Chapter 67
CHAPTER 67
Swaaash!
The sword moved lightly, almost as if it were dancing.
From left to right.
Drawing a diagonal line.
[StrawberryTang Eliminated!]
An enemy thrust a sword from behind, aiming for his back.
Already aware of it, Seojun twisted his body, pulled his arm inward, and the moment his rotation finished, he swung his sword.
Slash.
The enemy failed to block and took the hit.
He prepared to follow up immediately.
“Go ahead. Try taking this.”
He gripped the sword with both hands and raised it high overhead.
The blade reflected the light source hanging in the sky and gleamed brilliantly.
It would come down straight and true.
And with tremendous force behind it. After all, he had plenty of resources to spare.
The enemy, whose stamina was already nearly depleted, noticed this and hurriedly tried to retreat backward.
But it was already too late.
The enemy turned into a corpse.
Then the corpse disappeared.
They had left the game.
[Victory]
[Byeolgu Eliminated!]
The text appearing on the screen announced the end of the match.
“Huh? It’s already over?”
He had only been killing enemies as they came out of the entrance.
Seojun suddenly snapped back to reality.
-Kekekekekekeke you evil bastard
-One guy got so pissed he rage quit LOL
-Seriously, this is too horrifying to watch…
And with that, all four matches for Day 10 were completed.
“Looks like today’s games all ended in wins too, everyone.”
Sometimes there were viewers who wanted to see him lose, but honestly, losing wasn’t easy either.
The reason was simple.
While he occasionally encountered ranked players, he had never met the absolute top-tier rankers.
Apparently they avoided unnecessary clashes.
Because of that, Seojun had only been fighting relatively comfortable opponents.
Even if the matchmaking system tried to pair him against the highest possible opponents, there was nothing it could do if no top-tier players were queueing.
You could also say that proper suppression against him hadn’t started yet.
“Oh. The viewer count went up even more.”
Even though his games had ended, more people kept joining.
[Viewer Count - 9,317]
-People finished their battlefield games too, that’s why.
-Congratulations. Your stream has been selected as the waiting room.
-I just finished my battlefield matches and came here too LOL
The reason was simple.
To put it plainly, Seojun’s stream had become the waiting room.
The waiting room for the rankings that would be revealed at 10 PM today.
Starting from the previous day, countless prediction charts for contribution rankings had flooded the community.
Of course, all predictions would become meaningless once the results were revealed today.
Still, predicting the future was deeply rooted in human nature.
That was how people prepared themselves for events and improved their chances of survival.
And among all those countless prediction charts, the person consistently placed near the top—
Was Seojun.
That was why people gathered in his stream waiting room.
At the very least, aside from Seojun, none of the others near the top of those charts were streamers.
-Just reveal it already!
-The streamer’s number one. I came back from seeing the future.
-As if LOL
-Now we just need to see the final rankings.
-It’s coming soon.
-Streamer, hurry up and reveal your contribution and fame scores!
-I wonder how much he stacked LOL
-He’s probably at least in the top 16.
-Just reveal it already!
-The streamer’s number one. I came back from seeing the future.
-As if LOL
-Now we just need to see the final rankings.
-It’s coming soon.
-Streamer, hurry up and reveal your contribution and fame scores!
-I wonder how much he stacked LOL
-He’s probably at least in the top 16.
There were currently no restrictions on chatting in Seojun’s stream.
A lot of people had joined, and they were obviously the type who enjoyed chatting, so Seojun had left it open.
“It’s getting revealed in about an hour anyway, so just be patient a little longer.”
A reasonable statement.
A statement that got him beaten up.
And streamers got beaten up through donations.
[‘CantWaitOneHour’ donated 20,000 won!]
[Double? I’ll do triple.]
[‘RevealItNow’ donated 10,000 won!]
[Double the donation amount.]
OO
[‘MeToo’ donated 10,000 won!]
[I’m in!]
For a moment, Seojun flinched and felt tempted.
Since it would all be revealed in about an hour anyway, maybe taking the free 60,000 won would actually be the better deal.
“Thank you for the donations.”
But he didn’t make that choice.
It felt like revealing it early would ruin the fun, and comparing everything at once later would make for better content.
“Well, I haven’t checked either, so let’s just wait and see together.”
