Episode 382
“Ah, yes. You’re not coming tomorrow? We’ve already made all the preparations….”
While Choi Hangyeol was performing onstage, Team Leader Seon’s phone rang without pause.
Whenever he hung up, a string of missed-call notifications would pop up, followed immediately by the screen for the next incoming call.
“Ah, you’ll send us all the expenses? No, that’s something we’d naturally—. Ah, then you’re just asking us to cancel it? You didn’t sign a contract with us, so it’s not as though we can force you to come. But if you could just think it over one more time….”
The caller, relieved beyond words when Team Leader Seon said there was nothing he could do to force them, apologized profusely before hanging up.
“Hmm, oh dear. Another call. Yes, hello.”
Team Leader Seon began speaking with the next caller without even knowing who—or how many people—were currently calling him.
“Ah, hello? Mm. You’re feeling extremely nervous and scared? Your stomach suddenly hurts, too? Um… sir. It’s fine if you just cancel. But unless you’re genuinely feeling unwell, why not at least come and take a look around? Ah. You don’t even want to go anywhere near the area?”
In case they got dragged in?
That was certainly it.
Team Leader Seon brought up the fact that the other person had said they wanted to visit Trstar at least once.
“Don’t worry, sir.”
The expert, who had been repeatedly coughing and lowering his voice to pretend he was feeling ill, brightened at the offer to simply cancel and asked,
“Why? Haha. Because it looks like our booth is going to go under. Yes. Of course you don’t need to feel guilty. I understand that.”
Just then, a staff member brought him a phone.
The screen, silently shown to avoid interrupting Team Leader Seon’s call, displayed a news article.
It was roughly an article reporting on the disastrous events that had taken place at the booth today.
That was why Team Leader Seon had been making call after call.
“Yes. Then please go in. Ah, hello. Why are you on the phone for so long? Hahahaha. I’m sorry.”
Team Leader Seon had been nervous at first, but once Seojun did such an excellent job, he stopped thinking about the consequences.
Just as he had expected, Seojun had run wild magnificently.
So he had been excited, convinced that he had been right—right up until the second challenger stepped off the stage.
After that, the calls had suddenly begun.
They were from the countless challengers who had made appointments to come.
Only then did Team Leader Seon realize the positions of the other people involved, and he began to worry about something else.
“Yes, from now on I’m going to end the calls very quickly. You can cancel your appointment! There’s no contract! Hahaha! You’re welcome to visit Trstar! We’ll probably be shutting down our business anyway! Yes, thank you.”
In the end, once he gave up on persuading them and began answering like a prerecorded message, Team Leader Seon was able to finish the work quickly.
“After all the effort I put into finding and recruiting them….”
He could already see the future.
The booth would probably be shut down.
* * *
“Uh….”
“What did you say the prize money was? Yes?”
“Hmm….”
“You were subtly trying to stop us from even advertising the indie booths earlier. Why don’t you explain that?”
“Now, now, don’t gang up on him too much….”
“Four experts have been blocked. So at this point, what we need to discuss is whether we should impose sanctions out of concern for tomorrow, wouldn’t you say?”
The president of Travel placed his elbows on the desk in satisfaction and interlaced his fingers.
Composure.
He had been in the overwhelmingly superior position, and he had even correctly predicted the future.
It was only natural that the representatives from the game companies could say nothing.
For all their anger just moments ago, nothing had happened.
The world was behaving as though it had known all along that things would turn out this way.
Even though they had been fighting fiercely until lunchtime.
Only then did the members of the organizing committee realize.
So this was how history was rewritten from the victor’s perspective.
Everyone acted as though they had known this was how things would turn out all along, and only people in their position—who could no longer change their words—were made fools of.
It wasn’t that they had nothing to say.
But whenever they watched Seojun stream so effortlessly, all they could think was that perhaps they had simply been idiots.
‘But there’s still one left!’
There was no idiot who said that.
One of the game company committee members came within a hair’s breadth of letting those words escape his mouth, but barely managed to hold them back.
If he said that now, it would be the same as cheering on the three-million-won prize.
And above all else—
‘Boxing really doesn’t seem possible.’
He himself wasn’t aware of it, but that thought was what brought the committee member back to his senses.
* * *
‘This is where it ends.’
Seojun sensed it.
Continuing to operate the booth would be difficult.
He had unintentionally shown an overwhelmingly dominant performance.
It really had been unintentional.
He had only thought warming up with darts would be fun if he tried it; he hadn’t intended to intimidate anyone.
The same went for table tennis, and with the balancing challenge, he had simply misunderstood.
‘This is a bit troublesome.’
Since he had shown people what he could do today, he would probably receive more votes than yesterday.
But what about from next time onward?
Seojun looked at Team Leader Seon, who was busily making calls below the stage.
Yesterday, Team Leader Seon had flashed him a meaningful smile in this very situation.
‘What should I do with the booth?’
Seojun gently closed his eyes.
He needed to organize his thoughts.
Meanwhile, the chat exploded the moment Seojun closed his eyes.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ This bastard is seriously insane
-Is he peeking through narrowed eyes?
-No, take it down a notch alreadyㅋㅋㅋ
Because Seojun was currently taking on the challenge of a boxer.
The boxer’s specialty was simple.
Boxers were masters at controlling distance.
Natural-born fighters and trained weapons.
He had made it through the first test by dodging every examiner’s punch.
And that was why the votes had poured in for Seojun to lose.
