Chapter 183

CHAPTER 183

While Seojun continued giving viewers one last bit of "advice" for the sake of entertainment—telling them not to fall for this kind of thing next time, despite being completely powerless to stop himself(?)—

The viewers, whose patience was famously nonexistent, immediately declared:

"Can't let this slide!"

And spread the news to other streams.

They were truly excellent messengers.

And the people who heard the news through those messengers—especially the pros—all reacted differently.

"Wait, what? His maximum is only two orbs?"

"What? His Synchronization Rate is 10?"

"What? He's still a game newbie? It's been less than six months?"

Two pro players who only knew Seojun from watching him in the training grounds reacted like that.

And then there was the defeated Taker.

'Even with only two, he'll probably make the rankings somehow.'

Without even checking the details, he quietly predicted Seojun's victory.

All by himself.

• Looks like Taker got PTSD.
• Stop mentioning it, LOL.
• If Taker disappears from the next broadcast, it's your fault.
• Show some respect. This honored guest graced such a humble place with his presence.
• Sure, he insisted on proving himself and got crushed by an AI instead of the streamer, but imagine how embarrassing that must've been. Stop making him relive it.

Thus earning both misunderstanding and sympathy.

And finally—

Baek Doyul.

Outwardly, he acted uninterested.

Inwardly, however, he was reviewing everything he knew about Seojun.

'So a Synchronization Rate that low really can manifest as a weakness in-game. That might actually be useful.'

And apparently his teammates were weaker than expected as well.

That was good news.

'He used Evic last time, right?'

Evic's difficulty didn't come from visualization.

According to the developers' intentions, Evic was clearly a hero whose skill ceiling was determined by prediction.

Kael, meanwhile, was about response and adaptation rather than prediction.

'I couldn't do that either.'

Looking back now, there was probably one more thing he couldn't do.

But strangely enough, he didn't feel competitive about it.

When something was so absurd it resembled a supernatural ability—like identifying songs from the grooves of a vinyl record—there wasn't much room for rivalry.

It just became unbelievable.

Anyway.

'Heroes that concentrate their difficulty into a single element, like Evic, usually compensate by making their other mechanics relatively easy.'

He didn't know game development well enough to say for certain.

But it was entirely possible that visualizing twenty chain trajectories was easier than visualizing a single orb.

Of course, controlling all twenty chains so they wouldn't tangle—or ensuring an enemy couldn't escape them—was a completely different issue.

But the act of visualizing them itself wasn't especially difficult.

Those heroes didn't require you to perfectly imagine every individual chain link fired from a magic circle.

'You only need to visualize the trajectory as a line.'

Orbs were different.

You had to accurately visualize the complex, utterly pointless internal structure.

And lastly—

'The History Book event.'

The person who had recently become his rival—

Baek Doyul's impression of Seojun was simple.

He was a streamer by nature.

He liked attention.

And despite once selling a prestigious title like Heavenly Demon for a mere five million won, he would still challenge anything if his viewers enjoyed it.

Therefore—

'He'll definitely participate. And no matter which hero he chooses, he'll find a way to qualify.'

For now, this conflict was being fought indirectly through the team Heavy Mental.

A proxy war.

But Seojun preferred fighting personally.

That put him at a disadvantage.

He could even lose here.

If that happened?

Then all he had to do was bring in the wonderful rule known as best two out of three.

And for the third battlefield—

'I should try the History Book event next year too.'

Korean pros usually avoided it because they needed to manage their condition.

But they didn't completely abstain.

And overseas players reportedly joined whenever possible.

Incidentally, the thought of losing the first two battles and never reaching a third never crossed his mind.

At most, he'd suffer something like this proxy battle.

Even then, only if Seojun's weaknesses were successfully exploited.

'This is fun.'

Just as Baek Doyul's competitive spirit flared up again and he clenched his fist—

"...Coach?"

A voice reached his ears.

"Coach?"

The sound gradually became clearer.

"Coaaach?"

Baek Doyul snapped back to reality.

He'd been lost in thought for far too long.

His teammates had deliberately ignored the chat messages acting as messengers because he hadn't reacted at all.

Yet he'd still spaced out completely.

• LOL, did he get scared again?
• Coward.
• If you're upset, summon him and try it yourself.
• Hey, earlier he only backed off because they were doing content!
• Calm down. Nobody actually believes that. They're just teasing the champion while they still can, LOL.

At the moment, Baek Doyul was in the training grounds.

And for the record—

He was quite intelligent.

"Ah. I think I just figured out how to counter him. Thanks for the information."

He deliberately didn't say who he intended to counter.

• Damn!
• Wave, learn from this. Even someone who beat a pro can be defeated if you exploit their weaknesses.
• LMAO.
• No wonder he's the champion.

• Guys LOL bankrupt hahaha.
• Have you ever seen U.S. Treasury bonds fail? Have you?!
• This mission is safer than U.S. Treasuries LOL.
• And there's only one chance!

One chance.

That part bothered Seojun a little too.

"You guys really want me to shout Challenge! before starting? Why?"

The chat was flooded with demands for him to declare Challenge! before beginning.

When Seojun questioned it, even more viewers agreed.

What was this about?

"Hyung. I think they're worried you'll argue about the result later if you don't say it."

The team members seemed to understand.

Seojun didn't.

Even after hearing the explanation.

"If I don't say Challenge!, why would I argue?"

