Episode 326
Huff.
Huff.
Huff.
Is this the Hell of Laziness, where no one knows when it will end?
Of course, Baek Doyul knew when it would end. In ten minutes at most.
Five minutes had already passed, and the rival beside him had suggested they do the Stairway to Heaven for only fifteen minutes. That was why it would end in ten minutes.
Clack.
Clack.
Clack.
The stairs continued to rotate like a treadmill, forcing them to climb endlessly.
Clack.
Clack.
Clack.
The only problem was that the sound coming from beside him was much faster.
His speed was set to level ten, while the person beside him was at level twenty.
Even so, Seojun continued climbing the stairs with steady, unbroken steps.
At twice the speed, even though he was at the point where he felt he might die from exhaustion.
He had run like that and then started this immediately after drinking no more than a sip of water. There was no way it wouldn’t be exhausting.
Right. If he were human.
There was absolutely no way it wouldn’t be exhausting.
‘Then what the hell is that?’
Naturally, the question was unavoidable.
What on earth was he?
Clack.
Clack.
Clack.
Wasn’t his thigh about to burst?
More than anything, the terrifying part was that Seojun’s clothes and hair had been soaked with sweat for some time already, while the other person remained perfectly dry.
Baek Doyul’s mind grew so hazy that he wondered if he was seeing things wrong.
He was seized by the useless thought that he had to endure somehow to preserve his pride, and as he painfully held on from moment to moment, only two minutes remained.
And then.
“Ha. This is hard.”
Beep.
The exercise machine beside him stopped.
Baek Doyul quickly caught the sound and stopped the stairs.
Beep.
Then he looked to the side.
Clack.
Clack.
Clack.
Seojun’s machine continued to run.
What was going on?
Ah.
The beep must have come from the cycling machine beside him.
But the words “This is hard” had definitely been Seojun’s voice.
Surely he hadn’t spoken first to match the timing of the person beside him turning off the machine?
Fear began to surge toward him, but Baek Doyul decided he should rest first.
His body was exhausted.
This was not the time for fear to force its way in.
Beep.
Seojun stopped the machine as well. The endlessly revolving stairs came to a halt, and Seojun continued.
“Pro Baek Doyul. Are you bored?”
“……”
“So you turned it off first? Pro Baek Doyul?”
He had to answer, but he was too exhausted even to do that.
Huff.
Huff.
Huff.
Sweat fell like rain, dirtying the floor.
Even level ten had obviously been extremely fast.
Normally, with the Stairway to Heaven, the difficulty increased tremendously according to the height of each step.
And the machine they were using had steps that were high enough.
“All right, then next…”
‘…Huh?’
* * *
At some point, Baek Doyul found himself forcibly loading plates onto a machine and lifting them.
His body was already at its limit. Even so, he lifted them.
The owner of the gym corrected his posture.
His head was blank.
Unlike his dazed mind, his body screamed. But the machine rose.
What was going on?
Fear came rushing over him, then disappeared again because he was too exhausted.
He had forgotten about the battle of wills.
But the winner of that battle of wills was always him.
The owner of the gym never defeated him.
The owner of the gym…
The owner of the gym…
“Huh?”
Whoosh!
The moment he came to his senses, he was at the lodging.
“What?”
Baek Doyul looked down at his trembling arms and legs, swollen to their limits.
Something had gone wrong. This was definitely wrong.
Then a notification window rang.
[Rival 2: As I said earlier, I look forward to working out with you again tomorrow. You really are amazing, haha.]
Only then did the fear he had put off finally come rushing over him.
* * *
As he balanced exercise, safety training, and streaming, Seojun grew closer to Baek Doyul.
Of course, that was entirely from Seojun’s perspective.
Baek Doyul had come to find Seojun incredibly intimidating.
Before, they had been rivals.
Now, in real life, Seojun seemed to be some kind of enormous wall—or perhaps a mass of pure terror.
Even so, Baek Doyul had made every kind of desperate struggle to overcome him, which meant that from a gamer’s perspective, he still hadn’t relinquished his position as a rival.
By then, Seojun had grown curious about how Baek Doyul’s lobby had changed, but he didn’t bother asking.
He judged that there was nothing good to be gained from finding out.
In any case, Baek Doyul was undoubtedly a new type of person, even from Seojun’s perspective.
He rather liked it.
“This is the first time I’ve seen something like this. Definitely.”
Before the stream began.
“What is, you idiot?”
Taewoo watched Seojun and rubbed his arms as though he had goosebumps.
“I’m most scared when you talk to yourself.”
“Why?”
“Why wouldn’t I be scared?”
“……?”
“Seriously, don’t pretend you don’t know.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Do you want to come along too?”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. I heard we’re going to some island.”
“Forget it. Oh, but…”
“Yeah?”
“Won’t the viewers freak out?”
“About what?”
“You’ll have to take a break from streaming for a while once you go to film.”
“Ah, that?”
“Yeah.”
“They’ll understand.”
“What will they understand?”
“I’m saying I’m taking a break. What can the viewers do about it?”
“……. I’m jealous……. You crazy bastard.”
Afterward, Seojun entered his room to turn on the stream.
The goal of today’s stream was to convince everyone.
He had spoken so confidently to Taewoo, but if he was truly a streamer, how could he not care about public opinion?
In fact, he had already reduced his streaming hours recently because he had been spending so much time in safety training.
Now it was time to manage public opinion.
[Starting stream]
[Phew. I almost took another day off today. I did well, right?]
-Seoha
-Stream-hi
-Seoha
-Hi there!
-????
The opening was a simple greeting, no different from usual.