Since there was no way to compare himself to others yet, checking early wouldn’t let him change or do anything anyway.
If the Demonic Cult had suddenly launched an offensive, he would’ve needed to compare estimates and decide whether to join them or not.
But they weren’t.
“It should be pretty high, right?”
Like everyone else, Seojun expected himself to at least make the top 16.
-Is the streamer really number one like that post said?
-Is this how he becomes world-class?!
-Our streamer is absolutely NOT world-class.
-Are you his dad or something? LOL
“Hm, what should we do now?”
About an hour remained until 10 PM.
Of course, they didn’t need to fill the entire hour.
Because from 9:30 onward, they could just stream-snipe Ark’s broadcast and pass the time that way.
“Should we go sightseeing again?”
Seojun climbed the mountain of the Demonic Cult.
Other places had content too, but the Demonic Cult was basically free.
Even the black robe he was currently wearing had been bought without spending any currency, thanks to Grandmaster.
No matter how you looked at it, Grandmaster was ridiculously overpowered.
Unfortunately, event-distributed items or mileage rewards couldn’t be obtained that way, but the regular shops were more than enough.
“Honestly, wasn’t Grandmaster just Baek Wi-gang’s scheme to keep the strongest players trapped in the Demonic Cult?”
A reasonable suspicion arose.
-LOL true
-The Demonic Cult is so petty.
-Call it good marketing instead.
-But are you saying YOU’RE the strongest player right now?
A sharp comment appeared in chat.
“Well, no one else with Grandmaster has shown up yet, right? Seriously though, what even are the requirements for getting it?”
Questions asking about the requirements for Grandmaster also started appearing.
Since nobody besides Seojun had obtained it so far, it was understandable that people were curious.
However—
“Why are you asking me that?”
He didn’t know either.
Probably because he was just good.
Going beyond merely performing martial art forms and actually modifying and perfecting them was not something just anyone could do.
Even a genius who had trained with the sword for decades would struggle to fully comprehend all forms after reaching that level, so how skilled could ordinary game users possibly become by just fiddling around with them?
-Then show us one more time.
-I’m curious whether you could still get it again if you redid it.
-Prove it! Prove it!
-Can you do it with other techniques too?
If he lacked the skill to obtain it again, then he probably wouldn’t have received Grandmaster in the first place.
“Hm. Then… should we go visit Baek Wi-gang?”
Positive reactions flooded the chat. It was a perfect way to kill time.
“Alright. I’ll show you once. Which martial form do you want?”
He launched No-Hyeop and fixed it onto the broadcast screen.
Then he searched for martial forms on the No-Hyeop strategy board.
Countless guide posts thoroughly detailing various forms and their results.
And seeing users continuing to research them in the comments…
“…”
Seojun’s fingers began twitching.
“Hah. I really want to backseat.”
That feeling you got when you could see the answer but others couldn’t.
Even watching a simple game like Omok made people feel that urge strongly, so how could he possibly ignore people passionately debating martial forms—his field of expertise?
Honestly, it would be easier for a sparrow to pass by a mill without stopping.
-There is no “concept” here.
-Do it once ㄱㄱ
-Grandmaster backseating? LOL impossible to resist
-Did a hidden opportunity appear?!
-The hidden opportunity came to us itself!
-The title fits perfectly
-It’s my first time watching this stream. Is he serious or is this a bit?
Seojun first entered the most eye-catching post to leave a comment.
But the moment he clicked it and the page changed, Seojun realized he didn’t actually have an Adventure account.
“Oh. Wait a second.”
He turned off the screen.
-He doesn’t even have a community account! What an upright young man.
-That’s true.
-Please backseat my post too.
-14ョョョョョョ
“Alright. Made one.”
His very first community nickname ended up being HiddenMaster14.
Because “HiddenMaster” was already taken.
Now that he had a nickname, he slowly browsed through the posts.
And whenever he saw martial forms with some potential, he started leaving comments.
Stuff like this:
-Hidden master my ass.
-He’s “hidden” while 9,000 viewers watch him.
His very first community nickname ended up being HiddenMaster14.
Because “HiddenMaster” was already taken.
Now that he had a nickname, he slowly browsed through the posts.
And whenever he saw martial forms with some potential, he started leaving comments.
