Chapter 172
“One!”
His legs bent and his body lowered.
“Two!”
With a shout, he overcame gravity. It was a bodyweight squat, the kind beginners do without a barbell.
“One!”
But once you pass fifty reps, the story changes.
“Two!”
And it changes even more when the person doing those squats is a streamer who normally barely goes outside and never even takes a walk.
“Ha... Ughhh! I’m dying.”
Lumi’s legs were trembling violently.
Even the gym manager, watching from afar as he replaced the punching bag, could see those tremors at a glance.
*Aren’t they going to collapse?*
Seojun paid no mind and urged them on.
“It’s okay. One.”
“……”
“One.”
“It’s not okay...”
“One.”
“Oneee!”
Maybe because it was the first day, Seojun was giving them one-on-one attention first.
*He’s basically a personal trainer.*
Though it was a bit different—he had asserted all sorts of dominance before they started, and he took advantage of a slightly awkward relationship that made it hard to refuse, pushing them to their limits with a smile on his face.
“I really can’t do one more. Seriously. I’m going to shit myself even in virtual reality. Mr. Seojun? Mr. Seojun?”
If you’re close, you can curse and talk back. But when things are a bit awkward, once you’re caught up in it, it’s hard to refuse.
*It’s already over.*
The manager shook his head.
Seojun examined Lumi carefully, then said one thing.
“Let’s do just one more.”
Crazy bastard.
They already seemed to have reached their limit, and he wanted one more?
But the manager knew.
Seojun’s eye was more precise than anyone’s.
“Come on, do it. You can do it.”
That last one would truly be that streamer’s extreme limit.
Seojun’s expression as he drove them to that limit was bright. Maybe because of his good looks, he even seemed kind.
So the person on the receiving end would be even more infuriated.
*Just like I’m replacing this punching bag right now.*
Heave-ho.
Having finally finished swapping in a new one, the manager thumped the bag.
The bag Seojun had burst was old to begin with.
But it could have been used for another year.
It’s silly to say you shouldn’t use a punching bag roughly, but if used moderately, it could even have lasted two years.
And yet, that bastard Seojun—
—Whew, how old was that bag for it to burst? Replace things ahead of time. You earn plenty of money.
He had just played dumb.
Fine.
If it were once or twice, he might have thought, as Seojun said, that he was the one at fault.
It could have been a chance to reflect once more on not replacing something that needed replacing.
But Seojun had popped more than eight punching bags so far.
*That damn bastard. Does he think he’s the president of the United States or something? What? Calling me stingy? Anyone can see it’s to threaten his teammates.*
Don’t you know Seojun’s personality?
Ugh.
His temper flared again, and he glared at Seojun.
“One!”
At last, Lumi, having gone to the very end, collapsed.
With that, Seojun had successfully pushed all of his teammates to their limits.
But the manager knew.
This was only the beginning.
“Alright, Ms. Lumi, take a break now. And Mr. Yoonho? You’ve rested enough, right?”
* * *
The hellish rotation ended.
No one had been able to resist even once.
Why was that?
“Well, if he can burst a punching bag, don’t you think he could burst me...?”
Alpaca said.
Seojun had briefly stepped up onto the ring to spar with Lee Dongsu, and the others were half-lying down, nearly in the final stages of exhaustion, looking up at the ring.
“Ugh... Uh... Nngh.”
Lumi had things to say, but even moving her tongue to spit them out was too hard, so she only let out air.
“What was that?”
“She says she’s dying.”
“Nngh.”
Lumi nodded.
“That’s right.”
“I think I understood that much. But Mr. Baramgeom, do you not even have the energy to speak like Ms. Lumi?”
Baramgeom just stared straight ahead, like someone whose soul had left him.
After a moment, Baramgeom’s head moved very faintly.
It was so subtle you couldn’t be sure, but it probably moved.
On the ring, a fierce fight was going on, and Alpaca, watching the scene, asked.
“Is everyone coming tomorrow?”
“……”
“……”
The hearts of the team members became one.
They could feel their teamwork improving in real time.
“What happens if we don’t come?”
“What do you think happens.”
Ha Yoonho pointed at the ring.
There, a fist was slamming into Lee Dongsu’s face.
“Even a pro shows no mercy.”
“What about us?”
“Nngh, nnghh, ugh, nnngh.”
“What?”
Ha Yoonho failed to interpret this time too.
