Chapter 126
At first, Baramgeom didn't play Kael. He simply had no interest.
But one day, a low-quality video happened to pop up in his algorithm.
The upload date was before he even started the game. A little curious, he played it.
But the poor video quality made him just skim through it. Then, by another fluke, he got to see a very brief clip of Kael swinging a sword.
Kael slashed so fast, it looked as if there was no lag time to check the vital points.
He wondered if that was even possible.
Even before the rework, where Kael only needed to cut at a leisurely pace to maintain buffs, weren't the vital points generated the same way?
Of course, since nobody knew the patterns back then, you couldn't know if they were the same as now. Asking around only got him "They must be different" responses.
So he looked into it himself.
Because if the vitals were the same, he was dying to know how that person had done it.
He searched for other clips like that.
And as he played and studied Kael, he'd become a master before he knew it. Entirely unintended.
At some point, he'd even been the first to pull off a two-person ultimate in the game, or something like that.
Once he became a Kael master, his tier kept dropping from Challenger to Master whenever he locked in Kael, but he wasn't sad.
Anyway, since he'd met the person from that old video, he was excited, thinking he'd have so much to say as a fan.
Baramgeom pulled up the Travel window. Seojun's stream was live as a viewer.
- If he didn't understand, you're both full of it.
- Isn't this all staged? lol
- He just learned it beforehand, and he's the only one who got a real lesson.
- Whoa...
That wasn't it.
Baramgeom really didn't understand.
He felt like he knew what was being said, but how on earth was he supposed to grasp the in-between?
He could have just revealed the chat history from yesterday's Travel messages right then.
[Jin Seojun: Ah. And tomorrow, just say you understand.]
[Baramgeom: Huh?]
[Jin Seojun: Just say I understand if I ask. Don't worry.]
[Baramgeom: Okay.]
Seojun asked again.
"You understood, right?"
Full of mischief.
Baramgeom had no choice but to answer.
"Yes..."
Whatever, let it be.
"He says so. My lecture isn't a scam, everyone."
- Then prove it.
- Wait, is that really it?
- Tell us more.
- If not, it's a scam.
"That is it. What reason would I have to hide anything? And I told you, that's enough. Now, watch."
Seojun adjusted the settings.
And then the relationship between Seojun and Baramgeom was set to hostile. Baramgeom looked despairingly at the vital point carved onto Seojun's body.
"Can't we do this on a practice dummy?"
Because somehow, he felt like he knew what was coming next.
"No. Just do it against me. It's better to do it like in real combat, right?"
Like in real combat.
It's a violent-sounding phrase normally, but why does it leave such a bad taste hearing it face to face now?
Baramgeom looked at Seojun with a bothered expression.
Well.
To hit him... weren't they not close enough yet?
- So he was going to hit him after all lol
- Like the host would ever change.
- You don't get it? Then I'll hit you till you do.
- Ah. So he's gonna educate him!
The viewers must have thought the same.
Seeing this, Seojun shook his head repeatedly.
"Everyone, I'll only be defending. What are you all thinking?"
- Huh?
- ??
- He's holding back?
- The best defense is a good offense lol. Right, bro?
Just like the viewers didn't believe it, Baramgeom also stared ahead with disbelief. But Seojun just stood there leisurely, sword held vertically, waiting for him to attack.
'Sigh.'
Well, he must have some idea.
Surely he's not doing this to just parry and toy with him, right?
Baramgeom walked slowly toward Seojun, then suddenly sped up.
Swoosh!
Aiming for carelessness from the very start.
But there was no way Seojun would be careless.
Clang!
Nevertheless, he managed to break through Seojun's defense and cut the vital point drawn horizontally.
It was clear Seojun hadn't blocked properly on purpose.
Baramgeom realized he really did have some kind of plan.
"Why didn't you chain the next move right away?"
"Well, because..."
- He doesn't know, that's why lol
- So he really doesn't know.
- Don't force it alone.
The viewers answered for him.
"Let's go again. Think carefully about the middle."
"Understood."
Seojun's defense broke easily again. With a popping sound, just before the next vital point appeared,
Baramgeom squeezed his brain to the absolute limit, trying to predict where it would form.
So much that his forehead felt like it was hardening into a rock.
'Intermediate difficulty. Intermediate difficulty. Intermediate difficulty.'
Predicting and cutting this time was already too late. Not a chance.
But at least now, he had to rack his brain somehow and get a feel for it.
It was an anxiety born from wanting to catch even the tiniest clue.
Not because of Seojun's stream, nor because of public opinion.
He just wanted to know.
If this was a chance, if there was some method, he didn't want to miss it.
But of course, far from predicting, he couldn't even grasp the tail end of a clue.
But then...
'Huh?'
After cutting the vital point, his mind had frozen, so his sword naturally stopped.
And right where the tip of his sword had stopped, a new vital point appeared.
'What's this?'
A coincidence?
No, that couldn't be.
He made the next attack, and Seojun blocked.
But he easily swatted the defense aside and cut the vital point.
And then.
'Again?'
Again, a new vital point appeared right where his sword had naturally halted.
The viewers sensed something unusual too.
- What's this?
- Why is his sword tip on the vital point? Did he get the hang of it?
- Just looking at Baramgeom's face, it seems like the host is doing something lol
- Anyone remember the blunt sword? lol
Seojun spoke.
"There's a funnel with a hole only big enough for one marble to pass through. Do you know what happens if you try to push the marbles in all at once?"
Why marbles all of a sudden?
"They'd probably jam. If you're lucky, they'll go down."