Stuff like this:
-The angle of your right foot should turn slightly more inward for smoother power transfer.
-Can’t you see that you need to put more strength into your lower body?
-The problem is your left shoulder dipping in. Tsk tsk.
-Don’t you notice your line of sight is wrong? The enemy’s right in front of you, so why are you looking sideways?
-If your foot lands on the correct spot, your upper body will naturally follow.
The viewers reacted like this:
-What the hell is he even seeing?
-Does changing the angle of the left foot really make it better?
-He’s just saying random stuff.
-Well, Grandmaster probably sees things differently.
Finding and teaching the most optimal correction methods was fun.
Even so.
Seojun chatted with them while leaving comments on videos from several years ago.
“Should we stop here?”
After enjoying himself communicating with viewers for a while, Seojun closed No-Hyeop once the time came.
It was almost 9:30 PM.
-True, teaching the World’s Greatest Swordsman was fun too.
-That was just beating him up though.
“We’ll do more backseating another time if we get the chance. Sounds good?”
Unexpectedly, the reactions had been really positive.
-Why are you ending it when it was getting fun?!
-We felt like masters too.
-The hidden-opportunity roleplay was hilarious.
-True, teaching the World’s Greatest Swordsman was fun too.
-That was just beating him up though.
“We’ll do more backseating another time if we get the chance. Sounds good?”
Unexpectedly, the reactions had been really positive.
-No way another chance ever comes LOL
-It’s like Koreans saying “let’s grab a meal sometime.”
-“Let’s eat sometime” = extremely low chance of seeing each other again within several years.
Was that how it worked?
“Well, anyway.”
He brushed past it for now.
He’d probably forget eventually.
Though considering people still brought up the Christina affection quest, maybe not.
“Ark-nim’s stream is starting soon, so let’s watch that together.”
Current viewer count: 9,500.
At this rate, he might even surpass 10,000 again.
But—
‘Today probably won’t happen.’
No matter how much attention gathered and increased overall viewer counts, there was one place absorbing the majority of that attention.
-Right, that was happening.
-The mid-check begins.
-Once Ark’s stream starts, I’m going there LOL
-Don’t leave our stream!
-Hyung, we’ll stay!
[Ark has started streaming.]
It was Ark’s live broadcast.
Normally, he rarely streamed live.
But every single time he did, he exerted unbelievable influence.
And today was one of those days.
[Ark has started streaming.]
It was Ark’s live broadcast.
Normally, he rarely streamed live.
But every single time he did, he exerted unbelievable influence.
And today was one of those days.
Because he had Travel notifications enabled, the alert rang immediately.
The same applied to the viewers.
-I’m going!
-Me too.
-See ya.
-Fighting!
-We’ll cheer for you!
“Do-bang,” short for “thief broadcast,” also called “stream exploration,” referred to displaying another streamer’s live broadcast on your own screen.
That action required the other streamer’s permission.
And Ark permanently allowed do-bang.
It was a decision made with the understanding of his role as something like an official commentator, choosing the direction that let everyone enjoy things more.
People who had flooded in like a rising tide now flowed out like an ebbing sea.
A little disappointing, but fine.
They weren’t really his viewers to begin with.
“Wow, 700 viewers disappeared at once. Dang. I’m gonna watch it too, though.”
“Do-bang,” short for “thief broadcast,” also called “stream exploration,” referred to displaying another streamer’s live broadcast on your own screen.
That action required the other streamer’s permission.
And Ark permanently allowed do-bang.
It was a decision made with the understanding of his role as something like an official commentator, choosing the direction that let everyone enjoy things more.
People who had flooded in like a rising tide now flowed out like an ebbing sea.
A little disappointing, but fine.
They weren’t really his viewers to begin with.
“Wow, 700 viewers disappeared at once. Dang. I’m gonna watch it too, though.”
-Honestly, watching through you is more fun anyway.
-Missing the streamer’s reactions? LOL no way.
-Wow, the viewer count is insane.
-Damn!
-I wonder what the content’s gonna be.
Even Seojun was shocked.
It hadn’t even been a few minutes since the stream started.
Even considering it was a heavily anticipated broadcast, the number of viewers was beyond imagination.
[Mid-Battlefield Check Begins!]
[Ark] [Viewer Count - 78,000]