They told me to come extract information from you.”
“Did they.”
“Your team must’ve already figured out how to attack us. Tell me what the plan is.”
“Why would I?”
“Come on. You’ll win even without hiding it, right?”
“That’s true.”
“Then tell me. We’re already a weak team. We need all the information we can get.”
“You guys are 0–2, right?”
“Yep. And if we lose tomorrow, we’ll be 0–3. Honestly, it’s not even about tomorrow’s match. I just want to know how teams see us when they prepare against us. So help me out.”
“Alright.”
“Oh!”
“Our strategy is to make the enemy mid laner quit the game. Then it’s easy to win.”
“...”
“Like I said yesterday, my target is you, Taewoo.”
“Heh.”
“Hehehe.”
Taewoo silently cursed him with his eyes for a moment before speaking.
“That’s my line, you bastard!”