Chapter 70
29,179.
That was the contribution point difference between 1st and 2nd place.
It was an unprecedented figure, and Bangju was momentarily at a loss for words.
“Hahaha. I was flustered for a moment. It went a bit beyond my expectations. A bit, you ask? Hmm.”
Well, it wasn’t just a bit.
Bangju laughed and changed the subject.
“Now that I think about it, Hanpunman-nim, your prediction was essentially wrong too, wasn’t it?”
“Still, I’m in a better place than this guy going on about some concept. *Cough*.”
“Shut up.”
- lololololololol
- The greatest under heaven, my ass lol
- Embarrassed much?
- It was worth keeping in check lol
- So how did such a gap happen?
Bangju read the chat and stopped Hanpunman.
“Now, now, Hanpunman-nim. Stop teasing. The viewers are curious about how this score gap happened, so let’s resolve that first. You have some idea, right?”
“Yes.”
Instead of explaining directly, they went into the community board.
They figured there would be a summarized post.
Bangju brought up a post on the screen.
“This person summarized it well.”
Even though it was posted not long ago, it was a post that quickly organized the situation.
[Current Situation Summary]
==
Seems like a lot of people are curious, so I’m writing this roughly.
The reputation and contribution from win streaks are meaningless, but I’ll calculate them anyway.
If you go on a 4-win streak on the first day, you start the second day with 250 reputation, and if you win every match on the second day, the contribution you get is 1,000.
Then, at the start of the third day, the total reputation from win streaks is 500, and you stack 2,000 contribution that day.
You can calculate separately; doing it this way, the total contribution you can get from win streaks is 36,000.
But that’s what every ranker with a win streak got, so it’s meaningless.
Also, they didn’t create huge gaps every match. It was revealed on stream that 2nd place got 500~600.
So this means there was a moment the gap widened massively.
And that was early in the campaign.
The only possibility is the raid.
Suppose 2nd place got 100 in the raid and 1st place got 500.
Even if their reputation from every other match from the third day onward is the same, that gap will keep growing.
400 per match, 4 matches a day.
1,600 times 7 days.
That’s 11,200, so it doesn’t reach 29,000, meaning the difference is more than 400.
Assuming the two were roughly similar in other matches, you can calculate it yourself.
==
It seemed posted in haste, as it couldn’t even include a simple conclusion.
Bangju returned the screen to its previous state and spoke.
“You can just divide the contribution difference by the 28 matches, so it’s probably about a 1,000? 1,100 difference.”
Just then, a donation alert rang.
[‘ㅇㅇ’ has donated 200,000 won!]
[Hey. 1st place got 1,500 reputation from the raid. Current reputation is 6,600.]
His minimum donation amount was 200,000 won.
With so many people gathered, donation alerts kept ringing and disrupted the broadcast.
He had raised the minimum to prevent that.
Nevertheless, there were still kind people donating.
“Ah! Seojun-nim has revealed it. Cheonsalseong-nim said 500, so it’s a difference of 1,000.”
With a 1,000 difference, even if Cheonsalseong and Seojun had earned the same reputation in the raid, Seojun would have been 1st.
For the mentally shaken Cheonsalseong’s sake, Bangju didn’t add that remark, but he was inwardly surprised.
“Hmm, anyway.”
Are they already starting to interfere?
As he refreshed the page, Bangju grasped the overall context of the rising posts and sensed something strange.
Posts picking faults were starting to appear one by one.
[Isn’t there a balance issue?]
[How did they calculate to give 3 times more?]
[This way, everyone will just go all-in on raids and gamble lol]
[That’s not skill.]
Of course, they were reasonable questions.
The problem was that people writing in similar tones were recommending each other’s posts.
Was it a coincidence?
- It is strange like those posts say
- For real, getting such a gap with one raid seems a bit off
- It’s excessive
Even the 70,000 viewers seemed to agree.
At times like this, Bangju tends to just speak his mind.
“People here say a 3 times difference is strange. In my opinion, reducing 4 minutes 30 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds is indeed about 3 times harder.”
Bangju continued his explanation.
“It seems this talk arose because he cleared it in an extremely unusual way only possible with that specific characteristic, but finding that method is also difficult and is part of skill. Even the Demonic Cult users knew about it and didn’t challenge that way. I think the difficulty was sufficiently high.”
Next to him, Hanpunman nodded.
“And since this is the first time a runaway leader situation has emerged, won’t it be more fun to see how they’ll try to snatch the top spot under heaven from now on?”
Many agreed.
Anyway, even if the reputation points were a problem, it was ultimately the game company’s misstep.
Then, another donation alert rang.
[‘ㅇㅇ’ has donated 200,000 won!]
[What do you think about this? (link)]
He clicked the link.
A freshly posted article, less than a minute old.
He wondered how the donor had seen this post in such a short moment to send the donation, but he moved on.
The number of recommendations had already passed 10.
[The Streamer’s Track Record. Am I the Only One Suspicious??]
==
1. His game before For the Sake of the Righteous was Dawn of the Assassin Guild, from the same company.
2. In Dawn of the Assassin Guild, there’s a system called ‘knots,’ and he found the one ‘no one could find’ in one go during a joint stream. For details, see the video. (We still don’t quite know how he did it.)
3. Not only knots, he was also the first to unravel the bait as Ruler Musou, and Mubi Soft linked it in an official teaser video.
