Chapter 185

CHAPTER 185

"Doesn't seem like a bug."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"No way it isn't."

"Sigh."

Rachel sprang to her feet and strode over to her younger brother.

Apparently looking directly at it wasn't enough; now she had to inspect it up close.

"Seriously, it's not a bug?"

"How could it be a bug? And for your information, this isn't even a screenshot. I checked it directly on the official website."

"What if it's a fake site?"

Even as she said it, she laughed at herself.

"Why would anyone go through the trouble of making a fake Trial ranking site?"

"Exactly. Move over."

Taking over her brother's computer, she started by verifying the facts herself.

No matter what anyone said, it was still impossible to believe.

'It's real... What is this? How?

How on earth?'

Was it a bug in the game this time?

The bug she mentioned earlier had been about the website.

Bugs inside virtual reality were not tolerated.

Still, at this point, suspicion was unavoidable.

Though, to be fair, no system could ever be truly perfect.

Of course, the reason she found this so hard to believe wasn't simply because she had lost first place.

To discuss the situation in detail, she logged into a messaging site.

There was no smartphone.

Smartphones weren't allowed during vacation, either.

"Huh? Bernard messaged me already?"

[Bernard: Did you just see that?]

He was her teammate.

Had he always been interested in Korea?

No.

Professional players were naturally interested in Korea.

A gaming powerhouse.

Despite having a talent pool far smaller than America or China, it consistently sat at the top through unparalleled mastery of competitive strategy—the Land of the Morning Calm.

Whenever an international tournament ended in defeat for their teams, Korea was usually responsible.

Of course they paid attention.

Still, seeing that interest extend all the way to a mere streamer was unusual.

[Rachel: How did you find out already?]

[Bernard: Your brother told me.]

Ah.

She turned around.

Her brother was busily tapping away on his phone.

Her brother happened to be friendly with several of her teammates.

He was undoubtedly telling them all sorts of unnecessary things.

"Stop!"

"Nope!"

"Damn it. Could you at least stop messaging people until I figure out what's going on?"

"Oh, it's too late. Already told them. What was it you said earlier? That it was impossible? Then what's this?"

Her brother grinned smugly.

"Maybe my little brother needs to experience New York rent prices firsthand."

"I'm sorry!"

What was the point now?

The news had probably already spread through the team.

American pros loved the History Event.

Because the American pro league started slightly later than the Korean one, their schedules were more relaxed.

And inside the History Event, teams didn't matter.

Everyone competed.

They would definitely remind her of her promise.

'Should I just ignore it?'

No.

First she needed to understand what had happened.

[Bernard: Watch this clip.]

[Bernard: It's only fifty seconds long. You know what it means, right?]

[Rachel: Have you watched it?]

[Bernard: Not yet. About to. Your brother sent it to me too.]

[Rachel: Let's watch it first and talk afterward.]

Rachel, rank #2.

Bernard, rank #3.

Just moments ago, they had been first and second place.

That was why her brother had contacted Bernard, and why she had come online seeking his opinion.

Rachel started the video.

Her displaced brother leaned in beside her.

"I thought you'd already watched it."

"I didn't. I just forwarded the link."

"Fine. Let's watch."

The stream was Korean, but that wasn't a problem.

The streamer's speech was translated into subtitles in real time.

Maybe not with the precision of a professional localization expert obsessing over every detail, but it preserved most of the meaning.

Though there probably wouldn't be much dialogue to translate anyway.

Who would chat while attempting the Trial of Id?

"...He really used only two orbs?"

"Maybe he'll use four later."

"I don't think so. Apparently his synchronization rate is only ten. That's why he's limited to two."

Her brother was still checking his phone.

Probably looking for more information.

Rachel's eyes narrowed.

At last, the mystery would be revealed.

After watching the entire video, Rachel's first impression was this:

"He's talking?"

He was talking.

Something completely normal for a streamer.

Yet—

"He's talking!"

"Yeah, I saw it too, sis. You don't have to repeat—"

"No, he's TALKING!"

Rachel wasn't done.

[Rachel: Did you see it?]

[Bernard: Uh... that was rather surprising.]

[Rachel: Right?!]

This was the Trial that determined who belonged among the top ten players in the world.

Forget talking.

