Chapter 80
The matching window continued spinning.
After confirming this, Seojun glanced at the time.
It was currently 8:40.
There were about an hour and twenty minutes left until the end.
Even if things ended here, he had defeated six top-tier veterans, including some players ranked within the top ten, so he could consider his skill sufficiently proven.
Even so, he felt a sense of regret.
“Everyone, don’t you think it’d be a little anticlimactic if things ended like this?”
-You really want that eight-win streak, huh? LMAOOOOOOOO
-Are the rankers scared?!
-I think everyone forgot, but the host has the Magical Girl penalty hanging over him. It’s the right call to widen the gap as much as possible while he can.
-Even though he’s in first place, you never know, so of course he’s desperateㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
He had been misrepresented again, even though it had nothing to do with the Magical Girl penalty.
The moment the rankings were revealed and he confirmed that he was in first place, he had stopped worrying about the penalty.
“What’s Bangju doing right now?”
He wondered what Bangju, who had been broadcasting his matches, was doing while Seojun couldn’t find a game.
-He just watched all the previous matches and is watching your stream again now.
-Bangju has basically played all the games he’s going to play today.
-Who would dare challenge him now?
-Even second place got wreckedㅋㅋㅋ
It didn’t seem like the rankers were avoiding the game because they were afraid of losing.
Now that even second place had lost, how much pride would they really lose by losing to him one more time? And even if they avoided fighting and thus avoided defeat, what pride could they possibly gain?
Of course, even knowing that, Seojun said something different from what he was thinking.
“Looks like they really are scared.”
-LMAOOOOOO That won’t make them play.
-You’re being so transparentㅋㅋㅋ
-Just end the stream at your usual timeㅋㅋ Why are you trying to beat up those poor rankers even moreㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“Why do I want to play more?”
The speed limit was an obvious shackle.
And when you were in a position like Seojun’s, you learned to enjoy shackles like these instead.
“Cheonma Divine Art is more fun than I expected. Why didn’t I use a different trait sooner?”
-You barely use inner energy, and you say Cheonma Divine Art is fun?ㅋㅋㅋ
-Are you actually a pervert?
-Is this how a true veteran has fun????
Even as they chatted, the matching window continued spinning.
Tsk.
Seojun smacked his lips.
“Well, there’s always tomorrow.”
Ding.
A message arrived.
[Seojun, I’m coming in now.]
It seemed Bangju had also thought the game was about to end.
He returned to the spot where Bangju had left.
“Seojun, that was a great match.”
He had come in not long after sending the message.
Pretty fast.
“Especially since I just rewatched the previous matches from the opponents’ perspectives. That was completely insane. Ah, hold on. I need to switch my stream setup.”
Bangju moved his stream from his computer to his capsule.
“Hehehe. I guess Seojun’s physical ability really is in a league of its own. Right, everyone? You agree, don’t you? At least in For the Sake of Chivalry, I think he’s the best. You think so too, right, Seojun?”
“Well, I think there could be people who are better than me.”
“Oh. Really?”
“Yes. So if there are, come in and challenge me.”
Bangju took a moment to process his words before letting out an exclamation.
“Whoa. You heard him, rankers? If you don’t fight him now, you’ll never be able to refute this. You’re the ones who avoided him.”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-What can you do unless you hand him another win streak?!
-But I think it’s really over now.
-Traitor ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
“But he still isn’t getting matched. You’re still queuing, right?”
“Yes.”
“It can’t be helped. If you get eight consecutive wins, your renown will become twice that of second place.”
“Hmm. So they still haven’t given up on first place in contribution?”
“Yes. Besides, even if they aren’t aiming for first place, wouldn’t it look bad for them to fight now? To their allies who are trying to take first place for the same faction, I mean.”
“Ah.”
“It’s not as though eight-win streaks have never happened before, but most of them were matched by deliberately targeting someone. Who would openly tell someone to come in? And besides, you’ve already shown more than enough that you’re the best.”
Bangju spoke with certainty.
That this alone was enough.
-His physical ability really is ridiculousㅋㅋㅋ
-The ‘true’ best under heaven
-If they fight him here and lose, they’ll become traitors to the nation.
-Not the nation—the faction.
-I couldn’t stand watching my host, so I queued for a game in his region. Of course, it’s a secret that I have less than 1,000 renown.
-Are all you rankers completely shameless?!
-Let’s go!
“But Bangju, you look excited.”
“Hehehe. Today’s got perfect material for a video clip. The Dull Sword, of all things. Man, I’d like to experience it myself at least once.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Then, right now?”
“No.”
That answer came quickly.
“For me, just watching is enough. Though I imagine other people would like to experience your Dull Sword.”
“Then should I give them an excuse?”
“An excuse?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Seojun didn’t want to fight badly enough to queue for a game other than the battlefield.
Proving himself without gaining anything from it was not what he wanted.
He would rather simply let them believe they were better than him.
In that case?
Seojun answered Bangju’s question.
“If things end like this, I’ll probably have a high chance of taking first place, right?”
“Yes, naturally. You’ve already built up a considerable lead in contribution, and the renown from your six-win streak can’t be ignored either. Honestly, it’s nearly impossible to catch up through any ordinary means. Unless you stop playing altogether, Seojun.”
Seojun nodded in satisfaction.
The bait was ready.
“Then I just need to give them a chance to eliminate their competitor, right?”
“What kind of chance…”
“If I lose even once in any additional game that gets arranged today, I’ll change factions.”
Seojun cast out the prepared bait.
“What? No…”
“They say everything resets when you change factions, right? Just once. Not one match—one time. Even if I lose only a single round, I’ll change factions. So…”
Seojun looked straight at Bangju and smiled.
Most of the viewers would be watching through Bangju’s stream.
