Chapter 124

CHAPTER 124

Seo Jun played three more consecutive matches using Kael.

In the meantime, there were people who wanted him to play other heroes, and others who wanted to see a three-player queue, but neither option worked out.

The former was simply because Seo Jun didn't want to play any other hero.

As for the latter, the games ended before enough people could gather.

The enemy mid laner would leave, or the jungler would disconnect, leading to an early surrender.

Sometimes infighting broke out as well.

Seo Jun thought that newbies these days seemed to lack perseverance.

Of course, he didn't say that out loud.

"That was fun today too, Tva."

After ending the Travel stream, Seo Jun climbed out of the capsule.

Seo Jun washed up before bed and then sat down at his desk.

It was time for the Seodongbu meeting.

The one-on-one video featuring the Rankers, which had climbed to No. 3 on the Trending Videos chart, finally surpassed one million views and became the most-viewed video on Seo Jun's channel.

It had taken two weeks, but the number itself carried a moving sense of accomplishment.

[Han Jimin: Boss! We became the greatest under heaven in the game, and now we've finally hit one million views!]

[Jin Seojun: Wow!]

[Lee Geonyeong: As expected! Uploading it right away was definitely worth it!]

[Han Jimin: Agreed.]

For several days, they had been refreshing the page repeatedly, waiting for the video to hit one million.

Today, it finally reached that milestone.

[Lee Geonyeong: How much money did that video make by itself?]

[Han Jimin: Probably around 7 to 8 million won?]

[Lee Geonyeong: Wow... that's insane.]

[Han Jimin: Congratulations, Boss!]

[Han Jimin: (A rough congratulatory character emoticon)]

'Still, the amount I actually receive from that video would be around 3.5 to 4 million won, I guess?'

To Seo Jun, who lived independently, maintained a frugal college lifestyle, and had also lived modestly in his previous life, it was a huge amount of money to earn from a single video.

Thinking back on the past, Seo Jun nodded.

'I really was incorruptible.'

Corrupt officials accepted money from bad people in exchange for favors, and either stole from good people or allowed them to suffer harm.

Seo Jun had done the exact opposite.

That didn't mean he forcibly extorted money from bad people.

If he brought them into the Room of Truth, they would hand it over voluntarily, so why bother extorting them?

[Han Jimin: You didn't actually say that, right?]

[Jin Seojun: Nope, haha. I'll buy everyone cake too.]

[Han Jimin: Cake? Sounds delicious. Thank you!]

[Lee Geonyeong: Me too!]

[Jin Seojun: And lastly, I know a really good fitness center. I'll buy gym memberships too!]

[Jin Seojun: Coffee's on me to celebrate our first one-million-view video!]

[Lee Geonyeong: Wow! So you're telling us to work harder!]

[Han Jimin: Hurry up, drink that coffee, and focus on pumping out videos, slaves!]

Immediately afterward, silence fell over the chatroom.

'Hm.'

The little "1" beside the messages had definitely disappeared, so why wasn't anyone replying?

They should think about their health too.

No matter how skilled a martial artist was, nobody could defeat time forever.

Though admittedly, Seo Jun wasn't really in a position to say that, considering he hadn't aged properly and had died relatively young.

Still, taking care of oneself early was obviously a good idea.

While entertaining such pointless thoughts, Seo Jun typed another message.

As soon as the chat updated, the unread count disappeared again. It didn't seem like they'd left.

[Han Jimin: Oh, right! Boss, did you check your email?]

[Jin Seojun: What about the memberships?]

[Han Jimin: Not that. We got an invitation email from Rios!]

[Jin Seojun: Oh?]

[Jin Seojun: What do you think about the memberships?]

The unexpected news made Seo Jun's eyes widen.

There were two ways tournament organizers gathered streamers.

One was through applications.

The other was through direct invitations.

Usually, they invited people first, then selected and drew lots among the applicants afterward. Invitations generally accounted for around 10–20% of the participants.

Originally, that percentage had been much higher.

But now, with the streaming market having grown enormously and the number of streamers exploding, things had changed.

Aside from a few core streamers needed for publicity, organizers no longer needed to reserve tournament slots in advance through invitations.

Simply put, in the old days, when the overall streamer pool was small, organizers were the ones in a weaker position.

—Would you perhaps consider participating in our tournament? If you don't come, Mr. Streamer, we're doomed.

