Chapter 138
[Kim Tae-u – 750 Points]
The numbers on the timer tick down.
[15]
[14]
[13]
.
.
Ha Yun-ho had always considered himself a troll with at least a sliver of intellect.
He did troll, but at least he acted after giving it plenty of thought.
Then why troll at all if he gave it thought?
Because if a broadcast could produce an entertaining spectacle, he was the type who couldn’t give up trolling even if it made things a little harder for himself.
Maybe that was why.
The remaining intellect and the troll psychology inside him began to clash.
‘Damn. He’s actually bidding? Tae-u, are you crazy?’
Even if it meant another rough road, Ha Yun-ho had intended to secure Seo Jun.
He had envisioned a scenario where he’d suppress the competition by raising points boldly up to 700.
700 points was his Maginot Line.
It was the maximum point where both his troll side and his intellect could agree.
He’d also calculated that anyone with a brain wouldn’t dare enter at that number.
He’d buy one decent C-rank or B-rank player and leave the rest to luck.
If someone overlapped, he’d just adjust the lanes as much as possible and run himself ragged. That was his plan.
But.
Perhaps the most critical part of that calculation was forgetting just who his competitors were.
Saying others wouldn’t bid was only by the standards of the intelligent, wasn’t it?
‘He’s actually doing it.’
He himself lived with a troll half in his heart; there was no way other streamers were all normal.
[10]
[9]
[8]
[7]
.
.
Time keeps running out.
‘Anyway.’
He couldn’t tell if Tae-u had bid without a thought, or if the player was so valuable he had to secure him.
‘Raising it by 50 points at once instead of 5 was probably for the same reason as me, though.’
Suppressing the momentum.
And it’s likely a bluff.
Despite appearances, Tae-u was a frequent Diamond-tier player. The time he brushed Master was pure luck, so leave that aside.
Anyway, Tae-u’s current tier was low Diamond, and his rank was C.
That meant Tae-u had only 900 points, 95 points less than Ha Yun-ho’s 995 as an E-rank.
That was if neither had bid yet.
In the end, if it went all the way, Ha Yun-ho would inevitably win.
‘The problem is, if it goes that far, I’ll have to spend at least 905 points.’
[3]
[2]
[1]
‘Ah, whatever. Just bid.’
Ha Yun-ho gave up thinking.
The troll inside him finally seized the helm.
[Ha Yun-ho – 755 Points]
Damn.
Don’t take it.
[15]
[14]
[13]
.
.
[1]
[Kim Tae-u – 760 Points]
‘For crying out loud.’
You want to go for real, huh?
The intellect that had barely hung on inside Ha Yun-ho finally crumbled away.
* * *
[3 seconds! 2 seconds! 1 second! Ah! Another bid! They’re running wild!]
The caster shouted in excitement.
There was no way watching two men race towards hell wasn’t entertaining.
[Ha Yun-ho - 785 Points]
From the very start of the auction, huge amounts of points were flying around.
Points so large they’d be completely excluded from subsequent auctions.
[They seem a bit scared, bidding in 5-point increments and filling the whole 15 seconds. How do our commentators view this? Bang-ju?]
[Haha. At this point, we can all see we were fooled. Yesterday’s whole thing was ‘Other team leaders, don’t buy him. I will!’]
[What was your impression when you hosted yesterday?]
[I don’t know if you know, but I once did a collaboration stream with Seo Jun, the subject of this auction, in ‘For the Hyeop’.]
[Yes.]
[If he can show even half the performance he showed back then in Rios, I thought Seo Jun was a strong candidate for champion.]
[Oh, really?]
[Yes. So I’d been thinking the same about those two, why are they acting like that when they had contact with him like I did?]
[I see! I knew it all along!]
[Caster, did you say ‘I knew it all along’...?]
[Now! While all this is going on, the points keep rising, now at 800 points. If it goes over 900, Team Leader Kim Tae-u can’t bid anymore even if he wants to. If that happens!]
“Is Yun-ho’s victory?”
Mental.
A late-thirties, somewhat stubborn streamer from a major company.
“Hmm.”
He was the man who had caused the biggest variable last Rios with an auction he didn’t give much thought to, ending up with two tops, two supports, and one mid.
Because if his team got tangled, other teams would too.
“Was it this much?”
What was even funnier was that, contrary to everyone predicting his team would be eliminated in the group stage, they advanced to the finals.
Mental laughed and said that was his gut instinct.
Indeed, he had just acted on instinct.
[Team Leader Kim Tae-u bids 850! Oh, he’s slowly reaching his limit. If he really wanted to buy, he’d be anxiously tapping his feet right now?]
[Team Leader Ha Yun-ho is clever. He’s always used his advantage of having many points as an E-rank to build his team well. But this time, it looks like he’s going all in except for 95 points. Is it really worth that much?]
[Penguin.]
[Yes, Bang-ju.]
[Honestly, I don’t think either team leader is absolutely certain it’s worth that much.]
[Really?]
[But there’s something called expected value.]
[Huh? Expected value is the average.]
[No... I mean. Well, I meant potential.]
[Ah. Yes, yes.]
[As I said earlier, even if he shows only half of his previous performance, it’s well worth it. And he’s already halfway proven it with Kael and Erik, hasn’t he? So wouldn’t a gamble of this scale be manageable?]
A gamble.
Bang-ju described the current situation as a gamble. Probably many would agree.
No matter how high the potential, spending nearly all your points—what else could it be but a gamble?
The problem was.
“I want in too.”
Mental’s instinct, still one step removed from the fight, was telling him to jump into that brawl.
“Ah. The viewers are going to say something.”
