Chapter 26
Whack!
A blue boxing glove slammed into Lee Dong-soo's face.
Whack! Whack!
Following that, a rapid succession of punches struck his stomach.
"Gah!"
Lee Dong-soo hunched over and stumbled for a moment before regaining his composure and raising his guard.
The bystanders were watching him get hit with great interest, but to him, only the enemy in front of him mattered.
"Coach, is he really a kid training to be a fighter? He's so weak."
An opening!
Seojun, standing before him, turned his head to the side toward the coach.
Normally, attacking at this moment would be bad manners,
but Lee Dong-soo had already been thoroughly beaten the day before and had become infested with Seojun's influence.
Train like it's the real thing!
"Hyaaaap!"
A straight punch.
Lee Dong-soo had not learned much, but his form was solid as his fist shot forward.
Perfect timing, perfect form, and an opponent who had let his guard down.
It was an attack that might have landed on a distracted opponent at least once,
but the opponent happened to be Seojun.
Even while glancing to the side, he easily dodged and landed a one-two punch.
Whoooaa!
Exclamations burst out from the onlookers.
"Aaargh! Damn it."
Eventually Lee Dong-soo collapsed, clutching his stomach.
"Hey! You nettle-like brat! I told you to go easy! And he's not a fighter in training! Get over here."
The coach shouted, approaching the ring.
To catch Seojun, he grabbed the ropes and threw his leg over.
Sensing hostility, Seojun went to the opposite side and prepared to climb out of the ring.
"Oh, really? He seemed talented though."
The coach, halfway over the ropes, saw Seojun ready to descend and gave up on catching him.
"Tsk, I'd love to wring his neck! Oof, my back."
"So, does that mean he's just the best fighter in his school or something?"
Seojun downgraded his assessment of Lee Dong-soo from fighter-in-training to a high schooler who can scrap a bit.
Despite this misunderstanding, the coach did not reveal Lee Dong-soo's true identity.
Because Lee Dong-soo had asked him not to.
Lee Dong-soo was embarrassed to let Seojun know who he really was.
'If only I could have beaten him at the game, I would have revealed myself confidently.'
After being thoroughly schooled by Seojun the day before, he went to his team's office, turned off the stream, and launched Assassins' Dawn.
And after over fifteen attempts, he finally defeated Ethor in the tutorial, which left him shocked.
Losing in real life was somewhat understandable, but losing in a game was not.
Who was he?
A player on the second-strongest team in the world!
"Hey. Spend your time studying at school instead of fighting."
"Geez. Do you study well?"
"Yeah."
"What confidence makes you answer so quickly like that?"
Muttering, Lee Dong-soo stood up, placed his hands on his back, and stretched his back straight.
"Dong-soo. He goes to a top Korean university."
The coach's voice came from the side.
"Oh shit! Don't lie to me. The world is so unfair."
"Well, I just worked hard."
Seojun shrugged his shoulders.
"Tch. I don't need to study because I'm good at games."
Lee Dong-soo finished his sentence while dusting off his hands and quickly raised his guard.
"Oh, really?"
At the same time, Seojun's fist flew in at high speed.
Now accustomed to this torment, Lee Dong-soo had been prepared from the start.
Truly an adaptability fitting a pro.
"Yes. Following you yesterday, I beat Ethor, Drake, and even Richard."
Of course, in trying to imitate Seojun, he had grabbed a pipe and challenged them, only to be killed six times by Drake.
Richard Neville took four tries.
As a result, Lee Dong-soo came to acknowledge Seojun's skill.
This guy is different, he thought.
But the moment he acknowledged that, his competitive spirit did not wane; rather, it grew stronger.
Whoosh!
He barely dodged again.
"Oh? Then you should try becoming a pro gamer."
Seojun said without much thought, and Lee Dong-soo let out a sigh.
'I'm already a pro.'
Today, he planned to challenge the Tower Master.
He had no clue how the lightning was split, nor how Sound Play was done, but he intended to just go for it.
Because he felt that by continually copying this person Jin Seojun, his skills were improving.
Sparring too.
'Is this the reason Ha-yeon noona keeps challenging Unknown at the training ground?'
