Chapter 71
CHAPTER 71
Chapter 71
Cheonsalseong also realized at a glance that the post, just like Bangju’s, was someone stirring up trouble.
There was no way he wouldn’t know.
Hadn’t there already been countless attempts to drag things into absurd controversies before?
These were people who hid their identities thoroughly while provoking others day and night, sometimes even to the point of personal attacks.
Compared to that, creating some “feeding controversy” was nothing.
But regardless of whether it was trivial or not, Cheonsalseong hated that kind of thing.
‘That’s why I stepped in.’
He shifted the topic entirely.
A duel request.
It was his own way of pushing ridiculous controversies into the background while also stomping down those who had been getting ahead of themselves.
A restraint meant to stop the frontrunners from running wild.
‘Seriously, why would a game company that’s already making tons of money care about one streamer?’
If it were some half-baked AI from the company, maybe.
But there was already enough evidence in reality proving otherwise.
Anyway, in his own way, he had been helping those streamers while encouraging fair competition.
By suppressing the issue with an even bigger topic.
The problem was—
‘Why the hell is he making the fire even bigger? What’s wrong with this guy’s head?’
[‘Cheonma14’ donated 200,000 won!]
[Tomorrow from 7 PM to 10 PM, I’ll continue dueling without a single break. If anyone doubts my ranking, or thinks they’re better than me, then come on in. I’m confident I won’t lose even once. Haha.]
At first, people doubted it.
Was that real?
Was someone impersonating him?
If someone spent 200,000 won just to bait people, then honestly, congratulations.
You succeeded!
Even Bangju stammered as he spoke.
“Uh… Is that really you, Seo-jun?”
It was understandable to doubt it.
-LOL just because he got Rank 1 once he’s acting all cocky now?
-What a crazy attention seeker lolololol
-Is that guy actually real?
-The confidence is insane
-He asked for duels and then basically declared war on everyone lmaoooo
There were plenty of people who pulled aggro like this, but most only targeted one person at a time.
Like Cheonsalseong had done earlier.
But publicly calling out everyone?
In front of 80,000 viewers?
“Considering his personality… it really might be him.”
Bangju quickly logged into Travel and entered streamer Seo-jun’s stream.
The screen duplicated endlessly like an elevator lined with mirrors on both sides.
Seo-jun watching Bangju watching Seo-jun watching Bangju watching Seo-jun watching Bangju…
An infinite loop was formed.
“Hello, Bangju-nim. Yes, I was the one who made the donation.”
-Crazy bastard lmaooo
-Look at how smooth he is
-It really was him
-This is nuts
Bangju hurriedly fiddled with the screen to break the infinite loop and laughed.
“So it really was you, Seo-jun? Haha. Were you serious about what you said in the donation?”
“Of course.”
On the screen, Seo-jun looked completely calm.
He looked confident, though Bangju couldn’t understand why.
If he lost after saying all that, “Huh Eon-jun” would become his permanent image.
Streamer Jun already had plenty of meme material, but wasn’t his actual skill the real deal?
‘Has he just never faced proper rankers before and gotten the wrong idea?’
He didn’t seem that stupid, though.
Cheonsalseong carefully observed the situation.
“I see. But Seo-jun, do you think the rankers will actually fight you?”
Bangju was worried about a different issue.
But Seo-jun’s next answer was enough to leave Cheonsalseong speechless.
“I already said it. I told anyone who thinks they’re better than me to come. If they think they’re worse than me, then there’s no reason for them to challenge me in the first place.”
With a relaxed smile, Seo-jun provoked everyone once again.
Why is he pouring gasoline on the fire?!
‘Now a ton of people are definitely going to join.’
Some because it sounded fun.
Others because they found it annoying.
Their reasons would differ, but in the end, if Seo-jun wanted to erase the label of “all talk,” then he absolutely had to beat everyone.
Tomorrow was especially bad timing since losses didn’t matter much for the rankers.
After four matches, they could still continue playing, and afterward the games barely affected ranking points anyway, so defeats lost their weight.
‘Did he seriously not know that?’
