Chapter 80
CHAPTER 80
Chapter 80
The matchmaking window kept spinning.
After checking it, Seo Jun glanced at the time.
Current time: 8:40 PM.
About one hour and twenty minutes remained before the event ended.
Even if things ended here, he had already defeated six top-tier veterans, including several players ranked within the top ten, so one could say he had more than proven his skill.
Still, he felt unsatisfied.
“Everyone, doesn’t it feel a little ambiguous if things end like this?”
-He really wants that 8-win streak lolololol.
-Are the rankers scared?!
-You guys seem to forget there’s still the Magical Girl player chasing him. If he can widen the gap, of course he should.
-Even if he’s currently first place, you never know lol. Of course he’s desperate.
It wasn’t because of the Magical Girl player, but people were once again twisting the story.
The moment the rankings were revealed and he confirmed he was already first place, he had stopped worrying about placement penalties anyway.
“What’s Bapju-nim doing right now?”
He became curious what Bapju, who had been commentating his matches, was doing during this strange period where no games were being matched.
-He’s rewatching the previous matches, then coming back to your stream.
-He basically said he’s done with today’s game already.
-Who would even fight you now?
-Second place already got farmed too lol.
It probably wasn’t that the rankers feared losing.
After already losing once, how much more pride would they lose by losing again?
And even if they avoided defeat by refusing to fight, what pride would they actually gain from that?
Still, contrary to Seo Jun’s thoughts, Bapju said:
“Yeah. They probably really are scared.”
He wanted to fight more.
-LMAOOOO but they still won’t queue.
-Your intentions are way too obvious lol.
-You usually just cut people down immediately, so why are you suddenly trying to bully the poor rankers more? lololol
“Why do I want to keep playing?”
Speed limitations were clearly shackles.
And when someone reached Seo Jun’s level, learning to enjoy those shackles became part of the fun.
“The Heavenly Demon Divine Art is more entertaining than I expected. Why didn’t I try a different special trait earlier?”
-You barely even use internal energy and you’re saying the Heavenly Demon Divine Art is fun? lololol.
-Are you seriously a pervert?
-Is this how old monsters entertain themselves????
Even while joking around, matchmaking continued spinning.
Seo Jun smacked his lips.
“Well, there’s still time left.”
Ding.
A message arrived.
[Seo Jun-nim, I’m coming back in now.]
Looks like Bapju had also thought things were about to end.
He returned to the spot he had previously left.
“Seo Jun-nim, that was incredible.”
He came back almost immediately after sending the message.
That was fast.
“Seriously, I just rewatched the previous matches from the opponents’ perspectives, and that was completely insane. Ah, one second, let me switch the stream setup.”
Bapju moved his stream screen onto the main monitor.
“Haha. Seo Jun-nim’s physical skill really seems ridiculous. Don’t you all agree, everyone? At least within For the Sake of the Martial World, doesn’t he seem like the best? Seo Jun-nim, you think so too, right?”
“Well… I think there could still be someone better than me.”
“Oh? Really?”
“Yes. So if they exist, they should hurry up and come in.”
Bapju paused briefly to process that statement before exclaiming:
“Wow. Rankers, did you hear that? If you don’t fight now, you lose the right to argue forever. At that point, it means you avoided him.”
-LMAOOOO.
-If you’re not going for the streak reward, what can you even do?!
-Feels like it’s really over now though.
“But it still isn’t matching. You’re all listening right now, aren’t you?”
“Well, it’s understandable. If Seo Jun-nim reaches an eight-win streak, his fame points effectively become double those of second place.”
“Hm. So they still haven’t given up on first place?”
“Yes. And even aside from first place, if someone fights you now, wouldn’t they attract attention from their own faction’s rivals?”
“Eight-win streaks have existed before, but most of them were done through sniping queues. Who openly tells people to come challenge them? Especially after Seo Jun-nim has already shown enough to prove he’s the best.”
Bapju said it with certainty.
That this alone was already enough.
-His physicals seriously make no sense lol.
-The “true” strongest under heaven.
-If you fight him here and lose, you become a traitor to your people.
-Not people. Your faction lol.
Seo Jun agreed.
Still, people would always have doubts.
That was why they kept making excuses.
So if they truly believed they were better, they should stop making excuses and come prove it.
Though of course, there were plenty of other reasons matchmaking wasn’t happening.
“But Bapju-nim, you seem excited.”
“Hohoho. Well, today’s material is just too good. The blunt sword! Ah, I’d love to experience it myself someday.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Then right now?”
“No thanks.”
That refusal came quickly.
“Watching alone is enough for me. Though I do think other people probably want to experience Seo Jun-nim’s blunt sword themselves.”
“Then should I give them a reason?”
“A reason?”
“How?”
He didn’t want to keep fighting all the way into other game modes just to prove himself.
Fighting endlessly while gaining nothing from it wasn’t what Seo Jun wanted.
Better to just leave them believing they were stronger if they wished.
In that case—
Seo Jun answered Bapju’s question.
“If things end like this, the chances of me taking first place are pretty high, right?”
“Yes, definitely. You’ve already built a massive contribution gap, and the six-win streak fame bonus is impossible to ignore. Honestly, under normal circumstances, catching up would be almost impossible. Unless Seo Jun-nim suddenly stops playing the game entirely.”
Seo Jun nodded in satisfaction.
The bait was prepared.
“Then I just need to give my competitors a chance to eliminate me, right?”
“What kind of chance…?”
“If I lose even once in any additional match today, I’ll switch factions.”
Seo Jun threw out the prepared bait.
“…What?”
“They say switching factions resets everything, right? Just once. Not a full set—one single loss. If I lose even one round, I’ll switch factions. However…”
Seo Jun looked directly toward Bapju.
