The Veteran Swordmaster’s Stream (Novel) - Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Tshhh!

Beef was laid on the hotly heated grill.

Garlic, mushrooms, green onions, and kimchi also took their spots in the empty spaces on the grill.

Sizzle, sizzle.

As the meat juices reduced and thickened, they boiled, making a succession of delicious sounds.

“I’m hungry. Looks delicious.”

Tae-woo said as he sat next to Seo-jun.

Seo-jun nodded in agreement with Tae-woo’s words.

Seo-jun was especially hungrier after connecting to virtual reality.

‘Usually, people gain weight during their third year of high school.’

The reason was that mental activities like studying surprisingly consumed quite few calories.

It was said that no matter how hard one used their brain, it only consumed about 1.5 kcal per minute, whereas simply walking lightly consumed 4 kcal per minute.

While up to 10 kcal could be burned through intense exercise, the perceived calorie consumption of examinees who studied constantly was bound to be high, leading them to eat more compared to the energy they actually used.

‘Virtual reality is the opposite.’

Although it was a mental activity, because the perceived calorie consumption was not high like studying, most did not experience severe hunger like Seo-jun.

Seo-jun thought the cause was probably his low assimilation rate.

It was said that people with high assimilation rates did not feel fatigued even if they stayed in virtual reality all day long.

It meant that the brain was so well-suited to virtual reality that energy was used efficiently.

If so, Seo-jun inevitably had no choice but to use a lot of energy.

Since he felt that streaming in reality like this now was much more comfortable, that said it all.

“Hello, everyone.”

Tae-woo waved, looking at the broadcast camera set up at the edge of the table.

-Tae-ha

-Looks freaking delicious.

-My mouth is watering

-‘Give’ me meat too

They looked at the chat window on their respective phones.

The current number of viewers was in the mid-20,000s.

Alpaca had told him that during peak time, it had momentarily surpassed 30,000.

It meant that it was a huge hit.

Currently, the Travel broadcast category had been changed to Mukbang.

All that was left now was to comfortably chat, eat, and disperse.

-Is this why there’s no stream today?

-Tae-woo, let’s turn on the stream after eating all of that. Broadcast over health.

-Tae-ha

-Why are you joining in there?

Chats from people presumed to be viewers of Tae-woo’s stream came up.

Since he was also a mid-tier streamer, it was certain that many of his own viewers were among the 20,000 viewers watching now.

Alpaca said as he flipped the meat.

“Why is Tae-woo here? I also felt that fate is a very mysterious thing, but I heard that Seo-jun and Tae-woo are close friends. The offer for the collab also came through Tae-woo.”

-Oh?

-Tae-woo that punk, if he had such an amazing friend, he should’ve brought him on stream a long time ago lol

-Real lol

“That’s right. I led him to the path of streaming.”

Tae-woo tried to put his hand on Seo-jun’s shoulder, and Seo-jun slapped it away to block him.

-Is he parrying here too? lol

-He got stunned lol

-Very fascinating. How did you get to know each other?

Seo-jun replied.

“I met him in high school and we became close. And we’ve been living together after graduation…”

But the reaction was strange.

-Pfft lol

-Crazy, that roommate was Seo-jun? lol

-‘That guy’ lol

Viewers who knew Tae-woo were busy laughing, while those who didn’t were curious about why they were laughing.

And the heads of the other three also turned toward Tae-woo.

-?? What is it

-Why are only you guys laughing

Tae-woo looked momentarily flustered.

“No, guys, it’s not particularly funny. Isn’t that right? Haha. Hey. Viewers of our channel, read the room a bit.”

[‘NotAChance’ donated a generous 1,000 won! – travel clip]

A video donation turned on.

Called ‘Young-do’ for short, it was a form of donation that showed Travel clips or Itube videos that had no copyright issues.

The clip sent by the viewer just now was Tae-woo’s clip.

The video played and Tae-woo started talking.

[Guys, remember I said I had a friend I live with? He’s usually very calm and mature, but sometimes he does weird things to the point where I wonder if he’s even the same person.]

Tae-woo in the screen seemed to have just turned on his stream.

[Yeah, yeah. He’s the one who scrubbed his phone clean with soap last time. No, what did he do yesterday… *pfft*, I streamed for a long time yesterday, right?]

Alpaca and Lee Su-han looked at Seo-jun this time, as if asking if such a thing had happened.

[So after ending the stream, I came out, and the capsule was so hot that it felt like I needed to keep running the extra cooler, so I asked him to cool down the capsule and went to wash up, right?]

[And when I came out after washing, he was squatting next to the capsule and fanning it. With a serious expression. Lol. No, guys, it’s not fabricated, it’s a true story. You say it would’ve been better to turn on a fan? I admit that.]

-Is this seriously real? lol

-Bro, are you an idiot?

-With this, the suspicion of fabricating the donation bait earlier has completely disappeared lol

-Just don’t touch anything lol

-Breaking News) Lee Su-han might have gone to check if his capsule is broken lol

-There are many other legendary stories lol

Seo-jun stepped hard on Tae-woo’s foot under the table while calmly picking up a well-cooked piece of meat.

“Tsk. Eat quickly.”

***

Seo-jun was able to listen to various stories about the struggles of being a streamer from Tae-woo and Alpaca.

And he also heard the success story of Alpaca and Lee Su-han.