Whatever the case—
He wasn’t someone Cheonsalseong wanted to get close to, but he was definitely interesting.
That was his honest impression.
“Haha. Then, Seo-jun.”
Bangju made a meaningful expression.
“Yes?”
“In that case, how about having a match with me tomorrow?”
“Would it be okay if I set it up?”
“That’d be even better.”
Cheonsalseong and the others, who had been quietly watching the conversation, could only shake their heads.
Wasn’t Bangju supposed to be worried about the aggro?
And why was the match getting arranged so smoothly?
“Sounds fun. Let’s discuss the details after today’s stream ends.”
“Alright. Then I’ll go prepare for tomorrow. Goodbye.”
“Yep. You too, Seo-jun.”
“Ah, Cheonsalseong-nim.”
Cheonsalseong flinched.
A bad feeling washed over him, wondering what this lunatic would say now.
“Yes?”
“If you think you’re going to lose afterward, you don’t have to come tomorrow. Seems like a lot of other people will show up. Thanks for the consideration earlier. This is my way of repaying you. Anyway, see you. And goodbye to the viewers too.”
The connection cut off.
He hadn’t just left Bangju’s stream.
He had ended his own stream entirely.
-He leaves before Bangju can even respond lol
-Cheonsalseong absolutely has to respond to that
-After saying something like “you don’t have to come,” if he doesn’t show up he’ll look scared
Repaying him because he appreciated the consideration?
‘Did he realize I intentionally shifted the topic earlier? But seriously…’
Why provoke people and then leave?
Cheonsalseong couldn’t understand it, but one thing was certain.
If he backed out tomorrow, he’d become a coward in everyone’s eyes.
After finishing his farewell, Seo-jun ended the stream.
Since he had been in Play Time for nearly four hours, he felt slightly dizzy, but after washing off in hot water he felt much better.
While resting for about an hour and organizing his thoughts, he received a late-night message from Bangju.
It was to coordinate how tomorrow’s match would proceed.
The joint broadcast would begin at 6:50 PM.
They would each stream separately, but Bangju would share Seo-jun’s screen and provide commentary over it.
Even after deciding that, they adjusted various settings and even did a rehearsal to ensure the broadcast would run smoothly.
[Seo-jun: Thanks for your hard work.]
[Bangju: Yep. Hope you win everything tomorrow!]
[Seo-jun: Do you think I really won’t lose even once?]
[Bangju: Honestly, I think it’ll be tough. But then again, have you ever done anything normally up until now?]
[Seo-jun: Is that so? Thank you.]
Even that reaction was probably optimistic.
After finishing everything he needed to say, Seo-jun entered the forums.
First, he checked the messages Lee Jeon-yeong had sent him earlier.
[Lee Jeon-yeong: After blocking just these four people, half the posts on the Top 30 page disappeared!]
Lee Jeon-yeong had sent over several usernames.
They were the same users who had been casting suspicion on Seo-jun.
Seo-jun searched the posts written under those nicknames.
At first, the posts had been subtle, written in a way that lightly planted doubt.
But only minutes later, the same users began posting increasingly aggressive content.
“Wow, seriously.”
Among them were even people who had written posts serious enough to potentially become real problems.
“Was this actually planned from the beginning?”
Thankfully, things had ended well.
In fact, everyone’s attention was completely focused elsewhere now.
Today was the first day after the ranking reveal, and tomorrow would be Day 11.
There should have been all kinds of topics drawing attention because of the one-on-one duels, but instead, thanks to Seo-jun’s actions, only a single issue dominated discussion.
[The moment he hid the later part of the stream I knew he was gonna cause trouble lol]
[The way he wrote that last message before ending the stream pissed me off so much]
[I watched him for the first time today. Is he always like this?]
-Yes. He’s perfectly normal.
[I’m definitely watching tomorrow.]
Surprisingly, posts made by his viewers were climbing into the Top 30 rankings too.
Normally, streamer-related posts didn’t get many recommendations because people who hadn’t watched the stream couldn’t understand the context.
Even when lots of people knew the context like today, it was still hard.
