Chapter 263
[Beduia’s Trial Rankings]
#1 – Sword God (Korea) - 542
#2 - Divine Sword (China) - 541
#3 – Toma (France) - 523
Seo-jun was meditating in a space all his own.
He was waiting with composure and patience.
Anyone with an ordinary personality or a head good at reading situations would have tucked their tail and retreated here.
‘Like that’d happen.’
He didn’t know the other’s personality precisely.
But Seo-jun knew a common trait among those with talent.
Arrogance and fierce pride.
An innate talent that keeps you from ever suffering an overwhelming defeat is, in itself, a blessing.
‘But it can’t always be a blessing.’
There’s no medicine that’s beneficial in every situation.
When the rankings he’d been staring at for the past ten minutes shifted, Seo-jun raised the corners of his mouth.
[Beduia’s Trial Rankings]
#1 – Divine Sword (China) - 558
#2 - Sword God (Korea) - 542
#3 – Toma (France) - 523
Just as expected.
‘The friendly competition continues.’
Arrogance blinds the eyes, and fierce pride can never permit oneself to tuck tail and leave.
“It’s nice and calm since I’m not streaming.”
Seo-jun shouldered his machete and muttered to himself.
This wasn’t bad either.
Of course, having viewers is fun.
“But maybe this is a bit more fitting for a contest between martial artists who fight fairly and clash with everything they’ve got.”
Uttering words that would make his viewers furious—or, if Divine Sword heard them, would make him book a plane to Korea immediately and prepare a brick to smash over his head—Seo-jun raised his blade.
[Will you begin the trial?]
The system, reading his will, brought up a notice, and the trial began.
A sandstorm began to howl.
Before he knew it, the road beneath him had transformed into sand, and the grains, swept by the fierce wind, started to obscure his vision.
Fortunately, no sand got into his eyes.
Beduia is a being cursed so that anywhere he goes turns to desert, destined to wander the wastes forever.
Consequently, his preparations against sandstorms are said to be thorough.
Thanks to a special item, the grains of sand couldn’t enter within a twenty-centimeter radius of where he stood, smoothly changing their course.
Just as the eye of a storm is calm amid a raging whirlwind, only the spot where Seo-jun stood was tranquil.
He raised the machete.
Beyond the radius, a rattling sound reached his ears.
The sound of sand grains striking the blade.
In a corner of Seo-jun’s vision, the trial interface began a countdown.
[5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
A ten-minute timer started ticking, and Seo-jun swung the machete at once.
Within the dense yellow dust, blue particles sparkled moment by moment.
Aiming for the Desert Crystals.
The instant Seo-jun’s machete touched a Desert Crystal, the score beneath the timer went up.
[+1]
Yes. That’s just one point.
He swung the machete again.
And again, and again.
Beduia’s Trial. The tip says you mustn’t stop even for a moment.
‘Better follow the tip.’
He had to constantly target the next blue crystal after the last.
In the actual game, it could never be this difficult, but this was the real trial.
The sandstorm, flying relentlessly, only grew fiercer.
[+1]
[+1]
[+1]
[+1]
‘They said the all-time high record is 587?’
No matter how fast, it’s said one per second at most.
Meaning no one can reach the wall of 600.
Since no one can perform the task perfectly.
‘I’ll just have to strive hard to reach it.’
Because this is no different from a spar between martial artists.
In a situation no one else could see, Seo-jun literally shattered crystals, one per second.
It was play that would make any Beduia veteran marvel at his dynamic vision and physical control.
At nine minutes, Seo-jun had destroyed 540.
Ten seconds later, he’d destroyed 550.
At this rate, he really seemed as if he could destroy 600, setting the highest and most perfect record ever.
But something interfered, and Seo-jun was really, utterly forced to give up on continuing the trial.
He really had no choice.
“Oh my. A sudden bout of dizziness.”
Of course, if Tae-woo had seen it, he’d have said he was putting on a solo circus.
Anyway, the record Seo-jun ended up with was.
* * *
[lololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololol]
==
[Beduia’s Trial Rankings]
#1 – Sword God (Korea) - 559
#2 - Divine Sword (China) - 558
Seriously this bastard is evil lolololololololololololololololololololol
==
-Jin Seo-jun! Jin Seo-jun! Jin Seo-jun! Jin Seo-jun!
-Let’s go spread hatedom all over the world!!!!
└Even the UK would say, “This is a bit…” about this guy lololololol
From then on, the time it took for the rankings to refresh dropped to under ten minutes.
Thanks to Divine Sword, who—as if knowing Seo-jun would win by just one point due to truly unavoidable circumstances—immediately attempted to set a new record, only four minutes after Sword God’s win, Divine Sword retook first place!
==
#1 – Divine Sword (China) - 565
#2 - Sword God (Korea) - 559
==
-Kya! He’s good though
-Is he still just warming up?
-From 560 onward is really a crunch lololol there’s only about four seconds of leeway per minute
Then, precisely ten minutes later, by coincidence, Seo-jun retook first place with 566.
Five minutes after that, Divine Sword again reclaimed Beduia’s number one spot.
[Kya! They’ve already broken into the 570s!]
==
The rankings are filled with the best trial plays accumulated over a year after that year’s history book ends, right?
There, the top 10 were in the 570s, and Divine Sword reached the 570s in a single day of intense focus.
Of course, you could say someone with that level of skill just received a report card matching their ability, but reaching the 570s isn’t possible with ordinary mental fortitude.
It’s impressive
==
-For real lol concentration is insane
-And he’s been at it for tens of minutes just today? lololol he’s a monster, a monster
-No wonder he’s the peak of 1.4 billion people
[But who do we have in Korea?]