You were supposed to discard every stray thought and focus completely.

[Bernard: His orb trajectories were perfect. You could tell at a glance that every path he chose was the shortest possible route.]

Well.

That was impressive too.

But he had been doing that while talking.

Who exactly was this streamer?

How was that possible?

"Sis, aren't you surprised by the sound play too?" her brother asked.

Rachel tapped her lips thoughtfully.

"I mean, it's impressive, sure... but something else shocked me more."

She was surprised that sound play worked.

But not that someone had done it.

If she trained for it, she thought she could probably do it too.

The other things, however...

[Bernard: The trajectories, never making mistakes, talking while doing it—everything about it is insane.]

[Bernard: This is beyond reasonable. Could the video be edited?]

[Bernard: Forget it. Pick up the call.]

Rachel accepted the call, and Bernard immediately began analyzing.

"Bernard, when we clear eight targets, how much delay do we usually accumulate?"

Eight targets.

The number that spawned each step, every second.

[When they only appear in front, none. We clear them within one second.]

"Right. Then what about when they start appearing behind us?"

[About 0.1 to 0.3 seconds? I think that was the delay per set of eight. There are forty-four rear-spawn waves and five front-only waves.]

"Exactly. Good memory."

During those forty-four rear-spawn steps, they pushed their concentration to the absolute limit.

"With perfect execution, the delay is around 0.1 seconds. Lose focus even slightly and it becomes 0.3."

[Sounds right. And your record of 356 was considered the absolute limit, wasn't it? Players said nobody could go higher than that. I remember giving up on trying months ago.]

A score of 356.

That was what happened when someone averaged only a 0.1-second delay across all forty-four rear-spawn waves.

In other words, Rachel had repeated the best performance humanly achievable forty-four times in a row.

When she set that record, she had felt something special.

A perfect flow state.

A state so complete that she forgot even her sense of self.

A fleeting moment she had touched by chance.

How hard had she worked trying to reach it again?

"Did that guy enter that state?"

Bernard knew exactly what she meant.

[If he had... ]

He had been chatting with viewers the entire time.

Rachel easily filled in the rest of Bernard's unfinished sentence.

That was why she found the whole thing so astonishing.

"Damn it. How much delay did that streamer have while using sound play?"

[Give me a minute. I'll check frame by frame.]

"You?"

[No. The coach sitting next to me.]

"Right."

Rachel let out a small laugh and then sighed.

Maybe it was because of how shocking everything was.

At some point, her body had become tense.

After calming herself, she absentmindedly twisted a lock of her blonde hair and fell into thought.

Korea.

The homeland of Shin Hayeon—her eternal rival (according to herself) and sworn nemesis (also according to herself).

And once again, that country had produced someone who got in her way.

Rachel swallowed dryly.

What kind of country is Korea, anyway?

[I checked. When the targets only spawned in front, he averaged about 0.06 seconds of delay.]

That meant complete concentration.

Probably the absolute best possible performance with only two orbs.

But at that point, the streamer hadn't been talking.

He only started having those strange conversations with viewers afterward.

[When targets started spawning behind him, the average delay was around 0.08 seconds.]

"...Ha."

Faster than them.

Which explained how he had set the new record.

"All forty-four waves?"

[Yeah. Every single one.]

"Was that really the limit?"

[Rachel, you watched it too. The way he handled the targets. No matter how you look at it, it's impossible to reduce that time any further. Even if you entered the state you always talk about.]

He meant with two orbs.

Reducing the delay below 0.08 seconds with only two orbs was simply impossible according to the system itself.

[If we learned sound play, we might be able to improve things since we use four orbs. But regardless, that guy maintained perfect play the entire time. While chatting with viewers. I'm honestly wondering if a human brain can even do that.]

"Damn it... should I go to Korea?"

[What? Are you crazy? You're abandoning the team?]

"No, not that. I mean maybe I should meet him. We've got plenty of time. Or maybe arrange a scrimmage between our team and theirs?"

"Sis, that's not happening."

"Why not?"

"He's a pure streamer."

"Oh. Really?"

[How about this instead?]

"You've got an idea?"

[Just follow him around in the History Event and learn from him. Or ask him for his secret techniques. Hahaha!]

"You bastard."

