Chapter 51
“Even a third-rate would be too good for such a sloppy technique, but judging by your basics... you’re second-rate!”
The booming rebuke echoed across the stage, ringing all around.
The players watching clicked their tongues and started chiming in.
“Look at that no-manners.”
“The Demon Cult NPCs are weird too, seriously.”
“But there goes another second-rate.”
“Isn’t that nickname a ranker?”
“Same goes for the one who got third-rate earlier... ahem.”
“Hey, hey. They can hear everything.”
Samjangro sat still, pretending to fix his eyes on the streamer’s video and analyze it.
He was embarrassed.
But ignoring it didn’t stop the voices from behind from reaching his ears.
And the fact that he could hear them meant the viewers watching his broadcast could hear them too.
- fr most of them are low
- and that one bastard got third-rate kekeke
- just wait, I’m coming too!
Sigh.
‘I should just hurry up and take the test again.’
But if he got judged third-rate again like before, it would be a real disaster, so he was just preparing more carefully.
Trudge, trudge.
The player who’d just been judged second-rate came down from the stage.
Tattered clothes, a gourd-like item hanging from his waist, and even a club slung over his shoulder with a finishing touch.
Just like.
“Wow. A total beggar.”
“Hey, hey, he can hear you, you bastard.”
Voices came from behind again.
Samjangro desperately wanted to nod.
Where had the sword he’d been holding during the sword demonstration gone, and when had he swapped it for a club?
And on top of that, what a beggarly nickname he’d picked.
[OnePenny]
“Ah, don’t come over here.”
It didn’t smell, but for some reason he didn’t want him getting close.
“Wow, that’s actually really hurtful.”
“Then you shouldn’t have gone with that concept.”
His face is handsome—how did he end up on that path?
“You, who chose the Demon Cult, are one to talk. A middle-schooler with an adult avatar, does that make sense? Huh? I was shocked when I first met you in real life.”
“Let’s not talk about real life...”
When Samjangro showed reluctance, OnePenny shrugged and sat down next to him.
The place they sat was the spectator seats with a clear view of the stage.
The scene of some stranger climbing onto the stage played out.
“Fine, fine. Anyway, to think I got second-rate! This is ridiculous!”
“It’s not ridiculous.”
“Why? Oh right, you got third-rate, didn’t you? Pfft.”
OnePenny laughed heartily, mocking him.
If he just wore some decent clothes, he’d look every bit a noble young master.
But right now, he was just a beggar.
A flower beggar just based on the face.
And that made it even more annoying.
- and the only one too
- no, are you gonna return that peak title or not lol
- I’m almost there!
OnePenny burst out laughing beside him, and Samjangro narrowed his eyes.
“No, what I meant was that if you do it right away, you might get a low grade...”
Sigh.
Letting out a sigh, Samjangro focused again on the screen playing in front of him.
Not much time had passed, but a post analyzing each movement in detail had already gone up.
“You are right though. If you just watch and do it, you’re bound to get it wrong, aren’t you?”
“Right? That’s what I was trying to say.”
“Still, third-rate’s a bit... fuhahaha.”
“No, don’t you remember you just came back with second-rate? It’s only a one-step difference!”
“Yeah, that’s exactly the wall that separates masters from the low-skilled.”
“What’s a second-rate talking about.”
“And you’re third-rate.”
“Ugh!”
“And I got super peak, but you didn’t.”
“But the Demon Cult doesn’t have techniques. You guys are all using stuff you got used to while playing the game!”
Instead of answering, OnePenny just giggled.
In the end, only Samjangro was boiling inside because he’d actually received a lower grade.
With a resigned look, he shook his head.
“Forget it.”
Thud.
Someone placed a hand on his shoulder.
“What do you mean forget it?”
“Ah. Brother Namgung, you’re here.”
It was another veteran with the super peak title, Namgung Family Shop Clerk.
They just called him Shop Clerk or Brother Namgung for short.
The story went that he’d lost a bet with a friend over nicknames, and since a shop clerk NPC near the Namgung Family looked similar, he’d ended up with this.
