Chapter 176
“Hahaha. 30 seconds might be a bit tough. It seems that streamer hyped me up a little.”
Baek Doyul looked at the viewers with a gentle face.
To be precise, he looked at Mental.
The streaming camera was from Mental’s perspective right now.
He even feigned a slightly bashful demeanor, as if he didn’t know what to do with the praise.
-Kyah
-Is this the composure of a champion? Is this the composure of a champion? Is this the composure of a champion? Is this the composure of a champion?
-That bastard should learn a thing or two
-Wait, but wasn’t this bastard originally a bit rude too?
-He’s only like that to rivals. He sees Seojun as just an ordinary person, not a rival, so he’s being humble lol
-That makes sense. A villain from Rios being a rival to a champion would be weird
-He even knows how to act awkward
Of course.
Behind Baek Doyul’s fabricated expression, there was no benevolent smile.
His inner thoughts were simply to escape this situation with appropriate humility.
And to put Seojun in his place a little.
‘30 seconds... They didn’t say anything about not getting hit even once, so maybe it’s possible for that person?’
That’s how it is now. Assuming the AI doesn’t go any higher, at least.
In any case, Baek Doyul acknowledged Seojun and even wanted to face him.
But.
‘Let’s leave a proper match for next time.’
Not because he thought he’d lose.
It was because openly fighting in the spotlight like this right now brought no benefit.
Was there a need to fight a battle of pride through AIs in the training grounds without even directly clashing?
‘But Taker is doing exactly that.’
Baek Doyul just started spectating with an intrigued look, like everyone else around him.
This stream that kept taking weird turns.
Could it be a little fun?
* * *
‘Hyung, you’re not going to do anything, right?’
Dongsu sent a telepathic message to Seojun.
Seojun was essentially in a situation where he’d been suddenly provoked.
Of course, Taker hadn’t given off a hostile vibe or blatantly shown that he disliked it.
He just smiled and said, prove it.
The speaker being a pro player was the only thing; if it had been one of the players from Rios, it would have been a completely normal turn of events.
Of course, since a pro player said it, it was a bit strange, but ultimately it happened during a stream.
The important thing now was how Seojun would respond.
Would he actually prove it?
Or would he shut it down while showing he was offended?
-Surely the guy who usually goes around provoking others won't run away here lol?
-Just try doing it within 30 seconds
-Looks tough since Taker stepped up
-He must have stepped up because it seems impossible. And the person who thought that is a pro player quite well-versed in the training grounds.
-Can he do 30 seconds?
[Viewers – 30,000]
Before he knew it, Seojun’s viewers, having surpassed 30,000, were making a scene.
‘Yunho-nim’s viewer count hasn’t dropped much.’
He hadn’t been attached to it.
But from now on, things could be a little different.
Seojun was in a position where he couldn’t back out here. Because of everything he’d done so far.
However, he decided to just keep doing things as he usually did anyway.
‘Dongsu, there’s no choice.’
The world is out to get me.
‘Hyung, what are you talking about all the time?’
The two kept conversing through their gazes. They communicated surprisingly well.
After that, he turned his head.
The person Seojun needed to answer now wasn’t Dongsu.
“Everyone. Do you think I’m angry? That person just smiled and told me to try it. That. Was it Mr. Tate?”
-Huh lol
-Is it slowly starting up?
-The art of not knowing the name!
-He’s saying he’s not even worth knowing lol
Advantage of the viewers, point 1.
They over-interpret things on their own.
“Ah, Mr. Taker. Anyway, let’s wait and see for now. Maybe... No.”
-Maybe he can’t win? lol
-Wow, can he really handle this?
-No wonder he’s been so quiet today
Advantage of the viewers, point 2.
They understand perfectly even if you speak gibberish.
-Originally, he should have drawn all sorts of wide-area aggro after coming to the training grounds, but he was quiet
-That was being quiet?
-Wasn’t he dragging in insane aggro?
-That’s because you guys didn’t see the wide-area provocation on day 11 of the battlefield.
Lee Dongsu thought.
‘The mouth with the seal broken.’
He dragged aggro even when he wasn’t conscious of it, but now that he was determined.
As expected.
Should I just run away from here?
As Lee Dongsu was trying to figure out if it was better to run from Rios and get cursed out, or stand in the middle of this storm, he couldn’t decide.
The voice of Taker, whose provocation from Seojun hadn’t yet reached him, came through the broadcast.
[Alright, here I go. I should probably clear it under the same conditions, right?]
Seojun nodded.
