Chapter 122

CHAPTER 122

[Who the hell is this guy? Why does he have 20,000 viewers? I've never seen him before.]

Twenty thousand viewers was an extremely high number for a streamer.

He wasn't considered a top-tier giant streamer, but rather an upper mid-sized one.

Still, it wasn't a level that could be ignored.

Only a handful of mid-sized streamers ever reached that position.

So when an unfamiliar streamer occupied such a spot, curiosity was inevitable.

A post appeared on The League community forum.

An unfamiliar streamer had shown up near the top of Travel The League's category.

(Screenshot from Travel)

Who is this?

Comments quickly appeared beneath the simple question.

Of course, it wasn't entirely innocent.

The title itself used the insult "this bastard," so the replies naturally came with some spice.

• You don't know the Heavenly Demon?

└ Do I have to? (Original Poster)

• This guy actually doesn't know.

└ No, seriously, am I supposed to? (Original Poster)

The original poster seemed genuinely aggrieved.

And this streamer had that many people who knew him?

Almost everyone commenting seemed familiar with him.

Though, naturally, people who didn't know him wouldn't bother commenting.

• I'm a regular viewer, and honestly this streamer is a total nobody though? (Original Poster)
• Get lost!
• Hmm. Did you guys come from For the Sake of Chivalry? (Original Poster)
• Calling the Heavenly Demon a nobody...
• He's the Sword God now.
• Ahem. You're part of the righteous faction now. Stop trying tricks.

"Nobody."

Anyone even remotely interested in games would immediately associate that slang with For the Sake of Chivalry.

It was shorthand for "someone you've never heard of."

That game was practically the only martial arts title with any significant player base.

Remembering that the Battlefield season had recently ended, the poster replied:

• His average viewers don't even match The League's average.

Surprisingly, that wasn't entirely wrong.

The League was simply that large.

• Is Battlefield really that big? lol. (Original Poster)

The poster genuinely thought:

Battlefield is one of those things where only its own players watch it. Sure, some streamers get huge spikes in views, but once you look closely, isn't a mid-sized League streamer still bigger overall?

• Now you're disrespecting For the Sake of Chivalry?
• You'll come to your senses after the Heavenly Demon parries you.
• This is a League community. You guys are the ones who need to wake up. (Original Poster)

This was a world where completely unknown creators could suddenly have one or two million subscribers.

No matter how famous Seojun had become in For the Sake of Chivalry, there were still far more people who didn't know him than people who did.

That was why League players who knew Seojun from his For the Sake of Chivalry days started recommending that people watch just one gameplay clip.

• Just watch one game and you'll understand.
• He's insanely good. A genuine skill-based streamer. Just watch once.
• Here. (Clip) (Clip) (Clip)
• Watch this one too. It's crazy. (Clip)

But the poster replied:

• Imagine fangirling over some random streamer lol. (Original Poster)
• Just because you have a mouth doesn't mean you should use it like that.
• Nah, you guys only like him because he fought people in For the Sake of Chivalry lol.
• Typical Chivalry standards lol. (Original Poster)
• ???
• What the hell are you even talking about?! (Original Poster)

Kael lived and died by weak points.

Even his skills required him to strike three weak points within a certain amount of time before they became usable.

The time limit was ten seconds after hitting a weak point.

If ten seconds passed before he struck the next one, the chain reset.

Surprisingly, it was fairly lenient.

Anyone reasonably familiar with the hero could manage it if they concentrated.

Of course, it was still difficult enough to mass-produce addicts.

His ultimate followed the same principle.

You had to build three more stacks after that, for a total of six.

It wasn't impossible.

But it was difficult enough to create plenty of addicts as well.

One small mistake and you lose everything. A classic high-risk, high-reward design.

The standard by which Kael players were judged was simple:

How quickly could they trigger their skills through weak-point attacks?

Why?

Weren't weak points random?

Because they aren't random.

Seojun drove his sword into the weak point before immediately moving toward the next one.

While he predicted the next weak point in a fraction of a second, the viewers were still discussing what had happened moments ago.

• Building the skill in two seconds is complete nonsense lol.
• Skilled players are fast, but this is way too fast, streamer!

They were right.

Experts could chain Kael's weak points faster than ordinary players.

More specifically, "experts" meant craftsmen—players who had played Kael thousands upon thousands of times.