And as he rose to ranker with this nickname and became famous, he couldn’t change it.
“No, this beggar brother keeps teasing me about third-rate.”
“Really? Third-rate, second-rate, same thing.”
He looked at OnePenny with a pitying expression.
“Right?”
“Right.”
“Heh. As expected, you know something, brother.”
“That’s also true.”
Watching the two going back and forth, OnePenny shouted in disbelief.
“Hey, Shop Clerk! You go take the test too. Let’s see what you get.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Why?”
Namgung Family Shop Clerk asked back as if it were obvious.
“Is there a reason I should do it now?”
“Well, that’s...”
“If we prepare more thoroughly, the chances of getting grandmaster or whatever will at least go up. What’s so important about third-rate or second-rate now?”
“That’s true.”
“Agreed.”
“Alright then, let’s analyze.”
- veteran gathering
- anyone else coming?
The few viewers’ reactions were good.
That made sense, since the three gathered here were all veterans within the top 100 rankings.
The information and game skills that community veterans had were better than average users, but not quite up to the level of the top 100 rankers.
However.
They continued to challenge but couldn’t surpass peak.
After roughly two hours, OnePenny returned from the stage and sat on the stone seat, saying,
“Yeah, it’s only been a day.”
“That’s true. They say it takes newbies about a month to accurately follow the standard technique. We’ve only had a day.”
- pathetic
- Shop Clerk you piece of, what martial arts are you on about lol
- wait, weren’t you guys the Avengers?
They now started digging into other aspects.
If you followed the movements exactly, you could somehow get peak. That meant there was no problem with the technique.
But that was all.
OnePenny spoke.
“Let’s sort this out. With the standard technique, you couldn’t even get super peak originally, right?”
“If you follow it exactly, I’ve never seen anyone get super peak. So isn’t it that the Heavenly Demon himself changed the technique?”
“The title ‘Heavenly Demon’ is a bit much though...”
“We’re talking here, be quiet, third-rate.”
“Yes.”
“Anyway. But what was the reason the standard technique spread in the first place?”
“It’s because, among the ones that spread, it had the lowest difficulty to get peak. Technique matters up to peak, but super peak is impossible just by copying, right?”
“Right. Honestly, even if I tried that same move that got me super peak again, I’m not confident I’d get super peak again.”
“Me neither.”
Samjangro, who’d been quiet for a moment, asked.
“What do you mean by that, bros?”
“What do you mean? Super peak isn’t simply about the technique.”
“Then what is it about?”
“Perfection.”
OnePenny explained in one word, and Shop Clerk nodded in agreement.
“When I performed that technique, I felt perfection in the sword. Not that I know much about martial arts, but it was the kind of perfection I’m sure I couldn’t replicate if I tried again. And when I performed it, I knew intuitively. That I would get super peak.”
“Same for me. It’s just a game, but for some reason I had that thought. Ah, I was fucking awesome. Watching other super peak verification videos, you can feel something similar.”
I see.
To be honest, Samjangro had never seriously attempted super peak, using the Demon Cult as an excuse, so he didn’t fully understand their explanation.
“Then what did you feel watching this video?”
At Samjangro’s words, the two who’d been talking facing each other with him in the middle turned their eyes to the front.
Probably watching the video.
After a long silence, Shop Clerk broke his concentration first and spoke.
“I can’t feel anything though?”
And after a moment, OnePenny also spoke.
“Right. That’s the problem. I don’t know anything either.”
- d
- you guys are the hope! hang in there!
- Penny hyung is definitely the hope.
OnePenny was famous on the Old Forum for writing quality info posts.
The reason he’d chosen the Beggars’ Sect was also because the Beggars’ Sect was an organization that handled information.
Though as he went along, he felt being a beggar was kind of comfortable.
“What could it really be.”
OnePenny muttered to himself.
“Maybe there’s some special in-game trigger, beggar.”
“A Demon Cult exclusive quest?”
“Yeah.”
“If it was something like that, it would’ve been revealed by now. He’s a streamer.”
And OnePenny figured he wasn’t the type to hide something like that.
“That’s true.”
