Chapter 296
“Hey, Kael. Ha. Don’t be like that. How about you and I have a proper match for 100 points?”
Gerd of Germany could no longer tolerate the streamer’s arrogance and spoke up.
He would fight by the book.
And he would crush that streamer’s arrogance.
The streamer lit up and replied,
“Oh? Let’s do it right away.”
That only worsened Gerd’s mood.
The streamer was good, but the way he acted as though he was guaranteed to win irritated him.
“Hurry up and make the quest. I’ll be the only one entering this time.”
There was no way anyone else would try to join a quest with 100 points on the line anyway, but Gerd declared it aloud.
Knowing that he might lose, it was an act meant to bolster his own morale, like the Vikings’ war cries.
“Just a moment. I was modifying the quest for group play until just now.”
“Yes, let’s have a proper match.”
Properly.
He repeated those words because, although he might lose, they needed someone willing to step forward like this.
If things continued as they were, the professionals would be completely dominated and swept along.
He had to break the flow.
Gerd, who had yet to fight Seojun, had one thing he trusted in.
The fact that the overall fight had been rather half-hearted instead of being fought tooth and nail.
Even though eight points had been at stake, the professionals had not thrown everything they had into it.
The streamer who had won that match was so full of confidence that he suggested a two-on-one.
Gerd intended to give it everything.
“It’s here.”
A newly appearing quest window.
[100-Point Makgora LOL]
==
Victory Condition: Land even a single hit to win
Defeat Condition: Health reaches 20% or lower
Payment
Upon Victory: One-day expulsion from Kael’s Train, acquisition of 100 points
Upon Defeat: Deduction of 105 points
==
“Uh…!”
“Go ahead and enter.”
“Why is my victory condition like this? Have you really lost your mind?”
“No. I lose if I get hit just once anyway.”
“……”
What the hell was he talking about?
The streamer was smiling, but there was no sign that he was mocking him or intending any other insult.
It was strange, but Gerd accepted it and raised his gun.
“I’ll make you regret this.”
“Let’s go.”
Once he accepted the quest and took his assigned position, the countdown began.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
Bang!
***
“Hey, Gerd.”
“What?”
“Was it fun?”
“What, fun? I just lost 100 points. Damn it. What a waste.”
“But you looked like you were taking it a little easy. I thought you were just donating 100 points. If we’re going to cooperate, shouldn’t we make one powerful guy?”
Gerd, who had been whispering with a fellow colleague he was close to, laughed incredulously.
“I see… So that’s how I looked. If that’s the case, what about the other professionals?”
He had not fought with gritted teeth and frenzied desperation, but he was confident that he had played to the best of his ability.
Yet none of it worked against an opponent who had decided to avoid him completely.
Even when he tried to look for an opening, the streamer only attacked when he was certain of his position.
That was an obvious strategy when a single hit meant defeat.
Even when Gerd deliberately left openings here and there to lure him into attacking, the streamer saw through his intentions, used the openings he had created, and turned them into perfect opportunities to attack him.
‘He’s a monster.’
And every one of those fierce moments…
“Should I give it a try too? It feels like it might help improve my skills. He’s a complete irregular.”
…looked effortless.
Effortless.
“Exactly. He’s an irregular. He’s truly unusual.”
Was it really possible for someone with that kind of skill to appear out of nowhere without leaving any trace behind?
“Gerd, all the other professionals who fought him praised him too.”
That made sense.
Everyone who had fought him seemed to enjoy it instead, as though they wanted to try a two-on-one.
The ones who had gotten worked up over being looked down on were the ones who had not fought him, like Gerd.
“There’s something going on.”
“What?”
“That streamer definitely isn’t an ordinary person.”
“What an obvious thing to say. That’s why he’s doing all this right now. Didn’t you see the mess he caused during the Trials? I came here to meet him because I found that amazing too.”
“They must all be about the same.”
“Should I jump in too?”
He was fighting two opponents at once.
Strangely, just as before, the fight looked simple and half-hearted enough to be seen at a glance.
But then—
Gerd possessed one of the three participants for a moment and faced Seojun himself.
Only then did he begin to feel as though he could see something.
“Wow…”
“What?”
“I’m impressed. I really am.”
Perhaps because he was both observing the whole fight and empathizing with one of the fighters, Gerd experienced a sense of awe at Seojun’s movements.
‘Have I ever seen anything like this in a simple evasion-based playstyle?’
The two professionals facing Seojun were also doing their best. Even so, they did not seem frustrated.
Rather, they continued matching their moves, one after another.
The two professionals’ skills were improving.
More precisely, were they figuring out a method?
Their opponent did not attack easily. At the same time, he dodged with absurd skill.
They determined a direction. Then they tested it. Their proficiency accumulated that way.
‘Is this what it means to have no better practice opponent than him?’
As a professional watching his fellow players improve in real time, Gerd reviewed his own fight from a moment ago.
‘There were countless clues…’
Ah.
Only now was everything becoming clear.
The price for opposing him had been a mere three points. In truth, it was an ambiguous amount if points had really been his objective.
Far too small compared to the risk.
He had increased it to a two-on-one, but even then, he had only raised the price to five points.
The whole truth had been revealed.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“Let’s challenge him together.”
“Challenge him? Gerd, have you gone crazy?”
That streamer was training the professionals right now in preparation for the mastermind behind everything!
Those professionals!
All for the sake of the History Book.
Gerd acknowledged it. That streamer had every right to train them.
Not only because of his skill.
Was he not preparing for the History Book even while taking on the role of a villain?
If not someone like him, then who else could train them?
His character and his skill.
Both were outstanding.
“Yeah, challenge him. Look at him even now.”
Just how did he intend to evade attacks in such a manner?