Most viewers would probably be watching Bapju’s stream right now.
“So come in. From this point onward, I’ll lock myself into the Heavenly Demon Divine Art special trait. Anyone who wants to snipe me, go ahead and snipe. I’ve gone this far, so surely nobody’s going to avoid fighting now, right? I don’t care if you’ve already challenged me before.”
Seo Jun smiled crookedly.
If they were watching, their fingers were probably itching already.
He had given them justification and provoked their pride.
So come.
-There’s no way anyone can resist this now lolololol.
-If they still avoid fighting after this, they’re not even martial artists anymore.
-Not even demonic cultivators lol.
-I couldn’t hold back after watching this stream and logged into the game. Secretly grinding reputation in my hometown region even though my average score isn’t even 1,000.
-Did all the rankers lose their pride?!
-Let’s gooo!
“Oh…”
And the moment Bapju became speechless—
A match was found.
Seo Jun disappeared with a satisfied smile, pleased that the bait had worked.
“Oh. He left the waiting room and re-entered matchmaking.”
Bapju blankly stared into space, scratching his head before leaving the spectator area.
An eleven-win streak.
A staggering eleven-win streak.
Considering that nobody in history had ever gone beyond eight consecutive wins, the streamer’s provocation had been absurdly effective.
People could no longer suppress the urge to fight him.
Even rankers who had desperately held themselves back finally started queueing up, and now nobody could openly criticize them for it.
Because even while risking reputation points, they had at least secured the image of being “real men.”
Meanwhile, someone named Sapa-ui Pumgyeok tried frantically to regain control of public opinion by rapidly posting from multiple accounts.
[No idiots are actually falling for this bait, right?]
[You’re seriously entering after seeing that? lol is this real?]
[Anyone giving him first place by feeding him is trash.]
[Win first, then talk!]
But every post got bombarded with downvotes.
And this wasn’t the first time.
The same thing had happened an hour earlier.
Using several IDs, he had constantly tried to hinder Seo Jun’s streak.
[Now that we know he’s strong, stop fighting him.]
[If you keep challenging him here, you’re basically admitting you’re an idiot.]
[The points he’ll gain from an 8-win streak.]
[Why the Demonic Cult guys are celebrating.]
And every single post had been buried under downvotes.
After checking the list of people downvoting him, Sapa-ui Pumgyeok shouted:
“It’s those bastards again!”
The same people who had downvoted him during the 8-win streak were still doing it now.
Every time he used multiple IDs to create a highly recommended post, those people appeared like ghosts and downvoted it into oblivion.
“It’s over. Completely over.”
To be precise, the moment Seo Jun achieved the eight-win streak, the rankings had already effectively ended.
But on top of that, he had continued into a ten-win streak and earned another 12,800 reputation points.
Considering his current fame score was already 4,900, the gap had become absolutely impossible to overcome.
And yet that problematic streamer still wasn’t satisfied and continued queueing for more matches.
A twelve-win streak absolutely could not be allowed.
For the sake of the faction itself, this had to stop.
If he succeeded in a twelve-win streak, that streamer alone would become equivalent to fourteen rankers combined.
Fourteen top-tier rankers.
Sapa-ui Pumgyeok understood that danger better than anyone.
But—
“Should I queue?”
He hesitated.
Because the final remaining possibility for him to take first place was defeating that streamer and forcing him to switch factions.
‘But…’
He had no confidence he could actually win.
Meanwhile, the very people who had downvoted him earlier were now changing the atmosphere with posts like:
[Even though he lost, he still showed true martial spirit. Upvote if you agree.]
[He may have lost, but at least he displayed the spirit of martial arts.]
[Damn, I’m proud of him!]
[This is how you preserve the dignity of the game!]
[The righteous faction’s honorable spirit.]
“These bastards are manipulating public opinion too?”
Honestly, it felt like challenging Seo Jun was the right thing to do no matter what.
But in the end, he gave up.
“It can’t be helped. I’ll have to give up on first place this event.”
That made it even more bitter, because all of this had begun from the provocative posts he himself had written.
And hadn’t he also been treated like a fool after immediately trying to stop the streak from the second match onward?
“The more I think about it, the more infuriating it gets.”
Still, for the sake of the faction, he endured it.
However—
“What? Why did that match queue pop? Don’t tell me that idiot doesn’t know how much reputation you gain from a twelve-win streak? Which dumb bastard—”
There wasn’t much time left before the event ended.
Why now, of all times?!
“No. That stupid righteous-faction bastard!”
“Wow…”
With only about twenty minutes remaining until the end—
Seo Jun thought:
They actually accepted it.
-12-win streak incoming????
-How much reputation does he get if he wins this?
-Who’s the opponent?
-That guy’s gonna get flamed so hard lololol.
Seo Jun stepped outside and faced his opponent.
[Cheonsalseong]
“Hello. Earlier, I thought I only lost because I was unlucky.”
I see.
“But do you happen to know how much reputation I’d gain if I win here?”
“Of course. But even so, if you win, won’t that be worth something? Hoho.”
His voice sounded slightly shaky, though that was probably just his imagination.
-He’s seriously a true man lol.
-So cool, Cheonsalseong!
-I’m seriously getting hyped right now, Salseong!
-The righteous faction and evil faction leadership are crying in real time lol.
-Ultra disaster!
-This is a complete catastrophe lolololol.
-Does he realize he’ll become the biggest villain of the event if he loses? lololol.
Naturally—
“Then try defeating me.”
Cheonsalseong’s reason for losing had never been mere bad luck.
[Reputation gained: +49,600]
At last, after achieving a twelve-win streak, the reputation gain appeared before Seo Jun’s eyes.