• Seriously, is there some pattern? Did you memorize it?

Seojun's sword moved without hesitation.

A weak point appeared in the light.

Horizontal slash.

Then a thrust.

Clang! Clang!

The moment each weak point appeared, the tip of his sword was already there, shattering it.

Exactly two seconds.

A freshly loaded arrow flew toward him.

White light enveloped Seojun once more.

[Radiant Blessing]

• Not again?!
• Holy shit.
• Does this invulnerability skill duplicate itself or something?
• What the hell is this? LOL.

Players who pushed a character to the absolute limit, mastering every trick and technique until they possessed overwhelming skill with that specific character, were called craftsmen.

And Kael had many craftsmen.

So what kind of feats could a Kael craftsman perform?

They could fulfill their skill conditions and activate their ultimate amid complicated and disadvantageous combat situations.

No matter the circumstances, if someone could reliably activate the skill within twenty seconds, they were considered good.

Ten seconds earned them recognition as a craftsman.

Eight seconds meant they possessed Challenger-level mechanics.

But—

• TWO SECONDS AGAIN?! LOL.
• That's impossible!
• There has to be a guidebook for this!

Seojun's sword cut through another weak point.

Then another.

And another.

Without pause.

Whenever it looked like he might be interrupted, he simply used the skill universally acknowledged as one of the strongest in the game based purely on performance.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Huh? Huh? Wait, stop!"

Each time Seojun struck a weak point, the enemy's health bar shrank.

Now it had finally reached zero.

The enemy died with eyes wide in confusion.

[Nice mid.]

[What was that?! Kael is amazing!]

Those were his teammates.

In The League, players could communicate with the entire team during a match.

[FIRST BLOOD!]

The minimap showed everyone's locations.

Players could also send quick information through pings.

All they had to do was pull the desired option from the interface floating beside them, much like a thought-activated chat window.

That convenience had been one of The League's strengths ever since its PC era.

Smiling faintly, Seojun returned to farming minions.

[HE IS UNSTOPPABLE!]

"Oh dear. Looks like I failed to control my strength."

At the announcer's declaration, Seojun opened the interface.

The enemy's KDA appeared.

0 / 5 / 0

Seojun's KDA was 5 / 0 / 0.

Meaning the opposing mid laner had already died to him five times.

[Whoa, whoa, whoa! Is Kael insane?!]

[Were you actually a Kael craftsman?!]

[I believed in you!]

[Isn't the enemy mid just trolling?]

• If he fails to control his strength two more times, he'll probably get a pentakill lol.
• Streamer, stop hiding the guidebook already!
• Release the guidebook!
• Release the guidebook!
• Release the guidebook!
• No, seriously, how are you doing that...? There really has to be some kind of pattern, right?
• Upvote if you're a Kael addict drooling right now lol.

Listening to his teammates cheering, Seojun said,

"The enemy mid came back and left again immediately. I'm getting lonely over here."

Back when Seojun used to play, Kael had been a little different.

I was honestly surprised when I checked the information yesterday.

The concept remained the same: spotting weak points and attacking them quickly for advantages.

But there had been no invulnerability skill back then, and the ultimate had no conditions attached.

Instead, the speed buff granted from striking weak points had been more than twice as powerful as it was now.

The core remained unchanged.

Only the skills had been adjusted little by little.

Back then, people weren't nearly as obsessed with striking weak points quickly.

Now things were different.

• There definitely has to be a pattern.
• If there was one, someone would've discovered it by now... Seriously, this is fascinating.
• This is exactly what happened with the Flaw! The streamer found it again! He's an alien!
• Is he able to do this because he's smart?
• Nah. The streamer must be the heir to Surface, so game companies reveal all their secrets to him.
• Then why is someone that important streaming on Travel? lol.

Seojun laughed.

"And you're thinking that because..."

Kael's current version lived and died by speed.

If it were truly random, luck would matter more than speed.

The reason Kael specialists could strike weak points faster than ordinary players was simple.

After thousands or tens of thousands of matches, they had unconsciously grasped fragments of the pattern.

When they played Kael, they instinctively stepped into the same territory where Seojun stood.

"Everyone, why did you assume the weak-point generation pattern was random in the first place?"

• Because nobody found it lol.
• If you play enough, you can sort of feel where it'll appear, but that's it.
• It was considered partially random.

That had been the accepted theory until now.