His desire for self-improvement was stimulated.
"Hyung."
"Yeah?"
"On today's stream, are you going to beat Queen?"
Queen was the name given to the last remaining ruler of Assassins' Dawn.
"Why?"
"Just because."
"Probably?"
After that, no more small talk.
Lee Dong-soo focused all his energy on landing even a single blow,
while Seojun chatted with the people around him and humored him.
Whack!
But Lee Dong-soo couldn't stop imagining Seojun overlapping with a certain being.
A being that fights while casually chatting with someone next to him.
The rumor is that it's a new type of AI made by Surphys.
'Nah, no way... Is this hyung that 10th-level Unknown? No, that's too far-fetched.'
Even that Shin Ha-yeon keeps challenging it.
* * *
Seojun sat in a cafe waiting for Team Leader Kim Yun-chan while watching Alpaca's stream.
[Ha. Please, I don't want to see that Drake anymore. Ugh!]
-Lolololol
-It's only been 22 hours since you turned on the stream, Paca, stop exaggerating lol
- ㅡㅅㅡ
-Cheer up!
[You guys don't find this fun either, right? It's tough to watch, isn't it?]
-I slept and came back, so it's not hard at all? lolol
-This is the New Year's waiting room
-Wasn't it the World Cup waiting room?
-You can't end the stream until the end of the world, what are you guys talking about lol
-Don't look for an out. You chose to be the stream king. Endure with evil and guts.
[What do you mean evil and guts? I never chose this.]
['Some Idiot' donated 1,000 won generously!]
[???: If that succeeds, I'll take that person as my teacher, receive teachings, and... with Musou...]
Alpaca quickly closed the donation and removed the viewer who sent that donation.
[Didn't I say if you do that donation one more time, it's a ban?]
-Lololol
-Sword ban, instantly
-Just now, his speed was on par with Mumyeong. Shudder
-With that half-speed, beat Drake, Paca
[Oh! It's been over 9 hours, the capsule access restriction popped up. Hehehe.]
The capsule had a time limit for access.
It was a measure by Surphys to prevent users from getting addicted to the game and abusing their real bodies.
If a user's playtime exceeded 3 hours, they were forced to rest for half the time they had been connected, unable to log back in.
And if the connection time exceeded 9 hours, the capsule would forcibly shut down.
Alpaca had started at noon the day before and, except for a 4.5-hour break in between, had been fighting Drake for a total of 18 hours.
'I feel kind of sorry for him.'
Seojun glanced at his watch.
It was currently 10:30.
The appointment time was soon.
[I'm going to leave now, so I'll play one ad. You know this is the first ad in 9 hours, right?]
An ad popped up on Seojun's Travel screen.
'An ad, huh.'
Streamers affiliated with Travel had various additional revenue streams, and one of them was ads.
These ads were different from ads received from game companies.
It was a system where whenever someone entered the stream on Travel or ads appeared in the middle, revenue came in based on the number of viewers who saw the ad.
Streamers could play these ads as they pleased.
However, if they played too many ads, the number of viewers would drop.
So streamers, like Alpaca, usually preferred to play them briefly at points when the situation changed or during breaks like bathroom visits.
"The conditions for an affiliated streamer are lower than I thought, but..."
To become an affiliated streamer, one had to meet the criteria of 700 total live streaming minutes over the past 30 days, 7 days of live streaming, an average concurrent viewership of 10, and at least 30 followers.
He had already satisfied three of these conditions long ago, but one gave him pause.
The number of days.
"It's not something I can solve right away."
If he hired an editor in the future, he'd have expenses, so he had no choice but to pay more attention to each revenue source.
[After I sleep... I'll come back and do a stream king with Assassins. I guess I'm getting old. Feeling really sleepy now. Yawn. Just once. Please let it slide just this once.]
Alpaca was speaking with half-closed eyes.
Soon after, the stream turned off.
Even the viewers seemed to understand.
* * *
A moment later.
"Hello. I'm Kim Yun-chan, the one who contacted you, Streamer."
"I'm streamer Jin Seojun."