• AHHHH, THIS GUY IS SERIOUS! 😂
• Please study hard, get into a top university, and instead of going out with that handsome face of yours, stay home and watch more videos!
• This guy stays home playing games though.
• But he wasn't doing that a few months ago, right? He was living diligently. That's what makes it annoying.

"I'll just start."

Seojun stepped up to the starting line.

[Would you like to begin the trial?]

• Hurry up and shout Challenge!
• Challenge!
• We've warned him enough. Even the Arbitration Committee would agree. If he tries to argue later, don't accept it.
• But seriously, shouldn't we give him a few practice runs?
• LOL if you give this guy a few tries, he might actually pull it off.
• Nah, no way.

A few more attempts would certainly make things easier.

If he wanted to succeed in one try—

'This is going to be close.'

His theory could be wrong.

And even if it was right, it would still be close.

But that was fine.

This wasn't a battlefield where failure meant death.

With a light heart—

But complete sincerity—

"Challenge. Like that?"

Seojun halfheartedly declared it and took his first step.

• LOL he actually said it.
• That sounded more like, 'The kids kept nagging me, so here you go.'

Woooooooong.

The buzzing sound of a swarm appeared again.

Much clearer than before.

Targets burst out from the grass on both sides.

The orbs forming in front of Seojun immediately moved.

Screeeech!

There were only two.

The instant he saw the targets, he searched for the optimal route that would allow two orbs to destroy four targets as quickly as possible.

If he could summon four orbs, he could simply focus on hitting them.

But he couldn't.

So in the brief instant he saw the targets, he had to plan movement paths.

'Fortunately, controlling the orbs isn't a problem.'

They moved exactly as intended.

Piercing through the first target and continuing toward the next.

The trajectories curved like parabolas.

The shortest and fastest possible routes.

'0.06 seconds? No... maybe 0.05?'

It felt slightly slow.

Thinking that, Seojun immediately summoned another pair of orbs, eliminated the remaining four targets, and took his next step.

'This is important too.'

Even if all the targets weren't destroyed yet, he had to keep moving.

Waiting until they were completely cleared would make him late.

If everything could be handled perfectly within one second, then maybe—

Wooooooong.

The buzzing grew louder.

Targets appeared.

At the same time—

Step.

Seojun's second step touched the ground.

Fwoooong.

Yet the two orbs appeared in front of him ever so slightly late.

Screeeeech!

The orbs traced arcing paths through the air, cleaning up the eight targets.

• Huh? He's already falling behind a little???
• Even this early there's definitely some delay. What now?
• 0.1 seconds? 0.05? Not sure, but it's already over lol.
• SAFE INVESTMENT!!!
• Another win for the viewers~
• Not another win. Our first win.

Nothing changed on the third step.

The delayed time accumulated.

Gradually.

Clearly.

From the beginning, Seojun was confident he was already destroying the targets as quickly as physically possible.

The problem was simply that two orbs had limits.

And because of that, there would be no miraculous turnaround.

'At least if things continue like this.'

But Seojun had anticipated this situation.

Without panicking, he continued eliminating targets in the minimum time available.

Then—

'The sound has changed a lot.'

The sound.

The thing Seojun had been paying attention to from the moment he watched the videos.

The fifth step.

Targets appeared as always.

That never changed.

But the accumulated delay had now become obvious enough for even the viewers to notice.

When six targets appeared in front of him, the orbs hadn't even finished forming yet.

The fact that people could notice even that tiny difference was already a serious issue.

• Now they're spawning behind him too.
• LOL free money. That means he was already behind before the rear spawns started.
• It's not that slow yet.
• The problem is it's only been five steps.
• And the bigger problem is there's no way he'll recover.
• And the biggest problem is the goal is Top 10 LOL.

Exactly.

Every ranked player, at least up to this point, had accumulated zero delay.

Whether it was 0.1 seconds or 0.01.

They had mechanically summoned and launched four orbs over and over until now.

But Seojun had already fallen behind.

And that meant he was already behind their records.

There was no way to reverse it.

At least that's what the viewers thought.

But—

'There is a way.'

Probably.

Two targets remained in front.

Two behind.

Seojun sent one orb to deal with the front pair.

Then turned around.

And—

The moment he saw the positions of the targets, he smiled.

"I told you guys. Can't you hear it?"

His composure returned.

Actually, he didn't have much composure at all.

Starting from the next wave, he'd need to build in some insurance.

Still—

"What am I good at?"

The sixth step.

The sixth wave settled into position just as the fifth wave was finally destroyed.

The next pair of orbs formed slightly later than before.

"Language arts, obviously. Time to start closing the gap with the rankers."

Of course, Seojun still had no way to clear everything within one second.

Even if all the targets spawned only in front of him.

However—

When the rankers eventually reached the waves where they would begin accumulating delays—

He was confident he could accumulate less delay than they would.

He just needed to catch up there.

Screeeeeech!

The four targets ahead exploded.

And the moment only two front and two rear targets remained—

Seojun's viewers saw it.

Without turning around, Seojun casually took his next step.

The orbs surrounding him shot both forward and backward.

• What does language arts have to do with this? LOL.
• Well, he got into Korea University, so he must've been good at it.
• Wait, why isn't he turning around?
• ...No way?

Screeeeeech!

And Ha Yoonho's viewers saw it too.

Without even looking behind him—

The orb Seojun launched curved through the air in a parabola.

And pierced straight through the two targets behind him.