Chapter 148

CHAPTER 148

League of Streaming was the biggest and most talked-about tournament among all streamer competitions.

Its name came from its main game, The League, but the scale of the event was so massive that the title fit in more ways than one.

Once the tournament began, it was difficult for any other gaming topic to gain attention.

Rather than being overshadowed, they were practically buried.

After the transition to virtual reality, the streaming market had grown so large that there were almost no gamers who didn't watch streams.

The transformation of gamers into stream viewers had been a complete success.

And one trait all stream viewers shared was simple:

They could never resist a streamer tournament.

Even if it featured a game they didn't play, they'd just learn the game while watching.

And The League wasn't exactly an obscure title.

Almost everyone knew it.

On top of that, several famous streamers participated every year.

So it wasn't strange at all that nearly everyone's attention shifted to The League category from the very beginning.

[Doesn't the auction seem a little weird?]

This was a forum post made when Taewoo spent 750 points on Seojun, an A-rank candidate.

• There are two weird team leaders here, kkkkkkk.
• This is exactly why the tournament staff divided players by skill. At least the teammates were supposed to be somewhat balanced. Kkkkk.

That wasn't actually the main reason.

The biggest reason was that dividing participants by position would severely limit recruitment options because every position would need similar-tier players.

There was also a greater chance of the auction collapsing completely under such a system.

[That streamer is kind of... questionable for such a huge bid from the start.]

[Whew. Looks like Mental Hyung dodged a bullet.]

[Honestly, in LIOS auctions, you always spend big on A-rank junglers.]

[Let's be real. Any A-rank is good except top lane.]

[What's wrong with top lane?!]

[Still, isn't his synchronization rate only 10? Going all-in this early seems insanely stupid.]

Even after the bidding for Seojun ended, public opinion didn't change.

[No amount of caster spin can justify this.]

[He went all-in? Don't make Yoonho team leader again.]

[To be fair, three captains went all-in.]

[Whew! Mental Hyung almost got trapped!]

[Now Hayoonho's team only gets the leftovers nobody wanted. Kkkkk.]

Exactly.

At this point, almost everyone remained skeptical.

And when the expected results appeared, public opinion only became stronger.

Not surprisingly.

In fact, the outcome was even worse than anticipated.

[ABC ended up with three mid laners? I knew this would happen.]

• And they're the best players on the team too. Mid-only players who went unsold. Kkkkk.
• Might be the weakest team in tournament history.
• Unsold players are unsold for a reason.
• I knew this would happen.
• Actually, none of us thought it'd be this bad.
• Everyone predicted it this time.
• Still, this is pretty severe. That A-rank guy at least seems mechanically gifted. Maybe he'll learn another role?
• Losing his main role sucks, but what can he do? B-rank Sabam Sword switched roles. If he can't perform, even an A-rank has to sacrifice for the team. Kkkkk.
• This is why you never go all-in.

[Honestly, I kind of dislike how much attention Jin Seojun is getting.]

His synchronization rate is only 10.

He's lower than me.

Yet somehow he's in the biggest tournament in Travel and attracted the attention of three S-rank captains.

It's annoying.

• This guy's serious. Kkkkk.
• But honestly, I get it.
• Just admit you're jealous because he's handsome.
• ...Come to think of it, maybe that's true. (OP)
• Either way, this auction was a complete disaster.

[Taewoo is secretly a genius.]

He can just play mid himself.

He strengthened bot lane.

And he screwed over his friend.

Absolute genius.

• True.
• At least Taewoo isn't handsome. That's why nothing he does feels annoying.
• Why are you attacking Taewoo now? Kkkkk.
• The last sentence was your real point, wasn't it?
• Isn't this the same guy who said Seojun annoyed him earlier? Kkkkk.
• The OP just hates handsome people.

That was the general consensus.

After the auction ended, viewers summarized everything in one sentence:

Hayoonho's team was obviously a mess.

And a small minority added:

[Jin Seojun has to prove himself.]

[Stop whining. If you're worth that many points, carry.]

[If they get eliminated in groups, it'll be his fault.]

