Chapter 259
“Whatever it is, how about thinking it over again?”
“What are you talking about, Tae-u.”
Seojun looked at the overreacting Tae-u with pity.
Tae-u had plenty of bad points, but anyway, he was overdoing it way too much.
“That look of yours is pretty unpleasant.”
“Shut up, anyway I showed you well. Then I’m going out to exercise.”
Seojun pushed himself up from the balcony floor where he had been meditating, put on the winter coat he’d thrown on the sofa, and went out the door.
Watching that scene, Tae-u gave thanks to the heavens that Seojun hadn’t taken him along when he went to exercise today.
Then, recalling the content of his earlier fussing, he let out a sigh that seemed to bore a hole in the floor and muttered.
“Sigh……. Well, I tried to stop them as much as I could, you global guys. Since you’re the ones who woke that brat, good luck.”
Actually, it was hard to say he’d fully woken yet.
Because Seojun is the type to immediately put into action if he feels truly annoyed or if it seems fun.
His perspective on situations where someone provokes him is different from ordinary people.
Ordinary people usually get upset or avoid it when someone messes with them or picks a fight.
But weirdos like Seojun actually like it.
And they egg on the person who started the fight even more.
“That’s why he succeeded as a streamer like that. It’s his calling.”
Tae-u shook his head.
Please.
Just let it slide.
For world peace.
* * *
[However, that’s under the assumption that even if our game company intervenes with a targeted patch, the public opinion in Korea will be fine. I can’t fully agree because other problems might arise. So for now, I’m only telling you that even if we intervene, Korean public opinion won’t be an issue.]
At Team Leader Lee’s following words, the Japanese Trails team leader Goto Kinshiro thought to himself.
‘Is this evading responsibility or what.’
If Korean public opinion is fine, isn’t that enough? What other problems could possibly arise?
‘He’s being frustrating.’
Could it really be for the sole purpose of guaranteeing a Korean a spot?
Goto narrowed his eyes and glared at Team Leader Lee’s face on the video chat.
By and large, global competitive content naturally becomes a national battle.
But Trails is a framework where that’s hard to achieve.
First of all, each hero belongs to a different faction.
And filling each faction exclusively with users from a specific country is almost impossible.
Is it possible?
Even if it is, who on earth would do that and for what?
Trails is strictly something to be viewed as individual content.
‘Of course, if celebrities or pros from each country make a splash, it does stir up national pride.’
In that sense, pushing an individual is also understandable.
After all, they are humans who cannot escape the bonds of nationality.
If there’s no problem, wouldn’t it be good to push your own country’s celebrity?
With the development team split by country, such thinking was inevitable.
[So what’s the conclusion?]
The Chinese team leader said bluntly.
Goto nodded as if to say that could be true.
Kael was originally a three-way fight between Korea’s Wind Sword, Italy’s Pineapple Pizza, and China’s Divine Sword.
Of course, Kael hadn’t appeared in Trails for nearly two years.
[Ah……. I’ll just oppose it.]
‘Is he changing his words, does he really want that user to have Kael?’
[But I will say for sure that public opinion won’t worsen due to Korea’s intervention.]
‘Or not?’
It was an answer so confused that his intentions were unreadable.
Which made sense.
Team Leader Goto hadn’t even considered that Team Leader Lee was genuinely worried that some other problem might occur.
And it was the same for the other team leaders.
Anyway, since Team Leader Lee had affirmed that Korean public opinion would be fine, everyone judged that he wasn’t shielding his country’s celebrity, and naturally the scale tipped toward those in favor of intervention rather than those opposed.
[Then we’ll change Kael’s pattern formula only for this Trial and Trails.]
[Let’s use adaptability as the justification. Adaptability is actually an essential skill in any moment of life, so no matter how you spin it for Trails, it won’t be nonsense.]
[But wouldn’t that be a nerf for Kael? He’ll fall into history in a state where his mastery is wiped out in an instant.]
[Then let’s change it only for the Trial?]
[That might be better, actually.]
[No. During the Trial and the competition to select each hero’s champion, the champions will have plenty of time to get used to it. Then it goes back to the original? Wouldn’t that be harder?]
Goto let out a smirk at the Chinese team leader’s words.
‘Heh heh. He’s checking that Sword God.’
Naturally, they had all seen it.
Kael’s 5-man Judgment Sword.
How shocked they had been when they saw that.
An incredible user.
However.
The current prevailing opinion is this:
It was possible because the current Kael pattern somehow matched well with that person’s mental state.
So there had been talk of changing the pattern earlier, but since that user wasn’t playing The League anymore and all existing Kael users would be thrown into confusion, they had left it alone.
‘If that Kael falls into Trails, he’ll be dangerous.’
The Chinese team leader was checking the Sword God’s Kael, fearing that China’s Divine Sword might not win and Kael would fall into Trails.
And Goto agreed.
‘Yamada Yasuo.’
Japan’s rising Kael master.
He was someone who could be compared to China’s Divine Sword, Korea’s Wind Sword, and Italy’s Pineapple Pizza.
The Sword God?
‘Let’s see how you handle it when the pattern changes.’
Probably he’ll fall, it’s obvious.
Being so perfectly suited to one situation also implies how hard it is to adapt when a different situation arrives.