Whether it appeared on the left or right, above or below—that part followed a pattern, so experience could teach you that much.

But the details? Whether it started from the shoulder, whether it was a circle that required a thrust, whether it needed a vertical slash, where the trajectory began... all of that was random!

Because nobody could figure it out.

That had been the community's consensus before Seojun arrived.

And most players who weren't watching him probably still believed it.

"Everyone, you get it now, right? Game companies only like randomness when they're selling loot boxes."

His viewers had now witnessed proof that Kael's weak points followed patterns.

• LOL. He found this just like he found the Flaw.
• The loot box comment lol.
• Gacha really does rule the world.
• No but seriously, what kind of person even notices stuff like this?!
• Just your average rookie from the peninsula.
• That's our streamer.
• Give us a detailed explanation!!!

"I'll explain it later. Anyway, I've reached level six now, so shall we see how long it takes to get the ultimate?"

If three weak points took two seconds to stack...

Then what about six?

As if on cue, the mid laner with five deaths wandered back toward lane without a thought in his head.

After dying that many times, people usually lost their souls and moved like machines.

Seojun approached.

The enemy mid flinched in surprise.

But perhaps because his mind had already checked out, his reaction was sluggish.

The first trajectory appeared diagonally.

Clang!

The next one would be a thrust.

Right side of the chest.

Seojun's sword, which had briefly withdrawn, shot forward in a straight line.

Clang!

Paths appeared at countless angles.

The instant they formed, his blade erased them.

"Can I stop watching now...?"

The sound of shattering glass rang out six times in rapid succession.

The condition was fulfilled.

A mark appeared above the enemy's head.

So that's the Heretic Mark.

Anyone marked with it had become the target of Kael's ultimate.

The old ultimate needed to be aimed properly. Now, if the mark appears, it's guaranteed to land.

For Seojun, there was no question which version was better.

After all, only four seconds had passed.

"So this is how you do it, right?"

Seojun gripped his sword with both hands and plunged it into the ground.

As he imagined a sword descending from the heavens—

RUMBLE!

[Judgment Sword]

The sky split apart as a tremendous vibration shook the atmosphere.

Only four seconds after combat began, Kael's ultimate activated.

A gigantic sword descended from above.

The enemy mid, staring blankly upward, watched it fall directly toward his face.

"Wow. Seeing it in person, Kael's skill is really cool."

That comment came from the enemy mid.

Dying every time you returned to lane tended to do that to a person.

"Didn't kill him."

Judgment Sword had an execution effect that instantly killed targets below a certain health threshold.

Even after six weak-point strikes, however, the enemy's HP wasn't low enough.

"Yeah, I'm still alive. Then please kill me now. Thanks for letting me watch the skill."

• LOL his mental state is completely shattered.
• Usually Kael is supposed to be the one going 0/6/0.
• "Thanks for letting me watch the skill~"
• Please explain the method already... I play Kael and I seriously can't take this anymore.

Unbeknownst to Seojun, Kael's popularity had exploded after receiving a rework.

People even joked that he had inherited the legacy of the legendary "Always With the Wind Swordsman," one of the most infamous addict characters from the PC era.

Yet the very people responsible for that reputation didn't care if they were called addicts.

They didn't care about skill.

They didn't care about winning or losing.

They cared about only one thing.

The ultimate.

They picked Kael for one reason and one reason alone:

To use Judgment Sword.

The only statistic they cared about was how many seconds it took before they could cast it.

Speed had always mattered.

Even in the PC era, Kael's predecessor wielded a rapier and detonated weak points.

That old 2D character's ultimate generated four weak points simultaneously in the four cardinal directions.

Players developed countless combos capable of destroying all four weak points in a single second.

Because speed itself was power.

Speed itself was skill.

Many things had changed after the transition to virtual reality.

The environment.

The weak-point mechanics.

The hero's overall concept.

Countless details had been altered.

But the essence remained the same.

Most Kael addicts believed that true skill lay in how accurately you could predict the next weak point and destroy it as quickly as possible.

And right now...

A piece of news had appeared on the community forum that would drive every single Kael addict insane.

The first person to post it was none other than the same user who had earlier asked who Seojun was.

Though the beginning had been different, it was the birth of a second Assassin of Joseon.

[Holy shit... Did someone just pull off a 4-second Judgment Sword???]