[What? You're going to meet him there anyway. No need to fly all the way to Korea. Ah, then maybe you'll have to look for another hero. He's unaffiliated, right? Which heroes are likely to appear this time?]

Now that the situation was settled, Bernard had moved on to teasing his teammate.

Probably because he'd already given up on Id long ago, so the news didn't hurt him much.

Rachel immediately hung up.

Talking any longer would only put her at a disadvantage.

They had finished the analysis.

Now she needed to investigate personally.

"Hey, little brother."

"Yeah? Wait a sec."

"What are you looking at?"

"That guy... no, wait. Is this real?"

"What now?"

"Apparently Kael just hit first place too. By a huge margin."

"...What?"

"...Huh?"

"What is it?"

"You know that guy who predicted Kael's next weak point before?"

Rachel blinked.

"Ah! I remember."

A few weeks ago.

While she was still enjoying her vacation, her coach had suddenly bombarded her with messages through her brother asking whether something was possible.

Since Kael wasn't exactly known for his skill, she had confidently declared it impossible and buried herself back in bed.

That player had been this streamer?

She immediately revised her assessment.

He wasn't just someone absurdly good at the Trial of Id.

He was someone special.

Someone who needed to be watched carefully.

Rachel swallowed again.

What kind of country is Korea, anyway?

What sort of place kept producing players like this?

Shin Hayeon.

Baek Doyul, who defeated her.

And now this streamer.

"That's it. Little brother."

"Why?"

"While I'm gone, gather every piece of information you can find about that streamer."

"I don't wanna—"

"Rent."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"And where's the nearest capsule center?"

"Huh? You're going to play? You're supposed to be on vacation."

Rachel stretched both arms and cracked her neck.

"Can't relax anymore. Vacation's over."

***

0279000750

Rachel arrived at the capsule center and logged into virtual reality.

"Sword God. Sword God."

The streamer's ID rolled naturally off her tongue.

She knew it wasn't his real name, though she still had no idea what it meant.

Whatever.

Her brother's rent depended on it now, so he'd figure it out.

She vaguely remembered hearing the streamer's real name too, but couldn't recall it.

Korean names still felt foreign to her.

It wasn't like he was an opponent from another pro team she'd faced repeatedly.

A foreign name heard only once wasn't likely to stick.

After reacquainting herself with her avatar's senses, Rachel entered the training grounds.

Whenever a vacation ended, this was always the first place she came to loosen up.

Just because she didn't usually main sword heroes didn't mean she couldn't use one.

Swordsmanship was a fundamental skill.

She opened the settings as usual to summon a Level 10 AI opponent.

"Has the server changed? No... it's just been so long since I logged in that everything feels unfamiliar."

Virtual reality was divided into numerous servers.

North America.

South America.

Western Europe.

Eastern Europe.

Korea.

Japan.

And so on.

China reportedly had more than ten servers by itself.

Though anyone could freely play on any server they wanted.

"There it is."

Just as she was currently connected to the Korean server.

Smiling in satisfaction, she summoned the Level 10 AI.

Three words appeared in English.

Jin Seo Jun

"...Jin. Seo. Jun? That's not Shin Hayeon."

Had the Level 10 AI changed?

There was no way her rival (not actually) and nemesis (also not actually) would have given up this position.

Not with that personality.

"Seo Jun Jin... sounds familiar."

Korean names were still difficult.

"Maybe he joined a pro team. If I barely remember him, he must be a rookie or a bench player. That's probably why I haven't heard much since."

She'd find out after fighting him.

A long time had passed since her last serious battle.

Rachel tightened her grip on her sword.

The opponent charged.

Clang!

"...Huh?"

That opening...

Shin Hayeon?

Clang! Clang!

"...Huh?"

And now...

Baek Doyul?

"Huh? Huh?!"

Her blue eyes trembled violently.

"What... what is this? Did Baek Doyul and Shin Hayeon merge together?"

Impossible.

Because that would mean this person had blended both of their sword styles.

And every professional player knew exactly how difficult it was to fuse two elite sword styles together while maintaining this level of perfection.

Rachel swallowed dryly once again.

No way he's a bench player.

Then a rookie?

Another talent at this level?

And this time with swordsmanship?

Rachel could only ask herself once more:

What kind of country is Korea?