Lumi sighed for a moment, then said,
“Aaah. Ahem. I just asked if getting close to him is really the right move.”
If we get close, we’ll get hit; if we don’t, we’re trapped in a cycle where we can’t refuse.
* * *
“Hyung. Did you know?”
“What.”
Lee Dongsu’s fist came flying.
It was sharper than before.
As expected of his young age, he absorbed things around him and was constantly growing.
Thanks to his talent, he was especially fast, to the point where you could now consider him a near semi-pro in fighting.
Of course, no matter how outstanding his talent, this was only possible because he had the experience of fighting in virtual reality from the start.
“I heard other pro players besides me are interested in Rios. So they might come out too.”
“Ah, really?”
But that fist didn’t reach Seojun.
From their first meeting until now, it had never once reached him.
But Lee Dongsu wasn’t frustrated.
He had already accepted that this was just the kind of person Seojun was.
“Yeah. I heard Lee Chaerin from Gryphon got interested after seeing me come out and made contact. I don’t know who with.”
“What about other players?”
“I don’t know. But I think there might be more.”
“Really? Weren’t you the first pro to join this tournament?”
“Right. Maybe I opened the floodgates. Actually, there are quite a few pros who’ve secretly wanted to try streaming.”
“Oh? Don’t you guys stream too?”
Even while talking, they stayed focused on the fight.
Seojun’s fist landed.
“Kuk. We do stream, but it’s not like a streamer’s structured, interactive broadcast, you know?”
“Is that so?”
“Ack. We have to focus on the game. And we don’t have huge amounts of time to play normal games that can be broadcast. So.”
Thwack.
“Ah, take it easy! Anyway, the environment itself just makes it hard to stream like a streamer, so a lot of us get interested. But then, a tournament where you properly team up with streamers? That’s impossible to resist...”
Thwack.
“Ah, come on! I’m talking here!”
Since when did he care about that?
Lee Dongsu was just complaining because he was getting hit a lot.
“That’s enough.”
Seojun chuckled and lowered his guard.
“Good work.”
“Yeah.”
“By the way, what happens if a lot of players from other teams come out as coaches?”
“What do you think happens? It’ll be a total mess of competition. Naturally, it’ll turn into a pride battle, so to speak.”
“Based on viewer numbers? Or the results of the team they coach?”
“Both. Ugh, now that I think about it, I suddenly feel a ton of pressure. Please, let only one more come out, please!”
Seojun giggled and walked over to where his teammates were sitting.
He had completely gauged their levels through the earlier workout.
Muscular strength, stamina, endurance, and even their motor skills.
The result was.
*Their basics are a bit too lacking.*
Even Baramgeom, who had seemed relatively okay, was more lacking than Seojun had thought.
He couldn’t call it disastrous since he hadn’t seen the streamers from other teams, but compared to Lee Dongsu or Taewoo, who had naturally picked up a lot from being around Seojun, they were definitely very lacking.
Still, it was fine.
Starting today, he could just fill in the gaps using the method he was best at.
It was time for practical application.
“Team Leader Yoonho? You’re all rested, right? Come on up now.”
You inject it directly into the body.
“Ah...”
Once again, the thoughts of the four team members connected like a hive mind.
Their teamwork had upgraded yet another level.
Save me.
* * *
[Ah lol, who’s everyone going to watch starting today?]
These kinds of posts were popping up on Reben in real time.
League of Streaming wasn’t a tournament whose main point was seeing which streamer team was best at the game.
League of Streaming was a tournament where you watched what kind of story unfolded as the streamers clashed and quarreled within the competition.
Therefore, during the practice period, choosing which streaming broadcast to watch was a fairly important decision for the fans.
The most important value was fun.
In the end, the fun collaborative streams would be talked about more and attract more viewers.
And a pro teaming up with streamers to stream couldn’t possibly not be fun.
[Obviously it’s Wealth Gap lololol]
[How can you resist Lee Dongsu?]
[Is Dongsu hyung turning his stream on too? So he’ll read chat and respond to donations?]
[A pro who streams properly—that’s rare, you know.]
A pro player appearing as a tournament coach.
It was powerful clickbait, and the fans had judged that it couldn’t possibly not be fun even before it began.
And then.
“Hyung. You just act like normal, okay?”
“Just do what you gotta do. Don’t worry too much. Compared to a tournament for players, it’ll be way easier, right?”