After the last auction, public opinion and sentiment had been pretty harsh.
Back then, Mental took responsibility, drew all the insults toward himself, and had a bit of a debate.
His usual concept of constantly fighting with his viewers worked well.
And he’d proven it with the results afterwards.
But that was just luck.
[Oh! Will it go over 900? Over 900?]
[Ha Yun-ho – 905 Points]
It went over in the end.
And that sight spurred Mental into action.
“Let’s just go!”
Yeah. Since when did he care so much about the viewers? And even if I get cursed out, I’ll take it!
[Mental – 990 Points]
[Ahhhhhh! Mental, who had been quiet until now, just went all in!]
[Suddenly! He appeared out of nowhere!]
After causing trouble, Mental laughed contentedly from behind the screen.
If you’re a man, you’ve got to go all out like this, right?
- Ah... the auction’s biggest variable strikes again...
- Just a variable itself, goat
- Mental bro... quiet for a while then lmaooooooo
- Bro... you really wanna die?
- You need to be smacked, right?
- Love you, Mental bro
- After an auction like this, if you don’t at least make finals again, you’re dead ^^
Watching the official channel’s viewers, Mental chuckled.
“Who’s gonna smack me.”
Perhaps because he’d made a choice in tune with his instincts, he leaned back in his chair with satisfaction.
“Ah, this is better anyway. Don’t have to bother thinking about it.”
As if he ever did.
“Seo Jun. Seems like it’d be fun once we get close. Though it’d be hard to play together since I’m so bad at games. Hahaha!”
He laughed heartily.
[Yes, it’s an all-in!]
[So with an all-in, the only thing you can do from now on is get automatically assigned the last remaining player from each rank?]
[That’s correct.]
[But it’s not over yet, everyone.]
Bang-ju spoke.
And Penguin answered.
[Team Leader Ha Yun-ho is also going all in? No matter what, Team Leader Ha Yun-ho has never gone this reckless before!]
Beep!
[Ha Yun-ho – 995 Points]
“Huh? That’s no good?”
While Mental was surprised, Penguin spoke again.
[He has!]
* * *
Mental had won his lot in the third auction.
Until then, most people had thought it was a good thing, picking up a desired C-rank lot for a cheap 5 points.
But because of that 5-point difference, he missed out on Seo Jun.
The viewers assessed it like this.
Actually, good!
- Wow Ha Yun-ho took that bomb lmaooooo
- I was worried how far the bubble would go, but Mental’s stubbornness was broken lmaoooo
- Yun-ho, are you really all in? Yun-ho, are you really all in? Yun-ho, are you really all in? Yun-ho, are you really all in? Yun-ho, are you really all in?
- That’s a guaranteed three-time unsold lot lmaoooooo
- His luck’s gotta be insane lmaooooooooooo
- Legendary legendary
- Now if he can’t perform, the streamer’s gonna be dead
- Streamer’s chat, arrest the Magic Sect
And Tae-u was.
“Why do I only have 900 points?”
If he’d had 995 points, he would’ve fired off a bid the moment things started getting weird.
“Trash game.”
Tae-u’s goal was victory.
And he knew better than anyone that the person closest to that victory was Seo Jun.
“So what’s left. Building the team well?”
Actually, Tae-u had prepared quite thoroughly.
So he was able to grasp the priority of each auction lot at a glance no matter what situation arose.
He had a real talent for racking his brain in this direction.
He just hadn’t been interested in studying. If he had, even if he wasn’t at the level of his friend snickering in the next room (currently Seo Jun was letting out a deep sigh), he believed he could’ve at least made it into the university tier right below.
Anyway, the plan was to follow the scheme he’d laid out.
Except.
A sudden change of thought came to him now.
“Even if I build an insanely good team with these 850 points, if I can’t stop that bastard, I won’t win, right?”
He realized that what mattered now wasn’t his own team.
If he were just aiming for second or third, sure, but his goal was the championship, and if so, he’d inevitably face that friend at least once.
Then wouldn’t it be right to prepare for that moment?
Even if his team got a little weaker?
“Looking at the situation, I’ll have to keep him in check, even at the cost of some team power.”
Tae-u carefully studied the auction order.
* * *
“So basically.”
With the auction nearly over, Seo Jun let out a sigh and spoke.
“This is a perfect situation if Baramgeom goes to Tae-u. And he can practically get him for free.”
Ha.
“Tae-u deliberately didn’t bid, right? He’s letting Baramgeom go unsold and then picking another B-rank player to send to our team?”
Wow.
Things are flowing like this.
- I can feel the malice lmaoooo
- This guy’s gonna screw his friend over even at a loss himself wwwwwwww
- Bro, let’s go gank the next room!
- He could just switch to jungler this time. Send Baramgeom mid lmaooooooooooooo
- Is this that? If I can’t have it, I’ll break it? That’s it, right? lolololol
“Haha.”
Not only did he pointlessly drive the price up, now he’s trying to screw me over like this?
‘Fine.’
Sure he could.
He absolutely could.
But.
‘Three mids is a bit much, don’t you think?’
- Three mids confirmed lollololol
- Doesn’t it happen often that two players have overlapping positions?
- But those three overlapping are just so happen to be A, B, C ranks lolololol
- If lower tiers overlap, you just swap them. Those guys don’t make much difference whether they play their main lane or not.
- But if B and C go to sub-lanes? That’s a massive power loss, you know lolololol
- Still, they’re all familiar faces, so that’s nice!
- Who told you to go all in, ah lol
‘I didn’t tell anyone to go all in either.’
Seo Jun could only stare at the monitor with a bitter taste.