==
lolololol
Roughly, ten minutes later, the expected Beduia rankings.
#1 – Sword God (Korea) - 573
#2 - Divine Sword (China) - 572
lolololololololol
Am I right?
==
-I’m Nostradamus, pressed like lol
└Nostradamus doesn’t talk like that…
-I acknowledge the prophet!
-Another guy with future sight here lolololololololololololololol
[Ah. Korea has that guy.]
==
#1 – Sword God (Korea) - 573
#2 - Divine Sword (China) - 572
lololololol who’s the one who prophesied earlier?
I did too lol
==
-For real lol
-For real lol
-I did it too
-Let’s see how many minutes it takes for Divine Sword to take it back this time!
It was an incredibly fierce back-and-forth.
[It’s truly a contest where you can’t see an inch ahead!]
==
How do you keep winning by just one point, so narrowly every time! It really seems like a tight fight!
==
-This bastard spins things well lolololololololololololololololololololololol
└Host, perfect score! lolololol
-Does he have to dress up toying with someone like this lololololololol
-Seo-jun is a god!
And after Seo-jun reclaimed the lead with 573.
When five minutes passed, then seven minutes, and the rankings still didn’t refresh, people started to wonder.
Did he fail?
And when ten minutes passed without change, they started to wonder:
Did he run away?
[Run? or Fail?]
A little more time passed, and Seo-jun turned on his second stream of the day.
[Let’s go after-action!]
[Host, that title lolololololololololololol you crazy bastard]
[Will to somehow use sorcery to revive the opponent lolololol]
* * *
[Stream begins.]
[Did you finish him?]
“Ahh. Sigh. This is already the second time today.”
Seo-jun welcomed the viewers flooding in quickly.
“No, I turned on the stream because I was bored waiting. I’m just……. Hmm…….”
-This guy has nothing to say lololol
-Well, if you do nothing for twenty minutes you do get a bit bored
-Just set the highest record already lololol
“Ah. I turned it on because you all told me to. Many of you were curious, after all. About a true sword match.”
A true sword match.
It has a nice ring.
-???
-How is this a true sword match? A life-or-death duel? One side is getting unilaterally beaten?
-So what happened to Divine Sword! Host, tell us!
-It’s because you beat him too much ㅠㅠㅠ to give him such disgrace ㅠㅠㅠ
“Ha ha. Mr. Divine Sword might have had something come up. He’ll be back eventually. And I gave him disgrace? It was an honorable contest among martial artists.”
-Yeah, it’s just a guy who’s lost his mind lolololololololol
-The one who does the beating never remembers what he did ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-For real lol
-Just typical perpetrator mindset lololololololol
Reading the chat, Seo-jun shifted his gaze, and his eyes lit up.
“Oh? Everyone. It’s finally refreshed. Is this the third time?”
Twenty minutes had passed.
But since Divine Sword had been starting early, it was reasonable to assume the first attempt failed, the second was botched from the start, and he succeeded on the third.
Of course, it could also be that he failed on the first, rested a bit, and tried again.
Anyway.
“It’s my turn. Ha ha. Mr. Divine Sword has pulled off 575 this time, so given enough time, he could go even higher. That’s threatening, right? Isn’t it?”
-lololol his voice doesn’t sound threatening though?
-Why is this bastard hyping up Divine Sword
-Chinese viewers flooding in lololol
In fact, Seo-jun’s stream now had many Chinese viewers.
About 110,000 Koreans and 80,000 Chinese.
Auto-translation for chat was on, but you could roughly tell just by glancing, couldn’t you?
-You think you’re that good?
-Moderate your disrespect.
-This Korean won’t be able to toy with him anymore. Even Divine Sword got exhausted and failed.
-Since he’s rested enough, who knows. He should be careful.
-China will not forget this day......
Like that.
So Seo-jun spoke.
“Ha ha. No, it wasn’t toying with him; why are you all misunderstanding? I’ll show you.”
Divine Sword was probably watching the stream now too.
In fact, that’s why he’d turned it on.
Seo-jun started the trial.
A sandstorm rose. Blue specks sparkled, riding the wind toward him.
Silently, Seo-jun kept destroying the incoming blue crystals.
Today’s goal was simple.
5 minutes.
6 minutes.
7 minutes.
8 minutes.
9 minutes.
Flawlessly handling the blue crystals that came without pause, Seo-jun swung his blade on the spot.
Without a single mistake.
-??? Is this Korean going for 600 at this pace???
-Insane concentration
-Divine Sword…… can he really not win?
Simple as it seems, it’s a difficult feat.
You have to maintain focus for ten minutes, and since the blue light can be obscured by the sands, you must also accurately gauge their positions.
One strike per second. Maintain that for ten minutes?
It’s not for nothing that 587 is the highest record.
But Seo-jun broke that record at exactly the 587-second mark.
-Crazy…
-This isn’t a record you can casually set in a single day……
-It requires peak condition plus luck……
-Then what is China’s Divine Sword doing!
And just before the 600-record could be made,
Seo-jun threw down his sword at 599.
“Aigoo, my hand cramped up.”
It wasn’t because going for 600 would completely extinguish all hope.
“It really did cramp. Earlier I kept getting dizzy too, so I had to stop unavoidably.”
-lololololol
-This bastard lololol
-Would the Chinese believe that?
“So, who’s the next hero?”
Seo-jun was curious.
Would there be a next, or not?
Would Divine Sword aim for 600 here, or not?
And whether Seo-jun was curious or not.
The Chinese community, at last.
Blew up.