Of course, those posts never received many upvotes and quickly disappeared.

They only encouraged conflict.

And ultimately, the responsibility for the auction belonged to the team captains.

Still, the auction wasn't the only reason people were watching LIOS today.

There was also the warm-up match.

The true warm-up stage usually referred to scrims.

But since the teams had only just been formed, today's games were effectively the first chance to see who could actually play.

More importantly—

Missing today would be like skipping the first episode of a drama series.

And so the E-rank match passed.

[Basically just a pure-for-fun competition. Kkkkk.]

[Looks like everyone's in school retreat mode. Kkkkk.]

Then Ground Zero was revealed as the next game.

And viewers immediately flooded the Ground Zero community.

[Ahhh. Witness the overwhelming power of numbers.]

[Listen well, countryside villagers. This is the true scale of The League.]

[Stop spamming!]

[Excuse me? We're still a top-ten game. Do you think being #1 in battle royale means nothing?]

[Still country bumpkins compared to League, though. Right?]

[If your home is Ground Zero but you're joining the League invaders today, upvote. Kkkkk.]

[Go talk in the League community!]

[Why not both? It's not like we're running out of viewers.]

The Ground Zero community wasn't actually suffering from the invasion.

Because, as mentioned earlier—

This might have been a League tournament.

But in reality, it was a streamer-viewer tournament.

And most game players were stream viewers anyway.

Meaning that, aside from a few exceptions, the people complaining about being invaded were the same people who had come from the League community in the first place.

Regardless, the Ground Zero users began predicting the results.

[Personally, my pick is Wave. He's insanely good at this game. That's the safest prediction.]

[Wave is absolutely the favorite.]

[Spoon is no joke either. He used to show off his aim back in the day, and it's on a completely different level.]

[A Challenger ADC in a shooting game is terrifying. Kkkkk.]

[Then what about the hot topic, Jin Seojun?]

Honestly, if you called him the Sword God after watching his sword skills, I'd accept it.

And after seeing Epic, I nearly pissed myself.

Definitely A-rank.

But that's swords.

What about guns?

What do you all think?

• He'll probably be good, but I don't think he'll carry.
• His aim should be solid, but the feel is completely different.
• No way he wins. It's his first time playing and there are too many things to consider.
• Positioning is the most important thing in Ground Zero. You can't understand it without experience.

The consensus was simple.

Seojun wouldn't win.

Then the match started.

[Kkkkkkkkk, he starts by taunting people.]

[His talent for streaming is insane. Look at him throwing away a gun. Kkkkk.]

[Of all people, he picked a fistfight against the Goblin. Kkkkk.]

As the broadcast increasingly focused on Seojun, public opinion began to shift.

[He wins that???]

[He's tearing through people in 1v1s with almost no health left.]

[His aim is insane too. He just wiped an entire squad.]

[Another squad's coming!]

After Seojun casually cleaned up enemies and displayed flawless accuracy, many people felt his chances of winning had increased by about ten percent.

However—

[Ah, kkkkk. He's dead here.]

[Against Level 3 helmets and armor? If you don't one-shot them, there's nothing you can do.]

The community quickly returned to predicting Seojun's defeat.

Of course—

[What the hell did I just watch?]

[Kkkkk, so bullets can be parried now?]

[Isn't he the god of Ground Zero?]

[I'm picking up a frying pan right now! How could anyone watch this and resist?]

[The true champion is the frying pan. There can be no disagreement.]

[At this rate, won't he start dodging bullets without even looking?]

This was when Seojun had first deflected a bullet with a frying pan.

• Seriously, how did you dodge that at the beginning?
• Did somebody in chat tell him? Roll back the replay!
• I mostly watch chat, and I don't remember anyone saying anything???

At the moment, Seojun had retreated to the entrance of the underground bunker after avoiding the sniper shot.

Walls stood on both sides of him.

Since he had instantly identified that the sniper's position was to the right, he could use either wall as cover.

How did I dodge it?

No matter how often someone faced death on the battlefield, moments of carelessness inevitably came.

Mental exhaustion loosened one's concentration.