Alpaca was offering advice to Lee Dongsu, who was a bit nervous.
They had only met today, but they had gotten close before anyone knew it.
Seojun—who had instilled the camaraderie that brought them together—watched them with curious eyes, oblivious.
“It’s not a play, it’s streaming. On a personal broadcast, you don’t need to show anything in particular. When you’re gaming, just game. When you’re mad, just get mad. It’s like hanging out with a friend.”
“I see. I got it. It sounds fun.”
Alpaca was right.
Streaming is just doing whatever you want.
“But is everyone starting their stream at 6? Only one team is broadcasting right now.”
“They’ll probably all start around the same time, won’t they?”
The current time was 5:45.
And the only team that had started their broadcast was Rain’s team, which had begun at 5.
[But do we really not have a coach?]
[If it’s someone like me. It’s enough.]
[Mr. Hwangso. If you’re really going to be the coach, now that things have come to this, how about declaring war on Lee Dongsu too? You already did it to Mr. Seojun anyway.]
[…….]
A broadcast was playing on the large TV in Ha Yoonho’s lobby.
The other team had been chatting for 50 minutes, and Hwangso was visibly flustered for a moment.
“Is Rain’s team going completely without a coach?”
Lee Dongsu muttered to himself, focusing on the other broadcast.
Even though he pretended to be fine, his nervousness was showing.
“Who knows. They might suddenly reveal a surprise coach, right? A pro player?”
Seojun said without much thought.
Well, any possibility could happen.
“You think so? Did Lee Chaerin go to their team? Is that why they started their broadcast first?”
At that moment.
[Mr. Hwangso, you actually don’t have to declare war! We have a coach too!]
[Oh?]
[Who is it that you hid even from your own teammates?]
[Hehe. Take a look!]
As soon as Rain finished speaking, someone was summoned to the lobby.
“Huh?”
And Lee Dongsu shouted.
“Taker?”
“What?”
“He’s a player like us?”
Taker, real name Park Beomsu.
Like Lee Dongsu, he was a pro player.
[You think only Wealth Gap has connections with pro players? We do too! Is what I wanted to say, but we actually just met for the first time. Hehehe. Hello, Taker!]
The moment Rain revealed their coach, the chat on that side went wild.
Chats poured in saying things like, I believed in you.
I was going to watch Wealth Gap, but now I won’t.
But.
This was only the beginning.
[Kim Taewoo has started streaming.]
[You said if it’s unfair, we should bring a pro player? So we brought one.]
[Dokkaebi has started streaming.]
[Day 1. Training with Lee Chaerin.]
As soon as Rain revealed theirs, the other teams started their broadcasts as if they had been waiting.
It probably wasn’t staged.
[Team Leader Taewoo! You said you’d start at 6! Why are you suddenly turning on your stream!]
[Shut up! Huh? What the? Why is Dokkaebi’s team doing it too???]
The team leaders were just flustered by Rain’s reveal.
They had prepared a pro player as a secret weapon, and suddenly one popped up from the opposing team too.
“Wow. A lot of them are coming out.”
Seojun was surprised too.
Three teams had already come out. Four if you included Seojun’s team.
That was the majority.
For some reason, Lee Dongsu seemed very nervous.
“Hey, you okay? Four teams is a lot.”
“No... and it’s not four teams, it’s five. One more just turned on their broadcast.”
Lee Dongsu’s face fell like he’d bit into something nasty.
[Mental has started streaming.]
[Current Champion Baek Doyul. Doesn’t this explain everything? hh]
It was an arrogant stream title.
But he had every right to be.
He was the current world champion, after all.
*Seriously, why the hell is this hyung coming out!*
Ha.
“Should we just turn ours on right now too?”
“No. Wait a moment. Please, just a moment.”
Lee Dongsu needed time to cool his head.
Honestly, he hadn’t expected it, but even if a pro had come out from every team, he wouldn’t have been as flustered as he was now.
The reason.
*Ah. I prepared the content today for the training grounds...*
He didn’t care about the other players.
Even if other hyungs from his own team, or even Shin Hayeon, had come out, it would’ve been fine.
But.
*Was that hyung the level 10 AI? This is definitely...*
They would clash. One way or another.
*With that champion hyung.*
Lee Dongsu’s head turned to the side.
“On the contrary, this is good. Dongsu, don’t worry and just do what you prepared.”
*With this crazy hyung right here.*