“1 minute, looks like he’s talking about full HP.”
-Kyah!
-But they said that was easy
-I don’t know, just watch
Through Rain’s broadcast, Taker could be seen moving.
He was touching the empty air in front of him with his hand.
Setting the difficulty level.
Soon, what was summoned was a clone of Baek Doyul.
Since he didn’t set it to unknown, Baek Doyul’s physical features were expressed in a blurred, lumped-together manner.
Before long.
Taker began fighting Baek Doyul’s clone.
Taker’s sword mainly used Byeongeom (Changing Sword).
In other words.
‘It’s a trick technique.’
Ever-changing.
Irregular.
Flailing.
Of course, a trick technique that had reached this level would be powerful, but if Baek Doyul, with his overwhelmingly superior skill and solid fundamentals, used it with the same sword, it would be far more powerful.
‘He must have felt his limits.’
Ways to overcome such a limited situation include staying true to the basics, or glossing over it through other techniques.
The former is a tower built with painstaking effort. It can go much higher.
The latter is a tower built hastily with bricks to suit the situation.
The latter is fast but prone to collapse. And Taker, having fundamentally outstanding talent, must have risen this high without collapsing.
“Everyone, you shouldn’t fight like that player. Got it?”
-What? What does that mean?
-We obviously can’t follow that lol
-For real lol
“If you try to follow it, you’ll hit your limits incredibly early. It’s a method only talented people like him can use. Just do downward slashes ten thousand times a day. Then, you can become like me.”
Though it would take about 200 years.
-How do you do ten thousand times lol
-For real lol, he’s not in his right mind
-You guys are free like Bill Gates, so give it a try
-If it makes my face as handsome as the streamer’s, I’ll do it lol
-But is this a sudden compliment for Taker?
-He’s not saying his own talent is inferior, is he?
-He’s in humility mode. He’s copying Baek Doyul! lol
It wasn’t a compliment.
“Humility mode? That’s not it. What is it, you ask? I’ll show you right now.”
1 minute passed.
As he said, Taker succeeded in capturing it without his HP dropping once.
A little more difficult than Baek Doyul’s earlier attempt.
Anyway, people were clamoring for him to prove it now.
But Seojun had no intention of ending it with that.
“Everyone. Besides that, how about we see who gets hit first, a match under the conditions we’ve been using?”
Without even waiting for an answer, Seojun immediately summoned it.
Just as Taker had done.
If he didn’t accept this, he’d be disqualified as a streamer.
Pointing his sword at Taker’s doll, Seojun smiled.
“1 minute.”
From now on, the proof no longer belonged solely to Seojun.
* * *
Training Grounds Rankings.
From 2nd to 99th place, it was a ranking where names were inscribed according to scores automatically assigned by the AI based on records set against 9th-level AIs.
But 1st place was a bit different.
Because it was a throne only the master of the 10th level could sit on.
That very throne.
In real-time.
Was causing a cataclysm.
#1
#1
#1
#1
#1
[The Two Masters is insane]
[He’s declaring open war against a pro here? lol]
[Once a madman, always a madman lol]
[How is it like this from his first day of practice? At this point, isn’t creating issues just his talent?]
[Come to think of it, the streamer was the one who gathered the pro players too... just the goat.]
And in the community, posts poured in at a rate that nearly paralyzed it over the real-time turf war taking place.
[Reven is already full of posts, but this is too much! Recommend mine so I don’t get buried!]
[Wow, damn. It looks like both of them are going at it gritting their teeth, but isn’t that actually not easy?]
[Would it be easy? You can tell just by seeing that Seojun didn’t do the 30 seconds himself.]
#1
[Taker recaptures!]
#1
[In response, with no extra chatter, the streamer recaptures in exactly 1 minute lol]
[Taker talks a bit, but Jin Seojun becomes the issue. Chilling.]
[When did Seojun’s 30-second statement turn into a provocation? lol Wasn’t it just moderately hyping up Baek Doyul?]
[Ah lol, so is there anyone not watching Jin Seojun’s stream right now?]
[Ah lol, you gotta watch it directly. Why watch it directly through a streamer who’s watching it directly?]
[Or Rain lol]
No matter which broadcast you looked at, everyone was watching this fight.
So the viewers didn’t need to watch it through a screen beyond a screen.
Therefore.
Except for Ha Yunho’s room and Rain’s room, a mass exodus of viewers occurred.
10,000 from each room.
20,000.
30,000.
The numbers gradually increased the longer the fight went on.