It was said that Lee Su-han was originally an early viewer of Alpaca.

And at the time, Alpaca was in a situation where he had only created the channel and left it abandoned because he did not have the money to hire an editor.

A small-time streamer whose live broadcast viewers only hovered in the hundreds. That was the Alpaca of the past.

Seeing potential in such an Alpaca, Lee Su-han had proposed that they grow the Itube channel together.

At the time, Lee Su-han was an editor who received high treatment at his company.

Due to the nature of capsule games, the viewers’ perspective was free and thus dizzying, which made editors who could neatly bring it to life rare.

Although Lee Su-han now made much more money than when he worked at the company because he split the revenue from Itube in half with Alpaca.

He said it was a choice that carried a huge risk at the time.

Fortunately, with the joining of the editor, Alpaca’s YouTube grew, and it was said that the live stream viewers also increased thanks to that.

“An editor.”

Lee Su-han told Seo-jun that if he couldn’t find an editor in particular, he would edit Seo-jun’s videos for him.

Returning home, Seo-jun went out to the veranda with a can of beer to clear his complicated mind.

Beyond the veranda, the plum tree that Seo-jun had planted was visible.

Seo-jun swept the cold veranda floor with his hand, imagining the red flowers that the plum tree would bloom gorgeously.

It was just like the day he had first met his master.

It was not a very good memory, but for some reason, he grew calm.

“Hmm. What should I do?”

The topic Seo-jun was pondering right now was none other than Itube.

The people he met today took it for granted that Seo-jun would start Itube.

Because if one wanted to succeed as a streamer, doing Itube was absolutely the right choice.

But.

Seo-jun’s plan was to somehow enter the LiOS tournament, win it, get only the capsule, and then quit being a streamer.

He had started with that intention in the first place.

The problem was.

Streaming was fun.

Playing games together with people was fun.

Watching his play, reacting in various ways, teasing each other, and being together.

It was fun.

Tshhh.

Crack.

Seo-jun opened the beer can and gulped it down.

And he said, looking outside calmly.

“Me. Was I lonely?”

Perhaps it was so.

Remembering a past life.

Was like having a hometown that one longed for all their life but could never return to.

“What should I do.”

It was a day when his thoughts ran deep.

At times like this, simply.

“I should head to the gym for the first time in a while.”

He had to move his body.

***

Lee Dong-soo was a starting player for a famous professional gaming team.

He woke up early in the morning and arrived at the gym frequented by many celebrities.

The team Lee Dong-soo belonged to achieved a decent, or rather excellent in a way, result of runner-up in this world tournament.

However, in the world of sports, anything other than winning was meaningless.

While preparing for next year, the head coach ordered unconventional special training required for each player.

The special training given to Lee Dong-soo was to learn how to fight in reality.

‘And to build up physical strength along the way.’

Through inquiries, the team’s front office found a gym that guaranteed privacy enough for many famous celebrities to attend while also training professional fighters.

Of course, that did not mean there was anything particularly special about it.

The people who worked out just quietly did their own thing and left, and the fighters were noisy but warm-hearted?

“You here, Dong-soo? Go run on the treadmill.”

The gym director looked down at Lee Dong-soo.

He was absurdly tall and big, and his face also looked fierce.

“No, Director. Today too?”

“Yes. Since this isn’t virtual reality, your stamina has to support you first.”

Lee Dong-soo harbored dissatisfaction at those words.

Even though he had only been attending this place for two weeks.

“No, even so, only doing basic skills and physical training is too much.”

He could no longer tolerate such treatment.

He was a pro.

And a pro from the second strongest gaming team in the world.

Although there was a difference between virtual reality and reality, it was no exaggeration to say that with his level of skill, he was an expert at handling his body.

To put it bluntly, weren’t pros the ones who adapted by perceiving all the body’s specifications that changed every time in the game?

“I want to learn proper real combat. Yes?”

The director snorted.

And he spoke with a hand gesture, as if coaxing a bothersome child.

“Alright, alright. We can just do a rough sparring session today. So go run on the treadmill quickly.”

“Awesome! Then I can choose my sparring partner, right?”

“Go ahead. You can’t beat any of them anyway.”

Shoo, shoo.

Lee Dong-soo became excited and began to run more passionately than usual.

He was eighteen years old.

Although he had dropped out of school and was living as an outstanding professional player, fundamentally, he was a hot-blooded high school student.

‘Bring it on.’

Although the opponent he would fight today would probably also be a fighter, he was seriously confident that he could win.

It also felt like his body had improved significantly as he worked out recently.

He began scanning the people while running on the treadmill, wondering who would be good to fight first.

‘As long as the difference in weight class isn’t too big…’

At that moment.

The entrance door opened, and for some reason, a person resembling the streamer he had seen yesterday walked in.

An annoyingly handsome face.

It wasn’t just a resemblance; it was that very person.

The streamer whose play he had briefly watched in a clip because his teammate made a huge fuss about how good he was.

‘He didn’t seem that good.’

Thanks to his teammate and close older brother, he knew detailed things about the streamer named Seo-jun that he didn’t even want to know.

‘His face looks exactly like his avatar. By the way, wasn’t he a small-time streamer on his third day of broadcasting? How did he get here?’

Anyway, it didn’t matter.

Seeing him greet the director, they seemed close.

His muscles didn’t look particularly bulky either.

‘Perfect.’

To be his first sparring partner, that was.