That's how it used to be.

But now?

—Anyone who wants to come, come! The prizes are great!

That's what it had become.

Because of that, Seo Jun had believed it would be even harder for him to receive an invitation.

Even Oh Jihye had said it was unlikely.

Yet somehow, he had received one.

[Han Jimin: Boss, you said you wanted to participate in Rios, right? This worked out perfectly!]

[Lee Geonyeong: I don't think you only attracted "a little" attention, though...]

Reading Seo Jun's messages, Lee Geonyeong thought from afar:

'Please, Boss. Have some self-awareness.'

Regardless, Seo Jun remained the same as ever.

[Jin Seojun: Thankfully, I guess I managed to attract a little attention.]

[Jin Seojun: I thought this level of attention wouldn't be enough, but they actually invited me.]

[Han Jimin: Well, you have been hiding your strength a bit, Boss. The fact that they still noticed you means it stood out even to them. This is completely "an awl in a sack."]

[Jin Seojun: Oh, you're pretty smart.]

[Han Jimin: Hahaha.]

[Lee Geonyeong: .....]

[Jin Seojun: Well then, I'm off to sleep.]

[Han Jimin: Yup!]

[Lee Geonyeong: Yup!]

[Han Jimin: Oh, right. Make sure to check your email trash folder!]

The trash folder?

Was it related to the Rios invitation?

[Jin Seojun: Understood.]

Seo Jun closed the chatroom, logged into the site, opened his mailbox, and entered the trash folder.

Then he realized two things:

First, Han Jimin had been extremely diligent in cleaning up the mailbox.

Second, the matter wasn't related to Rios at all.

It was about The League.

More specifically, emails related to Kael in The League.

[How much do you want? We'll crowdfund any amount! Trust the Kael fanatics!]

[I want your field of vision.]

[Please tell us the patterns.]

[It'll probably get nerfed or changed, but please let me know just once.]

Hundreds of emails like these had piled up.

The fact that Han Jimin had managed to move all of them into the trash folder was impressive in itself.

"The contents are pretty much all the same."

That was Seo Jun's overall impression after reading them.

They're really serious about Kael.

To get a clearer picture of what was going on, Seo Jun visited the community forums and found The League's Kael board.

The moment he entered, he understood what had happened.

At first, these people had tried asking Seo Jun directly.

But they had run into the chat restrictions.

[Can't type in chat?]

200

--- End of Chapter ---

==

[After a timeout, you have to wait 3 hours.]

==

—Can't cause trouble. Can't make threats either.

—Then he'll take a one-week streaming break just to discipline the viewers. Be careful.

Damn, we really do need to be careful.

—Can't you existing viewers just tell him through chat?

ㄴEven if it's not us, people keep posting messages asking someone to tell him, but the streamer doesn't even glance at them.

ㄴWould he notice if we spammed it?

Nah, you'd probably get disciplined for that too lol.

Then should we spam donations?

—Guys, let's use email instead of donations. That's probably the cleanest method. Anything else would just be a nuisance.

That was how the emails had arrived.

Since the email address had been opened specifically so viewers could share their opinions, the Kael users' choice had actually been reasonable.

Seo Jun thought about it for a moment.

There was no reason to hide it, so he didn't particularly mind telling them.

"The problem is, even if I explain it, it won't really mean anything."

He could explain it.

But if simply knowing the principle were enough to see it, someone would have discovered it long ago even without Seo Jun.

"Still, they took the time to send emails."

Seo Jun sat down at his computer and logged into Travel.

Then he started a stream.

The stream title was simply "Kael," and the screen displayed nothing but a black background.

While waiting, he watched the Kael forum.

—Wow, he's explaining it right away?

—I love streamers who actually communicate with viewers. Heading over immediately.

[That streamer just went live!]

—Suddenly? Why?

—Has he ever done this before?

ㄴNope.

—This isn't because of us, is it?

—The title is literally Kael.

After confirming the reaction he had hoped for, Seo Jun shifted his attention to his own chatroom, where viewers were confused by his sudden broadcast.

—What?

—Oh??

—Seo-ha.

—Hyung, did you mess up?

—Say something.

—If it's you, it'll be okay. Just pretend you didn't accidentally start the stream and continue broadcasting.

—Is this one of those cases where he accidentally went live, doesn't realize it, starts talking behind the scenes, and gets himself canceled?

