Chapter 69
[Alright, sorry for beating around the bush saying that someone who's simply good at the game and has never lost is top-tier.]
Bangju continued.
[But isn't it true that the only top players here aren't just the Heavenly Demon and the Heavenly Slaughter Star?]
[That's right.]
[I mean, Dangso-nim, famous for aggro, got eliminated early in the race, but there are plenty of other insanely skilled users out there.]
Bangju began listing a few such users.
Starting with the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
Gosu-anim.
Hunsudwobwa.
The Hidden Power.
Singsing Miyeok State.
Cheonoecheon.
Murim Lord.
And so on.
Seeing their rare nicknames, you could tell they'd been around since the early days.
'Some must have bought their nicknames too.'
He had no intention of buying a nickname himself, but suddenly he wondered what the user with the Heavenly Demon nickname was up to.
[Well, yes. Those people hardly ever lose unless they run into each other. And they try to avoid meeting each other as much as possible.]
Still, the reason people don't criticize them for it is because everyone knows they'll start tearing each other apart with checks and fights from now on.
[Anyway, so the differences between them probably aren't that big, right?]
[It's true, it wouldn't be strange at all if someone other than the Heavenly Slaughter Star or the Heavenly Demon took first place.]
The Heavenly Slaughter Star was listening to their conversation from the side, and Bangju clapped his hands as if he'd just remembered something.
[Oh, and there was this too.]
[What?]
[Since Dangso-nim moved his faction right from the start, the burden of defeat disappeared for him, didn’t it?]
[Yes.]
[And maybe because of that, he really went all out.]
[Ah. I know. Even our righteous faction people were cursing like crazy. Saying they keep running into him. Some even said they wouldn't fight the demonic cult because they didn't want to run into Dangso.]
[Why did Dangso get eliminated? It'd be best if you check out the community post I uploaded. The video will be uploaded gradually.]
A person with nothing to lose has nothing to fear.
That's why Dangso had said to Seojun.
'I'll disrupt all the rankers. Just trust me.'
So that's what he meant. Impressive.
[Now, anyway, shall we compare their performances? Hanpunman-nim, you also ranked the Heavenly Slaughter Star as second place, right?]
[Yes, that's correct.]
[Why second place and not first? Could you explain the detailed reason?]
[As I said earlier, Seojun-nim gained 600 Fame on the first day. That's a high number, isn't it? Usually, people gather around 500.]
[Yes. But didn't the Heavenly Slaughter Star also certify gaining 600 Fame on the second day, just like Seojun-nim?]
[From the next day on, he didn't certify. This guy is a scammer.]
[…….]
[And I see the raid as a big factor.]
-Is that so?
-The 3-minute raid is insane.
-Going up after using all your inner energy and just catching it lol
-Another demonic cult guy tried the same thing but couldn't kill it fast enough due to lack of damage and got qi deviation.
-You really have to compress your DPS.
A 3-minute raid record.
Reducing it from 7 minutes to 5 minutes is hard, but reducing it from 5 minutes to 3 minutes is even harder.
So wouldn't this value naturally be reflected and widen the Fame gap?
This was Hanpunman's argument.
[Haha. Well said. Now it's the Heavenly Slaughter Star's turn. Why do you see yourself as number one?]
This time, Bangju turned his body toward where the Heavenly Slaughter Star was.
[First. The reason I didn't certify after the second day is because there was no need.]
[Is that so?]
[Yes. Actually, it did require a bit of cooperation from my team members, but I obtained similar numbers to that person.]
Ignoring the team members and catching enemies as they came out right in front of the entrance was something only the Absorbing Power Great Art, which allows recovery through combat, could do.
So to secure that much contribution, the cooperation of his team members must have been necessary.
[And the raid. I entered at 4 minutes 30 seconds.]
[Ah, really? That's incredibly fast, but unfortunately, slower than the Heavenly Demon.]
[Yes. So it probably created a slight gap. Still, I think I made up for it sufficiently in other areas.]
[What areas?]
[Attacks, of course. There are attack bonuses, aren't there?]
[That's contribution, though?]
[The mid-rankings are tallied by contribution.]
[Oh, that's right! We were so buried in Fame that we forgot the Righteous Faction succeeded in attacks. On the other hand, Seojun-nim was constantly only defending, right?]
[Yes. I succeeded in attacks twice, once during the occupation of the unorthodox faction area and again during the recovery of our occupied territory.]
The bonuses from that couldn't be ignored, that was his judgment.
Even the viewer opinions were being swayed.
A big reason for that was that Seojun hadn't provided exact figures in the end.
Everyone knew he set an all-time record with the raid, but they couldn't gauge exactly how many points he earned.
Because the Fame gained from 5-minute and 6-minute-30-second raids didn't show much difference, some began to think, 'Even with a 3-minute record, couldn't the Heavenly Slaughter Star make up for it?'
[Perhaps because I am the Number One Under Heaven, the weight naturally leans toward the Heavenly Slaughter Star's opinion. Shall we take a vote at this point? Number 1 is the Heavenly Slaughter Star. Number 2 is the Heavenly Demon. Number 3 is someone else. Like that.]
-Going to go vote and come back.
-Charge!
-It's okay if Bangjanim doesn't get first since it's his first time playing this game...
-Should we open voting too?
-What meaning does public opinion even have...
One wise person among the comments.
"Those of you who want to support me, please go vote. I'm just going to watch."
Bangju's chat window was flooded with votes.
Roughly gauging by eye, it seemed like number 1 had more, and the result was the same.