As soon as the notification appeared, viewers began pouring in. After greeting him, they checked the stream title and started sending question marks.
According to Taewoo, this was Seojun’s favorite moment.
The moment he collected hooks.
Seojun, of course, denied it.
He wasn’t a psychopath. There was no way he enjoyed moments like that.
-This bastard took a break last time to get his passport photo taken, then took another break to get his passport made, and now what????????
-If he took another day off today, seriously ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Still, what can you viewers even do about it?
-He’s succeeded way too much…
-For realㅋㅋ
-This bastard needs to be hungry every single day. Then he’d become more diligent
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ He’s way too talented for thatㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
The corners of Seojun’s mouth slowly lifted.
It wasn’t because he was a psychopath. He was simply having fun.
“Stream-hi, everyone. Yes. There won’t be any virtual-reality games today either.”
Partly because he hadn’t decided what to play next, but mostly because he was simply taking a break.
There were no major events in sight, and nothing he particularly wanted to do had come up.
He logged into the League from time to time.
“Ranked matches?”
-Yeah
-Let’s go undefeated all the way to Challenger!
-How about taking first place on the leaderboard?
-It’s still preseason, right? There isn’t a ranking yet, right? You stupid viewers
-So why don’t you play ranked? Are you still unranked?
“I did consider raising my rank, you know? But first of all, you all know exactly how good I am. Right?”
Chats like ‘yes’ and ‘ㅔ’ began to scroll by.
“And more importantly, whether I raise my rank and fight Challengers or fight Bronzes, it’s all the same to me. So there’s no reason for me to raise it.”
He meant it literally.
Why bother?
-Wow
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ This is what a streamer should be like
-ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ
-What about going undefeated to Challenger?
“Going undefeated to Challenger seems like it would be too easy, too. Anyway, everyone, did I do well? Or did I do poorly? What did I do well, you ask?”
Why was he asking about something so obvious?
“I turned on the stream.”
The viewers began lamenting that the end of the world had arrived—that it was now an era in which streamers expected praise simply for turning on their streams.
As their laments continued, Seojun said one thing.
“Oh. So you’re not going to praise me?”
-Thank you, Master! Thank you, Master! Thank you, Master! Thank you, Master!
-Travel’s richest man Joam, please show some dignity!!!!!
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I am grateful, though
-I don’t care if you insult us every time, just turn on the stream!!!!
They had been properly disciplined.
Then was it time to say it?
“Oh, right. I’ve told you all many times that I’m going on Man vs. Gamer. I think I’ll be taking a fairly long break then. Probably soon, right?”
Of course, everyone had known that for quite some time.
But because Seojun’s attitude toward streaming had been so terrible lately—
Now that he was directly mentioning a long-term break, there was no helping it if a riot broke out.
And so it did.
A riot began.
-Seriously, fuck this!!!!!!
-Ah, this isn’t right, hyung Seojun!!!!
-What in the world is the Sword God going to show us by doing some survival thing… Huh? Do you want to die?
-Please! Please, you bastard streamer!!!
-It’s hilarious how everyone already knew and is making a fuss now that they have the chanceㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The viewers’ emotions are all over the place todayㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“The public opinion here isn’t very good. I think I’ll end the stream…”
-Don’t go, if you leave I’m really going to die~~~
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ What a lunatic
-Okay, everyone, let’s calm down
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ No, everyone, please resist!
“Yes, thank you. Anyway, that’s how it is.”
After shrugging his shoulders and making the announcement, Seojun spent more time interacting with the viewers.
And the following day’s stream was his last before he left. Knowing that people would be bored while they waited, Seojun dropped a bombshell.
“Everyone, do you know a game called Rust?”
-Yes
-I know it
-Rust, the survival game? Why?
“Haha. I’m saying this because I can tell you now. The game that will be the second battlefield of Man vs. Gamer is Rust!”
Rust was a survival game.
Players survived together on a single large server, gathering resources, crafting weapons, and building houses—or castles—to do whatever they wanted.
They could raid other people’s homes. They could simply focus on defense.
They could even wander around begging while wearing nothing but underwear.
Rust was a game about enjoying survival itself.
And he said that this would first be conducted in a streaming format.
Because it was their battlefield.
“Yes. It is that game, but there will be a separate victory condition for the stream. In any case, the important thing is this: Rust is usually more fun the more people there are, right?”
The number of people who could form a team within a server varied freely from server to server.
Naturally, gathering more people was more tiring, but it also multiplied the fun.
“So quite a large number of people will be participating in our server. We’ll fill those spots with viewers.”
The viewers’ eyes lit up.
Seojun’s announcement meant there would be a viewer-participation event—the thing they loved most.
The chance to participate in viewer content in a survival game?
“If you gather a party and apply through the channel on this broadcast station, you can participate as my enemy. You’ll be able to try to take me down in a place with unlimited freedom.”
-Rust takes at least a weekㅋㅋㅋㅋ We can do this together with the streamer???
-Ah, he’s making it impossible to resist again
-But is fighting the streamer really a good idea? Shouldn’t we think about it?
-In Rust, you can torment people in truly creative ways
-We have to raid the streamer’s castleㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Everyone gather together
“I’ll choose the team members according to certain criteria, but if you think you’ve been watching my stream for a long time, write down your Travel nickname and apply anyway. However, don’t apply unless you’re unemployed. You won’t have the time otherwise.”
And ten days later, Seojun appeared with a review stream.
[‘Jin Seojun’ has started streaming]
[Man vs. Gamer Episode 1 Review. lol]
Along with a meaningless ‘lol.’