4. Then he started For the Sake of the Righteous as his next game and got a sponsorship.
5. He obtained the Grandmaster title that ‘no one could obtain.’ (Similar to the Dawn of the Assassin Guild outcome)
6. Lastly, his contribution this time is also record-breaking. The contribution itself is somewhat understandable, but when coincidences pile up, what do you call that?
==
Looking at the recommenders, they were familiar.
Those were the same IDs that had been mutually recommending each other a moment ago.
Bangju read the post and thought.
Those who actually watched the stream might not think much of it, but what about others?
“Hmm. It does seem suspicious.”
Cheonsalseong said with a cryptic expression.
- The son of Mubi Soft lol
- Whoa, that gave me chills
- There’s a possibility
- They do have skill, but as that says, it’s suspicious lol
- The fact that’s real seems even more absurd?
- So what do you think?
- Seems like an explanation is needed
* * *
Seojun’s room had gathered 12,000 viewers.
Isn’t it said that the degree of buzz is proven by the number of viewers?
They weren’t the type to just pass by such a big event.
Of course, nothing changed just because there were more people.
“How did I get 1st? Hmm. I guess I was lucky.”
Seojun’s brazen response in front of 12,000 people made the existing viewers happy.
- Lolol, newbies, you think our streamer would know?
- So lucky!
- I came to see the 1st place
- The time magician who earned days’ worth of contribution all by himself lol
- Be my lord, Seojun! Be my lord, Seojun! Be my lord, Seojun!
‘Be my lord’? What’s that now.
After the rankings were revealed, so many people flooded in that Seojun stopped the betting room.
He was now browsing the community boards.
“Stop the broadcast? Hmm. It is indeed time to end the stream.”
He’d revealed everything he was told to, and there was nothing more to do.
- Streamer, I meant stop looking at the community, not the stream lol
- Sneakily looking for an end-stream angle
- Who said you could?
- No way
Amid the viewers’ scolding, a donation alert rang.
[‘ㅇㅇ’ has donated 10,000 won!]
[Have you seen this? (link)]
Seojun clicked the link and read the contents with his viewers.
It was a post claiming he had some kind of relationship with Mubi Soft.
It didn’t explicitly name anyone, but in this situation, figuring out who the protagonist of that post was was as easy as him parrying.
- They’re twisting it like this?
- I’ve watched since the early days of this streamer, I never noticed anything lol
- If this has all been an act, he should become an actor?
- So that guy is saying a used newbie colluded with the game company behind the scenes to get all these world firsts while streaming? lol
- For real lol
- If it’s true, there’s not a single person you can trust in this world lol
The viewers seemed to laugh it off, but.
Others might not.
Such an image, especially once it spreads, becomes troublesome.
No matter how much you explain, not everyone will hear or accept it.
A post that had already received over 30 recommendations.
‘What should I do?’
It might be okay to ignore it, but he didn’t know what ripple effects it would have.
Even if it’s not the game company, people believe what they want to believe.
‘A good method…’
Just as Seojun was searching for another way.
[‘BreakingNews’ has donated 10,000 won!]
[Cheonsalseong challenges a public duel in front of 70,000 people!]
A donation bringing the news came up.
A duel challenge in front of 70,000?
[‘DuelChallenge’ has donated 10,000 won!]
[Duel challenge clip video]
A video played before the puzzled him.
[It does seem suspicious.]
In Bangju’s studio, Cheonsalseong faced the camera.
With Hanpunman and Bangju silently beside him, Cheonsalseong alone spoke.
[So I want to tell him to prove it. Against me. Directly. One on one.]
One on one.
It was literally a duel challenge.
Was it because he had no such experience in his past life?
A delighted smile spread across Seojun’s lips.
“Seems like it’ll be fun.”
And the clip ended with a short remark Cheonsalseong added.
[If you truly accomplished it with your own skill, you wouldn’t avoid a duel, right?]
People’s attention shifted from the conspiracy theories to the duel.
That post itself was now bound to recede into the background before the match between rank 1 and rank 2.
Was that intentional?
- It really was a duel challenge lol
- How do such angles pop up the moment rankings are revealed lol
- Loser deletes character, let’s go!
- You won’t avoid it, right?
- The 2nd place challenged the 1st to a duel, how can you resist that!
[‘RiggedDice’ has donated 600,000 won!]
[Go to Bangju’s room and reply to the duel challenge, go go]
600,000 won.
Considering Bangju’s minimum donation amount, it was generously given.
Naturally, as the donor believed he would reply, he had to live up to that expectation.
“Thank you. Let’s go right away.”
But.
The duel itself was definitely beneficial to Seojun, but it felt lacking somehow.
There seemed to be a better picture.
“Ah.”
* * *
- Streamer, why are you covering the screen?
- Let us see the donation message too
- Something’s off lol, looks like he’s about to cause trouble again
- So who’s gonna win?
- Cheonsalseong is damn good at one-on-one
- Still, our streamer is pro level
- Dude, why’s it taking so long to write a reply
Despite the viewers’ complaints, Seojun took his time composing the donation message.
And finally, a fanfare rang out in Bangju’s room, and a donation message appeared.
[‘Cheonma14’ has donated 200,000 won!]
[Tomorrow from 7 to 10, I will run games nonstop without a single moment of rest. If there are those who doubt my rank, or those who think they are more skilled than me, just all come in. I’m confident I won’t lose once. Heh.]