"Then if they're jammed, can you force them through the funnel by pressing hard?"
"Um, no. You'd have to shake them gently, or scoop them out and let them through bit by bit. So the marbles don't block each other from dropping into the hole."
Marbles balancing right above the hole, blocking each other and not falling, came to mind.
"Exactly. Enlightenment is just the same. The more you obsess, the more you get stuck. Let it flow, and it clears."
"Enlightenment?"
"Relax."
Seojun's playful eyes changed in an instant.
It was such a brief moment that he almost thought he'd imagined it, but he felt an inexplicable depth with his skin.
"Understood. I'll go again."
- Talking about enlightenment, looks like he's teaching seriously.
- Guess that's the only way he could train him.
- Well, how would some streamer know what's official or not.
- If Baramgeom really gets the hang of it, I'll admit it.
- Think it'll work? lol
He emptied his mind. He tried to. He moved as the opponent's sword led him.
And the more their blades crossed, the more he realized that what he'd thought was light blocking from Seojun was actually controlling everything—his attacks and every step he took.
But he didn't break free from that control.
And he just comfortably attacked the vital points that kept appearing.
No matter how many hits he took, his health stopped at 1, so he wouldn't die.
He still couldn't predict them.
But the more he cut the vital points, the more his sword and movements were placed exactly where Seojun intended.
The more he saw the results of that.
He felt the blockage clearing.
All his experiences up until now and what he was accumulating meshed with intent and rearranged in his mind.
He couldn't put it into words, but he felt like he understood something.
Then, at some moment.
Seojun stopped and spread his arms.
And Baramgeom's concentration, driven to its limits, didn't let his sword stop even without Seojun's help. For the first time, he moved before the vital point appeared.
First vital point.
He cut a gentle diagonal line falling from left to right.
Second vital point.
He immediately recovered his sword and thrust one hand's width above the end of that diagonal.
Third vital point.
"Line."
The word slipped out naturally. Not something he said consciously.
Then.
Clang!
The moment the vital point appeared, his sword cut it, and his concentration snapped!
- ???
- Crazy.
- What was that just now?
- ?
- He predicted it before it appeared, right?
- Is that even possible?
"Huh? Huh?"
Seojun, who had been standing still with his arms spread, smiled contentedly.
'That turned out well.'
He'd known Baramgeom would get the gist of it, but entering something like a state of no-self...
'If that didn't work, I was going to just pound him until it did. Seems like he had quite high potential.'
There's no need to explain what 'pounding' means here.
"Congratulations. You've gotten the hang of it."
"That just now... You mean that?"
"Yes."
"I don't think I could ever do it again."
"Well, you've at least caught a clue, right? Congratulations. Don't let it slip away."
Baramgeom flinched at those words that seemed to read his mind. Then he looked at Seojun with deeply moved eyes.
To think something like this was possible!
- What did the host do again?!
- So a proper lesson means even one-on-one tutoring lol
- A professor strong in practice, not theory lol
- Wow, even if they staged this together, I acknowledge it.
- He led him to enlightenment like some martial arts master? Is that possible? lol
Now the viewers had no choice but to accept it.
They knew that even if Seojun explained it in an unconvincing way, there was no helping it. But if no one understood in the end, wasn't it meaningless?
There might have been some who questioned whether it was some kind of scam.
But Seojun had shown it firsthand by teaching someone else.
- Host lol Now he should start a tutoring business for the Kael fanatics. He'd make a killing.
- This is it.
- This was his aim all along!
Naturally, the Kael forum exploded.
"Then let's do it for real now, Baramgeom."
Seojun grinned wickedly and rolled his shoulders and neck. He shook out his arms and stretched as if he were about to get serious.
With things almost all wrapped up, Seojun was doing warm-up exercises.
"What are you going to do...?"
"After-sales service."
That doesn't seem right.
"Wasn't it over...?"
"It was still lacking."
That also seems like something else is lacking.
Baramgeom's deeply moved face turned bewildered.
His gut feeling was probably right.
Seojun had a personality of always paying back what he received. Even if he'd made him do it himself.
* * *
"You saw that and still say B?"
The Rios operations team was in an untimely meeting.
"Now he's not only predicting vital points but even teaching others, and you say B is reasonable? Honestly."
The meeting's topic was about a streamer who, just moments ago, had once again done something unimaginable for ordinary people.
"Seeing him teach a Challenger gives the answer."
The woman spoke fiercely to the man sitting across the meeting room.
"Not a Challenger, currently a Master."
And the man retorted without blinking.
"That's just because he plays Kael. That master Baramgeom's original skill is Challenger."
"Even so, Jin Seojun the streamer has no rank. No rank at all. And you want to put him in Group A with Challengers and Grand Masters? Isn't that too ridiculous?"
"He was the best in For Hyeop. Is there any guarantee he won't be the best in the league too?"
"Those are different games. Besides, what if they ban Kael? What hero could he even play?"
"He'd play anything."
"B, from Master to Diamond, is appropriate."
"It's A. Without a doubt."
Rios assigned grades based on the participants' skill.
The reason for grading wasn't to discriminate, but to prevent teams from picking two or more participants of the same grade during the auction, ensuring that the skill levels of team members were evenly distributed.
In the past, they had divided groups by position, but the current method had settled in as it added more chaos and fun to the auction.
Currently, they were in a meeting to determine the grades of the streamers who had accepted the invitation.
Because this had to be done first before selecting and assigning applicants for the remaining spots.
But things were already creaking from the start.