Seeing this, the Heavenly Slaughter Star said smugly.
[Look at this.]
[What about it?]
[How can you be the Heavenly Demon if you lose even in a poll like this?]
[No, here we go again...]
-Ha. Bangjanim just needs to be in the top 16, but those guys don't get that.
-For real lol.
-lolololololololol
-To be honest, Bangjanim probably doesn't care who gets first.
-Still, I wish he'd win.
Chattering away, time flew by quickly.
Two minutes until 10 o'clock.
Hanpunman said.
[Heh heh. Seeing the Heavenly Slaughter Star keep you in check like this, Heavenly Demon, you must be pretty nervous, right?]
[……Not at all.]
[Seems like it though?]
[Well, I can see you're incredibly good for a newcomer, but once you face real powerhouses, your true skill will show soon.]
Bangju interjected.
[He even beat White Tiger. Is White Tiger not a real powerhouse?]
[No.]
[……I see.]
A flood of agreeing chats filled Bangju's stream.
"You're asking if I think I can beat the Heavenly Slaughter Star?"
Seeing this, his viewers seemed slightly angry.
It's not just being insulted personally that makes one angry; seeing something you like being insulted does too.
-Starting to get a bit pissed off lol
-So can Heavenly Slaughter Star do the training ground?
-Bangja, let's just snipe him.
-Why are you so quiet today?
Just when he felt maybe he should step up(?)
[Oh?]
[…….]
After that one word full of doubt from the Heavenly Slaughter Star, the chatter died down into silence.
Wondering what was going on, Seojun checked Bangju's broadcast.
Three faces.
But all three of them were just staring at the screen with their eyes wide open.
"What is it? Ah."
It was 10 o'clock.
"Why aren't they showing it?"
Seojun went to the website to check for himself.
Since his stream screen was fixed on the internet browser, he hadn't checked through the interface.
-?????
-??
-What's going on?
-Why are you here?
The viewer count began to skyrocket at a terrifying speed.
No way.
After the loading finished, Seojun's eyes widened as he confirmed the ranking posted on the website.
* * *
# 1 / Heavenly Demon14 / 115,254
# 2 / Heavenly Slaughter Star / 86,075
# 3 / Hunsudwobwa / 85,498
# 4 / Singsing Miyeok State / 85,432
# 5 / The Dignity of the Unorthodox Faction / 84,789
# 6 / This Isn't Murim / 83,376
* * *
[??? What's wrong with the rankings that just came out? Are my eyes messed up?]
[Isn't it a calculation error?]
[It is weird though lol]
[What is this, why is the gap so huge???]
When 10 o'clock struck, the rankings were revealed.
And countless people interested in this immediately checked the ranking.
After Bangju, who barely pulled himself together, disclosed the rankings, his 70,000 viewers joined the ranks.
[Is a 30,000 difference normal?]
==
Right now, the rankers' Fame is 5,000-6,000, that number there is what you'd get by playing six games all by yourself.
Isn't it a bug?
==
Number one was Heavenly Demon14.
It was the ID of a streamer who could practically be called a newcomer.
Having drawn attention with multiple issues and possessing a certain level of recognition, it wasn't strange for him to take first place.
But.
[Even Hanpunman hyungnim, who said the gap was too big, was wrong lolololololol]
[Heavenly Demon found a bug by himself with the stream off and played 6 games, auto-upvote lol]
[Seriously, didn't he just play a few rounds alone?!]
[Summon the 3-minute curry squad!]
The gap with second place was way too big.
As you could see from the rankings, most rankers had similar contribution levels.
The point where real differences start to appear is when they clash, snipe each other, interfere, and defeats begin to pile up.
So from now, which is essentially the beginning, such a gap opening up was inevitably going to become a hot topic.
“…….”
Lee Jiho.
In-game nickname: The Dignity of the Unorthodox Faction.
He was the user who placed second in the previous season, and while he looked ordinary on the surface, he did a lot of dirty deeds behind the scenes.
Very few people know this.
You could tell from how the user Mumyeong was speaking so friendly to him now.
"Wow, insane. Right?"
Lee Jiho answered.
"Yeah."
"That's probably because of the raid, isn't it?"
How many seasons had they played on the battlefield?
They realized at a glance.
Bangju, Hanpunman, and even the Heavenly Slaughter Star would probably figure it out soon after calming their momentarily flustered emotions.
"I saw him during the raid. I thought he was impressive then, but I didn't expect it to be this high. This has never happened before."
"Right."
"Still, from now on, the checks will be heavy, so it'll be interesting."
“…….”
Just as his friend said, now is when it truly begins.
Because of creating such a gap, the interference from other rankers will now concentrate on Seojun.
The difference would inevitably narrow.
However.
That didn't mean sitting still was his style.
"I'm turning the game off now. See you tomorrow."
"Well, you're in for a headache too. Doesn't matter to me since I'm not aiming for first."
Lee Jiho bid farewell to Mumyeong and ended the game.
He came out of the capsule, sat down straight away in front of his computer, and muttered.
"Good thing I investigated that streamer in advance."
He made it a habit to know everything about his competitors.
The reason was for times like this.
He logged into the community with an alternate account, pasted an article he had pre-written, and began editing it quickly.
"I didn't think I'd use it the moment the rankings were revealed, but this should be enough to start a fire, right? Heh heh."
Creating controversy.
Even fabricated ones didn't matter. It was enough if he could cause even a little stir.
Lee Jiho considered this a skill as well.