“So come in. I’ll lock in Cheonma Divine Art for all my future matches. Everyone who wants to snipe me, go ahead. Surely you won’t avoid the fight after I’ve gone this far, right? I don’t care if we’ve already fought once.”
Heh.
Seojun gave a sinister smile.
If they were watching, their hands were probably itching to play.
He had given them more than enough justification and even poked at their pride.
So come in.
-You’re telling me they’ll actually hold back after this?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-If they avoid fighting even after he went this far, they aren’t orthodox warriors anymore.
-They aren’t unorthodox warriors eitherㅋㅋㅋ
-I couldn’t stand watching my host, so I queued for a game in the host’s region. Of course, it’s a secret that I have less than 1,000 renown.
-Are you rankers all dead inside?!
-Let’s go!
“Uh…”
And then, at the moment Bangju lost his words.
A game was found.
3.
2.
1.
Seojun disappeared with a satisfied smile, the kind one wore after a successful fishing trip.
“Oh. I’ll head out and resume the broadcast right away.”
Bangju stared blankly into the air, scratched his head, and then left the capsule.
* * *
Eleven consecutive wins.
A whopping eleven consecutive wins.
Considering that no one had ever achieved more than an eight-win streak before, the streamer’s provocation had been tremendously effective.
It had made it impossible to control the fighting any longer.
The other rankers who had wanted to fight the streamer but had been holding back eventually entered the queue as well, and no one could openly criticize them for doing so.
After all, by donating wins and renown, they had created the image of true men.
Sapa’s Dignity had been controlling public opinion somehow, writing posts rapidly with several different accounts, but—
[Surely there aren’t any suckers taking the bait?]
[Wait, someone actually entered?ㅋㅋ Is this for real?]
[The intelligence of people who are making him first place even though they’re going to get utterly wrecked anyway.]
[Win first, then do it!]
He was bombarded with downvotes.
And this was something that had already happened an hour earlier.
He had used several accounts to oppose Seojun’s eight-win streak.
[We get it, he’s amazing, so stop fighting him.]
[If you fight him any more, you’re just proving you’re an idiot.]
[Points gained from an eight-win streak.]
[Why the Demonic Cult is the only one celebrating.]
And he had been bombarded with downvotes in exactly the same way.
After checking the list of people who had downvoted him, Sapa’s Dignity shouted,
“They’re the same bastards as before!”
The same people had continued downvoting him both during the eight-win streak and now.
Whenever he used his various accounts to get his posts to ten recommendations, those bastards would appear like ghosts, downvote the posts, and force them off the front page.
“It’s over. Damn it.”
To be precise, it would be fair to say things had been half over from the moment Seojun achieved eight consecutive wins.
And on top of that, he had earned an additional 12,800 renown through his ten-win streak. Considering that Sapa’s Dignity had only 4,900 renown, the gap was utterly impossible to overcome.
And the streamer in question didn’t seem satisfied even with that, as he queued for another game.
Twelve consecutive wins were absolutely unacceptable.
It was unacceptable even for the sake of his faction’s victory.
The moment the streamer achieved twelve consecutive wins, he would be capable of doing the work of fourteen rankers all by himself.
Fourteen top-tier rankers, at that.
Sapa’s Dignity understood the danger better than anyone.
But—
“Should I fight him?”
He found himself hesitating.
The only remaining possibility for him to take first place was to defeat the streamer and force him to change factions.
“But still…”
There was no guarantee he could win if he fought.
Meanwhile, the people who had downvoted him were recommending posts like these and changing public opinion.
[Upvote if you think the true men who didn’t chicken out despite losing are coolㅋㅋㅋ]
[I think they showed chivalry even though they lostㅋㅋㅋ]
[Now that’s something to be proud of!]
[We have to preserve the game’s dignity somehow!]
[That was the very image of an orthodox hero.]
Damn it.
“Are these bastards manipulating public opinion too?”
He felt that challenging Seojun somehow was the right thing to do.
But in the end, he gave up.
“Can’t be helped. I’ll have to give up on first place in this battlefield.”
It felt even more bitter knowing that all of this had happened because he had written those provocative posts.
On top of that, hadn’t he even been made a fool of in the game where he had gone in intending to stop Seojun’s winning streak starting from the second match?
“The more I think about it, the angrier I get.”
Even so, he endured it for the sake of the Unorthodox Faction’s victory.
However—
“Huh? Why did that game get matched? Does he not know how much renown he’ll get for twelve consecutive wins? What kind of idiot is this?!”
There wasn’t much time left until the end.
Why now of all times?!
“Damn it. That stupid orthodox bastard!”
* * *
“Wow…”
With about twenty minutes left until the end, Seojun thought,
They actually matched me with someone.
-?? Is he going for twelve consecutive wins???? Insane
-How much renown will he get if he wins this?
-Who’s the opponent?
-He might actually get flamed for thisㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Seojun went outside and faced his opponent.
[Cheonsalseong]
“Hello. I thought I only lost earlier because I was unlucky.”
I see.
“But do you know how much renown I’ll get if I win this?”
“Of course. Still, shouldn’t I win anyway? Hehehe.”
His voice sounded a little shaky, but that was probably just Seojun’s imagination.
-This guy is a fucking true manㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-That’s awesome, Sal-seong!
-I’m having so much fun right now, Sal-seong!
-The orthodox and unorthodox faction leaders are crying in real timeㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Total emergency!
-A complete catastrophe has happened, holy shitㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Does he even know he’ll be confirmed as the biggest villain of this battlefield if he loses?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Naturally—
“Very well. Try beating me once.”
Cheonsalseong’s reason for losing had not been bad luck.
[Renown gained: +49,600]
After achieving twelve consecutive wins, the renown he had gained appeared before Seojun’s eyes.