“Then he really did it with skill, didn’t he?”
Shop Clerk’s eyes widened.
“It’s not something that happens by chance.”
OnePenny said calmly.
- omg
- insane pro?
- so grandmaster is real?
- chances it’s fake?
“Well, we can’t know for sure unless other people start getting grandmaster. I give up. Even super peak is hard.”
OnePenny read the chat and gave his thoughts.
And then Shop Clerk also declared he gave up.
“I can’t do it either. Come to think of it, didn’t he beat Shin Ha-yeon in the training grounds?”
“On top of that, he beat Baekho, whom Brother Namgung lost to.”
“Hey! Don’t bring that up!”
“Or maybe he really is the Heavenly Demon.”
“No matter what, he’s not the Heavenly Demon!”
- so what’s the conclusion
- they’re just yapping among themselves
- connections ruined the game lol
- the game is way too stagnant
- the guy who beat Shin Ha-yeon? ㄷㄷ then grandmaster is acknowledged
OnePenny looked at the stream chat and stood up, saying.
“If grandmaster is really a rank above super peak with no other conditions, pure skill, then Seo Jun-nim, who got it by modifying the standard technique on the first try, is practically the best at Wihayeo, isn’t he? That’s it.”
OnePenny had heard about Seo Jun before and wasn’t the type to be prideful, so he made a statement acknowledging him.
But the community veterans couldn’t accept it.
- gasp.
- I can’t accept that statement.
- who says he’s the best?
OnePenny snorted at those viewers.
“Who says? Yeah, Baekwigang over there says so.”
Soon, Shop Clerk also stood up and said.
“That’s true.”
“Let’s go to sleep. It’s over now!”
“Yes! I’ll end the stream.”
“Alright.”
In the end, they couldn’t verify the truth, but it couldn’t be helped.
If you’re pissed, ask the devs.
And all of their remarks were relayed in detail on the Old Forum, causing a huge stir.
[Rankers fail for 2 hours too]
[Is grandmaster real?]
[Beggars’ Sect expert ‘OnePenny’ declares, “The Heavenly Demon is the best in Wihayeo.”]
[“What exactly is the difference between the Demon Cult’s ethnicity and the Heavenly Demon’s sword!” Why the orthodox faction trembles in fear and the unorthodox faction hops about in envy!]
The initial posts were dismissed as just humor or falsehoods and soon disappeared from view, except for a few.
But OnePenny was famous on the Old Forum, and the clip containing his statement drew even more attention to grandmaster and to Seo Jun.
Overnight, many more people challenged for grandmaster, but not a single person received it.
[At this point, suspicions of cheating are creeping up]
[Plenty of reasons it could be a cheat. He didn’t get grandmaster during his first Wihayeo broadcast.]
[I knew it from the moment his nickname was Heavenly Demon.]
[Accusing without evidence is just like the ‘orthodox faction’. Petty itself.]
[Actually, the Demon Cult guys covering for him as the Heavenly Demon is more disgusting.]
[Framing this as Demon Cult vs Orthodox!]
[So which is it?]
It was a chaotic situation where no one could give a definite answer.
Though there were those who did.
[It’s obvious he used some trick!]
==
I have the super peak title too, and I’m telling you, this isn’t something you can just watch once and pull off like in the video.
Martial arts aren’t that easy.
So many rankers haven’t figured it out, and some newbie did?
==
- I’m with this lol
- poster’s tone is gross
- so he got a lucky hidden quest while playing off stream? ㄷㄷ
- nah lol so if you can’t do it, everyone’s a cheater?
└It’s not just me who can’t do it, no one can. Isn’t this a reasonable suspicion at this point? (poster)
- yeah, you just don’t know, same thing happened in Dawn of the Assassins.
└PVE players, get out of the Old Forum. (poster)
- He beat Shin Ha-yeon in the training grounds too, so he’s probably better than you at least
└I acknowledge the training grounds. But martial arts are different. I’ll meet him in person and prove it. (poster)
└Who are you?
└13th place in the last battlefield (poster)
└Kya! Please teach them a lesson.