It was ingenious, creative, and brilliant.
He was clearly moving in order to let the professionals experience something new.
“Listen carefully. That streamer is…”
***
Seojun thought,
‘Ugh. What a pain.’
There was no end to it.
Just in case, he was evading attacks while occasionally mixing in the most creative methods among all the possible ways he could dodge.
Everything Seojun did would become data, so he had to leave behind as many possibilities as he could.
From the most efficient movements to the most inefficient ones.
Watching the professionals match their moves in real time, Seojun actually hoped that their performance would improve even further.
‘Even if I have the data from fighting monsters from another world, I should still be able to perform adequately. But I can’t let my guard down.’
He needed to accumulate data on how he could fight his way through even more extreme situations.
“Good work.”
He proceeded to the next quest.
Honestly, he had no idea how enthusiastically the professionals would respond.
He had deliberately put up more points, and he had even pretended to provoke them, but he still wasn’t sure.
‘Should I throw in the 100 points I earned two matches ago as well?’
While he was pondering that, a notification appeared that someone had accepted the quest.
Puzzled, Seojun checked the person moving toward the quest location.
It was the professional gamer from Germany who had fought him one-on-one earlier.
His name was…
‘I don’t remember.’
Anyway.
Seojun wondered if he was trying to win back his points, but as he carefully examined the man’s expression, he confirmed that there was not even a gram of hostility in it.
How could he possibly have no hostility? Even before losing the 100 points, it had been overflowing from him. And now he had lost them.
“May I learn from you?”
“Th-That’s fine.”
Seojun was flustered.
Almost as much as when he had met the attacker who had been the final mastermind, only to die so pointlessly.
“Thank you.”
“Yes.”
“Then I’d also appreciate it if you could teach me, like you’re teaching him.”
“……”
Why were these people acting like this?
Deeply flustered beneath the two gazes filled with goodwill, Seojun stood there.
While the two of them fought, Gerd’s interpretation of Seojun’s intentions was relayed by another professional to every participant present.
Before long, not only the atmosphere but even Seojun’s image had turned warm and friendly.
The professionals, grateful to Seojun for trying to train them, began participating in his quests without rest, both to repay him and in the hope that they might improve their skills.
This was good for Seojun as well, and the spectators watching from outside were amazed.
[He even predicted this! He’s strengthening his enemies! If he’s going to win anyway, what’s the harm in this much? The host is duplicating points and improving his image at the same time! Now that they’ve grown close and built up so much goodwill, I can’t wait for the moment he betrays them later! My heart is trembling with anticipation!]
-The betrayal is most shocking when it comes from the guy you trusted the most.
-And the greater the effect of the betrayal, the better LOL
-Nice!
-This is what a mastermind is.
-It’s so sad that nobody’s ever done things like this until now LOL The level here is just too low.
-For real LOL
***
Ruins.
The fields outside Pangaea’s urban bases were incredibly vast, and with such great breadth came countless traces of history etched across the land.
Among them, the ruins were dungeons that had the most direct impact on the players of the History Book.
In the first place, finding ruins across such a vast land without any clues was nearly impossible. That was why ruins could only be located using clues provided by the AI.
Naturally, most of the ruins found that way contained rewards that had a significant impact on gameplay.
The AI was essentially sending players to ruins containing the rewards they needed.
Therefore, whenever ruins appeared as a clue, they had to be found without fail. Doing so could turn the tide in their favor.
And Shingum had just cleared a ruin.
“Hahaha! Things go so smoothly once I’m away from that bastard! Yes!”
He had been lucky, but he had managed to find a clue to the ruins in the desert. He returned straight to Pangaea’s mountain range and began exploring the ruins.
He found them and reached the divine statue.
The divine statue.
It was the highest-tier item among the artifacts that provided information in the ruins. It was an item that directly struck the user with images of the information they needed.
Of course, only he could see the images obtained through the divine statue.
But it was not a competition in the first place. What did it matter whether others believed him or not?
“Even my luck is too good. Yes, I didn’t need to butt heads with that bastard. I was thinking about it all wrong.”
To borrow Seojun’s expression, he repented. He realized his mistakes.
Once he continued playing, everything proceeded smoothly.
“We should cooperate. With that bastard, too. I’ll make peace and apologize.”
Of course, he still disliked being constantly needled, but there was a saying that even hatred could grow into affection through familiarity.
When Shingum placed his hand against the divine statue rising in the center of the enormous ruins within the mountains, an illusion filled with green mist was projected into his eyes.
The most necessary information.
He did not know what it would be, but Shingum watched intently.
‘The green mist looks like another world. Is someone sleeping beneath the land of another world? Ah. That being is granting power. To whom? It came outside. Could that attacker from back then have been in the Train?’
Even if it showed him the attacker, he probably would not gain much useful information.
Wouldn’t it just be one unknown person turning into another unknown person?
Thinking that, Shingum was stunned.
Because the person who appeared in the vision was not unknown.
‘What? Kael? Why is Kael…?’
The viewpoint within the vision shifted from place to place before stopping above Kael’s head.
Then, at the moment Kael—or rather, the streamer—raised his head to look briefly at the sky—
Rustle.
Within Kael’s sincere eyes, Shingum saw it.
A green radiance flashed.
And the vision ended.
“That Kael? Wow. So this is why he ignored the prophecy and came to the Train. No, in the first place, there must not have been a quest involving a prophecy. Because he’s the mastermind!”
Shingum began to understand why the attacker had gone out of his way to attack him and Taesan.
It was not that they had been unlucky.
The mastermind was simply a bad person.
“I have to get there quickly. I’ll kill him.”
He had no evidence, but who wouldn’t believe him if he told them?
There was no way someone with that personality could have a good image.