Or sometimes the situation simply seemed safe enough to relax.

But Seojun knew exactly how dangerous those moments were.

He had seen plenty of people die because of them.

"Just stay focused. Focus."

In reality, if someone concentrated hard enough, they could probably hear the faint sound of grass being brushed aside.

Thud!

A bullet barely grazed the upper edge of the wall before embedding itself in the opposite side.

Had Seojun lowered his head even slightly less, it would have hit him directly.

"Hmm. They're not exactly conserving ammunition."

The sniper only had twenty rounds, after all.

• Focus my ass.
• Seojun, are you a schoolteacher? Reveal the secret already! Why are you the only one using cheats?!
• Time to confess. Tell us you're hacking.
• The frying pan thing already makes no sense. Kkkkk.
• Even with a Level 3 helmet that's a one-shot, man.
• Wave is probably losing his mind with regret right now.

Ignoring the chat, Seojun activated his radio.

Lumi answered immediately.

[We're on our way!]

[An enemy's set up a sniper position not far from here.]

[Really? Then just snipe them back, Seojun!]

That wasn't quite the issue.

She seemed to have a little too much faith in him lately.

[Hehe. Seojun, which direction are they?]

[North.]

The wall Seojun was currently leaning against faced north.

[Then don't worry. If it's north of the airfield entrance, that means they're close to the edge of the zone, right? They'll have to move soon. That's what Windsword said while driving.]

There had indeed been a notification that the storm would soon advance.

So the enemy couldn't keep up the pressure for very long.

Seojun accepted the logic and waited.

He didn't attempt to charge forward with a frying pan.

He could block sniper rounds too.

But the distance was far too great.

By the time he closed the gap, the enemy could simply board a plane and leave.

[The storm is approaching.]

About thirty seconds later, the notification appeared.

A faint engine sound echoed in the distance.

Vrooooom!

A plane was taking off.

And then—

"Wow! We finally found you! And with only one enemy team left too!"

A convertible arrived in front of the bunker entrance.

"Huh. Nice to see you."

"Definitely."

Lumi waved from the back seat.

Alpaca waved from the front passenger seat.

Seojun quickly climbed in beside them.

The convertible accelerated immediately.

At the same time, the blue wall of the storm began creeping closer behind them.

"At this pace, I don't think we'll get hit even once."

Windsword said as he drove.

Then—

Ting!

A bullet struck the vehicle and ricocheted away.

"Man, do those guys never run out of fuel?"

Windsword grumbled.

• They're getting there first and setting up.
• It'd be insanely hard to hit from that distance, right? Must've been luck.
• Wave's the one shooting. No way that's luck.

High in the sky, a plane flew far ahead of them.

"Our turn to shoot back, right? If it's Seojun, he might actually hit them."

"Really?"

"Yep!"

Hearing that, Seojun pulled the sniper rifle from his inventory and placed his eye against the scope.

The rifle even had a deployable support attachment, but according to the game, firing while holding it was perfectly fine.

The magnified view instantly captured the entire plane.

It was that far away.

The zoom wasn't extraordinary by real-world standards.

But within the game, it was the maximum magnification available.

Preparation complete in an instant, Seojun lined up his target.

Their roof is open too.

The target was tiny.

Moving quickly.

And far away.

Meanwhile, Seojun's own vehicle was also in motion.

His arms adjusted naturally and continuously.

As he did, Seojun recalled the velocity of the sniper bullet he'd seen earlier.

Then he aimed ahead of the aircraft and squeezed the trigger.

Bang!

"No matter how far away it is, someone like Seojun could probably hit the engine compartment at the front of the plane!"

Alpaca said.

The nose of the aircraft had the largest surface area.

In a situation like this, it was the only reasonable target.

So naturally, Alpaca assumed Seojun was aiming for the plane itself.

But then—

[SwordGod14 --> Fuse]

A kill notification appeared.

Question marks filled Alpaca's head.

Wait.

That hit a person?

"Oh. You wanted me to shoot the engine compartment?"

Seojun smiled blankly.

Without taking his eye off the scope, he fired again.

Bang!