A creature that thrives in the desert cannot survive in the tropical rainforest.
He was just lucky.
[So it’s decided to change it only for the Trial and Trails. We’ll leave how to change it to the balance team and end the meeting here.]
The meeting ended.
Those who opposed because it was unprecedented will be satisfied.
Since it was clear that if that person entered as Kael as it was, he’d be a threat.
The value of a hero changes depending on what the user does.
They can be eliminated early, or they can ultimately write history the way they want.
After the meeting, Goto spent time on remaining work.
Then, when quitting time came and he went home from the company, a thought suddenly occurred to him, so he turned on Trable.
Then he set the country to Korea instead of Japan.
Above the search bar on the screen filled with numerous stream titles instantly translated into Japanese, he searched for Jin Seojun.
It wasn’t because he wanted to watch the stream.
Unless they are pros, people generally don’t watch overseas streams.
The streamer might go through the trouble of saving voice files and auto-dubbing, but the game screen isn’t translated one by one, and memes and humor differ by country.
Most importantly, domestic streamers are enough.
It’s just that he suddenly thought of it and came in.
‘He’s live. Let’s see, game category is The League? The stream title is…….’
Hmm.
Why do I feel uneasy?
[Starting today, I’ll try every hero in The League one by one. Just because.]
He ignored the warning, closed the window, and switched the setting back to Japan.
* * *
From that day on, for over a week straight, Seojun played The League.
Playing while listening to the tutorial in real time, his trademark.
Actually, he knew quite a few heroes.
Because he had played before and prepared during tournaments.
Still, he turned on the tutorial just because.
During that time, he also met the team members from the previous Wealth Gap event.
[Seojun-nim, long time no see! How about an in-house match?]
The ever-consistent Ha Yunho.
[Congrats on the first clear!]
Just Rumi.
[Kael is Seojun himself. I’ll try challenging other heroes. I know I won’t make it, hahaha.]
The solemn Wind Sword, who says he must worship Seojun every time they meet.
It was a repetition of meeting as three or two, or duoing.
Even in the midst of that, Seojun diligently picked heroes he hadn’t tried and kept carrying.
[Streamer is good at everything lololol]
-Riven is back with the streamer!
-Finally, for the first time in ages, the game is The League again!!! This is a historic day!
└You know? He’ll suck all the honey from Trails and then heartlessly abandon it again.
└Going around gathering honey, he’s a honeybee lololol
[What’s that bastard making a fuss about for days. At this time, the chat is spammed with talk of him.]
-You newbie who hasn’t seen Rios, sentence him to 10 hours of watching Kael’s 5-man ult.
-How is watching Kael’s 5-man ult a punishment? That’s rather a reward.
└For real lol
-For a moment I thought this was the Kael board lolol crazy guys
[So why does he keep playing only new heroes?]
==
Is he looking for another life hero?
==
-I think I’m the only one who knows? lolololol
└No way lololol
└Still, Kael with the 5-man ult is there, and Kael appearing in Trails is confirmed.
[Overseas community opinion]
==
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To summarize, they say the streamer is just a nobody who got lucky?
For reference, they’re saying that even after seeing the 5-man ult lolol
==
-?? Why do they say he’s a nobody who was just lucky?
└Seems like they think it wasn’t skill but just that the pattern and some coincidental mental thing matched to make that play possible.
└On what grounds?
└Do they have grounds? lolol
└Hey, those guys are just the overseas version of Riven lolol. What grounds are you looking for?
└Still, the overseas guys are creative lolol
-But honestly, it does kind of seem like he was lucky? It’s somewhat reasonable?
└Didn’t I say overseas Riven? Exactly.
[Malicious slander no]
[Surprisingly, overseas Revenites sound plausible, upvote lololol]
[Right now, even before, there are trolls who wanted to bash the streamer and are showing up because they saw an opportunity, half are Kael fanatics lolol]
==
The loyalty of Kael fanatics is more formidable than I thought?
==
-Normal people are just watching lolol
-To match numbers with the trolls! As expected, the original trolls, Kael fanatics!
-I don’t know, the streamer and Kael fanatics are one body.
└I imagined that and it’s pretty grotesque? lolol
-Ah, if it bothers you, show and prove it.
└What matters is how the game company handles it.
And on Thursday morning, three days after a week had passed since the photos were released on Monday.
Along with the update, the patch notes regarding the Trial came out.
And the moment the contents that Kael’s pattern had changed appeared.
[China’s Kael master ‘Divine Sword’ mentioned the streamer!]
[This is definitely the game company targeting.]
[Hmm......]
[You trolls who are going to the Pineapple Pizza guy’s stream to provoke him, gather here lolololol]
[Well, why go all the way overseas? You can just go provoke the Sword God.]
-Would that work?
-Haven’t you seen the streamer is good at all heroes?
└But if he doesn’t get 1st place in the Kael Trial here, no matter how good he is, he’ll just end up as a nobody.
└For real, they’ll belittle him even more. Saying the 5-man ult and the win were all thanks to this lolol, it’s so obvious.
└You know well? lolol
Numerous news items provoking Seojun came up.
“Wow, look at that bastard smiling while looking at his phone. Ugh, gives me chills. I don’t know. I’m out.”
Tae-u rubbed his arms and went into his room.