—A lot of streamers have gone down that way lol.

That was not destined to happen to Seo Jun.

"No, everyone. You know how my personality on stream is kind of bad, right?"

—Seo-ha.

—We heard his voice.

—You knew your personality was bad? That's surprising.

The viewers were saying some savage things.

It was basically an annual event for streamers to accidentally cause scandals after forgetting they were live, but Seo Jun would not be joining their ranks.

"That personality is just my streaming persona. My real personality is a bit different. I'm nice. So even if my stream accidentally broadcasted for twenty-four hours straight, I'd be perfectly safe."

—There he goes talking nonsense again.

—Hyung, nobody believes that.

—The academic consensus is that you're actually toning your personality down for the stream.

—So why did you go live?

—Computer problems?

"I started the stream to tell you how to see it."

The Kael users couldn't type in his chat right now, but if they could, they probably would have been spamming consonants in disbelief.

"I'll get straight to the point. Kael's patterns become visible if you just use your head a little."

The roughly three thousand viewers instantly froze.

"A notice will be posted soon, so make sure to check it. Tva."

Whether they liked it or not, the stream ended there.

"Ah, and the reason I started the stream was because I'm going to explain Kael's next weak-point pattern."

—?

—What?

—This lunatic lolololololol.

—If you're curious, go check The League's Kael board.

—What an evil bastard lol.

—The Kael addicts are crying lol.

Those viewers had clearly been hanging around the Kael board.

The chat continued filling with laughter.

They would probably head over there soon.

Just like Seo Jun.

0087135

Even after the stream ended, laughter continued flooding the chat.

The topic had become Seo Jun himself rather than the pattern.

When news reached the Kael board—

[??]

[Was that a provocation?]

[Did he just pick a fight with us?]

[LMAO]

["If you just use your head a little, you'll see it." Upvote if you're losing your mind.]

==

[That bastard probably doesn't even know himself and is just abusing broken mechanics.]

[Yeah, his whole scam routine was exposed ages ago lol.]

But seriously, that's infuriating.

You'd better write a good announcement, streamer. ^^

==

Seo Jun smiled in satisfaction before beginning to write a notice on iTube.

Coincidentally, a post he liked had appeared.

[You can get angry after reading the announcement, guys!]

Not the content itself, but still.

If he left things as they were, people who were laughing now might start taking it seriously later, so he needed to post the announcement quickly.

Seo Jun typed rapidly and pressed Enter.

A notice appeared on his iTube community page.

[I'll explain Kael's patterns personally during tomorrow's stream!]

The response was positive.

Comments from non-subscribers immediately poured in.

—Kael players, we won! The power of email!

—This streamer is going places! Such a good person! He even looks kind!

—We're finally getting to use double weak-point combos too lol.

—They're so simple-minded lol.

—Brother, your mastery of trolling and viewer training has reached the realm of art...

—Oh!

—Nice!

He intentionally didn't explain anything in the announcement.

If he had, people would've stayed up all night trying to verify whether what he said was true.

What a shame.

'The next weak point after Kael's current one is usually located in a position that's about medium difficulty to chain into after cutting the previous weak point. If I wrote that with no further explanation...'

Instead of engaging in healthy discussion and research all night, they would probably spend the entire time insulting Seo Jun.

It couldn't be helped.

Medium difficulty.

Moderately.

Appropriately.

Figure it out yourselves.

This was the kind of thing that could only be explained through intuition.

Someone who had designed the system personally might be able to post a formula.

But even with the formula in front of them, nobody would suddenly become capable of predicting it.

Not even the creator.

Still, there were things Seo Jun could do.

'I could teach them how to develop that intuition. Or directly help them awaken it, even if only a little.'

Coincidentally, there was an email whose title had caught his attention.

[Is the Kael player in this old video perhaps you, Seo Jun? I'm a fan!]

The sender was a top-tier Challenger-level player.

He knew because the email mostly consisted of a brief self-introduction and a request for guidance.

Seo Jun clasped his hands together, thinking he had found exactly the email he needed.

Then, with an unusually serious expression, he muttered:

"So this is what a Challenger is."

The viewers who had watched Seo Jun until now would recoil in horror whenever he talked about teaching people.

Most of them were Bronze and Silver players, after all.

It seemed that fact had just been proven.