But the fact they were appearing repeatedly meant—
‘So having 12,000 viewers really was significant.’
Thinking about it carefully, it made sense. His name being mentioned and those posts receiving over thirty recommendations wasn’t actually strange.
And even people who hadn’t watched his stream were talking about him anyway.
[Who even is this Cheonma guy? Why’s he acting like this after getting Rank 1 once?]
[The orthodox faction is jealous and suppressing him while the unorthodox faction stomps their feet in frustration at the existence of the rank 1 ranker?]
[He’s definitely losing at least once.]
“At least once”? Anyone else think it’ll be lucky if his win rate stays above 50%?
[A streamer who’s never once fought a real ranker before: “I’m confident I won’t lose even once.”]
Honestly, those reactions were normal.
And Seo-jun had expected them.
The smile on his lips refused to disappear.
[Honestly this is hilarious.]
-He’s treating rankers like food lol
-If he’s a Shin Ha-yeon Slayer, maybe it’s okay to treat them like food?
-Stop with the Shin Ha-yeon worship lol. That was AI. And in Yeonmugwan he’s basically a beginner with no martial arts anyway.
-Martial arts are our pride.
-He probably abused his trait advantage and got lucky, but he’s talking like he knows martial arts.
-He’s a great man.
-The 3-Minute Curry Squad, gather up!
-We’ve endured humiliation all this time because of the “Huh Eon-jun” label. Now it’s time to fight back!
-I suddenly feel proud to be part of the 3-Minute Curry Squad.
-All the lurkers who changed nicknames are coming out now lol
“So what if he’s Rank 1? What can he even do?”
-He’ll probably rage and make excuses even if he loses tomorrow lolol
He had only said it because tomorrow’s game mode was duels anyway, and he figured he might as well fight everyone who disliked him or wanted to suppress him.
But people interpreted it like this too.
‘And… oh? Even rankers are openly joining in?’
[Ranker #6. “ThisIsNotMurim”]
=:
To restore order and justice, I vow to defeat the Heavenly Demon.
=:
For a moment, Seo-jun found himself thinking this level of roleplay was actually normal.
There were simply too many strange people in For the Sake of Chivalry.
-The Murim nerds have arrived.
-Why are you using the term “ranker”?
-Using Murim terminology is basic etiquette here.
-Is it true that the Mount Hua Sect’s Mount Hua is actually a dormant volcano?
-It’s said fried chicken was a delicacy enjoyed by ancient Shaolin monks.
Even Ranker #6, a top-ranked player, was more interested in joking around than anything else.
‘Are there more?’
After looking around, Seo-jun found that besides Ranker #6, several other rankers had also announced they would challenge him tomorrow.
It was becoming a full-blown event.
‘This is going to be fun.’
[If Rank 17 beats Rank 1, does that make me the strongest in the world?]
[If I beat the Heavenly Demon tomorrow, I’m officially declaring myself a master!]
[This is gonna produce legendary matchups.]
[If this bastard loses his very first match it’ll instantly kill the hype lmaoooo]
And then—
[All he does is use Absorption Technique.]
If you lock in seriously from the start and keep your distance, it feels like he can be perfectly countered.
Just saying.
Seo-jun stretched with a satisfied smile.
“Looks like it’s finally time to break the meta.”
Chapter 72
The next day, 6:30 PM.
Seo-jun turned on his stream in front of his computer.
Today he would need to stay fully focused for three straight hours, so entering the capsule already would have been too much.
“Hello, everyone.”
Just moments earlier, he had still been checking the community forums flooding with posts about him.
As he loosened up his hands, he watched the viewer count rapidly climb.
-Hello
-I’ve been waiting!
-I’m gonna listen to Bangju’s commentary later, but for now I’m staying here.
As if yesterday’s 15,000 viewers hadn’t been a fluke, the count instantly surpassed 10,000.
‘At this rate, I’ve at least reached the level of a mid-sized streamer.’
Even if it was temporary, that was fine.
Once Bangju started his stream, even more people would pour in.
A lot of people were coming.