Seojun stood up and shook hands with Kim Yun-chan.
Kim Yun-chan was dressed comfortably but neatly, without being sloppy.
Movie Soft was a foreign company, so that seemed fitting.
"First, I apologize for the sudden contact. It's an urgent matter."
"No, it's fine."
"Still, I apologize once more. If you didn't see our messages, we'd be in quite a bit of trouble, so we had to get in touch by any means. We sent rather many, didn't we? Heh heh."
Yeah, he knew.
Literally, they had mobilized every possible means of contact.
"Well, I was just a bit flustered. But what on earth is the problem...?"
A foreboding thought crossed Seojun's mind.
It wouldn't lead to a situation where I have to pay damages, would it?
Let's see, among my father's acquaintances, there's a lawyer...
"Hahaha, well, it's because of the Fragments of Order you're currently pursuing that I came to visit."
"Fragments of Order?"
"Yes. If you collect all Fragments of Order, an Easter egg related to our next project will appear, and the teaser video that should be unveiled at that moment... isn't ready yet."
Aha.
In other words,
"You're asking me to delay the time I take down the ruler a bit?"
Seojun smiled leisurely.
This is a situation where he is absolutely at an advantage.
"Yes, correct. Naturally, we intend to show our sincerity generously. It should be ready in about 6 days or so."
Kim Yun-chan grinned slyly.
Geez, when you say 'sincerity,' it sounds like we're committing a crime, man.
"Hmm..."
In any case, the game company can't force him.
Seojun started to think carefully.
'When you say teaser video, usually...'
It refers to a video that intentionally hides information to arouse curiosity for promotional purposes.
'It probably isn't to the point where my cooperation is absolutely necessary.'
With about 3,000 people, at best it's a little buzz in Korea, which likely won't have much impact on Movie Soft, which operates in the global market.
On the contrary, even if Seojun didn't cooperate, they could turn it to their advantage and create an effect greater than the teaser video.
They're a corporation, not an individual.
But it might be unexpectedly important, so I should hear their offer first to gauge it.
If it's just right, neither more nor less.
Seojun was willing to cooperate gladly.
"So may I hear what that sincerity is?"
"Ahem, well. If you delay the Queen's strategy for about 6 days, we'll specially grant you the right to beta test our next project. The beta shouldn't be more than a year away."
What?
"And we're thinking of creating an event item bundle related to you, Seojun, in the DLC and next project."
Really?
Why are they giving so much?
If it were before, it wouldn't mean much, but for Seojun, who intended to stream properly, these were excellent terms.
"What's the price?"
"Only delaying the ruler's defeat for 6 days. That is all."
Seojun looked at Kim Yun-chan with a dumbfounded expression.
Is this guy a con artist?
"Uh..."
The conditions Kim Yun-chan presented weren't urgently needed, but for him, there was nothing to lose, so it would be strange to refuse.
"You'll accept the offer, right?"
Seojun couldn't answer right away.
His paranoia had flared up.
"Hahaha. Didn't I say so? The terms were wrong."
At that moment, a slightly halting Korean was heard.
A middle-aged foreigner, who had entered the cafe at the same time as Kim Yun-chan but had sat at a slightly distant seat, approached them and offered Seojun a hearty handshake.
"Nice to meet you, Seojun. I'm Yves Faimo from Movie Soft Korea."
So he's Kim Yun-chan's boss.
That makes sense.
Looks like they're going to negotiate the terms.
They'll probably add something else in exchange.
As long as it wasn't too unreasonable a request, Seojun intended to accept.
In fact, feeling that the other party was asking for something brought a sense of relief.
"We'll also give you an ad."
And at Yves Faimo's following words, Seojun's eyes once again took on a look of dumbfoundedness.
"What?"
Oh.
I hadn't even thought of an ad like this.
"You're talking about a game ad, right?"
"Correct. Among our company's games, is there one you'd like? We'll accommodate anything. You just have to play the game, Seojun."
A piece of paper was pushed toward Seojun.
Yves Faimo said with a grin.
"Oh. We're thinking of a rate of at least a thousand per ad."
So, did the pushover just duplicate?
What on earth is this?