Controlling distance?
-Yeah, the boss can do it with his eyes closedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-But seriously, how does he do that with his eyes closed?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Can’t he hear their footsteps?
-So auditory visualization works in reality too!ㅋㅋㅋ
-All five senses are just different for him
-He’s a reptilian! I finally understand!
Seojun slowly moved backward, thinking and thinking again.
The fists repeating jabs and hooks couldn’t even graze Seojun’s face.
No matter how much he thought about it, there was no answer.
Should he openly look for a solution here?
He still hadn’t confirmed whether he could sign a new contract and proceed with the next content.
‘The current situation isn’t favorable to me.’
Because he was losing fifty thousand votes every day.
Which side was in more of a hurry?
They would have to play tug-of-war.
‘If I say it publicly here, I’ll be letting go of the rope.’
Of course, only if the game companies competed with one another.
‘For now, I should wait.’
Today would probably be busier after everything ended.
Once Seojun had整理ed his thoughts and opened his eyes, he caught the straight aimed at his face with both gloved hands.
“Then I’ll try attacking now.”
Seojun smiled brightly, released the opponent’s hand, and took up his stance.
And that was how the booth came to an end.
* * *
[The truth behind the terrifying sword story has finally been revealedㅋㅋㅋ]
[We absolutely have to vote for the boss today, for real]
[No, seriously, when the boss was doing his booth, everyone in the Trstar hallway was sitting around staring at their phonesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
During the roughly two hours Seojun ran his booth, homeless people had appeared at Trstar.
The broadcast had ended easily and simply, but it had that much impact.
After all, Seojun usually showed off his outstanding abilities inside virtual reality.
And on top of that, his synchronization rate was 10.
[No, seriouslyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ In virtual reality, he really was wearing shackles?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ That’s the scariest part]
-Do you think a synchronization rate of 10 is a joke?
-The reason the person with the lowest synchronization rate in the world is the best at games = because reality is even more extreme
-Reality is always more extreme
└I don’t think that phrase applies to a situation like this
-So what happens now? Is anyone going to challenge him after watching today’s broadcast?
└The mediocre Trstar viewers
└They’ll get cut at the reset stage!
-To be honest, if I were someone who had accomplished something, I’d never challenge the boss. It would feel like all my efforts were being denied
└Now that you put it that way, it really is cruel
-So why doesn’t he become an athlete? If we sent him to every event at the Korean Olympics, I feel like we could rank first in gold medals for the first time
└Seriously, it’s possible
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Seojun’s synchronization rate once again drew renewed attention, and the stories Taewoo had shared about his housemate years ago also began trending again.
In the end, the terrifying sword story had been true.
[Today’s Myriad Heavenly Flower Rain]
==
(Photo of Seojun warming up)
A bastard who makes flowers bloom when he throws darts.
A bastard who looks like he really went and destroyed the Tang Clan.
If you don’t want a flower stuck in your head, you’d better vote, right???
==
-Why is he a bastard who looks like he came from the Tang Clan, but one who looks like he destroyed it?ㅋㅋㅋ
└The Tang Clan got wiped out by the Heavenly Demon because they couldn’t kill their temper. I saw it happen
└So the boss was the Heavenly Demon. No wonder
└Wasn’t he actually the Heavenly Demon in For the Sake of Chivalry?
└We’re talking about our past lives
“Please vote a lot, everyone. And don’t say pointless things. Who remembers their past life, anyway? Does that even make sense?”
Seojun browsed the community with his viewers for a while before finding the right time to end the broadcast.
With the second day coming to an end, Seojun had been actively encouraging people to vote ever since finishing his booth.
This was a democratic country, after all.
Even in a vote like this, exercising the right to one’s precious vote was fairly important.
-Why isn’t this bastard pushing the past-life angle?
-Before, his attitude was more like, “Who would believe that?” But now is he worried everyone might seriously believe it?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-But I think we should dissect the boss
-Isn’t the boss scared because of all the people saying they’ll dissect him?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“I’m ending the broadcast.”
The number of participants today was recorded at 130,000.
It was safe to say that Seojun’s current vote count was negative 53,000.
The staff began cleaning up, and Taewoo approached Seojun.
Outside the booth, in the hallway, Jay was hiding behind a pillar. He was looking up at Seojun, who was seated in the audience, but although Seojun noticed him, he didn’t bother going down.
He didn’t want to get involved with him.
‘What’s his problem?’
Seojun couldn’t help feeling wronged. He hadn’t gone looking for the booths of the major game companies in the first place.
Of course—
‘Maybe I’ll have to go tomorrow.’
He had heard from Team Leader Seon that the challengers had completely disappeared, so if the booth couldn’t be operated, he had no choice but to work even harder elsewhere.
There might have been other proposals sent through the points system, but the chances were low that any game company had content ready that could immediately draw people’s attention.
‘First, I’ll see how many votes I get today….’
If he got more than sixty thousand votes, it would be a huge success.
One minute until the announcement.
Thirty seconds.
Ten seconds.
Three seconds.
Two seconds.
One second.
And at that moment—
Jay, who had been looking down at his phone just like Seojun—but unlike Seojun, had been refreshing the page frantically—suddenly spotted someone and bowed deeply in greeting.
It was the attitude one showed upon discovering someone of the highest rank.
A strange light entered Seojun’s eyes.
Eve Faimo.
The president of Movie Soft had personally come to the venue after the event had completely ended.