Before anyone knew it, Seojun’s broadcast.
[Jin Seojun 80,000 viewers watching]
Had gathered the highest number of viewers in its history.
Rain, who could watch directly, was the same.
[Rain 140,000 viewers watching]
The two of them were sucking in viewers like a black hole.
And.
#1
After finishing the fight in a state of uncertainty, Taker immediately opened Seojun’s broadcast, which he had closed while fighting.
Until now, whenever he checked on Seojun like this right away, Seojun had been fighting, but this time was different.
Seojun was standing still without summoning him. While looking at Ha Yunho.
‘Ah, was I just a tiny bit late this time? Or not?’
He was slowly reaching his limit. Though his opponent was probably the same.
‘Anyway... does that mean I lost?’
For that to be the case, the viewers didn’t really say anything.
Rather, they only seemed curious about why Seojun was staying still.
-What, aren’t you going to do more?
-Ending it with a friendly "we both won" is a bit...
He was curious as well.
‘If he’s ending it here... he’s pretty smart, isn’t he?’
Like him, he must be hitting his limit. Given the conditions and all.
He had blurted out 30 seconds and kept glossing over it.
He’s sensing the danger now and trying to move past it.
He’s truly, remarkably shrewd.
Of course, he still didn’t like it.
‘That hyung, what did he see to act like he knows me.’
He had grasped the meaning of the words Seojun had said while he was fighting Baek Doyul’s AI all at once after hearing it secondhand through chat.
‘He must have thought I’m stagnant.’
He thought it was presumptuous.
And at that moment.
Seojun raised three fingers.
-??
-Does that mean 1 minute 3 seconds?
-No, Taker just did 58 seconds
-Whoa, that’s close
-It’s fine, Seojun also did 59 seconds last time
The moment the three fingers were clearly imprinted in everyone’s eyes, Seojun smiled, turned around without a word, and summoned Taker’s AI.
After that, he shot toward the AI like a lightning flash.
Sword clashed against sword. And the AI’s HP decreased.
[HP 9]
The sword’s movements changed, and that sword caused the AI’s HP to drop.
It was a sword style he hadn’t shown before from the start.
Clang!
[HP 8]
But it was a sword style someone else, not Seojun, had shown.
‘That’s... Byeongeom? No... me?’
The AI and Seojun’s movements overlapped at that moment. They were the same. No, different.
[HP 7]
It contained the same variation, but the motion, the sword path, was shorter. Since it was short, it was fast. But still powerful.
‘How is that...’
A change occurred within the battlefield where they were fighting a proxy war from a distance.
[HP 6]
Offense and defense became one.
Seojun was defending and attacking simultaneously.
With Taker’s sword.
[HP 5]
HP dropped with each exchange.
The sword showed unexpected movements.
While fighting, at a difficult moment to catch, he instantly switched the sword to a reverse grip, turned his body to attack, or.
‘What I just did.’
[HP 4]
At the same time, as if it were orchestrated, the AI executed the movement Seojun had just shown a moment before.
But at that time, Seojun was already tracing a line with his body.
[HP 3]
The sword that traced his body continued straight down.
Descending to block.
The AI’s reverse-gripped sword.
At that moment, Taker felt as if he was being neutralized.
[HP 2]
Blocked by his own sword.
Attacked by his own technique.
Watching that spectacle was quite a novel yet immersive experience.
[HP 1]
No.
The reason it was immersive wasn’t because he was the one being attacked.
That attack.
‘That attack... How on earth, from that position...’
That moment.
#1
It was over.
The chat exploded even more furiously.
But Taker couldn’t focus on the fact that it had ended for a moment.
What snapped Taker’s consciousness out of it was what Seojun said.
[30 seconds.]
-Kyah! ???
-????
-?????????
-Collecting hook after hook like crazy lol
-Come to think of it, it was ridiculously fast wasn't it
-No wait lol 30 seconds and he didn't get hit once?
-Ah lol, insane
-Did those three fingers earlier mean that?
[I just tried it once.]
Seojun still spoke in a casual tone, as if it were nothing.
But the content.
[So the conditions are still the same. 1 minute. Just capture him within 1 minute. It’s easy, right? Isn’t it?]
It was a remark dismissing Taker.
No, it wasn’t dismissal.
It was the consideration of a stronger person, cutting the time in half.
His turn was coming again.
Casually, as before.
But a pressure on an entirely different level from before crashed down upon Taker.
And the viewers, even the viewers in Rain’s room, now began swarming toward Seojun’s side.